Barely Breathing (Colorado High Country #1)

by Pamela Clare

  She turned her head away, her lips curving in a naughty smile. “Of course, you’ll pay for that. I don’t know when or how, but I’ll get my revenge.”

  He chuckled. “Sorry about the dress and the bra. I’ll have to take you shopping.”

  “The sacrifice was worth it.”

  For a time, they lay together in silence, Austin drifting toward sleep.

  Then Lexi spoke. “I told my dad what happened with Kendra.”

  Austin opened his eyes. “Yeah?”

  “He wasn’t angry, but he said she wasn’t wrong, that he doesn’t care about her or about Britta and me as much as he cared about my mom.”

  Ouch.

  “He told you that?”

  “Not in those words, but isn’t that what he meant? I was so angry I wanted to throw my stuff in the car and drive back to Chicago tonight. If it hadn’t been for you—and the audit—I probably would have.”

  She’d wanted to leave because of her father, but she’d stayed because of Austin.

  Austin liked that.

  He held her closer. “Kendra said a lot of things. I guess you can’t know for certain what he meant if he didn’t spell it out for you.”

  “I suppose that’s true.” She gave a little laugh. “He acted hurt that I’ve been spending all my time with you.”

  “So you stayed with him.”

  “I even played checkers with him. I hate that game.”

  They certainly had a strange family dynamic, but Austin wondered whether Lexi could see it the way he did. “Your father probably wouldn’t give a damn what you did with your time if he didn’t care about you. If your leaving bothered him, it’s a good sign he actually does love you.”

  She raised her head off his chest, looked up at him. “You think so?”

  “Yeah, I do. The fact that you stayed and played checkers with him even though you hate the game proves that you love him, too.”

  She rested her cheek against his chest again. “He makes me so angry.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “The people we care most about are the ones with the power to hurt us.”

  As they drifted off to sleep, Austin found himself wondering whether Lexi’s dislike for Scarlet Springs had anything to do with the town itself or whether she’d been running from her father this entire time.

  Chapter 18

  Lexi pushed her cart through Food Mart, grabbing a few things for lunch with her dad and other things to take to Austin’s for dinner tonight. She needed something that would be quick and easy for supper because Austin would be exhausted from a long work day and she would be tired from her first climbing lesson.

  Good God! Was she really going to do this?

  Yes, she was. There was no backing out now, not now that everyone on the Team—apart from Austin, of course—knew about it. She’d feel like a coward.

  “Hey, Lexi. Good to see you.”

  It took a moment for Lexi to recognize her high school English teacher, her once-dark hair now completely gray. “Hey, Mrs. Beech. I was so sorry to hear about the loss of your husband. How are you?”

  She’d already run into Rose, Conrad, and the guy with the bushy beard who ran the marijuana shop across the street from the inn, whatever his name was.

  “Oh, I’m getting along all right. I hear you and Austin Taylor are back together.”

  Did everyone know about that?

  Of course, they did. This was Scarlet.

  Mrs. Beech smiled. “I always liked him. He was such a good kid—and not hard on the eyes. You should stop by the house sometime before you head back to Chicago. I love catching up with my students—at least the ones who’ve done well. And you’ve certainly done well, haven’t you?

  “Thanks.” Lexi was touched by the invitation. “I’ll try to make it by.”

  She moved on to the produce aisle, where she picked up some organic romaine lettuce, scallions, tomatoes, and a cucumber for a quick dinner salad to go with the marinated chicken breasts she planned to make for dinner. She heard someone speaking French and looked to see Sandrine and her husband fussing over a display of table grapes, neither of them looking impressed with the fruit.

  Sandrine smiled and waved when she saw Lexi.

  Lexi waved back, then pushed her cart over to the busy deli counter, thinking of picking up some sliced turkey breast for sandwiches.

  “You again.”

  Lexi turned to find Cheyenne standing behind her in a sports bra and yoga pants, a basket on her arm, her blond hair tied up in a messy bun. “I can’t leave until I finish the work I’m doing for the Team.”

