Page 21 of Deadly Storms (Sunrise Lake #3)

Shabina coughed into her sleeve and busied herself rolling the last of the chicken in foil to keep it hot.

She had to remove the stones from the embers once they burned clean.

It gave her something to concentrate on to keep her laughter at bay.

Zahra might be a drama queen, but she was absolutely serious.

“Good plan,” Harlow said. “But you are kind of small, Zahra. If we’re supposed to make ourselves huge to scare the bear, I think you might need a couple of us to make the bear think we’re enormous.”

Zahra lifted an eyebrow. “Did you not listen, Harlow? I said if the bear didn’t respond to our collective noise and size, then you make a run for it.”

Harlow nodded solemnly. “Yes, yes, of course. I think that plan’s a good one, although we should add in there that Shabina should sprint to her car and drive it up so you can have a fast escape. That would give you a better exit plan.”

“We just have to make certain all the food is put in the bear containers and all the smells are covered,” Shabina said.

“We don’t want to attract them to this site.

We can clean everything up carefully, Zahra.

I’m used to scrubbing the stones and cooking pots so there isn’t evidence of food left for the bears. ”

“ Now can we talk about men?” Vienna asked. “Or one man at least?”

Shabina continued to work clearing the food.

Stella and Harlow helped. They wanted the camp pristine from all food sources.

Shabina kept her head down. She knew the inevitable had been coming.

The women had come to support her so she wouldn’t be alone, but they were going to weigh in on whether her feelings for Rainier were realistic.

She didn’t think talking about it mattered one way or the other since he didn’t return her feelings.

If he knew, and maybe he did, he would consider her emotions juvenile.

That would be even more painfully embarrassing.

“If I get a vote,” she said without looking up, “I vote no.”

“We’ve all had to endure the endless talks on men,” Stella pointed out. “Look at all the times we talked about Sam.”

A collective groan went around the campfire. Zahra covered her eyes. Harlow her ears. Vienna attempted to do both.

“Sam is dreamy, we get it,” Raine said. “No more Sam discussions or you get fed to the bear, baby or no baby.”

“I’m not having a baby,” Stella said decisively. “Stop saying that. You’ll jinx me.”

“Even if the baby looked like Sam?” Zahra asked, her mischievous expression very much in evidence.

Stella paused before she answered. “Well, if it could be guaranteed the baby had his eyes and his laid-back manner, then I’d have his child in a hot minute. But it would be a girl with a nasty little temper and she’d give me attitude night and day.”

“Which you would deserve,” Zahra said.

“Thank you, bestie.” Stella glared at her.

“What are friends for but to point out the obvious?”

Another round of laughter, which Stella took good-naturedly, told Shabina she was going to have to be okay with being in the hot seat next. It was all part of the friend’s creed.

She huffed a little, sank back in her chair and faced them.

“Fine, then, but just know, this conversation is beside the point, Rainier has absolutely no feelings for me whatsoever other than he believes it’s his responsibility to keep me alive.

In fact, he looks at me like a thorn in his side, kind of a child that falls apart at the drop of a hat. ”

“I doubt that,” Harlow said. “Look at everything you’ve accomplished.

You live on your own. You have a very successful business.

You’re recognized as one of the leading ornithologists studying birds in the wild in North America, especially the Sierra.

You graduated with honors from UC Davis, getting your bachelor’s and master’s degrees in well under the time it would have taken most people. ”

Shabina found herself smiling at the staunch support of her friend. “Where do you get all this information? Raine? Have you been telling tales about me?” She knew better. Raine didn’t break confidences.

Harlow smiled at her, but there was an apology in her eyes. “I’m a senator’s daughter, Shabina. I make sure anyone I let into my circle of friends is someone we can count on.”

That told Shabina that Harlow was as wary as she was when it came to letting others into her inner circle.

“I do sound a little impressive when you put it that way, but I’m not sure Rainier would pay the slightest attention to my degrees.

Just my security. He makes certain I keep up with self-defense, weapons practice and training of my protection dogs.

He oversees all of that and occasionally checks out the security cameras to ensure they are working.

Other than that, he’s out doing whatever it is Rainier does. ”

Being the assassin Deadly Storms when he wasn’t doing the same kind of work for Blom. She didn’t add that. She didn’t want to think about it too much.

