Yellowstone Romance Series - Bundle (# 2-5) (98 page)

Jana’s sense of time disappeared as she worked, concentrating on keeping the bow turning quickly. Her arms began to ache from the constant motion, and from pushing down hard on the bow. When she almost gave up hope, a small wisp of gray smoke swirled slowly into the air beside the deepening groove she had created in the bark. With renewed vigor, she kept sawing.

Finally, more smoke became visible, and she hastily tipped the bark onto her prepared bundle of tinder, causing the hot char she had created with the motion to fall onto the fur and parched grasses. The dry fine fur hairs ignited instantly, and Jana let out a yell of triumph. Bending over, she blew air onto the tinder, and hungry flames sprung to life, licking at her kindling.

Controlling the impulse to add wood too quickly, she chose the smallest branches first, adding more as her fire grew. With a loud spitting and crackling, her campfire lit up her darkening surroundings, casting the trees in ominous shadows. She sat back on her haunches, and breathed a sigh of relief. Fire meant life. It could make the difference between whether she would survive this night or perish.

With a loud sigh, she added a few larger chunks of wood to the blaze, and headed for the stream for one final drink. If anything, it would give her empty belly a feeling of fullness. When she returned, she stood for a moment, staring up at the ever-darkening night sky. Millions of stars twinkled overhead, brighter than anything she had ever seen. Shivering, she crawled into her shelter, and slipped into another shirt. Bunching up the rest of the clothing, she curled into a fetal position, using the bundle as a pillow. The ground was hard, and coldness seeped up into her limbs, even though the flames from the fire created an ambient warmth throughout the little cavern.

Jana stared wide-eyed at the dancing flames. Sleep refused to come, even though her body was physically exhausted from her day-long hike. The events of this morning kept playing over and over in her mind. Who was that man Dan had been arguing with? And how had he gotten hold of the time travel device in the first place? Why had Dan left it lying around so carelessly?

Dan. Where was he now? Had he also time traveled? And if so, why hadn’t they arrived at the same place? She imagined his strong arms around her, holding her, keeping her safe. The fire’s flames became a blur as tears filled her eyes. Jana had no idea what the morning would bring. She angrily swiped at her eyes and sniffed. She’d simply keep moving in a southerly direction. That’s all she could do. How long she could last before succumbing to the terrain, the elements, or the wild animals, she had no idea.

Her lids grew heavy, and Jana stopped fighting her weariness. Almost relaxed, the out-of-place sound of something moving in the brush in the darkness startled her fully awake. Listening for the sound again, she was sure it hadn’t simply been the popping of burning wood. A tree branch on the ground snapped. Something was definitely moving beyond the light of the fire.

With a trembling hand, Jana reached for a large branch from her wood pile. She didn’t believe for a second it would protect her from anything, but if a bear or wolf came at her, she wanted to get at least one swing at it before she became the predator’s dinner. A large shadow moved into her line of vision, and with a pounding heart, she bolted upright, her stick held out in front of her.

Chapter 9

“Jana?” A deep voice came from beyond the darkness. Jana’s heart leapt into her throat. She recognized that voice instantly.

“Dan,” she called, and scrambled from her shelter. She tossed the stick she clutched in her hand to the ground. “Oh my God! Dan,” she cried. The tears flowed freely in relief, and her entire body shook as she threw herself at the solid form of the man emerging into the fire’s circle of light.

“Jana,” he whispered, his breath hot against her ear. He crushed her to him. “You scared the hell out of me when I couldn’t find you. I didn’t know if you were alive or not.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him as if her life depended on it. She gave a short laugh between her sobs. Heck, her life did depend on it. Her body flooded with a feeling of relief. Everything would be okay now. Mere minutes ago she thought she might not live to see another day. Now, her world seemed whole again.

“I’m so glad I finally found you,” he said close to her ear, his lips in her hair. He drew in a long, deep breath while his hands caressed her back.

