Page 108 of Beat of Love
His parents hadn’t even blinked when he told them of his intention to nurse her back to full health. Rafferty placed an arm around his mother, pulling her to his side. “Thanks for helping with this,” he said, dropping a kiss on her head.
She patted his back. “You’re welcome. It reminds me of when you were younger. You were always finding the injured animals and bringing them home for you and Siobhan to fix. The two of you were quite the healers.”
A vision flashed through his mind. That of a bruised, bleeding man begging for mercy. Some healer he’d been, standing by while the life drained out of Oliveira’s body.
He shook off the memory, leaned into the back of the Jeep, and hauled the animal into his arms, mindful of the stitched wounds, and carried her through the gate of the temporary pen.
It was set in a section of land adjacent to Elsa’s paddock with a sprawling cottonwood in one corner, and a hedge of hackberry and redberry juniper on the left. He had hauled in several water troughs, erected a split pole, three-sided shelter, and littered it with straw and old blankets.
A palace fit for a pregnant deer.
He set Rosie down, keeping a watchful eye as she teetered on unsteady legs, sniffing her new digs.
A whinny drew his attention. Elsa stood at the rail separating the two enclosures. He crossed over. “Now, remember, darlin’, we talked about this. Rosie needs a place to rest and heal, and I expect you to be nice to her. No tantrums? Yeah?”
Elsa merely snorted and pranced away to where Rain and Smokey watched from a distance.
“No tantrums, Elsa,” he called after her.
“Problems in your harem already?” a coolly amused voice asked behind him.
He swung about and looked straight into dancing green eyes. “Harem?”
“Hmm. Quite the collection of females you’ve got going.”
Was she mocking him? He couldn’t tell. “Thanks again for agreeing to the placement of her pen.”
Brandy-Lyn shrugged. “Not my land.” She twisted, watching Rosie stumble about. “Poor thing. Those are nasty wounds.”
“It was touch and go for a while.”
“And she’s pregnant?”
“Several months.”
Rosie reached them and started sniffing Brandy-Lyn’s boots. “Hey, sweet thing,” she murmured, leaning forward to strokeacross the deer’s back. “You’re a very lucky girl.” She looked up. “It’s a shame about her ear,” she added as Rosie wobbled away.
The mauled ear had become infected, and the wildlife veterinarian surgeon Siobhan called in had done some tricky work on the inner ear and removed most of the outer cartilage.
“Yeah.” He let out a ragged sigh. “She’s deaf on that side. And her balance is out of whack.”
They watched Rosie sniff the trough, and both exhaled when she drank some water.
“It’s a good thing you’re doing.”
The approval in her voice made him feel seven feet tall and cleared up his lingering doubt. Rosie would live out her days on Lawson’s Landing safe from predators.
He gave Brandy-Lyn a long look. It was the first time he’d seen her since her vacation. She looked tanned and fit. Really, really good.
“You’re looking good, Red.”
“Caribbean sun will do that.” She returned his blatant perusal with one of her own. “How are you?”
“Good.”
“Liar.” She tilted her head, studying him. “I can see the dark shadows in your eyes.”
He looked away with a sigh, but her eyes drew him back — steady, unflinching, impossible to ignore. Somehow, she always dragged the truth right outta him. “I got a call yesterday from the DEA,” he admitted. “They think they’ve located Kamila’s hideout. They’re planning a raid.”
