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“I sensed something between you two that first night and again tonight,” Autumn said.
“Ford and I worked together years ago. He follows the rules to the letter and I prefer to consider the spirit of the law and do what’s necessary to get the job done,” Nathan said. “And since I was married to his sister for a brief time, he holds that against me, too.”
Autumn stepped up her pace as Thor dragged her faster. He seemed bent on going to the location where the body had been found. The trees around the area had been roped off with yellow caution tape, but that wouldn’t stop Thor. She pulled back on the leash, trying to dissuade Thor from moving in that direction. He didn’t heed her, and since she rarely kept him on the leash, it wasn’t unexpected.
Autumn turned the flashlight to the path ahead of them. “Thor wants to see the location of the body.”
“Let him. We’ll keep him off the scene, but I wouldn’t mind having a look. Unless you want to return to the cabin and I’ll take Thor myself.” He watched her carefully. He was worried about her, and that warmed her. It had been too long since someone had cared about her.
Autumn didn’t want to be alone. Not out here. Not at her cabin. Something inside her, intuition or caution, warned her to stay near Nathan. “You won’t see much in the dark,” Autumn said. The flashlight provided only a limited view.
“It might help you sleep to see you have nothing to worry about. The FBI cleaned the area and any evidence was photographed, bagged and collected.”
Maybe seeing that tree, even in the dark, would begin to scrub the image of a body hanging from it out of her mind.
Allowing Thor to lead the way, Autumn pulled him to a stop near the yellow tape surrounding the crime scene. The wind blew, shaking more leaves from the treetops. Autumn let her flashlight pan over the scene, starting high, giving herself a view of the tree without someone hanging from a branch.
A crunching of leaves had her swinging the flashlight lower. A movement near the trunk of the tree caught her eye. She moved the flashlight to see more, frustrated that the narrow beam illuminated so little at this distance. It didn’t help that she was shaking and Thor was twisted for her to let him off his leash.
A shadow, looking very much like a man, was lurking near the base of the tree. If the light hadn’t given them away to the intruder, then Thor’s barking did. Nathan snatched the flashlight from her hand and pinned it on a figure moving away from the tree. The intruder ducked beneath the crime-scene tape on the side opposite them, running between trees, barely a shadow and impossible to track.
Nathan drew his gun and it made a clicking sound. Was he planning to shoot at the figure? “Stop!” he shouted.
The intruder ignored him, almost becoming a ghost and disappearing. Nathan vanished as he gave chase, the bobbing of the flashlight through the woods eerie and unsettling. And growing dimmer. Nathan was gone. It would have been safer for them to run or call for help. Fear and panic tightened her stomach. Autumn reached for Thor, drawing him against her, her shaking vibrating the both of them. She hugged him to her.
She was alone in the woods in the dark. Nathan was chasing a madman. Could she find her way to her cabin and call for assistance?
The campground that she had called home now felt threatening. The dark felt ominous, the cold chilling, and the trees and brush were places for a murderer to hide.
* * *
The Huntsman had returned to the scene. Perhaps he was looking for another victim, perhaps he wanted to relive the killing and hanging or perhaps he was hoping to finish his ritual by starting a fire. It could be a teenager on a dare or the media snooping around, but his gut told him the killer was close.
He had to find and stop him. As Nathan chased the figure, it grew more difficult to see. The trees were close together, providing too many places to hide. Nathan stopped and shone his light around the area.
It was still and quiet.
Autumn! He’d left her and Thor alone. The Huntsman could have circled back to attack her. It hadn’t escaped Nathan’s notice that she fit the profile for the Huntsman’s victims.
How far had he run? How long had he been gone?
Nathan whirled, calling to Autumn.
His sister’s face flashed into his mind. Colleen had died at this madman’s hands. He wouldn’t let him hurt another woman he cared about.
Nathan pushed his body to move faster as his brain tripped over that thought. He cared about Autumn. He’d known her a short time, but he’d had an undeniable connection with her.
“Autumn!”
Thor barked in response. Nathan was desperate to hear Autumn’s voice. Was he too late? Had he made a critical error leaving her alone? His gun felt heavy in his hand. It did no good to shoot in the dark, but he would shoot to kill if Autumn was in danger.
When he yelled her name again, this time she responded. He moved in the direction of her voice.
When she came into view, relief rushed over him. She was squatting on the ground with her arms around Thor.