“You knew I was here?” she asked, finally relinquishing her death grip from around his neck. She pulled her head back, straining to see his face in the darkness. The moving light from the flames distorted his features, but his dark eyes gazed down at her, filled with concern.

“I found your tracks hours ago to the north of here,” he said. “At first I thought I was alone, that you’d been left behind. I felt your hand on my arm just before we traveled, but I wasn’t sure if it would have been enough to bring you along with me.”

“So why did we end up in separate places?” she asked.

Dan scoffed. “I don’t know. Someone is toying with us, it seems.” His teeth gleamed in the darkness when he smiled down at her. He released his hold around her middle, and cupped her face between his hands, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. Jana closed her eyes for a moment, savoring his touch. Before she opened them again, Dan’s lips were on her mouth.

For a split second, Jana stiffened, but then she remembered her decision from the night before. She would give this a chance. Slowly, she responded to his kiss, her lips moving against his. Heat suffused her body as she gave herself to the increasing demands of his lips. Dan’s fingers raked through her hair, one hand cupping the back of her head. Jana’s hold around his neck tightened, and she opened her mouth to his probing tongue.

Abruptly, Dan ended the kiss, and released his hold on her head. Breathing hard, he leaned his forehead against hers.

“Jana,” he whispered. His hands framed her face again.

“It’s okay,” she squeaked, trying to find her voice. “I thought about what you said yesterday.” She laughed softly, her pulse pounding in her lips in the aftermath of Dan’s kiss.

He leaned back and tilted her head up. The sincere warmth and caring in his eyes took her breath away. “I’m just glad that you’re okay,” he said, clearing his throat.  Smiling broadly at her, he stepped away and reached for her hands. He gave them a light squeeze. “I can’t believe we ended up in Lamar. I was sure we’d be somewhere near the canyon.”

“Me, too,” Jana whispered. She raked her teeth over her lower lip, trying to dispel the beating of her pulse there. “What do we do now? Getting to Madison from here is going to take a miracle.”

Dan’s eyebrows rose, and he glanced from her to the fire near their feet. “This is coming from a girl who somehow managed to produce a fire without matches or a lighter? Or did you bring those things with you?”

Jana smiled broadly. “I’m pretty good with a fire bow,” she said, lifting her chin.

Dan whistled. “Fire bow? Miss Evans, I’ve underestimated you. What other secrets are you hiding?” His last few words were spoken in a low tone, and he took a step closer. Jana sucked in her breath. He bent his head and lightly kissed her lips again.

“I’m sorry, Jana,” he said. His grip on her hands tightened. “You have no idea how worried I was about you. Before I found your footprints, I thought you were left behind with that bast . . . I didn’t know if you were okay or not.”

Dan released her hands, and slid his pack from his shoulders. “I have food,” he said, kneeling down to unzip the backpack. “In the morning, we’ll figure out the best way to get to Madison.”

Jana licked her lips. Dan’s near reference to the man in his room this morning rejuvenated all the questions that had been floating through her mind earlier.

“Who was that man?” she asked, reaching for more wood to add to the fire.

Dan halted his motion of unzipping his pack. His shoulders visibly rose and fell as he drew in a deep breath. His back was to her, when he said, “That was the park’s superintendent, John Hastings.”

Jana had heard the name before, but hearing the man’s title startled her. Why would the superintendent of Yellowstone National Park be in a seasonal ranger’s barrack?

*****

Dan clenched his jaw.
Damn!
Everything he’d feared over the last couple of days was coming to fruition. What was he supposed to tell Jana? He couldn’t keep lying to her. He couldn’t tell her the truth, either. She’d just kissed him. She said she was open to the idea of a relationship with him. Nothing else mattered to him anymore but the woman before him. He couldn’t lose her now.

When he’d woken up alone, sitting beside a stream in the vast Lamar Valley, his first thought was of Jana. For a split second, he’d been relieved when she wasn’t next to him, hoping she hadn’t traveled with him when she was nowhere to be found. Then the thought occurred to him that it was far worse for her if she was left behind. Fear for her safety in John Hastings clutches had consumed him all day. The reality that he was powerless to protect her if she was still in the future tore him up inside. 

