by Christa Wick
As close as it was getting to sunset, we would probably be able to try just one of the directions before heading back.
“Why north?” I asked Walker.
“That’s the direction of where they took the cattle guards out. Maybe they plan on putting them back in or cutting the fence. There’s also an unmarked access road to the north that locals would know about.”
“It better not be anyone local,” Gamble grumbled.
“I vote north,” I said, chest constricting when Walker smiled at me for taking his side.
“So my vote breaks the tie,” Sutton said, his fingers caressing the controls.
Up the drone rose—and headed north.
Everyone but Siobhan gathered around Sutton to watch the display.
“Who’s keeping an eye on the battery level for me?” he asked.
Siobhan piped up when no one answered right away.
“Agent Armstrong, you can probably get in closest to see the display.”
Siobhan’s delivery sounded purely professional, but I couldn’t forget all the talk around the table that morning with Siobhan seemingly, and inexplicably, eager to get all of her cousins married off. Suspecting that the nomination of Madigan served Siobhan’s personal goal, I made note of the tactics the young deputy trainee might use against me. Because it didn’t matter how tight or warm my chest got when Walker smiled in my direction—or how slick I got elsewhere, I hadn’t moved to Montana to get married.
“Of course,” Siobhan tacked on as Madigan moved into position, “you should probably review the video again since we need all eyes and your attention is split with checking the battery. Sutton will be able to replay the feed for you.”
I glanced at Walker. He pulled a face like he knew what his cousin was doing. A glance at Madigan revealed nothing more than a focused young agent eager to prove her worth.
Leaning in, Gamble squinted at the camera feed. “Still not sure what we’re looking for.”
Emerson chuckled. “It’s kind of like that famous Supreme Court case that set out to define pornography. One of the judges said he would know it when he saw it. Apparently he had to look through a lot of pictures before—”
“Go back,” Walker interrupted. “Yeah, right around there. Can you get closer, zoom in with the camera?”
“I can decrease altitude,” Sutton answered and lowered the drone.
“Not seeing it,” Emerson said.
“Maybe here?” Madigan suggested, her body sliding against Sutton’s as she extended an arm and pointed at a gap between the heavy cover of pine trees. “Looks like something manmade in there, almost box shaped.”
Sutton’s fingers whispered over the controls. “Let me see if I can get another angle on it.”
The gap receded for a while as the drone lifted higher, circled around and dropped lower in a tight opening that let them see the trunks of the pines at the level of their lowest branches.
Gamble whistled. “See it now?”
A soft chorus of “yes” circled Sutton’s ATV as everyone spotted half a dozen or more canvas bundles secured to the trees. Sutton snapped some screenshots and marked the GPS location.
“That’s as close as I can get without risking the drone.”
“Getting close to fifty percent on the battery,” Madigan warned.
I placed my hand on Sutton’s shoulder and offered a grateful squeeze. “Bring it back in. That’s enough for me to get a few more officers out, as well as support from the park’s rangers. We’ll retrieve the packs tomorrow and process them for prints and other trace evidence. Depending on what they contain, we’ll have a good idea of what’s being planned.”
“So we head back?” Walker asked, scanning the group’s faces before landing on mine.
Joining the others, I nodded my agreement.
“My butt’s vibrating,” Siobhan announced.
Walker spit out a cough while Gamble buried his face in his hands.
“I think she means her phone—but I’m not going in after it,” Emerson chuckled.
“You want me—” Walker’s question was cut off when his own phone rang. He turned it on. “Hey Mama, were you just calling Siobhan?”
His head bobbed in his cousin’s direction. “About ninety minutes. Yep, I’ll ask.”
Tilting the phone away from his mouth, he nodded at everyone. “It was a good day fishing with Honey Bee. Mama’s got twenty or more trout prepped to freeze or cook. Raise your hand if you want to finish the day with something hot, fresh from the lake, and home cooked.”
“Me,” Siobhan announced, her hands remaining wrapped around the tablet as Sutton piloted the drone.
“Yep,” Sutton answered, lifting just a finger.
Madigan and Emerson exchanged looks. When he nodded, they both raised their hands.
“Any day Lindy Turk invites me to her table is a good day,” Gamble laughed.
Walker’s gaze landed on me. Before I could frame my excuse for heading back to Billings as soon as possible, he lifted the phone and answered for all of us.
“Seven hungry souls, Mama. Need me to pick up anything? Okay, let me know if you change your mind. Love you, too.”
I forced my gaze to the camera display, uncertain how I felt about Walker deciding for me. Not like his decision was binding. I could still head back to my mostly unfurnished apartment and eat a bowl of cereal while standing over the sink.
“Alright,” Sutton said, his gaze leaving the tablet as the drone came into view over the treetops and he could pilot without the camera. “Just need to get this landed and packed up.”
“Can I power this down?” Siobhan asked, jiggling the tablet at him.
Sutton nodded. She returned the device to her backpack.
“That’s a pretty cool toy,” she said.
“Don’t need a certification from the Federal Aviation Administration to pilot toys,” Sutton scowled. “You could have walked around for a week and never spotted those packs. Toys don’t keep you from wasting time.”
