The beautiful horse responded instantly, picking up her pace to a speed Luna had never ridden before. Her heart hammered against her chest, and the feel of the wind in her face was exhilarating. And Patience, bless her heart, managed to stay right with them.
Luna heard thecrackof the rifle just before a burning sensation ripped across her thigh.
She glanced down and saw a rip in her jeans, and blood began to soak the fabric. But she couldn’t afford to stop—she just kept holding on. Only a few more feet and they would be over the ridge and out of sight of Udall.
Anothercrackfrom the rifle, and Patience faltered and threw her head up and let loose a horrible wailing sound. Blood began to seep from a spot on the right side of her butt. The sonofabitch shot her, and still she kept moving.
They finally cleared the ridge, and Luna headed straight toward the willow tree.
“Whoa.” She gave a light tug on Sassy’s mane.
The horse slowly came to a stop, and her sides heaved in and out with heavy breaths from their ride.
With his limp and about twelve ounces of bear spray in his face, Luna figured it would take Udall some time to make his way up there. All she cared about right now was making sure Patience was okay.
Her injured thigh throbbed with pain when she dragged her leg over the top of Sassy’s back. She sort of slid off of her, and when she tried to put weight on her leg, it gave out and she ended up landing on her butt in the dirt.
Patience moved over to her and lowered her head to sniff Luna’s hair.
“I’m okay, baby.” She sucked air between her teeth as she pushed herself up and flattened her hand on Sassy’s side to steady herself. “Let me look at you.”
She hopped on one foot to where she saw the blood on Patience’s butt.
Upon closer inspection, Luna noticed there were two holes right next to each other. If she had to guess, it looked like the bullet went in about an inch deep and came right out about two inches away. It didn’t appear to be as bad as she thought it was, but she wouldn’t feel better until a vet looked at it.
“I’m so sorry.” Luna wrapped her arms around Patience’s neck and actually teared up at the thought of something horrible happening to her.
Sassy plodded over to them and nudged the middle of her back.
“I love you, too.” She stroked her hand down the side of the big horse’s neck.
Sassy lifted her head and snuffled a few times, then her ears turned toward the trail.
Patience’s ears perked up, too, and she turned to look in the same direction.
A minute later, Luna heard it too … the sound of a car engine approaching.
Oh, shit … Udall had her keys.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“Iloveyou,too.”Boone was sure he’d died in that cave, so when he’d opened his eyes in the hospital and saw Luna smiling down at him, it was like he’d been given a second chance at life.
He knew immediately he wanted to spend that life cherishing her and doing his best to make her happy.
Ten days after he got home from the hospital, he’d convinced her he felt well enough to make love. Longest ten days of his life, by the way. She’d fretted and worried, but eventually, she’d given in. His ribs had screamed, and he’d had to be careful with his cast, but they’d made it work. And being inside her, hearing her moan his name, had been life-affirming.
She’d taken such amazing care of him the past several weeks. And watching her bust her ass caring for his animals, too, made him love her even more. If that was even possible.
He was happy that, today, she was finally going to do something for herself.
“You coming or what?” Eddie called out from the main area of the training facility.
Boone, Eddie, Calliope, and Lucas were going to run the obstacle course.
“I’d better go,” he said. “Eddie’s crying and needs my help on the o-course.”
The two of them headed outside.
