One marine meets his match on Thunder Mountain

A thrilling Conard County: The Next Generation romance

Archaeologist Renee Dubois is used to digging up the past, not falling headlong into intrigues of the present. But trouble comes her way when she meets former marine Carter Copeland, whose cool-and-collected demeanor contrasts with his lethally sexy looks. As Carter and Renee stumble across a deadly secret, they must race against time to survive.

RACHEL LEE was hooked on writing by the age of twelve and practiced her craft as she moved from place to place all over the United States. This New York Times best-selling author now resides in Florida and has the joy of writing full-time.

Also by Rachel Lee

Conard County Watch

Conard County Revenge

Undercover in Conard County

Conard County Marine

A Conard County Spy

A Secret in Conard County

Conard County Witness

Playing with Fire

Undercover Hunter

Snowstorm Confessions

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Conard County Watch

Rachel Lee

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07931-0

CONARD COUNTY WATCH

© 2018 Susan Civil Brown

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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For Butchie.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter 1

The rosy, early-morning sunlight struck the cliff face in Wyoming at an angle, heightening shadows and shapes. The mystical moment between night and day, when secrets revealed themselves to eyes trained to see.

The cracks and lines in the rock face were mostly sharp, barely weathered in the year since Thunder Mountain had shaken to open up this fresh cleft in its lower slope. Rock had been exposed for the first time in millennia, and with it treasures untold.

Paleontologist Renee Dubois stood somewhat precariously on broken and tumbled rocks at the base of the cliff. The cleft was narrow, one side a thirty-foot-high rock face, the other what she thought of as the tooth, shorter and thinner. The part that had broken away. The narrow space between them gave just enough room in which to work.

With her digital camera, she took photos every fifteen seconds or so, but her eyes were far busier than her camera. Watching the shadows shift as the sun rose revealed an ever-changing view that brought out some shapes as others faded slowly into the background, and filled her with constantly freshening amazement.

Excitement fluttered in the pit of her stomach. When Gray Cloud, an old family friend, had brought her out here last fall to see what the mountain had revealed, she had known in her gut that this was wondrous. Now she looked forward to a whole summer to work on it with the tribe’s permission as long as she took care to observe that this ground was sacred, and as long as she promised to return any human bones to the tribe.

Sixty-five million years at least, she thought, staring at the lower layers that yielded only bits of their secrets. Secrets that may well allow her to prove her pet theory...or that might dash it by the end of the summer. Either way, the outcome would be important. Either way she would learn. Either way she would make some marvelous discoveries with her team.

She shifted a bit on the unsteady stones and balanced herself again, taking photos from a slightly different angle. The light was still changing, but only at times like this could human eyes begin to appreciate just how fast this planet was spinning. In no time at all, full daylight would be born, the shadows would reveal so much less, and the mystery would retreat behind the ordinary.

When Denise arrived, Renee would have her come out here at dawn and sketch this all onto a grid, then match it to the photos. Only when the search area was perfectly documented could they begin to brush away rock and loose dirt.

But something caught her attention, and even though she knew better, she let the camera dangle from its neck strap and pulled a three-inch paintbrush from the rear pocket of her jeans. The bristles were a bit stiff, not too soft to accomplish anything, and she stepped toward the cliff. That little group of straight lines might be an accident, but to her it looked like more.

Brushing gently at them, removing a light layer of grit to bring them into the foreground, she had to force herself to stop as excitement caused her heart to pound. An egg? A cracked one with the fetal tissue showing? My God.

She shoved the paintbrush back into her pocket and took quick photographs, hoping to get a few before the daylight washed it out.

Her hands trembled just a little with her exhilaration and she had to tamp down her eagerness. Every step of this must be done just right or it would all become meaningless. Restraint. She had practiced a lot of it in her career, but for some reason this site endangered her patience.

Hardly noticed, some small rocks tumbled down from above. She wasn’t surprised. This cleft probably still had some settling to do, but she was glad of her hard hat.

She drew a couple of deep breaths, reminding herself of the importance of method and methodology. Man, she’d been doing this work long enough that it kind of surprised her that she wanted to get ahead of herself. Giving in to her urge could simply ruin it all.

The light had begun to turn flatter as the sun rose higher. The minutes of magic had passed. Looking at her feet, she stepped to a firmer perch, ready to resume her study of the revelations.

Gray Cloud was an elder of the local tribe, but he was also known as the Guardian of Thunder Mountain among his people. This was all sacred space to them, and even though her second cousin was married to the man, she had been astonished by the invitation to investigate. This was not a place the local tribe wanted too many outsiders to visit.

Just then, a shadow fell across her and the rock face in front of her. Turning quickly, she saw Gray Cloud. The years and the weather had worn his striking face to a dignified set of lines that emphasized his heritage. The years hadn’t diminished his powerful frame, however. Right now he wore a blue Western shirt with his blue jeans and heavy work boots. His long hair was caught in a tie at the base of his skull.

“Hey,” she said.

He smiled. “Excited still?”

“Beyond words. It’s all I can do to keep my hands to myself.”

“We’re as excited as you are,” he told her. “This history predates our people by millions of years but we’re fascinated, too. That which comes before is a guide to what will come after.”

An interesting perspective, Renee thought, turning her gaze to the rock cliff again. Usually her work didn’t give her the opportunity to indulge in such thoughts. She had to be focused on details, because details added up to the big picture. But this big picture had been followed by a massive extinction event that no one yet fully comprehended. Some had survived. Others had not. Why the differences?

Maybe this site would lend some answers to that. “I’m just so thrilled you showed me this and asked me to work on it. Was that a fight for you?” She understood all the good reasons the tribal elders were reluctant to grant access to sacred areas. Perhaps most importantly, non-natives had a way of disrespecting them. Surely the invitation Gray Cloud had extended to her hadn’t come without some disagreement.

“You are the cousin of my wife,” he said. “I trust you. I know you understand and will make everyone else understand the respect this place requires.”

She nodded and looked at him once again. “Most of my team will be students in training for this. We’re all taught to be respectful of local culture, and I’ll remind them again if necessary. We don’t want to cause you or your people any upset.”

He nodded, then looked up toward the top of the mountain. It was, of course, pretty much concealed by trees, but Renee could have sworn she felt it like a brooding presence.

Her cousin Mercy had warned her. All those years ago she had come to this area to study the returning wolf pack. Here she’d met Gray Cloud. Anyway, Mercy had felt the mountain’s brooding presence, and had spoken of it more than once. Just before Renee came out here, Mercy had called to remind her again. “I swear that mountain is alive.”

Renee wasn’t ready to go that far, but standing here in its shadow beside Gray Cloud, she found it easier to believe. Too bad Mercy was on a field trip in Mexico, because she’d have loved to have her older cousin here.

“You know,” said Gray Cloud, his voice reminding her that she wasn’t alone with the mountain, “understanding is often a matter of perspective. The mountain shook and opened its slope to reveal secrets. You can believe that was a mere accident or you can believe there was purpose. My people believe there was purpose. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my wife is your cousin, either. How convenient to have a paleontologist in the family.”

She let a small laugh escape. “Very convenient. I’m not going to argue with you, Gray Cloud. As a scientist, I subscribe to a different set of beliefs.”

“I know, but to some extent they’re still beliefs. This cleft wasn’t part of an earthquake. It just split open.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Make of that what you will. It’s going to be an exciting journey of discovery regardless of what either of us believes about the cause of the cleft.”

She couldn’t disagree with that. Nor did she want to be disrespectful. Gray Cloud had shown her an extraordinary amount of trust by bringing her here and giving her permission to pull together a team and start peeling back the layers in that rock face. Her fellow professionals dreamed of such opportunities.

“Did you notice anything yet?” he asked.

Her excitement level rose again as she pointed. “That looks like an egg with the fetus still in it. When we work it out, we’ll know.”

“It could help prove your theory.”

“That these saurians actually lived in family groups? It could. Either way we’re going to learn an awful lot.” She raised her gaze, scanning the rock yet again. “There’s so much here, Gray Cloud. I’ll have to figure out what happened here long ago to leave so many fossils behind.”

“Maybe the mountain swallowed them.”

Her gaze snapped toward him and she saw that he was smiling, but behind that smile were worlds of possibilities she didn’t accept. Before she came to paleontology, as an undergrad she’d studied quite a bit of anthropology. She had some grasp of how important mysticism was to the human race. She wasn’t going to question his. Still, the mysteries those dark eyes seemed to offer made her aware that there might be some things missing in her logic-oriented life.

Then, almost abruptly, she realized she’d been missing an important part of the morning. Closing her eyes, she listened to the breeze ruffle the treetops so far above, and to a chorus of birdsong that sounded happy to be alive.

