CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Niki woke to the smell of brewing coffee and bright sunshine warming the side of the canvas. Slipping her stiff cowboy boots on her sore feet she ducked out of the tent and stretched her aching muscles while scanning the area for Deuce. Niki spotted him a hundred yards away saddling Traveler. She poured herself a cup of coffee and strolled off in his direction.

“Where are you headed?”

“I thought I’d better do some more scouting. We need to find the best escape routes, hiding places and trails we can take on horseback as soon as Bernie can ride where dirt bikes can’t follow. I also want to locate the closest rise that’ll give us the clearest cell phone reception. I only have enough battery left for one short call and Bob is expecting me to phone in tomorrow.”

Niki didn’t like the thought of being alone, but didn’t want Deuce to return to his “helpless city girl” train of thought, so she tried not to let her concern show. Cradling the cup between her hands, she took a sip of coffee to camouflage the disappointment she feared was etched on her face.

“Let me get you the rifle and some ammo in case those soldiers decided to come after us.”

“No, you keep it. If anyone shows up that you don’t recognize, shoot first and ask questions later.”

“I won’t let you go unarmed when we have more weapons here than I can shoot by myself. Even though Bob claims I’m exceptionally gifted with a variety of firearms, I can generally only pull one trigger at a time. Though, if I had a pair of revolvers and a gun belt I guess I could start practicing the old western quick-draw.”

Deuce studied Niki. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her stance was wide and the expression on her face told him there was no point in arguing. Besides, she had a point.

“Fine. Give me your damn girl gun.”

Niki smiled triumphantly and pulled the small pistol out from behind her back. She hadn’t so much as gone to the bushes to the bathroom without the weapon ever since they had returned to camp.

Deuce took the gun from her hand, checked the load and shoved it into his jacket pocket. “Stay close to camp,” he warned as he mounted and rode away.

Niki walked back to the tent and busied herself with breakfast, changing her grandfather’s bandages and doing dishes. She also planned to visit the creek and clean up a bit before Deuce returned. Despite this being a very unusual situation she still hated Deuce seeing her look like a tornado survivor.

“Your color’s a little better this morning,” Niki said as she propped her grandfather up in his new cot-turned-hospital bed.

“I feel okay, but I’d be even better if you’d let me out of this darn contraption,” he grumbled.

“Papa, don’t make me hobble and cuff you. If you have a break or even a serious fracture, three days isn’t near enough time to heal either one. But I do think it would be a good idea to attempt a little physical therapy on you. We’ll bend your knees, rotate your ankles and have you pump some weights with cans of hash and that sort of thing. We can’t have you going soft on us.”

Bernie chuckled and motioned for Niki to sit down.

“I think it’s time to catch me up on things. I’ve caught bits and pieces of conversation between you and Deuce, and now I want to know what’s really going on around here. The helicopter that spooked Sally wasn’t one of ours, was it? Something pretty bad must be going on or you two would have me stuck in some hospital by now, whether I needed it or not. And there must be a better reason than his admiration for your pretty face for Deuce to be camping out here with us instead of taking care of the ranch, especially with Bob in D.C.”

Niki hadn’t wanted to burden him with the hopeless situation, but he would find out eventually, so she told him everything. When she finished, he clutched her hands and his eyes glistened with restrained tears. She had never witnessed the tough old man emotional before and the site nearly did her in. He had always been a rock, her rock, and she hated to watch him crumble.

“My sweet little girl, you could have been killed trying to save my life. You should’ve never had to go through that. You should’ve come back to me when you realized something was wrong at the tower.”

“But if I hadn’t gone to the ranch, Deuce would be ... dead.” Her voice broke as she forced the last word out.

“He’s lucky it was you that found him and not Joe. That old geezer would starve to death in the mountains if he had to shoot his own food,” Bernie replied in an attempt to lighten the anguish he witnessed on his granddaughter’s face.

“I didn’t even think about it. I just pulled the trigger,” she said as her eyes misted over. “Papa, I killed a man, a man who will be missed by family somewhere and his death will no doubt put us in additional danger.”

“You didn’t have a choice. Sometimes we are forced into situations where we have to do things we wouldn’t normally be capable of. That doesn’t make us bad people, just survivors.”

Niki nodded as she bit her lip.

Bernie gave her hand a loving squeeze. He knew she would never admit it to him or even to herself, but Deuce meant the world to her and if anything had happened to the young man, Bernie wasn’t sure if Niki would have been able to survive the heartbreak.

He hated watching the two of them pretend not to care when it was clear they were meant for each other. No matter how many pretty girls came by the ranch trying to catch Deuce’s attention, he never seemed too interested. But whenever Niki was around the boy was flustered, moody and never too far away. Someone else could have escorted Niki into camp, but it hadn’t surprised Bernie at all to see Deuce ride up or that he had wanted Niki as far away from the tower guards as possible.

