Run Wild (13 page)

The low-hanging sky was a heavy, dull gray. The air was growing moist, and when she exhaled she swore she saw her breath. It had been years since she’d been in temperatures this cold. And she knew in this part of the state it got a lot colder.

Trent stood with his back to Natasha next to the passenger’s side rear tire. His hair also blew around his face, but when he turned slightly, she saw how pinched his expression was.

“Do you know how lucky you are?” he whispered, turning dark, turbulent eyes on her.

Natasha looked up at him, forced to pull a hand out from the warmth of her sleeves and grab her hair so it would quit slapping her in the face. “Let me guess. I’m lucky because you showed up. And had you not been here, it’s certain I would have suffered some deadly peril.”

She swore he growled. Trent’s body grew before her, his muscles hardening as he curled his gloved fingers into fists.

When he blew out a few expletives, his breath was visible over the cold air. Trent stalked away from her. He was around the Avalanche and opening the driver’s side door before Natasha realized what he was doing.

“Hey!” She hurried around the truck, grabbing his arm when he was backing out of the cab, her purse in his hand. When he turned on her she noticed he also had taken her gun out of the glove box. “What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.

He pushed her purse against her chest and thrust the truck keys at her. “You don’t have to wait for the wrecker since it’s a charge. Come on. We’re going to find out what someone went to such desperate means to hide. Or are we still going to play like that wasn’t what you were out here trying to find out?”

The last thing she wanted to do was drive with Trent into the hills and find out who was hiding back there when he was this pissed off. But if she insisted on staying with the Avalanche, Trent would investigate on his own. That wasn’t acceptable, either. She followed him back to his Suburban without saying anything and let him open the passenger door, hold it for her, and close it once she was sitting on the bench seat.

She put her purse on the seat between them, made quick work of checking her gun, confirming it was still loaded, then securing the safety as Trent hurried around the front of his truck.

He brought the cold in with him when he climbed behind the steering wheel. Roped muscles bulged against his jeans as he accelerated and left the Avalanche behind, heading off the road and making a large circle around the embedded tire tracks before driving back onto the road right before the hills began. He turned on his headlights, hit the high beams, and drove cautiously around sharp curves. Rocky, steep inclines swept higher than Natasha could see as they worked their way through the hills in silence.

The road went along farther than she guessed it would. Apparently, the trap had been set for all unwelcomed visitors before the hills began. Natasha was pretty sure they were heading north and knew at some point, by definition, these would no longer be hills but the Trinity Alps.

“Why don’t you trust me?” Trent asked after driving for a few minutes.

“What makes you think I don’t trust you?”

“You left the bed-and-breakfast and tried to make me think you were heading home. Gas is really too expensive to drive south a few hours before pulling a U-turn and heading north again.”

She quit looking ahead at the tunnels of light the headlights made on the road and looked at Trent. “How do you know that’s what I did?”

Instead of answering, he grinned. The look on his face warmed her entire body by several degrees.

She shook her head. “And you’re asking why I don’t trust you?”

“What do we have here?” Trent was looking ahead out the windshield.

Natasha did the same and stared at a rugged-looking log cabin. They hadn’t been driving on a road but a long, twisted driveway. The dark gray Buick was parked in front of the cabin.

Chapter Six

Trent turned off his headlights before they swept over the rustic cabin. As he braked to a stop, the wind shook his Suburban. They’d barely made it into autumn and already the temperature was plummeting. Natasha wouldn’t make it through the night if they had to explore the scene with it this cold outside. And she was probably stubborn enough to refuse to stay in the warmth of his Suburban.

If she caught her death of foolishness in the form of a nasty cold or flu, it would serve her right. Thoughts of nursing her back to health in bed, or better yet, chaining her to his bed were going to distract the hell out of Trent if he didn’t stay focused.

“Who lives here?” he asked, ready for the same look Natasha had given him with every question he’d asked since finding her out here off the highway.

“Sheriff, I didn’t even know Acorn was here until a couple hours ago. How the hell would I know who lives here?”

Natasha’s tan eyes were hooded by thick black lashes when she shot him a defiant glare. Her full, tempting lips pressed into a disapproving scowl. He stared back at her, tempted to believe she was telling the truth.

Something deep in his gut made him cautious. She might not be lying but that didn’t mean she might not be holding back crucial information. Natasha was stuck with him for the time being. They were going to do some serious bonding, whatever it took to get her to open up to him. And he did mean whatever it took.

He studied the branches bending over the gray Buick in front of the cabin. It was conveniently parked at an angle so someone pulling up couldn’t read the license plate without getting out of their vehicle first.

“Is that the car you were following?” he asked, trying another angle.

Natasha rolled her eyes. She shoved her gun into the back of her jeans and tugged her sweater over it. Then zipping up her flimsy jacket, she reached for the car door handle.

Trent grabbed her wrist. Natasha spun around, causing all that long black hair to fly over her shoulder. “Let go of me,” she hissed.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He didn’t let go.

“I think I’m going to get out and take a look around,” she hissed. She focused on his hand holding her wrist. “The tracks on either side of the road around those spikes look too wide to have come from that car. Maybe you should check that out. I’m going to knock on that door and ask if this road is their driveway.

“Because if it isn’t, that makes it a public road.” She tapped her thumb against her window. “And those spikes over there look damn familiar. Someone owes me new tires.”

“I didn’t even know this cabin was here,” he muttered half to himself.

He hadn’t noticed the spikes and had to lean around Natasha to look out her passenger window and see them. There was a small pile of metal spikes alongside the edge of the cabin. “I’ll be damned,” he muttered.

