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“Still, it’s an arrow to my heart!” Tom put his hand over his heart and pretended to fall, catching himself on the mudroom door. Wiz giggled. He could be such a goofball sometimes.
“All right, work to do. Let’s get going.” Dad opened the door and tromped out.
Wiz walked up the road to her house, enjoying the early summer sunshine. It would get hot all too soon, but the winter had been long.
Within sight of her house, she stopped. A car idled in her driveway, and a man stood near the keypad, punching at it. She crouched and moved off the road, hiding behind a small pine, squinting. Jeff, her ex-husband. How did he find her and why couldn’t he leave her alone? She didn’t owe him anything.
She put a hand on her weapon, nestled in the cowboy rig Dad gave her, then backed down the hill, out of sight, and sidled to her horse fence. She’d use the west side gate and confront him from the other side. But first, she pulled out her phone and brought up her security app. It had already initiated a lock-down. She’d missed the alert because her phone was on vibrate. She pulled up the video camera over the gate, making sure it and all the others were recording. A text came from her alarm company, saying they’d requested the sheriff’s office to respond on a non-emergency basis. They were monitoring her video surveillance, ready to upgrade that request if necessary. She sent a text back, acknowledging and agreeing.
Wiz moved off at a fast walk, glancing at Jeff’s increasingly frustrated face on her screen, still uselessly punching in code after code. She entered the horse fence side gate, keyed in her code for the security fence, then sprinted for the opening, because he might have heard the clang of the horse fence latch closing automatically behind her. She yanked the chain link gate shut and secured it, then she turned to face Jeff.
Sure enough, he’d seen her, jumped the horse fence, and ran toward her. She backed out of taser range, just in case he was stupid enough to try, then agreed with the alarm company’s text that they’d requested an emergency response based on the trespasser pursuing her. She put away her phone and put her hand on her weapon. She made her voice loud, firm, and unemotional. “Jeff, get off my property. You are trespassing. The sheriff has been called. I don’t want to talk to you or see you ever again, and you’re not getting anything else from me.”
He clasped the chain link, pouting. “But baby, I just want to talk. I miss you.”
“I don’t miss you. Go away.”
“Baby...” He blinked his big brown eyes at her, like a puppy.
Wiz scowled. “Oh, please. You don’t miss me at all. You just want my money.”
Puppy changed to snarling dog. “You owe me.” He shook the chain link.
“I don’t owe you a thing. You divorced me, remember? When I needed you, you left and had papers served on me. The divorce decree is final. Now, go away. You’re trespassing, and I’ll have you arrested if you don’t leave immediately. And don’t come back.”
“You owe me, all right. You hid the money from me. Liar.” He jammed his tennis shoe toe into the fence and lurched upward, the chain link rattling.
Wiz drew her weapon. “Jeff, you are being recorded, just as it says on the signs on the gate you jumped. Get down and leave, or I will be justified in using deadly force to defend myself. Do you understand me?” She pointed the gun at the ground, with her finger on the trigger.
“I understand I’m getting what I came for. You’d better let me in!” His lip curled and he climbed farther.
“No.” She fired into the ground at his feet, took her finger off the trigger, and bellowed over the ringing in her ears. “That’s your only warning. Next one goes into you.”
He dropped off the fence. “You ungrateful liar! If you don’t start playing ball, you’re going to regret it. I’ll make sure that what you went through downrange is nothing compared to what we’ll do to you!”
“You have just been recorded making threats. You will be served a restraining order.”
He laughed. “Like that means anything.”
“You’re right, it doesn’t mean a thing. But you’ll never get to me, Jeff. I can have you arrested right now for making threats against me.” Tom and Dad galloped up the hill on their horses behind Jeff. She didn’t show the relief she felt at having real, live backup. Jeff, dummy he was, didn’t even notice them. She’d keep talking. “The sheriff has been called. You’re going to end up in jail. And that’s clearly where you belong.” Tom entered the code on the horse fence gate and galloped toward Jeff, swinging his rope overhead. Dad cantered higher up the road, then stopped, drawing a rifle from his saddle holster. Wiz kept her pistol pointed at the ground but was ready to raise it. “I don’t owe you anything. I earned everything I have after we divorced. One last chance, leave.”
“No.” Jeff put his hands on the fence.
The lasso dropped over Jeff’s shoulders and tugged his arms tight to his body. Tom yanked the rope tight, jerking Jeff off his feet, and wrapped the rope around the saddle horn. Strawberry backed perfectly, just like she was supposed to, keeping the rope tight. “The lady told you to leave. We’ll just help you along.”
Jeff clambered upright, then Tom backed Strawberry, yanking him off his feet again. After two more attempts, Jeff stayed down. He yelled over his shoulder, “Let me go!”
“I don’t think so. You’re trespassing, like the lady said. Trespassers aren’t treated kindly around these parts.” Tom glared—he was absolutely magnificent. Wiz laughed.
Jeff glared at her. “You witch! I’ll get all of you!”
She laughed harder. Tom yanked the rope. “There’s a lady present. We don’t use that kind of language here.” He put a hand on the knife sheathed at his waist, and Jeff paled.
Wiz snickered. He was pitiful. “Jeff, I’d recommend you think twice about revenge. Look up the hill. See that man on the horse? He trained at the same school as Carlos Hathcock, the famous Vietnam sniper. You’d better not come back.” Wiz let her tone go from gleeful to ice cold.
Tom slapped the rope, twanging it, and Jeff winced. “There’s this little phrase we Montanans use that sums up our thoughts on vermin. It’s called ‘shoot, shovel, and shut up.” A menacing half-smile bloomed on Tom’s face. “And to paraphrase a famous song, if you disappeared, you’d be a missing person nobody would miss.”
“You’ve just threatened to kill me on video.” Jeff’s chin raised. “We’ll see who’s going down now.”
