Backcountry Escape (Badlands Cops Book 3)

by Nicole Helm

  Their mission is clear.

  Stay low. Catch a killer.

  When Badlands ranger Felicity Harrison finds two bodies while hiking, she’s shocked to discover she’s being framed for murder. Family friend and sheriff’s deputy Gage Wyatt vows to help Felicity find the real killer. But their camping escape into the Badlands will mean facing the elements, their growing attraction and a madman who doesn’t just want Felicity framed—but silenced for good.

  “They think I have something to do with it,” Felicity said, her voice so quiet Gage almost couldn’t make out the words. “I can tell.”

  “No. You’ve been through this before. You know how it goes.” He found a loaf of bread and dropped a slice in the toaster. “They have questions they have to ask just to make sure, but—”

  “It’s the second time.” She lifted her gaze to meet his, and there was nothing timid or uncertain about her like there had been in the past. No, she was in complete control, even lost and scared. “The questions were different. And they’re right. It does. It has something to do with me. I know it does.”

  BACKCOUNTRY ESCAPE

  Nicole Helm

  Nicole Helm grew up with her nose in a book and the dream of one day becoming a writer. Luckily, after a few failed career choices, she gets to follow that dream—writing down-to-earth contemporary romance and romantic suspense. From farmers to cowboys, Midwest to the West, Nicole writes stories about people finding themselves and finding love in the process. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two sons and dreams of someday owning a barn.

  Books by Nicole Helm

  Harlequin Intrigue

  A Badlands Cops Novel

  South Dakota Showdown

  Covert Complication

  Backcountry Escape

  Carsons & Delaneys: Battle Tested

  Wyoming Cowboy Marine

  Wyoming Cowboy Sniper

  Wyoming Cowboy Ranger

  Wyoming Cowboy Bodyguard

  Carsons & Delaneys

  Wyoming Cowboy Justice

  Wyoming Cowboy Protection

  Wyoming Christmas Ransom

  Stone Cold Texas Ranger

  Stone Cold Undercover Agent

  Stone Cold Christmas Ranger

  Harlequin Superromance

  A Farmers’ Market Story

  All I Have

  All I Am

  All I Want

  Falling for the New Guy

  Too Friendly to Date

  Too Close to Resist

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Gage Wyatt—Wyatt brother, twin to Brady. Sheriff’s deputy in Valiant County, South Dakota. Crush on Felicity.

  Felicity Harrison—Park ranger at Badlands National Park. One of Duke Knight’s foster girls. Crush on Brady Wyatt.

  Brady Wyatt—Gage’s twin brother. Also a sheriff’s deputy. More serious twin.

  Ace Wyatt—The Wyatt brothers’ father. A dangerous biker gang president. Currently in jail.

  Grandma Pauline Reaves—The Wyatt brothers’ grandmother who took them in after they escaped their father’s gang.

  Michael Harrison—Felicity’s biological father. She was taken away from him as a child because he was abusive.

  Rachel Knight—Felicity’s foster sister who lives at the Knight ranch.

  Liza Dean-Wyatt—Felicity’s foster sister, married to the oldest Wyatt brother. Takes care of young half sister, Gigi.

  Jamison Wyatt—The oldest Wyatt brother.

  Cody Wyatt—Youngest Wyatt brother, married to Nina, father to Brianna.

  For the helpers.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from The Hunting Season by Janice Kay Johnson

  Chapter One

  Felicity Harrison had learned two things since coming to live with Duke and Eva Knight when she’d been just four years old, with a broken arm and black eye courtesy of her father.

  First, she loved the outdoors. She could hike for days and sleep under the stars every night given the chance. Didn’t matter the season or the weather. In her mind the winds of the South Dakota Badlands had made her, and she was part of that stark, awe-inspiring landscape.

  The second thing had taken her a little longer to figure out, but once she’d hit puberty she’d been sure.

  She was desperately, irrevocably in love with Brady Wyatt.

  Despite the fact she was nearing thirty and he’d never shown any interest in her that he didn’t show all of her foster sisters, Felicity hadn’t fully given up on the prospect that Brady might notice her at some point.

  It was possible. She had made changes in her life the past few years. Between her epic shyness and intermittent stutter, high school and college had been a bit of a disaster but she’d found her passion in parks and recreation—as much as people would laugh at her zeal for nature.

  In finding her passion at an early age, and making it her career, parks and rec had ended up being the thing that gave her some confidence. The drive to succeed had helped—or maybe forced—her to overcome some of her issues and bumps in the road.

  After years of seasonal work in the national park system, she’d finally landed her dream job as a park ranger at Badlands National Park, her home. The job had been hard and challenging, and it had changed her.

  She wasn’t the same Felicity she’d been.

  Brady hadn’t noticed yet because he was so busy. Being a police officer and EMT in Valiant County took up a lot of his time. Plus, he lived a good hour away and spent free time at his grandmother’s ranch even farther out.

