The Loner

by Lindsay McKenna

  Absorbing his lips upon her flesh, the wild tingles racing up her arm, touching her pounding heart and making her feel safe, she managed a trembling smile. “I don’t want to lose you, Dakota.”

  A silent joy filled his chest. He closed his hand around hers and leaned close. “You won’t lose me. If I can survive three deployments in Afghanistan, I’ll survive anything the civilian world wants to throw at me.” Dakota’s brows moved down and in an urgent tone, he added, “But I can’t protect you as much as I wish I could, Shel. That’s why you have to work with me, stay here and stay safe.”

  “Nowhere is really safe, Dakota. You and I both know that.”

  “You’re right. But plenty of cowhands here on the Garner Ranch are watching out for you when they can. Just stay here for another week. Let me go find Welton.”

  Her stomach went queasy on her. Though she was beginning to understand how capable Dakota was as a warrior and a hunter of men, she still worried about him. Welton wasn’t as stupid as Hartley had been. He was still around, still waiting, tracking her and timing when he’d reappear in her life. It was a gut knowing. Not one she wanted to share with Dakota. He was fiercely attuned to finding Welton. But who would find her first?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “HERE’S YOUR GUN and badge back, Shelby.”

  “Thank God,” she said, taking them. When she shot Hartley, it was mandatory the deputy go on paid administrative leave until an investigation surrounding the death was completed. She slid the gun in the holster at her side and pinned her badge on her uniform. “This is good luck,” she told Cade. “My weeks of incarceration are up, too.”

  Cade nodded and smiled a little. “You’ve had one hell of a month so far, Shelby. I think Dakota was right in asking you to stand down for two weeks. Did it hurt you?”

  She grinned sourly. “Not really. He was right.” Turning, she said, “Where is he?” He had left her bed early last night, continuing to track and trying to find Welton.

  “He’s more SEAL than ex-SEAL,” Cade warned her. “Night is their specialty, so he’s out walking a grid pattern in hopes of finding Welton.”

  She sighed. “He has reasons to do it.”

  “I know. If I were in his shoes, I’d be out there hunting Welton, too.”

  “Well, we have other fish to fry,” he told her. Picking up a report on his desk, he said, “Thirty minutes ago, a call came in from the Tetons headquarters. We have a missing two-year-old girl named Susie, who wandered away from the Colter Bay tent camping area.”

  Shelby scowled. “That’s not good. That whole area is heavy with grizzlies.”

  “No need to tell me.” He looked up and said, “Why don’t you switch back into your civilian clothes? I need a tracker and Dakota isn’t here. Are you willing to do it?”

  “Sure. Just take me off the duty roster.” She grinned. “I’d much rather track than cruise around looking to hand out a speeding ticket.”

  Cade smiled. “I thought so. Okay, here’s the contact info. You’re going to have to talk with the parents first. I got a deputy already on scene, Ken Hutchinson. You can talk to him, too. I’m also arranging a larger volunteer group, but that’s going to take a couple of hours. Getting you there right now is going to help us find that lost baby.”

  “Right you are.” She started toward the door. “Oh, when Dakota comes back in, tell him where I am? He’s probably going to be exhausted and go to bed like he usually does, but he should know where I am. He’s a worrywart.”

  Cade nodded. “I will.” He glanced at his watch. “He should show up any time now. You might even meet him on the way out.”

  Shelby lifted her hand. “I’m off. I’ll be in contact once I’m out at the campsite and have interviewed the parents.”

  * * *

  SHELBY GLANCED AT THE position of the sun. It was 8:00 a.m., the morning very cool as it always was at this time of year. The sky was cloudless, a light blue. The parents were distraught and that was understandable. The other deputy, Ken Hutchinson, remained with them as she followed the child’s tiny tracks from the campfire area to the asphalt parking lot nearby. He’d picked up small prints on the other side of the road. There was a sign that said Day Trail, and that’s where the child’s print was, he thought. The water from Jackson Lake could be seen from the camping area.

  Shelby quickly went to the black sand and searched for Susie’s footprint. To her relief, she found none. If she had, it could be an indication the child had walked into the water and drowned. Then her body would be found by dredging. It wasn’t something Shelby wanted to do.

