“I like to know what’s going on around me. Is that a problem?” Cord thought she was asleep and she startled him when she spoke.
Sitting up, Stacey slid into her flannel shirt then stuffed her feet into her boots without tying the laces. “I have to take a walk if you’re through tramping around.” She shivered as she stood up. “It’s definitely chilly out here, tonight.”
“Don’t go far,” Cord ordered.
“And leave you all alone? Wouldn’t dream of it,” she quipped and bent to go under the low hanging branches. Out from under the protective limbs of the large fir, the night air felt even colder. She hoped the teenagers McConnell told her about were okay. Choosing a thick bush not too far from camp, Stacey checked a small area then pulled down her thermal bottoms. This was the part of her job she hated the most. It was so much easier for guys, as were a lot of things it seemed. Life wasn’t fair to females, but she usually found ways to enjoy it anyway.
CHAPTER 4
Walking back to camp, Stacey suddenly froze. She wasn’t alone. The sounds of rustling and crackling followed by quick short huffs meant only one thing—a bear. Probably the same one Cord mentioned, roamed nearer to their camp searching for food.
Stacey stood statue still and hoped the bear would wander past her location without noticing her. This was a situation she dealt with before. Though very respectful of the large animal, in particular its claws and teeth, she wasn’t overcome with terror.
If the bear came near enough to pick up her scent, it would probably avoid her. Stacey didn’t hear a cub or the motherly sounds a female made to a cub. If the bear decided to investigate her, she’d already picked out the tree she would climb.
She should be back by now. Cord sat up to listen for her. He finally heard noises from the direction she went, but they didn’t sound like Stacey. Pulling his nine-millimeter pistol from his backpack, he checked the clip and slid out of the blankets. Trotting quietly, he circled toward the noise. He heard a wheezing, coughing sound as he got closer then saw the large scruffy bear he avoided meeting face to face earlier.
The bear seemed fascinated by a particular mid-sized white pine. Standing on his hind legs and bouncing against the trunk of the tree, the bear growled and snorted. Howling with fury, it dropped to all fours, circled the tree completely then rose up to bounce on it with his front paws. After several repeats of the same behavior, Cord stared up into the tree to see what held the creature’s interest.
A small patch of white was visible in the branches and Cord knew he just found Stacey. “Parker, what are you doing up there?” Cord called. He hoped the sound of his voice would scare off the bear.
“I got tired of dancing but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. What does it look like I’m doing?” She hugged the tree tighter as the bear renewed his efforts to knock it down.
Cord knew she wasn’t injured by her mouthy response and carefully moved closer. “This is not my line of expertise. I usually fight guerillas. What would you recommend I do to get rid of him?” He tried, without success, to keep the amusement out of his voice.
“Creep up really close, jump out, and bite him on the butt. When he chases you, I can get down,” she sounded extremely peeved.
Chuckling out loud, Cord tried again. “Come on, Stacey. Tell me how to scare him off. I really want to help without shooting the blasted thing.”
“Yeah, you sound real serious. Find some rocks and pile them up near a tree you can climb if you have to. Throw them at him one after the other while you yell at him. It should panic him for at least a few minutes so I can get down.”
“How come he’s not running from us right now?”
“Would you just find the stupid rocks?” There was a pause and a squeak from her as the bear slammed against the tree. “He’s shaking my teeth out. I’ll give you a lesson on bears when I get down.”
“Okay, give me a minute.” Cord searched, mostly by feel, finding several good-sized stones. He piled them as directed at the base of a large pine.
When the bear finished his circle around Stacey’s tree and leaned up to bounce again, Cord threw the first rock. It hit the bear in the side. Cord yelled and threw several more. The astonished bear dropped to all four paws and ran in the other direction.
Scrambling quickly down the tree, Stacey dropped to the ground from the bottom limb. “Thanks,” she muttered, not sounding particularly grateful. Her curls were a wild tangle around her head filled with pine needles shaken loose during the tree’s battering.
