Barely Breathing (Colorado High Country #1)

by Pamela Clare

  Lexi nodded. “She was the one climbing with Sasha and Nicole.”

  “The sanctuary is overflowing with baby animals right now. They got a trio of bobcat kittens last week.” Austin was going to have fun with this. “If she takes in this fawn, she’s probably going to need help with feedings, maybe with the kittens, too.”

  “Bobcat kittens?” Lexi sounded as if he’d just mentioned her favorite thing ever.

  “Yeah, two females and a male. Fuzzy. Blue eyes. I just don’t know anyone who has the time—”

  “Hey, I have the time! I’ll do it. I’ll make the time. I’ll help her.”

  Austin looked over at Lexi, fighting to keep the smile off his face. “You?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You knew I’d say that. You teaser!”

  He couldn’t help but laugh.

  They arrived at the Aspen Wildlife Sanctuary ten minutes later. Winona met them in the parking lot and led them inside to an exam room, where Austin placed the dog carrier on the floor.

  Winona knelt down, looked inside, cooing to the fawn in what must have been Lakota. “We’ve got five other fawns now. Most of them are bigger than this little girl, but it will work out.”

  “What do you mean?” Lexi asked.

  “We like to raise fawns in groups so that they imprint on one another and not on people. I think they’ll welcome her.”

  Austin’s hand came to rest in the small of Lexi’s back. “I need to get rolling, but Lexi would like to stay and help if she can.”

  Winona stood, her eyes narrowing as she met Austin’s gaze. “Volunteers have to go through a screening process and then complete a six-session training course. But for special friends of Austin’s, I guess we can work something out.”

  There was a resigned tone to her voice, and Lexi knew she was only doing this for Austin’s sake. Then Lexi noticed the sign on the wall asking for donations and outlining the shelter’s expenses.

  She tore open her handbag, pulled out her checkbook, and quickly wrote a check for two thousand dollars. “I’d like to make a donation, too—you know, to help with what you do. I love animals.”

  “I can verify that.” Austin’s lips curved into a grin.

  Winona took the check, looked down at it, her dark eyebrows shooting upward in surprise. She met Lexi’s gaze. “For special friends of Austin’s who make a significant donation, we can start today.”

  “Really?” Lexi fought to control her excitement, not wanting to seem too eager. “That’s great. Thank you.”

  “Perfect.” Austin ducked down, kissed Lexi. “I’ll call you when I get off work. Leave tonight open for me.”

  The look in his eyes told her he’d make her glad if she did.

  Lexi took his hand, squeezed it. “Thanks for a terrific morning.”

  “Okay, okay, you two. Not in front of the animals,” Winona joked.

  “Thanks, Win.” Austin turned toward the door and was gone.

  Winona handed Lexi a pair of nitrile gloves. “We need to examine her. Our first priority is hydration. If she gets badly dehydrated, she’ll die.”

  “How do you do that?”

  “I’ll show you.” Winona removed the fawn from the carrier, unwrapping the blanket and letting it stand on its four spindly legs. “I pinch together a section of its skin between its shoulder blades and pull it up like this. Then, I let it go. See how the skin went down right away? That means she’s hydrated. If it had stayed up or returned to normal slowly, it would mean she needs fluids. Let’s have a look at the rest of her.”

  The fawn endured the examination with patience, its tiny tail flicking back and forth, innocent dark eyes looking at Lexi, its little cries almost breaking her heart.

  Winona looked beneath its tail, checked its ears, ran her gloved hands over its belly and legs. “I’m looking for injuries or parasites—maggots, lice, ticks.”

  “I think she’s hungry,” Lexi said.

  “Fawns are always hungry. They’ll eat until they make themselves sick.” Winona got to her feet, retrieved something from a drawer, then shut off the lights and knelt down again. “This is a Wood’s lamp. I’m checking her for ringworm now. If she has it, anyone who has held her probably has it, too.”

  “Really?” Lexi’s skin itched.

  Or maybe that was her imagination.

