In spite of the uncomfortable bulletproof vest under her jacket, Carolyn was glad to take an active part in the investigation. Astride Elvis, she rode with Burke and the two deputies from the sheriff’s department. They headed west toward the burned-out structure of the old stable. The acrid stench of charred wood hung like a poisonous cloud in the crisp air.
This was the first time she’d seen the destruction up close, and she reined Elvis in to take a closer look. The one-story structure had been reduced to a grotesque skeleton with only parts of walls still standing and rubble where there had once been neat stalls. A scorched backhoe—an expensive piece of equipment—huddled at the far edge of the stable like the remains of a prehistoric beast.
The fire had been her motivation for coming home, and the sight troubled her. Was Lucas responsible for this needless destruction? He’d admitted to being first on the scene. He was the one who called in the alarm. But she couldn’t imagine him doing this, risking the livestock, risking a wildfire that could have spread across the grassland. They could have lost acres and acres. Lucas wouldn’t want that; he loved this ranch. Or did he?
She didn’t trust her own judgment anymore, not after
seeing that list of enemies that Burke and his agents had compiled. Half the county seemed to hate the Carlisles.
Burke reined his big bay horse up beside her. She tore her gaze away from the ruins. Watching Burke was a welcome distraction. Despite the fact that he wore a Chicago Cubs cap instead of a Stetson, he looked comfortable in the saddle. Those summers he’d spent with his grandparents in rural Wisconsin had served him well. “You don’t ride too badly,” she said, “for a farmer.”
“Once you learn how, you never forget.”
But there seemed to be something else he’d entirely forgotten. He’d made no mention of their lovemaking. But then again, she hadn’t said anything, either.
Should I tell him that he’s the best lover I’ve ever known? That last night was spectacular?
Though tempted to gush, she decided to play it cool. When she was younger, she’d had her share of meaningless sex and knew how it was supposed to work: no flowers, no phone calls in the morning, no sweet talk.
But last night was different. The depth of their passion wasn’t what she expected from a one-night stand. Making love with Burke left her craving more. She didn’t want last night to be the first and only time.
I should tell him.
Instead, she nudged Elvis with her knees and moved forward. Skirting the edge of the forest, they came into sight of one of the main feeding pastures, about four miles from the ranch house. Contained by a barbed wire fence, over three hundred head of Black Angus milled from water troughs to feeding on the hay spread on the ground.
This was usually the last stop for these cattle before being herded to the slaughterhouse in Delta. Unlike non-organic ranches that crammed the cattle into feed lots and stuffed them with corn to fatten them up, this wide valley offered plenty of room to move around and graze.
Burke rode beside her. He pointed to a fat boulder near the south side of the field. “Interesting rock formation.”
“
La Rana,
” she said. “The frog. When I was a girl, I thought
La Rana
watched over the cattle at night and croaked really loud to chase away predators.”
“A protector frog. Nice.”
She regarded the herd with pride. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”
“Not the word that springs to mind when I think of a nine-hundred-pound steer.”
“Don’t you dare say fat.” She bristled. “These guys are so healthy.”
“When I think of beauty,” he said, “I think of you.”
Taken aback, she met his gaze. His dark brown eyes warmed her, melting her attempt to be cool. Without saying another word, he seemed to be telling her that last night had meant something more to him, too.
But they were busy people with full, active lives and tons of responsibility. She couldn’t possibly think of settling down. Still, the idea of sharing her hectic life with Burke held a certain appeal. She imagined coming home after work and finding him waiting with a glass of Chardonnay. What would it be like to go on an actual date? Or to make love in an actual bed?
He urged his horse forward, leaving her gaping behind him. She took a moment to tamp down her fantasies, then tapped her heel against Elvis’s flank. Her big brown horse happily sped up, bringing her even with Burke.
“About last night,” she said, “I want you to know—”
“Not now,” he interrupted.
His abrupt manner shouldn’t have surprised her. By now she knew that Burke was a man whose action agenda easily outweighed his sensitivity. “Burke, I have something to say.”
