Shephard (Mountain Men of Danger Falls #1)

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

S hephard

Denise’s face was pinched, her entire demeanor having changed.

“What’s bothering you?” I asked.

Her laugh was subtle yet anguished. “What isn’t?”

“Why do you need to be such a hard-ass, Denise?”

“Look who’s talking. I don’t like this.” She was staring into the line of trees, her chest rising and falling from her labored breathing. I could tell her instincts were spot on. There was a sense of foreboding that hadn’t occurred until seconds before

I moved beside her, listening to the sounds of the forest.

Pepper was chomping at the bit to hunt. Denise bent down, whispering in her ear and issuing a release command. The dog was well trained. So was his mistress.

“The news report was accurate. Correct?” I asked just before she took off jogging.

She glared at me.

“The murders,” I continued.

“Don’t be a tourist.”

“I’m not. I live here now, but I’m much more. You already figured that out. If you can get that huge chip off your shoulder, you’ll see I can help.”

“Chip? You have a freaking boulder, buddy. And what are you trying to do, become a member of ZZ Top?”

Her insults didn’t faze me. She was dancing on shattered glass trying to jump into the middle of a situation with no backup.

Which meant she could easily get herself killed.

I was an asshole, but I didn’t plan on allowing that to happen.

“I have my reasons. You left some cushy job to come to this shithole. Why?”

Her face was contorted, her lips pursed. “I have my reasons.”

“Fine. So be it.”

“Why did you punch out that reporter?”

She was going to push and push. “As I said, I have my reasons.”

“You mean you have secrets.”

“Don’t we all, sweetheart?”

The awkward silence was only interrupted by the asshole in the Jeep singing.

“All I’ll tell you is that there is something going on that concerns me and no one else seems to care. Try not to get yourself killed. Too much paperwork.” She wasn’t planning on waiting for me at this point, taking off running toward where she believed Pepper had gone.

There was something wrong with this picture. I was certain of it. I pulled out my weapon, unlocking the safety, keeping it low to the ground as I headed in the same direction. I veered off when I heard Pepper’s snorts. Now I was moving perpendicular of where we’d gone before, allowing my instincts to take the lead.

Denise was good at her job, almost no sounds from her hunt.

I was the same. If you had a decent trainer, that was one of the first things you were taught. Silence was golden.

With every step I took, the hair on the back of my neck stood up more. I stopped moving altogether, once again listening for any sounds. There was an eeriness to the now light breeze whistling through the trees. I took a deep whiff and was certain I smelled gasoline.

While not impossible, the stench should have dissipated this late at night from any previous hikers who’d headed to the area to obtain the perfect picture.

A sudden strangled yelp was followed by an intense growl.

Denise. She was down.

I took off running, ignore my training to a point as I headed in her direction. I tried to calculate how far she’d gone, jumping over several fallen logs and other debris. Being off the path had both its advantages and disadvantages. One being the cracking of wood.

After stopping once to take another listen, I heard one additional sound and it had to be coming from Denise.

I was only a couple of feet away when Pepper pounced, almost knocking me to the ground. The dog trusted me enough to locate my whereabouts. She took off running, stopping a couple of times to ensure I was following.

What the fuck was going on?

The question was answered only a few seconds later.

She’d fallen over a dead body. I didn’t need to look closely to know I was right.

“Another goddamn murder,” she said as she lifted her head. “They didn’t have time.”

“Who is they, and time for what?” I didn’t like this at all. You didn’t need to be as highly trained as I’d been or a forensics expert to know the kill had occurred less than an hour earlier. I flashed the light in my hand across the body and over the ground. Given the trampled leaves, my gut told me the person had been killed in the location where we first noticed the blood, then dragged here.

I was about to ask myself why Pepper hadn’t noticed earlier when I realized an animal had been sacrificed perhaps to hide the scent. Pepper hadn’t been trained to care and alert when an animal was down.

Why did I have a feeling the killer knew that?

I scanned the area for the tenth time before crouching down near her.

She’d already donned latex gloves, carefully studying the man’s naked body. “The killer was here. I feel it. But we interrupted him. The other two murders were much… They’d been forced to go through additional atrocities. And I can’t be talking to you.”

I was surprised she was telling me anything about the case that obviously bothered her so much.

“Who else is qualified on your team?”

“Meaning what?” she threw at me, anger in her tone.

“Meaning someone who can handle something of this magnitude.” I was no detective, which I knew had been a part of her former life, but it was easy to see whoever was responsible was calculated. They hadn’t anticipated being interrupted though.

“I have no clue who you are, Shephard, and I don’t have time to question. What I do know is that you’re here out of… necessity and I don’t need to be questioned on how to do my job.” She slowly turned the poor asshole’s head. We both noticed his neck had been slashed, but the cut wasn’t deep enough to cause his death.

Neither was the beating.

She pulled her phone from the twigs, which meant she’d already taken some photographs, standing and taking more from different angles.

“I’d check for poison,” I told her. I was certain she was going to issue a barrage of nasty words, but she nodded. “A slow acting paralyzer maybe. Look at the rigidity of his body.”

The fact she was saying anything to me meant she knew she was in over her head. And I had to ask myself what the fuck I was doing. Getting involved was the last thing on my agenda.

“Possibly.” I’d seen a similar drug in action, several varieties capable of providing a slow enough release the victim was forced to endure torture without being able to fight back.

