Her lips lifted a little, but he could tell her heart wasn't in it.
He closed his eyes and listened to Rourke and Tessa move to the kitchen where they discussed him and how they would get him to the clinic in town despite what he wanted. He let out an exasperated sigh.
Tessa was not normally a wimp, but she'd fought collapsing when she first saw Hunter's muscle torn to the bone. He had to have medical attention and soon. But he was right about the driving conditions. She would never normally chance driving in this kind of weather. Anyone with an ounce of sense wouldn't either. But infection could set in and he couldn't heal properly without getting some stitches no matter what Hunter said about it. Yet she wondered if he practiced some kind of mind-over-body meditation that helped him heal faster because all the injuries he'd suffered from his swim in the Pacific had healed.
How he could have survived the cold for so long before they reached him, she couldn't imagine. It was almost as if he'd holed up in a nice warm cabin for a while. Except there were none close by, and he had been too injured to have gone very far.
Rourke let out his breath. "I don't know what to do, Tessa. He needs a doctor for sure. My phone still isn't getting a signal or I'd call for an emergency crew to come get us."
Tessa looked out at the accumulating snow--already drifts had piled up half a foot around the back of the house. "I'm afraid we wouldn't make the six-mile trip into town. If we ran the truck off into the woods down one of those steep embankments--if we survived--we could all be injured so badly we might not be able to crawl back to the road. Then what? And if we just got stuck, we'd have to walk in these freezing conditions the rest of the way into town. I don't think Hunter can take any more of the cold as badly injured as he is. But I'm also worried about infection and continued bleeding. And although he says the wolf wasn't rabid, how does he know? What if it was? The way the animal came into the house and headed for me, he acted more like a rabid wolf than not."
"Agreed." Rourke glanced at his watch. "It's already midnight. One of us will need to keep a vigil on him all night. If he begins to run a fever or gets violently ill, either we can attempt a run into town, or we can wait out the storm and try then. The alternative is I can go by myself and try to get help."
Tessa shook her head. "I'd worry about your safety. What if you didn't make it? And then, too, the stalker could still be out there. Oh, hell, I hadn't thought about it since it happened, but remember, someone rang the doorbell and then disappeared? Do you think the wolf killed the person and dragged him away?"
Rourke collapsed on the dining chair. "Hell. We've got to report this as soon as we can. It's our civic duty, despite what Hunter says."
Rourke was right, but what kept running through her mind was the strange way Hunter had considered the photographs. The concern etched in his face and actions, the questions he'd asked--all led her to believe he thought the same as her, despite his words to the contrary and how insane the notion could be. The wolf was the same one she'd seen on the three separate occasions, and he was stalking her.
Chapter 7
FOR TWO HOURS, TESS A SAT WITH HUNTER, HIS HEAD RESTING in her lap as he slept fitfully on the couch. Her nerves raw, she wanted to take him to the hospital in the worst way, to have medical personnel--who knew what they were doing--care for him.
Rourke had finally fallen asleep on the other sofa, snoring softly. The fire crackled and cast a soft glow into the room, but the lamps remained on the floor where they had fallen. Not wanting to disturb Hunter's rest, she'd clean up later. Battling to stay awake, she kept vigilant, watching for any sign Hunter's condition was worsening.
"Meara," Hunter mumbled and groaned. "Meara."
Tessa's soggy eyes widened, and she strained to hear him speak again. Was he remembering something more? Of course he was. But about a girlfriend or his sister? Her heart skittered with the thought.
She brushed the hair away from his forehead, the shadow of a beard giving him a rugged, sexy appearance, but his cheeks seemed flushed. She touched his cheek, her fingers recoiling at the feel of his skin. No, no. He was burning up.
She hurried to move out from under him, removed his blankets, and went to the kitchen. Pouring water into a glass, she glanced out the window to see how bad the storm was. Maybe they could chance taking him into town.
Half-hidden in the shadows of the shed, the security light revealed a wolf sitting, watching the house.
A shiver stole up her spine. Was it the one that had knocked Rourke out and come after her? No, this one didn't have any blood on his nose. She squinted her eyes, trying to get a better look. Its darker gray fur blended with beige and its snout had the same pretty beige on top, white underneath. Was he the one that Hunter said attacked the other then?
Maybe Hunter was right. She wouldn't want anyone to shoot a good animal.
She opened the window and tried to get a closer look. The animal's ears twitched and his eyes focused on her. He didn't seem vicious, but he was still feral.
She closed the window and returned to the living room with the medicine.
"Hunter," she said, trying to wake him.
He looked up at her, his eyes glassy. He closed his eyes and moaned.
"No, Hunter, take this medicine. We need to bring down the fever. Hunter!"
Rourke touched her arm and she nearly dropped the glass.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice ragged with sleep.
"He's burning up and I can't get him to take anything for it."
"Here, let me." Rourke helped Hunter sit up and forced the pill down his throat, but Hunter growled and bit him. Rourke jerked his finger free. "Hell, Hunter, I'm only trying to help."
"Let me get some antibiotics for that. Jeez. What next?" Tessa asked.
"I just hope to hell the wolf that bit him didn't have rabies." Rourke helped Hunter lie back down and joined Tessa in the kitchen. "He seems to be sleeping all right."
"Restlessly." She washed Rourke's finger in the sink and glanced out the window. No sign of the wolf. "Hunter broke the skin."
"I noticed. Here I get off pretty easily by surviving the wolf attack, resulting in only a lump as big as a melon on the back of my head and one hell of a headache, and the ex-Navy SEAL bites me instead."
"You can write it in your memoirs some day." She coated his finger in antibacterial ointment and then wrapped a bandage around it. "At this rate, I'm going to have to buy a whole lot more medical supplies. By the way, I saw one of those wolves out back." She got Rourke a couple of pills for his headache.
He leaned against the sink and peered out the window. "I don't see anything but snow."
"He's gone now, but it's not the one who attacked us. He had a bloody nose. This one didn't have a mark on it."
"If they were fighting, how did he get away without a scratch?"
"Maybe it was hurt somewhere I couldn't see. I just know it wasn't the one that came after us. Can you get back to sleep?"
Rourke took the pills, drowned them with a glass of water, and followed Tessa into the living room. "Why don't you try sleeping for a while? I'll watch Hunter and the house for a couple of hours."
She ran her hand over Hunter's temple, his face flushed and sweaty. "I hope the roads are clear enough in the morning. No matter what condition they're in, we're going to have to chance taking Hunter to the clinic."
Everyone was fast asleep when the doorbell rang at six in the morning. Deja vu. Immediately, Tessa bolted upright from the sofa opposite the one Hunter slept on. Rourke opened a sleepy eye as he lay back on the recliner. Hunter continued to sleep, his face still red.