Chapter 2
As he is driving towards the ranch Conrad radios the station filing a quick verbal report on the situation promising to email a complete one as soon as he got the chance. He requests they run the tags, so he can find out who his guest is, and get back to him ASAP. Then he radios home, “Hey Lazy 8 got your ears on?” Chad answers right away, “ I’m here Conrad. What’s the situation? He answers, “I’ve got one female victim, she’s been knifed and beaten and is nearly frozen.” Chad relays the info to Chris who starts to his office and says “ bring her straight to his surgery.” Conrad agrees to his request. As he is approaching the turnoff to the ranch he hears a low moan followed by a yip and a soft whine come from the back of the truck. Looking in the rearview he sees the Great Dane he’s nicknamed Bigfoot enthusiastically licking washing the lady’s face, ignoring the lady’s weak protests. He says quietly, “Come on fella let your momma breath.” The words no sooner leave his mouth when he sees her eyes fly open in panic. He quickly brings the truck to a stop puts it in park and turns facing the back. In those few short seconds the lady’s panic had escalated and she managed to get into a sitting position with both the dogs between them. Staring at him with terror filled eyes she asks in a shaky voice, “Who are you, and where are you taking me?” “He remains calm and replies in that same soft voice he’d been using on the dogs to keep them calm, “Sheriff Langtree, Ma’am, Sheriff Conrad Langtree and we are headed to the Lazy 8 Ranch.” She asks, “ Langtree? Do you know Charles Langtree?”
“Yes Ma’am I do know Charlie, he’s one of my brothers. How do you know Charlie?” ,he asks in return. She looks thoughtful for a few minutes then answers quietly, “he is the agent in charge of my situation. We were supposed to meet in Freedom yesterday at the library between 2 and 5 pm he never showed or called. I knew part of his plan so when he didn’t show I climbed into my truck and headed out towards your/his family’s ranch. As you can see I didn’t make it.” Thoughtfully Conrad turns back to the front and answers the squawking radio, “Hold on a minutes will you Cord, the lady is awake and not surprisingly a little anxious, she’d like to know who is giving her a ride and where that ride is going to… so sit there for a couple minutes in your nice warm truck will ya! At her questioning look he replies, “it’s the red truck behind us, my brothers Cord, Craig and Chase, they’ve got your truck, at least what’s left of it and your other two dogs. Anxiously she says, “Other two dogs? But I have five dogs.” He answers, “I only saw 4 dogs Ma’am these two that I’ve been referring to as Big Foot and Crazy Horse and the two in my brothers truck that I’ve been calling Night and Polar Bear.” He is startled when she looks at him with tears n her eyes, “that means my girl Banshee is missing.” He asks quietly, “What kind of dog is she, you’ve got quiet an unusual pack.” She answers softly, “Its funny you would word it that way, Banshee is half wolf and half bull mastiff and totally devoted to me.” He replies, “then she may be tracking your attackers. I doubt they would have gotten the upper hand at all if it hadn’t been for the mace and tranquilizer darts.” In a quivery voice, “tranquilizers and mace? They hurt my babies?” In reply he says, “I know Polar Bear got it in the eyes. I could see the irritation when he was leading me to some evidence.”
She gives him a little smile and says, “Polar Bear huh.. his name is actually Phantom but the smarty pants will answer to anything so long as it suits his plan, and don’t think that these guys are just dog either because they aren’t. They are over trained over intelligent monsters sometimes.”
“Let me get you to the ranch, Chris is waiting for you in his surgery.”
“Chris?” she asks quietly?
“He is another one of my brothers and the doctor in the family, I called him and reported your injuries and he is waiting to take care of you.”
She gives him another quiet smile and says, “I’ll come along quietly Sheriff.”
“Good, you just settle back we’ll be there in just a couple of minutes.” As he turns into the driveway and passes under the archway, “Welcome to the Lazy 8 Ranch Miss…?”
He hears faintly from the back, “Diana Hunter.”
He replies, “Welcome to the Lazy 8 Ranch Miss Hunter.” He pulls the truck around the side of the house up close to a door with a big ornate sign hanging over it that reads Dr. Christopher Langtree. He parks the truck as close to the door as he can and hops out of the truck, triggering the rear door remote as he neared the back of the truck. He reaches in and scoops her up into his arms as the door to office is opened, the man standing there looks at him quizzically then asks, “Is this my patient?” “Yes she is. Miss Hunter, my brother Dr. Chris Langtree.” He was surprised that I hadn’t struggled against him carrying me in, but after looking closely at my face he could tell it was taking every bit of my energy to just remain awake and coherent. “Conrad bring her back here to the surgery, I have everything ready.” As he leads the way to the large surgery at the back of his office we hear some of the others taking the dogs in another direction. She asks quietly, “Where are they taking my boys?” Conrad quietly replies, “ around behind the barn, that’s where my Brother Craig has his office, he’s a veterinarian, he wants to make sure they are ok. As we enter Chris, the doctor points to the exam table and says, “put her on the table and get me the scissors.” Conrad sets the lady down and turns slightly to get the shears, as he does she grabs his hand. He looks back at her quizzically and sees the fear and terror back on her face. He squeezes her hand gently and says, “I know he doesn’t look like much but Chris is a really good doctor, you don’t have to be afraid of him.”
