Lone Wolfe Protector (11 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Koda hiked up the gradual incline, mindful all the while of Maggie trudging along behind. Her breathing was fairly heavy and so were her steps. He knew she wasn’t used to this kind of exertion, but she didn’t complain. Every now and then he’d look back. She’d be deep in thought, studying the ground in front of her like it was going to open up and swallow her whole.

“You doing okay?” he asked.

“Yup.” She smiled. “How much farther?”

“Not far now.” They’d been walking for forty-five minutes, and it was cold. Really cold. The mountain was steep and treacherous. Hard to hike in the best conditions. Much harder when your feet and hands were numb.

He looked around and took a deep breath. What he’d said to Maggie earlier was true. He was used to the outdoors. To this mountain in particular. He and Zane had camped here countless times as teenagers. Ara had always worried, sending them with too much food and making them promise to be careful. It was a popular area for local hunters and fisherman because the mountain came to a plateau not far from where he and Maggie were now. There was a narrow meadow there that was alive in the spring with deer, rabbits and wildflowers. Around it snaked a stream that eventually turned into a river, which led all the way to the mouth of the Pacific Ocean.

Koda and Zane were familiar with every inch of this area, and had spent some of their best boyhood days up here. He felt much more comfortable here, than in the woods around Wolfe Creek. He hated those. Always had.

“Ouch!”

Koda turned to see Maggie hopping on one foot and reached out to steady her. “What happened?”

“Twisted my ankle. Crap!”

She leaned into him and all of a sudden, the chill of the air was forgotten. She was warm and pliant, her body yielding against his. He caught the scent of her hair. Soapy, clean. No fuss. Her curls were tied into a ponytail and her face was flushed with the cold.

“Am I going to have to carry you out, young lassie?”

She laughed. “
No
. I think I can manage.”

He adjusted the pack on his shoulder and stepped away. The thought of picking her up was something he could get used to. Picking her up and carrying her to his bed, was more like it. He hadn’t touched her since the morning they’d kissed, but that one brief encounter had left him wanting more. Much more.

“Ready?”

She kept her eyes down and fidgeted with her gloves. “Ready.”

By the time they got to the meadow, it was well after nine. Maggie sat on a fallen log and wriggled out of her pack. “I’m starving,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this hungry in my life.”

Koda took his own pack off, unzipped it, and handed her a granola bar. “It’s the hiking. We’re gonna make a mountain woman out of you yet.”

She unwrapped it and took a bite. “I don’t know. I feel like a fish out of water up here.”

“I think you’re doing great. Maybe this is where you were meant to be.”

Her cheeks were rosy, her freckles standing out against her fair skin. The cold suited her.

He smiled, but she was suddenly wistful. Lowering the granola bar into her lap, she looked around.

“I can’t stop thinking about her,” she said. “I keep wondering if he brought her up here. If he hurt her here.”

“Don’t do that to yourself, Maggie.”

“I know it’s not helping. But that’s been the hardest part. Wondering what happened and filling in the blanks myself.”

Koda knelt in the dirt, elbows on his knees. “Are you really sure you want to do this? It’s not going to be easy. Are you sure it’s going to give you some peace, or is it going to make things worse?”

She twisted the wrapper between her fingers. “I need this. I know it’s going to be hard. But everything has been so far. I think it’ll give me a little peace, yes. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway.”

He nodded and slung the rifle over his shoulder. “Okay. Let’s get going, then.

“Aimee, stop fooling around. You’re scaring me.” Maggie knocked louder, this time drawing the attention of the clerk.

“Everything okay?”

Maggie’s teeth had begun to chatter. She had a bad feeling.

“I don’t know. She’s not answering. Do you have a key?”

“Right here.” After a few seconds of fumbling, he unlocked the door.

They’d been met with a blast of cold air. The small window above the toilet was wide open. Water dripped from the faucet into the rusted sink.

Aimee was gone.

“Aimee? Aimee!”

“Maybe she went outside while your car was filling up,” the clerk had said.

Maggie pushed past him and ran down the candy-bar aisle. Something was wrong. Something was really, really wrong.

