by Terri Reed
“Nicely done,” he commented wryly.
She smiled. “You’re not the only one who can make things happen when they want.” She walked past him to scoop up Sasha. “I’ll put him in with his mother and meet you at the car.”
Hunter had no choice but to follow and was broadsided by the realization he would follow her anywhere.
FIFTEEN
At the Family K Reindeer Sanctuary Ranch, Hunter barely brought the SUV to a halt before Ariel climbed out and strode over the graveled drive toward the front porch of the red-cedar-sided house. Her knock was answered by Addie Kapowski, a tall and imposing woman with short graying brown hair. The older woman drew Ariel in for a quick hug.
Hunter released Juneau from his compartment just as Poppy Walsh arrived. He waited for Poppy and Stormy to join him.
“She has you on a short leash,” Poppy commented with a cheeky grin.
He made a face. “Ha ha.”
“In all seriousness, Hunter,” Poppy said, “we like her.”
Hunter’s breath caught in his chest, and he shielded his eyes from the winter sun to stare at Poppy. “We?”
“Me, Maya and Helena. Ariel would be good for you.”
Though he was glad to know his coworkers approved of Ariel, he needed to set Poppy straight. “There is nothing going on between me and Ariel.”
“If you say so.” She started walking. “Let’s talk to Addie and find her reindeer.”
Shaking his head, he grabbed an extra lead from the SUV and strode after his coworker, not liking the way Poppy’s comments dug at him. Was he allowing his fondness for Ariel to show? Was he letting his attachment to her cloud his judgment? Was he making a fool of himself like his father had?
Irritated by his own musings, he stopped next to Ariel and Addie on the porch and introduced himself and Poppy.
“Thank you for coming,” Addie said. “I’ve been beside myself. Katie said she’d send help. I hated burdening her with this, but I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Poppy asked.
“Someone let the reindeer loose from the pasture pen where we’d kept them overnight. They are supposed to get their inoculations today,” Addie said. “Took a long time, but we managed to corral them into the pen again, but there are still two missing. We can’t find either of them. It’s been several hours, and I’m worried about poachers.”
“Could the gate have been accidentally left unlatched?” Hunter asked.
Addie shook her head. “No. It’s a complicated latched system. It must have been deliberately undone by someone who knew the reindeer would be penned up. I fear that one of my ranch hands may have done it.”
“Why would you say that?” Ariel asked.
“I had to cut their pay this past winter,” Addie explained. She raised a defiant chin. “Times are tough right now. Donations for rescuing injured, orphaned and abused domesticated reindeer have diminished and I’m barely keeping things afloat. And—” she shrugged “—I admit to being short-tempered of late. Gary got the ATV stuck in the mud by the river, which took time and money to get unstuck and I caught Blaze helping himself to my petty cash.”
“We’ll need to speak to Gary and Blaze,” Hunter said. “But first we’ll see if we can track down your missing reindeer.”
“Do you have anything with the scent of the reindeer on it that we could use for the dogs to sniff out?” Poppy asked.
“Of course. This way.” She led them to the reindeer pen.
Hunter kept a casual distance from Ariel but was ready to steady her if she needed. He still wasn’t convinced her ankle was completely healed. In fact, he’d seen her slight wince a couple of times when she stepped on the injured foot.
Nearby was a barn where Addie retrieved two leather harnesses. “These belong to the two missing reindeer.”
Hunter turned to Ariel. “You and Addie go into the house until we return.”
Ariel nodded with a resigned yet understanding smile. “Of course.” She threaded her arm through the older woman’s. “Let me tell you what’s been happening in my life...”
The two women headed back to the house. Hunter kept his gaze on Ariel. He didn’t like leaving her unattended. But he was relatively certain she was safe here. He’d been on the lookout for anyone following them from her place and hadn’t detected a tail.
