Heroes In Uniform (310 page)

Conrad turned to Cooper. “So what's your take on this bear poaching, Coop? Isn't killing bears some kind of big sin against the Great Spirit or something to you Indians?”

Cooper paused, a forkful of enchilada halfway to his mouth.

“Something like that,” he said evenly. “In many Native American religions, bears represent a potent intermediary between man and God, or the Great Spirit as you called Him. A bear is a Messenger, a reflection even, of the qualities of the Great Spirit, much as scriptures or priests are in other religions.”

Conrad leaned back in his chair. “So...killing a bear is like killing a priest or burning a Bible?”

Cooper lowered his fork. “Not exactly. It's okay to kill bears as long as it is done according to the rules. The biggest sins in killing any animal are irreverence and waste.” He smiled. “But that's not exclusive to us,” he said. “Plenty of hunters the world over feel the same way, including some of you white fellas.”

Rollo chuckled.

Maggie leaned her chin on a hand. “You know, bear myths almost identical to Native American ones are found all over Scandinavia and Siberia.”

Cooper turned reluctantly toward her. “I've never heard that.”

“I'm not surprised.” Under his dour scrutiny, she took a shaky sip of her wine. “Native Americans were uprooted from their cultures within our living memory. Most people believe they're the only hunter-gatherers that ever existed. Not true.”

He crossed his arms and sent her a challenging glare. “I can feel one of your cultural lessons coming on.”

She forced a smile, ignoring his barb. “It wasn't too many generations ago we Scandinavians lived in much the same way as you Cree. My people chased the glaciers of the last ice age north, along with the animals living in its shadow. They hunted with spears, bows and arrows, just like you.” She turned to Conrad and gave him a genuine smile. “That is, until we were invaded by a foreign culture that burned down our forests in order to graze their domestic livestock.”

The small gathering erupted in laughter. Except Cooper, of course.

“So,
that's
why you're a firefighter,” Rollo said with a grin.

As they ate and chatted, it was impossible not to let Cooper's deliberate snubs affect her. How could three little words scare a man so much that his feelings and behavior changed so radically, like a switch being flipped? His arctic reserve was just plain cold-blooded.

Rising to join the others for a tour of the barn and stables, she told herself to forget the man and move on.

The thoroughbreds in Conrad's stable were gorgeous. She found it slightly easier to ignore the plummeting state of her emotions watching a groom put them through their lovely paces.

In the gigantic, rustic barn, Rollo regaled the party with stories of his adventures riding with the Bedouin while on a research trip to Yemen. Maggie hung on every word. But the whole time Rollo spoke, she saw Cooper standing with a fierce scowl on his face...for some reason transfixed by the rafters over the hayloft.

Barely Dangerous: Chapter One Hundred and Four

Coop thought he was going to be sick. If Roland Timmons told one more tall tale featuring himself as some kind of dashing desert sheikh, he would literally puke.

He had to steer the conversation back to the poaching. He wanted to solve this case and get out of Dodge. He longed to grill Conrad and Timmons, and Sally, too, for any possible clue. Sure, Gary’s transmitter would eventually trap the culprit, but Coop honestly didn't know how long he could stay sane sharing the forest with Maggie Johansen.

He glanced back up at the roof beams, and nearly groaned out loud.

When the
hell
were they going to get out of that damned barn, anyway?

As the lunch party rambled back to the table on the deck an excruciatingly long while later, a truck pulled up. Doug jumped out from one door, Justin from the other. The bed of the truck was piled high with boxes of supplies.

“Justin!” Theresa waved and ran over to the truck, embracing him.

Well, that was interesting. Coop glanced over at Maggie.
Her
focus was riveted on Doug, who was lowering the tailgate of the truck.

Coop ground his jaw. Strolling over to the truck with the rest of the group, he fell back and studied the layers of footprints covering the dirt driveway in a vain attempt to compose his chaotic emotions.

Cool. Calm. Collected
. To distract himself, he focused on counting how many different people's footprints he could spot. He'd gotten to five when, suddenly, his gaze lasered in on one of the prints.

