Half-hidden in the shadows of the shed, the security light revealed a wolf sitting, watching the house.
A shiver stole up her spine. Was it the one that had knocked Rourke out and come after her? No, this one didn’t have any blood on his nose. She squinted her eyes, trying to get a better look. Its darker gray fur blended with beige and its snout had the same pretty beige on top, white underneath. Was he the one that Hunter said attacked the other then?
Maybe Hunter was right. She wouldn’t want anyone to shoot a good animal.
She opened the window and tried to get a closer look. The animal’s ears twitched and his eyes focused on her. He didn’t seem vicious, but he was still feral.
She closed the window and returned to the living room with the medicine.
“Hunter,” she said, trying to wake him.
He looked up at her, his eyes glassy. He closed his eyes and moaned.
“No, Hunter, take this medicine. We need to bring down the fever. Hunter!”
Rourke touched her arm and she nearly dropped the glass.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice ragged with sleep.
“He’s burning up and I can’t get him to take anything for it.”
“Here, let me.” Rourke helped Hunter sit up and forced the pill down his throat, but Hunter growled and bit him. Rourke jerked his finger free. “Hell, Hunter, I’m only trying to help.”
“Let me get some antibiotics for that. Jeez. What next?” Tessa asked.
“I just hope to hell the wolf that bit him didn’t have rabies.” Rourke helped Hunter lie back down and joined Tessa in the kitchen. “He seems to be sleeping all right.”
“Restlessly.” She washed Rourke’s finger in the sink and glanced out the window. No sign of the wolf. “Hunter broke the skin.”
“I noticed. Here I get off pretty easily by surviving the wolf attack, resulting in only a lump as big as a melon on the back of my head and one hell of a headache, and the ex–Navy SEAL bites me instead.”
“You can write it in your memoirs some day.” She coated his finger in antibacterial ointment and then wrapped a bandage around it. “At this rate, I’m going to have to buy a whole lot more medical supplies. By the way, I saw one of those wolves out back.” She got Rourke a couple of pills for his headache.
He leaned against the sink and peered out the window. “I don’t see anything but snow.”
“He’s gone now, but it’s not the one who attacked us. He had a bloody nose. This one didn’t have a mark on it.”
“If they were fighting, how did he get away without a scratch?”
“Maybe it was hurt somewhere I couldn’t see. I just know it wasn’t the one that came after us. Can you get back to sleep?”
Rourke took the pills, drowned them with a glass of water, and followed Tessa into the living room. “Why don’t you try sleeping for a while? I’ll watch Hunter and the house for a couple of hours.”
She ran her hand over Hunter’s temple, his face flushed and sweaty. “I hope the roads are clear enough in the morning. No matter what condition they’re in, we’re going to have to chance taking Hunter to the clinic.”
Everyone was fast asleep when the doorbell rang at six in the morning. Déjà vu. Immediately, Tessa bolted upright from the sofa opposite the one Hunter slept on. Rourke opened a sleepy eye as he lay back on the recliner. Hunter continued to sleep, his face still red.
She studied the door. “If there’s no one there, I’m not opening the door.”
“I’ll get it,” Rourke offered, pulling the blanket off his lap.
“No. Last time you did, it was a disaster. Are… are you okay? You look a little feverish.”
The doorbell rang again.
Tessa rushed to peek through the peephole. “Oh, hell,” she whispered. “It’s Ashton and he’s got a rifle.”
Rourke hurried to join her. “Since Ashton got here safe and sound, maybe we can take his truck and get Hunter to the hospital.”
“He’s got a gun!”
“He won’t know what hit him.” Rourke bolted across the living room, grabbed the fireplace poker, and then rejoined Tessa at the front door. “Okay, open it.”
“You’re not going to hit him with that, are you?”
“I’m just going to persuade him to let us use his truck so we can take Hunter in for heavy-duty antibiotics and sutures.”
Ashton rang the doorbell again.
“Hide the poker behind your back and don’t hit him. I’ll try to convince him to agree to help us.”“Hey! Hunter! It’s me, Ashton! I got my dad’s permission to be here.”
Tessa glanced at Rourke. He shrugged. “Let him in.”
Her heart pounding hard, she unlocked the door and opened it. Ashton was more cheerful than she had seen him in months. His blue eyes sparkled with humor and his grin couldn’t have been any more friendly, but his jaw was slightly bruised.
“Where’s Hunter? I told him I’d help him locate the stalker. He made me get my dad’s approval first. Dad and I went around and around about it late into the night, but I finally wore him down. Hey, you look a little ill, Rourke.”