Her anger only added to Cord’s amusement at the situation. He tried to hold back the laugh that threatened to escape and failed. “Did you—uh—take care of—?” He started asking but was cut off.
“Yes, I did. I’m glad you find this so amusing. Maybe we can sell tickets and do a show.” She walked funny while circling the tree, staring at the ground.
“What are you doing now?” Cord caught hold of her arm as she almost fell sideways.
“I’m hunting my other boot. I didn’t have them tied and it fell off,” Stacey jerked her arm away. “Stop laughing and help me look,” she almost added a few not-so-polite phrases, but restrained herself. She refused to give him something else to laugh at.
Cord finally located her boot and handed it to her. He watched as Stacey leaned against the trunk of the tree to pull it on. “Are you ready to go back to camp now or do you want to hunt another playmate?” he asked.
Stacey didn’t say a word. Instead she stomped off toward the large fir tree that sheltered their camp. He shouldn’t have antagonized her, but it was the most fun he’d had in a long time. Never would he forget the sight of her in her flannel shirt, white thermal undies, and wild strawberry curls shinnying down a tree.
He watched carefully as they returned to camp, hoping the disturbance didn’t alert anyone to their presence. Seeing nothing, Cord felt it was safe to go back to bed. They slid into their respective blankets and concentrated on getting warm. When Cord no longer heard her teeth chattering, he asked, “Why didn’t the bear leave when it knew I was there?”
Stacey almost told him to go ask the bear. Then good sense prevailed and she knew he needed to know in case they encountered more bears. “The bears are hungry. Most of them have been hibernating and are sort of grumpy this time of year. I probably would have been okay with an older bear. When it crossed downwind and smelled human it would have left. This one wasn’t old enough to know about us yet and was curious. Then when I climbed the tree, he chased me. He must have been trying to see if I might be good to eat. I think he would have gotten bored and left soon, but my boot fell off and hit him. He took it as a sign of aggression, I guess, and got mad. Once his adrenaline got to pumping, he wasn’t going anywhere for awhile.”
“You keep saying he. How do you know it was a male, or is that a general term you use for anything that gives you trouble?” Cord asked, hiding his smile in the blanket.
“A female that age would have a cub trailing her, most likely, and the situation would have been worse. You have to be very careful around them. They are extremely unpredictable when they think their babies are threatened. Even at that, most of the time, they want to avoid us as much as we want to avoid them. Just don’t ever get between a female and her cub.” Stacey got warm and yawned. “I think I’ll try to catch a few more winks before morning.” She removed her flannel shirt, turned onto her side, and stuffed the shirt under her head. A few minutes later her even breathing indicated she fell asleep.
Cord dozed lightly for an hour then made another patrol. Careful not to make any noise as he left, he slipped back in the same way fifteen minutes later after finding no signs of the bear or anything else out of place. Amazingly, Stacey didn’t let the incident with the bear keep her awake.
Every other woman he knew would have screamed like a banshee and cried for hours. Of course, he couldn’t picture most of the women he knew out here in the first place and they would never have made it up a tree. This girl was certainly o
ne of a kind. Thinking of her in the tree started him chuckling all over again.
At four-thirty Cord made another circuit. As he approached their tree this time he swore he smelled coffee. Wishful thinking, he shrugged. But when he ducked under the branches he saw Parker sipping from a tin cup. A small collapsible frame held a can of solid fuel. “I only have one cup, but you’re welcome to use it when I finish if you don’t have one,” she offered as he began to roll his blankets into a bedroll.
“Sounds good. I’m only packing power bars, some chocolate, and my canteen.”
“You have chocolate?” Her eyes grew wider and she looked hopeful.
Cord reached into his pack and pulled out a candy bar. Breaking off a piece for himself, he handed her the rest.
She drained her cup, filled it from her canteen then relit the can of fuel before placing the cup on the tiny metal frame that would hold it over the small flame. She took a single serving packet of coffee and tossed it to him.
“I hope you don’t mind it black and instant. It’s the best I can offer,” Stacey told him before biting into the chocolate. Closing her eyes she let the dark sweetness melt on her tongue.
