Chapter 5 #2
She headed upstairs to take a shower but peeked into Lacy’s room first. Her clothes were gone. She guessed she had come by and packed them up and then went to Hal’s ranch. The window had been replaced, and the broken glass had been cleaned up.
Florence sighed. She was so glad that everything had been straightened up. And she was relieved that Lacy was staying at the ranch with all the protection she would have there.
Once Florence was in her polar bear pajamas, slippers, and a robe, she went downstairs to make some cocoa before bed. “Would you like cocoa topped with whipped cream?”
“Yeah, that would be great,” Stryker said.
“You can sleep on the couch. I’ll bring you some bedding, and you can watch things down here. I’ll take care of the second floor.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“If you’re hungry or thirsty, just feel free to eat and drink whatever you would like.”
“Thanks.”
Then they drank their cocoa, and she put the penguin mugs into the dishwasher. She brought out sheets, a red-and-green plaid blanket, and a pillow, and he helped her make a bed on the couch.
“Thanks, Florence.”
“Thank you for everything. I kept envisioning coming home to a Christmas catastrophe, but I am so thankful that you had cleaned up the mess and the ladies decorated everything.” Then she said goodnight, but on the way up to the room, her phone rang, and she saw it was the clinic.
She worried Frank had taken a turn for the worse. But it was Frank calling.
“Hey, is everything all right there?” he asked.
“Oh, yes. Everything was cleaned up, and a couple of ladies redecorated the Christmas tree. Lacy’s window was replaced.” Florence let out her breath. “I miss you.” She really did. She had been alone for so long that she hadn’t realized how much she missed having a remarkable man in her life.
He chuckled. “I missed you as soon as you left. Lacy and Rory came by. They said they had picked up her clothes while you and I were eating dinner here, and then they had driven out to the ranch.”
“Do you want me to stay there with you tonight?”
“Nah. I’m going to sleep, and the couch here won’t be that comfortable. Hopefully I’ll be with you tomorrow.”
“I sure hope so. Get a good sleep, Frank. I’m off to bed myself.”
“Sweet dreams.”
“Hope yours are too.” Though she worried he would have nightmares about being struck on the head and knocked out. But she truly looked forward to seeing him tomorrow.
Then she got a call from Lacy, which she wasn’t expecting. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come into work tomorrow?”
“I think you would be safer at the ranch. He probably doesn’t know you are staying there, but he could know that you’re working at the coffee shop.”
“Okay.”
“Did you have fun with Rory tonight?”
“I did, but I felt a dark cloud was hanging over me because of Granddad getting hurt and knowing that Timothy is in the area. But I also worry about you. He knew I was staying at your house. What if he returns there, looking for me? Or takes you hostage to get to me?”
“Someone will be with me. I’m sure that someone will be at the shop with us tomorrow also.”
“All right. Well, if you need me to help, let me know.”
“I will, thanks, Lacy.” But Florence really wanted Lacy to stay out at the ranch. She felt Lacy would be safer there, and she suspected Hal would stay as a deputy sheriff to protect her, just in case her ex learned where she was.
Rory felt terrible about Lacy’s grandfather, and if he ever caught sight of the cougar who did it, he would kill him. Cougars like that didn’t go to prison. They were a security risk if they were incarcerated because they could change into their cougar at any given time.
He knew Lacy had been having difficulty concentrating on eating her dinner at the Sizzling Slice. She’d called Mrs. Fitz to make sure she was all right.
"Do you want to go to bed?" Rory asked Lacy, rubbing her arms with tenderness in the entryway to Hal and Tracey's home.
"I still want to go for a cougar run, if you want to do it."
"Yeah, sure." He was thrilled, but he figured she wanted to do it to work out some pent-up frustration over what had happened to her grandfather and the concern that her ex now knew she was in Yuma Town. "You…aren't planning on running again, are you?"
He considered she might want to because of her past actions when her ex caught up to her.
"No." She wrapped her arms around Rory, hugged him, and kissed him on the mouth, lightly at first, and then the kiss morphed into a promise to stay with him.
He embraced her tightly, telling her he was there for her and she didn't have to worry about Timothy any longer.
"I have you and all of Yuma Town to back me up this time." She smiled. "And I think Granddad and Mrs. Fitz are hitting it off. I wouldn't want to ruin that for them by leaving, knowing my grandfather would just come after me again to try and keep me safe."
"Good. I think so, too, about your grandfather and Mrs. Fitz. I haven’t seen her that giddy since she sat on Santa’s lap at the women’s tea last Christmas. I have a special place I'll take you to then."
She laughed about Mrs. Fitz sitting on Santa’s lap.
“I’m looking forward to seeing your special place.
” She led him to her guest room, and they both removed their clothes and shifted into cougars, then raced down the stairs as Tracey and Hal were getting their kids ready for bed.
All four of them: Tabitha, Denise, Liam, Evan Chase were eight years old, but turning nine on December 29th.
They always had a big party for the quadruplets.
