Bear Bait (9781101611548) Read Online Free PDF Page B

skitter up a ruined pine, its rust-colored feathers bright against the charcoal bark. The bird stopped and cocked its head, displaying a red blaze beneath its bill that marked it as a male. It let out a shriek, then hammered a violent staccato tune on the blackened trunk. A black-and-white hairy woodpecker landed just above the flicker. A noisy squabble ensued as the flicker defended his hunting ground.
    “Poor things,” Sam murmured, “I hope they nested outside the burn zone.”
    Chase gave her a look that told her his thoughts were not stuck on birds. Hers should probably be on other issues, too, like arson and unconscious girls. And bears. After a night of no sleep, she wasn’t processing too well. At the edge of the burn line, she paused to run her fingers over a patch of missing bark on a Western cedar.
    “Looking for woodpecker holes?”
    She shook her head, and instantly regretted the motion. Pain sloshed over her, leaving nausea in its wake. Maybe she did have that concussion, after all. “I’m looking for fresh bear marks. We moved Raider here a week ago.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Raider?”
    “A two-year-old black bear, most often seen on top of picnic tables or butt-side-up in garbage cans. Usually with an audience of screaming campers. He has a white scar on the back of one ear.”
    “If you say so.” He pulled her around so she faced him.
    “This is prime bear habitat,” she continued. “We hoped he would find female bears more fascinating than picnic leftovers.” She rubbed a spot on her cheek, remembering the struggle to get the bear into the cage. Would Chase think it was too weird if she told him it had been fun?
    He drew the tip of his index finger across the faint pink line left from one of Raider’s claws. A pleasant ticklish sensation quickly spread to more sensitive areas of her body. How much would it hurt her mouth to French-kiss this FBI agent?
    “My wild woman,” he murmured. “You still haven’t learned to give the beasts enough tranquilizer? I’ll never forget having to sit on your mountain lion last year.”
    My
wild woman? Why did men always have to
own
women? Why couldn’t Chase be different from the typical possessive male? “Tranquilizing wildlife is not an exact science. I’d rather end up with a few claw marks than a dead animal.” The words came out with more frost than she’d planned.
    His eyes clouded and his hand dropped back to his side.
Great.
Now she’d hurt his feelings. She definitely needed more practice with this man-woman-relationship dynamic. She still felt like a sap for the way that her previous boyfriend, newscaster Adam Steele, had used her to further his own career. Now she worried that she would misread Chase Perez, too. It was hard to figure out where their relationship was going when they met only a few times a year.
    Feeling uncomfortable now, she turned to survey the blackened woods. Joe and another ranger were out here somewhere; there had been two NPS trucks in the parking lot.
    Thankfully, Chase changed the subject back to wildlife. “Black bears aren’t endangered, are they?”
    “Not yet.” Give the human race enough time, she thought grimly, and all wild animals will be endangered.
    “Is it bear season now?”
    “No.” But now that she thought about it, the season on the Olympic Coast was only a week away. Oh, goody. More armed men in the woods. Something to look forward to. “Poachers work all year round,” she told him.
    He nodded. “The gall bladder business still going strong?”
    “Yep. The Chinese still make medicines out of them, still pay big bucks for them.” She made a face. “Bear paws, too—rich Asians eat them on special occasions, like wedding banquets.” It was too easy to envision Raider sliced and diced. A horrible thought. She almost shook her head again, but caught herself just in time.
    “There will be no bear hunting here. This is
my
area,” she said.
    He looked surprised.
    “Well, it’s my area