Poppy nudged Hunter with her elbow. “Dude, you’ve got it bad.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He turned his attention to Juneau rather than let Poppy see the truth on his face. He did have it bad and had no idea what to do about it.
Hunter held the harnesses out for the dogs to sniff.
“Find,” Hunter instructed Juneau. The dog lifted his snout to the air, then put it to the ground and took off.
Poppy gave her command to Stormy, as well. The Irish wolfhound let out a bark and raced after Juneau.
“Here we go.” Hunter slung the harnesses over his shoulder and hustled alongside Poppy to trail the dogs’ paw prints.
They passed a large fenced corral with over twenty horned reindeer milling about, their velvet noses snuffling beneath the snow for vegetation.
In the distance, the sound of the Frontier River drifted on the slight afternoon breeze. Hunter hadn’t realized how close the sanctuary was to the multiforked body of water.
The dogs ran down a snow-covered dirt access road and disappeared into the forest surrounding the reindeer sanctuary.
“Look at these.” Poppy pointed to tracks in the snow where the access road crossed the property boundary. “Snowshoe prints. And these deep grooves are from the reindeer.”
“Not an accident,” Hunter remarked. A human wearing snowshoes had released the reindeer. He put a hand on the grip of his sidearm. “Poachers?”
“Could be.” Poppy’s tone held a grim note.
He was sure she’d seen some horrible treatment of animals as a wildlife trooper in the Kenai Fjord National Park before coming to the K-9 Unit.
Up ahead the dogs barked. Something crashed through the underbrush and trees, coming toward Hunter and Poppy. Man or beast? Hunter braced himself.
A huge reindeer sporting tall antlers rushed at them.
Hunter waved his arms. “Whoa, there, fella.”
Poppy mirrored Hunter. The beast skidded to a halt, hot puffs of air coming from his snout, his dark eyes watching them warily as his feet pawed at the ground.
“Easy, boy.” He slipped one of the harnesses from his shoulder and cautiously approached the animal. “We don’t want to hurt you.”
Poppy held out an apple. “Here’s a good boy.”
The treat seemed to do the trick. The reindeer snuffled her hand and sank his teeth into the apple. While the reindeer was busy chewing, Hunter managed to get the harness slipped over his head and attach the extra lead. He anchored the lead to a nearby tree.
“Good job with the apple,” he commented to Poppy.
“I’ve got carrots, too,” she said. “Grabbed them from the barn.” She let out a whistle and Stormy came running.
Hunter called out to Juneau. The dog barked in response and raced to his side.
“Let’s keep following the snowshoe tracks,” Hunter suggested as he leashed up Juneau. “We should keep the dogs close to be safe.”
Poppy agreed. They followed the snowshoe tracks to a clearing and a road where there were obvious tire tracks along with reindeer prints that ended where a vehicle was clearly parked.
“It appears as if someone had been intent on taking the two reindeer away but only managed to load up one reindeer,” Hunter stated. “We better call this in.”
As they collected the reindeer and headed back to the ranch, Poppy used her cell phone to inform the colonel of this development. Lorenza promised to send out a crime scene unit and the Met
ro police to see if they could trace the tire tracks.
Addie was beside herself when they returned with one of the reindeer in tow.
“I can’t tell you how grateful I am,” Addie said. “Each reindeer is special. I just hope whoever took my reindeer doesn’t destroy him.”
“I’m sure the K-9 Unit and the Metro police will do everything they can to find him,” Ariel assured her.
Hunter appreciated Ariel’s confidence.
Addie patted Ariel’s hand. “After hearing what you’ve been going through and how well this young man has been taking care of you, I trust you are correct.”
Hunter stared at Ariel. What had she told the older woman?
Poppy made a noise suspiciously like a covered laugh. Hunter slanted her a glance, to which she raised her eyebrows, the picture of innocence.
“I hate leaving you here alone,” Ariel said. “Maybe I should stay with you.”
“I’ll stay until Katie can arrive,” Poppy offered.
