The last of the
auction horses sold, and Michelle stood gazing into Brent’s green eyes. “Well,
it was good to meet you. I’ll give you a call sometime next month, when Lexi
and I have the trip planned. Is there any time that won’t be good for you and
your friend?”
“No, summer pretty
well takes care of itself unless there’s a drought. Anytime should work.” Brent
watched Lexi put the tack into the trailer. “You said you were going to Jackson
Hole and Yellowstone first?”
Michelle nodded and
followed his gaze. “Lexi and I celebrate our birthdays together, and we figure
we could party in Jackson Hole before we headed out.” Michelle noticed with
dismay the attentive way Brent watched her friend. She felt sick and angry with
herself for being jealous.
Brent turned back to
Michelle, tilting his head as if studying her curiously. He smiled, and she
relaxed. “Then, you’re planning to stay for about a week in Montana?”
Jacob was loading
the six horses he had purchased, and he finally got the last stubborn horse
tied in when he overheard the end of their conversation. “A week for what?” he
asked. Jacob looked at Michelle, and then his eyes passed over her to the
cowboy.
Michelle was
dumbfounded and desperately tried to get Lexi’s attention so she could come
bail her out. She stared at her as she swung another saddle into the trailer,
and willed her to turn and look at her. With her attention focused on Lexi,
Michelle missed the uneasy expression on Jacob’s face when he walked up to the
man and held out a hand. “Jacob Weston, and you are?”
“Brent Stromwell.
It’s good to meet you.” Brent stared Jacob straight in the eyes and noticed he
winced uneasily at the name.
Michelle finally ran
up to the front of the trailer to get Lexi. “We got trouble, girl. Your dad
overheard Brent and me talking about this summer.”
“Shoot, I better get
over there.” Lexi and Michelle walked quickly back to the two men. They stopped
about five feet away, noticing a sort of standoff between them. “What the
heck?” Lexi had never seen her father take such an aggressive stance with a stranger
before.
“Montana?” Jacob
asked suspiciously. “What brings you down here?”
“I had an estate
matter to settle, and a little research project for a friend.” Brent smiled and
nodded towards the girls. “Turns out it was a lucky chance meeting, as your two
girls are heading out our way this summer.”
Jacob looked at the
man… and he knew. He straightened and clenched his jaws and fists. “The hell
they are, mister.”
Brent lowered his
voice. “Jacob, you know you can’t stop this. She’s getting the dreams, isn’t
she? How else would she know about the trail?” His green eyes briefly flashed
amber.
This is it, then,
Jacob thought. He turned and saw the confused look on the girls’ faces. “Lexi,
Michelle, in the truck,” he ordered. When the girls silently walked away, Jacob
turned back to Brent. “She’s only twenty one. I got four more years.” His hands
curled and loosened in frustration. The instinct to fight and protect was
strong, but the real enemy was the mountain. “They got my Vanessa. They ain’t
getting’ my daughter.”
Brent put his hands
up in mock surrender. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.” He was uncomfortable
with the weary determination in the older man’s eyes. The fact that it was
Nicholas waiting… well, he wouldn’t think about that right now. “You can’t stop
this, Jacob. No one can. That girl will end up walking to Montana, if you try
to keep her here.”
Brent wasn’t
surprised at Jacob’s anger. He just knew how useless his words were. “Vanessa
told you what would happen, Jacob. Her father was an elder and you should be
leader right now. You knew you shouldn’t have taken Lexi out of the mountains.”
Brent could see the desperation in the man’s face. He said softly, “Hell,
Jacob, come with her. Come back to the Baáhpuuo and spend your time with
Vanessa, watching the iichíile running free. You never should have left.”
Jacob was
uncomfortable this stranger knew so much about him. He thought he had covered
his tracks over the years, always keeping a low profile. “This business doesn’t
have anything to do with Lexi.” He fought tears, and added, “Tell Vanessa she
can’t have her.”
“It isn’t Vanessa
that’s pulling her. You know that. Jacob, you try to stop those girls from
coming out and you’ll lose your daughter, just like you lost your wife. You
might do better explaining to Lexi what’s going on. If you don’t, this summer’s
going to be a lot harder on her.” Brent turned, and he gave a slight tip to his
cowboy hat. Before he walked off, he looked back. “Jacob, it’s not me. I wish
it were, but it's not.” He turned and walked back towards his truck.
Jacob stared after
him for a few seconds, and then slowly made his way back to the pickup. He
needed time to think this out, and he was not looking forward to the ride home.
The girls had been
fidgeting in the cab, waiting for Jacob. “Michelle, Brent’s going to tell Dad
all about our plans. I wanted to break it to him slowly. We’re probably going
to end up arguing the whole way back to the ranch now.” Lexi nervously watched through
the side mirror while the two men talked. She saw her dad coming back to the
truck while Brent walked away.
The door opened and
Jacob climbed in. He was silent for a moment, gazing at nothing through the
windshield. Gripping the key, he plunged it into the ignition, pumping the gas
pedal a few times until the diesel chugged to life. “I don’t want to talk about
this right now. We’ll discuss it when we get home.”
“Dad, I’m sorry.
