Sharp Shootin' Cowboy (Hot Cowboy Nights, #3)(74)

“Why should we believe anything you say?”

“Do you honestly think I would have come here if I were guilty of setting Reid up?”

“Maybe…” Krista chewed her lip and then shook her head. “Probably not.”

“I’ve also quit my job. Call Jim Banks if you don’t believe me.”

Krista blinked in surprise. “You really quit?”

“Yes. I gave my notice as soon as I knew Reid was in the clear. I refuse to be used and manipulated any longer. Please tell me where he is.”

Krista looked to her mother.

Mrs. Everett regarded Haley with a narrowed gaze. “Do you have anything else to say to my son?”

“Yes,” Haley confessed. “As a matter of fact, I do. I have a lot more to say to him, but the rest is private. I need to tell him face-to-face.”

After another pause, Mrs. Everett’s mouth curved into a slow smile. “In that case, c’mon in, Dr. Cooper.” She swung the door wide open. “It seems we might have something to talk about after all.”

*

River of No Return Wilderness

Salmon River Canyon, Idaho

After collecting her equipment, Haley set out for Idaho, determined to track down Reid. The rangers at the Salmon, Idaho, station had informed her that he’d packed in with a horse and three mules carrying enough supplies to last a month. They told her Reid would probably work his way from the ranger cabin he’d be using as a base camp to the river where they’d be dropping his supplies, but precisely where he was now, no one seemed to know.

Given that he was somewhere unspecified in the second-largest wilderness in the continental U.S., her quest seemed all too much like hunting for a needle in a haystack. If that wasn’t already daunting enough, with no roads for over eighty miles, she had only two approaches, either by chartering a plane and landing on one of the backcountry airstrips or by jet boat for the fifty-mile trek up the raging River of No Return.

To Haley, either option was more terrifying than any ride on Mickey’s Fun Wheel.

Choosing what she considered the lesser of two evils, she boarded the jet boat at Corn Creek with her two packs and Reid’s hunting dog. His family had sent Jethro, thinking he’d help her find Reid. But with the grizzly encounter still fresh in her memory, she was glad to have the dog’s protection, as well as his company.

Mountains splayed out in all directions, flanking her as they traveled up the Salmon River Canyon. The unspoiled wilderness, alternating between treacherous rocky embankments speckled with bighorn sheep to heavily forested sections of Douglas fir and lodgepole pine, took her breath away.

But while others on the jet boat laughed and squealed whenever the boat rocked and listed, the numerous sections of the white water made Haley’s heart hammer and knuckles whiten. She squeezed her eyes shut on a prayer that it would be over soon, but it was several hours before they approached the section where Reid would eventually make camp.

They finally pulled up along a sandy stretch of river, where Haley and Jethro disembarked with two packs containing a week’s worth of food and equipment. They’d dropped off the other passengers at a rafting launch about twenty miles back. Now it was only Haley and the river outfitter.

“You sure you’re going to be okay out here all by yourself?” the guide asked, looking reluctant to leave her.

“Yes. I’ve spent weeks at a time camping out in national parks in Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming. I’ll be fine,” she replied with more confidence than she actually felt. She really had camped out for long stretches—just never completely alone.

“When do you want me to come back?”

“Five days,” she replied. “I’ll be waiting right here. But if I’m not, please feel free to send a posse,” she ended with a hollow laugh. She reached down to scratch Jethro’s head, inhaling a shaky breath as she watched the boat launch back into the river.

Minutes later, she found herself completely on her own in a vast, nearly untouched wilderness, a place numerous predators called home, and clueless as to where to begin her search.

With daylight growing short, she decided to make camp. Careful to avoid any stretches of brush where an animal might conceal itself, she chose a spot in the open to set up her tent. She then went about collecting wood for her fire pan. Although her campfire would be small, she hoped Reid would see it and come to her. If he didn’t, she resolved to put Jethro on the scent first thing in the morning.

*

After two weeks of complete isolation, Reid was having second thoughts. He didn’t mind being alone. That was the sole benefit of this whole gig. He finally had time to get his f*cked-up head back together. At the time, he’d known bailing was a chicken shit thing to do, but he had a deep-seated need to get away from everything after Haley’s betrayal.

Taking the job as a wolf killer had been a purely knee-jerk reaction. Now he faced serious qualms about his decision. It wasn’t that he had issues with hunting in general. He believed to his core in responsible game management, but it hardly seemed ethical to introduce a species to a wilderness area, protect it for two decades, and then summarily exterminate it.

On the other hand, the wolf population in Idaho was booming, while the elk numbers were way down. And elk hunting was vital to the state economy. Ergo, the state’s answer was to get rid of all the wolves. Not just a handful, but to eradicate entire packs. Issuing wolf hunting and trapping permits to sportsmen, however, had proven ineffectual. The vast majority of sport hunters had come up empty-handed. Wolves were too cunning. Hence the need for a professional, and Reid was uniquely qualified.