Rocky Mountain Lawman (9 page)

Even with budget cutbacks the service still had three full-time rangers, and a half-dozen seasonal foresters. There were some volunteers, too, mostly from the forestry college, but he didn’t want to involve them. All he could really do, he decided, was tell Lucy to warn everyone to be on the lookout for anything unusual, and report it if they saw anything.

If Buddy and his new friend were converting his place into an armed camp, they might also be sending out patrols.

Why? Because that’s what a good military commander would do, and he was definitely wondering about Cap. Militia, former military, whatever, he was willing to bet the guy wanted something more than a place to hunker down if the world went to hell.

The question was what was he planning. Supplies coming in by the truckload? Craig wasn’t exactly versed on militias, but he knew for damn sure he didn’t want one in his forest unless it played by all the rules and laws.

And then there was Sky out there on her own. Hell, he probably never should have allowed that. He could just imagine her firing up and saying she was able to look after herself, and he would mostly agree. She was the one, after all, who’d insisted on having his back.

On the other hand, he’d left a buddy out there alone. What the hell had he been thinking?

Maybe his problem was he just couldn’t believe that things were getting dangerous. He certainly didn’t have any real proof of it, except for Buddy’s asinine behavior with Sky, but the uneasiness persisted and he needed to stop quashing it.

If it turned out that everything was fine, that nothing nefarious was happening, so much the better. But if he ignored his gut and something bad happened, he’d never forgive himself.

Time to be hypervigilant.

Lucy proved happy to put everyone in higher gear. Maybe she found it mostly boring to hang out at the station all day, Craig thought with mild amusement. Still, she was the one who wanted to go home every night, unlike some of the others. Something like new love, perhaps. Craig smiled inwardly. He supposed three months was too soon for a relationship to reach a state of calm.

Regardless, it wasn’t like this place was overrun with visitors. It was a forest in the purest sense of the term, a preserve for the future. It had none of the attractions of a park and it was pretty much off the beaten path. With Yellowstone a couple of hours to the north, about the only people who wandered these woods were locals who wanted to hunt or fish, or some really determined hikers seeking isolation. Or poachers. Or, he thought with a grimace, logging trucks.

He had to dodge one on his way up the road. As usual, it was moving too fast. A glance at its load told him it was carrying some fresh-cut lumber from farther north where they needed to thin out some trees that appeared unhealthy. He’d seen the devastation bark beetles alone could create so it was important to remove trees that created fertile ground for invaders. Not that they’d completely succeed. Mother Nature always managed to hold the trump card.

He passed the turnout where Sky usually parked and saw she wasn’t there. He hoped he’d find her at the cabin. Driving a little faster than he should on the loose gravel, he headed up there.

They were going to have a talk, he decided. No more half joking about REDCON Three. It was time to move up the readiness scale, if only because his gut said so.

* * *

Sky made it back to the cabin without any trouble. Once inside, she dropped the wooden bar on the door, feeling a little silly. After all, nothing had happened, she’d just had a feeling. A creepy feeling, yes, but nothing more. But that photo she’d taken was burning a hole in her mind and she desperately hoped Craig would show up.

Then she dithered about whether to light the stove. It wasn’t that cold yet, it was too early to think about cooking and she didn’t want to cook anyway until she had some idea of whether she’d be cooking for one or two.

About the only comfort she had right now was that her radio hadn’t done much but crackle with static during the day. Nothing was happening. Nothing at all.

She set up her canvas on the easel in one corner so the paint could dry more overnight, lit an oil lamp and tried to school herself to patience. Usually that wasn’t a big deal for her, but today it was blowing up into one.

She had no idea whether she was impatient because she might have news to share, or simply because she wanted to see Craig. And right at that moment she didn’t care which it was.

Finally, she forced herself to sit and wait.

* * *

Craig pulled up beside Sky’s car at the cabin, switched off the ignition and waited a moment, listening to the engine tick as it cooled down. His window was open, and the quiet of the woods was welcome. That quiet meant a lot to him, because here it was a safe quiet, and once quiet had meant danger, or worse, it hadn’t been quiet at all.

Sky emerged from the cabin, standing on the little plank stoop that served only to catch mud when the weather got messy, and something about the way she looked seemed to reach out to him like a physical touch. He forgot all about the groceries and swiftly climbed out. Her eyes seemed too big, and there was a tension in her face. A tension and something more.

That something more drew him across the distance. Without a thought for common sense or anything else, he hauled her into his arms, holding her tight, pressing her cheek to his shoulder. “Are you all right?”

No words could describe how he felt when her arms wound around his waist and squeezed.

“I’m fine, really. Just edgy.”