There was something distinctly familiar about it.

Before he could stoop down to investigate, Sally gave his bicep a friendly cuff. “So, Cooper, how's the article going?” She looped her arm through his and led him up the deck steps.

Damn
.

He smiled at Sally. “Not too bad. It'll be done soon.” Sliding into his chair, he leaned back, watching Maggie. He let his gaze drift down to her belly, then back up to the glass of wine in her hand. “Rollo ever decide who he thinks is doing the poaching?” he asked Sally, who was idly watching Doug and Justin unload boxes from the truck with Maggie and Theresa looking on.

“He thinks it's Conrad, or one of his riders,” Sally said.

Surprised, Coop peered at her. “Yeah?”

Sally leaned her chin in her hand. “Conrad makes a joke of hating bears, but he can be ruthless. He's rich, and when he wants something, he's used to getting it. And he really wants those hunting restrictions lifted.”

“What do you think?” Coop did his best to block out the sight of Maggie and Theresa admiring Doug and Justin as they removed their shirts while they finished unloading the truck.

Sally shook her head. “It's not Conrad. There are easier ways for him to get what he wants than poaching a few measly bears.”

Coop gave her a penetrating look. “You mean like bribing someone on the team to skew the data?”

A smile played at Sally's lips as she met his gaze. “Maybe.” Then she looked back at the foursome by Doug's truck. “Cute couple,” she said.

Coop glared at her.

“Theresa and Justin, I mean,” she amended with a sly grin.

“I didn't know they were an item.”

“He's been out to the camp off and on all summer. But I think she's more interested than he is.”

“Lucky him,” Coop muttered. With a frown, he watched Maggie join Theresa at the deck rail, sipping wine and bantering with the two men as they lifted cartons onto a dolly.

He was floored by her utter gall. How could she be doing this to him all over again? Last night at the juke box wasn’t enough? Had she not learned it wasn’t wise to provoke him?

Oh,
hell
, no. Not again. He'd made a promise to himself, and he intended to keep it.

“Excuse me.” He rose abruptly and thanked Conrad for the delicious lunch. He needed to get out of there. Pronto.

There was just one little thing he had to take care of first.

Barely Dangerous: Chapter One Hundred and Five

Maggie reminded herself to keep a smile on her face, and keep giggling while she kept an eagle eye on the mound of boxes emerging from Doug's truck. She was
sure
there must be a carton somewhere in there marked
CHEESE
in big yellow letters. If she found it, she could tell Cooper, and—

Yeah. Well, maybe she could call Jack.

The distinctive tattoo of Cooper's cowboy boots hammered toward her on the deck.

Fabulous
. She braced herself for another round of hurt and rejection.

The ominous sound stopped only when she felt the heat of him against her backside and his warm breath in her hair. She went absolutely still, stopping herself from leaning back against him and rubbing up against his body like a damn cat.

He spun her around. The look on his face was deadly.

“Wolf, I— Oh!” She caught her breath as he grasped her arm with one hand and her wine glass with the other. “What are—”

He yanked her away from Theresa, growling a curt, “Excuse us.”

She was flabbergasted when he poured the remains of her wine over the side of the deck and left the glass teetering on the rail. “What the hell do you—”

“You've had enough to drink,” he gritted out. His arm was an iron band as it belted her shoulders and steered her out of earshot of Theresa.

“
Excuse
me?”

Was he fucking kidding? Bad enough he had been unrelentingly nasty to her since arriving, now he was telling her she couldn't have a glass of wine to help dull the pain of his heartless rejection?

Her mouth curved up bitterly. “What's the matter, Wolf? Afraid I'll get drunk and take advantage of you again?”

He pressed so close to her she could feel every hard, taut muscle on the front of his body. She tried to back away. If he thought her feelings for him would excuse this manhandling, he was in for another think.

She struggled to extract herself from his vise grip. “You needn't worry. I've no intention of—”

He cut her off and growled in her ear, “I don't want you drinking until we find out for sure.”

