Army Ranger Redemption. Carol Ericson

was the business end of a poker?

      He narrowed his dark eyes and they glittered behind half-mast lids. “I was already outside taking a walk when I heard the noise. I took off in the general direction of it, didn’t hear anything else until the sound of a door shutting. I knew the Butler cabin was out this way, so I came over to investigate.”

      Rolling her shoulders, she strode forward with the poker in front of her and handed it to him—point first.

      He took it around the middle and then prodded the log back into place, where it lit up in a quick blaze. “So, did you go outside after you heard the scream or just open your front door?”

      “I stepped outside, but I didn’t hear anything else, either. I’m thinking it might’ve been a wounded animal, and either it died or took off.”

      “Maybe. It sounded—” he shrugged “—familiar.”

      She thought he was going to say human, because that’s what it sounded like to her.

      “It gave me the chills.” She held her hands out to the warmth of the fire, and the flickering flames caught the light from the many rings she wore on her fingers, creating a light show on the wall.

      “I’ll let you get back to your book.” He tipped his chin at the book she’d left open on the recliner. “When I saw the lights on, I just wanted to make sure you were okay in here.”

      “Thanks.” She led him to the front door and opened it wide for him to pass through. As he crossed the threshold, she inhaled his woodsy, masculine scent. On impulse, she touched his arm.

      “Where’ve you been all these years, Jim Kennedy?”

      He turned, brushing a lock of black hair from his face, and for the first time she noticed a scar across his forehead.

      “Here and there.”

      She stood at the door watching him as he walked down the two steps with his halting gait. Just as she was about to close the door, a howl rose from the forest, causing a ripple of fear to skim across her flesh.

      “It sounds closer here.” Jim took off with surprising speed, and Scarlett followed him.

      “Wait for me.” She grabbed on to his leather jacket, stumbling against his broad back.

      “Hey, who’s out here?” Jim crashed through the branches of the trees as he illuminated the ground in front of him with a flashlight he’d pulled from his pocket.

      He’d obviously come prepared, and then she saw the gun in his other hand. Prepared for what? She released her hold on him, and he continued forward, thrashing his way through the foliage, off the designated trail.

      She staggered backward, twisting her fingers in front of her. What was Jim really doing out here and why did he have a gun? She knew hunting weapons, and that gun wasn’t intended for use against some hapless deer.

      As Jim called out again, she found her footing on the cleared path. She should make her way to the cabin and lock herself inside. This time she wouldn’t open the door for anyone—former high school classmate or not. Jim Kennedy could take his sexy self back to here and there.

      Tapping the light for her cell phone, she pivoted on the toes of her sneakers and took a step forward.

      Then a hand grabbed her ankle.

       Chapter Two

      The scream chilled his blood. It was the sound of a terrified woman—Scarlett.

      Why had she stopped following him? Why had he let her?

      “Scarlett?” He reversed course, staggering and tripping through the underbrush, cursing his bum leg. Cursing the men who’d caused it.

      She screamed again, just as loudly but with a little less edge. His flashlight flickered on the path ahead of him as he charged back the way they’d come.

      He plowed through the tree branches back onto the trail, which allowed him to move faster. “Scarlett?”

      “I’m here, Jim.”

      His light picked her out, crumpled on the ground at his feet, and he jerked to a halt. He grabbed on to a tree branch to stop himself from falling on top of her.

      “What happened?”

      She pointed into the underbrush beside her. “There. It’s a man. H-he’s injured or...”

      Jim crouched beside her and aimed his flashlight at the bushes, where it illuminated an outstretched arm, hand fisted into the dirt.

      He pushed aside the foliage that covered the man and reached out with two fingers to feel the pulse at his throat.

      “He’s dead. How did you even see him there without a light?”

      She gasped, covering her mouth. “He grabbed my ankle. Are you sure he’s dead?”

      “What?” He scooped aside more of the underbrush and flattened his palm against the man’s chest. Blood seeped through his shirt, moistening Jim’s hand with its stickiness. He bent forward, putting his ear close to the man’s nose and mouth.

      “Call 911.”

      “I can’t get reception out here. I’ll have to at least walk down the access road to the front.”

      He gestured to the man’s body. “He’s dead. He’s not going anywhere. I’ll come with you.”

      “What happened to him?” She clambered to her knees, and he held out the hand that didn’t have blood on it.

      “He has a chest wound. I can’t tell what did it, but he lost a lot of blood. I’m surprised he had the strength to reach out and grab you, or even the wherewithal to realize anyone was passing.”

      She grabbed his hand, and he pulled her up beside him, where he could smell her musky-sweet scent.

      “He must’ve been the one moaning out here. Maybe he lost consciousness and then came to when we passed him. He reached out to me as a last-ditch effort.” She bent her leg at the knee and rubbed her ankle.

      “Let’s go.” He tugged on her hand to get her away from the dead guy in the bushes. “From the looks of the blood pumping out of his chest, he was fast on his way out and wouldn’t have survived even if we had discovered him when he was moaning.”

      As they burst onto the access road, he aimed his light at the ground and hurried across the gravel and dirt, practically dragging Scarlett behind him as she kept trying her phone.

      He didn’t want to run into whatever...or whoever that man had encountered.

      When they reached Scarlett’s mailbox on the road, she nudged his arm. “Got it.”

      “Let me report it.” He took the phone from her and spoke to the emergency operator, giving her what he could. When he finished the call, he dropped the phone back into Scarlett’s palm.

      She asked, “Did you see his face? Do you know him?”

      “I didn’t get a good look at his face, but I doubt I know him. It’s been a while since I’ve been back to Timberline.” He held out his hand in front of him and lit it up with the beam from his flashlight. “I got his blood on my hand, though.”

      “Ugh. Do you want me to get a towel while we wait for the cops? I have paper towels in my car.”

      “I’ll leave it until the sheriff’s department can have a look at it.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “What happened back there? Why’d you stop following me?”

      “I—” Her eyes darted to his pocket where he’d stashed his weapon. “I didn’t want to go any deeper in the forest.”

      Especially in the company of