

WANTED: SHARPSHOOTER

by

Florence Witkop

Copyright Florence Witkop 2012

Smashwords Edition

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CHAPTER 1

The sun was dropping fast but if the horses hadn't got too far I'd have them back before nightfall. Before Sensible Sioux got nervous and refused to obey the rein. She's a love, large and rangy and eager to move, and the only horse in the place that didn't follow Walkabout through the break in the fence and into the forest. But Sioux doesn't like the dark and there was only a half hour of light left.

"Don't worry, I'll find them." I ignored the waning day. This should be easy. I knew horses and how to handle them and, in the off chance we didn't get back before dark, I knew the forest, even at night. "I'll bring them back."

Carlos was concerned. "They might be hard to find if they didn't stay on the trails. If they wandered into an aspen thicket or any of a dozen places I can think of with trees thick as fleas on a hound dog."

"If it's getting dark when I round them up, I'll take a shortcut." Through an abandoned farm near the stable. It had few trees, and the open fields held every lingering ray of sun as long as possible.

I sat tall in the saddle and kept Sensible Sioux in check as if I hadn't a care in the world as I waited for Carlos to open the gate. He hobbled, slowed by the cast on his leg and making no effort to hide his irritation. "Darn that Walkabout. More like a mule than a horse if you ask me." Even while chastising the horse that had caused all the trouble, there was no anger in Carlos. He likes horses too much. "No other horse would even notice that tiny hole in the fence, let alone go through it. But that darn horse saw it and went for a stroll and took every other horse in the place with him."

"Stop worrying, I'll find them."

Carlos scowled, sizing me up and down as one hand shielded his face from the late sun. "Why couldn't Walkabout have gone for a stroll in the morning? Then you'd have all day to get them back." His gaze roved over the forest that had swallowed the very expensive horses that had been brought to Green Forest Stables for training, most of them for distance riding, that today had followed the gelding nicknamed Walkabout through a hole in the fence.

As Sioux and I ambled towards the trees, I heard Carlos' muttered comment. "Damn fence." Followed by, "Damn leg." Then louder so I'd be sure to hear. "When you find Walkabout, give him a good talking-to." Followed by more muttering I couldn't understand.

Walkabout was at Green Forest to learn manners as well as to train for distance events. So he now knew that it wasn't polite to head for the nearest tree every time his owner climbed into the saddle so as to wipe her off his back. Carlos hadn't yet, however, cured him of his penchant for going for a stroll whenever the mood struck and taking every nearby horse with him.

I liked Walkabout. He was a darling, lovable, easy-going horse with a rollicking sense of humor. He was probably laughing out loud at that very moment, watching from behind some Jackpine tree, intrigued by the commotion his impulsive walk had created.

Carlos' scowl deepened as he closed the gate. "I should be doing this, Maggie, not you. Horses are supposed to be my job. Managing the stable is yours."

I pulled Sioux to a stop. "Managing the stables includes doing whatever is necessary and right now that's finding and bringing back some runaway horses."

He scowled again, something he'd done a lot lately. "We need help."

The owners of Green Forest were more than willing to pay for more help. They'd even had rooms for extra people included when the place was built. And, to be honest, we'd had help now and then. But being a good boss isn't my strong suit so no one stayed for long. So, in a way, it was my fault and mine alone that we were in this predicament. "If anyone comes looking for a job while I'm gone, hire him."

Watching Carlos hobble to close the gate, I wished I was a better boss. Better people person. Less critical. Next time I went to town, I'd swallow my pride and put another ad in the paper. And this time, if anyone answered, I'd be nice.

The forest closed around me, and I urged Sioux on. The trees were steeple tall and green with constantly changing colors, at first the soft green of spring, but as time passed they became dark and brooding, a reminder that the hour was growing late. I shook the reins, Sioux flicked her ears forward to let me know she understood, and her gait changed to a fast trot. And just like that, we entered the thickest part of the woods and left the world of sunlight behind.

The horses had stayed on the trail so it was easy to follow their tracks, even in the dimness. And they hadn't been in a hurry, they'd just gone for a stroll so I caught up with them before the light disappeared completely, though when I saw them as I rounded a curve in the trail, the sun was only visible at the tops of the trees, with occasional rays filtering down that were barely enough to make out the horses' tracks.

They were unrepentant but glad to see me. They'd had their stroll and were ready to return to their stalls and dinner. Even Walkabout was eager to end his adventure. He stood quietly as I slipped a halter over his head and clipped a lead to it because, where Walkabout went, the rest would also go. Then I turned Sioux towards home, with Walkabout following tamely. When we set off, the rest of the horses followed like a bunch of innocent lambs.

But I was nervous. The sun was dropping all too quickly. Beneath the evergreens the light was almost gone. I urged them into a fast pace, hoping to leave the area of old-growth trees before the last glimmering of light disappeared because, in the north country even when the sun disappears completely in the forest, the long summer evenings keep the night at bay in open areas. I decided to take that shortcut across the abandoned farm and I wanted to reach it as quickly as possible.

I set a fast pace until we reached the large clearing that had was now an overgrown field dotted with patches of new forest in the form of fast-growing Jackpines. Glad to have reached it before true dark, I turned Sioux towards the field, knowing she'd go willingly because she knew home was on the other side.

She didn't move. She fought the rein. Stopped. Raised her head. Sniffed the air. Reared backwards in a movement so unexpected that I was almost unseated. When she came down, she danced sidewise and fought for her head even as I tried to turn her towards the field. "Hey, girl, this is the way home. The easy way. Food awaits. Grain." I fought her to a standstill though her ears were still flat against her head, and I clucked. "Go."

She refused. Absolutely refused. She knew the way well, had run free across that field many times. Still, she refused so adamantly that eventually I gave up and let her turn back towards the road.

We circled the deserted farm field in fast growing darkness, with me seething with frustration, glad only that we were on our way home and Sioux was once again the pleasant horse I knew and loved. Halfway around the field, though, even that changed. Passing a small stand of Jackpines, her ears went back and she bucked a couple times.

Then she started to run. Flat out. Almost before I knew what was happening, I found myself on an out-of-control horse, holding the lead for a second horse that was thankfully running just as fast, and followed by a dozen more horses, all galloping so fast that anyone watching would call it a stampede.

I failed to slow Sioux or to stop the stampede. There was nothing to do but hang on and pray that Carlos would see us coming and have the gate open when we thundered into Green Forest Stables.

He did and as soon as the last horse entered the corral, he slammed the gate shut and locked it, then turned and watched as Sioux slowed to a stop, ears still back, nostrils dilated, her coat lathered and dancing in circles that I didn't try to control. Whatever had spooked her, this was her way of getting past it and I simply stayed on her back until she quieted enough for me to pay attention to the world around me.

Carlos' narrowed eyes were slits of something as close to criticism as he ever got but he was quiet as I finally managed to put one leg over the saddle and slide to the ground. I waited for his questions, his comments, but all he said was, "The fence is fixed."

Which meant he was waiting for me to explain. "I don't know what happened. Sioux wouldn't go through the deserted farm."

"And you let her take charge." Carlos is big on making sure a horse knows who is boss. After all, horses are bigger than people and a healthy dose of respect goes a long way if a rider wants a horse to obey.

"I didn't have a choice. She would not go through that field. Shied away from it. Almost bucked me off. For no reason."

His lips pursed. "There's always a reason."

"Nothing was different from other times we've gone through the farm."

"There was something."

"The fields were empty."

"In the trees maybe. Hiding." There were trees on the farm. A few.

"That clump of trees isn't big enough for anything to hide in."

"Something was there that scared her. Had to be."

I shook my head. "Not likely." I was doing it again, being mule-headed. I'd have to change if I wanted to hire help and have them stick around. I sighed and tried to make amends. "You're right, of course. Something scared her."

We started putting the horses away for the night. Sioux followed but still danced nervously. I pointed to her, forcing Carlos to notice. "Look at her. She's still spooked."

Carlos rubbed his chin slowly, then took Sioux's halter and looked into her eyes. Their minds locked. It's a gift Carlos has. He's a true horse whisperer. After a moment, he nodded. "Yep, there was something in the field." He rubbed Sioux's forehead. "Something scary." She laid her muzzle on his shoulder, quiet at last, trusting Carlos completely.

He then moved to Walkabout, making a guttural sound as he scratched the ears of the horse that'd caused no end of problems since his arrival at Green Forest, loving him as unconditionally as Sioux. "No more walks for you because the hole is repaired."

I followed, rubbing heated bodies and loving them as generously as Carlos until they were quiet and settled in for the evening and I could finally realize what he'd said. "The fence was fixed?"

"Good as new."

"How'd you manage that?" He'd not yet mastered the crutches the hospital provided and when I left to retrieve the horses it was the end of the day by which time he moved even slower and only with effort. The fence railings were heavy. "I can't lift those rails without help. How'd you do it?"

A satisfied smirk crossed his face. He'd been waiting for me to ask. "The new employee fixed it."

It took a moment for his words to sink in. "New employee?" My voice was a squeak.

The smirk grew broader as Carlos milked the moment for all it was worth. "You said if someone came along asking for a job to hire him. So I did."

For a few moments, I was speechless, but I managed to keep my cool and ask calmly, "Will he need a room or does he live nearby?"

"I don't know. Didn't ask."

"If he's local, he might go home at night."

"Be nice if he'd sleep here until my leg heals. In case something happens at night."

"I'll talk to him about it." I took a deep breath and tried to get used to the changed circumstances. "When's he start?"

"Tomorrow. Early. Dawn."

In the morning, help would arrive. And I would not chase him away. I would be a wonderful boss. I'd heap praise on him whenever possible. I'd tell him he was amazing. I'd do all kinds of good boss-type things. And he'd stay, at least until Carlos' leg healed. "What's his name?"

"Don't know."

"What name did he put on the application?"

"Forgot about it. It's only paper, it's not important."

"So we don't know anything about our new employee?"

"He fixed the fence and he'll be back in the morning."

I swallowed my frustration. "If you hired him, I'm sure he'll do. Other than being a decent carpenter, what's he like?"

"Normal. Older than you, maybe. A little."

And on that note, we finished the day's work and went to sleep in the rooms above the office that we'd picked out for ourselves of the several available. Carlos because his leg hurt and he wanted to lie down, me because I wanted to rise early the next morning. Before the new hire arrived.

CHAPTER 2

I was up early enough to watch the sun rise, something I seldom do because dawn in a forest isn't spectacular. The trees get in the way. But sometimes, like that morning, the wilderness dawn can have its own special beauty. The growing light outlines the evergreens until they make a jagged silhouette along the horizon. It's pretty.

But I soon turned from the sunrise and started pacing the floor, wondering what our new employee would be like. I couldn't imagine. And I wanted time to figure out how to not chase this man away because Carlos needed help.

I decided that as soon as the introductions were done I'd hide in my office, which has window walls, in order to see the new employee without being seen. I wouldn't exactly spy on him. Rather I'd be observing. After all, it was my responsibility to make sure the new employee could do what needed doing. Could take over the manual part of Carlos' job until the horse whisperer was okay. To make sure he was strong enough. Hopefully, he'd be a giant.

Carlos would never admit there was a chore he couldn't handle, including mending fences, which meant that this new hire must have other skills beyond carpentry, such as sweet-talking old men. If he didn't Carlos would have sent him packing.

Whatever he was like, I'd soon find out, and after I introduced myself, I'd park my butt in the office and behind corners and fences and whatever piece of equipment happened to be nearby so I could watch. Okay, I'd spy on him. And I wouldn't feel guilty. I'd be nice, I'd be sweet, I wouldn't be judgmental or critical but I'd be all over him if I so much as saw him let Carlos do one single thing he shouldn't be doing. I'd keep Carlos safe.

With my plan firmly in place, I left my apartment at the precise moment the sun's orb became visible through the trees. I barely reached the bottom step when a Chevy pick-up, old but purring in the way of all well-cared for engines, pulled into the yard. The engine went silent and a moment later, a man stepped out.

Tall, moving with the controlled ease of someone in top physical condition. No wonder the fence was now intact. An athlete or a member of the military? As he neared enough to see his haircut, I decided it was the latter. Hair several shades darker than my own mousy brown, his was shiny and almost black.

I was out of the building in a flash and moving towards him, hand outstretched and a smile pasted on my face. Then he came closer still and I found it necessary to remind myself that I was Maggie Squires and I was his boss. He was like a giant towering over a pigmy... me... though he was only a head taller than my five feet and I'd long ago come to terms with my short stature and had dealt with many giants in short order. But there was something about this man that went beyond mere physical stature. Perhaps it was the military background. Or something else, something more basic.

I put out my hand. "Welcome to Green Forest Stables." So far so good.

After that we were at a standstill, me trying to follow up my greeting with something incredibly brilliant, he waiting patiently or me to say anything because I was obviously not done talking, when Carlos came up. "I see you made it."

Hazel eyes swiveled between Carlos and me curiously.

Carlos looked from the new man to me. "Didn't get your name yesterday. The boss, here, was wondering what to call you."

"Maxwell Abrams. Max."

Carlos beamed. "I told you about him, Maggie. He's here to help with the work." When I said nothing, he added, "So you can do your work instead of following me around like a puppy. I believe there's a pile of papers on your desk so high you can't see over it."

"Right. Yes." I moved from one foot to the other. Wondered what to say next. Wished Maxwell Abrams was older. Or younger. Or homely. Or would say something so I didn't have to.

He didn't. Instead, he looked at me with no expression at all but eyes that were clearly intelligent enough to know how nervous I was. I wondered why he did manual work instead of something that challenged that obvious intelligence, and then criticized myself for letting my mind wander to such irrelevant subjects when I should be making this new man comfortable.

Finally he spoke, with no inflection at all. "I look forward to working at Green Forest Stables."

I muttered something and went inside. Ran. Escaped. Wondered how I'd managed to flub something as simple as getting to know a new employee. Stared out the huge windows at the two men, deep in conversation, with Max Abrams glancing towards the office every so often, and wished I'd not run away so obviously and, instead had sauntered breezily to the office. Vowed to bite my tongue, promised myself that if he did something wrong I'd make allowances, that I'd be nice, that I'd make sure he knew he was appreciated and I'd do all those things if it killed me.

CHAPTER 3

I do like my office, it's great, and that day I was especially glad for the way it was laid out. I could step out of the office and immediately be with the horses or remain inside and watch through the huge windows on that side. Or I could make a half turn and look through the window wall opposite and be staring into the depths of the forest that had been my home since birth. No matter where they were, I could keep an eye on Carlos and our new employee without them knowing that I was spying on them.

But my work had been long neglected because of Carlos' broken leg so, instead of spying on the new hire as I'd planned, I spent hours moving piles of papers from one side of my desk to the other as I dealt with them. When I finally came up for air and looked outside, I saw Max in the corral with Carlos. He was working hard, stopping now and then to shake sweat from his eyes and work the stiffness from his shoulders. I liked the way he moved. Like a dancer. Or an athlete. Or a soldier.

As I watched, he grabbed a shovel and, under Carlos' supervision, removed a recent pile of manure from the corral and I found myself smiling. Because even when hauling manure, there was grace in his movements.

As I stood with my arms crossed and watched, they headed for the nearest building. Or buildings, because Green Forest Stables consists of several buildings connected to make moving from one to another easier in the winter when the snow piles many feet deep. Most visitors think it's one huge building, but it isn't. Now I glanced at the clock and was surprised at how late it was. Time for lunch.

Green Forest Stables provides lunch for all employees, a perk of the job that's necessary miles from the nearest cafe, in a lovely, comfortable break room. But I wasn't ready to deal with the questions a new employee might ask because I still wasn't sure I could talk with him like a boss should talk with an employee. So I decided to make a sandwich and eat at my desk.

Carlos' eyebrows rose as I slapped together lunchmeat and bread but he said nothing and, back in the office, I swallowed the sandwich, gulped a glass of milk, grabbed the top paper on the pile, and then continued on where I'd left off.

But in the back of my mind, even as I worked, was a picture of Maxwell Abrams as he'd paused in the doorway to the kitchen before entering, the sun at his back, a dark, purely masculine silhouette. Then he'd shut the door and the silhouette had turned into reality, complete with color and warmth and flesh and blood. And hazel eyes that saw everything, even me, and knew why I was eating in the office.

Hours later, finished for the day, almost caught up and ready to deal with the future, I turned to the paperwork Maxwell Abrams' employment necessitated. Unemployment taxes. IRS filings. Things I'd never had to deal with before because we'd never had an employee long enough to have to fill them out. I looked around. I had a book somewhere. I'd find it tomorrow, along with all those forms I'd never used before.

I went outside. Time to let our new employee know I wasn't intimidated by him. Not even a little bit. I found Carlos limping and trying to hide it. My eyes met those of Max Abrams and it was clear that he too was concerned about the elderly man. Knowing Carlos, I was pretty sure he'd tried to do everything but Max hadn't let him. Because I was right and he had a way with old men? But all Max said out loud was, "I don't have anything planned for this evening. I can work late." His eyes burned into mine and I knew why he made the offer.

"Did Carlos mention there are rooms over the office for employees? You can stay overnight if you wish. Or live here."

"He told me."

"Carlos lives here and so do I."

His eyes widened warily. "How late do you two normally work?"

