Her Mountain Sanctuary. Jeannie Watt

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СКАЧАТЬ the red Jeep he’d climbed into. It had passed her a time or two as she’d ridden her mare along the county road toward Dani Brody Matthews’s place. Dani was the only Brody sister who didn’t have a house on the Lightning Creek Ranch. Instead she and her husband lived in a beautiful stone and glass house on the road leading to the trestle bridge—the road to Drew Miller’s house.

      The thought of him being near shouldn’t bother her. He wasn’t her attacker—just a guy with a similar build, who probably had PTSD.

      Lightning forked through the sky on the other side of the valley and Sully abandoned his chew toy to follow Faith into the mudroom where she slipped into her barn coat. She still had to feed the animals and it seemed wise to do it now, before the storm hit for real. After all the hungry equine mouths had been fed, she’d come back in, nuke a TV dinner, sip her wine and do her best to forget about having to deal with Debra Miller-Hill, whose brother she wouldn’t be helping. She would have loved to tack on “through no fault of her own,” but she’d been the one to back off.

      Faith had no idea whether Drew Miller would discuss the matter when his sister brought it up, but she hoped that if he did, it wouldn’t affect her job. Debra had been registrar for less than a year, but she already had a reputation for being hyperaware of everything that went on in her department. In other words, she tended to micromanage anyone who was on her radar, and she was all about appearances. And loyalty. The woman was insecure and defensive, and Faith had a bad feeling that she was sitting right smack in the middle of Debra’s radar screen.

      * * *

      DREW SLOWED THE open-top Jeep as he passed the Lightning Creek Ranch, though he would have preferred to have gunned it. He could see the rain coming in the rearview mirror and he had no desire to get caught in a downpour. He shot a look at the ranch buildings as he passed. Lights shone in the windows of two of the houses—the main house closest to the road and a small house on the far side of the pasture. His would-be therapist’s house, no doubt.

      He fixed his eyes back on the road, swerving to miss a pothole. One reason Deb had been so adamant about trying the horse-petting program, aka equine therapy—he really hated the word therapy—was because he and Faith were practically neighbors. Like that affected anything. But his sister was one to grab at anything she could find to win an argument.

      Usually, she didn’t win so much as wear him down. This time she didn’t win or wear him down because he wasn’t going to have her poking her nose into his mental health, especially when he was convinced that her concern was more about blowback on herself than because she gave a rat’s ass about him.

      And then there was Faith Hartman. He’d expected her to be like his sister—superficially concerned about him, ready to “help” in exchange for remaining in his sister’s good graces and receiving a healthy session fee.

      She hadn’t been anything like he’d expected. She’d appeared serious, honest, sincere.

      Jumpy as hell.

      She’d visibly drawn into herself when he’d taken a seat on the opposite side of the booth and even though she’d squared her shoulders and met his gaze, it had cost her. There’d been a haunted look in her wide green eyes, giving him the feeling that Faith had a few issues of her own. What made a woman who appeared to have backbone go pale at the sight of him?

      Drew slowed again as he passed the beautiful stone, wood and glass house where his nearest neighbors—his former classmate, Dani Brody, and her husband, Gabe—lived. Near being a relative term. Drew’s cabin was another three miles up a road that rapidly degenerated from maintained gravel to rutted dirt. And regardless of what his sister thought was best, he liked living on a rutted, unmaintained road. Maddie was good with it, too. In fact, she loved the bouncy ride to the cabin on the weekends.

      He’d talked about the situation with Pete and Cara and they’d agreed that when summer vacation started, Maddie would stay at the cabin more often but return to their place at night. She didn’t know about the plan and still thought she’d be at the cabin full-time, but hopefully, between Drew and Pete and Cara, they could help her understand why this was the best course of action—why he didn’t want her at the cabin if he came unhinged during the night. The thought of Maddie being there if he woke up yelling or punching a wall ruined him.

      The sky was getting darker and he could smell the rain that was going to catch him if he didn’t step on the gas.

      Thunder cracked behind him as he negotiated a corner, and then the rain started, spattering on the windshield, the seat beside him, his jeans and shoulders. He dodged a couple ruts and accelerated. Another two miles.

      Lightning flashed as he rounded a corner, illuminating the white-tailed buck standing in the middle of the road. Drew swerved hard to the right, just missing the animal, then cranked the wheel back toward the road too late.

      The front tire caught the berm, jerking the rig sideways. It teetered on the edge of the embankment before crashing down on its side and then rolling over onto its top.

      Drew was thrown sideways and he smacked his head on something, making stars explode in his vision as the Jeep came to a rest on the roll bar. He hung from his seat belt as the rain began to pound.

       CHAPTER TWO

      FAITH HAD JUST thrown the last of the hay when she heard the crash. She turned toward the sound, pushing the damp hair back from her forehead. She wore a hooded raincoat, but the wind was now blowing sideways, driving rain into her face and down her back.

      Too loud and metallic to be a gunshot. Too close to ignore.

      Lightning flashed and when the sky darkened again, she saw the odd lights pointing into the sky where there should only be darkness. Mini floodlights...or headlights.

      Her heart started pounding as she raced to the two-passenger ATV parked inside the open barn. Sully abandoned the kittens he’d been playing with and bounded over the door into the passenger seat. Faith’s phone was still in the house, so she stopped at the end of the walk, raced inside and grabbed it, dialing 911 as she headed back to the vehicle and climbed onboard. She pushed Sully farther onto his side of the seat so she could move her arm without bumping him.

      The call put her straight through to sheriff dispatch. She explained that she’d heard a crash and now there were lights pointed into the sky. The operator promised to send a deputy as soon as one was available. Did she need an ambulance? That would take time, too. There’d been an accident on the rain-slicked roads just outside of town.

      “I’ll update you when I get there.” Faith dropped the phone in her pocket and roared past the dark house Dani Brody and her husband called home. It was close to six o’clock. People should be getting home soon, but right now she was the only game in town.

      Rain pelted the windshield and blew in through the open sides of the ATV. Faith’s wet fingers were getting numb from the cold. She followed the tracks that the rain was rapidly washing away, rounded a corner and saw the lights carving their way through the dark sky, pointing toward the tops of the tall fir trees ahead.

      The ATV slid sideways in the slick mud as she approached the place where the tracks headed over the edge of the road, and she slowed, then stopped. She told Sully to stay, then jumped off the vehicle and headed toward the embankment. As she got closer, she heard the sound of rolling rocks over the rain. A few seconds later, a head appeared over the top of the berm.

      Faith СКАЧАТЬ