The Boss Lady's Man

{Chapter} 29

{Chapter 29}

“Stay with me, Erik” Toni pleaded trying to stop the bleeding from Erik’s side.

She removed the bloodied shirtsleeve to look at the wound, but she couldn’t see through his shirt. Unbuttoning his shirt, she reached for one of the knives he kept strapped to his chest and cut off the shirt.

Tiny and Rawhide were tending to Ben, whether he was dead or alive, so Toni was forced to tend to Erik herself. His eyes were closed, and he was barely conscious, but alive. She had to take anything she could get at a time like this.

She reached over and plucked a freshly washed and folded nightgown from its place in her drawer, and commenced to ripping it in strips.

“Just hang on until the doc gets here, Erik. If you die on me I’ll bring you back to life and kill you myself, ya hear?” She folded up the cotton strip and pressed it to the wound.

Then it dawned on her.

An exit wound.

“Erik, I’ve gotta check for an exit wound, okay? You just be praying that you have one. Now I’ve gotta roll you over for a second, okay?” Toni braced herself and gently rolled him onto his side. His cry of pain was nearly her undoing. She found an exit wound and breathed a sigh of relief. Now she just had to hope that his vital organs were still intact. She placed a piece of the cloth onto the wound and rolled his back over onto his back.

Finally, she got the bleeding to slow down. Breathing a sigh of relief, she placed a blanket over him and sat down beside him on the bed. She looked at his face, so contorted with pain yet so calm. She so badly wanted him to live.

Toni smoothed the hair off his forehead and found that it was as soft as it looked, though soaked with perspiration, and sighed. She leaned forward and kissed his forehead, surprised when a tear started rolling down her cheek. She looked down as three or four fell onto her lap.

“You can’t leave me, too,” she whispered as she lay down beside him and held his hand in her own. “I’ve fallen for you, too.”

**********

“Are you gonna take all day?” Ben turned around, sitting tall and erect on his horse, watching her bounce up and down on her old mare.

“I’m trying but… this horse is killing me!” Katie bounced down hard on the saddle.

“I do believe you’re terrible at riding a horse in a normal position,” Ben laughed.

“Normal? What’s normal about this? This are in places they normally aren’t, and that includes my innards,” Katie protested.

“What’s normal about being coiled up like a rattler when you’re ridin’ a horse?” Ben retorted.

“No lady ever questions propriety” Katie stopped her horse and slid off. “I need a break, my legs are killing me.”

“Then you must not be too much of a lady, huh?” Ben grinned, hopping off his quarter horse.

She shot her eyes at him. “I’m a perfect lady, thank you very much.”

“Yeah, and you’re also wearing jeans” Ben grinned.

Katie huffed. This was the first and last time she would ever take a riding lesson from Ben.

“These are the result of a desperate attempt to fit in” she stated.

“Of course. Let’s not even mention the fact that you’re out here in the middle of nowhere, alone, with me. How does that set with the propriety book of etiquette?” Ben grinned mischievously at her.