Chapter 3

Three

I nstinct pulled her hand to her holster.

She blew out a trembling breath and took another to steady her nerves. Trouble waited for her every inch she advanced, but she hoped to deliver a little of it herself if someone hurt Ethan. She steadied her aim and worked around several massive pines. Roots twined together along the forest floor to create large gnarled traps.

The lack of rain in the area made the foliage underfoot crackle and crunch with each step as she made her way closer to where she pinpointed the gunshot.

Scurrying little steps broke the silence as a startled squirrel dashed across her path, sensing danger too. Another few feet and the thickly wooded area gradually thinned until it opened into another section of the same large field that hugged the lake.

It was too quiet.

Nothing moved, chirped or twitched. Not even the squirrel could be seen close by.

Rustling came from her right, and a familiar flash of gray from Ethan's shirt caught her eye near the base of a large tree.

She stared for only a second before moving to holster her weapon. "Ethan, thank God." Spatters of blood spotted the pine needles. So focused on getting to Ethan she failed to realize they were not alone.

A flash of white from the corner of her eye caught her by surprise. But it was too late. A sharp blow directly beneath her shoulder blades forced the last of the air from her lungs.

Massive arms wrapped around her like steel bands and the weight of Mt. Everest collided with her smaller frame. Unable to move, screams stuck in her throat and choked out the little bit of air she managed to drag in.

No matter what she did, the impact was inevitable. The ground rushed up to meet her head-on. Caged in, there was no use fighting it. She could not move an arm or a hand to stop the brutal blow from coming.

Pain splintered across her cheek and stars swam in her vision. Oil and copper filled her nostrils as she tried to refill her lungs with a vital amount of air.

Gritting her teeth, fear and a blood-boiling amount of rage drove her head back. She smiled when the satisfying crunch followed by a grunt hit her ears. The vice-like hold her assailant had on her released. She kicked up, not wasting a single precious second—another tidbit her overprotective brothers had taught her in the back yard after school over a case of cola and some sparring mats.

Reached for her gun, but only found an empty holster.

Fuck!

The fear freezing the blood in her veins dethawed and a whole boatload of pissed off woman charged in like Hell's fury. Beefy fingers locked around her ankle, and she went down again. This time, she caught herself. Through narrowed eyes, she took stock of her surroundings. Miracles of miracles her glasses only slipped a little, but that didn't fix her current situation. There was nothing within reach she could use to fight with since her gun tumbled out of her hand in the tumble.

Fists and feet then.

"Let's do this," she bit out and rolled to her back, letting him think she had no defenses. With one hard tug, he had her within his grasp. But not for long. Thank God for slippery waders and girls that knew how to use them.

With her free foot, Remy hauled back and drove the solid heel home. Mmm. "That's gotta hurt." He'd be wearing a size six boot print on his face for eons.

"Try to get a date wearing that, jackass."

His hold slipped.

She heard someone barreling toward them. Ethan or jackass's friend she didn't know, but she did know Ethan was hurt. She's seen the blood on the forest floor.

Fingers flying over the dry pine needles and dirt, she fumbled for her gun but didn't dare take her eyes off the naked blond brute. She cocked her leg back again ready to deliver another blow. Through the blood smeared down the side of his face from the broken nose she'd delivered, he never saw it coming.

Crack. "Don't fuck with a So-Cal girl, fucker." If she'd broken his nose before he had no chance of it ever healing now.

He let her go completely now and reared back with a fierce, ugly roar that vibrated the air surrounding them. The second his gaze found her murder slithered over his expression.

Well shit.

That's when she caught a glimpse of the older blood drying across his chest and upper thighs. Her gaze skimmed over him and froze on the bruises that marred his jaw.

He'd found Ethan. Or more like, Ethan found him and it didn't turn out too well for their attacker.

Her hand brushed against metal. Finally. She wrapped her fingers around the smooth handle of her gun, brought it around and took aim down the length of her body.