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. Thor growled as if chastising him for his mistake.
“Are you okay?” he asked into her hair.
“Except for being left in the woods alone in the dark after being scared by a psycho, I’m fine,” Autumn said. “Was it the Huntsman? Did you see him?”
He hadn’t seen enough of his face to provide any more details of the man they were pursuing. The glimpse he’d gotten had been quick. “I think it was the Huntsman.”
“We should call Ford,” Autumn said.
A crackling of a branch. An animal? Or the Huntsman stalking them? “Let me take you back to your cabin,” Nathan said. He didn’t want to alarm her further, but in their current position they were easy targets.
It was dark in an unfamiliar place, he had Autumn and Thor to protect and they were on the Huntsman’s hunting ground. He hated to admit it, but Nathan knew when he was outmatched.
* * *
Nathan took Autumn’s keys from her clammy palm and opened the door to her cabin. She walked inside, her face frozen in horror, her body tensed and her hands shaking. He guided her to the couch in the living room.
“Sit down. Let me fix you something to drink.”
She nodded numbly and he retrieved a glass of water, setting it in her hand. She took a few small sips.
“I’ll call Ford.” As much as he hated to involve the FBI, they had equipment and crime-scene investigators who could lock down the scene and look for footprints and evidence. If it was the Huntsman, he might have left evidence behind, having been startled at the appearance of Autumn and Nathan.
Nathan pulled a throw blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around Autumn’s shoulders. He took the lighter from the mantel and lit one of the starter logs she had set in the hearth. After the fire had spread the length of the log, he laid a few pieces of wood around it, hoping it generated some warmth.
“You know how to start a fire,” she said quietly. She kicked off her shoes and they hit the floor with matching thuds.
“I took a class on it in FBI school.”
“Really?” she asked.
He sat next to her on the couch and slid an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his body. He intended the gesture to offer comfort, but it had the unintended side effect of feeling good. Too good. “Nah, it’s something I picked up.” Nathan pulled out his satellite phone and dialed Roger Ford. Ford answered on the first ring. After explaining the situation, Nathan disconnected the call without waiting for Ford to bark commands at him.
Thor trotted over and sat next to the growing blaze, soaking in the heat. Autumn shifted next to Nathan on the couch, drawing her knees to her chest and leaning in to him.
After a time, the cabin grew warmer and her tremors faded.
The sharp knock on the door had Autumn jumping to her feet. Nathan caught her before she raced for the door. “Let’s be cautious, okay?”
Autumn nodded her agreement. Nathan peered through the peephole, and seeing a park ranger on the porch, he opened the door.
The man stepped inside, pulling off his hat revealing bleached blond hair. His goatee was dark and neatly trimmed. “I received a call from Special Agent Roger Ford to check in and see if everyone is okay.”
Autumn slipped past him and hugged the man. “Ben, thanks for coming out so late. I’m sorry you were pulled into this.”
Nathan watched the interaction, unsure of the relationship between the two. They seemed close. Were they friends? Something more? Earlier that night when he’d suggested they pretend to be a couple, she hadn’t mentioned she was otherwise involved with someone.
Nathan shoved aside his jealous line of thinking. It didn’t matter what relationship Autumn and Ben had. It was irrelevant to the case, and justice for Colleen was all that mattered.
Nathan stepped back, allowing Ben farther inside.
Ben threaded the brim of his hat through his fingers. “I have a couple more guys coming to the scene and the FBI should be here soon. If the media hears about this, I’ll try to keep them off your backs.”
Nathan lifted a brow. “You think the media already knows about this?” If they did, how?
Ben shrugged. “If the sheriff and the Feds turn on their flashers and start piling up the mountain, someone is bound to notice. There’s nothing up here but the Trail’s Edge, and that will have people curious.”
Small towns. Nearly every place Nathan had been in the past few months had been near a small town where the residents kept watch for their own.
Autumn wouldn’t like reporters poking around. Would this bring a fresh wave of rumors crashing down on her, giving her more reasons to isolate herself at the campground? Though she hadn’t mentioned the reasons why, she seemed to want to isolate herself at the Trail’s Edge. Being away from it made her nervous. Was it social anxiety or something more?
Ten minutes later, another car pulled in to the campground. Nathan watched from the front window. “Your rangers are here.”
