by Christa Wick
“You were limping on your way out of the kitchen,” he whispered.
I sighed, a dip of my eyes acknowledging that the pain stubbornly persisted. I took the pack from him with a grateful smile.
Spotting the pack from the prior night at the foot of the bed, he whispered again.
“May I.”
I bobbed my head. He slid into the room, grabbed the thawed pack and quickly returned to the hall.
“I’ll be in the kitchen. Catch me before you go?”
I nodded, my follow-up smile short-lived as my boss took me off hold.
“Hey, Phil, I think we might have a Sheepshead scenario up here.”
Phil Moske grunted. “Give me a second to pull up the file.”
Waiting on him, I glanced at the open door to find Walker gone. Stepping over to the room’s threshold, I looked down the long hall and watched him saunter away. He had a swimmer’s frame, his torso and legs strong and in proportion to one another. His waist and bottom were nicely tucked, forming the tight core of the machine that moved him.
As he neared the corner, I darted back into the room before he had a chance to turn and catch me ogling his tight ass.
“Sheepshead,” Moske growled as I propped my leg on a pillow and laid the ice pack over my shin. “You’ve got one dead fox and maybe a missing den. What’s the connection?”
I had already sent him a write-up that included a rough sketch of the events surrounding the tree in the middle of the road. I repeated those events in greater detail and told him there were two lesser incidents with the same company that I didn’t have facts for yet.
Moske released another heavy sigh. “That was some really nasty business up in Sheepshead.”
He strummed his thick fingers on the desk, then tapped a few keys on his computer.
“What’s your plan?”
“I’ve got the fox in a locked freezer. I’ll overnight everything else to the lab. Don’t think there’ll be much value to the evidence.”
“Probably not,” he grunted.
“I want to spend a few days on this—check the other vandalism locations, find out if any other businesses or property owners are experiencing issues but didn’t report it. I’ll coordinate with the park rangers to see if they can check on other dens and get a feel for the movements of their bear population.”
“I don’t think you need to check the bears. You still only have a skinned fox at the end of the day. You want to keep a good relationship with the rangers. That’s not going to happen if you start out asking for their resources.”
“I see your point,” I answered. That didn’t mean I agreed with it, but I would see where the day’s evidence led me before ignoring Moske's advice. For the moment, that’s all it was—advice.
“You find anything concrete, I want to hear about it right away, not in your end of day report, got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good,” he grumbled. “I’ve got a conference call in ten minutes and I need to hit the head. Anything else?”
“No, thank you for your time.”
“Welcome, bye.”
Pulling the phone from my ear, I stared at it. I had only known Phil Moske for a few months and still didn’t have a good read on the man. Most of our conversations were by text or email, the rest usually by phone. I had only met him in person three times. He had years of experience in the field, but had clearly learned to love riding a desk as he neared retirement.
Realizing I had forgotten to mention there would be an FBI agent looking into the damaged trees, I growled and tossed the phone onto the mattress.
I would send him a message later or put it in my end of day report. For now, I was going to steal a few precious minutes of doing absolutely nothing while the ice pack worked its magic.
5
Walker
My nose buried in my phone, I felt a hesitant tug on my sleeve. My head swiveled and made a slight downward turn to look at my two-year-old niece, Leah. Dressed in a nightgown with embroidered bumblebees, she had half of a honey-coated biscuit shoved in her mouth. Her green eyes were pulled as wide as they would go. Lifting a sticky finger, she pointed at the doorway.
“Is this okay?” Ashley asked with a discreet gesture at the gun on her hip.
“Yes," I answered. "We often carry. We keep them holstered when they are out of the safe.”
“Absolutely.” Her gaze returned to the little girl with amber colored hair. Approaching Leah, she got down on one knee a few feet away.
“Hello. What’s your name?”
The biscuit didn’t move from the child’s mouth.
“Leah,” I chuckled. “She’s usually still asleep at this time but a certain deputy trainee had to sneak a peek before heading out to work and decided to wake her up for cuddles.”
Ashley smiled. “Can’t say I blame her.”
Taking the biscuit from her mouth, Leah pointed at Ashley’s sidearm.
“Loud.”
“Yes,” Ashley agreed. “And dangerous.”
“Leah no like guns.”
“I don’t like them much either.” Getting to her feet, Ashley nodded at the door. “I’ll be leaving in just a minute, so the gun will be gone, too.”
“This little one,” Lindy said, returning to the kitchen and scooping the toddler up, “will be gone even sooner. Who said you could have a biscuit?”
Leah pointed at me.
An unrepentant smile papered my face.
“She’s so cute when she wants something.”
“I’ll remember that excuse when you have your own,” Mama scolded, holding Leah so that her face was close to mine. “Your uncle deserves a sticky kiss goodbye.”
Leah put the biscuit down on the table. Using both hands, she took hold of my face and planted a kiss on my cheek.
“Wait,” Leah protested as Lindy headed for the double doors leading out of the kitchen. “Her name?”
“Ashley,” I answered.
The little girl wiggled her fingers.
“Bye, Ashley.”
Ashley waved back. “Bye, Leah.”
