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kicked lunged at her on the way by, and Alec leapt to his
feet when he realized the bastard had a knife.
The woman scrambled sideways, crying out as she
grabbed her leg and kept ru
her again but suddenly turned at Alec’s roar. Alec caught
the wrist holding the knife and drove his boot into the man’s
ribs again, twisting the guy’s arm until he felt it snap before
plunging the blade into the bastard’s thigh. He then spun
around when the dog gave a yelp, only to see it regain its
footing and lunge again, this time going after the arm
holding a goddamned gun.
Alec slammed into the guy, grabbing his wrist just as the
weapon discharged. The dog tumbled back with a yelp,
and Alec snapped the bastard’s arm over his knee,
causing the gun to fal to the ground. He then shoved the
screaming man headfirst into a tree, watching him crumple
into a boneless heap before he turned and rushed to the
dog that now had its teeth clamped down on the other
man’s neck.
“Hey, come on!” he shouted over another sharp crack of
thunder. He grabbed the dog by the jowls and pul ed it
away. “That’s enough,” he said, holding its head from
behind so it couldn’t turn on him. “I know you’d like to see
them both dead, but they’re not worth the hassle it’s going
to cause us. Easy now, calm down,” he said loudly over the
raging storm, guiding the dog uphil several steps then
giving it a nudge with his knee. “Go on. Go find your lady.”
The dog hesitated just as the woman had, its eyes
narrowed against the rain and its lips rol ed back, then
suddenly took off in the direction she’d run and
disappeared into the storm. Alec looked down at the man
cradling his broken arm against the knife in his thigh, knelt
to one knee, and drove his fist into his face. “Sleep tight,
you son of a bitch,” he muttered, glancing over to make
sure the other guy was stil out before he also headed uphil
at a run.
Only he hadn’t gone two hundred yards before he found
the woman lying facedown on the soaked forest floor, the
dog licking her cheek. Alec approached cautiously,
crooning calm words loud enough to be heard over the
pounding rain, and slowly knelt on the other side of her. He
laid a firm hand on the dog’s raised hackles when it
stiffened on a warning snarl. “You’re going to have to trust
me, ye big brute. Your lady’s hurt, and I need to see how
badly.”
He felt the dog—he suspected it was a wolf or at least a
hybrid—tremble with indecision, and Alec slowly reached
out with his other hand and touched the woman’s hair,
which was plastered to her head. “Easy now,” he said when
the snarling grew louder, moving his fingers to her neck to
feel for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief to find it strong
and steady, and careful y rol ed her over. “There we go,” he
said, releasing the dog when it lowered its head and
started licking her face again. Alec slid an arm behind her
shoulders and a hand under her knees, and stood up.
He headed uphil until he came to the trail and turned
toward camp. “No, heel!” he snapped when the dog
stopped and looked back down the mountain. “They’re not
going anywhere.” The animal fel in step beside him, and
Alec repositioned the woman’s head into the crook of his
neck to keep the driving rain off her face, and blew out a
harsh breath to tamp down his own anger. Christ, it had
been al he could do to keep from kil ing the bastards
himself when he’d caught them brutalizing her.
What was she doing out here? Had the men brought her
into the wilderness to rape and kil her and bury her body?
The nearest old logging tote road was six miles to the
south, and the resort itself was over ten miles away on top
of the mountain. But she’d been ru
which was just a mile below his camp—which meant they’d
probably come by boat.
Alec scaled the lean-to steps, then dropped to one knee
and careful y set the woman on the plank floor beside his
sleeping bag, keeping her upper half cradled against his
chest. He slid his hand from under her knees, then had to
shove the dog away when it started licking her again. “Nay,
you let me check her out,” he murmured as he smoothed
the hair off her face—only to suck in a breath.
She was stu
pale cheek and the darkening bump on her forehead that
ran into her hairline. Alec looked down at her endlessly long
legs and saw the bastard’s knife had drawn blood.
Realizing she was shivering violently, he started undressing
her, but stil ed in surprise again when he pul ed her soaked
blouse out of her pants and saw the dark bruise on her
side. It ran over her ribs into her sheer blue bra, and he
recognized that it was two or three days old. Fil ed with
renewed rage, he careful y worked the blouse off her
shoulders, only to find her arms also covered in smal
bruises, some of them appearing to be fingerprints.
It was obvious the woman had been struggling against
them for several days, and he started rethinking his
decision not to kil the bastards as he continued exposing
the ful extent of her nightmare. Feeling much like the storm
raging directly overhead, Alec fought back the darkness
that had been his life for eight years when he caught himself
thinking there wasn’t any reason he couldn’t bury the men
out here; quietly, efficiently, and with the calm detachment
he’d once been known for.
The woman had obviously been bound, as evidenced by
the raw chafing on her wrists. He found more bruising on
her legs when he careful y peeled down her slacks, and she
was missing a shoe. Alec pushed the dog out of the way,
lifted back the edge of his sleeping bag, and careful y set
her inside it.
He pul ed over his duffel bag and dug around until he
found a T-shirt. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured as he sat
her up and unhooked her bra, “but I’m afraid getting you
completely dry trumps modesty at the moment.” He worked
the T-shirt over her head, careful y slid her arms into the
sleeves, and smoothed it down over her utterly feminine,
rose-tipped breasts al the way to her thighs. He pul ed her
heavy mess of long, wet hair out of the col ar and laid her
down, then grabbed a towel hanging on the back wal of the
lean-to and wrapped it around her head. Setting his jaw
determinedly, he slid his hands under the T-shirt and
careful y worked off her matching blue panties, but stopped
when he reached the knife gash. “Damn,” he growled,
pul ing off the panties and tossing them beside the
discarded bra. He tucked the sleeping bag over her upper
half and opposite leg, then dug through his duffel for the
medical kit.
The dog settled against the woman’s side and rested its
chin on her shoulder, keeping a guarded eye on him.
“You’re a good friend,” Alec said conversational y as he
examined the wound on her thigh. “Ye can guard my back
anytime you’re wanting.”
It wasn’t a deep gash that needed stitching, he was
relieved to see as he careful y cleaned it with gauze then
started placing butterfly bandages along the length of the
cut. He dabbed it with salve and covered it with another
piece of gauze, taping it into place before tucking the baby-
soft leg into the sleeping bag.
“Had ye reached the end of your strength or is that bump