Mount Mercy

Corrigan jerked his head. Both of them obediently trotted over to us. How does he do that? Everyone just obeys him. When they were inside the exam room, Corrigan motioned for me to close the curtain. That made it cramped, but private.

“About time you told us what happened,” said Corrigan, pinning Seth with a look.

“It was just an accident!” Seth was an even worse liar than me. “We were hiking. Some farmer had put razor wire across a trail and we didn’t see it until it was too late.”

“You regularly go hiking in waist-deep snow?” Corrigan shook his head. “How’d the other guy crack his head?”

“He was trying to help. Slipped and hit his head on a log.”

This time I shook my head. “Not a skull fracture like that. He must have fallen from a height, onto concrete or rock.”

“Why are you lying to us?” asked Taylor. There was real hurt in her voice and I saw Seth instantly weaken. He really likes her. “We can help them better if you tell us what really happened.”

Seth huffed and scowled, looking everywhere except her eyes. But Taylor crossed her arms and pouted and every time he looked at her, I saw his resistance crumble a little more. I silently sutured Corrigan’s wound, waiting….

“Okay,” Seth said at last. “Okay, look—”

The curtain was ripped aside. I looked up from my suturing... right into Colt’s coldly gleaming eyes. I froze. Prey-still, a mouse who sees the shadow of a hawk. I didn’t dare breathe.

I was only half-done with Corrigan’s neck wound. He turned his head very slowly, the thread still connecting us. “Private discussion,” he told Colt.

His glare would have made any other man back away, but Colt took a step into the room, pulling the curtain closed behind him. Shit. Now we were hidden from the hallway. No one would see what he did.

“You don’t talk to my people without me,” Colt told us. My people. Like a military unit... or a cult. “We’ll be leaving, now. All of us.”

It took a few seconds for his words to register. Taylor found her voice first. “You don’t mean the injured guys?” she asked in disbelief. Then, off his silence. “You’re insane! They can’t leave, they need care!”

I saw Colt go tense, the tendons in his neck standing out like ropes. He was close enough that I could smell him, stale tobacco and whiskey and a tang that could have been boot polish or gun oil. I wasn’t sure if it was the word insane or just Taylor daring to resist him, but he was getting wound up.

Seth saw it too, and took a half step forward. “She’s right, dad,” he said.

His gentle tone was right, but it was the worst thing he could have said. I saw Colt’s eyes flick to Taylor and he drew in a long, shuddering breath. He could see Seth liked her and it enraged him. I saw his hand slide down to the knife on his belt and my insides went cold. This guy was seriously unhinged and we were all alone with him.

Corrigan slid off the table and blocked Colt’s path. Everyone drew in their breath. He was bigger than Colt but Colt was savage in a way I can’t explain, a snapping, vicious jackal who could take down a lion.

And then I saw something that really terrified me. For just a second, as the adrenaline slammed through his system, there was a wild look in Corrigan’s eyes. A come on, then! look.

In that second, he didn’t fear death. He welcomed it.

“Your man with the leg wounds, you can take,” I blurted. My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. I couldn’t believe I was daring to speak. “But the other guy, with the head injury, he still hasn’t regained consciousness. He needs constant monitoring.” And then I added, “He might not wake up.”

Because I’d realized what this all boiled down to. Colt didn’t want us talking to his men. He was willing to risk their lives to prevent it.

Colt stared at Corrigan for long seconds, neither of them backing down. It was so tense I wanted to scream. I saw Colt’s fingers stroke the handle of his knife once, twice—

And then he nodded, jerked his head for Seth to follow, and stormed out of the room. Seth gave Taylor one last, mournful look...and then hurried after his father. And they were gone.

All three of us let out a long sigh of relief. I started suturing again: I had to focus on something to calm me down. But I could feel Corrigan staring at me and at last I had to look up into his eyes.

There was scalding anger, first, but it didn’t sting: I could feel it wrapping around me, a protective fire. He didn’t want me putting myself at risk.