Turning to me, she grinned. “She really is adorable. I could almost feel myself choking on all that cuteness.”
Putting her bag down, she pulled out the ice pack and handed it to me.
“This was very helpful. Thank you for thinking of it.”
I carried the bag to the second of two refrigerators in the room, opened the freezer section and nodded at another half dozen or so ice packs.
“Not a problem. Raising six kids on a ranch, Mama always kept some cold.”
Passing by the sink, I wet a cloth, took it to the table and picked up the biscuit’s remains and wiped down the spot.
“You got a few minutes before you go?” I asked. “You could grab a final cup of coffee before you head back to Billings.”
“Another cup would be great, but I’m not heading straight back.”
Finding a clean mug, I poured coffee and handed it to her. “Right, Emerson. I forgot about that. He expects to be at the Sheriff’s about ten.”
“Depending on what information today yields, I’ll be in and out of the area this week. I already cleared it with my supervisor.”
Not looking at the woman as I refilled my cup, I smiled. I had hoped she wouldn’t disappear quickly. As fiercely independent as she seemed, I needed a bit more time to determine the best way to ask her out. I also wanted to be less of a stranger when I did the asking.
More than my body responding to her full curves, there was a connection I had never felt with another woman.
“Let me pull a map from the library.” Putting my cup on the table, I gestured for Ashley to take a seat. “It’ll only take a second to fetch. I wanted to show you where the other two locations were.”
Settling into a chair, she nodded. I hurried out of the room, thundered up the stairs then back down, my body warm from the slight exertion and the fact I was stretching my time with a beautiful and captivatingly unique wo
man.
Unrolling the map, I put a salt mill on one end and a pepper mill on the other as weights. Digging into my pockets, I came up with some loose change. I put a quarter along the edge of the location where the equipment had been damaged and the six trees axed in such a way that they were set to fall across the road as soon as gravity finished the job the vandals had started.
“Yesterday,” I said, then placed a nickel seven-point-three miles to the southwest of the quarter. “Last Wednesday. They stole the cattle guards on a dirt road, making it impassable for most vehicles.”
Ashley squinted at the map. I knew what she was thinking.
“It’s private property but the road is commonly used by the public. Not an official easement.”
Taking a penny, I placed it a mile south of the nickel.
“This was spray painting the machines, bunch of foul stuff that we had to take turpentine to. But Kostya also noticed that all the road signs going into the site were down, but not coming out. No telling when that part happened because we might have overlooked it since we don’t need directions.”
Glancing at Ashley, I noticed that her face had lost a little color.
“You okay?”
Nodding, she plucked two dimes from my hand and marked off the closest roads to the quarter and the penny. Both roads were at least half an hour away from my sites.
“If the vandalism has you pulling back your crew and keeps other people away, they’ve isolated well over twenty thousand acres of the park.”
“Like they did in California?”
She nodded. “Exactly like that.”
Pulling out her cell phone, she took pictures of the map, one from far out and one for each of the five roads marked. She typed in a few notes then pocketed the phone.
She pulled it out a second later, clicked to see the time then buried it again.
“What’s the plan before going to the Sheriff’s office at ten?” I asked.
“I’m going to wake up a few rangers and drop off the smaller pieces of evidence from yesterday.”
I nodded, my face a mask for the thoughts running through my head. Now that we had a probable reason for the vandalism, I felt confident the criminals would get caught. Before that happened, I wanted to squeeze in as many minutes as I could with Very Special Agent Ashley Callahan.
Preferably, at some point, after a respectful wait, some very naked minutes.
“You know, we not only have comfy beds, we have comfy offices, too. No need to sit along the side of the road calling the rangers when you could have your leg up and a fresh ice pack.”
Chewing at her plump bottom lip, she hesitated to accept.
“Office is sitting empty until next Friday,” I coaxed. “My brother is on his honeymoon.”
Releasing her lip, she looked up at me. “You know, there are still so many unsanctioned grow operations in California that I’m accustomed to landowners waving shotguns at me. Hospitality was nonexistent.”
“I can’t promise everyone in Willow Gap will be as welcoming. But, when you’re here, you’re home.”
She shook her head, a soft sigh escaping. “No way am I turning down ice time.”
“Great.” I headed toward the freezer with the ice packs, my cheeks hurting from the victory grin I was trying to hide. “Freshen up that cup of coffee and then I’ll walk you over to Adler’s office.”
Returning to the kitchen after getting Ashley settled in, I found Mama out on the porch overlooking the lake. Leah sat next to her on a bench, dressed for the day and eating a banana.
“Ashley gone?” Leah asked.
Lifting her onto my lap, I shook my head. “She’s using Uncle Addy’s office for a little while to get some work done.”
“Okay,” she answered, her head against my chest and her free hand absently toying with my collar.
“Siobhan is giving even odds that you’ll have a snuggle bug of your own, soon.”
Mama punctuated the remark with a chuckle, but I caught the cut of her gaze and the curiosity lurking in the green eyes that were only a shade lighter than my own.
“That’s putting the cart before the horse,” I joked, taking the empty peel from Leah and folding it neatly.
