Wilderness Passion Read online

  Libby had watched in amazement as wild animals walked within a stone’s throw of Dan. He would seat her on the ground near him and they would patiently wait until small herds of whitetail deer passed by within fifty feet of them. Libby became an enthralled child as he showed her how to feed the shy chipmunks who crept near their camp to steal a tidbit or two. And she had gasped in utter delight when he pointed out two bald eagles frolicking thousands of feet in the blue sky above them. Dan had opened up a whole new world to her and she had rejoiced in it.

  Returning to her apartment was like going back to a vacuum. Libby had been home no more than fifteen minutes when she called Dan. Relief soared through her as she heard his husky, quiet voice on the other end of the phone.

  “Was it a boring trip back?” he asked.

  “Terribly lonely,” she confessed. Libby tried to behave in an adult manner, but she felt like a love-struck teenager.

  “Maybe that will make you come back here, then,” he suggested.

  Her heart skipped several beats and she gripped the phone harder. “I miss the forest already,” she admitted.

  Dan laughed gently. “What about me?” he teased.

  Libby’s spirits rose momentarily. “I miss you more than everything else, Dan.”

  There was silence for a moment and she closed her eyes, thinking she had said the wrong thing. “That’s good to hear, Lib,” he answered seriously. “Listen, you get in a tub of hot water and soak. And when you get back to work, I hope you won’t mind a few calls every week from a lonely forester.”

  Her eyes shone with happiness. “No... I’d love it, Dan,” she whispered, close to tears. Oh, God, how she missed him! After hanging up, she loitered in a tub of fragrant water, seriously examining her career, goals and personal life. Libby came out of the tub much later with no clear answers except that the weeks spent in the forest had helped her discover a new part of herself that she wanted to explore. Sighing, she slipped into a comfortable lounging robe and went to the kitchen to make herself something to eat, even though she had no appetite.

  Doug Adams sauntered casually into Libby’s office. She looked up between the piles of projects that were assembled at various places on her desk.

  “Well, two weeks back and you look just as beleaguered as when you left,’’ he said, offering her a smile.

  Two weeks, Libby thought, disgruntled. It feels more like two years. She put her pen down, giving her attention to Doug. “With two court cases pending, an angry biologist on my hands and twenty phone calls to return, I don’t know why you’d say that, Doug,” she returned.

  He frowned. “Plenty of problems came up when you were gone,” he agreed unhappily. “You got most of your defense together for those court appearances?”

  Libby leashed her growing sense of frustration. If it hadn’t been for Dan’s calls during the week, she wondered if she would have survived. How many times had she paced the confines of her sterile office, wishing for a backpack, a pair of hiking boots and the opportunity to tramp across some high-country meadow? “Yes, Betty’s typing up the final notes, Doug,” she responded, harried.

  “Maybe you need another assistant,” Doug said seriously.

  Libby glanced up at him, pushing a stray strand of blond hair behind her ear. As always, she wore her thick golden mane in a chignon at the nape of her neck “I think you’re right. The job is growing by leaps and bounds, Doug.”

  He rubbed his jaw, nodding. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do for you.” He started toward the door. “Oh, by the way, who’s low bidder on that Sleeping Deer Mountain lease?”

  She searched through another stack of papers, drawing one sheet out. “You mean the company that will be doing the ecological study?”

  “Yes.”

  “Pershing Associates. Why?”

  “They sending out their head bug man, Trevor Bates?”

  Libby shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Doug grimaced. “If they do, fur is going to fly between Bates and Dan Wagner. They’re enemies from way back.”

  She groaned, rolling her eyes upward. “That’s just great!”

  “Why don’t you put in a diplomatic phone call to Pershing and find out who’s being assigned to Sleeping Deer Mountain. Maybe we can keep Dan happy and out of our hair. I hate like hell to ruffle his feathers.”

  Libby quelled a smile, recalling Dan’s heavy-handed methods when he chose to attack. “Yes, I know what you mean. Okay, I’ll call Pershing this afternoon.”

  It was almost four-thirty that day when Betty came flying into her office. “Dr. Stapleton!”

