The Challenger Read Free Page A

Slocum threw the words down like a dare.
    Jake’s face grew darker, and Sam’s mind raced, trying to think of something, anything, to say. Her instincts told her this could explode into a fight. If itdid, Jake wouldn’t lose, but he’d suffer for it. A teenager couldn’t slug it out with an adult—no matter how much he deserved it—and not get in trouble.
    She glanced at Rachel for help, but she was already standing by the Cadillac. Once the conversation had turned away from her, she’d lost interest.
    On her own, Sam blurted, “Isn’t there a certain season for hunting mountain lions? Like there is for other animals?”
    â€œAsk him.” Slocum’s finger pointed at Jake again.
    Jake shrugged. If he knew, he wasn’t telling.
    Linc passed his car keys from one hand to the other, making them jingle. “Time to go,” he said, and turned back toward the car.
    â€œSam?” Rachel held the car door open, but Sam didn’t get in.
    â€œThanks,” she said. “It was fun, but I need to talk with Mrs. Ely about a history question. I’ll, uh, have Jake drive me home later.”
    Jake didn’t contradict her, thank goodness.
    â€œOn a Saturday?” Rachel raised an eyebrow, not believing Sam for a minute. “What kind of question could be so important?”
    Sam figured it was just bad luck that Rachel was in her class. It didn’t matter that Rachel was a junior repeating a freshman class. She still knew they had no homework.
    â€œThat’s some serious kissing up.” Rachel climbed into the car and slammed the door.
    Before he joined her inside the Cadillac, Linc stared at Jake across the vehicle’s gleaming roof.
    â€œEly,” he said.
    Jake didn’t answer, but he lifted his chin, showing Slocum he’d heard.
    â€œWhen I go after that cat, don’t get in my way.”
    A minute later, Linc gunned the engine so loudly, the Elys’ goose honked a protest. Linc accelerated, sand and gravel spitting from the car’s back tires. In seconds, nothing was left but dust rolling in interlocking swirls, chasing their own tails.
    When Sam looked back over her shoulder, Jake was gone. He was walking toward the barn, leaving Royal tied at the corral. So Sam did what Jake always accused her of. She tagged along.
    She didn’t say a word. She got more out of Jake if she waited for him to talk.
    Nate was more direct with his little brother.
    â€œWhat was that all about?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the fresh straw he was forking into a stall. Just as Sam didn’t try prying an answer out of Jake, Nate didn’t even look at him.
    â€œOld ways and new,” Jake said.
    That didn’t make much sense, Sam thought. Neither did the way Jake watched his brother wield the pitchfork as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.
    Sam sat down on a bale of straw, just out of the way, and kept listening.
    â€œIs he part of the new way?” Nate jerked his head in the direction Slocum had gone.
    â€œYeah.” Jake leaned to pluck a piece of straw from the mound. “Make an enemy where there isn’t one. Kill before there’s a reason.”
    â€œJust in case.” Nate put in.
    Sam tried jumping to a conclusion. “You both think he’s a coward,” she guessed.
    Nate gave a half smile. “Who’d say that about a neighbor?”
    â€œYou guys would, just not directly,” Sam insisted.
    â€œLook, the cougars aren’t hurtin’ anybody. The she-cat is limping.” Jake sank down to sit next to her, then closed his eyes and rubbed his leg. When he opened them and saw Sam watching, he added, “They’re not going after Buddy.”
    Startled, Sam said, “If you don’t want me to make comments about that Indian mysticism stuff, you should stop reading my mind.”
    He pushed to his feet.
    â€œJake, I was teasing.”
    He walked out of the