Dan did a double take, frowning over his shoulder at her in surprise. She just went on jutting her chin out at their adversaries defiantly.
When he looked back to Roark, the man had gone completely red at the accusation, and the insult. He stepped toward Dan, who mirrored the move, hoping to put distance between Gina and the scuffle that might ensue.
“I could beat you,” Roark growled. The other men positioned themselves a step back to either side of him.
“We wil if he doesn’t,” one of them said.
“I don’t want a fight,” Dan answered calmly as he studied Roark’s height, weight and bearing. Then he watched his eyes. That was where they al gave themselves away. In Roark’s case, Dan knew that reflexes wouldn’t need to be factored in.
“You should have thought of that before you came and tried to fuck things up around here,” Roark snarled, trying to hide the fact that he was gearing up to attack.
Dan glanced briefly at Josie. She’d been letting things unfold. “Josie. Cal them off.”
“Like we’re fucking dogs?” Roark thundered.
“I don’t want to put them down, but I’l have to if they come at me.”
“You’re not even armed,” Roark pointed out in disgust, clearly pegging Dan as a bearer of misplaced arrogance.
“Don’t need to be, but I don’t want to fight. It’s not what I came here for.” Honestly, he empathized with Roark.
Dan must be to him what Jack was to Dan: a rival standing between him and the woman he loved. His pride seemed to have reached its limit. He would probably be every bit as hostile whether he knew Dan wasn’t interested in Josie or not. What mattered was that she found Dan superior to him, and now Roark had to prove her wrong, but it was going to end in embarrassment. Dan didn’t want to do that to him.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Josie said, her voice thick with authority.
Roark shook his head saying, “This is what it takes to do what’s right for you.”
“If anyone lays a finger on Dan, there wil be serious consequences,” she warned.
This might keep the other men in check, but not Roark.
“Damn right there wil ,” he whispered.
Roark whipped out his knife in an effort to surprise and slashed at Dan as quickly as he could.
Dan leaned to the side to avoid it, catching Roark’s wrist and elbowing him with moderate force in the stomach.
Then he kicked his leg out from under him and twisted his knife hand behind his back when he was on the ground.
Roark let go of the knife and howled in frustration. When he struggled, Dan twisted his arm further, and then the howl was one of pain.
These were beginner moves. There was no need to get elaborate. In fact, if he’d had a better twenty-four hours, he might have considered drawing it out and making it look like Roark was doing a good job, although that would have been extremely difficult. While Selena was missing, Dan considered it an achievement that he hadn’t broken the man in half to vent his unbearable frustration.
“There was no reason for that,” he told Roark.
“Fuck you,” he answered raggedly, so Dan twisted his arm again for good measure.
“Are you going to stop?” he asked, clinging tenuously to his calm.
Roark kept quiet. After a few breaths, Dan let him go. He got to his feet, picked up his knife, and sheathed it before stomping out.
The fol owing silence was brief.
“We should at least look for it,” one of the men told Josie, eyeing Dan warily. “We need it, especial y the antibiotics.”
Dan raised a brow. Antibiotics, in every form, had gone as quickly as the food during the Crash. Now they were nonexistent or expired, although expiration dates had turned out to be less reliable than people once thought.
Some of them worked long after they should have. In any event, they’d been used up quickly, and had become unheard of as the years passed. These medical supplies were far and away the most valuable things the Grazers possessed. Whoever was behind al of this was determined to destroy relations between Josie and Dan.
“I agree,” she said. “We have to figure out where they went, no matter who is responsible. Angela, it’s time for a sweep.”
The girl nodded and went out.
“Dan, I want a word with you. Would everyone else excuse us? Gina, I want to see you next.”
“Our people are sick and we didn’t steal no damn medicine! We have to get back now,” Gina railed.
“I have no reason to believe you, and I expect your cooperation,” Josie’s voice snapped like a whip. “Take her outside and bring her back when I’m finished with Dan,” she ordered the men, who promptly ushered Gina out.
When they were alone, Josie watched Dan with veiled suspicion.
“What happened with Selena?” she demanded.
He hesitated, considering whether he should tel her about Selena’s eavesdropping. There was no reason to be specific.
