Off the Beaten Path (21 page)

The old Ford pickup was parked on a gentle rise with an unobstructed view of the entire valley. The man peering through the high power binoculars didn't give a damn about this dissolute part of the country or the hicks that lived here, he was only interested in one hick. All Girard wanted to do was get this over with and get back to civilization and the thirty thousand dollars that would be waiting for him back in his bank account.

How did these people live out here? Girard thought to himself. Christ, the deafening silence punctuated by the occasional chirping or whistling or barking of one of the insipid wildlife was about to drive him crazy. He spotted a little yellow bird sitting atop a fence about twenty feet away from where he was parked. The bird was chirping away like it was a prop in a Disney film. With careful deliberation Girard bent down and picked up a smooth flat rock about the size of silver dollar and slung it sidearm at the happy little bird. The rock caught the bird square in his little yellow breast and sent him backwards off the fence post, dead. Girard laughed out loud at the near perfect shot he made,

“That will shut the little bastard up,” Girard said as he picked up his binoculars and continued to scan the log home about half a mile from where he was parked. Without knowing or caring Girard had just broke another law, he has just killed the state bird of Montana, the Western Meadowlark.

It was getting close to lunch time when Jack turned the Harley off the old Highway and onto what barely could be called a road; it was more like two tracks left by a wagon a hundred years ago. There were tufts of tall grass growing on both sides of the trail and down the middle between the scantily visible tracks. There stretches in the trail where the tracks completely disappeared from sight. He put the Harley in its lowest gear and eased the motorcycle up the trail for about twenty minutes, being very careful not to put them or the bike in any risky situation. There was even one place on the trail where they both had to duck down to avoid being hit in the face with a low hanging branch. Jack could feel Kristin's trepidation from behind him; he hoped that she would think that it was worth it when he showed her where they were going.

Oh my God was the first thing she heard herself say when he broke through the last stand of trees and into the clearing that spread out in front of them. Jack turned off the motorcycle and pushed the kickstand down. Kristin climbed off and walked out in front of the bike so she could have an unobstructed view of the amazing sight that she was now looking at in complete awe.

Directly in front of her was a small meadow completely encircled by pine and spruce trees? The tall willowy grass that came up to just above Kristin's knee's filled the meadow up to the edges of a gentle pond that looked more like a reflection pool than part of a mountain stream. But the most breathtaking sight in the meadow was a rock wall
at the north end of the meadow. The wall was at least forty feet high and ran across the entire north end of the meadow and disappeared over the trees for as far as the eye could see. The water source for the pond was a waterfall that spilled over the top of the wall and smashed against a small field of boulders just above the pond. The water hitting the boulders created a soft spray of mist that produced a permanent rainbow hanging over the north end of the pond. It was as if a massive glacier had moved through this meadow millions of years ago and had left behind this unbelievable sight just for her to see.

Jack had remained seated on the motorcycle for the brief span of time that it took Kristin to completely take in the vista. A moment in time that only lasted a minute or two but seemed like an eternity to Kristin seeing it for the first time. It was like she had watched the formation of the wall and the meadow actually take place over millions of years. He had not said a word or even made a sound the entire time, allowing her sense everything without any outside interference.

When Kristin finally turned back toward him she had a reverberant glow, not just on her face but her entire body and her eyes were glistening with a hint of tears.

Jack had a “What do you think of this place,” smile in his eyes and a little smirk on his lips. The first words out of her mouth were,

“How did you find this place?”

“I stumbled across it a couple years ago when I was hunting.”

“How many people know about this place?” she asked.

“In the few times that I have visited this place I have never seen another person here. The trail we took to get here looks like it was made with a horse and buggy. I haven't ever seen any sign of another living human being here, for all I know, you and I are the only two people on this planet that know that this place exists.

Jack opened the first saddle bag and took out their lunch. As he was taking the blanket out of the second saddle bag he spotted her camera.

“I don't suppose you want this do you?” He asked holding the camera up.

She got very excited and held out her arms for the camera with a gimme movement of her hands. Jack held the camera back like he wasn't going to give it to her, “Under one condition.” He said sternly.

She looked at him playfully, knowing that whatever his conditions were she was prepared to agree to them.

“You take all the pictures you want, shoot to your heart’s content.”

“But?” she asked, knowing that the other shoe was about to fall.

“You can't ever tell anyone else about this place, it's our little secret.”

Kristin didn't say a word she simply slid in close to him and pressed her warm lips against hers. When she pulled back she winked at him and said, “Sealed with a kiss.”

Girard decided that there was no one home at the ranch he had been watching for the last two hours. The only signs of life were the two horses in the corral, the two-hundred buffalo in the pasture, and a sleepy golden retriever camped out on the front porch. There was a Chevy pickup parked in the front yard, but wasn't this standard equipment for a ranch. Hell, it was probably in the state constitution that every ranch had to have at least one pickup sitting in the front yard.

The dog had bolted off the porch a couple of times to chase a rabbit that tried to sneak out from under the house and munch on some of the lush green grass in the front yard. Each time the rabbit got away, the old dog just didn't seem to have the killer instinct. Girard decided that Rover would not be a problem; he was a pet not a guard dog. And if Rover did give him any problem he would just put a bullet in his brain, good night Rover.

Girard rolled over in his mind the best way to carry out his assignment. The simplest answer was just walk up to the front door, ring the doorbell and shoot the simple Bastard. The problem was that these country bumpkins were usually pretty well armed, and occasionally they answered the door with a 12 gauge double barrel shotgun. Then there were the complications of his very specific orders. He was only supposed to kill the cowboy and let the girl live. Clarence had made it very clear to him that if one hair was harmed on the girl; he would not only be denied his money but Clarence would put a
bounty on his head five times the fee that he was paying him. His life would not be worth spit.