  Libby raised her eyes from the document she was working on. She frowned, hearing the distress in her secretary’s voice. “What is it, Betty?”

  “Mr. Wagner is on the phone and he is furious! He’s asking to talk to Mr. Adams. What should I do? He sounds like he’s ready to kill anybody he can get his hands on.”

  Libby drew in a deep breath, glancing at her phone. “I’ll take the call, Betty. Just switch it in here.” What now? Getting up, Libby quietly shut her office door and returned to her desk in time to pick up the ringing phone.

  “Dan? This is Libby. What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Libby?’ his voice was hard. “I wanted to talk to Adams.”

  “I asked Betty to switch your call to me.”

  She heard Dan take a deep breath, his voice coming across the line in a cold chill. “I didn’t want this falling at your door, Libby. I want to bounce this one off Adams. It’s his damn fault, anyway.”

  “What are you talking about?” she demanded, exasperated.

  “Trevor Bates, that’s who. Dammit, that idiotic bug man is assigned to my new lease. I won’t have it, Lib. The man’s a fanatic who makes up things and throws plans off schedule without batting an eye. That bastard screwed up perfectly usable timber land for me seven years ago and I damn near killed him then. I won’t have him on a project of mine again.”

  “Wait,” she begged, making an effort to remain calm and patient. She had never heard Dan so agitated and it upset her. “Tell me about Bates.”

  “He’s an entomologist with Pershing Associates. He’s a little guy with Coke bottles for glasses. I don’t see how he can count anything with his eyes. The last time we had to work together, Bates went into the interior on an extended study and said he found some damn rare insect that needed protecting. He pulled a hundred thousand acres of prime timber off the lease and my operation wound up in the red, Libby. It was the one and only time I lost money for the company. If he gets assigned to Sleeping Deer Mountain, he’ll do the same damn thing.”

  Libby fumbled through the papers, finding the low-bid assignment. Reading closer, she saw that Bates had already been assigned to Dan’s lease. “Look,” she said, “I’ll see what I can do. Doug was already in here and he mentioned that he hoped Bates wasn’t assigned to the lease. Let me get back to you on this, Dan.”

  His voice suddenly softened, wrenching at her heart. “I’m sorry, Lib. I didn’t want to bother you with this. I know it’s not your fault that it happened.”

  She blinked, wanting badly to be near him. “It’s all right It’s just one more thing....”

  “You’ve got me worried, Lib. You’re sounding more tired as the weeks go by. Are they working you to death up there?”

  Her voice cracked. “It’s pretty bad. More than anything, I miss you, Dan. I wish we could see one another....”

  “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, Lib,” he began huskily. “About you. About me. I think we need to sit down face-to-face and discuss some things. Look, I’m trying to pull free here, but we’re gearing up and—”

  “It’s all right,” she whispered, loving the velvety sound of his voice. “Just knowing that you care and want to come is enough for right now, Dan. We’re both under the gun right now with our jobs. Maybe in a month or two, when things settle down...”

  “Realistically it’s not possible at this point,” he agreed. “But that
doesn’t stop me from wishing you were here with me from the time I wake up in the morning until I go to bed at night.”

  “Do you know how good that sounds?” she asked softly. “I miss you terribly, Dan. I miss the forest. Everything.’’

  He gave a low laugh. “That’s the curse of being a druidess, Libby. The call of the wilderness is summoning you home.”

  “Home,” she murmured. “The forest is like a home to me, Dan. I can easily understand why you love it. And I don’t blame you for staying there. I want to be there myself. One way or another, I’ll come back to Challis,” she promised. “Maybe not today, but perhaps for a weekend.”

  “That’s a good idea. I’ll be waiting for you, Lib.” Dan gave a sardonic laugh. “Hell, you may be here sooner than you think if they drop Bates on me. We damn near got into a fistfight last time, and I feel no compunction about hitting him this time. After what he did to my last lease, he has it coming.”

  “But did anyone check on Bates’s ecological analysis?” Libby asked, perplexed. “Because it’s my policy that when a biologist does discover a probable ecological imbalance, I go in and check it out myself so we have some supporting facts. That way we can make a decision based upon two scientists’ tests.”

