“Don’t move fast. You could be injured.”
He turned his head to see more than the green eyes. A crunchy-granola type of woman sat there wearing all green. Her curly hair had one small braid tied with a gold thread at the bottom that brushed across the top of her breast.
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m one of the park rangers here in Denali. It’s my job to help lost hikers…or lift the top of a pine off a big, muscled man.” She pointed to a pile of branches to the side of where he sat.
He shook his head, trying to make sense of what happened. “What the hell?”
“I didn’t see it, but I heard it. Looks like that treetop snapped, probably weakened from high winds and snow, and it fell on you.”
He raised a hand and scrubbed it over his face. That explained the branches rushing toward him. Had he blacked out? What a damn sissy, he could hear his fellow Xtreme Ops team member, Hepburn, ribbing him now.
“I’m trained to check for concussion. Can you tell me your name?” the woman asked.
“No. I can’t.” He shoved to his feet, but the instant his boot tread touched down, his ankle folded.
He collapsed, hitting the ground hard again. A stick cut into his palm, and he issued a low growl of fury.
“Oh my God! Your ankle is clearly broke.”
“No way.”
“It went out from under you. I’m pretty sure it’s broke,” she insisted.
He shoved to a standing position again, leaning all his weight onto the opposite foot. There—he was up. Nothing broken. No—
As soon as he set his foot down, his ankle buckled again. This time, pain shot through him, and he grabbed his calf.
The woman made a quiet noise and moved closer to examine him. Up close, he made out fat freckles across the bridge of her nose and a slim gold hoops hooked in her earlobes.
“I’m going to radio for help. You can’t make it down the mountain alone in this shape.”
“Goddammit, I’m fine.”
She paused in reaching for her radio, arching a brow at him. “You sure about that?” She depressed the button on the side of the radio. “Moon Shadow to base.”
Lipton stared at her for a long minute. Had he hit his head? Did he just hear the green fairy nymph call herself Moon Shadow?
The voice came back to her instantly. “Go ahead, Moon Shadow.”
Lipton blinked.
“I found a hiker down with what I suspect to be a broken ankle.”
He issued a growl. He did not break his ankle like some fragile flower. He was a goddamn special operative. He hiked through treacherous conditions every day of his life, and a calm hike on vacation was not going to put him out of commission.
Seconds later, Moon Shadow—or whoever she was—stowed her radio on her hip again. She started stripping pine off one of the fallen branches.
“What are you doing?” Lipton couldn’t restrain his annoyance, and it seeped into his tone.
She shot him a sympathetic look, ticking him off more. “I’m going to make you a crutch. We need to get you to the closest path for the ATV to pick you up and take you to the hospital.”
“My ankle is not broken!”
She went back to stripping the pine branch. “Uh-huh.”
“I’ll show you.” With a determined grunt, he launched to his feet once more. This time he placed his foot flat on the ground and it held his weight. At least until he took a step.
He landed on his ass, seated beside Moon Shadow. She trapped her lower lip in her teeth to hide her smile.
Lipton stared up at the snapped top of the trees, his mind locking in on the situation with the speed of a sniper bullet.
Dammit, he broke his ankle like some frail weakling trekking up a hill he wouldn’t even call steep. And he was at the mercy of a woman calling herself Moon Shadow who was deftly crafting him a crutch from a pine branch…and who wore a slim gold hoops in her cute earlobes that he couldn’t quit staring at.
And now he had to figure out how and why the fuck someone had loaded this group of trees, on a hill in a national park, with C4.
Em Petrova
Em Petrova was raised by hippies in the wilds of Pennsylvania but told her parents at the age of four she wanted to be a gypsy when she grew up. She has a soft spot for babies, puppies and 90s Grunge music and believes in Bigfoot and aliens. She started writing at the age of twelve and prides herself on making her characters larger than life and her sex scenes hotter than hot.
She burst into the world of publishing in 2010 after having five beautiful bambinos and figuring they were old enough to get their own snacks while she pounds away at the keys. In her not-so-spare time, she is fur-mommy to a Labradoodle named Daisy Hasselhoff.
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Other Titles by Em Petrova
Xtreme Ops
HITTING XTREMES
TO THE XTREME
XTREME BEHAVIOR
XTREME AFFAIRS
XTREME MEASURES
The Guard
HIS TO SHELTER
HIS TO DEFEND
HIS TO PROTECT
Crossroads
BAD IN BOOTS
CONFIDENT IN CHAPS
COCKY IN A COWBOY HAT
SAVAGE IN A STETSON
SHOW-OFF IN SPURS
Dark Falcons MC
DIXON
TANK
PATRIOT
DIESEL
BLADE
RIO
Moon Ranch
TOUGH AND TAMED
SCREWED AND SATISFIED
CHISELED AND CHERISHED
Ranger Ops
AT CLOSE RANGE
WITHIN RANGE
POINT BLANK RANGE
RANGE OF MOTION
TARGET IN RANGE
OUT OF RANGE
Knight Ops Series
ALL KNIGHTER
HEAT OF THE KNIGHT
HOT LOUISIANA KNIGHT
AFTER MIDKNIGHT
KNIGHT SHIFT
O’ CHRISTMAS KNIGHT
ANGEL OF THE KNIGHT
6-Pack Cowboys Series
6-PACK RANCHER
6-PACK WRANGLER
Wild West Series
SOMETHING ABOUT A LAWMAN
SOMETHING ABOUT A SHERIFF
SOMETHING ABOUT A BOUNTY HUNTER
SOMETHING ABOUT A MOUNTAIN MAN
Operation Cowboy Series
KICKIN’ UP DUST
SPURS & SURRENDER
The Boot Knockers Ranch Series
PUSHIN’ BUTTONS
BODY LANGUAGE
REINING MEN
ROPIN’ HEARTS
ROPE BURN
COWBOY NOT INCLUDED
CUPID COWBOYS
COWBOY BY CANDLELIGHT
THE BOOT KNOCKER’S BABY
ROPIN’ A ROMEO
Ménage à Trouble Series
WRANGLED UP
UP FOR GRABS
HOOKING UP
ALL WOUND UP
DOUBLED UP novella duet
STIRRED UP
GETTING WARMED UP
Another Shot at Love Series
GRIFFIN
BRANT
AXEL
Rope ‘n Ride Series
BUCK
RYDER
RIDGE
WEST
LANE
WYNONNA
The Dalton Boys
COWBOY CRAZY Hank’s story
COWBOY BARGAIN Cash’s story
COWBOY CRUSHIN’ Witt’s story
COWBOY SECRET Beck’s story
COWBOY RUSH Kade’s Story
COWBOY MISTLETOE a Christmas novella
COWBOY FLIRTATION Ford’s Story
COWBOY TEMPTATION Easton’s Story
COWBOY SURPRISE Justus’s Story
COWGIRL DREAMER Gracie’s Story
COWGIRL MIRACLE Jessamine’s Story
COWGIRL HEART Kezziah’s Story
Single Titles and Boxes
THE DALTON BOYS BOX SET BOOKS 1-5
BOOT KNOCKERS RANCH SERIES BOOKS 1-6 PLUS BONUS
SINFUL HEARTS
JINGLE BOOTS
A COWBOY FOR CHRISTMAS
FULL RIDE
Firehouse 5 Series
ONE FIERY NIGHT
CONTROLLED BURN
SMOLDERING HEARTS
Club Ties Series
LOVE TIES
HEART TIES
MARKED AS HIS
SOUL TIES
ACE’S WILD
Hardworking Heroes Novellas
STRANDED AND STRADDLED
DALLAS NIGHTS
SLICK RIDER
SPURRED ON