Wild Montana

by Danica Winters

Casper snorted. “I don’t know for sure, but if I had to bet, all of it is being run through the park.”

  Steel remained silent, almost as if he was digesting the information. “If that’s true,” he finally said, “then you need to do everything in your power to get to the bottom of this.”

  “Thanks, Steel. ’Preciate your time.” Casper walked toward Lex.

  “Lawrence, let me give you one more little piece of advice. These guys you’re investigating...they’re bad dudes. In the last year, we’ve heard whispers of their involvement in some revolting crimes—crimes involving women and children, even animals. These men have their own sense of right and wrong and what they consider justice. You need to be careful. They’ll stop at nothing to keep themselves out of the public eye—even if that means taking out a federal officer or his family and friends.”

  He slipped his fingers into Lex’s. Her hands were cold and she wrapped her free hand around her body in an attempt to warm herself.

  There was no way he’d let these bastards get their hands on the only person he cared about.

  “Thanks for the heads-up, Steel.”

  “Like I said, Lawrence, best of luck. Keep your head out of the sights.”

  Steel hung up, and as the phone clicked, chills ran down Casper’s spine. It wasn’t his head that he was worried about.

  He made his way over to the tow truck where the Mounties were standing around, chatting about the case. The sergeant was talking with his hands, making some point that Casper couldn’t quite hear.

  “You guys ever heard of Hells Keepers?” he said, interrupting them.

  The sergeant stopped and slowly turned. “What about ’em?”

  “So you know who they are?” Casper pressed.

  “Sure, we know. You think this is one of theirs?” He pointed toward the bike that was strapped to the flatbed and his gaze flickered to another of the officers as though he was hoping for a witness, making Casper’s internal danger meter spike.

  What did this Mountie know about the club? When Casper had mentioned the club’s name it was as if the air had charged around them and they were one spark away from an explosion. The last thing he needed was the motorcycle club finding out that they were a part of an investigation. Steel had made a point of telling him to stay out of their sightline.

  “We’re not sure,” he said, careful to avoid the full truth, but it was a fine line between getting the information they needed and raising flags. “We’re thinking it’s probably not related to the club,” he lied. “By chance, though, you heard of any of them who’ve had problems lately?”

  “Look, if you think this has anything to do with the Keepers, I would strongly recommend that you look elsewhere. Bad things happen to people who stick their noses in places they don’t belong, eh?” He looked over at Lex.

  Every hair on his arms stood straight at the poorly veiled threat. He didn’t know how the man was involved with the club, or if he was, but he couldn’t put Lex at risk.

  “We’ll drop it. No problem. I was just wondering—that’s all. The thought stops here.”

  The man visibly relaxed and he leaned against the flatbed. “Anybody ever tell you that you’re a smart man? If you were a Canadian, we’d hire you.”

  He couldn’t even fake a smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.” As he spoke, the bitter taste of bile rose from his stomach. He’d screwed up in his past. He’d made his fair share of mistakes. But unlike the men who stood in front of him, he’d never be crooked.

  Chapter Eight

  As they made the long drive back toward her cabin, Lex checked her phone. They finally hit an area with service after they came over the border and back into Montana.

  “Stop,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I got service.”

  Casper pulled the car over to the side of the road. In the distance were the snowcapped mountains of the park.

  She typed her query into the search engine: Hells Keepers + crimes.

  The pages popped up with headlines from the local newspapers. Most of the headlines were about murders and thefts, and a few talked about drug deals gone bad. They had found themselves deep in a world of crime.

  “Holy cow,” she said in a single long breath. “Do you know who these Keeper guys are?”

  Casper’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, almost like he knew exactly who they were but had been too afraid to tell her.

  “What’s going on, Casper?” she asked, dropping her phone into her lap.

  “Nothing,” he said, but his eyes were dark.

  “Don’t lie to me. What’s wrong?”

  He glanced over at her and, taking off his hat, set it on the dashboard. He ran his hands over his face and through his hair in exasperation. “I’m fine... I just think it’s going to be better if you get away from all this—this investigation.”

  “What did I do?” she asked, trying to stop the hurt from leaking out into her voice.

  All she had been trying to do for the last two days was solve this so they both could get their jobs done. Now, after a strange meeting with the Royal Canadian Mounties, she was on the outs. It didn’t make sense.

  “You didn’t do anything, Lex. I promise.” He sighed, but the sound only made her angrier and more hurt.

  Was he tired of her?

  She tried to remind herself they were only friends and maybe barely that. Sure, they had shared the kiss in the woods, but ever since they had gotten caught he had barely been able to look at her.

  “Is this because of what happened...you know, back there?” She motioned in the direction they’d come from, but she was sure he knew exactly what she was talking about.

  “Huh?”

  She gnashed her teeth, but tried to control her anger. “You know. The kiss. Whatever it was back there. Did I do something wrong?”

  He guppied, his mouth making tight “O” shapes while he searched for words.

  “I agree. What happened back there—it was a mistake,” she continued. “Won’t happen again.”