She squirmed indignantly. “Find out what? What an asshole you are?”

His eyes seared a path right through her. “About the baby.”

“What baby? For God’s sake, you’re making no sense.” Tears threatened just below the surface. Maybe he really had gone windigo.

“
Our
baby,” he said with deadly intensity. “The one we may have made last night.”

Wait.
What?

Shock hit her with the force of a hurricane, knocking her back onto the wooden deck railing. Her mouth gaped. She thought frantically. Last night? He could only mean the alley. But—

Oh, my God
. He
hadn't
—
They
hadn’t—

She clamped a hand over her mouth.

Oh. Crap
.

Silently, Cooper turned and stalked toward the back door.

Her hands went instinctively to her belly. Could it be true? Her eyes filling again, she looked skyward, suddenly filled with a joy she couldn't for the life of her explain. Without a shadow of a doubt, if she was pregnant, she wanted this baby. Wanted it more than she'd ever wanted anything else in the world.

Except maybe it's father.

He reached the door. All of her anguished instincts screamed at her that she must not let him go. She'd be taking an awful chance with her heart and her pride. But suddenly she was willing to gamble everything.

The screen door slammed behind him.

She lurched forward. Her suddenly firm voice cut across the deck. “
Blue Wolf Cooper, just you hold on one damned minute
.”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter One Hundred and Six

At the table, everyone looked up. Maggie flashed an apologetic smile. “Excuse me.” And flew after Cooper.

She gulped down an explosion of panic at the look he gave her when he paused to grab his Stetson from the coat rack in the hall.

She lit into him. “You cannot just blithely announce you may have gotten me pregnant, then calmly waltz off into the sunset. We have to talk about this, mister.”

“We can talk when we know something.” He yanked the front door open and disappeared through it.

She stalked after him, sticking her hands under her armpits so she wouldn’t smack the daylights out of him. Or tear her own hair out. “Why are you doing this to me? What have I done to offend you now?” she demanded, holding on by a thread.

He strode to her truck and braced himself against the cab door with straight arms. He slammed his fist against the roof with a hollow crash. The afternoon sun was blazing hot in the shimmering, cloudless sky. But it had nothing on the fire that was burning in his eyes when he turned to her. “You honestly don't know?”

She could feel the hostility pouring off him, repelling her with the power of two magnets being held together, north to north. Was that how he saw this situation? That they were being forced together against his will? She'd told him she loved him and he’d wanted to bolt, but realized he might have gotten her pregnant, so now he felt obligated to stay.

She took a deep, steadying breath, and met his eyes. Wishing, hoping, he would take her in his arms and crush his lips to hers. “Look, if this is about what I said last night—”

Instead, he waved her off and crushed his Stetson on his head. “I can't deal with all this right now. It's making me crazy.”

Gripping her truck bed with one hand, chewing on the knuckles of the other, she stood trembling, two feet away from him.
A million miles away from him
.

“And I've got a case to solve.” He started toward the Indian.

She'd lost. He was gone. Irretrievably
.

Unshed tears burned her eyes with the strength of acid, shrieking to come out. She clamped her jaw tight, biting down on her tongue to keep from crying out loud at the pain in her heart. Slowly, agonizingly, she straightened her spine and schooled her features.

“No need,” she called after him. “I know who the poacher is.”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter One Hundred and Seven

Cooper's mind was already on overload, drowning under the flood of new, totally unfamiliar emotions that coursed through him.
Grief, misery, heartache, sorrow. Hope, new life, fatherhood, love
. It took a moment for his brain to break through the morass enveloping it, and comprehend what Maggie was saying.

He whipped around. “
What
?”

“The poacher. I know who it is. Well, one of them.” She watched him uncertainly, nearly flinching under his intense stare.

Just one surprise after another, this woman.

“Is that so?” he said.

“Yes.”

He waited. Stubbornly. But she just stared at him. His temper was about to burst. “Would you care to enlighten me?”

She swallowed once. “It's Lori.”