He waited for the rush of guilt, the inevitable comparison between the way Rachel fit so perfectly against him and the way he’d had to contort his six-feet-plus to accommodate Ellen’s slighter build.
The guilt didn’t come. Nor did much more than a fleeting thought of his wife linger in his mind.
Instead, an unaccustomed sense of ease seeped through him, as though someone had lightened a burden he’d carried for longer than he could remember. Despite the remnants of the anger he still nursed against Rachel, it felt right to hold her in the quiet of the dawn, with the cold mists rising from the warm earth beneath them, and listen to the rhythm of her soft, snuffling breath. Or it did until she gave a jerky spasm, raised her head, and blinked at him owlishly.
“Whatimeizit?”
“Early. Go back to sleep.”
“Uhnnh.”
Fighting an arm free of the zippered bag, she threw it across his chest and dropped back down. She was asleep before her head hit his shoulder.
Jake stiffened. Holding a sleepy, pliant Rachel curved against his side was one thing. Holding her half sprawled across his chest was something else. One by one his muscles coiled. Sweat started to pool at the base of his spine. He considered yanking down the zipper of his sleeping bag to let the chilly dawn hose him down, but Rachel’s left breast was planted right over the damned pull.
By the time he heard Marsh start to stir, Jake was hard and hurting all over again. With a grunt that was half regret and half relief, he eased Rachel off his chest and onto her back. It took some doing to tuck her arm back inside her sleeping bag. She wasn’t exactly a restful sleeper.
“Got her all zipped up again?”
He glanced over and found Marsh watching the proceedings with undisguised interest. The beginnings of a grin creased his brother’s unshaven cheeks as he untangled himself from his own bedroll and joined Jake at the iced-over stream.
“I see you followed my advice and cut the lady some slack.”
“Maybe.” Jake rapped his knuckles on the thin ice to break it. “And maybe she just got cold.”
“Yeah, right. You sure you want me to take her and Shad back down the mountain this morning? I’ll be happy to hang around here and keep an eye on our friend Taggart while you warm Ms. Quinn up a little more.”
“I’ll stay. I’m the one who led Taggart here. I’ll see this thing through.”
Jake stuck to that intention through most of the morning.
As promised, he and Marsh pried boards off the cabin walls to construct a rough coffin. Buck Silverthorne helped, as did Russ Taggart. Jake might have appreciated the FBI agent’s willingness to pitch in if he didn’t suspect Taggart was merely continuing his search by tearing apart the cabin.
While the men worked, Rachel helped Shad sort through his cousin’s personal possessions. They found pitifully few. A tattered bible. Three plaid shirts, worn jeans and long johns. A bulky winter parka of greased elk hide with the hair side sewn in. A shoebox containing a jumble of fishing tackle, matches, a broken jackknife and a military medal in the shape of a silver star.
The medal’s frayed, blue-and-white ribbon fluttered in the breeze when Shad carried it to the grave Marsh and Jake had dug on a high slope. The site provided an unobstructed view of the surrounding mountains.
“Isaac got this in Korea,” he told the small group that assembled for the burial. “For gallantry in action.”
When Jake placed it atop the makeshift coffin, Shad dragged off his hat. The wind played with his sparse gray hair as he offered a simple eulogy.
“Here lies Isaac McCoy. He was a good man, if a mite confused in his last years. Take care of him, Lord.”
After a short, respectful silence, Taggart and Buck Silverthorne drifted away. Rachel paused to lay a clump of feathery, late-blooming purple blazing star beside the military medal. Then she, too, left the men of the Bar-H to finish taking care of their own.
Jake clamped a hand on Shad’s thin, stooped shoulder. He didn’t like the thought that the foreman was older than his cousin and just as likely to go at any time.
“We’ll come back up with a proper marker.”
“Isaac doesn’t need a stone. He’s got his mountains. You boys finish up here. I’ll go pack the rest of his gear.”
