Wilderness Defender
Author
Maggie K. Black
Reads
18.9K
Chapters
17
ONE
Despite the bright blue of the May sky above, a chill cut through the Alaskan air that sent shivers of trepidation running down Trooper Poppy Walsh’s spine. Her eyes scanned the empty windows of Glacier Bay National Park’s remote cabins. The place was deserted, still awaiting the flocks of tourists who’d arrive in the coming weeks when things really kicked off for the season.
It was the unwelcomed guests who might’ve been squatting here as they illegally hunted defenseless bear cubs that she and her K-9 partner, Stormy, were here to sniff out. The body of a known poacher had been found shot dead and floating in the water by park troopers. Rumor among the locals was that his fellow poachers had turned on him after they captured a cub and that they were now hunting the park for the baby bear’s sibling.
Poppy glanced around the towering spruce and made sure they were alone. Then she reached over and unclipped the Irish wolfhound from her leash. She ran her hand along Stormy’s shaggy gray fur, feeling the dog’s tension radiating through her fingers. Standing at almost three feet tall on all fours, with a friendly hound-dog face and a protective guardian nature, it took a lot to put the dog on edge. Did Stormy detect something? Or was she just reflecting Poppy’s own uneasiness back to her like a mirror?
Poppy prayed and asked God to help her focus. If poachers were hiding out somewhere in the park, that could put tourists’ lives in danger, as well as those of the baby animals they captured to sell on the black market. And yet, Poppy’s nerves had been frayed ever since the small plane that had brought herself, fellow trooper Will Stryker and their K-9 partners here had taken off from Anchorage. As they’d circled the airstrip of the small town of Gustavus, and she’d looked down to see a scattering of houses give way to a port full of boats, towering trees, majestic glaciers and the roaring Pacific beyond, just one thought had filled her mind—this was where she and Lex Fielding were supposed to go on their honeymoon.
The park ranger had been the reason she’d finally given up her job at Kenai Fjords National Park to become a K-9 trooper. On the night he’d taken her face into his strong hands and asked her to be his wife, her former colleague had told Poppy the deep green of her eyes reminded him of the Glacier Bay’s evergreens. He’d promised to bring her here. Just like he’d promised to marry her and to stand by her side for everything life threw at them. Instead, his fear of being anyone’s husband or father had apparently wrenched them apart and he’d broken her heart, calling off the wedding just a week before the big day and leaving her with an invisible wound that still ached after all these years. For a moment, Lex’s dark serious eyes and rare but generous smile hovered at the edges of her mind. Her chin rose as she shoved thoughts of him away. She was proud of the fact she’d managed to maintain her cool back then...and wouldn’t let the memory of Lex impact her now.
The wind rushed past again, rattling the trees and tugging thick sprays of auburn hair from her French braid. Poppy tucked her hair back under her hat. She was a professional, in uniform, with an elite cross-trained poaching and firearms detection K-9 partner by her side. And she had a job to do. No foolish memory of a man who hadn’t been ready for commitment was about to shake her focus now. No matter how much she’d once loved him.
Her footsteps strode silently across the mossy ground, moving swiftly from one cabin to the next and letting Stormy take the lead as the wolfhound sniffed for clues. Her phone rang. It was Will, who’d been questioning staff in another part of the park with his K-9 partner about a mile and a half away, where the remnants of drug use had been found. She answered.
“Hey,” she said. “Looks like we’ve still got a cell signal.” They’d been warned once they got much farther into the national park cell reception would go dead. “Find anything?”
“Not yet,” Will replied. He was a solid trooper, with a knack for handling conflict with humor. But even over the phone, she could hear the tension in his voice. “Have you found anything unusual or out of the ordinary?”
“No, not yet. We’ve cleared thirteen cabins so far and are approaching the fourteenth now. What kind of unusual should we be on the lookout for?”
Will blew out a breath.
“I don’t know exactly,” her colleague admitted. “I just have this sense that someone here’s not being fully honest with us, about something. I can’t tell what. I just know I don’t like it.”