“So do I.” The heat from his gaze poured over her like hot
fudge on a sundae. “There’s a hell of a lot to say, but now isn’t the time. We need to keep focused on the kidnapping.”
“Fine,” she responded with as much gumption as she could dredge up while her insides liquefied into a gooey mass of desire. “Here’s a point of focus. Why did you leave Lucas in the room when you played the tape of Nicole?”
“You think he’s the traitor?”
She hadn’t clearly stated her suspicion. Even now she was hesitant to accuse. “It’s possible.”
“You didn’t want to say anything in front of him,” Burke said. “That’s why you didn’t mention Nicole’s hand gestures. She made another Circle M.”
“Pointing at Logan. Again.”
“I agree that Logan is probably our culprit,” Burke said, “but there’s something bothering me. We got ransom calls from two different kidnappers with requests for two different amounts. I have a nasty feeling that Butch and Richter might have taken Nicole and split off from the SOF to make their own big score.”
“Any evidence?” she asked.
“Nothing. Corelli has been listening to the bug I placed in Logan’s office nonstop. He hasn’t mentioned Nicole once.”
At this point, the trail went uphill through thick forest and rocky terrain. They went single file with Carolyn in the lead. She hadn’t been in this backcountry for years, and the land had changed, as it always did. Rock formations stayed pretty much the same, but the forest was always different. During the last few years, they’d lost a lot of trees to pine beetles. Whole hillsides had to be clear-cut. Later, they’d be replanted.
She picked her route carefully, relying on an internal compass. Figuring out directions had always been easy for her. Her father once said that he could drop her in the middle of a forest at midnight and she’d find her way home by morning.
Even with the sun almost directly overhead, she sensed that they were moving south and west.
If only life could be so easily navigated.
She paused at a high point on a ridge and waited for Burke and the deputies to ride up beside her. She pointed. “Over there. Do you see the sunlight hitting that jagged formation? Cathedral Rocks. That’s where we’re headed.”
“Nice work,” one of the deputies commented. “If I’d been leading the way, we would’ve been lost.”
“When we get closer,” Burke said, “it wouldn’t hurt to be extra alert.”
The two men nodded. One of them pulled his rifle from a scabbard attached to his saddle.
For the second time in as many days, Carolyn was on a mission with Burke where she was the only person without firepower.
Next time, I’ll be armed.
“You boys go first,” Burke said. “I’ll hang back with Carolyn.”
As the deputies went around them, Carolyn gave a sharp tug on her horse’s reins to hold him back. Elvis didn’t like being in the rear.
The deputies in their brown uniform jackets rode carefully down a steep incline while Burke watched. Sitting straight in his saddle, he seemed suddenly alert. “This isn’t your property anymore.”
“It’s National Forest.”
He gave a nod. “You go first.”
At the bottom of the craggy slope, they merged with the Indian Trail that led through the mountains. A dried-up creek bed sat on their left. On their right was a hillside of loose gravel. Compared to the narrow path they’d taken over the ridge, the Indian Trail was like a super highway with plenty of room to ride side by side.
“I can see why they’d use this route for smuggling,” Burke said. “You could almost drive a truck through here.”
“Not in the higher elevations. It’s rugged. Crossing the pass isn’t for sissies.”
“When do you usually get snow around here?”
Supposedly, they couldn’t mention last night because they needed to keep focus. But he was talking about the weather. The weather? She shot a ferocious glare in his direction and reined Elvis to a halt. “I refuse to go through a snowfall report. We need to talk about last night. About us.”
“Not now.” His gaze rested on her for a moment, then slid away. He was scanning the hillsides.
“What are you looking for?”
“Trouble,” he said.
“Search no more. I’m sitting right here beside you. And I have a truckload of trouble to unload on your head.” She paused for breath. “In the first place, I don’t want you to think that I’m the kind of woman who tumbles into bed at a moment’s notice.”
“Why would I think that?”
She didn’t stop to explain that she’d known him for only a day before they were making love on the floor in her brother’s office. “Secondly, I don’t expect any sort of commitment. I’m not looking to get married or anything.”