Retrieving his spade, Jake went to work. Marsh soon joined him. They shoveled the mounded dirt in the sure, smooth rhythm of men well used to working together. With the sun beating down and the squirrels chattering from the branches, Jake couldn’t help but remember another graveside service.
“You okay?”
He looked up, read the sympathy and concern in his brother’s eyes.
“Yeah,” he answered slowly. “I’m okay.”
He was okay, Jake realized. The past didn’t eat at his soul the way it usually did. The hurt would always be there, just under his ribs, but memories of Ellen now brought more pleasure than pain.
Much of that he owed to Rachel, Jake admitted grudgingly. Although he wasn’t quite sure what had killed the anger she’d fired in him by her deception, it had pretty much run its course.
Pretty much. Enough still lingered to make him eye her warily when she approached him while he was helping load the last of the gear on the ATVs.
“I need to talk to you.”
“I’m listening.”
“Not here.”
With a glance at the others, she led the way into the trees. Dried pine needles crunched underfoot. Overhead, the breeze sighed through the high branches. When they were far enough away to ensure privacy, she stopped and turned.
“Is there a copper mine anywhere around here?”
Of all the questions Jake might have expected from her, that wasn’t one of them.
“Over on the next ridge,” he answered. “It was abandoned years ago, after the copper played out. Why?”
“Is the mine on Bar-H property?”
“Yes.”
“Damn! I was afraid of that.”
“What’s the problem here? The mine’s on our land, but Big John sold the mineral rights to the Arizona Mining Company before I was born.”
She chewed on her lower lip for several moments before seeming to reach a decision. “Give me your hand.”
Wondering what the hell this was all about, Jake complied. Her fingers closed over his wrist and turned his hand palm up. She held up a tight-clenched fist and opened her fingers, one by one. A shower of small, mud-covered pebbles dropped into his hand.
“Take a look.”
He raised his hand, trying to catch the spare sunlight that filtered through the pines. “It might help if you tell me what I’m looking for.”
With a cluck of impatience, she stepped closer. Her breath warmed his skin as she tilted his hand this way and that. “There. See that sheen?”
It took him a moment to spot the dull green patina showing through the mud on several of the pebbles. Although he’d never been personally involved in any of the mining operations scattered across Arizona, Jake recognized it immediately.
“Looks like copper ore.”
“It is. A high-grade sulfide ore, to be exact.”
Curiosity had him slanting her a quick look. “You know about copper mining?”
“I know very little about mining, but I do know materials. That’s my specialty, remember? I recognized these samples the minute I found them.”
“Okay, I’ll bite. Where did you find them?”
“They were stuck in the mud caked in the grooves of Grizzly’s boots.”
His fingers closed over the nuggets. He had a guess where this was going, but asked anyway. “What are you thinking, Rachel?”
“I’m thinking that an abandoned mine might be a great place to hide a stash of money.”
Jake considered that in silence. She waited impatiently for his reaction. When it didn’t come, she shoved her fingers through her hair and raked the dark fall back from her face.
“Okay, I’m reaching here, but an abandoned mine is a
s good a place to start looking as any other. Can you find your way to it?”
“I know the way,” he answered slowly, searching her face. “What I don’t know is why you’ve come to me with your discovery instead of Russ Taggart.”
She looked away. Her sable lashes fanned her cheeks. Jake was so close he saw the gold tipping their ends…and the sincerity in her hazel eyes when she raised them to his again.
“I owe you, Jake. I got you into this mess. I want to help get you out. If I tell Taggart about these nuggets, he’ll send his whole team swarming through the mine. He might even put you at the head of his suspect list again, since it’s on Bar-H property.”
Jake figured there wasn’t much “might” about it. “It’s a long shot to think the money could be there,” Rachel said intently. “But if it is, we’ll find it, report its location to Taggart and his team, and be done with the whole, blasted business.”
“Forty million dollars is a hell of a stash. What if I decide I want to keep a million or two?”
“You won’t.”