"As late as necessary." Long hours that might make anyone wary of working here and we needed this man. Not only could he do the work, Carlos liked him. "We pay by the hour. Decent wages. Free room and board. And with Carlos laid up, there will be extra hours."

He nodded, eyes sweeping me from head to toe but not giving away his thoughts. "I'm okay with long hours."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "The horses need to be bedded down."

A smile ghosted across his face, the first I'd seen. It changed him. "So I come early and leave late?"

"Or live here. Work doesn't end until the horses are in their stalls for the night." How many nights had we stayed up all night with a sick horse? "And sometimes not then." I fought against getting all confrontational because this was the first thing previous employees and I had fought over. Long hours. I'd always won the arguments and they'd always quit upon learning how much work the job entailed.

"Sounds like living here is most practical." He pulled his hat low over his brow to hide what I suspected was a grin. How'd he know what I'd been thinking? This new employee was spooky the way he could read minds. Then we headed for the stable where we worked until full dark with Carlos supervising from a chair. We stopped when it was so dark outside that we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces. But the horses were settled for the night

CHAPTER 4

The deep dark of the night disappeared as the moon slid above the evergreens and we headed for the kitchen. Steak and huge chunks of bread didn't take long and, when dinner was ready, we took advantage of the moonlight and brought our plates to the porch, where my newest employee dropped to the floor and stretched his feet out in front of him, completely at home. Carlos took possession of the porch swing with his cast out straight. I started for the office with my plate in one hand to get more work done.

"Maggie." Carlos moved the swing enough to stick his cast in front of me. "You worked enough for one day. Take a break."

"There's just a couple things." The night was quiet. Inviting. I slowed and stopped. Wanted to join the men. To enjoy the night. "Oh, I suppose work can wait." Besides, I didn't want Max Abrams to think I was avoiding him, even though I was. I was determined to hang onto this employee and I hoped that, given enough time, I'd figure out how.

From his place on the porch floor, Max pushed back his hat to say something when the sound of a horse neighing drifted to us on the air. He stopped and we listened. Several other horses joined in. Soon all were making themselves known.

Carlos' was thoughtful. "They should be asleep."

"Maybe our new employee has them concerned?"

He shook his head. "They took to Max readily enough. The guy's a natural. It's something else that has them riled up."

"Which means they need quieting down."

Carlos grunted. "And we're not finished for the night after all." He took in his cast and, clearly tired, started to rise.

"Max and I can do this." I like visiting horses, especially in the evening. It can be a magical time with manes flowing and nostrils blowing softly in the dark. I didn't know about Max but it was part of the job and he might as well learn.

Carlos didn't let me pass. "In a minute or so. I'll be rested enough to join you." I started to object but his head stuck out and his jaws locked. "I have a broken leg but I'm not helpless."

Max was still on the floor, half in moonlight and half in dark. "Boss lady..." His voice was low. I found myself glancing in his direction but his face was in the shadow and all I saw was the outline of taut cheekbones. "The moon's pretty tonight." A pause, then, "Waiting a couple minutes won't hurt anything, will it? It's been a long time since I watched the moon."

He was making sure Carlos was rested before returning to the stable. I leaned back and acquiesced, wishing I'd been the one to say the right thing. In the few hours since arriving, Max had come to know Carlos inside and out and he knew how important it was for the elderly man to be included if he thought his beloved horses were in any way uncomfortable. So we watched the moon clear the trees completely and send molten silver across the porch until Carlos was rested enough to make the short walk to the stables.

The horses neighed louder, with shrill voices. "I don't know what's gotten into them." Carlos moved slowly but with determination. "They should have settled down by now."

"Maybe it's the result of the walk they took today. They might still be hyper."

"Maybe." He didn't believe it for a minute.

When we reached the stable, Carlos moved stiffly from one horse to another. "I wish I knew what's got them so riled up."

I studied the horses for a moment. "They are acting just like when they refused to go through the field."

Carlos turned towards me, a question on his lips.

Then we heard it.

A scream.

CHAPTER 5

It rent the night air, drowning out and suspending the usual night sounds, a scream that ran along our spines and stood our hair on end. The horses stopped their restless movements, frozen in place.

None of us spoke for a long moment. Then Carlos spit out a single word. "Puma."

Max asked, "Cougar?"

"Puma. Cougar. Same thing. A nasty cat."

The afternoon rushed back. The horses shying from a field they usually went through comfortably. "Was it a cougar in the field earlier today?"

"Must have been." Carlos' voice was gritty. "Pumas eat horses. When they went past, it saw a food source. It followed you home and now it's out there. Watching. Waiting."

"How close is it?" I looked nervously over the stable grounds, fully visible in the bright fingers of moonlight, except we'd forgotten all about watching the moon.

"Just past the fence. At the edge of the trees. As close as possible to see without being seen."

Moments ago the night had been beautiful. Now it was frightening. My body tensed as I tried to see into the trees, to find a body lurking in the darkness.

"Do you have a rifle?" Max was miles ahead of us both, calm and quiet and all business. Max Abrams had been in the military. He might be a green employee but he was also a man who knew guns and killing. Authority and experience were clear in his voice. "I'll take care of this."

"It'd be gone by the time you got a rifle and got it loaded." Carlos, too, knew about guns and he also knew about pumas.

Max looked over the stable, sizing up the situation. The two men looked towards each other, then away, then back. They nodded, coming to silent agreement about what to do. "We shut the stable doors. That'll keep it out tonight. Nothing will get in with the doors and windows locked. But it won't leave until it gets a meal or goes in search of other prey."

Then he asked, "Are cougars common around here?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. I've heard people talk about seeing them but this is the first one I know of this close. Ever."

"So it's out of its territory."

Carlos joined in. "I know they are in the forest. People have seen tracks. But no one has ever actually seen a cougar and I've never heard of one coming this close to a building. Never."

"Doesn't mean a thing. Cats are secretive and they are predators." Max was grim. "Where'd you learn about cougars?"

"There are pumas in New Mexico where I grew up. Killed a couple of my dad's cows. I was a kid, I thought I'd chase it away. I ended up climbing a big boulder and yelling for help."

"Can cougars climb rocks?"

"My dad came real quick and shot it. Made a rug of the pelt. Big rug. Huge rug."

Max wanted to get the cougar. "If you'll get me that rifle you mentioned, I'll stay up and keep watch."

I looked around. The world had changed with that scream. The yard was still peaceful, a night scene touched with silver as it often was. It was hard to believe something in the nearby forest wanted to kill the horses. But something did. There was a dangerous predator out there, two men with intimate knowledge of them couldn't be wrong, and the stable and the horses were my responsibility. "I'll stay up too."

"No need." Max shrugged as if it was nothing. "I'm used to long watches. It's no big deal."

"I'm the manager. I'm staying." I used my best boss voice but I suspected that if the cougar was sighted it would be easy for our roles to reverse because the lone scream of that cougar had turned Maxwell Abrams instantly into a take-charge kind of guy. As for me? I wasn't sure. I'm an excellent manager but I'm not good with guns and that was clearly what would be needed if the cougar attacked.

Carlos was nodding acceptance of Max's plan. He'd spent many nights in the barn and was full of advice. "Straw is itchy but you can sleep on it if you get tired enough. The sleeping quarters upstairs are a tad more comfortable. In the morning, we'll get you settled into a real nice room."

Max wasn't listening. He was thinking ahead. Planning. "Okay, in the morning, but only after I check the woods when it gets light to see if it's still around."

"You know how to track animals?"

"Something I learned in the Rangers. We weren't looking for animals, exactly, but the principle is the same."

"You were in the Rangers?"

"If I'm lucky, I'll be able to tell where that Cougar is and what his intentions are."

Then it came again.

Another scream.

CHAPTER 6

My blood curdled. "If the horses hadn't balked this afternoon, we'd have passed within feet of it."

"When I look in the morning, maybe he'll be long gone."

Carlos said, "Heard a puma back in New Mexico that screamed just like this one. The old men, the ones who know everything, said it wasn't normal because mostly pumas are quiet. If one screams, there's a reason."

"A deranged cougar? Is that what we have?"

"Maybe. Or hungry. Or injured. Who knows?"

In the next few minutes, they pooled their meager knowledge and made guesses as to why this cat was different. Why it was here. "It could have been chased from its usual range by another cat."

"Or gone without eating for a long time."

"Or is old or injured and looking for easy prey."

"That wasn't the cry of an old animal. It's in its prime."

"And it wants to eat the horses."

Silence fell. Neither one knew for sure. Max rose. "We'll know more tomorrow."

In a small voice, I said what was uppermost in my mind. "We must keep the horses safe."

Standing, Max was a black shadow against the silver moonlight. Without seeming to move he was beside me, a dark bulk against the danger lurking beyond the fence. He'd been in the Rangers, he knew about guns and danger and how to deal with it. I was suddenly very glad Carlos had hired him. I wasn't sure I'd have done the same if I'd been around when he came looking for work. I definitely wouldn't have.

Carlos leaned back against the swing, weariness in every line of his body as Max perused him without appearing to do so, until our new employee said, "Go to bed, Carlos. I'll take care of your horses tonight."

With a last look towards the stable and holding onto the railing with both hands to steady himself, Carlos pulled himself up the stairs to his room while I brought blankets and pillows from the closet where they were kept for those all-nighters horse people seem to experience all too often. In the barn, after locking the door, I spread them over straw bales and Max and I settled in for the night.

Max leaned close. "You mentioned a rifle. Or a shotgun? Pistol? Something. I'll need it."

No need to ask if he knew how to use a gun. He did. "We have everything you might need. In a gun case in the office. Tell me what you want and I'll get it."

"A shotgun works best at night." There was experience in his voice. "More chance of hitting a moving target that could be little more than a blur. It might not kill a really big cat if it's not a direct hit, but it'll slow it down. But I'd like the rifle too, in order to finish it off."

"Aren't cougars a protected species?"

"You have the right to protect the horses."

"I'll get the guns."

"I'll watch the open door while you're gone."

"No need. The buildings are all connected."

I followed the halls through the stable, then through a small connecting building, and then to the office, where I retrieved a shotgun and a rifle from the locked gun cabinet, then ammunition from the drawer underneath. When I brought them to Max, along with enough ammunition to outfit a small army, he looked at the thirty-ought-six and whistled. "That's a nice rifle." He looked closer. "That's a really top quality scope and it's on a top-of-the-line rifle." There was a question in his voice.

"My dad likes to shoot. He has a number of guns."

"And you take after your dad?"

"He gave me these when I took this job."

"Because the stable is isolated." He ran a hand lovingly along the thirty-ought-six. "Good man. I don't have to ask if it's accurate."

"It is."

He leaned the two weapons against the wall, the shotgun closest to him, the rifle a few inches farther away. I then went to the tiny kitchenette in the stable that consisted of a sink and a cupboard that held everything needed to make coffee, another staple for all-nighters. "How do you like your coffee?"

"Tonight? Black and with as much caffeine as possible."

I doubled the amount of grounds and soon was cautiously sipping the strongest coffee I'd ever had as Max downed his without blinking. The caffeine packed a wallop guaranteed to keep me alert for hours.

Then we settled in to wait for the cougar to make its move. But nothing happened. We sat and sat and sat and nothing happened. The night was just another sleepy, warm summer night with silver moonlight shining through the windows and into every corner and crevice and turning them into a kind of fairyland. I watched the moon cross the small piece of sky visible through a window and, against my wishes, I let myself sink into a lethargy close to contentment that I knew was only possible because of the man beside me. A man who could and would shoot a cougar if it came close. Who would protect the horses? And, if necessary, me?

How did I know he'd protect me? I didn't know how I knew. But I had no doubt he'd do whatever he could to keep me safe.

As I leaned back and examined the moonlight in detail, I decided that Maxwell Abrams and the guns were a bulwark of safety against an otherwise dangerous night that I'd have had to deal with by myself or with the help of an elderly, injured man if he hadn't happened along looking for a job.

Maxwell Abrams was an unexpected savior. A warrior.

Then Max did something unexpected. He opened the stable door. "Shouldn't it be closed and locked? To keep the cougar out?"

"I changed my mind. Got a different idea. I'm here and I'm ready. If the door is open, it might just attack and if it does it'll come right through that door. If that happens, I'll be waiting."

Quiet words spoken with the surety that they could be backed up with the kind of action that would end the threat of the cougar and keep the stable and all its occupants safe. But even as those words assured me that Max could handle things, they reminded me of how truly dangerous the cougar was and, with that thought, the pool of safety his presence had created and that had spread to include the entire stable, the horses and the yard outside, evaporated.

He noticed. "Go to sleep, boss lady." His voice was a monotone intended to put me to sleep. I resented his taking care of me like he took care of Carlos. But, unable to help myself, I closed my eyes as he continued talking. "I'm probably wrong about the cat attacking. Now I think about it, I seriously doubt that it will come tonight. It's too new to the area, it'll want to check things out before it makes its move. I'll keep the door open so it'll get used to seeing it open and to smelling the horses inside. So it'll be lulled into coming inside. But I doubt anything will happen tonight. So, like I said before, go to sleep boss lady."

I wondered whether I should say something. Criticize his choice of words. Boss lady? Who did he think he was? But that might chase him away and we needed him and how did I know what would constitute a good boss response? So I said nothing and lay back and closed my eyes, knowing there was no way on earth I'd sleep.

But his voice got to me as he kept talking about nothing in particular. It became a hypnotic, honey-smooth liquid spiraling through my body which I suspected was exactly what he intended. Even though I'd not known how tired I was from the events of the day, from the strain, even though I didn't know I needed sleep somehow, he knew and he was putting me to sleep.

What kind of life had he lived to know such things and know them so precisely? He knew about danger and he promised it wouldn't arrive tonight. Which meant it wouldn't. It wouldn't dare.

So, lulled by his voice and the web of safety his presence wove, but mostly because I was unable to stop myself, I lapsed into a state of half sleep in which the larger rectangle of silver that was the open doorway morphed into a looking glass and, as exhaustion from the day's events took over and sleep called, I became Alice stepping through the glass into Wonderland.

As I considered the Wonderland beyond the door, asleep and yet awake enough to know that this wasn't real, I realized that the edges of the moon now touched the tops of the black night trees on the opposite side of the clearing. That woke me up fast and made me sit up straight. In order for it to be so far from its position when I first lay back and listened to Max's voice, hours must have passed. I couldn't remember falling off but judging from the position of the moon and the pre-dawn darkness that was beginning to envelope the world as it slid behind the trees, morning wasn't far off. And, as I watched, it disappeared and pure darkness took over the world.

I rubbed my eyes. "You should have waked me. I could take my turn."

"You were sleeping so nicely I didn't have the heart. Besides, I like the night. It's peaceful, a time for reflection."

I pushed aside the fog of sleep and tried to come up with a response, something that would show how thankful I was for his help while making it clear that even though I happened to fall asleep, I could normally hold up my end of a bargain and could be counted on if anything happened. Which I sincerely hoped it wouldn't because the nasty cat that wanted to eat my horses would be gone from the area, thus making action unnecessary.

I decided to tell Max that. But before I could open my mouth, the silence was shattered and the cougar screamed again.

CHAPTER 7

My insides froze even though this time I knew instantly what made that eerie sound. I shouldn't be terrified. But I was.

Max held the shotgun as if it was an extension of him, and I had no idea how it had gotten in his hand. It hadn't been there moments before. "He's still nearby."

"Damn." I don't swear much but that one word said it all. Frustration. Anger. Fear.

Max's body was tense, a spring ready to be let loose but his next words told me his mind was working just fine, calm and rational. "Carlos is right, there's something different about this particular cougar. Don't know what, but I do know that big cats roam over a large area and tend not to stay long in any one place." We waited with breath bated for another cry. It didn't come and he relaxed somewhat. Max's body was still tense but his head moved back and forth like clockwork, watching. "Could be that he's just making his presence known before leaving. Like saying goodbye."

"If you're trying to comfort me, it's not working."

"Maybe if he realizes he can't get the horses he'll move on. No reason to stay if he can't get at them. Maybe he's just letting the world know how frustrated he is before he goes somewhere else."

"I'm still not comforted."

"Hey, don't sweat it, if he doesn't leave tonight, I'll shoot him tomorrow. And, just in case you're still concerned, here's a thought to make you feel better." He hunkered down beside me. "If that cat had been serious about killing a horse when you were on the trail earlier today, you'd be missing a horse now. So it wasn't serious then and might not be serious now."

I wrapped my arms around my middle to still the turmoil inside as I tried to think what his words meant. "What about tomorrow? Will it be safe to ride? Do the horses have to stay inside?"

"Yes. Absolutely."

"Or the cougar will kill one of them?"

"You have to go on the assumption that it'll take down any horse it can get at."

"How long before they can be outside again?"

"As long as it takes. When we haven't heard it for a few days or found any sign in the forest around the stable, then maybe they can go outside. No trail rides, but they can exercise in the fenced area for a while. But no going beyond the cleared area around Green Forest Stable."

I turned that over in my mind. "The horses need exercise. I normally take two at a time, riding one and leading another. We go for miles along the forest trails, some days we put in twenty miles. Then I return and take another pair out, then another and another until I've exercised them all."

"Not tomorrow you don't."

"Trail riding is essential. It's what most of the horses are here for. Green Forest Stables specializes in distance training. Hours of forest riding are an important part of that training."