  “Lex, no. That’s not it. It’s just that—”

  “Just drop it. Let’s both agree we can’t make that kind of mistake again. We are both better off if we just get back to what we’re good at.” She thought about jumping out of the car and getting away from the tense air that simmered between them, but there was nowhere to go. They were miles away from the nearest town, which was no larger than a bar and a church. And even if she made it to one of those little rinky-dink towns, she still would need to make it home. There was no running away from this.

  “Lex, I...that wasn’t a mistake. I wanted that. I wanted you.”

  “You don’t need to try to make me feel better. It was a stupid thing to do. What were we thinking? Tomorrow I have to go back to my regular job, and next week I will be in Apgar watching the winter snowshoers. You’ll be... Where will you be? Do you even know? I mean, look, you don’t tell me anything. Anytime I ask you anything real about yourself you repel from me like I’m asking you about your deepest, darkest secrets. I don’t even know who you really are.”

  He leaned toward her and moved to take her hands, but she pulled back. “No, Casper. Don’t touch me.”

  It was almost as if her words were a branding iron. He recoiled and his face was filled with pain. Maybe she had been wrong in coming at him as she had, but she wasn’t wrong in her thinking. He hadn’t been open with her, and if he couldn’t be open he wasn’t someone she wanted in her life.

  She thought back to Travis. So much of their time together had been shrouded in secrets—late nights, unanswered phone calls and lies. He’d been cruel to her, telling her that she lived in a world built on unrealistic expectations when she asked him where he’d been or what he’d been doing. He’d never cheated on her—as far as she knew—but things between the
m had always been strained; that was, until she had started to pull away. It was strange how a man never wanted you too close until you were ready to walk out the door.

  She never wanted to be treated like that again—not by any man, not even the handsome cowboy she had started to care about over the last few days. No matter what, she had to be careful, her heart was too fragile to be given to the wrong man.

  “What do you want to know?” Casper finally asked, but there was still the same pained expression on his face.

  “I don’t want to have to force you into telling me anything. If you want me like you say you do, then you should want to talk to me. You should want to tell me your secrets—your past.”

  “It isn’t that easy, Lex.”

  “If you care about me, then it is that easy.”

  “Damn it, Lex... I’m not like you. I haven’t had an easy go of things over the last few years. My life has turned to complete crap. I lost the only job I cared about and now I’m stuck up here—at the most desolate place in the contiguous United States.”

  She prickled with anger. “You think I’ve had it easy, Casper? You think my life has been nothing but hiking and wildflowers?”

  “You know what?” Casper rebuked. “You’ve accused me of not telling you anything, but has it occurred to you that you haven’t told me anything, either? What happened between you and Travis?”

  Fury roiled in her gut at the sound of Travis’s name. “Do you really care?”

  Casper’s face softened. “No matter what you think, I do. Maybe we can’t have a relationship—since that’s not what you want—but at least maybe we can be friends.”

  A whisper of guilt filled her; his past caused him pain—he’d made that clear by attacking her and Travis’s relationship—but that didn’t mean that his past hadn’t happened or that she could be kept in the dark. Yet she couldn’t help the feeling that crept through her that told her if she kept pushing, the only thing she would achieve was making each of them more frustrated.

  If he wanted this, he would talk to her. Until then, she couldn’t risk her heart.

  “Sure,” she said. “Friends.”

  He seemed satisfied, like they had solved the problems that rested between them. Didn’t he understand that she wanted him to fight for her—even if that battle was in himself? If he was the man she wanted, he would figure it out—if not, then things weren’t meant to be. As much as she was attracted to him, as badly as she wanted to feel his kiss and fall into his arms again, she couldn’t force a relationship to happen.

  She clicked on her phone and stared down at the screen in an attempt to squelch her feelings.

  “What did you find?” he asked, clearly oblivious of the turmoil inside her.

  “These guys, these Keeper dudes, have an ongoing battle happening with the Canadian Parliament. There’s a piece here about one of them being charged with attempted murder after he went after one of the local senators.” She lifted the phone for him to see. “According to the article, the Keeper was only sentenced to three years in prison even though he managed to get a shot off on the Senator, hitting him once in the leg.”

  “Really?” Casper reached over and took the phone from her, his fingers grazing hers.

  The touch made a surge of attraction pulse through her, but she pushed the feelings aside. No matter what her body told her, she needed to focus on the investigation.

  “Look at Gabrielle Giffords,” Casper continued. “The shooter, the Loughner guy, got seven consecutive life terms in a federal prison. You can’t tell me that the Canadian government would just let some guy off with a slap on the wrist for something like that.”

  “But that’s exactly what they did.”

  Casper stared out the window. “That just doesn’t make sense... Something has to be wrong. The media would have used this shooter and what he attempted to do as propaganda to stop something like that from happening again. Why would the justice system have just let him off?”

  “What if he was meant to take a fall?”

