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“I would have thought that was obvious.” She blinked against the rain in the direction of the caribou’s escape.
“This is a wildlife reserve. Woodland caribou is a rare species in this part of the state.”
“That’s exactly why I’m here.”
She seemed way too sure of herself for a woman who, not five minutes ago, tumbled over the edge of a thousand-foot drop-off.
“Get up.” He slid his weapon into its holster, snapped the leather trigger guard, and hoisted her knapsack off the rock.
She got to her feet, and for a long moment they just stood there, sizing each other up. She looked even smaller standing. Five-two, five-three tops. Her blond hair was plastered to her head, her clothes soaked through. The temperature was dropping fast, and he realized she was shivering.
“Come on. Let’s go.”
“Where?”
He relatched the tripod case and picked it up, pointing it in the direction from which he’d come. “That way. South.”
“But my car’s back there.” She pointed west along the barren ridge that ran for a mile or so, then dropped off into a long valley flanking the road, peppered with thick stands of timber and open meadow.
She was out here in a rainstorm with no jacket, no survival gear and no food. And a story he didn’t believe. No way was he letting her out of his sight until he found out whether or not she was connected to the poacher he was sure he’d seen.
It was his job to protect the animals in the reserve against unusual disturbances. That included hunters, harebrained tourists, camo-clad mystery men and small, wet women with attitude.
“This rain could turn to snow. You’ll never make it back before dark.” He glanced at the roiling sky. “My station’s closer. Come on.”
She blocked his path, shot him a hard look that seemed comical, given her bedraggled state, and matter-of-factly relieved him of her tripod case and knapsack.
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine. Besides, it’s summer. This is Alaska. It doesn’t really get dark until nine or ten.” She turned and started back up the ridge, doing a better job of negotiating the loose volcanic scree than he expected.
Stubborn, he thought. And damned attractive. He’d been out here a long time, a year. The only other women he saw on a regular basis were Department of Fish and Game co-workers, and he only saw them a few times a month.
He ought to just let her go. Maybe he had made a mistake. Maybe she was who she said she was. Still, something about her was off. He watched her as she climbed steadily up the dark blanket of broken rock, and had the strangest feeling he’d seen her before.
He shook off the feeling, and scanned the tree line again for movement. Out there somewhere was another intruder, dressed head to toe in camouflage and toting more than a tripod case. Until he found out who he was, he wasn’t letting Ms. Wilderness Unlimited out of his sight.
He let her get to the top of the ridge before he moved up behind her and looped a finger under her leather belt. It, too, looked new. He tugged.
“This way,” he said, and motioned for her to follow.
“I told you, my car’s that way.”
He watched her as she slipped her arms through the straps of the knapsack, then redoubled her grip on the case. Rain ran in rivulets down her face. Her soaking clothes clung to her like a second skin. She was trim, athletic, fitter than he’d judged her to be from that first impression—the soft feel of her against him when she lay on top of him on the rock.
He moved his hand to the holster of his department-issue weapon. “Don’t make me take this out again.”
She shot him an incredulous look. “You can’t force me to go with you.”
“Wanna bet?” Two strides later he was chin to forehead with her, his hand closing firmly over her slim upper arm.
She looked him up and down, openmouthed, not the least bit afraid of him, appraising his wet uniform, her gaze flicking from his gold-tone Department of Fish and Game badge to his eyes. “What are you, some kind of wannabe cop?”
Now that pissed him off. “Lady, out here I am a cop. The only cop.”
She glared up at him. “It’s Wendy.”
“Yeah, and I’m Peter Pan.” He plucked the tripod case out of her hand and pushed her toward a little-used game trail. “Move it.”
What a jerk.
The longer they walked, the angrier she got. Wendy stopped for a moment to readjust her knapsack, which had been digging into her shoulders for the past two hours. Her feet were killing her—blisters from the new boots—and her wet clothes chafed against her skin. At least the rain had stopped.
“Keep going.” Warden Rambo poked her in the back. “It’s not much farther.”
“Good.” Not breaking her stride, she shot him a nasty look over her shoulder. When she turned her attention back to the trail, she was immediately thwacked by a faceful of wet spruce.
Behind her, she heard him stifle a laugh.
“It’s not funny.” She kept moving, and every step of the way could feel his eyes on her.
They were green, flecked with gold, projecting a confidence and strength that was burned forever into her mind the first time she’d looked into them—as she dangled in space over a glacier-cut canyon, her life in his hands.
Or hand, she remembered with a shudder.
A clearing opened up ahead of them, and she stopped to catch her breath.
“Another hundred yards and we’ll be there,” he said as he came up behind her.
She turned to face him, and was startled for a moment by his rugged good looks. He’d been walking behind her all this time, barking out directions.
She studied him now, as a photographer studied a subject, striving for analytical clarity, for truth. What she got instead was a fluid, visceral impression that was all man.
He was tall and built. Even in wet clothes she could tell he had a great body. She should know. She’d seen enough naked hunks to last her a lifetime. His forearms were big and tanned. The muscles of his thighs were outlined in the olive drab uniform pants that, wet, fitted him like a glove.
His hands were rough from work. She knew because he’d taken one of her hands in his twice in the past hour. Once to help her over a downed spruce blocking their path, and another time because she’d gone off in the wrong direction, which wasn’t hard to do out here.
As she appraised him, he cocked his head, eyeing her with more of the same suspicion he was determined not to let go of. A hank of wet, tawny hair spilled into his eyes, and she had to physically stop herself from her first reaction, which was to reach up and brush it away.
He read her intent.
She saw it in his eyes and felt suddenly uncomfortable. He was uncomfortable, too. She could tell by the way he stepped around her and pretended to look for something in the trees.