"If the cougar is waiting in a tree on one of those trails when you come along, there won't be any warning. It'll take down the last animal, the one you'll be leading. You won't know anything until it's too late." He examined me. "I'd guess a dead horse isn't good for business."

I rocked back and forth, wishing my courses in equine studies had prepared me for cougars. But they hadn't. "Can you find it? Kill it? Or chase it away?" Yesterday I hadn't known Maxwell Abrams existed, now he was the single most important person in my life.

He leaned against the wall and stuck long legs in front of him. His jeans were worn, comfortable and well-fitting. I couldn't see them clearly in the dark but I remembered from earlier, as I remembered the planes of his face and the solid, no-nonsense set of his shoulders. That he was former military and was precisely what we needed now. That his shirt was faded blue. And his boots were new.

Purchased yesterday just for this job? Unable to make them out in the dark, I examined them in memory. Not fancy cowboy boots, he'd instead chosen sturdy, brown, unadorned work boots, the kind someone would purchase who had no need to brag. Max Abrams, former Army Ranger, was the real deal and I was once again glad to have him on my side. Glad he'd come along just when he was needed. Glad I'd managed not to chase him away.

He'd only worked for the stable one day and was already our main weapon against a dangerous cougar. It suddenly occurred to me that I knew nothing about this weapon. I should know this man who overnight became so important to Green Forest Stables. Surely, doing so was a proper boss-like thing to do.

So I started a conversation. "Carlos said you were local. But he said 'sort of' local. I grew up here but I don't believe we've met."

"Kind of late for an interview, isn't it?"

"Just curious. How can someone be sort of local? Either you are or you aren't."

"I spent my summers here when I was a kid. With my aunt and uncle. They owned the lumber yard."

A memory surfaced. "You're the kid who swept the floor." When my dad and I bought lumber for the fence for my first horse, I'd seen him. Same set of the jaw and sweep of long legs, but in a younger, unfinished person.

"That would have been me."

"I always wondered who you were."

"I took off as soon as I finished high school."

"You joined the Army."

"I thought I was made for it. I thought I'd spend the rest of my career in the Rangers. Then one morning I woke up and for no reason I've ever figured out, I decided I wanted to make my own decisions instead of having someone else make them for me. So I didn't re-up and then I came here and started looking for a job. The rest is history."

"Why here?"

"I like the woods, always did. When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for school to end so I could come here. You've got to admit, the forest is great when cougars aren't scaring the hell of out everyone. I came here to figure out what to do with the rest of my life."

"You don't plan on staying?"

He shrugged, the rise and fall of his shoulders barely visible in the coming dawn. I could see the movement. Moments earlier, I couldn't have, which meant day was approaching. "Don't know."

"I'm glad you're here." Honesty made me add, "Very glad. In fact, I don't know what we'd do without you."

Another shrug. The danger beyond the fence didn't mean the same to him that it did to me. It was just another day's work to a former Army Ranger. "If I wasn't around, you'd call the Game Warden."

"It's summer. Tourist time. The Warden is so busy he'd get around to us in a month or so."

"Then I'll just have to take care of any puma that comes around myself."

CHAPTER 8

Even though Max had had no sleep at all and I'd not had a lot, morning was approaching and the time for slumber was past. We shifted, moved, took deep breaths and generally started the process of waking up. Mostly we talked, only Max's past as a subject of interest was momentarily used up so our conversation moved on to other topics, our words drifting on the pre-dawn air.

We found things to talk about. We discussed horses, which Max knew little about, and guns, about which he knew everything, until finally there was nothing else to talk about so we came back to cougars. "Pumas, if you live in the Southwest. That's why Carlos calls them Pumas. He's from New Mexico."

My words were clipped and precise while Max's were slow and soft, blending into the creeping dawn. The tendril of safety that had entered me that evening, and then disappeared, now returned full force and became slow spiral through my body. I wondered idly as I leaned against the stable wall and waited for morning just how long it would take for that feeling of security to envelop my whole self, even as I knew the feeling was completely irrational given the threat to the stable. I hoped it would take hours... days... to fill me to the brim because it was such a good feeling and so unexpected given the situation, that I wanted to savor it.

But, shoving aside my feelings and facing reality, I admitted that the cougar was my problem, not Max's, and the stable was my responsibility, not his and I shouldn't continue leaning on him. I should take charge. I thought how to do so. By learning everything I could about Maxwell Abrams. "You came here to figure out the rest of your life."

I examined the stable walls, now a lighter shade of gray than minutes earlier. Dawn was coming. "Not much time for that with a cougar outside." I added in what I hoped was a normal, uncaring voice, "I won't blame you if you take off first thing in the morning. You've already helped more than anyone could expect."

In reply Max tipped his head back and spread his arms wide, taking in the whole of the dawning forest, and I felt more than heard his low chuckle. "What? Leave all this? A stable full of expensive horses in the middle of nowhere with a hungry cougar just outside? And you?" He must have sensed the way I sat up straight, unsure what he meant. "A female boss." His hands twisted upwards towards the dawning sky. "What could be better than all of this?" He looked like he could hold that sky in his arms until they dropped dramatically. "Sitting beside a female boss and waiting to kill a rogue cougar."

"What's wrong with a female boss?" My voice squeaked.

"Nothing. It's just that I never had a lady boss before." He'd been so majestic moments before. Now he sagged along the hay bale like a sack of potatoes. "I can't imagine what it'll be like."

He sounded so dejected that I wanted to giggle but I managed to swallow it. "That makes us even." I didn't plan on saying what I said next. It wasn't the kind of thing a boss would admit and I'd not have said it if I'd thought first. "I've never had an employee before."

"No kidding." He thought a moment. "What about Carlos?"

"He's part of Green Forest Stables. He was here before I came. He's a real live horse whisperer."

"He's not an employee then?"

"Not really. You're the first." The first that stayed long enough for me to fill out a W2 form, which I would do as soon as I found one. There was one somewhere in the office, I just wasn't sure where.

His head tilted as he rolled that thought around for a moment. "So what we have here is a female boss who's never been a boss before and her first employee who's never worked for a woman until now. Sounds like we're both in uncharted territory."

His voice was so droll that my suppressed giggle erupted into laughter that I couldn't suppress. The night had been so tense that I needed a break in the tension but I suspected that wasn't the only reason I laughed. I laughed because.... I didn't know why, I just knew that it felt right and soon Max joined in until we were whooping. Finally he gulped, "Are we really that funny?"

"Probably not." And we laughed some more.

Then, for reasons I couldn't explain, I stopped laughing because, in some way I couldn't put my finger on, in that very moment, as the first fingers of dawn broke behind the trees, everything changed. The scratchy straw covered by a wool blanket morphed into black velvet washed in a pink and yellow dawn filled with promise instead of the fear that had become a part of me.

Max moved. Slid to an upright position. Tipped his head. I knew what he was going to do and knew it wasn't appropriate between an employer and employee, and I didn't care. Maybe he did it because I'd not laid down the rules for employer-employee relations. Or didn't know them myself. Or perhaps it was just that dawn was approaching without the cougar attacking. Whatever the reason, I could have stopped it easily. I didn't. Instead I looked out the open stable door and said, "It's a shame to waste such a beautiful dawn."

"You're right about that." There was a question in his voice.

My silence was all the answer he needed. In that silent way he had of moving and without me knowing how it happened, instead of being on another bale of hay he was blocking those fingers of dawn, touching my face, the side of my neck, the area behind my ear until I shivered, but I was also reaching for him, putting my arms around his neck until our lips were barely touching in a kiss that wasn't important at all, that blew all employer-employee rules to smithereens, that had no need or urgency behind it and that was somehow precisely right.

As our lips touched, it occurred to me that it was about as far from a passionate kiss as it's possible to have, more a thing of the gorgeous dawn and lack of sleep and the fact that the stable was safe than of two people wanting to physically connect. More than a peck on the cheek but not even close to lust. Nothing spectacular at all. A good morning kiss, and I knew that's what it was meant to be.

And yet... and yet... during the millisecond before contact was broken, the world stopped. Tipped. And started again, smooth and efficient as ever, but on a different axis entirely. And I knew that my relationship with this particular employee was about to become complicated and, more important than not knowing how to be a good boss, I now had no idea at all how to handle this new complication.

At that precise moment, the cougar screamed.

CHAPTER 9

The forest that had started the slow process of waking up in the form of cautious bird calls and skittering squirrels went silent.

Before the reverberations ended Max was gone, dumping me unceremoniously and grabbing the shotgun in one smoothly instantaneous motion. "Jesus, it's close! Too close. Almost at the door."

Without time passing, with not even a thought separating our kiss and Max reaching for his gun, he was a different person, a shadowy figure whose dark and dangerous grace rivaled that of the cougar beyond. He motioned with his free hand. "Stay back."

"No."

"You don't know what could happen."

"Neither do you."

"Damn it, do as I say! If it attacks and I shoot, I want to know you're not in the line of fire."

I couldn't think of a good argument. "Okay."

Nothing had happened between us, not really, and whatever might have been was gone as if it had never existed. I took a backward step deeper into the stable, licking my lips and praying the cougar wouldn't charge.

"There's movement at the edge of the trees." He was in the doorway and his voice was excited but unafraid. I was terrified.

I moved to the door and tried to see what he saw but he pushed me back. "Stay here." I ignored him until he added, "Please," and gave me a frustrated look. "Stay with the horses while I go after him. Just in case." Defeated, I backed again into the stable as he crossed the grass and disappeared into the pink of early morning.

No sound indicated his progress and dawn didn't exist in the forest where the dark of night was still so intense that if his passing caused brush or leaves to move it didn't show. And his movements were silent.

But I heard something in the branches of a tree. The cougar? I couldn't know, only that when Max reappeared half an hour later, as dawn became day and light began to penetrate beneath the trees, I sagged in relief.

"Nothing. Not a sign of anything and the birds are singing again. Possibly that last scream was him saying goodbye. Still, I'll look around when it's lighter and see what tracks I can find."

I cast an eye on the sky. "There might not be tracks. It's going to rain."

He followed my look. "Those are tiny clouds."

"It's something I learned when I started working here because I didn't want to be caught in a storm miles from home with a nervous horse beneath me." I pointed again to the few innocuous-appearing clouds he'd dismissed. "Just wait. It'll rain soon."

He shrugged and we went into the barn where he leaned his rifle against a wall before turning to me. I waited for him to speak. To say something about our earlier kiss. Anything. But he said nothing and when I tried to read his expression, I failed.

Then I felt his arms on either side of me, boxing me into a square made by his body, his arms and the wall and I knew he was thinking of that dawn kiss after all. That touch of our lips that was at the same time nothing and earth-shattering. But just then a bolt of lightning split the sky followed immediately by thunder.

Upstairs, I knew Carlos would awaken and come down. He was so attuned to the horses under his care that he normally spent stormy nights in the stable and he'd want to be there during this storm. He'd be out of his room in moments and would come downstairs at a fast hobble. But the cast would slow him down so there were a few moments before he appeared, and I wanted to find out what would happen next. So I waited.

What happened was a second kiss. Max's lips were gentle, questioning and I liked that. He purposely ignited no passion between us. Instead, this kiss was an exploration, a question, a nothing, though somehow we ended up all tangled together, tongues, lips, cheeks, and arms every which way. Different from earlier. Better. "Like I was saying, boss lady... "

A second bolt of lightning rent the air, but this time the sound of the following thunder was lost in the sudden gush of rain pounding the hard-packed dirt in the corral and the tin roof that looked so impressive in the Green Forest Stables brochure and was so loud during a storm. But over the roar of the rain we heard the slam of a door as Carlos came from his apartment, cast thumping on the floor. "I heard the cougar. Saw you head for the woods." He started carefully down the stairs, holding the railing hard. "Did you get him?"

We jumped apart, Max casually answering as if nothing had happened, as if his heart wasn't beating faster than usual, though I knew it was. "Didn't see a thing but I'll check as soon as this rain stops."

I spoke to cover my embarrassment. "Max says we have to keep the horses inside until the cougar is gone."

Carlos grunted agreement. "Good thing we have an indoor arena." Then he added, "Which means it's going to be a long day, and we might as well get started. I'll get them organized, you guys get some breakfast going. When it's ready, call me. Meantime, you two can get back to doing whatever it was you were doing before I came." The lilt in his voice was unmistakable. Carlos has a sense of humor but he managed to keep a straight face. "When you're done, maybe you should get some sleep. What with one thing and another, it appears you didn't sleep last night."

I hoped my red face didn't show as I turned back to Max. "We never got around to showing you your room. So you'll have somewhere to sleep."

Carlos snorted and laughed at the same time but it was Max I wanted to throttle because he was the picture of equanimity while I was fighting for composure. More importantly, I couldn't tell if he'd already forgotten what happened between us as he answered Carlos. "I'll get my stuff from my truck when the rain lets up. Meanwhile, sleep does sound good, and you can always yell if the cougar returns."

As Carlos disappeared in the direction of the stable, I hastily led Max upstairs, pointed out which room was his, and beat a quick retreat to my own room and an hour or so of sleep so deep I might as well have been drugged.

CHAPTER 10

Two hours later, showered and wearing a clean pair of jeans, I grabbed a bowl of cold cereal because Carlos and Max had already eaten, Max having had no sleep at all. His door had been open when I passed it after rising. The bed was untouched.

I headed for the indoor arena, determined to do my part. I passed the open door and saw an outside world that was soaked and muddy, but the rain was lessening and looked like it would end soon.

The horses were skittish. They pranced and side-stepped and generally didn't want to settle down to the lunge line but eventually every horse got at least a semblance of exercise. Not that going in circles in an indoor arena could take the place of miles of trail riding, but it would have to do until Max shot the cougar or chased it away. Which I was confident would happen as soon as the rain ended.

When I put the last horse back in its stall and pushed the arena door open, Carlos was waiting. I looked around. "Where's Max?"

"Went after that SOB puma."

I stepped through the door into an outside where a few rays of sunshine were beginning, gleaming off wet leaves, fence rails, buildings, everything. But there were still clouds in the sky. Carlos' eyes met mine. "More rain coming."

"What if Max is caught in the rain?" Would that give the cougar an advantage?

"Don't worry about Max. He won't go far."

"Why not?"

"No tracks in this mud, nothing to follow, so unless the puma is close by and easy to find, Max won't get it today."

It was already noon so I brought a sandwich onto the porch and was half-way done when Max came walking out of the forest. I wanted to rush to him and drown him in questions but I waited for him to come to us. When he did, his words were terse. "It was better than I expected. The trees are so thick that there were places where I found tracks."

"Is it gone?" That was all I wanted to know.

"Couldn't tell for sure but I don't think so. There were tracks both coming and going but the ones leaving petered out in that abandoned farm. It rained so hard there in the open field that any tracks are gone. I looked for an hour but couldn't pick them up so I can't tell if it left or is still there."

"At the farm?"

"Or it could have circled back and with this mud, I'd not be able to tell."

I dropped with a thud to the swing. "So what now? I have to either exercise these horses or call the owners to come and get them. Which will not bode well for the future of Green Forest Stables."

"You can always get more horses."

"Green Forest hasn't been around long and, even now, when we're finally becoming known, there's doubt in the horse community about the validity of a stable in the middle of the wilderness. The cougar could mean the end of this business if word gets around." I finished a sandwich that had turned to sawdust and looked towards the wall of trees beyond the grassy lawn but my thoughts went beyond the grass and into trees that could easily hide a large cat.

Something moved. I held my breath and swore. "It's there!"

Max followed my look and chuckled. "You're looking at a doe and fawn, which is sure proof that the cat's nowhere near because no momma deer would bring her baby around if there's a cougar in the area." Relief turned me into a limp noodle. "But we should stay awake tonight in case it comes back."

"How will we know if it does?"

"I don't know that much about cougars." I shook my head that I couldn't help him. "Maybe the Warden knows. It's his job to know such things. I suggest you ask him."

Carlos spoke up. "We're getting low on groceries. What say you head to Montrose, Maggie, and see what you can find out?"

"It's summer. He's busy."

"He's got to check into the office some time."

"My dad used to head for town on Wednesdays because that's the day most business is conducted."

"Then that's the day the Warden will be in his office."

"Tomorrow's Wednesday. Tomorrow I'll head for town."

Max leaned against the stable wall and pulled his hat low over his forehead. "If we don't have a cougar rug before then." His stance said we might.

The rest of the day was spent giving each horse as much exercise as possible given the small space available indoors. Carlos also used the time to teach Max about horses and there wasn't room for three people to work at one time, so I watched.

After a few preliminary instructions, Carlos used the lunge line to exercise one horse while Max led another in a trot around the edge of the indoor rink. The first horse following Max was a piebald, Chance, who had a tendency to shy at every obstacle, even footprints in the dust. Chance had put his owner on the ground more times than he cared to count so they'd decided a few lessons at Green Forest were in order. Max was doing a surprisingly good job of gently coaxing Chance out of his fears. The horse moved nicely beside him, no shying, no stopping that I could see. Which meant that the feeling of security that Max exuded extended to animals as well as people. He had a future with animals if he wanted.

