Page 44 of Shephard

The difficult action wasn’t any different than countless exercises I’d done as a Marine. The only difference was that a real life was at stake. There was no way I was letting her die. Every muscle was strained and as I managed to pull her up by a few inches, the root gave way completely.

To her credit, her only reaction was to grab my arm with her other hand, doing what she could to steady herself as dirt flew into her face.

I used my other hand to maneuver us both backward, even digging my boots into the dirt to gain some traction.

“I’m slipping,” she said with no hysterics.

“Not on my watch.” I sucked in my breath and as I exhaled, I issued a sharp grunt and pulled with every ounce of strength I had. The moment she was pulled to safety, I rolled us both away from the edge by several feet, landing on top of her.

Pepper jogged closer, barking just once as she stood over both of us.

We were both gasping for air and while I wanted to make certain she was okay, I was also cognizant we were still sitting ducks.

“Go. Go,” she whispered. “Get the fucker.”

“Yeah, sweetheart. I’ll see what I can do.”

I shoved backward, onto my feet, once again shifting into stealth mode. With the flashlight in my hand, I made the rounds, scanning the forest, finally noticing blood on one of the trees. She’d nicked him with the bullet at minimum. I’d grabbed my weapon, keeping it stretched out in front of me as I searched. The trail of blood led the assailant away and my guess was to the road.

He’d been hired or ordered to dump the body here after finishing the kill.

Sighing, I finally bent over, placing my hands on my knees. I was just trying to catch my breath. Shit. I’d been out of the game for long enough I was fucking exhausted. Christ. I had to get my ass back into a gym.

As soon as I headed back, I could tell she was back to fuming, pacing the ground. She had the assault rifle in her hand, her weapon in another. When I walked up, she glared at me. “What the hell was that?”

“That was a clusterfuck. What would you call it?” I moved closer. I might not be the best guy in the world, but I did care if she was hurt.

She crept closer, limping on one leg. The wise and way too opinionated chick figured out I was studying her. “Don’t say it. I’m fine.”

“What? No thank you for saving your life? Twice?”

Her little snorts would normally irritate me, but they aroused me instead. “You are kidding me. If you hadn’t been here bothering me, I would have possibly caught the murderer. Case closed. Danger Falls all safe again.”

“Lady, I don’t know where you were trained, but it was obvious that goon was a lookout doubling as an assassin. He wasn’t your main guy no matter what you think.”

“Or woman.”

“What?”

“Don’t be sexist.”

Now I’d had enough of the bantering. I threw up my hand and stormed back toward the Jeep, grabbing a fallen flashlight as I did.

Some women were little more than a pain in the ass.

CHAPTER 13

Denise

“We need to keep this quiet for as long as possible,” Greg said as he crowded into my small office.

This. Three murders in a little over three months. And the killer was escalating. I hadn’t slept a wink because the case was a reminder of the brutal killer who’d gotten away two years before during a time when I’d been off my game.

I felt that way now, the rugged mountain man keeping me unnerved. I hadn’t mentioned Shephard had been with me.

“Tell me something I don’t know. Just keep Cane quiet and we’ll be fine. You should fire him over his breach in policy.” Although with another mysterious body lying in the morgue, it was going to become tougher to keep the silence. With the increase in tourists daily, the woods were now crawling with hikers and nature enthusiasts. I thought about the animal that had been killed, almost not adding that to my report. I didn’t know why, but it felt as if it was an important clue I didn’t want anyone else to have access to.

“We’re too short handed, but I’ve already had a long discussion with him.”