Desert of the Damned by Kathy Kulig

shoulder. “When we get back, I’ll get you a map and give you a private lesson in orienteering.”
    “Thanks.”
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    He chuckled a little then ran a hand through his short brown hair. “I have to ask this. If it’s not my business, just say so.”
    “Ask me what?” Amy walked with arms crossed.
    “Is Dante Akando a boyfriend or something?”
    She laughed a little.
    “I mean, I think he was worried about me taking you into the mountains alone. Or the guy was staking his claim before we left.”
    Amy stopped walking. “Dante has no claim on me,” she said sharply.
    Jake turned and put up his hand in a motion of surrender. “Sorry, Amy. I stepped over professional bounds here.”
    She sighed in frustration. “It’s all right. We should keep moving. We have a lot to do today.”
    “Right.” He didn’t take his eyes off her and appeared to look right through her.
    There was no sense in explaining her personal problems to this man. She hardly knew him. Predictably, Jake found signs of animals, pointing out droppings and tracks for rabbits, raccoons and deer right away, explaining their habits, and helping her to collect specimens. The man knew his way around the wilderness, and she found that very appealing.
    As she followed him down the trail, her gaze skimmed over his body. Good lord, he was built. Unless he did hard-core mountain climbing he had to work out in the gym.
    Broad back and shoulders, biceps taut in his uniform and nice butt. The pit of her stomach did a little dance as her imagination went wild, thinking about spending the day in the woods with this gorgeous man.
    Then her brain synapses finally began to fire and jolted her back to reality. She was working and she had an important project to do. Had Dante’s sex games gotten her so frustrated she was ready to screw the first hot guy she met?
    They walked in silence for several minutes along the foothills of the Rincon Mountains, passing knee-high growth of scrub brush, cactus and dried grasses.
    Climbing onto a rocky ridge, Jake reached a hand out to help her up. “Thanks, I got it,”
    she said.
    Unlike the humid, salty air she was accustomed to in Florida, the wild rawness in Arizona had its own beauty. The muted colors, the earthy scents and lapis-blue skies so eloquently revealed the magical allure of the landscape. Amy was beginning to understand why people loved the desert.
    The trail twisted up the mountain, around boulders and leveled to a grassy flat area where saguaro and mesquite were alternately placed like pieces on a chessboard.
    Several tiny birds flitted in and out of the tangled brush and hopped along the reddish dirt.
    “Up here is where I’ve found a number of the dead animals. Deer, raccoons, fox and those wild piglike animals called javelinas.”
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    Sniffing the air again, she detected the faint odor of decay. She walked around the area, looking for evidence, and decided she didn’t want to see anything to spoil the scenery but this was what they were up there for. “We need to collect the freshest specimens,” she said with a somber tone. “Just tell me what animal the scat belongs to.”
    He nodded then stared at her feet. “You didn’t wear bells on your boots.”
    “What?”
    “Bells. There are mountain lions up here, you know.”
    She sucked in a breath. “Really.” She frowned. “So what are the bells for?”
    “To scare them off.”
    Amy narrowed her eyes at him, pointing at his boots. “You’re not wearing bells.”
    “I don’t need them, I can run fast.”
    “Right,” she said sarcastically. “Now about the animal droppings.”
    He nodded and continued walking, searching on the ground. “Yes, coyote scat has bits of hair and juniper berries.”
    “What about mountain lions?”
    He considered for a moment. “Looks similar, a little larger. Hair, juniper berries and sometimes little bells.”
    She punched him in the arm, laughing. “Cute.”
    “Ow.”
    “Is