Natasha grinned triumphantly. Then she stared at his fingers wrapped around her narrow wrist and tried tugging free once again.

“Nope,” Trent said, shaking his head when she looked ready to protest. “You’re going to be frozen within minutes with that thin L.A. blood of yours. Stay here. I’ll be back in a few.”

“I’m not staying here.” She tugged to free her wrist.

“You’re staying in here if I have to handcuff you to the steering wheel.”

“I dare you to try,” she snarled.

His insides hardened. Trent didn’t do dares.

The thought of handcuffing Natasha, forcing her to do his will, submit to him, damn near got him hard as a rock. He imagined pinning her down, preventing her from moving while he took his time exploring that hot little body of hers. The sexual tension between them was burning off the charts. If he tried to fuck her, she wouldn’t fight for long. Her curiosity was at least as strong as his.

Natasha didn’t trust him. And she was withholding information from him. He didn’t know what it was yet but until he did, making love to her would only end in her resenting him. One way or another, he would gain her trust. Pushing her when she challenged him might help crack that tough exterior of hers.

“Since you insist.” Trent kept a firm grip on her wrist and enjoyed the hell out of her shocked expression when he reached behind him for his cuffs. “I’m always up for a good dare.”

“Like hell,” she snapped, then tried her hardest to free herself from his hold. “Let me go, you back-hills Neanderthal,” she hissed, although to her credit she didn’t yell or do anything to draw attention to them.

“Back-hills Neanderthal?” Trent dropped his cuffs between his legs, where he seriously doubted Natasha would try grabbing them. Then pulling her up against him, he moved fast, capturing both of her hands in one of his. “Enough, Natasha,” he whispered.

Long, silky black hair fell across the side of her face when she shot him a scathing look. “You’re right. Enough. You’re following me around as if I were a suspect in a crime I knew nothing about before arriving here.”

“You aren’t a suspect.” He tugged on her wrists, causing her to fall forward, then wrapped his arm around her.

Their faces were inches from each other and he saw the moment her anger dissipated and lust, raw and on fire, made her cheeks flush and her eyes glow with passion he ached to explore.

“Handcuff me to anything in this car, Sheriff, and I swear I’ll scream so loud it will ruin any investigation you try to do without me.”

Trent smiled and she stiffened. When he let go of her wrists, though, she didn’t try to move. Her hair was smooth and soft when he brushed it away from her face.

“Alright,” he whispered. “We’ll check this place out together,” he decided, willing to call a truce before the sexual sparks in the air between them began exploding. Natasha was becoming too much of a distraction. He needed to keep his hands off her. Since he seriously doubted she would return to L.A. when she didn’t know if her father had committed a crime or not, he might as well keep her by his side while he investigated this murder.

She blew out a breath, her hair wild around her face. Something had changed in her expression, and Trent was pretty sure he knew what it was. They were inches apart. It would take nothing to kiss her. She wouldn’t fight him if he did.

“The only way I’m working with you is if you admit my father is innocent.”

Trent nodded once. “Innocent until proven guilty.”

“Uh-huh.” She didn’t believe him.

“I’m accepting your terms,” he pointed out, but then brought her closer. Close enough he could breathe in the smell of her shampoo on her hair and watch darker flecks of gold dance around her pupils. Trent lowered his attention to her lips, which were moist, full, and slightly parted. “You’re here for a reason, darling,” he drawled, watching her lashes flutter over her eyes when she studied him as he spoke. “Whatever your reasons, you aren’t telling me everything you know. You’re withholding information, and I don’t know yet if it’s pertinent in solving this case or not. So in order to prove you can trust me, I’m going on a leap of faith that I can trust you, too.”

“Leap of faith,” she murmured. After a moment she nodded and relaxed. “Okay. We’ll try it your way. But you let me worry about freezing to death. I’m not as fragile as you think. Let’s go.”

“Okay,” he said slowly, let go of her, but then put his arm on her shoulder when she turned again for the door. “But you are going to make me a promise.”

“What’s that?”

“This is my territory. I know this land and I know these people. I call the shots. Do you understand me?”

She looked at him only a moment longer. “Yes.” When she reached for the door this time, he let her open it.

Trent hated having to worry about her safety and keep an eye on their surroundings. He met her at the front of his Suburban, and when she stood next to him, hugging herself and searching the rugged, undeveloped land around them, he noticed her teeth were chattering. Trent slid out of his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. Where she came from chivalry might be dead but she would learn quickly it was alive and well where he came from.

When she looked up at him, startled, he put his fingers against her lips. “You’re welcome.”

She smiled against his fingertips. “Thank you.”

Although only a minute or two had passed inside his truck, Trent felt as if they’d just jumped over one hell of a hurdle. Not to mention, just now when she grinned up at him Trent swore he saw her true nature for the first time. Natasha still grinned when she looked around her, checking out their surroundings. This fiery-natured, willful, and sexy little woman loved a good investigation.

“Let’s see who’s home,” he said, and started toward the gray Buick. “And I want that tag number,” he told her under his breath.

“I can remember it.”

“Photographic memory?” he asked.

“Something like that.”

There were two windows on either side of the cabin door, both of which seemed to be in dire need of cleaning. With no sun and heavy cloud cover, Trent couldn’t tell if there were curtains over the windows or not.

“Warm,” he said under his breath when he put his hand on the hood of the Buick.

He glanced over his shoulder at Natasha. His coat dwarfed her. It hung to her thighs, which made her slender, trim legs appear even longer. She’d slid her arms into its sleeves and her hair was partially tucked under the collar while several thick strands tumbled past her shoulders. She looked up at him, her expression more nonresponsive than it should be. She was still holding out on him. That was about to stop.