Monroe, Marla - The Hired Hands' Dilemma [The Men of Space Station One #3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (6 page)

“I’m going to get the guns. We might need to shoot it. Plus, we don’t know how many are down there. There might be a freaking family of them.”

Keeton kept his foot on the cellar door and waited for Boyd to return with the guns. He was furious that they had left Ashley by herself and she’d gotten hurt. How were they going to leave her every day while they were out working the ranch?

Boyd returned with the guns in hand. Keeton took one and checked it to be sure it was loaded. They opened one of the doors and walked down into the gloom of the cellar. Keeton found the light and pulled the cord. He heard a scurry of feet and turned toward the sound. There in the corner were three of the little buggers. They looked like a cross between a rat and a muskrat. They were the size of a small cat and had curved claws and razor-sharp teeth. They hissed like a snake when they realized they had been found.

Keeton raised his gun and shot at the same time Boyd fired his gun. There was a cacophony of noise as they shot the little vermin.

“Do you see any more?” Keeton asked.

“No, all I saw was those three,” Boyd said.

“Don’t touch them. We need gloves on in case there’s something in their blood or on their fur. Let’s find out where they got into the house first. I want to fix that right now so another family can’t crawl up in here.” Keeton began studying the ceiling.

“Over here,” Boyd said from across the room.

“Look. There’s a crack about the size they could squeeze through right here. It’s bound to be in the pantry on the floor. We wouldn’t see it because it would be under the bottom shelf.”

Keeton cursed and looked around for a board to use to cover the hole. He found a piece of board that would cover it just fine.

“I’ll go get a hammer and nails. Be right back,” Boyd said.

He returned a few minutes later and Keeton boarded up the hole making damn sure nothing would get in that way again. He took a pair of gloves Boyd had also brought back and they cleaned out the rat things, taking them outside to bury. Boyd cleaned up the blood in the cellar so no one would accidently get any on their skin when they were down there while Keeton examined the ratlike creatures and buried them.

“We better go shower before we touch Ashley again,” Keeton said as he closed and locked the cellar doors.

“I’m sure she’s terrified now after hearing the gunshots. I called up the stairs that we were both fine but to stay in the room. She didn’t answer me, though.” Boyd opened the door to the kitchen.

“She might have passed out, I guess. She was close to hysterical when we found her.”

“Yeah, but she held up good and managed to get away from the thing,” Boyd pointed out.

When they climbed the stairs, Keeton called out that they were coming in. He opened the bedroom door and Ashley was sitting at the head of the bed with her hands wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knees.

“Did you get it?” she asked.

“Yep, it’s gone,” Keeton said.

“Good. Something’s wrong with my leg, isn’t it?”

Keeton sighed and nodded. “Let me see it again, baby.”

She stuck out her leg, and he cursed. The bumps had grown some since they had been gone. He didn’t know what to do, and taking her over to Danny and Andrew wouldn’t help since they didn’t know what it was or what to do about the scar on Andrew’s or Rachel’s backs themselves.

“Let’s get you in the shower, baby, and wash it good with soap and water.” Keeton began undressing.

Boyd pulled Ashley to the edge of the bed and helped her out of her T-shirt and bra, then helped her pull her panties off. She didn’t appear the least uncomfortable around them nude now. Worry and fear had taken away her modesty. Keeton was glad about that, but hated how it had happened.

The two men led her into the bathroom. Then Keeton adjusted the water until it was a nice warm temperature. While Boyd finished undressing, he helped Ashley into the shower.

“Here, baby. Wash your face and the rest of your body first. Then we’ll wash your leg.” He watched her as she bathed herself with jerky movements.

After a while he took the cloth from her and turned her around to bathe her back. He scrubbed a little harder than was necessary, but he wanted her grounded in reality now. She had to be strong. They had no idea what was going to happen with the bumps. If they spread? Well, he just didn’t know.

Chapter Five

Ashley held on to Keeton’s shoulder as he squatted by her leg to wash it. Boyd wrapped an arm around her waist for support. He kissed the back of her head and then her ear.

“Relax, baby. Keeton’s not going to hurt you. He’s just going to wash those bumps off really good.”

She remained still as Keeton scrubbed over that part of her leg with soap and water. They didn’t hurt, exactly. They burned. It was like a small burn you got from touching a hot plate or boiler.

“Am I hurting you?” Keeton asked, looking up.

“No. It burns, but it doesn’t hurt.”

“Okay, I think I’ve cleaned it all I can. Let’s rinse it off and we’ll call it a night.”

Boyd held her while she held out her leg and rinsed the soap off. She could see the yellow-tinted bubbles now without bending over. They had grown, but they hadn’t spread, thank goodness.

“Boyd, I don’t feel too good.” She needed to lie down.

“Let’s get you dried off and in the bed, baby.” He handed her off to Keeton, who had a towel ready for her. He quickly dried her off, taking special care to just pat her lower leg where the bumps were. Then he picked her up and carried her to bed. He laid her on the bed and pulled the covers up over her.

“Keeton. I think we need to cover those with gauze in case they leak any.” Boyd held up some gauze and tape.