It wasn’t the first time he’d done that. He’d stopped about an hour ago and had motioned for her to be quiet. He’d stood there, listening hard, eyes narrowed, darting at every shadow, as if he expected someone to pop out of the bushes and surprise them.
On impulse she said, “Thank you.”
He turned to her and frowned. “For what?”
“Saving my life.”
“If I hadn’t stumbled, you wouldn’t have gotten spooked and slipped.”
“If you hadn’t pointed that gun in my face,” she corrected, “maybe the whole thing wouldn’t have happened.”
His eyes turned cold. “Come on. The station’s over there.”
Anger rippled up inside her, but she worked to keep it in check. That wasn’t going to help her now. Besides, most of her irritation stemmed from the fact that Warden Rambo was exactly like Blake—domineering, pushy, directive.
In short, overbearing. She could think of a hundred synonyms to describe that kind of behavior. All of them got her fur up, as her dad would say.
As she followed him across the clearing, she made a minor correction to her initial judgment. He and Blake had one distinct difference. Blake’s bad qualities were hidden, wrapped up in a package that was all charm. Blake was a manipulator, a snake. This guy was up front about who he was.
Which reminded her of something she’d meant to ask him. “What’s your name?”
He held a broken branch aside, ushering her through a thicket choked with gooseberries, then pointed to the white lettering engraved on the black plastic name tag hanging limply from his wet shirt. “Peterson.”
His arched brow told her he thought she was an idiot if she’d spent the past two hours within ten feet of him, and hadn’t noticed it. She had.
“So, what should I call you? Mr. Peterson? Warden Peterson? Just plain old Peterson?”
“Joe,” he said. “Or whatever.” He moved quickly through the small stand of trees, and she followed, thinking it was a nice, simple name. Joe Peterson, game warden.
“Here it is.”
She stopped in front of what he’d described to her as a station. It was really just a big cabin, one that looked as if it was built a long time ago. Constructed of rough-hewn logs, it was painted over a dull brown, like so many Forest Service or National Park buildings were these days. A big deck ran all the way around it. There was a drop-off on the far side where the deck hung out over the forest, reminding her of a tree house she’d once had when she was a girl.
Joe fished a set of keys out of his pocket, opened the door and waved her inside. The front room had a huge picture window looking out over the deck. A snowcapped mountain range loomed in the distance. A set of French doors led outside. The room was half office, half living quarters, and the contrast between the two halves was almost weird.
A computer, a multiline phone, a fax machine, and what looked to her like a shortwave radio all sat perfectly aligned on a clean desktop. Files were piled in neatly spaced stacks, sharpened pencils stood in a clean glass jar, points up, like a bouquet of flawlessly arranged flowers.
In contrast, the other side of the room looked like somebody’s grandfather’s mountain cabin. She liked it. Big comfortable furniture sat crowded together in front of a stone fireplace that looked as if it was used every day.
Stuffed fish and a pair of deer antlers hung on the walls. A pair of snowshoes stood in a corner jammed with skis, a rifle and a couple of pairs of well-used boots. Joe’s, she thought, gauging their size.
Magazines were scattered in disarray across a coffee table that held the remains of what she guessed was his lunch: a half-eaten sandwich and a big glass of milk. Wendy’s stomach growled.
“I’ll get this cleaned up.” He snatched the plates from the table and disappeared into another room.
While he was gone, she moved to the fireplace and studied the single, eight-by-ten photo housed in a silver filigree frame that sat alone on the varnished wooden mantel.
It was of a young woman. A blond, like her. Only not like her at all. Tall and willowy with long straight hair, the woman in the photo wore a short black cocktail dress and the most fragile, deadly innocent smile Wendy had ever seen.
She’d noticed Joe didn’t wear a wedding ring, but that didn’t mean anything these days.
Wendy picked up the photo as he breezed back into the room. “She’s beautiful. Is she your wife?”
“Put that down.”
She felt as if she were ten years old again, caught with her hand in the cookie jar. The heat of a blush warmed her cheeks. “Sorry.” She quickly replaced the photo and clasped her hands together in front of her in contrition.
Wait a minute.
What was she doing? So she picked up a photograph of the guy’s wife. So what? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Her reaction to his censure told her she still had baggage to unload, lots of it, from her years with Blake.
“Okay, let’s do this.” Joe grabbed the phone off the desk and plunked down into the single office chair.
“Do what?”
“Your magazine. What’s the number?”
“What?” He was going to call them?
“Wilderness Unlimited. The number.”
“I heard what you said, I just don’t know why you’d want to—”
“You said you were a photographer. I’m checking it out.”
“Why?”
“To find out if you’re telling the truth.”
She couldn’t believe it. “Of course I’m telling the truth. Why would I lie?”
“You tell me.”
“This is ridiculous.” She fisted her hands on her hips and bit back a curse.
“Fine. We’ll do it the hard way.” He retrieved a back issue of the nationally renowned magazine from the pile on his coffee table. A second later he was dialing the number.
“It’s in New York.” You idiot. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited. “It’s what, one in the morning there?” She checked her watch, noting the four-hour time difference.
Their gazes locked. Gently, in a motion that screamed control, he placed the receiver back on the hook. She could tell he was hopping mad—not at her, but at himself for being so stupid.
The moment stretched on, until she couldn’t stand the tension. “All right, fine.” She walked over to the phone, dialed and handed him the receiver. “My editor’s a night owl. She’s probably still up.”
“You know her home number by heart?”
Wendy shrugged. “She’s a friend of mine.” Her only friend right now.
“What’s your last name?”
“Walters.”
“Wendy Walters. Sounds made up.”
The irony of that made her laugh.
Joe looked at her hard as he waited for someone to pick up. No one did. “She’s not there,” he said, and replaced the receiver.
