Page 16 of When The Dust Settles

I groaned irritably, squeezing Juju with my legs, and when I did, she moved on her own, walking quickly sideways.

Both horse and rider were looking at us. The stallion was nickering, clearly chafed, and Rand was scowling.

“What?”

“What?” Rand repeated, incredulous. “The hell is that? Is she a circus horse or something?”

“No,” I snapped, because I didn’t like how he said it. It sounded derogatory. “She was just doing her sidestepping thing she does when she knows I’m on edge.”

He pointed at us. “That’s not normal.”

“Says you with your beast of a stallion,” I fired back.

His head shake was full of disgust. “You realize that you’re following so far behind you don’t even know where the goddamn line is.”

“Lemme get my compass,” I muttered and was going to dismount to get into my saddlebag, but Rand stopped me with the sharp command to stay in the saddle. I bristled. “So you like me being lost or—”

“Just shut up,” he instructed me. “Christ, it’s a wonder you’ve lived this long.”

I threw up my hands, waiting on him.

“Jesus.”

“Are you done?”

“Mac said you’re really hurt,” he retorted.

“Mac worries like an old woman.”

“There’s blood on your shirt, idiot,” he huffed.

“It’s dry. I ain’t bleedin’ no more.”

“Just follow me back to the chuck wagon, lemme give you a shot of penicillin and a pain killer, and we’ll tape it all up.”

“Too bad we don’t have a stapler.”

“I do back at the Red,” he told me.

“Yeah?”

He nodded. “More importantly, we got us a doctor and a nurse to go with it.”

I chuckled. I couldn’t help it. “You’re gonna have a whole town on the Red pretty soon, ain’t ya, Rand? You won’t be dependent on no one for nothin’ at all.”

“That’s the plan,” he said and actually smiled at me. “Now come on.”

I followed him back because he was being nice to me, and it was really hard to say no to him when he was.

We dismounted when we got close to the wagon carrying food that now contained medical supplies as well. I noticed tents were being set up, and that surprised me. On a real drive, we stopped for lunch and that was it. But with regular people along and some kids, there had to be a lot more resting.

“We got us a first aid tent now,” Rand informed me, “and a cot to lie down on.”

“Well, that’ll be nice not to have to drop trou to get a shot of Penicillin leaning up against your horse.”

“You’re such a smartass.”

I shrugged, trailing after him, and once we were in the tent, he shoved me forward. Dropping onto the cot, I lay down on my side.