Cherry Adair - T-flac 06 (8 page)

Knik—a Lily sighting there. Three, maybe six hours to Yentna Station and the second Lily sighting, then another six to Skwentna, where he planned to stop and sleep for a few hours to rest the dogs and arrange a third Lily sighting. By then, she'd be too damn exhausted to fight with him. Time with Lily. That was the goal he would focus on during the first twenty-four hours.

How the hell was he going to pull this off? Derek wondered, on automatic pilot as his dogs, all trained by Lily, followed an invisible trail in the snow. It was bitterly cold. He hadn't caught sight of her in several hours, but thanks to his GPS he knew exactly where she was. He forged on ahead of her.

He was on a roll, comfortable, easy, as he let the dogs do their thing.

Now the race was really on.

The only reason he was here, the only reason he'd taken any interest in the Iditarod at all, was because of Lily. They'd never been friends, Derek thought. He'd taken one look at Lily as she'd loaded bales of hay into her dilapidated truck at the feed store six years ago, and he'd wanted her more than he'd wanted his next breath.

Every scrap of finesse had been shot when he'd glanced up and her eyes had widened. Thank God, he'd thought, she feels it, too.

But his heat had frightened her and she'd run. Run straight into Sean's open arms. Sean Munroe, who wanted to
be
Derek. But that was then. This was now. Derek wasn't planning on skipping any of the courtship stages
this
time.

He was just going to accelerate them to warp speed.

She was going to have to learn to trust him, and since there was nowhere out here for her to run from him, she was going to have to learn fast.

He'd given her six months. More than enough time to mourn Sean. Derek was done waiting. It was time to tell her some truths.

"Hello?"
Click-click
. The sound of a fingernail tapping echoed loudly in his ear. "Damn it, how do I turn this frigging thing—Hello? Hey! Derek?"

She'd slipped on the headset. Pleased, Derek's lips twitched at the annoyance in her voice. "Hey, Doc.

How're you doing?"

"I just wanted to see how this thing worked. Amazing. You sound as if you're whispering in my ear."

Not yet he wasn't. "Everything okay?"

"Fine."

"Call me anytime you want to talk."

"I don't," she said, already sounding as though she regretted contacting him in the first place.

Derek grinned as he heard the crackle when she tried to turn off the small electronic listening device.

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It didn't work, and for more than an hour he'd eavesdropped on Lily praising her dogs.

"Ah, hell."

"What?" she yelled, clearly startled by his voice right in her ear.

He drew his custom Baer from his pocket and clicked off the safety. "Moose."

A male, easily six feet high at the shoulder, stood silently in the tree line up ahead. Its enormous antlers indicated it was young and had yet to shed them even this late in the season. A young bull could be territorial, protecting its mate—Jesus, there were any number of reasons for it to be pissed. It turned its massive head slowly back and forth as if using its ears as a nature-made radar system.

Lily hissed a curse in Derek's ear. "Don't mess with it!"

"Trust me, sweetheart," he whispered to the woman who was miles away, "I want nothing to do with him. But he's blocking the trail."

There was no telling what a wild animal might do if it thought its territory was being invaded. And a damn moose could tear a man to bits with its hooves and antlers. Perfect. Dodge bullets most of your adult life and get killed by Bullwinkle.

He was going to try to slip by, as silent as a ghost. "
Gee! On by
!" he told the dogs, keeping his tone matter-of-fact and even. Eyes forward, Derek kept a peripheral bead on the giant in the trees for any sign of aggression. So far, so g—

The moose laid back its ears, the long, coarse hair on its rump raised as if electrified. It tossed its head and stepped purposefully out of the trees on long spindly legs. Long spindly legs that could easily kick the hell out of anything as puny as a human and sixteen dogs.

"Shit."

Braced and ready, Derek held the weapon easily, balanced for one-handed shooting since his left was needed to control the dogs. A gunshot was sure to freak them out.

The huge beast started its gangly run toward him. It was coming flat out, snow spraying in its wake, head lowered, eyes white and wild.