“Did something happen?”

“Not exactly. Well, no, nothing happened, but I have something to show you.”

His interest piqued but not enough to make him let go of her. Not yet. She felt perfect in his arms, as if she had been made to fit against him just right. He’d had girlfriends before, even a serious relationship or two, but he couldn’t escape the awareness that no woman had ever fit like this in his arms. Not once.

The feeling was so extraordinary that he totally forgot everything else. With his finger, he tipped her face up. Her blue eyes widened, then reflected a yearning that echoed his own.

That did it. Bending his head, he kissed her. His mouth barely touched her soft lips before a tsunami of hunger roared through him. Thought fell away as primal impulses took charge. A sense of amazement burst in him, almost like a firecracker, as he wondered how he could react so fast and deeply, but that went away, too, as his entire existence became focused on one thing only: Sky’s soft, warm mouth, the way it welcomed him and answered him.

His blood started to pound, his groin throbbed. Desire rapidly swept him toward a place of enchantment, where everything else ceased to exist. Any second now, he would be lost in her.

But then he sensed something. A hesitation from her. An almost tentative and uncertain quality to her kiss. It acted almost like a dousing of cold water. What was he doing? He knew she was fragile, he could hurt her by simply being careless, by plunging ahead too fast.

Hell! Catching himself with difficulty, he lifted his head and looked down at her drowsy blue eyes, and her lips, just starting to grow a little puffed from his kiss. Behind the obvious desire he saw there, he saw something else, too: fear. She was afraid, maybe of him, maybe of being hurt. He didn’t know. He just knew he couldn’t push her into something she wasn’t ready for.

So he tried a crooked smile and said huskily, “That was very nice.”

Her eyes widened a bit, but her arms had loosened, and reluctantly he let her go. She turned away quickly, leaving him to wonder what he’d done wrong. Kissing her? Or stopping? He swore inwardly and touched her arm.

She looked back and now her eyes were pinched. Crap, he had done something wrong. He wondered how the hell he could find out, but his brain was still half-thick with interrupted passion and he wasn’t feeling terribly bright. No question occurred to him that might actually glean a response without making things worse.

“Sky?” It was a question, but she didn’t answer. “I’ll get the groceries I bought.”

Her face relaxed a bit. “I bought some, too.”

“Then we might have to be little pigs tonight.”

The tightness vanished completely and she laughed. “I’m famished. I didn’t eat much today, so I may shock you.”

“I’d enjoy watching a woman with an appetite eat. Say, can I ask you something?”

She faced him fully. “Sure.”

“Why is it that when I take a woman out to dinner she pecks at her food?”

“It’s a social thing, I guess.”

“What do you do? Eat before you go out?”

A giggle escaped her. “Actually, yes.”

He just shook his head. “Don’t do that to me. I like to enjoy my food and it’s hard to do when my dinner companion is displaying anorexia.”

She laughed, and the tense moments slipped behind them, although he still didn’t have an answer to what had happened. Wires were definitely crossed somewhere.

He carted the food he’d bought inside, most of it nonperishable. Looking around he realized she had had the same idea. “We’re stocked for quite a while unless we want something fresh.”

“I didn’t start cooking because I didn’t know if you were going to be here,” she admitted.

Again he thought he sensed a hint of trepidation. Was this all about her recent breakup? He guessed it was possible.

“Actually, I’m not going to be leaving you alone, not much. I may not always be in sight, but after talking to the sheriff today...” He let it hang.

“That’s right!” She hurried to get her camera bag. “I saw something today. I hope the photo turned out all right because I think you want to see this. The viewing screen is small, though.”

She pulled out her digital camera and begin clicking some buttons. Then she held it out to him.

He peered at the two-by-three screen. The photo had been taken from quite a distance, and even the telephoto lens hadn’t been enough to make it huge. But what he thought he saw was enough to make him stiffen.

“I’ve got a laptop in my truck,” he said. “Can you hook your camera up to it?”

“Of course.”

He hurried out to get his laptop, checked to make sure he didn’t yet need to put it on the car charger, then carried it back inside. He had a pretty good idea of what he was going to see even from the tiny image on her camera, but he needed to be sure.

He powered up his computer on the rickety table and Sky hooked up her USB cable to it. Moments later the picture appeared on the screen. In the enlargement, there was no mistaking it.

A row of four men stood in a straight line at attention, and all four of them had AR-15s slung over their shoulders.

In front of them stood the unmistakable figure of Cap, as if he were running a drill.

He lit the fire in the stove, as the evening chill was beginning to penetrate the cabin, but neither of them made any move to cook immediately, other than that Craig wrapped some potatoes in foil and put them on the stove’s top. Nor did Craig say anything.

