Page 1 of Legacy of Danger
Chapter 1
Vaughn Taggart's knuckles blanched as he fought to keep the loaner sedan from spinning out on the way up a snow-covered western Wyoming Forest Service road. His younger sister, Shelby, needed him.
Finally reaching the gravel parking area, he pulled behind her Subaru and his brother's horse trailer. He threw the car into park hard enough that the seatbelt locked up on his chest. Goddamn buckle. His fingers fumbled on the release; finally, he unfolded his frame from the vehicle and braced himself against the frigid, biting air. Scowling upward, he imagined the sun setting behind the thick, gray clouds. With any luck, the snow would hold off until he could check in with Shelby.
Pulling his sturdy insulated boots from the back seat and shoving them on, he unfurled his unwanted but sometimes necessary supersensory power. Like shaking out a blanket, he opened himself up and stretched his mind as if opening a gate on his tightly fenced consciousness, probing for danger. Sometimes he got prickles on the back of his head and could control his focus by squeezing his hands into hard fists. Sometimes, the sensation of danger just grabbed him like an invisible hand and yanked him toward the threat.
As he stood still in the silent forest, his power encountered... nothing.
For now.
A virtual finger of ice chilled his neck. He whipped around, his power flaring to life, trying again to sense the environment around him. Ouch. He rubbed his temple to soothe the headache that always accompanied a telepathic search as he peered into the cold forest. Woods. Light snow on the ground. A few intrepid animals foraging in the leaf litter. Nothing else.
Right now, he had to find Shelby and figure out why she was freaking out over the danger to their family. Needed to make sure she was okay.
She would have never called him and left a message unless things had gone beyond manageable.
A wave gripped him, blanketing him in a suffocating heaviness. His hands shook. This time, it wasn't his power that affected him.
Damn it, no. No way. Not today.
Plain and simple, he needed a drink.
Jumping neck deep into the suds had helped create the nightmare that ruined everything a year ago. Sure as hell wouldn't solve any problems now. Or ever.
His heart sped up until he forced a few big breaths in and out of his lungs. No time for regrets. No time to wonder what ass kicking waited for him back on the family ranch. Time to help Shelby.
Tracks from boots and hooves traced the route away from the vehicles.
Good enough. Vaughn buttoned his jacket, cinched the laces on his boots, and took off into the forest.
An hour later, as night fell, Vaughn stomped his cold and weary feet into Kerr's hunting camp. He spared a glance at three customers in brand-spanking-new hunting gear, huddled around a roaring fire. Only they weren't feeling hand-warming, s'more-roasting cozy, judging by the deep frowns on their clean-shaven faces. Interesting.
Then his kid brother emerged from behind a tent. Kerr had only a slight limp now. Good for him. Their quick hug and back slaps triggered a lump that Vaughn couldn't swallow past.
"How'd you get here so quickly?" Kerr asked. "Shelby called you this morning."
"Pulled a favor with someone who owns a private jet."
"Mr. Big Bucks."
"Not exactly. MMA connections." He cringed. He'd been used for those connections before, too. "Where's Shelby?"
"Wow, you're really here. Good to see you, too, Houdini. Long time, no see. You look, um, not exactly good. And you're still ugly." Kerr shot him a crooked grin, then raked a hand over his bright red hair before cramming the Stetson on his head. "Eric's with Shelby." He pointed into the quiet, snowy forest. "They haven't returned yet."
"What the hell do you mean, they haven't returned? She left me a weird message but no details this morning. What's going on?"
Damn, it was good to see Kerr's cold-reddened face. The shadows from the flickering flames made his youngest brother appear years older than, what, twenty-eight? A baby compared with Vaughn's thirty-five.
Kerr had aged far too much in the past twelve months, but everything else about him was familiar. Kerr appeared... healthy. Like before his accident. Before Vaughn had iced the cake on the disaster of his life choices and had to leave town, for his family's sake as well as his own.
Later. Vaughn would deal with the fallout of his return to Copper River later. For now, his sister needed him.
"They should be here soon. Not sure why they're still out there." Kerr's head whipped back and forth between the forest behind him and his hunting guide service guests in front of him. "We located a lost hunter," he lowered his voice and nodded toward the three guests, "this afternoon, but she found him. Of course. On the way back, Shelby wanted to check on something suspicious in the woods first. Why couldn't she just leave well enough alone? She found the missing guy. Mission accomplished, right?"
Yep, because of her supersensory power to become a human radar. She could find anyone, anywhere. That tool sure came in handy, but, like all Taggart powers, caused pain.
So Shelby had left her message before she headed here, at least six hours ago. Crap. That meant her other ability had fired up–sensing when something terrible was about to happen. When she got a hunch, a smart person listened. That was the exact reason Vaughn took her panicked and short message to heart and got his ass from New York to Wyoming in record time.