“You sure about that?”
“I’m sure.”
The flat assertion went a long way to making up for the past few days, but Jake couldn’t resist digging the needle in one more time.
“You’ve already turned me in to the FBI once. Why are you so willing to trust me now?”
“I told you why yesterday morning, but you were too ticked off at the time to listen. I’m going with my gut where you’re concerned, Henderson.”
It was hardly a soft, passionate promise of love or devotion, but it started a heat just below Jake’s belt. She was right. He’d allowed his anger over her seeming betrayal to get him all wrapped around the fence pole. He should have gone with his gut, as she did.
If he hadn’t stepped on it too badly, maybe he still could. Dropping the ore nuggets into his pocket, Jake reached out and tunneled a hand through the hair lying thick and heavy on the back of her neck.
“If you’re prepared to follow your instincts, Quinn, I guess I can do the same.”
Surprise and a hint of wariness flashed in her eyes. Splaying a hand against his chest, she tossed his words back at him.
“Are you sure about this, Jake?”
“I’m sure.”
“Why?” Still suspicious, she held him off. “What caused the change of heart?”
“I did a lot of thinking last night. And this morning, when I woke up to find you’d burrowed up against me.”
“I burrowed?”
“You did.”
“Hmm. I can’t believe I slept right through it.”
He suspected she could sleep through a hurricane but this wasn’t the time to tell her so.
“What conclusion did you reach after all this thinking?” she asked.
He thought of all the answers he could give to that one and pared them down to the only one that mattered.
“Holding you felt good, Rachel. Good, and right.”
She drew in a slow breath, held it for several moments. Then her lips curved into a smile that sent his stomach into a roll.
“Next time I cuddle up to you, cowboy, I’ll make sure I’m awake.”
A tightness he hadn’t realized was banding his chest slipped a notch or two. Jake felt a grin start easy and spread slow.
“Next time we cuddle, sweetheart, I’ll make sure you stay awake. For the first few hours, anyway.”
Laughing at the cocky promise, she rose up on her toes, looped her arms around his neck, and claimed the kiss he was aching to give her.
Lord, she tasted fine! Clean and scrubbed from the icy water she’d bathed with this morning. Sun-shiny and warm from standing in the dappled sunlight. The hunger Jake had beaten into submission in the early hours of the dawn clawed at him again. Only the thought that he’d have her alone for at least a day and another night while they chased down the source of the copper ore kept Jake from dragging her down to the springy, pine-carpeted forest floor.
The irony of the situation didn’t escape him. He’d resisted the same savage urge at Three Rock Canyon in the noble belief that Rachel deserved better than bawling cows and rocks under her back. Now, she’d be lucky if they made it a mile or more from Grizzly’s cabin before he claimed the gift she was offering in every eager move of her mouth under his. Before he could claim anything, though, he had to cut loose from Russ Taggart.
The cutting proved difficult. The FBI agent’s eyes narrowed when Jake told him he intended to leave with Marsh and Shad after all.
“Why? I thought you wanted to keep an eye on things here.”
“I’ve decided I’ve got better things to do.”
“You know these mountains, Henderson. We could use your help tracking Grizzly’s pet.”
“Buck’s one of the best trackers in the county. With him on your team, you don’t need me.” Securing his bedroll atop the ATV’s carrier, Jake threw the agent a bone. “Marsh or I or one of my other brothers will guide the rest of your people up here when they assemble in Flagstaff. When does your team get in?”
“They’ll be arriving at various times today. One of my men will contact me when they’re ready to roll.”
Taggart apparently didn’t like the sudden change in plans. At all. Shifting his attention to the woman at Jake’s side, he laid it on with a heavy hand.
“How about you, Rachel? You’ve been part of this investigation from the beginning. Don’t you want to stay to see it through?”
“You know I do. But I came to Flagstaff to take care of my aunt, remember? If I’m going to be away from her for any length of time, I need to make arrangements for someone to stay with her.”
