Page 29 of Rocky Ride

Ted grabbed Lila from behind and snapped a pair of cuffs on her. “Come on. You’re done screwing around for tonight. I’ve got a nice warm place where you can rest your head.”

She twisted and kicked at him, and he held tight to the chain, at times lifting her right off the ground.

“Judge is gonna revoke your bail for this, Lila.”

“Shut up, Sheriff. I haven’t done anything.”

Ted shoved Lila into the back of the squad and hooked her up. On the drive back to Coyote Creek, he called Billy and told him the news.

“Great job, Ted. Just lock her up and go on home. We’ll bring new charges against her in the morning.”

“Copy, boss. Tell Virge he was right about Lila Gordon.”

Billy laughed. “I can’t tell him he was right. We’ll never hear the end of it.”

Chapter Seven

Saturday, October 19th.

Black Wolf Mountain. Montana.

Travis woke before daylight filled with a nagging urgency. There was something he had to do but couldn’t remember what it was.

It took a couple of minutes to remember he was going home today to see his boys. Lucky to be alive after the wolf attack, he was even luckier to have Harlan and Virge.

The cabin was warm thanks to Sunday who hauled the wood in from the pile out back and fed the stove round the clock so it never went out.

With the help of the pain killers, Travis was able to sit on the side of the bed and smoke while he got ready to make the trek to the other side of the cabin for breakfast. Only a few feet but seemed like a mile walking on his torn leg.

“You awake, buddy? Need a hand?”

“Nope. I’m good. I’ll finish this smoke and see if I can do it on my own.”

Sunday stood beside the bed and smiled down at him. “You’ve improved a lot, Dale.”

Travis laughed. “I can’t walk without a crutch. Not much of an improvement.”

“Your twenty-four hours isn’t up yet. Few more to go before you put any weight on your leg.”

“Yep. I’m not going to risk damaging it. Once I get to the truck I’ll rest the leg all the way to the ranch.”

Sunday cooked breakfast on the woodstove and after they’d eaten, she let the fire die down as they got ready to leave.

She packed all the food into the cooler and lugged it to the truck. Several more trips for the dog food and for her own things she’d brought down from her cabin higher up.

Travis gathered up the few things he’d brought with him—mostly dirty clothes—and shoved all of it into his duffel.

He decided to leave Olivia’s ashes in the cabin until the next time he was able to come up Black Wolf Mountain. The weather would be better when he brought the boys in the spring, and together they’d find the perfect spot for Olivia’s final resting place.

Sorry, Livvy. You have to wait.

Sunday took a look around. “Is that everything you want, bud?”

“Think so.”

She locked the back door then handed Travis the crutch and helped him out the front door and down the snowy slope to the truck.

On the way Sunday hollered out a goodbye to her bear. “See you, Ted. Be back in a while, big guy.”

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