Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,102

starting to turn away, as if wanting nothing to do with the man.

Tolya recognized the woman—and he suspected Abigail Burch would be able to tell him the name of the man.

* * *

* * *

Scythe’s hand rested on the phone. She was a hunter, a predator, a Harvester. Such an odd feeling to be asked to protect anything, let alone humans.

What was needed? What should she offer? And who should she have with her who would better understand what these females required?

She called Garnet Ravengard, who would keep watch from one of the trees in the town square and give warning if an enemy approached. Then she called Candice Caravelli and Lila Gold, waking both. When she told them to come to the saloon and why, Lila had questions about the females who needed protection. Candice did not, which made Scythe think that Candice knew more about needing help than Lila did. Her last call was to Yuri Sanguinati. The Intuit males who worked in the saloon were good workers, but she thought another predator would be more useful right now.

She combed out her hair, still wet from the shower, then dressed in jeans and a T-shirt—a simple outfit that matched the kind of clothes Candice and Lila wore before they reported to work. Casual attire. Something a business owner might wear before the business opened for the day and she dressed in the costume that was part of the ambiance of the Bird Cage Saloon.

She gave Yellow Bird fresh food and water and changed the papers in the cage as Barbara Ellen had shown her how to do.

“I will return later and listen to your singing.” She didn’t know if it made a difference to the bird, but it seemed sad for the bird to sing and not have anyone listen.

As a last check, she stood in front of the full-length mirror. The clothes were appropriate and would not alert the threat, whatever it may be, that she was more than the other females in the saloon. And the hair—mostly gold with streaks of blue and red—now had the waves that Lila Gold always complimented without understanding their significance.

A door opened downstairs—and Scythe’s hair began to coil. A sharp whistle made her hesitate at the door of her suite.

Yuri called.

Yuri laughed.

Yes, Scythe thought. If the enemy came to her door, he would expect no trouble—right up to the moment when her hair turned black and simply looking at her would have his organs turning to sludge.

* * *

* * *

Jana opened the door of the sheriff’s office and dropped her daypack on her desk.

“I’ll put the food in the fridge for Virgil and Kane. Where do you want these?” John asked, lifting the carryalls as he walked past her.

“Put the clothes in Virgil’s office.” She almost told him to put the clothes in the Me Time cell, but that would be like pulling Virgil’s tail—not something she wanted to do when they were almost getting along.

As soon as John left, Jana dropped Rusty’s leash and turned on the computer. “I’ll take a quick look at e-mail and make sure nothing urgent came in last night; then we’ll drop off this letter at the post office and take a quick walk around the square. Okay?”

E-mail from Tolya, asking Virgil to meet with him as soon as the Wolf was on duty. Another e-mail from Tolya, specifically to her, telling her to report to him immediately to deal with a situation that had occurred on a ranch north of Bennett.

Did they have jurisdiction there? She hadn’t been in town a full week yet and had been so focused on getting settled and learning the town’s boundaries and its citizens that she hadn’t thought about who else the Bennett Sheriff’s Department was expected to protect. She’d study a map of the Midwest and find out where the towns had been before the war—and make a note of which ones still existed. That would give her some idea of where the next human law enforcement might be.

Jana closed the e-mail program and headed for the door, snagging the letter to Tobias from the front pocket of her daypack as she passed her desk. “Okay. Let’s go to the post office and then see Mr. Sanguin …”

Rusty huddled in her crate. Now that Jana thought about it, the pup had