Hiking for Danger (2 page)

“Dad, stop that.”

“On the bus,” Cody said and Sahara would swear she saw the hint of a smile on his face. As quickly as she saw the hint of a smile it was gone. “Misty Hill.”

“That’s me,” the red haired green eyed woman stepped forward. Her hair was cut short in one of those trendy pixie cuts and due to her barely five foot frame she looked like a fairy who should be off with Tinkerbelle except she was very athletically built like she worked out a lot or hiked a lot—maybe a bit of both.

“Julian and Debbie Dawson.”

“That’s us,” the skinny man took hold of his wife’s hand. He had blond hair that looked like it was natural while his wife had raven hair cut to shoulder length. Sahara would estimate them to be in their early forties, but she couldn’t be sure. They were probably like her parents, the adventurer kind who liked to go out and take extreme vacations together—or not. This wasn’t an extreme trip so they probably weren’t into that. Maybe they just liked hiking together.

“Georgia Tate.”

“That’s me,” she raised her hand and walked toward the motor coach. Georgia had black hair with strands of silver throughout. Sahara found her hair pretty, and her darker skin looked great with the color mixture. The oval shape to her eyes and the darkness of them made her that much more attractive. She was definitely a runner. She looked like a woman who ran marathons. Her body was that of a runner and Sahara was sure she wasn’t mistaken in that because she had a couple friends who were hardcore marathon runners and trained all year, every day, and they looked a lot like that—lean muscle tone and beautiful. Maybe she should take up running. She wasn’t out of shape by any means. She worked out quite frequently, but she didn’t look anything like the women on board that motor coach.

“Jackson Duvall.”

“Jack,” the skinny guy with the wireframe glasses and mousey brown hair took his place on the bus too.

“What about me?” Sahara looked at Cody and Parker. She definitely should have been called by now. She was sure she signed in before at least half of those people.

“Go on board Parker.” Cody told the other guide.

“You’re Sahara Daniels right?”

“Yes,” she nodded. She watched as he checked his list. She knew she signed in…at least she was fairly sure she did. No, she was one hundred percent positive she did. Unless she signed in on the wrong list and then she could honestly say her adventure was quickly becoming a misadventure.

“Oh yeah, there you are.” He tapped his pen on the clipboard. “On you go,” he gestured and she quickly boarded the bus. She was happy to see there was a seat still up front that was free because she didn’t want to sit next to Riley at all. She took the window seat up front behind the driver.

Cody had gone back inside to drop off the list and then he boarded the bus too. “You’re in my seat,” he said to her.

“Sorry.”

“You can sit back here, Sahara!” Riley called to her.

God she did not want to have to sit next to that guy.

“Take my seat,” Parker said. “I’ll share with Cody.” He got up from the front seat near the door and took the window seat where she had been sitting while she took the seat directly across from them. “Thanks, she smiled at him and he nodded.

Cody tapped the driver on the shoulder. “We’re ready to go, Sam.”

After they got on their way Cody stood up, positioned himself at a position just before the start of the first row of seats, but behind the driver. His legs were spread for stability. “We’re going to be spending some time together so let’s finish introducing ourselves. You already know I’m Cody, your guide. And you know Parker.” Parker stood up and waved before sitting back down. “Let’s get acquainted. We’ll start with you,” he looked at her. This wasn’t something she wanted to do, but it didn’t look as if she had a choice.

“She’s a doctor!” Riley yelled. “I’m going to bag a doctor.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Let’s get something straight;” Cody said in a stern voice. “We’re going to be spending a lot of time together and you will show each other respect.”

It was only four hours. She could deal with a four hour hike with that jerk just so long as he kept his hands to himself.

“If you can’t do that Mr. Smith I can send you back to depot with Sam here.”

“Got it, man.” Riley said. “You don’t have to be so serious.”

Sahara rolled her eyes again. She was thankful for Cody saying something to the jerk, but she didn’t want to be the cause of a scene either.

“Go ahead,” he looked at her again. “You’re a doctor.”

“That could come in handy!” Somebody yelled from the back.

“I’m not that kind of doctor,” she said. “I’m Sahara Daniels. I have a PhD in Entomology.”

“What is that?”

She turned to see who was asking her the question and found it to be Shell. She smiled at the kid. “I study bugs.”

“Cool! I don’t know any girls who like bugs,” he said. She could tell he was now an instant fan since she was the only female he knew who liked bugs. She wouldn’t say she liked them really. Bugs just fascinated her. She always wanted to know what kind of bugs were out there and what they did. When she found out that roughly eighty percent of the animals in this world were insects she just kind of knew she wanted to know more. Although nobody could understand how she could touch bugs and play with them—at least not any of her friends. They were the type to run screaming from bugs. She wouldn’t just pick them up at will, some of them were poisonous and she wasn’t that fascinated with bugs that she would put her life in danger, but she liked to learn things and that often involved studying the specimen up close.