“Don’t think about it anymore. You did what you had to do and it’s over. You can’t go back so there’s no point beating yourself up, and even if you could, I’m sure you would do it again. Niki, you had no other option and I can’t tell you how proud I am that you didn’t crumble under such tremendous pressure.”

Niki nodded, wiped her eyes and tried to smile. “Get some rest. We can talk about it more while you’re doing your physical therapy later.”

She didn’t really want to talk about anything that had happened. Every time she had to relive the story, she was forced to experience the terror all over again. Niki hoped her grandfather wouldn’t ask anything else and she suspected he wouldn’t. He always seemed to know when she needed to talk and when she needed to let a topic rest or die. It was that instinct which had made him so therapeutic to be around during her summers growing up and why she had always cherished their short time together.

Niki grabbed a carrot and headed for Storm. She knew she should quit feeding fresh produce to her horse under these unusual circumstances and save it for themselves, but the gelding deserved a treat after everything he had been through and the gesture was one thing that still felt normal.

* * *

When Deuce rode up, he saw Niki clutching the big palomino’s neck. He had never been particularly fond of Storm, but the stubborn horse and Niki had always clicked. They had a special bond he didn’t understand, but was now thankful for. Deuce knew the horse was strong, both mentally and physically, and for that reason he used him fairly often. He hadn’t given the gelding enough credit, but far worse, he had severely underestimated the small woman clinging to the muscled horse as if it were an overgrown teddy bear.

“Everything okay?”

Niki stepped back and pushed the strands of hair, which had escaped her ponytail, out of her eyes, tucking them behind her ear.

“Yes, Papa’s color is returning and he’s already itching to get out of bed. I haven’t seen or heard anything from the soldiers, so I’d say it’s been a pretty good day so far. How about you?”

“No sign of the soldiers or the helicopter.”

Deuce stepped off Traveler and began unsaddling the horse. The young gelding wasn’t as tall as Storm and hadn’t filled out in the chest yet, but he would make a fine ranch horse when he got a few more miles under him and a little more muscle and weight on his frame. He had a good disposition for such a young horse and Niki could see why Deuce liked riding Traveler.

When Deuce finished unsaddling the horse, he turned to Niki and could tell she had been watching him and he had to fight the desire to reach for her. Lord, how he missed her when she was gone, but he had convinced himself these past years that keeping his distance was best for both of them—now he couldn’t really remember why. He turned away from her and ran the curry comb down Traveler’s back, fearing he might weaken and say or do something he’d regret if he looked at her for even a moment longer. He always fought the control she seemed to have over him, but now with death so near he was torn with the desire to stop fighting his feelings, but old habits were hard to break.

“As I thought, the only way anyone could sneak up on us from behind would be if they circled around or had a helicopter drop them off deeper in the mountains and hiked back. I found a place we could more easily hide camp that still has good feed for another month or two for the animals and a good source of water. As soon as Bernie’s up for traveling, it might not hurt to move deeper into the mountains.”

“Another month or two? How long do you think we’ll have to hide out here? We could start getting snow in three or four weeks, maybe sooner, especially if we move any higher into the mountains and what about the rest of the animals at the ranch?”

“Hard to say how long this will last. Hopefully Bob will know more when I call, but we could hold up here indefinitely if we had to. The horses at the ranch are on pasture so until snow covers the grass they’ll be okay unless they get themselves into trouble with all the commotion, the chickens are free-range and can scavenge, the cats are pretty good hunters and all the cattle are still in the mountains. So hopefully the animals can weather the storm. Unfortunately there’s not much we can do about it without risking lives. As for us, we have a whole herd of sheep, fish, and wild game to eat, though we shouldn’t waste ammo unless we have to and water’s no problem. We just have to get Bernie healed up and stay warm and out of sight.”

Niki’s heart sank. She loved to camp out with her grandfather each summer, but being forced to live the rest of her life like a trapper didn’t sound all that appealing. She’d miss hot steamy showers, television, eating out, traveling, going to movies and sleeping in a dry warm bed with a real roof over her head. But, if this was her life, there were no two people she’d rather share it with.

She walked around the horse opposite Deuce, forcing him to look at her. She took the curry comb out of his hand and continued to brush Traveler’s rich sorrel coat. She gave Deuce her most innocent smile.

“You feeling lucky?”

She could see the shocked expression on Deuce’s face. She watched with amused satisfaction as he cleared his throat nervously.

“Excuse me?”

“You can use Papa’s pole. Whoever catches the first fish doesn’t have to clean or cook the trout or wash the dinner dishes.”

“You’re on,” he said with a relaxed grin.

Deuce knew he had probably taken a bad bet. Whenever Niki got that mischievous twinkle in her deep blue eyes it usually cost him money or at least a good chunk of his pride. She didn’t really have a poker face, but she had a smile which made men do stupid things and not even care. He had done a lot of ridiculous things when it came to Niki, but he was beginning to think the stupidest of all had been pushing her away.