Page 57 of The Hero She Loves

“Let’s take another look now,” she suggested.

They followed along the riverbank. Park stopped to study something, and Jenna kept walking.

Then a scent hit her.

Something was dead.

“Park.”

He joined her, frowning. “I smell it. I’m guessing a dead animal, maybe.”

They followed a bend in the river. The stench increased, and she pressed a hand to her nose.

Then Park grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. She followed his gaze, and her stomach did a sickening turn.

There were three animals. They were staked out in the dirt and they’d all been skinned.

“A caribou, a fox, and something else small,” Park said. “A marmot, maybe.”

“He didn’t eat the meat,” she said.

“No.” Park’s face was grim. “Olson did this for fun.” He walked over to a fallen log, and she spotted the animals’ skins draped over it.

God, Olson was seriously disturbed. He was a psychopath who’d been trained to be the best killer he could be.

“He camped here,” Park said.

She glanced over and saw him walking toward the trees.

“Then he went this way.” Park motioned ahead.

“So, we keep following him.”

“We can’t now. We’re going to lose the light soon.” He turned back to her. “We need to find a spot to make camp.”

She pulled a face. “I’m not camping here.”

“No, not here. I’ll bury the animals, then we’ll go up the hill. I want to find a more secure location. I have some portable security cameras that I’ll set up. No one will sneak up on us.”

“All right. Let’s get these poor animals buried, and make camp.”

Park gotthe small tent set up. It wasn’t very big. It would be a cozy fit for the both of them.

Darkness was falling fast, as was the temperature. He circled around the camp, searching for anything that set his radar off.

Nothing.

He pulled out the portable cameras and set them in some tree branches around their camp site. He pulled out his phone and checked the connection to the cameras.

No one was sneaking up on them in the night.

He walked back toward the tent. Jenna was sitting on a log and had a jacket on now. She was opening their food.

“We can’t make a fire, but we can use the small propane heater from my backpack,” he said.

“Dinner is not going to be up to Velma’s standards.”

Park sat beside her. “It’ll still be better than what I ate most days in the military.”