Reagan rolled her eyes at the gentle tone Carter used on the horse. It was the same tone he used on her when she was upset. But instead of being angry, it brought a smile to her face. Carter was a gentle, loving man, and in the darkness of the night she saw his outline as he slowly approached the horse.
“It’s okay, girl. We’re here now. How are you, sweet thing?” Carter said gently as he held out his hand for the horse to sniff. She snorted and pawed her hoof into the ground as Reagan came slowly forward.
“We need to keep her as quiet as we can,” Reagan whispered as she held out her hand. The mare nuzzled it, then nuzzled Carter’s shoulder as recognition set in.
“I need to see how badly she’s injured,” Carter whispered back as he began to run his hands over her. “She’s bleeding. I can’t find where in the dark.”
He continued his exam and Reagan barely saw him shake his head in the dark. “Her leg is on fire. If I could see better, I am guessing she has quite the limp. There’s a major injury to her leg, but luckily it doesn’t appear to be broken.”
Reagan began running her hand up Miss Mambo’s nose, behind her ear, and down her neck. Suddenly her hand was bathed in a wet warmth. Reagan sucked in a breath as Carter stood up. “What is it?”
“There’s a huge gash on her shoulder. I can feel it and it’s bad.” Carter slid his hand down her arm until he felt the cut. Miss Mambo stirred uneasily as Carter applied pressure to the gash.
“We need to stop the bleeding. It’s a slow seep, but after too long a period, she could lose too much blood,” Carter whispered as he continued to press on the cut.
“Let me see what I can find,” Reagan murmured as she felt her way through the dark. There had been a tree covered in the invasive kudzu vines somewhere nearby. She just had to find it, in the dark, while not making a sound. Easy.
Reagan tried to keep the weight off her injured ankle but was pleased to find it held up much better now that she’d been off it for a number of hours. It took her at least ten minutes, but she finally felt the tangle of the vines and dense foliage of the kudzu slowly suffocating the large oak tree.
Reagan felt for a vine and then reached as high as she could and yanked. The ripping sound of the vine separating from the tree seemed to echo through the woods and Reagan was sure Mick could hear it. The vine loosened its hold but didn’t fall, so Reagan used all her weight as she pulled it to the ground. The long vine fell with a crash. She lay silent until the forest returned to its natural level of noise. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and began to loop the long vine around her shoulder before making her way back toward Carter. Along the way, she plucked a handful of dessert-plate-sized maple leaves for a bandage.
“Here,” Reagan whispered, handing Carter the leaves. “Place those over her wound so there are no gaps. I’ll tie them on with the kudzu vines with enough pressure to help the bleeding stop.”
“Great idea,” Carter said, taking the leaves and placing them on Miss Mambo’s wound. “The pressure helped. The bleeding has almost stopped, but this will help even more.”
Carter held the leaves in place as Reagan placed the middle of the vine on the leaves and walked back and forth between both sides of the sweet mare to wrap the vine under her belly and then over her shoulder until there was no more vine left. She tucked in the end pieces and stepped back to see if it held.
“You did it,” Carter said, wrapping his arm around her and kissing her temple. “Now you two ladies rest. I’m going to grab more vines to make a lead for her. In a couple hours the sun will rise and we’ll be on the move again.”
Reagan found a stump and walked Miss Mambo over to it as Carter went off in the direction of the vines. She took a seat and Miss Mambo dropped her head and snorted into Reagan’s hair. She grinned in the dark as the large horse nuzzled her head. Just a few more hours and then they’d be on their way.
Carter made his way back to them in the dark with a length of vine. He used it to attach to Miss Mambo’s halter and then pulled Reagan from the trunk and sat on the ground, having her sit between his legs. She leaned back against his chest as Miss Mambo munched on some grass. “Sleep for a little while. I have you. Miss Mambo is feeling well enough to eat. That’s a good sign. And before long, we’ll be on our way.” Carter tightened his arms around her as she rested her head against his shoulder. Even though she didn’t think it was possible, Reagan’s eyes began to shut and soon she was fast asleep.
* * *
Carter didn’t dare close his eyes as Reagan slept against him. He held her close to him as she turned and rested her cheek against his chest and slept. Estimating their pace and the amount of hours they were moving, Carter guessed they’d traveled about fifteen miles. If the town was twenty-five or thirty miles from the crash site, they’d hit that small town in the afternoon. That is, if they didn’t stop much. They’d traveled for a solid ten hours the day before and they had to have made it at least halfway.
One thing worried Carter, though. With Miss Mambo they would not be able to sneak through the woods or stream anymore. They would become a larger and louder target, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave the horse behind. Not in woods filled with predators, human and otherwise. Mick downed that plane in hopes of killing Miss Mambo and Suzanne in order to collect the insurance. For him it was all about money. If he came across Miss Mambo in the woods, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her.
Though by now, Carter didn’t know how Mick would talk his way into the role of victim. If Mick were still following them, surely the police would be looking for the rest of the plane’s occupants. And what about Paul, Daniel, and Stewart? Were they alive or had Mick killed them before coming after him and Reagan?
As the questions ran through his head, the sun began to creep above the horizon. The questions would have to wait. Now was the time to move. The more distance they could keep between Mick and themselves, the better.
“Rea,” Carter whispered as to not alarm her. “It’s time to wake up.”
Carter gently squeezed her arm and Reagan bolted upright, her eyes wild. “What is it?”
“It’s okay. The sun is up, and I thought we better get going,” Carter said evenly as to not alarm her in any way.
Reagan nodded as she rubbed her hand over her face and stood up gingerly. She tested her ankle by flexing her toes and then carefully put some weight on it. She grinned over him, and Carter felt relieved by her optimistic look. “It’s better!”
“All better or better from yesterday?” Carter asked standing up.
“Mostly better. I’ll see how it feels after walking for a bit, but I’d say it’s at seventy-five percent and that’s a lot better from how it was yesterday. I should be able to make faster time now. Come on, let’s go.”
Hope finally sparked as he followed Reagan. She moved noticeably more easily through the woods toward the stream that was quickly turning into a small river the farther down the mountain they got.
“Rea, I think the water is moving too quickly for Miss Mambo. There’s an animal path we passed a minute ago that appears to follow the water. I think we should take that.”
Reagan looked down the stream and nodded. She turned and stepped toward him when the bark from the tree she’d been standing next to exploded at the same time a rifle shot was heard. Carter leaned forward, grabbed Reagan’s hand and shoved her forward. “Go!”
Reagan didn’t have to be told twice. She took off running. Carter tightened his grip on a scared Miss Mambo and followed on Reagan’s heels. Miss Mambo snorted, protesting being pulled along, but came without a fight as they turned down the small animal path.
“He took that shot from a good distance,” Reagan yelled as she ran with a slight limp.
“How do you know?” he yelled over the sound of Miss Mambo’s snorts and hoofbeats.