Authors: Ribbon of Rain
Chapter1 (4 page)
Frank hadn’t said anything about wearing gloves.
The damn canoe refused to go in a straight line unless he switched his paddle from side to side.
Two strokes on the right, two strokes on the left.
And every time he switched sides, his weight shifted and threatened to capsize the canoe.
Frank told him it shouldn’t take him more than an a few hours to reach the lodge.
He’d been paddling for six hours.
It was already past
and not a building in sight.
At this rate, he’d be lucky to get to the other end of the lake by tomorrow.
The blazing hot sun beat on him.
The still air didn’t offer even a hint of breeze.
Silence was his only companion.
Looking around, he saw nothing but water and forest.
He might as well be the last man on earth.
He glanced over his shoulder and realized he had no idea where along the shore he’d left the Land Rover.
Or even what shore.
As he rounded a point of land, his mood brightened.
To the right he spied a small sandy beach.
Keeping his eyes fixed on that piece of heaven, he battled the canoe to change direction.
*****
Kat’s night on the ledges had been uneventful.
She’d even managed to snatch a few hours of sleep in her secret place, the cave under the rocks.
Her little camp, hidden in a deep cavern below where she now sat was one of her favorite places.
She’d made some wonderful memories there.
While she crunched on dry granola cereal, she scanned the lake.
She straightened when a canoe came around the nearest point of land.
She dropped the baggie of cereal and grabbed the binoculars. The canoe meandered all over the water.
The person paddling was a first time canoeist or dead drunk.
Kat scooted backwards and took cover behind some trees, lying on her stomach to watch the show.
The man was alone.
No gear, except a duffle bag.
No weapons that she could see.
He wasn’t wearing BDUs, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t connected to the men in the plane who’d shot at her yesterday.
Or the pair she saw in the woods.
The way the canoe bobbled around made it hard to tell where he was headed.
She hoped he’d land at the sandy beach below the ledges.
“That’s it,” she whispered.
“Come to Mama.”
She pocketed the binoculars, shouldered her rifle, picked up her backpack and headed down the steep slope.
She chose her footholds with caution.
If she slipped, she might create a rockslide, and she planned to surprise this stranger.
Kat positioned herself amongst the thick alders on the bank only ten feet from where the canoe would come to shore.
She winced as it scraped rocks before coming to a stop.
The man didn’t get out of the canoe.
She watched him through her binoculars and guessed his age to be mid-thirties.
His unfashionably long dark brown hair gave him the rakish bad boy look women couldn’t resist.
Sweat soaked his shirt, and she guessed by the way he kept clenching and unclenching his hands that they were blistered.
What was this greenhorn doing in the woods of northern
She waited for his next move.
He stretched, giving her a glimpse of his wide chest.
A strong stirring beneath her belly button made her squirm.
Great.
This man might be a killer, and she was attracted to him.
*****
Jude sat in the canoe, relieved to be off the water.
He rummaged in his bag for another protein bar, happy to find one left.
Carefully, he stood in the tipsy canoe and stuffed the bar in his pocket.
Something stirred in the bushes, but he paid no attention.
Probably another moose.
The branches parted and a slender person emerged and walked towards the canoe.
At first glance, Jude thought it was a teenaged boy.
But when he saw the beautiful eyes the color of emeralds, complete with long black curly lashes, reality hit him like a punch to the stomach.
This was Kat Tenney.
From her picture, he knew she’d be small, but not this small.
A strong wind would blow her away.
He guessed her weight to be about a hundred pounds, and then only if she had rocks in her pockets.
Her cheekbones were high, a gift from her ancestors.
All female attributes remained well-hidden under Army fatigues a few sizes too big for her.
She even wore combat boots.
Her hair was shoved up under a camouflage boonie hat.
“Hi there.”
Jude smiled in a way that had never failed to win over old ladies and babies.
His smile faded fast.
The barrel of her rifle was pointed right at his chest.
Her index finger rested on the trigger, her thumb on the safety.
“Shit,” Jude cursed.
His own gun lay buried in the duffle bag instead of in his shoulder harness where it belonged.
He’d found it easier to paddle without it.
“Hey, take it easy.”
Jude spoke softly, holding his hands in front of him, palms up.
“I’m unarmed.
I’m looking for Katherine Tenney.
She owns Loon Lake Lodge.
Perhaps you know her?”
The ‘take no prisoners’ look in those green eyes had him worried.
He couldn’t blurt out that he knew who she was.
He’d end up with a rifle barrel pressed against his throat as she demanded to know how he knew what she looked like.
“I’m Kat Tenney.”
Her voice was soft and sweet, so sweet that his mouth dropped open.
But her eyes were hostile.
“Best close your mouth or you’ll choke on the bugs.
And you are…?”
Jude pulled himself up to his full height and decided to lighten a tense situation. “Glad to meet you, ma’am,” he drawled.
“Do you often wander around the woods in your G.I. Jane uniform?”
He immediately realized the intended joke was a mistake.
Her expression hardened, along with her grip on the rifle.