As excuses went, it was pretty weak. She could have entrusted the task of looking after Alice to Jake or Marsh or anyone else at the Bar-H.
“I’ll see you tomorrow or the day after,” she promised Taggart. “As soon as I get done what needs doing.”
They traveled for a good twenty minutes. Jake waited until he was sure the echoes from the ATVs wouldn’t carry back to the men above them before he slowed to a stop. Killing the engine, he swung off and walked back to the other two men.
“This is where we part company.”
Marsh eyed him speculatively. “Going to do a little hunting on your own, bro?”
“Prospecting.”
“Come again?”
Succinctly, Jake recounted Rachel’s discovery of the copper sulfide nuggets in the grooves of Grizzly’s boots.
“She thinks he might have stashed the money in the abandoned copper mine on the next ridge.”
Marsh and Shad treated her to identical looks of skepticism.
“I know, I know. It’s a long shot. I just want to check it out.”
“So this is what you meant when you told your friend you had things that needed doing?”
Rachel lifted a shoulder. The fact that she’d “filtered” the truth again didn’t appear to worry her unduly.
“Taggart’s gonna bust a gut when he finds out you two went lookin’ for his precious money on your own,” Shad predicted.
“Not if we find it.”
“That’s a mighty big ‘if,’ missy.”
“I know.”
Tipping his hat over the bridge of his nose, the foreman scratched his head. “I’m thinking maybe we should ride along with you two.”
Jake shook his head. Shad’s glance drifted from him to Rachel and back again.
“Then again,” he mused, “maybe not.”
Swinging off his vehicle, Marsh unstrapped the extra fuel containers. “Odds are you’re going off on a wild-goose chase, but we’ll leave you our extra fuel and the food we packed in with us. Just in case you get lucky,” he added with a bland look at his brother.
“Will you check on Alice for me when you get down?” Rachel asked after he’d transferred the fuel container, a dented coffeepot and a few cans. “Tell her I’m with Jake.”
“Sure thing.” Revving his ATV, the DEA agent offered a final
piece of advice. “Forty million dollars is a good-sized chunk of change. Watch yourselves.”
In her heart of hearts, Rachel suspected Marsh was right. The odds were they were off on a long, wild-goose chase. Yet a heady sense of adventure bubbled in her veins as she maneuvered her vehicle behind Jake’s.
Adventure, and a wild, pulsing excitement. The last time she’d ridden off alone with this man, she’d done her darnedest to get him naked. This time, she had every intention of finishing the job. Her pulse accelerated each time she opened the throttles and fluttered with impatience whenever she slowed for a rough patch.
There were plenty of those. They had to cut down a steep slope, then back up before they reached the rim of the bluff. The pines thinned toward the top, their roots fighting for a hold in the striated rock. They navigated the bluff for three or four miles, then cut down another, almost perpendicular slope. At the bottom, they picked up a narrow dirt road that followed the course of a bubbling mountain stream.
Jake slowed, idling his ATV’s engine while he waited for Rachel to pull alongside him. “This road leads up to the copper mine.”
“How far is it?”
“Another five, six miles. We could make it before dark if we pushed. Or we could camp here.”
Rachel rolled her head to ease her knotted neck muscles. “Five or six miles, huh?”
“I vote we camp here.” A gleam came into his blue eyes. “I don’t want to take a chance on tiring you completely out.”
Hot, sweet anticipation flooded her veins and put a thread of throaty laughter in her reply.
“Neither do I.”
Chapter 11
If Rachel was ever offered a vote on the matter, she would definitely opt for making slow, delicious love beside a bubbling mountain stream instead of a fast, furious tussle at the bottom of a rocky canyon.
When it came right down to it, she couldn’t have imagined a more perfect setting. The sky glowing with the first, faint streaks of red. The sun sinking slowly and striking fiery sparks off the snow on the peaks. Air so clean and sharp it seared her lungs. And Jake…
Twice in a Lifetime Page 11