His blood chilled, but it didnt make any sense. Ambushes were for narrow alleys and drug dealers, not wide-open skies and park rangers. Hallucination? Maybe. He didnt know. Leaning closer, he said urgently, What happened?
Her eyes opened to slits as she tried to focus on him. Two men grabbed me wanted She struggled to say something more, but then her body went lax as she lost her brief grip on consciousness.
Wait! He surged up onto his knees and bent over her, gripping her fisted hand in his. What men? The controlled crisis mode hed long ago perfected lost out to anger at the thought of someone doing this to one of his people, on his territory, his watch. Tanya, what men?
Matt. Bert gripped his shoulder. Shes out.
Damn it. He subsided, loosening his grip on her hand. When he did, something fell free and floated to the ground.
Cochran leaned in. Whats that?
Catching the small, colorful scrap between his thumb and forefinger, Matt lifted it. A feather.
The shaft was thin and curved, and the barbs ran a wild-colored gamut from white-and-black at the top to a deep reddish orange in the middle, then back to black at the base. He frowned at it, but there was no time to really get a good look, because right then the rotor noise increased to a roar and the chopper appeared overhead.
It paused, spun, and then dropped in for a more-haste-than-grace landing. Moments later, shouts and the sound of thudding footfalls up above announced the arrival of the med team.
Matt stuck the feather in his breast pocket and buttoned it in for safekeeping.
The next few minutes were ordered chaos as the medical team rappelled down and hustled to get Tanya stabilized for transport, with a rapid yet thorough triage, warming blankets and an IV line of fluids to combat the shock. The techs didnt say it, but he could see from their faces that they didnt like her continued unconsciousness any more than he did. Working quickly and efficiently, they strapped her down and okayed her for travel.
Working together, Matt, Bert, the Cochrans and the med team hauled her out of the wash and loaded her onto the chopper.
Matt heard the copilot radioing ahead to let the hospital know they had a serious head injury on the way. He wanted somebody to look at her and say that shed be fine, but it didnt happen.
He slid the door closed, then ducked out of range as the rotors screamed and the chopper lifted up and away, heading for the city. He was relieved to have Tanya in the care of professionals, but there wasnt any time to stand around congratulating himself on a job well done especially when he hadnt done his job well at all.
It was his responsibility to make Sector Fourteen as safe as he possibly could. His mind churned. Two men, she had said. What men? What had happened, and why was she out of her normal range? Had she followed them and been discovered, or had they brought her all this way and dumped her? And what was the deal with the feather? Was it important, or just something shed been carrying when she was ambushed?
He winced as phantom pain sliced through his lower left abdomen, where a gnarled scar and low-grade ulcer formed a pointed reminder that it wasnt his job to be asking those questions. Hadnt been for a long time.
As the rotor noise dimmed, he pulled Bert aside, out of the Cochrans earshot. Take those two back to the station and keep them there.
The other man darted a look at the hikers. You think they hurt Tanya?
No. But they may have seen something and not even realized it.
Bert craned around, eyes widening as he followed Matts thought process. You think the guys who got Tanya are still around?
Probably, said Matts instincts. Just get back to the station and put them in separate rooms so they cant compare stories any more than they already have. Then you can relieve Jim on the radio so he can go to the hospital. If he balks, make it an order.
He didnt think the younger man would give even a token protest. Jim and Tanya had been circling around each other for the past six months, ever since she transferred up from Station Seven, and the fear and emotion in the younger mans face had been real. While that kind of romantic connection didnt work for Matt, he wasnt about to make the choice for someone else. He had sworn off trying to run other peoples lives.
Arent you coming back with us? Bert asked, still looking around, searching for monsters in the shadows. But that was the thing about monsters. Most of the time, you couldnt see them until the damage was already done.
Im going to stay and look around, scare off any scavengers who might be interested in the scene. Human or otherwise. Matt tapped the butt of the shotgun riding over his shoulder. Ill be fine.
Bert looked unconvinced, but there was enough of an enlisted man still left in him that he followed orders without further argument, collecting the Cochrans and getting them moving back toward the Jeeps.
