by Nora Roberts
hunted. I don’t need to prove anything to him, certainly not to myself by going out and doing a one-on-one with a homicidal maniac.”
She went deeper into the files. “Maps. Okay, okay, we can work with this.”
She rose, cleared everything else off the coffee table. “You’ve been busy,” she said, noting he’d marked the map with incidents ascribed to Ethan Howe. “You’re trying to triangulate locations where he might have his den.”
“The sectors that seemed most likely have been searched.”
“Next to impossible to cover every square foot, especially when you’re looking for someone who knows how to move, and cover his trail. Here. We found Melinda Barrett. Nearly twelve years ago. In that case, there was no indication he’d hunted her. No signs she’d run or been chased. The signs pointed to him following her up the trail. Stalking her, maybe. Or as likely just running into her. What set him off, made him kill her?”
“If the kill wasn’t the goal, he might’ve wanted money or sex. They found some bruising on her biceps, the kind you’d get if someone gripped you hard and you tried to pull away. He knocks her back into the tree, with enough force to bash her head, open a wound. Bleeding.”
“Blood. Maybe blood was enough. The wild scents blood, it spurs them.” Lil nodded because she could see it, see how it might have been. “She fights, maybe screams, maybe insults him or his manhood in some way. He kills her—the knife, close-in, personal. If it was his first, it would have been a tremendous rush—and he was so young. A rush and a panic. Drag her off, leave her for the animals. He might have thought, probably thought, her death would be blamed on a cougar or a wolf attack.”
“The next time we can confirm he came back, it was here. The refuge.” Coop laid a finger on the map. “He made contact with you, tried to play on a shared heritage.”
“And he met Carolyn.”
“She finds him attractive, interesting, feeds his ego. And could probably tell him more about you, about the refuge. She meets a need, sex and pride, so he goes into her world. But it’s not a good fit, and she begins to see him for what he is when he’s out of his element. He follows her to Alaska, to close that door, to fulfill that need—stronger than sex—then winds his way back to you.”
“And I’m in Peru. He has to wait.”
“While he’s waiting, he comes down at night, pays at least one visit.”
“When Matt was here alone. Yes. And he disabled the camera, here. Only a few days before I was due back.”
“Because he knew you were coming back. If someone else had gone to check it out, he’d have disabled it again. Until he got you.”
“He assumed I’d come alone,” she continued. “I like to go into the hills and camp alone. I’d planned to. He’d have been able to start the game if I had done that, and he might have won it. So I owe you.”
“He probably thought he could take me out once he saw you had company. Eliminate me, take you. So I’d say we both owe countless nights on stakeouts and the ability to sleep light. Comes into camp here,” Coop continued with his attention back on the map. “Heads back to camera site here, and doubles back to camp. Then it’s to the main gate of the refuge to dump the wolf. Another pass at the refuge to let your tiger out.”
“And to some point on the Crow Peak trail where he intercepted Tyler, to here, at this point by the river where he left him. Hits the Good-win farm, which is about here. That’s a lot of ground. The majority of it’s in Spearfish, so he’s at home here. Well, me too.”
She glanced at her empty mug of coffee, wished more would magically appear. “Lots of caves,” she added. “He has to have shelter, and I don’t see him pitching a tent. He needs a den. Plenty of fish and game. His best cover, best ground would be in here.” Lil drew a circle on the map with her finger. “It would take weeks to search that many acres, that many caves and hidey-holes.”
“If you’re entertaining the idea of going up as bait to draw him out, you can forget it.”
“I entertained the idea for about two minutes. I think I could track him, or certainly have as good a chance as anyone they’ve got searching.” She rubbed the back of her neck, where the lion’s share of her stress had chosen to make camp. “And I’ve got a better chance of getting whoever’s with me killed. So no, I’m not going to be bait.”
“There should be a way to look at this and figure where he’ll go next, or where he goes when he’s done. There should be a pattern, but I don’t see it.”
She closed her eyes. “There has to be a way to goad him into coming out, to pull him into a trap instead of the other way around. But I can’t see that either.”
“Maybe you can’t see it because you’ve had enough for one day.”
“And you’d be willing to take my mind off this.”
“The thought crossed my mind.”
“In the interest of truth, I’ll admit the thought crossed mine.” She turned to him. “My mind’s pretty busy, Coop. It’s going to take some doing to distract me.”
“I think I can handle it.” Even as she reached out he rose, evading her.
