Wildfire (19 page)

She finally turned back to Donovan. “Let’s get them out of here.”

They led the men back out of the clearing to Donovan’s SUV. They secured the hunters’ weapons in the cab and put the three men in the back behind the cage. The poachers would be taken back to the station and processed for illegally hunting on federal land. Joe had earned himself a special charge of attempted murder for the shot he fired at Elaine. She was relieved that these three men would be thinking about their actions in a prison cell for many years to come. The gratification she felt at having stopped any more senseless killings was just another reason why she loved her job.

“What did you say to him back there?”

Elaine smiled. “Just told him that it wasn’t nice to pull a gun on a lady.”

Donovan looked at her for a long minute before nodding. Elaine hadn’t done anything illegal, but he probably didn’t want to know what all was said. Neither wanted him to have to lie in court to protect his captain.

“Are you going to ride with me back to the station, Cap?”

“Yeah. I’ll just need you to bring me back to my truck once we wrap this up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As she opened the door to climb inside the SUV, her mind filled with all the things that could have happened if the bastards had found Devon…alone. The thought of the three idiots coming across anyone was frightening, but she tried to convince herself that they had
not
come across Devon. But what if?

En route to the station, Donovan radioed in that there was a ranger in need of medical attention and the poachers were in custody. Elaine wanted to contact Devon and let her know she would be held up at the station and would be back as soon as possible, but doing that in front of an audience wasn’t exactly what she had in mind.

As soon as they arrived at the station, her crew was waiting outside with an ambulance. The relief on their faces was apparent and Elaine was touched that they had obviously been so worried. Over the next few hours, they finished their statements regarding the shooting and subsequent arrests, but not before she was checked out by emergency services.

It wasn’t until the medic began cutting away her bloody shirt that she realized she had been grazed by the bullet that the drunken moron had fired her way. Only then did it begin to sting. The medic reassured her that it wasn’t anything to worry about, but instructed her to keep it clean and dressed to avoid infection. She couldn’t help but notice that it would probably leave a nice scar.

Elaine was beat by the time she parked her truck outside of the cabin. Dealing with three drunken buffoons and a bear carcass, plus the roundtrip to the station and pages of paperwork had taken a mental and emotional toll on her. Elaine glanced again at the supplies that she loaded up before leaving the station. She knew that she should carry them in, but they would keep till morning. As tired as she was, she wasn’t going to wait a moment longer to see Devon.

Devon wanted to know who Elaine was kidding. How was she supposed to go back to sleep knowing that Elaine was heading in the direction of gunfire?

She crawled from the bed and headed for the shower. She stood relaxing under the hot water, letting it gradually awaken her. The heat helped to clear her mind. She toweled herself dry and wiped the steam from the mirror and then brushed her teeth and dressed while she thought about Elaine.

She glanced at her watch and saw that Elaine had only been gone thirty minutes. This promised to be a long day. She wasn’t a fool; of course she was going to worry about Elaine.

Suddenly her thoughts gravitated to her brother-in-law. He was in a war zone every day and every day her sister believed in her husband. Like Phillip, Elaine was a professional. Yes, things could go wrong, but spending her day worrying about it wouldn’t change anything. Devon focused on the fact that Elaine was not only a ranger but she was a captain—a captain with many years experience and damn good at her job. If Raine was able to cope day in and day out with her husband doing his job, then surely she could handle this. She trusted Elaine and knew that she wouldn’t take any unnecessary risks.

Devon booted up her laptop and was pleased that it was a little faster today. With the storms having cleared out and the added advantage of being at the top of the ridge, her signal was stronger and faster, even if she did feel like she was still in the days of slow modem dial-ups. It beat the hell out of the service she had a few days ago.

She quickly scanned the e-mails from her sister and Stacey to ensure that Raine was all right. After learning that all was well, she decided to respond to those later. She really needed to get some work done first. She had been sending in her daily field notes, but she needed to generate some more detailed reports for study and analysis.

She set up a number of sample slides and placed them under the microscope, noting where each was pulled from and when. After looking at each and labeling them with location, species and date, she tucked them into the insulated kit that she would use to transport them back to the lab. She spent the next several hours poring over slides and research and developing flow charts and graphs that she e-mailed to her lab. She completed a series of reports detailing the progress that had been made with the planting and regrowth in the area and sent copies to all appropriate department heads. Even with the time she had spent with Elaine she was still on track to make it back in time for Raine’s delivery date.

Devon’s organizational skills and her almost anal need to do things in an orderly and timely fashion had helped keep her on track thus far. Although her fear for Elaine’s safety lurked in the back of her mind, she chose to put her faith in Elaine and her abilities to do her job. Knowing that Elaine was a smart and competent ranger helped ease Devon’s worries and allowed her to concentrate on her work. Not to mention, she hoped that the reported gunfire meant Elaine would finally catch the poachers that had been killing innocent animals for months now. She knew how important it was to Elaine to catch the assholes and Devon herself was looking forward to seeing them face criminal charges.

After completing her first round of duties, she started on the next batch. Within a few hours she had sifted through all of her slides, logged and recorded each one and had filled out the proper paperwork and sent it in. She probably could have been finished sooner except her computer connection was still slow. Her thoughts turned to Elaine as she caught sight of the radio. In spite of her concern, she had managed to complete a lot of work.

After she hit the send button on her last e-mail which detailed the transformation and rejuvenation of the flora along the riverbank, with accompanying pictures, she waited patiently for the e-mail to upload. Once completed, she reopened her sister’s e-mail.