Excited as she was to be here, the natural world reminded her that it still existed and that it was beautiful.

“Renee?”

A distant cry floated up the side of the mountain. She recognized the voice. “Up here, Cope. Do you need me to come down?”

“Nah, I can find you.”

Carter Copeland was a college professor of history who’d been a friend of hers since he left the Marine Corps behind over a year before. They’d met at a conference and had kept in touch with irregular emails. The instant she told him about this project, he volunteered. Not exactly a paleontologist, but he said he learned fast, and he was willing to do the most menial of jobs. Better yet, he’d told her with a laugh, he was free so she could apply her grant money to more important matters. Considering how small most grants were, she felt no urge to look a gift horse in the mouth. Anyway, most of her interns would need to learn a lot, too.

Waiting for him, she allowed her eyes to look higher than the rock face, into the sunlight-dappled trees that swayed so gently, catching sight of a small bird winging from one branch to another. Idyllic. Soon to become an active swarm of people at work.

At last she could hear the sound of feet on the scree just below, then Carter Copeland emerged into the clearing.

The Marine Corps had put him in a physical condition that any man would have envied. Broad shoulders, narrow flanks, flat belly. Even in khaki work clothes he looked damn sexy. A cowboy hat rode his head, shadowing his face, but Renee didn’t need a clear view to fill it in. A strong jaw, a straight nose, cheeks carved by his past experiences. Amazingly blue eyes. He was only in his late thirties, but experience at war sometimes made him seem far older. Right now, however, he was smiling and looking as if he’d enjoyed the steep climb.

As he stepped farther into the clearing, he paused and stared at the rock face. “My God. That’s incredible! And you said it just opened up? It’s like something out of Aladdin.”

Then he caught himself and turned to Gray Cloud, offering his hand. “We’ve met a few times before. Good to see you again, Gray Cloud. As you can tell, Renee’s been kind enough to let me do some basic tasks around here.”

Gray Cloud smiled and shook his hand.

“You’re Renee’s cousin by marriage, right? And the wonder worker who got her permission to explore this.”

Gray Cloud nodded and Cope returned his attention to the vertical fossil bed.

“Incredible,” he said again. “To think that no one’s laid eyes on this for millions of years. Well, obviously.” He laughed, his blue eyes dancing a bit. “Weren’t any humans around in the Late Cretaceous. But what an opportunity! It’s like the mountain swallowed up a chunk of history and then decided to spit it out for exploration.”

Renee’s gaze jumped to Gray Cloud and saw the humor in his dark eyes. “My thought exactly,” he said.

“Two against one,” Renee said lightly.

“What do you mean?” Cope asked.

Gray Cloud answered. “She doesn’t believe the mountain has purpose. Or sentience.”

“Ah.” Cope looked at her. “In theory, neither to do I. But can you think of a better way to explain this?”

Renee sighed, letting go of a difference of opinion that would have no resolution. “I’ll let you know. In the meantime, all I can say is that Mercy, my cousin, would agree that this mountain is...”

“Sentient,” said Gray Cloud.

Renee fake-scowled at him, making him laugh. He patted her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Renee. That’s when you should be bringing your team up here, yes?”

“Yes,” she agreed. “We’re supposed to gather at the diner in Conard City this evening and plan our next steps.”

“Then I’ll see you in the morning. Nice to meet you, Cope.”

Then Gray Cloud strode away, melting into the forest’s shadows quite quickly.

Cope looked at her from those amazing blue eyes. “Were you two having a disagreement?”

She shook her head. “He’s a mystic, I’m a scientist. Those disagreements don’t mean much as long as we treat his and his tribe’s beliefs with total respect.”

“I don’t have a problem with that. When I was overseas in the Corps, I saw plenty of disrespect for people’s monuments and treasures. I hated it. And I might as well disappoint you and tell you that in the mountains of Afghanistan I sometimes felt those towering rocks were aware.”

He moved, and for the first time she realized he was wearing a backpack. He swung it from his shoulders and set it on the ground. “So we can’t touch yet, only look, right?”

“Right. All the groundwork has to be laid.”

“Well, it’s early. In the military I learned to eat whenever I had the opportunity, and I just happened to have a bunch of goodies in my pack. Join me?”

She’d been in such a hurry to get up here before dawn this morning she hadn’t brought any food or beverages with her. After all, she figured she’d be here for a couple of hours at most, taking photos.

But Cope opened a tall insulated bottle and the aroma of coffee won the day. “That smells so good.”

“And I just happen to have two cups. Grab a stone to sit on, Renee.”

Five minutes later he’d found another flat rock to use as a table. She watched with delight as he laid out two cups of coffee from his bottle and some paper containers from the bakery that held offerings of cinnamon rolls and croissants. Pats of butter lined the containers and plastic knives waited to help.

“This is so neat,” she said honestly. “You thought of everything.”

“I try. Anyway, about this site. I gather that it’s sacred and secret?”

“I’m not sure how secret it is, but I don’t think Gray Cloud wants it headlined. It is sacred ground to his people, and they don’t want it being trampled by lookie-loos.” She waved her arm. “Look how narrow this space is. We’re going to have trouble working in here, never mind having outsiders trampling through. Then, there’s a river below. All this rock couldn’t have moved without throwing detritus to the bottom. That’ll all have to be checked out, too.”

He swallowed a mouthful of roll. “I can see that. It’s weird how this split, though.” He looked along the length of the cleft in both directions. “I’m guessing years of freezing water in some crack eventually levered it apart. But it feels like something is missing right in the middle.”

She gave him props for noticing. Narrow as the cleft was, there was still enough flat ledge to stand on and work. Rockfall must have filled in the space between the wall and what she thought of as the “tooth.” Her geologist could figure that out, though.

“Apart from that, you want to protect the cliff face. Are you going to have any kind of security?”

Her head jerked up a little. “Security? Why in the world?”

He looked down a moment, then grabbed a paper napkin and wiped his mouth. After some noticeable seconds, he answered. “You haven’t had a whole lot of time to get to know me, so maybe I’ll sound paranoid. Maybe I am. I saw too much of this kind of thing wantonly destroyed during my time in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m not saying someone is going to have a religious objection to these fossils—although it’s possible—but there could also be looters. You don’t want folks coming up here to scavenge a dinosaur tooth or bone.”

He had a point. It wasn’t something she’d considered because of the comparative secrecy of this site, but once her team started arriving, word was going to get around this underpopulated area. Most would probably just accept it as interesting, but it was easy enough to imagine those who’d want a piece of it. And all they’d have to do would be to follow one of her team up here.

Now she felt careless not to think of it. How many sites of this nature often needed some kind of protection? Many, because Cope was correct: an awful lot of people wanted a fossil, especially if it might be unique in some way.

“My grant doesn’t run to full-time security,” she said reluctantly.

“I don’t suppose it does.” He sighed, popped the last of his roll into his mouth and wiped his hands on the napkin. “I’m probably needlessly worried. Consider where I came from not so long ago.”

But he’d caused her to think along a whole new line, and when she looked up at that rock face, she could all too easily imagine how much damage could be done to it by a careless and uncaring person. “I’d better mention this to Gray Cloud. He can probably keep an eye out better than my team could.”

“He may already be doing it. Sacred ground is an important thing.”

There was that, she agreed silently. But she’d still mention the concern to Gray Cloud. In one way they were completely united: this site mustn’t be disrespected.

“I didn’t mean to cast a cloud over the day,” Cope remarked. “Enjoy your roll and enjoy the view. That rock face is breathtaking.”

“You should have seen it in the minutes after dawn,” she answered, willing to change the subject and let her enthusiasm grow again. “The march of the shadows revealed so much. I have a bunch of photos I can show you later, if you want. And someone is sure going to be out here in the morning to start laying out a grid. Her name’s Denise. She should arrive this afternoon. Anyway, she’s a great artist, and by the time she finishes we’ll have a fantastic drawing as well as a grid to work from.”

“So everything has to be labeled as to where it comes from?”

“Totally. The rock layers will help date everything. I’m hoping they’ll also tell me why so many fossils are here in this place. You know Wyoming is full of marvelous fossil beds, but this find...it looks rather sudden. Too many bones too close together.”

“Some kind of catastrophe,” he mused, reaching for another roll.

“I’m wondering.” The coffee was staying warm in the insulated mug he’d poured it into, and she settled more comfortably, savoring it and savoring her view of the cliff. “I think I’m obsessed.”

“Hard not to be obsessed with a mystery like this.” He scooted around a little on his rock to give himself a better view, staring straight at it. “When you described it to me, I had a mental image, of course. It wasn’t anywhere near as grand as this.”