  Pulling the rifle over her shoulder, Shelby went to the day track trail sign, knelt down and saw the print. The area was thickly wooded with trees and brush, the trail damp and narrow. The child had wandered off in the direction of the boat ramp, about a thousand feet on the other side of this thicket of woods. Colter Bay was a major area for boaters, both with engines or kayaks and canoes. There was a huge launch area and Shelby wondered if the girl had made it to the other side. If she had, she could be in real danger of falling off the unsteady movable wharfs.

  Slowly rising, Shelby keyed her hearing, all senses online. Susie had disappeared at 7:00 a.m. when the mother was making breakfast over the campfire. She had been busy and distracted. The father was down at the Jackson Lake boat area, getting their fishing boat ready to take out for the day. It was easy to have a young child wander off in such a situation, Shelby knew. But the child had only an hour’s lead and she felt confident she could find Susie shortly.

  The other worry for Shelby was the high grizzly bear population around Jackson Lake. Right now there was a mother grizzly with three cubs known to frequent this area near the boat launch ramp. It was the bear’s turf. That wasn’t good for anyone who was lost. Particularly a small child. If the child started to cry or call out for her parents, the bear, if close enough, would hear it and come running. A young human’s voice sounded like the mewing of a baby elk calf calling for its mother. A shiver ran through Shelby as her thoughts went in that direction.

  The woods closed in, the muddy track a thin brown ribbon. Mouth tightening, Shelby followed the toddler’s fresh, muddy tracks. Soon, the forest grew quiet and silence thickened around her. She was starting to sweat and halted. Once she pulled off her thick jacket, she stuffed it in her knapsack. She rolled up the sleeves on her pink blouse, took a drink of water and then continued toward the wall of brush ahead of her.

  Shelby stopped about two feet from the stand. What was she looking at? Kneeling down on one knee, she studied the disrupted soil. She saw the toddler’s track, but there was another, much larger boot track on either side of the child’s prints. What the hell? She pressed her hand into the soil and leaned closer. Her mind moved over possibilities. Mostly not good. Measuring the length of the track, as well as the width, she figured it to be male, not female. The boot was simply too large for a woman’s foot.

  Looking up, Shelby studied the gloomy forest surrounding her. Heart squeezing with fear, she wondered if a man had come upon Susie and taken her. To what end? A sexual predator who just happened upon the child? She swallowed hard. She didn’t want to think those thoughts, but she was a law enforcement officer and she couldn’t afford to ignore the possibility.

  She’d seen Susie’s mother’s and father’s boot prints at camp. And this print did not match their boots. Taking the radio from the side of her pack, she stood and called in to Cade Garner. When he answered, she told him what she’d found. His voice went dark with worry.

  “Welton?” he demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Shelby said, continually looking around now, feeling a sense of danger. “We can’t leave him out of this scenario.”

  “Damn. Okay, Dakota is on his way out there right now. Give me your GPS coordinates and I’ll send them to him.”

  Some relief filtered through Shelby as she looked at her GPS guide and gave him the info. “How soon will he be here?”

  “Thi
rty minutes. He just got back and is exhausted. He had a run-in with a grizzly where he was.”

  Her brows flew up. “Oh no. Is he all right?”

  “Yeah, and so is the bear. It was a female and he fired a couple of warning shots up in the air and she decided to leave instead of attacking him.”

  Sighing, Shelby said, “Close call.”

  “I know. Look, you want to wait there for him?”

  “No, I’ll push on. I’m going to track south on the path now because that’s where the boot prints are leading. I’m sure he’ll be able to track me from here. Out.”

  Worried for the child, Shelby put the radio back into her pack, turned and continued to follow the prints. Whoever it was was in a hurry, the stride lengthening. When she went back to the original track and compared it to what she was seeing later, it was clear the man had picked up the toddler. The depth of the tread was deeper, indicating he was carrying more weight, perhaps the child in his arms?