Siobhan blew a raspberry at her cousin then climbed onto the back of Walker’s ATV.
“It’ll be even handier when my thermal camera comes in.”
“Good for search and rescue,” Madigan agreed, returning to her ATV. “Too loud for surveillance.”
Catching my gaze, she nodded at the driver seat.
“Trade positions?”
“Sounds good.” I swung my left leg over the seat and pulled the helmet on just as the drone landed.
Walker carried the craft to Sutton. Once Sutton had it strapped in, all the drivers started their engines and rode back to the trailer and vehicles. After Madigan jumped off the back of the ATV, Walker guided me into driving it up the ramp. Together, we lashed the four-wheeler in place and put the trailer’s gate up.
“I figured you would want to get the image downloads from Sutton before you contacted your boss…might as well get some food in you at the same time.”
Vibrating right along with the low rumble of his voice, I wondered if that really was the sum total of Walker’s reasoning. Was I projecting feelings I would rather not have onto him?
My body certainly responded every time we were close. Nipples peaked beneath my bra. My thighs warmed, a persistent throb building between them.
“Don’t know if you planned on heading back to Billings,” he continued, his voice dropping low enough to circle my hips. “But Mama said you’re welcome to stay. There’s a washing machine and dryer right off the kitchen. Plenty of toiletries.”
I didn’t answer right away even though staying would shave off three hours of driving between returning to Billings for the night and returning to the park in the morning. Not to mention, once I was home, I would have to stay up to deal with my uniform.
“Plenty of ice packs, too,” he added with a discreet glance at my leg.
I pulled out the keys to the Jeep and gave them a twirl. The last thing my career needed was romantic gossip swirling around me. I had grown up i
n a big city, but I knew well enough how small towns worked. A guy like Walker would be one of Willow Gap’s most eligible bachelors. Until he married some lucky woman, rumors would spring up whenever he seemed too friendly with a female, especially a chunky federal agent.
“No need to decide out here,” he said, waving goodbye to Emerson and Madigan as they headed toward the main house in their government sedan.
“Right,” I agreed with a grateful smile. “I can’t promise anything until I talk with Moske.”
7
Walker
Standing in the hall outside my older brother’s office, I tried not to eavesdrop on Ashley’s conversation with her supervisor. With the door closed, I shouldn’t have been able to hear anything, but the conversation appeared to be heated.
After the phone slammed down, I slowly counted to ten then knocked.
“Come in,” she growled.
I opened the door to find her cheeks flushed, a soft glow of perspiration telling me she was more than a little hot under the collar after her conversation with Phil Moske.
Just like everything else about Ashley Callahan, even her sweat was sexy. I just wished I was the one making her shine like that, the beautiful face glowing as I speared into her with my cock or my tongue.
“Sorry if I just snapped,” she said, a tremor running through her shoulders. “Moske won’t let me go out at first light—says he’ll coordinate with the rangers about going in with me and I don’t get any other service agents yet.”
Slamming the lid on her laptop, she shook her head.
“And the lab didn’t come up with anything from the samples I took at the fox den. I need to take the carcass to Billings.”
I nodded. “No harm getting something to eat before you go, right?”
She looked at me, the gray gaze sharpening for a second before she took a deep breath and practically drooled on Adler’s desk.
“It really smelled good…great, actually. I swear I can still smell it.”
I tilted my head toward the hall. “I’ll show you the shortcut.”
Grinning, Ashley stood and shoved her laptop in its case. I moved toward the door as she took her first step away from the office chair.
“Whoa,” I shouted, seeing all the color drain from her face.
Without a word, Ashley started to fold. I jumped forward, catching her under the arms and lifting. I turned to deposit her on the couch. She cried out as I twisted.
“What should I do?” I asked, worried that the next move would hurt her even more.
“Just give me a second,” she wheezed, her arms wrapped around my neck and her weight fully shifted to her right leg.
Hyperventilating, her chest pushed a hard, fast rhythm against mine. My hands pressed at her back, one low down, the other centered between her shoulder blades to help her stay balanced on the one leg.
“You can’t drive to Billings tonight,” I warned. “You need that leg seen to.”
She shook her head. “Moske was adamant and I’ve only been working with him a couple of months. If I say I can’t because of my leg, I’ll be riding a desk until a medical review clears me—or kicks me out of the service.”
“Fine,” I snorted. “But first I’m getting you over to the couch and fetching you some food and a fresh ice pack. Can you move?”
I hoped to high heaven she could. Holding her like I was produced uncomfortable effects. I was breathing almost as fast as Ashley and my heart wanted to rip through my chest. It wasn’t the strain of holding her up. I had a man’s muscles, not some metrosexual’s. It was worry twisting me up inside.
“Yes.” Gripping my shoulder with one hand and the back of a visitor’s chair with the other, Ashley made it to the love seat against the wall and sat down. She looked up at me, eyes shimmering with pain. “Thank you.”
A small grin began to crack at the edge of her mouth.
“You know, I thought you were a bit of a jerk at first…when you almost dropped a tree on me.”
I smiled back. “It was a less-than-auspicious first meeting.”
“I’ll say.”