She hit the front door and immediately saw the car was empty.

She’d stood in the parking lot and turned around, scanning the darkness for Aimee. Maybe she’d gotten sick? Maybe she’d needed some air? But nothing was making any sense.

The clerk had come up behind her. “Did you two have a fight?”

Maggie choked back a sob. She looked at her watch. They’d been here for close to half an hour now. “No, we didn’t have a fight.”

“Okay. Calm down. She probably just…” But he never finished his sentence. She probably just what? She probably just walked off into the woods by herself in a strange town in the middle of the night?

Maggie looked around, panicked. “I’m sorry. But this isn’t like her. Can you call the police?”

“Don’t you think we should look first?”

“No!” She’d been close to losing it. “I think we should call the police.”

He dialed 911 and they were told to wait for a deputy.

Maggie began walking in big, sweeping circles, calling Aimee’s name every few seconds. Her voice echoed into the night, but no one answered.

It had taken twenty minutes for the first deputy to arrive; a portly, middle-aged man who didn’t seem very concerned. He’d asked all kinds of questions. Did Aimee use drugs? Was she unhappy? Had they had a disagreement? Maggie shook her head to all of them.

“She’s only been gone an hour. I’m sure she’ll turn up,” he’d said.

But an hour had stretched into two. And then Maggie had to make the call to Aimee’s parents. They’d been scared to death, of course. But they’d also tried to reassure her. “It’s not your fault,” they’d said. “We’re on our way.”

But by four o’clock in the morning, Trooper McCay had been assigned to Maggie. He stood before her looking stiff and formal.

“What happened to her?” she’d asked.

“I don’t know.” He put a hand on her arm. “But we’re going to find out, okay?”

Maggie walked methodically now through the underbrush of the forest on the outskirts of the meadow. Koda was only about thirty feet away. Every now and then a twig would snap, and she’d look up to see him, a reassuring presence in the otherwise disturbing afternoon.

Then her gaze would fall again, moving over the ground just like he’d taught her. But her thoughts were far away. They belonged, like they did most of the time, to that night. Over and over again, the movie would play in her head. The horror movie with an ending that left everyone hanging.

For the last several hours, she’d walked and looked. Walked and looked. Her feet were cold; her legs ached. She wondered what it must have been like for Koda’s ancestors here. How hard it must have been. If the weather didn’t kill them, sickness would. She remembered the wedding picture hanging above the staircase at the Inn. She thought about the couple whose union had sparked such controversy, such hatred between two sets of families. And she thought about the so-called curse which followed them into the next century.
Lupus. Wolves
. One in the same? Had Wolfe Creek ever been a place of happiness? Or was it destined to be marked by tragedy and loss?

She’d lain awake the last few nights thinking about the story Koda had told her. And she’d finally decided that this legend, this incredibly tall tale, was simply a way of explaining away such tragedy. Of giving it some magical quality that it never would have had otherwise. Werewolves were something out of a mythical fairy tale. Lupus was a horrific reality.

Maggie glanced at her watch. 4:35. The sun would be setting soon, bringing dusk with it. They’d walked painstakingly around the area where the bra had been found. All day and they’d seen nothing else.

She stopped and looked around. The air was cold on her cheeks, numbing them to perfection. It was a constant reminder of that night.
Everything
was a reminder of that night. The cold, the fog, the darkness.

Koda walked up from behind and she blinked.

“Think it’s time to knock off for today,” he said.

“Okay.”

He touched the small of her back. When she leaned into him, he slid his hands up to massage her shoulders. “You all right?”

She nodded, temporarily speechless. Even though this was probably the hardest thing she’d ever done, she was grateful that Koda had brought her here. Thankful for his unexpected friendship in the midst of such pain.

Turning, she smiled. Just the simple act briefly lifted her spirits. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much.”

He looked thoughtful. Studying her in such a way that made her want to reach up and touch his face. His black hair moved in the light breeze, making it curve inward at the nape of his neck. For another few seconds they stood there, neither one looking away.

And then the last of the sun sank behind the violet mountaintops. His jaw twitched and he took a step back, as if he were afraid of what he might do next.

