The noise in the chopper faded to a dull throb with her headset on. Shauna spoke into the microphone and gestured to Zach. “I’ll put us down there. I didn’t realize until now that Dad’s cabin is in the Mount Jupiter Quadrangle.”
The sun shone out of a beautiful September sky with the temperature hovering around seventy. Sitka spruce vied with bigleaf maple for space and created a canopy over the understory of sword fern and stair-step moss. A grassy clearing opened up below, and she executed a perfect landing, then shut off the engine.
Zach removed his headset and reached for the backpack of food, water, compass, and binoculars. “I wish we could have brought Alex. He would have enjoyed this.”
She dragged her gaze from the way his muscles flexed in his navy T-shirt. “I didn’t want to risk walking into something dangerous.” She’d looked forward to the day with Zach, even though she tried not to admit it to herself.
He nodded and opened his door. “Better to be safe.”
She opened her door and ducked beneath the blades. Zach met her by a small brook rushing over gleaming stones. The water was clear and melodious as it mingled with the sounds of birds chirping.
“Where should we start?”
He shouldered the backpack and pointed to the west. “Let’s go that way. We should reach your dad’s cabin around lunchtime, and we can stop in and say hello.”
It bothered her that her dad’s cabin was in this area. Could he have had anything to do with whatever Jack saw? Jack often stopped to check on her dad so he was in this area a lot. “I suppose we should ask Dad if he knows what Jack might have been referring to.”
Zach shot her a quick look. “You’re worried he might be involved?”
“Aren’t you? It seems likely Jack stumbled onto whatever danger he found near Dad’s cabin. It’s not very far.”
“The quadrangle covers a lot of area. He could have run into whatever it was while hiking up Mount Jupiter or in the Brothers Wilderness. The location of your dad’s cabin is likely just a coincidence.”
“Maybe.” She intended to grill her dad about it, though. Over the years she’d learned whatever depths she suspected he might sink to were never really as far as the man could go. She wanted to love him, but it was hard to look past all the ways he’d disappointed her.
They set off through a mat of wildflowers that released a sweet aroma as they stepped on the blooms. There were no trails through here. It was as if they were the first to ever walk the area. It would take days to hike in from the nearest fire road, and not many would have the fortitude to come this way. They reached the end of the clearing and moved into the shade of the giant trees. Lichen and moss were underfoot, as well as smaller shrubs.
Zach kept consulting his compass and directed them this way or that way to stay on track. The trees thinned out again, and they stepped into another clearing, one too steep to set her helicopter down in.
She paused and wiped the perspiration from her forehead. “Now which way?” When Zach didn’t answer, she glanced at him looking to the south. “What?”
“It looks like a road has been cut there. A wide one with pavement that’s all broken up now. It seems like it hasn’t been used in decades.”
She saw it then. “A fire road maybe?”
“Maybe.”
She followed him to the road. It meandered around a small pond before disappearing into the trees again. “It has to have been abandoned awhile. Saplings and vegetation are taking it over. Let’s follow it and see where it goes.”
The rough road made walking faster. There were no fallen trees to clamber over or rocks to avoid. The road began to widen and ended next to a small building. It was still shady even in the clearing, and Shauna stared overhead.
She touched Zach’s arm. “Look, there’s some kind of green covering over this area. Someone is trying to hide this.”
Zach’s gaze roamed over the building. “Hard to tell what’s inside. There aren’t even any windows.”
She walked to the metal door and looked it over. “It has both a regular lock and a padlock. Whoever put this here really doesn’t want anyone poking around.”
“Let’s walk around and see if we can figure out what this is doing here.” Zach set off to the right of the building.
Shauna hung back and examined the locks. It would take a huge bolt cutter to remove the padlock, but the other lock was a dead bolt that would only open with a code. She finally trailed after Zach and found him with his ear pressed against the building. “What’s wrong?”
“I hear some kind of noise, but I can’t figure out what it is.”
She pressed her ear against the building too and heard a rumble and a hum. “Machinery of some kind?”
“Yeah, but what? And why is this place so hidden?”
“We can check with environmental organizations and see if they have any idea. Or the sheriff might know. How far are we from my dad’s?”
Zach gestured to the left. “Only about a half an hour walk that way, I think, so he might know something about this place.”
“He might, but it’s hard to say if he’s even sober enough to carry on a conversation. We can go ask, though.”