The kids made Rory think of having children with Lacy.
He smiled, and they headed out the cougar door and into the cold, snow-covered ground.
The full moon shone in all its glory as they ran across the snow-covered fields, its light reflecting on the snow.
He was taking her to everyone's favorite spot.
A waterfall now frozen in an icy sculpture that was just beautiful.
When they reached the river, it was flowing, though the banks were covered in ice. She just stared at the waterfall in all its frozen glory. She licked Rory's nose, telling him he had done right by bringing her here.
He licked her back and nuzzled her muzzle. She reciprocated, then headed closer to the waterfall. Icy rocks were right next to the riverbank like steppingstones to the waterfall.
He knew she was going to navigate the rocks before she even moved in that direction. He wanted to warn her that they were slippery, but she could see that they were.
Then she gingerly climbed onto the first of the boulders.
He was right behind her. Not that he could stop her from falling into the river if she slipped off the rocks.
Then she went to the next rock, and he waited for her to reach the next boulder.
Once she was on it, he moved to the rock behind her and promptly slipped off the rock into the water.
He wanted to laugh. She leapt into the water after him, but he was okay. He appreciated that she worried about him though. He climbed back up on the rocks, and she joined him. Then she continued to the waterfall and licked the ice sculpture. She was cute.
She managed to work her way behind the frozen waterfall, and he joined her. She licked his wet fur, and he licked hers. He'd been behind the waterfall before, but not when it was frozen! It was like looking through a distorted version of the world.
Thankfully, their cougar coats were keeping them warm. They cuddled together, and he enjoyed the warmth they shared.
Then Lacy rubbed against Rory and began to leave the cave behind the waterfall and quickly stopped. Rory ran into her, but looked around her to see what the matter was. A cougar he didn't recognize was standing on the boulders, teeth bared.
Aww, shit. If they were wolves, they could howl for backup. But as cats, their screeches couldn't carry as far as a wolf's howl. He moved past her and tore into the cougar. He smelled his scent then and knew it was the ex.
He was a little heavier than Rory, but Rory was more muscled. And damned determined to kill the cougar before he harmed Lacy.
But she was just as angry with the cougar as Rory, and she began tearing into him like Rory was. They'd all fallen in the water and were struggling to keep their heads above it while fighting him.
Timothy finally made it to shore and tore off.
He might think he could bully his ex-girlfriend, but he couldn't take on Rory and Lacy at the same time.
They raced after him. He was headed for the ranch, but then he must have thought better of it because they could get reinforcements, and he took off for the Rocky Mountains.
Rory considered chasing after him, but both he and Lacy were bleeding, though so was Timothy. Lacy was trying to catch her breath. Rory nudged her to return to the ranch with him.
They headed back at a lope. He couldn't believe the bastard would figure out where Lacy had ended up, though he knew once Timothy had reached the ranch, he would have smelled their scents. He probably was irritated beyond measure that Lacy was running with Rory on a cougar date.
Once they reached the ranch, they headed straight for Hal and Tracey's home. Lacy led the way inside and ran up the stairs, startling Tracey.
"Ohmigod, what happened to..." Tracey began to say, then saw Rory right behind Lacy, bleeding also.
Tracey called out, "Hal, we have trouble."
Even though Lacy and Rory had been torn up a bit by her ex, Timothy had suffered the brunt of the fight. She wished he would die in the mountains, but that probably wouldn’t happen with their faster healing genetics.
Both Lacy and Rory put on their underclothes but needed to have their wounds cleaned and bandaged. They would heal in half the time that it took humans to heal, but they still had some pretty deep bite marks.
“I’m taking them to the clinic,” Hal said, after looking at their bite marks. “Kate said she would be there when we arrive.”
Lacy and Rory got dressed. “Thanks, Tracey,” Lacy said.
“I’m so sorry this has happened,” Rory said.
“I just wish we could have killed him.” Lacy pulled on her sweater.
“Where did he go?” Hal asked. He paused his conversation on the phone.
“Up into the mountains,” Rory said. “Since both of us were injured, I wanted to return Lacy home and get our wounds bandaged.”
“You did the right thing,” Tracey said.
“I wanted to go after him, believe me,” Rory said.
“I did too.” Lacy squeezed his hand.
Hal said on the phone. “Okay, Dan. We’re going to the clinic. I’ll let Ted know to alert our men to keep my family safe and to keep a watch out for this guy.”
Then they left in Hal’s pickup truck to get medical care. “Should we tell Mrs. Fitz?” Rory asked Lacy.
“No. We can tell her tomorrow. Though since Stryker is staying with her, he probably needs to be informed. We can check in on Granddad, but I don’t want to wake him if he’s sleeping.”
“I agree.”
When they arrived at the clinic, Dr. Kate looked over their injuries and stitched up three wounds on Rory’s shoulder and back and two on Lacy’s throat. She was lucky Timothy hadn’t killed her.
Rory was sure if Timothy could have, he would have ended her life by the river. They had to eliminate him first.