“I’d better get the tent set up,” he said. “It’ll be cold tonight.”

Chapter Seventeen

The fire crackled and hissed, its sparks rising into the darkness to float away like tiny orange stars in the night.

Maggie scooted close, exhausted, but content. They’d had tomato soup with saltines for dinner, and she didn’t think anything had ever tasted so good. For dessert, Koda brought out a giant Hershey bar and split it in half.

Maggie nibbled on a corner. “My
favorite.
How’d you know?”

“I didn’t. Aunt A always keeps a box of candy bars in her cupboard. I raided it before we left.”

“A woman after my own heart.”

“It’s ridiculous. We used to walk around with constant stomach aches when we were kids.”

Maggie watched the campfire dance, felt its heat on her face. The smell brought back memories of her dad taking her camping when she was little. She’d almost forgotten there had been a time when she’d liked the woods.

“You wouldn’t want to see my thighs if I had twenty-four-hour access to a box of chocolate,” she said.

“Oh, I don’t know. You could probably twist my arm.”

She laughed, but something deep inside fluttered at the words. “How do you stay looking so…”
Perfect, gorgeous, lickable…
“healthy?” she asked, managing to keep her eyes locked on his face and not his body, where they really wanted to be.

“Oh, you know.” Flexing, he kissed a biceps. “I lift.”

“Yeah?”

“No.” He took another bite of chocolate. “I’m too lazy. I do hike a lot, though. Ara made sure we grew up to appreciate the outdoors. Kind of had to, living up here.”

Maggie smiled. “Sounds like you and Zane had good childhoods.”

“We did. I don’t know what we would have done without A. Most likely would have been farmed out by the state. Foster home after foster home. That’s what happens.”

“Candi said you were babies when you came to live there?”

He nodded, staring into the fire.

“What happened to your parents?” It was direct, but at this point Maggie didn’t know any other way to be.

“My mother died during childbirth with Zane. My father was sick. He passed away a few months after she did.”

Maggie swallowed the hard, uncomfortable lump in her throat. She could almost see them as babies, dealt such a cruel hand at such a tender age. And she suddenly wanted to hug Ara. Not just hug her, but hold on to her like a little kid might. Around the middle for dear life. “I’m so sorry,” she finally said.

He shrugged. “It is what it is. We got lucky with A, for sure. She’s my mother’s sister. She raised us the best way she could, never let us forget our parents. We grew up hearing stories, seeing pictures. She did a good job.”

“She did.”
That’s an understatement
, Maggie thought, watching the man sitting across from her.
She did an amazing job
. “So you came to live with her, and then Candi did, too.”

“Yeah. Candi came when she was thirteen. She was a mess. Would have broken your heart. But she’s tough. She rose above it, and A turned out to be the mother she never had. Taught her almost everything she knows.”

“And you and Zane grew to be family, too.”

He smiled and looked up. “I guess you could say that. I grew to be family. Zane grew to be something else.”

Maggie poked at the fire with a stick, sending fresh sparks into the air. “She told me how she feels about him. Does he feel the same?”

“Their relationship is complicated. They’re very passionate, but you probably guessed that. They fight a lot. But they make up a lot, too.”

Maggie flushed. Hearing him talk about sex was having an embarrassing effect. All of a sudden, she was warmer than she should have been. She shifted and unzipped her fleece a little.

“It must have been hard on Ara,” she said, eager to change the subject. “Raising three kids on her own. Was it always just her? Was there ever anyone else?”

“Pretty much. No husband. No man, other than Jim, and he’s just a friend. He’s been working for her for a long time. He never helped out with us directly, but he’s kept the place afloat for years. Anything goes wrong, he fixes it. There’s nothing the man can’t do. Plumbing, electricity, carpentry, you name it. If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have been able to keep the Inn. My parents left it to her in their will, and I know there have been times when she’s wanted to do other things, travel, explore. But she has a deep sense of loyalty. I think she feels she’d be letting them down if she ever left.” He cocked his head to the side, cracking his neck. “Anyway, Jim’s been a godsend.”

“I’ve seen him working around the yard. I’ve never talked to him, though.”

