The bear was hit in the shoulder with the first shot.
In seconds, it would be on top of her.
Dakota leaped to one side, hands on the SIG, firing one, two, three, four shots into the angry, charging bear. He didn’t miss.
Shelby fired a second shot, not even hearing Dakota firing his pistol to the right of her. The bear leaped, its long curved claws aimed right at her head. She twisted her body, pushed herself to the left, firing the rifle as she fell toward the ground.
The grizzly swiped at her, roaring, his mouth open, teeth bared. Shelby landed hard. Rolling, she tried to get away from the bear. It landed with a heavy thud next to her. Eyes wide with terror, she saw it lift its paw, blood running out of its one eye. She gasped and dug the toes of her boots into the floor of the forest, lunging away from the grizzly.
She was breathing hard, the strap of the rifle tangled around her left arm. Dakota raced up, his pistol aimed at the dying bear. His face was a mask of intensity. He lifted the pistol and fired a cartridge at point-blank range into the bear’s thick skull. The round went in and the bear groaned, slumped and then lay still.
Dakota released the emptied magazine from the pistol, pulled out another magazine from his gear and slammed it into the SIG. He then turned on his heel, holstered the pistol and quickly moved to Shelby’s side. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with terror.
“It’s all right,” he soothed, picking her up. He untangled the leather strap from around her left arm. “Are you okay?”
Shelby’s knees were weak. She reached out and grabbed for his arm. “I never expected this....” she rasped hoarsely, gazing at the dead bear less than ten feet away from her. Shaken, she heard her voice trembling. “I must be under some kind of dark cloud. God, that was close.” She felt his arm slide around her shoulders, drawing her up against him.
“Too damned close,” Dakota rasped, pulling her hard against him, his gaze never leaving the bear. Grizzlies were known to look dead, but rise and attack again.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Shelby leaned heavily against him. “The bears have it out for us.” She remembered Dakota being attacked earlier in June.
“They’re nothing to mess with at this time of year. They’re hungry and they’re willing to defend their territory. That bear was here before. It’s his territory.” He pressed a kiss to her mussed hair. “You were in his territory and that’s why he charged you.”
Shelby slid her arms around his lean waist, breathing raggedly from her brush with death. “Thanks...thanks for being there. Why did you use your pistol and not the rifle?”
He moved his hand across her back, feeling her trembling in earnest now. Dakota recognized it as the adrenaline surging through her body. “Couldn’t get it off my shoulder fast enough, Shel. When you’re in a situation like this, you go for the second line of defense, the pistol.”
Shaking in earnest, Shelby nodded. “Thank God you were there. I hit the bear in the shoulder the first time. My second shot bounced off its skull. I couldn’t believe it!”
“You were caught flat-footed,” Dakota said, his voice low with feeling. “You did the best you could. Bear skulls are the thickest in the world.” He knew if he hadn’t been with her, the bear would have killed her. Inwardly, his gut clenched. To lose Shelby after he’d found her would be like tearing his heart out of his chest. He’d never felt this way about any woman. Holding her tight, he pressed small kisses along her hairline and cheek. “It’s okay, Shel. It’s okay.”
As he held her, Dakota began to realize how much Shelby was helping him to heal. It wasn’t anything she did consciously; it was just her. He squeezed her gently and released her, checking her expression. Dakota was always stunned that his touch could soothe her so quickly. Was that love? A part of him didn’t want to go there, but his pounding heart did. As he drowned in her blue gaze, he felt an incredibly powerful ribbon of blinding emotions explode through him. The sensations heated, healing and lifting the darkness that always haunted him. How could a man like himself, filled with demons, ever learn to love? Somehow he had.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
DAKOTA HEARD A SMALL cry. It was the child! Where? He twisted his head toward the sound. It was coming from over the hill where the grizzly had attacked Shelby.
“Did you hear that?” Shelby whispered, giving him a look of disbelief.
“Yeah, stay here.” He left her standing there, running across the rocky, slippery area toward the sound in the distance. Dakota trotted past the dead grizzly and broached the hill. His sharpened gaze caught the three-year-old boy near a stand of willows, a small limb in his hand. He was frightened, tears making paths through the dirt and scratches on his face.