Eventually, Sky asked, “Did you get the same impression from that that I did?”

“I imagine so.” He sat on the bench, looking over toward his computer where the picture still showed, then back at her. “I need to get this to Gage. I wish I had internet out here, but I suppose it can wait until morning. No need to press the panic button yet.”

“Probably not,” she agreed quietly. “But that looks a whole lot like a militia, or at least one that’s getting started.”

He nodded. “And not at all what I would have expected from Buddy. Either I seriously misjudged that man, or this Cap guy has found a way to manipulate him.”

“But militias aren’t necessarily a problem.”

“Not necessarily. Not when they’re the kind of guys who go out on weekends and play war games in the woods. When they start building armed compounds, though, they deserve some extra scrutiny.”

“That does seem like an awful lot of firepower.”

“Yeah.” He fell silent as the two of them stood at the stove, cooking a steak and steaming some vegetables. The baked potatoes let out a hiss of steam.

“I’m not sure I timed this right,” he said eventually. “I’m used to throwing my potatoes right into my campfire.”

“We can eat in courses.”

“Yeah.” He flashed her a smile that didn’t make it all the way to his eyes.

Sky basically muddled around in her own thoughts and emotions, a mix again. This man made her want things she thought she didn’t want anymore. Then the kiss had ended so abruptly, she wondered if she had proved her ex right, that she was a lousy lover. Or if something else had made him draw back.

Then there was the whole thing going on at Buddy’s. She was no ordinary woman with ordinary instincts, not after her tour in the army, and she wondered if she was leaping to conclusions about some men who were just playing soldier. Yes, that photo made her uneasy, but really, it might just be a game.

She glanced sidelong at Craig, who was turning the steak, and wondered if he had the same questions. Right now, though, if they were going to talk, Buddy seemed like the safest subject.

That or the classification of wildflowers.

Chapter 6

S
ky wished she found Craig less appealing. She wished she knew how to kiss better because then maybe he would have kept on. Maybe she was nuts, but she felt that making love with him might turn into one of the best experiences of her life. She certainly wanted to.

But that was evidently going nowhere at all. Much as she tried to tell herself that was for the best, she couldn’t escape a sense of disappointment. On the other hand, did she want to discover that her ex had been right about her?

Not really. Sometimes delusions were good things, and believing Hector had been wrong could be a useful delusion to carry. For all she knew, it might even be true. She certainly didn’t want to learn that he had been right.

She checked the steaming veggies. “Just another minute.”

Craig stuck a fork into the potatoes. “Well, these won’t be far behind. The steak is on the edge of ready, too.”

A short time later while they ate, she decided to tell him more. “I had the feeling that I was being watched out there.”

“This afternoon?” He lifted his head to look at her.

“Yeah. Right around the time I took the photos. I tried to act like I was taking pictures of the whole valley, but that creepy feeling didn’t quit. They might have been watching me through binoculars. Or I might have imagined it.”

“You know better.” He said it firmly.

“You’re right, I do.”

“If there’s one human instinct that’s rarely wrong, it’s the sense that we’re being watched. Hell. I need to poke around and see if I can find any evidence that someone was out there with you.”

“I doubt you can find much. I didn’t see anyone or hear anything, and I was alert for it. Pine needles are so thick in those woods they don’t leave a good trail.”

“Unless someone is on horseback and the hooves scuff them. Or someone is careless.”

She pointed to the monitor. “Those guys don’t look like they’d be careless. But they were down there, not anywhere on the hill where I was, obviously.”

“That assumes they’re the only ones working with Buddy.”

She hadn’t thought of that, and her heart quickened. “You think there might be more of them?”

“I wish I knew.”

She frowned for a minute, arguing with herself. How much trouble did she want? This was supposed to be a little rest and recuperation, after all. But other instincts were kicking into high gear anyway.

“I’ll wander in the woods a bit tomorrow, like I’m looking for another vantage for painting. I’ll let you know if I see anything.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want you taking risks.”

“Craig, I was a soldier, too. I think I know something about patrolling and self-defense. I’ll be just fine. I’m not going to do anything to make anyone suspicious. Besides, I was hoping to find a ravine, something rocky and deep, to paint. I was going to be looking for that soon anyway.”

He looked as if he were about to object, but instead forked a piece of steak into his mouth and chewed hard. The steak was nowhere near tough enough to demand that kind of attention, and she almost wanted to giggle.

“You’ve got to make me some promises,” he said finally.

“Such as?”

“You won’t wander too far, you won’t go anywhere without your radio and if anything creeps you out, get the hell out.”