"What the hell do you want?"

Gray, now tattered and stained with blood, filled her vision and her attacker disappeared behind a wall of bulging muscle.

Ethan's shoulders heaved with labored breathing as he stood between her and the other man who looked a little more crazed than she cared to think about.

Ethan reared back and slammed a fist into the other man when he lunged for him like a ferocious bear.

When she heard the sound of their forces colliding, she rolled out of the way just in time to see Ethan plow another blow into the man's jaw. "It's a fine line you're treading, man. You need to get the fuck off my mountain before I bury you in an unmarked grave for harming my woman. You don't belong here anymore."

Remy felt her mouth go dry. Did he know the man? Ethan's words were labored and that's when Remy noticed fresh blood oozing through his pant leg.

When he didn't budge, Ethan hauled the man, who nearly matched him in size, by the shoulders and threw him against a nearby tree with a solid thud that made her cringe.

"Hard hearing all of a sudden," Ethan growled, but the man still didn't say anything.

Maybe it was the blood trickling down Ethan's forehead and messing with his sight or maybe it was the pure adrenaline in his blood that kept him from seeing the huge knife the other guy pulled out of somewhere, but the sight of the blade and fear of what he would do with it drove Remy into action. She rolled to her back, squeezed on the trigger and did the one thing her brothers said to never do.

She cringed, slamming her eyes closed.

Within knife-throwing distance, she was just as easy a target as Ethan was, for sure. One good throw and she would be minced meat in tacky knee waders. She definitely didn't see her days ending like this, but she couldn't just lie here and do nothing.

"What the fuck!"

She heard rather than saw Ethan's feet shift as he bellowed his shock out. No doubt from the loud shot that seemed to ricochet off every tree in the damn forest.

She waited for something. The noise of a body hitting the ground…something. But it didn't come.

Peeking one eye open followed by the other, she dared a look. One by one the muscles in her shoulders relaxed enough for her to move. He was gone.

Ethan, however, stood over her, the gold of his eyes swirling and darkening.

"Are you crazy? Or just plain suicidal, woman? You want to put me in an early grave. God almighty, woman, I think I'm having a heart attack." Ethan fell to his knees and hunched over, his hands shaking as he clutched at his chest.

When he just sat there a minute, his head hung low she took in the sight of the blood smeared across his chest and back through the tears of his T-shirt and didn't fail to see the bruised and battered knuckles.

"Heart attack. Yep. Me too. Is he gone? He didn't make a sound. Just simply vanished." She stayed in her position, gun in hand a few seconds longer. Her head fell back to the earth and she finally let out a breath. Then again, it is kind of hard to hear anything when oh shit, oh shit played on repeat in her head.

She shoved to her feet and holstered her gun, making a mental note to thank her pain-in-the-ass brothers for making sure she knew which end went bang. She'd leave out the part of a maniac attacking them for now, though.

Analyzing her near-death experience could come later. Now she had to help Ethan.

Blood spotted the foliage and penetrated the dirt around him. From what she could tell, if he lost any more, they were in for some real trouble this far from a hospital. Especially if the lunatic decided to double back for a second round. She didn't exactly have more bullets on hand and only a few left in the gun.

Dirt and leaves mixed with blood caked random parts of his body. If she didn't know any better, she'd say he'd gone mud wrestling.

"I leave you ten minutes and you go find trouble! I'm not the crazy one charging at lunatics in the middle of nowhere." Her voice trembled more than her hands as she dropped to her knees beside him.

"The other guy's sporting some good bruises too." He gave a weak, low rumble of laughter before it abruptly cut off. Molten whiskey eyes caught her gaze. "Fuck. What did he do to you?" He reached out and brushed his hand against her swollen cheekbones. She hissed from the sudden jolt of pain.

"Ouch." In all the ruckus she'd shoved her own pain to the side, worried about him. Now the slow, steady throb thickened until it hurt to smile.

