Dangerous Lover

by Maggie Shayne

  Getting up, he moved to where she sat on the ground and sank down beside her. “Why is it out of whack? You’ve been telling me all along that you’re a Witch.”

  “Because my skills have totally deserted me. At least, that’s what I’ve been feeling since…well, since we found out about…Kelly.”

  “Is that why you’re out here? Trying to…I don’t know, get your powers back.”

  “I was journeying.”

  “Uh, beg to differ, babe, but you were just lying there.”

  She glanced at him and smiled at his lame attempt at humor. “A shamanic journey. It’s not a physical one.”

  “I see.”

  “I doubt it.”

  He shrugged. “So where did you go on this journey?”

  “Into the Upperworld. Talked to my guide. Took a look around.”

  “And what did you find out?”

  “I had arrows in a quiver. As I walked the tips cut through the sides of the case that held them, and poked me in the back. It hurt.”

  He thought, and not for the first time, that maybe Selene Brand was a little bit nuts. “Does that…mean something?”

  “I think it means my skills, my weapons are just as sharp as ever. But maybe I don’t like what they’re trying to tell me. Or maybe I’m not listening because the truth hurts.”

  Or maybe, he thought, she was dead on target all along and he was letting her believe something he had no reason to think might be true for his own purposes. Hell, she’d been right about everything else. What if she was right about the two of them?

  No, no way. He was not going to spend the rest of his life with this adorable little fruitcake just because she thought it was fated.

  “So what were you writing?”

  She glanced down at the notebook. “Just jotting down everything I saw and what I think it meant. You tend to forget if you don’t get it down when it’s fresh in your mind.”

  He glanced at the notebook. It was thick, and open to a spot well past the middle. “That whole thing is full of…journeys?”

  “Yep. It’s my Journey Journal.” She giggled a little. It was good to hear, good to see a grin on her face again. She’d been so troubled and preoccupied today, not only with worry for her friends and the situation, but because she’d thought her so-called powers had failed her. He’d done that to her. And damn, he regretted it. He wanted to keep her mood upbeat, or as upbeat as possible, given the circumstances.

  “Listen, you know, maybe this Kelly thing isn’t what we’re thinking it is, after all.” He could have kicked himself for blurting it. Why the hell was he messing with her like this, giving her hope when there wasn’t any?

  Too late, though. There it was right in her eyes. Hope and surprise and a dozen other things. “I figured you’d remembered her by now.”

  “I didn’t say I had remembered her, did I?”

  “Well, no, but I assumed you were just trying to…you know, spare my feelings.”

  He closed his eyes. “Why do women always assume they know what men are thinking? So what else have you assumed, Selene?”

  She shrugged. “That you remembered her, were missing her, feeling guilt-ridden for having cheated on the woman you love, couldn’t wait to get back to her—”

  “I haven’t remembered anything about any wife.”

  She tipped her head to one side. “But you said you had a feeling it was true.”

  “I lied.”

  “You lied?” She blinked, lowered her head, then raised it again and glared at him in disbelief. “You lied?”

  “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “How does lying about something like that ever seem like a good idea?”

  “Look, you kept going on about us being meant for each other, and I’m just not interested in anything like that. Not now. Maybe not ever, okay? I just thought it might…slow you down.”

  “Well, it did.”

  He felt like a jerk. “The truth is, I don’t know, Selene. I don’t know what the notation meant. I swear that’s the truth. I don’t know that I don’t have a wife, but I don’t feel that I do.”

  “Hell.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She looked at him, seemed about to say something, then stopped and jumped to her feet. “Something’s wrong.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know.” She turned slowly, facing the direction of the campground. “It’s Erica. She’s in trouble, Cory. We have to go.”

  She bent only long enough to snuff the remaining candle and toss it and the journal into her backpack, then she slung it onto her shoulder and ran back toward the cabin.