  Shelby tried to figure out other scenarios as she slowly moved parallel to where the boot prints were leading her. Could a fisherman have happened by? Maybe he was carrying the toddler back to the main forest ranger headquarters of the Tetons? That was equally possible. Still, her nerves were stretched as she followed the track toward the lake area.

  A second, curving wall of brush and willows rose in front of her. Shelby saw the tracks turn and follow around them. Suddenly, she heard a cry, a child’s whimper.

  She stopped near the end of the thicket, surrounded by forest and no other humans in sight. Her heart rate tripled. She hurried around the end of the stand and headed toward the sound. The child continued to cry.

  Shelby let out a sigh of relief as she saw Susie sitting just inside a wall of brush. To the child’s right was another large thicket.

  “Hey,” she crooned, kneeling down in front of the dirty, scratched child, “it’s okay, Susie.” She gently touched the toddler’s black hair and smiled at her. “I’m Shelby. I’m going to get you out of here and home to your mommy and daddy....”

  Just as she leaned forward, her hands extended to slide around the toddler’s waist, something stirred behind her.

  Shelby twisted a look to her right, her eyes widening. Too late! There was Welton’s leering face, his smile crooked as he jabbed a hypodermic needle into her upper arm. The bite of the syringe exploded through her.

  “Too late, bitch,” he breathed, yanking the syringe out of her arm. “You’re mine....”

  Shelby spun around, her arm smarting with pain. As she started to go for her pistol, Welton’s boot flashed out. The boot toe caught her in the shoulder, knocking her off her feet. Landing with a thud, Shelby felt her mind starting to short out. She rolled to the left as Welton came at her, his fists clenched, a snarl on his lips. Her hand fell over the pistol.

  “No, you don’t!” Welton jerked her hand away and yanked the pistol out of her holster. Standing above her, he grinned, breathing hard. “Just be a good girl and let the drug do its work.” He chuckled as he saw the woman’s eyes begin to close, her body sinking back onto the forest floor. “The last thing you’re going to remember is my face, you bitch. You put me away, you killed Hartley. Now I’m going to make you pay for all of it....”

  * * *

  DAKOTA SCOWLED, LOOKING at the extra boot tracks along with the toddler’s. He was breathing hard, having trotted to the GPS coordinates Shelby had given him. Exhaustion pulled at him and he rubbed his reddened eyes. For the past week he’d spent twelve hours, dusk to dawn, searching every cabin up on the slopes of the Tetons, hoping to find that Welton had moved to new digs. He’d found nothing. Now this. He pulled the radio from his pack and called Shelby.

  No answer.

  Fear arced through him. Shelby would answer. She couldn’t be that far away. Toddlers don’t walk miles. They usually walk in a circle of sorts. He called in to Cade Garner.

  “Has Shelby called in?” Dakota demanded, his gaze ranging over the wild territory. Grizzlies were everywhere. They could easily hide in the thickets that ringed Lake Jackson.

  “No. Not yet. Are you there?”

  “Yeah, just arrived.” His mouth turned down. “This isn’t good. She should be answering her radio.”

  “Maybe it’s low on batteries?”

  “Maybe...” The hair on the back of Dakota’s neck stood up. Shelby was in trouble. He could feel it. “Look, I’ll follow her track and call later. Out.”

  Stuffing the radio on his belt, Dakota loped down the slight incline. He followed her tracks, which were fresh and easy to read. It was now 9:00 a.m., the heat of the day beginning. Somewhere beyond him was Jackson Lake. He could smell the scent of water in the air. Where was Shelby? Why wasn’t she answering her radio? Damn!

  Dakota followed the tracks down to a huge wall of willows that grew for about a tenth of a mile. Beyond that was a major tourist hiking trail that went around the lake. He saw her track stop for a minute, noticed a dirt impression where she’d knelt down on one knee as if looking at something more closely. As he lifted his head, Dakota’s eyes narrowed. Shelby had stood up. But now her boot track changed. She was running, the toe of her boot deeper than the rest of the print. What was she running toward? He hurried around the edge of the thickets. His SIG Sauer rode low on his right thigh so his hand could just naturally reach out and touch the butt of the German pistol. The restraining strap was off and he had easy access to it, if needed.