“Carolyn, I don’t—”
“Furthermore,” she said, “last night was amazing. We have some kind of connection. I can’t explain it.”
“Then don’t.” He maneuvered his horse beside her and held out his hand. “Lean over here and kiss me.”
“As if that will make everything all right?”
“You know it will.”
She reached toward his hand. Before she could grasp it, he turned his head sharply. “Carolyn, get down.”
She heard the gunfire. Then a thud.
She was hit.
Her breath was gone. It felt like all the air had been squeezed out of her lungs.
Breathe, damn it.
She gulped frantically but couldn’t get air. She was losing consciousness. She slumped. Her feet came out of the stirrups. Falling, falling…
Burke was there. He caught her before she hit the ground. Ducking behind Elvis, he cradled her against him.
A throbbing pain spread from her chest to every part of her body. She’d been shot. If she hadn’t been wearing the bulletproof vest, she’d be dead.
She sucked down a gasp of air, then another. Her arms and legs regained strength, but she wasn’t able to stand on her own.
Burke yelled to the deputies. “Sniper. In the trees. Straight ahead.”
Dazed, she leaned against him as he used his cell phone to summon the chopper. Using Elvis as a shield, he dragged her to the edge of the trail. Behind a boulder, they found shelter.
Her pain began to subside. Pressed against the rock, she looked up at him.
He had saved her life.
Burke held Carolyn close, protecting her with his body in case there was another shooter behind them. He pulled off his Cubs cap and rose up to look over the flat boulder where they were hiding. In his right hand, he held his gun, ready to return fire. He couldn’t attack. There was no effective way to aim at the sniper perched on the hillside and keep Carolyn safe at the same time.
He knew where the shooter was. At the moment he’d been leaning toward Carolyn for a kiss, he’d caught a glimpse in his peripheral vision: the sharp reflection of sunlight on a rifle scope. But he’d been too late to do anything more than shout a warning.
Farther up the trail, the deputies returned fire. He hoped they could keep the sniper pinned down until the chopper arrived.
Carolyn moved in his arms. “Where’s Elvis? And your horse?”
Burke looked over his shoulder. Both horses were gone. He didn’t see the mounts the deputies had been riding. “They took off. They’re safe.”
“Let me up, Burke. I’m okay. I just had the wind knocked out of me.”
He held her even tighter. Their Kevlar vests bumped against each other. “The chopper’s going to be here in a minute.”
“I can handle this. I’m okay.”
He looked down into her anxious face. “Lie still and let me keep you safe. You don’t have to prove anything to me.”
Her green eyes flashed. “You’re right. The only person I have to prove anything to…is me. I never thought of it that way before, but it’s true.”
He wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but he was glad to hear her speaking. When she toppled from her horse and he thought she’d been seriously wounded, his world stopped. She’d almost gotten killed, and it was his fault. “I never should have put you in danger.”
“You saved my life,” she said. “If I hadn’t been wearing this vest, I’d be dead.”
“I shouldn’t have brought you here.”
After last night, when she’d been so effective in rescuing Sunny, he’d made the mistake of thinking that she was as experienced as Smith or Silverman. Using her as a guide through the mountains broke FBI protocol. She was a civilian, someone who shouldn’t be placed in the line of fire.
She wriggled her arm free and touched the place on the vest where she’d been hit. “I was shot. I’m going to have a giant bruise. Otherwise, I’m fine. It’s kind of amazing really.”
“You’re amazing,” he said.
An exchange of gunfire between the deputies and the sniper distracted him. He peeked over the edge of the boulder they were hiding behind. The two deputies seemed to be doing a good job.
“Logan must really hate me,” she said. “Do you think he’s the sniper?”
“Is he a good shot?”
“Not really. He probably sent one of his men to do his dirty work.”
He lay back down beside her, aware of the possibility that another of Logan’s men had moved into position behind them. At any given moment, Burke could be shot in the back, and he didn’t want to die—didn’t want to go until he told her. “About last night…”
“Now you’re ready to talk?”