In a sad scared voice she asks, “You aren’t leaving are you?” She implored, “You’ll stay right?!”
“Of course Ma’am if you want me to,” he replied, “but I do have to call the FBI and inform them that you are safe, see if they heard from Charlie.” With a sob she cries, “You can’t call the FBI, can’t you see they have a leak. Those men were waiting for me. Of the 6 men and 2 women that make up his team, the only one I trusted was Charlie. You can’t call them.”
“And as for you,” she says turning on Chris, “You are NOT cutting my clothes off me. I am awake and perfectly capable of undressing myself.” He tries to explain why he was going to cut them off, “Miss Hunter if we cut off these wet things we can treat your wounds quicker and without you moving around so much.”
Shaking her head emphatically she replies, “NO! You are not cutting up my things,” then insistently states, “you can help me undress or I will do it myself but you are NOT cutting up my clothes.”
A deep voice from the door, “I guess she told you.” followed by, “Sorry to interrupt Ma’am, I need to talk to Conrad for a minute.”
With a great deal of frustration she replies, “Stop that! I am not a Ma’am and No you can’t have him, he said he would stay with me. You want to talk with him come in and talk. Nothings happening in here anyhow cause I’m not letting them cut my clothes off.”
Chris steps closer after laying the scissors down and says with a heavy sigh, “Ok Miss Hunter we’ll do it your way. I’d like to fix you up before you bleed to completely out! Is there anything I can do to help you?” “Just help me get this stupid coat off, my right shoulder hurts so lets be gentle.” Chris reaches out and helps me to slid the coat off my good shoulder then steps around the table to help ease it off the sore one, noting that my jaw clenched tight at the slightest movement of that shoulder. He comments firmly, “This shirt needs to come off too so that I can see this shoulder and other wounds.” “Fine! Help me get my shirt off then but don’t expect me to be happy about it.” With a quirky grin Chris replies, “Ok be grumpy but you’ll feel much better after we close these knife wounds and fix up any other injuries.” While Chris had me occupied Conrad and his as yet unidentified brother move to the far corner of the room and talk quietly. Cord tells Conrad quietly, “ Cody and Chad got the dogs into Craig’s office and are helping him to flush their eyes and look for other injuries. What have you found out?” He answers, “She is one of Charlie’s special situations. Name is Diana Hunter. She was suppose to meet Charlie yesterday at the library in town. Charlie never showed. Apparently she learned a little bit about him and what he was planning to do for her. She was heading here to the ranch when she was ambushed. There is a leak in Charlie’s team and she doesn’t trust any of the rest of them. We found her but she still doesn’t know she can trust us either.” Looking back towards the two of us he says, “What's more she and Chris didn’t hit it off right away.” Cord following his gaze asks, “Chris do you need any help?” He answers tersely, “Yes Cord, I could use a hand.. she’s going to need a lot of sutures, her shoulder is dislocated and I’ll need you to help me put it back in place.” Cord looks at me and asks quietly, “Are you ok with me helping?” I study him intently for a few minutes and I see something unfathomable and just know that I this is one man that can be trusted anytime. I nod my head and reply quietly, “Yes, I’d appreciate your help, keep this doctor from pushing me and going around my wishes.” Chris and Cord work in tandem getting all the wounds cleaned and sutured in record time. Conrad watched the proceedings from the far side of the room noting that not one whimper or cry passed thru my lips, but the bleak look in my eyes worried him. After cleaning up all the cleaning and suturing materials Chris looks at me clears his throat and says, “There is no easy way to reseat your should no matter how we do it, its going to hurt.” I reply with obvious frustration, “Just do what you have to do!” They proceed with reseating my shoulder then step back giving me a chance to catch my breath before doing x-rays and wrapping the shoulder.
“Miss Hunter?” asked Chris, “how are you doing?”
Softly with doggedness I reply, “ Diana just call me Diana. I’m fine are we done now?”
Chris answers, “Not quite yet Miss Hunter we still need to do x-rays on your ribs, and check over the rest of you, just to be sure everything is alright.” Two hours later after he had gone over all the tests, wrapped my cracked ribs and given me some pain killers and a sling for my bad shoulder. I look up exhaustion in every move and breath and ask, “My dogs?” Cord answered, “Craig took them to his office, he was going to clean their faces up and check them for other injuries. You don’t have to worry Diana, he’s a good Vet.”
