Undercover in Conard County

by Rachel Lee

  But here? Odd place to be no matter what was being hunted. She hadn’t missed that large tarp bundle over near the horses. Nor had she failed to note that the dogs were torn between an interest in her, an interloper, and that huge ball of tarp. They smelled meat, and it wasn’t her.

  Ted pulled a folded paper out of his wallet, but didn’t budge as he held it out. He was drawing her in. Desi lifted her shotgun a little, surreptitiously thumbed the safety off and got her finger on the trigger. The barrel still pointed down unthreateningly.

  “You’re kind of out of your usual way,” remarked the other guy.

  “This time of year there’s no usual way. Gotta check everything.” She forced a smile she didn’t feel as she stepped forward and took the badly creased paper. It was a moose permit all right, but someone had fudged the dates. It wouldn’t need a forensic specialist to see that.

  “I’m going to have to ask you not to hunt,” she said, and tucked the permit in her pocket.

  “Why?” demanded Ted. “I’ve got the papers.”

  “It’s been altered, Mr. Bloom. So I’m going to have to verify that you have a permit for this year and area.”

  “Damn it, I do.”

  “Then I’ll get it sorted out quickly and you’ll be able to hunt. No further problem. Your friends aren’t hunting are they?”

  “No. But I can bring a couple of friends with me. You know that.”

  “Sure. Are they licensed in the state?”

  Silence answered her.

  Kel watched Desi turn a little. “Mind if I see what’s inside that tarp?”

  “You got no right to search us.”

  “I have every right when I think I see a bighorn’s head concealed. In fact, by law I can search this whole campsite.”

  * * *

  Time instantly slowed for Kel. It was like watching a movie in slow motion, and none of it was unpredictable. The men had a choice. They chose the bad option. While the guy in the canvas chair gaped, three men lifted their guns and pointed at Desi.

  Kel moved. While his universe seemed to have slowed down, he hadn’t. He already saw the lines of fire, the vectors coming into play, already knew who he had to take down first. Old instincts and a lot of experience took over.

  * * *

  “You got no right,” one man said.

  “I have every right when I suspect wrongdoing. Even the bed of your pickup isn’t safe from me looking. Now, I suggest you gentlemen point those guns away from me. Murder is a worse crime than poaching.”

  “And people can disappear out here,” another man said. “Done it before.” He leveled his shotgun at her. “You should never have come here.”

  Desi, intensely focused, saw fingers twitch on triggers. She also saw Kel reach the edge of the clearing, his rifle ready.

  One choice, she thought. She dropped to the ground and rolled just as the guns all fired.

  Then came one unmistakable shot, hitting the ground between the men in the group, throwing up duff in a shower.

  The three men froze. The guy in the canvas chair looked as if he were too terrified to even make a sound.

  Kel’s voice reached them. “I’m a trained sniper. Any of you want to be first? If not, drop those weapons now.”

  The guy at the table had his own ideas. He pivoted sharply and shot from the hip at Kel. Big mistake. An instant later he went down, holding his leg in agony.

  “Do I need to repeat myself?” Kel asked.

  Moving cautiously, Desi reached for her shotgun, then rose to her knees and pointed it at the nearest man. “Drop them,” she barked.

  But the guy who was already shot had not given up. Snatching for his gun again while howling at the same time, he pointed it at Desi. A gun fired. He shrieked even louder as his gun flew from his hands.

  The other men must have decided it was pointless. One after another they dropped their rifles and sidearms.

  Desi levered to her feet and Kel moved in. At rifle point, he urged the three men, including the guy who’d been practically curled up on the canvas chair, into a tight knot. “I’ve got ’em,” he told Desi.

  “I’ll take care of this one then.” She kicked his gun away from him, and set her own out of his reach. He was back to holding his bloody leg with both hands, one of which looked injured from the shot that had ripped his rifle away.

  “What’s your name,” she asked as she tried to pry the guy’s hands from his leg.

  “None of your business.”

  “Let me see your wound. I’ve got a first aid kit.”

  At that he reluctantly loosened his grip.

  “Well, aren’t you lucky,” she said. “No arteries involved. You’ll live.”

  He spat at her but missed.

  Ignoring him, wondering when all this was going to hit her, she pulled her backpack off and brought out the first aid kit. Soon she had a tight bandage on his leg. Blood still seeped, but not very much. She dressed his hand with equal efficiency then stood up.

  “I’ve still got these three,” Kel said.

  She looked to where he had them at rifle point. They were all looking pretty miserable now. Without a word, she went over to the tarp-wrapped bundle that had caught her eye. The dogs were leaping toward it with excitement, but they couldn’t reach it.