With that settled, Hunter escorted Ariel and Juneau back to the SUV.
“She’s a widow, you know,” Ariel said as he pulled away from the sanctuary. “She and her husband never had children. Katie is her only relative.”
The melancholy note in her tone had Hunter’s chest tightening. “It was very kind of you to stay with her while we searched for her reindeer.”
Ariel unzipped her jacket. “It was the right thing to do.”
“Yes, it was,” he agreed. He’d half expected Ariel to insist on searching for the reindeer. His respect and admiration for this woman ratcheted up even more, which made his next words tough to say. “I need to take Violet’s letter into headquarters.”
Her shoulders drooped and she turned away from him. “Do whatever you have to.”
* * *
That night after a lasagna dinner, Ariel headed to the kennel building with Hunter and Juneau tagging along. She fed the dogs and turned them out to the exercise yard so she could clean their kennels. Once she and Hunter removed all the beds, toys and dishes, she unwound the water hose to wash down each kennel. They worked well together. Ariel tried not to ruminate on how much she would miss Hunter and Juneau when the time came for them to resume their own lives.
“Let me do that,” Hunter said, taking the hose from her hands.
Thankful for his help, she relinquished the hose and moved to grab a large duffel bag from a cupboard. She filled it with the items the dogs would need for the race tomorrow. Ariel had already had Trevor load the sled onto the back of her truck while she and Hunter were at Addie’s today. She’d hitch the dog trailer to the truck in the morning.
Hunter turned off the hose and wound it back up. “What are you doing?”
“Prepping for tomorrow.” She zipped up the bag. “We’ll need to get an early start. I want to be at the race grounds to set up my station before it gets too crowded.”
Hunter took her hands in his. “Ariel, I’m sorry but there’s no way we can let you go to a race tomorrow. It’s too dangerous.”
She’d known this was going to be a battle. But she couldn’t afford to concede defeat. Sighing, she squeezed his hands. “Hunter, I know it will be dangerous. And I know that every time I step out of the house I could be at risk. But I can’t live my life ruled by fear.”
A pained expression crossed his handsome features. “Caution. You’d be living your life ruled by caution. It’s not the same thing.”
“I can be cautious. And you’ll be there to guarantee my safety just as you were at the banquet.” Needing him to understand how important competing in this race was, she said, “The way I make money is by competing in races that allow small teams, and by breeding dogs that are showcased at the races. If I hope to pay Trevor for all that he has been doing around here, I need to finish in the top four slots tomorrow, as well as advertise my next pairing. I also need to line up prospective mushers for my puppies.”
He remained silent for a long moment. “Let me run it by Colonel Gallo.”
Did he not trust himself to make the call? “I can speak to her. She seems reasonable.”
“She is,” Hunter said. “I trust her judgment.”
“And I trust yours,” she told him. She did trust this man. With her life. And she was beginning to realize she trusted him with her heart. But he wouldn’t want to hear that, not now, if ever. He’d made it clear that romance—love—wasn’t something he believed in. “Hunter, she put you in charge of protecting me. She obviously considers you the right person for the job. I do, too. You’ll protect me.”
He didn’t look convinced.
Frustrated with him, she said, “I’m going. You’re here because I allow it. I don’t have to accept your protection or your presence.” She put her hand on his chest. His heart beat beneath her palm, solid and strong. Like the man. “Please, don’t spoil this for me.”
Hunter’s gaze held hers, and his blue eyes glinted with an emotion that left her own heart racing.
He covered her hand with his. “What time are we leaving?”
* * *
Hunter could tell how excited Ariel was by the prospect of a race. Even the dogs seemed amped as they loaded them in the trailer, their energetic howls bouncing off the metal sides. Since Trevor was going to be coming with them to help Ariel with the dogs, Hunter decided to drive his own vehicle and followed them.