"I think you put a hurting on him. He'll never mess with a girl in the woods again."

She turned his knuckles over and skimmed the forming bruises. "You gave him another good parting gift to remember us by, too."

"Nothing beat your bullet."

She shook her head and took a little more of his weight as she helped him sit up. "I'm not even sure if I wounded him or not."

"You did. You grazed this fucker's shoulder. I bet he's thanking whatever god he prays to that you didn't aim a little to the right or he'd have dropped where he stood."

"Oh, God, Ethan. I almost killed someone."

His lips tightened. "It was either him or us. Besides, you didn't so don't worry about something that didn't happen."

Okay. That made sense. "You're right."

"He's lucky you pulled the trigger when you did. That knife he pulled had me seeing red. I wouldn't have stopped until he was dead, friend or not. I still feel like chasing him down and putting him in the ground for touching you." His words tore from him like a promise made on a deathbed and carried enough raw, untamed revenge she almost felt sorry for the other guy.

Ethan pushed to his knees and then feet, but stumbled forward, using the tree at his side for support. He swayed, unable to fully stand from the amount of blood loss.

"Whoa, big guy. Take it easy and slow."

"I'll be fine. I just need a minute."

"Okay, well, let's get you back to the cabin. Then I can see what I can do to treat the wound."

Ethan gave a dry chuckle. "Sure thing, Doc. Just give me a sec, will ya?"

She nodded, scanning the horizon for any sign of a repeat encounter.

"Don't worry. He won't be back anytime soon. It'll take him a while to recover from the good ass-kicking."

"I know. Now let's get moving." She mentally patted herself on the back for sounding braver than she felt, but her shaky bravado waned with the adrenaline spike and didn't stop a flourish of goosebumps from rushing over her exposed skin. It made her want eyes in the back of her head something fierce.

Ethan dropped down to a knee again.

Living in fear didn't sit well, but she wasn't exactly in her environment. She worked large zoos and local wildlife. Not wide-open spaces where crazy men more dangerous than the animals had easy pickings.

She kneeled beside Ethan and set to work cleaning off the wound the best she could. He tracked every move she made. The longer she took, the more aware of the simmering anger he locked down tight just below the surface. It swirled like a cloud around him and edged out any other emotion until it consumed his entire body with how he tensed beneath her touch.

She could see him struggle. The muscles across his shoulder and down his arms trembled every time he tried to push up and his breathing rattled. From what she saw it was a clean shot through the muscle of his calf. The pain had to be immense.

Given another chance at the asshole who did this, she wouldn't hesitate again.

A twig snapped and her head shot up.

His big hand covered her shoulder, his fingers pressing against her shirt. "You don't need to worry. He won't be breathing long enough to hurt you again."

She froze. "I wasn't worried, but now I am. What does that mean exactly?"

He relaxed against the nearest tree at his back, as though he didn't just confess to planning on killing someone, and brought his gaze to hers. "You don't need to be afraid. As soon as I recoup from the blood loss—a couple of hours tops—I'll be going hunting. This is Savage territory and that asshole just pissed all over the family for he's done. That's fine. But, no way in hell he'll get a second chance at harming you."

Her eyebrows climbed into her hairline. Oh.

"A little extreme, no? Let's leave the egos aside for the time being. Now, lean back and give yourself a minute. Let me take a look while you get your breathing under control."

With a few jerky movements, she unwound her scarf and tried to clean off the last of the crushed dead leaves and clumps of dirt stuck to his skin. He did the same to his hair and shoulders.

"I'll be fine. Let's get moving before he thinks a rematch is a good idea before I can take him on. I just need to let the pain fade a little." A dime-sized hole pierced the thick muscle of his calf. No. He wouldn't be. Her grandmother had taught her a lot about herbs and how to mix them into medicines. Many of them found right here on the side of this mountain, but none of them worked the magic he would need to do what he was talking about. And thank God for that.

