Josh Read Free Page B

thought formed, he banished it from his mind. His memories of his mother, though distant and scattered, were happy ones. Seraphine had been a loving, though unconventional, mother. She neither cooked nor cleaned, but she had happily read to her sons, and played classical music, and directed them in plays and musicals for hours on end. When her boys grew weary and insisted on doing the things boys loved, playing outside or riding their ponies, she would simply take her books and music outdoors and watch them from a nearby hill.
    Though she was athletic, with a lithe, sinewy dancer’s body, she never took part in any of their outdoor activities that Josh could recall. That told him that she would have never resorted to climbing these mountains.
    Josh had never seen her unhappy or moody or less than exuberant about life. She would often tell her boys that while she missed the thrill of dancing on stage and the adulation of the audience, she didn’t miss the gypsy lifestyle, living in dingy hotel rooms, traveling from town to town. She seemed to genuinely love being a rancher’s wife and their mother, and she had treasured being anchored by their big, comfortable home and the sprawling land around it.
    But there had never been an explanation for the fact that she vanished without a trace. There had been only theories.
    The code of silence that had descended upon thefamily prevented any of them from knowing just what Cole Conway believed to be true. Did he suspect desertion by an unfaithful wife? Foul play? An alien abduction?
    Josh pulled himself back from the thoughts that had plagued him for a lifetime. He forced himself back to the present and the job at hand.
    If, as he suspected, this was the tent of Sierra Moore, his task had just become a lot simpler than he’d imagined.
    Hopefully the saga of the missing climber would have a happy conclusion, and by this time tomorrow he would be enjoying another helping of Ela’s corn bread.

C HAPTER T WO

    J osh got to his feet and hefted his pack before facing into the storm. At this elevation, it was much worse than it had been below. Wind whipped about, causing him to bend almost double as he crossed to the snow-covered wall of rock.
    Outside the small tent he dropped his gear and cupped his hands to his mouth.
    “Hello in the tent.”
    He paused a beat, hoping to hear a voice above the sound of the roaring wind. Hearing nothing, he unzipped the flap and stepped inside, bracing for the sight of a frightened and possibly injured female, cowering from the wrath of such a fierce storm howling around her.
    With his first step he felt something shoved roughly between his shoulder blades, and a sultry voice that was barely a whisper above the roar of the wind.
    “State your business. If you make any sudden moves, I’ll shoot you where you stand.”
    “Hold on now.” He lifted his hands, while his gaze swept the tiny space. There was a bedroll and a portable cook stove casting an eerie, flickering light. “I’m searching for Sierra Moore.”
    “Why? Who sent you?”
    “Mitch Carver, chief ranger.”
    “Why would the ranger—?”
    He moved so quickly, the words she’d been about to speak were cut off as his fingers closed like a vise around her hand and he took her down in the same instant, sending her weapon flying through the air.
    “Damn you…” Her muffled comments were lost in the sound of their fierce scuffle.
    Josh gave a hiss of pain when she sank her teeth into his hand and another as her knee landed in his groin. Despite her furious attempts to fight him, she was no match for his size and physical strength.
    He quickly subdued her, straddling her and locking her arms above her head in an iron grip.
    “Now, as I see it, you have two choices.” He was breathing hard. “You can keep fighting me, in which case you’ll wear yourself out and I’ll eventually subdue you anyway, or you can promise to hear me out without any more attempts at violence. After which,