The project officer had told her the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, USFWS, had a vested interest in the program and so they’d allocated a ranger to accompany her on the field trip.The ranger would help plan and conduct the nighttime catch and release survey.Which was how Summer met Paige.She and Paige had gelled almost instantly.They were around the same age, and both had a passion for conservation and the environment.Paige had an infectious laugh that lit up her bright, hazel eyes and made her cheeks wobble with mirth.Paige was the same height as Summer, but with a lot more curves, and at first Summer had been fooled by her looks, thinking her soft.But she soon discovered that Paige was as fit—if not fitter—than her, and could bound up a rocky incline, a full pack on her back, with the determination of a mountain goat, leaving Summer panting in her wake.Paige was strong and tenacious, and it was only because of her help and guidance that Summer had recorded some amazing videos of this small creature in the wild.
They’d spent five days and four nights traipsing through areas the ferret frequented, carrying all their gear on their backs and camping out under the stars.Paige was also a great benefit when they encountered ranchers or property owners, which they invariably did, as most of the animal habitats were situated just outside the boundaries of the national park.Paige’s official uniform lent an air of authentication to their little venture that Summer wouldn’t have been able to pull off if she’d been alone, and Paige, who could talk the hind leg off a donkey, sweet-talked them all into allowing them access to their land.
However, none of her recollections had helped her to figure out why Paige might have been abducted—because that was what Peter was afraid of, even though he was loath to voice his concern—and for Summer’s apartment to be ransacked and then her possibly nearly kidnapped as well.
She rolled over in bed, then slipped out from underneath the covers, her mind revolving through her and Paige’s time spent out in the wilderness.Was it something to do with the project itself?They were looking into how the mine might affect these animals.Could the mining company be hoping to quash the endeavor?The Montana Ecological Field Office was yet to release their report; Summer had sent her photos and videos to the project officer almost as soon as she returned to Seattle, but they were still pulling together all the data and records from other researchers collaborating on the study.Summer knew the outcome would not be favorable for the Gold Mine.Everything pointed to the mine being a huge disruption to the ferret population.Once the environmental report was handed to the Bureau of Land Management, it would have to reconsider its options.Hopefully, it’d stop the mine in its tracks.Or at the very least force them to reconsider the location, reducing the mine in size to leave a large enough buffer zone for the animals to remain untouched; which would also put a large dent in their profits.
Summer flicked on the bedside lamp, pulled a sweater over her head and grabbed her backpack, tugging it up onto the bed next to her.Maybe if she looked at the photos she’d taken on that field trip, they might jog her memory.She withdrew her laptop and waited for it to boot up, giving thanks once more that she hadn’t left it in the apartment the other night so the thief could potentially steal it.It took a few moments to find the correct folder.This might take a while.There were hundreds of photos; Summer had documented the entire trip, but she’d only sent the relevant ones of the ferrets to the project officer.There were plenty of other images of the amazing wilderness.A luminous sunset from the top of Pelican Cone, the sparkling ripples of the waters of Yellowstone Lake, and so many other vistas in between.Chewing her lip, she bent her head over her computer and began to scroll.
What felt like only moments later, there was a light tap at the door.Summer checked the clock on her screen and was shocked to see she’d been stooped over the photos for an hour.It was now two a.m.
“Come in,” she called out softly.Mårten’s face appeared around the crack in the door.
“Sorry, I saw the light under your door.Couldn’t you sleep either?”
“No,” she consented as Mårten came all the way into the room and shut the door quietly behind him.
She couldn’t help but notice how his black T-shirt fit ever-so-snugly over impressive biceps as he raised a hand to run it through his silvery hair.She had heard the term sexy and disheveled before, but never in her wildest dreams had she thought to use it herself on a man standing in front of her.At this particular moment, however, it seemed one-hundred percent appropriate.Mårten exuded that exact air; his hair was sexily sleep-tousled, his silver eyes heavily lidded, his manner unguarded and vulnerable.Something clenched tight in her chest, and then something echoed that clench much lower down, between her legs.
“Whatcha doin’?”he asked as she stared dumbly at him, unable to form a coherent word.