A brightly colored bird flitted through the trees, then chirped a happy song as they walked under the canopy of branches and pushed through the understory. Zach glanced at Shauna walking beside him. She looked adorable with strands of dark hair escaping from her ponytail to rest against her pink cheeks. He wanted to take her hand, but it still felt a little presumptuous. She hadn’t said anything about the kiss last night, and he hesitated to bring it up.
She caught him looking at her. “What?”
He stopped and shrugged out of his backpack. “Just getting some water.” He pulled two bottles out and handed one to her.
Her lips twitched, and her green eyes lit with amusement. “You’re sure that’s all it was? Your expression was . . .” Her cheeks went redder.
“You look very pretty today. It’s hard to stop staring at you.” Holy cow, could his compliment be any lamer? Pretty was hardly the right word. Ravishingly beautiful was more like it, but that kind of effusive talk got tangled between his teeth and his tongue.
Her white teeth flashed in a smile that accentuated the dimple in her left cheek. “I don’t mind if you look.” She caught and held his gaze.
He couldn’t stop himself from sidling closer. “Do you mind if I touch?” Without waiting for permission, he cupped her cheek, then leaned forward and brushed her lips with his.
The enticing scent of her breath brushed over his face. Her arms came up around his neck, and she leaned into the embrace. He deepened the kiss and took his time plumbing the sweetness of her response.
How had he fallen in love with her so fast? But maybe it wasn’t all that quick. He’d loved her as a friend for years. It hadn’t taken long for those feelings of friendship to morph into something else. Breaking the kiss, he stepped back.
Her beautiful eyes looked a little sad as she dropped her hands. Did she think he was rejecting her? He reached for her again, but she turned away and uncapped her water.
She took a swig before aiming a smile his way that looked pasted on. “We’d better get going.”
He couldn’t let her think he was pushing her away. “Shauna, the way I feel about you is moving so fast it’s giving me vertigo. This isn’t just some casual hook-up for me. I hope you know that.”
Her smile faded for a heartbeat before she nodded. “It’s scaring me too, Zach. I-I thought I’d never be truly happy again, but maybe I was wrong. Being with you makes me want to laugh and live again.”
“You deserve that.” The need to tell her how he felt trembled on his lips, but it was too soon. She’d think he was totally crazy. He smiled and took her hand. “Let’s go talk to your dad.”
They’d only taken one step when something whizzed by his head and struck a nearby tree. As pieces of bark flew out, he grabbed her and pushed her to the ground. “That was a bullet!”
He threw himself on top of her and covered her body with his. Another bullet plowed into the ground four inches from his head. This was no hunter with a stray shot.
Someone was trying to shoot them.
He lifted his head and looked around for a boulder or something to hide behind, but only trees held any kind of concealment.
He spoke in her ear. “Let’s get behind that big pine to our left. I’ll see if I can find where the shooter is. Let’s roll that direction together.”
He clutched her tightly and began to roll toward the tree. More bullets tore into the dirt where they had lain just a few seconds before. They reached the tree, and he released her. “Crawl around to the other side.”
Once she was safely behind the bulk of the pine tree, he scooted around himself, then stood and peered in the direction he thought the shooter had been.
He heard only the wind through the branches and the birds chirping. Another bullet smacked into the tree, sending chips of bark against his cheek.
“You’re bleeding,” Shauna said.
“It’s nothing.” If only he had his rifle. They were as easy to pick off as cans on a post. “I’ll try to circle around and jump him from behind. Stay hidden behind the tree.”
Her eyes were enormous in her face. She grabbed his arm. “Don’t go! He’ll be able to shoot you.”
“I’m going to run from tree to tree. I’ll be fine.” He brushed a kiss across her lips. “Just pray.”
“I am.”
Another bullet dug into the side of the tree. “When he spots me moving, I want you to run across to that other large tree.” He pointed out a Sitka spruce to their right.
When she nodded, he made a big show of leaping from behind the tree and running for a smaller pine. A bullet bit into the ground by his feet. He paused long enough to see Shauna dart to the spruce tree before stealthily crawling to a large bush.
No more shots rang out, and he moved to the next tree. He was having trouble siting where the shooter crouched, but Zach continued to circle back to where the last bullet had come from.
He found a crushed patch of wildflowers and weeds as well as some spent casings. The one clear shoe print he found looked to belong to a smaller man, maybe one the size of Jermaine. The bullet casings might come in handy to the sheriff, so he pulled out a handkerchief and picked them up before returning to Shauna.
“He’s gone for now. Let’s get to your dad’s.” The old man wouldn’t be much help, but he had enough firearms to outfit a small army.