Running closer, Ginny threw the frozen bacon at the one fighting Suki, and the dogs broke apart for a split-second, then started lunging again. However, before the other dog made contact with Suki, it fell to the ground.
With the other dog not moving, Suki ran to the other dog fighting Jack.
“Dammit!” Gavin yelled, moving his position to find a better spot to fire his gun a second time.
Ginny moved, too, hoping to throw the hamburger the same way to break the dogs apart. Other than a pained grunt from the massive brown dog snapping at Jack, the crazed dog didn’t stop. Gavin pointed the gun at the brown dog, but before he could fire, Suki grabbed its neck, trying to shake him off Jack.
When Jack went down, Suki and the brown dog became a twisting blur of brown fur.
“Fuck.” Gavin pointed the gun again. From the harsh set of his features, Ginny knew he was going to fire.
A flash of black fur came from behind the tree to their right.
“Gavin!” Instinctively, Ginny started running toward Gavin, who had his back to a third dog that was just inches from him. The sound of a bullet being shot had her stopping with a sob of relief when the black dog fell. Her sob then turned into a scream when the brown dog fighting Suki tore away from her and charged at Gavin before he could turn around.
Ginny ran so fast that she didn’t feel the ground under her as she threw herself at the dog. Rolling onto the ground, she was brought up short when her back crashed into the trunk of a tree with the vicious dog on top of her.
Reflexively, her arms came up at the snarling mouth so close to her face. The agony of teeth biting into her forearm had her praying not to scream. She didn’t want to startle Gavin when he was trying to shoot the dog on top of her.
Bracing herself for a third shot to be fired, she was left gasping up at Gavin coming into her vision as he lifted the dog off her despite the dog snapping at him. One second, he was holding the flailing dog, and then it was sailing through the air to land with a yelp.
A fourth dog came out from behind the goat pen. Suki was on a matted black one before they even saw him. Snapping jaws went toward Gavin despite Suki holding one shoulder between her clenched teeth.
In one movement, Gavin reached for his gun and leveled it at the advancing dog.
The blasting of a horn had the dogs freezing in place as Moses drove the farm truck down the dirt access road. The dog that Suki was holding shook her off, then darted into the trees. Ginny saw the one that Gavin had thrown limp off after his packmate. The other lay whimpering.
As Gavin put his gun back out of sight, Ginny saw a trail of blood running down his arm. Staring at him in concern, she nearly stumbled at the pain coming from her back.
“What were you fucking thinking?” he snapped.
“I was thinking I didn’t want to see you get mauled to death in front of me.”
Ignoring his own injury, Gavin removed his shirt to tear it up as Moses got out of the truck.
“Is she okay?” he asked as three dogs jumped out of the truck behind him.
“Does she look okay?” Gavin growled from over his shoulder as he tied a portion of his shirt over the bite mark on her arm.
Blinking back tears of pain, she gave Gavin a reassuring look while seeing Moses taking out his cell phone.
“If you’re calling Knox, tell him there were four dogs not two, and they’re heading toward the Porters’,” Ginny told him.
“I’m not calling Knox. I’m calling Silas. He’ll send the boys to help me track the dogs. He can call the Porters and the Hayes to warn them.”
As Moses started explaining to Silas what happened, he went to Jack, smoothing the black and white coat. Getting up, he then started toward the dog that Gavin had shot.
“Be careful,” Gavin warned, seeing what Moses was doing.
Moses ignored the warning, bending down to gently touch the dog. The dog whimpered back as Moses told him to be still.
Moses lifted his eyes to Gavin. “Why didn’t you kill him? You could have.”
“They’re starved and hungry. I was just trying to scare them away.”
Moses rose to his feet. “Watch,” he ordered his other dogs as he checked the other dogs out. “I’ll unload the cows, then take the dogs to Isaac. He can take them to the vet. They’ll have to be tested for rabies. Silas can take you to the hospital when he gets here.” Moses started unloading the four cows from the trailer.
Gavin tied the two sleeves of his T-shirt together to stop the bleeding on her bite wound.