Trapped with the Woodsman

by M. S. Parker

  “The one he kept swiping from you,” she said, her voice husky. “It drove you nuts when he did that.” She sniffed before continuing, “You put it in the coffin.”

  “Yeah.” Now it was my turn to clear my throat. “He knew it drove me crazy when he took it. That’s why he did it.”

  I was surprised that I could think about it. Cass joined in, but the sound faded after just a few seconds.

  “Anyway, he basically told me what you’ve been telling me for months.”

  “That you need to quit being a dipshit and stop blaming yourself?” she suggested. The words came out thick, like she might be trying not to cry.

  “Cass…”

  “It’s okay. I’m okay,” she insisted. “Go on. Finish telling me.”

  “There’s not a whole lot to tell. He told me to get my head out of my ass, then he asked if I might have a thing for Lexi.”

  “Which, of course, you do.”

  I smiled a little at her arched tone. “Yeah. I think I’ve got a thing for her.”

  “So are you going to go after her?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I’m actually getting ready to head up to Estes Park now. A friend of mine got her address for me.”

  “Maybe she’s back at work.”

  I wanted to think that was possible, but I wasn’t about to set up any such expectations. “If she is, I’ll just track her down.”

  I was about to end the call when Cass asked, “Did she ever tell you what she needed your help with?”

  “My help?” I frowned, thinking back to her visit.

  “I guess not,” Cass said wryly. “When I ran into her at the gas station that first day, she said she was looking for you because she needed your help with something.”

  “No,” I told her, disgusted with myself. “She never mentioned anything.”

  She was too busy dragging my sorry ass out of the cold, then I was too busy dragging her excellent ass under me. I pinched the bridge of my nose as I said, “I’ll figure out what it was.”

  “Good.” She paused a moment, then added, “It’s good to see you trying to come back into the land of the living, Roman. I’ve missed you.”

  She ended the call before I could respond.

  Once more, guilt tried to well up inside me, but I shoved it down.

  I’d spent enough time wallowing in self-pity and self-loathing.

  Right now, I needed to talk to Lexi.

  She wasn’t at home. There was no vehicle in the driveway, but I knocked just to be sure.

  After giving it a minute, I knocked again.

  The house had that quiet feel of an empty home – no music playing, no lights on, no TV.

  I knocked twice more, then left.

  Maybe Cass was right. Maybe she was back at work. A part of me hoped that was the case. It would mean I hadn’t totally ruined things with her job.

  As I drove toward the park entrance, I tried to figure out the right words to use when I saw her.

  She was likely to be pissed off at me, and I couldn’t blame her.

  I couldn’t even blame her if she didn’t want to speak to me again, but I was hoping I could convince her to forgive me.

  And I wanted to know what she’d needed my help with. Once I made things right between us again, I’d find out and then we’d deal with whatever it was together.

  I got to the visitor’s center inside the park and parked the truck. On my way inside, I looked at the small crowd of people forming, eyes narrowing in on a slim female form clad in the familiar tan and green uniform of the rangers. Almost immediately, I knew it wasn’t Lexi. Disappointed, I continued on up to the visitor’s center, keeping an eye out for her.

  A few minutes later, the disappointment got even worse.

  The lady behind the counter gave me a polite smile and told me that Lexi was taking a few days off. I didn’t bother asking anymore and turned to head back outside.

  A familiar form was striding my way, his eyes on the phone he held.

  I moved to intercept him, making an attempt at a polite smile.

  Judging by the way he was looking at me, I either failed, or he was still pissed at me for putting him on the spot in front of his boss.

  “Stilwell.” I rocked back on my heels as I met his gaze.

  He just stared at me.

  “I’m trying to find Lexi. Have you seen her?”

  This elicited a smile from him, and he reached up to scratch at his chin. “Out for a booty call there, Sayers? I haven’t seen Alex. You’d have better luck–”

  I shot out a hand and grabbed him by the front of his perfectly ironed shirt. Jerking him close, I snarled, “Watch how you talk about her, you piece of shit. And for the record, her name is Lexi. You keep on trashing or using the wrong name, I’m going to rip your tongue out and tie it into a knot…while you watch.”

  He eyed me narrowly, his hands prying at my fist, but I didn’t let go until I was good and ready.

  When I did, I gave him a hard shove that sent him stumbling back more than a few feet.

  “Now…let me ask that question again. Have you seen Lexi?”

  He sneered at me. “Why should I tell you a fucking thing?”

  “For starters…” I took a menacing step toward him. “I would very much enjoy ripping your tongue out and tying it into a knot. For another, if you don’t, I’m going to hunt down your boss and ask him what the deal is with Lexi not being at work…since you are the one who told her to take me out.”

  His lids flickered, although the sneer remained in place. “She made her own choices, you know. I didn’t force her to do anything. But, for the record, I haven’t seen her.” He smoothed his wrinkled shirt as he continued, “The official reason is that she’s taking some more time off to heal, but everybody knows it’s because she acted unprofessionally. And on top of breaking protocol, she tried to lie her way out of it, claiming there was an illegal snare in the woods that caused her injury.”