He couldn’t begin to describe the relief that flooded him when he stumbled across the fresh tracks of someone wearing hiking boots. The telltale traction grooves in the prints from modern footwear were definitely not something an Indian or trapper would have made.  Dan had picked up his pace, determined to catch up with her quickly. She’d been heading for the forest in the distance.
Smart girl
, he remembered thinking, but he also knew that the Lamar River would present an obstacle. He hoped she hadn’t decided to try a river crossing, and was once again pleasantly surprised when she altered her course once she reached the river.

Dan cursed John Hastings again. If he hadn’t shown up this morning, all of this could have been avoided. Jana and he might still have ended up in different places coming through time, but he wouldn’t be forced to come up with an explanation to what she’d seen. He’d hoped that by leaving early in the morning, he would have avoided Hastings.

The man was crazy. What Hastings had asked him to do this morning was insanity. It went far beyond what Dan had originally agreed to.  Something he would never agree to. Even his original arrangement left a sour taste in his mouth. Now he had an entirely new problem on his hands.

Dan pulled several power bars from his pack. He had a few bags of freeze-dried backpacking food, but it was too late to cook a meal, and the odor might attract predators. If he were out backpacking, his cooking fire would be much further away from where he slept. Still squatting, he looked up over his shoulder, and handed a bar up to Jana.

“We can cook something better in the morning. I hope this’ll hold you until then.”

She quietly took what he offered. Even in the poor light, the questions in Jana’s head were written clearly on her face. He stood, bracing himself.

The power bar wrapper crinkled loudly in tune with the crackling from the fire. Jana took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. She had to be starving at this point. She’d gone an entire day without food, and completed a long day hike to boot. She’d found shelter, and created fire. Dan was convinced she could hold her own with most of the seasoned rangers he knew. His admiration for her swelled out of control. He couldn’t lose his chance with her now.

“Maybe we should leave, and rethink our strategy,” Jana finally said between bites.

“Leave?” Dan’s eyebrows rose. He reached for more wood from Jana’s pile, and added it to the fire, then peered into the dark little cavern she’d found for shelter. It was probably an abandoned bear den. Usually the bear would return come winter when it was time to hibernate, but for now, it would be unoccupied. It looked big enough to hold them both.

“We could go back to the future, and perhaps try this again,” she elaborated. “Maybe during the scuffle, the device hurled us in different directions.” She shrugged. “I’m just thinking out loud,” she mumbled as an afterthought.

Dan clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. “We can’t leave, Jana.” He stared straight at her. Her forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“Getting to Madison from here could take weeks, Dan. Maybe we should--”

“We can’t leave,” he interrupted, his voice loud and forceful, “because I don’t have the device.”

Jana stared, open-mouthed. She took a step backwards. Dan held his hand out to her, but she pulled her arm away. She shook her head in disbelief.

“I remember you reaching for it. You were trying to take it away from Hastings. You must have taken it. How else did we end up here?”

“Apparently I touched it in the right place to where it hurled us back in time. I never got the chance to actually take it from him.”

Her soft eyes turned hard, filling with anger. “Why were you so careless with that device? Why would you leave it sitting out, where someone might see it? And what was the park’s superintendent doing in your room in the first place?” Her voice grew louder and angrier with each question she threw at him. Dan ran his hand through his hair, waiting, hoping for her tirade to end quickly. Her questions were valid, and if he answered them truthfully, any chance he had with her would be lost.

“Now you’re telling me he has the device. Please say he doesn’t know what it does,” she added heatedly. Dan simply stared at her. His silence would be his answer. He never felt so small, or more like a coward. He’d made the worst mistake of his life weeks ago, and he was paying the price for it now. It would cost him the girl of his dreams, and ultimately, it might cost him his life.