CHAPTER TWELVE

It was after dark by the time they reached Bernie. Niki was thankful Sally had detected them and raised a ruckus¾otherwise she might have ridden past the spot where she had left her grandfather. Niki scrambled off her horse and ran to his side as quickly as her aching legs allowed. She dropped to her knees on the ground and picked up his hand.

The old man’s eyes fluttered open and he forced a weak smile to his lips. He tried to squeeze Niki’s hand, but the increase in pressure was so small she barely detected the difference.

“Is this the best you could do?” he weakly joked as his eyes focused on Deuce standing behind his granddaughter. “I was hoping for a doctor or at least the United States military.”

“How are you feeling, Bernie?”

“Every bone in my body aches like you wouldn’t believe, but I consider that very good news. I can now feel my toes.”

Niki let out a sigh of relief as she held on to her grandfather’s hand and bit back the tears of happiness. She was terrified when she thought he might be paralyzed. Despite his age, he was more active than most people she knew and he would not adjust easily to immobility.

“Until we know for sure the extent of your injuries, we need to be as careful as possible so we don’t make matters worse. We need to get you back to camp where we can keep you warm, get some food in your belly and treat your injuries the best we can,” Deuce said.

“He can’t stand up or ride. How will we move him?”

“Yep, I guess it’s time to test my Boy Scout skills. Keep him comfortable and hydrated while I try to rig a travois. Hopefully it won’t take too long.”

Niki nodded and watched as Deuce strode off into the trees. Normally she would have lashed out at his orders, but at the moment she was too tired to think or make decisions on her own and too scared to argue. She diverted her eyes away from the spot in the forest in which he disappeared and returned her focus to her grandfather.

Pasting a smile on her face, she sat down on the ground next to him, held the canteen to his lips and made him drink until the last little bit of water was gone. Niki dug around through the remaining supplies and found one last piece of coffee cake. Taking a bite, she handed the rest to her grandfather, knowing he wouldn’t eat if she didn’t first.

“What happened to that boy? He looks like he’s been through one heck of a bar fight.”

Niki wasn’t sure she could tell her grandfather what happened yet without bursting into tears. She had to stay strong for a while longer since they were still hours from camp. And how could she admit that she had killed a man today?

“Papa, it’s a long story, one of many I’ll share with you when we get settled, but for now, just rest and don’t worry about Deuce or anything else. He’s too hardheaded for there to be any permanent damage. And I can assure you the man who did this to him is in much worse shape.” Because I killed him.

The old man chuckled and didn’t press his granddaughter further. She was clearly exhausted and her emotions obviously raw. When he asked the question about Deuce he saw her eyes fill with tears and she pulled her bottom lip in and bit on it like she used to do when she was a little girl. He hadn’t seen her fight so hard to keep from crying since her mother died and it broke his heart that whatever had happened out there was causing her such grief. She kept from crying, but he could tell it took a lot of effort, and she didn’t look as if she had enough strength left to waste.

“I’m always keen on a long story. Unfortunately, I suspect this one isn’t very pleasant, so it’ll keep until you’re ready.”

Niki pulled the blanket back up under her grandfather’s chin and gently tucked in the sides to keep his body heat from escaping. She tried not to stare at the last place she had seen Deuce, but couldn’t help herself. She was afraid when she lost sight of him that she might lose him altogether. Niki knew it wasn’t a rational thought, but felt she was justified a little irrational behavior after the day she’d had.

“Papa, I’m going to go fill the canteen and I’d better water Sally and Gracie. The mule has been tied up all day and I doubt Gracie has left your side long enough to find water. I’ll be right back.”

Bernie watched his granddaughter disappear into the trees and had to fight the urge to call her back. He should have never let her go for help. Even though she didn’t want to talk about it, by the look of her horse and Deuce’s face, and by her struggle to keep from falling apart, he knew something horrible had happened. He always wanted to protect her and it killed him to know he hadn’t been there for her, but he was proud. Whatever she had encountered, she had survived and returned to him.

He was relieved when he saw Niki slowly plod back into view tugging his old mule behind her. Her expression was a million miles away, but at least she was near and for now that would have to be enough.

