Jensen’s lips pressed together in a tight line. “Okay. Please be careful.”
“Always.” I crept up the side of the fallen tree until I had a sightline to where I knew the shooter was. Nothing. I steadied my breathing and cleared my mind. Listening. Truly listening for any sounds that shouldn’t have been there.
The rushing water of the falls behind us didn’t make things easy. At first, there was nothing I could place. And then, finally, I heard something that didn’t belong. An engine. An all-terrain vehicle if I had to guess. I scanned the forest around us. He was gone.
I sank back to the ground. “He took off.”
Jensen stayed where she was. “You’re sure?”
I nodded and reached out a hand to help her sit up. She winced as she did. “What’s wrong?” I was instantly on alert. Could she have been hit and I hadn’t realized it? I immediately began scanning her legs, I started to lift up her shirt, and she batted my hands away.
“I’m fine. I just got a little banged up when you tackled me. You’re not exactly a lightweight.”
I winced. “Let me see. I’ve got a first-aid kit in my pack.” Jensen nodded, and I lifted up her shirt and jacket to examine her back. I hissed.Shit.She had a deep cut running on a diagonal across her lower back. I didn’t think it needed stitches, but it had to hurt. “I’m going to call this in, and then I’ll get started on your back.”
Jensen looked at me over her shoulder. “You’ll have to tell them where we are.”
My brow furrowed. “Yes…”
“They’ll know where your special place is.”
I shook my head. “That’s the last thing I care about right now. We need to get you out of here safely and then see if there’s any forensic evidence we can find.”
Her expression grew stormy. “This creep is ruining everything.”
“You aren’t wrong.” I pulled my sat phone out of my pack and called Dominguez. He and Mackey were on today. The call only took a few minutes, and I asked Dominguez to call Walker so he could pick up Jensen. I shoved the phone back into my pack. “They should be here in about an hour. In the meantime, let me deal with your back.”
Jensen nodded and lifted her shirt. “Did you have to ask them to call Walker?”
I grinned and pulled out the first-aid kit. “How else were you going to get home?”
“I could’ve just waited for you to be done.”
I pulled on a pair of gloves, not wanting my dirt-covered hands anywhere near Jensen’s open wound. “It’s going to take me hours to finish up here. You need to go home and soak in a hot bath. Your muscles are going to be killing you tomorrow.” I ripped open an alcohol swab.
Jensen hissed as the pad touched her raw flesh. “Fuckity freaking fracking fuck! That stings.”
I blew on the wound. “Sorry. That better?” She nodded. I worked as quickly as possible. Wiping an antibiotic salve across the cut and covering it with gauze. I eased her shirt and jacket down. “I’m pretty sure that shirt is done for.”
Jensen shrugged and leaned back against the log, careful to avoid her wound. “It’s just a shirt.”
I wrapped an arm around her and pressed my lips to her hair. “I shouldn’t have brought you up here.”
Jensen tensed. “Don’t put this overprotective guilt trip on yourself. There’s been no sign of any other injured horses, right? Or the shooter.”
“No…”
She smacked my stomach with the back of her hand. “Then quit this crap.” Jensen was silent for a moment. “All the horses are okay?”
I reached over and squeezed her thigh as I looked to where the horses had taken off. “They’re fine—" I caught sight of a small form at least one hundred yards out. “Fuck.” I grabbed my pack and took off running.
“Tuck—oh, God.”
I could hear Jensen behind me, but I didn’t slow. I pushed my muscles harder. It was one of the foals. She jerked at the sound of my approach, trying to stand but unable to. I slowed, holding a hand up to Jensen to do the same. “It’s okay, girl. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to help.”
It was her right front leg from the looks of it. I scanned the rest of the foal’s body. I didn’t see any blood. No sign of other injury.
Jensen pressed into my back. “It’s her leg.”
