She didn’t know how to respond. Cassidy paused. She inhaled deeply, swept her fingers across her brow, and used them to shield her eyes against the sun’s glare. “Leave it alone. It’s none of your business.”
Jake didn’t move. “Yes, it is. If you’re incapable of separating your personal emotions from this assignment, then I’ll have to request that you be transferred.”
Cassidy’s mouth dropped open. Her heart thudded against her chest and even though it galled her, she couldn’t deny his accusation. “You’re right. I behaved badly.” She narrowed her gaze and pointed a finger at him. “But so did you.”
Jake grinned. “Suppose I did. Want to talk?”
Cassidy inhaled deeply. The pine scent of millions of acres of nature soothed her temper. She decided the best avenue would be to ignore Jake’s bizarre behavior and redirect his attention to something other than her relationship with Ethan Connor. “Forget it,” she spoke softly, mentally praying he’d leave it at that. The thought of discussing this part of her past had Cassidy’s cheeks burning with embarrassment.
He stared long and hard into her face, his expression impassive. “Okay.” He stepped back and walked to the other side of the Jeep. “Water samples were all negative.”
“Not surprised. That would’ve been too easy.” Cassidy sighed and raised a questioning eyebrow at the Glock 9mm that suddenly appeared in his hand. She closed the gap between them, cocked her head to look into his eyes, and dropped her bag at his feet. With a flick of her wrist, she grabbed the gun. “What’re you doing with this?”
“What I always do with it.”
“You carry a weapon on your assignments?”
Jake frowned. “Yes. It’s company policy, oh fearless one.”
“But here?” Cassidy glanced around in concern, the echo of machine gunfire still fresh in her mind.
Jake smiled and took the weapon back. He shrugged. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”
Cassidy breathed deeply. She’d forgotten how wonderful the clean air of Yellowstone smelled, and she pulled it into her lungs praying it would clear the haunting memory of Africa. The light, pungent scent of wildflowers mixed with pine teased her senses, tugging her away from distasteful memories.
He handed the gun to Cassidy. Her brows knitted in concern, and Cassidy glanced at the weapon with disdain. “I don’t want this.”
“Take it. Obviously you left yours back at the inn.” His eyes darkened, and she felt a kick of fear. “You know and I know that you’re breaking all the wilderness hiking rules by insisting on going up there by yourself.”
Cassidy sighed, planted her feet, and squared her shoulders. This argument she was prepared for. “ZEBRA supersedes any park regulations that might be in place. I’m more than capable of doing this by myself.”
“Still…”
Cassidy didn’t back down an inch. “Jake, this is my job and it’s what I do. Don’t go all macho and insist on the buddy system. It’s condescending.” She lifted the gun beneath his chin. “Now, why would I need this?”
He paused before answering, his eyes moving to gaze up the steep path. Jake shifted the weight of his feet and glanced in the other direction. “There’s something that has my neck hairs standing at attention.”
“I hate guns.”
“Take it anyway.”
“I can’t shoot.”
Jake barked laughter. “Yeah, right.”
She’d taken the required gun course, but it didn’t change the fact that she honestly couldn’t shoot. With a sigh, she decided not to argue. “If you insist.”
“I insist,” he reiterated, checking his watch. He glanced back at her. “You’d better get going. What specifically will you be looking for up there?” Jake lifted his chin toward the trail.
“Any type of trail or marking,” she said. “This is a huge park, but the wolves are carnivores. Did you know that before we successfully reintroduced these little beasties, Yellowstone was in a huge ecological crunch?” She tried not to laugh when he rolled his eyes.
“How’s that?”
“Because the wolf is an integral part of this ecosystem, the lack of the packs had created an overpopulation of their prey. The deer, moose, bison, and elk just about destroyed the park vegetation.”
“Is this why we’re here? To prevent it from happening again?” He tilted his head and gazed into her eyes.
“Well, the wolves never had the fully desired effect regarding the ecosystem. They did, however, offer a few astonishing impacts. This is what I’m personally concerned with. If the wolves are disappearing, what’s this doing to the other animals? The ones that rely on the wolf’s kill for survival? We could be facing an even greater problem than what had existed before we reintroduced them.”
