The mental radar indicators became stronger as Shelby scrambled down a damp, rocky gully. Snow had settled in irregular patches. If they were lucky, more snowfall would hold off until after they got the hunting guest, Troy, out of here.
What the heck had happened to him? Why had he gone down here?
It wasn’t so steep that he couldn’t get back up if he tried. Was he injured? Dead?
Her footing slipped as a wave of panic caught her unawares. Eric’s big hand appeared beneath her arm, supporting her. Right behind her. Yeah, he’d ignored her mandate to stay back.
“Don’t care,” he had said. “I’m staying close. You’re not getting hurt.”
Too damned late.
But his sincerity and concern for her safety pushed front and center in his conscious mind. He wanted to protect her. Damn him for being nice. She didn’t deserve it.
A burst of his frustration and pissed-off thoughts flew out and nailed her just as a blast of panic from down in the ravine hit her, knocking the air out of her.
Would it be too much to ask if the mental onslaught from the hunter and Eric could take turns battering her mind?
Before she could catch her breath, another image from Eric shifted anger back into raw interest in her naked body on his bed, rising up in time as he drove into her. She swallowed as heat grew between her thighs. Holy crap, the memory of being laid out beneath him as he covered her with his body made her vagina pulse again.
And weakened her knees. She stepped wrong and slid off a rock.
Careful.
His pupils dilated as he studied her. Did guys really think about sex this often? Exhausting. How did they get anything else done?
As she opened her mouth to—do what? Yell at him? Kiss him?—another wave of panic from the target grabbed her attention. She spun around, pulled like a piece of metal toward a magnet.
“You two done down there?” Above them, Kerr moved much slower with his artificial leg.
“Quit snooping,” she snapped as she tapped her temple. “You,” she glared at Eric. “Simmer down those thoughts.” Motioning with her hand, she said, “I’ve got something here.”
“Troy?” he asked.
“Think so.” She skidded down wet rocks as her brother cursed from above her.
As she reached the bottom of the gully, the panic pulled her to the left along a line of rock. Rounding a boulder, she spied a flash of blaze orange.
The client, Troy.
And a black shape.
The furnace blast of fury blew by her, like a hot poker burning her face. She staggered and blinked.
A howl and a gunshot rang out, and Eric shoved her sideways into the hillside, covering her body with his.
“Geezus. Troy’s shooting at us.” he cursed. “And what the hell was that big, dark thing?”
Touching him set all of her nerve endings on fire. Fine, so he liked having his body pressed against hers. Like she couldn’t tell based on his hard groin shoved into hers. The image in his mind was redundant, at this point.
Besides, she had way more important things to deal with right now. “No,” she whispered. “That was like the thing we saw on the ranch yesterday.”
“What?”
Turning her head to scan the area, she gently pushed him back. A quick check with her ability to scan the area for other sources of emotions, and she said, “It’s gone. We’re okay for right now.”
“The hell we are,” he muttered.
“Troy?” she called in a soft, hopefully nonthreatening voice as she set her backpack on the ground. “Kerr and Eric and I are all here to help you.” She shook off Eric’s arm. “Can you put down the gun, Troy?”
“No way, ma’am,” the hunter said. The tip of the rifle wavered in her general direction.
“Shelby, move away from him.” Eric’s metallic fear for her life tainted her own thoughts.
She put a hand out to hold Eric back. “Come on, now, Troy. Just set the gun to the side for a minute so we can help you. Okay?”
The man whimpered. The guy wasn’t being a wuss. Judging by the air sawing in and out of his lungs, he was flat-out terrified. He placed the gun a foot away from him. Still within reach.
It would have to do.
Inching closer, she talked to him. “Troy, I’m Shelby, Kerr’s sister. We’re going to get you out of here, got it?”
Eric’s presence behind her gave her confidence to keep moving forward.
Crouching next to Troy’s huddled body, she placed a hand on his arm.
He recoiled, screaming and slapping her hand away.
Troy grabbed the gun.
Eric shoved himself in front of Shelby and kicked the gun out of the guy’s hand. “Hey, now. We’re here to help you, man.”
The man froze, his face twisted up, his eyes staring through her. “He was here. Oh, God, right here. He was going to kill me.”
“Who?” she asked.
Had Troy hit his head? She slipped off her gloves and brushed her hands over his head and neck, checking for injuries. Nothing. His terror pounded away at her brain as she sucked in a harsh, wheezing breath, trying to stay calm.
“Evil. Here.”
She frowned. “Look, let’s get back to camp. Anything hurting? Arms or legs? How about your back?” Patting down his extremities and spine, she watched for any grimace of pain on his face.
He flapped a hand then curled back into a ball and started shaking. “Oh, Christ.”
“Did you fall?” Eric asked.