Derek took one shot, aiming high and right to scare the animal off. In the eerie quiet the sound echoed off the snow and trees. The noise didn't faze the moose one iota, but it scared the shit out of the birds. In a flurry of flapping wings and squawks, twenty or so small gray birds cannoned from the nearby trees and took off like buckshot into the sky.

"What's going on?" Lily demanded in his ear.

"Give me a minute—"

He got off another shot. Snow sprayed up in a white froth at the animal's churning feet. That one was closer. The moose stopped on a dime, raising its head, then stood its ground. Derek admired its steely nerves.

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"Come on, pal, shit or get off the pot," he said softly, running out of options. The next would have to be a kill shot. And he was reluctant to kill the magnificent beast just for protecting its home. But given a choice between the moose and protecting his own ass and that of his team, the moose would have to go.

The animal moved restively, ears flat.

The dogs, aware of the danger, yipped and snarled, straining against the lead dogs, Max and Kryptonite, who seemed focused on getting the team past the threat.

Clark and Twit started barking madly; several of the others chimed in their two cents' worth. The moose's ears rotated like satellite dishes. One step forward, head lowered.

Derek pulled on the lines. "
Come haw
!" He reined them to pull 180 degrees to the left. "Quiet, boys," he told the dancing dogs softly. "Just go on by and don't look at him."

Clearly royally pissed at the invaders, several tons of moose charged again.

Snow sprayed behind those lethal hooves as the animal raced toward Derek, head positioned for maximum damage on impact, close enough for Derek to see the whites of its eyes.

"Ah, crap. Damn it to hell."

Derek got off another shot, but the sled tipped at the same moment and the shot went wild. The moose kicked out with its front feet, hit the side of the sled—
BAM! A
fully packed sled was no match for a pissed-off Bullwinkle. The sled rolled, then fell on top of Derek with a shuddering thwack, spraying wet snow against his goggles. The sled was heavy with supplies, and for several moments he was in a protected spot as the furious moose rammed and battered a genetically choreographed attack.

"I see you." Lily's voice was an urgent and welcome sound in his ears. "At least he's not after your dogs."

Her words came directly in his ear. Thank God she wasn't the object of the moose's attentions. And at least the animal wasn't stomping his dogs into the snow. Not yet anyway.
He
was another story. Those hooves were sharp and lethal as the enraged moose repeatedly kicked the shit out of the sled.

There was a flat, familiar
crack
and the smell of cordite on the crisp, clean mountain air. Another shot.

And another. The moose bellowed, turned tail and ran like hell back into the trees.

"He's gone." Lily's relieved and mildly amused voice came through loud and clear as Derek shoved the sled and fallen supplies off his body.

"My hero," he said dryly, brushing clumps of wet snow off his pants and coat as he watched her approach. A rancher through and through, Lily knew what she was doing with that gun, thank God. She looked like a bundled-up Amazon. An ancient warrior in a long fleece coat and furry boots. And he was damned glad to see her.

She brought her team alongside his. The leads, Arrow and Max, immediately, and happily sniffed at each other. Derek wanted to do the same to Lily, but he was just a little afraid she might use the gun again.

Lily gave Derek an up-and-down look. "Are you hurt?"

"Only my ego."

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"Then you may never recover." Setting the brake, she hopped off her sled. Without offering, she put some muscle into helping him right his, which was top heavy and unwieldy. "Good job securing everything."

"Thanks, teacher." He looked off into the trees where the snow had been violently churned and branches broken as the moose had made its way. "Think our friend's gone?"

"Probably. I didn't hit him. But I scared him enough to deter him a bit. Why? Want to break?"

"Let's go a few miles on before we do. My new friend might be lurking behind the trees waiting to jump out again."

They continued on for several miles before deciding they were clear.

Derek was actually quite pleased to take a break. And God only knew, Lily must be just as exhausted.

The last several years had been hard on her. Little sleep and a lot of stress. The years nursing Sean, followed by the funeral, had taken their toll on her, although he'd never heard her complain. After Sean's death, Lily had put everything she had into her dogs. There must be at least a hundred of them by now.