Before long, Deuce returned, dragging several long thick poles and numerous other ones of varying lengths. Niki watched as he quickly secured the shorter tree limbs to the longer poles using the twine they had brought from the sheep shed. The travois soon took shape, giving her hope they would be able to move her grandfather to a more comfortable place where she could take better care of him without aggravating his injuries any further. He needed a hospital, but since that clearly wasn’t an option at the moment, camp would have to do.

Without being asked, Niki grabbed one side of the travois and helped Deuce carry the contraption next to her grandfather. It was crudely built, but sturdy and she had no doubt it would be able to transport her grandfather back to camp with as little strain to his body as possible.

“How tough do you feel?” Deuce asked.

Niki’s mind and body were still stirred up from the day’s events. She was exhausted and frightened, her mind whirled and adrenaline coursed through her veins with such force it made her feel a bit nauseous, but she would do whatever needed to be done until her grandfather was resting comfortably.

“As tough as I need to be. What do you want me to do?”

“Since you’ve already slipped the saddle blankets under him, all we need to do is gently lift him by the edges of the blankets and set him on the travois. On the count of three, okay?”

Niki grasped the edges of the padded blankets on one side of her grandfather while Deuce clutched the other. They lifted the old man onto the travois with only one small gasp of pain slipping through his lips.

“Still doing okay, Bernie?”

“Just get me out of here. I’m getting tired of the view. A man can only look at the same bird’s nest for so long before he wants to shoot it out of the tree, but I was afraid Niki would scold me for wasting ammunition and scaring helpless birds.”

“You got that right,” she grumbled. “Now just relax and let us know if anything hurts.”

“I’ll pull him behind Traveler since Storm’s already had a long day. You can bring Sally and lead the way since I don’t know exactly where you two set up the new camp.”

Niki wove in and out of the trees, finding a path with the fewest bumps and wide enough for her grandfather’s transport to pass through unhindered. It took over three hours to make the two hour trip back to camp, but when the tent came into view, Niki couldn’t believe how good it looked.

They placed the travois directly on the cot, believing it best to keep the old man on a solid surface rather than to have his back supported by the sagging canvas of the cot. Niki didn’t even notice when Deuce left the tent as she bustled around, trying to make her grandfather more comfortable. She placed a dry sleeping bag over him and slid a thin pillow under his head. By the time she emerged from the tent, Deuce had a small fire going and a pot of water heating over the flames.

“Stella kept the sheep close and the old pack horse and Bess hadn’t wandered too far away. I took care of our horses and Storm will be back to his old cantankerous self by morning. He came through unscathed.” Deuce stirred the fire without looking up at her. “This water should be warm enough to wash Bernie up. I’ll see if I can round us up something to eat.”

“There should be a stringer of trout in the creek, as long as a bear didn’t find them. The fish were alive when I left, so I’m sure they’re still good. I was just coming back to camp for a knife to clean them with when the helicopter flew over and chaos erupted.”

“Likely story¾the lengths you’ll go to in order to avoid cleaning fish,” he joked as he dug through the camp box in search of a fillet knife.

Deuce couldn’t help but admire her. Not only had she survived an incredible ordeal and saved his life, she had fresh meat waiting. His mind flashed back to when she was ten and he took her fishing for the first time. He hadn’t been happy when Bob made him take her along, but now as the vision of the little girl with pigtails, a huge smile and admiration in her eyes filled his mind, he hoped she still had a little of that appreciation left for him.

Niki watched Deuce walk away. Once he disappeared into the darkness she picked up the pot of warm water and returned to her grandfather’s side. She washed all of his wounds and put antibiotic ointment on the scrapes and cuts. Other than possibly his back, it didn’t appear anything was broken.

“Papa, I think we need to keep you as still as possible for a while. If your back’s not broken, you may still have a serious fracture. I don’t think we can get you medical help, so it’s going to have to heal on its own. You don’t have a fever and your color is better than when I left you this morning, so that’s good news. Let me give you something for the pain and then I’ll get you some dinner.” She dug through her bag for a bottle of Ibuprofen.

