She flinched. “I said that? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. Everyone knows I’m a failure.” She ran her fingers through her blonde hair, shaking a fistful of mud onto the ground.
He waited for her to continue.
She dropped her hands to her sides, fists clenched tight. “Do you remember, around three years ago, hearing about a senator who’d embezzled money in a real-estate scam? I was the reporter who broke the story about Senator Geoff Deville. The story went national after he bilked a lot of people out of money in the investment scheme. There was a trial, and he was acquitted, but not before the public ridiculed him and his wife left him. He was found innocent, and apparently someone else was behind the whole thing. He came off looking like a victim, and my story became a complete work of fiction.”
She huffed out a long breath. “The public turned on me. I became the laughingstock of journalism, and the senator became a victim of sloppy reporting. This lead in Alaska was…ismy way to stay in the public’s good graces. I can’t fail. I won’t fail. Second place is still losing. My boss told me not to come home without a story, so that’s what I’ll do.”
Her resolve began to crumble. Here she was, covered from head to toe in mud, revealing her biggest regret.
And Grizz remained silent. Because he agreed with those people who had messaged her on social media and told her she should quit? Or with the guy at the store who’d cornered her in produce and told her she was the worst kind of person?
She’d shared her story with him. Now it was his turn. “So, Grizz, what’s your deal? I’m sure there’s a reason you’re living in the woods by yourself. What’s your story?”
He stomped on.
She stepped in front of him and faced him. “I’m a reporter, you know. I can see you’ve got secrets, and I’m the best there is at getting people to talk.”
More growling. “Less talking, more walking.”
“Ah. So there’s something to talk about.”
He marched around her. “Sure. I live at the Midnight Sun base camp all summer long. End of story.”
She followed him, certain that wasnotthe end of it—or the beginning. “Please, tell me what happened. It might make me trust you more. Because the jury’s still out on if you’re a good guy or a total creep who just happens to be keeping me alive. You yelled at me when we first met. I’ve never been talked down to by anyone like that. What gives?”
“I didn’t yell.” His voice echoed and he winced. He lowered his tone. “Okay, I may have raised my voice. But you came to the wrong camp to ask for help. Why would you want a ‘lukewarm shot’ to help you anyway?”
And there it was.
That horrible moniker her station had splashed across every screen in the country after a wildfire had burned too close to some expensive homes. “Why do you have to be such a brute? I had nothing to do with that story and the name. I told my producers it was a terrible idea.”
He reached for her elbow, but she folded her arms. “I believe we’ve already had this conversation.”
He shot her a look. “How noble of you to defend us lowly backcountry hicks. But you have no idea what hotshots do. You live in your DC high-rise with no clue how to survive in the real world. You shouldn’t have been poking around the Alaskan mountains looking for trouble.”
Dani shot him a look right back in his smug face. “I’m not as ditzy as you make me out to be. Skye’s my friend, remember? I’ve heard her stories about smokejumpers. I even thought it would make a nice news piece one day. But are we really going to have this argument in the middle of the forest with gunmen on our tail, Mr. Hotshot? If I hadn’t come here, you guys might have never found the compound. Now the authorities will take the threat seriously.”
He stopped and she turned to face him.
“Don’t worry. I don’t need you to save me. I can take care of myself.”
“Like I said before, nothing is stopping you.” He waved his arms as if to usher her forward.
Dani pivoted and stormed off in the opposite direction, just to prove her point. The man was infuriating. Sure, she liked to be clean, tucked into her warm bed, not traipsing around the mud and?—
Grizz tackled her like a linebacker and took her to the ground. A bullet whizzed by the place she’d just stood. Her face hit the dirt, and his weight on her knocked the air from her lungs. He rolled off her, grabbed her arm, and had them running in the span of half a second.
Oh no. It turned out she actually did need this man.
Being wrong was theworst.
* * *
Every time he opened his mouth, he proved Dani right.
He’d vowed he’d be nice from now on, but she’d dug her heels in and turned all reporter on him. And that poked the bear in him.
Why do you have to be such a brute?Her question gnawed at his twisted insides.
