Page 39 of Crew

She found utter joy in it now, and loved helping Tris with the caretaking, Avi with the main planting and harvesting of the larger crops, and Grey with the animals. Especially the cute Daisy.

Today, as she got her supplies to weed in the garden and harvest the sweet peppers, onions, and tomatoes, she knew that Ford was patrolling the area, Crew was helping Avi harvest corn, and Grey was taking care of the animals.

At some point, the other herd males would find their soulmates and their herd would grow even larger as children were born. She really couldn’t wait.

Something tickled her senses as she opened the gate that surrounded the garden closest to the house. She paused and looked over her shoulder, then she carefully looked all around her. Unease settled over her and she felt like someone was watching her. But she didn’t see anyone.

She wanted to believe Colton and his herd were finished coming after them, but she knew that wasn’t realistic. Colton seemed to be a dog with a bone, and the bone was the Little River Herd’s farm.

Dropping the sweet peppers into the bucket she’d designated for them, she carefully moved around the large plants, and that damn weird feeling came back. She rubbed at the back of her neck as prickling unease settled over her.

She swiveled on her heels as she crouched among the plants and looked out toward the field. Beyond the pasture where the cows were grazing, she could see Crew and Avi were using something called a one-row-picker to harvest the cobs from the stalks. They had planted two acres of field corn that they used to supplement the animal feed and a half acre of sweet corn that they used for eating fresh, freezing, and canning. Deer and other wildlife enjoyed wandering through the fields to graze, so they planted more than they needed.

Most of the herd’s property was woods, wild and overgrown, and could be razed to make farmland, but the herd didn’t need or want to do that.

She turned back to grab another pepper when that same feeling returned, and this time she was sure she was being watched. Standing abruptly, she stared in the opposite direction of the farmhouse, past the barns to the dense woods where she’d found blackberries.

There!

She saw something move and she was certain it was a person!

Grabbing for the walkie on her belt, she twisted the knob on top and said, “Someone’s in the woods by the barn!”

Ford barreled out of the barn a moment later, the walkie in his hand. He looked at her and she pointed toward the woods where the shadow she’d seen was gone. There was nothing now, but she knew what she saw—someone had been watching her.

Crew and Avi arrived a few minutes later, both of them running from the field in case the other herd had infiltrated the farm. Crew hugged her as Avi went to join Ford in the woods, and Grey jogged around to them from the pasture.

“I’m sure I saw someone,” she said. “I felt like I was being watched ever since I got out here.” She shivered.

Crew hugged her a little tighter. “Your gut was telling you something was wrong. It’s good to trust those kinds of instincts.”

“I just wish they’d leave us alone.”

“Me too, baby.”

“You won’t believe this,” Ford said as he and Avi walked from the woods. They were carrying several security cameras.

“What happened?” Crew asked.

“They shot them with paintball guns to cover the lenses with paint, and it allowed them to get close to the farm. There was definitely someone in the woods. We need to check all the cameras.”

“Damn it,” Crew snarled.

Zara sniffed. “Does anyone else smell smoke?”

Grey turned around and groaned. “What fresh hell is this? There’s smoke coming from the cornfield!”

“Shit!” Avi shouted. “Let’s go!”

Crew grabbed Zara’s hand and said, “We need your help, and I need you close.”

“I’m with you!”

They ran toward the burning cornfield, Crew and Zara splitting off toward the pond. In a storage box on the dock were buckets, and they filled them with pond water and ran toward the fire. The guys were using shovels and rakes to clear a space around the fire to keep it from continuing to burn up the corn. Zara had never had to run with a bucket of water before and it wasn’t easy, but she did her best, handing it to Ford to toss water onto the burning corn before handing it back to her to refill.

With all five of them working quickly, they were able to stop the fire.

Zara and Crew stood watching the smoking ash of a half-acre of field corn as the others finished clearing around it and dumping bucket after bucket of water onto it.

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