*

The murmurs of conversation from the backseat faded away, and Jac figured Sarah and Ray were sleeping. She’d catnapped for a while until the Jeep bumped off the highway and onto a fire trail.

“Must be getting close,” she said.

“Another hour or so,” Mallory murmured.

“Ready to surrender your cape, Wonder Woman, and grab some sleep?” Jac knew she was taking a chance baiting Mallory, teasing her, but she didn’t know any other way to get through to her. When she’d realized Mallory was back at camp and not somewhere with Emily, the flood of relief was so strong she couldn’t pretend she didn’t care. She cared, and the knowledge slammed through her with equal parts terror and wonder. The last time she’d really cared about a woman she’d been in college, young and naïve and impressionable. Cynthia had been a graduate student, a classic California blonde exiled to Idaho because the college offered a hotel management program that was the best in the West. Cynthia had been a sorority girl, vivacious and sexy and fickle. She’d run so hot and cold Jac never knew whether a dinner date would end up with them in bed or her heading back to her dorm room alone and frustrated. When she’d begun to realize that Cynthia only wanted to spend time with her when she was attending obligatory family affairs with the power people who surrounded her father, she called it quits. Cynthia wasn’t interested in her company, but only in the company she kept. Why did she keep forgetting that lesson?

“All right.” Mallory pulled over. “You win this one.”

From the backseat, Sarah murmured thickly, “We there?”

“Not yet. Go back to sleep.” Mallory put the Jeep in Park and got out.

Jac opened her door and crossed in front of the Jeep, slowing as Mallory’s figure skirted the cone of light thrown off by the headlights. She waited just at the edge of the shadows for her. “Thanks.”

Mallory’s face was half in shadow, half illuminated by the slanting light. A furrow creased her brow. “For what?”

“For trusting me. To drive.”

“You know,” Mallory said softly, “you’ve never given me any reason not to trust you. It just doesn’t come easy for me.”

“I know. Me neither.” Jac wanted to touch her so badly. Just to graze her fingertips over the top of her hand. As if the slight physical connection would somehow cement the fragile, elusive bond that flickered between them like firelight.

“And, Jac?”

“Yeah?” Jac’s chest was so tight she could hardly get words out.

“Wonder Woman had magical bracelets, not a cape.”

“I never could keep my superheroes straight.”

Mallory brushed by her in the darkness, leaving the lingering hint of honeysuckle behind. When Jac climbed behind the wheel, Mallory had already tilted the seat back and curled on her side facing Jac. Her eyes were closed, one hand beneath her cheek. Strands of dark hair layered across her face. Jac carefully reached across the space between them and brushed the hair away from Mallory’s eyes with her fingertips. Mallory’s eyelids fluttered open, and her gaze caught Jac’s and held.

“Drive,” Mallory whispered, tilting her head so her cheek brushed against Jac’s fingers.

“Yeah.” Jac eased the Jeep back onto the fire road, her hand tingling from the fleeting touch. That soft caress excited her more than Chantal or any woman before her ever had.

Chapter Twenty

A hazy glow in the sky over the mountain peaks ahead told Jac she was getting close to the rendezvous point. She gently shook Mallory’s shoulder.

“Mal, we’re here.”

Mallory jerked, mumbled “okay,” and released her seat belt. After she straightened her seat back, she ran both hands through her hair, managing to somehow toss the thick brown waves into sexy swirls that clung to her neck and made Jac itch to catch them on her fingertips.

“What?” Mallory muttered, peering at her suspiciously.

Jac stifled the urge to rub her mouth, hoping she wasn’t drooling. “Nothing.” She paused. “You look beautiful.”

Mallory’s lips parted as if she was about to speak, then her eyes narrowed. “Stuff it, Russo.”

“Roger that,” Jac said with a grin. Mallory had almost smiled, and her husky tone belied the brusque words. That almost-smile settled in the pit of her stomach like a warm, comforting caress.

“And eyes front.”

“On it, Boss,” Jac said, the warmth kindling to heat when Mallory muttered, “Smart-ass.”

The fire trail emerged from the woods into a clearing that bordered a small lake, and Jac parked behind a line of other emergency vehicles and turned off the engine. An hour before dawn, mist hung over the water in tense, gray layers. Three dozen people milled about a bunch of picnic tables pushed together in front of a semicircle of parked 4x4s, a pair of EMT trucks, and one van with a canine unit logo. “Looks like the place. Pretty big crowd already.”