  “Well, if you can’t get Pershing to assign someone else to my lease,” Dan growled, “then I know I’ll be seeing you within two months. I just have a gut feeling Bates will come up with some damn off-the-wall theory. If I were a masochist, I’d wish for Bates, because then I’d know you’d be coming,” he said, a touch of irony tingeing his voice.

  Libby smiled warmly. “Truly you are a knight, Mr. Wagner. Only a knight would place himself in the line of fire to rescue a damsel in distress,” she teased.

  Dan laughed with her. “The only one who will be distressed is Bates,” he promised. “Call me when you I find out something on this, will you?’’

  “I will, Dan.”

  “I miss you, Druidess. And so does my forest.”

  She closed her eyes, biting down on her lower lip. “You’re so special to me, Dan,” she admitted, her voice barely audible.

  “You’re one of a kind, Libby,” he murmured, “and you’ve made me do plenty of soul-searching lately.” He hesitated. “Like I said, there are things we have to talk about, but I don’t want to do it over a phone. We’re just going to have to hope that in a month or so we can get away from our jobs and meet.”

  Libby gave Doug Adams a rueful look. The weekend had crawled by and she had come in early to the office to try to catch up on the mounting workload. On Monday morning Pershing Associates had called to confirm that Bates was the only man available for the Sleeping Deer Mountain lease.

  “Dan is going to hit the ceiling,” Libby said.

  “Don’t I know it,” Doug groaned, pacing the length of her office. “Dammit!”

  “Just how reputable is Bates?” Libby demanded.

  “He’s thorough, but he’s picky and belabors a point when it isn’t necessary.”

  Libby leaned back in her chair, familiar with that kind of biologist. Frequently, when a scientist felt his field of expertise was being questioned, he became adamant and blindly opinionated in order to salve a wounded ego. “Is Bates a stickler for fact or is he just out to support his own theories?” she asked.

  Doug shrugged unhappily. “I honestly don’t know, Libby. Bates gave us a hard time a number of years ago, insisting that he’d found some rare insect on our lease lands.”

  “I know—Dan told me about it.”

  Adams stopped pacing and looked down at her. “Frankly, Bates should have been questioned on his findings. We never sent in another biologist to check out the site. That’s when we decided to hire a company biologist to keep tabs on people like him. Sometimes I think Bates was making a mountain out of a molehill.”

  Libby rose. “Well, if he’s one of those types, he won’t get away with it this time,” she promised grimly.

  It was early September, and Libby stood by her office window, looking toward the Bay Area. Two and a half months had passed and she still felt the pull of the mountains in her blood. No matter how hard she worked, she never forgot those glorious weeks spent with Dan in his forest. Turning, she gazed warmly at a lovely bouquet of flowers that sat on her desk. Dan had sent them the day before, reminding her that fall was in full swing and that he missed her greatly. She sauntered over to the vase, touching the golden chrysanthemum petals between her fingers. The phone rang, breaking her daydream.

  “Hello?”

  “Libby, it’s Dan.”

  Her eyes widened, her heart beginning to pound because of the hardness in his voice. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ll give you one guess,” he said. “Bates.”

  Her heart sank and Libby said, “Oh, no... What did he find?”

  “You aren’t going to believe this,” Dan continued stormily. “The idiot swears he spotted a California condor up here.”

  There was dead silence for a moment while Libby digested the statement. California condors were rare and protected by federal laws. Almost extinct, the world’s largest bird made its home in California. Finally she managed to squeak, “What?”

  “A condor. Bates swears he’s been watching a condor for the last week up in the interior near Ridge 256. Libby,” Dan said fervently, “he’s going to try to order all our machinery out of that section. I’ve got bulldozers, graders and dump trucks trying to make a road into that area before the first snow falls in late October. I’m on schedule with the road completion date, and I’m not hauling one piece of machinery out of there unless Bates’s so-called sighting is confirmed.” He took a deep breath, then continued. “I’ve lived most of my life up in these mountains, Libby, and I’ve never seen a condor. Never! That guy is half blind. How the hell can he see two feet in front of him, much less through a pair of binoculars, looking up at some cliff face where this bird’s supposed to be living?”