“Such as?”
“The elimination of the wolves from this park could seriously endanger the existence of the beetles that grow within the carcasses of their kill.”
“And that would be a bad thing, because?”
“The smallest creature can create a broken link in the food chain, Jake. Magpies and other assorted birds rely on these beetles.”
“I know; I was only kidding. Do you have any theories?” Jake asked.
“Not a one.” Cassidy offered up a lopsided grin, shaking her head and hefting her backpack over her left shoulder. She opened an outside zipper of the canvas bag and placed the gun inside. The weapon didn’t make her feel secure or safe; the slick metal caused more angst than reassurance. But she refused to waste anymore time arguing with Jake. “But hopefully that’ll change after tonight.” She peered back over her shoulder and waved to Jake. “I’ll see you in the morning, right?” Now why had she said that?
“You betcha. Coffee in hand and a smile on my handsome face.” “You make sure of that. The coffee that is, I couldn’t care less whether you’re smiling or not.”
His laughter followed her up the steep trail.
She hiked slowly. It’d been years since she’d been to the park, and her lungs responded with the burning of oxygen deprivation. The trail twisted in odd angles as it wound upward. There were sections of lightly grassed, sparse plateaus then a sudden incline through thickly pined, snake-thin ravines.
Cassidy paused often to snag dearly needed gulps of water from the canteen slung across her shoulder. It bumped and slid against her hip like a jackrabbit in a trap each time she hauled herself around an especially difficult cut in the trail. She inhaled in frustration, transferring the canteen to her other shoulder and securing the strap to her backpack. With the water forced into a more secure and less mobile position, she concentrated on her surroundings.
Her eyes absorbed the beauty of the terrain. Crystal blue skies blanketed thick woods that danced with Quaking Aspens and Lodgepole pines. The snowcapped peaks of the Tetons offered a constant background to the serenity of the park.
Cassidy’s mind, however, continued to replay her conversation with Jake. She needed to focus and stop this damnable internal tug-of-war. “This,” Cassidy raised her voice and called to the mountains, “is why I never wanted to come home!”
Nick Fowler felt the familiar tickle of little legs creeping slowly beneath the cuff of his pants. He gritted his teeth and silently urged the figure he was tailing to climb back in the Jeep and drive away. Nick lay sprawled within the tall grasses of the plateau. He couldn’t remember a point in time he hated more than this very instant. His nose twitched to expunge the sickening sweet scent of hay, and his balls itched mercilessly in their sweaty prison of jeans and boxers.
He was frozen. The spider crept higher, his nostrils dripped, and his jeans grew even hotter and more uncomfortable.
His subject, Jake Anderson, stood as still as a statue. Blondie was gone. Long gone. Yet the man continued to stare up the path like a kid pining for his lost toy. Nick hadn’t been sure of which party to continue tailing. If Anderson drove away, he’d be tempted to hike after what he desired.
Nick shut hi
s eyes tightly, willing the uncomfortable sensations of his body into the background, and focused upon the memory of the hot little ticket now pounding a lonely path up the hillside. What he wouldn’t give to wrap his fingers through her golden curls, pulling them tightly back, and watching as her eyes widened in fear and leaking heavenly tears. She’d beg, he knew. Beg for her life.
But, unfortunately, pleasure had to wait. His lip pulled up in a growl. Nick didn’t like complications, and the man before him was a grade-A, first-class, walking shit-kicker.
There was no conclusive evidence, but within certain sectors it was rumored that ZEBRA had a darker secret. Over the past twelve months, the benign organization had been dispatched to North Vietnam, Syria, Cuba, and Russia. They answered the call of the wild, both animal and human.
Nick had a thick dossier on the organization. As of this date, he’d been unable to connect them to any particular speculative government force. As far as he was concerned, however, behind ZEBRA’s success they left a trail of destruction. One that burned slow and low like a candlewick. Quadrant by quadrant, ZEBRA successfully eliminated terrorist groups and factions of unrest that threatened the United States. Jake Anderson’s name was linked to each operation.
