Page 36 of Mystic Mate
“Keep your cell phone on with the speaker. I want to be able to hear you.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that you’re not going to follow.”
He flashed his wolfish grin. “That would be nice, but not necessary.”
Salem shook her head and steered the ATV toward the meeting spot. The terrain was rugged, but the ATV handled it well. She was looking forward to using snowmobiles in the future. When did I begin to believe I would be here when the snow got deep enough?
She pulled into the clearing, circling it on the ATV to see if she could locate anything in the forests, or any threat at all. There was nothing. When she came to a stop in the center, she might have felt reassured, but the area all around her had nothing but silence greeting her when she turned the motor off.
“Hello?” she called. “Hello?”
The silence, as they say, was deafening. Dismounting from the ATV, she took a few steps away from it and called again. There was still nothing—no birds, no insects…nothing seemed to be alive but her. She looked up and saw nothing but clear, blue sky. Even though there was nothing particularly threatening, she couldn’t help but wish Cullen were closer.
“Cullen, there’s no one he…”
Her words were cut off when a rapid line of gunfire flew at her. Salem dove for cover behind the ATV. When she could smell the fumes from the gasoline when the fuel tank was hit, she rolled in the opposite direction of the shots being fired. She would later recall that she had actually felt him coming before his ATV burst into the clearing, Cullen leaning down and sweeping her up without slowing down. He helped her to get behind him, and she clung to his back as he crashed through the underbrush.
Once they were well away, and Cullen was sure they weren’t being followed, he stopped to call the forestry service to report the fire. Once he’d done that, he asked to speak to Asher Wells.
“He’s the top guy here in Alaska, right?” she asked.
“And also a wolf-shifter,” he answered, switching the phone to speaker.
“Wells.”
“Asher, it's Cullen.”
“I heard you just reported a fire. Anything I should know?”
“Nothing specific, but a member of the SPU was sent an anonymous email to meet there. Salem, tell him what happened.”
“Like Cullen said, I got an anonymous email, which isn’t all that unusual. Cullen came with me to the meeting for backup. When I got there, no one was there. I searched the entire clearing and didn’t see anything. I was just letting Cullen know when someone opened fire on me. I dove behind the ATV. One of the shots hit the gas tank. I smelled the fumes and rolled away. Cullen managed to get me out of there—thank you for that, by the way—and we called in the fire.”
“I’ll have the firefighters search and will send out an arson investigator who’s a shifter. I’ll let you know if we find anything. Where will you be?”
“Ghost Moon Manor,” answered Cullen.
“Take care of each other,” said Wells.
“We will,” answered Cullen.
“What now?” she asked.
“We’ll call our people back at Windsong. I want them to go over the plane with a fine-tooth comb.”
Her phone rang. It was Chris. She answered, flipping the phone on. “Hey, Chris. What’s up?”
“Not much. Just following up on your report. Charlie was impressed. He asked me to have you back off while he kicks it up the chain of command and figures out our next step.”
“Not a problem. Maybe I’ll take a couple of days off. I’ll have my phone with me.”
“Good. Stay safe.”
Salem ended the call and looked at Cullen. “I don’t think it’s Chris.”
“The call is rather coincidental.”
She nodded. “True. But sometimes coincidences are just that… coincidental. But I wonder about Charlie. Can I ask Jinx to see if she can trace that anonymous email?”