“David said he expected another two dozen to show up later this morning if we haven’t found them by then.” Mallory looked into the backseat where Sarah and Ray were stirring. “Both of you have your radios?”

“It’s been digging into my ass all night,” Sarah complained.

Laughing, Ray held his up.

“We’ll use channel three between us,” Mallory instructed. “David will let us know what channel to use to contact the search base.”

“How will we be searching?” Jac asked. “Pairs?”

“Probably,” Mallory said. “That will be up to David. Depending on how he has assessed the terrain, the risk factors for the rescue teams, the incoming weather—the usual parameters.” She looked from Jac to the others. “Remember, we don’t want any more victims out there today. Stick with your partners. Be careful.”

“Roger that,” Ray said.

“Always,” Sarah said.

Jac pocketed the keys, climbed out, and grabbed her equipment from the back. Mallory led the way down to the staging area, wending through the crowd of men and women, most of whom were drinking coffee from steaming paper cups. She stopped beside a man who looked to be about forty with collar-length jet-black hair, deep-set dark eyes, and a broad, handsome Native American face.

“Mallory,” he said, pleasure in his voice. “Great to see you. Sorry it has to be this way. Thanks for getting up here so fast.”

“Hi, David.” Mallory hugged him and gestured behind her. “My crew.”

He held out his hand, and Jac introduced herself before he moved on to Sarah and Ray.

“What do you have?” Mallory asked, turning to the picnic table where a large topographical map was held down with battery-powered flashlights at each corner.

Jac leaned close to see, her shoulder brushing Mallory’s. The air vibrated with the excitement of the search, fed by the low buzz of charged-up rescuers and the familiar stirring in her blood that came with the call to duty. But not even the thrill of personal challenge struck as deep as the excitement of being anywhere near Mallory. Her skin practically hummed when she so much as looked at her, as if she were walking through a force field. Until Mallory, the only time she’d ever felt so alive was when she was disarming an IED. Sometimes she thought Mallory might be just as dangerous, at least to her sanity. Sucking in a breath, Jac ordered herself not to think about Mallory and concentrated on what David Longbow was saying.

“They left from the ranger’s station here,” he tapped a spot on the map, “Thursday morning to climb Granite Peak. They were carrying the usual gear—tents, water, food. They had cell phones and planned to check in twice a day when they could get a signal, which they did—until last night. They were due to descend this morning, but they haven’t been heard from.”

“You have their route?” Mallory asked.

David frowned. “We have the course they planned, but I’m not entirely sure that’s where they actually were.” He traced a line with his finger up the elevation of Granite Peak. “This should have been their path up the southern face.” He circled an area. “We had heavy snowfall all winter, as you know. Part of the trail here is in the path of some recent slides, and the warmer days may have softened it up enough to make crossing the snowpack hard work. They might have tried to go around and gotten farther astray than they realized.”

“Makes it difficult to determine the search area,” Jac muttered.

Mallory nodded and David said, “Exactly. We can’t put a plane up. The cloud cover’s already too thick. It’s going to snow, on top of everything else.”

“The north trail intersects here,” Mallory said, pointing to an area east of the large snowpack. “They might have come across this trying to get around the snow and thought they’d found the trail again.”

“More than likely,” David said. “That’s what I’m going to assume.” He overlaid a clear plastic sheet onto the map where grid sections had been drawn with Magic Markers. The areas had been denoted with numbers and letters. He pointed to one section marked C10. “You’ve been up this sector a couple of times, Mallory. I thought we’d put your crew here.”

“Good enough.” Mallory looked at the sky. “It’s going to take a good hour and a half to get there, but we can drive partway. You need me here for anything?”

“No—go ahead and get started. Eat first.” David pointed to a woman in a USFS uniform working at a table in front of a nearby tent. “Susan has GPS units for you, as well as the rest of the communication information.”

Sarah pointed to the canine van. “Are you sending dogs out?”

“Not yet. If it looks like you’re gonna have to dig for them, we’ll bring the dogs. I want to save them for that.”

“Good idea,” Sarah murmured. “I hope we don’t need them.”

Jac studied the van, then looked at Mallory. “Cadaver dogs?”