Wild Montana

by Danica Winters

  Casper laughed. “It’s just like old times. You’re just lucky I’m feeling nice.”

  Steel thumped down into the seat next to him. “You’re never this nice... Apparently you’ve been on your own too long in that little shack on the border.” Steel leaned back and took out a notepad. “So, you told me about the bikers. Anything else I need to know?”

  “Lex has been worrying about the people around her. I don’t know if there’s anything to the way she’s feeling, or if she’s being overly suspicious, but I think it’s worth looking into.”

  “Lex?”

  “Alexis Finch, the ranger I’ve been working with on the investigation, but her boss took her off today. I’m supposed to be getting a new partner from them. That’s why I’m out here waiting for your sorry butt.”

  “Why did she get taken off the case? Were you guys sleeping together?”

  He couldn’t help the heat that rushed into his face.

  Steel glanced over at him and his mouth opened with surprise. “You were? You dirty dog.”

  “It isn’t like that. I swear. There’s no way they could have known. It just happened. They took her off the assignment before things ever heated up between us.”

  Steel raised an eyebrow. “So that’s why you are feeling so nice?”

  “This doesn’t go any further than you and me. I don’t kiss and tell.”

  “Good policy,” Steel said. “My lips are zipped.”

  Casper gave him an appreciative nod.

  “So your girlfriend—”

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” Casper interrupted.

  “Okay, so your not-a-girlfriend friend, Lex, is suspicious about her coworkers. Did you tell her that you thought there might be something to her feelings?”

  “I’m not sure that there is something there. I mean, there’s some other things involved that may be affecting her judgment.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like she works with her ex-husband.”

  “They get along enough that they can work together?” Steel asked.

  “Not really.”

  Steel nodded as if he finally understood why Casper felt the way he did.

  “She just texted me. Sounds like she is going to have to spend the day with him deep in the park.”

  “Oh,” Steel said. “I bet she’s happy about it.”

  Steel leaned forward and pulled a laptop out of his bag. The thing was one of those huge computers that was equipped with industrial-strength plastic and a bulletproof shell. Secretly, Casper kind of wished that he had one like it. “I had my guys follow your friends, the Keepers, last night in an attempt to find out who, and where, they were going to meet today. I had to call in more than my fair share of favors on that one.”

  “Appreciate it, man. This will all come together, and you’ll see that all your hard work was worth it.”

  Steel motioned for him to start driving. “Head toward Columbia Falls.”

  Casper pushed the car into gear. “What’s up there?”

  “It sounds like they had another shipment of the Canadian Blue come through.”

  “From where?”

  Steel got a cheese-eating grin on his face. “The bikers are meeting up with someone at the back entrance to Glacier—the unmanned gate. We weren’t able to make out who they were meeting, but—like you assumed—it’s our belief that whoever is selling them the drugs is bringing the pills over the border and through the park.”

  “Do you want me to call in some backup so we’re not on our own at this buy?”

  “You don’t like the ten-bikers-to-one-Fed kind of odds? Come on now, if there are any more of us it’s almost unfair to them...”

  Steel laughed, but the pit in Casper’s stomach deepened. He’d never been afraid of facing bikers or any number of adversaries, but they had threatened Lex, and after what had happened last night with her...well, for once it felt like he had something—or someone—to live for.

  “Don’t you think it would be—”

  “Hey now, Lawrence,” Steel said, interrupting him. “I was just kidding. Three other marshals are going to meet us up there. We got a line on the president of the club. Three years ago he escaped the federal pen. According to our man, he’s going to be at the buy. Hopefully you and I both get something that will help our careers.”

  Casper twitched. It wasn’t a surprise that Steel knew he’d had trouble in the past, but he hadn’t thought the guy would bring it up.

  “That’s why you’re going after this like your ass is on fire, isn’t it? So you can get your foot back in the door with the FBI?” Steel pressed.

  Honestly, he hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but Steel wasn’t wrong. If he played his cards right—if he could take down an international drug-smuggling ring—it would look good on his résumé if he decided to go after his former job.

  He sucked in a long breath as he thought about it. He wouldn’t have to live in the middle of nowhere. His days wouldn’t be an endless flow of checking bags and passports and the infrequent investigation. He wouldn’t be the low man on the totem pole.

  But if he went back to the FBI, he would likely be transferred out of Montana—and away from Lex.

  There’s no way they could make it work—the distance would be too far, and his life would fall back into the constant flux that came with a job in the FBI. His days would be filled with investigations and reports, and his nights would be filled with thoughts of what he could do better. He’d fallen into this trap before. He couldn’t do it again—he couldn’t give up his life, his chance at happiness, just to get a foot up at the Bureau.

  As he drove, he thought back to the feel of Lex in his arms. Everything about last night seemed like a dream, every action a snippet held up in the surreal fog of too-good-to-be-real; her hair tickling his chest as she sat atop him, the feel of her hips in his hands, her feet entwined with his.