“Don’t expect to. He’s really shy. I grew up with the guy, and I can count the number of conversations I’ve had with him on both hands.”

“The strong, silent type.”

“Yeah, and he’s crazy smart. My aunt has a lot of respect for him, and it’s not just because he’s been there for so long. She knows him better than anyone in Wolfe Creek.”

“I’m glad she has someone. Something about her being there by herself makes me sad.”

“Me, too,” he said.

They grew quiet, staring into the fire that crackled with a little less vitality now. Every few minutes an owl would hoot from somewhere in the canopy of evergreen branches above.

When Maggie looked up, Koda was watching her.

“What?”

His expression was unreadable. The firelight played over his face, making his eyes look even darker than before.

“Nothing,” he finally said, getting up and brushing off his jeans. “I’m tired. Gonna go to bed.”

Maggie glanced at the tent behind her. Army green and no frills. She knew the sleeping bags that waited inside were equally simple. But quite frankly, she didn’t think she’d ever seen anything so suggestive. She’d known that they’d be sleeping next to each other of course, but hadn’t let herself think about what that might mean. Until now.

She looked up at Koda, who stepped over the log she was sitting on without a second glance.

“What about the fire?” she asked.

“Let it burn. It won’t hurt anything and the extra heat will come in handy for a while.”

He picked up the battery-powered lantern and unzipped the tent, crouching low to step inside. Maggie eyed the yawning black mouth of the forest, which seemed somehow closer than before.

“Wait for me.” She scrambled off the log and climbed into the tent just in time to see him peeling off his gray thermal shirt. The lantern light illuminated his smooth, hard chest, where his nipples puckered like small brown stones. Maggie looked away.

“Oh…uh…” She stood up, squashing her head into the top of the tent. “Aren’t you going to be cold?”

“I can’t sleep with clothes on.”

“Oh.” She sat down awkwardly, still unable to look at him.

Tossing the shirt in the corner, he lay down and pulled the sleeping bag over his chest.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I won’t bite.”

Maggie laughed a little too quickly
.
It was like she’d never slept next to a smoking-hot, naked sheriff’s deputy before.

“Are you going to keep that jacket on?” He watched her with one arm crooked under his head, obviously amused.

“No. I… No.”

“I won’t look. Promise.”

He turned away. She waited for a second, then hesitantly unzipped her jacket. Outside the tent, the fire was dying to embers, but she could still feel its lingering heat on her skin. She fished around in her pack for the old college T-shirt and yoga pants she’d brought as pajamas and glanced at Koda again, making sure he wasn’t looking.

Heart pounding, she wrestled out of her jeans and top, almost falling onto her face more than once. Only when she was tucked securely into her sleeping bag, pj’s and all, did she take her bra off through the armhole of her shirt. She stuffed it into her pack and wriggled into the comforting down like a baby chick.

“Okay. All done. You can look now.”

Smiling, he rolled over and propped his head on his hand. “I thought you might have brought another parka to change into.”

She grinned. The sleeping bag was pulled strategically to her chin. For all he knew, she could be naked, too. The thought teased her senses. Made her warm in places she’d forgotten existed.

Her gaze dropped to his shoulders, which were angular and strong. Tawny skin stretched over lean muscle and sinew. And then she looked away. What was wrong with her? The air between them was charged. She shifted in her sleeping bag, aware of a mild throbbing between her legs. It was as if someone else were lying here next to this man. Someone with more of a right to. A woman who was more feminine and experienced. Not skinny little Margaret Sullivan with the wiry hair and crazy freckles. She was a girl. Maybe always would be. Not a woman. And she had no idea what to do with this situation that had presented itself like something out of a high school fantasy.

She closed her eyes for a second, heady with the scent of the man beside her, of the forest, of the campfire. She was conflicted. She was supposed to hate this place. Was supposed to hate everything about it. And yet, she didn’t. Part of her wanted to hate it, but she couldn’t quite muster the effort anymore. It was growing on her.
He
was growing on her, and had been since the day he’d walked through the doors of the Arrowhead Café two weeks ago.

“Hey,” he said, his voice low.

