Michelle Karl - Wilderness Pursuit

His mission: keep his ex-love safe

Discover the Mountie Brotherhood series

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Sam Thrace can’t believe the woman he’s rescued from certain death is Kara Park—his former sweetheart. Once brokenhearted, now he’s protecting the courageous archaeologist from someone out to sabotage her controversial pipeline findings. And as he and Kara escape into the remote Canadian wilds, neither is safe from their emerging feelings—or the threat to their lives.

MICHELLE KARL is an unabashed bibliophile and romantic suspense author. She lives in Canada with her husband and an assortment of critters, including a codependent cat and an opinionated parrot. When she’s not reading and consuming copious amounts of coffee, she writes the stories she’d like to find in her “to be read” pile. She also loves animals, world music and eating the last piece of cheesecake.

Also By Michelle Karl

Mountie BrotherhoodWilderness Pursuit

Fatal Freeze

Unknown Enemy

Outside the Law

Silent Night Threat

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Wilderness Pursuit

Michelle Karl

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08268-6

WILDERNESS PURSUIT

© 2018 Faith Boughan

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Sam and Kara heard the very thing they’d feared, close, coming closer...

“You can get us out of this, Kara. I believe in you.” Sam’s smooth, mellow voice cut through her anxiety. Retrieving the trowel to cut the ropes binding them required controlled movements. “I haven’t always had the most faith in your plans, but you know what you’re doing.”

She might have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious. “I don’t, though. I’m really just making this all up as I go along.”

Another branch snapped. Kara jumped in alarm. The trowel flipped end over end, spinning away—right toward Sam’s outstretched legs.

“I’ve got it,” he said, but all trace of calm had disappeared from his voice. “We don’t have much time.”

Dear Reader,

I’m delighted and honored that you chose to spend your reading time with Kara and Sam. As a Canadian and an animal lover, I was happy to get the chance to write a story that showcased a small slice of the country’s incredible landscape and local wildlife—even if it wasn’t exactly the most enjoyable situation for my hero and heroine.

While the area of northern British Columbia in which I’ve set this story is real and the distances as accurate as possible, I’ve changed the names of the main towns for the sake of fiction—but yes, the RCMP serve in small, local detachments up in these somewhat isolated, rural locations. Fort Nelson is a real place, and the Liard/Fort Nelson River is a sight to behold. British Columbia has some of the most diverse ecosystems and breathtaking landscapes in Canada, especially up north!

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that Kara mentions Gwyn Ponth College several times in this story, and at one point talks about her lab getting shot to pieces at her previous job. Yes, Kara Park is the unnamed archaeologist in whose lab Ginny locks up the Amaran tablets in my book Unknown Enemy. Surprise!

I love hearing from readers. Connect with me at michellekarl.comor find me on Twitter, @_MichelleKarl_. Thank you so much for reading Wilderness Pursuit!

Blessings,

Michelle

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

—Psalms 145:18

For Kristen C, whose enthusiasm for this might have surpassed my own.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

ONE

Kara Park slammed her car door with more force than necessary, but she couldn’t help feeling annoyed. She wasn’t scheduled to come north for another week, but her study of the previous dig season’s archaeological finds had wrapped at the University of British Columbia earlier than she’d expected—early April instead of late in the month—and she’d thought it would be wise to get a head start on the next contract. When she’d called Gaida Industries and told them she’d landed at Northern Rockies Regional Airport, and that she planned to drive over to their proposed pipeline site outside of Fort Mason before heading into town, the foreman had tried to talk her out of it, claiming impending weather, possible bad road conditions and other nonsense. Yes, there was a typhoon on the way, but it was projected to make landfall in the southern half of the province. Fort Mason and the surrounding area were fairly deep inland and quite far north.

At least the foreman had finally agreed to come out and show her where the site was—not that she’d given him a choice. She had the coordinates and a battery-operated GPS unit.

She nodded at the stout, balding foreman as he parked his car next to hers and hurried over, frowning. His skin had the leathery look of long days spent doing hard labor outdoors. “Ms. Park, I must continue to insist that you come into the offices first. There’s paperwork to fill out, and you can rest from your trip up here.”