She couldn’t resist. “Are you going to throw me out of the forest if I don’t promise?”

“Sky...”

She laughed quietly. “You usually seem so calm, I couldn’t resist. Okay, I can promise that.” And she could. It was basic common sense.

His expression relaxed. “Sorry. I guess I’m too used to taking command. I don’t mean to underestimate your abilities. I just worry. I’m supposed to take care of the people in this forest.”

She felt herself softening, too. She liked it when his face settled into gentle, calm lines. “I won’t do anything stupid. But even if nothing else were going on, I’d be looking for a different vantage. I want something less peaceful and more energetic to paint.”

He waved to the impressionist painting sitting in the corner on her easel. “That’s not exactly pastoral. I can feel energy popping out of it.”

“Really?” She looked at the canvas and smiled. “Thanks. I wasn’t sure.”

“You can be sure. I’m no art critic, but it’s brimming with life. Wildflowers never looked so lively. And the shadows...” He thought a minute. “Somehow it feels almost haunted. Or haunting. Like the woods have spirits.”

“You just made me feel like a million dollars. That’s what I was reaching for.”

“I think you got it.” His gaze tracked back to her. “I spend so much time out here I get to feeling as if it’s all alive. As in sentient.”

She nodded slowly. “I was getting that feeling, too. As if there’s some kind of consciousness out here. Different from ours, but very real. Don’t Native Americans believe that?”

“Some do, at least, but I wouldn’t venture to speak for them all. Have you ever read about Black Elk? He was an Oglala Sioux holy man.”

“Afraid not.”

“He wrote something that struck me deeply. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it stayed with me anyway. Something about how when you cut a lodgepole pine you should always give the tree thanks for its gift.”

Sky turned that around in her head, considering all the nuances. “I like that, too. And it would be a good way to live, always thanking the earth for its blessings. We might be better caretakers.”

“I try to always keep it in mind.”

She realized she had gotten a glimpse of this man’s soul, and perhaps part of what made him seem so tranquil much of the time. For him, protecting nature wasn’t just a job. He was protecting life of all kinds, taking care of the earth, and perhaps it seemed to him that his calling was at least somewhat holy. Not exactly a religion, but sacred in a way.

She liked that. She had seen enough destruction for one lifetime, and was more than ready to consider all life sacred. Even the rocks and trees, come to that.

After they washed up, he showed her how to use the gravity shower. Even though there was a holding tank into which she could pour some stove-heated water, she had a feeling the experience would be reminiscent of a few she had had in Iraq. Pull the chain, the water would be all the wrong temp, wash fast, pull the chain again...

“Or,” he said, “you could continue to go to town anytime you want a real shower. I wouldn’t advise the streams, though. That’s really cold. But if you decide to go that route, there’s biodegradable soap and shampoo on that shelf.”

Not to mention she was beginning to wonder just who was wandering around in the woods. No, it would be the gravity shower or a trip in to her motel room. She had already paid in advance for an entire month.

Night had settled fully, and she decided to pull out her new jacket and stargaze again. The nighttime woods had a beauty all their own, one she probably couldn’t justify in paint, but one she could feel all the way to the depths of her being.

She sat on her tarp with her knees up, arms wrapped around them. A few minutes later, Craig joined her with two cups of coffee. She noticed he put a safe distance between them.

“I love sleeping in the open,” he remarked.

Well, that was a nice way of telling her she’d probably have the cabin to herself tonight. She almost sighed, then stopped herself. It was hard, she thought, to get to know somebody new. In fact, it was so hard she wondered if a lot of relationships lasted long beyond their expiration date simply because nobody wanted to go to that much trouble again.

But this was different. This was never going to amount to anything, so no effort was really required. Just take it for what it was and skip the social anxiety.

“So you’ll be going to see the sheriff in the morning? What exactly happened?”

Craig turned a little toward her, sitting cross-legged. “Well, it turns out he was right. He saw evidence that there were at least four men there beyond Buddy and his family, and it bothered him that he didn’t see them. As if they were trying to stay out of sight. And he didn’t like that guy called Cap either.”

“Sounds unanimous.”

“Apparently. Anyway, when I was out riding along one of the streams looking for obstructions, I saw something
I
didn’t like—a watchtower under construction.”

She stiffened a bit, turning her head to look right at him. “What does he need a watchtower for?”

“Exactly what I was wondering. You know, Sky, I admit I’ve only known the guy for three years, but he never struck me as the sort who’d want to build an armed camp. At least not without some reason. Being out in the middle of nowhere like this mostly obviates the reasons. You tell me how many people are likely to show up at his place if a meteor drops out of the sky. And if Yellowstone erupts, there aren’t going to be any of us around anyway.”