“No,” Troy said. “I came here to hide.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “But it didn’t work. He still found me.”
“Who?”
The man’s bulging eyes darted back and forth. “Evil. The worse kind.”
A chill rolled through her, and that sensation of being watched fluttered at the edge of her perception. She looked around. Forest, streams, and patchy snow. Nothing unusual out there. Maybe she was picking up on Troy’s paranoia?
Flinching at the nonstop panic pounding on her senses, she turned back to Eric and Kerr, who had joined them. Eric put a pulse-ox on the man’s finger. The reading showed a normal oxygen level but elevated pulse, explainable by his fear. He listened to heart and lungs with a stethoscope.
“Clear. No pain over his chest or abdomen.” His sandy brows drew together. “The guy’s literally frozen in terror.”
“Why?” Kerr glanced at the man then to Shelby.
She shook her head. “That thing from the ranch was here.”
Kerr reared back. “What?”
“I’ll explain it later. We can’t fix that now,” she said. “Let’s move him back to the camp and then we can decide what to do from there.”
Kerr and Eric heaved the man to his feet. Clinging to them, Troy shuffled toward the gully, still mumbling and shaking so badly at times that he had to stop and hang on to one of the men. He kept looking back over his shoulder.
Even Shelby’s neck tingled. He had seen the dark creature. Had it chased him to this location? The emotions in the guy’s mind battered her. Fear of dark, looming evil, sucking the air out of him until he almost blacked out. The desire to run far away from here. No place to hide. Impending disaster.
She pressed her hand to her head and bent over double.
“What?” Eric’s voice, close by her. Steadying. Replacing pain with familiarity and concern.
Casting a glance over the benign, quiet forest, she rubbed her sternum. “Something’s not right out here.”
“I could have told you that,” Kerr muttered. Then he turned to Troy. “Come on, man, keep working your way up this hill. We’ll be at the horses real soon.”
The man followed Kerr up the damp, cold gully. Troy might be terrified, but he showed no signs of stopping until he made it back to camp.
When Shelby was nearly to the top of the gully, another sensation stopped her in her tracks. Like a child crying out for help. Desperate. Pitiful. Needy.
“Did you hear that?” she asked, whipping her head back and forth as she tried to find the source of the sound.
“Nothing. What is it?” Kerr asked, extending his hand to Troy to pull him up the last few rocky feet.
Eric shook his head and frowned. “I can’t see anything here.”
“Maybe I’m imagining things,” she said, climbing up as Eric trailed behind her. On top of the hill, she peered through the trees and hills.
There, a movement off to the side. A deer? Bear?
Again, that sensation of a child’s wail that she hadn’t heard as much as felt. Tears pricked her eyes. She had to find the source. Sensations of fear, cold, smallness, and vulnerability attacked her mind.
“Shel?” Eric’s broad face entered her field of vision. His eyebrows rose. “What the hell? You’re crying. Are you hurt?”
“No.” She grimaced. “You can’t hear that, either of you?” Silence. “Damn it.” Taking a halting step toward the sound, away from the horses, she paused when Kerr called out to her.
“We can’t stay here, sis.”
“I know. Let me take a look. I’ll meet you back at camp.”
Eric crossed his arms over his chest. “The hell you’re going alone. This is a bad, bad idea, Shel.”
The need to find whatever was out there ate at her mind, consumed her. “I know.” She gasped. “I have . . . to. Have to find it. It’s important.” Her feet moved on their own. One step. Then two. Toward the childlike whimper.
“Come on, Shel,” Kerr said, gesturing toward the shaking Troy.
“Go back to camp. I won’t be far behind.” She held up her hand. “Don’t know why.” Another step pulled her, despite her fighting the compulsion. “I have to. Please.” She looked back at Kerr, but her feet forced her to go in a different direction.
“I’ll stay with her, man.” Eric’s tone came out tight, unhappy. The images and thoughts in his mind echoed that sentiment. But his presence behind her provided an anchor. Something to keep her head from completely fogging up with single-minded need to find the source of the sound.
“You have the radio?” Kerr’s mouth compressed into a thin line. Unhappiness and concern flowed from him. Understandable.
Eric patted his belt. “Got it. We’ll be right behind you.”
Kerr pulled his coat sleeve up and checked his watch. “Four o’clock now. It’ll be dark in an hour. You need to head back by then.”
“Got it. We’ll be in communication.”
“This idea is about as dumb as a rubber crutch,” Kerr said.
“I know. Can’t. Need to go. Something’s going on.” Like a hand reached down and grabbed her chin, her head swiveled back in the direction her feet were moving.
Another cry, this time in pain, hit her mind. Whatever was out there suffered. It needed help. Shelby had to help it.
Her head throbbed. Damn it, she had to keep moving. Had to find it.
The snow and leaves crunched under her feet as she hiked away from her brother.