The Last Lone Wolf by Maureen Child Read Free Book Online Page A

Adventure. He’d had as much a part in making the camp successful as Jericho had and they got along fine usually, two men with like minds, though they were separated by nearly two decades in age.
    They were family, Jericho realized. But then, so were all of the guys who worked for him. Misfits mostly—men with no families, nowhere to go. Some had seencombat and didn’t feel comfortable around lots of people. Some had simply yearned for wide-open spaces and a job with fewer restrictions than the nine-to-five route. Whatever their reasons, they’d all come here looking for work and wound up finding a place to call home.
    And until this very moment, he and Sam hadn’t butted heads over anything important in years.
    “She seems like a nice kid, is all,” he was saying. “And I don’t want to think you’re taking her on the mountain just to break her spirit.”
    Jericho felt a rush of irritation swamp him as he looked at one of his oldest friends. The fact that guilt was riding right under that irritation was only more frustrating. Did the man have to read him so well? “Damn it, Sam, I would have thought you’d not only understand but agree with me on this. Did you get a good look at her? You can see for yourself she doesn’t belong here.”
    He snorted and shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “I see nothing of the kind. I see you trying to get rid of a pretty woman because she makes you twitchy.”
    Twitchy didn’t even begin to cover what Daisy did to him, Jericho thought, but damned if he’d admit to it. “Bull. I’m doing this for her, not to her.”
    “Yeah, you can say that all you want, but I’ve known you too long to buy into it.” Sam shook his head and smiled knowingly. “That girl in there gets to you and you don’t like it, so you figure to haul her ass out before she settles in.”
    Another shot too damn close to home, Jericho told himself and wondered if he’d somehow lost his pokerface over the past couple of years of civilian life. Or maybe he was only transparent to people who’d known him so damn long. “It’s not just that—”
    Sam snorted again.
    “Fine, you want me to admit it? She’s hot. Hot enough that I’ve been on edge since she fell onto the lawn practically at my feet.” He scowled into the distance, where the rising sun was just kissing the treetops. “Hell, she’s a walking forest fire. But it’s more than that. I served with her brother. Her dead brother. Now she’s looking to me to provide a kind of link to him or something.”
    “That so bad?” Sam countered. “Everybody needs connections, JK. She lost her brother. Isn’t she entitled to whatever it is she can get from us? From you? Don’t we at least owe her the straight-up chance at getting what she wants?”
    Jericho really hated to be lectured. Especially when the lecturer had a point.
    “I saw you at dinner last night,” Sam went on, his voice a little lower, filled with what almost sounded like understanding. “And off the subject, the girl cooks a mean pot roast—but I saw the way you looked at her.”
    That’s just great, Jericho told himself. He’d gone so far as to be fantasizing over a woman at his dinner table—and doing it obviously enough for others to notice. Just one more reason to get Daisy gone. His legendary control was clearly dissolving, which was something he would not put up with.
    “Drop it, Sam.”
    “I’m not saying I blame you any. She’s a pretty one. But if you’re thinking she’s one of your weekend types,you can think again.” The older man narrowed his eyes. “That’s a good girl. A nice one. And she deserves better than a quick roll in the hay and a one-way ticket off the mountain.”
    He knew that. Knew that Daisy Saxon had “complications” written all over her. It was just part of why he wanted her the hell away from him. He wasn’t looking for complicated. He preferred simple.
    “Sergeant Major,” Jericho grumbled, “when the hell did you turn