Wild at Heart (Walk on the Wild Side #1) (22 page)

Katie got pretty good with the imperious diva posture, too, as she showed Amber
The Hand
, then waited regally for one of the security goons to finish tossing the luggage in the trunk and close her car door for her.

By the time the limo was halfway up the road, the vultures were squawking their way to their SUVs, piling in, and taking off as fast as they could gun the engines, skidding perilously on the still-slick roads.

Ranger Morrissey came out of the Ranger Station a moment later, hauling a very wet and rumpled Donny Lempert by the collar. He deposited him in his car with a scowl that very clearly said
get out and stay out.
And Lempert was smart enough this time—or maybe cold and drenched and bruised enough—to fly out of there at top speed.

Amber shaded her eyes against the tentative sunlight coming out from behind the dissipating storm clouds as she watched the line of cars growl their way uphill. “I hope Katie’s bladder holds out at least a couple of hours,” she said. “If they just roll past the rest stops until then, those guys won’t figure out who they’re following until it’s getting too dark to come back here.”

“Don’t worry,” said Ranger Naomi. “I’ll go up to the entry gate and post ‘ROAD CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING’ signs so they won’t get back in tomorrow either. We don’t issue vehicle day passes when any of our trails are under water.”

Amber’s brow creased. “I thought flash floods receded pretty quickly around here.”

“Oh, for sure,” said Ranger Naomi with a grin. “But I’m betting those jerks don’t know that. I’m a former marine sergeant, ma’am—I know how to deal with jackasses.”

And just like that, the vulture infestation was gone.

It was good to see Amber back in her element again, confident and in charge.

Of course, there was an awkward moment when Ranger Naomi walked off to take care of the signs, and Nick was left standing alone in the parking lot with Amber, with no possibility of filming with Ruby and Jake until the next morning at the earliest. Just to have something to fill the silence, Nick said, “I wonder what Lempert found out about Ruby that was so bad.”

“You know what?” said Amber, putting her fists on her hips. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. And if we’re gossiping about whatever it was, we’re playing right into the tabloids’ hands. So let’s forget about it, and let Ruby get on with her life.”

“You got it,” he said. And he offered her a fist bump. “Good job rousting them out of here. That went like clockwork.”

Amber banged her fist to his, and gave him a cheeky smile. “Former marine sergeants aren’t the only ones who know how to deal with jackasses.”

“Clearly. You’ve been working with me for years.”

“Shut up, Nick,” she said impatiently, and this time she used her fist to punch him in the arm. “You may, in fact, be a jackass, but it’s not for the reasons you think.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She heaved a deep sigh. “Nothing. Why don’t we both just—just go get some rest?”

“Right,” he said, still wondering exactly what she meant about his particular brand of jackassery. He didn’t really want to think it through, though, so he let it drop. “Seriously, though, kiddo, you done good today.”

“You, too. You really are heroic, you know. It was impressive.” Her hand swung up a little way like she was about to touch his arm again or something, but it stopped in midair and turned into an awkward wave goodbye. “Yeah—well—I’ll see you in a bit. I guess I’ve got to get out of these wet clothes and try to wring out my boots.”

He looked down and remembered how mud-encrusted they both were. “Right,” he said. “Shower time.”

She nodded, then went off to her cabin with her head bowed and her hands stuffed in her pockets.

The lift he’d felt at seeing her back in take-charge Amber mode faded instantly, replaced by a chill sense of foreboding and a hard lump in his throat.
Damn it
—despite all the moments when they felt like normal friends again today, a wall had gone up between them, and he didn’t know how to climb over it or how to knock it down. And maybe it was better if he didn’t even try.

She didn’t show up in the dining cabin for dinner, and he wasn’t quite sure if he was disappointed or relieved. Maybe a little of both. Instead, he ate with Ranger Morrissey and Ranger Naomi—who, despite what Onyx had called her, actually wore a name tag that said Ranger Kaufman—and listened to their hair-raising war stories, Vietnam for him, Afghanistan for her. Then he dragged himself off to bed, feeling the exhaustion of the storm and the drama with Ruby and the climb up and down the mountain hit him all at once like someone had dumped a load of wet concrete on his head.

But once he got between the sheets, still he tossed and turned. The bed felt
empty
.

Goddamn it
. Why did it seem like Amber was supposed to be here beside him? And why did his racing heartbeat calm only when he imagined her under the blankets beside him, breathing softly, her hair trailing onto his pillow?

It was ridiculous. But he couldn’t clear his mind of her. She was in the room with him like a ghost, ephemeral and taunting, reminding him how he’d failed her, how he’d hurt her. How he wasn’t good enough for her. The night was dark and silent a long time before he finally fell asleep.

He did sleep, though, eventually, and when he did, he slept heavy and dreamless, like the dead. The next thing he knew, morning was brightening the windows again, sending white streaks of dust-mote-filled light down towards the bed.

The sun wasn’t nearly as high as when he woke up yesterday. This was the soft, golden light of very early morning, a morning that would soon be beautiful and bright, judging from the swath of sky he could see through a gap in his cabin curtains, already the sort of brilliantly fresh-washed blue that only happened after storms.

And then he realized what it was that had actually woken him—someone was knocking at his door.

More specifically,
Amber
was knocking at his door.

He still wasn’t used to her knocking, but no one else would dare wake him up this early.

He groaned as he rolled over and got his feet on the floor, pained more by the thought of not knowing what in hell to say to her than at the soreness in his muscles after yesterday’s ordeal. He pulled on a pair of jeans he’d left draped over the desk chair, and dug a clean t-shirt out of his bag. Barefoot, he opened the door.