“Okay, next up is Jack Duvall.”

Sahara found it amazing that Cody could remember Jack’s name yet felt the need to refer to her as, “you.” She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and shake her head.

“I’m a psychologist,” he said proudly with a big smile on his face. “Industrial organizational which pretty much just means I tell businesses how to keep their employees from killing each other.”

“Georgia Tate, you’re up.”

“Marathon runner—professional. I train all year and I have the finances to support myself between promotions and training that’s all I do really. This hike was a dream come true for me because when I get back to New York I have to train like there is no tomorrow.”

Sahara was confused as to how a four hour hike could be considered a dream come true, but considering the schedule Georgia had she would imagine any break would be welcomed. Georgia didn’t have a New Yorker accent so Sahara figured either Georgia was a transplant to the location, or she lived elsewhere and trained in New York. It wasn’t any of her business really so she made a mental note not to pry.

Everybody laughed, including Cody, who seemed to be more serious inclined than jokester. Although she didn’t know the man, maybe he had a sense of humor hidden in there somewhere. By the time they reached their drop off location for the hike she had learned that Misty Hall played the drums for a new age rock band. They weren’t with a label yet, but they played festivals, bars, clubs and any other event they could while they worked hard at getting their dream record deal. Misty was twenty-five and looking forward to her big break. When Riley tried to talk her down she pointed out that Sully from Godsmack had worked for over twenty years before getting his break. Now that took dedication, Sahara thought.

Don and Shell were father and son. Don loved to relive his high school football glory days and had Cody not cut him off they all would have had to relive each year with him. His son, Shell, was getting ready to go into his senior year. This was their big father and son bonding trip. Shell was all star with his wrestling team, he had a little sister who was a chess champion and his mother was a lawyer. He seemed proud of both of them.

Julian and Debbie were retired, married for twenty-two years. They were forty-four and forty-three, respectively. Debbie had been a writer for a fashion magazine and Julian had been a fashion photographer. They met on the set of a shoot that Debbie had been required to attend, fell in love, got married and hit the road for bigger travels. They loved the outdoors so they took nature inspired trips yearly with the occasional adventure to Italy or France, Debbie had said.

Riley had his MBA and worked for a top firm as a sports management agent. He had apparently interned there during his senior year of his MBA and at twenty-two he was thrilled to see his career looking up. He had money, cars, and a spanking office—whatever that was, Sahara had thought. Apparently his employers loved his larger than life attitude and his ability to wine and dine clients into their bed. He was very proud of his accomplishments, as he said, he was smart enough to finish his BA and the MBA in record time thanks to doing his general college requirements as part of a high school program and then working his butt off once he got in college taking course overloads in between pledging Gama and drinking it up with his buddies. She wondered how he managed to survive college, but clearly he had.

Stacey Nash was the daughter of a big Texas oil tycoon. She, according to her ramblings, didn’t have to work because her “daddy” gave her whatever she wanted. She went to junior college for something frivolous to make him happy and to get off the ranch for two years and there is where she met Nikki. Nikki was just as wealthy—or more like her parents were. Her father was a cattle rancher and apparently the girls like to hang out on his ranch with the lowly ranch hands and try to score one of them. They learned how to rope ‘em, ride ‘em, and take ‘em home, as Nikki had said. “The cows and horses of course,” she had added when the passengers on the bus had been silent. Given the way the young woman looked at Cody she was sure she had something else in mind to that rope ‘em and ride ‘em detail.

“Everybody off, grab your packs and take a seat, or stand,” Cody added after receiving a few moans about the seat part, “over by those rocks. Parker will get you all situated until I can come over and explain a few things about this hike.”

Sahara was the last to get on the bus and the last to get off, both times thanks to Cody. Although this time it wasn’t an issue of waiting on her name to be called, it was the fact that he had stepped into the section where her seating was. Since she had scooted over to sit next to the window he had room to maneuver. She would have complained except she had a fabulous view of his behind from where she was sitting and she wasn’t going to shoot herself in the foot by asking him to move when she could just enjoy the view. That was probably so wrong, but the man was hot. She would have to be dead not to notice how sexy he was.

By the time she made it off the bus her pack was the last one in the storage compartment left to grab. The driver had gotten off to help everybody get their packs. He felt the need to tell her that Cody and Parker’s packs were on the other side in the “other” storage compartment. Maybe he told her because she was silently wondering where their stuff was.

By the time she made it over to where everybody else was she noticed one major difference—they had a lot of stuff. She had gone shopping to prepare so she thought she was doing just fine by way of being prepared for a four hour hike, but obviously she must have been missing something.