Bear Claw Conspiracy Read Online Free Page B

knew they were racing the sun. Grit hazed things as the door swung open and she got out, hauling a heavy-looking tackle box with her.
    He headed over, extending a hand. “Let me grab that for…” He trailed off, stopping dead as his gut fisted on a surge of heat mixed with dismay.
    The woman coming toward him wasn’t the businesslike blonde he’d been expecting.
    Not even close.
    A sizzle shot through him at the sight of a sharp, triangular face beneath a crooked cap of shiny dark hair. He told himself the sensation was dismay, because he sure as hell shouldn’t be feeling anything else toward a woman like Gigi Lynd.
    Gigi. It sounded like it should come with a French label and an import tariff. And from her trendy haircut and unbalanced ear piercings—one on the right, three on the left—to the silver-gilded tips of her gleaming lizard-skin boots—black today rather than the purple she had been wearing before, but equally as impractical—she didn’t belong anywhere near the backcountry. Or him.
    His pulse raced. He was going to kill Tucker.
    Her white button-down was open just low enough to show a hint of cleavage, and the black belt that rode below her narrow waist had a gleam of silver that drew the eye.
    “No,” he said without preamble as she squared off opposite him. “I want one of the others.”
    Her smoky gray eyes narrowed. “You made that clear when you trashed me to McDermott.”
    “I didn’t—” He broke off, guilt stinging because he hadn’t exactly trashed her, but he’d made it clear he didn’t think she had the backcountry experience or analytical chops to handle the case. “Look, it’s nothing personal.”
    “Bull. You took one look at me and decided that I was incompetent based on, what? Some eyeliner and a little bling?” She flicked the more heavily pierced of her earlobes. “Fine, whatever, that’s your problem not mine. But you’re one-hundred percent right that this shouldn’t be personal. You don’t have to like me. Just get out of my way and let me do my job.”
    The guilt twisted harder because she was right. He’d snap judged her, hard, which was so far from his usual style it was practically alien.
    That didn’t mean she was the right analyst for the job, though.
    He glanced up the trail. “Look, I’m sorry about the attitude. It’s just… Believe it or not, I don’t doubt your competence—McDermott wouldn’t have leaned on his contacts in Denver to get you if you weren’t the best crime scene analyst available. But you’re a long way from home, and the backcountry isn’t anything like the city. Alyssa, Cassie and Maya have all worked scenes out here before. You haven’t.”
    She pierced him with a cool look. “Yet they sent me, even after you told Tucker not to. Want to take a guess as to why?”
    “I don’t want to… Damn it.” He jammed both hands in his pockets, knowing he was beaten. And what was more, he was dead wrong. She hadn’t done a damn thing to deserve his suspicion. It wasn’t her fault that she was the first woman in a long time to make him want to stop and take a second, longer look. Maybe a taste.
    And that so wasn’t happening.
    He didn’t know what she saw in his face, but her expression softened. “I’m sorry about what happened to Tanya. And under the circumstances, I’m even sorry that my being here bothers you. But back in Denver I was the analyst of choice for badly contaminated scenes. Right before I left, I worked a murder scene at the edge of an eroded riverbank the day after a downpour. And yes, we got the guy.” She paused. “You want to get the two men who hurt your ranger? Then take me to your scene…and make it fast, because we’re burning daylight.”
    Matt wasn’t sure which was worse: having been so thoroughly set down…or knowing that he was going to have to stick right with her. Because he’d be damned if anyone else got hurt on his watch.
    “Okay,” he said. “Okay, yeah.” Mind already