When they were gone, Matt was left alone beneath a brilliantly blue sky, warmed by the summer sun. But the beauty and isolation didnt settle him like they normally did. Instead, there was a heavy weight on his chest as he lifted his radio. Jim, you reading me?
Here, boss. She get away okay?
Yeah. Theyre en route. You can go down to the city as soon as Bert gets there. Right now, though, I need you to patch me through to Tucker McDermott. This wasnt a case for Homicide, really, but Tucker was a friend. One of his very few.
There was a beat of silence. I thought she fell.
It looks like it wasnt an accident.
What?
Just put me through to Tucker, okay? Bert will fill you in when he gets there.
The patch-through from radio to telephone took a minute, but was necessary. There was no cell coverage in the back of beyond, and even satellite phones were hit-or-miss. So the rangers often relied on radios, especially for the more out-of-the-way sectors: Seven and Eight on the eastern side, Thirteen and Fourteen on the western side, and good old Sector Nine, which formed the bridge between the two lobes of the huge park where the crime usually ran to vandalism and careless fires, not attempted murder.
Matt took a long look at the scuffed-up sidewall of the gulley and the three ropes that snaked from a big boulder and disappeared over the edge. He didnt need to glance down there to know that the bottom of the wash was churned up and littered with scraps from the med techs sterile packaging. The scene was seriously contaminated, and it was going to take a hell of an analyst to make anything out of it. Fortunately, the Bear Claw P.D.s crime lab was staffed by a group of talented analysts who were the ultimate professionals with one glaring, purple-booted, on-loan-from-Denver exception.
Matt grimaced at the intrusive image of sparkling gray eyes in a sharp face framed by sleek dark hair. Gigi Lynd. Even her name sounded expensive and citified, not like anything that belonged out in the backcountry.
He would tell Tucker to send anyone but her. Hell, Station Twos nature trail would be a stretch for someone like her and the last thing he needed to be doing right now was babysitting some city-slicker analyst who dressed like she was looking for trouble.
Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Gigi nailed three bad-guy targets, skipped the little old lady cutout, tagged the last two baddies and slapped her Beretta on the counter with a flourish that might not have been strictly necessary, but damn, she was on a roll.
Granted, the firing ranges offerings were pretty basic, but still.
She slipped off her headphones and turned, just catching the tail end of her friend Alyssas impressed whistle. The heavily pregnant blondes eyes glittered with appreciation behind her tinted safety glasses, but she faked a pained look. Please tell me you didnt just pick that up for the test, like you did the computer stuff you showed me.
Gigi grinned and slicked her dark, asymmetrically bobbed hair behind her ears before pulling her clip, clearing the chamber, and giving the weapon a quick, practiced wipe down. I shot my first rifle when I was nine, started with handguns when I was thirteen.
Thank God. I was starting to get seriously depressed, thinking that youd only been shooting for the past six months or so.
Nope. More like the past two decades. And you dont look the slightest bit depressed. In fact, the head of the Bear Claw P.D.s Forensics Division looked amazingrosy cheeked and curvy, with the mysterious I know something you dont look that Gigi associated with her sisters first pregnancies. I take it youre feeling better?
Incredible. Alyssa smoothed her palm across the top of her protruding belly. After the past three weeks of abject almost-time-to-pop yuckiness, I woke up this morning feeling amazing. A smile touched her lips with an entirely different sort of knowing look. Tucker did, too, much to his surprise and delight.
Ouch. Gigi exaggerated the wince. Taunting the celibate again, are we?
Alyssa twinkled at her. A girl who looks like you and shoots like that doesnt need to be celibate.
Right. Because guys perform best at gunpoint. When Alyssa gave her a yeah, right look, Gigi lifted a shoulder. I guess Im not a casual sex kind of girl.
Her friends blue eyes narrowed. I never thought you were.
Maybe not, but plenty of guys looked at the outside packaging and thought they knew what was going on inside it. If she mentioned that, though, Alyssa would bring up the m word againmakeoverand that wasnt happening. What might look a little too glittery in Bear Claw played just fine in Denver, and Gigi liked her personal style. There was nothing wrong with being different.
