Nora Roberts - Black Hills

Mary came out of the cabin as two interns sprinted for radios. “The police are on their way. Fifteen minutes.”

“Send them in after us. We’re not waiting for them. You upstairs, bedroom, top left dresser drawer. Three ammo clips. Get them. Wait.” Struck, he held up a hand, looked over to the enclosures. “I need something of Lil’s, something she was wearing.”

“Sweater in the office,” Mary said. “Hold on.”

“That cat loves her. Will he track her?”

“Yes! God, yes.” Tansy pressed a hand to her mouth. “He followed her back every time she tried to release him.”

“We’re going to let him out.”

“He hasn’t been out of the habitat since he was six months old.” Matt shook his head. “Even if he leaves the compound, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”

“He loves her.” Coop took the sweater Mary brought him.

“We’ll have to separate the others.” Tansy hurried to the enclosure with him.

“Do what you have to do. Make it fast.”

He held the sweater to the bars. Baby prowled over, then grumbled in his throat. Rubbed his face against the sweater. Purred.

“Yeah, that’s right. You know her. You’re going to find her.”

Interns chicken-baited the range area while Eric pulled up the door. Baby lifted his head, looked around while his companions rushed through the feed. Then turned back, pushed his face against the sweater.

“This is crazy,” Matt said, but he stood by with the drug gun. “Get back, well back. Tansy.”

She unlocked the cage. “Find Lil, Baby. You find Lil.” Using it as a barrier, she opened it.

He slunk out slowly toward the unknown, drawn by Lil’s scent. Coop held up a hand toward Matt as the cougar approached him. “He knows me. He knows I’m Lil’s.”

Once more, the cougar rubbed against the sweater. Then he began to track. “She’s everywhere, that’s the problem. She’s everywhere.”

Baby leaped onto Lil’s cabin’s porch, called, called. Then leaped off again to circle around.

“I packed you a kit.” Mary pushed it into his hands. “Bare essentials. Put that sweater in this plastic bag. It’ll confuse him otherwise. Get her back, Cooper.”

“I will.” He watched the cat stalk over the yard, then gather himself to run for the trees. “Let’s move.”

LIL GAUGED HER time, mentally planned out routes while she sat on the rock in the dying day with the man who wanted to kill her.

Her nerves smoothed out with every minute that passed. Every minute took her mother farther away and brought Coop closer. The longer she could keep him here, the better her chances.

“Did your father teach you to kill?” She spoke conversationally, her gaze aimed west, toward the setting sun.

“To hunt.”

“Call it what you like, Ethan. You gutted Melinda Barrett and left her for the animals.”

“A cougar came. A sign. Mine.”

“Cougars don’t hunt for sport.”

He shrugged. “I’m a man.”

“Where did you leave Carolyn?”

He smiled. “A feast for the grizzlies. She gave me a good game first. I think you’ll do better. You may last most of the night.”

“Then where will you go?”

“I’ll follow the wind. Then I’ll come back. I’ll kill your parents and burn their farm to the ground. I’ll do the same with that zoo of yours. I’ll hunt these hills and live free, the way my people should have lived free.”

“I wonder how much of your view on the Sioux comes from actual truth or your father’s bastardization of the truth.”

Color flooded his face, warning her not to test him too far. “My father wasn’t a bastard.”

“That’s not what I meant. Do you think the Lakota would approve of what you do? The way you hunt down and slaughter innocent people?”

“They aren’t innocent.”

“What did James Tyler do to deserve to die?”

“He came here. His people killed my people. Stole from them.”

“He was a real estate agent from St. Paul. It’s just you and me here, Ethan, so there’s no reason to pretend this is anything but what it is. You like to kill. You like to terrorize, to stalk. You like the feel of warm blood on your hands. It’s why you use a knife. Otherwise, saying you murdered Tyler because of broken treaties, lies, dishonor, greed perpetrated by people who’ve been dead more than a hundred years would just be crazy. You’re not crazy, are you, Ethan?”

Something-a slyness-came and went in his eyes. Then he bared his teeth. “They came. They killed. They slaughtered. Now their blood feeds the ground like ours did. On your feet.”

Fear blew through her again, one icy blast. Ten minutes, she reminded herself, if he kept to his own rules. She could cover a lot of ground in ten minutes. She got to her feet.

“Run.”

Her legs quivered to. “So you can watch where I go? Is that how you track? I thought you were good at this.”

He smiled. “Ten minutes,” he said and backed into the cave.

She didn’t waste time. Her first priorities were speed and distance. Cunning had to wait. The farm was closer, but she needed to draw him away from her mother. Cooper would come from the east. She scrambled down the slope, warning herself not to sacrifice safety for speed and risk a broken ankle. Fear urged her to take the shortest, straightest route toward the compound, but she thought of the bow. He’d track her too easily that way, and he could disable her from a distance with the bow.

And any trail she left for Coop, Ethan could follow.

She veered north, and raced ahead of the dark.

AT THE CHANCE FARM, Joe stuffed extra ammo in his pockets. “We’re losing the light. We’ll use flashlights until moonrise.”

“I want to go with you, Joe.” Sam gripped Joe’s shoulder. “But I’d just slow you down.”

“We’ll stay by the radio.” Lucy handed him a light pack. “We’ll wait for word. Bring them home.”

He nodded, moved out of the door ahead of Farley.

“Be careful.” Tansy wrapped her arms around Farley, held hard and brief. “Be safe.”

“Don’t you worry.”

Outside, Farley took point with Joe ahead of the three armed men who would join them on the search. Dogs, already on the scent, bayed.

“If he’s hurt her,” Joe said quietly to Farley. “If he’s hurt either of them, I’ll kill him.”

“We will.”

MILES AWAY, Coop studied the signs Lil had left for him. He hadn’t seen the cougar since it had run into the forest. He had two college kids with him, and twilight falling fast.

He should’ve come alone, he thought now. Shouldn’t have wasted even the few minutes it had taken to outfit the backup, release the cat.

The others were ten minutes or more behind him, with some steering south, others north. He knew Joe, by the information relayed by radio, led another group headed in from the west.

And still, there were untold acres to cover.

“You two wait here for the rest to catch up.”

“You’re worried we’ll screw up, or get hurt. We won’t.” Lena looked at her companion. “Right, Chuck?”

Chuck’s eyes were huge, but he nodded. “Right.”

“If you fall behind, go back. Radio back our new direction,” he ordered Chuck, then headed southwest.

She’d left clear markings, he thought as he forced himself not to run, not to run and miss one of those markings. She was counting on him. If he hadn’t stopped to play Good Samaritan, he’d have gotten her call, he’d have convinced her to wait until he could go with her. He’d have…

No point, no point. He’d find her.

He thought of Dory. Good cop, good friend. And the long, syrupy seconds it had taken to draw his weapon.

He wouldn’t be too late, not this time. Not with Lil.