"It's a clean shot, but we need to get you back to town and get it looked at." Like every man, he thought he was invincible.

With expert hands, Remy wound the cleanest part of her scarf around his leg and finished it off with a knot. They had a long walk back and they needed something to hold at least that far. Back at the cabin, she could dress it better and radio in from the plane for help.

Remy felt her mouth go dry as reality set in. They were stuck here until he could fly them out. "You sound like you know who did this. Why would whoever he is want to shoot you?"

"Before you arrived, Brax was a more or less permanent fixture of the Savage family and this town. He's been missing for the better part of three months now. No one knows what he's been up to for the most part. Until now. When I left you, I used the trees as cover and wound around the side of the lake." As Remy looked on Ethan's expression warred between settling on either pissed off or completely sickened.

"I caught him dumping buckets of something into the lake," he growled. "Before I could dive out of the way he had three rounds off. I didn't expect who I thought would be a friendly to fire at me, so he caught me off guard. I was lucky enough to catch one of those three shots."

She didn't know what to say to that, but lucky sure the hell wasn't on the list.

She pushed her glasses up a notch and thought over what he'd said. This lake system fed into a few streams that eventually fed into other lakes.

He gave a dry chuckle. "I guess we found our culprit, after all, Doc."

"If he was so close to your family, why the hell did he turn on you?"

"No idea, but I'll be finding out. He came to stay with us when we were only boys. His family lives off-grid and couldn't provide for him. My father took him in to help out, but Brax was always getting into trouble. Carried around a chip on his shoulder as long as I've known him. And now he's gotten into something that has put us both in danger."

She gripped the ends of the scarf and secured the knot tighter.

His lips tightened and fisted a clump of leaves. "Argh, damn! Not so tight!"

"Sorry. Doctor's orders. Can you stand?"

It took a couple of tries, but with a little help he managed to get upright by the third attempt.

She slipped his arm around her shoulder. "Do you remember anything else?"

"Whatever he had in those buckets required gloves and I noticed he didn't touch the water."

"I guess it's a good thing we didn't go skinny dipping earlier."

He paled. "Fuck me. We have to get back and radio in the rangers."

She agreed, but he wouldn't be making it any farther than the cabin.

For being shot he moved surprisingly fast. With one brief stop to gather her things, they closed in on the cabin within thirty minutes of setting out. The whole trip she'd been on high alert and her head on a swivel.

Remy helped Ethan up the steps of the enclosed wraparound porch encasing his cabin. "Wait inside. I have to get the first-aid kit from the plane and while I'm at it I'll radio into home base."

"Not in a million years, beautiful. We'll both go or we both stay."

"Oh no!"

He moved to push past her, but would not be responsible for putting him through more pain when she could be back in less than fifteen minutes in a hard run.

"We made good time. But you can't make it another twenty feet much less the quarter-mile. We can't afford the time lost if we don't tell them what you found." Sunshine brushed the horizon, and tiny lightning bugs twinkled like fairy lights throughout the forest, giving the menacing dusk a false sense of safety.

He gave a nod and accepted his defeat. But the way his expression darkened he didn't like it any more than she did. "Remy." Her name came out in a low, graveled whisper that begged her attention. She turned to find him leaning against the door, his skin pale. Worry screwed his face up in a frown. He limped closer and reached for her waist. "Use it if you have to." He tapped the gun strapped into her holster.

She licked her lips. "Trust me. I will."

She dashed inside and fumbled in her suitcase for a replacement scarf and wrapped it around her neck as she walked. She never left home without one and today didn't seem like a good day to leave behind her lucky charm.

When she stepped out of the door again, the heat of his gaze hit her square between the shoulder blades. Without looking back, she took the porch steps two at a time and hit the ground running. There's no telling what he put in the water or how many animals or people could die from it. At least they had the who. Now they needed to find out the why, but most importantly a way to counter whatever he dumped. And she had to make sure Ethan didn't kill the man before any of that could happen.