“Let’s get you down there.”
Five minutes later, with some expert help, he was wearing a climbing harness and a helmet and was roped in.
“I’m on belay,” Sasha called to him. “Go ahead and climb down.”
It struck Jason as strange that he, a guy from Sells, Arizona, was being belayed into a creek in the Colorado mountains by the world’s top women’s sports climber.
He reached the water safely, where Nicole freed him from the rope.
“You’re set,” she said. “Thanks for coming out with us tonight.”
“My pleasure.” He took his flashlight and got to work, Megs and the fire chief, Eric Hawke, walking along behind him. The Pinto’s driver’s side door faced the highway, so he started on that side.
“I appreciate your help.” Hawke stepped carefully, and Jason remembered that he’d been severely burned just a couple of months ago. “We called in the plates, so we should have the driver’s name soon.”
Already, the movement of law enforcement and Team members had compromised the scene. But a little further on, Jason found what he was looking for—sign. An overturned rock lay on the embankment, a thread of denim caught on a shrub beside it.
Jason plucked up the thread, held it up. “He tried to climb out here, but he was too drunk. Or maybe it was too steep.”
“How the hell…?” Hawke muttered.
“I told you he was good,” Megs said.
“See the stone? Someone stepped on it, turned it over. The moss is on the bottom, and the muddy side is facing up.”
Hawke nodded. “It seems obvious when you put it like that.”
Jason kept the grin off his face and walked a little farther upstream. “He tried again here—and threw up on the sand. Most of it washed away.”
Water lapped at a small pile of vomit, peas, carrots, and mucus swirling in an eddy nearby.
Megs bent to look. “Gross.”
When he found nothing more upstream, he went back to the spot where he’d found the vomit and crossed over. Almost immediately, he saw—unevenly spaced footprints rambling up the embankment, a palm print, and a slight indentation where someone had fallen onto one knee.
“Here.” He climbed up, moving his flashlight back and forth.
Two eyes stared back at him from the cover of a large bush ten feet uphill.
“Hank!” Eric shook his head. “Man, I thought you were beyond this now. You went to rehab, got clean. You’ve been driving to Boulder so that we won’t know you’re off the wagon, haven’t you?”
“I’m a weak man, Hawke.” Hank stood, stumbled out of his bush. He was a small, wiry man, his long, thinning hair pulled into a scraggly ponytail, a mustache on his face, his shirt stained with vomit. “I didn’t think you’d find me.”
“That’s because you’re drunk, Hank. Do you think you can run away from your vehicle without us knowing it was you? Did you forget you have license plates? You’re in serious trouble now.”
“Worse than when I blew up my house?”
“I think so.”
“Damn, Hawke. That kind of news would drive any man to drink.”
Megs called the news into dispatch, and a cheer went up around them.
Then Jason saw. “He’s bleeding from his temple.”
Jason climbed the embankment and helped Hank, who was unsteady on his feet, make his way down to the creek.
Hawke took hold of Hank’s arm. “Come on, buddy. Let’s get you checked out by medical before they take you to the pokey.”
Megs turned to Jason. “What do I have to do to get you on the Team?”
Didn’t Jason wish? “You’re welcome.”
Chapter 18
It was just after ten in the morning, and Winona was still in bed, her head on Jason’s chest, her heartbeat slowing. He’d woken her with soft kisses and had then made long, slow love to her, carrying her over the edge twice before letting himself go. He was almost too good to be true.
She kissed a brown nipple. “I wish every weekday could start like this. I feel so decadent. Sleeping in, sex, and coffee.”
She tried not to remember that he would be leaving soon. He’d said he wanted to stay to see the eagle released into the wild. After that…
He raised his head, confusion on his face. “Where’s the coffee?”
“For the moment, it’s just in my imagination.”
“I can fix that.” He kissed the top of her head. “Just stay where you are.”
He got up, walked naked toward the kitchen, the twin mounds of his delectable ass shifting as he moved. When he returned five minutes later carrying two full coffee mugs, she got the reverse view, his cock swaying.
He handed her the mug of coffee with milk in it. “Here.”
“That is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen—you naked and bringing me coffee.”
Jason chuckled. “I can do it again if it turns you on.”
“It does.” She sipped, moaned.
Jason got back into bed beside her, the two of them sitting with their backs against the headboard as they sipped. “I wonder how Hank is feeling this morning.”
“Sore, I’m sure, and probably not very happy with himself.”
“Did he really blow up his own house?”
“He was trying to extract hash oil from marijuana plants using butane, and the fumes ignited. His house burned to the ground.”
Jason shook his head. “That man must have nine lives.”
“You were good with him. I think everyone was impressed by what you can do. Megs kept talking about wanting you on the Team.”
“That’s what she said to me, too.”
It was such a normal thing to do—a couple savoring physical contact, sipping coffee together, planning their day. Except they weren’t truly a couple.
The thought put a bittersweet ache in Winona’s heart. “I need to get to the clinic. It’s past time for rounds, and I’ve got a shipment of food and supplies coming in today. Naomi and little Shota are coming home this afternoon, and I want to welcome them home—and to hold my little nephew again.”
“I’m going to give that security company in Denver a call and set up an appointment.”
When they had finished their coffee, they showered and made breakfast together. They were almost finished eating when Winona’s phone buzzed with a text from the game warden. She scrolled through the message, then jumped to her feet.
“That was Dan, the game warden. He’s bringing me an injured bear cub. A driver found it by the side of the road. Dan says it has a broken leg.”
“Can I help?”
She hurried to put on her scrubs. “Maybe. You can certainly watch.”
“Damn, you look sexy dressed like that.”
“In scrubs?” She laughed. “You’re crazy.”
He moved closer, nuzzled her neck. “Maybe I should have my way with you on one of your exam tables.”
“Gross! Do you have any idea what’s been on those tables?”
“So, that’s a no, then?”
She laughed again. “Yes, that’s a hard no.”