Northern Exposure by Debra Lee Brown Page A

managed, so far, not to get herself lost or killed.
    â€œYou didn’t answer my question.”
    â€œHmm?” He caught himself staring at her mouth. Her lips had relaxed again, and she’d wet them unconsciously with her tongue.
    â€œWhy…are…you…here?” Enunciating each word, Wendy pantomimed sign language in his face.
    He snapped to attention, irritated at himself for noticing her mouth at all, and her eyes, not to mention those cute little feet encased in top-grain leather. He wondered how her blisters were doing. “I…I’m here because you can’t go in there alone, permit or no permit.”
    â€œWhy not?” She stiffened, every muscle in herface taut, daring him to come up with a reason that would hold water.
    He couldn’t. At least not any reason that wouldn’t sound stupid or steeped in emotion. Like the fact that she was a woman, alone. Whether a person was well equipped or not, the reserve was one of the wildest, most rugged places on the planet. There were animals, bears—
    â€œYou don’t have a firearm,” he said suddenly, remembering that grizzlies might have wandered into the northern tracts, where fishing for late-season salmon was good.
    She glanced at the forty-five holstered at his hip, then rolled her eyes. “When was the last time you shot an attacking bear?”
    â€œNever.” He didn’t even have to think about it. “It’s never been necessary.”
    â€œExactly,” she said. “And you live here. I’ll only be here five or six days.”
    Again he couldn’t argue, but that was beside the point. He didn’t like the thought of her out here alone. What if she got hurt? What if something happened? It would be his fault because he didn’t stop her. Ultimately he was responsible.
    He thought bitterly of Cat, and how insistent she’d been on going to New York alone last year. He’d wanted to go with her, but she’d argued against it, saying he always treated her like a baby. He should have taken charge. He should have gone with her. If he’d only been there…
    The sound of loose rocks above them snapped Joe back to the moment. He’d buried his sister, but not the memories. Never the memories. He would never let himself forget. Or forgive.
    â€œGotta keep moving,” he said. “We can’t stay under the pass like this. Rock slides happen all the time up here. That shale is unstable.”
    â€œFine.” Wendy started up the trail.
    â€œWhoa!”
    She turned and arched a neatly plucked brow at him. “Yes?”
    â€œYou’re hell-bent on this, aren’t you?”
    â€œI am.”
    He held his temper in check. The sky, along with his mood, was growing darker by the minute. Given the weather, what little light there was wasn’t going to last much longer. He tried a different tactic.
    â€œFine. Have a nice trip.”
    Surprise registered on her face. Bingo. Maybe she’d figured all along he’d come after her. But the surprise lasted only a second, not long enough for him to bask in the momentary triumph he felt. She replaced it with a smug smile.
    â€œYou, too,” she said cheerily. “Take care going back. It’ll be dark soon.”
    The little minx! She turned to continue her climb, and it was all he could do not to grab her and…hell, he didn’t know what to do with her. If she wanted to risk hypothermia, injury or worse, fine. It was her choice.
    Joe spun one-eighty, nearly losing his balance on the narrow trail, and started back down the mountainside at breakneck pace. It wasn’t until he’d made it all the way back down the steep approach to the pass that he saw it—a big boot print smeared across a thin streak of mud-covered rock. It hadn’t been there twenty minutes ago when he’d made the climb up. He was positive.
    Their mystery escort was somewhere close by. Scanning the