Isabel and the Wolf: (Part 3) (2 page)

“Shit!” she shouted.
This can’t be happening
. Frantically, she moved the phone around the car again. There was nothing, not even in the glove box or deep in the footwell. She flung it back down on the passenger seat, her breath coming in tearful shudders.
That’s it. I’m lost, hopelessly. There’s no-one to help me, and it’s going to be dark before I know it, and I’m going to be trapped in the woods all night
. She squinted at the glimpses of sky visible between the trees. It seemed darker still, but it had to be her imagination as it was only mid-afternoon.
What can I do? What can I do?
She tried to stop her thoughts from hurtling around in her mind. There was only one solution, and that was to drive. She had plenty of gas; the situation could have been so much worse. She must’ve made a stupid mistake before. She just needed to stay calm, pick a route, follow it carefully, and come right back here if it didn’t work out. She looked at the trees and foliage in the clearing, trying to remember their exact arrangement, so she could keep it as a reference point. The track directly behind her led to the beast in the woods, so it had to be one of the other two. She took a dime out of her glove box and flipped it. Heads meant left. She started her Mini Cooper up again.

But, as she started to move off, something loomed up in her rearview mirror. She let out a scream, her body instinctively jerking away, into the corner by the car door and dash. Slowly, she forced herself back into her seat and peered at the mirror again. It was a man, and a man who looked very familiar. She whooped and bounded out of the car. Spinning around, she came face to face with Jed. He grinned at her, his blue eyes sparkling and his hair flopping towards one eye, now that it wasn’t constrained by his sheriff’s hat. He was wearing a blue lumberjack shirt and faded blue jeans. She wanted to hug him.

“Well, fancy meeting you here!” he said. Isabel gave a dry laugh, her voice still choked up by fear.

“I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am to see you again!” she said.

“So, are you just taking a breather out here, by yourself?”

“I’m lost,” she said, lifting her arms and letting them drop down to her sides. “This is going to sound really dumb, but I was taking a short cut through the logging road, and I went off the path somehow, and couldn’t find my way back on.”

“You’re not too far from the logging road now, you know?”

“But – how is that possible? Every path I tried brought me to a dead end.”

“These woods can be tricky. Even I have a hard time finding my way sometimes. I’ll show you the way back now.”

“Please!” Isabel said, bursting to get away from Gila. Jed opened the door to the passenger seat and climbed in. Isabel got into the driver’s seat.

“But, wait – where’s your car?” she said.

“Oh, I was just walking out here. I like to hike by myself sometimes.” Isabel shook her head.

“How on earth did you find me?”

“Just by chance. Maybe I had an instinct there was a damsel in distress nearby.” He smiled at her boyishly, reminding her of one of the old time movie stars.

“That was such a lucky co-incidence,” she said. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t turned up. Which way?”

“Take the right fork here,” he said. “Ok. Then, at the corner, there’s a left, just hidden by that tree over there.”

“Maybe I missed a turning like that before,” Isabel said, clicking her tongue at her own silliness.

“Could be,” Jed replied. “So, what were you doing out here by yourself?”

“Oh, it’s a long story,” she said. “Can I just say that I wanted to be out in nature to think?”

“You can say that, for sure. But that doesn’t mean I won’t interrogate you about it in future,” he said, with a laugh in his voice.

“Ok, deal.”

Isabel kept following Jed’s directions and before long, the track broadened out and stretched straight ahead in a long line.

“Welcome back to the logging track!”

“It really wasn’t that far, was it?” she said.

“Nope. But, seriously.” He turned towards her. “Please don’t go off by yourself like this again. Gila is a big place, and not one that people understand very well. You’ve got to respect it. There’s no phone signal out here. If you got lost properly, you could end up in a bad way.”

“I won’t, I promise,” Isabel said. Right now, she never wanted to see the forest again. “And I found out about the signal the hard way. I tried calling you at the station, and the signal lasted just long enough for me to hear that you weren’t around before it went dead.”

“You asked for me?” he said, sounding pleased.

“Well, I couldn’t think of anyone better to rescue me from the woods!” She was flirting. Her voice was practically dripping with it, but she didn’t care. Jed was cute, really cute, actually, and she was so full of gratitude towards him, it was all she could do to stop herself from jumping into his lap and planting kisses all over his face.

“Right around this corner, and we’ll be back onto the road,” he said. Isabel came to a halt as the track joined with the tarmac.

“Oh, hey, this isn’t Black Peak City!”

“And you only just noticed? My, you are a flake,” he chided. “I directed you to the other end, as I assumed you were headed back to Silver.”

“Oh, I was. I just hadn’t thought we’d gone that far. And I guess I was pretty disoriented.”

“That’s understandable,” he said, more softly. “You must’ve had quite a shock being lost out there.”

“It was really scary. And I saw a wolf,” she said. This was the first she’d thought about it since Jed had appeared.

“You did?” Jed said with a grin. “What did it look like?”

“It was big. Light brown, I think, and it had yellow eyes. I was scared it would attack me when I was outside the car.” She shuddered. There was a flicker of something in his eyes that she didn’t understand, but which seemed fleetingly familiar.

“It wouldn’t have hurt you, you know.”

“I do know that really. My thoughts were just running away with me at that point.”

“You poor thing,” he said, with feeling.

“It’s ok; I’m a big girl,” she said.

“I’m glad to hear it.” He turned to her with his easy grin. “And when you’ve recovered, how about we go for that drink?” The scent of his woodsmoky aftershave reached her nostrils, along with a hint of washing powder. Thoughts of Peter and Josie pinballed around her mind and she didn’t hesitate.

“Since you’ve rescued me twice now, I definitely owe you a few beers!” He pulled out his phone and they swapped numbers.

“This is really embarrassing, but you never told me your name?”

“Isabel, but my friends call me Bella,” she said.

“Ok, Bella, I’ll need to check my schedule at the station, but let’s meet next week? I’ll call you?”

“Great!” she replied. He opened the door and Isabel watched as he maneuvered himself out of the small car. His muscles were taut beneath his clothes, and he had a slim, athletic build. He leaned back in through the door, his dark-blond hair falling into his eyes.

“Thank you again!” Isabel said.

“My pleasure,” he replied. “See you soon.” He closed the door and waved her off. Isabel turned right onto the Black Peak road. When she glanced in her rearview mirror, he was already out of sight.

Chapter Two

24 hours later, Isabel was watching the arrivals board at Albuquerque airport. Kara’s flight was delayed by 15 frustrating minutes. She fidgeted, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, fizzing with excitement.

At last, Kara was there, striding ahead of the crowd shuffling through the exit, her face illuminated by a huge grin. She flung her arms open and enveloped Isabel in a hug.

“Hey, little one!” she yelled.

“Hey yourself!” Isabel said, smiling up into her best friend’s face. Kara squeezed her tight and the tension in Isabel’s body began to unwind itself. As Kara relinquished her hold, she clung on, suddenly feeling like she needed to be hugged for hours.

“Hey, what is it?” Kara’s tone softened. Isabel pressed her face into Kara’s shoulder to keep herself from bursting into tears. Kara pulled her away and stared into her face.

“You’ve been having a bad time, haven’t you?”

“Oh, it’s nothing – I’ll tell you on the journey,” she said, rubbing her forehead. “Are you moving in with me?” She indicated the giant suitcase that Kara was dragging along behind her.

“Ah, I just wanted to be prepared for anything while I’m down here,” she said, and flicked a strand of her long blond hair behind her shoulder.

“This isn’t another planet, you know? It’s just a couple of states away!”

“Ahh… I guess that’s why they looked at me funny when I asked if I could have a stamp in my passport!”

“You’re such a doofus. Come on!” Isabel led her over to her car.

*

“Let me get this right: you meet this Josie, and she acts all friendly with you. Then you go out for lunch and she suddenly turns weird, for no reason you can figure out. And then you see her sitting outside this guy’s place?”

“That’s about the size of it,” Isabel replied.

“Like – what the fuck? This is beyond weird!”

“Uh huh.” They were on Route 25, driving south through the small town of Belen.

“Wow. There’s not much out here, is there?” Kara said, staring out of the window at the stretches of scrub on either side of the highway, and the vast, cornflower-blue sky. Far in the distance was a low mountain range, the bare rocks brutally flat on top.

“And isn’t that great?” Isabel replied, grinning at her.

“Yeah, I guess so. So are these badlands, like you get in cowboy films?”

“Maybe. I’m not too sure. Those flat rocks are called mesas anyway. I only just found that out.”

“Nice.” A bird of prey swept across the highway, talons outstretched, aiming for a point at the edge of the road. “It’s got a stark kind of beauty, actually.” Kara slipped her feet out of her shoes and put them up on the dash. Isabel’s brow crinkled, but she didn’t say anything.

“What’s this Josie like?” Kara asked.

“She’s nice – she’s engaged in what you’re saying, curious. She’s also – I don’t know – kind of flirtatious? Like, it’s nothing personal; she’s just that way with everyone.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t have to be a sexual thing, does it?”

“True. But you can tell she’s at it pretty often!”

“Really?” Kara raised an eyebrow in her direction.

“Oh, it’s just a feeling I get. She’s one of those people who always seem to have got dressed in a rush, and their clothes are practically hanging off them. And she loves talking about sex.”

“Sounds like you might have a bit of a lady crush on her!”

“Noo!” Isabel swatted Kara’s shoulder. “I was all by myself, and she was someone I could talk to about dating Peter – or so I thought.”

“Well, let’s assume for now that her acting strange in the diner was nothing. Like maybe she realized she had her monthlies and she had to make a swift exit.”

“And Rob noticing that she seemed upset?” Kara shrugged.

“I dunno. Maybe it put her in a foul mood. Anyway – so she must know Peter pretty well to be in his garden.”

“Yeah.”

“They’re definitely not related?”

“No. She’s from Cleveland, and he’s from Romania.”

“Wow. You didn’t tell me that! He’s come from the land of Dracula to suck your blood!”

“Stop it!”

“You’d better watch he doesn’t go sinking his teeth into your neck!”

“Well.”

“Ha! He does?”

“Yeah, often actually. But always on the back of my neck.”

“Quirky. Do you like it?”

“Maybe,” Isabel replied, blushing.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed. I love a bit of the rough stuff myself. Ok, so back on topic. How could he and Josie know each other? Where’s the commonality?” Isabel smirked at Kara, loving it when she switched into analytical mode.

“They could’ve got acquainted in Silver City, I guess.”

“Does Peter spend much time there?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really know anything about what he does when we’re not together.”

“So, they could be drinking buddies.” Isabel tried out the image in her head – Peter and Josie sitting on bar stools, each with a bourbon on the rocks; Josie draping an ankle over her other knee; Peter leaning towards her, laughing at her joke. It fits, she thought, and at the same time, a needle of jealousy stabbed her in the heart. “Perhaps.” Isabel shook her head, frowning.

“What?”

“No, nothing. I’m being silly.”

“Tell me?”

“I’m getting all jealous at the thought that something might be going on between them, but Josie’s with Rob, and they’re obviously in love. It’s ridiculous.”

“Exactly. So what else?”

“They could have a connection through the wilderness. Josie goes to visit Rob at the conservation center sometimes, and Peter spends plenty of his time in there.”