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Poor Shadowfax! She had followed Carly to the back door, though she still trembled. Sam stood between her front legs. He sent her up reassuring glances with a wag of his bushy tail. Carly didn’t know if Shadowfax could read the wolf’s expressions, but she seemed comforted to have him there. She bent her massive head, snuffled at his ears, and didn’t recoil when he ran his tongue along her jaw in a big, sloppy kiss, despite the blood on his muzzle.
Carly peered out the small glass window set in the side of the door. It had embedded wire mesh. All she could see was a residential street, and the only movement came from trees and foliage swaying in the soft breeze.
Justin fired off another shot and ducked behind the door before it was returned. The shot went wide and shattered the window far to Justin’s right. “Amateurs,” he muttered. He waited until another shot was fired, and then he ducked around the corner and fired off three shots. A faint cry of pain told him he’d hit his target.
“Wait for me here,” Justin called over his shoulder to Carly.
No way would she let him go out there alone. She waited for a moment before following him outside, imitating the way he swept from side to side, looking for targets. There was no one else on the street. Carly ducked behind a bush near the end of the sidewalk. The only sounds were the keening sobs of the dark-haired woman as she embraced the still body of the blond man. His blood pooled in the gutter beside them.
Justin quickly shifted from car to car, using them for cover as he made his way across the street and around to the passenger side of the car parked on the opposite side where he crouched with his gun extended. “Please don’t kill me!” a male voice begged.
“You’re gut-shot,” Justin replied dispassionately as he rose to his feet, apparently confident there were no other shooters nearby. “You’re fucked. If I don’t kill you now, you’ll die in lingering agony a week from now.”
“Please! Just don’t!”
“You got a round for that thing?”
The only reply was a sob. Justin sighed and popped the clip on his gun. He flicked the top bullet off with his thumb and handed it down. Then he turned and walked back toward the library. Carly saw the barrel of a pistol thrust out from behind the bumper of the car and didn’t have time to call a warning to Justin before a shot rang out, and the pavement about two yards to Justin’s left gained a divot. Justin paused. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He shook his head and called over his shoulder, “You’re going to be sorry as hell you wasted that shot in about three days.”
Carly stood. Justin gave her a reproving look.
“We’re a team.” Carly crossed her arms and lifted her chin, daring him to disagree.
His eyes softened. “We are.”
“Stupid, stupid man, walking around out in the open like that!” Carly took him into her arms and gave him a little swat on the shoulder at the same time.
Justin snorted. “They pretty much established they couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.” Her ear was pressed over his heart. She felt his lips brush the top of her head, and she tilted it back so he could do the same to her lips. His kiss was soft and sweet.
They went back in the library to gather up their things and were greeted by a nervous horse and a wolf that stood on his back legs “hugging” Carly by putting his paws on her shoulders. He licked her chin respectfully, and Carly scratched his ruff and told him he was a good boy, a bit of praise that made his tail wag with glee.
Carly looked around at the setup Justin had put so much thought and time into and realized she hadn’t yet thanked him. “Justin, this was so incredibly sweet. Thank you.”
Justin smiled, though it was tinged with sadness. “I wish you had been able to enjoy it longer. Why don’t you go and pick up some books for yourself while I pack this up?”
She smiled at him, picked up her wine glass, and downed its contents in one gulp before she headed into the stacks with the flashlight. The beam landed on a series she had enjoyed, and she felt a little ache in her heart that she’d never know how it ended.
Carly emerged about fifteen minutes later with a stack of books so large she staggered under its weight. Justin took them from her with a chuckle. “Maybe we should set up a new rule you can’t take more from the library than you can carry out in one trip.” He dumped the books into the wagon and covered them with the tarp.
Shadowfax and Sam followed them outside, both in a state of high alert. The dark-haired woman still lay over the body in the street and wailed with grief. She didn’t seem to notice them passing by. Sam growled softly at her, but at a motion from Carly’s hand, he stilled. The one behind the car moaned in pain and begged for someone to help him.
Carly winced. “We’re just going to leave him there?”
Justin didn’t look at her. “He’s not going to survive. He’d need surgery in a hospital and still might not make it. I did the only thing I could—I offered him a way out. He threw it away. I’m not wasting another bullet on him.”
Carly mounted her bike, steeling her heart against the pitiful moans. The man had made his choice.
Shadowfax stayed close to them as they headed out of town, Sam right by Carly’s side as if to assure her she would be protected. Carly wondered if the poor horse had been traumatized by her treatment. She hoped horses had short memories.
They rode until after sunset, chatting the whole way, as they had done before what Carly thought of as the “Soda Tab Incident.” Justin took them off the main road and up a side road a bit before they settled down to set up camp. He was pretty confident no one would come after them, but he wanted to be cautious, nevertheless. Carly started the fire as he erected their tent and collected the supplies for supper. He hung a pot from the tripod he made of branches and filled it with two cans of beef stew. Carly was about to object to the amount he was making when she realized for the first time in weeks that she was hungry. She devoured the first bowl he gave her and then a second. Her belly pleasantly full, she leaned back in her chair and sighed.
“Want to play cards?” Justin asked. “Loser washes dishes?”
“You’re on.”
The dishes never did get washed that night. They played several hands as the score was so even. Then game time was over because Justin had said something that made Carly giggle, and enchanted by the sound, he had kissed her. The kiss grew, continued, and deepened until they both were panting against each other’s lips.
Justin picked Carly up and deposited her on his sleeping bag inside the tent. He pulled the zipper closed and then returned to Carly—returned to those hot, drugging kisses. His hand slid up her torso, slowly, giving her time to object before he reached his goal. Carly’s response was to whip her T-shirt over her head and tug at his.