  Casper looked over at her. “You could be right. Or he was so deep into underworld politics that they were afraid of him. Somewhere there has to be something that explains it.”

  He tapped on the screen, moving through the article.

  “From this, it looks like the guy’s legal name is Peter Kagger, but went by ‘Bug-Eye.’ He’s currently sitting in a Canadian prison.”

  She leaned close to Casper, so close that she could smell the rain and fresh air on his skin, a scent as intoxicating as his touch. She closed her eyes and took it deep into her lungs, pulling him into her like the simple action of growing closer could fix all of their problems.

  On her phone’s screen a picture caught her eye. There was a man wearing a black leather vest with patches sewn over it, who she assumed was the biker Peter Kagger, and standing next to him was a woman. Her eyes were tired and her face was taut and gaunt, merely skin stretched over bone. She looked like she had been to hell and back.

  “Who’s that woman?”

  He enlarged the picture, making the woman look even more skeletal now that she filled the screen. Her eyes were dark and filled with what looked like even darker secrets.

  “From the caption,” Casper said, “it looks like her name is Lois Trainer. They said she was a friend of Kagger’s. There’s no mention of her in the article.”

  “Wait a minute,” Alexis said, sitting back. “What do you think the connection may be?”

  “I know Kagger isn’t the guy in the woods, but with what few pieces we have to work with, I think looking into this is as good a place as any to start. If we can find this Lois Trainer, maybe she can give us a clue about anyone who has gone missing from the club.” His eyes widened and his mouth moved as if he had just remembered something. “Wait, Steel said he was going to send me a list of the women associated with the MC that the FBI has been tracking. Maybe we can pull something from that.”

  He handed her phone back to her and took out his to check his email. It was hot in her hands where he had been holding on to it. He had such passion for his work. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to talk about losing his last position—the job he truly wanted. He was a man whose self-worth was built through his work—or wherever his passion lay. And, no doubt, when his work had been stripped away, he’d lost a part of himself.

  As she looked at him, at the fine lines that were nestled around his gorgeous caramel-colored eyes, her anger at his inability to open up somewhat dissipated—though it didn’t disappear. Sometimes loving someone meant talking about the failures just as much as the triumphs. True love could only be found in moments of honesty.

  “I got it,” Casper said, his voice sounding almost breathless with excitement.

  “Huh?”

  “The woman from the picture. Lois Trainer? She’s from Columbia Falls. According to the FBI database, she’s been in and around a series of major drug deals, but there’s been no direct evidence linking her to the crimes.”

  “Do you think this is the woman we could be after? The woman from the shop?”

  He exhaled, rubbing his hand over his face as he thought. “I don’t know. I hope so, but knowing my luck, this lady probably doesn’t know anything about it—and even if she did, she wouldn’t tell us.”

  “You wanna try?” she asked, motioning toward the open road in front of them. “We can make a stop at her place. It’s out of the way, but maybe we can dig up something.”

  Was it a coincidence that this woman lived just outside the park and was connected to the gang?

  He looked over at Lex, his face was tight, making the fine lines around his eyes deepen. “It’s gonna be about two hours, and after the accident... Are you sure you want to go?”

  Was this his way to tell her that he didn’t want her in the car, or was he worried tha
t she was still mad? Maybe he wasn’t as oblivious as she had assumed.

  “What do you want? I mean, as far as you and I go, Casper?” she asked, putting him on the spot.

  “I know you think I’m being evasive, that I don’t want to open up to you, but that isn’t the truth. The truth is that I’ve never been great at relationships.”

  “Why? What do you mean?” Finally, they were getting somewhere.

  He reached over and sat his hand down softly between them, palm up, as if he wanted her to slip her fingers into his. But she wasn’t ready to forgive him. Not yet.

  “My last relationship ended just over a year ago. It was hard... Really hard...” He spoke gently, as if he were pulling memories from the deep, dark, off-limits part of his psyche. “I loved her.”

  “What happened?”

  “Her name was Elicia. She worked with me in the FBI.”

  An ache grew in her gut as she jumped to a million different conclusions, each one worse than the last.

  “She got pregnant when we were working together,” Casper continued.

  “With your baby?”

  His eyes darkened and the scowl she hated returned to his face. “She said so, but later I found out that I wasn’t the only man who she had been seeing.”

  She slowly let out her breath in an attempt to hide her surprise as pity filled her. No wonder he was so closed off, his emotions so out of reach.

  “It was hard when I found out, but truth be told, in the world of the FBI, sex can be just as powerful a weapon as any gun. Sometimes to make things happen, a person has to sacrifice themselves for the greater good—at least that’s what she told me.”

  “Did you believe her?”

  He nodded, his movement so small it was almost imperceptible. “Her job was really hard. It meant going undercover and putting herself in places where she had to make tough calls—finding herself in places where she had to have sex with random dudes. I didn’t blame her, but it definitely made things harder when...” He stopped.

  “When what?” She reached over and placed her pinky inside his hand, letting him know that she was there, present, listening—and in a simple way, thanking him for his honesty.