“Um…” She tried to corral her thoughts, but then he raised both his arms above his head and stretched, exposing a wedge of washboard-flat stomach, and her mouth hung open.Oh.My.God.His abs were amazing.Well-defined, his skin ever so slightly tanned, with a faint trail of darker hair leading down beneath his waistband.
Summer shook her head.Blast.He was affecting her again, when she needed to be thinking clearly.
“Um…” she said again.Then, she snapped her mouth shut and pointed at her computer.“I was going through all the photos I took on our trip to Yellowstone.I thought something might jump out at me.”
“Good idea,” he said, walking over and sitting on the bed next to her without being asked.Like, right next to her.So close she could almost feel the brush of his shoulder through the thick material of her sweater.“Can I help?”
“Um…” God, she sounded like a broken record.Get it together, Summer.“Sure.”She pointed to the current photo on the screen of a tall metal fence running across a small clearing and then disappearing into the tree line in the distance.“This was taken on day four of our trip, when it was getting late.We were looking for a campsite.We were on federal land by that stage, right where the mining company had already built some preliminary structures.”Summer almost laughed at the audacity of the company.“They were so sure they were going to get approval they’d started building roads and set up a whole raft of demountable offices, as well as many large sheds housing all kinds of equipment, and had even started work on a small power plant,” she scoffed.“This section of the proposed mine site, where all the supporting infrastructure was situated, wasn’t supposed to be considered in the scope of our study.It was the open-pit ore extraction sites, the waste storage areas, and the access routes that would affect the ferret populations the most.But we were passing right by, and so I asked Paige if we could take a look.These large fences surrounded it, so we didn’t go in.”Oh, but Summer had wanted to.She’d even pleaded with Paige, but the ranger had stood firm.
“We can’t be seen to be breaking the law,” Paige had said, her normally jovial face serious for once.“We can’t give this gold company any ammunition they might use to get this study stopped.”Summer had grudgingly agreed; it’d be stupid to get caught trespassing.
Summer flicked through another couple of photos.If she wasn’t allowed to enter the property, she’d done the next best thing.She’d pushed her long telephoto lens through a hole in the fence and taken snapshots of everything within her field of focus.
“The place was pretty much deserted.Paige told me all the construction workers and other staff would’ve gone home for the night.They’d built no living quarters yet,” she explained as they both leaned in closer to the screen.
“What about security?”Mårten queried.
“They probably had someone stationed at the front gate; I don’t know.But the large fence and all the scary authoritative signs threatening prosecution would stop most people from attempting to enter.”Summer lifted her shoulders in a shrug as she continued to scroll through the photos.Mårten’s proximity was doing strange things to her concentration.Her attention now on the slight bump of his shoulder against hers.Her entire focus whittled down to that one point of contact as she anticipated his next touch, and her upper arm became a quivering mess.
“Wait.”Mårten leaned in sharply, jostling her arm and brushing her hand as he tried to get closer.“Go back,” he demanded.
Summer pushed the arrow to show the previous photo.It was a close-up of a large machinery shed, behind which sat the power plant still under construction.The rest of the area was taken up with a series of round towers of various sizes nestled together, a couple of squat buildings surrounded by scaffolding, and a tall metal structure that reared up to the sky at least five stories high, plus a whole heap other smaller equipment and outbuildings that Summer couldn’t identify.
“I thought you said the place was deserted,” Mårten said, eyes fixed on the screen.
“Paige seemed to think it should be,” Summer reiterated.“And I didn’t see…” She trailed off.
“So what is that, then?”Mårten lifted a finger and pointed at a small blob on the monitor.“Can you enlarge it?”They both angled in closer, so that their heads were almost touching.“It looks like someone is climbing that structure,” he said with a frown.
He was right; that blob was a man scaling the scaffolding.
“Yeah,” she replied slowly.“But that could be an employee; maybe he was working late.Doing some last-minute repairs.”She shrugged.
“I don’t know.”Mårten tapped his finger thoughtfully against the screen.“Keep scrolling,” he commanded.
Summer did as she was told, wondering what Mårten was looking for as she peered at each new photo.She barely remembered taking these images and wasn’t even sure why she’d done so.She’d been clicking almost randomly, with Paige standing beside her getting more impatient by the second.They were wasting precious time; the sun would disappear soon, and they needed to find a proper campsite.