  Illegal.

  I eyed him speculatively. He went to go around me, but I stepped into his path.

  “Something you might want to consider, Stilwell.” I gave him a cold smile. “Lexi wasn’t out there alone. I’m surprised your boss hasn’t reached out to me to ask my side of the story. Maybe I should just go track him down while I’m here.”

  He didn’t even blink.

  But there was…something. A faint tightening around his eyes, the way his mouth flattened out just the slightest. Something.

  Silence stretched out and dragged on until he abruptly cleared his throat. “You aren’t going to have much luck finding him. He’s got a meeting elsewhere, then he’s going to be out in the park for the next few days, checking out trails and stations to make sure they don’t need to be cleared of any debris from the winter snow.”

  “Aw, that’s alright. I’m patient. I can wait.”

  He said nothing else, just cut sharply around me and stomped into the visitor’s center.

  Turning my attention to the trees, I debated, then headed back to my truck.

  I was acting on instinct now, but under most circumstances, my instincts had typically done an alright job in steering my decisions. It was about time I started trusting them again.

  I found Lexi’s Jeep parked near the entrance to the unmarked trail we’d taken that night.

  If she hadn’t come out to my place, I wouldn’t have been able to pick her vehicle out. Eying the silvery-gray Jeep, I parked behind her and got out of the truck and moved to circle the vehicle.

  The hood was cool, so the engine had been off for a little while.

  Without giving it another second, I turned back to my car and retrieved the pack I’d used that night. I’d already replaced the few supplies I’d used, and before I’d left the house, I had taken a few minutes to refill the water bladder concealed inside the pack.

  It was easier to navigate the trail this time around. It was still daylight and warmer, no snow coming down to obscure my vision. The path was muddy tho
ugh, an annoyance I could have done without. But I’d been out in worse conditions, so I ignored it and trucked on.

  As I walked, I saw signs that somebody else had been on the path before me sometime recently. I could make out the smaller footprints, the tread resembling that of the boots I wore. She took smaller steps than I did, but it took more than an hour before I came across any sign of her other than the tracks.

  I reached the fallen piece of timber that had barred the path when Lexi had gotten hurt. It had been moved from the middle of the trail, but I knew this was the right place. She’d been here for a few minutes, at least, judging by the path her boots had left.

  A look farther down the path showed that it hadn’t been used in the past few hours, so I studied the tracks again, spying where she’d turned around and started to backtrack.

  It wasn’t hard to figure out where she was going and as I followed her trail, I started to move faster.

  I didn’t know why she was out here, but I had an idea, and if I was right, she could be walking straight into a hornet’s nest.

  By the time I reached the smaller path that led to the ranger station, I was moving at a slow jog. I could see the timbers of the building up ahead, and I forced myself to slow down.

  Caution dictated that I take a few minutes to assess the situation, but it was warring with my need to make sure Lexi was okay.

  As I broke through the clearing, she came walking around the building. At the sight of her, my chest expanded and an ache I hadn’t even been aware of started to fade.

  She was wearing hiking shorts, a sweatshirt, and a cap, along with thick-soled hiking boots on her feet. She didn’t have a pack, but a quick look around assured me she’d just left it behind for a few minutes. I spotted the familiar backpack sitting by the porch, along with her canteen.

  I took a step in her direction. “Lexi.”

  Twenty-Three

  Lexi

  I yelped at the sudden appearance of Roman. The sound of my name in the quiet woods was startling enough that I jumped, and a twinge in my left ankle had me swinging up my hand to steady myself against the outside wall of the nearby ranger station.

  My left hand.

  Sharp pain shot up my arm and I glared at him. Bringing my arm in close to my chest, I demanded, “What in the hell are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?”

  And why hadn’t I heard him? Sound traveled pretty damn far when you were in such a vast space with no people. Or almost no people.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” he fired back at me. “There are poachers running around, and you’ve got a bad ankle and a broken wrist.”

  “My ankle is fine, thank you,” I said with a sniff, choosing to ignore how it had been aching for the past little while.

  “Yeah, and that’s why you grabbed for the building – with your left hand because your wrist is feeling so good.” He came toward me, and before I realized what he was up to, he swept me into his arms and carried me over to the small, square porch. He lowered me down and hunkered in front of me, reaching for my left foot.

  I pulled back as much as I could. “I’m fine. Don’t you have a lot of shit to do? Why are you even here?”

  He reached up to touch my cheek, but he must have seen the look on my face – the one that said, touch me and die.

  Sighing, he lowered his hand and studied me. “I was an ass the other day. I’m sorry.”

  I averted my eyes and stared out into the trees. Sunlight peeked through the leaves, shining down here and there, dust motes dancing in the air. “Fine. You’re sorry. You went to an awful lot of trouble to come out here and tell me that.”

  “It’s not just that.”

  He was quiet for so long, I gave into the urge and looked at him. He seemed to be waiting for just that, because once our eyes met, he said, “I couldn’t stand the thought of you being out here alone. If something happened to you…”

  He didn’t continue, just rose and paced away. He reached for the chest strap on his back and freed it, shrugging out of it with sharp, jerky motions. He dropped it to the ground and turned away, staring into the trees.

