Chapter 2
Noah Colton screeched to a stop at the small turnout near the coordinates he’d been given for the search site in Dark Canyon Wilderness, landing sideways in the clearing that probably wasn’t meant to be a parking spot.
But if you weren’t coming in hot and spraying a shower of gravel to announce that you’d arrived to get the party started, what were you even doing with your life?
Besides, driving fast and furiously had its perks, but it wasn’t his job. And he’d been itching to get out into the field from the moment he’d received the call.
A body hidden by a rockslide was exactly the kind of challenge that made his blood pump faster. Search and rescue work wasn’t the same rush as investigative journalism, but he loved it.
Maybe not as much, but it was close. He’d made his peace with walking away from chasing stories. Mostly. When his mom had gotten sick, he’d dropped everything and come home to Dark Canyon with no regrets.
Noah made it a habit to never look back. All the good stuff lay forward.
Dancer stood at high alert in his travel carrier, picking up on his energy like always. The golden lab might as well be the other half of his brain. They’d worked seamlessly together from moment one.
The second Noah opened the carrier door, Dancer sprang from the back seat of the truck, sidestepping in excitement. That’s how he’d gotten his name—he did this funny dance step crossover move when forced to hold back.
They understood each other. Noah didn’t like boundaries either.
Grabbing his gear, he trekked to the scene, a long haul in the biting cold, well accustomed to people’s tendencies to never disappear near the road. Once on-site, he surveyed the scene, his mind chopping through what he knew.
A dead body in Dark Canyon meant questions that needed answers. The kind that used to drive him halfway around the world in search of the truth.
If only…but that wasn’t why he was here. SAR was his job now. Find what was hidden, uncover the land’s secrets. No room for mistakes when lives were at stake.
Though this would be a rare one for him, already knowing from the outset that this was a recovery effort, not a rescue. That alone accounted for why his attention had veered even slightly from the mission.
The weather had turned nasty since the earthquake, clouds heavy with promised rain.
Not ideal conditions for scent work, but Dancer had delivered in worse.
Noah pulled out his radio to check in with incident command, documenting the deteriorating conditions.
Everything by the book—scene contamination was already a concern with the number of personnel moving around.
“Command, Colton on site. Need immediate perimeter control and photo documentation before search begins. Over.”
“Copy that. Establishing fifty-foot perimeter now.”
His gaze snapped to the woman pacing near the fresh evidence of a rockslide.
Hello. What have we here?
She had to be Officer West, the one who’d discovered the body before the earthquake hit. Yes, okay—she was the only female in the entire group, but that wasn’t why she’d instantly commanded his attention.
Energy crackled off her as she moved. And the way she moved…efficient. Commanding. The woman possessed serious presence and it hooked something inside him. Noah found himself picking up his pace to reach her, Dancer matching his stride.
“Officer West,” he called out. “I understand you have a difficult recovery situation for us.”
She turned, and Noah’s breath caught. He’d been expecting capable. He hadn’t been prepared for the fire in her blue eyes or the way she sized him up with the same hungry intensity he saw in the mirror every morning. She was all throttle, no brakes.
Her gaze swept him from head to toe in kind, and she didn’t bother to disguise the fact that she appreciated what she saw. Likewise, Officer West. Likewise.
The air between them sizzled.
Oh. Boy.
“Colton.” Her gaze sucked him in and they stared at each other. “Related to Jacob?”
“My brother.” He nodded once, because of course she’d be acquainted with National Park Services personnel. His brother was the reason he had a job.
“That’s a tick in the pro column, then,” she said, with an eyebrow lift. “He’s one of the best they’ve got at NPS.”
“I have another brother and some cousins running around Dark Canyon, too,” he threw in, just in case that counted toward an invisible tally that would land him her phone number later.
Because he was definitely asking her for it.
“Thanks for coming out so quickly.” She gestured over her shoulder, all business now. “I can show you the approximate location, but the rockslide changed the landscape. I’m not even sure where to start.”
Perfect. This was what he did best—solving puzzles. Just not the kind that led to hard-hitting exposé pieces. “That’s what Dancer’s here for. But first, walk me through exactly what you saw before the earthquake hit.”
