Page 1

ONE

Reporter Dani Barlowe wasn’t sure which was worse—facing down an actual bear in the wilds of Alaska or duking it out with a pompous, gruff, grouchy hotshot aptly named Grizz.

After this, she was going to change her title to Adventure Reporter, because this was three thousand miles outside of her comfort zone.

She let out a huff that puffed up her blonde bangs.

“This trip would have been so much easier if that hotshot crew hadn’t thrown us out of their compound.

” Dani shoved a branch out of her way and trudged forward, her white boots sticking in the mud from the dirt trail. “How much farther is it, anyway?”

Josh Whitlock, the only man brave enough to volunteer to be her cameraman and videographer on this escapade into the wilderness, trailed behind Dani.

“Yeah, they weren’t the friendliest. But according to the hand-drawn map your source gave you, we need to hike about a mile and a half, right?

And are you actually going to tell me who your source is before the case is over? ”

Dani ignored the sarcasm-laced comment and took the crinkled paper from Josh. No one could know that a local FBI agent, the husband of a friend of hers, had given a reporter information about an investigation he’d been forced to close.

Why was she sweating under her three layers? Wasn’t Alaska supposed to be freezing? But at four p.m., the sun lit the mountain up in bright hues of red and orange with no signs of setting, and her Apple Watch indicated the temperature was sixty degrees.

“My source is one-hundred-percent legit.” Skye had passed on the map just last week, explaining that two of her friends, Crew and JoJo, had flown a drone around after trail cameras had spotted unusual militia activity in this area.

They were here.

Wherever here was.

She rotated the map, and Josh chuckled from behind her.

Why were his broken-in boots barely muddy?

He didn’t have any rips in the sleeves of his company-issued windbreaker from the thorny branches, while her thick International News Network navy jacket looked like it had been shredded by wolves.

“We just need to keep going…up. Once this muddy trail ends, we should find another pathway that takes us to the secret compound.” Dani moved a tree branch out of the way and continued the hike.

Josh’s exaggerated sigh spurred her forward.

He didn’t get her. At forty-six, Josh was fifteen years older than her and on the fast track to early retirement.

The man was a perpetual bachelor who loved the comforts of home, while Dani was willing to do whatever it took for the sake of the story.

But neither of them was cut out for this little adventure.

Which only made her press on—or up. She wasn’t a quitter. There was no turning back now. Her mind had already churned out the sound bites for her special report.

Dangerous militia group hiding in middle-of-nowhere Alaska. Secret laboratory rumored to be tucked into the side of Copper Mountain.

All of it added up to her last shot at reviving her career.

Maybe if she was the one who broke this story first, the public would forget about the one time she’d had the facts completely wrong.

Her career as an investigative reporter for the International News Network had taken a nosedive three years ago after she’d botched a story accusing Alaskan senator Geoff Deville of embezzlement.

Her intel had been solid, but when the judicial system had found him innocent, the court of public opinion had turned on her like a piranha, shredding her reputation.

She’d clawed her way back to the top to regain the trust of viewers. Barely.

No way was she going to give up. Not when she’d come all this way to find a new story.

Not that she’d ever give up on proving Deville wasn’t entirely innocent of wrongdoing. The man had a shady past, and if he stepped out of line, Dani would pounce.

She shimmied out of her jacket, tied it around her waist, and marched forward. “I trust my contact. There’s a compound or a secret laboratory tucked away in these quiet mountains. I can smell it.”

Josh grunted. “That’s just how fresh air smells. Something you’re not familiar with, living in Washington, DC. When’s the last time you even went to a park or did anything outside? What did that hotshot call you?”

Diva Dani.

Why had they stopped at the Midnight Sun base camp first anyway?

All she’d wanted to do was connect with her old friend, smokejumper Skye Parker, before following up on the information Skye and her husband, FBI Agent Rio Parker, had sent her.

Instead, Dani had ended up facing off with a bunch of cranky hotshots.

One in particular had made her blood boil.

Grizz.

