Black Hills

habit, Lil circled the habitats with Coop after the staff had gone for the day.
    “Waiting’s what you have to do.”
    “I don’t have to like it.”
    She wore one of their new Chance Wildlife Refuge hoodies under her oldest jacket, and couldn’t seem to stop playing with the strings.
    “It’s not like sitting in a jeep half the night waiting for a pride of lions to come to the watering hole, or even sitting at a computer tracking a collared cougar for a report. That’s doing something.”
    “Maybe we were wrong. Maybe he did head west.”
    “You know he didn’t.”
    Coop shrugged. “Willy’s doing the best he can, but he’s got limited resources. There’s a lot of ground up there, and a lot of hikers, trail riders, and campers making tracks.”
    “Willy’s not going to find him. I think we both know that.”
    “Luck plays, Lil, and you have a better chance at getting lucky with persistence. Willy’s damn persistent.”
    “And you have a better chance of getting lucky if you take a chance. I feel like I’m locked in here, Coop, and worse, just running in place. I need to move, need to act. I need to go up there.”
    “No.”
    “I’m not asking for your permission. If I decide to do this, you can’t stop me.”
    “Yes, I can.” He glanced at her. “And I will.”
    “I’m not looking to argue, not looking to fight. You’ve gone up. I know you’ve guided tours on the trail the last couple days. And we both know he’d be happy to hurt you if only to get to me.”
    “Calculated risk. Hold it,” he ordered before she could debate. “If he tried to take me out, he’d bring back the full force of the search. He took the time and effort to point the arrow west and the FBI’s followed it. Why bring them back? Second, if he was stupid or impulsive enough to try, I carry a radio, which I show every member of the tour how to use, in case of accident. So he’d have to take me out, and the entire group I’m guiding. Calculated risk,” he repeated.
    “And you get to sit your ass on a horse, ride. Breathe.”
    He skimmed a hand over her hair, a subtle show of sympathy. “That’s true enough.”
    “I know you’re going up hoping to find some signs, pick up a trail. You won’t. You’ve got some skills, but they’re rusty. And you were never as good as I was.”
    “Circles back to luck and persistence.”
    “I could go up with you, take a group up with you.”
    “Then, if he happened to catch sight of us, or you, he might take me out. Then he could force you off at gunpoint, so by the time anyone still alive radioed for help, you’d be gone. Well gone if he used the horses. Waiting means he moves first. He exposes himself first.”
    She stalked down the path and back. In his enclosure, Baby mirrored her move. The reflected motion had Coop’s lips curving. “That cougar’s a slave to his love for you.”
    She glanced over, nearly smiled herself. “No ball tonight, Baby. We’ll play in the morning.”
    He let out a call that Coop would have called a whine if cougars were capable of it.
    Lil ducked under the barricade, relenting enough to rub him through the cage, let him butt her head, lick her hand.
    “Is he going to be pissed if I come over there?”
    “No. He’s seen you with me enough. He’s smelled you on me, and me on you. A cougar’s sense of smell isn’t his strongest asset, but Baby knows my scent. Come over.”
    When he’d joined her, Lil put her hand over his, and laid it on Baby’s fur. “He’ll associate you with me. He knows I’m not afraid of you, or threatened. And he really likes to be rubbed. Bump foreheads with me. Just lean down, touch your forehead to mine.”
    “He smells your hair,” Coop murmured as he rested his brow against hers. “The way I do. It smells like the hills. Clean, and just a little wild.”
    “Now rest your forehead on the bars. It’s an offer of affection. Trust.”
    “Trust.” Coop tried not to imagine what those sharp teeth could do. “Are you sure he’s not the jealous type?”
    “He won’t hurt what I care about.”
    Coop laid his forehead on the fencing. Baby studied him for a moment. Then he rose to his hind legs, bumped his head against Coop’s.
    “Did we just shake hands or exchange a sloppy kiss?” Coop wondered.
    “Somewhere in between. Three times I tried to release him to the wild. The first, when I took him and his littermates up into the hills, he tracked me back—to my parents. I’d ridden there to