“It keeps taking my breath away, again and again.” She placed her remaining piece of roll on the edge of the container, wiped her fingers on her jeans and raised her camera again. Photographing this throughout the day today was rapidly becoming a compulsion, almost as if she was afraid it would disappear overnight. Well, it probably could, if the mountain moved again.

“How stable is this cleft?” Cope asked, practically reading her mind.

“Gray Cloud brought me to see it last autumn when I was visiting my cousin up here. It’s been stable that long. But one of our team is a geologist. She’ll be better able to tell me the situation with the matrix.”

“Matrix?”

“The rock the fossils are buried in. What kind of rock, how hard it is, whether it’s going to crumble if we use dental tools or defy us so much we need a jackhammer.”

That elicited a laugh from him, a pleasant sound on the warming morning air. “A jackhammer, huh?”

She lowered the camera, smiling. “Wouldn’t be the first time. You just have to take out huge slabs without troubling anything else. But this scene is so different, everything so close together. We’d better be able to use brushes and small tools or we’re just going to have to cover it with a protective sealant and study it from the face only.”

“That would be disappointing.”

“To say the least. Preservation first, however.” She paused, then added, “Speaking of stability, however, everyone needs to wear hard hats up here. While I was taking photos this morning, some small rocks fell from above. I’d hate for anyone to get beaned by something bigger.”

“Of course. It’s a simple precaution.” He leaned back a bit, propping himself on one arm as she helped herself to more coffee. “I’m the historian, right? I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know a whole lot about paleontology or archaeology. What I do know is how many travesties occurred in the past thanks to the first explorers around the world who saw these kinds of sites, and tombs and ancient cities, as a treasure trove to be taken and carelessly cataloged.”

She nodded, liking him more by the minute. “Sadly true. Egypt is still trying to recover artifacts from private owners and museums.”

“I know. Trying to reassemble an impressive history.” He smiled, his blue eyes bright. “So I’m glad to work with someone like you who understands how wrong that would be, sacred site or no. I saw enough looting in the Middle East to jam in my craw. I get people are poor, but the history they’re digging up and selling will never be replaced. And finding items in situ is so important to understanding them.”

“Amen to that.” She turned a bit on her rock, looking toward the other side of the cleft. Considering the tall rock face behind it, it seemed odd there was just that thin wall of rock, maybe ten feet high, facing it. Small, but it might hold treasures. Some of the split must have tumbled downward to a stream some thirty feet below, which was lined on the far side with trees. More rock had probably crumbled into the fill layer on which she was sitting. The stream below would be useful in their attempts to screen for tiny artifacts, and of course they’d have to study the tumbled rock for remnants. But still the geography appeared odd. She’d have to ask Claudia about that when she arrived. The geologist could probably explain what had happened here.

Maybe a cleft hadn’t really opened up. Maybe there’d been a rockfall on just this side only. But Gray Cloud had talked about it opening. As she sat there studying the terrain, she wondered briefly if Gray Cloud was right, if this was more than just a happy chance. Again the sense of the mountain looming over her tickled her deep inside, a sort of uneasy fluttery feeling.

But no, she wasn’t about to go down that path. This whole expedition had to be based on science, not strange feelings.

“You look troubled,” Cope remarked.

She glanced at him, realizing she had forgotten about him for so long that the hot coffee in her insulated mug had begun to cool noticeably. The air had warmed from the rising sun as well. Not enough to make her shed her jacket yet, but it wouldn’t be long.

“I’m not troubled, exactly,” she answered. “It’s just that this cleft is odd. I’ll need to ask Claudia about it when she gets here. Or maybe it’s nothing unusual at all, just a problem with my understanding of how Gray Cloud described it.”

“That’s possible. Different cultures and all that.”

He sat up and poured himself some more coffee, taking one of the remaining rolls.

Curiosity about something besides old bones awoke in her. “How much did you immerse yourself in the local cultures when you were...over there?”

“As much as I could.” His gaze grew distant. “Know your enemy and all that. Except most of the people weren’t our enemies at all. They were ordinary people who were trying to live an ordinary life in the midst of chaos. I was lucky to have a facility with languages so I could even make some friends.” He seemed to shake himself, then his gaze fixed on her again. “Ever seen a goat climb a vertical rock face?”

The change of subject was startling. She guessed he was trying to shake off memories he’d awakened. “Can’t say I have.”

“They’re amazing. They’d climb up and down those rocks as if they were level. Even the smallest of them are good at it. There was a day when I was an outpost, and I watched them for hours. Walking and jumping like it was nothing at all. A human rock climber wouldn’t be able to do it like that on his or her best day.”

That turned her attention back to the rock face. “I wonder if the mountain goats will try that wall?” The idea worried her. So much possible damage.

“I think they stay at higher elevations. Anyway, there’s nothing they’d want on that rock. Nothing growing, and probably not enough salt to make it appealing. It just reminded me of them.”

She smiled at him, glad she’d allowed herself to invite him to join her team. They might not have a crying need for a historian, but he probably had a lot of good stories to tell, and his perspective on the past could be useful.

Impatience began to tickle her again. God, how she wanted to start excavating those bones. It would be such a painstaking process, to do it correctly, that she couldn’t imagine being very far along by the end of the summer. Almost before she would know it, they’d be covering up all that history to protect it from snow, wind and rain. To keep it pristine. To prevent site contamination.

It had survived the past winter with little protection, if any. No reason to get worked up about next winter. “Dang,” she said suddenly. “I’m such a worrywart. Already planning how we’re going to protect this face from next winter. Heck, it made it through the last winter.”

“Unless the mountain decides to shake, I doubt it’s going anywhere.”

She returned her attention to him. “You’re an odd man, Carter Copeland.”

He flashed a charming grin. “Blame it on my past. I’ll never be ordinary again. So much the better if I deal with life with humor. So.” He paused. “Who all is going to be part of this team?”

“Claudia Alexander I already mentioned. She’s a geology postdoc who’s curious to find out why there are so many fossils here.”

“How come? Apart from a disaster happening all at once.”

“Fossilization is a rare thing, believe it or not. Special conditions are required, and nothing can disturb them for a long, long time. That’s why we actually have so few fossils, although you probably wouldn’t believe it when you go to a museum. In fact, when you go to a museum and look at those big statues of, say, a tyrannosaur, you’re seeing a lot of fake bones. Partly because we don’t have complete skeletons, and partly because the real fossilized bones are usually radioactive from all the centuries buried in the ground. When we display a genuine bone, we give it a coating of lead paint.”

Oh, she had his interest now. His gaze became piercing and she could almost sense the thoughts running around inside his head. “I never guessed that.”

“Most people don’t.” She set down her cup, pulled the band from her ponytail, and scooped her long auburn hair into a fresh one beneath the bottom of her yellow hard hat. “People think of the ground beneath their feet as this totally benign floor. But you dig deeper into it and you start to find all kinds of poisonous heavy metals. Some are very useful to us, but few of them are safe for extended exposure. For an example, I’ve seen tailings piles from mines that were over a century old where not even a blade of grass could grow.”

He nodded. “So we shouldn’t stand too close to that rock face.”

She laughed quietly. “Open air and all that. But yeah, you should shower at night, and when we start working on it, we’ll wear dust masks as a precaution. I doubt any part of that is radioactive enough to make someone sick, but why chance it when we’re going to be exposed all summer?”

“I agree.” He drained his coffee cup, then asked, “Okay, a geologist is joining the team. Any other paleontologists?”

“For right now, interns. Mostly grad students, some of them mine.”

At that moment her attention was drawn by a sound at the east end of the cleft, from within the trees. Gray Cloud? Not likely. That man moved with enviable silence. Who then?

After a half minute or so, a figure emerged from the trees into the clearing not far from the rock face. Renee wasn’t certain anyone else was allowed here, so she stood at once.

Cope apparently picked up on her unease and stood too, calling out, “Could you hold it there, please?”

The rider stopped. “Sorry if I’m disturbing. I’m Loren Butler from the ranch to the south. I heard something was going on up here and wanted to check it out.”

Renee chewed her lip. Was she going to have to defend this site from everybody who decided to take a ride?

“This is tribal land,” she called back. “Sacred. We have permission to work here. Do you?”

The man chuckled. He tipped back his head a little, revealing a pleasant face as the sun slipped beneath the brim of his cowboy hat. “Nope,” he said frankly. “I heard there was some kind of rockslide up here last summer. Frankly, it’s a weird-looking one. Not exactly a cleft like Gray Cloud said. Or maybe part of the cleft is broken. Guess I won’t find out today. You can tell the elders I was here. I prefer to stay on good terms with my neighbors. But you can also tell them I was curious about what exactly happened.”

