There was less than an hour of light left. He might need medical attention. She dug out a large plastic evidence bag from her utility belt, and shoved her shoes, socks, and belt inside.

Lynn stripped down to her bra and panties, rolled her clothes into a tight ball, pressed them into the bag, and sealed it. She didn’t want to suffer soaking-wet clothing after dark. A string of curses hissed past her lips when the icy water hit her bare flesh. The person she trailed had better be really hurt and be DEA. Otherwise she would be angry for going to all that trouble. She walked deeper into the swift current and held her tranquilizer gun over her head in one hand, her bag with the other.

The current tore at her body, knocking her off her feet. She swam and managed to keep a death grip on the sealed, floating bag. She made it across the river out of breath and forced her tired limbs to crawl up the embankment onto the thick moss between two big bushes. She collapsed on her butt and panted, attempting to catch her breath. She tossed her useless tranquilizer gun a few feet away to drain the barrel on the slant of the embankment.

Lynn shivered hard, hugged her body, and ignored the way her teeth chattered. She finally recovered enough to stand and bend over to retrieve her clothes from inside the evidence bag. They appeared dry, the seal having held.

A low growl sounded from behind as she faced the river.

Fear jolted through her. A vicious dog had just snarled, if her ears weren’t deceiving her. It was really close. She guessed it was a big dog too.

Her utility belt and weapons were buried at the bottom of the bag her hand rested on. No way could she grab her Taser or even the mace in time if it attacked. The clothes were in the way. It’s just not my day.

Jimmy obviously had more than four dogs, and one had escaped his property to chase whomever it had attacked earlier. Her gaze lifted to the moving water. She could dive into the river and pray the mean mutt wouldn’t come in after her, but she doubted that plan would work. It had already swum across once.

“So fucked,” she mouthed quietly, holding very still.

Another growl came from behind her. It was closer. She just knew it would lunge and bite into her butt at any second. Her only option was to attempt to startle the thing. It might be confused long enough for her to grab a weapon. She scanned the ground to her right and left, spotting the tranquilizer gun. She could use it as a bat.

She spun and straightened to her full height. The shout burst from her throat louder than she imagined it would. It came out more of a shriek. She pitched the bag at the first thing her gaze focused on.

Shock tore through her as the bag struck a big man in the groin area. He grunted loudly as he doubled over and collapsed to the ground on his hands and knees.

Lynn stood there staring, frozen, her gaze locked on the downed man. She noticed a lot of naked, golden skin. He had broad shoulders and really muscular arms bracing his upper body. Long, silvery-blond hair spilled all the way to his hands. Blood smeared one arm and she noticed more injuries when she was able to take a hesitant step forward to get a better view of him.

He’d been attacked by dogs. It was easy to identify the bites by sight and he had more than a few of them. One arm was torn up under his elbow, another bite on his other arm by his wrist. That hand was covered in blood. She saw more injuries on his legs. It was a miracle he’d made it this far without passing out.

“Oh my god,” she gasped, rushing at him without giving it a thought. “You’re seriously hurt.”

He raised his head slowly, his chin lifted, but most of his features were covered by his long hair. One eye peeked at her.

Her knees felt weak when she halted, staring at him. It was the most striking and prettiest eye she’d ever seen. The blue of it was almost neon and swirls of silver ran through the iris like tiny streaks of lightning.

He growled softly. The strange sound startled her but then she realized how much pain he had to be in. The fact that she’d nailed him hard with her bag must have hurt, too, since she’d knocked him to his knees. She inched closer.

“It’s okay.” She softened her tone as if he were a skittish kitten, something in her line of work with which she had a lot of experience. “I’m with animal control and I’m going to help you.” The amount of blood on the ground alarmed her.

She slowly lowered to her knees in front of him. His injures looked bad and they actively bled. “My name is Lynn. I don’t have a first-aid kit but I can tear up my shirt to make bandages. We need to stop the bleeding immediately.”

He watched her with that one beautiful eye. The ends of his hair were wet from his swim in the water but he had thick, beautiful tresses. Her assumption that he was DEA strengthened. She’d heard some of them grew out their hair to fit in better with the criminals they had to deal with. This guy must have been going for the heavy-metal look and it meshed with Jimmy’s taste in friends.

She twisted a little to grab her bag. “I’m going to patch you up and go for help. There’s no cell signal this far out. I’m sure you’re aware of that by now.” It would only make sense that he’d tried to call 9-1-1. “There’s a cabin a few miles from here. Mr. Avery has a land line. I’ll go there and lead the paramedics back to you. You look too hurt to make it on your own steam and no vehicles can drive this close to the river. There’re too many trees and the terrain is rough. We’ll have to carry you out on a stretcher.”

She tore open the seal on her bag and dumped out the contents. Her hands trembled as she opened her utility knife and began the process of slicing her shirt into strips. He wasn’t talking at all and it worried her. She’d dealt with plenty of injured animals but it was different looking at mangled human flesh. The sight made her feel a little queasy. She wrapped his wrist first, tying the ends of the cloth strip together to help apply a little pressure to the bleeding wound. He allowed it, not flinching away or trying to stop her.

“It’s going to be okay,” she assured him. “I need access to all the bites. Can you lean back a little and maybe pull your hair out of the way?”

He hesitated but then shifted from his crouched position to fall onto his ass, turning his face away as he stretched out flat on his back. Lynn bit back the gasp.

He wore very small underwear, unlike anything she’d ever seen before. Leather covered his groin. There wasn’t a fly or buttons down the front. She shifted her gaze away to take in his upper body. He was in such good shape that she could see every impressive muscle displayed over his stomach. He lifted one arm and placed his hand over his face. It was probably to stifle groans of pain.