  Libby spent nearly a half hour on the phone with Dan, trying to calm him down. Doug Adams was equally unhappy with Bates’s discovery. “Well, I hate to say it, but you’re going to have to fly out there and settle this one way or another, Libby,” he said. “Damn! I just knew this would happen.” He glanced at her. “You’d better get out there tomorrow. If Wagner gets his fingers around Bates’s throat, there will be premeditated murder charges to deal with besides this fiasco.”

  Libby subdued her excitement. “I will,” she promised Doug. “I’ll have Betty get me a ticket for a flight out tomorrow morning.”

  8

  THE SUN SHONE down fiercely on the Challis airport as Dan impatiently watched the small Cessna taxi in from the runway. Libby would be on board. Anger with Bates warred with his happiness at being able to see Libby once again. Had she grown more lovely in her absence? Had she lost the beautiful tan that made her brown eyes look gold and her blond hair almost silver? He put his hands on his hips, catching a glimpse of her as the plane pulled to a stop.

  Libby broke into a smile as she carefully stepped down from the plane and into Dan’s arms. His welcoming smile created havoc with her heart as she reached out and fell into his strong embrace.

  “You look wonderful,” he told her, leaning down to capture her parted lips. He pressed his mouth hungrily against her sweet, full lips, tasting her, inhaling her female scent, which mingled with the lilac perfume she always wore. He slid his hand downward, capturing her hip for a moment, pressing her against him, letting her know just how much he had missed her in the intervening months.

  Libby eagerly returned his ardent kiss, finally drawing away. Her clear brown eyes were filled with happiness as she surveyed his craggy, sun-weathered features. “Oh, Dan,” she whispered tremulously, joy in her voice.

  He grinned, giving her a quick hug and reluctantly releasing her. “I like what I see in your eyes, lady. Come on, let’s get your luggage and I’ll fill you in on the way to the main camp.” She had purposely worn jeans, a lavender-colored scoop-neck
T-shirt and sensible shoes. Libby stared at Dan. He looked incredibly virile.

  She breathed deeply of the pine, tamarack and fir as they quickly left the small enclave of civilization behind, following the rugged dirt road that wound up through the surrounding hills. Everywhere she looked the mountains blazed with the vibrant oranges, reds and yellows of autumn. She laughed, reaching out and touching Dan’s broad shoulder.

  “Do you have any idea of how good it is to be back here?”

  Dan’s eyes crinkled with amusement “Judging from the look on your face, I think I do. Welcome home, Lib.”

  “I feel a little guilty, you know,” she confided. “Poor Bates is our excuse for finally getting to see one another.”

  Dan scowled, his brows drawing together in a downward arc. “Bates or no Bates, I had decided before this all broke loose that I was going to fly to San Francisco and kidnap you.”

  Her lips parted in amazement. “You were?”

  Dan nodded, a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. “Yes, ma’am. I was going to surprise you, but Bates beat me to the punch. Besides, I’d much rather spend our time together here in our forest than in a city.”

  She loved his words: their forest. She turned, gazing over at Dan, happier than she had ever been in her life.

  “Will I be meeting with Mr. Bates when we reach the camp?’’

  Dan snorted. “No. He refuses to come out of the interior. He’s camped up on Ridge 256. All we get are these daily calls from that battery-charged radio he backpacked in with, giving us his position and sketchy reports.’’

  “Why won’t he come out?”

  Dan shrugged, anger in his eyes. “He says he’s got a study under way and won’t leave until he’s completed it.”

  “When’s that?”

  “Who the hell knows? He won’t give me an ETA. As a matter of fact, he won’t talk to me at all. He’ll only talk to Chuck Busch, my foreman. Every time I get on the radio, he breaks off contact.’’ Dan ran his strong fingers through his reddish-brown hair in frustration. “Maybe it’s just as well, Libby. Because this time he’s gone off his rocker. There’s never been a condor this far west. I’ve seen condors in Peru and deep in the Andes and I know what they look like. Bates ought to stick to counting bugs instead of trying to pretend he’s a damned ornithology expert.’’