Relief sizzled through Dakota as he slowed and walked up to the boy. Kneeling down, he said, “Bobby?”
The boy sniffed and scrubbed his eyes. “Y-yes. I want my mommy....”
“I’m going to take you to her. My name is Dakota. Are you hurt at all?” He saw the boy’s eyes were red-rimmed. He was dirty from crawling through the willow stand.
“N-no, but that bear was following me.” He lifted his hand and pointed at the dead grizzly up on the hill. His squeaky voice became stronger as he lifted the stick to show Dakota. “But I picked this up. I was going to hit him and scare him off with it.”
Smiling a little, Dakota took the stick and set it aside. “You’re a very brave boy, Bobby. Are you thirsty?” He pulled the canteen from his belt, opened it and handed it to him.
Without a word, Bobby put the canteen to his lips and drank.
Dakota watched water dribbling from the sides of the child’s mouth as he slugged down the liquid. Finally, when he’d had enough, Bobby shyly handed the canteen back to him. Capping it, Dakota said, “Ready to go?”
“Yes, but I can walk.”
Straightening to his full height, Dakota grinned at the plucky child. He held out his hand. “Okay, ready? My partner is on the other side of the hill. We’re going to pick her up and then take you home. Your parents are very worried for you.”
“Okay,” Bobby said, slipping his small hand into his large one. “I’m hungry.”
“I bet you are. Let’s go find Shelby and then we’ll see if I’ve got a protein bar you can have.”
Bobby brightened. “I like protein bars!”
Smiling to himself, Dakota checked his stride to match the child’s steps. He took the radio from his belt and called in to Cade Garner, reporting they’d found Bobby Parker. Dakota could hear the relief in the deputy’s voice. Cade would then have one of the deputies staying with the parents at the campground give them the good news.
Shelby’s eyes widened as Dakota reappeared at the hill with Bobby walking at his side. She grinned, sliding the leather strap of the rifle over her left shoulder. Bobby waved to her, as if he were on some kind of exciting grand outing. Shelby waved back and met them halfway. She knelt down and introduced herself to the child. Touched by Dakota’s gentleness with the three-year-old, she smiled up into his eyes. There was a softness in them she’d not seen before. Clearly, Bobby liked holding on to his large, scarred hand.
“Let’s take Bobby home.”
Shelby stood and walked to the other side of Bobby. She gently held the boy’s other hand, feeling a rush of relief that the child had not been killed by the grizzly.
* * *
“THAT GRIZZLY WAS STALKING the kid,” Dakota told Shelby later as they drove back to the Garner Ranch.
“I got that.”
“He was stalking Bobby when you happened upon them. The grizzly saw you as a threat to his forthcoming dinner.” Dakota slid a quick glance toward her. She looked shaken and pale from her run-in with the bear. Anyone would be. When an animal of that speed and weight attacks, there are seconds between surviving and dying.
“It scared the hell out of me.” Shelby pushed her fingers through her dirty hair, wishing for a hot shower.
“You reacted right away,” he said, complimenting h
er.
“Yeah, but I couldn’t shoot worth a damn.”
One corner of his mouth crooked. “Listen, you did what you could under the circumstances.”
“You were cool as a cucumber. I hit the ground and saw you running and firing at the grizzly. Every shot hit that bear. You didn’t miss.”
“I had to hit him.”
She heard the low growl in Dakota’s tone, saw the look of anxiety in his gaze as he caught hers. “You moved so swiftly. You were completely focused on that grizzly. I’ve never seen someone move and shoot like you did.”
“SEAL training,” he said, reaching out and capturing her hand. There were several scratches across her fingers where she’d hit the sharp volcanic rocks.
“You shot the bear in the eye. That’s damn good shooting.” She remembered he’d shot the other bear that had bitten him in the arm with an eye shot, too.
Dakota swelled with some pride. He felt good beneath her praise. “Thanks. I was a sniper, so I’m not half bad at hitting a target. The grizzly was moving so quickly I fired six shots into him before I got his eye and brain.”