And it was clear that he was a fast learner. If we got through this cougar scare unscathed and he decided to stick around, maybe Carlos could finally consider the retirement he'd been putting off for more years then he should have. And, with a bona fide employee, I could practice becoming a considerate, pleasant, kind, loving employer. And as that thought popped unbidden into my head, I blushed and left the arena before either of them could catch sight of my red face.

CHAPTER 11

That night, with Carlos asleep upstairs and Max and I in the middle of an argument over whether I should go to sleep and leave him to watch the place alone because the cougar was most likely miles away or stick around because it might be nearby, another scream sent all thought from my mind. It was worse than that first scream, worse than those of the previous night because this scream was close. Too close. Mere yards away but it was impossible to tell exactly because the forest warps sound and fools listeners.

Our argument stopped in mid-sentence, we ran to the door, expecting to see a tawny body in the yard but all we that met our eyes was day-bright moonlight and stars littering the sky thicker than the pine needles on the forest floor. "Stay here, I'm going to circle the stable. He's close, I want to know where."

When he returned, shaking his head, that awesome scream came again, stopping us both in our tracks. But it was somewhat fainter. "It's going away." Max couldn't believe it. "It's farther away. Not much farther but it's actually leaving."

He looked at the horizon. It wasn't deep night yet but the extreme blackness that is beneath the trees at night had settled in and turned the wilderness darker than could be imagined. "Okay, I give up. Two people are better than one. Why don't we keep each other company while we wait to see if he comes back?"

"Do you think he might return?"

"No, it's just until we know for sure he's gone."

As the hours passed, we heard no more cries and the horses settled down the way they'd only do if they felt no imminent danger, but instead of finding a place to sit and watch, we circled the stable over and over again, at first searching the blackness beneath the trees for the shine of eyes and, when we found none, simply walking through the silver shine of the moonlight. With no puma nearby, my thoughts wandered. Or perhaps the night was so similar to the previous night, when we'd kissed, that I simply had to say something even if it had nothing to do with that kiss.

"Will your aunt and uncle be glad you no longer need to stay with them? Or will they miss you?"

"They offered me a job at the lumberyard but understood when I said I didn't want that kind of life. They were glad I found a job I like."

The horizon became visible, black becoming gray as the dark changed, lessened, a reminder that morning would come. Somehow the hours had passed and we'd spent the night on watch and now the cougar was nowhere around. Everything would be better once day came and morning was close. I felt strangely restless, undone because there was unfinished business between us, but I sagged in relief at the thought of another night without incident. Max noticed and touched my shoulder. "Get some sleep."

I didn't want to sleep. I wanted to keep walking around the stable with Max's capable profile between me and the danger the forest represented. To feel dawn coming as had happened yesterday. But Max had gone an entire night and day with no sleep. I took his hand. Wanted to pull him towards me but knew I shouldn't. "You need sleep more than I do."

"I'll sleep while you're in town. It'll be broad daylight and Carlos will be here to keep watch. In any case, I think the cougar is gone, at least for now. But you should still talk to the warden."

I turned reluctantly to head for the stairs but before I took a full step Max reached casually and turned me back towards him. "One thing."

I let him pull me closer. Gladly. "What's that?"

"For want of a better term, I'll call it unfinished business."

So he felt the same way. I let him pull me across the remaining distance between us until we were touching, body to body lightly, standing easily, breathing the moist air with its special fragrance. Mint with an earthy undertone and he said, "I apologize for last night."

"No apology necessary." I pulled away, vaguely disappointed. "And you're right, I am tired."

He let me go. Stared at me a moment with an unreadable expression. "Get some rest, Maggie."

I moved away, feeling the distance between us and hating it, and headed for my room above the office. The night had been long, I'd sleep well. But even as I prepared for bed and closed my eyes, I knew that when I woke, I'd have to face the fact that an apology didn't change what had happened between us. Nor would it change the fact that I had no idea what our relationship was. Or what I wanted it to be.

It was afternoon before I went to town. Noon before I awoke. Daylight when I fell asleep, with fingers of dawn sliding across the ceiling. I heard Carlos stirring in the next room when consciousness finally left me. I heard no sound at all when I awoke, hours later.

I flew out of bed, looked for something to eat and, failing to find anything I could fix in less than a half hour decided against breakfast... or, more honestly, lunch... and ran to the truck, guilty about sleeping while Max and Carlos worked the horses.

I reached Montrose with my stomach rumbling and decided a couple minutes in the café would remedy the situation. There, I ended up at a table between the game warden I wanted to see and a family of tourists with three small boys who were involved in a bragging contest. "If I see a bear, I won't chicken out. I'll let that bear know who's boss."

"I'll walk up to any bear and call it names."

"I'll punch it in the nose."

As I digested the boasts, the warden leaned close to me and whispered, "I don't think any of them have seen a real, live bear."

I nodded my head. "I agree." I didn't let him return to his lunch. "I'd like to talk to you."

"I'm on my way to tag a deer a tourist hit on the highway north of town."

"Probably tell everyone he shot it."

"Then I have to give a talk to a group of Girl Scouts out at the campground."

"A cougar is after our horses."

He didn't act surprised. Instead he indicated the empty seat beside him. "Big cat?"

I sat. "We haven't seen it but Carlos says it's big."

"Damn. I hoped the SOB had left the area."

"You know about it?"

"If it's the one we've been following, yes I do. Through sightings and reports such as yours. This is the third state that cat has been sighted in so far."

"Does that mean it'll keep going?"

"Not necessarily." He doodled with his napkin. "This particular cat is dangerous."

"More so than most?"

"It was first sighted by a pair of hikers. Then, later, a hunter took a shot at it when it threatened him. It was on a ledge, about to pounce and the hunter happened to glance up and saw it before it leaped. He wounded it, there was blood, but the cat took off for parts unknown so we don't know the extent of its injuries."

"Much blood?"

"Enough. The thing is, a wounded mountain lion is a dangerous one." Carlos had said this cougar was different from most. Because it was shot? "And we're pretty sure this guy was seriously wounded."

"How do you know this is the same cougar?"

"According to the description those people gave, it's a male in its prime." He looked a question at me.

"That's what Carlos and Max think."

"It's going to keep hunting until it finds a place with lots of potential food. And it seems to attack mostly at night."

"The horses are restless at night.."

"Horses are easy food, as are other domestic animals. A farmer lost a heifer to it and a sheep rancher saw it kill one of his sheep. Said it dragged the sheep away, then returned and killed a second one. But the farmer shot at it and chased it away." He leaned back in his chair land considered me. "He killed that second sheep just for the sheer joy of killing. Or out of anger and pain."

I sucked in my breath. "What can we do to keep the horses safe?"

"First off, I'd find someone to help. Carlos is too slow with that broken leg."

"We already have someone." I told him about Max. "He was in the Army. The Rangers."

The warden nodded. "Excellent. But don't get cocky. It could be lying in wait, cougars do that. Lulls its prey into being careless, then it pounces."

I shuddered. "We already stand watch at night. Because that's when we hear it."

"Keep it up." He rose.

"We have guns."

"Good." He smiled thinly. "But don't let anyone know I said so. Killing cougars is a gray area legally." He picked up his check. "But this cat is dangerous." And he left.

I barely heard what the clerk said as I ordered horse treats at the feed store, so distracted that he looked at me oddly. "Maggie, have you heard anything I've said?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, Brad." He was local, too, like me, though we hadn't gone to school at the same time. "I had something on my mind."

A grin broke out from ear to ear. "Like a guy? Max Abarams?"

"How'd you know about Max?"

"This is a small town."

Oh Lord!"

"His aunt and uncle own the lumber yard. They were hoping he'd take over but you changed that. So of course I know. Everyone knows." His grin grew. "You must have woven magic around the guy, according to his aunt and uncle. He's never wanted to put down roots before." He leaned across the counter and leaned on his elbows. "So when's the wedding?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

His eyebrows cocked. "When Maggie Squires actually breaks down and hires an employee and then keeps that employee more than a day, there's something going on, and don't try to say there's not."

I smothered a reply, grabbed the horse treats, and got out of there as fast as possible. Until I left town two hours later, I felt like I had a target painted on my back that every gossip in the area could zero in on. And probably did.

CHAPTER 12

I headed home not knowing whether to laugh or cry as I drove carefully beneath the evergreens that closed the narrow, gravel roads off from any hope of sunlight except for a brief few minutes each day when the sun was straight overhead and could manage to penetrate the deep foliage. My eyes darted every way possible, searching for sight of a tawny body ready to drop onto the pickup from one of those towering evergreens, and my ears listened for that awful cry that was way too familiar. And between thoughts of the cougar, I couldn't help but recall my conversation with Brad. The farther I drove, the tighter my shoulder muscles became until a throbbing started in the back of my head.

When I reached Green Forest, Max helped unload. "Did you talk to the warden?" I hauled an armload of oats into the barn, my headache preventing me from answering. He followed with his arms full and waited for me to answer. Finally, dumping his load on a shelf, he asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

He probably thought I was angry about the kisses. I didn't want him to think that. Most of all I didn't want him to quit. "No, you didn't do anything." My words were muffled as I pressed my head against the cool wall and tried not to remember Brad's words in town or how the thin material of Max's shirt was taut against his muscles. "I have a headache."

"Oh. Sorry." He slung bags onto the pile and returned for more. "Take it easy, then. I can finish unloading." I ignored his advice and worked alongside him until the truck was empty. Then I dropped to a hay bale and put my hands to my head because my headache was growing by the second. Max came beside me. "Turn a bit so I can get at you. I'm a great masseuse."

I moved enough for him to share my hay bale and turned slightly. Soon his fingers were digging into the knotted muscles, finding the clenched spots, kneading the pain away. It was wonderful. "Where'd you learn that?"

"I've had my share of headaches." His fingers moved lower, between my shoulder blades. "Your muscles are loosening up. The headache will be gone soon." Long minutes later, I was headache free but I didn't tell him to stop, didn't move away. Instead, I let him continue as his hands slowed and his fingers began moving in small, lazy circles.

More minutes passed. His hands moved still slower, wandering over my whole back and up into my neck until they stopped, resting on my shoulders as he said, "I didn't know it was a headache. I thought you were pissed off about the other night."

"It was a headache."

"I thought you were going to fire me."

"I promise you it's nothing like that."

Silence for a long time. Then, in a voice I'd not have thought was Max's he said, "Maggie, I think I like this job. I left the Army by choice and I'm sure I could re-enlist and they'd gladly take me back. But it wasn't right for me any longer so I don't want to do that. And I worked for my aunt and uncle enough summers to know that's not what I want either. But guess what? Ranger training isn't easily transferable to the private sector." I listened. Bent my head so I wouldn't have to look at him and, as if on cue, his hands began their slow movements again. I couldn't help the sigh that escaped my lips.

"I can do this job, Maggie, I know I can. I can do the physical work and I can learn about horses. Beyond those things I like working here, in the woods. It feels... right. And I know I'm not doing this whole employee thing right but I'll learn how to do it properly. I promise." His hands stopped and hesitated in the air. I wanted to tell him to keep it up but I didn't. I didn't want him to get the wrong idea. The employer-employee thing which I wasn't so good at either. "So I guess what I'm saying is that I apologize for last night and promise it'll never happen again if you'll keep me on and stop scaring me every time you come back from town."

I stretched. Moved my shoulders in the ecstasy of freedom from pain. Turned because I had something to say and wanted to look him in the eye when I said it. Bumped into him and almost knocked him down. Grabbed at his shirt to keep him from toppling over. Pulled him close. Righted both of us, grabbing harder and focusing on the dust motes floating between us because that was easier than meeting his eyes. "You don't have to apologize for last night."

"Really?" His head tilted. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." He looked so relieved I knew I had to say more. "I'm kind of like you. New at being an employer. Guess I don't know all the rules yet." I'd never made such an admission to any of the others who'd worked for Green Forest Stables. But no one else had stayed long enough for me to say anything.

He breathed a huge sigh and backed enough to put a comfortable distance between us, enough space for our eyes to meet without either of us being embarrassed. "Good." He looked at the nothingness beyond my left shoulder and a smile flicked across his face, coming and going so quickly that if I hadn't been watching I'd not have seen it. But it was there, it was real, and it showed a side of Max I'd not been sure of until then. A softer side, a Max who could laugh and enjoy working hard on a lovely summer day. As I watched, he mentally hitched his jeans and exchanged the smile for a business-like scowl. "So now it's time to get some work done. If you say so. You being the boss and the one who gives the orders."

I didn't move, choosing instead to re-examine the dust motes in the air. They were all sparkly in the single spike of sun from the stable door. "Don't worry, Max, you're not in any danger of being fired." My face flamed. I hoped he didn't notice, didn't take my words out of context but, of course, he did.

"I'm not?"

"Not because of your work, not because of what happened."

"It was morning. It just seemed right."

"I know. I felt the same way." He gave a sigh of relief. "It's over and done with. I forgot it happened."

"I didn't and I won't. Can't." That smile returned briefly, but this time it was tentative. "Guess that's one difference between us." Then it disappeared from everywhere but his eyes and somehow that light in the depths of his eyes was so sensual that I caught my breath as he asked, so simply that it would have been to ignore his next words. "And I hope you're okay with the fact that I find you attractive. Because if you're not, then I've got a problem and maybe shouldn't stick around after the cat's taken care of."

My breath caught. What to say? What would a normal boss say? I played it safe. "That's up to you, of course."

He folded his arms. "You're not very helpful."

I stumbled all over myself trying to explain. "I'm the boss and you're the employee." I gazed over his shoulder at the forest beyond the open stable door.

"Who thinks his boss is attractive." Neither of us spoke for a moment. "What I'd like to know is whether that's an insurmountable problem. It could be the deciding factor later on."

The conversation was quickly getting out of hand. Then I remembered what the warden had said about the cougar and steered the conversation that way in order to cool things down. Or avoid answering.

I repeated what the warden had said, ending with, "It's a wounded, rogue animal. Old wound, most likely, healed but probably in a way that makes it harder for the cougar to hunt. So it looks for easy prey. Which makes it even more dangerous than if it was unhurt."

His eyes caught fire and warmed me across the distance between us. He knew what I was doing. "So you did talk to the warden?" His lips pursed and his arms crossed but whatever might have happened between us if I'd not mentioned the cougar evaporated in the bright sunlight.

At that moment, Carlos appeared. "You guys done yet?"

CHAPTER 13

I nodded and started over at the beginning so Carlos, too, would know what we were up against. "According to the warden, this particular cougar attacks at night."

"So we make sure we're ready when it comes."

Carlos nodded. "I'll take my turn. After last night, you two were so tired you weren't good for much and I can't run this place by myself." He shoved a stick between the cast and his leg and moved it up and down. "Darn leg itches like crazy."

"You shouldn't stand watch."

"I said it itches, I didn't say I was tired. I can sit on a bale of hay as well as either of you and watch in case an overgrown cat wants to eat the horses." He looked from Max to me. "So? Do we take turns?"

Max and I eyed each other and silently agreed. "Okay, for tonight and we'll see how you feel in the morning."

He snorted. "I'll be fine. I just hope you two will be functional enough to drag the cat's body away after I shoot it."

Max's eyes narrowed. "I'll take the first watch and Maggie takes the second. The cat will most likely come right after sundown, especially if it's hungry and, if it's wounded, it's hungry. So, if we're lucky... or unlucky... it'll come then, I'll shoot it, and you both can sleep through the night."

Carlos harrumphed. "If I hear a shot, I'll come. I want to see the cat that is trying to eat my horses."

But no cat came. The night was peaceful. But I had a hard time sleeping. Several times I went to my window and looked out. One time I saw Max walking around the clearing that was Green Forest Stables, having shut and locked the stable door. In the moonlight, he was a moving shadow. If I didn't recognize his walk, a rangy stride that could carry him easily for miles, I might have mistaken his shadow for that of the cougar because both were in my thoughts.

Looking down on the scene, I thought ahead to my turn. I'm a lousy shot. That was a concern when I took a job at this remote wilderness stable. I'd voiced my concerns to my dad.

He'd taken a double-barrel shotgun down from the wall and handed it to me. He loaded his own ammunition and handed me several boxes of shells. "You don't have to be a good aim, just point it in the general direction and it'll do the job. Won't kill anything big, but it'll do damage and chase it away. And it makes enough noise to scare anything, even an elephant." That shotgun had rested in the gun case in my office since then until the cougar appeared. Now it was downstairs, waiting to be used.

The thirty-ought six that rested beside it had been a joint decision between Carlos and my dad, who had both decided it was the right gun to kill just about anything that could threaten anyplace I happened to be. Now Max carried it on his tours around the property, not on his shoulder but in one hand so he could fire it instantly.

When I judged the night to be one-third gone, I crept downstairs and told Max that it was my turn. He didn't like the idea. "I'm not tired. Go on back to bed and get some sleep."

"I can't sleep." He towered over me, so close I could feel his breath and the scowl that said he preferred to handle things himself. "And it's my turn." I crossed my arms across my middle and waited.

Eventually, with no other choice, he handed me the thirty-ought-six and went upstairs one step at a time, slowly, reluctantly, hoping the cougar would appear so he could shoot it before disappearing into his bedroom. But the night remained peaceful and quiet and as the door closed quietly behind him I was fairly sure his Ranger training had taught him to sleep when he could. Unlike me, he wouldn't be looking out the window.

