High Stakes, page 25
“Pippa—”
“No, Sully. I’m a big girl. I don’t need you—of all people—looking out for me. I’m perfectly safe here.”
I watch the nostrils of his patrician nose flare as his blue eyes narrow on me. He’s annoyed, which is too fucking bad.
But then he takes the wind out of my self-righteous sails.
“There’s a dead man with a hole the size of a fist in the back of his head in a gully less than a mile from here. You may want to reconsider that.”
My exit wasn’t exactly graceful.
Never mind that I was already packing up to head back to town for an appointment, but after he dropped that bombshell, I was in a real hurry to get out of there. Especially after he mentioned law enforcement being on the way. I hustled, I’m not stupid. Aside from the fact I’m seriously freaked out right now, I know what will happen when the sheriff arrives and I don’t want to be stuck here for hours when I have somewhere to be.
Without another word for Sully, I hopped in my rig and carefully worked my way back down the logging trail.
“Hey, you’re back,” Marcie answers her phone.
“On my way back to town now. I just picked up a signal.”
“How was it?”
“Great, I got a few good hikes in. Nothing else to report though.”
The last spot I was at was a little farther up the mountain, north from here. It’s where I discovered a couple of baiting barrels on one of my hikes. I immediately packed up and left that spot, calling my friend, Marcie, on my way out to alert the group. That was four days ago but I hadn’t been ready to head back to civilization yet, which is why I decided to set up camp down here.
Apparently, a stone’s throw from a corpse.
I don’t know what it is about me that seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time a lot. Maybe it is true that I attract trouble. It’s something my ex used to say. Of course, he was more trouble than anything else.
I wasn’t even aware baiting bears was a thing until I bumped into a pair of hunters in November of last year when I was boondocking on the east side of Libby, not far from the Kootenay River. They were hauling buckets of what smelled like rotting fish and bags of stinky garbage down the trail.
Marcie and I met at rehab in the hospital last fall—she’d been in a car accident—and had struck up a friendship. She’s a local real estate agent, an avid outdoorswoman, and also an animal activist. Something I can identify with. When I mentioned my encounter with the hunters appearing to carry garbage into the wilderness, she explained about baiting bear, which is apparently legal in other states but not Montana. A contentious point for many local hunters and guides.
The basic premise is they leave food in a particular spot, starting late winter. Then when the bears wake up from hibernation, half-starved, the stench of rotting food draws them to these spots. They gorge themselves and keep returning for an easy meal. At the start of hunting season, all the hunters have to do is sit in a blind and bide their time. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
I don’t care if it’s legal in other states, I find the whole thing reprehensible. I’m not at all against hunting, but let it at least be equal.
Through Marcie I got involved with Fair Game Alliance, a group of passionate individuals who monitor for that kind of illegal activity. All Fair Game does is keep an eye out and when they see anything suspicious, they alert the Lincoln County game warden to intervene. Here in the Libby area, the game warden has his hands full and can’t be everywhere this time of year, which is why volunteers like me keep our eyes open.
It gives me a sense of purpose. Something I’m craving after a good year of floundering.
Oh, it was fun at first, going where the wind blew me, making a bit of money here and there putting my mechanic’s license to good use with some RV repair services. But I started craving steady roots and was on my way back home when I ran into trouble here in Montana last fall. Since then my sister, Nella, has moved here and is making a life for herself. Married a local guy, started baking for some local businesses, and now even has a little one on the way. She’s all the family I have, and there’s no way I want to go back to Canada now.
There’s nothing left for me there. Any dreams I may have had for my future have burned to the ground. The marriage, the business I built from scratch, the family we were supposed to have, those are all gone. My ex saw to that. All I ended up with was a whack of money he had to pay me to buy me out of the business that used to be mine. I bought the Jayco motorhome, stuck the rest of the money in mutual funds, and took off to find myself again.
And I did. Right here in Libby, Montana.
I’m trying to put down roots here. Last month I bought the closed-up auto repair shop on the south side of town I passed regularly. Marcie was able to get me a great deal. Unfortunately, as a Canadian, I can buy a business, but I can’t actually work in it. Not without a green card or at the very least a work visa, which I already applied for, but even a visa can take months.
In the meantime I wait, I volunteer, and I try to stay out of trouble.
Which is why I need to avoid Sully Eckhart like the plague. The man is like salted caramel; one taste just makes you want more.
I should know.
HIGH GROUND is available HERE.
Also by Freya Barker
Click here to see all my books!
High Mountain Trackers:
HIGH MEADOW
HIGH STAKES
HIGH GROUND (Aug 2022)
HIGH IMPACT (Dec 2022)
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Arrow’s Edge MC Series:
EDGE OF REASON
EDGE OF DARKNESS
EDGE OF TOMORROW
EDGE OF FEAR
EDGE OF REALITY
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PASS Series:
HIT & RUN
LIFE & LIMB
LOCK & LOAD
LOST & FOUND
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On Call Series:
BURNING FOR AUTUMN
COVERING OLLIE
TRACKING TAHLULA
ABSOLVING BLUE
REVEALING ANNIE
DISSECTING MEREDITH
WATCHING TRIN
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Rock Point Series:
KEEPING 6
CABIN 12
HWY 550
10-CODE
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Northern Lights Collection:
A CHANGE OF TIDE
A CHANGE OF VIEW
A CHANGE OF PACE
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SnapShot Series:
SHUTTER SPEED
FREEZE FRAME
IDEAL IMAGE
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Portland, ME, Series:
FROM DUST
CRUEL WATER
THROUGH FIRE
STILL AIR
LuLLaY (a Christmas novella)
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Cedar Tree Series:
SLIM TO NONE
HUNDRED TO ONE
AGAINST ME
CLEAN LINES
UPPER HAND
LIKE ARROWS
HEAD START
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Standalones:
WHEN HOPE ENDS
VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE
BONUS KISSES
SECONDS
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
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Driven to make her books about 'real' people; she creates characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills in their lives.
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Recipient of the ReadFREE.ly 2019 Best Book We've Read All Year Award for "Covering Ollie, the 2015 RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for Best First Book, “Slim To None”, Finalist for the 2017 Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, and Finalist for the 2020 Kindle Book Award with “When Hope Ends”, Freya spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!
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Freya Barker, High Stakes