  Cheyenne stepped closer, lowered her voice. “Austin is in love with you, you know. No, he didn’t tell me that. He doesn’t have to. Your coming back here was the worst thing for him.”

  Lexi’s pulse spiked, a rush of adrenaline drowning out that last part.

  Austin wasn’t in love with her. Was he?

  Cheyenne was still talking. “Do you know how long it took him to get over you the first time? I don’t even want to think about how he’s going to feel when you run away to Chicago again.”

  Lexi fought back a surge of guilt. They hadn’t made each other any promises. They were just friends—very special friends. But she couldn’t explain that to his sister. “We are not having this conversation in the middle of Food Mart.”

  The anger faded from Cheyenne’s face, worry taking its place. “Look, I know I probably come across as a bitch. It doesn’t matter. Austin is my brother, and I don’t want to see him hurting. You—well, you’re like his personal brand of kryptonite. It was selfish of you to get involved with him again.”

  “I don’t want to do anything to hurt him. I never—”

  Cheyenne turned and walked away, leaving Lexi to stare after her.

  Austin spent a couple of hours of his Friday morning in a department meeting with the feds. Chief Deputy US Marshal Zach McBride, whom Austin had already met Monday, was there, along with a handful of suits from the FBI, the two agencies bringing Austin and the other rangers up to date on their manhunt for that bastard Ready. They hadn’t found him, and they disagreed on where he might be.

  McBride believed he was probably still somewhere in Colorado, living off the land, while the FBI seemed to think he’d moved on.

  “Why steal a hundred grand and then go live like a caveman?” Sutherland asked.

  McBride explained. “The dye pack in the money bag detonated as he was fleeing the scene. The money—if it wasn’t incinerated—is dyed bright red. Those dye packs reach about four hundred degrees to prevent thieves from pulling them out, so there’s a good chance most of the bills were burned.”

  Austin had always wondered how those things worked. “So he steals the money and ends up with nothing but red hands.”

  “That gives new meaning to the phrase ‘caught red-handed.’” Sutherland laughed at his own humor.

  Austin could tell from the weary look on McBride’s face that he’d never heard that lame-ass joke before.

  McBride went on as if he hadn’t heard. “I think it might be a good idea for your rangers to work in pairs over the next couple of weeks, especially if they’re hiking off trail or working in the backcountry. It’s your decision, of course.”

  Austin ended up riding shotgun in Hatfield’s truck, the two of them making a circuit of picnic areas to check restrooms and haul away trash before heading up to Haley Preserve, one of the county’s newer acquisitions that hadn’t yet been opened to the public. The property abutted Russey Ranch to the west. If Ready had kept moving westward after he’d fired at Austin, he would have had to cross Haley.

  They parked at the only trailhead in the park, then backtracked to a gully that separated Haley from Russey, more or less following the property line. Careful to stay clear of old mine shafts, they hiked uphill along that gully, looking for signs of human encroachment. Neither of them spoke, the sun beating down on them, Austin’s body armor stifling and heavy.

  A red-tailed
hawk circled overhead, hunting for a meal, its trademark cry unmistakable. A pissed-off Abert’s squirrel scolded them from a nearby tree. Then on the hillside across from them, something moved.

  A bear cub. No, make that two… no, three bear cubs.

  They played together near a thicket of chokecherry bushes, one up a tree, the other two rolling on the ground together.

  Austin and Hatfield shared a glance, only one question on their minds.

  Where was Mama Bear?

  Austin would bet she was napping in that thicket. He wasn’t worried that she would attack. Bears rarely attacked people, and he and Hatfield were far enough away to make that unlikely. Still, he hated to disturb her.

  They watched for a few minutes, both grinning.

  This was why Austin loved his job. Where else could he get paid to hike and watch wildlife?

  They moved westward, away from the bears, stopping when they’d gained the sandstone ridge above. To their east was Russey Ranch and the Pinnacles and to the west, the snowcapped mountains of the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

  Austin and Hatfield scanned the surrounding countryside through binoculars, trying to take advantage of the high ground.

