Fierce Wanderer Read Free Page B

think it was the Strickets?” Blake asked.
    “Probably. Let’s go tell Jude.”
    Hera came over the rise before they could reach it. He’d told her to stay put. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
    She arched an eyebrow. “Coming to see whatever’s keeping you—oh.”
    Her nose lifted in disgust when she saw the entrails decorating the gate. Then she started backing away toward the house, smelling like fear.
    “This isn’t you,” he reassured her. “It’s not because of you. It’s an old ranching family that doesn’t like us.”
    He wanted to pull her close and reassure her with his arms, rub his face against her hair. It surprised him. Calm down, Blake. It’s just a woman . Just a woman, he thought. This woman couldn’t be just a woman. She seemed…special. He rubbed his hair back from his forehead, not quite believing his mind. Sure, he was attracted to her. But he’d been attracted to other women, and none of them seemed to matter as much as this one did.
    She still looked afraid. “They know where I am,” she whispered.
    “They can’t,” he said. “I lost them on the drive over.”
    She shook her head like she didn’t believe him.
    “Look, we’ll drive into Findley and talk to the Strickets. You’ll see. They just play these pranks to piss us off.”
    “Why?”
    “They don’t like my family.”
    “Some kind of feud?” she asked. “Which are you, the Hatfields or the McCoys?”
    He shook his head. “It’s not like that. We never do anything to them. They just…hate us.”
    She looked doubtful, and he wanted to brush the anxious pout off her lips with his thumb. She was getting to him, and he didn’t need a complication.
    “Look, we’ll go talk to them. Find out if it was really them who pranked us. Then we can sleep easily tonight.”
    “What about Reno?” she asked.
    “I think we should wait until tomorrow morning, so we’re not driving at night.”
    “I thought it was only fifty miles.”
    “It’s sixty. And fifty of them are curvy mountain roads. It takes at least a couple hours.”
    She nodded. “Okay.”
    So she could listen to sense. That was good to know. “Mav’ll take care of the mess, let’s get going.”
    Mav growled. Blake sent him a little finger wave. It felt so good to pick on his little brother.

Chapter Seven
    “You need me to slow down a little?”
    His voice was dark and husky. It made Hera think of the bedroom. No, don’t go there, she told herself. She had too many things to get done. “Your driving’s fine. I know I’m not the one in charge, because you offered to drive me and all, but I really want to be in Reno by tomorrow.”
    “No problem, we’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
    “Okay.” She leaned her head back against the seat. Her arm was throbbing. Maybe she should have taken that ibuprofen anyway.
    Blake sped around another curve, and she gripped the edge of the seat with her good hand. No, she’d rather have pain than puking. She closed her eyes, willing the trip to be over soon.
    “What do you hope to accomplish by this?” she asked.
    “Prove to you, and me, that it was the Strickets who left the mess, not whoever’s after you.” She could hear the question in his pause, before he even asked it. “Do you want to tell me who’s after you? Or what’s in Reno?”
    She sighed. May as well. “If you were looking for my wallet, you probably found the folder.”
    “Guilty,” he said.
    She tried not to think about whatever underwear she’d packed. He’d probably seen that, too. In fact, guessing from the smug smile on his face, he definitely saw it.
    “The man in all of them, he’s my ex-fiancé.”
    “I guess he’s passing around drugs?”
    “That’s right. I thought he was cheating, and I hired a PI to follow him. The PI sent me the photos, and then disappeared. I don’t know if he was killed, or if he thought to get away for his own safety.”
    “For his own safety?” Blake looked puzzled. “And why