Stormy growled softly. Poppy glanced down. The dog’s posture had straightened, and fur was standing at the back of her neck.
“I’ve got to go,” she said. “Stormy senses something in one of the cabins ahead.”
She started toward them slowly. The dog’s skill set combined with Poppy’s background of working as a wildlife trooper had made them a solid team for investigating illegal hunting and poaching.
“I’m actually done here and heading your way,” Will said. Between the shuffle of what sounded like boots on a wooden floor and the jingle of what she guessed were his K-9 partner Scout’s dog tags, it sounded like they were already on the move. “I’m going to take one of the park’s ATVs.”
“Sounds good.” She wasn’t surprised that he didn’t suggest she wait for him. Protocol was that waiting for backup was a judgment call and as Stormy wasn’t tracking anyone she didn’t expect to find much more than a few bullet cases or maybe some gunpowder. She and Stormy had walked into far worse alone, and Poppy remained endlessly thankful she’d always worked with the kind of folks who didn’t treat the male and female troopers any differently in that regard. She’d always been blessed with the people she’d worked with. Even if some, like Lex’s former best friend, Johnny Blair, had made some pretty bad life decisions. Alaska was a place where nobody sat around whining and people stepped up to get stuff done. Which is why, even before she’d managed to get the venue and catering deposit back from the canceled wedding that Lex had run out on, she’d already been applying to trooper jobs in Anchorage and packing for a fresh start.
She clenched her jaw. Once again, she was thinking about Lex. Come on, you’re better than that!
“By the way, there’s a park ranger heading your way,” Will added. “Says he apparently knows you from back when you worked in Kenai Fjords National Park.”
“Okay, thanks.” In Alaska, the role of game wardens were played by a specialized type of state trooper, called wildlife troopers. Thankfully, when she’d needed a fresh start, Colonel Lorenza Gallo, one of the first female Alaskan state troopers, had taken her on as part of her incredibly talented and professional K-9 team. Lex might’ve knocked her down, but thanks to hard work and the kindness of others, she’d definitely landed on her feet.
Stormy growled again and her nose strained toward the next cabin “She’s indicating that whatever we’re after is in cabin sixteen,” Poppy said. “Talk in a bit.”
They ended the call and she slid her phone into her jacket pocket. Then she looked down at Stormy. The dog’s keen eyes met hers under huge and shaggy brows. There was a floppy, mop-like and almost goofy quality to the huge dog’s face that was disarming and friendly. But this was coupled with an intense power, speed and strength that made the dog a formidable foe against hostile people and wild animals alike. “Okay, let’s do this. Show me what you’ve found.”
The door swung open at her touch, and the smell of pine filled her senses. Poppy noted that the cabin’s main room was simple and empty, with basic wood furniture and two doors ahead. At her signal, Stormy stepped inside and she followed, hearing the floorboards creak beneath their steps. The wolfhound sniffed the air, then signaled toward the second of the closed doors.
Something creaked behind her. The ambush hit swiftly and without warning.
A pair of hands grabbed Poppy by the throat with a tight, pincerlike grip, strangling the air from her lungs and yanking her backward and out of the cabin before she could even reach her weapon. She heard the sound of Stormy barking furiously, a weapon fire and then a door slam, trapping the dog inside the cabin. Desperately, Poppy clawed at the fingers pressing into her windpipe, thrashing against her attacker’s grasp and struggling to breathe. Prayers for help surged through her heart. The grip on her throat tightened and darkness swam before her eyes. A male voice swore. Then she felt a second, larger pair of hands grab on to her legs, lifting her up off the ground.
Lex Fielding drove, cutting down the narrow dirt path between the towering trees. Branches slapped the side of his park ranger truck, and rocks spun beneath his wheels. All the while, words cascaded through his mind, clattering and colliding in a mass of disjointed ideas that didn’t even begin to come close to what he wanted to say to Poppy. Years ago, he’d had no clue how to explain to the most incredible woman he’d ever known that he didn’t think he was ready to get married and have a family. He might not have even had the guts to tell her all his doubts, if she hadn’t called him out on it after he’d left a really unfortunate and accidental pocket-dial message on Poppy’s voice mail admitting to his mother he wasn’t ready to get married. Not that he’d ever told Poppy that’s who the conversation had been with.
