Valentina's Manster

I stood by my the big SUV while my brother Grant patted down his pockets in search of his keys.
“Did you leave them inside?” I asked.

“Be right back.” He jogged to the barn and came out a minute later with his keys in hand. “Thanks for helping out today, Jameson.”


“You know I don’t mind.”


“Well, we’re lucky you were around.” Grant had brought over a big Bernese Mountain dog a hunter had found caught in a trap in the woods. I’d patched up her leg and left her resting in one of the kennels I had set up in the barn. As a large animal vet, I usually traveled to my clients to take care of their needs, but I still had everything I needed on site.


“Give my love to Eliza.”


“I will.” Grant was one of my foster brothers. His wife had taken over as the Executive Director of Pups For Progress, a non-profit that rehabilitated rescue dogs to work with troubled teens. The vet who usually took care of the dogs at the shelter was out of town, so when they’d received the call about the dog in the trap, he’d brought her to me.


He was lucky he was able to make it out here with all the rain we’d been getting over the past several days. A last-minute break in the storms rolling over Central Texas had worked in his favor.


“Be careful on your way home. You might want to go around the west side of the property to avoid the mud,” I said. It had rained all night long, and the road he usually took to get back to the highway would be a mess. Even walking over to the barn had been tricky. I looked down at my feet. Thick mud covered the soles of my boots. I couldn’t wait to pull them off and get back inside.


“Yeah, I almost got stuck on my way in.” He climbed into his truck and started the engine. “I meant to tell you, I saw a couple on horseback on my way over.”


A chill slithered down my spine. “Oh yeah, where?”


“The northeast corner. That area that borders the old Fitzgibbons place.” He pulled the door closed and lowered the window. “Seems like an odd day to pick to be out for a ride.”


“Not if you want Mother Nature to cover up your tracks for you.” I’d inherited this land fair and square from my my parents when they passed, but my dad’s brother had been nosing around, trying to lay claim to a portion of the acreage since he’d been farming it for the past forty years.
The section he had his eye on just happened to be the area where a surveyor my dad hired decades ago thought there might be a deposit of oil.


“I’ll check out the security cameras and see if there’s anything going on.”


“Be careful, Jameson.” He wrapped both hands around the steering wheel. “You know your brothers have your back. Don’t hesitate to call if you need backup.”


“Will do. Now get home to your wife before she sends a search party out looking for you.”


He gave me a loopy smile—the kind of madly-in-love grin I never thought I’d see on my older brother’s face. We weren’t brothers by blood, but we’d spent our teen years together living out in the country at Mama Mae’s place. After my parents died, my uncle refused to take me in, so I’d been farmed out to a series of foster families. All I wanted was go back home, so I kept running away. Then Mama Mae took me in, and I finally found a place that almost felt like home.


Grant waved one last time before his SUV disappeared around a bend in the long gravel drive.


“We should both go back in before it starts raining again, shouldn’t we?” I didn’t expect the alpaca standing on three legs by the edge of his pen to respond, though he did talk back sometimes.


Before I made it to the porch, tires crunched on the drive. I wasn’t expecting anyone else. There were a few kids who helped out in the barns, but I’d given them the day off because of the storms. Maybe Grant forgot something.


A gold crossover SUV came around the curve then stopped. I squinted, trying to see if I could tell who was behind the wheel. All I could see from this distance was bright red hair. Lots of bright red hair.

Probably someone who’d missed the turn off to get back to the highway a couple of miles back or was trying to get to the place up the road where they offered trail rides.
I headed down the drive, trying to avoid the muddy puddles. When I got halfway to the car, the driver put it in reverse and executed a crappy five-point turn that took out a section of Halloween decorations some of the volunteers had set up.


“What a jackass.” If there was one thing I hated, it was someone who didn’t respect other peoples’ property.


Bocephus, the only animal at the sanctuary that was allowed to roam free, let out a loud bray.


“Sorry, bud. I didn’t mean to insult your kind. I should have called them something else.” I scratched the donkey under his chin and vowed to bring him an apple the next time I came outside.
The vehicle must have taken a left at the end of the driveway because I could hear it grinding gears as it traveled the curvy road leading to the back pasture.

