Ensnared (The Accidental Billionaires #1)(38)

Her happiness was becoming my damn obsession just because I wanted to keep looking at her smile.

We’d gotten lucky for the last few days. The weather had been good, but cold, so we were both bundled up for hiking.

I looked at the sun, and then my watch. “We probably should head back. I don’t want to get caught in the woods after dark.”

It was rutting season for the big-horned-mammal population like elk and moose, and I’d been ridiculously paranoid about Jade stepping on a rattlesnake since the minute we’d first started hiking. We’d seen plenty of the former, but hadn’t seen any kind of snake while we’d been out hiking. But it didn’t lessen my fear of it happening to her.

I turned to lead the way back to our luxury lodgings, but turned back around as I heard Charlie growling, a serious sound I’d never heard from him before.

“Don’t move,” Jade said in a calm voice. “And don’t run.”

I looked up the opposite trail just in time to see a huge grizzly bear rear up onto its hind legs.

I had to force myself to keep my hands at my side and not jump for Jade to get her out of harm’s way.

That bear would have to tear my ornery ass up before it ever got to Jade.

“Bear spray?” I asked in a quiet, monotone voice.

“Not close enough,” she answered. “And probably not necessary. He’s prehibernation, and is probably just looking for food of the nonhuman variety.”

As she spoke, I did see Jade slowly reach for her bear spray just in case. Since I wasn’t exactly a country boy, I’d let her talk me out of carrying it myself. I’d relented since she had way more experience with wildlife than I did. But I had never stopped to think about the possibility that she could be torn up if the weapon didn’t stop a bear.

The male was still on his hind legs, and it wasn’t sitting well with me that Jade was several steps closer to the bear than I was.

The beast was probably fifty feet from us, and not making any crazy moves that made me twitchy. Still, it was too damn close.

“Don’t make eye contact,” she instructed. “And no sudden moves.”

I hastily moved my eyes from the massive animal’s face, and motioned for Charlie to be quiet and get down beside me. I was relieved when he reluctantly obeyed.

I stayed frozen in place while Jade was talking nonsense in a calm voice to the bear.

Strangely, her vocal calmness appeared to be working.

“Start backing up slowly,” she instructed in the same tranquil tone she was using with the bear. “Let’s give him some space.”

I waited until Jade was beside me before I started my retreat.

If something was going to happen with the massive mammal, I was damn well going to be able to put my body between hers and the bear’s to keep her from getting mauled.

“When do we haul ass and get out of here?” I asked in a quiet voice as I motioned for Charlie to follow us.

“We don’t,” she said firmly as we kept giving the predator more and more space. “If we act like prey, his instinct is going to make him pursue. And a human will never be able to outrun a grizzly.”

With every step we took, the more distance we put between us and the bear. “Do we just keep moving like this?” I asked.

“Yes. You’re doing fine. We can’t turn our back on a bear until he can’t see us. Bad idea. Just keep walking until he moves on.”

Once I’d gotten over my immediate instinct to protect Jade by throwing her body to the ground and covering her—a move that would have probably gotten us both mauled—I respected her judgment. She was the expert. When we’d come across rutting moose and elk, she’d steered me away from them carefully, teaching me how to keep from getting hurt.

“He’s leaving,” she remarked.

I looked up to see the bear turn his back on us and lumber in the other direction. Obviously, it didn’t matter if the bear turned his back on us since it was an apex predator.

As the grizzly finally disappeared into the woods, Jade said, “We can move on.”

I grabbed her hand in an iron grip as she turned around and kept up a fairly fast walking pace toward our accommodations.

“Are you still concerned?” I asked her after we’d moved at a steady clip for a few moments, nodding my head at the bear spray she was still holding in her hand.

“No,” she answered in a normal voice. “He looks well fed, and I didn’t see any sign that he’s likely to be aggressive and stalk us. But bears can be unpredictable. No harm in being prepared.”

I sure as hell didn’t like the sound of that. “I’ve been here before, and I’ve hiked. I’ve never seen any bear, much less a grizzly. We take precautions. Usually, we only allow hiking in groups of three or more, and with an experienced guide. And in the three years the place has been operational, not a single guest or employee has seen a grizzly. Not this far away from the park.”

“Their numbers are recovering,” she informed me. “They’ve been protected to increase the population, and now they’re starting to spread out beyond the Yellowstone ecosystem. That’s been happening for a while now. But I don’t think they’re here very often. I didn’t see the usual signs. It was probably just an uncommon occurrence.”

I frowned. “Do you think it will cause any problems at the resort? Are the guests in danger?”