“Straight upstairs, huh? I thought you might warm me up a little right here.”
“We’re not going upstairs.” He turned off the lights so only the fire glowed, then moved to her little stereo and punched the button for the CD player. Music poured out, low and soulful.
“I didn’t know I had any Percy Sledge.”
“You didn’t.” He crossed back, took her hand to bring her to her feet. “I figured it might come in handy.” He drew her in, and swayed. “We never did this much.”
“No.” She closed her eyes as Percy’s magic voice told her what a man would do when he loved a woman. “We didn’t do this much.”
“We’ll have to start.” He turned his head to brush his lips over her temple. “Like the flowers. I owe you several years worth of dances.”
She pressed her cheek to his. “We can’t get them back, Coop.”
“No, but we can fill them in.” He ran his hands, up and down, up and down the tensed, tight muscles of her back. “Some nights I’d wake up and imagine you were there, in bed beside me. Some nights it was so real I could hear you breathing, I could smell your hair. Now some nights I wake up and you’re in bed beside me, and there’s this moment of panic when I hear you breathing, when I smell your hair, that I’m imagining it.”
She squeezed her eyes tight. Was it her pain she felt, or his?
“I want you to believe in us again. In me. In this.” He drew her back until his mouth found hers. And took her under, deep and breathless while they swayed in the gold shimmer of firelight.
“Tell me you love me. Just that.”
Her heart trembled. “I do, but—”
“Just that,” he repeated, and took her under again. “Just that. Tell me.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, Lil. You can’t believe the words yet, so I’ll just keep showing you until you can.”
His hands skimmed up and down her sides. His mouth sampled and savored hers. And the heart that trembled for him began to beat for him, slow and thick.
Seduction. A soft kiss and sure hands. Easy, easy movements in golden light and velvet shadows. Quiet words whispered against her skin.
Surrender. Her body pliant against his. Her lips yielding to a gentle, patient assault. A long, long sigh of pleasure.
They lowered to the floor, kneeling, wrapped close.
Swayed there.
He drew her shirt away, then brought her hands to his lips, pressed them to her palms. Everything, he thought, she held everything he was in her hands. How could she not know?
Then he laid her palm on his heart, looked into her eyes. “It’s yours. When you’re ready to take it, to take me for what I am, it’s yours.”
He pulled her close so her hands were caught between them, and this time his mouth wasn’t gentle, wasn’t patient.
Need leaped inside her, alive and fierce, while his he
art kicked its wild beat against her palms. He tugged her jeans open, and drove her roughly up and up, drove her higher even when she cried out.
When she went limp, when it seemed she melted to the floor, he covered her with his body. Took more.
His hands and mouth stripped her, left her raw and open, weak and dazzled. Her breath sobbed out, caught on a fresh cry when he thrust into her. He gripped her hands, held tight as her fingers curled with his.
“Look at me. Look at me. Lil.”
She opened her eyes, saw his face washed in the reds and golds of firelight. Fierce and feral as that heartbeat. He plunged inside her until her vision blurred, until the slap of flesh to flesh was like music.
Until she’d given him everything.
She didn’t object when he carried her upstairs. She didn’t protest when he lay down with her and drew her close, his arms wrapped tight around her.
When he kissed her again it was like the first in the dance. Soft, sweet, seductive.
She closed her eyes and let herself dream.
IN THE MORNING, she rolled out of bed as he came out of the bath, hair still dripping.
“I thought you might sleep longer,” he said.
“Can’t. Full day.”
“Yeah, me too. Some of your people should be here in about thirty minutes, right?”
“About. That’s assuming they all remember how to work the new gate.”
He crossed to her, skimmed a thumb down her cheek. “I can wait until some of them get here.”
“I think I can handle myself alone for a half hour.”
“I’ll wait.”
“Because you’re worried about me or because you’re hoping I’ll use the time to fix you breakfast.”
“Both.” Now that thumb traced the line of her jaw. “I picked up bacon and eggs since you were out.”
“Do you ever give a passing thought to cholesterol?”
“Not when I’ve got you talked into fixing me bacon and eggs.”
“All right. I’ll slap a couple biscuits together.”
“I’ll toss a couple steaks on the grill tonight. A trade-off.”
“Sure, eggs, bacon, red meat. Screw the arteries.”
He caught her hips, levered her up for a hard good-morning kiss. “So speaks the beef farmer’s daughter.”