  She just needed the opportunity to show him who she’d become, and surely he’d fall for her the way she’d fallen for him all those years ago.

  She daydreamed about that opportunity while she took her normal morning hike. Summer was inching its way into the mornings so she didn’t need her park jacket over her sweatshirt. It was her favorite time of year, and that put a smile on her face and pep in her step.

  The sky was a moody gray. Likely they’d have storms by afternoon, but she imagined the sky was a bright summer blue and Brady was hiking with her. He’d hold her hand and they’d talk about what birds they were hearing.

  Her fantasies about Brady were always just like that. Soft, sweet, relaxing. Brady was steady. Calm. His five brothers were wilder or edgier, even Jamison. As the oldest, Jamison was serious, and seriously noble, but there was a sharpness to him that had taken Felicity time to grow accustomed to.

  But Brady? He was even-keeled. He didn’t shout or swear. He believed in right and wrong, and he appreciated the importance of his duties as an EMT. He took care of people. Healed people.

  Calm and good and healing were definitely things she wanted in her life.

  She was so caught up in her f
antasy she almost tripped over the boot in the middle of the path.

  She regained her footing and looked down at the brown boot. It was unlaced, and the soles were caked with dirt.

  Felicity stared at it as the slow roll of cold shock spread out through her body. For a second her vision blurred and sound disappeared. She couldn’t suck in a breath. She could only stand and look at the boot.

  She’d seen this before, done this before. It was happening again.

  No.

  Her mind rejected the possibility and she managed to breathe in, let it slowly out. It was just a boot. People lost weird things on the trail all the time. Maybe it had gotten too heavy. Maybe it was broken.

  There were a million reasons. A million. Besides, it wasn’t even the same kind of boot as...the last time. This one was clearly a woman’s, if the bright pink laces were anything to go by. It was an accident. A coincidence.

  You have to check.

  She nodded to herself as if that would make her move. Make this okay. As if she could will away all the similarities to last year.

  There wouldn’t be a body this time. Couldn’t be.

  Just keep walking.

  You can’t just keep walking!

  Her mind turned over and over, reminding herself of a Felicity she didn’t like very much. She stepped purposefully away from the boot. It wouldn’t be like last year. She would turn to the right and look off the path. She would see nothing but rocks and the stray scrubby flora.

  First she looked left. Because...because she had to work up to it. There was nothing but mixed grass prairie that existed on that side of the trail. It was fine.

  The right side was where the last body had been. There wouldn’t be one. There couldn’t be one. She forced herself to turn, to take the few steps to the very edge of the trail.

  This side was rock, geological deposits that brought people to the Badlands in droves every summer. There wouldn’t be a body. Couldn’t be.

  But there was.

  She stared at the mess of limbs all at wrong angles. She stared, frozen, willing the image to disappear. The canyon to the side of the trail was narrow and deep, but you’d have to be sincerely not paying attention to fall down it, or...

  Or.

  She finally managed to squeeze her eyes shut, last year’s memories rushing back like a movie in her head. Unseeing eyes and a black beard then. Now, a woman facedown in the rock, hair moving in the wind.

  Nausea rolled through her, but she swallowed it down and tried to think. Tried to remember where and what she was.

  Don’t touch anything. Don’t touch. Don’t touch.

  She took a few stumbling steps back on the trail.

  Last time, she’d checked the body with a thought to help. Last time, she’d compromised the crime scene trying to identify the person while waiting for the cops. Last time, she’d made so many mistakes.

  Not this time.

  She nodded to herself again. This time she’d do it right. Not mess with anything. Not ruin anything.

  How could it be happening again?

  “One step at a time, Felicity. One step at a time.”

  She was calmed by the sound of her own voice, even if there was no one around she was talking to. She pulled out her phone, called the local police department and radioed her boss so he could get someone out to seal off the area.

  Then she called Brady. She couldn’t help it. When she was in trouble—when she or any of her foster sisters were in trouble—they always turned to the Wyatt boys.

  They always came, and they always helped. Because they were good men, and Brady was the best of them, in her estimation.

  When he answered, she managed to tell him what had happened, though she felt detached and as if she was speaking through dense fog. He promised she wouldn’t have to be alone.

  She tried to allow that reassurance to soothe her, but mostly she settled in to wait, hoping she wouldn’t throw up.

  * * *

  “SHE CALLED YOU,” Gage Wyatt grumbled at his brother through the phone receiver tucked between his ear and shoulder as he navigated the highway in front of him.

  Summer had turned the hills green, and the tall grass waved in the wind. Gage had always gotten a kick out of the fact that’s exactly what his ancestors would have seen when they’d arrived here by cart and horse.

  He couldn’t find amusement today as his twin brother tasked him with something he most especially did not want to do.