He paused, then added, “Just a couple miles south of me, on Thunder Mountain, they had rockslides a few years back ago that put a halt to building a ski resort. Makes you wonder if Gray Cloud ain’t right about this mountain having a brain. See ya.”

He turned his horse with a few clucks of his tongue and rode slowly back into the woods.

“I guess he has a reason to be curious,” Cope remarked. “If the mountain’s going to get busy making rockfalls, he might have something to worry about.”

But Renee’s thought had turned in a different direction. “It was a cleft.”

Cope turned to face her. “Was?”

“Last fall I was visiting my cousin and Gray Cloud brought me up here to show me.” She turned, taking care with the placement of her feet. “Right now it looks like a slide,” she said, pointing toward the rock face, “but when he showed it to me last fall, there was a narrow cleft in the rock, just enough for one person to walk through. The part to this side, where you can see the creek below, was thin but still tall and upright. It didn’t contain anything interesting I could see, so I wasn’t upset when I came back this year to discover that part of the top of the narrow piece had apparently crumbled. Gives us more room for work.” She shrugged. “But we’re still going to have to check all the stuff that fell below as well as what’s beneath us in the cleft.”

“Obviously,” he agreed. “What about farther up, like that guy just mentioned?”

“He’s right. It’s more of a cleft beyond those trees there, but you can’t tell if it all happened at once. Maybe Claudia will be able to. Regardless, I looked at it last fall and it didn’t appear promising. Which doesn’t mean I won’t check it out anyway.”

Cope fell silent, and Renee continued to stare at the rock face, but her thoughts were moving through time, not space. “You know,” she said after a minute, “it’s really weird that part of that narrow wall of rock collapsed like that.”

She fixed her gaze on Cope. “It’s almost as if someone deliberately knocked it down. As if they wanted samples and disturbed more than they intended.”

She watched Cope’s face darken, but he didn’t respond. Of course not. He was the one who had suggested security that she couldn’t afford. On the other hand, who the hell would want anything from here other than a cool fossil? And freeing something from the rock would take many hours. The most any trophy hunter could have hope of finding was something that was already loose.

That hardly required full-time rent-a-cops.

Another bunch of small rocks tumbled down from above. “Let’s get your hard hat,” she said. “Then I need to think about how we can stabilize the top of that wall.”

“I’ve got some ideas.”

She didn’t doubt it for a moment.

Chapter 2

The plan was to start off small, but the group didn’t feel all that small when they gathered at Maude’s diner that night, some meeting others for the first time.

There were Larry, Maddie and Carlos, all undergrad interns. Then there were Bets, Mason and Denise, her three graduate interns. And last but not least, Claudia Alexander, the geology postdoc, a woman with short, no-nonsense dark hair and huge gray eyes that seemed almost too big for her face. She stuck out among a group of young people who seemed almost blended in their similarities. That would change as Renee got to know them all better, but for now she hoped no one expected to be called by name.

“Okay.” She decided some honesty might be helpful up front. “I’m terrible with names. I’ll recognize your faces for the rest of my life, but give me time with your names. I’m better at identifying fossils.”

Laughter rolled around the tables that had been pulled together with the permission of the diner’s owner, Maude. In fact, Maude was already pouring coffee all around with a great deal of clatter and frowning. A couple of Renee’s interns looked intimidated by this, but once Cope ordered a dinner for himself, suggesting they all do the same if they were hungry, they relaxed. Maude, he told them sotto voce, was a local character.

Renee had met the woman last summer and was prepared for the graceless service they were receiving. Still, it was nice to know everyone was a target.

Soon they had ordered a meal from the menus. Young, active, with healthy appetites. Not surprising. Renee ordered a steak sandwich along with the majority, knowing it would probably be too much to eat, but once the dig got under way they’d all be working long hours, most of them physical. In her experience, on a dig like this, most people lost a bit of weight. You ate while you could. Soon enough they’d all be sick of beans heated on the portable stoves.

“I’m going to run over the basics again,” she said when everyone was served and eating. Playful conversation had been rather desultory as the interns tried cautiously to feel one another out. “We’re guests on tribal lands. Invited guests. That invitation will last only as long as we honor our hosts and their customs. Only as long as we treat the land as sacred, because believe me, the tribe believes that mountain is sacred. Tomorrow you’ll probably meet Gray Cloud, who is the Guardian of the Mountain in their culture, and one of the tribal elders.”

She paused, looking around the table, assessing the expressions on the many youthful faces. At this point she saw nothing to trouble her.

“I’m sure you all studied enough anthropology to know that the beliefs of local people are always to be respected, and your personal opinion of them does not matter. The local indigenous believe that Thunder Mountain, the mountain we’ll be working on, is sentient. You don’t have to believe that. You must respect it as if it is true, however. If one of the local tribe members tells you not to do something, stop at once. We can always talk with them if it’s something necessary, but in the meantime just stop. Trust me, when you see the rock face and fossils that are visible right now, you’ll fully understand what a tragedy it would be to find ourselves shut down because we were careless of their beliefs. Got it?”

Heads around the table nodded. All those earnest young faces. She sincerely hoped their youth wouldn’t result in any kind of hijinks. “It’s time to act like the professionals you want to be. I’m counting on you. Questions?”

The youngest guy at the table, Larry, she thought, waggled his hand for her attention as he finished chewing a mouthful of food. She waited patiently.

He took a swallow of cola, then spoke. “How can a mountain be alive?”

“The essence is really quite simple. The indigenous people believe that consciousness exists in everything, from the trees to the stones. It’s not limited to animals that run around. While the consciousness may be different from what we know ourselves, it still exists. Mother Earth, for example, is a living being, too.”

“Okay,” Larry answered slowly.

“Always give thanks for the gifts of nature.”

She smiled. “Think about that before we go out to the site in the morning. The very stones will hear you, according to local tradition. The stones, the trees, the birds, the running water. If you at least make an effort to respect that, we might get through the summer.”

The group fell silent as they pondered what she had said and thought about the summer ahead. Good. This was their last chance to change their minds while she could possibly find replacements. Plus, she wanted them to be very aware of the delicacy of their situation here. It would kill her if this expedition fell apart because they thought she was exaggerating the cultural limitations.

At least no one argued with her, and no one tried to play “rules lawyer” by looking for a loophole in what she had said. That might be very promising.

Conversation shifted to what they hoped they might see tomorrow, and what kind of discoveries might await them. Renee let them ramble and build up their own excitement, but didn’t join in. She hadn’t told very many about the potential size of this find lest she wind up with the paleontological equivalent of “claim jumpers.” Yeah, really, other professionals might try to grab the site for themselves.

So for now she remained mostly mum and not even the members of her team had any real idea of what was out there. Tomorrow, when they saw that rock face for the first time, they’d probably light up like the Fourth of July. Not many got an opportunity like this.

Enjoying her secret for the last few hours, Renee smiled and listened to the conversation. After they’d all finished eating and the bills began to arrive, she reminded them that they’d meet here at seven in the morning.

Watching them scatter in the general direction of the La-Z-Rest Motel, which was clean if outdated, Renee remarked to Cope, “I hope we have enough four-by-fours to get them up there.”

“We can sort it out in the morning,” he said reassuringly. “Make two trips if necessary. How early will you be going?”

“Well before dawn. I’ll take Denise to start drawing. The shadows reveal so many mysteries.”

“I’ll see you then.”

She watched him drive off, wondering vaguely where he lived, then climbed into her own battered vehicle and headed for the motel.

She pondered if she should take her camping gear with her tomorrow and just plan on staying on the mountain. She hadn’t much worried about it before, but that unexpected visit from a neighbor had bothered her a bit.

Word was getting around Conard County, and from what Mercy had told her over the years, news spread like wildfire around here. Maybe they needed to have someone there all the time. Mentally she began to calculate their budget, and whether it would run to enough tents and sleeping bags. They already had folding tables, propane stoves, lanterns... Well, half a camp, anyway.

Yeah, maybe she should leave her camping equipment in the back of her truck and get some help hauling it up the mountain tomorrow. Then she could shepherd them all through filling in their own blanks for camping out there.

Then, making a final decision could wait for tomorrow. She headed toward her room at the motel and tried not to think too much about Cope.

Nice guy, but every time she looked at him her thoughts wanted to wander far away from her purpose. She was here to collect dinosaur bones, not a gorgeous hunk.

But man, he was definitely a hunk.

Laughing at herself, she parked in front of the motel.