  “It’s relatively easy to get rid of, so don’t worry.” Winona turned on the device, which emitted a purple glow. She moved systematically over the fawn, looking through a built-in magnifying glass at the animal’s coat. “She seems healthy to me. Bear took good care of you, didn’t he, tacicala?”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It’s Lakota for ‘fawn.’” Winona got to her feet, put the light away.

  Lexi tried to repeat what she’d heard. “Dachee…”

  Winona repeated the word. “Dah-CHEE-chah-lah.”

  “Dah-CHEE-chah-lah.”

  “Not bad.” Winona tossed her gloves into the trash, then washed her hands. “Would you like to give her a bottle of goat’s milk?”

  Lexi tried not to act too excited, but—ohmygod!—feed a fawn? “I’d love to.”

  Austin headed back up the highway, his gaze resting for a moment on the empty seat beside him.

  Knock it off, idiot.

  If he missed her now when he’d just spent a night and morning with her, what was he going to do when she packed up her little car and drove back to Illinois?

  God, he was screwed.

  He put his mind back on the job, calling dispatch to let everyone know he was en route to the Pinnacles wildlife closure area at Russey Ranch, where he believed poachers had been taking deer.

  In a moment, dispatch came back at him. “Fifty-six-twenty, we’ve toned out sheriff’s deputy to meet you at the trailhead. Thirteen-oh-five.”

  A sheriff’s deputy?

  His mobile phone rang.

  It was Sutherland. “You can’t head up there with Ms. Jewell.”

  “I left her at Aspen Wildlife Sanctuary with the fawn.”

  “Oh. Good. We got word back from CSI on that backpack the shooter dropped. They found several prints. Turns out the guy who shot at you is John Charles Ready. He’s wanted for armed bank robberies in Santa Fe, Moab, and Colorado Springs. The feds have been on his trail for months.”

  So that’s why they’d toned out a deputy.

  “Are the feds involved?”

  “The FBI and marshals service have been there since this morning.”

  “Why didn’t I know about this?”

  “We’re keeping it off the radio. We don’t want to alert the bastard or bring the media down on our heads.”

  Okay, those were two good reasons.

  Sutherland went on. “The feds think he might be hiding in a cave or maybe a mine shaft.”

  “If that’s true, they’ve got their work cut out for them.”

  There were hundreds of mine shafts in these hills. Some were pits that were only a few feet deep. Some went deep.

  “The feds have a hard-on for this guy. Try not to get in their way or piss them off. And, hey, Taylor, wear your Kevlar. I noticed you weren’t wearing it last week. I don’t give a damn how hot and heavy it is.”

  “Will do.” Austin ended the call.

  He arrived in the Russey Ranch parking area to find Deputy Julia Marcs waiting for him, her service vehicle parked in the only shade. She was talking to someone—a guy from the marshals service judging from the star on his baseball cap. Austin parked, retrieved his backpack, and walked over to them.

  “Hey, Taylor.” Julia shook his hand. “They sent me in to babysit you.”

  Austin laughed. “Are you sure you can handle this? You might break a nail or something.”

  The man in the baseball cap seemed to take this ribbing in stride, a slight grin on his face. He was well over six feet, his eyes concealed behind mirrored shades. He held out his hand, gave a firm shake. “Chief Deputy US Marshal Zach McBride.”

  “Austin Ta
ylor. I’m a ranger with Forest County Parks and Open Space.” Austin quickly filled them in on what Bear had seen and his reason for coming up to Russey Ranch. “The area is closed to the public through the end of June to protect wildlife. If we’ve got poachers up there, we need to act.”

  “Mind if I tag along?” McBride asked.

  “The more, the merrier.”

  They hiked in silence up the trail, then left the trail and headed west near the place where Austin had almost been shot, contouring across the steep terrain before heading down into the valley. Soon the Pinnacles, a wall of jagged rocks spires, loomed into view. The spires served as prime nesting sites for raptors this time of year, while the valley, with its riparian habitat, offered elk and moose a quiet place to calve.

  Austin stopped to get the lay of the land, trying to figure out what Bear might have been doing and thinking of the places mule deer liked to gather. He headed toward an area known as The Meadows. “This way.”