“Good idea.” He pulled back the covers from her left leg and applied the gauze over the bumps and securely taped it down.

“I’m going to check downstairs that we locked all the doors and I’ll be back up in a few minutes,” Keeton said.

Ashley curled up under the covers, feeling sick all over now. She wasn’t sure if it was just a reaction to the shock or to the bite. Either way, she was scared and immediately curled into Boyd’s body when he got in the bed.

“Easy, baby. It’s going to be okay. We’ll take care of you,” he said.

Keeton reappeared, and after closing the bedroom door, he started to get into bed.

“Keeton?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“Could you crack the bathroom door and leave the light on? I might need to get up.” Ashley was almost sure she would be getting up.

“Sure.” He walked over and flipped the light on and closed the door to a thin crack. Then he climbed into bed and turned on his side with his back to her.

She wasn’t insulted. She knew he cared by the way he’d taken care of her with the bites. She reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder. She just needed to touch him.

“What is it, baby?”

“Nothing. I just need to touch you,” she admitted.

After a few seconds, he covered her hand with his and she fell asleep.

After a little more than an hour, Ashley woke up needing the bathroom immediately. She climbed over Keeton’s body and ran for the bathroom, almost not making it before she was sick in the toilet. Keeton and Boyd were immediately by her side. Keeton held her hair back while Boyd got a cool, wet cloth and laid it at the back of her neck.

“Easy, baby. We’re right here.” Boyd rubbed her back as she heaved again.

Finally, she felt well enough to sit back on the bathroom floor and rest. Keeton took the bath cloth from her neck and wiped her face with it. Boyd held her hand. Ashley couldn’t remember the last time she’d been sick to her stomach. She hated it.

“Do you feel well enough to go back to bed, baby?” Boyd asked.

“I think so.”

Keeton helped her up, but Boyd swung her up in his arms and carried her back to bed. He climbed in with her still in his arms and settled them both in the bed. Keeton pulled the covers over them before slipping beneath them himself. Ashley wasn’t sure what time it was, but she knew she wouldn’t get back to sleep now. She was too wired from having been sick.

Sometime later, she began to shake. She was freezing and couldn’t get warm. Boyd pulled her tighter in his arms, and still she shivered until her teeth started to chatter. It wasn’t long before the entire bed was shaking with her chills. Keeton got up and went in search of another blanket to put over her.

Ashley’s chills soon had her thrashing and she knew she was sick. Then she didn’t know anything.

* * * *

Boyd tried holding her still, then finally climbed out of bed and wrapped the blankets around her. Keeton had gotten out of the bed earlier to locate another blanket and hadn’t gotten back in. Instead, he’d pulled on jeans and was sitting in the chair across the room.

“She’s sick, isn’t she?” He stated the obvious.

“Yeah. I’m going to get a glass of water for her. Get the Tylenol out of the bathroom. We need to get her fever down.” Boyd walked out the bedroom door still nude.

Keeton got up and grabbed the Tylenol from the medicine cabinet. He shook out two pills then sat the bottle on the bedside table. He sat on the edge of the bed and waited for Boyd to return. He didn’t know what to do to help her. He wasn’t good around sick people. All he knew right then was that he was scared for her.

Boyd walked back in with a glass of water. Keeton took the glass and held Ashley’s head up. He put the pills on the back of her tongue then poured the water in her mouth. She swallowed reflexively, but still didn’t act as if she knew him. He laid her back down and sat the glass on the bedside table.

“What else do we do?” he asked Keeton.

“We wait and we pray. Other than that, I don’t have a clue.” Boyd stretched out on top of the cover.

“I’m going to bathe her face and neck with cool water. It can’t hurt.” Keeton got up and walked out of the bedroom to grab a bowl or something to put water in. He returned with a washbasin. He filled it full of cold water and took a cloth from the bathroom. Then he wet the cloth and ran it across her face and down her neck to her shoulders. The more he bathed her, the less she thrashed. Finally, she calmed down enough that Boyd decided they needed to bathe her entire body.

“It seems to lower her temperature, and that keeps her still,” Boyd pointed out.

They freshened the water and pulled back the covers to slowly bathe her from head to foot. Finally, her fever began to come down and she began to sweat. They bathed her until she stopped sweating. Boyd covered her body with a fresh sheet while Keeton emptied the washtub and returned it to the kitchen.

“Should we cover her with a blanket, too?” Keeton asked.

“Yeah, but I want to look at her bumps. I was just waiting on you before I changed the dressing,” Boyd explained.

“Okay, let’s do it.” Keeton pulled back the sheet to expose her lower leg.

Boyd peeled back the dressing to find that the bumps had opened and were draining. They looked red and inflamed. Keeton winced at the thought of her in pain from them.

“Should we clean them?” Boyd asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like the look of them now. I say clean them.”

Boyd nodded and got up to get supplies. Keeton sat on the bed and pulled her hair back from her face. He realized that somewhere along the way he’d become attached to her. He cared for her deeply and the idea that she could die frightened him. He’d never been scared in his life, but he was scared now.