  He ran, too. And he was hoping to God she was wrong this time. Not only because he didn’t want there to be another dead Witch on his conscience, but because if she was right about this, and so many other things, then how the hell could she be wrong about him? About them?

  He darted into the cabin. She slung the backpack onto the bed and yanked her jeans on. He pulled on a shirt, shoes without socks, and grabbed the keys. And then they were racing for the car, and driving like hell for the campground.

  They were almost there when he heard the sound there was no mistaking.

  She sent him a look, her eyes wide and round. “Was that—?”

  “Gunshots. Rifle, I think.”

  “Oh, Goddess, no.”

  “Chant or something, baby. I’m driving as fast as I can.”

  She closed her eyes, and started chanting.

  Chapter 12

  As they sped toward the campground, Selene didn’t know whether to be angry that Cory had lied to her or relieved that maybe he didn’t have a wife after all. The latter would be pretty stupid, she supposed, because it might very well turn out that he really was married, whether he remembered it or not. She couldn’t think of too many other reasons his brother would have a note about his and Kelly’s anniversary party in his date book.

  Being angry about his lie would be pretty counterproductive as well, though. She’d probably scared him into that by being so open about her feelings. He was conservative, a planner, a slow, methodical, practical kind of guy, she thought with a roll of her eyes. And apparently, a little bit gun-shy when it came to commitment. Okay, more than a little bit gun-shy. The man was downright terrified of it. And it was no wonder, given what he’d told her about his parents.

  She didn’t know what to think anymore.

  And there wasn’t time to decide, because they were turning now, onto the campground’s access road, and she had far more pressing matters to worry about. Her friend, Erica, and all the other campers. “Goddess, protect them all,” she whispered.

  “Amen to that,” Cory muttered.

  A large form swooped out of the sky, crossing in front of the car so suddenly and so closely that he hit the brakes.

  “Jeez, was that an owl?” Selene asked.

  “Yeah. A great horned owl.” He looked toward where it had gone, but there was nothing there. “Scared the hell out of me.” He put the car into motion again.

  Selene put a hand on his forearm. “Pull over, Cory.”

  He frowned at her.

  “Come on. That was a sign. A warning. The owl was telling us to stop here.”

  “The owl was telling us…? Selene, how do you suppose the owl knows and why on earth does he care enough to bother telling us anything?”

  She scowled at him. “It’s not so much that he knows and is trying to warn us. It’s that there’s a vibrational energy of danger here, and he was reacting to that.”

  “Vibrational energy. Uh-huh.”

  “Look, this is no time to debate the legitimacy of signs and omens. Just pull the car over and let’s go on foot from here.”

  He shrugged and steered the car off the road. They got out and started walking. “What I wouldn’t give for a weapon.”

  “We’ve got the best weapons there are,” she said. “Our brains, our senses, and nature itself. We’re working i
n harmony. The bad guys aren’t. Everything on the planet is going to fall in our favor here. Everything in the whole freaking universe.”

  “I hate to bring it up, Selene, but that didn’t exactly help your other friend and her husband.”

  “I know that. But she had no idea she was even in danger. She was taken completely by surprise. We know what we’re getting into.”

  “Do we?”

  He looked at her for a long moment. She thinned her lips, swallowed hard. “As best we can.”

  “Selene, maybe you should wait back at the car, or better yet, back at the inn. Let me check this out. Hell, we should have called the police when we heard the shots.”

  “They’ve been called.”

  He lifted his brows.

  “Believe me or don’t. But we can’t have been the only ones to have heard the shots. Someone would have called.”

  “That makes sense. So why don’t you wait for them, fill them in when they get here?”

  She kept on walking. “You’re trying to protect me. That’s sweet.”

  “Yeah, I’m a sweet guy.”

  “Cory…. look.” She put a hand on his arm, and he stopped walking, lifting his head to stare ahead. The campground’s office stood just a few yards distant. Its door stood open, and a shape lay on the ground at the bottom of the steps.