“Here’s how I feel. You said you wanted me to know you’re not a bimbo who sleeps around. The thought never entered my mind. You’re a smart, principled woman. Different from anyone—male or female—that I’ve ever known. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to you. I can’t figure you out. You challenge me in a good way. And I want to be with you. You can call that a bond or kismet or fate. I don’t know what it is. I’m not one for analyzing. I just know it’s there. It’s real.”
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Gently, he wiped it away. “You said you weren’t ready to get married. You’re probably right about that. It might be too soon. But I want you to know that I’m not afraid of commitment.”
“I’m not afraid, either,” she said.
Pressed against the boulder, they held each other. Her legs twined with his. In the midst of danger, he felt at peace. He’d rather be here with Carolyn than anywhere else.
He heard the
thunk-thunk
of the helicopter rotors and looked up.
The chopper couldn’t land in this canyon, but the hovering bird made an effective predator as it swooped down. There was more gunfire. More shouts from the deputies. A bullhorn voice from the chopper shouted an order to put down the weapon and raise both hands.
Carolyn looked up at him. “What’s happening?”
“We’re being rescued.”
He rose to a crouch and peeked over the boulder.
The deputies were waving their arms. Coming toward Burke and Carolyn, they called out, “They got him.”
Burke stood. On the far hillside, he saw a man standing with his arms raised over his head. Even at this distance, he knew it wasn’t Logan; he wasn’t blond.
One man from the chopper aimed a rifle at their quarry. Another descended on a rope to make the arrest. Impressive work.
Carolyn stood and leaned against his chest.
They were safe. For now.
T
WO HOURS LATER
, Carolyn had been evacuated from the Indian Trail. Elvis and all the other horses were safely tucked away in the stable. She’d been checked by a medic who told her that she was okay, apart from a bad bruise above her right breast. The medic gave her pain meds and suggested she go back to bed. Though she’d taken his advice, she couldn’t sleep. Her mind whirled, remembering what had happened and trying to imagine what would come next.
She couldn’t stop thinking about Burke. Instead of wondering whether or not he felt anything for her, she accepted him at his word. They had something special. And it might lead to a commitment between them. Joyful warmth flowed through her veins and she immediately felt guilty.
Nicole was still in danger. Jesse Longbridge was still unconscious in the hospital. The Carlisle Ranch was under siege. Not to mention the fact that Logan wanted her dead. In the middle of this disaster, how could she be happy?
She threw off the covers, climbed out of bed and got dressed. The pain medications were making her dizzy, and her bruise still throbbed, but she had to do something. It wasn’t
in her nature to lie back and let someone else take responsibility.
Completely dressed except for her boots, she heard a tap on her door. “Come in. I’m decent.”
Burke stepped through her bedroom door and closed it behind him. His smile sparked those irrelevant happy feelings that she’d almost squelched.
“Too bad you’re decent,” he said. “I was hoping for a sexy lace negligee.”
“Not at the ranch.” She couldn’t help smiling back. “All my classy nightwear is at my condo in Denver.”
“Can’t wait to see it.”
He lived in Denver, too. That was his full-time residence when he wasn’t on assignment. “What part of town do you live in?”
“I’ve got a duplex in Capitol Hill. You?”
“A condo. Twelfth floor. Downtown.”
They lived less than five miles apart. They probably went to the same restaurants, shopped at the same stores, walked past each other on the street. But they had to come all the way to Carlisle Ranch to meet.
He sat on a burgundy upholstered chair beside her trophy case. “I wanted to give you an update.”
She’d been thinking about something far more sensual, but Burke had gone into his get-things-done mode. Instead of stretching out on the bed, she perched on a chair opposite him and shoved her feet into her boots. “I’m ready.”
“The sniper’s name is Wesley Tindall. He’s former military—and that’s where he learned to shoot. We’re holding him in FBI custody.”
She touched the bruise below her shoulder. “Was he the guy who shot out the window of your van?”
“Don’t know. He’s not talking. Hasn’t said anything about Nicole, either.”
