Don't Cry for Me

Warren held up his lantern as he made a 360-degree turn, his gaze fixed on the inky darkness of the woods.

“What in hell did this?” he asked.

Millard was crying. “Samson’s not here. I can’t find him anywhere. Maybe he ran off. Maybe he got away.”

“Look. Here’s drag marks,” Warren said, as he swung the lantern to their left. “What in hell could do all this without the dogs bringing it down? I don’t understand. It damn sure wasn’t a cougar. It would have just took to the trees, not fought a pack of dogs like this.”

“Maybe a bear?” Millard said.

“I guess, but not even a full-grown black bear would take on a pack of eight dogs.”

“Well, something did, and whipped ’em bad,” Millard said.

“Here, the drag marks lead—”

He stopped in his tracks, staring down at the ground.

“What?” Millard asked.

Warren swung his lantern again. “Come here, Millard. Look at this.”

Millard moved closer to the light, saw the paw print and squatted down, using his hand to measure the size.

“Son of a bitch,” he whispered, then stood abruptly and swung his rifle into position against his shoulder.

“I never saw a black bear big enough to make a track like that,” Warren said.

Millard shuddered. “We need to get back to the truck.”

“But what about the dogs?” Warren asked.

“They’re dead. You wanna be next?”

Warren shook his head. “It’s not right to just leave them out here to rot. They’re like family, damn it.”

“We’ll come back in daylight,” Millard said.

“I don’t know about you, but right now I’m not too sure about where we are. How the fuck do you suppose we’ll find ’em again?”

“Buzzards,” Millard answered grimly. “Now let’s get the hell out of here while we’re still in one piece.”

The men eyed the sky, found the North Star and started running.

* * *

Mariah woke up the next morning to the sounds of birds singing and the scent of freshly brewing coffee, and wondered where the hell she was. Then she heard Quinn talking to someone on his phone and remembered that her life had taken a one-eighty for the better.

Without registering the indentation on the other pillow, she threw back the covers. Her muscles were stiff and, as usual these days, aching in too many places. But she silently gave herself the “at least you’re alive” pep talk as she swung her legs off the mattress and stood up.

Almost immediately, her injured leg gave way. She grabbed the back of the sofa to steady herself, and waited until the feeling came back and she was confident it would hold her weight before trying to walk.

She waved self-consciously at Quinn as she headed for the bathroom. He winked and waved back, but she could tell by the tension in his face that something was wrong. Whatever it was, she would prefer to hear it fully dressed. After she used the bathroom and washed up, she dug a pair of clean sweats from her bag and then finger-combed her unruly curls. The fact that her heart-shaped face was devoid of makeup was standard for a female soldier in combat. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were as dark as her hair, and her eyes were what Quinn called cat-green. In her opinion, there was nothing remarkable about any of it. Anxious to find out what had put the frown on Quinn’s face, she headed back into the kitchen.

“Do you want eggs and bacon or something lighter, like cereal?” Quinn asked.

“Forget feeding me. I can do that myself. What’s wrong?”

“We may have a new lead on that rogue bear.”

“Oh, Lord, please tell me it did not attack another person.”

“Two hunters were running their dogs about fifteen miles from here last night. They heard them strike a trail, then what sounded like a massacre. By the time they found them, seven dogs were dead and one had been dragged off. They found tracks from a very large bear. My boss down at the ranger station said they’ve called back the trackers and their dogs. I hope to hell they find it this time. If it’s no longer in the national forest area, then it’s way too close to civilization.”

Mariah shuddered. “What do you have to do?”

“The local authorities will tell the residents to stay out of the woods, and keep kids and animals close by. I wasn’t supposed to work today, but this has changed everything.”

“I don’t need anyone to babysit me, Quinn. This sounds like a dangerous situation. Go do what you have to do. I’ll be fine. I’m grateful to be here.”

Quinn didn’t have a choice. But he wasn’t willing to leave her unprotected.

“Pour yourself some coffee. I’ll be right back,” he said, and bolted up the stairs to the loft.

Mariah poured a cup of coffee and was stirring in sugar when he came down carrying a rifle and a box of shells.

“I don’t believe the bear will ever make it this far down before it’s found, but I saw what it did to those two hikers, so I’m playing it safe. Under no circumstances should you be outside today, okay? Bears can move really fast, and you can’t.”

She reached for the rifle. “Can I see it?”

He handed it to her. He knew she could use it, but he didn’t know how this would affect her mentally.

“I need to ask you something,” he said.

“Okay, ask away.”

“Can you be here by yourself, under this kind of tension, and not suffer some kind of setback?”

“You mean, is this gonna make me freak?”

He grimaced. “Yeah, something like that.”

“Then the answer is no. I have that phone you gave me. I have a house full of food, a bed and a TV, and if I need to protect myself, I obviously can. Go do your job and quit worrying about me.”

“I’ll call to check on you, and if you get spooked about anything—and I mean anything—then by God, you better call me.”

“I promise.”

He started toward the door, then stopped. “Damn, I hate this. This isn’t the way I planned to get you settled in.”