  “I can’t make it,” Brady lectured. “I called Tuck, but he didn’t answer. He’s likely on a case. You’re closer than Jamison, Cody and Dev—not that I’d send Dev. She needs someone there ASAP, Gage.”

  Gage swore inwardly, not sure how out of the six Wyatt brothers he was the only one available. He kept his voice light and offhanded, the Gage Wyatt special. “She’s moon-eyed over you. That’s why she called you.”

  There was only the briefest of pauses in return. “She found a body.” Brady’s tone was flat, the kind of flat his voice got when no amount of coaxing, arguing or nonchalance was going to irritate him into caving. “Another body.”

  “All right, all right,” Gage muttered. “I’m not too far off.” At least in the grand scheme of things in South Dakota. An hour, tops. “Same place?”

  “No.” Brady related where exactly in the park Felicity had stumbled across a body. Not too far from her park ranger cabin.

  She’d found another body. The same thing had happened to Felicity last year, and it was horrible, to say the least, that she was dealing with that again. Gage listened as Brady explained where he’d need to go to get to Felicity. He turned his truck around and started heading for the park while Brady spoke.

  “Be gentle with her,” Brady said. “You know Felicity.”

  “Yeah.” He did, he thought grimly as he hung up and tossed his cell phone onto the passenger seat. He knew her better than his brother did apparently.

  Felicity wasn’t the same shy wallflower she’d been growing up. Ever since she’d gotten that job at Badlands and moved home—well, closer to home—she’d been more sure of herself, more...something. He didn’t like to dwell on that considering she was so hung up on Brady.

  Who apparently didn’t even notice she’d grown up, no matter how long it had taken her.

  She’d held up really well last year when she’d found the body. It had seemed like a freak accident, and she had seemed able to handle it, especially admirable since she wasn’t used to dealing with dead bodies. As a police officer, he had dealt with quite a few, not always violent or tragic. Sometimes as simple as someone going to sleep and not waking up.

  It was part of the job, and even if it wasn’t, he’d grown up in a biker gang until his oldest brother had gotten him and Brady out when they’d been eleven. He’d seen worse there living among the Sons of the Badlands those eleven years, especially considering his father ran the group. Ace Wyatt didn’t deal in mercy—he dealt in his own warped version of justice.

  Thanks to his oldest brother, Jamison, Gage had never believed in his father’s justice. But he’d had to survive it, and the body count, before he’d had the maturity or the badge to cope with it.

  Now he had both, but no matter how much Felicity had come into her own lately, she wasn’t supposed to have to deal with dead bodies.

  Plural. The pattern here made him uneasy. It was rare park rangers found bodies when not part of a search for missing people. Rarer still to have it happen to the same ranger twice.

  She did need someone, but Gage didn’t know why Brady hadn’t called one of her foster sisters. Most of them would do better with the whole soothing and reassuring task ahead of him.

  Likely Brady had called him because he knew some of the police officers with Pennington County, and none of the Knight fosters would. They might soothe, but Gage would be able to get some answ
ers.

  Gage would get those answers for Felicity. It was the soothing and reassuring part he wasn’t so keen on. He tended to keep a hands-off policy as much as possible when it came to her.

  “Grown woman,” Gage muttered to himself, tapping his agitated fingers against the wheel as he drove. “Did this before. She’ll do it again.”

  He pressed the gas pedal a little hard.

  “Didn’t she just help save Cody and Nina’s butts?” he demanded in an imaginary argument with Brady. “She’s capable. More than.” Wasn’t that half the reason he kept his distance? Capable Felicity in love with his twin brother was dangerous to his well-being.

  He muttered to himself on the long, empty drive to the Badlands. Usually he’d marvel at the scenery. Even living here his whole life, he didn’t take for granted the rolling grassland that turned into buttes and the grand rock formations that made up the park and its surrounding areas. But he was working up a good irritated steam—mostly as a defense mechanism against Felicity in particular.

  She was moon-eyed over Brady. So it made sense that since she’d grown a spine and begun showing it off, Gage had started having a little more than friendly thoughts about her. What didn’t make sense was harboring those more-than-friendly feelings knowing full well she worshipped the ground Brady walked on.

  Who could blame her? His brothers were saints as far as he was concerned. Oh, Cody and Dev had a bit of an edge to them, but at the heart of it they were all good men.

  Then there was Brady, something better than a good man. Smartest of all of them, honorable without being hard about it. By the book and serious, yet affable enough that everyone loved Brady. He never said the wrong thing, never offered an inappropriate joke to ease the tension. If all his brothers were saints, Brady was the king saint.

  On the other hand Gage was the one who said the wrong thing for a laugh. Who didn’t take anything as earnestly as his brothers took their breakfast choices.

  Of course Felicity had a thing for Brady, and it seemed inevitable that Gage had the bad luck to be hung up on someone in love with his perfect twin.