Tessa looked at him. “Oh, Rourke, your face is as red as Hunter’s.” She clapped a hand on his forehead. “You’re burning up, too.”
Ashton peered around them at the mess in the living room, and his mouth gaped. “What the hell happened? Did the stalker break in? I knew I should have stayed.”
“A wolf attacked Hunter. We’ve got to get him to the clinic. Can you get us there?” She closed the door.
Ashton swore under his breath. “He’s got a fever.”
“The animal might have been rabid,” Tessa warned.
“I sure hope the hell he wasn’t. Hunter bit me!” Rourke raised his bandaged finger to show Ashton.
“I’m not sure I want to know how that happened.” Ashton set his rifle down. “Let’s get Hunter to the truck. We’ll go to the hospital emergency room. I have chains on my tires, so we should be able to make it.”
“Thanks, Ashton,” Tessa said, relieved that he would help without resorting to Rourke’s tactics. She wondered if Rourke had wanted to clobber Ashton though, for what he’d pulled with her out by the shed.
“It’s nothing. Rourke, can you help me? Or are you too sick?”
“I’ll help.”
Tessa got the front door and then the truck door while Ashton and Rourke carried Hunter to the extended cab. As strong as Hunter seemed, she couldn’t believe how sick he was. Which was ridiculous. As torn up as he was, infection had to have set in. He was only human after all.
She threw on her parka and grabbed blankets, a pillow, and her purse. Rourke yanked on his parka and gloves, and they climbed into the truck.
“So what the hell happened?” Ashton pulled out of the frozen driveway.
Tessa knew her vehicle would never have made it. Rourke’s either, since his had slipped into a ditch even before the storm had worsened.
“A wolf knocked Rourke unconscious and came after me. Hunter was searching for the stalker.”
“Oh.”
Ashton sounded so guilty, she immediately became suspicious. “What?”
“He found me looking for the stalker instead.” Ashton rubbed his jaw. “I guess I distracted him from his mission for a time. Sorry, Tessa. I had to tell him I was there to protect you. I’d promised Michael.”
“You did? Thanks, Ashton.” Maybe the jerk was salvageable after all. She hadn’t thought he could ever be.
“I shot Hunter because I thought he was the stalker.”
She barely breathed. “Have you seen the guy then?”
“Yeah. He’s tall like Hunter. Dark-haired, too. It really was an honest mistake. I have to tell you, I couldn’t go to the trial, Tessa. I thought Michael was guilty of murdering Bethany. I thought he did it because she was seeing some other guy, and he found out.”
“You were the other guy,” Tessa said, her voice bitter.
“Yeah. But he’d asked me, begged me to watch out for you. I promised him I would. Believe me, I really didn’t think there was anything to worry about concerning your safety. That first night I was out there, I saw someone peeking in the windows. I think Michael already knew there was someone, but like with me seeing Bethany, he couldn’t catch the guy in the act. Anyway, I hollered at the Peeping Tom. Asked him what the hell he was doing. He took off running. Really fast dude. Just like Hunter when he charged up the hill toward me the other night.”
“He was getting firewood. He was wearing Michael’s clothes.”
“He wasn’t getting firewood when I saw him. He was naked.”
Tessa closed her gaping mouth and stared at Ashton in disbelief.
“He began yanking Michael’s clothes out of a plastic sack and jerked them on. I didn’t recognize the sweats. But I did see the familiar eagle on the back of the field jacket and knew it was Michael’s. So I thought maybe he’d gotten into the house and stolen some of Michael’s things.”
She cast a glance over the seat. Hunter was sound asleep, the blankets tucked under his chin. What in the world had Hunter been doing undressing and dressing in the bitter cold? Unless Ashton had been drunk, like she’d suspected, despite what Hunter had said.
“So I didn’t know what to think. After Rourke said Hunter was an ex–Navy SEAL, I realized what he was doing. Hardening himself for the worst conditions he would have to face. That way he could survive anything. If I’d done what he had, I would have double pneumonia.”
But Hunter wasn’t an ex–Navy SEAL. If he hadn’t been gathering firewood, she figured he would have been searching for the intruder. He wouldn’t have been naked.
“Okay, I give, Rourke. How’d Hunter bite you?” Ashton asked.
He didn’t respond. Tessa looked at him. He was sleeping, his head propped against the cold window. She wished she had brought some more pillows. At least they had plenty of blankets if they got stuck. Although she hadn’t considered taking them for that reason.