Page 82 of Pain in the Axe
She jumped back with a scowl. “Keep your paws to yourself, Hebert.”
“I won’t try anything. I’m just offering you a ride.” I arched a brow. “Now, what’ll it be? Fireman style? Piggyback? Ooh, I could flip you upside down. Have you ever seen wife-carrying competitions?”
“Oh my God. Just stop.” She laughed. “I’m fine.”
“You’re tired, and I have fancy cheese waiting for you back at the campsite.”
That perked her right up. “What kind of cheese?”
“My mother went to the Trader Joes in Bangor and got a variety. Including buffalo cheddar and aged Gouda.”
She tapped her chin. “That is the best gouda. Also, why is your mom running cheese errands for you?”
A chuckle escaped me. “Because she was already going there, and I told her I had to impress a cheese-loving lady. We should hurry, though, wouldn’t want a raccoon to find it and enjoy it all.”
She let out a resigned sigh. “Okay, fine. You can piggyback me. But only for a little while. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’m a strapping lumberjack.” I tapped my chest with my fist and spun around. “I can carry my woman for miles.”
She hopped up onto my back and wrapped her legs around my waist.
“I’m not your woman,” she corrected.
“Yet,” I replied.
The hike backto camp was slow, but I was enjoying the way Chloe clung to me far more than I should. I never would have thought it would be, but carrying my baby mama around the woods was sexy. It had to be a caveman thing, especially the urge to hunt for our dinner and howl at the moon.
As we stepped into the denser forest, I stopped and pulled out my compass to make sure we were headed in the right direction.
Chloe, still on my back, tapped my chest. “Do you see that?”
She hopped down, her cheeks pink and the hair around her temples starting to curl from the humidity. She looked like a woodsy angel. Damn, I wanted to pin her up against that big maple and kiss the breath out of her.
But she was too busy looking up into the trees.
“What is that?” She pointed up at one of the pines.
I squinted. What looked like a small brown box was strapped to the tree.
I jogged closer, then snagged a branch and hoisted myself up. I wasn’t as graceful as I used to be, but I could still do it, thank God. Falling out of a tree in front of Chloe would destroy the shred of ego I had left.
As I got closer, I realized what it was.
A camera.
I pulled my Leatherman out of my pocket and cut the black zip ties that anchored it to the tree trunk.
It was small, probably the size of a book, but there was no doubt about what it was. The problem was that it shouldn’t have been here.
I pocketed the Leatherman and jumped down, and once I righted myself, I handed it to her.
“What is this?”
“It’s a game camera. And not a cheap one from Cabela’s. This is professional stuff.”
“Did one of our guys put it here?”
“No. We have cameras at our facilities and along the Golden Road so we can monitor for obstructions or danger, but ours are orange. It makes them easy to spot when the batteries need to be changed out. We don’t cut out here because of the bats, so there’s no need.”
