Green Fire (13 page)

Rani made a firm decision not to involve Flint in any of her plans. She wouldn't have him accusing her of using him as a convenient companion or a source of entertainment. She frowned to herself, annoyed at the way he'd interpreted her invitation to go boating. She would ask Mike Slater instead. It occurred to her that Flint would probably interpret that action as spiteful and juvenile. She was stuck, regardless of what she did. Maybe she'd just go out by herself.

There were several cabins along the shoreline of the lake. The woods were safe through here, even during hunting season. The area was posted, and any sane hunter would know better than to risk coming so close to a populated region. Rani paused for a while to study some pinecones that had fallen. She knew people who did remarkable things in the way of Christmas decorations with pinecones. With a sigh, she decided she wasn't one of them. She couldn't really see herself making a wreath out of them or gilding one with gold paint. She just wasn't the type.

What type was she? Rani stood still for a while under the dappled, shadowed trees and wondered about that. She had been very sure for a long time now that she knew exactly what sort of woman she was, what she wanted out of life and what kind of relationships she sought. She had been in control of herself and her environment for several years. Ever since college she'd become increasingly independent and content with the safe, careful world she had created.

Her home in Santa Rosa, one of the pleasant towns just north of San Francisco, was cozy and comfortable, every inch of it done to her personal satisfaction. She hadn't had to consult anyone else's opinion. She liked her job at the public library where she was in charge of the reference department at one of the branches. Her social life was as full as she wanted it to be, no more, no less. The men she dated were never allowed too close. They were pleasant companions or interesting dinner dates drawn from her circle of college-educated, upscale friends. The various points of reference in her universe orbited around her in neat, predictable paths, and she was always in control of those paths. The possibility that such neatness and controlled predictability had meant she'd steered clear of violent passion or outrageous risks bothered her not at all.

At least it hadn't bothered her until a man with emerald eyes had appeared on her doorstep and demanded entrance into her life. Now Rani found herself silently having to defend the way of life she had created. She shouldn't have to justify her decisions. She'd made them with intelligence and a clear knowledge of what she wanted and needed. The restlessness she was feeling today bothered her. She knew deep down it didn't stem from boredom.

She was considering the ramifications of what was happening to her when she slid on a patch of pine needles. She lost her balance, clutched wildly at a low branch and sat down with awkward heaviness, just as the fierce crack of a rifle shot echoed through the trees.

"Hey, you with the gun," she yelled blindly, staying on the ground. "There are people around here. This isn't hunting land."

There was no response. Rani was more shaken by the proximity of the shot than she wanted to admit. It was still quite far to the safety of the lakeshore and there was little in the way of civilization between here and her cottage. She decided to stay put until she was certain the hunter had realized his mistake and departed. He was probably as startled by her shout as she had been by his shot.

But even as she lay on her stomach, hugging the ground behind a wide fir, another shot split the still air. The second shot left her not only angry but scared and puzzled. Perhaps the hunter hadn't heard her yell. The sound of a rifle shot probably carried a good deal farther than a human voice. Some fool hunter had probably caught sight of her movement through his field glasses and had fired without making certain she was a deer. She ought to have worn her red sweater instead of the black one with the yellow sunburst embroidered on it. Rani decided to try another yell.

"Whoever you are with the gun, I am not a deer, understand? You're shooting on posted land." She waited for a response. There was none. It occurred to Rani that she ought to move herself from the vicinity.

Very cautiously she began inching her way back to the cottage. Not daring to raise herself too far off the ground, she crawled painfully over needles and small pebbles. There was silence for a while, and she began to hope that the stray hunter had finally realized his mistake.

She was almost at the top of the gently sloping hillside when she saw Zipp. He came trotting into view looking extremely purposeful, as if he knew exactly where he was going.

"Zipp! For Pete's sake, what are you doing here? I told you to stay at home." Rani started to sit up and reach for the cat when a third shot rang out. The hunter was following her. Rani gasped, clutched Zipp and started to yell again. She was very scared now. But before she could try another warning call, Flint's voice cracked through the gloom, low and sharp with command.

"Stay down."

Startled, Rani turned her head to see him slithering over the rise to join her. He came around the side of a fir tree with all the easy skill of a man who has more than once clung to the ground while under fire. She didn't see the blue steel pistol in his fist until he raised his hand to aim it past his shoulder.

"My God, Flint, what are you doing?"

The pistol barked furiously in the dappled silence. Zipp jumped nervously in Rani's grasp. Before the echo of the first shot had died away, Flint squeezed off another. Belatedly, Rani realized he wasn't aiming high in warning. He was shooting at the level a man would be standing. Rani saw the coldly savage expression in his face as he waited, gun in hand, for the hunter's response.

