Bitter Wild (18 page)

He
turned to glance at her. “Are you absolutely sure about this?”

Her
amber eyes were unwavering as they locked onto him. “Yes. I want this man
caught just as much as you do. This is the best chance we’re going to get.”

He
didn’t argue further. He just nodded, then turned and slowly began to creep
toward the cabin. Within a few feet they were at the edge of the cover. Here’s
where they would be most likely to get killed. They had to cross the open expanse
between the trees and the cabin. If they made it without getting shot, they
might have a chance at taking Jester down quickly. Jack turned to meet Casey’s
gaze. He stared at her for a moment, then gave her a nod. A moment later he
broke cover, running low and fast toward the cabin. He didn’t dare look back to
see if Casey was behind him. His eyes were constantly scanning the area,
searching for any sign of movement, any indication that Jester had seen them
and would open fire. He was almost surprised when he reached the cabin without
any shots ringing out. He flattened himself against the wall and finally turned
to see Casey right beside him. She gave him a small smile, then turned and
rounded the corner, heading for the rear of the cabin. Jack focused on the
front door.

Casey
sank to one knee at the corner of the cabin. There was a stack of wood between
her and the back door that was just high enough to give her some cover if she
needed it. She took aim at the door and waited. It was just a few moments later
when she heard the front door crash open. Jack identified himself as a federal
agent and Casey braced for the sound of gunfire. There was none, though. In
fact, she heard nothing at all. Seconds ticked by in silence. She was just
starting to wonder if she ought to go see what had happened when Jack called
out to her.

“I’m
coming out the back, Casey.”

The
door opened and she rose, lowering her weapon as Jack stepped through the door.
He turned to meet her gaze.

“There’s
no one inside.”

Casey
immediately scanned the area. There was no movement that she could see, but
that didn’t mean Russell Jester wasn’t out there somewhere, watching. She
turned around and emitted a short whistle. Chance shot out of the trees like
he’d been fired from a cannon. He hated being left behind. She laid her hand on
his head, then skirted the wood pile to reach the cabin’s rear door. She
glanced past Jack, her gaze scanning the interior. Within moments she knew
Jester had been there. She moved past Jack into the cabin, heading for the
makeshift sink that was fed from the storage tank outside. There were dishes
inside it as well as empty cans littering the countertop. She turned around and
spotted the bag lying beside one of the cots. On the cot was a sleeping bag.
Casey moved toward the bag, reaching out to lift one corner. She felt her
stomach clench when she saw Millie’s name written with permanent ink along the
seam. Casey dropped the bag and spun around to meet Jack’s gaze.

“He’s
still here. He wouldn’t have left his gear behind.”

Jack
nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. There’s another bag under the other cot
that’s got an assortment of weapons and ammunition inside. No way in hell he’d
leave that behind.”

Casey
felt the hairs along her neck stand up. He was out there somewhere and God
alone knew what he was waiting for. Judging from what she knew about him, she
doubted seriously he was planning to try to sneak away after nightfall. He
wasn’t the kind of man who’d want to avoid a confrontation, especially if he
knew there were just two of them. She glanced at Chance. After a moment, she
motioned for his attention, then again lifted the sleeping bag. He took several
sniffs, then met her gaze, acknowledging his understanding of what she was
asking. A second later he was out the door. Casey moved to go after him, but
Jack stopped her.

“What
do you think you’re doing?”

She met
his gaze. “What you hired me to do. Jester is on this ridge somewhere and you
know as well as I do that we have to find him. We’ve got a couple of hours of daylight
left. After that, we’re going to be sitting ducks in this cabin. He could burn
it down around us. And before you suggest it, all my reasons for not waiting
him out still apply. We have to take him now.”

Jack
was trying to figure out how to tell her no when Chance let out a series of
excited barks. Before Jack could react himself, Casey had shaken his hand off
and darted out the front door of the cabin. Jack ran after her, cursing her
stubbornness beneath his breath even as he silently prayed that she wasn’t
running straight into an ambush. He was again impressed by her speed,
especially considering the condition of her leg. She stayed out in front of
him, even going uphill. Every breath Jack drew in his lungs was accompanied by
a certainty that he’d feel a bullet tearing through him at any moment. But no
bullets came. No one jumped out from behind a tree to challenge them. After a
few minutes, Jack caught sight of the dog. It had stopped barking, but was
moving around anxiously, its gaze shifting from Jack and Casey to something on
the ground in front of it. Jack watched Casey skid to a stop, then drop down to
pick something up. By the time Jack had stopped as well, he could see that it
was a rope.