  Moving a hundred pounds wasn’t exactly easy, but she managed it. As she rolled it, a bighorn sheep’s head emerged.

  “That’s it,” she said. Then she pulled out her radio and called the sheriff. Only then did she put flex-cuffs on the other three men, including the guy who claimed he was innocent and from out of state. Squawking he’d done nothing wrong.

  “You need to have a permit to hunt game in this state, sir,” Desi said calmly. “You have one?”

  “The outfitter...”

  “The outfitter is in violation of the law if he didn’t tell you that. What’s more, ignorance is no excuse. You’re responsible for knowing the laws before you come here to hunt. You can be charged for all of this.”

  At last the guy fell silent, looking horrified. But at least he had shut up.

  She thumbed her radio again, and heard the sheriff answer. “We’ve got a wounded man. And three more in cuffs.”

  “We’re on our way, and sending the medevac chopper.”

  Desi felt reaction start to hit her. Her knees felt a bit rubbery. To conceal it, she recovered her shotgun and sat on a nearby stump, surveying the scene.

  It could have turned out so differently. She caught Kel looking at her, concern in his gaze, so she gave him a tight smile.

  “I hope,” she said, “that these birds sing.”

  Chapter 15

  The birds sang. Well, one of them did. Faced with charges for having forged a government document, unlicensed hunting, unlicensed guiding for profit, poaching and attempted murder, Ted Wilson started talking. He didn’t have all the names, but he had enough to get the ball rolling. The strands of the spider web began to be traced all over the state.

  The ponytail man didn’t get touched, but he had plenty of influence. Nobody heard about him because the guy who’d been doing him favors in the upper echelons of the Game and Fish Department had as much to lose as anyone. The other partners slipped away, unnamed by anyone. They’d been very careful.

  Desi felt vaguely dissatisfied as the dominoes began to tumble. She and Kel sat in her living room, talking about all they had learned.

  “But we didn’t get the top dogs,” Desi said. “They’ll start in again.”

  “Not very soon, I’d wager.”

  “I still want to know if someone in the department was involved.”

  He turned on the sofa, laid one arm across the back and smiled faintly at her. “Probably.”

  “And you’re okay wi
th that?”

  “I figure we’ll finger him or her eventually. But how long did it take us to find bin Laden?”

  That was such an odd connection to make that she laughed, and with her laughter her irritation faded. “You’re right.”

  He set his coffee down and moved his arm from the sofa back to her shoulders. “I figure if someone in the department was involved, he’s so scared right now he’s paying for at least half of his sins.” He tugged gently, pulling her against his side. She sighed and leaned into him.

  “I just wish we could have gotten the top dogs.”

  “Maybe we did. We may never know exactly where it all ended, but at least we’ve stopped this ring. Lots of game animals are going to survive hunting season because of you.”

  “And you,” she reminded him. “Think of it. How many unlicensed guides have we pulled in? Fifteen? Maybe more? And I’m not sure we have them all.”

  “That’s just the guides,” he reminded her. “Then there were all the other people who helped, like that Randy I shot. The support staff. Lefty, who still swears he had no idea those coordinates would lead us into a trap. I expect they’ll have their own share of legal troubles. Randy worst of all because he tried to shoot you.”

  “They all did,” she reminded him. “I’m so glad Gage threatened them with attempted murder if they didn’t cooperate. So I guess it was all worth it.”

  He fell silent and she tilted her head when it went on for a while. “Kel? Something wrong?”

  “Not a thing,” he answered.

  “Then why so quiet?”

  “I was just thinking about you. You really give a damn about the wildlife. To you that poaching is serious enough to put your life at risk.”

  “Well, yeah,” she said, wondering where he was going. “Warden, remember? I wouldn’t be doing this if that weren’t true.”

  “Yeah, but...” He pulled back a little, loosening his hold on her but turning his head so they could look eye-to-eye. “I get being willing to die for a cause. Obviously. But I was sitting here thinking that no bighorn, no moose, no animal of any kind is as important to me as your life. I almost killed Randy, you know. I never wanted to kill a man again, but I’d have done it for you. I had to make a conscious decision to wing him, and I was trained never to do that. Too risky. Go for center mass. But...I’d have shot all three of them to save you.”

  Sorrow filled her. “Kel, I’m so sorry.” She could only imagine what he must be dealing with. Memories of war must be plaguing him, all those things he’d probably be dealing with for the rest of his life. And it was her fault. She wished she had a magic eraser. “I’m sorry I got you into this. You didn’t need it.”

