Catherine Anderson Only By Your Touch (epub)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.I need your help.”The silent-glare treatment wasn’t working.Ben spread his feet and planted his hands at his hips.“If you’re selling magazines, forget it.I can’t read.”“I’m not selling nothing.”The kid’s lips looked a little blue.Ben told himself it was a trick of the light.“I don’t like people trespassing on my property.Turn that bike of yours around, and get off my ridge.”Damn it.With 160 fenced acres, a man was entitled to some privacy.Ben didn’t want any locals up here.Every blasted time, they saw something they shouldn’t and carried tales back to town.“Go on!” he barked.“Get off my land, I said.”The tremors that racked the child’s body gained force to become a violent quaking.Ben’s throat thickened with shame.He could scare off adults and teenagers without a qualm, but a small child was different.He felt like a first-class jerk.As frightened as the boy clearly was, he still didn’t run.He had more backbone than a lake trout, Ben decided with reluctant admiration.“I rode my bike a long ways.If you’re still mad ’cause we stole your land, I’m real sorry, but I’m not leaving until I talk to you.”“Fine, then.Spit it out, and then make tracks.”“My puppy Rowdy’s dying.I brung him to you ’cause the lady at the feed store said you know a lot about curing animals.”Ben’s studied the child’s freckled face.He placed him now.It was the kid he’d seen at the store yesterday.A picture spun through his mind of the mother.She was a looker with a wealth of auburn hair, big, wary brown eyes, and a tidy figure.Since his divorce, Ben didn’t often notice women, but he’d given her a second look, much to his self-disgust a few minutes later.This child had cowered behind her when Ben had approached them in the dog-food section.Since returning to Jack Pine, he’d grown used to the gossip.Oh, yes, he’d heard the stories—about witchcraft and random murders, with him feeding the human remains to his critters.The stories were so preposterous and sick that he had long since decided not let them bother him.It carried a harder punch when a child cringed from him, though.What kind of mother allowed her child’s head to be filled with such tripe?To hell with it.Like he gave a rat’s ass?And yet, deep down, he actually did care a great deal, especially when he saw how deep-rooted the distrust of him really was.The boy had eyes like his mother’s—big splashes of liquid brown fringed with dark lashes.Something about her had appealed to him in a way no other woman had in years.Several times that morning, he’d caught himself thinking of her—and how good she had looked in khaki slacks and a form-fitting green knit top that showcased her sweetly rounded breasts.Ben shifted his attention to the pup that lay so still in the towel-lined handlebar basket.He hated to see the kid lose his dog.But, hey, it wasn’t his problem.If he helped this child, he’d be signing the death warrant of almost twenty other animals, his cougar, Methuselah, included.Three months ago, a power company employee had driven up to Ben’s place to read the electric meter and seen Ben walking the cougar on a leash.Less than a week later, Deputy Bobby Lee Schuck had paid a visit to Cinnamon Ridge with two game wardens in tow.Caught off guard, Ben hadn’t had time to hide the animals in his outdoor hospital, which had been behind the house at the time.Several convalescents in cages had been confiscated.The only reason Methuselah hadn’t met with the same fate was because Bobby Lee hadn’t thought to search the house.It was against Oregon law to keep wild animals in captivity without a special permit.Ben had received a hefty fine for his infraction and been told he would go to jail if he broke the law again.None too thrilled at the prospect, he had tried the legal route, applying to the state for a special permit, but his application had been turned down, a result, he felt sure, of Bobby Lee’s blackballing him.For Ben, the choice of either abiding by the law or breaking it was no choice at all.He couldn’t condemn Methuselah to a slow death by starvation out in the wild, and he couldn’t turn his back on the other animals that came to him for help, either.Eventually his illegal veterinary practice would land him in jail.He understood that and was willing to pay the price.He just hoped to postpone the inevitable for as long as possible, and that meant keeping people off the ridge, including small boys who came to him with sick puppies.“I’m not a vet anymore,” Ben said firmly.“And I don’t like being pestered.”“Don’t you still know vet stuff?” Those big brown eyes welled with tears.“Please? He’s gonna die, Mr.Longtree.He needs your help.”The child’s body suddenly snapped taut, and what little color remained in his face drained away.Ben realized he was gaping at something behind him.Not Methuselah, he thought.Please, God, don’t let it be Methuselah.But, of course, it was.Just as Ben turned to look, the cougar stumbled over a six-pack cooler in the carport and sent it flying.The resultant clatter might have startled a less stalwart feline, but Methusaleh was accustomed to bumping into things.Ben was tempted to let loose with a string of curses to turn the air blue.Only what good would it do? The cat was out of the bag now.The kid would race home to tell his mother.She’d grab up the phone to tell a friend.By this time tomorrow, everyone in Jack Pine, including Bobby Lee Schuck, would have heard the story.Ben didn’t kid himself.If the deputy saw an opportunity to cause him more grief, he’d jump at it, and the old cougar’s fate would be sealed.To Ben’s surprise and even greater dismay, the boy suddenly started wheezing—an awful whining sound that rattled up from his narrow chest.Clutching his throat with one hand, he began fumbling in the pocket of his jeans.Ben realized he was groping for an inhaler and hurried over to help.“Easy, son, easy.” Ben plucked the canister from the child’s pocket and pressed the orange mouthpiece to his lips.“The cougar won’t hurt you, I promise.” He depressed the cap to release a blast of medication.The boy tried to breathe it in but the inhalant didn’t help.Growing truly alarmed, Ben dropped to one knee to get a better angle and released more medicine.“What is it, asthma? Calm down, son.Try to relax.”Easy to say, but not so easily done.The boy dragged in a whistling breath of the mist, gulped, and grabbed frantically for more [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne