Northern Exposure by Debra Lee Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

Department of Fish and Game made remote assignments like that.” Before she’d left New York, she’d done some checking on the game reserve’s management.
    â€œThey don’t. But when that herd of woodland caribou were discovered out here last year, Fish and Wildlife Protection wanted somebody in the reserve for at least a season. Couldn’t get any takers.”
    â€œSo Joe volunteered.”
    â€œYou got it. First time the two agencies ever collaborated like this. Fish and Wildlife is technically part of the Alaska State Troopers.”
    Wendy remembered Joe’s handgun. “Well, he certainly seems to be into the role, if you know what I mean. He really is a control freak, isn’t he?”
    â€œBig-time. Which is probably the reason heblames himself for Cat’s death. Though I don’t know what he could have done to have stopped it. Cat was a grown woman. He couldn’t keep her under lock and key, now, could he? No matter how much he wanted to protect her.”
    Joe was the protective type. Wendy knew that for a fact from yesterday’s little adventure. She could have made it back to her car last night before dark. She would have been dog tired, but she could have done it. All the same, no way a guy like Joe Peterson would have let her hike all that way on her own.
    â€œHow did Cat die?” she asked.
    â€œDrug overdose. In New York last year. She was a fashion model, just starting out. Got mixed up with the wrong crowd, I guess.”
    â€œOh, God.” Wendy felt as if someone had punched her.
    In her mind she sifted through the faces of the young female models she’d met at parties and industry events. Her own work with Blake had been mostly for men’s magazines like Esquire and GQ. She generally didn’t work with women. She knew she’d never met Cat, but wondered if Blake had.
    â€œI, uh, recognize you from your pictures,” Barb said.
    Wendy’s stomach continued to roll. Even out here in the middle of nowhere, she couldn’t get away from her past.
    Barb shot a glance at the supermarket tabloid sticking out from under a fast-food bag on the dash of the pickup. “They’re still following the story.”
    No wonder Joe Peterson had looked at her as if she were the lowest form of life on earth. Sometimes that’s exactly what she felt like. She wasn’t proud ofsome of the things she’d allowed herself to be sucked into, but that was over now.
    And no wonder he was so angry—at her and himself. Wendy knew Joe was physically attracted to her, and had been from the moment he’d pulled her up onto the rock and saved her life. Once he’d realized who she was—sometime after supper and before bed, she guessed—that attraction would have been hard to reconcile, especially for a man like Joe. Given the way Cat had died, and given what he’d read about Wendy in the papers…
    â€œPull over,” Wendy said, reaching for the door handle. She thought she might be sick.
    â€œJust about to. That’s your rental, isn’t it? A blue Explorer?”
    She nodded, working to keep her breakfast down.
    Stepping out of the truck, Wendy took a few deep breaths and felt better. Fishing the SUV’s keys out of her pocket, she frowned at the driver’s side door. It was unlocked. She was sure she’d locked it.
    â€œEverything okay?” Barb called from her pickup.
    â€œUm, yeah. Fine.” But it wasn’t fine. She was sure she’d locked it. “Barb, about those tabloids…”
    â€œOh, heck, don’t worry about it. No way I believe all the stuff they wrote about you.”
    She tossed her knapsack in the Explorer, then smiled. “Thanks.”
    â€œAll set, then?”
    One last question burned inside her. She had to ask it.
    â€œHow long were they married? Joe and Cat,” she added, when Barb’s thick brows wrinkled in confusion.
    â€œCat