The man certainly resembled a grizzly bear, with his dark-brown shaggy hair, a bushy beard, thick shoulders, and that lumberjack T-shirt with the hotshot logo that stretched across his chest and showed off every one of his rippling muscles.

Get your head in the game, Barlowe.

Something about this thin mountain air had short-circuited her brain.

“Look.” Dani turned toward Josh, but her feet wouldn’t move. Her designer boots made a sucking sound with each mud-filled step. Josh grabbed her arm to steady her so she could free herself from the guck.

She shook the memories of the hotshots from her mind.

If she wanted to come out on top, she had to put in the hard work now.

It was up to her to make things happen. No one was showing up to help her save her career.

Not her family, friends, or even God. Josh was only here for the overtime.

People had showed their true colors the moment Dani’s reporter status had soured and she wasn’t the media darling anymore.

No. Second place wasn’t an option for her.

She shook from Josh’s grasp on her arm and trudged forward. “We’ll make it there and back before dark, no problem. I’ve run a marathon before. How hard is a mile-and-a-half hike through the woods?”

Josh snorted. “Not that I want to agree with that hotshot—what was his name? Grizz? But are you sure you’re good in those boots?”

She looked down at her once-white fluffy ski boots, now brown and caked with dirt. “Well, I figured if they were good enough for skiing, they’d be fine for Alaska.”

What did she know about hiking, or skiing for that matter? She was more of an indoorsy girl. Maybe she should have done better research before booking the first flight out of DC after getting this lead.

Dani tucked fallen strands of her shoulder-length blonde hair back under her multicolor knit cap. “I can’t believe you’re taking that Neanderthal’s side. That guy was the definition of backwoods . I can’t believe he said we had a death wish. So insufferable. He practically yelled at us.”

It almost seemed like Alaskan Mountain Man had gotten under her skin.

No, she wouldn’t let that happen. Even if the guy was her type, relationships were just a distraction. She needed to focus on increasing her public approval ratings.

Dani shoved another tree branch out of her way only for it to whip back into her face. Who lived like this?

She looked around and saw nothing but brown and dark-green foliage.

No noises except some buzzing insects or an occasional chirping bird.

Her apartment in DC had all the modern conveniences a person wanted.

But this? They were miles from that general store and restaurant they’d passed on the way up the mountain.

“Admit it, Dani, you’re out of your element. There’s no shame in us turning around. Especially when your lead is based on a rumor. The government isn’t even investigating this claim. Maybe we should just return to the hotshot base and wait for your friend to return.”

Without this story, she had nothing left. Her boss had read her the riot act. Don’t bother returning unless you have the story.

She tamped down her frustration and kept walking. “Something’s going on in these woods, and we’re going to be the first to report it.”

“Not sure it’s worth risking my life.”

“You can quit if you want, Josh. Go back and tell stories by the campfire with those hotshots. But I’m going to find out what’s happening with this secret lab in the woods. What if it’s a terrorist camp? We need to expose it so someone will investigate.”

He shook his head. “The hotshots wouldn’t give us the time of day. Not after our station roasted them on air. I don’t want to face them again.”

On the inside, Dani let out a sigh of relief.

She remembered the scathing story her station had run.

It’d been a low blow when the hotshots had refused to take them to the location.

She should have called ahead to make sure Skye was available this morning.

They’d been friends since college, so when Rio’s investigation had been stonewalled, he’d had Skye feed her information about this dangerous group in the hope Dani could break the story wide open.

Too bad the smokejumpers had been out fighting a fire when she and Josh had arrived.

Instead of seeing Skye and letting her know Dani was on the case, they’d been shown the door.

She refused to give up, even if it meant spending the night roughing it on the side of a mountain.

Which was exactly what those hotshots had predicted.

So what if she had a homemade map and zero outdoor survival skills? If she could swim in the Washington, DC fish tank of political piranhas, she could survive a mountain hike.

But hiking a mountain to an undisclosed location in the hopes of breaking a story?

Hold my extra-hot, sugar-free, oat milk latte…because this is where Dani Barlowe shines.

She pulled the map from her jacket pocket and studied it. A raindrop plopped on the paper, blurring the ink. She shielded it with her hand.