“So, basically, he’s not much use.”
“Except that he won’t be riding with Logan when they go to pick up their big shipment. He’s down a man. And that’s good news for us.”
“Why?”
“On Monday night, when Logan and his men go to pick up the shipment, they’ll leave the Circle M with fewer guards than usual. That’s when we’ll make our move. We’ll go in, get the women and children out. And search for Nicole.”
She liked the way that sounded. If Sunny was any indication, there would be plenty of other women who were ready to leave the SOF. “I want to be a part of that action.”
“No.”
“But some of the women know me. I can talk to them.”
“This isn’t up for negotiation.” He stood. “I almost lost you today. I won’t put you in danger again.”
She rose from her chair to face him. “That’s my choice.”
“I’m in charge here, Carolyn. It’s my job.”
But she didn’t want to sit on the sidelines. “I’ll be careful.”
“We were careful today,” he reminded her. “We went the long way around to avoid being seen.”
Which brought up a question she hadn’t considered before. “Why was Tindall there?”
“It wasn’t an ambush,” Burke said. “If Logan had been planning to trap us, there would have been more men. I think Tindall was posted as a lookout on the Indian Trail. It was our bad luck to run into him.”
“Why did he shoot?”
“My guess? Logan has put out a bounty on you. He wants revenge. That’s a damn good reason why you’re not going to be involved in any more action.”
“You make a good argument,” she conceded. “But I still think I could—”
“No.” He closed the distance between them in three quick strides. Reaching out, he caressed her shoulder. His hand came to rest behind her neck, and he held her so she couldn’t look away from him. “Today, when I thought I’d lost you, my heart broke. If anything happened to you, I couldn’t live with myself.”
His tone struck a chord within her. “If I’m not there at your side,” she said, “who’s going to protect you?”
“I’ll manage.”
He kissed her hard, silencing her objections. Her body fit perfectly with his. Every contour matched. In his arms, she felt soft and feminine.
Just as quickly as he’d kissed her, he stepped back. “I wasn’t planning to do that.”
“I don’t mind.” She rested the flat of her palm against his solid, muscular chest. “Not a bit.”
He caught her hand, brushed his lips against her knuckles. “There’s more.”
“I’m listening.” She flopped on the bed, wishing that she was wearing a sexy negligee instead of jeans and boots.
“The sheriff’s deputies finally got to do a forensic workup inside the cave. They found some fibers that look like they’d purposely been pulled from a sweater. The color matches the sweater Nicole was wearing when she was kidnapped.”
“She was at the cave,” Carolyn said. “Leaving us another clue.”
“Here’s the timeline I’ve got figured out,” he said. “Nicole was grabbed at the creek by two guys associated with the SOF. They took her to the Circle M. Logan must have realized that there was a search underway.”
“Right,” she said, “my brother and his posse going door-to-door and asking questions.”
“They had to get her out of there. Logan’s men—Butch Thurgood and Pete Richter—took her to the cave, planning to wait until the search died down. The next day or late that night, he knew the FBI was involved. There’d be choppers and surveillance. The cave wasn’t safe.”
“So he had her brought back to the SOF compound,” she said. “That’s why Nicole keeps giving us Circle M clues.”
Though he nodded, he didn’t look convinced. It seemed like a lot of shuffling around. “Another alternative is that Butch and Richter took off with her. That would explain the second ransom call. They’re trying to work their own angle.”
She frowned. “If Nicole isn’t at the Circle M, why would she give these clues and why
wouldn’t
Logan let us search?”
“Because the place is loaded with illegal weapons and drugs. He can’t allow an FBI search.”
Carolyn wasn’t sure if she preferred thinking of Nicole being with Logan or with his men. From what Sunny had told them, Pete Richter was mean.
“Tonight,” Burke said, “we’re going to excavate the grave site Sunny told us about. Chopper surveillance found a mound of earth near the pines.”
This time, Carolyn didn’t ask if she could come along. Digging up the remains of Barbara Ayers wasn’t a mission she wanted to be part of. “Be careful, Burke.”