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Her head slammed into another tree and darkness embraced her.
Chapter
Two
Cade Miller forked the mix of hay, grain, and the vitamins the vet had suggested to the sick herd still in the corral past the barn. With summer finally here, the rest of his cattle could graze in the pasture east of the lake.
Everything was quiet today. Even the birds seemed to be chirping less. Why?
Was something bad coming? His mom had called him her ‘happy horse boy’ as a child. He smiled at the memory, wondering what she called him now. Probably her ‘ultra-tough military hero son’. His mom was proud of him and adored him. Nobody could claim he was happy.
His horses, cows, land, and solitude were all he needed. At least that was what he told his family and any persistent friends like Easton and Walker Coleville when they insisted on coming to visit, bringing him some of Millie’s bread or cookies, wanting to get him out rock climbing, mountain biking, or doing tricks off the thirty-foot rock shelf into his lake. Those two never gave up. He appreciated their friendship and would never tell them that. Their brother Rhett had built his house, and they had a good relationship, but their brother Clint had ruined his life.
An eerie female scream came from up the south mountainside.
A cougar?
Cade dropped the pitchfork, slid his sidearm out of the holster, and hurried around the corral. The mountain lions usually left him alone, but they loved to tear his calves apart. It never hurt to be prepared if a predator was coming after his cattle.
A scream sounded again, and then he heard gravel dislodging as something slid down the mountainside. Or someone.
He was a couple hundred yards away, but he could see a pink T-shirt, dark hair, and a distinctively feminine body tumbling down the mountainside. The woman somersaulted headfirst into a tree branch, and her screaming stopped. Her body slowed its descent as the ground began to level out.
Cade stowed his 1911 and jumped into his Ranger. The side by side was a lot faster than he could run, and he might have to haul her to his truck and the hospital. Unless she was in bad enough shape that he’d need to call for a helicopter.
His pulse sped as he raced across the dirt path around the lake and toward the switchback trail. He rarely saw hikers or even mountain bikers this deep in the mountains.
She was lying about ten feet away from the southeast side of the lake. Her head was down, long dark hair spilling around it.
Cade jammed the vehicle into park, turned the key off, and jumped out. Dropping to his knees next to her, he lifted some hair away and felt for a pulse. It was there and strong. That was good news.
Her head rolled to the side, and she groaned. So she had to be breathing. A goose egg was already forming on her forehead, but he didn’t see any blood. Good. She was wearing a tight, long-sleeved pink shirt and black running pants. The material was ripped in multiple spots, scrapes and traces of blood, but no visibly broken bones.
He pulled out his phone to call for help when she rolled over to her back and blinked her eyes open.
Blue. Blue as his mountain lake or the Montana sky. Long-lashed eyes with shapely dark eyebrows and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose and sun-browned cheeks. Her lips were straight and wide—Julia Roberts type lips. He liked them.
He blinked and focused. She looked oddly familiar. Why?
“Ma’am? I’m going to call for help. Can you tell me what and where and how bad it hurts?” He was no kind of doctor, but his eight years in the military had taught him the basics. Living up here alone, he’d learned how to bind up his cattle or keep a horse alive until the vet arrived. But this was no cow or horse. This was a beautiful woman. How had she fallen down his mountainside?
She blinked at him as if not comprehending what he said, but then suddenly her eyes widened, and terror filled them.
“It’s okay. You’re safe,” he said. Then something compelled him to add, “I won’t let anybody come at you.”
“No,” she moaned, shaking her head. “She’s coming.”
“There now. We’ll just call for help, and I’ll keep you safe until the sheriff gets here.” The sheriff. He loathed the sheriff and doubted Clint would come. He’d send a deputy to collect this beauty and avoid the confrontation with Cade.
“You cannot call.” Those blue eyes were frantic. “No. She will come for me and torture or murder you.”
She snatched the phone from his hand and hurled it away.
“What the …” Cade jumped to his feet to go retrieve his phone. What kind of woman threw someone’s phone? She was obviously not herself. He hoped.
The phone plunked into the nearby lake. Not near the shoreline, either.
He stopped in his tracks and pivoted back, looking down at her. “Good arm,” he muttered.
