he was a man.
He sat across from her. “Good for you for taking it personally. Some get so used to it they forget. But the word warden has an honorable history. It means protector, caretaker, guardian.”
She felt a crooked smile forming on her face. “I got the same training you did, Kel.”
At that he laughed. “Of course you knew that. I’m just trying to say, I’m glad you take this stuff personally. I’ve met a few who don’t. Just another job to them. They don’t do it very well.”
She guessed it must have been written all over her face how she was taking it when she pulled in. She didn’t remember having said much about it except the basic facts.
Her phone rang and she reached for it. “Hey, Lex, what’s up?” She listened. “I’m on my way.”
When she hung up, she rose. “I’m outta here, and I guess you should leave, too, to preserve your cover.”
“What’s up?”
“An antelope didn’t quite make it over a barbed wire fence. I guess this day’s going to end on a really sour note.”
* * *
Kel stood in the parking lot and watched her get into her truck. Cute bottom, he thought, then yanked his mind back into line. No messing with a colleague, he reminded himself.
He had plenty to do anyway. He already knew the terrain around here, although he hadn’t introduced himself to Desi before. He’d spent all summer hiking around those mountains until he could talk about them like he knew them intimately. He’d studied the migratory maps, as well, and figured that if he ever needed to he could lead someone to a good hunting spot for big game.
But those were the routes he had to keep an eye on if he was going to pretend to be a guide, and more important, catch anyone in the act. So it wouldn’t seem at all strange for him to be hiking around.
But he was going to seriously annoy any illegal outfitters. He’d known that when he volunteered, but he was no stranger to threats. In the meantime, while he waited for his hook to set itself, he could do plenty of hiking in those mountains.
He was looking forward to that. He just kind of wished he could do it under better circumstances, and maybe with Desi. She probably mapped a lot of those migrations, probably counted the herds assiduously and judged their health.
It was by going up into those mountains that she’d found most of the trophy kills she had reported. She’d make a great right-hand man if they could work it out.
In the meantime, he knew those bighorn were unlikely to come down to below five thousand feet at this time of year. Most would probably be up closer to eight thousand. So what the hell was that sheep doing on a ranch?
* * *
Driving the ten miles to Alex Thornton’s place, Desi prepared for the worst and tried not to think about Kel Westin. Her immediate female reaction to him almost soured her. She’d put that aside when she’d decided to live without men and there was no place for it on the job.
She was also worried about this plan of his. They clearly had an active poaching operation in this area. The better the herds thrived, the more big game she found had been killed for trophies. Apparently, her mapped migration corridors were providing plenty of opportunities for the poachers. Enough to sicken her.
At the same time, she understood hunting. She had no problem with the people who wanted meat to get them through the winter. If they were hunting for food, fine. Some culling of the herds was necessary, hence the harvest limits the service worked up every year.
If she hadn’t been dealing with these issues for years, she’d have been overwhelmed by the system.
Now there was Kel, a big question mark. His credentials were valid, but this whole idea sounded dangerous to her. Men who were willing to risk huge fines, forfeiting their guns and their right to hunt, all to make a little money by taking a trophy? And now such a crime was a felony, so prison, not just a slap on the wrist and a fine. Men like that might be willing to kill anyone who appeared to get in the way of their money stream.
She just had to trust WIU knew what they were doing. She couldn’t deny that putting a halt to this trophy hunting was a good thing. And sure as she was sitting here in her truck, she was willing to bet no one showed up in the next thirteen days with horns attached to the skull plate of that sheep. Or even just the horns. Nope. Not when they’d left everything behind but the skin.
Lex Thornton was waiting for her in a turnout beside his fence line along the county road. As she pulled up, she could see he’d cut the top of the barbed wire. Maybe a hundred feet away, an antelope hunkered down.
“Got her loose, Desi,” Lex said as she climbed out of her truck. “Think her hind leg is broken from fighting against the wire. Cut all the way to the bone, she is.”
This was the worst part of the job for Desi. She never got used to it. She pulled out her rifle and loaded a few bullets. Alex didn’t say another thing, just swung open a ramshackle gate and let her through.
He was probably right about the broken leg, or that antelope wouldn’t still be here.
When they got closer, she could see the mess of the antelope’s back leg.
“They usually get over,” Lex said.
“I know. How many dozens have we had to chase off your grazing land?”
“A few. Elk, too.”
The antelope tried to pull itself through the grass as they approached. Then it shoved itself up on three legs, no weight on the fourth. It didn’t get very far before collapsing again.
“She’s worn out,” Desi said. God, she hated this. That animal could not survive, however, and leaving it to suffer was the worst option. It had to be in pain and terrified, and as it became weaker and less able to move, it might be tormented by hawks and other predators. No.
So she raised her rifle and did what was necessary.
She turned to Lex, keeping her expression businesslike. Knowing it had been necessary didn’t make it easy, though. “You want the meat?”
“Always.”
She nodded. “I’ll fill out the forms and give you what you need.”
Lex stood looking at the antelope for a few seconds. “Damn shame,” he said finally, then turned to follow her back to her truck. “Thanks for coming so fast, Desi. I have no idea how long she’d been stuck in that wire, but when I cut her loose...well, it was too long I guess.”
After Desi filled out the paperwork and gave him the slip that granted him legal ownership of the meat, she headed back toward town, thinking that some days being a warden was absolutely no fun at all. Days like today, it sometimes got hard to remember why she’d wanted to do this job.
But there were much better days, she reminded herself. Lots of them. And now there was Kel Westin who, one way or another, was going to provide a change of pace. They needed to talk more, she decided. Somehow they were going to have to coordinate. And he had said he’d need her assistance.
Ah,