So as they crossed the parking lot toward her borrowed SUV, she went with a second, equally honest answer. Im not going to be here for much longer, which would make any sort of hookup, for entertaining sex or otherwise, casual by definition. No offense, but when the call comes, Im out of here.
The Denver P.D. was piloting an accelerated SWAT/critical response training program that would leapfrog a few select forensic analysts straight into existing hazardous response teamsHRTswhere they would act as both technical support and boots on the ground. Although the TV shows made it seem like every CSI was a badge-wearing, gun-carrying cop, that was far from the case in most jurisdictions, where the cops were cops and the lab rats were well, lab rats.
Going from the lab straight to hazardous response was a heck of a leap, but the members of Gigis family were anything but conventional when it came to their ambitions. Whatever the Lynds did, they did it full throttle.
Alyssa glanced away. I know youve only been here a few months, and were just really getting to know each other. And its not like I dont have other friends. Good friends. But I like how you bring a new perspective to things around here. I wishselfishly, I admitthat I had the budget to hire you away from Denver and keep you here in the lab. Thanks to Mayor Tightwad, I dont, so I have to think outside the box. If that means hunting down a few eligible bachelors
Aw. Throat tightening, Gigi nudged the other woman gently with an elbow. Thanks. But lets be realisticIm focusing on my career, which means you cant tempt me with a guy. The members of her family paired off in their mid-thirties, once they had a degree or two and a tenure track. She might not have inherited the Lynds love of academia, but she had gotten their ambition in spades. Besides its not like Im going to Mars or Timbuktu or something. Ill visit.
Alyssa shot her an it wont be the same look. Are you sure Her phone rang with the plain digital ringtone that said it was official business. Immediately straightening away from Gigis SUV, Alyssa pulled the phone and answered with a clipped, professional McDermott, Forensics. But then her face softened. Hello, McDermott, Homicide. Whats up?
Gigi started to wander off and give Alyssa privacy to talk to her husband. Baby McDermotts arrival was so imminent that most of the couples business conversations inevitably turned personal, which made Gigi Well, better to give them privacy.
Station Fourteen? Alyssa said, voice going worried. Matts station?
The name stopped Gigi in her tracks.
Matt. As in Matt Blackthorn, head ranger of the state parks most remote outpost. The one guy she had noticed in Bear Claw, and not necessarily in a good way.
Her first impression had been positivehow could it not be? Blackthorn looked like one of the guys on the glossy brochures put out by the tourism bureauedgy and gorgeous, with subtle bronzing and hard, commanding features that fit with his rumored Cherokee heritage. But unlike the professional models in the brochures, Blackthorn carried a rugged, purposeful energy and seemed to bring the mountain air down to the city with himnot the tame air of the ski slopes, but that of the wilderness, uncivilized and predatory.
The first moment shed laid eyes on the big ranger, she had actually caught her breath.
Theyd both been in the hallway outside of Tuckers office, her coming in, Blackthorn going out. And for a moment, something had sparked between them. At first, she had thought it was mutual attractionthe heated flash in the depths of his dark green eyes had resonated with the hell, yeah her hormones had been chorusing.
Then his gaze had shifted as he took in the rest of her, and his expression had tightened, killing the light of interest. Zap. Gone.
She didnt know what he had or hadnt seen in her, or what it had meant to him. She only knew that hed touched the brim of the black felt hat he wore over his dark hair, and kept going. And the next time theyd crossed paths, when shed done a briefing on a rash of parking-lot break-ins at several trailheads leading to the backcountry, Blackthorn had cut the conversation short enough to earn them a couple of raised eyebrows from the other cops and rangers involved in the meeting.
After that, she had avoided him. Not because he made her uncomfortableshe didnt give anyone that powerbut because it didnt matter whether or not the head ranger of Station Fourteen liked her. She was there to work evidence for the Bear Claw City P.D. and prove to her bosses back home that she could fit herself seamlessly into an existing team like the BCCPDs crime lab. Blackthorn wasnt part of that world.
Unless there was a crime scene up at Station Fourteen. Then he was very much a part of her worldat least for the duration of the case.