Michelle and I just started talking about this last night, after we found the
picture.” Lexi twisted her hands together nervously.
“Lexi, please, when
we get home.” He turned onto the small rural highway leading back to the ranch.
The ride was silent,
as everybody’s minds filled with explanations. Michelle looked out the window,
Lexi looked down at her lap trying to figure out how to convince her dad to let
them go on the trip, and Jacob stared straight ahead, lips tight in concentration.
Lexi thought he was angry. Actually, Jacob was trying to figure out a way to
stop the inevitable. He truly believed getting Lexi far away from the mountain
would save her. How wrong he was.
They dropped
Michelle off at her house, and she mouthed, ‘I’ll call you tomorrow,’ to Lexi.
It was just passed dark when they pulled into Sunchaser, and Jacob jumped out
and began unloading the horses. Lexi walked over to help him, and he said,
“Lexi, just go on in the house. I need to think about this. We’ll talk in the
morning.”
“I’m sorry, Dad.
Please don’t be mad at me.”
He could hear the
pain in her voice at the thought she had hurt him, and he turned to see tears
threatening to spill. Jacob could not stand that. This was not her fault. “I’m
not mad at you, honey. It’s just tough watching you grow up.” He tried to smile.
“My stubborn old head has to sort it out.” Jacob hugged her, and then looked
into her eyes. “You, go on in and get some sleep. It's been a long day.”
“Okay, Daddy.” Lexi
kissed his cheek and strolled slowly towards the house, kicking blades of
grass.
“Lexi?”
“Yes, Dad?” She
turned to see her father smiling at her, and she knew everything would be
alright.
“That was a good
call on the barrels for that black gelding. It was a nice ride.” He knew she
had put a lot of extra time on the horse.
“Thanks, Dad.” Lexi
smiled and picked up her pace as she walked to her room.
Jacob led the last
auction horse into the pasture and wandered into the barn. He walked passed
Travis and Judas to the stall on the end. Slowly holding out his hand, the
horse stepped forward and rubbed its nose against his palm. “How you doing
tonight, Daisy-May?”
He scooped some feed
for her, filled her water, and added another flat of hay to the net. The entire
time, the horse stood still, staring at him. Jacob looked at the halter, a
deeper blue in the shadows, but a definite first place prize for the small mustang.
“She’s done well by you. It's a shame our brothers could not get the
restrictions in the Red Desert out there in Wyoming that we got on the Pryor
range. But you’ll have a good life now, just as we promised.”
Jacob left the barn
and gazed across the quiet pastures at the new horses, grazing and milling
around while they learned their new surroundings. He inhaled the heavy humid
Florida night and sighed. Weariness seemed to crush him while he considered the
fifteen year sacrifice he and Vanessa had made to protect Lexi. They should
have known it would do no good.
The lights in her
room were off, but Jacob thought he could hear her moaning through the opened
window. “The damn dreams,” he muttered. He knew they would only get worse, and
he was powerless to stop them.
* * * *
The man chased her
up the mountain, and she did not try to talk to him this time. The horses
galloped faster and she tried not to panic. She was determined to go further
into the dream. Just before she got to the clearing, she looked up and down the
trail.
Her legs seemed to
move on their own volition towards the fire, and she walked to within ten feet
and saw someone else standing by the circle of flames. It was an older version
of herself, with a large grey wolf sitting beside her. “Come to me, honey,” the
woman called. “Lexi, come back to me.”
Lexi looked at the
woman, but she did not move towards her. Something about moving ahead made her
very nervous. The wolf was gone and the man with the dark hair was standing
silently beside her. Lexi glanced back down the trail, and she saw her father
standing about fifty feet away with silent tears washing down his tanned
cheeks. A herd of horses stood behind him, with the stallion pawing the ground.
Her father called out, “Come back. Lexi, please come back to me.”
Jacob was standing
over her bed, shaking her shoulders and trying to break the trance she was in.
“Lexi, please come back to me. Come on, honey, wake up.” When he had woken to
her moaning and walked into her room, his face turned ashen at the familiar expression
on her face. It was the same expression he had seen so many times on Vanessa,
when he tried to take her from the mountains and the night spirits wrestled in
her mind.
“Dad?” Lexi
struggled awake. At some point she had begun crying in her sleep. “Daddy,
what’s going on? I think I saw Mom in my dream. She had a wolf sitting next to
her, and she wanted me to come to her. It scared me.” The chalk pallor to her
face and trembling voice attested to her fear.
Jacob sat down on
the bed and held her. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. It’s alright. It’s going to be
alright.” He switched on the light. “Come on out to the living room. I think we
need to talk.”
REVIEWS
Smashwords
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well written, couldn't put it down! March 31,
2012
By Pamela
A secret of the ages
comes alive. Dreams aren't to be ignored. Lexi may be raised far from the
mountains where her beloved mustangs roam free but deeply imbedded in her soul
is a secret that slowly unravels.
Lexi has a
fascination with wolves.Something draws her towards these beautiful beasts.
Although her avid love for these creatures seem harmless, her dreams turn
nightmarish. Her intrigue and curiosity leads to a summer trip. She soon
learns....
