“Son of a bitch.” Sully lowered the gun he held. “Let’s spread out and find Pat. Think he’s delirious? He had a fever this morning.”
Bill nodded. “Could be. I told you one of us should stay with him. We’ve been gone since dawn and he could have made some time. One of us will have to stay here with the woman and she can work on him when we find him.”
“We should have carried him out,” Tom muttered. “I told you he could die. What if he gets himself killed out there?”
“I ain’t going to blow that fifty-thousand-dollar reward because Pat is a fool who couldn’t watch where he was going.” Sully’s tone came out harsh.
Bill nodded as he stared at Trisha were she remained sitting on ground. “I’ll stay with the woman while you two split up and search for Pat. I’d guess he would go downhill since it’s easier to travel that way. Maybe he panicked and is hunting for another team, thinking someone will pack him out or maybe he thought he could head to the highway to flag down a motorist.”
“Fuck!” Sully yelled. “Why don’t we just forget him, kill the bitch, and go track our animal? I want that fifty-thousand-dollar reward for one of those animal bastards.”
Trisha kept quiet but reeled from shock. Someone paid a fifty-thousand-dollar bounty on Slade? Who would do that? Why? She swallowed. She hoped they would forget she existed. She hated Sully for wanting to just kill her outright.
“You forget,” Bill sighed, “Pat is Thomas’ son. If we don’t go find that asshole, he’ll never give us any reward money for one of those bastards. We need to keep the woman alive until she can patch him up. We have to find that asshole and catch the animal. The animal has been using the ravines and he’ll keep to pattern. We’ll catch up to him along the ridges. Look how much time we’ve gained on him.”
“But he had the bitch slowing him.” Sully ground his teeth together and uttered a curse. “Okay. Let’s do this. Bill and I will split up. You head toward the highway in case Pat headed there. I’ll head after the animal to see if I can catch him. Hopefully he’ll stay low and I can gain on him using high ground. Tom can stay here with the bitch.”Bill shook his head. “Look at the jerk. He can’t keep from staring at her tits.”
Trisha turned her head toward Tom. He stood there holding his knife, gawking at her breasts again. He grinned.
“I’ll be happy to stay with her.”
“See?” Bill cursed. “We want her alive, dumbass. I’ll stay with the woman while you two split up to search. Tom, head for the highway.”
“Fine,” Sully agreed, shooting a glare at Tom. “You better find his ass though. I’ll hit the ridge to the west to catch the animal faster.”
“But I want to stay with her.” Tom wasn’t happy and it sounded in his high-pitched protest.
Sully pumped the shotgun. “That wasn’t you refusing to take an order, was it? I fucking hate whiners. Your daddy isn’t the moneyman on this deal and nobody gives a rat’s ass if you get shot.”
Fear settled on Tom’s baby-face features. He shook his head vigorously. “I’ll head out now.”
Trisha watched Sully and Tom pack light supplies and then both men took off in different directions. That left Bill to guard her. Trisha studied the man who stared at her. He sighed loudly.
“Hungry? Thirsty?”
“Please,” Trisha urged softly.
Bill stormed to the tent and quickly returned. He carried a soda and a plastic Ziploc bag containing some kind of sandwich. Bill stopped a few feet from her.
“Catch.”
She held out her hands. He tossed her the soda carefully. Trisha caught it and set it on the ground next to her knees. She held up her hands again and he threw the sandwich. She gave him a grateful look.
“Thank you so much.”
“Shut up,” he ordered. “I hate it when I get to know things I have to kill later on. Just eat and be quiet.”
Trisha hated peanut butter sandwiches but she didn’t complain as she chewed. She was starving and was too hungry to care what she ate. She popped the top of the soda and took long sips. She tried not to scarf her food.
She knew Bill had taken a seat on the ground about ten feet from her and silently watched her every move. She finished her sandwich and tried to save some of her soda. She didn’t want to drink it all in case Bill wasn’t generous later.
