Chapter Eight
SEDONA MENTALLY REPRIMANDED herself. What a slip. The lack of sleep was interfering with her normal, rigid control over her mouth. Slipups like that might cause more than trouble. They could cause her death.
She rolled her eyes, grateful Cam couldn’t see her face right now.
Melodramatic much? No one had come looking for her in more than a decade.
Good old Mom, a gift that just kept giving.
She’d tried everything to get away from her past. Nothing worked for long.
Her stay in Maple Valley had been the longest without trouble breaking out.
If this turned out to be what she suspected, her reprieve was up.
Sedona scowled. Why wouldn’t they leave her alone? She didn’t have what they wanted, didn’t even know what it was.
More important to her situation was what Cam would say. Would he accuse her of lying to him? She hoped not. Cam was special, the kind that made a woman rethink her nomad ways and contemplate settling down in a small town.
She snorted. Might as well give up on that idea.
A man like Cam, a cop of all things, valued the truth more than anything because, on the job, people lied to him day in and day out.
Shades of truth or wholesale whoppers, the degree of the lie wouldn’t matter to him.
If he was like most of the cops she’d run into, he saw the world in black and white.
No shades of gray. Unfortunately, she was partial to gray.
Next important question. When he learned the truth about her, would Cam throw her out of his life forever?
“Ms. Hart! Ms. Hart!” Julio tugged on her hand to get her attention. “I saw a lion picture on the sign. We have to go that way or we’ll miss the lions.” His eyes filled with tears. “You said we could see them.”
“Of course we will, Julio. I’m sorry. I was lost in thought.” She pivoted to see her ragged line of children waiting for her to decide which direction to go in. Ironic. That’s what she felt she was doing in real life, too. “What’s our first stop?”
“The cats!” the kids shouted.
Sedona grinned. They were something else. “That’s right. Follow me.”
With a cheer of excitement, her students trailed after her like ducklings following a mother duck. On and on they walked. The closer they came to the lions’ domain, the louder the great cats’ roared.
When her students saw the big cats’ enclosure, they rushed forward and pressed their faces against the tall fence.
A moment later, Cam stood beside her. “I wish I had that much energy.”
“Tell me about it. That’s why I’m exhausted at the end of every day. They keep me busy.”
“They’re amazing, though, and you do a great job with them.”
She grinned, pleased that he’d noticed. The excited chatter became a pleasant background noise when she glanced up at him. “I hope you like children.”
“Love them. Why?”
No hesitation in his answer. Definitely scored points with that.
Hopefully, Cam’s comment was conveying a truth rather than about making her think well of him.
“I teach children, Cam. I wouldn’t be a teacher if I didn’t love them.
If you’re with me, chances are excellent that children will be around, too.
” Now she’d see what he did with that bit of information.
“Lucky for me. I have nine nieces and nephews and have done my best to be voted their favorite uncle. According to them, I’ve won the vote by a landslide.”
His smugness made her laugh. Sedona scanned the kids at the railing, counting them one by one, an exercise she would repeat over and over during this field trip. She breathed easier when her count came out right.
She turned to ask Cam a question when he twisted away from her and headed toward Julio at a fast clip. Sedona frowned, uneasiness growing inside her. Cam was a lot of things, but rude was not one of them. Had his protective streak told him something was off?
She hurried after him, following in his wake. Wherever Cam went, people parted like the Red Sea to allow him through. The same thing happened with the Montgomery brothers. Must be the Special Forces tough vibe.
Sedona noticed a muscular man wearing a sweatshirt with the hood tugged over his head. The guy was way too close to Julio for her comfort. “Julio,” she called. When he turned to look at her, she motioned for him to join her.
The boy tried to dart around the mysterious man. Instead of letting him pass, Hoodie grabbed Julio’s arms and dragged him closer to the lion’s enclosure.
Cam sprinted toward the struggling boy. He called out, “Police! Freeze!”
Some girls and women nearby screamed. The crowd milled around in confusion, getting in Cam’s way.
Hoodie picked up Julio and tossed him over the railing into the lion enclosure.
“No!” Sedona raced toward the railing at an angle, leaped, and easily cleared it. She landed lightly on the ledge, then jumped to the enclosure floor, landing in a crouch.
Seconds later, Cam landed beside her. He kept his gaze fixed on the lion.
With people screaming and her kids crying, Sedona inched closer to Julio, who hadn’t moved. “Julio,” she whispered. “I’m here with Cam, buddy. Are you with me?”
Nothing. No sound or movement from the boy.
The lion, however, was a different story. The big cat stared at them, growling deep in its throat. Seconds later, the King of the Beasts rose and slowly approached.