  His eyes widened. “I don’t recall you getting me into anything. I did just fine all on my own. I’m not blaming you for me having to make a decision. I knew when we went out there that I might have to. It’s just that when I signed up for this job I didn’t imagine it involving anything that extreme. Did you?”

  She shook her head a little. “No, actually. I carry guns but I never expect to have to use them on people. And I never have.”

  “Exactly. Anyway, don’t worry about it. What I’m really dealing with is you.”

  “Me?” Her heart skipped a beat, and she waited, feeling certain that she must have done something wrong and he was getting ready to say goodbye.

  “Yes, you,” he said. “You seem to have become a problem.”

  She drew a sharp breath. “How so?”

  “When I realized I’d kill to protect you, I realized something else. I love you. Doesn’t matter we’re just getting to know each other...that’s all mind stuff anyway. When the gut is speaking this loud, the brain should just take a hike. I love you. Deeply. And now that I’ve said it, I guess I should pack and go so I don’t make you uncomfortable.”

  At once her chest tightened, as if a rope had snapped around it. Breathing became almost impossible, and the ache that filled her almost made her cry out. “No rush,” she said hoarsely, all she could manage.

  His eyes narrowed a little as they swept over her face. “You look like you’ve been wounded. I’m sorry. I should have kept my mouth shut.”

  With that she found air enough to cry, “No!”

  He froze, just as he had been pulling his arm from her shoulders. “No? I just upset you...”

  “Shut up,” she ordered, her voice tight. Then before this man could say another word, she twisted, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a long, deep kiss, the kind of kiss he had taught her.

  Finally she broke to catch her breath, but now her body was humming in a whole new way. “Kel...”

  But understanding had started to ease his face. The smallest of smiles tugged at the corner of his mouth. “It’s okay that I love you?”

  “More than okay,” she said huskily. “So much more than okay. I love you, too.”

  He put one finger under her chin, lifting her face to study it again. “Oh, man,” he breathed as he clearly began to believe her. “You, too? I mean, really? Will you marry me?”

  “Yes,” she said, her voice firm at last. “Absolutely yes.” The last of the fear had ebbed, even the oldest of her fears, replaced by an immense joy that washed through her like the dawning of a new spring day. She felt her smile widening, widening, until her cheeks ached.

  Then Kel surprised her by laughing. “I’m the world’s luckiest man,” he announced. Then without another word, he stood, swept her up into his arms and carried her to the bedroom.

  “I won’t let you go,” he warned her as he laid her on the bed.

  “You better not,” she answered, reaching for him. “Kel?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It is all right to be this happy?”

  “You bet,” he answered before he stole her breath and her voice with a kiss and carried her to the stars.

  * * * * *

  Don’t forget previous titles in the

  CONARD COUNTY:

  THE NEXT GENERATION series:

  CONARD COUNTY MARINE

  CONARD COUNTY SPY

  CONARD COUNTY WITNESS

  PLAYING WITH FIRE

  UNDERCOVER HUNTER

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  Keep reading for an excerpt from

  DEADLY FALL by Elle James.

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  Deadly Fallr />
  by Elle James

  Chapter 1

  “Leigha?” Andrew Stratford called out.

  The old mansion had been quiet for too long.

  “Leigha?” he said a little louder.

  He glanced up from the computer terminal, having spent the last three hours day-trading, buying as the prices on several of the stocks he had his eye on dipped to an all-time low.

  He’d made his fortune on Wall Street. Since the accident, he’d left it all behind and moved to Cape Churn, Oregon. Giving up the high-stress job of managing the fortunes of other people to only managing his own portfolio had been a decision he’d never regret.

  Not that he’d had much of a choice. With the scars he’d acquired, his high-powered, beautiful clients would be less likely to come to entrust their money to him. So intent on being the wealthiest, most beautiful people money could buy, they wouldn’t have the courage to face a man with a wicked scar running from the base of his jaw up to his eye. The burn scars on his right hand would be a deal breaker in a society where a good handshake was a measure of a man’s character.

  But the main reason he’d come back to Oregon was the reason he rose from his desk.

  “Leigha,” he called out.

  Now that he had a daughter to look after, he couldn’t live the fast-paced, late-night lifestyle he’d been living for the past ten years as one of the most eligible bachelors in New York City. And, frankly, he didn’t want to. He’d burned the candle at both ends with a high-powered job and a jet-setter lifestyle. Sure, he’d amassed a fortune, but what else did he have to show for it?

  Andrew stretched. He needed to get up and move. His housekeeper, Mrs. Dottie Purdy, had ducked in an hour ago saying she needed to stock the pantry and Leigha preferred to stay and play.