Chapter Seven
“Damn it,” Slade growled softly, watching the males from beneath some brush where he hid. His sense of hearing came in handy as he listened to them make their plans. They had Trisha. Rage gripped him and he fought back the urge to leap into the camp to kill them all.
They weren’t the same men who’d run them off the road. That meant more humans had joined in the search for him and the doc. It worried him not knowing their numbers. The camp setup alarmed him as well. They’d made a base of it in a short time, it meant they were organized, and the danger increased exponentially.
“Calm,” he ordered his mind aloud in a soft whisper.
They outnumbered him, had more weapons than he had, and the gun he had acquired wouldn’t be of much use if one of the humans used Trisha as a hostage to make him throw down his weapon and it would work. No way would he allow them to shoot her without trying to prevent it. Even if it meant tossing away his weapon and walking right up to them.
He couldn’t reach her in time to assure he took out all the threats. Her safety was paramount to him. He’d have to use his skills and kill them one by one. Attacking the camp with all of them around her would be a last resort. He’d die to try to save her regardless of the bad odds in his favor if they decided to kill her. It would be suicide for them both. A last resort.
He listened as the men planned to go find their missing injured human and track him. A plan began to form. The man with lustful eyes would die first if the other males left him alone with his woman. Slade knew the man would try to touch the doc. It wouldn’t happen. Not as long as he drew breath.
They wouldn’t find the human they sought. A smirk twisted his lips when they decided the man couldn’t be trusted not to molest Trisha. That showed they had some intelligence. When two men left the camp he lifted up, ready to attack, but then paused, watching the scene below.
The male guarding Trisha gave her food and a drink. He didn’t appear threatening. They needed her alive, her skills as a doctor believed to be needed, and she might be safer there than at his side while he took out the threats.
Indecision tore at him. He sniffed the air but didn’t scent any foreign humans in the area. It didn’t mean they weren’t near though and could show up soon. The wind played hell on his nose with the dust.
His gaze locked on Trisha. She calmly ate and drank. The guy guarding her wasn’t threatening or staring at her body in a way that indicated lustful intentions. He seemed smart enough to know that hurting her when they needed her doctoring skills would be detrimental. The asshole who’d pulled her hair would pay dearly for hurting her. He wanted to kill him first for that offense. The sooner, the better.
For now she seemed safe and if other humans returned to that camp, the male guarding her knew her value. It would be a while before they realized they didn’t need her doctoring skills. He couldn’t hide her somewhere, leave her to track the males who’d become a threat to her, and not worry that she’d be discovered again. He glared at the male watching the doc.
The guy seemed bored but he didn’t appear eager to move either. Slade slid back in the dirt, carefully kept low as he started to follow the older male who’d dared pull the doc’s hair, and his blood boiled with rage. The male would pay for causing her pain. Pay dearly.
* * * * *
The silence became awful. The breeze blew and trees whispered in the wind. Trisha heard birds in the distance. She sat under the hot sun wishing for shade. She also needed to use the bathroom. When her bladder was ready to burst she turned her head and looked at Bill.
“I have to use the restroom, please.”
He blinked. “Fine. You’re too pale to be in that sun anyway. It’s too easy to get dehydrated if your skin burns bad. I was thinking of moving you.”
“I can get up then?”
He nodded. “See the tree by the tent? Go behind it. I’ll break your legs if you try to run away from me. It isn’t an idle threat. You don’t need them to patch up Pat. You go behind the tree, do your biz, and you can be on this side of the tree under it in the shade. Is that clear enough?”“Crystal clear. Thank you.” Trisha pushed to her feet. Her body had become numb in places that painfully awoke as she remembered to limp toward the tree. She had to duck under one of the lower branches and there wasn’t much privacy but she didn’t have a choice. She unfastened her pants, bent, and quickly did her business before straightening. She walked back around the tree. Bill stood in her path.
She hadn’t heard him moving toward her. She looked up at him. Bill was a beefy man who stood at about five-foot-nine. He had harsh lines on his face from too many years in the sun and his skin was a weathered, soft brown. He frowned.
“I’m tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night so this is what we’re going to do. Back up to that tree. I want your back to it.”