She opened her eyes to see him staring at her.

“What?” Instinctively she knew something was about to happen between them. He was too quiet. Too intent.

He reached out to smooth her hair away from her forehead. His hand was warm and rough on her skin.

“I’m proud of you,” he said.

She took him in. The curve of his mouth, his impossibly long eyelashes, the steady pulse at the base of his neck.

“Proud? Why?”

“You’re very brave. But you have to know that.”

He took his hand away, and she wanted to cry out. Wanted to beg him to put it back. But she just lay there.

“I’m not,” she said. “I’m a coward.”

“Why would you say that?”

“I never should have left that night. I never should have left without her.”

“That’s not realistic and you know it. There was nothing you could have done here.”

Maggie’s throat ached. She studied the top of the tent, the clean, crisp lines of it. “She asked me never to leave her.” She looked at Koda, trying to keep her voice steady. “In the car on the way down. She said it out of the blue.”

Frowning, he waited for her to go on.

“And I did leave. When she needed me most, I went back home.” Her eyes filled then. “I love that you say I’m brave. I want to be, but I’m not. I’m just not.”

He ran his knuckles down her cheek. “But you came back. Not many people would, and you did.”

“Are we ever going to find her?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I hope we do. Her family deserves closure. You do, too.”

“I don’t know what I deserve. Why her? Why her and not me?”

“I don’t think there has to be a reason. I think she was the one who went to use the bathroom at that exact moment, and you didn’t. I think it’s just that simple. You can’t blame yourself.”

“I know,” she said. “I know it doesn’t make any sense to feel that way. But deep down, I can’t help it.”

“You experienced a major trauma, Maggie. Even though you escaped without being hurt, doesn’t make it any less traumatic. You need to give yourself time to heal. You need to give yourself
permission
to heal. Stop punishing yourself for things that were out of your control. What happened to Aimee was the fault of whatever sick bastard took her. Not yours. Not anyone else’s.”

His face was drawn, his brows furrowed.

“How’d you get to be so smart?”

“I’ve been a cop for a while.” He smiled, relaxing a little. “They train you for this stuff.”

And then, before she had time to wonder whether or not it was a good idea, she leaned forward and kissed him. A light kiss on the side of the mouth, lingering there for just a second. Long enough to taste him. And then she pulled away, shaking her head. This would complicate things. A lot. And maybe things didn’t need to get any more complicated, no matter how much she wanted more of Koda Wolfe.
Sensible Maggie,
she could almost hear Aimee say.
What a buzz kill.

“I’m sorry. I’m—”

Before she could finish, he was kissing her back, pressing his heavy body against hers through the sleeping bag. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around his neck, basking in the feel of his hair against her bare skin. He was a good kisser. Slow, confident. He coaxed her mouth open and touched his tongue to hers.

He kissed her like that for a minute, maybe two, long enough for her to want to shed the sleeping bag completely. She wasn’t cold anymore. Far from it.

When he pulled away, she was breathing hard.

“Why would you be sorry for kissing me?” he asked, his voice husky.

“It might change things… I didn’t know if you’d want to again.”

He shoved a hand through his hair, making it stand straight up. “Are you kidding? It’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last seventy-two hours.”

“Really?”

He bent and pressed his lips to her neck. “Really.”

She exhaled slowly as he began moving south, kissing the hollow of her throat and then her collarbone, moving his lips in such a way as to coax muffled sounds from her.

He stretched the neck of her T-shirt a little and touched his open mouth to just above her breasts. Gasping, she arched her back.

“You know, I wouldn’t want to pressure a lady,” he said. “But I might be able to get to second base without this in the way.”

It was dim in the tent, but she could make out the expression on his face and it gave her butterflies. He was fantastically gorgeous. And he wanted
her.

Reaching down, she pulled her T-shirt over her head and tossed it in the corner. The night air was chilly on her exposed skin, but she barely noticed.

He dipped his head and breathed softly over one breast. She closed her eyes, feeling her nipple grow hard in response. Then he breathed over the other, before teasing it with his tongue and drawing it into his mouth. She moaned, wanting more. Needing more.