His
gaze followed it to the large rock it had been tied around, then backtracked to
where it disappeared over the side of the cliff. Casey gave the rope a tug,
then walked to the edge and leaned over. Jack heard her sharp intake of breath.

“Jack!”

He
moved to her side and carefully leaned forward. The drop off wasn’t as bad as
he’d expected, though it was far enough down to give him a momentary sense of
vertigo. He saw Casey lift her hand to point. On the rocks far below he saw a
large smear of something wet and red. He pulled out a pair of binoculars and took
another look. No doubt about it. There was a sizeable amount of blood coating
one of the large rocks. There were splatters across several nearby rocks as
well. Beside him, Casey was theorizing aloud.

“He
must have tried to go down into the valley. Maybe he thought he could find a
way out.”

Jack
lowered the binoculars, inexplicably uneasy with the idea that Jester had
fallen to his death. The amount of blood made it unlikely that he’d gotten up
and walked away from the fall, but there was no sign of his body, either.

“There’s
no body.”

Casey
shrugged. “There might be a few animals large enough to drag it off down there.
The valley isn’t large enough to support bears, but there could be a couple of
cats. Even if there aren’t, it’s possible he survived the fall and crawled off
somewhere that’s out of our line of sight.”

Jack
still wasn’t sure. It didn’t seem possible for the chase to end like this. It
seemed anticlimactic. Too easy. Casey seemed to sense his thoughts. He watched
as she began to pull the rope up the side of the cliff. Within a few seconds
she had it coiled neatly. She fixed him with her gaze.

“If he
somehow survived the fall, and if he isn’t already dead from his injuries, then
you can be sure he won’t be coming back up that cliff without the rope. Unless
he’s a professional climber, there’s no way he could do it and even a
professional would be hard pressed to make that climb without at least a
minimum of gear.”

She
laid the coil of rope beside the rock it was tied to. When she turned back to
him, her lips spread into a smile.

“It’s
over, Jack.”

He
wanted desperately to believe her. His instincts weren’t ready to give in,
however. Jack glanced around, his gaze scanning the trees and boulders that
could easily hide a person. “I think we ought to check everything out, just to
be sure.”

Casey
didn’t argue. She just nodded, then made a motion to Chance. He turned and
trotted off. Casey watched him go before focusing once more on Jack. “Come on.
We’ll go all the way to the top and work our way back to the cabin.”

Jack
followed her to the top of the hill. They took a few minutes to examine the
area around the washed out bridge. Jack could barely hear himself think over
the roar of the water. The drop into the pool below was easily a hundred feet
and mist from the falls sprayed everything. He and Casey worked cautiously
through the narrow cluster of trees that hugged the upper cliff face. They
searched every boulder, every tree and found nothing. When they arrived back at
the cabin they found Chance waiting for them. He was lying in the open front
door, completely relaxed. That was what finally convinced Jack that Jester was
dead, or at least trapped in the valley below. No way the dog would be so at
ease if he sensed anyone else around. Casey walked into the cabin and leaned
against the counter. Jack followed her inside, feeling every single muscle in
his body as they began to groan.

Days of
hard riding and hiking and roughing it had taken their toll. He met Casey’s
gaze as she chuckled.

“It’s
almost a letdown, isn’t it? All this time we’ve been anticipating some kind of
ugly fight and he up and killed himself.”

Jack
couldn’t seem to keep himself from smiling in return. “Yeah, how dare he let us
down like that.”

Casey
laughed, then sighed. “I’m going to sleep for a week when I get back home.”