* * *

Cope headed back to the apartment he rented in the complex on the edge of town. There’d been a small building boom when the semiconductor plant had arrived years ago. Then the plant had picked up stakes, a lot of people had moved away, and these days you could pretty much have your choice of apartments in these four buildings. Not that there was a whole lot of difference among the units. One-and two-bedrooms were the most common, with a few three-bedrooms being the biggest. He’d chosen a two-bedroom with two baths and was content.

He especially enjoyed standing under the hot spray of the shower. It was his first goal when he came home tonight. The fossil site had been dusty and the grit had clung to his skin in places. He supposed he was going to get used to that. He had in his former life with the Marines.

Which was exactly what made a hot shower one of the greatest luxuries in his life now. To be able to stand under hot water and wash himself clean? Heck, he was probably an addict.

As he stood under the spray letting soap and shampoo rinse off him, his thoughts turned to the fossil site and most especially Renee Dubois. She was a pistol, that one. Not a shy bone in her body, and he suspected she’d protect the dig site like a mother bear with a cub.

Pretty, too. Well, more than pretty. He’d always liked auburn hair, but hers was accompanied by a pair of green eyes that seemed to be lit from within. Totally unusual.

From what he’d seen today, she was strong and determined. She’d even been ready to face down that curious neighbor and had flatly told him he was on tribal land without permission.

Yeah, a lot of people might have been reluctant to do that. However, the guy’s arrival had seemed odd. It was Renee’s first day at the site, and surely the man who owned the neighboring ranch had better things to do with his time, and surely the news of the excavation couldn’t have traveled the grapevine this fast? After a bit more than a year here, Cope had no trouble grasping how fast interesting news could make the rounds in this county, but this beat all. A day? Usually it took a death or a major fire to hit warp speed on the rumor mill. Unless a tribal member had mentioned it a while back. Or maybe the motel owner. They’d surely rented enough rooms for the group.

Still it seemed a bit strange, although Butler had left easily enough.

But being a fairly normal man, he soon forgot his inventory of Renee as a potential warrior and returned to his inventory of her as a woman. He suspected she’d object mightily to such thoughts, with every right. But he neither needed to act on them, nor needed to reveal them.

Instead as he stood in his hot shower, he could remember her lifting her arms to regroup her hair. Her breasts had been suggestively outlined by the T-shirt she wore under her unzipped jacket. Full, but not too full. Nicely rounded. Inviting.

All of her was female, though. He’d walked behind her on her way down the mountain and had been able to tell she wasn’t afflicted by the need to be so thin it had to be unhealthy. No, she had a good set of hips, a nicely rounded bottom and a bit of a sway to her step.

She was also graceful as she navigated the broken and unsteady terrain. A woman in command of her body.

He liked that. Hell, he liked her. And if he were smart, he’d just leave it at that. He’d volunteered to work this dig because of a huge curiosity and a desire for the experience. What he didn’t want to do was blow himself out of the water by expressing too much interest in the team leader. By making her uncomfortable.

The Marines had taught him self-control. Time to use it.

But then his thoughts drifted toward that unexpected visitor again. The neighbor. The man on horseback continued to trouble Cope, though he had no reason to explain it. It was just so soon after Renee’s arrival. Too soon.

Maybe Butler had just wandered that way out of curiosity, not knowing whether anyone was there, having heard about the new cleft. It was possible.

But Cope had spent too many years in a uniform in dangerous places to just dismiss the guy. He couldn’t imagine any reason the man could become a problem, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a reason.

If he showed up again... Cope told himself to let it drop unless something else happened. He’d spent too long at war, and didn’t even trust his own suspiciousness any longer. Paranoia, he told himself.

Cope reached out and reluctantly turned off the water and reached for a towel. Renee planned to get out there before dawn. He’d better get his sleep so he could follow along and be useful.

* * *

Over at the motel, Renee had taken Denise to her own room to talk. The room itself was pleasant enough, although it showed its age. The days when rough wood paneling on walls had been charming were long ago. The blue-checked curtains looked nearly worn out over the mini blinds; the chair and table in one corner might have been used as modern in a 1950s sitcom. The bedspread was a brown-and-blue plaid. But, Renee admitted, it was spotlessly clean as far as she could tell.

Denise followed her in and perched on the edge of the bed.

Renee spoke as she closed the door. “In the morning, before dawn, I want you to come up with me to the site. I don’t have to tell you what the early light does to shadows.”

“Heck no,” said Denise. Her artistic ability was one of her biggest entrées into this world. “Got any photos for me?”

Renee handed over her camera and flipped it to begin a slide show. Then she went to the bathroom and used the motel’s cheap coffeemaker to brew some for the two of them. At least there was more than one packet of coffee on the counter.

“Wow,” she heard Denise breathe. “Renee, you gave me no idea!”

“I didn’t want too much information getting out. You know of Dr. Bradley?”

Denise glanced up. “The site thief? Everyone’s heard of him. I’m sure he’s not the only one.”

“Exactly. Once we’re established I won’t feel it’s as important to keep a shroud over all this, but in the meantime... I’m thinking of camping out there.”

Denise nodded as she continued to watch the slide show. “This looks revolutionary, Renee. Maybe we all ought to camp out there.”

Renee gave a quiet laugh. “Nice idea, but once we start working we’re not going to have a whole lot of extra room. Maybe we can establish a base camp farther down the mountain. I’ll have to ask Gray Cloud.”

The slide show came to an end and Denise looked at her. “Gray Cloud is really your cousin?”

“By marriage. My cousin Mercy is a wildlife biologist. She met him on Thunder Mountain a couple of decades ago when she was studying the wolf pack up there. If you ask her if the mountain is sentient, I’m pretty sure she’ll say yes.”

“And you?”

Renee shrugged. “I’m not here to judge. I’m here in the hope that I can prove a theory of mine. Or disprove it, as the case may be. And that fossil bed is so rich it ought to provide a whole lot of answers, plus new questions.”

Denise nodded and put the camera down. “So you want me to sketch all this before we start poking around? With measurements and a grid so every find can be localized?”

“Exactly,” Renee said, filling two cups with coffee and walking through the door to perch on the edge of the bed.

Denise accepted the coffee and sat cross-legged, clearly thinking. Her gray sweater and blue jeans signified she was used to a far warmer climate. Renee was happy in her T-shirt and jeans.

“Okay,” Denise said presently. “You’ve got your whole team here, right?”

“At least for the start, yes. We may need more later, depending.”

“How would it be if you choose the part of the face where you’d most like to start working? Then I can start the grid there and work outward, so you can get started quickly. All I’d need to do is take a quick survey of the entire face, measurements and so on, so I’d know where I’ll eventually be heading.”

Renee felt her excitement bubbling up again. “I didn’t think we’d be able to start so soon!”

Denise grinned. “It might still be a couple of days. It’s just that the whole grid doesn’t need to be done first.”

Renee felt lighter somehow, as if realizing she might be able to get to work sooner had lifted some kind of load.

Denise picked up the camera again and restarted the slide show. “This is amazing, Renee. Just amazing. Early-morning light?”

“To get the best use of shadows.”

Denise nodded. “Can you get me out there before dawn tomorrow? You can show me where you want to start, and I can begin sketching until we’ve got enough light to do measurements.”

Renee wanted to agree immediately, but she had a slight problem, namely seven members of her team who were planning to meet for breakfast and follow her out to the site. Then she thought of Cope. “Just a sec.”

She had his phone number filed on her laptop because she’d talked to him maybe a half dozen times in the planning stages. Gray Cloud had approved of him when she mentioned Cope wanted to participate, which she took as a good sign.

She picked up her cell and called Cope. “This is Renee. Sorry to bother you but I need a small favor.”

“Sure,” he answered. On the phone his voice sounded smooth and warm.

“I need to go out to the site before dawn in the morning with Denise. The rest of the team is supposed to meet at the diner at seven for breakfast and then follow me. Can you gather them up and show them the way?”

“Oh, I think I can do that,” he drawled, a hint of laughter in his voice. “But man, it’ll be so hard to corral all that youthful energy.”

“Like you don’t do it in a classroom all the time.”

“That’s why I have my doubts.” Then his tone turned serious. “No problem, Renee. I’m the gofer on this job. If you think of anything else, let me know.”

“Gallons of coffee?”

He laughed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Oh, and Cope? I have hard hats for everyone in the back of my car, so when you get them out there, make sure everyone wears one.”

“Now that I can do.”

She disconnected and looked at a grinning Denise. “Done. We’ll have to leave about three tomorrow morning, though. Bring a warm jacket and get as much sleep as you can.”

Denise unfolded and stood. “I was excited when you asked me to do this, but after looking at your photos I’m so impatient I can hardly tell you. Maybe you’ll be rewriting the textbooks.”