“That’s my cue. Let’s lock this place down for the Feds,” Ben said.
Ben stepped away from Autumn and joined the other rangers, leaving Nathan and Autumn alone.
“Will you stay with me? At least for now?” Autumn asked.
Nathan slipped his arm around Autumn’s shoulders. He wanted to be outside, listening to whatever he could gather from Ford. “I’ll stay with you.” It would be at least thirty minutes before Ford arrived. He couldn’t put Autumn’s needs above Colleen’s.
Nathan steered her to the couch and sat down, pulling her feet onto his lap. He rubbed her feet, trying to force her to relax. “You’re safe here.”
“Ford didn’t think he would come back,” Autumn said.
If the intruder had been the Huntsman, it could be another break in his pattern. More erratic behavior, which ultimately meant more dangerous behavior. Or perhaps they were filling in the missing details of their profile. “He has never killed on two separate occasions in the same location.”
Autumn rubbed her temples. “That’s not comforting.”
He agreed with her statement, but didn’t add to her lost sense of security. “We have no reason to think he returned to the Trail’s Edge to harm anyone.”
Autumn shot him a look. “How do you do this?”
“Do what?”
“Stay calm. Have a job hunting killers,” Autumn said.
His sister had asked him the same types of questions. Colleen had been a dental hygienist. She’d built her life around her two kids, and she’d thought Nathan would have the same fate and not spend his days looking for murderers. His devotion to his job had ended his marriage. His ex-wife couldn’t understand what he did and why it was important. He couldn’t talk to her about the horrors he saw, and it had slowly destroyed communication between them. “I can’t let the Huntsman kill anyone else.”
Autumn seemed eager to talk, so Nathan listened as Autumn spoke about the Trail’s Edge. Nervous chatter, but it seemed to be calming her.
The Feds arrived with sirens screaming and lights flashing. They weren’t concerned about keeping their presence under wraps.
Autumn drew the blanket closer around her.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“A little. It’s getting better.” She reached out her hand and laid it on his.
The casual touch evoked an immediate physical response. Desire turned into the hot blaze of arousal. It wasn’t the time or the place, yet his body had its own ideas about what was important now. Spending the evening with her, touching her, being alone with her had set anticipation to a slow simmer.
Nathan drew his hand away. He couldn’t allow this heat between them to roar out of control.
Autumn leaned toward him. “Do you think he’s still here? Watching me?” She came to her feet, dropped the blanket and walked to every window in the cabin. She checked the latches and pulled closed the curtains, overlapping them so no one could see inside.
“This place will be swarming with Feds in a few hours. Unless the Huntsman wants to be caught, he’s gone.” How long or how far gone, Nathan couldn’t predict.
A knock at the door had Nathan rising to his feet. “I’ll get it.”
He pulled open the door and came face-to-face with Roger Ford, and from his expression, he was angry.
Ford let out a string of curses. “I knew having you involved would bring trouble.”
Nathan set his feet apart and refused to step back or allow Ford inside. “How does my being here control what the killer does? Is this the thanks I get for calling you first?”
Ford swore again and rubbed a tired hand over his face. “You’re too close to the case. You need to step back and let us handle this. Tell me what you know and then take a break.”
Nathan had heard the same line so many times, he expected it from every Fed he talked to about this case. “I’m not interfering with the investigation.”
Ford set his jaw. “I don’t need to tell you that I’ll have to speak with you and Ms. Reed individually about what you saw and heard.”
Nathan shrugged. “I’ll be happy to tell you what happened tonight. You can speak to Autumn, as well. Why don’t you talk to her first? It’s late, and she’s had a tough day.”
Ford cocked his head. “A tough day? We’re trying to solve a murder here. Get over having a tough day.”
Autumn set her hand on Nathan’s back, coming up behind him so quietly, he didn’t have time to prepare. His body reacted—strongly—to her touch. “I can talk now. Or later. It’s not like I’ll be able to sleep anytime soon.”
Ford looked between her and Nathan. “Fine. Let’s talk now. Do you mind talking outside?”
“Not at all.” Autumn stepped onto the porch and followed Ford down the cabin steps. Too far away to hear what they were saying, Nathan watched them. Autumn’s arms were folded over her chest and she kept glancing over her shoulder at the spotlights the Feds were setting up around the area. Her face was solemn, her fear obvious. The scene was similar to the night before, and he wondered if she was experiencing flashbacks.