He didn’t explain to Ariel the reason he chose not to ride with her was to make sure that she arrived at the location without mishap. He liked seeing her happy. And he understood how important today was for her business.
Her words about not living her life in fear had struck him at the core.
Too many times he operated out of fear.
He sent up a prayer that Ariel’s confidence that nothing would happen today would be fulfilled.
The race venue was twenty miles north of Anchorage. She had explained that this was the last official fun run of the season. Afterward the snow would melt and training would be on dry land.
But thanks to the late spring snowfall, there was still enough of the white stuff on the ground for one last grand finale. She said it would be mostly mushers from the area since the majority of the Iditarod mushers and dogs had already returned to their homes all over the world.
Hunter parked his vehicle in the visitor parking lot, while Ariel drove her truck and trailer through the gate for competitors. He and Juneau hustled to catch up with them. He flashed his badge to the gatekeepers.
It was interesting to watch the way Trevor and Ariel got everything situated, hooking the dogs to the sled in a two-by-two formation. The dogs pranced in place and howled, but they didn’t pull against the harnesses, though Hunter could see the muscles rippling in each dog with the effort to keep from prematurely taking off. Ariel slipped a race number over her red down jacket. Once they were ready to take the pack and sled to the start line queue, Ariel handed the young man a stack of flyers.
Hunter caught a glimpse of one that showed a picture of a litter of puppies along with Ariel’s name and contact information.
“Make sure everyone gets one of these,” she told Trevor.
She turned to Hunter. “Can you walk behind the sled and just keep it steady as we make our way to the start line?”
He was happy to oblige. Thankfully, he’d worn his heavy boots, warm jacket and gloves. He pulled the beanie on his head a little lower over his ears and positioned himself behind the sled. Juneau stayed close, but far enough back not to agitate the sled dogs.
Ariel moved to the front of her line, where Dash and Phoenix were harnessed as the lead dogs. She spoke softly to the dogs and then walked ahead of them. Without hesitation the dogs followed. Meanwhile, Hunter kept a steadying grip on the back bar of the brightly painted yellow sled and walked between the runners, careful not to catch his foot on the ski-like flat boards that would gl
ide over the snow once the team started really pulling. She brought the dogs to a halt and lined up behind three other teams. Then she gave each dog a piece of salmon before joining Hunter at the back of the sled.
The howls of the multiple dogs filled the air along with a few barks by some of the various different breeds being used in the race.
The noise was nearly deafening. Ariel dug in her pocket and brought out two sets of foam earplugs. She handed a set to him and shouted, “It’ll make things easier.”
Nodding gratefully, he stuffed the little rubbery plugs in his ears, muting the cacophony of sound.
More racers lined up behind them. Hunter counted at least twenty-five teams. He’d never been involved in a race and could see why many enjoyed the adrenaline rush of seeing the dogs and mushers competing to get the best time on the course.
He caught a glimpse of a familiar face in the crowd standing behind the ropes and keeping the spectators from stepping into the path of the dogs.
Carly Winters.
Her gaze was trained on Ariel, and there was such malice in her expression that Hunter’s senses went on alert.
He gestured for Ariel to take out an ear plug just as he was doing. When she did, he said, “Is there a reason beyond just the competitive nature of breeders that Carly Winters would want to harm you?”
Ariel drew back with a frown. “No. As I told you, we’re not friends. I’ve only spoken to her when she has asked to buy one of my adult breeding dogs.”
Hunter’s cell phone vibrated against his chest. It was Helena, his teammate. He motioned to Ariel that he needed to take the call. She nodded. He jogged away from the noise as far as he could while still keeping Ariel in view and held the phone to his ear. “Helena, news?”
“Yes, we found Sandy. She’s been in Fairbanks visiting her sister.”
“Why didn’t Jason tell us where she was going?”
“Apparently it was her way of breaking up with him without having to face him. She decided that the night of the banquet he was still too hung up on Ariel. She left him the same night.”