Renee hadn’t thought of anything so grand. A paper or three, yes, but rewriting the texts on the Late Cretaceous era?

When she climbed into bed after Denise left, it wasn’t sugarplums dancing in her head. Dinosaurs followed her into her dreams.

Chapter 3

The night still ruled the land when Renee and Denise arrived at the foot of the gorge in the morning. Renee was impatient because she wanted to get to the rock face before the first glow of dawn began to light it, but she was extremely aware that either one of them could have an accident and be stuck on the mountainside until Cope happened on them.

They both had heavy-duty flashlights with strong beams to light their way, but even as the path before them was revealed, the woods became darker. Creepier. A thought that wasn’t familiar to Renee.

She tried to ignore the feeling, wondering where it came from, but she couldn’t escape the sense that from the corners of her eyes she could see shapes flitting among the trees, dark shapes. It almost felt like they were being paced on both sides by something.

Maybe Gray Cloud had some of his people out here, keeping an eye on matters. That would be okay, but she’d like to know about it.

On the other hand, she remembered the guy who’d ridden up there just yesterday, unheralded and curious. He’d said he was a neighbor. Was he?

But who besides another paleontologist could be interested in this area? Sure, you could make money from some dinosaur bones, but you were more likely to have them confiscated the minute the state found out what you were doing if they were in any way unique.

Deliberately, she tried to shake off the feeling that they weren’t alone on this part of the mountain. Dang, maybe Gray Cloud was right. Maybe the mountain itself was watching them.

She reined that thought in immediately. No craziness. For this job she had to remain firmly centered in science.

She glanced around, though, and decided if anything was dancing among the trees following them, it must be the shades of the newly revealed saurian bones. They might be interested in how their discovery was handled. The thought drew a small laugh from her.

“What’s so funny?” Denise asked.

“I’m having early-morning crazy thoughts. Don’t worry, I just need to finish waking up.”

Denise gave an answering laugh. “I hear you. I half feel like I’m still dreaming. The woods are encouraging some nutty images. Too dark under some of those trees.”

Glad to know that she wasn’t the only one with a runaway imagination, Renee said, “Not much farther now.”

“Good, because I’m beginning to see some predawn lightening to the east. I want to see this place the way you did when you took those photos.”

Denise got her wish. A dozen yards later they emerged onto the ledge that had been left behind by the rockfall. There was just barely enough light to see the face of it, but nothing more because the predawn twilight was still so flat.

“It’s weird,” Renee said as she slipped off her backpack and lowered it to the ground. “This was originally a narrow cleft. When Gray Cloud brought me here last year it really was a cleft so narrow we nearly had to move sideways to get into it. Then over the winter the other side thinned out and part of it fell, probably down to the stream below. We’ll have to check all the rubble, but first...” She pointed. “First I wanna get at that.”

“I can see why,” Denise answered as the light strengthened and shadows began to appear. “My God,” she breathed. She hunted quickly for a central position and pulled out her large tablet. On the screen the rock face grew steadily more visible as the light brightened slowly and the shadows grew. Denise wasted no time using a stylus to start a grid.

“Where did you want to begin?”

Renee hesitated only a moment before pointing. “There’s an egg here. I realize I’m going to have to move a whole lot of mountain above it to reveal it, but it’s too promising to pass up.”

“That’s where the grid will start then. But if you change your mind, it’s okay. By the time I’m done, everything will have coordinates on the x and y axes. We also need some GPS to back us up.”

“I can do that,” Renee answered, although she didn’t jump to it. She was growing mesmerized again as the morning light painted the shadows that revealed darn near everything.

“My tablet will get the coordinates,” Denise said. “Just enjoy.”

Renee found a place to settle beside Denise and just drink in the wonder before her.

“It’s amazing,” Denise murmured. “Has there ever been a fossil bed like this?”

“Yeah, there are some good ones. The whole area of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas is loaded with fossils, and there are some parks devoted to them.”

“So what is it about this one?”

“It’s there?”

Denise laughed. “I’m serious.”

“So am I. The fact that it’s here would be enough. But the density of the fossils makes it especially interesting. So many packed in like this raises a bunch of interesting questions.”

And that egg, Renee thought. That egg. If there were more of them, if most of the fossils appeared to be the same species...well.

While Denise worked, Renee continued her study of the rock face and the fall around it. Soon, unable to hold still for long, she began moving along the ledge, studying the spoil beneath her feet. Every so often she spotted what appeared to be some bone poking out of a rock, but she left it alone.

Then, as she stood staring down at it, she remembered the hundred pin flags poking out of her backpack. Hurrying over to it, she pulled a handful out and made her way cautiously back to the bones she had noted. A bright orange pin flag soon marked each spot. There would be plenty of others, she was sure, and now that she had spotted these, she realized she’d better get to it before the team started arriving and important things might inadvertently get stepped on or buried before they were noticed.

The richness of the fossil bed probably extended to the rubble at the bottom of the rock face. They’d need to take extra care so as not to crush something.

The dynamics of this dig were beginning to sink in. They wouldn’t only be removing the large fossils from the rock, but they’d have to scour every inch of this ledge for items they’d never want to miss. In her initial bliss at the big find, she’d forgotten to think about all the minor details.

She almost laughed at herself. This wasn’t her first rodeo. She’d let her enthusiasm override her sense, but that had to stop immediately.

“Give it a rest,” Denise said eventually. “You’ve covered the whole ledge and you’re distracting me by moving.”

So Renee plopped down behind her on a larger boulder and waited patiently.

“And don’t look over my shoulder. It drives me nuts for some reason.”

“I’m not.” Nor was she. The shifting shadows on the fossil bed entranced her. She kept picking out new shadows that suggested great wonders. If this proved at all as productive as it appeared now, she’d probably work this site for the rest of her career. Happy thought.

* * *

The rest of the team arrived around nine. Renee had begun helping Denise measure out the area and place red pin flags for each point there would be a vertical line in the grid.

Before long, she’d sent most of the students below to hunt through the rubble beside the river. Fortunately, getting down there proved to be reasonably easy. A short way up the gorge, there was a narrow path leading down to the stream. The team went ahead with flag pins and soon their excited voices could be heard rising up from the stream.

Cope remained on the ledge with her and Denise. For a few minutes, Renee allowed herself to be distracted, thinking that he drew her interest almost as much as the fossils. Almost. Grinning inwardly, she decided to enjoy the unusual attraction.

She noted, however, that he seemed to be extremely alert, and his gaze never stopped wandering the woods around them, above them and below them.

Finally, she stepped over beside him, speaking in a voice that couldn’t easily be overheard because of the rush of the stream below.

“Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know.” His blue eyes snapped to her face. “Did you feel strange coming up here?”

“Like someone was hiking along with us?”

“That’s what you felt? Close enough. There are eyes on us, Renee. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to just watch. That Butler guy wasn’t shy about coming forward to ask what we were doing, after all.”

She had believed she was feeling weird when the thought crossed her mind that the mountain was aware of them. But now, for the first time, there was an icy trickle down her spine. “You’re sure someone is there?”

“No, I’m not. I didn’t see anyone, but I learned not to disregard this sensation.” All of a sudden, he smiled at her. “Ignore me and go back to what you were doing. I’ll play sentry for a while just to ease my mind.”

She nodded and returned to a rock where she’d been sitting with her large tablet, using a stylus to overlay outlines on some of the photos she’d taken yesterday. The egg continued to grab her attention, and it amused her to note how many photos she had taken of it yesterday morning. Carried away.

But as she outlined it, using the setting to give her fine lines resembling a sharp black pen, she pulled more detail out of it. She was definitely not losing her curiosity about it.

She lifted her head after a bit, noticing that the stream was louder today than yesterday. Much louder. It nearly swamped the voices of her team below. Had it rained up higher on the mountain? She could still faintly hear the voices. They called to one another and sounded as if they were having a good time poring through the rubble.

She lifted her gaze to Cope, and found him walking slowly around, his attention fixed on the dark places beneath the trees. The same dark places that had bothered her earlier.

He moved with remarkable grace considering the surface was rough and unstable, but his feet came down lightly and didn’t seem to disturb much when they landed. He was wearing desert boots, she realized. Probably left over from the Marine Corps days that he’d briefly mentioned. The limestone and sandstone dust that seemed to be everywhere disappeared on those boots.

She looked down at her jeans and wished they had the same ability. But mostly she wished Cope hadn’t confirmed her uneasiness by saying he felt there was a watcher.

In the first place, she couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to do that. In the second, she didn’t need to be on guard all the time. Every bit of her mind needed to focus on the job at hand. Even a small mistake could cause problems down the road if something was overlooked.

