Branded by Lust: 4 (Night Seekers) by Desiree Holt Read Free Book Online

grinned. “I can follow orders well.”
    He winked at her. “Okay then. Why don’t you wait outside
while I back both of them out and close the doors?”
    When the machines were both out on the snow and idling Logan
handed Rebecca a helmet. She made sure to wind her scarf around her chin first
and pull her knit cap down over her ears. Montana wasn’t that much different
from Maine and the helmet was only so much protection. The wind and cold could
cut your skin to ribbons if you didn’t protect yourself. She noticed that Logan
had taken the same precautions.
    Then they were off, skimming across the packed snow,
zigzagging through the ponderosa pines. At one point Logan stopped, dismounted
to open a gate in what seemed to Rebecca like miles of fencing and closed it
before taking off again. At one point in the distance she could see herds of
cattle and Logan’s hands working with them, mounted on surefooted horses. Other
than that there was no sign of life, not even a lone house or shack. She
wondered exactly how far his ranch actually extended.
    She wasn’t sure how much time had passed but she calculated
about two hours when they reached the foot of a huge slope and began climbing a
roughly marked hiking trail. When they reached a plateau Logan stopped the
machine, turned it off and signaled for her to climb off with him. The craggy
rock was covered with snow and ice and in some spots she could see the opening
of a cave. She shivered, knowing it was exactly the kind of place the
Chupacabra liked to hide when preparing for a kill, and she looked around
cautiously.
    They climbed off the snowmobiles and removed their helmets.
    “This is where they found the bodies of the ranger and the
sheep.” Logan looked around, noticing the same caves Rebecca had. “Too many
hiding places for the beast here.”
    She nodded and took a moment to look at the area beyond
where they stood. She hadn’t realized until this ride that Logan’s land
actually butted up against the beautiful national park. She could see the peaks
of the two ranges that were part of the Continental Divide and she knew cradled
in their hollows were pristine lakes.
    Logan had told her to the east was the Blackfoot
Reservation, home of the original Native Americans to inhabit the area. Logan
had driven all the way across the state to meet with their council when Wade
and Julie had been slain and shortly after them a neighbor had met the same
fate in the same manner. The Blackfoot Council hadn’t shied away from the
strange legend like the sheriff and many of the people in the county had done.
She wondered if he’d go back to talk to them again.
    She startled when he touched her arm.
    “A lot of places for the devil beast to hide around here. And
who’s to say it hasn’t moved to another location now that it’s had its first
fresh kill here?” He pulled a small camera from his jacket pocket and snapped
several shots of the area. “I need to call and talk to Ric. And I have some
questions for him to pass along to Craig. We need a better tracking plan.” He
paused. “Before he kills again. And I’m not sure that’s possible.”
    Rebecca nodded. “Where to now?”
    “Let’s get off this trail and stop for the coffee and
biscuits. I think we can use something hot. Then back to the ranch. I want to
look through the folder Greg left with me last night, study the pictures and
the ranger’s autopsy report. After that I’ll contact Ric. Then I think we need
to take a trip into Kalispell and drop in on the sheriff.”
    * * * * *
    By the time they finished going through the folder and Logan
called Ric their breakfast was just a faint memory.
    “Let’s stop in Overlook for lunch,” Logan suggested as they
pulled away from the ranch in a double cab pickup. “I’ll have a better chance
to pick up gossip than in Kalispell.”
    “Whatever you suggest is fine with me.”
    The Big Horn Saloon seemed to be the gathering place in the
town of less than nine