“You’re trespassing.
And since I’m the one with the gun, I’d suggest you remember it.
Who are you?”
At the distinct click of the safety being released Jude burst into rapid speech.
“Name’s Jude Callahan.
I work for the U.S. Border Patrol, and I’m here to check the security status of the U.S./Canadian border in this area of
Tired of teetering in the canoe, he lifted a foot to step out.
Without warning, a large dog charged out of the trees behind Kat.
Dogs fell in the same category as guns.
He pulled his foot back into the canoe.
“Heel!”
G.I. Jane commanded.
The dog went to her side, but his yellow eyes remained steadfast on him.
She gestured toward Jude with her rifle.
“Get out of the canoe.
You no more work for Border Patrol than I do.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Jude stood at attention as best he could in the unstable canoe, before stepping onto the sand.
“Keep your hands where I can see them.”
Jude muttered under his breath while following her orders.
Nothing was going according to plan.
He was an FBI agent for God’s sake, and so far today he’d almost shot a moose and now a woman held him hostage.
“Would you put that gun away?
It’s making me nervous.”
“On the ground, face down, hands behind your head.”
She spoke with the authority of a military officer.
“This is insane,” Jude started to argue, but another look at the barrel of the rifle pointed straight at him changed his mind.
He did as he was told.
Kat Tenney may be tiny, but the determined look on her face was damn scary.
He had no doubt that she’d shoot him in a heartbeat given the slightest provocation.
The metal of the rifle barrel pushed against his back while her small hand frisked him.
His body automatically responded when she ran her fingers up and down the inside of his thighs.
Great, just what he needed—a rising testosterone level.
“Any weapons?”
She didn’t ask, she demanded.
“And I suggest you tell me the truth because this rifle has a hair trigger, and I tend to get extremely tense if I think someone’s lying to me.”
Jude considered his options.
The hair trigger decided for him.
“A 9 millimeter.
In the duffle bag.”
“Smart man,” she replied.
“On your feet.”
She tossed him the protein bar that had fallen on the ground.
“Enjoy your breakfast.”
What a prickly little thing, Jude thought as he caught the bar in midair.
Opening the wrapper, he ate the chocolate-covered peanut butter bar as he watched her go through his duffle bag.
She pulled out his Beretta and put it in one of the cargo pockets of her fatigues.
She was cute; that is, if one liked women who looked ten years younger than they were.
Personally, he preferred the sophisticated feminine look.
But he had to admit that Capt. Tenney was quite interesting…even if she did seem to have a chip on her shoulder the size of a glacial boulder.
Jude stopped chewing and swallowed hard when Kat opened his wallet.
“Jude Callahan.
At least you were honest about your name.”
She looked up at him, but he couldn’t read her expression.
“So, you’re an agent with the FBI’s Jewelry and Gem Department.”
Her eyebrows rose in mock surprise.
“Do you moonlight for the Border Patrol in your spare time?”
Jude rushed into speech.
“I lied for a reason.”
“I bet you did,” she replied with sarcasm.
“I can’t wait to hear it.”
“It’s a long story.”
“Well, make it a short one,” Kat snapped, “because I’m tired and running out of patience.”
Jude shifted his weight from one foot to another in an attempt to control his temper.
She was tired?
He was the one who had to sleep in the front seat of his vehicle last night.
“Look, Jane—”
“Enough with the Jane, shit.
My name is Kat.”
“And I prefer Jude to Callahan,” he shot back.
“Fine…Kat,” he conceded.
No sense to rile this woman more than need be.
“I’ll give you the short version, but I think you’ll want to hear the long one.”
Her booted foot tapped on the soft ground.
“I’m waiting.”
“The Bureau is investigating Willie Card in connection with a thirty-year-old gem robbery.
Is that short enough for you?”
Kat frowned.
“Willie Card?
He’s in prison.”
“He was released about a week ago.”
Jude paused, searching for the right words.
“The Bureau suspects he might be involved with your parents’ murders.”
A wave of pity took Jude by surprise when she gasped and turned a ghostly shade of pale.
This was the first emotion he’d seen on her face.
“The FBI thinks Willie murdered my parents?”
She paced back and forth, before stopping in front of Jude.
“Why would he do that?”
Now came the tricky part.
“Look Kat…the Bureau has proof that your father and Willie were in cahoots during their tour of duty in
They stole millions of dollars of precious gems from a Vietnamese jeweler and smuggled them back into the U.S.”
Jude gauged her reaction.
Other than her pale face and widening of her eyes, her feelings remained hidden from him.
He was beginning to suspect she was good at that.
“The Bureau believes that Willie and your father hid the precious stones somewhere at Loon Lake Lodge, and when he was released from prison, Willie showed up, demanding his share of the booty.
Their theory is that your father refused to give the gems to Willie, so he took out your parents.
We know for a fact that the gems have never surfaced in this country since they were stolen.”
A hand rested on her hip and her eyes narrowed, boring holes through him.
“Why lie about your reason for coming here?”