Cope’s voice interrupted her rambling thoughts as her hand continued to sketch. He squatted down beside her. “Why are you sketching over your photos?”

“To bring out some of the details, the stuff the shadows didn’t pull out from the rock. Did you see anything?”

“Not a soul.” The corners of his eyes creased a little, a hint of a smile. “I don’t usually get unnerved this easily.”

“Frankly, I was unnerved all the way up here. I kind of wish I’d been the only one.”

She blew dust off the screen of her tablet and tucked it into its case. “I need to see how they’re getting on down below.”

“They sound like they’re having a good time.” He straightened and offered a hand to help pull her to her feet. “Let’s go see?”

Along with the heap of items the team had brought up here, they had a couple of empty five-gallon water jugs. Cope grabbed both of them before leading the way to the steep path down to the stream. “I’ll bring you some water, Denise,” he said as he walked behind her.

“Thanks. My camel pack is getting low.”

Renee’s had emptied more than half an hour ago. The mountain air was dry and her tongue was beginning to feel sticky. Behind Cope, she slid and climbed down the steep path to the stream bank. Claudia was using her geology pick and hammer to pull small pieces of the bank loose. The other five were setting out pin flags to mark items of interest, and she could see that some of the finds had been washed in the stream already, glistening and dark and standing out from the surrounding rubble.

Smiling faces greeted her. “This is very cool,” Larry—she thought it was Larry, anyway—said. “I think I found half a trilobite.” He held a wet rock up to her and she looked.

“Now that’s old,” she told him. “And you’re right about what it appears to be. We’ll need to study it more closely to peg it exactly in terms of species and probable age.”

He nodded, taking the rock back and gazing at it. “My first find.”

She was tempted to tell him to keep it, but she couldn’t do that until she was sure it was just another trilobite, of which there were a whole lot. If it proved to be perfectly ordinary and offered no insights, she’d tell him to take it home and begin a collection for himself.

But right now, they didn’t know enough to let anything slip by.

Cope had moved upstream, to a point where the water fell from a slightly higher ledge, and was filling both five-gallon bottles with fresh stream water. She saw him pop in the purification tablets so at least they wouldn’t have to boil it to safely drink it.

She decided he could be a very useful guy to have around.

It was starting to get dark here in the gorge, though. Night always came early in parts of the mountain, and she needed to get these students safely out. In a week or two they’d have an easily traversable path from below, carved by their own feet, but not yet.

She looked at Cope. “You want to lead them down and back to town? We’re losing light.”

“Not without you and Denise.” He called out to the others. “You can drink the water in this bottle in thirty minutes, not before. Unless you want to adopt some little amoebas.”

Laughs answered him. “Meet us above just after you have a good drink. Renee thinks we need to beat the light down, and she’s right.”

“We ought to camp out,” one of them said. “It would save a lot of time.”

“I have to talk with Gray Cloud about that first,” she replied. “I told you, we have to walk softly here.” And she’d been trying not to test the limits of their permission to be here, not until they’d had a chance to prove themselves to be respectful. But maybe camping was an idea she could check out right away.

Then she turned toward the path they needed to climb. “Cope?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Are you still uneasy?”

“Yup.”

She paused, her hand on a rock she planned to use to steady herself. “You see something?”

“It would be easier if I had.” Then, without another word, he lugged the other water bottle up the narrow, steep path behind her.

* * *

Nice view, Cope thought as he climbed behind Renee, then gave himself a mental slap for the thought. Shame, shame, they were working together.

He was just trying to distract himself anyway. Under other circumstances he’d be trying to get a date with her. Not under these.

He hated the skin-crawling feeling he couldn’t shake. Someone was out there watching. Why? He couldn’t dash off into the woods to look around, and it wouldn’t make any difference anyway. If there was a threat out there, he needed to be close to Renee and her team. Wandering the woods wouldn’t make him much help.

He wished Gray Cloud had shown up today. He’d have liked to question the man about whether any of his people might be watching them. If someone objected to this dig on sacred land, someone he needed to worry about.

If this continued, he was going to have to get some answers one way or another.

Maybe the worst part for him was not knowing how much of this was PTSD. He’d been luckier with that than many of his fellows, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have any at all. This creeping suspicion of someone watching was too similar to experiences from his time at war. How could he be sure he wasn’t just dragging that out of his past, given that he was in the mountains and among the forest again?

But Renee had claimed to feel it as well. Maybe just jitters about a new and unfamiliar area. Even now the shadows under the tree were deepening, promising invisibility and hiding places for evil, if there was any out there.

Up top, he glanced at his watch and waited until it was safe for Denise and Renee to drink. They needed to plan this entire project better. No one should go without water up here the better part of the day. Tomorrow, those jugs and a couple more were going to be filled first thing. Excitement couldn’t be allowed to get in the way of health.

Yeah, he saw the so-called camel packs they were all wearing. He’d worn them himself countless times, but the taste of the water didn’t encourage drinking. That might make the supply last longer, but it wasn’t good for anyone to ride the edge of thirst.

The group from below drank as much water as they could, then emptied the bottle and collapsed it before bringing it up. Good thinking. Meanwhile he began to make a mental list. He was fairly certain that among this group he was the only one with the background to deal with extended periods in the mountains. If they decided they didn’t want to drive back to Conard City every night, they were going to need some help dealing with the conditions.

He knew one thing for certain: he was not going to leave this site unguarded unless he found out from Gray Cloud that his own men were watching it.

Because after this day, he had a strong feeling that someone else had an interest in this mountain, and it didn’t necessarily involve dinosaurs.

* * *

Just as they were about to begin the trek back down to their vehicles, Gray Cloud appeared, emerging seamlessly from the deepening shadows.

“Hi,” Renee said warmly, and shared a brief hug with him. “Are we doing okay?”

“It seems so.” The man smiled, then glanced at Cope. “Someone has some questions for me?”

“We’d like to camp, a little way down the mountain, so we don’t have to drive out every day,” Renee said before Cope could utter a sound. “Is there somewhere you could permit us to do so?”

“Of course. I’ll show you the place. Makes more sense than driving that distance. It’ll give you more time to work as well.” He paused, his dark eyes shifting to Cope. “Yes?”

Cope turned to Renee. “You head on down with the others. I won’t be far behind, okay?”

She hesitated a moment, then nodded, picking up her backpack. “Let’s go, gang.”

Gray Cloud waited, his arms folded, for Cope to speak.

“Since we got here this morning,” Cope said presently, “I’ve been feeling watched. Renee and Denise evidently saw shadows moving under the trees and tried to talk themselves into believing it was their imagination. I’m not certain Renee believes that. Anyway, I wanted to know if you have some people keeping an eye on us. Or people you know of who might not want us here.”

Gray Cloud lifted his gaze to the woods around. “No one is shadowing you. Not of my people. That doesn’t mean no one else is.” He turned his gaze to Cope, a piercing look. “And the mountain may be paying attention. Don’t laugh.”

“I’m not laughing,” Cope admitted. “I spent enough time in the mountains of Afghanistan to get the feeling that mountains aren’t dead heaps of rock. But Gray Cloud, would the mountain’s attention feel like human eyes?”

Gray Cloud shook his head without hesitation. “It’s a very different kind of awareness. All right, I’ll have some men scour the area to see if there are any other outsiders prowling around. I understand this fossil bed could be very valuable.”

“Probably more valuable if it’s properly dug up.” Cope rubbed his chin, wishing he could rub away the feeling that something was wrong. “We had a visitor yesterday from a ranch south of here. Loren Butler. You familiar with him?”

“Yes.”

Something in Gray Cloud’s tone wasn’t exactly warm.

“Is he a problem?”

“Not overtly, but he doesn’t much respect our ways, although he claims to. If he comes back, I want to know.”

Cope smiled faintly. “I think Renee told him off.”

At that, Gray Cloud laughed. “She would. The heart of a wolf resides in that woman. Powerful but loving. Like her cousin. All right, I’ll have some of my people check out the area so you can concentrate on this work. It needs to be done before the mountain slides again, or shrugs it off. Too much would be lost.”

Cope agreed with that as he and Gray Cloud began to follow the others down.

Gray Cloud spoke again while the voices below were still distant. He spoke quietly, as if he didn’t want his voice to travel. “You’re a warrior, Carter Copeland.”

Cope almost missed a step. “A part of my life,” he admitted. “So?”

“I mean you’re a warrior in the right way. You don’t seek a fight, but you will protect those in your care. That’s a true warrior. I’m glad you’re here with Renee. I’m glad she invited you. I saw enough of you since you started teaching at the college to know you’re a good choice to keep an eye on this team of hers.”

“Nice compliment but...”