  “Is that—?”

  “Bonnie,” she whispered, and she started to run, but Cory gripped her arm and held her back.

  “Take it slow, Selene,” he said, and he pointed to the red sports car in the parking area. “That car was at Tessa’s cabin. And I think it’s the one that followed Casey and me before all this came down. It belongs to the killers, and we don’t want to walk right into their sights.”

  She knew he was right, but it killed her to move slowly. He closed a hand around hers, and tugged her into the trees, off the path. They cut through the woods, for cover, moving slowly and as quietly as possible, though it seemed to Selene every step she took made as much noise as a bear crashing through the forest would.

  They kept under cover for as long as possible, then hesitated at the edge of the woods nearest the little building, listening, barely breathing.

  “Stay here,” he said, and before she could disagree, he was gone, darting across the open patch of grass between them and poor Bonnie. He was kneeling beside the woman a second or two later. No one had shot him, as Selene had half expected. And she didn’t wait before racing after him.

  She crouched beside him. “Is she—?”

  “Still breathing,” he said. “I told you to wait.”

  “Yeah, I’m not so big on being told what to do. Ask my mother about it sometime.” She leaned closer to the fallen woman. There was a bandage wrapped around her belly, and a lot of blood on her torn-open camp shirt. “Bonnie?” Selene patted her cheek. “Bonnie, wake up. Tell me what happened.”

  The woman moaned, but said nothing.

  “Don’t move.”

  The voice was male, and it came from just inside the cabin. Selene’s eyes shot to the doorway, and she saw a form silhouetted there. She lifted her hands.

  “Who are you? What are you doing here?” the man asked.

  Cory spoke. “We were staying at the inn, heard gunshots and came to try to help.” He glanced at the woman on the ground. “This woman needs an ambulance.”

  “I’ve already called one.” The screen door creaked open, and the man came out. He wore camping clothes like Bonnie wore, had tattoos covering the length of both arms, long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and a scruffy beard. He knelt beside them. “Two carloads of men pulled in about twenty minutes ago. That red car there, and a Jeep Wrangler. Bonnie came out to tell them we were closed for a private event. I wasn’t even watching. I heard the shots, and came running to find her lying here bleeding, and the men and the Jeep gone.”

  “They all piled into one vehicle and left?”

  He looked up, big dark eyes in a young, worried face. “They didn’t leave. They went into the campgrounds. I think part of them took the Jeep and the others went on foot.” He swallowed hard. “I was on the phone with nine-one-one when I heard more shots.”

  “Oh my God,” Selene said. “The campers….”

  “I couldn’t leave Bonnie to warn them—to help them.”

  “If you had you might be lying somewhere with a bullet in you, too,” Cory said. “I’ll go check on them.”

  “We’ll go check on them,” Selene said. “You stay here and tell the police what happened. They should be here any second.”

  She got to her feet, and Cory did, too. She was a little surprised, and a lot relieved that he didn’t argue with her. It would only waste time and she thought he knew it.

  “Take the fork to the right, that’s where everyone’s camping,” Bonnie’s friend said. “The west fork is just for the vendors and they wouldn’t have opened until morning. Beyond that is the larger parking area, where the campers leave their vehicles.”

  Cory clasped her hand again, and they moved, fast and in a half crouch, off in the direction the man had indicated, veering off the trail and into the woods to follow the path without walking on it in the open.

  Together they moved through the trees. Until Cory stopped, frowning.

  “What? What is it?”

  “I…this is really familiar.”

  “This campground?”

  “No, just something about these woods.” He narrowed his eyes, looking around. “Casey and I were in a forest like this one, before we came here. There were golden eagles nesting there, and some redtails a few miles away. We were checking on them.”

  “Checking on them?”

  “There were men in the tree. Taking the fledglings from the nest.”

  Her brows shot up in surprise. “Why?”