“I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn in that battle,” she muttered, shaking her head.
“Stop being hard on yourself. You were startled, the grizzly was too close. You were lucky you got that rifle off your shoulder to shoot at all.” He squeezed Shelby’s fingers gently and saw some of the self-indictment leave her blue eyes. “Let’s get you home. I think a shower is in your future.” He caught her lips pulling into a wry smile.
* * *
LATER, AFTER A SHOWER and clean clothes, Shelby combed her damp hair. Her hands were scratched and bruised. She got off lucky. She could smell bacon frying out in the kitchen. Dakota was making them a late lunch of his favorite food, breakfast. Resting her hands on the sink, she stared into the foggy mirror. She loved this ex-SEAL. He’d just saved her life. Never would she forget the swift, blurred movement of his hand as it went for the pistol slung low on his right thigh. Or how quickly Dakota had moved, that pistol always level as he ran, firing into the grizzly. And yet, when it was all over, he was solicitous, caring for her. Later, he was incredibly gentle with little Bobby Parker. He was a man of depth and he intrigued her. The whole situation hadn’t rattled him at all. Never mind that he’d already captured her heart.
Setting the comb aside, Shelby left the bathroom and padded down the hall to the kitchen. The smell of bacon frying and pancakes in another large skillet filled the air. “It all smells so good,” she said, inhaling.
Dakota turned over the pancakes and looked over his shoulder. Shelby was dressed in a simple pink T-shirt, jeans and moccasins. Her damp blond hair hung in straight strands around her shoulders. “Go sit down. I’ll serve you.” He quickly flipped the pancakes onto a large platter, lifted the bacon out of the skillet and turned off the stove. Worried, he saw darkness in her eyes. Leftover shock, he was sure. Shelby had had two near misses with death. First with Hartley and now this. How was she really holding up emotionally? Dakota would tread carefully and continue to silently assess her well-being.
“Looks great,” Shelby said, meaning it as he placed the plate in front of her.
“Figured some good breakfast food would go down easy,” he said, watching her rally and pick up her knife and fork. Would she eat? Dakota wasn’t sure, but he sat down with his own plate and dug hungrily into four stacked pancakes slathered with melting butter and Vermont maple syrup.
Shelby pushed the pancake around, chewed on some bacon, but discovered she really wasn’t hungry. The day was bright, the sunshine slanting through the kitchen window. Sighing, she muttered, “You went to all this trouble and I just can’t eat, Dakota....” She set the flatware aside. Instead, she picked up the coffee and sipped it.
He rested his hands on either side of his plate, gauging her reaction. “I’ve seen this kind of reaction before,” he told her quietly.
“What do you mean?”
With a one-shoulder shrug, Dakota said, “When my platoon was Down Range in Afghanistan, we were always out in bad-guy country. Sometimes things would go wrong. The squad I was with had two of their shooters wounded in a helluva gun battle with an HVT, a Taliban opium drug warlord.” He held her dark gaze. “SEALs are more than a team, Shel. They’re family. You train, live, eat, breathe with these guys for years. They’re my brothers. My family.”
She could feel the intensity of his words, the passion behind them. “I’m glad you’re letting me into your other life, your world. It had to rock you when those guys were wounded.”
“It did. It shook every one of us. We’re trained to be combat medics, and believe me, our skills saved their lives.” He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “When we got a medevac in there to take out our wounded, we then were lifted out later. Our team was in shock. Our men being wounded was like being wounded ourselves. We didn’t know if they’d live or die at that point. We were caught up in so many conflicting emotions.” Dakota pushed the empty plate aside and folded his hands, holding her gaze. “There is no manual, no training on earth, Shel, that teaches you how to react, how to handle your emotions for these moments. When we got back to our base, our officer in charge took us out of combat for a week to decompress.”
“Why?”