“I’m just glad of any coffee. Is it always this cold in April?”
“Usually it’s colder—with snow. This is mild for us. Last winter we would have been in two feet or more, right now.” Stacey watched as he opened the packet and poured the instant coffee into the cup while the water was still heating. Cord folded the paper packet and used it to stir the liquid. “How old are those boys?” she wanted to know.
“Sixteen and fourteen.” Cord thought he saw a flicker of pain in her eyes, but she looked down and took another bite of the candy.
“Do you know their names?” She watched him blow out the small flame then use his sweatshirt sleeve as a potholder to keep from burning his fingers when he picked up the hot metal cup.
“Ricky and Don Prophet. They’ve both camped out since they were small. It should help them get through this.” Cord sipped the hot coffee as she got dressed under her blanket. She pulled on her boots and laced them up tightly. Birds were beginning to make a little noise and move around in the trees. It would be light enough for them to start soon.
Stacey rolled up her blankets and tied them onto the top of her pack. “I’ll be back,” she told him. She hoped the bear was long gone.
“Don’t bother the wildlife this time, Parker,” he reminded her.
Stacey ignored him and kept walking. When she returned she noticed Cord had capped the small fuel tin and put all her gear near her backpack, adding another candy bar as well. He was gone, so she packed up then laid an apple on top of his pack. She felt chilly in the brisk morning air, but would warm up quickly once they started hiking.
Stacey took out her hair pick and worked through the worst of the tangles, then pulled her hair back into a ponytail holder. After brushing her teeth with water from the canteen she felt much fresher. She remembered it was Sunday morning. Her parents would eat a late breakfast in Boise then return to the Lodge. Her mom would help at the desk and her dad would talk to their guests and check that everything went well during their absence. He loved his business.
“Is it light enough to start?” Cord asked as soon as he returned.
“We can try it.” Stacey reached for her pack.
Cord surprised her by raising it up for her as she slid her arms into the straps.
She quickly picked up the trail. It didn’t seem as winding or as concealed as yesterday and they were getting farther from the plane. When she came to a soft patch of ground, she knelt to study it closely. “They’re walking faster now and covering the trail less. One of them has an injured leg. Not bad, but enough to make him limp. I’m beginning to sort them out.” Stacey and Cord followed the trail steadily down the mountain and more to the north side. She occasionally back tracked, but the signs were much easier to read.
“Break time,” Cord called after two hours of steady hiking. The sun quickly warmed them and he didn’t want to risk dehydration. He knew her pack was heavy and she hiked rapidly when the trail wasn’t hidden.
Stacey slid off her pack, dug out a bag of trail mix, and unhooked her canteen. Dropping to the ground, she sat cross-legged and drank. After opening the trail mix she held it toward him.
He shook his head and drank deeply from his own canteen. “How far are we behind them?” Cord crouched near her without removing his pack.
“A day and a half, at least. We should be able to catch up by sundown tomorrow or Tuesday morning. If they don’t change their pattern again and we push hard.”
“How long before we’re off the mountain?”
“Mid-afternoon tomorrow. Then there are the foothills. The brush gets thicker, and we’ll have the swollen creeks and streams to cross. That’s where I may lose them. If they walk in the water I won’t be able to track them.”
“But it will slow them down, too. Any guess as to where they’re headed?”
“The only thing to the north besides more mountains is Lolo Pass. It’s the easiest way to hike into Montana. But that would take them deeper into the Bitterroot Range. I’m talking some rough country. It doesn’t look that bad on a map, but...” She shrugged and left it at that.
“Let’s move on.” Cord stood and helped Stacey with her pack again.
Just before noon, Stacey found where the other men spent Friday night. They slipped their packs off and she showed him the signs. The concealer had been at work once more, but he wasn’t as thorough. “The boys were here.” For the first time Stacey found signs of them.
“There are two different sizes of sneakers. Here and here,” she pointed to them for Cord. The prints were barely discernible impressions. There was the edge of one type of tennis shoe and nearby the toe of a different brand was faintly visible. “They cold-camped and took turns as guards or look-outs. Here’s where the one with the limp walked around the camp. I would say from the position of the camp, where they slept, and the way the guards were placed that at least one of them is ex-military.”