  “It’s a billion-dollar industry. Young raptors are smuggled into Mexico, sold there, right out in the open sometimes.”

  Frowning, Selene tilted her head. “You’re some kind of wildlife officer, aren’t you, Cory?”

  He stared at her, and nodded. “National Organization of Wildlife Officers. That’s what the initials on the ring stand for.”

  “And your brother—?”

  “Him, too.”

  She nodded.

  “We let the men go, hung back to follow them. Figured we could do more good by getting to the higher-ups in the smuggling ring. They were just flunkies. Low men on the totem pole.”

  “So that explains the truck you were following. They must have known you were on to them, and set up the rest.”

  He nodded.

  “But you don’t know who they are. They stopped you from catching them, though. They could have gone on with their plans unhindered. Why are they so determined to kill you?”

  “Maybe there’s more. I just haven’t remembered it all yet.” He clasped her arm, looking ahead. There were clusters of tents and campers lining the road there. Camper doors and tent flaps stood open. Coolers and water bottles, backpacks and shoes were strewn everywhere. And there were no signs of life. No people, no voices, no movement. And thankfully, no bodies.

  “I think everyone left in a hurry.”

  He nodded in agreement. “We know who they were after. If they found Erica, they wouldn’t have worried about the others, so long as no one saw their faces. Would you know Erica’s gear if you saw it?”

  “Yeah. Her tent is a big red dome model, brand-new, and she always has dream catchers hanging from the trees around it.”

  He nodded, and clasped her hand again. “Let’s find it then.”

  “I just hope they didn’t find her first.”

  They emerged from the trees, and moved carefully and silently along the narrow, pine-needle carpet of road. Eventually, Selene spotted Erica’s tent, and pointed. “That’s it. That’s her site.”

  His hand tightened on hers, and they moved closer. Erica’s gear was strewn everywhere, her site much more messed up than anyone else’s. “They knew this was
hers,” Selene whispered. “How, Cory? How could they know?”

  “I don’t know. But listen, if they ransacked it like this, they must have been looking for her, right? Which means she wasn’t here when they came for her.”

  She stared at him, her eyes widening. “She got away?”

  “Looks like.”

  She stared at the woods around them. “But they went after her.”

  “They don’t quit easily. So yes, they probably went after her.”

  “Then we’re going after them.” She faced the sky, her jaw clenching. “Which way?”

  “I don’t know, Selene.”

  “I wasn’t asking you,” she said, and she closed her eyes. “Which way?” she asked again.

  In the distance, a hawk screeched. Her eyes popped open. “Thanks.” And she started off in the direction from which the sound had come.

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he said. “Listen, Selene, don’t you think we should look for a trail, some kind of sign or—”

  “That was our sign.”

  He lowered his head and shook it.

  “Cory, hawk is my totem. And, I believe, yours as well. But even if you don’t believe in that—well, hell. When’s the last time you heard a redtail cry at night?”

  His brows drew together, and he shivered visibly.

  Selene took his hand again. “This way.”

  Cory was awed by her. He supposed he shouldn’t be, but he was. She rummaged around the abandoned campsites, gathering up what they might need—bottles of water, a small box of granola bars—and stuffing them into their backpacks. It took her all of fifteen minutes. While she did that, he used a flashlight to examine the tracks in the woods.

  “Anything?” she asked, coming up to him with one pack on her shoulders, and another in her hands.

  “Looks like people just scattered. Heard the shots and ran like rabbits. They headed in a dozen directions.”

  She nodded. “They’ll lay low until they’re sure it’s safe, then head for the office, the road, their vehicles.”

  “Where are all their vehicles anyway?” he asked. She held the backpack and he turned and slid his arms into it, then hiked it up onto his back.

  “At most campgrounds, they pull into the campsite area, unload their stuff, then take the cars to a parking area and walk back. Remember, Bonnie’s friend said the parking lot was down the opposite fork, all the way at the end.”