Part 4
Denise photographed the truck and the tag before Wade climbed out of the ravine. By the time they reached his cabin, the low sun was touching the tops of the pines.
Noah sat on the porch step with Lark’s head lowered beside his knees. At the sound of the truck, he stood so quickly that the mare raised her head.
“You came back.”
Wade shut the truck door. “Told you.”
Denise crouched a little way from the boy rather than reaching for him.
“How’s our patient doing?”
“She eats better when I talk.”
“Then she’s lucky you’ve got plenty to say.”
Noah gave her a cautious smile.
Wade ran a hand along Lark’s neck. The old curved scar lay beneath his thumb. Now that he’d seen the holding site, he examined it differently, parting the hair around the mark. Lark let him, though her skin tightened beneath his hand.
He stopped before she had to pull away.
After Noah fell asleep, Denise sat at the table with her notebook open. Wade kept standing, moving from the stove to the window and back.
“We need to report her through the proper channels,” she said. “I can arrange a secure holding placement.”
Wade faced her. “And whose truck comes to get her?”
“Someone we check.”
“The last outfit had an agreement with the government too.”
Denise closed the notebook. “I’m not asking you to hand her to a stranger at the gate. I’m asking you to consider that this place isn’t hard to find.”
He looked toward the cot, where a small hand had worked free of the quilt.
“She kept him breathing. I won’t send her off because keeping her’s inconvenient.”
“This could be considerably worse than inconvenient.”
“I know.”
Denise waited.
Wade pulled out the other chair but didn’t sit. “I let go of enough.”
She put her notebook in her coat. At the door, she stopped beside him.
“Then don’t mistake being alone for being prepared.”
After her vehicle disappeared down the drive, Wade checked every latch. From the cabin window, he could see Lark standing under the barn overhang. Her head came up suddenly.
Across the valley, headlights showed between the trees and went dark.
Wade remained at the window until the lamp needed oil.
The following night, he laid the rifle on the table to clean it. Noah slept beneath Adam’s old quilt. Tuck shifted in the barn, and Lark stood beyond the window with her ears trained toward the gate.
Wade had let his coffee go cold. He was reaching for the lamp when he heard a sharp crack outside, followed by the rattle of the gate chain.
Lark cried out.
He took the rifle and opened the door.
Two flashlight beams moved through fresh snow near the fence. Behind them were dark coats, low shoulders, the outline of a third figure near the trees.
“Stop right there,” Wade called.
A light swung into his face.
He fired a warning into the empty dark above the field. The reply struck the porch post beside his head.
Wade dropped behind the rail. Splinters fell into his collar. Inside, Noah woke with a frightened shout.
“Floor, Noah! Away from the windows!”
Another shot struck the cabin. Wade moved off the porch into the shelter of the barn wall, keeping low. Lark was throwing herself against the paddock rail, looking between him and the cabin.
He opened the side gate.
“Go on. Get clear.”
She stepped through, then wheeled across his path. Her shoulder blocked the open ground between him and the men.
Wade tried to push her aside. “Not here, girl.”
“We’re taking the mare,” someone called. “Back off.”
Wade saw a man move beside the outer gate. He fired toward the movement, and the man dropped out of sight. A second figure raised a short-barreled capture gun.
The dart struck the fence rail as Lark surged forward.
Wade backed toward the barn, calling her with him. A second dart came from farther to his left. This one caught her high on the neck.
She stumbled.
“No.” He reached her, got the spent dart free, and put a hand against her shoulder. “Keep your feet.”
Her legs began to spread. Beyond her, the men were coming through the gate.
A body struck Wade from behind.
He hit the frozen ground on his injured shoulder, lost his breath, and felt a boot scrape beside his face.
“Stay down,” the man said. “We didn’t come for you.”
Wade twisted, drove an elbow backward, and struggled onto one knee. His knife caught the attacker’s heavy coat as the man lunged again. The man recoiled, cursing, and something struck the snow near Wade’s hand.
A handgun.
Wade grabbed it and shoved it inside his coat as he scrambled toward the rifle.
“Noah, go!” he shouted.
The cabin door banged open.
The boy came out barefoot. For an instant Wade thought he would run toward the porch steps and shelter beneath them. Instead, Noah went straight to Lark.
She had sunk low on her hind legs. The boy threw his arms around her neck.
“Don’t take her!”
Wade shouted for him to get away, but a man was already reaching for him. Wade fired the rifle’s remaining round as another gun came up. The man nearest the fence fell with a cry, clutching his leg.
The third attacker caught Noah’s arm and pulled.
Lark rose.
For a moment she stood higher than Wade thought possible, her forequarters lifting as she drove herself toward the man. He released the child and fell backward. Noah tumbled into the snow.
The mare planted herself over him, trembling so hard that Wade could see it from several yards away. She lowered her muzzle to the boy’s face.
A shot came from the gate.
Lark flinched, tried to turn, and fell beside Noah…
To read the rest of the story – CLICK the NEXT button 👇👇👇