“Yes, we do. I was just choosing the travel cases. I think we’ll have you take Sam and I’ll take Harlequin.” Her heart skipped a beat as Joe turned around. She saw warmth banked in his eyes—for her. She wanted to run over, throw her arms around him and kiss him until she lost herself within his arms.
As he sipped the steaming coffee, Joe ambled over to her desk and asked, “Hey, are you really going to start driving a courier van for your mother?”
“Yes, I am. I told her it couldn’t be anything too long because my raptors are my business.”
“Did she understand how busy you are?”
Katie shrugged. “I’ve been trying to get her to come over here and see my facility. She keeps resisting. I don’t know why.”
Hearing the hurt veiled in her voice, Joe reached out. Without thinking, he brushed a few strands of hair away from her shoulder. “I know this is hard on you, Katie. I wish...I wish I could do something to take away some of the pain I know you’re going through.” A sudden need of her flooded him and she seemed to react to his brief, grazing touch. Her blue eyes widened and warmed with what he could only surmise was affection or even love. The idea made his head spin. Joe felt naked and exposed by her honesty.
She quickly reached up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Stepping away, she said, “Joe, this isn’t easy. I can’t tell you how many times a day I replay my last meeting with my mother. I question what I did, what I said. I’m so scared of her leaving again.”
“I know.” The words stuck in his throat as he saw the fear of rejection in her eyes. “This isn’t an easy transition for you—or her.”
“Iris said the same thing.” Katie turned and placed the travel box on her desk. She ached to move into Joe’s arms and be held. He made her feel safe from her world of anxiety. Donna’s advice to go slow and take her time echoed in her mind. Before, she had impulsively jumped into relationships, heedless of the consequences. This time it had to be the opposite, she had to get to know Joe much better before allowing her heart to be held in his strong, masterful hands.
“I’m glad you have Iris and Donna to help counsel you on this transition,” Joe said. His voice deepened. “I really worry about you driving the van, though, Katie. It’s one thing to work at her office as an assistant. It’s another to be a driver. Don’t you have to get a special license to do that?”
“Yes, I do. I’m going down tomorrow to the motor vehicles department to get it.” His brows dipped, and there was real worry in his eyes. Why? “My mother said I might drive the van to Idaho Falls once a week. That’s not much. Besides, it will get me out of the office for a day.” She laughed a little.
“That’s a six-hour round trip, Katie. And I really worry about the wintertime. My parents were telling me the sheriff’s department closes the pass across the Tetons all the time when blizzards are coming through. Did you know that?”
“Yes, I’m aware of it. I’m sure my mother will be in time. If I can’t drive on blizzard days I’m sure she’ll understand.”
Joe wasn’t so sure. “You need to discuss the aspect of blizzards over the pass with her, then. She’s from Cheyenne, clear across the state. They don’t have the Tetons standing like guard dogs preventing us from driving over to Idaho.”
“Next time I see her, I’ll bring it up,” Katie promised him. “You look really worried, Joe. Is everything all right? When you came in this morning, you looked as if you were someplace else. Are your parents okay?”
Touched by her concern, Joe forced a smile. “No, they’re fine. Everyone is okay. My mother is recovering from the flu and doing fine.” He couldn’t fight the need to touch Katie. Stepping forward, he framed her face and looked deeply into her blue eyes. “Listen, I think you’re making a mistake by driving for your mother’s courier service. This could be dangerous...” God help him, he wanted to say so much more.
Katie felt the strength of his hands. For a moment, she absorbed Joe’s masculine energy, the obvious care burning in his green gaze. She relished the unexpected contact with him, lifted her hands and pressed them to his hands. “I don’t see it as being dangerous. I really don’t. I’m afraid of losing her before I’ve found her, Joe. Maybe I am being too generous with my time, but right now, until I can know for sure she isn’t going to tell me to get out of her life, I want...I need to do this.”