Ford leaned toward her, listening and nodding, asking a few questions.
After about ten minutes, Ford walked Autumn to the foot of the stairs and inclined his head toward Nathan. “Let’s go.”
Nathan followed Ford to the same place where he’d spoken to Autumn. Nathan related the details of their night, starting from when they’d left the Wild Berry and what they had seen in the woods. He could feel the heat of Autumn’s gaze on him and knew she was watching, waiting.
“What’s your relationship with her?” Ford asked.
Nathan didn’t have a relationship with her, outside the professional one they were developing. “I’m renting a cabin from her.”
Ford narrowed his eyes as if he didn’t believe Nathan. “I saw you two together. You’re doing more than renting a cabin.”
“We’re working together.”
“So now you bring a civilian onto the case?”
“She’s lending her outdoor experience.”
Ford pointed a finger at Nathan. “Don’t get in my way.”
He didn’t remind Ford again that he had called him first to let him know about the intruder. Nathan’s priority wasn’t to be top dog on the case. Colleen deserved to have her killer brought to justice however that needed to happen. “I don’t plan on it.”
Ford rocked back on his heels. “You know, you should get back to work and get assigned to a case. You’re a good investigator, and the distraction would be healthy for you.”
“I wouldn’t be assigned to this case,” Nathan said, knowing Ford’s fake flattery was an attempt to get Nathan to back down. Men who were more manipulative and influential than Ford had tried to talk Nathan out of pursuing this case. But Nathan was dedicated. He wasn’t stopping his pursuit of the Huntsman.
“You’d be assigned to a case where you can do some good,” Ford said.
“I’m planning to do some good here.”
Ford shook his head. “You’re being a fool. I have real work to do. Stay away from my crime scene.” Ford stalked away.
Nathan didn’t argue. Poking around the scene wouldn’t get him more information. The footprints might provide some indication of stature, but Nathan could look at those after the FBI finished processing the scene.
Autumn appeared next to him. “How’d it go? Does he know anything more? Did he tell you anything about the scene?”
He hated disappointing her. “They’re working the scene now. I’m sure they’re looking for the killer. Ford won’t share information. We’re on our own.”
Autumn looked from him to the crime scene. “I don’t understand any of this. Why would the killer come back? What does he want?”
An interesting piece of the puzzle that would form the killer’s psyche. “Maybe he left something behind? Something significant to him? Maybe he didn’t finish the job and wants to complete his ritual.” Or did he return to confirm the body had been found and taken down? “Why do hikers hang packages from trees?” Nathan asked, thinking again about the body in the tree.
Autumn shivered. “Like food and such?”
Nathan nodded.
“I leave a few packages along the trail with emergency supplies and I string them in the trees to keep animals from getting to them. If anyone is hiking the trail and comes up short, they are welcome to it. It’s an unwritten rule on the trail.” She paused. “Do you think there’s a connection between emergency supplies and how the killer places his victims?”
“Not sure yet,” Nathan said, putting the information on file.
Autumn rubbed her arms and he wished he could sweep her against him and assure her she was safe. The need to hold her, touch her hummed in his veins. Being alone with her was utter temptation. The temptation to reassure, console and to claim.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
He wasn’t about to admit he’d been picturing carrying her into her cabin, stripping her naked and having her. “About the case.”
“You looked pretty intense.”
“It’s an intense situation.” Not just the murder. Her. Being with her. It wasn’t the right time to think about kissing her and holding her. His reaction to crime scenes had always been strong and visceral, and though he wasn’t proud of it, the need to blow off steam with some physical exercise—like sex—was enticing.
“I don’t understand why someone would do this,” she said.
Nathan forced himself to concentrate on her words and not her mouth. Her lips, pink and inviting. “Maybe he can’t control the urge.”
He stepped closer and Autumn took a step away. Had he been foolish to believe he could keep her safe? The killer had struck once and possibly returned to the scene, and Nathan’s gut told him he wasn’t finished.
In previous cases he’d worked, Nathan had had a partner, a team and trained professionals to bounce ideas off. This was the first case where he was on his own. The urgency to keep Autumn as his trail guide, and partner, escalated. Without the FBI’s resources at his disposal, he needed another advantage. He needed Autumn.
But was he drawing her into an investigation that would get her killed?
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