“Now, I need to mark off the location of the body. I can’t wait here because I have you with me and the lost tourist from the party. But I need you to stay out of the kill zone.”

“He wasn’t killed here. You know it. I know it. He was dragged through the woods. The blood we found was his. If I had to guess, I’d say he was dragged for at least a few hundred yards. Likely coming from the west even before that given the angle of the foliage. Is there a road located nearby?”

She glared at me, but finally nodded. “Yes. That’s what the killer is using. Coming far enough to find a dumping ground.” Her over-exaggeration of the single word was meant to irritate me.

It took more than that.

I ignored her at this point, finding another trail of blood. As I swung the light from one side to the other, an object stuck on a tree caught my eye. The piece of clothing wasn’t unusual and given the victim was naked, it could be his. But why undress him here? I bent down, examining the area immediately underneath. A cigarette butt. It might mean nothing. This could be a resting ground for a hiker.

But it was worth pointing out to the brilliant park ranger.

As I headed back, I turned the flashlight to the area that could lead to the road. The moment I did so, the light caught something metal. More like something steel.

Pepper noticed a split second before I did, this time determined to protect her mistress. She bolted.

“No. No! Pepper.”

Denise hadn’t seen what I had and was headed straight for danger.

I’d originally wanted to tackle the man with the assault rifle, putting a bullet between his eyes and I could still do that. That would risk hers. He was aiming right for her. It was obvious we’d interrupted the motherfucker.

She was running.

I was running.

The assailant was holding his rifle higher. I had one split second to decide my course of actions. I was forced to lunge through the air, tackling him to the ground.

Pepper was there seconds later, growling and barking as her training had provided. We wrestled until I managed to grab the weapon, yanking and tossing it. I’d dropped the flashlight and as we rolled and pitched, I noticed he was reaching for another weapon.

A knife.

The sharp hiss indicated we were no longer alone, Denise getting closer to the fight.

“Get out of here,” I yelled.

“Not leaving you. Get off. I got this.”

Like fucking hell she did.

The man grunted, the blade now turned in my direction.

He was a strong motherfucker, but not nearly as much as I was. I managed to jerk the shaft, returning the point toward his face.

But he rolled me over, even as I ripped the knife from his hand, nicking his face. Somehow, he managed to swing from my hold, jerking up and issuing a hard kick.

We were on a slippery slope, the light showing on one side we were close to an edge of a sharp drop-off. I had no clue the distance to the bottom, but I wasn’t going to find out.

The jerk bounded toward her and it took me a few seconds to realize what he was doing. There was no chance he could grab his weapon in time and I had his knife.

He was going for Denise.

She’d ruffled some feathers.

I pulled out my weapon, but he anticipated the move, swerving to the right. The shot rang out at the same time the ugliness finally registered in my mind.

“No!” I yelled, almost slipping on the heavy debris as I struggled to stand. The light was kicked, the beam twisting in an arc. It was just enough light to see as she bounded to the side, taking aim but as soon as she got off a shot, her foot slipped. At the same time, I grabbed the assault rifle, preventing the assailant from killing both of us.

Although in the back of my mind, I only prayed my instinct was right and the hired gun just wanted to get away. If I was wrong, we were both dead anyway.

Her sharp cry indicated she was going down fast.

As before, there was no time to waste or second guess any decision. I flew toward her, immediately dropping to the ground, my weapon tossed from my hand. She was hanging on by a goddamn root to a tree. How the hell had either one of us gotten into this position?

“Denise. Stop moving,” I instructed, my voice deep and hopefully authoritative enough she’d stop fighting. I was no tree expert either, but given the sharp angle and her weight, the root wasn’t going to hold forever.

“I can’t. I… Where is he?” She was breathless, Pepper already whimpering as she hung her head over the ravine.

“It doesn’t matter. Listen to me. We might have one shot at this. You need to trust me.”

I’ll be damned if the woman didn’t snort. “I don’t.” She almost lost her footing, swearing as she was jerked down by the weight and inertia.

“Stay the fuck still so I can grab you.” The woman wasn’t going to make this easy. On my belly, I stretched out as far as possible. In the best scenario, I could grab a rope from her duffle bag, but this wasn’t a perfect world or scenario.

She was determined not to listen to me, daring to swing her leg to try to position her foot on something solid.

“Do. Not. Move.”

Pepper issued a growl in unison. When dirt and rocks tumbled in her direction, she finally stopped moving. The dim lighting was just enough to allow me to see real fear in her eyes.

I had about another six inches before my position became precarious. “Give me your hand. Just keep looking at me.”

Denise opened her mouth, another flash of fear giving me a slight indication she was finally listening. “I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.” More rocks slipped off the edge. Fuck. “Do it.”

Maybe she knew she had to trust me, or her life would be lost. She slowly eased her arm toward me, stretching as much as possible.

Not enough.

I resisted making any noise so as not to terrify her more than she was. With one more push, I slid closer. When she managed to grab my arm, I wrapped my fingers around her wrist. She weighed a hell of a lot less than I did, but with her hanging, it would take all my strength to bring her to safety.

If that was possible.

“Work with me, sweetheart. You can do it.” I wasn’t the kind of man to encourage anyone, but she needed to listen to what I was saying.

She nodded, managing to stick her foot in something. As I pulled, she kept her other arm twisted around the root.

I sensed it was giving way, not much earth left to hold it. At this point, I was holding my breath.

Pull. Pull. Pull.

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.