“STOP!” he yelled at her.
Shiloh jerked to a halt, staggering, facing him. Blinking away the water running into her eyes, her breath coming in gasps, she faced him. Leath’s blue eyes were slits. The smile on his face sent icy terror through her. Her eyes were fixed on the pistol he held out in both his hands. His smile never wavered.
“You little bitch! You’re dead!”
A huge dark brown shape hurtled out of the muddy hole in the ground.
Shiloh screamed.
The sow grizzly bear roared, attacking Leath.
Leath jerked around, his eyes growing huge. He fired his pistol five times into the angry eight-hundred-pound female grizzly before she leaped upon him.
Shiloh blinked, backing away, hearing Leath screaming, his arms flailing as the grizzly’s five-inch fangs sank into his neck and shoulder. Blood was pouring out of the bruin’s skull where he’d shot her, and she was furious, slinging Leath around like he was a rag doll between her massive jaws. Grunting, the bear took him to the ground, her huge front paws holding his body down so he couldn’t escape.
Leath screamed weakly, raising his pistol, trying to fire it again at the angry bear.
Shiloh kept backing away, horrified. She stumbled over a rock, falling.
“I’ve got you. . . .”
Warm, strong hands caught her as she fell.
Roan!
She sobbed, jerking a look up at him as he hauled her against him, his pistol aimed directly at the distracted grizzly bear.
“Roan!” she croaked, her voice high, off pitch.
Roan pulled her around so she couldn’t see what the bear was going to do to Leath. “Come on,” he urged, tucking her beneath his arm, his arm around her waist, holding her close, holding her so she could remain upright. “He’s dead already.”
Everything became a blur. Roan was jogging down the flat, muddy road and she had wrapped her arm around his narrow waist. Her legs wouldn’t work. The cramps were so painful she was crying out, unable to run with him. Roan stopped and had hauled her up into his arms, carrying her. The rain was slowing. It was no longer bullets hurled from the sky. Unable to cry, Shiloh could only feel relief as Roan approached his truck.
It as only when Shiloh saw three sheriff’s deputy cruisers come racing up the muddy road, their flashers and sirens on, that she realized she was safe. Roan opened the passenger side of the truck and gently lifted her into the warm cab.
Shiloh stared in shock at his unreadable, wet face. He wore his black baseball cap, his face gleaming from rain, his eyes hard and narrowed. He was soaked, too. How did he know she was in trouble? Her mind was going into shock. She was safe. God, she was safe! And Leath had been killed by that grizzly bear! Roan was with her, talking to her, but she couldn’t hear him. Everything felt disjointed. Closing her eyes, Shiloh sank against the seat feeling Roan’s hands around her hands. She was safe. Leath was either dead or badly injured. Shiloh hoped he was dead. How symbolic that the monster be killed by a wild animal. He’d taken so many wild animals’ lives, made their heads trophies to remind him daily of his kills. She wiped her mouth with the back of her shaking hand.
Her hearing wasn’t working. Even the police sirens seemed far, far away. She winced when a bolt of lightning danced across the sky, followed quickly by vibrating thunder. Her chest was heaving with exertion. The cold, wet clothing was seeping into her body, making her shake uncontrollably. Shiloh didn’t feel she was any longer in control of her physical movements. Beyond exhaustion, her calves screaming with knots of unrelenting, cramping pain, she whimpered, trying to move her hand down her wet Levi’s leg.
“Are you hurt, Shiloh?”
Roan’s deep, low voice sank into her. She heard the anxiety in his tone. She opened her eyes, leaning over, pointing to her lower legs. It was impossible to talk, her brain was unable to put two coherent words together to make sense. All Shiloh could do was weakly collapse against the seat, her head tipping back on the top of the seat, eyes closed. She felt Roan pulling up her pant leg, rolling up the wet, stubborn material. And then, she felt his large, warm, wet hands find that horrible cramp. The moment he touched it, she cried out, jerking upright, her hand on his.
“No!” she sobbed. “It hurts!” and she looked deep into his dark gray eyes.