Silence descended on the woods. For a very long time Flint said nothing, his full attention on his surroundings. Beside him, Rani sat motionless. She shivered, thinking of what might have happened. But she shuddered even more when she stared at the weapon held so expertly in Flint's fist. Her eyes went mutely from the gun to his green gaze. Cold green fire. She had never seen anything so cold.

"Are you all right?" he asked quietly.

"Yes." She paused to dampen her lips. "Yes, I'm fine. Just a little shaken. How did you… ?"

"I got back from town and found you gone but your car was still in the drive. I figured you'd decided to take a walk, and since the lake is the only place anyone would walk to around here, I started after you. Zipp wanted to come along. He knew exactly where you'd gone."

"But the gun," she protested weakly.

"I keep it around as a security blanket," he said dryly, getting slowly to his feet. "Come on, I think we're safe enough now. Let's get back to the house."

Rani wanted to ask him why he had brought the pistol with him when he'd followed her into the woods. She wanted to know why he'd aimed low instead of firing a warning shot in the hunter's direction. She wanted to know why Flint kept a gun as a security blanket. A hundred questions hovered on her lips.

But Rani said nothing as she held Zipp tightly under one arm and allowed Flint to take her free hand to lead her quickly back through the woods toward her cottage.

"Stupid hunters," Rani muttered as she stepped gratefully into the security of her cottage. She plopped Zipp down on the floor and turned to face Flint. He had been surprisingly quiet on the trip back through the woods. "We should report this incident to the sheriff, not that it'll do much good. By the time anyone gets around to investigating, whoever was doing the shooting will be long gone. After those shots you fired, he must have realized he had come too close to something that wasn't a deer."

"I'll give the sheriff a call," Flint said quietly. He reached for the phone. "Why don't you go clean up?"

Rani looked down at her dusty clothing. She had pine needles stuck in her sweater and a few more in her hair. "Good idea. Tell him that those shots were awfully close. One of them broke off a piece of bark on the tree beside me. If I hadn't slipped on some needles at the right moment, I might have been hit."

Flint's face was very lean and hard, devoid of almost all expression. But Rani sensed the fierceness in him, saw it glowing in the emerald of his eyes. When she glanced up and caught his gaze, she felt an uneasy twinge. It overrode some of the relief she had been experiencing. Remembering the gun, she looked around for it. Flint had set it down on the end table that held the phone. Rani wasn't quite certain what to say about it. One of her many rules in life was not to get involved with men who were interested in firearms. Of course, she reminded herself, she was hardly
involved
with Flint Cottrell.

"You shouldn't have gone for a walk in the woods during hunting season, Rani."

"I was only going over to the lake. That's hardly open hunting land. There are cabins all around this part of the woods. Hunters aren't supposed to be anywhere near them."

"You've said yourself, they aren't always careful or law-abiding." Flint was dialing a number he'd found in the front of the small local phone book. "You should have stuck around here until I got back. I had no idea you were planning on going for a walk. We could have driven to the lake."

"Flint, this has been a very unsettling experience, to say the least. I would appreciate a little understanding here. I have never been shot at in my life. I could have been killed out there."

"Yes," he agreed, waiting for the phone to ring on the other end.

"So why are you lecturing me?" she demanded. "I need sympathy, not a lecture. For heaven's sake, I wasn't doing anything wrong or even particularly reckless. The short distance between here and the lake is posted land and should be perfectly safe."

"I'll see what I can come up with in the way of sympathy and understanding while you're taking a shower and changing your clothes. I might be a little short on both for a while. I'm still using what sympathy and understanding I've got on myself. You gave me one hell of a scare, lady." He broke off to answer the greeting on the other end.

Rani glowered at him for a moment as she listened to the succinct, factual report of the shooting incident. From the way he handled it, a person could get the impression Cottrell had handled this sort of thing before. Rani groaned and headed for the bathroom. It was irritating to have to admit it, but Flint did have a point. She knew one had to take precautions during hunting season. It just had never occurred to her that the walk from her cottage to the lake would be a dangerous one.

It was almost dusk when Rani emerged from a lengthy shower and pulled on a fresh pair of jeans and a bright orange shirt that was patterned with a thin black stripe. She fluffed up her hair, coiling it into a knot at the back of her head and then paused to examine herself in the mirror. She looked normal enough, but she wasn't feeling normal.

The restlessness she had felt earlier in the day had turned into a definite feeling of uneasiness. Perhaps the jolt she had received from having a careless hunter take potshots at her had produced a kind of shock to her system. It certainly wasn't the sort of incident one got over in a hurry.