Training the dogs and then staying up all night for weeks on end helping the cows give birth, then training herself for the race day and night would exhaust anyone. But she'd rather be boiled in oil than admit it.

He at least had the advantage of his T-FLAC training and could subsist for weeks on very little sleep.

But he saw the lines of strain on her face, and knowing Lily, she'd push herself until she dropped. A break of even an hour would do her good. And since there seemed to be a silent truce, he'd take what he could get when he could get it.

Of course, telling Lily he was stopping for her own good would probably get him shot.

"Are you pleased about your father remarrying?" Lily asked, keeping it casual as she checked the dogs'

booties and gave scratches behind ears as she moved down the line. Talking about the upcoming wedding was safe. It kept her blood pressure down, and it was a finite kind of conversation. His father's wedding was going to be held at the ranch a couple of weeks after they returned from the race. She'd met his father a couple of times when he'd visited Derek at the ranch. She'd also met his sister, Marnie, and her family. There was a twin brother out there somewhere, and another couple of brothers. If they were anything like Derek, Lily shuddered to think of the trail of broken hearts they'd left in their wake.

She promised herself she wouldn't bring up anything inflammatory. Not now anyway.

She kept a professional eye out for injuries as she went down the line. The dogs were barely breathing hard, and rarin' to go with excitement, yet they needed to pace themselves. So did she. They'd barely started and there were a thousand grueling miles to go.

"I am. Yes," Derek said, answering the wedding question as he added a few dry branches to the small fire he'd started. "Sunny is good for him. He was alone a long time before he met her."

Lily automatically checked Derek's dogs too before joining him at the fire. "Kodi's favoring his right foot.

We'll keep an eye on it, although he's done that since he was a puppy to get extra attention, so I'm not too worried." She drew off her gloves and rubbed her hands as she stood over the flames. She noticed with appreciation that Derek had set a pot on the fire filled with coffee. Her taste buds salivated.

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"Your mom died when you were pretty young, right?" She knew they had that much in common.

"Yeah, but my grandmother was there. Here." He handed her a steaming mug. "Be careful, it's hot."

"I'm feeding the dogs first—"

"Drink your coffee. I've got it."

Lily scowled. "We're not supposed to help each other."

Derek poured out food into bowls and started taking them down the line. The dogs, still harnessed and standing, dug into the high-fat, high-protein snack. They didn't care who handed it out as long as it was there. "Stupid rule since we're both in the same place. Hungry?"

"No."

"You'd better remember to eat on this trip. Since you took care of the moose for me, I'd feel obligated to backtrack to check if you've fainted from starvation somewhere along the trail. Think of it as tit for tat, especially since very soon I'll be so far ahead of you, I won't be able to repay your assistance. I'm winning this race." He was not talking about the Iditarod.

Lily gulped the last inch of scalding-hot coffee. It must've burned like lava all the way down her esophagus. "I've never fainted in my life. And for the record,
I'm
going to win."

He let that pass.

They were
both
going to win.

She rarely thought about food for herself, but coffee was essential. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not one of the thoroughbreds you usually date. We mutts have way more staying power than the show dogs of the world."

She poured the last couple of servings of dog food into bowls and walked down the line to place them in the snow in front of Derek's wheel dogs.

"Nothing wrong with a good, faithful mutt," he said, laughing. "That said, you have an erroneous and completely false idea of my love life, Doc. Though you know you're always welcome to ask. I don't mind telling."

"Really? Wow." She gave him a mock admiring glance. "Thanks, but I think I'll pass on that. This mutt isn't interested in that particular treat."

"Not even if I promise to pet you?"

She stilled, shot him what she hoped was a quelling look despite the rush of something hot and luscious deep inside. "Want to pet something? Try one of your short-lived girlfriends. Here's an idea." Lily struggled to keep the sarcasm to a minimum. "Have her meet you at the next stop. Assuming she can find Alaska on a map."