Charmed by His Love by Janet Chapman Read Free Book Online Page B

their little problem or what?
    Except once again it appeared no one was home, so he couldn’t actually execute the fix. Duncan turned and frowned at the minivan. He could hear an occasional tick coming from the engine as it cooled, and he was pretty sure the van wasn’t an identical twin. So where in hell was she?
    Again avoiding the porch steps, he headed around the side of the house, figuring he might as well check out the north end of the pit while he was here. Only he hadn’t made it halfway there before a gunshot suddenly cracked through the air.
    Holy hell, now she was
shooting
at him?
    Duncan dropped to the ground and rolled behind a rock, then eyed the woods for movement where the shot had come from as he tried to rein in his temper. Protecting her children was one thing, and nearly running him down because she was upset about quitting her job was another, but shooting at him was outright hostile—not to mention certifiably insane.
    God dammit, he was pressing charges!
    There; just inside the tree line, he could just make out her silhouette. She slowly stepped into a stand of older trees and Duncan saw she had a rifle up to her shoulder to shoot again, her focus trained ahead of her. He took a calming breath even as he frowned. The woman hadn’t been shooting at him, but was hunting something. Only problem being, it wasn’t open season on anything. Unless she was after a coyote that had been hanging around, worried it might be getting too close to her kids.
    His respect for Peg Thompson went up a notch. Apparently the lady didn’t discriminate between two- and four-legged threats, but simply went after each with equal fierceness. Yeah, well, the protective mama bear was about to be on the receiving end of an ambush. Duncan rose to his feet and silently worked his way to where she’d disappeared, tamping down a twinge of guilt for turning the tables on her. But then, giving her a good scare might actually make her
think
before she attacked another man nearly twice her size.
    He stopped just inside the woods to let his eyes adjust to the shadows the strengthening April sun cast against the pineand spruce, and slowed his breathing to listen for movement. Only instead of hearing a branch snap or leaves rustle, he heard … Aw, hell, the woman was sobbing again. Duncan silently moved closer, stopping behind a large tree when he saw her kneeling beside the fallen deer.
    “I’m sorry. I know it was a r-rotten trick to lure you here with alfalfa pellets,” she sobbed as she held the knife poised over it. “But twelve dollars for a bag of feed is a heck of a lot cheaper than a hundred pounds of beef. I’m
sorry
,” she cried, plunging the knife toward the deer’s neck—only to drive it into the ground because she was shaking so badly. Duncan suspected she couldn’t see very well, either, since she was crying so hard. He watched her wipe her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, then raise the knife as she sucked in a shuddering breath, apparently steeling herself to have another go at the deer.
    He stepped forward and caught her wrist, ignoring her shriek of surprise as he used his grip to pull her off balance when she spun toward him. “Take it easy, mama bear,” he said, capturing her other swinging fist, then deftly sidestepping when she tried to kick him. “I’m not the enemy.”
    “Let me go!” she cried, tugging against his grip.
    “Not while you’re still holding a sharp object.”
    She immediately opened her hand and Duncan plucked the knife away, stifling a smile when she lunged at the rifle, then cried out in frustration when she discovered his boot was holding it down. He picked up the rifle as she jumped to her feet and backed away with her hands balled into fists at her sides.
    “You scared the daylights out of me!”
    “Yeah, ambushes have a tendency to do that to a person,” he drawled, sliding the knife in his belt at his back. He looked down at the deer between them, then