  Dakota turned and stopped. There in front of him was the toddler! She was crawling around in the dirt, playing with it, her tiny hands and arms dusty. Dakota felt a terrible chill move through him as he walked toward the child. The prints became muddled and choppy in the nearby dirt. Frowning, he studied them intently. And then his heart slammed into his ribs. God, there was Welton’s boot track! He recognized it because he’d seen it at the original cast at the forensics lab.

  Leaning down, he sucked in a breath, a cry strangling in his throat. There were Shelby’s tracks. He quickly followed them. There was a depression in the dirt farther down near the thickets. It was a partial imprint of the side of her body. Turning on his heel, Dakota swallowed hard. He rose and went over to the toddler to make sure she was all right. Susie looked up at him with smiling green eyes, a handful of dirt in her tiny fist. Dakota gave the toddler a cursory inspection, and couldn’t find any injury.

  Jerking the radio off his belt, he called Cade Garner. His voice was dark and hard-sounding. “I’ve got Susie. But the bad news is, Welton has got Shelby. Their tracks converge here, Cade. I think Welton stole the kid to sucker Shelby into tracking so he could capture her.” His nostrils flared as he looked at the surrounding area. “He’s got her. I’ll get this kid back to her parents and then I’m going after that son of a bitch because he’s going to kill Shelby....”

  As he trotted back toward the camp with the toddler in his arms, Dakota’s mind churned at a high rate. He had Shelby’s sheriff’s jacket on the seat of his truck. Storm was with him. As soon as he’d given Susie back to her relieved parents, he would get to his truck. The wolf was good at tracking, too, but her nose could hold a scent and follow it for a long time. He’d be stuck following tracks, but Storm could speed things up.

  His chest hurt until Dakota felt as if he was going into cardiac arrest. As he loped through the woods, his long legs taking him closer and closer to the camp, he wanted to cry out in rage and frustration. Shelby had walked right into a trap set by that bastard! Terrible photos of Ellie taken after she was found rose in front of him. Oh, God, don’t let that happen to Shelby. I’ll do anything for you. Just don’t let Welton torture her. Oh, God, please...

  He ran on powerful legs, his boots digging in hard, dry surface. As a SEAL, he could run thirteen miles with ease, even with a sixty-five-pound pack on his back. His mind went forward. He carried his M-4 rifle in the truck, his major hiking pack filled with medical first-aid items, water and food. Approximating the time as he ran, the thickets swatting at his lower bod
y, Dakota moved into complete military mind-set.

  It would take every bit of his ten years as a SEAL to find Shelby before it was too late. He’d keep his cell phone on so Cade Garner could continuously track his whereabouts. A helicopter was out of the question because it couldn’t see through the thick forest. Nor could it land if the pilots could locate Shelby and Welton. He wasn’t sure if Shelby was conscious or not. He’d find out soon enough, going back to track them just as soon as Susie arrived safely in her parents’ awaiting arms.

  His whole world anchored on Shelby. She’d gone through so damn much already. And he felt helpless, unable to find Welton before the bastard lured her in and captured her. Angry with himself, angry with the convict, he sprinted the last quarter mile, the camp now in sight.

  The only thing between Shelby and Welton was him. The steel resolve coming up through him was a familiar one. He always got that sense of hunting when he and his team were about to infiltrate and connect with the enemy. This time was no different. The only thing on Dakota’s side of this terrible situation was that he was a damned good tracker, fast and best of all, he had a wolf that could follow Shelby’s scent. He had to bring all his deadly skills together in order to find and rescue her. And kill that son of a bitch in the process. By the time this day was done, Welton was a dead man. The convict just didn’t know it yet.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  HEART POUNDING, DAKOTA headed out from the campsite once the toddler was given to the happy parents. He wasted no time in telling Deputy Hutchinson, who was with them, what had happened. Moving back into the forest, retracing his steps, his eyes on the ground, Dakota kept his M-4 rifle in his hand. He’d given Storm a smell of Shelby’s coat. The wolf bounded ahead of him, following the exact trail he’d just retraced.