Taylor said carefully, “As your partner or —?”
“As my friend, my lover, my partner. All of it. One day at a time,” Will said. “Starting with today.” And this time his kiss was a promise.
* * * * *
“Watch for rock slides here,” Will warned.
It was late afternoon. It had taken the larger part of the day to cut back over the bluffs and they were working their way down the back of the mountainside. There was no trail to speak of, and they had to focus on their footing. Far below was a long valley with what appeared to be the scattered buildings of a ranch.
“What is that?” Taylor asked, sliding to a stop beside Will.
“I think that’s the health resort I was telling you about.” Will shaded his eyes, studying the empty corrals and tumbled down buildings. “It looks abandoned.”
“We could burn the buildings down.” And at Will’s expression, Taylor said, “We’ve got to get the attention of someone: other hikers, rangers, campers. We can’t keep this up forever.”
Will’s gaze was measuring, and Taylor said, “That’s not what I mean. I’m okay, but we can’t play hide and seek on this mountain all day.”
“Yeah, you’re great. We both are. Tired, hungry, thirsty —” He brushed the edge of his thumb against Taylor’s cheekbone. “Sunburned. Next time, you pick the vacation spot.”
“Now that I’m holding you to.” Taylor smothered a yawn. “Maybe they did go after the money.”
Will shook his head. “Even if they went to that meadow and found Jackson’s body, they know we were there first. It’s just going to confirm their suspicion that we found the money and hid it. And they’re right.”
“If they did use your map to find the meadow, how long would it take them?”
Will did some calculations. “If they started last night they’d have reached the meadow by midmorning.”
“They’d look around to see if we hid the money. They were tracking us with binoculars from the time we stopped at the mineral springs.”
“We’d already hidden the money by then — and if they knew where we’d stashed it, they wouldn’t have bothered tracking us down last night.”
“Do you think there’s any chance they could follow our tracks to the bear box?”
“One of that group has a fair amount of tracking experience. I’m guessing it’s Orrin.” Will’s eyes met Taylor’s. “But I think they’ll come straight after us. They know we eventually have to make our way down. They’ll try to intercept.”
“Then we better keep moving.” Taylor rose and reached down a hand to Will.
* * * * *
The wind made a mournful sound through the broken boards of the old lodge. Shafts of sunlight, fading with the dimming daylight, highlighted floating motes — and striped the body lying facedown in the dust. The bullet hole in the back of the uniform jacket was crusted with blood several days old.
“Jesus.” Taylor buried his nose in the crook of his arm as he approached the corpse. “That’s why they thought they might need an insurance policy. They killed a ranger.”
He glanced back; Will was standing in the open doorway watching the hills behind them.
“Everything okay?”
Will nodded — but absently. “I’m not sure. I thought I saw a flash on that hillside.”
Taylor joined him and they watched for a moment.
Nothing moved. Nothing but the ripple of winter grass in the fields.
“Why hasn’t anyone noticed they’re missing a park ranger?”
Will shook his head. “Maybe they have.” His eyes never left the pine-studded hillside.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Taylor asked.
Will turned his head and grinned slowly. “Probably.”
* * * * *
“Actually, what I’m thinking is I’m going to have to take away one of your merit badges,” Taylor remarked forty-five minutes later.
Will grimaced between gentle puffs of breath on the pile of smoking pocket lint and dried leaves. “The approved Firecrafter method is a bow and drill.” He tilted the purpling broken glass to better catch the sun’s rays. “I don’t know if it’s bright enough or hot enough,” he muttered. “You’ve got wood stacked up inside if I can get this going?”
“It’s all ready to go. We just have to transfer the blaze from here to there.”
“The blaze…?” Will said ruefully.
They were silent, watching.
Minutes passed.
Taylor made a sharp exclamation as the pocket lint suddenly ignited. “Beautiful!”
“We’re in business.” Will used the glass to scoop up his tiny fire, protecting it with his hand as he stepped carefully through the broken door and put the fire to the stack of dried boards and timber Taylor had piled in the center of the lodge floor.
They stared in silent satisfaction as the flames caught.
“There’s the cheese,” Taylor said. “Now we just wait for mice to show up.” He smiled at Will, who reached a hand behind his neck, drawing him close and kissing him.
Will was smiling, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You watch your back, Taylor. Understand me? Twice is all I can take.”
Taylor kissed him in return, a quick, distracted press of mouths — then turned back as Will caught his arm. “You’re doing it again, Will,” he said softly.
“For the record, this isn’t about not trusting you.”
“You sure? Because that’s how it feels.”
Will said, “You want the truth? There’s no one I’d rather have beside me in a fight than you. There’s no one I trust more to watch my back.”
Taylor grinned. “And your faith is well-placed, my son. I’m the best there is.”
Will’s hand tightened on Taylor’s thinly-muscled arm. “No. Don’t joke around. And don’t get cocky. If something happens to you now — I don’t think I’d get over it.”
“That’s fine,” Taylor said, “because nothing is going to happen to me. And I’ll tell you something else. You were afraid we couldn’t do our job if we let ourselves care too much. That was one reason you didn’t want to get involved. But you said it yourself this morning. We’ve been involved a long time — regardless of what we call ourselves: friends, lovers, partners. We’re a team, Will. We always have