His heart snagged and beat harder. He wanted to come clean and tell Katie the truth. All of it. She was in danger. Joe sensed it, but couldn’t prove it to his boss. In Afghanistan, he had learned to recognize when danger was lurking nearby. It had saved his and his men’s lives so many times. Joe searched for the right words. Her hands were warm and soft against his. He never wanted this feeling to go away. Katie was magical. “Look,” he began, his voice ragged with barely concealed emotions, “I want you safe, Katie. I’ve just found you. Accidents happen on the highway. I want to keep on developing what we’ve just discovered. Don’t you?”
Sighing, she held his anxious, narrowed gaze. “Oh, Joe, I’ll be fine. You’re worrying too much. Do you know that?” She tried to tease him out of his anxiety. There was a feeling of desperation around him she couldn’t explain. Was it his growing love for her? Katie acknowledged silently she was falling in love with him. “Joe, I can’t be torn between my mother and you. I’m doing the best I can. I’m sorry you think driving the van is dangerous. I will be careful, I promise,” she said softly, searching his eyes.
She reached up and placed a soft kiss on the hard line of his mouth. Instantly his hands dropped away and encircled her. His mouth plundered hers, hot and hungry. She was starved for him as well, sliding her hands around his broad shoulders, leaning like a willow against his male body and absorbing his power. She closed her eyes and felt euphoria arcing through her like an unexpected bolt of lightning. His mouth turned from powerful to cherishing, lips moving gently against hers. The moistness of his breath fell across her cheek as she touched his tongue with her own. He moved his hand slowly down her spine.
Joe reluctantly parted from her wet lips. He fell into her blue eyes shining with such love for him. God help him, but he was falling deeply in love with Katie. He held her at arm’s length. “I don’t want to stand between you and your mother, Katie. It’s the last thing I want to do.” He threaded his fingers through the dark strands of hair framing her face. “I’ve just found you. You make me happy. I look forward to seeing you every day. All of a sudden, my life has taken on so many extra dimensions with you in it.”
Joe’s hands were firm and steadying on Katie’s shoulders. “I understand,” she said, her voice uneven. “I’m going to make mistakes, Joe. You’ll have to be patient with me. I do feel torn at times between you and my mother. I’m trying to balance it all out. I feel like my two greatest dreams have come true all at once.” She gave him a wry look. “I’ve yearned forever for my mother. I’ve wanted to meet a man who was brave, honest and true to me. Now—” she said “—I have both. I feel filled with riches beyond my knowing.” She stepped back, her hand moving over her heart. “You fill me with such happiness, Joe. Truly, you are my white knight. And you showed up at the best possible time.”
She couldn’t help the feeling of utter joy that enveloped her, and she flashed him her most brilliant smile. He had to know how much she appreciated his protectiveness, how much she appreciated him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
KATIE’S PHONE RANG just as they stepped inside the facility. Joe was carrying Sam on his glove. “I’ll get it,” she said, gently setting the travel box with the peregrine falcon on the floor.
Joe called, “I’ll get Sam put away and come back and get Harlequin.” They had just come back from the Grand Teton National Park visitor’s center demonstration.
“Great, thanks, Joe.” She picked up the phone and said, “Katie here.”
“This is Janet.”
Su
rprised, Katie steadied her breathing. “Hi.”
“I want you to come in and drive the van to Idaho Falls next week. Kyle will be coming in at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, instead of 11:00 a.m. He’ll train you on the computer. Can you do it?”
“Yes, I can.”
“Did you get your license at the motor vehicles?”
“I will have it by the weekend,” Katie responded. Her mother sounded almost happy. Her voice wasn’t filled with impatience. Heart lifting, Katie added, “I’m really excited to help you out, Janet.”
“Good. I am, too. See you tomorrow morning.”
Katie placed the phone in the cradle. She heard the mew door close. Picking up the travel case, she carried it down the aisle.
“That was my mother,” she confided to Joe. “Tomorrow at nine, Kyle is going to train me on the computer. Next week, I get to drive the van to Idaho Falls.” She opened the door and gently placed the travel case on the gravel floor of the mew.