Unlike Max, I didn't walk the perimeter of the property. Nor did I keep the thirty-ought-six, replacing it with the shotgun I knew would hit anything. I kept the stable doors and windows locked tight and sat on a hay bale and waited for the penetrating scream that would tell me the cougar was near but it never came and, as the moon dropped behind the horizon, Carlos hobbled from his room to take his turn protecting the horses.

He didn't turn the light on and started down the stairs in the dark so, thinking to help him see, I headed for the wall to switch on the overhead lights. But before I got there I heard a yell followed by the sound of someone falling. He'd stumbled and was crashing down the entire flight of stairs. And he had a broken leg.

I ran to help even as I heard Max's door upstairs opening and the sound of him running to see what was wrong. As the lights came on, I saw Carlos in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. He wasn't moving. Only his steady swearing told me he was alive.

When Max and I reached him at the same time, we saw his broken leg in its cast. It was sticking out at an unnatural angle.

"It's broken again."

"In another place."

Carlos was too angry to feel pain but that would change quickly. "Damn leg." He stared at it in frustration.

"We have to get him to the hospital."

Max shook his head. "We can't leave the stable unprotected. Call 911 for an ambulance."

"We're so far from town that an ambulance would take forever. We can get him there quicker ourselves."

Max accepted my pronouncement and looked around for something to make into a stretcher but there was nothing. "I'll carry him, Maggie. You get a pillow for his leg and hold it so it won't move. I'll get him in the truck, and then you drive him to town." We looked at each other, acknowledging silently that I'd have to do it alone because Max had to stay to keep the horses safe.

By the time I found a pillow and Max could begin gingerly lifting the injured Carlos, his anger was gone and the pain had begun. His deep grunts through clenched teeth told us how severe his pain was but there was nothing we could do about it. Green Forest Stables had medication for horses and I knew there were things that could alleviate his pain but it would take time. It was more important to get him to the hospital as quickly as possible.

As I started the truck with Carlos in the jump seat rocking in pain, Max called ahead. He spoke briefly, and then flipped his phone shut. "They said we're doing the right thing bringing him in ourselves. It's faster. When you get there, they'll be waiting."

I drove as carefully as possible so as not to jolt Carlos' leg any more than necessary but his grunts of pain told me how bad his leg was. When I pulled into the emergency entrance, waves of relief swept over me at the sight of the white-coated crew waiting to take over. And I spent the rest of the night staring at a lovely blue-tinted wall waiting to hear how bad the new break was.

It was about as bad as it could be. "He's not going home today. Maybe not tomorrow. We had to get rid of the cast he already has. Thankfully it's healing somewhat so as far as that break is concerned, all we have to do is make sure we don't do anything to make it worse. But his leg is now broken in two additional places and that's bad. As soon as possible we'll set those breaks." There was more, I could hear it in the doctor's voice. "Then we'll want to run some tests to find out whether this is a fluke or whether there's a reason his bones are breaking so easily."

"He fell down a flight of stairs."

"Which would explain it. But we still want to do some tests."

"Of course."

He let me see Carlos before I returned to the stable. The man in the hospital bed looked so small and helpless that I felt guilt at the thought of the work he did at Green Forest. "Max wants to learn about horses." I took Carlos' hand. "When you come home, your job will be to teach him everything you know, not to do it yourself."

Carlos didn't think much of my idea but the drugs that were beginning to circulate through his system didn't allow him to argue much so he had to content himself with a mumbled protest before his eyes closed and he slept.

CHAPTER 14

I returned to Green Forest long after the sun was up. It was a clear, bright day, the kind people associate with long horseback rides along shade-dappled trails with a picnic under a spreading oak before the return ride. I'd enjoyed many such days as a child and since joining Green Forest Stables. Distance rides, picnics and beautiful days were among the perks of the job. As I pulled into the parking area, I wondered when I'd be able to enjoy any of those things again.

With Carlos out of the picture, it was up to me to keep the horses safe and secure the future of Green Forest Stables. With Max's help. More honestly, Max would protect the horses and I'd do whatever I could to help him, not the other way around. For the first time ever I wished I'd taken my dad up on his offer of shooting lessons when we learned I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. I felt more helpless than ever in my life.

With Carlos gone, with two people instead of three, everything changed. The place had to be protected from the cougar but the horses couldn't be neglected and we had to figure out how to do that.

I was the one who normally took the horses for trail rides while Carlos did the actual training. Thank goodness, Max had already started the process of learning how to train horses. Even in the couple days he'd been around, he'd learned a few things and the horses had come to know him. More importantly, though, he and Carlos had developed a kind of rhythm that put the horses at ease while taking them through their paces efficiently.

I didn't' want to interfere with whatever relationship Max had developed with the horses so mostly I watched. I soon learned that, though Carlos had taught him, he had his own style. The Max with a horse was different from the Max on a hay bale with moonlight gilding his silhouette as that Max was different from the one hunting a rogue cougar. In the rink in the daylight, he moved with a different rhythm that was fascinating to watch.

Rhythm is important when working with horses. When Max said he wanted to learn about horses, I'd had my doubts because not everyone can connect with animals larger than themselves. But in the bright light of day, watching him work as only one of Carlos' students can, it was clear that, given enough time, Max could.

He worked the horses one at a time. When he brought Walkabout out for his turn, he informed me that I was an unnecessary third. "Walkabout doesn't sneak close to the fence to look for an opening when I'm with him. I don't think he even wants to take a walk."

"And when I'm around, he does?"

"Ummm.... yeah." Max raked his fingers through the horse's dark mane that needed burrs removed after each of his unauthorized trips. "I suspect Walkabout's been misunderstood."

"By me?" My mouth hung open. I'm the expert, after all.

Max rubbed Walkabaout affectionately between the ears. "He's got a good heart."

"That's what Carlos says, too, but I have my doubts."

Walkabout reached closer to Max to nuzzle him while giving me a dirty look. I gave up. "Okay, okay." And I went to my office with what dignity I could summon to do bookwork while Max took Walkabout through his paces without my help. I watched through the window as the two of them played at training. I had to admit, albeit reluctantly, that Max was right. Walkabout was a tame kitten in Max's hands and the two were great friends.

I returned after Max took Walkabout back to his stall. "Which horse is next?"

"Belle." He sighed. "All Belle needs is trail work. She's here to get used to the wilderness." He knew Carlos' routine. I marveled at his learning so quickly.

"She can't get what she needs in the yard."

"Not really, but you can give her some time on the lunge line."

"You should try it yourself. You should learn how."

"Carlos said it takes time to learn how to cue the horse."

"It does but you might as well get started."

"Can I watch you first to get the idea?"

The rest of the morning was spent with Max sitting on a fence rail watching me exercise each remaining horse, the ones who should be eating up miles in the forest. Going through their paces on the lunge line wasn't the same but it was beautiful, exacting work. I could feel Max watching intently, watching for the cues I gave each horse, those subtle nods of the head or movement of the line that told it when to stop or turn or change gate.

When the last horse was back in the stable, I joined Max on the fence. "This isn't what the horses are here for. If the cougar isn't caught soon, we'll have to call the owners to come get their horses and refund what they paid."

"Will that mean we're out of business?"

"The owners are wealthy enough to carry the place for a while, but why have a stable without horses?"

"I'd hoped to keep this job."

"Me too."

He jumped to the ground and reached for me. "We'll find that cat, Maggie, I promise you. Tonight when it comes, and that'll be the end of it."

"Last night was quiet. It didn't come. Maybe tonight will be quiet too."

"You hope it'll be quiet tonight. I hope the opposite."

"I'm hoping it's gone."

"It's not."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I'd stick around if I were wounded and hungry and the horses would make an easy meal."

So we finished the day's chores, had a somber meal and cleaned the kitchen before dark. Then we sat on the porch and planned for the coming night. I took the first trip around the place while it was still light because Max wanted to be the first to walk near the forest in the dark. Even though the sun was still giving out broad strokes of light, I strolled uneasily along the fence just outside of the rails.

As I walked and examined the fence from the outside, it occurred to me that log fences, though beautiful in pictures on a brochure, would seem like just another series of branches to any passing cougar. Cougars climb trees, and then they lie on the branches until they pounce.

I shouldered the shotgun, and then dropped it to the cradle position as I'd seen Max do because if anything attacked, I wouldn't have time to move it off of my shoulder. Then I slowed to one deliberate step followed by a pause before taking another. Listening between steps. So I could hear the cougar before it sprang. And hopefully survive an attack.

CHAPTER 15

The forest was so close that I'd normally hear all kinds of small creatures but it was unnaturally still. I tried to tell myself it was simply the evening quiet that starts when the wind dies and the cooling earth changes and softens, giving daytime creatures time to hide and nighttime ones to awaken. It happens at almost the same time every evening. Six o'clock. The time the forest service lets people burn brush because the wind has abated. A time when the day birds are scurrying home and night birds coming out and the deer are rising from their beds to begin feeding in those clearings where they can see predators in time to make their escape. I told myself it was quiet because of all those things, not because the cougar was near. But I didn't believe myself.

I wanted to scream. To run. To hide. But I had to stay. The horses were my responsibility and I'd protect them as best I could. But nothing happened during my walk around the Green Forest grounds.

Max was on duty next. "Get some sleep, Maggie. If anything happens I'll handle it."

"Do you think the cougar will come tonight?"

"This guy's wounded so it won't behave like a normal big cat. There's no telling what it'll do. I won't make predictions."

I indicated the horses. They moved restlessly in their stalls, which was uncharacteristic. Normally they were more than ready to sleep when night fell. "They didn't get enough exercise."

"Or there's a cougar nearby and they are scared."

"They need to run." These horses were born to go miles without tiring. Today they'd not gone anywhere. "You can't judge the nearness of the cougar by their activity now any more than you can predict the weather."

"You predict the weather pretty accurately if I remember right. But if the cat doesn't show in a week, you can take the horses a short ways along a trail. With me in the rear."

I decided in some part of me that the cougar was gone on to some other state. Because I wanted it to be true. A week. Just one week and life would return to normal. "I walked all around the place and nothing happened."

"I'll take my grand tour next, when it's darker." We closed and locked the barn door, shutting out the soft sounds of the horses. Then we moved to the porch where Max dropped onto the swing and stuck those long legs out in front of him and stuffed a pillow behind his head. He pushed with one foot and the swing moved gently. Then he closed his eyes and might have been asleep. But I knew him well enough to know that wasn't likely the case. He could erupt at a moment's notice.

I eventually dragged a mattress onto the porch and used that for a makeshift bed, determined to stay close all night long in case I was needed. As the hours passed I found myself dozing whenever Max was on the porch, lying awake whenever he took a turn around the property.

It was almost midnight when I insisted on taking a turn again. "Nothing has happened. It'll be just another routine circling of the property." The moon that had been full and bright the other nights was obscured behind hazy clouds, and the stars were all but blotted out. Still it was light enough that I didn't need my flashlight to see ahead so I let it dangle from my free hand, the one not holding the shotgun.

CHAPTER 16

I was halfway around when it happened. A scream from mere yards away. It was so primal, so loud, so totally evil that I froze, unable to move, to get the shotgun up or to do anything.

It screamed again. Somewhere, from what seemed like a far distant place, I heard Max's shout and the sound of his footsteps running. "Shoot, Maggie, shoot the damn thing." His words jerked me from my trance as a third scream rent the night, this time closer. But still I couldn't move, not fast enough.

The cougar knew I was there and was coming for me. The horses were in the barn but I was nearby. I tried to point the shotgun but didn't have time to raise it before I a crashing in the brush said the cat was attacking.

My father had said I didn't have to aim. It was why I had a shotgun. "Just shoot," he'd said and let the buckshot scatter enough to do damage. So I did. The shotgun was only half raised when I pulled the trigger but the shot blasted a hole in the night larger and louder than the scream of the cougar.

The cougar's charge stopped. Another scream, this one of pain, but closer than before.

"Maggie!" Max was beside me, turning me around, pushing me behind his body, terror in his voice.

"I hit it!" Fierce elation shot through my veins. It was trying to kill me but I didn't let it. I'm a terrible shot but I wounded it.

The scream came again. Louder. More primal. The sound of pain.

"It's wounded. Shit!" He looked at the black forest. "Go into the barn and stay there. Reload the shotgun. Keep it ready just in case."

"Where are you going?"

"To see if you hit it somewhere vital. If it's dying."

"You can't see a thing. What if it's not mortally wounded?" I took a deep breath. "You can't go after it. It's not safe. You'll be killed."

He shoved me towards the barn, holding both guns because I was so distraught I couldn't be trusted with one. "Go. Be safe. I'll be back in a few minutes."

I started to shake. "Please." I was shaking so hard I couldn't hold the shotgun he shoved at me so he leaned it against a wall, and then came towards me. Holding the thirty-ought-six with one hand, he wrapped his free arm around me and pulled me close. I leaned against his chest. It was warm and solid and I could hear his heart in a steady, comforting beat. Mine was out of control.

"Don't worry about me. I'm not chasing the SOB through the entire forest. Just far enough to see how badly it's wounded. I'll be back in a minute or so."

I burrowed into his shirt and didn't care that I was being a baby. I'd just been attacked by a dangerous animal, I needed the warmth of his body, the safety of it. "If you die, it'll be my fault."

"I promise not to blame you if I die." It was supposed to be a joke, but it wasn't funny. He sighed, then leaned the thirty-ought-six against the wall next to the shotgun so he could wrap both arms around me as I burrowed even deeper into him, seeking a part of him that I couldn't reach but knew existed. A part I'd seen briefly while he worked the horses and kissed me at dawn. A part that said he would keep safe anyone or anything he cared about. And maybe he cared about me. He pushed me a few inches away. "You really are scared, aren't you?"

"Terrified."

"It's done with. You shot him. You're safe." But I couldn't stop shaking. He pulled me back against his chest and started to speak a couple times, then stopped, finally saying, "You have reason to be scared." I wrapped my arms around him as best I could while being caged by his arms and body. "But believe me, Maggie, I know what I'm doing. So let me do it. I'll come back and tomorrow we'll get that SOB."

I merely shook harder. "Promise?"

"Hope to die. He pulled back a second time, put a hand beneath my chin and tipped my head up. "Maggie, love, even crying all over my shirt and shaking like a leaf you are still one formidable woman and don't you forget it. I feel sorry for any big cat that gets in your way. I feel sorry for the cat you shot tonight, he should have known better." He stroked my hair, smoothing back strands that now went every which way because I was shaking so hard. I could see the shine of his eyes but not the color.

Then his voice hardened slightly. He had work to do whether I dealt with my fear or not. "When I leave, shut the door and stay in the barn. It'll be safe and the horses will feel better for you being with them. I'll help drag your mattress to the barn when I return so we can stay there and you can get a good night's sleep."

"What about you?" I pushed away from him because I couldn't spend the night bawling into his shirt. I had to come to terms with what had happened. "You need sleep too."

"It's a big mattress. Can we share? I'm sure the cat is far away by now, I doubt we'll have to worry about it returning tonight so we should both be able to get some sleep. And frankly that hay bale of the other night isn't my idea of luxury."

Two hands cupped my head then he touched my lips with a thumb. Gently, lightly, giving me some of his inner strength. The odd thing was that it worked. The shaking lessened and I was able to stand straight and alone.

Then, just as casually as strolling along a sidewalk, he backed slightly, gathered the thirty-ought-six with one hand while he reached out and trailed the other lightly along my neck and shoulder and all the way down my arm until it reached my hand. He took it in his and squeezed. "Don't you worry, Maggie Squires, I'll be back and, when I am, I'll either be dragging that cougar's body or I'll know where he's headed."

With a silent salute, he shut the stable door and disappeared.

CHAPTER 17

I did as he said. Bolted the door and joined the horses, dropping to the floor of Sensible Sioux's stall and leaning against the wall. The hay was prickly but Sioux's presence was comforting. She came close and reached down to nuzzle my face, blowing gently the way horses do. I stroked her forehead. Then she went back to eating her oats and I closed my eyes, shutting out the dim light of the barn and letting the sounds tell me what was happening.

The horses were still restless but not as much as before, which meant Max was right and the rogue cat was gone. They smelled no danger so one by one, they dozed off. Except Sioux. She stayed close and nuzzled me softly every so often. I was grateful for her presence. Waiting for Max was incredibly difficult.

It seemed like hours before he returned but was most likely less than an hour. I left Sioux's stall and opened the door quietly so as not to awaken the sleeping horses. He slipped in just as silently, his flashlight pointed downwards. "There's a blood trail." He raised the flashlight beam halfway up my body. "You're okay now?"

I thought before answering. I'd never been as frightened in my life as after the cougar attacked me. But, yes, I was better if not truly okay. "Thanks to you." Honesty made me add, "And Sensible Sioux."

He marched right to Sioux's stall and, when she put her head over the gate to see what was going on, he patted her head a couple times. "Thanks, girl. She needed a friend." Yes, I thought in some corner of my mind, he has the instincts of a great horseman. Time and Carlos will hone those instincts until he can do what Carlos does and Carlos can retire knowing his work will be carried on. Green Forest Stables will be lucky to have him.

"Now where's that mattress you were sleeping on earlier? I'm tired." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Exhausted."

"I didn't think Rangers ever got tired."

"Rangers learn to sleep when there's time. When the danger is least. Like now. And if we don't get that mattress down here within a few minutes, I'll probably fall asleep on the floor."