“Got a plan?” Cam asked, his gaze locked on the cat stalking them. “I really don’t want to shoot that cat.”
“Yeah. Make yourself big and loud.”
“What are you going to do?”
“There’s a large rock outcropping to our left. We have to get Julio out of the lion’s sight, and the keeper’s access door is on that side of the enclosure.”
“Keeper’s access?”
“Yeah. It has a metal door that the cat can’t get through.”
“Copy that.” Cam rose quickly, unzipped his jacket to make himself look bigger, positioned himself in front of Sedona and Julio, and yelled at the lion.
“Come on, dude. You don’t want to eat this little kid.
He’s just a scrawny thing, not even a good mouthful.
I know what you need, bud. You need a big, thick, juicy steak that you don’t have to chase down for yourself. Isn’t that right, you beautiful beast?”
While he talked about what the lion ought to eat with that steak, he stayed close to Sedona and her student. When she inched toward the rocks with the boy in her arms, Cam moved with her, continuing his loud dinner order, now on the dessert menu of a steakhouse in Maple Valley.
If the situation hadn’t been so dire, Sedona would have laughed.
Here she was, in a lion’s enclosure, trying to save one of her students from a lion intent on making a meal of him, while the man she’d been dying to date for weeks sounded like he was planning a date with the King of the Beasts. “Back toward me,” she said to Cam.
Before he could move, one bystander shouted, “Hey, buddy, I found a large branch.”
“Toss it to me on three. One, two, toss.”
By some miracle, Cam turned just as the bystander threw the stick and caught it. He returned to his litany of menu items at the steakhouse while adding some fancy footwork and strikes and sweeps with the stick.
Sedona didn’t know if he was doing something he’d learned in martial arts, but his movements had the desired effect.
The lion was confused and having a hard time deciding if going after intruders in his territory was worth the effort.
“Cam, back toward me. We’re leaving this party before the host eats us. ”
“Fine with me. I wasn’t having a good time, anyway.”
Cam kept himself between Sedona and Julio and the cat as they moved inch by inch toward the keeper’s access door.
She hoped she wasn’t causing Julio any further injury. The alternative, though, was to stay in the enclosure with the lion, and that wasn’t possible, not if they wanted to save the boy’s life. “I’m taking Julio to the other side of the access door.”
“It’s padlocked. If you’ll take over telling the cat your favorite menu items, I can unlock it.”
“I’ve got it. You concentrate on the lion.” Sedona whipped out her lock picks and made fast work of the lock. “Got it.”
“Need help with the kid?”
“Nope. Just keep the big kitty off me for a few more seconds.” She gripped Julio and hauled him inside the access corridor. The second she finished, Sedona called out, “Now, Cam.”
He backed up, slowly making his way toward the access door. Cam had just closed the door behind him when the keepers arrived with air horns and barriers.
Sedona sagged with relief. Thank God.
The lion retreated, snarling in a bad-tempered way all the way across the enclosure. When he turned and ran into his access corridor, someone activated the reinforced door and secured the enclosure.
Cam’s head dropped back against the corridor wall. “Wow, that was close.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Anybody hurt in there?” one keeper called out as he set aside the barrier he’d brought with him.
“Yeah,” Cam said. “We need an ambulance for the boy.” He pulled out his cell phone. “I’m sending a message to David Montgomery. Since the zoo is in a rural part of Morgan County, the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department has jurisdiction. Might as well get law enforcement rolling in this direction.”
“Got it.” The keeper pulled out his cell phone. “What happened? Did he climb over the fence?”
“A man grabbed Julio and threw him into the enclosure.” Fury burned in Cam’s eyes. “Tell the dispatcher that Officer Cameron Sims is on the scene and has called the sheriff.”
The keeper whistled, then began talking to the 911 operator. While he was reporting what he knew, Cam stared at Sedona.
Oh, man. This wouldn’t end well. She’d been here before and could write an entire library of sob-story books about it. Didn’t matter what she said or what her actions said about her. Sedona’s past would follow her until she was a mere memory.
“We need to talk.”
Sedona braced herself for the infamous it’s-not-you-it’s-me speech. She might go down in history for having the shortest dating relationship ever recorded. She spread her arms and gave Cam her brightest fake smile. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The keeper, still talking to the 911 operator, gave her and Cam an odd look, then turned his back on them.
Cam folded his arms across his chest as he continued to lean against the corridor wall, his gaze fixed on hers.
“Oh, no, Tiger. I’m not letting you off the hook that easily.
You agreed to be mine. Skipping out on me is off the table.
You will, however, explain to me how you have a set of professional lock picks and can use them like an expert cat burglar. ”