Joe’s chest galloped in fear. He walked over and quietly closed the mew door. Katie leaned over and opened up the case. She placed her glove next to the perch and tapped it. Harlequin hopped obediently to her glove. “That’s good,” Joe said, forcing his voice to sound light. He felt anything but. Katie smiled and carried the tundra peregrine to his large, wide perch in the corner of his mew to join his mate.
“It is,” she said. After transferring the falcon to the perch, Katie turned and picked up the case. “My mother actually sounded happy, Joe.” She grinned and walked out as Joe opened the door. “Can you believe it?”
“Things are probably ironing out at her business and she’s getting into a rhythm with everything.” He scowled and followed Katie to the office. The computer terminal was important. Would Katie be given access to the entire system? Or would she be barricaded from parts of it that held the real information on what was being moved through Janet’s business to Los Lobos?
Katie placed the glove into her locker. “I think you’re right.”
Joe didn’t want to spoil the happiness he saw in her eyes. “Be sure and take lots of notes. Maybe Kyle will give you a manual?”
“Janet said there wasn’t one.” She laughed and said, “I’m not a geek but I think I can be trained to type in orders.” Her brows fell as she considered the training. “Gosh, I hope Kyle is patient.” Tapping her temple, she said, “Sometimes logic escapes me, Joe.”
“Then why not write down notes?”
“I will. My mother said she would destroy the notes as soon as I have the system memorized.”
Joe moved to the other side of the facility to make coffee. Katie’s notes could prove to be very helpful to the FBI. All he had to do was wait until Katie came back from the training.
* * *
JOE WAS JUST COMING to the facility after flying Quest, the female peregrine, in the flight oval when Katie drove in at 3:00 p.m. the next day. She looked tired. His heart picked up a bit as he saw her pull a manual from the car. “Hey,” he called as he halted near the door, “how did training go?”
Groaning, Katie slung her purse over her shoulder and picked up her manual. “Long and torturous. Kyle, bless his heart, did provide me with a manual. Wasn’t that nice of him?” She managed a half smile. “I need a cup of coffee.”
Joe walked into the facility, put the peregrine away and ambled up the aisle. He spotted the thin orange manual on Katie’s desk. There was also a notebook beneath her purse. “So, how did it go? Get everything down pat?”
Katie shrugged as she poured coffee into her mug. “Let’s put it this way—Kyle probably thinks I’m about as non-computer-literate as one can get.” She turned, sipped her coffee and felt her heart swell with love for Joe. He stood in the aisle, his gaze speculative. There was always such a sense of safety around him. “Oh, I guess it wasn’t that bad, but I felt like a bumbling fool.”
“Mind if I look at your manual?”
“No, go ahead. I warn you, it looked like Greek to me.”
A thrill moved through Joe as he casually picked the book up. There were about forty pages in it. Katie sat down at her desk. “This looks pretty technical.”
“It is,” she said, shaking her head. “Janet was there, too. She knows the whole computer system and really became impatient with me. I wasn’t as fast at picking up the order process as she’d like.”
“Was Eduardo there?”
“Yes.”
“And he knows the order system?”
“Oh, very well. He was giving me a look like I was stupid.” She sat back in her chair. “It wasn’t a very good day, Joe.”
“You were nervous,” Joe soothed. He saw the worry in Katie’s eyes. “I don’t think anyone expects you to get it right off the bat. It takes time.”
“My mother was really disappointed with me, Joe. I felt like crying. I was trying so hard to remember all those PC commands.”
Joe set the manual aside. Her voice was filled with disappointment. Moving to her, he placed his hand on Katie’s slumped shoulder. “Hey, stop being so hard on yourself. I think your mother is expecting too much, too soon, don’t you?”
“She’s really counting on me, Joe. She said Eduardo was the main driver and he couldn’t be up front to wait on customers all day long. He has a more important job to do back in shipping.”
