High Country- Pigeon 12 Read Online Free PDF Page A

stomach muscles hinted at through the thin undershirt. A poster boy for Gold's Gym. Though his legs were encased in gabardine, Anna guessed the glamour stopped at his belt. Men who buffed for show rather than practical application tended to give short shrift to areas not readily apparent in the bathroom mirror.
     
    His face was surprisingly pleasant, so Anna forgave him the action-figure body. He was younger than his companions, not much more than twenty-one or so. A nice smile lit up a baby face roughened by a blue-black beard shadow. The kid probably had to shave twice a day.
     
    To cover the awkwardness he took a swig from a beer camouflaged among its fallen comrades on the countertop. Even with a drink in his hand he didn't look as dissolute as the men on the cot. Several years in their company would fix that. At a loss for what to do, he fell back on early training. Gesturing at the fat man slumped in the corner he began: "This is Kurt Cl-"
     
    "This isn't a fucking garden party," the fat one, the one Anna'd been thinking of as "Beer," snarled before his last name could be completed. Either these slimeballs were hiding or secrecy had become a way of life. Probably the former. The signs were there and writ large.
     
    Parks, like tropical islands, were out of the way, distanced from the "mainland." Like islands, they attracted men and women who wanted to be anonymous, needed to remove themselves from the real world with its demands that one's metaphorical and literal papers be in order.
     
    Had they not been encamped in the missing Dixon Crofter's cabin posing as climbers or hikers or whatever the hell they were trying to be, Anna wouldn't have thought to connect them with wilderness. They reeked of the city, right down to the fuel smell that permeated the place.
     
    "You want to diddle this mother and daughter act you take it elsewhere," Beer-Kurt Cl-finished.
     
    Anna was deciding whether anger or tears would best suit the situation insofar as finding out what these bozos were doing in Dixon's place when Mary took the decision away from her.
     
    "We came here to find out what you guys think you're doing in Dix's tent," she said hotly. "You've just about trashed it as far as I can see. You've got no business-"
     
    Cloaked in nothing but youthful innocence and righteous wrath, Mary had leapt in over her head. The doorman was taking the tongue-lashing and managing to look sheepish, but his two brothers in squalor were shifting in a way Anna didn't like. Faces hardened under the boozy blur, that instant sobriety hard drinkers can affect after enough years at it. Limbs stiffened and moved to positions of greater mobility.
     
    The door banged open and a man of middling height and delicate bone structure pushed in.
     
    "If that bitch's cunt were as hot as the shower I might be tempted to like this shithole." The words were barely out when he noticed they had company. Already Anna detested him. He'd used her least favorite word in the English language. The next few minutes did nothing to change her mind.
     
    Vulgar jocularity vanished. He took in first Anna, then Mary, exposed in the gray wash of light from the fading day. His eyes were dark and sharp. They were also long-lashed and almond-shaped, and Anna might have found them pretty had his vocabulary not already established him as a truly ugly individual.
     
    Mary's Goldilocks good looks didn't soften his demeanor. With no immediate use for her, she was just another object. "Get them out of here," he said. He didn't snap out the words or raise his voice, yet it was a command. There was no question that he was the leader of the strange little wolf pack.
     
    Not wolves, Anna thought as she took hold of Mary's hand. Hyenas. There was more of the vicious scavenger about them than the clean-kill predator.
     
    "Let's go," Anna said.
     
    Looking close to tears, Mary rose and followed Anna toward the door.
     
    As Anna passed the dark-eyed man, he grabbed her arm. Her