Bitter Wild (2 page)

“Have
you lost your damn mind?”

The
sheriff was on his feet before they even reached his office, and now Jack found
himself trying to decipher the expression on the man’s face. Was that regret?
As he watched, the woman reached out and laid her hand on the cowboy’s arm. His
gaze dropped to her face and the pair stared at each other for a moment before
the woman turned to face the sheriff.

“You
know how things stand, Stan, so why did you call?”

The
sheriff came around the desk before answering.

“I
didn’t have any other choice. This is a hell of a mess and I couldn’t think of
anyone better suited to handle it.”

The
woman shook her head. Jack frowned and wished someone had explained what the
problem was. Clearly, there was something wrong. Was the woman against her
boyfriend working? Jack couldn’t imagine why she would be, but then maybe the
sheriff had explained enough of the situation to make her scared he might get
hurt trying to track down a killer like Russell Jester. Jack couldn’t say he’d
blame her for being scared, but if the man was everything the sheriff said he
was, then they simply couldn’t take no for an answer. The man spoke up, glaring
at the sheriff as he did.

“I
can’t believe you have the audacity to ask this. You have no right.”

This
time Jack had no trouble recognizing the emotion on the sheriff’s face. He shot
an angry glare at the man. “The hell I don’t! I’ve had a good, long look at
exactly what this man is capable of. Do you want to know how many he’s killed
so far? Ten. Ten lives snatched away in the blink of an eye just because he had
the power to do it. He blew Millie’s brains out all over her kitchen for God’s
sake! I thought that might be enough to make you want to help.”

The
man’s hands clenched as he took a step toward the sheriff. If the woman hadn’t
caught him by the arm and held him back, Jack suspected that the shouting match
would have turned physical. The woman locked her gaze on the sheriff. Her voice
held censure and something more as she spoke.

“That’s
not fair, Stan.”

The
sheriff held her gaze for a moment, then looked away, suggesting that she might
be right. No one spoke for a while, then the sheriff glanced through the window
and met Jack’s gaze. He turned to the woman once more.

“He’s a
stone cold killer who likes the taste of blood. He’s not going to stop until
someone stops him. The feds asked for my help, and I couldn’t very well say no.
Under the circumstances I knew they needed the best. That’s why I called.”

Neither
the woman, nor the man said anything in response. The sheriff’s gaze met Jack’s
once more, then Jack looked at the woman as she turned around. She stared at
him for a long moment, then strode to the office door and pulled it open.

“You’re
the federal agent?”

Jack
nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

She
stepped back out of the doorway. “Come inside.”

It
wasn’t a request. Jack didn’t figure it would be prudent to argue the point,
though, so he obeyed. As he passed her, he caught the scent of lilac and
couldn’t seem to help taking a deep breath. He stopped once he was inside the
office and turned to look at her over his shoulder. That’s when he noticed that
Skip had followed him. His partner met his gaze and gave an almost
imperceptible shrug. He didn’t have any better grasp of the situation than Jack
did. The woman started to shut the door, then stopped as she realized that
everyone in the station was staring at her. The sheriff had half a dozen
deputies. All of them had been called in that morning when Jack and Skip
arrived. In addition to them, there were four other federal agents who were
part of the task force tracking Jester. There was also a civilian dispatcher
who worked the radio and answered the phone. The moment the man and woman had
walked through the door everyone had gone silent and still. Now, the woman
stepped into the open doorway and stared them down.

“I’m
sure you’ve all got things you ought to be doing. Why don’t you get to it?”

Everyone
jerked into action at the question. She turned around and swung the door closed
with just a bit less force than her male companion had used earlier. Then she
locked her gaze on Jack.

“What’s
your name?”

Jack
was used to asking the questions. He was also accustomed to being the one in
charge. But the look on her face and the tone of her voice suggested that she
didn’t exactly view him as any sort of authority figure. He bristled, but kept
his expression neutral.

“Special
Agent Jack Hall.” He turned to Skip. “And this is my partner, Special Agent
Skip Reynolds.”

She
shifted her gaze to Skip for a moment, then brought it back to Jack.

“You’re
the one in charge?”

Jack
nodded. “Yes.”

She
took a step toward him. “Do you have any idea what you’re asking for?”

Jack
held her gaze steadily. “I’m asking for help in tracking down a killer before
he gets a chance to kill again.”

“And
what makes you think he isn’t dead already?”

Jack
frowned. “What?”

She
cocked her head to the side a bit as she looked up at him. “The woods he
disappeared into aren’t a park. There are a dozen different ways to die out
there, none of them pleasant.”

“What’s
that got to do with anything?”

She
shot him an exasperated look. “Is there some reason why you think he might
manage to survive?”

Jack
was rapidly growing tired of the woman’s attitude. She acted as though she
thought he was an idiot and he didn’t like it. He narrowed his gaze a bit as he
stared at her. “Well, first of all, he’s not exactly inexperienced when it
comes to surviving in the woods. He was born and raised in the mountains of
North Carolina. He’s managed to disappear into the woods there for months on
end without anyone being able to find him. He’s not some city boy who ran
screaming into the woods with nothing but the clothes on his back. He took all
sorts of gear with him, as well as enough weapons and ammunition to wage a
small war.” He leaned toward her a bit as he drove his point home. “Now, what
you say may well be true and maybe, with any luck at all, you’re right and he’s
dead. Then again, he might just be alive, and he may even manage to find his
way out of those woods. If he does, you can be sure he’ll kill the first person
he comes across. I, for one, am not willing to take that chance.”

He let
the implication hang in the air between them. She stared at him for a long
while and he could see her weighing his words. Finally she seemed to come to a
decision. She turned and met the sheriff’s gaze. “I’ll do it.”