She couldn’t help but be amused. Raine bitched relentlessly about how protective Stacey was and if she didn’t know better she would think that Stacey was the father. When Raine had voiced the same frustrations to Phillip, he had proudly announced that he had already talked to Stacey and they both agreed this was the best form of care for Raine. So Raine, having failed with both Stacey and her own husband, was appealing to her older sister to get Stacey to quit being quite
so
attentive. Devon knew it would be pointless to address the issue with Stacey. Once Stacey had her mind set on something, nobody could change it. Absolutely nobody. Not even her best friend. In spite of that fact she dutifully informed her sister that she would
try.

In the middle of her e-mail she heard the echo of a very distant gunshot. In a nanosecond her worry for Elaine went from back-of-her-mind to front and center. She said a silent prayer for Elaine’s safe return. She paused for a moment and thought about what Raine had said about Phillip being in the middle of a war-torn country. She had always said that if something were wrong she would feel it and each day she didn’t feel that anything was wrong so she was able to get through it. Of course, there was the baby to think about now and Raine didn’t have much choice but to get through each day. But she still maintained that she and Phillip were connected on such a level that she would know if something had happened to him.

Devon didn’t know that she was on that level with Elaine yet. Obviously they had great chemistry in and out of bed and they could talk for hours or not at all. But did that mean that she would know if something had happened to Elaine? Devon’s logical thought process told her that if the situation was reversed and it was her out there, she wouldn’t want Elaine to worry about her. She would want Elaine to trust in her. Yes, a healthy amount of concern was good but she wasn’t going to doubt Elaine’s ability to do her job and do it well. So she offered up yet another prayer before picking up her cell phone. She needed a distraction and the ear of a best friend.

Stacey answered on the second ring.

“Dev?”

“Hey.” Devon was amazed and pleased that there was very little static compared to the last time they talked.

Devon smiled as Stacey cut to the chase. “Raine is doing well. I’m fine. What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is that you leave me a cryptic e-mail saying that we need to talk and then follow it up with nothing. Plus, I have Raine complaining that you are smothering her and driving her absolutely batty.”

“So did something happen with you and Elaine?”

“No, nothing happened with Elaine. She’s off playing ranger. Now quit avoiding the topics at hand. What is the news you need to talk to me about and will you please cut Raine a little slack?”

Stacey laughed. “I’m just doing as her husband asked. But yes, I will cut her a little slack. I will let her reach to the middle rows in the aisles at the grocery store to lift things that weigh three pounds or less.”

Devon couldn’t help but laugh. God she knew how Stacey could be and if it was truly this bad it was no wonder Raine was complaining. Not that she really thought Phillip would be any different. “You better be careful Stace or she’ll ditch you.”

Stacey laughed wickedly. “She can’t. Even when I don’t have her house staked out, I put a GPS on her car and she has no idea.” There was a long pause. “And it had better stay that way.”

Devon laughed hysterically. This was exactly what she needed. “I won’t tell on you but only if you tell me what it was you needed to talk to me about.”

Stacey sighed. “I seem to be in a bit of a pickle.”

“Stacey Bailey! What have you done?”

Stacey laughed. “Why is it that you assume I’m the one who did something?”

“Because I know you.”

Stacey let out a slow breath. “Well, I’m not really sure that I’ve done anything. Hell, I don’t even know how to explain.”

“Why don’t you just start at the beginning?”

“Okay. I had the most amazing sex of my life.”

Devon asked slowly, “And?”

“And nothing. She won’t even acknowledge it or me for that matter.”

“What?”

Stacey’s laughter held no mirth. “For the first time in my life, I want to sleep with someone more than once. It was far beyond amazing. I want more than just one night and she doesn’t want me.”

Devon was incredulous.
No one
had ever
not
wanted to sleep with Stacey a second time. She always seemed to have the opposite problem. Once she slept with a woman, she couldn’t get rid of her. Not only was it extraordinary that a woman would reject Stacey, it was just as amazing that Stacey wanted more than just one night. It wasn’t that Stacey had never slept with the same woman twice; it was just that she didn’t consider it very sporting.

“Stacey, I have a very hard time believing that.”

“Believe it, love. It’s true.”

“Stace…”

“Hey Dev, I need to go. That’s Raine on the other line.”

“Okay. But don’t consider this conversation over.” She warned before saying a quick, “I love you. ’Bye.”

“I love you too. ’Bye.”

Devon sat holding her phone for a few minutes. She and Stacey had an agreement that no matter what they were talking about, it could wait if Raine called. She knew that Stacey would call her back immediately if there was a problem.

But that wasn’t what gave Devon pause. She had never thought she would hear Stacey say that there was a woman that she
wanted
. Something about Stacey’s voice told Devon that this was different. This woman was different than anyone Stacey had ever encountered before. This wasn’t about the challenge. Whoever this mystery woman was, she had gotten to Stacey.

Devon understood the feeling. Elaine had gotten under her skin. She hadn’t even seen it coming and Devon suspected that Stacey was about to be in a very similar position.

It had seemed like hours when Devon finally heard the static from the radio echo throughout the cabin. She jumped at the unexpected sound and rose from the couch to listen, hoping beyond hope that it was Elaine and she was just letting her know she was on her way back.

“Anyone copy?” Devon could hear a man’s voice dripping with what she interpreted as tension.

A second disembodied voice answered, “Go ahead.”

“This is Donovan. We are on our way back with three suspects in custody. We have a wounded ranger. ETA is twenty minutes.”

“Copy that. We’ll have a medic waiting.”