And she almost missed the next turn.
Being up on the mountain with Rafe, away from the world, with only more mountains, higher peaks, and the gulch below in sight, threw her. They’d spent most of their hours together out in the middle of nowhere, out of view, out of sight, so they wouldn’t be caught together. In the vast Arizona landscape, she’d felt so free.
Free from her father’s drinking. From worry. From little Tyler needing things from her.
Free to love Rafe Kay.
Free to love Rafe Colton.
Standing up on that mountain with him, even several feet apart, watching him look over an area she pretty much knew by heart, she felt her whole being suffused with a sense of rightness, followed by a stream of longing that almost brought her to her knees. Everything about him was familiar in that moment. The way a few strands of his thick blond hair picked up when a breeze blew over them. The set of his shoulders. The intent focus he gave to whatever had his attention.
How could twenty-three years make no difference at all? Especially when it made all the difference in the world?
“This is where he went over,” he said, apparently not as affected by being alone in the wilderness with her as she was with him. And why would he be? He’d probably taken a lot of girls back to their old hiding places. And why not? They were a known way to get past Payne.
Those old hiding places were all part of his family’s land.
“Yes.” She gave herself a strong mental shake and focused on why she was up on that mountain. On why she was talking to Rafe Colton at all.
“And there was no scuffle? No sign of struggle?”
She shook her head. Another fact that Chief Barco had taken into consideration before ruling her brother’s death accidental.
“But if he was facing the gully down below, thinking he was alone, or if he was up here with someone he trusted, he could easily have been taken off guard.”
Tyler could have been making out with someone. Not that she’d ever considered that before, but she definitely knew how lost you could get in a kiss when you were out in the middle of nowhere…
“He hadn’t been expecting to be in a fight. Hadn’t had a chance to defend himself,” she said, bringing her thoughts firmly back to current ground.
Rafe turned slowly, glancing all around them. He didn’t walk far, didn’t venture too close to the cliff’s edge.
Glancing at the slick-bottomed, expensive leather dress shoes he was wearing, she didn’t blame him.
“What’s over there?” He motioned to a cliff side that tilted downward, toward another shallower gully off to the left of where Tyler had been pushed.
Shrugging, she walked that way. “I never climbed down to see,” she said. It wasn’t like she’d hiked an entire mountain range. Most particularly not alone. No reason to do so. “There’s no path, no sign of broken vegetation, so obviously it’s not a place people go.” She moved closer, anyway. Rafe thought he noticed something.
She trusted his instincts.
Not him.
But he’d always had good instincts. Like the time he’d shoved her back and to the ground, a seemingly mean thing to do, until she’d noticed the rattlesnake he’d prevented her from stepping near. He noticed things. Knew things. He always had…
What the…
“Rafe, look…” She was probably just seeing things. “Is that a trail over there? Leading to that cliff face across the way?”
When he came up beside her, she turned red. Hot. Embarrassed that she’d just been seeing things. Of course there was no…
“I’m not sure,” he said. “If it is, it’s covered over with all of those tumbleweeds.”
“Yeah.” She’d been overreacting.
To him. Which clouded her normally spot-on thinking. She could feel his body heat. He was that close. And could smell him, too.
It wasn’t possible that a boy of thirteen would carry the same scent as a man of thirty-six. Logically, she knew that. Her olfactory nerves were out of control.
“It’s kind of funny, though, that they’re all conglomerated around that one area, don’t you think?” She had to say something, even if it was stupid. Better than standing there letting the past take control of her present. Ruin her present.
“Not if the wind blew them. They stopped there because of the cliff face…”
Something sounded behind them. A crunch of something heavy on the hard ground. Hand to her gun, Kerry froze. If it was a bear, or, more likely, a mountain lion, their greatest hope was to keep it calm. To pray that it didn’t charge them before she could turn and get a shot off.
“What’re you two doin’ up ’ere?”
Not recognizing the voice, yet relieved to know that their intruder was human, Kerry spun around, her gun steady and pointing forward.
“Hey there…put that thing down. You ain’t s’posed to be huntin’ up here…”
The man was older than both of them by a good ten years. Maybe more. Rough looking and wearing a forest ranger uniform. Dropping her gun, she reached into her back pocket for her badge wallet.
“I’m Detective Kerry Wilder,” she said, aware of Rafe right behind her as she approached the man, showing him her identification.
“Yes’m, I know who you are,” the man said, pulling out his own ID. “Grant Alvin,” he said. “My wife and I transferred in with the Forest Service about five years ago. Used to be up at the Grand Canyon,” he said.
Kerry knew some of the forest rangers in the area by sight. Not all. Those near Mustang Valley usually lived in remote, government housing, someplace in national forest territory. And unless there was a matter in MVPD’s jurisdiction, they didn’t really cross paths.
But if he’d been in the area for five years… Shouldn’t someone have talked to him about Tyler’s death? She hadn’t seen his name in any reports. Getting excited as she faced a possible new lead, she said, “I’m investigating my brother’s death.” She named Tyler and gave the man the date and time of death that the coroner had given two years ago.
Staying silent, Rafe stood right beside her, like he was poised to jump to her defense at any moment. Fancy clothes and all. Like his slippery shoes would get anywhere near as far as her well-worn cowboy boots.
Still, she was glad he was there. If the ranger had been a bear—if she’d been about to die—having Rafe there, dying with him…
“You lookin’ at that old case agin?” Alvin looked at her like she was cow dung. “It was an accident. They all said so.”
“Maybe it was,” Kerry acknowledged, not wanting to get on the wrong side of the Forest Service. “I’d just like to be sure.”
“Seems like there’d be more important stuff for you to be doin’,” the somewhat-large man said, holding his ground, his arms crossed against his chest.
“I’m doing this in my own time,” she told him. And then asked, “You said you’ve been in the area for five years.”
“That’s right.”
“And you patrol this mountain?”
“Sometimes. Depends.”
“Were you here two years ago?”
“Off and on.”
“You ever notice any suspicious activity?”
“No.”