We took a roundabout path through the tack rooms and a short hallway and ended up in the office section, where, instead of getting the mattress I'd used earlier because that would mean going outside, something we didn't want to do, we took the stairs to the bedrooms above where we chose a lightweight mattress that we kept for extra sleeping space in the rather large guest bedrooms. It slid easily down the stairs, after which we retraced our route through the hallway and the tack rooms to the barn, where now even Sioux slept. The silence that met me was familiar. I'd listened to it ever since coming to work for Green Forest Stables. But tonight it was much more than mere silence, it was a comforting blanket that warmed me through and through. And finally, wrapped in the healing silence of a much loved place, the last of my inner shaking stilled.

We didn't have blankets or pillows. We didn't care. We dropped to the mattress and lay down side by side and stared into the dark of the soaring stable ceiling. We listened to the silence. We closed our eyes, and then opened them again because we weren't ready for sleep.

"You're not sleeping," I said. "I thought you could sleep anywhere, any time."

"I will. Got some thinking to do first."

"About what?" I rolled part way towards him.

"You. Me. Horses. Cougars. Life."

"What conclusions have you reached?"

"None yet."

"Let me know when you do."

A low chuckle drifted through the night, a sound that was quickly becoming familiar, wending around the stables and into the air and then into me. Max's voice was warm and rich and, separated from his body because it was dark and I couldn't locate him, it had a life of its own. "Which conclusion are you interested in? Horses and cougars or you and me?"

"All of the above because they are all wrapped up together."

"How so?"

"First you and me. I like you, Maggie, and I think you like me too. At least you don't run in terror when I'm around. But this is a business and I work for you, which complicates things. As far as the business is concerned, it happens to be horses, about which I know next to nothing."

"You're learning fast." I remembered my earlier thought about his instincts being true. "You'll do fine."

"I hope so. I think I will though it's a big change from anything I've ever known." He turned, too, rolling halfway towards me until I could see the shine of this eyes and the outline of his face but nothing else. "The thing is, the you and I part depends on all those other things." One hand came out of the dark and touched my face briefly. "So that's what I'm thinking about." The hand returned to his side. "Trying to put everything together and it's hard. But it's what I'm trying to do. Boring, huh?" He rolled onto his back once more and disappeared into the blackness.

"Not boring." I didn't how to proceed. What to say. How to let him know that I didn't feel like a boss, didn't even know how a boss was supposed to feel or act. And that he had a place at Green Forest Stables for as long as he wanted. And that whatever he felt for me was reciprocated a hundred times over. How to say it all without giving the wrong impression?

I finally figured it out. Opened my mouth to say it. And shut it again as the soft sounds of sleep came from the man beside me. Max's Ranger training had kicked in. The danger was least, he'd gone to sleep.

I tried to do the same and failed completely until sometime before dawn. Knowing I'd not sleep as long as the memory of the cougar's attack prevented me from dozing off, I moved as close as possible to Max, my source of safety, and draped one arm over his chest and then snuggled into him until we were one body. One person, safe and secure. Then I let sleep take over.

The next thing I knew, I was staring at late morning sunshine behind and beyond Max, who was leaning on one elbow and looking down at me with a quizzical expression. "Don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way. I don't mind you sleeping all over me. It was kind of nice, like a living blanket. But since so far as I know we're not married or involved in any way, what prompted this closeness?" His eyes narrowed and his face turned sober. "Though I'm pretty sure I know."

I scooted away. "What do you mean, you're pretty sure?"

"Fear. I know it when I see it and, believe me, I've felt it more than a few times."

No sense in pretending. "So I was afraid. Because the cougar attacked me." I struggled to tell him. "But it didn't succeed."

He held up a hand. "Shush." Placed it softly on my mouth. "You don't have to explain. I said I understand and I do." Removed it, slid it lightly over my body. "When something like that happens... something so dangerous that you could die from it... then the world changes. It can and usually does happen in the blink of an eye, but that doesn't make the change any less earth-shaking." His brows drew together. "Do you know what I'm talking about? Even a little? Because, if you don't, then I'll shut up."

It had happened to me already, a life-altering mini-second. During that first light, unimportant kiss we'd shared, the one that was more a tribute to the morning than to us as a man and woman. A brief moment in time when life as I knew it had changed. "I do understand." Yes, this was different from that light kiss. This was frightening at a level I'd not ever expected to know but both experiences shared the same earth-shaking intensity. I met his gaze squarely. "Does the fear ever go away?"

"Enough." His eyes clouded. "Eventually. When things happen to push it out of your mind."

"How long will it take?"

He shrugged. "Minutes. Hours. Days." A grin slashed across his face, changing the line of his jaw. I was fascinated with the change. "If it doesn't happen soon, I promise I'll do something to hurry it along."

"What kind of thing?"

The grin grew. "The water in the horse tank is cold, right?" I nodded. "Being dumped in it unexpectedly would be enough of a shock to send anything and everything from your mind."

"You'd do that?"

"It was done to me once in a similar situation."

"How awful."

"It worked." He rolled over and, in one smooth movement, sat up and over me, draping his shadow across my body. "And I suspect it will work with you, too, when I drop you in. If it's necessary. If nothing else happens first to chase away the memory of what almost happened." He pointed a finger at me. "But it didn't happen and that's the important thing. That's all that truly matters."

I found myself grinning reluctantly. "A stock tank? Not going to happen."

His grin disappeared, like switching off a light even as his eyes retained a softness that was at odds with his fierce expression. "I think it's time to get that big cat. I guarantee that standing over his dead body will make a dunking unnecessary." His gaze bored through me. Read me. Knew that he'd succeeded and that the aftermath of terror that had rendered me dysfunctional had dissipated. So it was time to get back to business.

CHAPTER 18

He heaved himself up, held out a hand and hauled me up also. "I'm going to get that cat." This was the Max of the Rangers, a professional whose dossier included killing if such was part of the job.

"Where do we start?"

"Whoa! Not 'we.' You stay here and take care of the horses. I'm going after that SOB."

"You said yourself that the horses will be fine inside the barn as long as the doors and windows are shut."

"You are not going."

I spread my legs and folded my arms. "Yes I am."

"I want to move fast. No telling how far it's got to. You'll slow me down. And you're scared. No telling what that'll do to you if we find the cougar."

"I won't slow you down." We stared at each other. "If I do, you can go ahead, and if I panic you can ignore me. But neither will happen because I can keep up with you any day of the week and I want that cougar dead more than anyone."

He took a step towards me until we were eyeball to eyeball. "You can't go."

I didn't back down. "I'm your boss and I decide who is and who is not going."

"Then I quit."

"Quit. See if I care. If you do, I'll simply go after that cougar myself." No need to mention I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. I had a shotgun, if I pointed it in the right general direction, possibly I'd kill it.

But I didn't have to head into the forest with a shotgun because Max caved. His shoulders dropped and his head tilted slightly as he realized that I meant what I said. "Okay. You're the boss. But I swear, if you slow me down, I'll leave you to fend for yourself in the middle of the woods."

"Fair enough." We each took a weapon and, grabbing a couple bottles of water because we could be gone many hours, he led the way to the beginning of the blood trail he'd discovered during the night.

He pointed. "Here's where he was when you hit him." My eyes measured the distance between the low-hanging branch he'd waited and the spot where I'd stood. The inner stability I'd achieved that morning almost disappeared. But, as I felt the first swirling of fear return, something blocked it. Anger.

How dare that big cat threaten me and the horses under my care! How dare he scare me! Max, watching, under his breath, said, "That's my girl." Then he stepped over the blood spots and led the way into the forest. I followed his ground-eating stride over roots and around branches without pausing.

It was all I could do to keep up but I plunged after Max determined not to show weakness. Deep in the woods, too far to know where or how long it took to get there, Max suddenly stopped. Put a hand behind him to stop me. Indicated I shouldn't speak. Then he stepped aside and pointed downward.

A smear of blood covered an area of a couple feet in diameter, and then there was a short blood trail that ended beneath the branches of a low-lying bush. A deer's leg stuck out. A dead deer.

Before approaching, Max turned around slowly, searching in the surrounding trees for any evidence of a cougar. He spent a good five minutes looking before deciding the big cat wasn't nearby. Then he crept close to the deer carcass and knelt down to inspect it closely.

He didn't touch it but pointed to the savage marks on the neck. "Cougar killed it. No doubt about it."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "So the horses are safe." Because the puma had other food.

Max shook his head. "The cougar killed it but didn't eat it." He pulled back a bit. "It's hungry but didn't take time for more than a couple bites. Then it hid the carcass."

"It's gone, that's all that matters."

"The only reason for a hungry animal to leave a fresh kill is because it knows it's being followed. It hid the deer because it hopes to return later and finish the carcass but it won't if it senses our presence. Or if it knows we followed its trail."

"So?"

"So the cougar knows we are after it." He put a hand on the deer carcass. "Still warm. It left because it heard us coming."

Minutes ago or less. My breath stopped for a second. "Is it nearby?"

"Don't know." His eyes inspected the trees again and he shook his head. "It's not here now." He held up one hand. "You can hear the forest animals and the birds. It would be quiet if a dangerous predator was close."

"So it's gone."

Something inside of me that I hadn't known was tense relaxed until his next words. "What we need to know now is where it went." He rocked back on his haunches and stared at the deer carcass as if it could provide answers.

"Does it matter where as long as it's away from here?"

He rose in one smooth motion, thigh muscles outlined against the fabric of his jeans. Long-sleeved shirt buttoned against the mosquitoes but fitting tightly along his shoulders. "A couple bites of a deer carcass won't sustain it for long. And it's injured, which means it'll need even more food to aid the healing process. It'll go where it knows there's food."

"Where's that?"

"We follow it and hope it finds another deer." He gathered the thirty-ought-six he'd set to one side and hefted it. "It's still bleeding enough to leave a blood trail. Maybe we can catch up to it." He didn't sound like that was likely. "And end it."

He bent slightly to find the discoloration in the dirt that was blood and we set off. Max's head was bent and we moved slower than before because the cougar was bleeding less and less, leaving a more difficult trail to follow. But, though the going was slow, he was confident of the direction. Through the trees, skirting a swamp, over a hill where the blood was thicker. "Because it bled while it stopped here for a look-see. It's thinking. Figuring. Deciding what to do next."

We stopped too, and looked around. We could see for miles from the hilltop. Back towards where we'd been, and then farther back than that to the stable, a tiny speck of a cleared area in the solid green of the north woods, and then ahead to where the cougar's tracks led. I tried to breathe and couldn't. "It's making a circle."

"It's returning to Green Forest. Because it needs food and the horses are an easy meal."

"Oh my God!"

CHAPTER 19

Max was already moving. I yelled after him. "Max, if I slow you down, keep going. Go! Keep the horses safe." He turned to argue, but I was right. The horses were the reason for us being there. "I can take care of myself. I shot it last night, I'll shoot it again. If it comes. But it won't, it's headed for the horses."

He nodded briefly, and then turned and in that ground-eating stride of his, half-walked, half-ran in the direction of the stable. He never looked back and was soon lost in the trees.

I waited for fear to descend like a dark cloak because Max had been my security, his presence the thing that had vanquished the nightmare of near death. So I waited, debating how best to get home in the grip of pure terror.

It never came. The surrounding forest didn't change from the familiar woods of my childhood into something sinister, the sky didn't morph from blue to gray and the usual sounds of the forest reassured me with the every-day chirps and scurries and muted songs I was used to. So after just enough time to make sure my return to normalcy was real and I wasn't likely to suffer a panic attack half-way home, I set off.

Half an hour later, I trotted out of the forest and into the Green Forest Stable clearing and bright afternoon sunshine. Max was already there and came to meet me. I stared. "You got him."

"No."

"You're bloody."

He pointed to a spot between the stable and the surrounding forest. "I dragged the deer carcass back."

"Bait?"

"Yep, and I'll be ready when it comes."

"It's awfully close to the stable. Why not at the edge of the woods?"

"I want that sucker to be where I can see it easily. Take aim. And send it out of this life." I studied the space, large enough to exercise the horses outside of the arena without taking them into the forest. "It's a big enough space for two or three shots if I miss the first time."

"You won't miss."

"I usually don't but this cat isn't behaving like most cougars and that fact has got me spooked. Judging from the size of the tracks I followed, it's huge. Two reasons to give myself extra time and space."

We backed into the open stable doorway as Max looked at the sun. "Now we wait."

"I hope it comes soon."

"Unlikely. This particular cat seems to prefer the dark."

I shivered. "It's hungry, its choices are narrowing and we stole the carcass it was saving. Time is running out. It might come during the day."

Max saw me shiver. "Don't worry. Day or night, we'll get it."

I took a deep breath but it was watching Max that steadied me. He was as unconcerned as if he were in a city park in the middle of the day in a peaceful neighborhood. Optimistic. Calm.

I stared through him, to his core. "You're enjoying yourself."

He tilted his head slightly and that half-smile I'd come to recognize flashed in his eyes. "In a way."

"You're a sadist."

"Tonight we make the world safer for all horses everywhere."

"That sounds like something Carlos would say."

"He's a good guy."

"When I left him in the hospital, he said you'd take care of things. He meant you'd kill the cougar."

"And I will."

"He wouldn't have stayed in the hospital if you weren't here. He'd have hobbled out on a leg that's now broken in three places."

"Then I'm glad I happened along."

We didn't talk much after that. We were too keyed up to eat more than a minimal meal as the day gradually darkened but we shut the stable door and went to the kitchen, telling ourselves we should eat. Once there, we pretended to down sliced lunchmeat, but the lengthening shadows took more of our attention than the food on our plates until finally, giving up all pretense of eating, we dumped the remainder of our meal in the garbage and settled for hot coffee in huge mugs on the porch that gave a better view of the deer carcass. We remained there until full dark settled like a mantle over Green Forest Stables.

"Should we return to the stable or stay here?" My voice was a whisper because it seemed right. "We can see just fine from here."

"Good idea. The stable is locked up tight. The puma won't try to get in it as long as there's an easier meal close by."

He strolled to the edge of the porch and settled along the railing, the thirty-ought-six cradled in one arm, leaning against a post, slowly becoming one more silhouette in the darkening world. His field of vision included the area in front of the barn. The deer carcass. The trees beyond. And the space where horses normally exercised. All faintly lit by moonlight that barely penetrated a thin veil of clouds. Why couldn't the sky be clear on this night of all nights so we could see the cougar if it came? When it came.

It was a quiet. Too quiet? I tried to think but I couldn't seem to remember what a normal night was like so I paced, back and forth, checking the moon each time I reached the edge of the porch. Making sure it was still visible and the clouds weren't growing thicker. Looking for stars through those thin clouds. A few showed, a good sign. I counted them. I wanted to know each and every one that would give enough light to show the cougar if it came. When it came.

Max was almost asleep. Seemed like it anyway. "They are the same stars you counted last time you checked."

"I can't help it. I can't sit here and do nothing."

"Yes you can. The cougar will come when it comes." His eyes turned towards me. They shone in the dark. "I watched when you came home. Through the woods. You were scared when we started out this morning. Terrified. You changed in the forest, during the day, during the walk home. Somehow. You're not afraid any more."

So it showed. "Yes I am."

"But it doesn't control you any more. You control it."

"I grew up around here. The walk reminded me that this is my home and I've never been afraid in the woods." The forest of my childhood had begun the work of restoring the peace I'd known before the cougar appeared. "Besides, I knew the cougar wasn't close by."

"You'd know if it was." Because everything would go silent.

"Yes, I'd know." Because I knew more about dangerous predators than a few days ago.

He hefted the thirty-ought-six. "Maybe you should get the shotgun." I hadn't realized I'd left it in the kitchen. "Two guns are better than one."

I returned to the kitchen and grabbed it, feeling the weight of it, thankful my dad had persisted until I knew at least the basics of using a weapon. Glad also that he'd had the sense to send me into the world with a shotgun that someone like me could shoot with a reasonable expectation of hitting what I needed to hit. Because of that training, I'd hit the cougar once. I'd drawn blood.

I moved the shotgun from one hand to the other, feeling the heft of it, knowing I could repeat the process tonight if necessary. If the worst happened. If I had to shoot. I could because I'd taken that walk and was no longer terrified. I could do it if Max missed. But he wouldn't. Max always hit where he aimed and that knowledge was the most comforting of all.

He slipped casually from the porch and stepped into the night, sauntering into the yard and I followed.

The moon gave just enough light to know the cougar was nowhere near. We walked quietly to the arena and scanned the empty space, paying especial attention to the barrels at the far end and the low jumps at the half-way point but no cat eyes stared back.

Max turned restlessly and inspected the rest of the Green Forest property. "I'm going to take a stroll around the fence." Along the edge of the forest, passing the deer carcass to reach it.

"I'm coming too."

He sighed in reluctant agreement and gestured for me to follow. I hung far back the better to see Max and everything around him. I watched him move. Past the deer carcass. Towards the trees. He walked with an air of competence. And he had that rifle, held loosely so it could be raised in an instant.

The cougar came out of the night so quickly I almost missed it.

CHAPTER 20

From the trees, through the air and straight towards Max, with no scream to broadcast its intentions, in a series of huge bounds. At first I thought it was a night bird, an owl perhaps, until my mind registered that it was too large for any bird.