He had discussed this with Cole after the Niger Delta cluster fuck. But Cole had dismissed his concerns, focusing on the failure of the mission and redirection of Blondie.
Nick cursed violently beneath his breath. His enemy stood less than fifty feet away. He wouldn’t want to meet the imposing presence of Anderson in face-to-face combat, but with a slight movement of his finger, he could lay open the operative’s head like it was nothing more than a ripe peach. His hand itched to pull the trigger, but the kill would compromise his instructions.
Too bad.
Nick released his grip on the deadly weapon as the echo of a car door reverberated through the valley. He slid it silently to the side and rolled over. The Jeep finally pulled away. He didn’t know whether to slap, blow, or scratch first. He leapt to his feet, shook his pants leg, readjusted the family jewels, and wiped his runny nose against his upper arm. He’d not follow Jake Anderson anymore today. He knew where to find Jake.
Throwing a longing glance up the trail, he sighed. For the second time in twenty-four hours, she lay within reach. Last night at the geyser, with her face framed by the erupting Old Faithful, he’d fantasized that he’d taken her there, amid the heat and steam of the geysers.
The wonders of a woman were up the trail. He’d have hours of private time to explore, destroy, and dissect at random.
But not last night and not today. Not until he was given the green light.
CHAPTER 13
“YOU ALMOST BLEW IT,” STEVE SAID.
Chewing on a straw, Jake leaned against the wooden railing that separated the boardwalk from the geothermal fields in Lower Geyser Basin. When he’d returned from dropping Cassidy off, Michelle had suggested the pod view a recently formed geyser that might be throwing the ecosystem off in the park. Glancing at the barren, hard-packed ground, he watched as the ecologist walked the edge of the fields, taking heat measurements with thermal monitoring equipment.
Turning, he looked at Steve. “Blew it?”
“Yeah, your little showdown at headquarters.”
“Oh, that.” He frowned and picked at a splinter of wood, noting that the techie had shed his nervous, geek persona and slipped into a skin Jake was more familiar with. The only reason he allowed him to speak in such a manner was that he trusted the man with his life. It was also the reason he’d specifically requested him as backup.
Steve was Black Stripe.
“Yeah, that.” Steve said. What gives?”
“I didn’t like the way that park ranger manhandled her.”
Steve laughed out loud and smacked Jake on the arm. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you behave like that.”
Jake straightened, pushing away from the railing. How had he acted? “The job is the most important thing, and she lost perspective. I just set it right.”
“And my Aunt Fanny looks like Angelina Jolie. Is it possible that our resident zoologist has found a hole in your armor?”
“Don’t go there, Pullen. You’ve got the wrong idea. Half of that was making sure my controlling macho cover was in place.” Wasn’t it? “Besides, you’re the one with the buddy relationship.”
Steve grinned. “Jealous?”
“No.”
“Yes, you are. But I’ll be a friend and tell you that she’s like my sister. Shit. She doesn’t even confide in me. I didn’t have a clue her parents died in a plane crash.”
Jake crossed his arms over his chest and faced Steve. “Plane crash?” Steve turned his head away from Jake, following the figure of a curvaceous redhead. Jake didn’t care about the eye candy, but the sudden sick feeling in his stomach signaled information he wasn’t going to like. “You were saying?” Jake pulled the straw from his mouth, glanced at the chewed end, and stuck it back in.
With a sigh, Steve refocused on Jake. “Yeah. They died at Jackson Hole Airport. That’s why she was so freaked yesterday after the landing.”
Jake hung his head, running his hand through his hair. “I didn’t know.” He hated when he became his own worst enemy. “I practiced my macho-asshole act on the ride to Yellowstone so she’d think my need to follow her around like a control freak was genuine. Damn. I bet she categorizes me as head of the jerk class.” He swore louder and kicked the edge of a wooden post. “I had her so cornered yesterday, she felt the need to sneak off to Old Faithful in the middle of the night.”