  “What are we looking for—a mule deer head?” Julia asked.

  “At this point, there won’t be much left—perhaps just the skull.”

  Nature wasted nothing. Even the bone would eventually be eaten, gnawed away by rodents, who used it as a source of calcium.

  The afternoon waned on, the sun beating down hard from a cloudless sky. Austin was beginning to think he was wasting everyone’s time, when Julia stepped on something that broke with a distinct crack.

  Austin bent down to find the mandible of a mule deer, picked almost clean. Julia’s boot had snapped it cleanly in half. Austin took a few photos with his cell phone, slipped on some gloves and examined it. “Let’s see if we can find the rest of it.”

  After a few minutes, they’d found the key piece—the severed spine. The animal’s head had been hacked off, probably with a saw.

  “Poachers for sure.” Julia held up a broken vertebra, her hands in nitrile gloves.

  “Maybe not.” McBride pointed to something up the mountainside.

  Austin spotted it just below timberline, almost hidden by trees.

  An abandoned mine shaft.

  Lexi placed the third bobcat kitten on the scale, watching as Winona noted its weight. It mewed—a tiny sound that tugged at her heart—and tried to walk away, wobbling unsteadily on stubby legs.

  Winona picked it up, checked its teeth, then handed it to Lexi. “Look at that round belly. They’re thriving.”

  Lexi placed it gently back inside the crate near the barn cat who’d been recruited, along with her litter of four kittens, to care for the baby bobcats. “How did you know she would accept the kittens?”

  “Cats have a strong maternal instinct in the few days after they give birth. I’ve seen them adopt puppies, baby squirrels, even ducklings. We were just lucky to have her nearby, and I thought we’d give it a try.”

  So far, Lexi had fed the fawn, cleaned poop out of a half dozen raccoon cages, given fresh water to an injured fox, watched Winona feed a sick bald eagle, and patted an enormous gray wolf named Shota on its head. Shota was the unofficial sanctuary mascot and Winona’s pet—if anything that looked that untamed could possibly be called a pet. He lived in a large outdoor pen behind a tall fence, with a large dog house for shelter.

  In the span of a few hours, Lexi had come to admire Winona for her skill with the animals and for what she’d accomplished. Truth be told, she was even a little envious. Lexi didn’t know her whole story, but she’d gleaned from conversation that Winona had followed Chaska to Colorado, gone to college to become a vet, and had established this sanctuary last year—with the help of Scarlet Springs residents and some grants.

  “I think you’re doing a wonderful thing here—saving animals’ lives. It must give you so much satisfaction.”

  Winona peeled off her gloves, and knelt beside Lexi, watching as the seven kittens—three spotted-and-striped bobcat kittens and four black-and-white barn kittens—crawled over one another, mewing, in search of milk. “I was raised to believe that the lives of animals are sacred, too.”

  Lexi waited for her to say more, but she didn’t.

  Instead, she got to her feet. “It’s almost time to close up for the day. Thanks for your help. And thanks for the donation. Things are tight this time of year.”

  “I’d love to come back and help out again, but I don’t want the fact that I’m Austin’s friend or that I gave a donation to the clinic make you feel—”

  Winona’s smile cut her off. “I’d love the help. You’re good with the animals, and I can see how much you care. You can add yourself to the volunteer schedule that’s posted in the break room.”

  Lexi floated home, hardly able to believe that she’d held and fed a fawn, held baby bobcats in her hands, and patted a big wolf on the head. She couldn’t wait to tell Austin about it. She was in such a good mood she didn’t mind when her father demanded to know where she’d been all day.

  “I did a ride-along with Austin in the morning. Bear brought him an orphaned fawn, and I’ve spent the afternoon helping take care of it. I got to hold bobcat kittens, too, and I met Winona’s pet wolf, Shota. Have you ever seen him? He’s huge.”

  Her father nodded. “I saw him when she first moved to town. He was just a pup then, skittish and wild. A lot of folks are nervous about pet wolves and wolf-hybrids, but that girl seems to know what she’s doing when it comes to animals.”

