past the line of pine and oak trees and—for the first time in his life—officially entered the Everglades. The difference in temperature struck him first. It was much cooler here, the musty, woodsy scent a welcome change from the thick humid air by the road. He’d expected the ground to be wet, slippery like the ditch by the fence. Instead, it was dry and springy beneath his boots, not all that different from the woods behind the house in Saint Augustine where he’d grown up, just a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. But where he’d come from he’d hear waves breaking against the sand, seagulls crying overhead. Here, the night was filled with the deep-throated bass of frogs, and a hissing noise that could have been either insects or cranky reptiles warning him to get out of their territory.
Keeping an eye out for panthers and gators and whatever else thrived in this foreign but starkly beautiful section of Collier County, he continued forward. When he rounded the clump of bushes where he’d seen the reflection, he discovered what he’d both expected and dreaded to find—a car, its dented roof, crumpled hood and crushed front bumper broadcasting the wild ride its driver had endured before the car slammed against an unforgiving tree.
The paint was scratched all to hell, but there was no mistaking the color or the make and model—a maroon Ford Taurus. A glance at the license plate confirmed it was Gillette’s. The day he’d gone missing, it had been raining off and on for hours, which explained the dried mud caked on the half-buried tires. The ground must have been like wet cement when he’d crashed his car in here.
Fully expecting to see a body slumped over the wheel, Jake moved to the driver’s door. But when he shined his light inside, he didn’t see Calvin Gillette or anyone else. The car was empty. The now-deflated air bags must have saved the driver’s life. If there’d been any footprints on the ground beside the car, they’d been scrubbed away by the rain and encroaching swamp before the heat of the past few days had wrestled the water back to its normal boundaries. So where was the driver? Had he gone looking for help and got lost?
He shoved his pistol into the holster on his belt to free his hands. In lieu of the gloves he’d have had if he were on active duty as a police officer, he yanked his shirt out of the waistband of his jeans. Keeping the cloth over his fingers, he opened the driver’s door and grabbed the keys from the ignition. A moment later he popped the trunk. Except for a useless flat tire and some crumpled beer cans, it was empty.
Time to get the local police out here. He pulled out his cell phone as he peered through the driver’s-side window, hoping to see some receipts or a map, anything to indicate where Gillette was headed before the crash.
Bam! The window exploded in a tinkling rain of glass. Jake dropped to the ground. A second bullet slammed into the door.
He cursed and scrambled around the front of the car, taking cover behind the wheel. He drew his gun again, aiming at the dark scrub brush and live oak trees where he’d seen the muzzle flash from the second shot. The moonlight cast deep shadows across the clearing, but he didn’t try to grab his flashlight that had fallen on the ground. He wanted to draw the shooter out, but not by giving him a well-lit target.
“Police!” he yelled. “I can see you hiding behind that bush. Come out, hands up, or I’ll shoot.” He waited, crouched down, both hands gripping the gun. No sound. No movement. Half a minute went by.
Time to give his prey some incentive.
He aimed his pistol well above where the gunman had to be hiding and squeezed off a shot. It boomed through the clearing, hitting a small tree branch, sending a shower of leaves down to the forest floor.
“The next shot will be lower. And there are sixteen more rounds where that one came from.”
Silence. Even the croaking frogs and hissing insects had gone quiet.
“Threatening to shoot me is a lousy way of thanking me,” a voice called out, a distinctly feminine voice with a velvety Southern accent that had Jake raising his brows in surprise.
Had he stumbled across a beauty pageant queen in these woods? Or a debutante? He could easily picture the owner of that silky voice wearing a floor-length gown, sitting on a wraparound porch in the Carolinas, sipping a mint julep.
When the woman stepped out from behind the bushes, reality sucked the air from Jake’s lungs. If there was such a thing as an anti-Southern belle, this astonishing creature was the physical embodiment of it.
Her curve-hugging blouse was Pepto-Bismol pink and was tucked into an equally pink collection of veils, or scarves, forming a semblance of a skirt that hung past her knees. Below the skirt was the only part of her outfit that wasn’t pink—a pair of green camouflage combat boots. She was probably somewhere in her mid-twenties, and at least a foot shorter than Jake. Her waterfall of blond curls hung to her hips, sparkling like burnished gold in the moonlight filtering through the trees. A stray warm breeze lifted one of the gold locks and fluttered it against the muzzle of her rifle, which was pointed up at the dark sky overhead.
Jake pocketed his cell phone that had fallen by the tire before grabbing his flashlight and shining it on her. If she hadn’t just tried to shoot him, he’d have been hard-pressed not to smile at the utterly adorable picture she presented.
He forced himself to focus on the fact that she’d just shot at him. Twice. She was dangerous, at least while she was holding that rifle.
“Toss the weapon,” he ordered.
“That’s not a good idea. There are all kinds of dangers in these woods, especially at night.”
“Now.”
She let out a dramatic sigh and pitched the rifle onto the ground.
“Kick it away from you.”
“Seriously? Do you know how expensive that gun is?”
He didn’t bother to respond to that ridiculous statement.
She pursed her lips, not at all happy about his dictate. But she must have realized she didn’t have a choice because she gave the gun a healthy kick. It slid across the pine needle-strewn forest floor and slammed against the car’s rear tire.
Jake hopped to his feet and quickly closed the distance between them. “Who are you? Why did you shoot at me?”
She squinted and waved toward his flashlight. “Mind pointing that thing somewhere else?”
He relented and turned it just enough so it wasn’t directly on her face.
She cocked her head, studying him. Her emerald green eyes were startlingly similar to the panther’s eyes he’d seen reflected in his car’s headlights earlier. Her outfit reminded him of the carnival gypsies he’d seen at local fairs, except for all the pink. Anyone else might have looked ridiculous in the flamboyant clothes. But, somehow, on her they looked...enchanting. If he’d seen her in a bar he’d be begging for her number and hoping to wind up sharing breakfast with her the next morning.
“Who are you?” he repeated, lowering his weapon. The little sprite certainly wasn’t a threat to a man his size.
She braced her hands on her hips and tilted her head back to meet his gaze. “A local, which you obviously are not.”
“That syrupy accent of yours doesn’t make you sound like a local, either.” He cocked his head, mirroring the same look she’d just given him. “But what makes you think I’m not a local?”
She snorted in a completely unladylike manner. It was hard for Jake not to grin and to maintain his serious look.
“Oh, please,” she said. “You’re oblivious to the dangers around here. You might as well wear a neon sign that says ‘city slicker.’”
Her delightful accent was as intoxicating as her curvy figure. His fingers itched to slide around her tiny waist and pull her against him just to see how the two of them would fit. He gave himself a mental shake. Now was not the time to let his attention wander. He needed to focus. Finding this woman near Gillette’s car couldn’t be a coincidence. She must know something