Page 38 of Danger in the Wilderness (National Park Protectors #1)

Luca’s crime? When Luca had seen the Judge using a whip on a horse, he’d taken the whip away from him and slashed him in the face with it.

The Judge threatened him with an assault charge.

Luca had argued with Harper, telling her he’d take his chances in court, but she’d refused to listen.

They’d parted on angry words, with her telling him that she didn’t take orders from him.

That had been a recurring problem throughout their relationship.

Over the years, Luca regretted acting as he had. He was no better than her father.

Luca forced the memories away and stared at Harper.

She was more beautiful than ever. That was his first thought.

His second was that she looked brittle enough to break, with lines of strain etched on her face.

Still, it didn’t detract from her beauty.

Her cheeks had lost the roundness of youth, and her features were delicately formed.

With blond hair framing her face in loose curls and brown eyes, she was truly lovely.

“Harper.”

“Luca.”

It seemed that neither of them was able to get out more than the other’s name.

Finally, he managed, “What are you doing here?” He flushed at his less than gracious tone and gestured her inside to a chair.

She refused the offer of a seat. “I need your help.”

An odd request, he thought, seeing as how he hadn’t seen her in almost six years. “What is it?”

“My son…” Her voice choked, and she stopped, obviously unable to go on.

He did his best not to react to the news that she had a son even as a spate of jealousy surged through him. She’d obviously moved on since the annulment and had remarried.

“My son’s been kidnapped.”

He froze. Memories assailed him of a kidnapping in Afghanistan, where he’d been deployed with the rangers. The local police chief’s daughter had been taken by a band of terrorists. If he refused to work with them, she would be killed in the most horrible way possible.

Luca and his unit had brought the girl home, but they’d lost two good men in doing so.

“Will you help me?” she asked, drawing him back to the present. She caught her tongue between her teeth, a tell he recalled from years ago. It told him that it had cost her dearly to ask for help.

He didn’t bother answering. They both knew he would. “Tell me what you know.”

She told him what little she knew. How she’d come back from a search-and-rescue mission to find two men waiting for her in the barn. “One clamped a hand over my mouth and said they had taken Danny.” She swallowed. “My son.”

“Any description?”

“They were wearing masks. The first one put a piece of paper in my hands, telling me it held the coordinates of where a package was.” She drew a breath. “I wanted to go after them first thing, but I knew I needed help.”

He could only imagine. If it was his child, he’d be champing at the bit to find him and then dispatch the people who had taken him.

“Are you still at the ranch?” The ranch had belonged to her father, a hard man who had kept Harper under his thumb and out of his heart.

She nodded.

“Give me a couple of minutes to grab a few things.” Though he’d already packed, he wanted to add some special gear.

Five minutes later, he returned with another pack, this one filled with flash bangs, zip ties, and though he was carrying his usual Glock, he added a Sig Sauer P320.

Both were semiautomatic service pistols.

He favored the Glock as it was what he’d used as a ranger, but the Sig was equally as deadly.

“Let’s go.” He hefted both packs over his shoulders.

He resisted the urge to draw her to him. He resisted the urge to promise that everything would be all right. He resisted the urge to ask why she’d come to him after nearly six years. He had no right to do any of those things.

He’d worked long and hard, but never successfully, to forget her. How could he forget the girl—now woman—who had occupied his heart ever since he was a callow youth? Sure, he’d gone out with other women since their marriage ended, but things rarely went beyond the first date.

None of that mattered, and so he focused on what he could do. Find her son.

He knew her father, the Judge, had died last year. If he’d been alive, it would have twisted his gut to know that Harper had gone to him, Luca, for help. Impatiently, he brushed that away. Now wasn’t the time for petty thoughts.

Along with emotions he had no right feeling, questions tumbled around in his mind, like what her husband thought of her coming to Luca for help. Was he on board with that? What would he think when Luca showed up?

He forced everything from his mind except the only thing that mattered. Helping the woman he’d once loved. The woman who, for a very short while, had been his wife. There’d be time enough for questions later. For now, he and Harper needed to get back to the ranch.

Wanting to have his own vehicle, he persuaded her to ride with him, telling her that he’d have someone bring her truck to the ranch.

“How did you find me?” he asked her when they’d settled into his vehicle.

“Are you kidding? S&J is big news. I saw your name in the paper when the company brought down the lieutenant governor.”

A photojournalist had found herself a target when she’d unknowingly taken a picture of Colorado’s lieutenant governor with a mobster. When she’d turned to S&J for help, they had proven the LG was corrupt.

Taking him down had called national attention to the company. And though Luca hadn’t been in on the actual takedown, he’d been involved in the case, and his name had been brought up, along with his military service.

The last thing he’d wanted was publicity.

He’d had enough of it to last a lifetime during his years in the rangers.

During one deployment, he’d been heralded a hero for saving six of his men from a mortar attack.

He’d done his best to keep a low profile.

Medals didn’t make a hero. Not in his book. Standing by his men came first.

It was with relief when he’d accepted the job at S&J. Its founders, brother and sister Jake Rabb and Shelley Rabb Judd, had decided to open a satellite office in Colorado.

It was a nod to his abilities, one he was determined to live up to. The job gave him the opportunity to use his skills to help those who couldn’t help themselves, just as he’d done in the rangers.

The drive to the ranch took less than an hour, but it felt interminable. He and Harper, once so close, had nothing to say to each other. Every subject that came to mind felt loaded with past pain and recrimination.

“Tell me about Danny,” he said when the silence grew unbearable.

“Asking a mother to tell you about her son is dangerous. I could talk about him for hours. Days.”

“Does he look like you?” Luca asked, interrupting the flow of her thoughts.

“No. He takes after his father.”

“How old is he?”

She didn’t answer right away.

“Harper?”

When she answered, it was with defiance. “Five. He just turned five.”

Luca went still. “Five? Does that mean—?”

“Yes, Luca. Danny’s your son.”

His son?

The revelation that he had a son filled him with an inexplicable joy. At the same time, outrage threatened to overtake him. How dare Harper have kept that from him!

By the time they arrived at the ranch, he was still grappling with the news that this mission was to rescue his own son. His son. The words had both the power to thrill him and to fill him with fear. His son’s life depended upon him.

Never had an op been more important.

Copyright ? 2025 by Jane M. Choate