Undercover In Conard County. Rachel Lee

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, cut it out. Her thoughts were running along the lines of a smitten kid. By now she should have outgrown it. But the simple fact was, it was easier to think about Kel than about the rest of her day. Maybe too easy.

       Chapter 2

      Three days later, just after dark, Desi returned to the station exhausted. She threw her paperwork and citation book on the desk in the office, locked up her pistol, then sagged in exhaustion. Paperwork could wait, she decided. There was enough in her summons book and other notes for now.

      She climbed her outside stairs to her apartment over the station. Nothing grandiose about it. Once upon a time it had been a bunkhouse for wardens, but as wardens settled in this area and bought homes and raised families, it had become a leftover from another era. So part of it had been transformed into an efficiency apartment. The rest...well, it was still kind of a bunkhouse, but one with only two mattresses on cots. Once in a while, one of her fellow wardens would camp out there for a night. At least they’d given the apartment its own bathroom.

      She hopped into the shower, cleaning the day off herself, then dressed in jeans and a green sweater. If she got called out for any reason, she was halfway ready to go.

      There was no time of year when her life was totally quiet, but things heated up during hunting season. All kinds of people out there, even with licenses and permits, still shaded their way around the law. Easy enough, usually, when they were blending in with so many other hunters.

      Three long days, she thought, but at least no blatant trophy kills. Hunting season seemed to bring the not-entirely-lawful out of the woodwork, apparently thinking they’d pass unnoticed when hunters were everywhere.

      Uh, no, she thought as she toweled her hair a little more then headed for her kitchenette. It got to be ridiculous sometimes. She’d had to escort four hunters off posted property. She’d come up on more than one group where people were firing from the road. In those cases, when they killed game, she not only had to cite them for the infraction, she had to recover the carcass. Lots of heavy work, not always aided by hunters who were angry with her because they had to pay a fine and had lost the meat, license or no license.

      A tip had kept her out later last night, and sure enough, after hunting hours closed for the night, two hunters were busy ignoring the time. At least they hadn’t gotten nasty about it.

      On the other hand, she’d talked to a lot of nice folks, some of whom she knew. And Jos Webber, another warden assigned to this area, had agreed they ought to team up even if it expanded their usual patrol areas. Something about this hunting season seemed off and she and Jos agreed a little extra caution wouldn’t hurt.

      The phone rang while she was reheating some leftover stew, and she answered it. “Game and Fish, Warden Jenks here.”

      “Hey, Desi,” said the familiar voice of Craig Stone. He was a lawman and biologist for the US Forest Service, and sometimes their jobs overlapped. “I hear you lost a bighorn.”

      “That’s putting it mildly, Craig. Have you been seeing any poaching?” His forest abutted her area, and reached further back into some of the mountains.

      “Not yet. We decided to close ourselves to hunting this year, though. You must have gotten the memo.”

      “Yeah. And all I could think was, great, it’s going to be my problem.”

      Craig laughed. “Look at it this way. We find any hunters on our land, they’ll go immediately to jail. Maybe that’ll help you.”

      “Jail for how long?” she snorted. “Trespass doesn’t put anyone away for long.”

      He didn’t laugh this time. “I know. And I know how thinly spread you all are. So basically I’m saying, if you need help, call. I realize I can’t legally do much on your land, but I can help.”

      “Thanks, Craig. It’s appreciated.” Then she thought of Kel. “I have someone I’d like you to meet.” As soon as she said it, she winced. She was supposed to be protecting the guy’s cover, not bandying it about.

      “Sure. When?”

      “I’ll let you know.” And maybe that would get her off the hook. She could just let it drop. She asked after his wife, Sky, and their toddler, then said good-night to Craig, realizing this day had managed to sap her. She’d barely eaten, she was tired and she probably wasn’t at her best mentally, to judge by her slipup just now.

      “Food,” she said aloud. “Then rest.” With the phone right beside her head. Such a glamorous job.

      A laugh escaped her as she began to scoop hot stew from the pot into a bowl. Really,