“That figures,” Cord agreed thoughtfully. “The whole robbery went down like a well planned maneuver. They just didn’t have a contingency for the crash.”
Stacey scoured the area for more signs as Cord watched closely. This woman intrigued him.
Finally satisfied that she could find nothing more, she joined him to sit down and eat lunch. Cord offered a power bar, but she preferred her own nutrition bars. When she offered him the trail mix bag this time he took a handful then ate the apple she left for him that morning.
“How long have you been doing this?” Cord asked as he watched her bite into an apple.
“I started going out with search and rescue teams while I was in my senior year of high school. After high school, eight years ago, I went for my final training. I’ve been doing it ever since. How long have you been doing this?” Stacey turned the question back on him.
Cord stopped to think. It seemed like forever. “I went into the Marines at seventeen. I was in eleven years. I spent five years guarding important bodies for another branch of our government and I’ve been self-employed for about five years.” He reclined against his pack and stretched out his legs. Why did he tell this girl anything about himself? It wasn’t like him, but for some reason he felt comfortable with her. Stacey made him laugh and she didn’t back down from him. Cord respected and admired that. As she turned her canteen up to take a drink, he noticed she needed to tilt her head all the way back. The line of her throat, the gentle bone-structure of her face, and her sassy upturned nose drew his eyes. He needed to force his attention back to the matters at hand.
“Here. Pour some of this into yours. Will it be long before we find more water?” Cord handed her his canteen, still over half-full.
“Shouldn’t be long. We’ll cross some streams later today. Don’t drink straight from the stream, though. I’ve got tablets to take care of any bugs.”
“There are some
in my pack, too, if we need them. You would think that out here, like this, the water would be pure.” He took his canteen and hooked it on his pack.
“It still is in places. But with acid rain, snow runoff, illegal dumping, and a greater number of tourists I’d rather not take the risk.” Stacey put the trail mix away and pushed to her feet.
“Ready?” Cord lifted her pack and she slipped her arms into the straps. He let his hands slide slowly down her arms before moving away and she could have sworn he smelled of her hair. It had to be her imagination.
The day grew warmer and she shed her flannel shirt. Cord took it from her and tied it onto her pack. Instead of going steadily down, the trail began to cover uneven terrain that went up as they were forced to climb adjoining ridges. The trail was plainly visible as the going became more difficult. They came to a stream and refilled their canteens. Stacey added the purifier tablets. After pushing up the sleeves of her thermal shirt, she splashed her face, neck and arms with the cold water. A sponge bath would be nice, but they didn’t have time.
Cord waited until she was finished and then did the same. He removed his black sweatshirt, but left on his thin black v-necked thermal pullover. As he stood and turned around, he felt as if he slammed into a brick wall.
Stacey perched on a large boulder in a patch of sunlight, holding her ponytail up for her neck to dry. Her uplifted breasts were outlined against the front of her damp shirt. The sun was caught by her hair and Cord felt desire arrow through his body. Taking a long deep breath, he pushed it away as just one more physical discomfort to be endured.
Abruptly Cord ordered, “We need to keep moving if we ever plan to catch up.” He pulled on his pack and didn’t offer to help her this time. He couldn’t take the chance of touching her yet. Not while that picture stayed fresh in his mind.
Stacey wondered what happened to change his attitude so fast. As she led the way he seemed tenser and a lot less companionable. She shrugged and carefully followed the trail of the five they were chasing. Whatever happened, he would have to work it out. Maybe his mind jumped ahead to what he would do when they caught those guys. There was only one of him against three criminals armed with guns, if he was correct, plus two innocent boys to protect. Surely he wouldn’t be sent alone if he couldn’t handle the task. He mentioned fighting guerillas and she knew he didn’t mean the kind in a zoo. Besides, she smiled, he had a secret weapon. He had her.
Surviving With Love Page 3