“She found out what you wanted. She was upset and ran off. Jack went after her.”
“Selena is your medic,” Josie frowned. “I’ve been informed her horse is also missing, and if she was angry at me, what do you expect me to think?”
“She didn’t do it.”
“How do you know?”
He frowned back.
“Let me put that a different way. How in the hel do you expect
me
to believe she didn’t?”
“I know for certain that she didn’t. Believe it because I said so.”
“That’s not good enough Dan,” she shouted, slamming her fist on the table. “I would be insane not to suspect your involvement as much as hers. And don’t you forget, I know where you live!”
“Exactly,” he told her as calmly as he could manage.
“Why would she risk bringing your force down on our community for medicine? It would cause more problems than it would solve.”
“Unless you al have some plan for making yourselves look innocent.”
Dan regarded her with growing impatience. “You realize I could kil you in under three seconds. Why am I not doing that? I told you I’m not here for a fight. I’m here for cooperation.”
“What if your plans are long-term and subtle? Who is to say you aren’t planning to kil me later once you’ve earned my people’s trust?” she suggested, squinting at him shrewdly.
“Jesus, Josie,” he breathed, unleashing his exasperation. “Someone is trying to force this confrontation on us! You want your medicine back? I want Selena back. I don’t know where the hel she is, but I know none of my people are behind what’s going on. You want to blame me and mine? I could blame you and yours. We can tear each other apart, or solve this. Which one is it going to be?”
Josie’s expression was unyielding, but she took a moment to think. “Alright. I’m going to get to the bottom of this. If I find that Selena or your group is behind the theft, whether you are involved or not, there wil be justice. I have many more people than you to worry about, Dan. Those supplies are critical to some of them. Death is not a rare thing here. Now tel me again what you know, and I’l assume for argument’s sake that you are tel ing the truth.”
“Now you’re sounding reasonable,” he
acknowledged with difficulty. “I only know what I already told you. Selena found out what you wanted and ran off. She was gone before I left you last night.”
“And Jack went after her,” Josie finished, waiting for his reaction.
The black feeling in his gut made the mask of neutrality hard to maintain.
As Josie watched him, he saw a shadow of pity pass over her face before her expression hardened again.
As far back as he could remember no one had ever looked at him that way. His tension skyrocketed, and at the same time, a feeling of doom settled in. Josie had a history with Jack, he realized abruptly. She knew what he could do to a woman, and a reaction of pity was the worst possible sign she could have given him.
“Are you going to go after them?” she asked quietly.
“I have no way of knowing which direction they went,”
he informed her shortly. “But I plan to look for their tracks.”
“Dan, you could make al kinds of claims. I don’t know what’s going on, or whether your people are innocent or guilty, or what you are real y capable of. I knew you supposedly kil ed half my brother’s men single-handedly, but that didn’t real y sink in until you handled Roark like you were sleeping. Now I have to deal with the fact that you are just as likely to be my worst enemy as my best al y. I don’t want to believe you are behind any of this, but I can’t let my personal interests cloud things up. I can’t believe anyone yet, and I hope you can respect that.”
Dan nodded grimly.
“I have ways of getting the information I need to solve situations like these. I may need to investigate the Crater, depending on what I learn. I plan to do it peaceably, unless you or your people are guilty. Since I don’t know the answer to that yet, you can stay while this al gets sorted. If you want to go home, that’s fine too, but I expect I’l know something about which direction Selena went by the end of the day. We both want to find her, but if she’s got the medical supplies, she’l be heading straight for the Crater, so I’m not going to waste time tracking her.” She took a deep breath. “Is there anything else you want to talk about?”
Dan shook his head. He was tired of talking.
Josie nodded and Dan walked out.
Gina was waiting with his weapons and made for the tent haughtily. Dan didn’t bother apprising her of the situation. She would tel Josie the truth about everything, and she would be convincing.
Bear, Cal and Ben were waiting outside, Ben looking like he had just woken up. They gathered around him for a report.
He ushered them away toward the trees, gestured for them to come closer and made sure no one was within earshot.
“We are being set up. Whoever’s behind it took the medical supplies and planted them somewhere in or near the Crater. We are not going to try to find it. Wherever they put it is where it’l stay.”