She found she was rubbing at her thigh again, something she had been so determined she would stop.

It was more of a self-soothing gesture than to alleviate the ache.

The scars didn’t hurt as bad anymore. Time, running and stretching had helped.

It was one of those telling nervous actions Rainier—or Scorpion—would notice immediately.

Scorpion would take advantage. Rainier would coach her until she was rid of it.

“You don’t know,” Zahra said. “If I were any man, I’d be falling all over you. Not only are you a successful businesswoman, but you’re gorgeous.”

Shabina laughed. “I’m not exactly thin.”

“Men like figures, Shabina,” Raine said. “Believe me, I know.” She was extremely thin.

Shabina gave a little snort of derision. “Weren’t we just talking about all the men who are courting you?”

“Courting you?” Harlow echoed.

Attention immediately swung to Raine. Shabina smirked.

“Oh no you don’t,” Raine countered. “Do you see what she’s doing? That’s called manipulation. She’s directing attention toward me so you won’t talk to her about Rainier.”

“Are you trying to outsmart Raine?” Zahra lifted an eyebrow as she passed around chocolate bars.

“For a moment, I may have lost my ability to think clearly.” Shabina went for humor. “Just the thought of Rainier does that to me.”

Harlow rolled her eyes. “The thought of Rainier with you scares me to death. Sam is sweet, but he does have that aura of danger surrounding him. Zale is quieter and gives the impression that he could very quickly go lethal, but Rainier has an altogether different vibe. He doesn’t even try to hide what he is. ”

Shabina tried not to bristle or come to Rainier’s defense. Harlow wasn’t saying anything that wasn’t true. Rainier didn’t bother to hide who he was from most people, not unless he was playing an undercover role.

“We don’t know Rainier.” Raine unexpectedly came to Rainier’s defense. “Since none of us do, we can’t fairly judge him, can we?”

Shabina didn’t look at her, but she wanted to throw her arms around Raine and hug her.

Zahra pouted openly. “Well, that takes all the fun out of everything. What are we supposed to do now?”

“Discuss the murder and what could be happening, other than what it appears,” Stella suggested.

“Do we have to talk about the murder?” Zahra protested with one of her most dramatic groans. “We’re going to sleep in tents where anyone can creep in and bash us in the head with a rock.”

Stella glared at her. “That was the assignment, Zahra. We were all going to think of different reasons this killer would have an altar with mixed feathers and flowers, including some from Saudi Arabia. Instead, you were researching bears.”

“That wasn’t my fault. I didn’t understand how the body wasn’t found by a bear when there was blood.

Shouldn’t a predator like a bear or mountain lion have scented it?

Essentially, even if I don’t want to think about it, a body is meat.

Once I looked up what bears eat, I began to worry about all of us here and the scent of food and how to protect Raine.

That’s a logical progression.” She was indignant.

“I can see how that would happen,” Shabina soothed. “I get caught up in research all the time. I’m sure Raine does as well. And Harlow must with her photography. We all get sidetracked when we’re interested in a subject.”

Zahra sent her a winning smile. “I did think about the murder and why the bird feathers and flower could have been mixed in with the ones from here. Also, the fact that the body was found on a trail that was overgrown and no backpackers use. It was closed, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Shabina said. “Mainly because it leads to one of the rare bird-nesting sites. The park shut down that trail two years ago. Only a very few avid backpackers ever go that way. It’s steep, with a lot of twists and turns.

The trees grow closer together. A small stream crosses the trail in three spots, and it can be very muddy.

It’s high altitude, so the snow doesn’t melt as quickly as in other areas.

The ground can be very wet for the month of June and even July. ”

“But you go there,” Vienna said.

“I discovered the birds nesting there and photographed them. I don’t go often because I don’t want to take a chance of disturbing them, but I was interested to see if the female would lay an egg.

They are extremely slow to reproduce. If they do, it’s only one egg and normally only every other year.

It’s been a rare opportunity to study them,” Shabina said.

“What kind of bird?” Stella asked.

Shabina hesitated. “It isn’t something we talk about because there are so few left alive.

They became extinct in the wild sometime around the 1980s.

The last of them were brought in to try to safeguard them and keep the species going.

A few have been released into the wild fairly recently. They’re magnificent.”