It flew like a hurled javelin towards Max, in huge leaps that gobbled up the ground between them. Because the deer carcass belonged to it and Max was in the way.

I screamed, an incoherent sound that broke the silence of the night.

Max was ahead of me. He swung the thirty-ought-six in place and fired in one motion. The cat screamed in agony, hit and hurting, pausing, but still coming, lessening the distance to Max with each leap.

Max shot again. But nothing happened. I heard him swear even as the cat finally screamed, and I knew the gun had jammed. It had happened once when I was a child but my father had handled it for me, taking the bullets out carefully, one by one, so the gun wouldn't explode in his lap. It had taken a long time. Minutes.

The cougar made another leap. One more and he'd be on top of Max. I raised the shotgun, knowing it wouldn't be enough but not knowing what else to do. I squeezed the trigger.

Both barrels went off at once. It happens sometimes. The force of two barrels going off simultaneously sent it rocketing from my hands, over my head and onto the ground behind me where I couldn't reach it in time to shoot again.

Max was as good as dead.

But the cougar didn't reach him. Instead, in the middle of that last jump, it crumpled and fell to the ground.

Max threw the useless thirty-ought-six to the ground, then ran to the shotgun and scooped it from the ground, grabbing shells from me and shoving them into the chamber as fast as possible. Then he returned to the cougar and pumped both barrels into its body. Then he repeated the action. Then he did it again. Then he turned to me and said quietly, "It's dead."

We stood for a long time staring down at the body of the cougar. It was much larger than I'd have thought possible. Huge. An anomaly, like the warden suspected.

Then, as minutes passed and nothing happened, as the cat stayed dead, we went to the kitchen where we made coffee and spent the rest of the night on the porch sitting on the floor and leaning against the walls with our feet stuck out in front of us, not talking, not needing to, but needing to be together because there was no way either of us could sleep. Even Max, the hardened Ranger, would not sleep that night.

As we sat, I started shaking. Couldn't help it, couldn't stop. I pulled slightly away from Max so he wouldn't know.

"What's wrong?" He was puzzled. "Am I now on the don't-touch list?"

"It's not that." I was shaking so hard that anyone listening could know.

An arm came around my shoulders. "Damn!" Then softer, "You are reacting to what happened."

"It's over." I fought to hold back tears. "No reason to be scared now."

"That's when fear is the worst. When the 'what-ifs' and the 'might-have-happened' take over. When your body realizes what it's been through and reacts. Violently."

"I don't want it to happen. I want to be done with the whole thing. To forget it ever happened."

A snorting sound told me what he thought of that idea and, moments later, I was pulled close to his warm, no-nonsense body. It was only then that I realized the shaking was from cold as well as fear. "I'm freezing. But it's warm out."

"You're in shock." Max pulled me into his lap, and then he wrapped both arms around me and held me tight. "It happens sometimes."

"But it shouldn't happen. The horses are safe. We're safe." I did my best to crawl right inside of him. To find the heart of that warmth that was beginning to push the cold and fear away. "I feel so foolish." I wanted to sit up all alone, to be independent and strong. But when I tried to move away, I only shivered harder and felt like ice was entering my veins.

"Hush." He settled me more comfortably in his lap and leaned both of us back against the wall. Keeping me in his arms the whole time. Warming me. "By dawn you'll feel better."

"Morning is too far off."

"No matter how long, I'll keep you warm. I'll keep you safe."

I moved my hands, slid them inside his shirt the better to feel his chest, his warm skin, his steadily beating heart.

I heard a sound near my head. Realized it was coming from Max himself. A moan. "Are you hurt?"

A long silence. Then, "Not the way you're thinking."

I tried to see him in the dark and failed. "Then how?"

"Never mind."

"Tell me, Max."

A low chuckle without mirth. "Nothing for you to worry about."

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"I'll tell you later." Then, oddly, "Maybe."

"And that's all you'll say? Later? Maybe?"

"That's all I'll say here and now." He held me closer if that was possible. "Now try to get some sleep. We have a big day ahead of us."

"Doing what? The horses are safe."

"Returning Green Forest Stable to normal."

He was right. I lapsed against him, my hands still against his chest, and let his body warm mine. And we stayed that way until the sun was high and hunger drove us into the kitchen.

CHAPTER 21

Max brought Carlos home from the hospital the next day while I attended to the horses. I made sure they were fed and watered and let outside for a bit of fresh air, but they refused to stay out. The smell of the cougar still lingered though the body was gone and the grassy area was back to normal.

I didn't try to ride. I had no will to do so and, even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to get any of them past the area that had been so dangerous. Not yet, not until the wind dissipated the last whiff of cougar. So they were all soon back in their stalls and glad to be there.

After closing the last stall door on the last horse, I dropped to the floor where I just sat and stared straight ahead, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, feeling nothing. Telling myself over and over again that it was finished, done, and all that remained was for me to get back to the business of training horses for endurance rides.

Still I sat, unmoving, until the sound of the truck returning told me Max was back with Carlos. That got me moving because I wanted to welcome Carlos home.

Carlos hopped from the truck and, swearing steadily at his crutches and the world in general, hobbled over to me. "I hear you got it."

"We did."

"Max said you shot it." I nodded. "Thought you couldn't shoot."

"I was lucky."

Max's eyes widened. "What's that? You can't shoot? That was luck?"

My face reddened. "Normally I can't hit the broad side of a barn."

His face took on a strangled look. "You mean I could have died?"

I cleared my throat because it was suddenly scratchy. "I'm afraid so." He leaned against the truck, silent, his jaw slack for the first time since we'd met. He looked so thoroughly shook up that I had to say something. "But I got lucky so it ended well."

Carlos added, "It wasn't completely luck. She had a shotgun, not the thirty-ought-six. She can use a shotgun. Her daddy made sure of that."

Max finally moved an inch and managed to close his mouth. With effort, he heaved himself off of the truck. "It never occurred to me you couldn't shoot." He waved around. "You live in the wilderness. There are guns on your walls. I trusted you to have my back."

"I'm not a sharpshooter."

He raked a hand through his hair. "Next time tell me your limitations before I put my life in your hands."

"You never said I should protect you."

"I took it for granted you could shoot." He tried to grin reassuringly and failed. "But hey, Carlos is right, it doesn't matter now. You had a shotgun, the one gun you are good with." The grin finally appeared. Widened. Changed his whole face. Became almost real.

He raked his hair again and, knowing how awful I felt, took my face between his hands. Our gazes locked as those eyes showed that the only important thing was our welfare. And we were both okay. After a long moment, Carlos coughed politely. "Will someone help me to my room? This leg is a bummer and I'm tired."

I fed Carlos while Max moved a bed into the office so the elderly horse whisperer wouldn't have to maneuver the stairs until his leg healed. "No more stairway disasters." When he was settled in bed, stomach full of lunch and pain medication, he pulled the blanket up to his chin and waved us away. "You two go settle the problems of the world... and of Green Forest Stables... and don't bother me until I wake up which will be many hours from now."

We closed the door gently but it probably wasn't necessary because he was asleep before we left the room. Then we went outside, across the porch, down the steps, into the yard, where we stopped.

Max cleared his throat. "Now what?"

"We get back to the business of training horses." I didn't know what he was trying to say.

"The three of us?"

"Of course."

"I'd like to talk first."

"About what?"

"Us. You and me. And the fact that I don't seem to know how to be a decent employee."

"No problem. I'm not a very good employer."

"When I came looking for work, I didn't expect much. A menial job for a few weeks, and then I'd move on. But Carlos is a great guy. I liked him right off and he needed help."

"Which you provided and then some." I still couldn't figure out where this was going. I soon learned.

"You, on the other hand, were a total surprise."

"Me?"

"For one thing, I didn't expect a woman. Carlos didn't mention that little detail."

"Lots of women work. Most of us."

"But those other women aren't you. I didn't expect... you."

"I'm sorry if I ruined your summer but I'm glad you stayed until the cougar was shot. I don't know what we'd have done without you. But I can understand you wanting to move on." I shaded my hand against the brightness of the day as I examined the stable, the woods, the whole clearing that was Green Forest Stable. I wondered what it looked like to Max that first day. "I'm sorry your introduction to the horse business wasn't fortuitous. The cougar, I mean."

"We got the bastard." Satisfaction showed in his stance and something else. "And you were right when you accused me of enjoying the hunt. It was fun."

"But it's over and I'm a lousy boss and you're ready to move on."

"That's the thing. I find that I don't want to move on. Not any more." He turned away from the sun and towards me.

"You have a feel for horses. You have a future here or anywhere horses are trained. But I can see how this life might be boring for someone like you. A former Ranger."

"It's not boring and I'd like nothing more than to spend the rest of my working life right here."

"I know I'm a terrible boss. Still, I wish you wouldn't leave because of me."

He took a step closer until he was a shadow blocking the sun that spread golden on either side of his body. "That's the problem. You. It would be easy for me to leave if anyone else in the world was my boss. I don't want to go because of you. You and me." He licked his lips nervously. It was hard to picture a nervous Maxwell Abrams. "Because I can't forget what happened between us the other night."

My mouth dropped open. "But I promised to forget it."

"That's the thing. I don't want to forget it. I want to continue where we left off."

"Oh." My face flamed and I stood there like an idiot saying nothing, doing nothing, wishing I was anywhere but there and glad I wasn't.

When I didn't answer, Max came closer, and then closer still, moving so tentatively that I could easily have turned away. If I did, he'd have stopped. But I didn't .

When our lips met, our bodies did too. Until he pulled back. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." I reached for his shirt to bring him closer to me.

"Sure for more than now, more than today?"

"Tomorrow too." I could have added 'please.'

"And the day after that? And the one after that?"

"Yes. And yes."

The next thing he said was, "My things are still in my backpack."

"You haven't unpacked." I knew where he was going. "It would be practical to wait to unpack until you know which room you're going to use."

"I should try out more than one room to make sure which is right for me."

"My room has a lovely view from the window."

"Forget the view from the window. I expect I'll prefer the view in the room."

"Let's find out."

As I slammed the door to my apartment behind us I was glad for one fleeting moment that Carlos was bedded down in the office so we'd have privacy. Then Max shut the window and pulled the curtains and turned to me and I forgot everything except the man in my room. And in my life.

THE END

If you liked this novel and would like to review it, please email your review to florencewitkop@gmail.com.

About the author: Veteran romance writer Florence Witkop was born in the city and has lived in the suburbs, the country and the wilderness where she still lives and writes contemporary, sci/fi and fantasy romances that often have a gothic feel and that are romantic without being erotic. At various times she's been a confession writer, a copywriter, a ghost writer and an editor. Her preferred format is the short story but she also writes novellas and novels.

Other works by Florence Witkop:

**The Eye of The Universe** When two lovers learn the world will end unless they agree to be separated for eternity, one of them refuses to accept the terms. _This ebook is free from Smashwords._

**When Dreams Do Come True** Jenna is sitting in a park on a sunny day watching a baseball game when, without warning and never having had such a thing happen before, she has a waking dream of a little lost girl that only she can save. Right then and there she decides to follow that dream, knowing that she is as likely to make a fool of herself as she is to save a lost child. What happens after making that decision alters her life forever. _This ebook is available at Smashwords_.

**Spirit Legend** (first of the **Legend** series) Charlie is forester for Macallister Outdoors. She guides Ian Macallister, owner and her boss, to inspect a newly acquired tract of forest with a tiny lake in the center that fascinates Ian because of the legend of a spirit that resides in the lake. Soon after arriving, they do see strange lights and hear unearthly songs. Before they can investigate the legend further, a storm isolates them and almost destroys the beaver dam that created the lake. They must choose whether to stay and repair the dam to save the home of a spirit that might not exist... or start the long and difficult trek back to civilization.

This ebook is available from Smashwords.

Read an excerpt from Spirit Legend:

The aerial photos covered most of the two pushed-together tables. The corners and edges were carefully matched to create one large picture, green being the predominant color. Green as in an evergreen forest. The only things breaking the green were a few darker lines representing creeks that crisscrossed the area, a fire trail or logging road or two circling the outer edges, and, in the center of it all, a small area of blue that could be a tiny lake, a pond, or, more likely, a swamp.

After scooping up our empty glasses and replacing them with additional drinks on a third table pulled close, Mickey of Mickey's Eatery, leaned over the photos and perused them casually. Then again, only this time not so casually. In detail. Then he thoughtfully traced one of the creeks with a finger. "I took a canoe along this creek once when I was a kid." The finger jabbed at the blue in the center of the montage. "And I ran across this lake when I was hunting rabbits. It was shallow, lots of rice beds along the shore. I figured I'd come back and harvest the rice when it was ripe. I wanted a Harley in the worst way and Harley's are expensive but rice brought a good price that year so I thought I might be able to buy a used one."

There was a huge motorcycle in Mickey's garage. "So that's when you got your Harley."

"Nope. I didn't go back and harvest that rice." Something about his voice gave me pause as I followed his finger.

I didn't look at the man across the table from me. In fact, I avoided him. My boss, Ian Macallister, owner and CEO of Macallister Outdoors since his parents retired. I squirmed inwardly, forced myself to be blank outwardly, and concentrated even harder on the photos so he wouldn't know I was intentionally ignoring him, though my stomach churned as I tried to decipher just how angry he was. That anger was my fault.

The Johns Falls airport was too small to have a waiting room or any of the luxuries of larger airports so Ian Macallister was waiting on a folding chair hastily provided by the single airport employee. He was polite enough when I peeled into the parking lot, ran full bore into the waiting room and skidded to a stop in front of him, but his back didn't touch the chair, and that could indicate anger... or frustration... or merely that he was a fitness freak and always bore himself with a ramrod straight back. I hoped it was the last but, figuring it was more likely the first, I waited to be fired, smiling weakly and standing tall so as to present as imposing a figure as I knew how..

His expression didn't change. I felt myself shrinking as he unfolded from the airport chair and loomed over me, forcing me to look up into his six foot something self. Into his eyes. They were dark. From anger or were they always midnight blue or did that just happen now because I'd soon be unemployed? Or was he born with bottomless eyes? I wanted to fold my arms across my body in a feeble attempt to ward off his anger. But he said nothing, merely picked up the single suitcase that was his luggage and asked if there was somewhere in town where he could eat since it was getting late.

So I forced myself to breathe in and out, in and out, until I could sound normal, and suggested Mickey's Pub and Eatery. Then I followed him out of the terminal and into the storm that had moved his flight up a couple hours and had hit in all its fury during the few minutes we were in the terminal. There was no waiting for it to pass, it was supposed to last all night. Storms threatened to hammer the area off and on for the next couple weeks with one storm following another as if they were trains on the same track, with possibly a day in between.

I stepped into the rain and wind and was almost knocked sidewise. Ian Macallister, however, was a rock. I moved closer to use his body as a windbreak. As I basked in the relative calm his bulk provided, I decided not to mention the real reason for my tardiness until he was in a mellow frame of mind such as Mickey was providing compliments of another round of drinks. Strong, I'd guess, knowing Mickey. I didn't drink because it was my job to drive my boss to the Center and Mickey knew that, so mine were Virgin Mary's.

Eventually, when Mickey's drinks had my boss in a mellow frame of mind, I would explain my late arrival. Until then I threw Mickey a grateful look and he nodded imperceptibly in answer. He knows me, Mickey does, and the endless rounds of drinks were a gesture of true friendship.

I looked again at the photos, wondering what about them was so seductive. They were just photos of the property the Center had recently acquired and they showed miles of unspoiled wilderness. I'd felt total awe after I printed them out and put them together to form a comprehensive picture. I'd found myself staring at a jewel, a rare and ecologically unique acquisition to be cared for with love. And, as the Center's newest Forester, I'd be doing the caring.

I was so enthralled that I'd forgot the time and that was why I was late, though I doubted my boss would see that as a good reason to leave him cooling his heels on a folding chair. Now, if silence was any indication, I'd not work for Macallister Outdoors much longer. Not long enough to visit the rare slice of wilderness that had caused my lateness.

Now, in Mickey's Pub and Eatery, Ian Macallister moved for the first time since finishing dinner. My breath stopped but all he did was lean closer to follow Mickey's pointing finger. "You say you've been there?" Mickey nodded. "And you intended to return ?" Mickey nodded again. "But you didn't?" Mickey shook his head and my boss asked quietly, with no inflection, "Why not?"

Mickey was glad to talk. He's a loquacious guy. "When my parents found out where I'd been, they were angry." Mickey moved the empty glasses from one hand to the other, restlessly. "No, they weren't angry, that's the wrong word. They were concerned. No, that's not right either. They were... scared."

I peered at the photos. There was nothing dangerous about the property Macallister Outdoors had purchased. No cliffs, no dangerous rapids in any of the several creeks, nothing that I could see. Then I thought of a possible reason. "Was the bottom of the lake mud? If you were alone and overturned your canoe, you'd not have made it to shore."

He shook his head. "It did look muddy when I was there, but that wasn't the reason."

Ian's lips pursed and he zeroed in on Mickey. "They why didn't they let you go back?"

"Because of the... thing... in the lake."

I examined the tiny blue area that could be a lake. Or a pond. Or a swamp. "It's a wide area of a creek is all. Nothing unusual about it."

"The creek backs up behind a beaver dam. It forms a small lake but if that dam breaks, the lake will cease to exist."