“No buts,” Gray Cloud interrupted. “You have a strong sense of duty to those in your care. That’s a good trait, the defining trait of a true warrior.” Gray Cloud flashed him a grin. “You know you’ll do what’s right. Renee has some experience on projects like this, but she and her team are innocents in the woods.”

Now that did draw Cope up short. He knew instinctively that Gray Cloud wasn’t using the word woods to refer to the trees. “What do you mean? Do you know something I should be worried about? That we should be worried about?”

He watched as Gray Cloud’s gaze grew distant. “I don’t know what I know,” the man said finally. “Right now, like your sensation of being watched, I have a feeling, nothing more. All is not well on this mountain.”

Great. Wonderful. That was so damn helpful, Cope thought as they drew closer to the team.

* * *

By late the following afternoon, after a trip to Conard City’s sporting goods supply, a camp had been created on a patch of level forest land. Tents had sprung up, tarps hung from tree trunks, metal folding tables held cookstoves and other gear, and ice chests were full of food. Most everyone on the team had some camping experience, so the setup went smoothly.

This possible expenditure had been planned for in Renee’s budget, so her credit card smarted only a bit. Keeping the team in town would have been so much more expensive in every regard.

Denise and Renee marched up the path to the cliff face to continue mapping the area, and Cope added his shoulders and arms to the effort. As they measured, he tapped small pins lightly into the rock around which black twine was twisted to mark the verticals of the grid.

Another day, Renee figured, and they’d be ready to start work up here.

It was nearly six by the time they marched down again to join the rest of the group, who’d been putting the finishing touches on the camp. Most importantly, they’d brewed coffee and tea on the camp stoves, which were hooked up to large bottles of propane. Renee was more than ready for that coffee. Its aroma had practically dragged her down the last half of the trail.

Larry handed her a cup before she could even ask and waved her into one of the camp chairs. “Gray Cloud said we could build a fire tonight if we want.”

That surprised her. “Really?” she asked as she sat. She hadn’t expected that, but rather that they’d be warned not to have any fires at all because of the dangers of wildfire.

“Yup. There’s a fire ring over there. He said not to build it too big and keep plenty of water nearby to put it out. Bets and Mason ran back to town to get some sandbags for smothering the fire just in case, and Carlos and I hiked to the bottom of the stream over there to get water to use if things got out of hand.”

She settled into her chair and smiled at him. “How many of you were Scouts?”

That caused some laughter, but it seemed some of them had been. Prepared for just about everything.

She was glad when Cope chose a chair near hers. She liked being able to glance at him and watch his face. As far as she could tell, nothing had troubled him today, but he wasn’t completely relaxed. Tension, or possibly vigilance, appeared to remain with him. Maybe he never relaxed. How would she know?

But he was still some pretty good eye candy. A pleasant warmth filled her whenever she looked his way.

Within an hour, her team had made her feel pretty special. Some of them were apparently masters of camp cooking, and soon they’d offered a meal of biscuits, bratwurst and mixed veggies.

“No reason we have to live on canned baked beans,” Mason said. “Although we’ll probably get there as we get busier. What’s the plan for tomorrow?”

“Before we get into that,” Renee said, “we need to talk about basic precautions. I don’t want anyone going off on their own, understood? It’s too easy to get hurt. Twist an ankle, fall and break a leg. Everyone keep your hard hats on all the time. That rock is still shedding pieces from above. And I’m not being a nanny, okay?” Not being a nanny but unable to forget the creeped-out feeling she’d gotten up there only yesterday, the growing conviction that they were being watched. Cope had felt it, too, and she’d go with his judgment as well.

Everyone nodded, as if they got it. She hoped they had, because she couldn’t help worrying that something worse might be out there than an accident.

“Then there’s the wildlife. You all received the information on the animals around here. You’re not likely to encounter them if you just stay within our area and keep making noise. And that’s the last I have to say about that unless someone has questions.”

After supper, she wasn’t even allowed to help with the cleanup. It seemed, she thought wryly, that there might be some brownnosing going on here. She wondered how long that would last.

As Bets took her plate from her and poured her more coffee out of the huge speckled blue coffeepot, she glanced at Cope and what she saw disturbed her.

He looked as tightly wound as a spring, and he was staring into the dark woods as if he could see something there.

She followed his gaze, but couldn’t see anything beyond the tight circle of their camp, which was getting darker by the minute. Overhead stars wheeled in their courses, visible wherever there was an opening in the forest canopy. Gray Cloud had put them in a clearing, so the view of the sky was superlative.

But she didn’t care about that. The shadows were deepening under the trees around them and they seemed to be a growing threat.

While the others chattered and made short work of cleaning up, she rose and walked over to Cope. His blue eyes snapped up to her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked quietly.

“Someone’s watching again. Maybe Gray Cloud’s men.”

It struck Renee that Gray Cloud would be unlikely to put men out here to guard them without at least introducing them so there’d be no misunderstanding.

“God,” she said quietly.

“What?”

“My cousin Mercy spent a summer on this mountain while she was researching her dissertation. Like Gray Cloud, she came to believe it’s alive.”

His face was set in stone. He didn’t disagree with her, but his gaze returned to the woods. “It’s gone now. And whether the mountain’s alive, this was no mountain I was sensing.”

She squatted beside him, holding her cup in both hands. “Do you think we’re in danger?”

The bold question popped out of her, and she wasn’t sure why she had asked it. Dinosaur digs weren’t the kind of things to result in murder or mayhem for any reason.

He sighed, relaxing visibly one muscle at a time. “No,” he said finally. “But I don’t like it when someone’s curious and won’t just come and say howdy, like that Butler guy did two days ago. That’s all.”

He had a point. She straightened and pulled her chair over closer to his. She didn’t care if her team wanted to talk about them. Nothing was going to come of it, and she and Cope were natural friends being so much older than the others.

Renee stuck her hand into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out her cell phone. No signal. Sighing, she stuffed it back in. “I can’t call Gray Cloud from here. There’s no signal at all. I don’t think it’s likely he’d ask some people to keep an eye out without letting us know who they are.”

“I’m not so sure. He said he was going to have a couple of men check the area out to see if anyone had been hanging around, so maybe that’s all that happened. No reason for formal introductions if they’re just going to slip by. Who knows? Maybe a wolf was checking us out. The curiosity wouldn’t be surprising.”

“I guess not.”

Then he turned a smile on her. “Regardless, it’s gone and my reactions may be a little exaggerated because of Afghanistan. This place reminds me of some of the places I served.”

She turned in her chair to look at him better. “Is this situation causing you trouble? Maybe you don’t want to be here with us.”

He held up his thumb and forefinger, indicating a small space. “It’s giving me that much trouble. Not worth thinking about. I’m just doing a self-check on my reactions is all. Always a good thing to do.”

Probably a good thing for her to do as well, Renee thought. She had a way of letting her enthusiasm take over. “You’re remarkable,” she said after a few moments. “How many tours over there?”

“Four.”

“Definitely remarkable. You make it sound like it was nothing.”

He laughed. “Only because you haven’t heard me rant yet. So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”

“We’ve got to finish laying out the grid and tacking twine to the rock face as well as we can without damaging anything. Everything has to be accurately sited in order to interpret our discoveries. Then we’ll be ready to begin releasing the fossils.”

“I like that term, releasing the fossils.”

It was her turn to laugh. “I like it, too. I’m sure it’s not accepted terminology, but I always think of the fossils as having been imprisoned for millions of years, and we’re bringing them into the light again.”

“I like the term, too,” said Mason, wandering over to join them. “A fire while we chat?”

It was getting chillier by the moment, and the idea of gathering around a campfire appealed to Renee. Besides, she couldn’t imagine that her conversation with Cope had anywhere else to go.

“I’m in,” Renee answered. “Cope?”

“Nicest thing on a chilly night. God knows I spent enough cold nights without one. I’ll help.”

* * *

Far back in the woods, from where the campfire could be only dimly seen, eyes watched and noted. He thought he had enough information now. With so few members of the team, there would be ample opportunity to disrupt the work and scare them off. The people he worked for needed some time to complete their plan.

And complete it they would. Those rocks held far more of value than some damn fossils.

Satisfied, he slipped away into the darker shadows, careful not to make so much noise that he disturbed animals and birds into making frightened sounds. A night forest coming suddenly to life would be a warning to that guy down there, the one who used to be a soldier. He’d be aware of all the things to pay attention to.

Yeah, it might take a bit of time, but he and the others would put a stop to this dig until all the pieces were in place. They were close now. Very close.

He also had a great idea how to use this mountain to his advantage. By the time he got done, the damn tribe would be calling the dig off. The ultimate success.

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