He pulled out his field notebook, the waterproof one with the pencil that wrote on anything, wet or dry.
Officer West eyed his setup. “I have that same one,” she commented with a thread of appreciation. “The rest of these yahoos like their electronic tablets, but I’m old school.”
Noah grinned. “Never needs charging and works even if you end up in the river.”
“Which happens more often than you’d think.”
Oh, yes, he did like this woman a whole lot. “Exactly what I was about to say.”
Her answering smile put a very nice hum in his gut. He scrubbed at his beard to refocus his attention on the job at hand. Plenty of time for flirting later.
“Here’s what you can write down in your notebook. I was searching this area for missing hikers when I spotted something reflective.” She pointed to a section of rock and debris. “The body was there, partially hidden behind that outcropping. Then the earthquake hit.”
The investigative journalist in him wanted to pepper her with follow-up questions: Had she identified the body? Did there appear to be foul play involved? Any history of other bodies turning up in the area?
But that wasn’t his role anymore. Focus on recovery. Leave the investigation to others.
Noah studied the rockfall pattern, already mapping potential search grids in his mind. The slide had created an unstable cone of debris—they’d need engineering support before any excavation could begin. But first, they had to pinpoint the location.
USFS personnel and some other uniforms—cops—milled around near the rockslide. One of them, a beefy guy in a USFS uniform that matched Officer West’s in style strode over, clearly having overheard what they were talking about.
“West, we’ve accounted for all registered hikers,” he said, bracing his hands on his hips. “Are you sure you actually saw a body? The earthquake could have affected your perception of things.”
Wow. Talk about lack of professional courtesy. Not to mention a severe inability to read the room. Noah had known this woman for all of fourteen seconds, and even he could see she didn’t miss much.
Officer West pivoted to face the man, her chin lifting. Somehow, she managed to drop the temperature with nothing more than the disdain dripping from her expression. Which was saying something, considering the already frigid weather.
“The victim wasn’t a hiker, Bonner. She was wearing regular shoes and a light sweater.” Her voice sharpened with razor precision. “But please, don’t let that stop you. Continue explaining to me how I don’t know the difference between a rock and a dead body.”
Noah hid a smile, secretly cheering her on, because dang.
The guy she’d called Bonner clenched his teeth. “Just remember, resources are limited. Let’s hope this isn’t a wild-goose chase.”
Oh, no, he had not just spoken for Noah without permission. “Since the resources are me and my dog, you might want to step that back a notch before I decide you calling me limited was an insult.”
Officer West crossed her arms, a grin on full display because she didn’t seem to be the type to hide much of anything. “You heard the man. Step back. And then do it again until you’re inside your vehicle. This is a one-woman show.”
Okay, that decided it. Noah officially had a raging crush on Officer West.
It was a little surprising that he’d never met her before, but he worked with NPS all over the state, not solely in Dark Canyon, so he traveled a lot.
Jacob worked as a special agent for Parks Services, and had often called Noah in for his recovery expertise, which he’d spent four years building to fill the void that walking away from journalism had left.
Noah clicked his radio to the search channel. “Command, Colton on scene. Beginning search setup. Need updated terrain stability report and scene documentation before we start the grid.”
While uniforms moved to establish the boundary, Noah ran Dancer through his pre-search routine.
The lab’s disciplined focus helped center him.
He had a job—find what was lost, bring closure.
Not chase down leads or expose corruption.
Just because this scene had fired up his old investigative instincts didn’t mean he had to listen to them. Right now, anyway.
Though watching Officer West document notes in her field notebook with such precision made those instincts sing. There was something about her…he couldn’t put his finger on it but whatever it was made everything inside him sit up and take notice.
It was a siren’s song that he felt powerless to resist. Mostly because he didn’t want to.
“Officer West, I’m not done with you,” he called. Not by a long shot.
“What else would you like to know?” She kept a professional distance, but her energy filled the space between them. Her straight-backed posture and clipped tone screamed military background.
Why was that sexy? He’d never have called that a preference before, but it suddenly felt extremely necessary to add to his list.