Steve’s face sobered. “You let her out of your sight?”
Rolling his eyes, Jake worried the straw between his teeth. “Nah. Ruined my sleep though.”
“Good.” Steve sighed and glanced across the plains, his face creasing in a worried frown. “I don’t like the idea of her alone at the observation post.”
Jake didn’t either but he wasn’t about to voice his feelings, afraid Steve would read more into his concern than professional interest. “I couldn’t push to go along. It didn’t make sense.”
Steve nodded. “I know. But still …” his voice trailed away, and they both dropped into a thoughtful silence.
Jake swore again and tossed the straw into a small metal garbage can. “After seeing how Connor spoke to her, I bet she hates me. I’ve been a typical male ass.” A soft breeze drifted from the plains, ruffling his hair. An ocean of rock spread and rose before him in small crests of sandy brown waves that on any other day would’ve had him appreciating the jagged and uneven edges of what history carved into this land.
Steve smiled, stretched his arms to the sky, then worked his shoulders in slow circles. “Sounds like you’re off to a winning start. Good thing you don’t care about her feelings.”
The glare Jake tossed at Steve silenced any further comments, but Jake saw his friend’s lips twitch with amusement. Steve turned his attention elsewhere, pointing a finger toward a crew of carpenters constructing a large set of bleachers. “What do you suppose they’re doing?”
Planks of wood were being secured onto metal frames. “Have no clue, but I guess we might as well find out.” Jake stepped back from the railing and led the way over to the crew of workers, the rhythm of hammering barely audible above the sound of the air compressors. “As soon as we’re done, I’m going back to park headquarters.”
“Another meeting with Chief Connor?” Steve asked.
“Not exactly. I want to see whether they have a master system that tracks the campsites and their occupants.”
“I received a report this morning that one of Cole’s henchmen was spotted at Vini Vidi Vici’s with Drew several nights ago.”
The wooden boardwalk leading toward the construction crew groaned beneath their heavy steps. “And the circle closes in,” Jake said. Before reaching the group of men, his cell phone buzzed. He glanced at it, smiled when Cassidy’s name appeared on the small screen, and waved Steve toward t
he workers. “Let me answer this, and I’ll join you in a second.” Turning away from the noise of the hydraulic nail-guns and power saws, he clicked on reply.
He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face when she answered. “Miss me already?”
“Hell no. I’m loving the quiet solitude of a lonely mountaintop.”
Jake watched the graceful curve of a hawk as it floated on a downward draft, and the connection with Cassidy made him pause and find enjoyment in the sensuous dance of air and feather. “Then what are you calling for, Sunshine?”
The connection went dead for a second, then a soft voice reached his ears. “I’m thinking.”
He closed his eyes, imagining her leaning against a tree, ankles crossed and fingers absently plucking at grass. He swore silently. “Yeah? About what?” His train of thought needed to end here. When exactly had she crawled beneath his skin?
“If the GPS collars suddenly went dead together, is it possible that it’s a technical malfunction?”
Jake’s eyes trained on the tradesmen, and he watched Steve razzing the construction workers. He caught a few barbs regarding rival football teams and turned his attention back to Cassidy. “I’ll ask Steve to check it out. I wish he’d had luck with the GPS locators. The thought of you spending the night in a spot that might not have any wolves but possibly has drug dealers doesn’t sit so well.”
“That’s damn sweet of you to care, Anderson. Thanks.” There was a long pause. “I’m sure it’s not the collars. I mean that just seems too cut and dry.”
“What do you mean by that?”
He could hear her crunching on something and figured she must be eating trail mix. “Ethan’s a class-A anal retentive jerk. He’d have checked that.”
“We’ll double check then.”
“Okay.” He heard her release a quick breath before she switched gears and responded in a lighter tone. “Where are you?”
He glanced around, forgetting momentarily the name of his location. He tilted his head back to read a sign posted against the side of an administrative building. “I’m at Lower Geyser Basin watching Michelle measure temperatures surrounding a new geyser that’s supposed to erupt within the next week.”
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