“What a thought!”

“It’s true. Not likely in our lifetimes, but true anyway. Regardless, this is a pretty thinly populated place. Most of the ranchers are fairly self-sufficient to begin with. You take the townspeople, and I think this would be the last place they’d come. Besides, Buddy, being a prepper, isn’t exactly advertising what he’s doing. His family has been here forever, they’ve never been really sociable from what I hear and I doubt anyone thinks of him very often if at all. The sheriff and I know he’s a prepper only because we see him so often and he’s let a few things slip.”

“So?”

“So I don’t think he’d cross a single soul’s mind if a catastrophe happened. People in town would pull together, the ranchers would hunker down and help who they could. But nobody would be on the way to Buddy’s place. I’d bet on it.”

Sky nodded and tipped her head back so she could see the stars and avoid looking at Craig. It seemed hazier tonight. She wished that haziness would encompass the man beside her, because every dang time she looked at him, the yearning blossomed anew. “I wonder if he’s considered the downside to that.”

“What do you mean?”

“If something bad happens and he needs help, nobody’s going to think of him then, either.”

Craig’s laugh echoed off some nearby tree trunks and rocks. “That’s a good point.” He reached out, clasped her hand and squeezed, then released her. She regretted the loss of his touch nearly as much as she would have regretted the loss of air to breathe. She envied him suddenly, because if he felt the same attraction, he was doing a far better job of handling it. She tried to stiffen her own spine.

She forced her thoughts back to the subject at hand. “Maybe it was just brainwashing, but the army taught me we can all do a lot more and be a lot safer in a unit. Solo actors just got into trouble or caused trouble.”

“I don’t think that’s brainwashing. I think it’s true. Humans need community to survive.”

“Says the guy who lives like a lone wolf.”

He laughed, but shook his head, hard to see in the dim starshine. “Not entirely a lone wolf. I need my compadres in the service. In fact, they’re coming in closer to help me keep an eye on this situation. Given that this is our busiest time of year, I can’t get them all, but we won’t be alone indefinitely.”

“For busy this seems awfully quiet.”

“We’ve got maybe seventy or eighty hikers out here now. I can’t be exactly sure because not everyone checks in. Regardless, there’s a whole forest to watch, not just this place, but we’ll get some help.”

She nodded, actually glad to hear that. “If we’re going to play hide-and-seek in the woods, more people will help.” Then she looked up at the heavens. “The stars seem dimmer tonight. Almost as if there’s a haze. Is it going to rain?”

“There’s none in the forecast but it’s always possible since we’re in the mountains. Weather can change fast.”

“I wish I could capture how that sky makes me feel on canvas. But for once my imagination fails me. Every mental image I get would be blah, and no way would it do justice to what I feel looking up. That sky, even with the haze, seems so deep, so big. A canvas would confine it and flatten it.”

“Maybe that’s why there are so few paintings of moonless nights.”

“Maybe so.” She shivered a little, and hugged her knees closer. It was getting a lot colder out here.

“Want to go in?”

“Not yet,” she answered. Not yet. The beauty out here was worth shivering a bit. Besides, once inside the temptation to give in to desire would simply grow.

Surprising her, he scooted over and drew her close to his side. “Maybe this will help.”

Well, of course it helped. He might as well have struck a match to her. The chill vanished in a sudden wave of internal heat. Not good, she groaned inwardly. What the hell was happening to her? She couldn’t remember having this much trouble corralling herself, even with Hector.

That thought brought her up short. Really?
Really?
She cast her mind backward, trying to remember what her initial days with Hector were like. She had certainly believed she loved him, she had found him attractive, but she honestly couldn’t remember having felt like this. That attraction had been quieter, more under her control.

It hadn’t struck her then, but it struck her now, that maybe that wasn’t such a good thing.

Think about something else. Anything. Buddy provided an immediate source of distraction.

“This militia thing,” she said. “What could they hope to accomplish? It’s not like they could take over anything. Those things never end well.”

“I guess it depends on what they want. Attention? Creating terror? I agree they won’t get very far if they try something, but how far do you have to get to create an impact?”

“True. God, I hope they’re not planning something.” Such horrors were no longer abstract for her and it was beyond the scope of her comprehension that someone would willingly choose to cause such things except with extreme provocation. What provocation did Buddy have? Of course, there was still that guy called Cap. Who knew what motives he might have?

Come to think of it, she was getting awfully sick of Buddy and she didn’t even know the guy. She had come out here for peace, quiet and the restorative benefits of painting and solitude. Instead a total stranger had walked her into something that inevitably harkened back to Iraq. She really ought to just pack up and go somewhere else.