Mountain Ranger Recon. Carol Ericson

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СКАЧАТЬ stuffed down her guilt over keeping Travis from him. He’d probably rather not know about his son.

      Whatever Ian and Kayla decided to do once the hike ended didn’t concern her. She’d deliver them to the top of the mountain, along with the rest of the tourists, and they could knock themselves out with their secret agent crap. Then maybe she’d get that divorce she’d been putting off, and then maybe she’d better tell him about his son.

      “Where’s the purple flower?”

      Ian’s nostrils flared for a second and then he grinned. He dropped his hands from her shoulders and swooped down, plucking a flower from the ground. Cradling the small flower in his palm, he said, “Here it is.”

      “It’s poisonous.”

      He tipped his hand over and the flower floated to the dirt. Meg crushed the petals beneath her boot as she headed back up the trail to the other hikers.

      Perched on a boulder, Kayla raised her head from her small guide book and her brows shot up. She didn’t know her partner very well, if she thought Ian had spilled the beans about their mission.

      Meg adjusted her pack. “Our next stop will be the viewing deck for the falls, but on the way keep your eye out for some small mountain critters—picas, squirrels and some cute rodents.”

      Meg did a head count and frowned. “Where’s…” She snapped her fingers, “Russ and Jeanine?”

      The lovey-dovey couple emerged from some underbrush, holding hands. Wide-eyed, Jeanine asked, “Are you waiting for us?”

      A few of the other hikers smirked while Meg nodded, clenching her teeth against her irritation, recognizing it for what it was—jealousy. “Okay, everyone’s accounted for. Let’s go.”

      The furtive conversation with Ian had rattled her. He hadn’t been expecting to see her leading this hike, but he obviously knew she worked as a guide for Rocky Mountain Adventures.

      Had he been keeping tabs on her? Not likely. He’d given no indication he knew she had a child. His child.

      AN HOUR LATER, Meg halted at the top of the fifty-three wooden steps that descended to the viewing platform for the waterfall. “If you don’t want to expend your energy climbing down and then back up these steps, you’re welcome to wait here. We still have another two hours of hiking ahead of us.”

      A few groans met this statement and Meg grinned. Wussies.

      She trudged down the steps with the heartier members of the group, steering clear of Ian and Kayla, who branched out in different directions. After pointing out a few features of the falls and the river running through the canyon, Meg climbed back up the stairs and took some questions while waiting for the others.

      As Meg opened her mouth to answer yet another question, a scream echoed through the canyon where the waterfall plunged into jagged rocks. The sound sent a shot of cold dread straight to Meg’s heart.

      Her gaze darted among the hikers gathered on the trail, their mouths agape. Who was missing from the group? She noted the absence of Ian immediately, along with his pretend wife, two other couples, and the German tourist.

      God, please don’t let it be Ian.

      “Wait here.” Meg charged through the group and headed toward the steep stairs leading to the viewing platform of the falls. Her hiking boots clumped down each wooden step, the blood thrumming through her veins. Like a herd of cattle, the hiking group thundered down the steps behind her.

      The ease with which they ignored her instruction didn’t surprise her. They were a difficult bunch, and that didn’t even take into account the appearance of Ian on the tour with a make-believe wife.

      As Meg rounded the last bend of the staircase, she froze, her foot hanging off the bottom step. The splintered wood of the broken railing that separated the lookout deck from the rugged mountain terrain resembled sharp teeth. Meg swallowed and held her hand out behind her. “Stop.”

      She didn’t need anyone else going over…if that’s what had happened.

      Meg crept up to the gaping rail and held on to a solid piece of wood as she crouched down. The white water swirled beneath her and a slash of red bobbed near an outcropping of rocks.

      Red fleece.

      A hand gripped her shoulder, and she twisted around to look into Ian’s stormy green eyes.

      “I—I think it’s Kayla. Is she missing? What about the others?”

      Ian’s hold tightened, his fingers pinching into her flesh through her layers. “It’s Kayla.”

      “Oh my God, Ian. I’m so sorry.” She clapped her hand over her mouth. She’d called him by his real name and not the alias, John Shepherd, he’d been using on the hike.

      No wonder he’d never trusted her with any of his secrets.

      Within seconds, the rest of the hikers crowded behind them, gasping and crying out. They’d expect Ian to be wild with grief with his wife lying fifty feet below, snagged on the wicked rocks that tumbled along the riverbank. Meg knew more than grief would assault Ian at the possible death of his partner.

      He suppressed those emotions behind his tight expression as he peered at Kayla’s still form below them. Then he covered his face with one hand.

      “I’ll call for help.” Meg plucked the radio out of her pocket and slid into the familiar mode of enlisting Ian’s leadership skills. “If you can stay with the other hikers, I’ll attempt to climb down in case…in case she survived the fall. There’s never been an accident here before.”

      As the others murmured and sobbed, Ian lifted his head and brushed Meg’s ear with his lips.

      “This was no accident.”

       Chapter Two

      Meg’s skin blanched beneath her freckles. This was why he’d kept his business to himself when they’d been together. He’d never wanted to scare her or make her feel any fear.

      Or put her life in jeopardy.

      But, for her own safety, he had to make it clear that one of her tourists had just shoved Kayla through the wooden railing. Had Kayla’s attacker identified her as CIA, or just pegged her as a nosy tourist who’d stumbled onto something she shouldn’t have?

      Ian covered his face with his hands and hunched his shoulders. He rocked forward, moaning Kayla’s name. Twisting his head to the side, he peered at the hikers between his fingers.

      If the killer ID’d Kayla as an agent, he had to know Kayla’s so-called husband was part of the team. Which one of the shocked faces masked a killer?

      Meg’s radio crackled as she reported the incident, her voice strong and steady. Whatever Meg felt right now, she’d do her job.

      She turned toward him, her blue eyes wide. “They can’t send in a helicopter—too dangerous with the falls so close—but the El Paso County Search and Rescue is going to hike in and move her downstream. The sheriff’s department is sending in a helicopter to airlift СКАЧАТЬ