Wild Beauty

Wild Beauty Accardi Tactical, Book 2 K.C. Ramsey K.C. Ramsey Copyright Copyright © 2023 by K.C. Ramsey All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the brainchild of the author. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales are entirely coincidental. ISBN ebook: 979-8-9873493-3-5 ISBN print: 979-8-9873493-2-8 Created with Atticus Cover by: Furiousfotog Book Blurb: Briggs Consulting, LLC Developmental and Line Edits by: Olivia Kalb Editing Proofing by: Zoe Reading Dedication This book is dedicated to all the men in my family who read my books, if only to support my dreams. Love you! Contents Note to my readers ... 1. Prologue-Paige 2. Paige 3. Keene 4. Keene 5. Paige 6. Keene 7. Paige 8. Paige 9. Paige 10. Paige 11. Keene 12. Paige 13. Keene 14. Keene 15. Paige 16. Keene 17. Alessia 18. Keene 19. Paige 20. Keene 21. Paige 22. Keene 23. Paige 24. Paige 25. Keene 26. Paige 27. Keene 28. Paige 29. Keene 30. Keene 31. Paige 32. Paige 33. Epilogue—Royce Afterword About Author Note to my readers ... First of all, thank you for jumping into my world. If you’re a new reader of mine, Wild Beauty is the second book in the Accardi Tactical series, and I highly recommend reading Lethal Beauty before starting this one. You can read them separately, but the storyline is so much stronger together. That being said, this book does not completely wrap up at the end the way Lethal Beauty seemed to. Don’t worry—Keene and Paige get their happily-ever-after, but some plotlines continue into future books of the series. Rest assured, all questions that haven’t been answered by the end of this book will be later on. Chapter 1 Prologue-Paige Thirteen years earlier...“You can do this,” I wheezed, feeling like a demented cheerleader. My arms were trembling, my shirt plastered to my back, courtesy of the blistering hot sun and physical exertion. My heartbeat, strong and steady, kept me moving in a consistent rhythm despite the matching throb in my wrapped ankle. “Just a few more miles to go.” More like four, but despite the rapidly cooling temperatures and the reddish hue warning me that the sun would soon descend behind the mountains at my back, I was in denial that I would have to stop and spend the night in the woods. I stumbled, wincing when I bumped my injured ankle badly enough for my vision to blur and my breath to rush out of me in a whoosh. “Time for a rest break,” I announced, slowly making my way to an upturned log, where I could elevate my ankle and take a few minutes to catch my breath.The day started spectacularly enough. I’d snuck out of camp to hike farther up the mountain before the sun had even lightened the Colorado sky to get the photographs I needed to win the regional photography contest. First place—and the grand prize money—would be mine. If I were going to live my dream and travel after I graduated high school, I needed everything I could save, and as an added bonus, the win would look great in my portfolio.Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in getting my shots that I didn’t realize just how light the sky had gotten. By the time I’d returned to camp, no one was there. I knew I was only one girl, but I still couldn’t figure out how the camp leader had missed me. I mean, how hard was it to count fifteen kids? Mad I’d been left behind and determined to put the camp leader in her place, I did something I knew my dad would take me to task over—I went off trail. My compass ensured I wouldn’t get lost, and I knew the path we’d taken to get up the mountain was long and winding. Many of the hikers on the trip were new, so the camp leader had taken the easiest trail. Knowing I could easily cut my travel time by half if I took the straighter path, I set off, determined to meet them at the parking lot, hands on hips and demanding an apology from the camp leader for somehow forgetting me.The plan would have worked out, if it hadn’t been for the stream. More specifically, the slippery rock on the other side of the stream. I’d jumped over the water, knowing sooner or later I would have to cross. Unfortunately, I hadn’t counted on the morning dew and the dirt that prevented my boots from gripping the rock when I landed. My foot came off the flat stone and into the crack between the neighboring rock. Momentum and velocity did the rest. I was eighty percent sure it wasn’t broken, but the swelling and the throbbing pain in my ankle told me I likely had one heck of a sprain.The second piece of bad news I didn’t find nearly as distressing. The mama bear and her two cubs presented another awesome opportunity for some camera shots—and thank goodness my camera hadn’t been damaged in my slip and fall. Keeping a safe distance, I used a long-range lens to keep myself out of mama bear’s radar. The only bad part came when it was time for her and her cubs to leave. Instead of retreating into the woods, she kept pace along the stream, which happened to be the path I also needed to take. With my bad ankle, I couldn’t traverse the thick woods with overgrown fallen trees, exposed roots, and uneven ground, so I needed the relatively clear area around the stream to make it down the mountain and back to the trailhead. Not clued into my