Zed grinned and slowly advanced until he was close enough to grab and pull her in for a kiss but she simply waited and watched. “Every girl ought to know how to defend herself in case she gets into some trouble.”
“And what kind of trouble could I get into?” she asked softly, gazing up at him, falling for this green-eyed boy that much harder.
“This kind,” he said, dipping his head to capture her mouth in a soft but firm kiss. Trouble never tasted so sweet. She’d never kissed a boy before but she took her cue from Zed, and within a few minutes of experimentation Jennelle knew she’d want to do it again and again with him. When the kiss ended, Zed pulled away, his eyes at half-mast with a haze of burning desire, and she knew she probably looked the same. Her veins ran with liquid fire, and even though it was hardly warm enough, she wanted to strip her clothes and give herself to him completely. But he surprised her when his gaze cleared and he regarded her with a solemn expression that seemed to pierce her soul as he vowed quietly, “Jennelle Thoreau, I’m gonna marry you—that’s a promise.”
And she believed him. She gazed at him with adoration. In his eyes, she saw her future. Even though she was only fifteen, she knew they were destined for each other. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
“What if I get fat or ugly?”
“You’ll always be the prettiest girl to me.”
“That’s easy to say but hard to mean,” she murmured. Her daddy could barely stand to be in the same room as her mama. She supposed at one time they’d been sweet on each other but not any longer. “You promise to always love me, Zedediah Sinclair? Promise me on your life?”
“On my life and then some.”
She grinned and pulled him back to her. “Then I accept. I will marry you someday. And I will have your babies and keep your house as long as you keep your promise.”
“Always.”
Jennelle opened her eyes and found them wet with tears. Apparently, always had an expiration date.
Heart heavy and nearing a total breakdown, Jennelle wound her way past towering mounds of who knew what, ignored the fact that she had to climb over piles that had since toppled from their original location and escaped into the sanctity of Simone’s room—to hide from the memories, both good and bad, of her life.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MARY POPPED HER head into Miranda’s office, agitated and worried. “It’s happening again. I just received a call on the hotline reporting a bear found on Woodstock’s Trail. The kill is fresh.”
Miranda’s adrenaline spiked. She’d known it was simply a matter of time before the kills started again but she’d thought they might have another month before the carcasses started showing up. Maybe the poachers were getting greedy—and sloppy. She could only hope. “Thanks, Mary.” She dashed around her coworker and ran into Jeremiah’s office. “We just got a call on the hotline. A bear kill. You said you wanted to help. You coming with me?”
“Right now?” He appeared stymied. She could appreciate that it wasn’t as easy for him to drop everything and go bounding after a lead, but at the moment she didn’t care about the logistics. He regarded her critically. “How far away?”
“You don’t have to go.” She started to leave and he called out to her. She stopped but her impatience showed. “Time is a luxury we don’t have. We’ve never had a kill this fresh, which means they’re still in the area.”
He nodded, giving in to her logic. “Let me get my coat.” While he shut down his office and grabbed his coat and gloves, Miranda quickly made arrangements for Talen just in case she was gone longer than the day hours. Mamu would keep her grandson without complaint, something she’d never been able to count upon with her own mother. Not that she’d let Talen stay with her mother at this point even if Jennelle had offered.
Jeremiah met Miranda at her Range Rover. Neither wasted time and simply climbed in without conversation until they were rumbling out of the parking lot. “How fresh is the information?” he asked.
“Mary just got off the phone with the caller. I don’t have a lot of details. But I know they’ve got to be close. They probably didn’t expect the bear carcass to be found so soon. This might be our chance to actually catch the bastards.”
“Let’s do this, then.”
Miranda hit the highway and started up the mountain. Woodstock’s Trail was about a mile away from one of the sites where previous bear carcasses had been found. The poachers seemed to like to remain within a certain territory, although it certainly hadn’t helped narrow the investigation as the area spanned miles. Dark ominous clouds boiled on the horizon as an unusually frigid storm promised the first serious snowstorm of the late fall season. Experience cautioned her to let this one go due to the storm but she couldn’t. Nothing was going to stop her from catching the poachers this time. Jeremiah realized the weather was turning, as well. “Those clouds look pretty dark. How much time before they dump snow?” he asked.