  “I mean, I came out to the park to apologize, but you weren’t there, and that fuck Stilwell mentioned that you were in trouble for what happened – another thing I need to apologize for – and then he mouthed off about how you’d made up the thing about the snare. I worried you might be out here looking for evidence, and I freaked out. If the poachers know you’re onto them, it’s not safe out here. Every second it took me to find you was a minute too long.”

  “It’s not your problem,” I said, still stinging from his rebuff the other day. My ego had taken too much crap over the past few days, and I was leery about letting my guard down.

  “The hell it’s not,” he said, turning to face me. His expression was hard, eyes practically opaque with rage. “I’m the reason you got into this mess. I’m the reason you got hurt. I’m the reason you’re in trouble with your boss. It damn well is my problem.”

  The intensity of his voice caught me off guard.

  He took a step toward me.

  Nervous, I curled my fingers around the edge of the porch, the worn old wood, smoothed with age, digging into my palm.

  “I’ve already lost one person because I dragged them along with me.”

  I frowned at the words, not quite following.

  “I’m not losing somebody else. I’m not going to risk something happening to you.”

  “I…” My throat locked, trapping the words inside me, and I had to clear it twice before I could speak. “What in the world are you talking about?”

  “You being out here. It’s dangerous. You have to know how ruthless some poachers are.”

  Shaking my head, I said, “That’s not what I’m talking about. You said you lost somebody…”

  His gaze fell away. A heavy sigh shuddered out of him, and he dragged his hands up and down his face before looking back at me. “My brother,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I lost my brother. My twin. Ryan.”

  I was still confused. “I…Cass told me he was killed in action. That isn’t your fault.”

  “It damn well is,” he replied, voice level, almost remote. “He joined the army, so we wouldn’t be separated. I’d made it clear I was signing up, and he wasn’t going to let us be split up. If I hadn’t joined the army, if I hadn’t gone on and become a Ranger, he’d still be alive. He was on that mission because of me.” He jabbed his thumb at his chest and looked away again. “It’s my fault.”

  My heart started to ache for him.

  “What happened?” I asked softly.

  “An IED. An improvised explosive device.” He looked uncomfortable now. Closing his eyes, he lifted his face to the sky. “We were on a mission. We were closing in our target, and the group he was with…they think he was probably the one to step on it. It killed him and one other guy, injured three more. We took heavy fire trying to evac, and another guy was shot and killed. Three of us gone, just in a blink. And Ryan was one of them.”

  Rising, I went to him, my heart aching.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” I told him softly.

  I laid my hand on his cheek, and he covered it with his own. “But–”

  “No,” I said, pressing my finger to his lips. “It wasn’t your fault. Your brother was a grown man and made his own choices, just like you.”

  “Lex–” The feel of his mouth moving against my skin, even in such an innocuous manner, made me shiver. Want started to pulse inside me, and I jerked my hand back, curling it into a fist as if that would wipe away the memory of his touch.

  But nothing could do that.

  My anger at him faded, and I shook my head again. “Don’t argue with me, Roman. It wasn’t your fault.” I blew out a breath and looked around. “And it’s not your fault – or not entirely your fault – that I’m in the mess I’m in. I’m a grown woman, and like you, like your brother, I make my own choices. I knew it was a bad idea to go out with you.
I just decided to go against my better judgment.”

  “Why?” The rough timbre of his voice was like a stroke down my spine. When I didn’t respond, he brushed his fingers down my cheek. “Why did you go out with me, Lexi?”

  “I was scared you’d get hurt or lost,” I said, which was mostly the truth. But I didn’t tell him that even in his black, surly mood, I’d felt drawn to him that night. I still did.

  “Look at me, Lexi.”

  I did, slowly, although I knew it wasn’t a good idea.

  He closed the rest of the distance between us, and there hadn’t been much to begin with. “If I’d gotten lost or hurt, it would have been my own damn fault.”

  “And it’s my own damn fault I did get hurt,” I said pointedly. “Granted, it might have looked better for me if you had been the one to get your ankle caught in the snare.”

  I was surprised to see a grin flash over his face. “I can understand your point.” The smile faded quickly, and the intensity returned to his gaze. “You didn’t need to feel responsible for me.”

  “You’re big on double standards, aren’t you?” Wryly, I laughed. “You feel this is your responsibility but don’t like the fact that I also feel like it’s my responsibility.”

  He had nothing to say to that, his face twisting in a scowl.

  I found my gaze lowering to his mouth. I wanted to feel that mouth again.

  Like now.

  And even though I knew it was a huge fucking mistake, I leaned in and pressed my lips to his, giving in to that insane urge.

  For a moment, he didn’t even move. Sliding my tongue out, I licked the full lower curve of his lip, then pushed inside.

  His taste was intense and so, so good. Curling my arm around his neck, I pressed closer.

  With a rough groan, he caught me around the hips.

  Twenty-Four

  Roman