Someone was definitely lost. Either that or they were trying to nab one of the animals we’d just rescued from a hoarding situation.

I was always amazed at the lengths some people would go to try to take back something that never should have belonged to them in the first place.

I left Bocephus standing guard in the front and headed to the barn where I had a small office. My brothers and I had set some security cameras around the perimeter of my property to keep an eye on things. I pulled up the feed from a few of the cameras and watched the progress of the SUV as it cruised down the middle of the muddy road.


I hadn’t planned on going out on the four-wheeler until the mud dried up a little, but I wasn’t about to let some jerk roam freely over my property. I studied the screen, trying to figure out what the hell they were after.


As I grabbed my jacket from a hook on the wall, the car came to a sudden stop. The driver got out, crouched down by the front tire, then stood and kicked at the wheel.

Dammit, the picture was too grainy to see much detail.
They then pulled something out of the backseat and looped it over their head. I couldn’t tell if I was dealing with a man or woman and had no idea what they’d pulled from the back. At least I knew two things for sure. Whoever it was, he or she was alone, and they were definitely trespassing on my land.


I grabbed my shotgun, set my cowboy hat on my head, and fired up my favorite ATV.



Fifteen minutes later, I parked the ATV behind a stand of trees and killed the engine. Noise carried way out here in the middle of nowhere and I didn’t want to give the intruder any warning that I was on my way. I was out by the edge of my property along the section that butted up to the land my uncle wanted. Knowing him, he’d probably sent someone over to check on the property.


I crept along the edge of the barbed wire fence. It was more effective at keeping the animals in than keeping assholes out. The gold SUV sat just outside the fence line. I surveyed the area to make sure the driver wasn’t hanging around, then carefully stepped through the wires and walked around the car.


Hell, whoever had been behind the wheel did a real number on it. The front wheel bent in at a thirty-degree angle. This vehicle wasn’t going anywhere without a tow truck.


I took a closer look at the section of fence. A bright pink piece of fabric was caught on one of the wires. Jerk probably caught their coat while climbing through my fence.

I was a large animal vet, not a trained tracker, but I’d learned a thing or two by living in the country. Someone had come through the fence, and based on the way the tall, dead grass was trampled down, they’d taken off toward the tract of land my uncle wanted.


I followed the path they’d beat down through the grass and stopped when I reached a fallen tree. It looked like it had been hit by lightning.

Something on the other side of the tree moved.
“Hold it right there.”

I pulled the shotgun from my shoulder and pointed it at the figure standing in the shadows. “I’ve got a twelve-gauge pointed right at your head, and I’m a damn good shot.”


“A gun? Are you freaking kidding me?” A woman shrieked, a high-pitched noise that might have pierced right through my eardrum.


“Calm down. I’m not going to shoot you. I just want to know what you’re doing on private property.” I walked around the tree, giving her an extra-wide berth.


“Please put the gun down. I was just trying to get some pictures.”


“Pictures of what?” All I could see of her through the branches was a streak of bright red hair.


“Um, trees. I’m a nature photographer, and I couldn’t help but notice these gorgeous oak trees on your property.”


“What happened to your car?” Like hell she was just out for a drive and decided to take some pictures of trees. It didn’t take a genius to know there was something fishy going on.


“I don’t know. Everything was fine and then it made this horrible noise when I turned the wheel. I’ve already called for a tow truck. Actually, it should be here any minute.”


“And you thought while you waited, you’d climb through a barbed wire fence and take some photos of my gorgeous trees?” I asked.


“That’s right. Only now I appear to be somewhat stuck. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to lend me a hand?”


“Stuck?”


“That’s right.”


Either she was playing me and about to attack, or she really needed help. My gut told me it was the latter. “I’m coming closer. No sudden movements, okay?”


“No chance of that.”


I walked around the downed tree and had to do a double take before I trusted my own vision. She was crouched over, both feet and a hand stuck in the mud.

Even with mud streaked across her face and an ugly bright red wig sitting lopsided on her head, she was the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen.