Naked Edge (7 page)

Then a call had come in from a couple of hysterical cross-country skiers who said they'd seen a mountain lion. The lion hadn't attacked them; in fact, it had done what mountain lions were supposed to do. It had taken one look at their shocked faces and had run the hell away. But Gabe had gone up to check it out. He'd found a freshly killed doe about ten feet off the Lost Canyon Trail, mountain lion tracks all around it. He'd called for backup, and then, with Hatfield watching to make sure he wasn't jumped from behind by a pissed-off cat, he'd moved the half-eaten carcass deeper into the forest where the mountain lion could feed in peace.

Of course, the whole time he'd been thinking about Kat. He'd found it almost impossible not to think about her, even though thinking about her only made him want what he couldn't have. She'd made it good and clear that she wasn't going to get naked with him, not without a ring. But Gabe no longer did rings. He'd buried the only one he would ever buy with Jill.

It was probably for the best that Kat had made her position clear. It would save them both time. He preferred his sex straight up--no illusions, no attachments, no complications. She was a virgin who believed in happily-ever-afters. A virgin! When was the last time he'd used that word to describe anything other than olive oil?

I bet it scares the shit out of most guys when you say that stuff.

It had certainly scared the shit out of him. But what freaked him out the most wasn't the idea that she was keeping herself for one man, but the realization that some deluded part of him actually respected her for it. What was that about?

I decided a long time ago that I would never be any man's conquest.

She'd looked at him, had seen the horn dog lurking inside him, and had handed him his ass. And how had he reacted? Like a jerk, of course.

You're a little too old to believe in fairy tales, aren't you?

The moment the words had left his mouth, he'd wished he could take them back--and not just because he'd ruined his chances of ever having sex with her. He'd seen the disappointment in her eyes, and it had made him feel lower than dirt. So, naturally, he'd dug himself in deeper.

I wasn't asking you to have sex with me. I just wanted to get to know you better.

What a fucking liar he was. He'd wanted to take her to dinner, but he'd hoped to have her for dessert. Rather than admitting that he was guilty as charged, he'd embarrassed her by acting like she was the one who was assuming too much. And still she'd reacted with dignity, taking a deep breath and changing the subject, her cheeks flushing bright pink.

Proud of yourself, dickhead?

In the break room, he poured himself a cup of coffee, then grabbed a couple of burritos out of the freezer, dumped them on a plate, and popped them in the microwave to nuke for three minutes. At the table, rangers Rick Sutherland and Dave Hatfield were already stuffing their faces--and reading Kat's article.

"There's a message for you." Hatfield pointed toward the counter. "A woman from some law firm. Said she's been trying to reach you and leaving voice mails but hasn't heard back. She sounded pretty desperate."

Samantha. Cursing under his breath, Gabe grabbed the scrap of paper, crushed it in his fist, and tossed it into the recycling bin. It was one of at least a dozen messages she'd left him since Saturday night, apologizing for how she's acted, promising never to do it again, and pleading with him to call her.

When hell freezes over.

Sutherland looked at him from behind the newspaper and spoke with his mouth full of sandwich. "The city is up to its chin in shit this time. You read this?"

"Yeah." Gabe grabbed the salsa out of the fridge. "I was on call that night."

"Was it as bad as it sounds?"

Gabe nodded, searching for a clean fork. "I reported Frank Daniels. He tried to drag one of the women out of the lodge by her hair."

Sutherland shook his head. "Fucking idiot. Why didn't the call come to us?"

"Daniels was on patrol, saw the fire, and decided jurisdiction didn't matter."

"I wonder if this is why Webb's been in such a bad mood." Hatfield brushed crumbs from his shirt to the floor. "He had suits from the city in his office earlier this morning. There was some yelling behind closed doors."

Gabe kept his voice neutral, pretty sure he knew what the yelling had been about. "I wonder what's up."

The microwave beeped.

He retrieved his plate, dumped salsa on his burritos, and dug in.

"Me and some friends are planning some hut-to-hut skiing next month, Rossiter." Sutherland was the newest addition to the department and was always inviting Gabe to join him. "You should come along. I hear you're a badass."

Hatfield gave a snort. "Rossiter here skis shit no one should even try to ski, but forget about him joining the likes of us. He prefers to do everything solo."

Mouth full, Gabe gave Hatfield a quelling look. Hatfield had once been one of Gabe's closest friends and knew damned well he was treading on thin ice. "Thanks, Rick. Maybe some other time."

It was the answer Gabe always gave.

Chief Ranger Webb popped his head into the kitchen, a frown on his tanned face. "Rossiter, can I see you in my office?"

Shit.

"That depends. Can I bring my lunch?"

"Yes, for God's sake!"

Gabe stood and followed his boss down the hallway, Sutherland and Hatfield's chuckles following after him.

CHAPTER 4

ON FRIDAY, KAT found herself feeling unusually out of sorts. This she blamed on the whole Mesa Butte controversy. She'd had nothing new to report on it since the beginning of the week. The city still hadn't responded to her request for files on Mesa Butte, which meant the city had broken the law. The paper's legal team had opted to send a reminder rather than take the city to court. Meanwhile, the Boulder city council and mayor were still publicly promising to "look into" the incident, but were vague as to how or when, exactly, this would happen or when an apology might be forthcoming. And, of course, the complaint she'd filed against Officer Daniels for excessive use of force had resulted in a letter from Boulder's chief of police promising an internal investigation.

Lots of promises, no action.

Of course, the real reason for her bad mood was a certain mountain ranger who couldn't seem to leave her alone, intruding into her thoughts, pestering her even in her sleep. Why, oh, why had she agreed to meet with him tomorrow? Maybe there was still time to cancel. She could call his cell phone and...

Are you that afraid to be around him, Kat?

She was still trying to answer that question at five o'clock when Sophie stopped at her desk to remind her that it was the second Friday of the month and therefore Girls' Night Out--a tradition that had evolved out of weekly I-Team gettogethers in the nearest brewpub. With so many of the women now married with small children, they'd had to become more organized about their time together.

"I think both Kara and Tess will be there tonight." Sophie fished her keys out of her briefcase. "They read your article about what happened Sunday at the sweat lodge, and they both asked about you."

Kara McMillan and Tessa Darcangelo were former members of the I-Team who now worked as freelance journalists and nonfiction authors. It was Kara's departure from the paper that had opened up a position for Kat. Kara had married a state senator and was now the mother of three, while Tessa, whose courage had so impressed Kat during her first year at the paper, had married a former FBI agent turned cop. The two of them were parents to an adorable little girl who wasn't yet two. Kat admired both women and their husbands greatly and considered them friends.

And she felt her spirits lift. "Yes, I'll come."

THEY MET AT the Wynkoop--Kat, Sophie, Natalie, Kara, Tessa, and Holly Bradshaw, one of the paper's entertainment reporters--and claimed the big round booth in the back corner. Kara, Tessa, Holly and Natalie ordered martinis, while Kat, who didn't drink, and Sophie, who couldn't drink, ordered Italian sodas.

Kara shared the news about Reece's decision not to run for Congress. "He's term limited, so after May he'll be out of office and done with politics."

Sophie nibbled her cherry. "How does he feel about that?"

"I think he's relieved." Kara took a sip of her martini and tucked her long dark hair behind her ear to reveal a smooth pearl earring. "Neither of us liked the thought of having to commute between Denver and D.C. He's looking forward to teaching again."

Sophie shared the names she and Marc had picked out for their baby. "If it's a girl, we've agreed on Addison Lyra, and if it's a boy, he'll be Elijah Phoenix."

Everyone laughed except Kat, who didn't understand what was funny.

"Chase Orion, Addison Lyra, Elijah Phoenix--they all have constellations as middle names," Tessa explained, smiling, her blond curls spilling over her shoulder.

It struck Kat as wonderful that parents would name their children after stars. "I think that's beautiful, Sophie."

"The three of you are so lucky." Natalie smiled--a sad smile, Kat thought. "You have it all--wonderful husbands, successful careers and beautiful kids."

"I'm sure you'll meet the right guy one of these days," Sophie reassured her. "Half the men at the paper think they're in love with you."

"Only half?" Natalie joked.

But Kat could see in her eyes that she wasn't really laughing.

Then Holly told them all a story that started with how her neighbor was pregnant with in-vitro twins and ended with how a local painter had asked Holly to pose for him in the nude. Platinum blond and stunningly beautiful, Holly lived on the light side of life, seeming to take nothing but her appearance and her sex life seriously. Though that often led her to say things that others found insensitive or superficial, Kat found her lightness to be a gift. No matter what was happening around them, Holly always made them laugh.

"So, are you going to do it?" Kara asked.

Holly took a sip of her martini, a thoughtful frown on her face. "Do you think people will assume he and I are lovers if he paints me naked? I mean, the guy isn't sexy in the least, and I would never want people to think I'd slept with him."

The others debated this while Kat tried to imagine how any woman could be so bold as to pose naked for paintings that would be displayed in public art galleries.

It was Kara who finally changed the subject. "I read your article about the trouble up on Mesa Butte last weekend. I learned a lot from it. I thought you did a really good job of explaining to your audience what this meant to Indian people."

Kat met Kara's gaze and felt something in her chest swell at the compliment. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."

"What about this officer who pulled your hair?" Tessa asked. "You said in the article that you had filed a complaint against him. Any word on that?"

"They've promised to look into it. Gabe filed a complaint against him, too, so I hope that means they'll take it more seriously than they otherwise might."

Four pairs of eyes looked at Kat--and blinked.

"Gabe?" Sophie asked. "Who exactly is Gabe?"

"Gabe Rossiter. He's the park ranger who intervened. It turns out he's also the ranger who saved my life last summer."

Holly made a little sound in her throat like a purr. "Is he single?"

TALKING WITH HER friends about Gabe only made Kat think about him more. She thought about him on her way home. She thought about him when she brushed her teeth. She was still thinking about him the next morning--and thinking about how she might be able to get out of meeting him--when Grandpa Red Crow called to tell her there would be an
inipi
on the butte tonight in defiance of the unjust law.

When she told him how frustrated she felt about her progress on the Mesa Butte investigation, he urged her to be patient. "This problem is more than five hundred years old. You can't expect to solve it in five days, my Kimimila."

Then he changed the subject. "When are you seeing your ranger again? I think he is a good man, a man you can trust."

Kat suppressed an exasperated groan. Two minutes had gone by when she hadn't been thinking of Gabe, and Grandpa Red Crow just had to bring him up. "I'm meeting him at the butte this afternoon. I'm going to try to explain why it's sacred to us."

So much for canceling.

Grandpa chuckled. "Good. That's good. Maybe he can join us in the lodge. If he is with us, perhaps we can pray in peace."

The offer took Kat by surprise. It wasn't often that one of the elders asked an outsider to participate. Did Grandpa trust him that much? "I'll ask him."

She spent the morning cleaning her condo, then clipped last week's articles and mailed them to her grandmother, knowing that her mother or one of her sisters would be given the job of translating them and reading them aloud. Then she ran a few errands, buying groceries, getting gas, picking up her dry cleaning. When she got back, it was already time to get her things together for the
inipi
--towel, skirt, old T-shirt, prayer ties, food for sharing afterward--and drive to Boulder to meet Gabe.

She loaded her things into her truck, climbed in, and had just opened her garage door to back out when she saw it.