  All this season, he had thought of the stand-alone station at Goat Haunt as his place of imprisonment, but maybe it wasn’t a prison after all—maybe it was a chance for a new beginning.

  It was all so confusing. He had thought he’d hated this place, but in the last few days everything had changed.

  If he told Lex about the opportunity the case could provide, would she want him to use it to his every advantage, or would she urge him to stay near her?

  He imagined the look on her face if he told her that he wanted to go back to the FBI. It made something in his chest shift. He couldn’t live with himself if he broke her heart. Hell, just the thought of leaving her broke his.

  He shook the thoughts from his head. He was playing in the world of what-ifs anyway. Before he’d ever have to make any decisions, they would have to get a handle on the investigation. They needed to find direct evidence that tied these bikers to the drug trade, and they needed to find out exactly why and how they were running the drugs through the park—and they needed to find out who murdered Razor.

  “Grant met up with me last night,” Casper said. “He let me know that there was Canadian Blue hitting the streets in and around Kalispell. He thinks they’re the drugs that were stolen from my truck.”

  “No crap?” Steel said. “He have any clue who stole them?”

  Casper shook his head. “He’s no closer to finding out, but my gut is telling me that the answer’s right at our fingertips.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The night of our accident, there was a biker following us.” He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel as he attempted to pick his words very carefully. “I know it’s circumstantial, but everything about this case revolves around that MC and the men in it. I’d bet my bottom dollar that they set the whole thing up. Maybe they knew we had the drugs. Maybe they knew we were taking them back to Apgar to the evidence
unit. So they picked a spot on that road and forced us off it.”

  “You think that they wanted to kill you guys?”

  A wave of nausea passed over him as he contemplated the thought, but he swallowed it back. “If they wanted us dead, they would’ve killed us... They could have done it right then and there.”

  “Is there a reason they didn’t?”

  He thought back to that night. When they’d hit the rock wall, he’d lost consciousness. When he’d come to, they had been surrounded by bystanders. “There were a lot of witnesses.”

  “It sounds like you guys are lucky.” Steel whistled through his teeth. “If these guys are as bad as I think they are, and they’re behind the murder and the drug running, it would have been a win for them to take you and Alexis out. You were two of only a few people that could point a finger in their direction.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The chestnut mare’s hooves clicked against the rocks as they climbed higher and higher up Gunsight Trail and closer to Sperry Chalet. The timber was intermittent as their elevation grew and, on the leeward side of the mountain, the horses had to fight through a thin layer of snow and ice on the trail.

  Her horse pulled in a deep breath, making Lex’s legs widen around her girth, and giving a long huff as if growing as tired of the hike as Lex was. Travis had been quiet most of the way, but as they drew nearer to their destination he had started to talk more and more.

  “Do you remember that one time when we found the woman? You know, the one who died in the creek?” Travis asked as they passed by a small waterfall cascading out of a small crevice in the rocky hillside.

  She tried to hold back the image that came to the front of her mind of the woman’s blue lips and her clouded, sightless eyes. For a long time she had seen that face every time she had closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep.

  “Travis, do we really have to talk about her?” she said, turning in her saddle slightly so she could look back at him over her shoulder.

  He shrugged. “Just thought we could make conversation.”

  “Is that why you got me pulled off the case, so we could make conversation? Did it ever occur to you that I was this close to solving it?” She pinched her fingers together to emphasize her point.

  “Trust me, you weren’t that close, and besides, I’m not the one who got you pulled off the case.”

  “Then who did?”

  Travis smirked. “You and your big mouth did that all on your own.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Rage steamed up within her.

  “Nothing... I don’t mean anything.” Travis sighed. “Look, I didn’t come with you to start a fight.”

  There was a strange inflection in his words as if he were holding back...or hiding something.

  “This isn’t your attempt to get back together, is it?” she asked, trying to finally address the elephant in the room.

  Travis laughed, the noise echoing through the steep ravine and cascading down to the valley below—making it sound almost sinister.

  “You and I were never meant to be, Lex. I know that now. You’re too good.”

  “Too good? I’ve heard some stupid excuses before, Travis, but too good? That’s a new one.”

  They came over top of a small rise and the cabin, made out of a collection of multicolored natural stones, came into view. It was encompassed by a stand of timber, making it look like something out of a Tolkien book instead of a real place.

  “Remember the last time we were up here?” Travis asked.

  Her horse nickered and its ears swiveled as if it was trying to catch a sound to its left. The horse didn’t like something. She was becoming nervous, stumbling slightly as she grew more wary.

  Lex reached down and patted the horse’s neck. “It’s okay, baby,” she cooed, trying to calm the animal. “It’s okay.”

  She looked around, trying to see what exactly had spooked the horse, but she couldn’t see anything that would cause the animal to react like this.

  She glanced behind them at Travis’s black-and-white gelding sidestepping on the narrow trail as he tried to get him to keep moving forward.