When she looked at me like that, her face lighting up as humor pushed the pain into the background, I wanted to pull her hair down, knot my fingers in it and kiss her until she said to hell with getting back to Billings and stayed with me.
Instead, I took a rough swallow and nodded at the hall.
“Back in three minutes…three-point-five if I have to fight Siobhan for any fish or cornbread.”
Eager to get back to Ashley, I left the room in quick, long strides. Having an idea as I grabbed a plate in the kitchen and began to load it up with food, I pulled out my phone and typed in a quick text message. I hit send, grabbed a drink and an ice pack and made my excuses to the rest of the day’s riders and Mama.
“Here,” I said, returning to the office and pulling a side table over to the love seat.
Ashley glanced at her watch. “Looks like Siobhan was amenable because that was two minutes and fifty-two seconds.”
I waited until she took her first bite and needed to chew it.
“I had an idea, so hear me out.”
The smoky gray gaze darkened with suspicion, but she nodded.
“I know I can’t drive your Jeep.”
She rolled her eyes in confirmation.
“But you really can’t either, it’s a stick shift and it’s not safe for you or anyone you pass on the road.”
Closing her eyes, she nodded again. It had come up that Mama was a widow, which led to talk of the wreck that had taken my father and sister’s life. I appreciated how Ashley had the innate decency not to argue with me on whether it was safe for her to drive.
“But I figure,” I continued. “that it’s okay to put the Jeep up on a hauler. I’ll drive you, the fox and your vehicle to Billings tonight.”
Ashley swallowed as I finished. The food must have gone down wrong because she started to cough. She took a sip of lemonade, but that didn’t help. Perching on the arm of the love seat, I patted her on the back until the harsh barking ceased.
My hand lingered in case the coughing fit wasn’t over. Fingers resting lightly near the base of her neck, my palm soaked up the heat that poured from the small depression between Ashley’s shoulder blades.
She put the food and drink aside, the muscles around her eyes stretching her gaze wide as she looked up at me, her lush bottom lip beginning to tremble.
“Why?” she rasped.
Forcing a sudden lump back down my throat, I shrugged. “Because I almost dropped a tree on you.”
Ashley shook her head. She wasn’t buying my lie. Maybe it was time to tell her the truth.
Or at least show it to her.
Wrapping one hand along the curve of Ashley’s jaw, I sighed and lowered my mouth to hers. I didn’t know which scared me more—the idea that Ashley might take offense or that she would kiss me back.
She kissed me back.
She really, really kissed me back, her fingers curling around the front of my shirt and pulling me onto the love seat, my body crammed into the space between her and the armrest because she couldn’t move with her injured leg.
Ashley returned the kiss with her lips parting and her head tilting back, her warm fingertips skimming up to trace the sensitive flesh of my Adam’s apple before they threaded and locked behind my neck. She kissed me with her chest taking up a new rhythm of short, desperate breaths that molded our bodies closer together each time she inhaled.
Regaining control, I bit softly at her lip before moving to her chin. I murmured sweet nothings in the shape of faint coos from the back of my throat.
Slowly, the heat and urgency faded. I didn’t want it to fade, but it had to. There wasn’t anything we could do then and there, Ashley’s leg injured and us sitting on my brother’s couch, two doors down from where my niece had her playroom.
“I guess we have that figured out,” I whispered against her neck.
She laughed, the sound l
ow but a little harsh. “Really? Because I’m more confused than ever.”
“You know I want you,” I answered.
“Do I?”
There were ways to show her, but they were crass for how little time had passed since we first met. I could take one of her elegant hands and press it to the front panel of my jeans, let her outline the proof of just how hard she made me. I could test her in return, slip my hand down her slacks, find the gusset of her panties, sluice my fingers through the wet need that had poured from her at our kiss.
Both options played in my mind, my cock swelling to the point of pain.
“Ash,” I rasped, pressing a gentle kiss at the corner of her jaw. “I’m not stopping because I want to. You’re hurting and you’ve got to be bordering on exhaustion. When we kiss like that again, I want to know you’ve got a clear head. I want us to be where we can act on our passion.”
She squirmed but didn’t pull away.
“You telling me you’re clearheaded right now?”
I chuckled. She had a point. The way my body was responding, my hormones had to be in a riot. I could barely see straight, my head all dizzied up from kissing her.
“The only thing I’m clearheaded on,” I answered, “is that I want to do everything right with you. That means getting you safely back to Billings and your leg mended enough you don’t want to pass out the next time you put weight on it.”
Sighing, she buried her face against my chest and agreed to the plan.
8
Ashley
Sitting in the back seat of a quad cab truck outside my apartment, I watched as Walker backed the Jeep into a parking space. The anxious buzz swarming inside my head from the moment the vehicle was loaded onto a hauler at the ranch finally receded, then vanished completely as my gaze lingered over his long, supple frame unfolding from the Jeep. Moving toward the truck, he passed beneath the security lights, looking dangerous with the collar on his jacket flipped up against the wind, the shadows deepening the strong lines of his face.
Remembering how I had kissed him at the ranch, my cheeks grew hot and sore as I fought down a schoolgirl’s grin.