Page 48 of Crew

“Miss me?” Colton sneered with a malevolent grin, grabbing her arm in a vice-like grip.

She tried to yank her arm out of his grip, but the bruising hold was too tight.

Silas shoved her from behind and she stumbled forward. “You shouldn’t have tried to leave—you belong to our herd.”

Adrenaline surged inside her. She was the alpha female of the Little River Herd! She wasnotgoing to get kidnapped by the assholes from her former herd. With a sharp twist of her body, she broke free of Colton’s grip and raced to the split-rail fence, darting between the slats. She’d just gotten to the wheelbarrow and grabbed the handle of the shovel when they were on her again. She swung the shovel wildly, “Stay away from me! Help! Crew!”

She caught Silas on the shoulder with the edge of the shovel, slicing his skin. He stumbled back and cursed, “You bitch!”

Darting around the wheelbarrow, she hauled a shovelful of dirt at them, and Colton spat and growled at her, grasping the handles of the wheelbarrow and shoving it aside. She backed away, swinging the shovel to keep them from getting too close.

“I’m not going anywhere with you! This is the territory of the Little River Herd! You were banished, get fucked you absolute asshole!”

When she swung the shovel again, Colton grabbed it and jerked it from her.

She gasped, knowing her last line of defense was now gone.

From the smoke, a shout of rage echoed and Crew appeared, holding a burning wooden slat like a sword. He swung the flaming wood in a wide arc, shouting, “She’s mine!”

Silas lunged at Crew, managing to avoid the first swing by dodging it. But then Crew nailed Silas across the face, flaming embers exploding from the wood with the impact. Silas howled in pain, clutching his face and stumbling away.

Zara saw Colton’s other herd members retreating to the woods.

Colton seemed to realize he was on his own now with his second-in-command clutching his burned face in agony.

Crew brandished the wood at Colton. “Get out of our territory and never return.”

Colton looked like he might argue, but as the other herd members joined Crew and Zara and he was outnumbered, he snarled and grabbed Silas, running toward the woods. He had to shove him through the fence and half-drag him to get him into the woods.

“We’ll follow them, make sure they leave the area,” Ford said, grabbing Grey.

“Are you okay?” Crew asked, putting the wooden slat on the ground and covering it with dirt from the wheelbarrow. Then he gave her a hug.

“I’m okay. I don’t know how long I would have been okay if you hadn’t shown up, though.”

He hugged her a little tighter. “I heard you yell for help…I thought I was going to lose you.”

“You didn’t,” she said. “That was nuts. But I know why he did what he did.”

“What?” he asked, looking at her.

“I know why he set the first fire. The fire in the cornfield was a test to see how the herd reacted to an emergency. Because of the first fire, he knew our whole group would respond to a fire at the barn, and he could count on there being vulnerabilities. Like me being alone.”

“You were the target,” Crew said.

“He came right for me with Silas because you and the guys were dealing with the fire. He said I was part of his herd still.” She shuddered, thinking about how furious Colton looked when he’d stalked toward her. She didn’t know what he would have done if he’d managed to kidnap her, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t have been good. And possibly she could have been used as bait to lure Crew to them.

Then who knows what might have happened?

They returned to the barn after checking on the livestock. The fire was out and while the barn was damaged, it wasn’t a total loss, plus none of their people were hurt, so she was thankful for small miracles.

Grey and Ford came back to the farm. “They got into a truck and sped off,” Ford said.

“I’m going to pick up some more of those tiny cameras and set them up around their campsite. Even if I can’t get too close, we have to do something to alert us of their whereabouts. Maybe some tracking devices on their vehicles,” Grey said.

“Good idea,” Crew said.

Zara looked at the barn and the livestock at the far side of the pasture. They’d been victorious, but she knew that the fight wasn’t over. Colton would regroup and come for them again. But at least for now, they were safe.

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