I look up at him intently and ask, “Did he tell you one of my dogs is still missing, and she isn’t your average run of the mill dog.”
He replies, “No!” and asks, “What breed is she?”
“Banshee is half wolf and half bull mastiff, nearly twice the size of your average wolf. So smart that she even amazes me sometimes. I would bet you any amount of money that right now she is tracking or has tracked my ambushers and has or is trying to locate me.”
He comments, “A wolf mix … they are some unpredictable creatures, most people don’t want them around.”
“Its true they aren’t for everyone and it helps to get them when they are young, I got Banshee before she was weaned. Her parents and most of her litter mates were killed by ranchers in Idaho, I beat them to her. When they challenged me for her, she tried to protect me, she wasn’t even 8 weeks old. She’s my baby girl.”
He shakes his head sadly, “Folks got to get along with the wild creatures the creator put here, greed gets to the brightest folks.”
I smile at him and say, “Thank you for that reassurance. You’re Cord right?”
“Yes Ma’am I am Cord,” he replied, oldest and best looking of the 8 Langtree brothers.”
In mock seriousness and preening like the cock of the walk, Conrad utters between snickers, “Best looking, don’t think so big bro, nope don’t think so.” He then looks over to Chris who was watching the banter and asks, “is it ok to take her up to the house now? I’m sure she’s got to be getting tired of the décor down here.”
Chris states emphatically, “ She can go to the house, no stress and nothing strenuous for at least 5 days, those aren’t minor bruises and those ribs and that shoulder are going to hurt like hell. She can talk, she can reminisce, she can explain what the hell is going on, so long as she does it sitting down, laying down would be better. Looking over to me he tells me earnestly, “Diana you getting rest is what’s important, your body has been through a lot of stress in a short time, to heal well you need rest and food.”
Cord takes my hand and asks kindly, “Are you up to walking?” With a determined look I reply, “ I’m fine Cord, this is really nothing. I’ve been hurt a lot worse than this and didn’t get treated half as well afterwards.” He picks up his long-rider and wraps it around me looking critically at the borrowed sweatpants and t-shirt I was wearing, “at least your shoes and socks dried out so your feet will be warm, but those clothes are no where near warm enough but I guess they’ll have to do, its only a short walk across to the house. With his arm wrapped secure about me he leads me out of the office and guides me through the heavy snow right into the comforting warmth of the kitchen. Cord takes his coat and introduces the rest of the brothers as he helps me to sit down, Diana this is the rest of the family. At your left there is Chase, the two sitting across from you looking almost like they could double mint twins are Cody and Chad. Chad has the scar above his left eye. The big dark looking fellow wielding the spatula is Craig. Boy’s this is Diana. “Craig, you’re the vet right?” at his nod I continue, “how are my boys?” He answers, ”I’ve got their faces all cleaned up, looks like they all got maced. Polar Bear has some bruising in his ribs. The Wolfhound has a human bite on his right shoulder that I need to keep an eye on. There’s nothing dirtier than the human mouth. The black one has some bruising on his right ear, I’d say he was hit. The Dane seems to be fine just suffering a little from the cold.”
I hesitantly ask, “Where are they now?”
He smiles and it changes his entire look, softening it, “I put them up in your room so they could rest. They’ve been fed and walked. I did leave water down for them. They may drink more than usual, it’s a common stress reaction for many animals. Don’t worry though I’ll be keeping an eye on them.” He then asks, “Are you hungry? Thirsty? I’ve got some nice hunter stew and biscuits for supper and lets see, ice tea hot tea coffee or ginger ale to go with it.” “I’d really appreciate a little of that hunter stew please, and maybe some of that hot tea you mentioned. Its been more than 20 hours since my last meal. I didn’t hang around town for dinner last night after Charlie didn’t show up.”
Conrad quietly questions, “You sure Charlie said September 8th?” I look at him sadly with fear back in my eyes and answer, “Yeah I am sure. We worked out the meeting place and time then drilled it till there was no way it could be forgotten. He told me to meet him in the local history section between the hours of 3 and 5. Then told me if he didn’t show to head out to the family ranch that his brothers would know what to do to keep me safe till he showed up. But there has to be a spy in his team because that ambush was well planned. Those men were waiting and they knew about my dogs. That scares me, he didn’t call and didn’t show. I honestly don’t know if they took him out first or not.” Chase asks, “What are you running from?” They see my shoulder slump and then I answer, “He really hasn’t called you guys at all has he?” Cord answers for all of them, “Honey he hasn’t called home in probably a month if not longer.” “Damn! I thought that he would have told you my situation, prepared you so you could help if he wasn’t able to be here.” Uncertainly, “Now I just don’t know.”
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