  Austin hadn’t called, so Lexi cooked a quick supper—spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, and a salad—telling her father about her afternoon in detail. To her surprise, he listened, even asking questions. It was the first time since she’d been home that they’d had a friendly conversation.

  “I wonder what that mama cat’s going to do when those bobcat kittens grow to be bigger than she is,” her dad mused.

  “Winona said she hopes the cat will teach them how to hunt. She said—” Lexi’s cell phone buzzed. She drew it out of her jeans pocket, expecting it to be Austin.

  It was Vic. “Hey, Lex. I haven’t heard from you for a while. I wanted to check and see how you’re doing.”

  Lexi excused herself and stepped outside. “Things are going well. You’ll never believe what I got to do today.”

  She quickly filled Vic in on her afternoon at the wildlife sanctuary, forgetting that she’d meant to keep the time she was spending with Austin secret.

  “Wait. You went on a ride-along with him?” Her voice took on a note of suspicion. “Tell me you’re not sleeping with him.”

  Lexi’s hesitation gave her away.

  “You are, aren’t you?”

  “We’re just friends,” Lexi said, adding, “with benefits.”

  “Well here’s something that will help you forget him and remember where you belong. I bought us tickets to see Adele at the United Center on July tenth.”

  “Wow!”

  “Tickets are sold out, but some guy at work had a couple of extras. We can do Taste of Chicago that weekend and finish it with the concert.”

  “That’s fabulous.”

  “You don’t sound excited.”

  “I am!” She was—sort of.

  If she’d gotten this news a week ago, she’d have been jumping up and down. She loved Adele’s music, and she loved Taste of Chicago. She looked forward to it all year—the food, the music, the art. But now…

  She was enjoying herself here. She wasn’t ready to think about leaving.

  “You’re getting caught up in that place, aren’t you?” Vic let out an exasperated sigh. “I guess I’m going to have to fly out there.”

  Chapter 14

  It was after eight when Austin finally pulled into his driveway. It had been a long day, but a rewarding one. McBride and his team were going to find John Charles Ready, and Austin was happy to have helped in a small way. But for now, all he wanted was a shower, some food in his stomach, and Lexi.

  The moment he stepped out of his vehicle, he called her. “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  “Have you eaten?�
��

  “Yeah. I would have waited but—”

  “I’m glad you didn’t. It’s late. We had one hell of a day.”

  “I’d love to hear about it. Want company?”

  Hell, yeah, he did. “Give me ten minutes to take a shower.”

  “I’ll see you soon.”

  The soft feminine tone of her voice was like caffeine.

  Reenergized, he went inside, let Mack out to do his business, then filled the puppy’s bowls with kibble and fresh water. When Mack was settled, Austin took a shower, cool water sluicing over his skin, washing away the day’s sweat, dirt, and sunscreen. He had just stepped out of the shower when he smelled something cooking, the delicious scent making his stomach growl.

  What the… ?

  He dried off, slipped into a pair of jeans, and headed down the stairs, hair uncombed and damp, to find Lexi pulling something from the oven. She’d changed from jeans and a T-shirt to one of those sexy sundresses, her hair tied up in a messy bun.

  She set the baking sheet on top of the stove. “Spaghetti is easy to reheat in the microwave, but not garlic bread.”

  He stood there, stared. “You brought me dinner.”

  “I’m as surprised as you are.” She gave a little shrug, looking embarrassed to be caught doing something domestic. “But we had leftovers, so…”

  “I’ll never tell anyone,” Austin promised.

  She put two pieces of garlic bread on plates piled high with salad and spaghetti and set it on the table, then grabbed silverware, a napkin, and two beers from the refrigerator. “Bon appétit.”

  “Thanks.” Austin took his first bite, the sauce thick and tangy. “How did it go at the shelter?”

  While he ate, Lexi told him how she’d fed the fawn, helped weigh the bobcat kittens, and done other things around the place. Her face glowed with happiness, her eyes bright with excitement. He found himself wondering what it would be like to come home to Lexi every day, to share meals with her, to talk about each day’s ups and downs with her, to go to bed each night with her. A sense of rightness slid through him—followed by a longing so intense he lost track of what she was saying.