  “Stop, Travis. Don’t push him. He’s scared,” she said, forcing her voice to be as calm and neutral as possible in an effort to keep the horses from getting more spooked.

  Travis stopped moving the reins and sat still in the saddle.

  Her mare stiffened beneath her, lifting her nose and drawing in a breath, trying to catch a scent in the air. She blew it out with a huff and nickered again, the sound high with fear.

  “Was anyone supposed to be up here?”

  Travis shook his head. “Everyone was supposed to be out. The last paying guest checked out yesterday.”

  She nudged the mare, trying to get her to move forward, but the animal refused to budge and instead started to scoot her feet backward toward the edge of the narrow trail.

  “Whoa, baby... Whoa.” She pulled up on the reins and the horse stopped inches from disaster.

  Lex lifted her foot out of the stirrup, sliding her body out of the saddle and dropping to the ground, the motion slow and even. “It’s okay, baby,” she cooed, her full attention on the scared horse.

  She moved around to the front of the mare, out of its way in case it decided to spook. “Come on, baby, move away from the edge,” she said, gently tugging on the reins in an effort to get the horse to step forward and follow her.

  They weren’t far from the cabin. If she could just get the animal closer to the safety and protection of the structure, maybe it would calm down.

  The mare moved after her a few steps and then its eyes grew wide with fear. She reared up and squealed, pulling back on the reins and tearing them from Lex’s hands. Turning, she charged down the trail, disappearing from view.

  Travis was fighting with his gelding, trying to get it from following after the loose mare. As he pulled on the horse’s reins, it skittered sideways. It jumped, its back humping like a bucking bronco, throwing Travis to the ground in a heap. His foot caught in the stirrup and the gelding turned and started after the mare, dragging Travis a few feet, his leg in an inconceivable angle, before he broke free.

  She held her breath as Travis lay motionless on the ground. His foot was at an obtuse angle from his leg, broken. There was a thin trail of blood where his body had been dragged over the angular, jutting scree that littered the trail.

  “Travis,” she said, her voice frantic. “Are you okay?”

  She moved toward him, stopping as she came close. She didn’t want to touch him too much. If he’d broken his back or his neck she couldn’t risk moving him.

  “Travis?”

  He remained silent and unmoving.

  What if he was dead?

  She kneeled down and pressed her fingers to his neck. There was the slow, steady thump, thump, thump of his heartbeat, but he was seriously hurt. He needed help. Now.

  She pulled out her phone. No service.

  Maybe Travis’s phone would have some bars. Ever so carefully, she reached around and flipped back the bottom flap of his jacket so she could reach in the coat’s pocket. Her fingers brushed against cold steel.

  There, just beneath his armpit in its holster, was a small silver revolver.

  They had come up here to close down the cabin. Why was he carrying a gun? In all the time they’d been married, she’d never known him to carry a gun, except when he was on a call or when he was going to put an animal down.

  Aside from their horses, she was the only animal here.

  She pulled the gun from his holster and slid it into the back of her waistband.

  Maybe she had this all wrong. Casper had told her that she was overreacting in being suspicious about everyone...maybe he was right. There had to be a legitimate reason for
Travis to be carrying the gun.

  Right now she just had to get him the help that he so desperately needed.

  She reached back into his pocket, grabbing his phone. A plastic bag dropped on the ground as she took out the cell.

  Inside the bag was a collection of blue pills—at least twenty, maybe thirty of them.

  She gasped.

  What in the hell was going on?

  Someone grabbed her from behind and pulled the gun from her waistband. Their hand moved over her mouth, stifling her scream.

  “Shut your mouth, Alexis,” a man whispered in her ear, raising the barrel of the gun until the cold metal brushed against her temple. “If you want to live, you will shut your face and listen.”

  * * *

  “PETER KAGGER, THE secretary for the Keepers’ Alberta chapter, is willing to help us, but he wants extradition to the United States and to have his conviction expunged from his record once he arrives.” Steel motioned toward the phone in his hands.

  “What else does he want? A freaking gold star award? This guy shot a Canadian senator. We have zero jurisdiction there, and little leverage. How in the heck does he think we’re going to be able to honor his requests?”

  “He has two years left on his sentence and he says he’s an American citizen.”

  “Oh, that’s even better. How did an American shooting a Canadian senator not hit every newsreel from here to London? If he thinks that we are going to cause a possible international uproar by sticking our necks out for him just because he may or may not have information that will help our murder case, then he’s got another thing coming.”

  Steel chuckled. “I hear you, but he’s the only open door we got when it comes to finding anything out about the biker gang.” He pointed toward the line of bikes that were parked outside Moose’s Pizza Joint in Kalispell. “I don’t see us barging in there and walking out with the information we need unless we make some sort of deal. I got friends in the Canadian Parliament. Maybe they can pull some strings.”

  Just on the other side of the windows, two bikers were standing guard at each side of the door. Since they had arrived the bikers hadn’t stopped watching them.