Amber stood there, looking like she’d just rolled out of bed as well. Her hair was in a messy bun, and she wore an old plaid flannel shirt with a zip-up sweatshirt over top and a pair of red flannel pajama bottoms. She looked pretty wrecked, about the same as he felt—deep smudges under her eyes, her skin unusually pallid, her eyes lacking their usual sparkle.

That was the hardest thing to see, her eyes looking hooded and dull. It pressed like a weight on his diaphragm.

“Hey,” he said, trying to sound as normal as possible. “You—want to come in?”

He wanted her to, he realized. Even sad, even reluctant, he wanted Amber in his room, near him. For the first time since he’d gotten under the blankets alone last night, he didn’t feel the ache of a void. He just felt
better
with her here. Even if she did nothing more than breathe beside him. Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to get back into bed with her, to have her lay down next to him—just lay down, not anything more.

He had a sudden impulse to ask her to, but he tamped it down. Instead, he just altered his question a little: “Why don’t you come in?”

She shook her head, though, vigorously enough to make a few curls spring loose from her bun. They softened the sad look on her face, at least. “No,” she said. “Not really a good idea. Look, I’m sorry to even wake you. I just wanted you to know Jake and Ruby radioed in this morning. They’re fine, but they’re going to sleep a little longer before they hike back down. Sounds like it was a bit of a rough night for her.”

“Ah.” The plummet of disappointment in his gut was stronger than he had any right to feel. “Glad they’re okay,” he said, as jovially as he could manage. “And they might as well sleep. They won’t be up for filming today, anyway. It’s just—lucky Jake found her before she got hurt.”

“And that he has such a crappy car he has to bring camping supplies everywhere he goes.”
“Yeah. Handy habit. Maybe I should start doing that.”

Amber’s lips quirked. “That would certainly make outdoor sex a lot more convenient.”

Ah, and that stung. Any ease that might have been returning between them vanished instantly.

There’s wasn’t much he could say to salvage the conversation after that. “What about Onyx?” he said. “Did she call in, too?”

“No need—Ranger Donnell got her back here an hour ago.”

“Seriously?” That at least was an opening to lighten the tone between them. “They must have been up before the crack of dawn. How did he get Onyx up that early? Set fire to her boot-soles?”

Amber did smile a little at that. “She’s a changed girl, I guess. You should have seen her in the dining cabin getting breakfast. All her lipstick and eyeliner was worn off, and she still willingly appeared in public.”

“Whoa. I’m surprised you recognized her.”

“She looked about five years younger. And she wanted to tell me all about the cool plants Ranger Paul showed her. She even showed me her pocket full of leaves.”

“A pocket full of leaves?
Onyx
?” He leaned his forearm against the doorframe, bending a little closer to Amber, who didn’t move away. “I don’t get it. She’s like—a seven year old on her first field trip.”

Amber shrugged. “Could be that’s what this is for her. I’ve always kind of assumed she was raised in a bat cave or something. Maybe all this human stuff is new to her.”

“Ah, well, then, that makes two of us.”

“
Stop
it, Nick.” Her expression screwed up in frustration. “You have to stop saying things like that.”

“Why? They’re true.”

“They’re not—” She broke off then, her mouth going to a hard line. “Never mind.” She stared at the ground for a moment, then licked her lips nervously. “Um, listen,” she said, and she reached into her sweatshirt pocket. “I have something for you.”

Her hand withdrew something from her pocket, and she held it up for him, palm upwards. Resting there was a little blue flash drive.

“This is the other reason I came over here,” she said, and nervousness shook her voice. “I couldn’t sleep last night. And somehow I decided to finish this after all.” She shrugged again, fitfully. “I stayed up most of the night editing.”

The moment he realized what it was, he pulled back from it like it was a live electrical line. Whatever was on that flash drive was what she’d made out of the film she’d shot of them on her bed the other night. “Shit,” he said. “Shouldn’t we just burn that at this point? We’re friends, remember—we worked that out?”

She shrugged a little too casually. “I figured you might as well see it first. I sort of hate the idea of making a film no one ever sees, you know? You be the one person who does, okay?”

He stared at it stupidly, not moving to take it.

“You can burn it afterward,” she said, as if that was encouragement. “Don’t worry—I didn’t keep another copy. I won’t be selling it to Donny Lempert or anything.”

Ouch
. Though maybe bitter humor was better than no humor at all.

His stomach roiled, but he knew she wasn’t going to take no for an answer on this. And he supposed he owed her the chance to make a statement about what went wrong between them, if that’s what this was. So he took the flash drive out of her palm, gingerly, with just the tips of a finger and thumb, like it might bite him. Immediately, he realized how stupid that was, and closed his fist around it. “Okay. Will do.”

“Today, Nick,” she insisted.

“Today.”

She turned to go then, and on impulse, he caught her by the arm.

“Hey,” he said.

“What?”

He hadn’t actually thought that far ahead. “Um, can’t we—talk, maybe? Don’t we need to do that?”

“No,” she said. “We don’t. Not right now. Just—just watch that. And it is only watching, by the way, just visuals. I didn’t have time to sync up the sound.”

Well, that was a relief. At least he wasn’t going to have to listen to himself having the best night of his life.

She turned to go again.

“No—wait,” he found himself saying. “Don’t just walk away now. Please. We need to—we can figure all this out, somehow.”

She offered him a sad smile. “Everything’s okay, Nick,” she said. “Really. We’ll be fine, I promise.”

He didn’t trust the sad, resigned look on her face. “Really?”

“I’ve been thinking about it all night, you know. I couldn’t exactly
help
thinking about it, not with what I was working on.” She pointed to the flash drive in his hand. Then shrugged. “You’re part of me. A part I need. I can’t lose you.”

He reached out for her shoulders, put his arms around her, drew her close for a moment. She was stiff in his arms. “Don’t worry, kiddo,” he said. “You really can’t lose me, either. I’m right here.”