She headed downstairs thinking it seemed almost normal, this talk of breakfast, of dinner plans, of full days. But it wasn’t normal. Nothing was quite within that safe, normal zone.
She didn’t need the scattered clothes on her living room floor to remind her.
She swept in there first, gathered them up to shove the whole armload into her laundry room.
Once the coffee got going she heated up a pan. Leaving the bacon sizzling, she opened the back door, stepped onto the porch to breathe in the morning air.
Dawn broke in the east, bringing the hills into soft silhouettes against the first light. Higher, higher still, the last stars were going out like candles.
She scented rain. Yes, she was a farmer’s daughter, she thought. The rain would bring more wildflowers out, unfurl more leaves, and let her think about buying some plants for the compound.
Normal things.
She watched the sunrise and wondered how long he would wait. How long would he watch and wait and dream of death?
She stepped back in, closed the door. At the stove she drained bacon and broke eggs in the pan.
Normal things.
25
Tansy wasn’t wearing the ring. Lil actually felt her spirits plummet; she’d been counting on some happy news. But when Tansy rushed over to where Lil and Baby were having their morning conversation, the ring finger of her left hand was bare.
Her eyes shining with distress, Tansy threw her arms around Lil and hugged hard.
Lil said, “Um.”
“I started to call you last night. I was so upset. But then I thought you had enough to do and didn’t need me adding to it.”
“Upset? Oh, Tans.” As the plummet became a dive, all Lil could do was return Tansy’s crushing hug. “I know you can only feel what you feel, and you have to follow those feelings, but I hate that it upset you.”
“Of course it upset me.” Tansy pulled back, gave Lil a little shake. “Upset isn’t even close to the mark when my best friend’s being threatened. We’re going to start screening your e-mail as of now. In fact, we screen all e-mails.”
“E-mails?”
“Honey, did you take drugs this morning?”
“What? No! E-mails. The e-mail. Sorry, I saw you just drive up, so I didn’t think you knew about it yet.”
“Then what the hell did you think I was talking about?”
“Ah . . .” Flustered, Lil managed a weak laugh. “Got me there. I’m a little turned-around yet this morning. How did you find out so fast?”
“Farley and I ran into the sheriff last night after you called him about it. He—Willy—knew you were concerned about your parents, and wanted Farley to know what was going on. He went right home.”
“Farley went right home?”
“Of course, Farley. Lil, maybe you should lie down awhile.”
He didn’t ask her, Lil realized as Tansy checked her brow for fever. Never had the chance to ask her. “No, I’m okay. Just a lot on my mind, and I’m trying to stick to routine. I think it’ll help.”
“What did it say? No.” Tansy shook her head. “I’ll read it for myself. I should’ve told you right away everyone’s fine at your parents’. Farley called before I left this morning just to let me know.”
“I’ve talked to them, but thanks. It’s nice, you and Farley.”
“It’s weird, me and Farley. Nice and weird, I guess.” She watched as Lil picked up the bright blue ball and winged it high over the fence, into the enclosure. Baby and his companions screamed in happy competition as they gave chase. “They’re going to find him, Lil. They’ll find him soon, and this will be over.”
“I’m counting on it. Tansy, he mentioned Carolyn in the e-mail.”
“Oh.” Tansy’s dark eyes sheened. “Oh, God.”
“It sticks, right here, when I think about it.” Lil fisted a hand at her sternum. “So, routine.” She looked over to where Baby and his friends rolled and wrestled for the ball. “And comfort.”
“There’s always plenty of routine.”
“You know what I’d like, Tansy? You know what would bring that comfort?”
“A hot fudge sundae?”
“That’s a never-fail, but no. I’d like to be up there, hunting him down. I’d be comforted if I could be in the hills, tracking him.”
“No.”
“Can’t do it.” Lil shrugged, but her gaze stayed on the hills. “It would put others at risk. But it’s something else that sticks right here. That I have to wait, just wait while others go after the person responsible for all this.” She heaved out a breath. “I’m going around to check on Delilah and Boris.”
“Lil,” Tansy called after her. “You won’t do anything stupid?”
“Me? And risk losing my smart-girl status? No. Routine,” she repeated. “Just routine.”
HE HAD A PLAN, and it was sweet. He believed it had come to him in a trance vision, and convinced himself his great ancestor in the form of a cougar guided him. He’d claimed Crazy Horse as his own for so long that the connection had become truth to him. The longer he remained in the hills, the truer it became.
This plan would take care and precision, but he was not a careless hunter.