Jack
heard the longing in her voice and thought about his own desire to return to
his apartment. He was surprised a bit to realize he didn’t feel any real sense
of urgency on that score. Just a few days earlier he’d been aching for his
familiar haunts. Right now, though his body was tired and sore, the only ache
that truly troubled him was the one urging him to pull Casey Nolan into his
arms and finish what they’d started out in the woods earlier.

Casey
glanced up and caught Jack watching her. One look into his eyes and she knew
what he was thinking. She felt heat flush her body. She nearly pushed away from
the counter and went to him. She might have, if her stomach hadn’t chosen that
precise moment to release a protracted rumble. They both broke into laughter.

“I
guess we better see what there is to eat around here.”

Casey
nodded as he came toward her. “There ought to be a few stores in the cabinets,
if Jester didn’t eat them already. A ranger comes by here a few times a year to
make sure the place is stocked. It’s an emergency shelter of sorts. Any locals
who use it know to replace whatever they take.”

She was
babbling again, but couldn’t seem to make herself stop. She opened a cabinet
and started searching through the cans. After a few moments she pulled an
assortment out. “We’ve got some stew, some chili, and a can of peaches for
dessert. It’s up to you which entrée you want.”

Jack
opted for the chili, then offered to go get their gear while she got the food
ready. She rinsed a pair of pots in the sink, then rebuilt the fire in the wood
stove that provided both a source of heat and a method of cooking for the
cabin. By the time Jack returned she’d gotten the food on the stove and had
cleaned up the mess Jester had left behind. She hadn’t tackled the sleeping
bag, yet. The thought of handling it was making her feel vaguely nauseous. She
remembered sleeping in that same bag a few years ago. It wasn’t new, but Millie
had always taken such good care of her things that it still had several years
left in it. It wasn’t just a sleeping bag, now, though. It had been used by a
murderer, a man who’d cold-bloodedly taken the life of more than a dozen
people. For Casey, that sleeping bag would always feel tainted.

Casey
took her bag of gear from Jack when he carried it into the cabin, then promptly
announced that she was going to take a quick shower. At Jack’s shocked look,
she explained that there was a makeshift shower beneath the water tank outside.
She carried her bag out the back door, then paused to evaluate the reason
behind her racing heart. The explanation was simply enough. She and Jack Hall
were going to make love tonight. There was no escaping it, no pretending it
wasn’t what they both wanted. They’d been building toward it from the first
moment they met.

Casey
hurriedly stripped, then stepped beneath the showerhead. The water was frigid,
but the numbing cold was worth braving just for the pleasure of feeling truly
clean for the first time in days. Finished, Casey dried off as best she could
and pulled on her clothes once more. Her hair was still dripping when she
walked back into the cabin. She noticed immediately that Jack had rolled up
Millie’s sleeping bag and stuffed both it and the bag of gear Jester had stolen
from her aunt under the cot Jester had been using. Jack’s own gear now sat on
that cot, leaving the other one for Casey. She almost wanted to cry at the
unspoken thoughtfulness of his actions. He’d known she didn’t want to use the
same cot Jester had used. Jack had understood how she felt without her having
to say a word.

He was
stirring the food when she dropped her bag on the other cot. He glanced up at
her, giving her a smile. “I think I’ll follow your lead and use that shower.”

“I feel
obliged to warn you that the water is as cold as ice.”

Jack
shrugged just before walking out the back door. “That might not be such a bad
thing.”

Casey
felt her skin flush again. She sank down on her cot as her mind quickly
conjured up an image of him stripping to step beneath the shower. She closed
her eyes as her face flamed once more. She was hardly a naïve virgin. She and
Andy had been lovers. But he’d been her first and only partner. And it had been
a while since she’d even thought about a man in that way. She opened her eyes.
Okay, it wasn’t like she needed to worry that she’d forgotten how. It wasn’t
that kind of skill. What she did need to seriously consider, though, was how
she’d feel about it all in the morning. She was no skittish neophyte, but she
wasn’t exactly what anyone would consider a modern woman of the world, either.
Sex had always been about feeling for her. It was an expression of emotion, not
just a physical act. She knew, without needing to ask, that Jack wasn’t the
same. Sex would be strictly impersonal for him. A filling of a transitory
physical need. Could she go through with it, knowing that it would never mean
to him what it would mean to her?