They reached the Cimarron just before nine. Jack and Nate welcomed them, took their bags, and invited them in for a quick cup of coffee.
“One of the hands will take your bags to the guest cabin,” Jack told them. “They’ll be waiting for you when you get there.”
No sooner had they finished their coffee than the sheriff’s deputy arrived.
Deputy Julia Marcs introduced herself to Jason. “It’s a pleasure to meet a Shadow Wolf. You sure impressed Sheriff Pella yesterday.”
“I was happy to help.”
While Deputy Marcs went over the day’s plan of action with Jack and Nate, Jason geared up, setting out his Glock, holster, and two extra loaded magazines. As a Shadow Wolf, he carried an M4 rifle in the field, so it felt strange to be armed only with his pistol.
“You brought a gun?” Winona came up behind him.
“I usually carry concealed. Drug runners sometimes target Wolves and their families. I haven’t had it on me since I arrived in Scarlet, but I always have a firearm. Does that bother you?”
“I’d rather have the gun in your hands than someone else’s.”
“Fair enough.” He racked the slide on the pistol and holstered it.
They climbed into the cab of Jack’s truck, Jason and Winona in the back, Nate riding shotgun, Jack at the wheel, and drove to the pasture where Jason had found the four-wheeler tracks, Deputy Marcs following in her sheriff’s vehicle.
Jack turned the truck’s radio to a weather station. “They’re saying that a cold front will move down from Wyoming this evening, bringing snow to the high country. We’ll need to keep our eyes on the weather. I don’t want to get benighted in the middle of a winter storm.”
“It’s good we’re doing this today then.” Jason met Jack’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “A snowfall could destroy the sign.”
* * *
“I thinkyou might be right, Win.”
“Of course I am,” Winona teased. “About what?”
“The wolf sign disappears here. My guess? The animal rode with the poacher in the four-wheeler.”
Nate turned to Winona. “Could a wolf do that?”
“Shota did. I never took him four-wheeling, but he rode in my vehicle at least once a week when Chaska and I took him out for trail runs.”
They set off again, Jason following the four-wheeler’s tracks. While Winona could see those plainly enough—the wheels had torn through the duff to the mud beneath—she would never have noticed the minute details that were obvious to Jason. A bit of gray thread from a wool sweater caught on a pine branch. A log overturned by tires, its sun-bleached side now facing the ground. The mud pushed up onto a slab of rock by one of the vehicle’s tires.
“When it’s pushed up on this side of an obstacle, it means the four-wheeler was heading that way—toward the ranch. He used this route both to get on and off your property.”
“Damn, you’re good.” Deputy Marcs was clearly impressed. “That’s Newton’s third law of physics right there.”
Winona understood now. “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. A vehicle heading that way would push the mud this way.”
Jason grinned. “Exactly.”
Oh, that smile.
She felt it from her ovaries to the tips of her toes.
She’d noticed a change in him since last night. Something about him seemed gentler. He was still every bit the intense, serious Shadow Wolf she’d met a few days ago, but his attitude toward her seemed … softer, warmer.
You’re imagining things.
She hadn’t imagined the way he’d made her feel last night—protected, safe, sheltered. She hadn’t imagined the hard feel of his body either, or that scent that was uniquely his, a mix of musk, sage, and spice. She’d soaked it all up, and it had left her longing for more.
He stopped, knelt. “Scat.”