Then there were two very crucial issues that were nagging at him. The first issue was not letting the girl see him. Which meant that he either had to kill the cowboy away from the house so that by the time someone found the body he would be long gone, or he would have to sneak up on the two lovebirds so that he could bound, gag, and blindfold the girl and then kill the cowboy. Girard could leave her bound and gagged and make his escape. One of these good country folk would eventually come around to check on their neighbors when they didn't show up at a barn raising or a rat killing. Besides, Girard kind of like the idea of tying up the ex-super-model, he might even sample the goods before he headed back to the big city.

The most important thing was that whatever plan he decided on he would have to allow at least half a day to get back to where he had stashed his car, and most of the way back to Seattle.

Jack spread out the blanket in the grass at the edge of the pond. Then he set down the lunch basket and a bottle of wine on the corner of the blanket. He watched Kristin move slowly through the grass with her camera held up to her eye. She was totally engrossed in getting the best picture of this amazing place. She didn't even notice Jack standing at the edge of the pond slowly taking of his cloths and putting them neatly in a pile on the blanket. When he was completely naked he called out to her,

“Hey, you might want to get a shot of this.”

She turned toward him with her camera just below eye level. She was so stunned by seeing him standing there in the bright sunlight bare ass naked that she forgot for a second that she was holding her camera. Jack winked at her dove head first into the pond. She could see him just under the surface of the pond, he was slicing through the water with strong steady strokes that put him in the middle of the pond in less than five strokes. She laughed out loud at his tanned upper body contrasted with his Lilly white derriere, didn't they have tanning beds out here. When he came up for air he looking straight at her and laughing,

“Missed the shot, didn't you?” He said as he slowly tread water and taunted her,

“You know a good photographer would have got that shot?” Jack continued teasing.

“Don't you worry, I will get plenty of pictures when you come out of there, mister smart-ass.” She said, taunting him back.

“If you come in here with me I will do that little dive again,” He offered.

She thought about that for a moment and said with a very deliberate inflection,

“Let me get this straight, I am guessing that the water in that pond was probably snow or ice about twenty four hours ago, am I correct?” She said smartly.

“That would be correct, Professor.” He said, conceding her point.

“And that would mean,” she paused calculating in her mind.

“The water temperature of that pond is probably about fifty degrees, give or take a few degrees.”

“Normally, you would be correct.” He responded with a hint of a mystery in his voice.

“Mr. Evans, are you trying to trick me into jumping in water is probably only a few degrees above freezing.”

“No trick, you’re just going to have to trust me on this one.”

Kristin starred at him for a minute then she set down her camera and slowly started to undress. She peeled her clothes off one layer at a time and dropped them on the blanket, not bothering to place them in a nice neat pile like Jack had done. And not once letting her eyes break contact with Jack's eyes. When Kristin was completely naked she stood at the edge of the pond and let the sun warm her body. She leaned her head back, closed her eyes. She lifted her face so that the sunlight was hitting her full in the face. She felt like she was wrapped in a warm blanket. And the gentle breeze that was playing in the tops of the pine trees sounded like concerto.

Jack could not take his eyes off of her; if he lived to be a hundred he would never forget the absolute perfection and beauty of the woman standing in front of him at this very moment. Her beauty and poise was the reason men carved statues out of stone, painted magnificent works of art, and composed music and poetry. Jack wasn't going to make a
sound; he wasn't going interrupt what she was feeling. He could tell that she was fully lost in her thoughts. He found himself wishing that she would stay exactly where she was, content and serene and happy. As far Jack was concerned Kristin could stand at the edge of that pond naked and beautiful for as long as she wanted, maybe forever.

Her eyes were still closed when Jack saw her hand reach up touch the base of her neck; she slowly ran he fingers down her chest and gently over her breasts. She was feeling the warmth that the sun had left on her skin. Her hand continued down her front and over her stomach, her hand came to rest just below her belly button and then moved back and forth across her abdomen between her hips. The sun was not the only thing warming her body, she was thinking of Jack as her hands moved slowly over her body. After she had gathered in all the warmth of the sun on her skin she lowered her head and opened her eyes, she was looking straight into Jack's eyes. A smile of pure satisfaction spread across her face and she gave Jack a little here goes nothing look, then she dove into the pond head first. She stayed under for almost as long as he did and came up right in front of him with a look of total amazement on her face. “It's warm.” She exclaimed in total shock.

“Yep,” Jack responded,

She looked at him with an astonished question mark on her Face. Jack answered the question simply,

“There is a hot springs up out of the ground somewhere down next to the rocks. This pond never freezes, even in the winter.”

“Why didn't you just tell me that in the first place,” she said as she faked anger and splashed him in the face with a fistful of water.

“Sometimes you just gotta trust me.” He suggested with a wink.

Jack pulled her close and kissed her warm mouth, her body felt as if she had brought the warmth of the sun into the pond with her. He watched her head tilt back and her eyes softly close as their bodies pressed together. He couldn't tell where their bodies left off and where the water began. He could feel her heart rate climb as her hands grabbed the back of his head and pulled him as hard as she could into her. After a moment he felt every muscle in both of their bodies tense.

Fifteen minutes later they were stretched out on the blanket letting the sun dry the water off their bodies. They were still naked and the only thing touching were the tips of their fingers, but it still felt to both of them like their bodies were pressed together and their arms were still wrapped around each other. Jack thought without any disappointment that his planned road trip had just come to a screeching halt; this is where they would spend the rest of the day and maybe the night.