Rocky Mountain Rescue, Elle James [rooftoppers .TXT] 📗

Jake had mentioned something about the ghost town. He’d been up there with RJ and a group of ranch guests. The town had been built to support mining activities in the area, and there were plenty of trails left over from many years ago when men worked the mines. There was even a mineshaft on the property, in which Jake and RJ had been trapped at one point. Gunny had since been out to make sure that the cover over the entrance was in place and not easily removed. In another stand of trees, JoJo stopped her ATV and dismounted. A large tree branch had fallen over the track. Max climbed off his ATV and unstrapped the chainsaw.

JoJo approached him. “Do you know how to run one of those?”

Max nodded. “I grew up in the country. I did my share of clearing. I know how to run a chainsaw.”

“Then, if you’ll cut, I’ll haul,” she said.

And he went to work sawing away at the large branch, breaking it down into pieces that JoJo hauled off the path into the woods. When he was done, he strapped the chainsaw back on the front of the ATV. JoJo had already mounted hers and was pulling away, so he hurried to catch up.

JoJo drove until she reached a wide valley and descended to its bottom where a mountain stream trickled over rocks. She parked her ATV next to the stream and dismounted.

Max did the same. “What needs to be done here?”

She grinned and pulled the cooler off the front of the ATV. “Lunch.” They’d been working so hard that he hadn’t realized so much time had passed. His stomach rumbled, reminding him that he did need to eat. “I didn’t even think about it, but I’m glad you brought something.”

She grimaced. “I’m not much of a cook, but I did make wraps with some lettuce and tomatoes in them. Just enough to get us by until we can get back to the lodge.”

“Sounds good. And I’m not at all picky.” He gave her a crooked grin. “I used to like chow hall food.”

She smiled. “So did I. Anything I didn’t have to cook. Although, some chow halls were better than others.”

“For the most part, they served some decent food,” Max said. “But that’s just me.”

“And me.” JoJo nodded and fished a foil covered wrap out of the cooler and tossed it to him. He missed the catch and had to bend to pick the wrap off the ground. He winced when he came back up.

“Sorry,” JoJo said.

He grimaced. “It’s not your fault.”

“Let me do it right this time.” She brought him another deli wrap and handed it to him rather than threw it at him. She pulled one more out of the cooler for herself, unwrapped it and sank her teeth into it. They ate in silence, sitting on a rock ledge next to the stream, listening to the gentle sound of the bubbling brook. JoJo’s face had softened, and she actually looked happy for the first time since Max had met her.

“You like this place, don’t you?” he asked.

She nodded. “It makes me feel… peaceful.”

“I can see that,” he said. “It does have that sense. There are a lot of things in this world that make us feel less than peaceful.”

Her lips twisted. “Like cars sitting out in the apartment parking lot? And trucks pulling in next to them until they leave?”

He shook his head. “You saw that, huh?”

She nodded. “I did and thank you.”

He shrugged. “I would’ve done it for anyone.”

“Yeah.” JoJo glanced down at her food and lowered her voice. “I almost called you when he came back.”

Max shot a glance toward her. “He came back?”

“Yes, he did. I took a shower, and by the time I got out, he was back in the parking lot, backed into the space where he could stare at my apartment. Not that I know that’s what he was doing, but it sure seemed kind of creepy to me.”

“JoJo, you should have called me,” Max said.

She laughed. “I thought about calling the sheriff’s department, but what would I have told them? For all I know, somebody who lived in the apartment building was sitting in that car or had parked that car and had gone up to their apartment. I would’ve looked a fool, and if I’d called you, I would’ve gotten you worked up over nothing.”

“JoJo…”

“It’s okay. Better safe than sorry. I moved a chair in front of the door, and I slept with my gun next to me.”

He shook his head. “You really should have called me. I would’ve come back.”

“I told you…”

Max raised his hands. “You can handle it. You can take care of yourself. But everybody needs a friend, and I’m telling you I can be that friend for you. For the record, I’m not asking for strings or anything else. I’m just worried about you. I left and I didn’t want to.”

“Why?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, you’d get mad if I said anything.”

“I’ll get madder if you don’t,” she said.

“I don’t know. I just felt like you were vulnerable, even though I know you can kick my ass. Not only does everybody need a friend, but they also need someone who’ll watch their six.”

She chewed on the last bite of her wrap and swallowed. “Well, I appreciate the sentiment. What was kind of scary about the whole thing was when I got up this morning and opened my front door it appeared that somebody had been scraping at the lock with something sharp.”

Max swore. “Dammit, JoJo, you should’ve called me.”

“I didn’t know he was going to try and break in that way, and I didn’t hear anything. Plus, I had the bedroom door locked, and again, I had my gun next to me. If he had managed to get the door open, he would’ve knocked the chair over. I’d have heard it when it crashed to the ground. Then I would’ve had my gun