“If that’s true, why is she wanting you to drive?”
“Janet knows the computer system. She said on days when Eduardo and I were both driving, she’d man the front desk and input the orders. She’s hired that second guy, Hector, but she was sort of vague about when he’d be there and what he’d being doing. I suspect she’ll have him working in shipping, too.”
Nodding, Joe moved his hand gently across her shoulders. Her muscles felt taut beneath his fingertips. “Would it help if I went over the stuff in the manual with you?”
“Would you? I mean, not right now because my brain feels like jelly.”
“How about I take you out to eat tonight? And then you come over to my place afterward? I can probably help you understand this manual.” Joe felt badly about the ruse. He saw the sudden hope flare in Katie’s eyes.
“Why, that would be great. Are you good at computers?”
“Pretty good,” he said. “I think all you really need is less stress and pressure put on you and you’ll remember the system.”
Clapping her hands, Katie cried, “Wonderful, Joe. Thank you so much!” She stood up and threw her arms around him.
He took her full weight, felt her lips caressing his mouth. Her spontaneity was like the breath of life to him. He molded his mouth to her smiling lips. His mind, however, was elsewhere. As soon as he could, he’d get hold of his FBI boss. The mission was now in motion.
* * *
“CAN YOU GET A COPY of the manual?” Roger Hager demanded.
“Yes,” Joe said, “Katie left it with me last night. I scanned in a copy of it and have already sent it as a pdf document to you via email. Should be in your box, so check.” At 7:00 a.m., the sun was cresting the mountains to the east, and slats of golden light were flowing silently across the wide, green valley.
“Great, I’ll check and confirm receipt of it. Good work. Do you see anything in it that might help us crack their security wall?”
“I don’t know. I’ll leave it up to the hackers the FBI has hired to figure that one out.”
“You said Katie is driving a van to Idaho Falls next week?”
“Yes, and it’s got me worried, Roger. Did you find anything on this Eduardo fellow?”
“Nothing. He must be using an alias, because he’s not in any of our systems. Soldiers to cartels are always lying about their names. They have fake documents and driver’s licenses. They know we’re trying to track them once they cross our border and they just blend into the crowd.�
�
Grunting, Joe paced. The dawn was beautiful, but he was in no mood to appreciate it. “I don’t want Katie driving, Roger, but I can’t stop her. You said you were picking up more activity on the Garcia cartel here in town?”
“Yes, Curt Downing has been using his long-haul trucks a lot more than usual. We think he’s agreed to move Garcia’s drugs. We can’t prove it, but we see more trucks are coming and going from his terminal. Since flying the drugs in to Long Lake became impossible, he’s probably figured out another way to do it.”
“But we don’t know how?”
“No, not yet.”
“I worry about Garcia discovering Janet and her operation. Once he finds it, he’ll do everything he can to destroy it—and her.” And Katie. His gut constricted with fear for Katie’s life. She was in jeopardy and Joe knew it.
“If Garcia does anything, he’s going to hit in a way that makes it look like an accident. He went to war with another cartel over some turf in Chicago last year. The first thing his soldiers did was burn down the company building. These drug lords don’t want to be obvious. They want to make things look accidental so no finger can be pointed in their direction.”
Halting, Joe felt another migraine coming on. He hated getting them because it would take half a day to survive the pain and discomfort. He was stressed to the max for Katie. “I need to tell her not to drive for Janet. I know she’s in danger, Roger. I have to say something to her.”
“Joe, I know you care about this young woman. But she’s our only contact to Janet Bergstrom and the Los Lobos cartel. You’re already assuming Garcia knows she’s on his turf.”
“I can’t prove it,” Joe gritted out, “but I feel it. I survived a war zone because I listened to my gut, Roger. And right now, it’s screaming at me that Katie is in danger.”
“Is it possible to put a GPS magnet in those three vans? That way, we could track them.”
Joe began to pace. “I can go find out. I don’t know what kind of security Janet has in place.”
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