  “Holy shit! Is that Bear?” Hatfield pointed to the southwest.

  For a moment, Austin thought Hatfield was talking about the four-legged kind. Then he saw a small cabin that sat in a clearing roughly midway between South Scarlet Creek and the Peak-to-Peak Highway. A man was hard at work splitting firewood.

  “Yep, that’s Bear.” Austin lowered the binoculars. “Shit.”

  He’d known Bear had a cabin up here somewhere. What he hadn’t realized was that Bear was homesteading on public land.

  “Think he’s got a permit to cut wood up here?” Hatfield asked.

  “Yeah, right.”

  The answer, of course, was no. Haley Preserve was just that—a preserve. No hunting, no harvesting firewood, and certainly no homesteading allowed. Austin had no choice but to report it, and once he did, the county would take action.

  Shit.

  Leaving Bear homeless was not on his wish list. But maybe if he spoke with the county attorney first, he’d be able to help Bear through this.

  “Mind if I handle this myself?” he asked.

  Hatfield shook his head. “Be my guest.”

  “Let’s keep this between us for now.”

  “You got it.”

  The two took a different route back to the vehicle, trying to cover as much of the Haley property as they could. But again they found nothing. Hot and sweaty, they checked in with dispatch, then climbed back into the sweltering vehicle and drank deeply from their canteens.

  “So what are you up to tonight?” Hatfield turned on the vehicle, started up the AC. “Want to come to my place to catch some MMA?”

  Austin shook his head. “Not tonight. I’ve got plans.”

  “Oh, yeah. Lexi. Can’t say that I blame you for choosing to spend time with her over me. How do you two know each other?”

  Austin gave Hatfield, who’d come to Scarlet Springs from Denver, the short version of the story—how he, Lexi, and Hawke had grown up here and gone to high school together and how he and Lexi had dated during their senior year.

  “That explains why she knows Hawke so well, too.” Hatfield said. “I ran into her and Hawke at …”

  He caught himself, fell silent, his flushed face getting redder.

  “Lexi and Hawke were … what?”

  He shook his head, looked away. “You didn’t hear anything from me. I didn’t say a word. Lexi will kill me. Hell, Hawke will kill me. The entire Team will kill me.”

  So Lexi and Hawke were conspiring about something, and everyone on the Team seemed to know about it but Austin.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing, man. Forget it. It was nothing.” Then he threw the vehicle into gear and started down the road.

  Austin didn’t push Hatfield, but he was sure about one thing. Whatever Hatfield had been about to tell him, it sure as hell hadn’t been nothing.

  Lexi drove to the rock gym, willing herself to quit obsessing over what Cheyenne had said to her at Food Mart and get her mind on the afternoon’s adventure. She was really going through with this. She was really going to try rock climbing.

  Eric and Sasha met her in the parking lot, and they walked inside together, Eric using one of his guest passes to cover her admission fee.

  The gym’s rock wall was easily twice as high as the wall at Knockers, climbers moving up and down it like spiders, ropes trailing after them like webs.

  What the hell was Lexi doing here?

  Sasha dug in her backpack and held something out—climbing shoes and a climbing harness. “Do you know how to put all this on?”

  Lexi felt herself blush at the sight of the harness, her mind flashing back to Austin’s homemade sex swing. “I imagine it’s pretty self-explanatory.”

  She stepped into the harness, letting Sasha adjust it to fit her wider hips and waist. Then she slipped her feet into the strange shoes. The mirror across from her gave her a glimpse of herself. She wasn’t all lean muscle like Sasha, but she couldn’t tell by looking at herself that she’d never set foot in a rock gym.

  “The first thing we’re going to do is teach you to belay,” Eric said.

  “Okay.”

  Eric led her toward the rock wall, the floor beneath their feet turning to soft padding that made her feel like she was walking on marshmallows. People called out to him and Sasha, and it was clear that they knew almost everyone there.

  When they reached the wall, he took hold of one of the free ropes and gave it a quick tug. “The routes here are top-roped. The ropes are anchored to the top of the climbing wall. When you do top-rope climbing, the person on belay stays on the floor and manages the slack, making sure the climber has enough rope to keep going but not enough to hit the ground should he or she fall.”