The
moment the words left her mouth, the cowboy who’d accompanied her into the
station reached out and caught her arm. “Casey, no!”

Jack
was too shocked to do anything more than stare at her as she turned to look up
at the man who’d come to her side.

“I have
to do it, John. If he somehow managed to survive and killed someone else, I’d
never be able to live with myself, knowing I might have been able to stop him
and didn’t even try.”

The man
shook his head again, but Jack spoke up before he could say anything. It was an
involuntary outburst, something that Jack couldn’t ever remember happening to
him before. He didn’t speak off the top of his head. He never let his tongue
outrun his brain. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the stress from his
frustration over not catching Jester sooner. Or maybe it was just stupidity.
Whatever the reason, he blurted out the thought that had leapt into his head
the moment the man called her name.

“You’re
Casey Nolan? But you’re a woman!”

The
instant the words were out of his mouth he wanted to snatch them back. He knew
how asinine they sounded. First of all, any fool could see that she was very
much a woman. Secondly, only a man with the common sense of a rock would dare
to question a woman’s ability to do a job just because she was a woman. He
wasn’t really doing that, he had just been expecting a man. Casey was a man’s
name, wasn’t it? He opened his mouth to try to apologize as he saw her head
slowly turn to face him. Her gaze locked on his and she took a couple of steps
toward him, not stopping until she was directly in front of him. The sarcasm in
her voice was thick enough to cut as she spoke.

“Why Agent
Hall, I’m so impressed by your skills of observation. What gave it away? The
dress? Or was it the breasts?” Her sarcasm vanished as she shot him a withering
glare. “Congratulations on figuring out what most men realize at first glance.”

Casey
watched as he flushed a deep shade of red. She got the feeling that it wasn’t
as much embarrassment as anger, though. Maybe she’d laid the sarcasm on a
little thick, but she knew good and well that he was very aware of her gender.
She’d recognized the look on his face as their gazes had met earlier. He’d
noticed she was a woman, and he’d liked what he saw. She shoved away the
teasing little voice in her head that said she’d done her share of noticing him
as well. He was hard not to notice. He stood at least six feet, four inches
tall and had the sort of shoulders any woman would have fantasized about
leaning on. He wasn’t bulky, though. Judging from the length of arm she could
see below the rolled up sleeves of his shirt, he was lean like a swimmer.
Strong, but not overly muscular. In spite of his clearly chauvinistic
tendencies, she felt something in the pit of her stomach flutter in
appreciation for his physical attributes.

His
partner cleared his throat and took a step forward. “Ms. Nolan, I’m certain my
partner meant no disrespect. It’s just that we were both expecting a man. Right
or wrong, that’s the way we were thinking. However, the sheriff says you are
the best and frankly, that’s all we care about. We’d appreciate any help you
can give us.”

He was
obviously the diplomat of the two. He seemed to be sincere, but Casey had
trouble settling her feathers once they’d been ruffled. It didn’t help that she
had a whole host of doubts of her own about doing the job. She was nervous and
that made her edgy. She tended to get combative when she was anxious. She shook
her head.

“I’m
not committing myself to anything until I’m certain you understand exactly what
this manhunt is going to involve.”

Normally,
Jack let Skip do the talking if he knew he was in danger of alienating a
witness or someone else they needed to solve a case. Today, though, he just
couldn’t seem to keep his mouth shut.

“We’re professionals;
we’ve been trained to track violent fugitives.”

Her
amber gaze locked on him once more, and he saw something flash in her eyes. “Is
it the fact that I’m a woman that’s making it so hard for you to hear what I’m
saying, or are you just an idiot? Your fugitive may be violent. He may even be
downright evil, but I promise you that however bad he is, he’s nothing compared
to the mountains. First there’s the wild life. It’s everywhere, and it isn’t
locked away in a nice strong cage like you’ve seen at the zoo. It can step
right out from behind a tree and take your head off before you even know it’s
there. Then there’s the fact that trails are virtually unheard of out there.
This isn’t a resort area. There are no cute little wooden signs pointing the
way to the next water fountain and restroom. Out there, one step off the beaten
path can have you wandering around in circles for days or walking right off the
edge of a cliff. As if that isn’t enough, there’s the weather to contend with.
It can turn on a dime and go from blue skies and sun to a blizzard within a
matter of minutes.” She lifted her hand and waved it toward him. “Whatever
training you’ve had isn’t going to mean anything out there. I have no intention
of leading you out there just to have to haul your body back out because you
did something stupid and got yourself killed.”

She
started to turn away, but Jack reached out and caught her wrist, pulling her
back around to face him. She had a hell of a lot of nerve calling him an idiot
and implying that he would need to be watched over like a toddler. He could
damn well handle himself just fine. He opened his mouth to tell her so, but
froze when a low growl sounded to his right. He glanced down as a second growl
rumbled from the dog. Its teeth were barred and its fur was raised all the way
down its back. It wasn’t making an idle threat. Jack found himself wondering if
he could draw his weapon before the animal got to his throat. He kept his gaze
locked on the dog, but saw Casey make a motion with her left hand. An instant
later the dog took a step back and dropped to its haunches. Jack finally looked
at her when she pulled her wrist out of his grip.

Casey
was furious. He’d had no right to grab her like that.

“If you
ever touch me again, Agent Hall, I won’t stop him.”

Jack
didn’t like being threatened. “Lady, if that dog so much as looks at me funny,
I’ll blow his head off.”

He was surprised
by the hard look that came into her eyes. He was even more surprised when she
took a step forward and stabbed him in the chest with a finger.

“You do
and I guarantee they’ll never find your body.”

Jack
blinked. She’d just threatened him over a dog! Before he could figure out what
to say, she spun away from him and glared at the sheriff.