"It doesn't look dangerous."

"It's not the lake itself that scared them."

Ian peered closer. "Then what?"

Mickey curled his shoulders forward the way people do when they are embarrassed. "It was because of the spirit that lives in the lake. Or spirits. No one knows if it's one spirit or a lot of them."

"Spirit?" I laughed, an explosion of sound that released some of my pent-up tension. "Really?" His parents were Chippewa and their ancestors had lived in the area forever, but his dad was a banker and his mom operated a jewelry store. They were educated, savvy people. "Your mom and dad don't believe that stuff."

"You know them. Of course they don't. But that one time, they did. Or at least they believed what their parents had told them enough to not want to take any chances."

"Your grandparents believed in spirits?" I'd met his grandparents. They both had college degrees. "How far back does this go? Who started this fantasy?"

"I don't know. A long time. Hundreds of years, maybe. Probably."

"And you believe it?"

"I didn't say I believe it. I said my folks wouldn't let me go back to harvest wild rice so I had to get a job in town to earn money for my first bike. And it wasn't a Harley, either, and it would have been if I'd got that wild rice and sold it. I couldn't afford a Harley until years later."

Ian Macallister leaned back, a half smile giving his face expression for the first time since I saw him in the airport terminal. He still said nothing, choosing to listen, but I was sure he heard every word, saw every expression, and correctly interpreted every nuance. For some reason, the topic of spirits interested him. Mellowed him. Might make him forget to fire me.

So I talked about spirits. "What is this spirit supposed to be like?

"Or spirits. Plural, maybe. Or singular. Nice sometimes. Other times, not so nice. Depends."

"On what?"

"The old people... my grandparents and the people before them... didn't say. Just that whatever is in that lake... "

"It's not a true lake, just a wide spot in a river," Ian interjected in a low voice.

"Whatever is in the lake doesn't suffer fools gladly. Or is reclusive. Or afraid. That's the best way I can put it." Mickey was uncomfortable beneath my boss' scrutiny. Ian Macallister's eyes were darker than before and intense. Because, unlike Mickey, he believed in ghosts? "According to the old people, it depends on who is at the lake and what they do." He stopped tossing the glasses from hand to hand and that broke the spell his words had cast over me. "All I can say is it didn't talk to me and, while I was there I didn't see anything resembling a spirit. Maybe because there's no such thing."

"Most likely that's it." Ian wanted to ask more but Mickey moved away, glasses in hand.

"Have you ever heard the wind in the trees?" I yelled after him, making sure the topic of ghosts stayed in the forefront of the conversation because my continued employment might depend on it. "Some people think it sounds like voices. Like someone singing."

Mickey paused in his headlong rush. "My people have lived in the forest for hundreds of years. I think they know the sound the wind makes well enough not to mistake it for anything other than what it is. The wind." He continued on and disappeared in the kitchen.

"Or the sound of water on rocks." I concentrated on Ian Macallister and added to the list of possibilities. "Or an echo if the creek has steep enough banks."

"Or everything you mentioned." Ian pulled his chair closer to the photos and leaned over them, effectively shutting me up. "This talk of spirits and beaver dams and lakes and rivers makes me curious." He gathered the photos into a pile that he then stuffed into the large envelope I'd carried from the Explorer when we arrived. "I'd not given any real thought to this new acquisition when I flew in today. My plans were more along the lines of bookkeeping. But I'm thinking about changing them."

"To what?"

"Checking out the new property. The wilderness. Everything. All of it."

He didn't fool me. It was the lake that held his interest. And the spirit that legend said inhabited it. "Will you go alone?"

"I'll want a guide. I'm sure there's someone at the Center whose job includes knowing their way around the property."

"A forester."

His eyebrows rose. "We employ foresters?"

It was hard to breathe. "Yes you do. Me. I'm the forester." Something told me that it was time to come clean. To tell the truth. "And that's why I was late. Because I was looking over the photos of the new property." I counted to ten until I could speak without the squeak that made his eyebrows rise a bit. "I'm sorry for that."

He blinked. Tilted his head slightly. Let his eyebrows fall back to their normal position above his eyes. Frowned a second then let a smile slide briefly across what seconds earlier had been a chiseled countenance, and some of the fear that had almost immobilized me melted. "You were late? I hadn't noticed."

He was a nice liar. He had too noticed, the chill in the airport had been enough to freeze the entire county, but he wanted to see the tiny lake in the forest and that meant he needed me. And that meant I'd keep my job and he'd be nice to me, at least until he'd seen everything he wanted to see.

I breathed deeply in relief as he continued. "Can you take me tomorrow? I can't stay indefinitely and there are other things that need attention while I'm here."

"The rain should let up by morning. Then it'll start again in a day or so, though. So tomorrow may be the only decent day to go." I checked the clock behind the bar. "It's late, now and it'll be a long day tomorrow. We'll have to take a four-wheeler for the last part of the trip. So we'd best get going."

"It's a long drive to the Center and the weather is lousy. How long will it take us to get there in this rain? Minutes? Hours?"

"Two hours at least. More if the road is muddy and we have to go slow."

He didn't like that. "What if we stay in town tonight? That way we'll get a good night's sleep and can get started early. It'll be faster driving in the daylight, won't it?"

I agreed that staying overnight was a good idea and he waved to Mickey, who'd returned to his bartending. "Is there a decent motel nearby?"

Mickey doesn't have a dirty mind but I made sure to explain why we wanted a motel. When he understood our reason for staying in town, he made a call and booked two rooms. "Height of the tourist season. Not many rooms left." He pointed out the window to a large building across the parking lot. "It's close. You don't even have to drive."

So, having dried out in front of Mickey's fireplace after our wet arrival at the Pub, we went back into the driving rain and wind. The storm had grown fiercer. In seconds we were as wet as if we'd jumped into a nearby lake except we had twigs and leaves stuck to our bodies. I ducked behind Ian Macallister again and hoped he didn't know I was using him as a buffer against the flying debris. But of course he did.

The motel receptionist stared at us in dismay as we dripped all over her pristine carpet. She pointed down a long hallway and said something about the last two rooms. "Not our biggest or most elegant but they are all we have left. We recently remodeled them. New beds. King size." She added that they were across from each other. As we trudged towards the hallway, leaving wet footprints in the carpet and twigs and leaves everywhere, she breathed in distaste.

"I thought for a moment she wouldn't let us stay." Ian's sotto voiced words were dripping with sarcasm.

"Do we look that bad?"

He paused to give me a once-over and I had to look at him, too. "Yes we do." We resembled drowned rats.

Ian Macallister, I decided, was one of those people who looked good in any situation. I wasn't so lucky. And I was dripping dirt as well as rainwater because I'd been in the woods before coming to town to pick him up. "You, at least, can change into something dry."

He stopped. "I'm sorry. I didn't think. I have my luggage with me but you don't have anything to change into." He turned back towards the receptionist. "Perhaps they can suggest a store where you can get something to wear."

I stopped him with a hand on his sopping wet sleeve. "Don't bother. It's too late, all the stores are closed." His eyebrows rose in question. "This is a small town. We don't believe in late hours."

"Surely there's something we can do about those wet things you are wearing." He looked about. "There's a laundry."

Was he insane? "And what will I wear while my clothes go round and round? I don't think nudity is allowed."

"Sorry." A frank grin spread across his face, changing him completely. He didn't laugh out loud but it was hard for him not to as I tried and failed to keep my face from turning red. "Tell you what. I'll do the laundry. You can wrap yourself in a towel and wait in your room in comfort while I watch the washer do its thing." The grin spread until, realizing it could be interpreted many ways, it disappeared as quickly as it had come. But it stayed in his eyes and, yes, they must always be the color of dark fire because he wasn't angry now and they were still the color of night. "Afterwards, we can get some sleep."

I didn't want to stand in front of my boss dressed in a motel towel but I couldn't see any other option so I nodded and tried for nonchalance as he found our rooms. He slid his key card into the slot in his door. "I'll shower and change, and then I'll come for your things. Give me a half hour or so, that'll give you time to shower too." He looked me up and down, that flash of silent laughter lingering in the backs of his eyes. "I hope half an hour will be enough." And, ducking in case I wanted to hit him, he disappeared inside, which made me wonder whether the big boss of Macallister Outdoors was possibly a nice guy after all.

Getting out of my wet clothes was such a relief it was almost erotic and standing in a spray of hot water even more so. I used my fingers and the motel dryer to turn my hair into some semblance of order, almost wishing I'd given up long hair in favor of a cropped look, then deciding for the thousandth time, that braids are more practical most of the time and don't require frequent visits to a hair salon. Anyway, normally I wore a hat in inclement weather. This was an unexpected situation. I hadn't planned on a trip to town. So, instead of reaching for a pair of scissors, I redoubled my efforts.

The knock was loud enough that I had to assume there'd been several before that I hadn't heard because of the dryer noise. I grabbed the largest towel from the available pile and wrapped it around me as I went to answer what was now heavy pounding on the door. "Are you there? Are you okay?"

I opened it and peeked around. "I'm fine."

"It took you so long to answer I was concerned." One hand held his dripping clothes, the other a small box of detergent.

"Sorry." He stared at me in consternation. Stared at my hair. So I should have opted for a short style after all. He stared so hard that I unconsciously raked it with the hand that wasn't holding the towel in place. "I'll get my clothes."

"Okay." But his gaze didn't move from my hair. Until it slid downwards, then, realizing that he was looking me over when I was half-naked, it stopped and returned to my hair. Given its disheveled appearance, I'd rather he kept going, all the way down me and then up again. Better than the amazed expression, almost awe, that he couldn't hide as he inspected my hair again. That stare kept me rooted, unable to move. Until, flushing, he said, "I'll wait out here," and closed the door in my face.

What did he expect me to do with no hairbrush handy? What did he expect any normal human being to do when confronted with a rat's nest that hung half-way down a back and was a mess to begin with, courtesy of being outdoors a lot, and probably worse now, thanks to the debris that had battered us both?

I tripped on my way to the bathroom to retrieve my clothes. And again on my way back. Looked to see what I'd tripped over and the carpet was smooth and unbroken which meant being face to face with my boss when he was newly clean and dressed and I was in a motel towel was getting to me.

I stopped and breathed deeply a few times before opening the door in order to thrust my wet, drippy clothes at him. Found myself inches from my boss. Backed off a bit and held the wet clothes near his middle. Mumbled thanks in his general direction and pulled the towel tighter around my middle, holding it with two hands now that they were both free.

As for the owner of Macallister Outdoors, he mumbled something in return and backed away while his face flushed cherry red and his gaze wandered freely over all of my towel-wrapped self as if he'd rather be doing anything other than what he was doing but couldn't help himself.

Good! I wasn't the only one who was embarrassed, and that knowledge gave me the courage to speak after clearing my throat a couple times and taking one last deep breath. "I'll be waiting." I closed the door, slumped against it and wished I'd not been late in picking up my boss because if I'd been on time, there'd have been time to drive him back to the Center and I'd be home now watching reruns on TV.

When he knocked on my door a good hour later, I wasn't watching reruns. Instead, I was checking the weather. I snugged the towel tightly around me and opened the door with bated breath, wondering what part of me he'd stare at this time.

No part at all. His gaze went straight to the TV. "Looks bad for tomorrow."

My breath came and went normally because he was looking elsewhere and I even relaxed my hold on the towel slightly. "Not too bad. The storms will return, perhaps by evening, but during the day it should be decent. Sunny and warm."

"Then so as long as we get an early start and don't take too long checking out the new property, we should be okay?"

I nodded. "I'll pack ponchos just in case, but we should be back before any clouds gather." I didn't add that was a good thing because the land we'd be inspecting was rough and not a good place to be in a storm but I was so eager to see it myself that I didn't want to say anything that might cause him to cancel the trip.

As he handed me a neatly folded pile of dry clothes, my cell rang. So instead of taking my clothes, I hitched up the towel with one hand and grabbed the phone with the other. "Yes?" I wanted to kill whoever had the nerve to call with me in a delicate state of semi-nudity.

The Center was checking on the welfare of the big boss. "He's okay. He's here with me as a matter of fact." Talking about Ian, I found my gaze moving over him much as his had over me. Six feet at least since he was a good head taller than me, I already knew that, with dark eyes, I already knew that too, and dark brown hair that wouldn't accept taming over the lithe build of a person of athletic bent who could double as a model. Which I realized he did as I recalled some of the Macallister Outdoors clothing ads. If what I'd been told was true, the man could climb a mountain with the best of them and pose at the summit for a clothing ad.

Right now, he was mouthing a question. "Is that for me?"

I shook my head. Then I changed my mind and nodded because, though the Center had called me, he was the reason for the call. I mouthed back, "They are concerned."

He shut the door behind him with a well-aimed kick and, after a look to ask permission, took the cell from my hand. "This is Ian Macallister." A different voice from the one I'd heard thus far. The voice of command. Of the owner of Macallister Outdoors.

I wanted to beat a retreat to the bathroom to dress but my clothes were held tightly in his free hand. I was sure he'd forgotten them but his brows were knit in such concentration that I didn't dare take them. So I tried to make myself relax, an almost impossible task in a bath towel but somehow I managed. Sort of. Then I crawled onto the bed because the room was too small for any other furniture, tucked my feet beneath me and tried to look as if I did this every day.

The owner of Macallister Outdoors paced. Three feet one way, then two feet back, using all of the space the room afforded. He talked for a long time with the manager of the Center. Assured him we were both all right and had chosen to stay in town because of the weather. Informed him that early the next morning we'd need whatever was necessary to explore the new property. And handed me the phone. "He wants to know what to have ready."

Given that I couldn't hold the towel with both hands and talk too, I dropped one hand and stuck my feet straight out in front of me and took the phone to give what I hoped were crisp, professional instructions to have the four-wheel-drive truck ready with two four-wheelers in tow with the pack on one of them that I kept in my office for just such expeditions tied securely to it.

I was about to hang up when Ian waved to me that he wanted to talk again. When he took the phone, he said crisply, "Have the cook prepare something for us to eat. We might be out there a long time." He flipped the phone shut and handed it to me. I took it without dropping the towel, a rather neat trick, set it on the bed, there being no place else to put it, and waited for him to leave.

Instead he said, "Want some coffee?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know about you but I had enough liquor this evening to last a long time. I'd like to sober up a bit before going to bed so I'll hopefully wake up ready to go."

"Good idea." He waited so I asked, "Do you want me to make it?" Looking towards the complimentary coffee pot and grounds next to the sink.

"Would you?" Then he did a double take as I tried to move and couldn't without dropping the towel a bit. He turned even redder than earlier. "Sorry." He handed me my clothes. "I'll make coffee while you change." After a moment, he added, "Will you leave your cell here? I forgot a couple things I should mention to whoever is on duty at the Center." I handed him the cell and scooted to the bathroom as he headed for the coffee pot, cell in hand, having forgotten I existed.

By the time I returned from the bathroom once more wearing dry clothes that covered all of me except my feet because my boots were drying by the heater, he'd procured a travel hairbrush from the motel receptionist in addition to making coffee. "She said not to bother returning it."

"Probably afraid what she'd find in it."

"Your hair isn't that bad."

"It's bad enough."

He examined my hair carefully, walking around me twice. The second time around he poured us each a cup of coffee and brought them to the bed where I was sitting with my feet hanging over the side. "I used to watch my dad brush my mom's hair. It didn't look so hard."

"It's only bad at first. After the worst of the knots are gone, then it's easy."

"I can see a couple knots in the back. Want me to untangle them?"

Frissons of horror went through me. My boss wanted to brush my hair. My big boss, the one who signed my checks, who could fire me on a whim. There was no way I wanted him to touch me. Anywhere. Except he could see the knots and I couldn't. "Uh... " He handed me a cup of coffee, took the brush from my hand, and turned me around.

"I don't think it'll take long."

It took minutes that seemed like hours. The only thing that made the time bearable was sipping the hot coffee while wearing clothes. When he stopped, he turned me around and checked his work. "Yep, no knots left." He inspected both sides of me, an action that sent such an odd feeling through me that I hid behind my coffee cup. Until it was empty. "I'll take that." He took it and I had nothing else to hide behind. "Want another cup?"

"Yes, please." Why couldn't I keep the squeak out of my voice?

While he got it, I used the brush to pull my hair into a long, neat fall behind my back that I scooped into a rubber band. Then, feeling semi-professional with hair and body in place, I enjoyed my second cup of coffee, complete with enough cream and sugar to qualify it as a cappuccino.

After another cup of coffee each, Ian Macallister shook his head a couple times and moved his shoulders. "I think I'm sober enough to sleep now." He looked at me. "You?"

"Yep." No need to tell him I'd had no liquor.

He left. I locked the door, set the cell alarm for an early wake-up, slid beneath the covers, and waited for sleep to come. Instead, I stared at the blinking smoke alarm and wished I could get Ian Macallister out of my mind. I failed completely. And when I finally slept, I dreamed of my boss, only in my dream he lived at the bottom of a lake with... something. I couldn't make out his companion, I just knew there was one.

Then my alarm went off and it was morning and, yes, the sun was shining. We'd best get going if we wanted to reach that lake and return before the next storm. And no, we weren't going to inspect some new property. Not even to see the lake, pretty as it might be. We were going on a ghost hunt