Niki could hear fish frying and the smell drifted toward her as she emerged from the tent. She refilled the pot of water and placed it back on the hook over the fire, then knelt down next to Deuce.

“How is he?”

“He’s in quite a bit of pain, but hopefully the pills I gave him will kick in soon. I can’t tell you how happy I am, though, that he can move his toes. It’ll be a challenge, but I think if we keep him flat as much as we can and prevent him from catching pneumonia, he’ll survive. He’s tough,” Niki replied with as much confidence as she could muster.

Deuce handed her a tin plate with fish and beans on it, knowing she would feed her grandfather before she fed herself. He ate alone by the fire as he thought back over the events of the day. He pulled the cell phone out of his jacket pocket that he had grabbed when he went back to the barn for Traveler and turned it on. There was no reception and very little battery left. He turned it off to conserve the battery and stowed it. He would ride somewhere with cell coverage in the morning and try to reach Bob. He hoped his dad was safe and would have information as to the extent of the occupation and the status of the U.S. military’s defensive.

“He ate everything and then fell asleep,” Niki said as she picked up the plate Deuce had made for her and began to eat.

“Good thing you haven’t lost your touch for fishing. It’s been a long day and I wasn’t looking forward to just beans since we’ll be eating plenty of those once your grandfather is well enough to cook.”

Niki giggled as she carefully pulled the bones from the center of the small brook trout. Apparently she wasn’t the only person who wasn’t too thrilled about her grandfather’s specialty, but more importantly, Deuce’s confidence in her grandfather’s recovery helped ease the tension in her body.

She set her empty plate aside and disappeared into the tent. She returned a moment later with a clean wash cloth. She carried the pot of warm water over to where Deuce sat on the ground, his back against a log.

“Hold still, this might sting a little,” she said as she knelt down on the ground in front of him.

She gently touched the warm wet cloth to one of the deepest cuts on his face. He flinched, but didn’t pull back, so she continued to clean the dried blood from his wounds. After the cuts were cleaned she dabbed antibiotic ointment on the cuts and scrapes.

“Why’d they do this?”

“I guess I wasn’t particularly helpful. They asked me a lot of questions about the tower on the ranch and where some underground launch facility is located. Of course I didn’t know the answers, but they didn’t believe me. Until a month ago I thought the damn thing was a cell phone tower, which is what the lease agreement says. They also wanted the names and whereabouts of all our employees. Apparently their English was good enough to understand me when I told them to ‘go to hell’.”

Niki smiled and shook her head. Only Deuce would tell a half dozen heavily armed soldiers where to go in no uncertain terms.

“What about Frank and Joe? Have they come back yet?”

“No. Hopefully they’ll approach the ranch with caution like you did and hightail it out of there before they get caught. They should be on their way back from the high meadow. If I had any idea which way they might be riding, I’d try to intercept them. Frank’s cagey¾courtesy of his time in Vietnam. He’s not likely to waltz up to the ranch without noticing something’s out of place, so I’m not too worried.”

“There. The cuts aren’t too bad, but the black eye and bruises will stay for a while. If it’s warm enough for you to go shirtless tomorrow, since I don’t think any of Papa’s clothes will fit you, I’ll try to scrub the blood out of your shirt. As for the swelling and the black eye, the only thing cold we have is the creek. So I guess if you’re worried about swelling you can go dunk your head in that refreshing little sliver of pure snowmelt.”

“I’ll be fine,” he replied as he grabbed her wrist to stop her from tending to his wounds.

Niki’s eyes locked on Deuce. She didn’t know what to say or do. She was able to hold it together as long as she was taking care of others and keeping busy, but with her hands now idle, she felt tears filling her eyes.

Deuce pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her, forcing her to bury her face in his chest. She was so small that she felt like a child in his arms. At first he could sense she was holding her breath and then he could feel her shoulders begin to shake.

“Go ahead. Let it out. You deserve it,” he said as he stroked her hair and held her tight.

Niki couldn’t hold it in anymore. She clung to Deuce and cried until she fell asleep in his arms.