“Because we were too emotionally rattled to be a hundred percent focused out in the field. He recognized the symptoms. And no matter how hard we tried to sit on our emotions, our anxiety, grief and rage, it didn’t work. We’re human. In the end, our AOIC, Jake Ramsey, had us stand down and it was the right call.” Dakota reached out and slid his fingers across her bruised right hand. “Shel, you’re in the same position I was over there. You don’t recognize how compromised you are after a traumatic event. You think you’re a hundred percent, that you’ve got a gun in the fight and you’re confident in yourself and your abilities.”
His fingers tightened imperceptibly on her hand as he watched moisture collect in her eyes. Shelby was fighting back a lot of emotions, trying to control them. It wouldn’t work and Dakota knew it. “I wish...I wish I’d had someone like you to just hold me, talk me down, listen to me over there when it happened.”
The heat of his hand permeated her cooler one. His words struck her heart and gut. “Okay, so I’m where you were?”
“Something like that.”
Closing her eyes, Shelby sat back in the chair, a rush of emotions starting to erupt within her. The terror clawed at her chest, struggling to leap into her throat and fly out her mouth. “Okay,” she whispered, her voice unsteady. “I hear you. I get it.”
“I know you don’t like staying here at the cabin and you want to get back to work, but it’s not the right time, Shel. I know you’re bored out of your skull. So were we. We had to take our guns out of the fight. We wanted back at that Taliban warlord and take his ass permanently out of the fight. Our OIC knew we weren’t ready to climb back into the saddle.”
Shelby wiped her eyes with trembling fingers. “I feel so damned helpless, Dakota.” She’d spoken the words softly, the pain sandwiched in between the words. His hand moved gently across her forearm, soothing her. His eyes were so old-looking with far too much combat experience beyond them. He saw what was going on with her even though she didn’t. More tears rolled down her cheeks. Shelby pulled her hand from his, reached into her pocket and found a tissue.
“So what do I need to do? I have to recover, Dakota. Welton is still out there hunting me. Damn, I feel like a raw target of opportunity.” Her voice grew angry. “I want that son of a bitch! I want him so bad I can taste it. He’s out there prowling around. I’m so afraid he’s going to capture some unsuspecting woman and—” Her voice cracked. “Your sister paid a horrible price. I don’t want any other woman to go through what she did.”
“That makes two of us,” Dakota agreed. With his finger he eased the damp strands of hair behind her delicate ear. “Listen to me, Shel. Decompress for a week. I’m out there, I’m hunting that b
astard for both of us. I have a score to settle with him and I’m going to find him.”
The words were spoken with controlled hatred. There was such raw rage he held inside himself. And just as quickly, the look of a committed warrior to his sworn enemy disappeared. Her ear tingled where he’d grazed it with his finger. “I believe you. I just worry for you,” she said.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve had years to handle my feelings toward Welton where Ellie was concerned. I’m not coming off a hot firefight having two of my friends wounded. I’m very focused and calm about hunting Welton down. My emotions aren’t going to get in the way of me finding and eliminating him. They’re going to help me find him.”
Shelby knew without a doubt that if Dakota found Welton, the convict was dead. Maybe Cade Garner and the rest of the sheriff’s department didn’t realize it, but she did. She felt that steel coldness within him, knew it was lethal and knew Welton’s last look at the world would be this warrior’s face.
“So you want me to just hang around the cabin? I can’t even go on another lost child request?”
He shook his head. “I think it would be best if you just rested for a while, Shel. You’ve had two near-death brushes in two weeks.”
“I feel like I’ve got a black cloud above my head,” she griped.
He smiled sourly. “It seems that way. Third time’s the charm and, frankly, I don’t want you testing that one out to see if it works or not. Okay?”
Nodding, she stuffed the tissue back into her pocket. As she held his gaze, she felt her heart swell with such love for him. There was no question she was falling in love with him. Reaching out, she slid her hand over his.
“There’s just something about you that touches my soul, Dakota. I have trouble even putting it into words. I like it. I want it and I want you.”
He gently turned her hand over, brushing her soft palm with his work-worn fingers. “You own my soul, Shel, whether you know it or not.” His voice dropped to a rasp. “You’re an incredibly strong, good woman. I don’t know how I got so damned lucky in finding you, but I’m grateful.” He picked up her palm and pressed a kiss to the center of it.
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