Mama glanced over her shoulder before leaning close to whisper.
“You mean the baby carriage before the wife.”
I kept my mouth flat despite the grin that wanted to break out. I had never thought about marriage before, only been semi-serious with one woman from a couple of counties away, our relationship moving past a few tumbles in the hay to officially dating for all of three months, none of which included my bringing her home to meet Mama.
“Sounds like you’re both putting the cart before the horse,” I teased.
Pulling my phone from my back pocket, I powered it on, opened the contacts and showed the screen to Leah.
“Call Uncle Sutton.”
She pressed the picture of my second youngest brother, the photo unchanged from when Sutton had still served in the Army. She tapped the icon for speakerphone next.
Three rings later, there came a cautious answer.
“Walker?”
“It’s me, Sutty!” Leah clapped. “Fishes are jumping!”
“You want me to bring my fishing pole, Honey Bee?”
“More like your drone,” I answered before Leah could.
“Does this have anything to do with Siobhan waking me up ridiculously early?”
“Somewhat,” Mama chimed in. “I think she figured if Emerson is up here, that little redhead you kept staring at all through your brother’s wedding might be with him. Seems she’s in a mood to play matchmaker.”
“I’d rather go fishing with Honey Bee.”
Leah clapped her hands.
“Those trees could have…” I trailed off, mindful of the little girl in my arms and how she had lost her mother in a car accident. The family tried to steer clear of certain words while she continued to heal emotionally.
Sutton was quick to figure out what I wanted to talk about but couldn’t while Leah was with him.
“Alright, where do I have to be and what time?”
“Meeting Emerson around ten at Gamble’s.”
Huffing, Leah squirmed off of my lap and onto Mama's.
“Don’t worry, love,” Mama whispered. “We’ll go out in the boat. I’m the one who taught Sutty how to fish.”
“Wow,” Leah whispered back, her eyebrows climbing high.
Watching the exchange, I realized just how much I wanted my own snuggle bug and how another grandchild would double Mama’s joy. I was certain Leah had been the only thing keeping her going in the early days of losing her husband and daughter in the same wreck.
“Alright,” Sutton grumbled. “Meet you at ten.”
“Don’t let him overdo it,” Mama cautioned once the call was finished. “He’s been pushing too hard. He’d still be in a plaster cast if it wasn’t for his foolish pride and Adler’s wedding.”
“I’ll have Royce put the ATVs on a trailer. That will give us some serious range and keep Sutton off his feet.” I leaned over and kissed her cheek. “That sound good?”
“Sounds good,” she agreed, a knowing glint in her eye. “For your brother—and your new friend.”
6
Ashley
Sitting on the back of an ATV, I gripped the handholds and gritted my teeth. A redheaded FBI agent by the name of Madigan Armstrong drove the vehicle, our roles as passenger versus driver determined by a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors conducted out of view from the males in the group.
The four ATVs were at full capacity. Walker’s brother Emerson had paired up with Gamble. Siobhan rode behind Walker. Sutton rode alone with my evidence kit, his drone, and extra batteries for the device.
I wasn’t sure how the former soldier was driving his vehicle with such ease. A wide padded belt circled his hips and lower back. Running down his right leg, metal braces framed the interior and exterior sides, some kind of sp
ring above the knee assisting every step he took so that a cane wasn’t necessary.
Siobhan had pulled me aside before Sutton’s arrival at the sheriff’s department, briefly detailing how enemy forces shot him down in a drop zone, the mortar round missing him but shredding his parachute. The impact on landing broke the right leg at several points. In the first week, he’d undergone two surgeries to pin everything back together. Revealing the motive behind the otherwise gossipy revelations, Siobhan emphasized that the doctors at the Veterans Administration had recently voiced their hope that Sutton wouldn’t need any more surgeries—provided he didn’t overdo things at this stage.
Not wanting to be the cause of Sutton overdoing things, I winced every time we reached a particularly rough section of the trip.
Coming to the top of a ridge, Walker signaled a halt. Removing his helmet, he pointed at a sign maybe thirty yards down. I couldn’t see the words, but recognized the colors and shape. It was a park boundary sign. With me and two other federal law enforcement officers in tow, the group could proceed past the signs, but we were at the edge of the private property the vandals were trying to get Walker to abandon. And, under current circumstances, the four-wheelers weren’t authorized past the signs.
“Good spot,” Sutton said and swung his left leg over the ATV’s seat.
Twisting at the waist, he unstrapped his drone and swapped batteries. Walker took the small aircraft from him and placed it on the ground a few feet in front of the vehicle. Siobhan pulled a tablet out of her backpack and stood in front of the ATV with the device’s display facing Sutton.
He tapped a few buttons and the drone’s camera view appeared on the tablet.
“Want me to start south or north?” he asked.
We were at our third location for the day. With the sun starting to dip in the sky, it would also be our last.
“South,” Emerson voted.
Maddy nodded agreement with her boss. Gamble and Siobhan shrugged. Sutton looked at Walker.
“North,” he said.
“Two to one,” Sutton noted then looked at me. “You going to tie the score or do I start south.”