female.
“Jesse is expecting a package. I’ll check and see if it’s come in.” Tobias looked at Jackson. “Anything in the baggage car that I can pick up for you?”
Jackson held up the carryall. “No. This is all I brought with me.”
“Will you be all right fetching the package on your own?” Tolya eyed the three men who still lingered on the platform.
“I should be fine. Why don’t you wait for me by the truck?” Tobias went inside the station.
“This way.” Tolya led Jackson to the pickup truck.
“Where is Joe?” Jackson asked, dumping his carryall in the pickup bed.
“He is escorting the earth native fuel truck to Prairie Gold,” Tolya replied. “The last fuel shipment didn’t arrive—at least, the allotment of fuel designated for Prairie Gold didn’t arrive—so we made other arrangements.”
We? Jackson wondered, lowering the tailgate when he saw Tobias hurry out of the station carrying a box big enough to fill his arms. Trailing behind were the three rough-looking men who had been on the platform.
After helping Tobias load the box, Jackson said, “I can ride in the back.”
“There is room for the three of us in the cab,” Tolya said with a pleasantness that made it hard for Jackson not to shift to Wolf. “And Tobias feels more comfortable when there is someone between him and me.”
He noticed Tobias Walker didn’t deny that observation, so he took the middle position on the seat.
“Please drive around the town square,” Tolya said.
“Not a good idea,” Tobias protested. “There’s a bad feeling in the air today.”
“I feel it too,” Jackson murmured.
“Please drive around the town square,” Tolya repeated. “I’ve been instructed to look at the businesses.”
Clearly unhappy, Tobias put the truck in gear and obeyed.
“What would you say are essential businesses?” Tolya asked. “The railway station, of course, for transportation and to send and receive food and merchandise. The gas station because vehicles would need fuel and servicing. The bank. What else?”
Jackson wasn’t sure if the question was for him or the human.
“People need a place to buy supplies,” Tobias said. “Hardware store is useful. And someplace that sells feed as well as ranch and farm supplies and equipment.”
“A place to eat and a place to sleep,” Jackson said. He thought of Hope. “Someplace you can buy books and music and pencils and paper for drawing.”
“A clothes store, unless the general store is going to carry basics along with shoes and books,” Tobias said.
Jackson thought, If the Tobias was a Wolf, he’d be panting and whining.
That sounded ominous. What had he walked into?
They circled the town square a second time, but no one had further suggestions beyond a barbershop or similar place.
Tobias breathed a sigh of relief when they drove away from the town. So did Jackson. Tolya didn’t seem concerned, but he could turn into smoke and outmaneuver almost any adversary.
They didn’t speak. If Simon wasn’t expecting him, if he didn’t want to talk to Meg Corbyn in person about the Hope pup, Jackson would have shifted to Wolf and headed home on his own four feet, despite the distance.
• • •
Daniel Black swore fiercely as the wind slammed against the pickup. The dust that covered the road and filled the air was as thick as a mean bitch of a blizzard.
“Mr. Black?”His foreman braced a hand against the dash. “We have to stop. We’re not going to make it to the crossroads in time.”
“We damn well will make it,” Black snarled, fighting to keep the truck on the road. Fighting to see any part of the road. “The longer that community receives supplies, the longer they’ll hang on, and until they’re gone, we won’t have a way into those hills and the riches they hold.”
The men riding in the pickup’s bed pounded on the back of the cab.
“They can’t breathe in this dust,” the foreman said. “We have to stop.”
“We’re not—” A wall of fence posts and barbed wire suddenly appeared in front of him. Black slammed on the breaks and yelled, “Fuck!” as