“Thanks.” I let his hand go.
Sheriff Montero pats my shoulder. “We’ll be in touch.”
“Do we need to be concerned about having guests out here?” Blake asks, and Warden Stemson stops halfway to his ride and turns to face us.
“I don’t think you guys have anything to worry about, but it’d be smart to move your guests to the other side of the river. I doubt the men responsible for this mess will be back, but you just never know what some of these idiots will do or what they’re thinking.”
“Thanks,” Blake says, and I lift my chin, then wait for them to drive off before turning to get on our four-wheeler.
“What are you thinking?”
“Tomorrow, you would have moved anyway. Now you’ll just set up camp in a different location than what was planned.” He hops on the seat behind me. “I’m also going to ask my dad to put some feelers out. Men around here can’t help but to brag when they get a bull elk, and I have no doubt that someone will slip up. For all we know, they’ve already posted a picture on Facebook to show off their kill.”
“I doubt they’d be that stupid,” I mutter as I start the engine.
“They were stupid enough to hunt out of season without a tag and to shoot at you. I wouldn’t put anything past them right now,” he shouts over the noise as I pull back on the throttle, anxious to get back to Cybil.
Chapter 11
CYBIL
“I can’t believe you!” Lauren’s high-pitched cry wakes me suddenly, and I blink my eyes open, finding the tent barely lit with early-morning light and a very grumpy-looking Tanner up on an elbow, glaring at the door.
“You can’t believe me? I can’t believe you,” Oliver hisses back, sounding outraged.
“You haven’t wanted to have sex once since we’ve been here!” Lauren yells, and my eyes widen.
“We’re in a tent, not in a hotel, and neither of us has showered in four days. Of course I don’t want to have sex.”
“Are you saying you think I smell?” she shrieks, and I cringe, because right now, we all kind of stink, so I can’t really blame Oliver for not wanting to be intimate. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad for her.
“For the love of God, shut the hell up and go to sleep!” Parker roars, and I quickly cover my mouth with my hand while I wait for Lauren or Oliver to respond, but neither of them does. In fact, the silence that follows is almost deafening.
When Tanner lies down facing me, the humor I see in his gaze makes me giggle. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but it’s hard not to, especially when it’s like neither Lauren nor Oliver remember that people outside their tent can hear them anytime they’re in there.
“Morning,” he mouths, touching his fingers to my cheek, and my eyes slide to half mast as my heart starts to dance inside my chest.
“Morning,” I whisper back, staring into his eyes while his thumb moves to trace my bottom lip.
“Did you sleep okay?”
“Yes,” I say, while leaving out that I wasn’t able to fall asleep until after I heard him come back with Blake. Even knowing he was safe, I was worried about him returning to the same location we had been shot at earlier. Honestly, I didn’t want him to go back at all, but I knew there would be no changing his mind, so I didn’t even bother trying to stop him. “Did you?”
“I would have slept better with a whole lot less fabric between us, but yeah, I slept all right.” His grin and words cause heat to spread up my neck as his eyes roam my face. “It’s cute when you blush.” He reaches up and touches the bridge of my nose and down my cheek.
“I’m not blushing. I’m cold.”
“You can come into my sleeping bag. I’ll warm you up.”
“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” I laugh, rolling to my back, then turn my head to look at him. “What torture do you have planned for us today?”
“Hiking, kayaking, and more hiking.” He smiles when I groan. “I thought you said you’ve been enjoying yourself.”
“I have been, but hiking is not something I’ve fallen in love with, especially when we seem to be going uphill all the time.”
“Today, the hike will be pretty light, and you’ll have cell service where we’ll be stopping for lunch, so you can make a couple of phone calls.”
“Really?” I smile, excited about the idea of talking to Jade. I feel like I have so much to tell her about these last few days—not that I’m going to tell her about yesterday. I don’t want her worrying about me, and I know she will.