Page 52 of Double Exposure

Just as he turns around to face me there's a thrashing to our left. Everything blurs and I’m unclear what exactly is happening, Carter wraps his arms round me, then shoves me behind him. A huge brown bear comes crashing from out of the woods, a twig still hanging from his lips.

“Get ready,” says Carter quietly.

The bear takes a look, ducks its head, a radio collar visible. Then he stands on his back legs not twenty feet from us. It’s definitely a male—thus his size.

He growls and shows his teeth. I quickly adjust the exposure and step out from behind Carter. Lifting the camera and settling my gaze in the viewfinder, I want to capture all of this. I get off four shots in rapid succession when Carter steps in front of me again and raises his arms. He's unzipped his coat and he holds it open making himself larger.

He shouts, the bear growls, and I’m trying hard to grab more shots, but then Carter keeps stepping in front of me.

Suddenly the bear pivots, dives to the left and scurries off crashing through the woods thirty degrees from where we stand, heading toward the cave. My heart beats in my throat.

Carter grabs my arm again. “Are we done?”

΅

The sound of helicopter blades slicing through the air tells us which way to go. That, and the fact Carter has his phone pressed to his ear most of the time. He never lets go of my arm.

I can hear Brock on the other line. “Yep, yep. On it.”

The two of us move pretty quickly through the forest along Sweet Milk Creek and then the helicopter rises over a hill and lands about fifty feet from us. We bolt.

Carter hoists me up and Jace grabs a hand to haul me inside the cabin. In a minute I’m in a jump seat and Ryan is stretching a seat belt across my lap as the chopper begins to rise.

“What were you doing?” Carter says, his eyes dark. This is not the victory chatter I was expecting.

“I was doing my job.”

Carter closes his eyes. “That could have been really bad out there. That bear had every right to do what he did.”

“I know,” I say. “He obviously came out of torpor earlier and went foraging. I didn’t have a head count to begin with. But it’s fine.”

“You can't take risks like that,” says Carter.

Oh, where have I heard that before?

But before I can let loose with a well-practiced rant, I stop for a moment and look at him. He's pale. His hands are shaking too, and he keeps wiping them on his pants.

“There he is,” says Brock pointing to the ground. “That's Samsung. See that notch in his ear? I helped the team that tagged him.”

I raise my chin. “Can you move away so we don’t disturb them more?”

Brock gives a thumbs up and the chopper lifts and tilts to one side as we head back to Echo Hills. Brock shouts over his shoulder. “He's missing a toe too. A lot of bears are missing toes because of old traps. They’ll take a toe off or a part of a paw.”

But Carter is uninterested in bears right now. “You sure you’re okay?” he finally says and there’s gravel in his voice.

“Yeah,” I nod. “Yes.” I swallow, I feel like I've let Carter down or disappointed him somehow. “Carter, this is what I do, this is what I want to do.”

I know he's worried, but the ferocity of his worry surprises me.

He raises his head and looks at Brock in the pilot’s seat and Ryan in the co-pilot seat and says cryptically, “See, this is exactly what I was talking about.”

Jace shakes his head.