“We need it,” Bear said with profound concern.
“If there is any sign we’ve used it, we’l be in a bad situation.”
“The kind of situation that puts my family in danger?”
he asked, suppressing what Dan knew was a thunderous anger. The two of them were alike that way. Whatever emotion leaked out was just a taste of the flood that would surge through them if the dam burst.
“Maybe, which is why we’re not going to use it,” he answered pointedly.
“I don’t like this, Dan,” Bear told him in a deceptively quiet voice. “We should never have wound up in this position.”
“You don’t approve of my actions,” Dan said for him, looking him in the eye.
“I wasn’t going to say that, but no. I don’t,” Bear admitted, making less effort to hide the bite in his voice.
“I don’t blame you. I’l take responsibility for whatever happens, and your family wil be out of harm’s way, as long as none of us touches that medicine.”
“I don’t get it,” Cal said. “Why don’t we find it and make it disappear so it can’t get back to us?
“They’d see our suspicious tracks everywhere, and there’s no real y safe way to cover them,” Ben clarified blearily.
He was right, but that wasn’t the only reason.
“What a shit storm,” Cal muttered. “I almost wish one of us
had
stolen it. That way we could at least help everyone who is sick at home.”
Dan struggled to keep his thoughts clear. He knew he could steer them out of what was happening here, but only if he kept his head. What was happening with Selena, on the other hand, was a menacing, impenetrable fog, and he was painful y aware of his powerlessness to stop it from its steady destruction of his self-control and rationale.
Those were the qualities he needed most, and now they were at their weakest.
“Angela and Josie thought you and Selena were a couple,” Dan told Ben in an effort to focus on something else.
“What?” Ben said, flabbergasted. “Wel , I guess even I can be surprised. You don’t believe them, do you?”
he asked with exaggerated trepidation.
Dan shook his head, tempted to smile.
“Where is she?” Bear asked.
He didn’t want to answer, but they had a right to know. They were her friends. “It’s a long story, and the end of it is, I don’t know. Jack is with her and they’re not here.”
The three of them looked uneasy.
“Josie is going to want to talk to al of you, but as soon as she’s done, you can head back home,” Dan went on.
“I could hang back with you,” Cal offered. Of course his reasons were mostly selfish. Amy was here.
“Everyone should get back as soon as they can,” Bear admonished severely. “God knows what we’l find when we get there.”
“Okay,” Cal acquiesced quickly. “But I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to bring Amy with us.”
“Then you’re taking Loraine too,” Dan told them.
“Real y? Who’s going to watch the wagon and al their stuff? We’re not bringing it back with us. Jack would be pretty pissed …”
Dan’s dark look cut him off. “We’re not leaving Loraine here alone.”
Gina made her way toward them, waving Cal over to the tent.
There wasn’t much more to say after that. Josie questioned them al , just as Dan anticipated, and she did so efficiently. Soon they were ready to go, Amy and Loraine included, but the latter didn’t like having to leave their possessions behind, even though Josie assured her she had her most trustworthy men assigned to guard them.
Soon, they departed with Loraine on one of their wagon horses and Amy riding double with Cal. The girls could have packed lighter, but they were used to having access to al their things whenever they needed them, so this was a new experience. Their second horse carried their belongings.
Dan was the only one to stay behind. He wanted to find out what Josie might discover about the direction Selena went. He knew he had little to no chance of picking out Star’s tracks in the mess of ground surrounding this camp, but that wasn’t about to stop him. He was beginning to realize that nothing was worse than feeling helpless, unless that helplessness was entwined with jealousy. The combination was ugly like nothing he’d known.
He started his search at the spot where Star had been tethered. As expected, any tracks the animal might have left had been thoroughly destroyed. Next he made his way to the trees near Josie’s tent. There was a muddled trail that went from a trunk and along the tree line for a long while. He knew they were Selena’s tracks, and that she had been careful to avoid being spotted. They final y aimed for the orange tent, but were lost within twenty feet of it. From there, she must have taken Star. He’d have to find the mare’s tracks to find Selena, so he took Buck out and rode around the camp in a wide perimeter.