  “Okay.” That made sense.

  He held up an oblong metal device. “This is a grigri. You clip it onto your harness with a carabiner here.” He reached down, grabbed a loop on her harness, gave it a little tug, then handed the grigri to Sasha.

  Sasha slipped the carabiner through the loop on her own harness, then showed Lexi first how to lock the carabiner and then how to pass the climbing rope through the grigri. “Am I overwhelming you yet?”

  “Not at all.” Lexi shook her head. “Okay, just a little.”

  Sasha smiled, went over it again. “Okay? Then let’s belay.”

  Eric tied into the other end of the rope, while Sasha showed Lexi how to take up the slack by pulling the rope through the grigri with her right hand and how to let it out again by releasing the brake.

  “Is belay on?” Eric asked.

  “On belay,” Sasha replied.

  “Climbing,” Eric said.

  “Climb on.”

  Sasha belayed while Eric climbed, showing Lexi how to take up the slack as Eric climbed higher.

  “What if he falls? Won’t the rope just slide back through?”

  Sasha grinned. “Hey, Hawke, could you fall for me, please?”

  Twenty feet above them, Eric simply let go. Rather than hurtling toward the ground, he hung in mid-air, sitting in his harness as if it were a swing.

  Sasha smiled. “See? He can’t go anywhere. Are you ready to try?”

  “Sure.” Butterflies danced in Lexi’s stomach.

  Sasha shouted up to Eric. “I’m going to dirt you.”

  “Okay.”

  Sasha released the brake, holding onto the rope as it slid slowly through the grigri, lowering Eric to the floor.

  It was then Lexi noticed that everyone was watching them—okay, maybe not everyone, but almost everyone. Then she remembered that Sasha was a celebrity, one of the most famous female climbers in the world.

  “Man, that chick is lucky,” said a woman standing off to their right. “I’d pay cold, hard cash to have private lessons with Sasha Dillon.”


  “Forget Sasha Dillon,” said another. “Who’s that man she’s climbing with? He is freaking hot.”

  “That’s Eric Hawke, our fire chief. He’s on the Team, too.”

  “Hot, a badass climber, and a firefighter. I think my panties just melted.”

  Neither Sasha nor Eric seemed to hear them.

  Sasha handed Lexi the grigri. “Do you remember what to do?”

  Lexi nodded. “Please don’t let me kill anyone.”

  Sasha laughed. “Don’t worry. That’s not going to happen.”

  Austin arrived home to find Lexi’s car parked on the side of his house. He’d given her a key, figuring it would be easier for her if she didn’t have to come and go on his schedule. His job meant early mornings, and volunteering for the Team meant he could get toned out at any time. It was the first time he’d ever given a woman the key to his house, and he had to say that he liked arriving to find someone else already home—as long as that someone was Lexi.

  He found his back door unlocked, the house silent, the kitchen empty. Lexi didn’t come to greet him, and neither did Mack. The puppy wasn’t in his crate, either. “Lexi?”

  He was about to pull out his cell phone to call her when he spotted strands of red hair spilling over the end of his sofa. “Lexi?”

  He found her sound asleep, the puppy curled up at her feet. He felt that familiar hitch in his chest. He couldn’t blame her for being exhausted. Their sex life had been keeping them both up late.

  Mack opened his eyes, gave a few lazy wags of his tail in greeting.

  Austin tousled the puppy’s ears and was about to tiptoe upstairs to take a shower, when Lexi stirred, and her eyes opened.

  She smiled, reached out her hand. “Austin.”

  “Hey.” He bent down, kissed her, aware that he was sweaty and dirty. “I was about to take a shower. Keep sleeping.”

  When he came back downstairs, he found her in the kitchen, dinner already in the oven. Whatever it was, it smelled delicious. “You made dinner.”

  “I know, right?” She walked over to him, a teasing smile on her face. “Don’t get used to it. I’m not much of a domestic goddess.”