He’d have thought, as he’d grown and evolved over the past few years, he’d have come up with something better to say to the woman he’d once loved so fiercely than the tired and hollow clichés now filling his mind. “It’s not you, it’s me... You were perfect. I was the problem.” Something about being around Poppy had always made him feel like a better man than he had any right being. Even standing beside her made him feel an inch taller. He just hadn’t thought he’d been cut out to be anyone’s husband. Something he’d then proved a couple of years later by marrying the wrong woman and surviving a couple of unhappy years together before she’d tragically died in a car crash. Yet, amid all that, God had blessed them with a son—an incredible baby boy named Danny, who was now the center of Lex’s world.
He heard the chaos ahead before he could even see it through the thick forest. A dog was barking furiously, voices were shouting, and above it all was a loud and relentless banging sound, like something was trying to break down one of the cabins from the inside.
He whispered a prayer and asked God for wisdom. Hadn’t been big on prayer outside of church on Sundays back when he’d been planning on marrying Poppy. But ever since Danny had been born, he’d been relying on it more and more to get through the day.
Then the trees parted, just in time to see the two figures directly in front of him dragging something across the road. His heart stopped.
Not something. Someone.
They had Poppy.
He swerved hard, almost clipping his truck’s right-side mirror as he came to a stop between two trees. His eyes took in the scene in a glance. Both people were in hunting camouflage, their faces obscured by hats and bandannas with only a slit of eyes showing, but at a glance they seemed to be men. A lanky one had Poppy around the shoulders, with one hand clamped over her mouth. His heavier cohort was trying to keep hold of her feet as she kicked and thrashed against them. Her hat had fallen from her head, sending auburn hair flying loose around her face. And above it all, the sound of banging and howling rose. Sounded like they’d locked her K-9 partner in the cabin and the dog was determined to bust out.
He yanked his weapon, leaped from the truck and aimed the firearm between the larger kidnapper’s eyes.
“Let her go!” he shouted. “Now!”
The bigger assailant turned, dropping Poppy’s feet. But the thinner one yanked her back against him like a human shield with one hand and pulled a gun with the other. Lex rolled as the man fired, his bullet flying into the bushes behind where Lex had been standing. He crouched up behind a tree and hoped he wouldn’t have to take a life, even though he would without hesitation to save Poppy.
Long, tense moments passed.
Lex breathed a prayer, then let off a warning shot, sending it high in the canopy of fir branches above their heads. The men froze, like animals did in his truck’s headlights in that perilous moment when he didn’t know if they were going to flee or charge.
“Park ranger!” Lex shouted. “Let her go. Now!”
Poppy swung her elbows back, hard and fast, catching the man holding her square in the jaw before he could fire again and knocking his camo hat off, revealing a shiny bald head underneath. He grunted, dropped her and then turned and ran for the trees with his beefy accomplice on his heels. Within seconds they’d disappeared into the trees. She crumpled to the ground.
“Poppy!” Her name flew from his lips as he ran for her and dropped to her side like a baseball player sliding home. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her into his chest as he knelt beside her on the ground. Her eyes fluttered closed. Please, Lord, let her be okay. He brushed his hand along her cheek, his fingertips tangling in her hair as he felt for her pulse. Red welts rose on her neck from her attacker’s grasp. He leaned forward, feeling for the reassurance of her labored breath on his cheek.
“It’s okay, Poppy,” he rasped. “I’m here. It’s me, Lex. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
Her eyes snapped open, deep green and devastatingly beautiful. A pink flush brushed her cheeks. Despite every moment he’d spent trying to convince himself his memories of her were just idealized nonsense, she was even fiercer in person than he’d remembered.
“Lex?” she asked. She reached up and pushed back against his chest. He let her go. “What are you—?”
But before she could finish, a deafening crash filled the air.
