Undercover Warrior

by Aimée Thurlo

  “Cut the bull,” Joe said. “You flashed the badge like a magician working a card trick, but I know what I saw. I didn’t want to blow whatever cover you cooked up, but I’d like to know what’s really going on.”

  “Once a cop, always a cop, huh, Joe?” Kyle responded.

  Joe pointed toward the coffeepot, and when Kyle shook his head, sat down at the table and waved Kyle to an empty chair. “Tell me what’s going on. You cut a few corners with the local P.D. and scored some interagency cooperation, but Chief Sevilla wouldn’t have given you that much latitude unless he’d been pressured by someone way above his pay grade. You think this is connected to how antsy Hank was acting yesterday morning?”

  “Tell me about that,” Kyle said.

  “It was nothing overt. You’d have had to know the man to see it. He’d come in early, so I went to welcome him back and talk to him about our latest on-site job. Normally Hank will focus exclusively on what I have to say, but yesterday he was distracted and pumped up, like he’d had too much coffee. He told me to take a seat, then kept searching through a couple of cardboard boxes that contained pieces of tools and instruments some fool had taken apart. He was only half listening to me, and that was way out of character. After a minute, he put the box on the floor, out of the way, and I thought he was finally ready to talk, but he just kept looking around for something.”

  “Did you ask him what was going on?”

  “Yeah, and I offered to help him find whatever he was looking for, but he shook his head.” Joe rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Considering what’s happened, I should have pressed him, but at the time, all I knew was that something was bugging him.”

  “Any idea what that might have been?”

  “No, but if Hank was in trouble, I’m certain it had something to do with his brother. That guy’s got a gambling problem. Hank bailed him out several times, then finally told him to man up, and deal with it. That, by the way, happened one day in the warehouse and we all heard. Everyone felt awkward, but the guy had it coming.”

  “Bruce still works for Hank, right?”

  “Yeah, but not on a regular basis and never in a supervisory capacity.”

  Kyle stepped closer to the doorway leading into the room where Erin was speaking on the phone.

  “Okay, now what’s the deal with you and Erin?” Joe asked.

  Kyle stared at him curiously.

  “If she were really in protective custody she’d be stashed away someplace where no one would think of looking.” When Kyle didn’t answer, Joe’s eyes narrowed. “Hank just spent weeks doing classified work at an overseas naval base. You think she’s compromised his work, or maybe been stealing from the company?”

  Kyle stayed close to the doorway, and met his gaze, but his expression revealed nothing.

  “If you believe any of that, you’re wrong about her,” he said flatly.

  “What makes you so sure, Joe?”

  “I know Erin. I met her eight years back when I was still with the department. Her husband had been a local hero, the high school quarterback everyone thought would be playing college ball, and maybe even go pro someday. Instead, he got into drugs, painkillers at first, then went downhill from there. Eventually he OD’d and died in some downtown alley. By then she’d left him, but with nothing except a high school diploma and a father who was dying of cancer, life was real tough for Erin. She got back up on her feet, though. I met her again years later when I started working at Leland’s. She’d already worked her way up to office manager.”

  They both looked over as Erin returned to the room.

  “Ron told me he got through to Moe right after you called, Joe,” she said. “Moe told him where to find a copy of Hank’s will, and asked him to make it available to the police.”

  “Did he tell you what’s in the will?” Joe asked.

  “Yeah. Hank’s will—actually, it’s a trust—apparently stipulates that Secure Construction should stay open until all current jobs are completed. After that, the company is to be sold to the highest bidder. Whatever’s left, once all the bills are paid, is to be divided among the employees. Hank and Moe set up a sliding scale based on how long each person has worked for the company.”

  “That answers my question. We have work to finish, and you can still cut payroll,” Joe said, then as an afterthought, added, “I hope Mike Bewley’s not going to be on that list of people who’ll get a share of the proceeds.”

  “He’s not a current employee, so I think we’re safe on that score,” she said.

  “Who’s Bewley?” Kyle asked immediately.

  “He was one of our foremen—that is, until Hank found out he was switching out construction materials with lower quality stuff and pocketing kickbacks. He got fired,” Joe said.

  “When did that happen?” Kyle asked.

  “About three months ago, I think,” Joe said, and looked at Erin for confirmation.

  “Sounds about right,” Erin answered.

  “I heard that he’s been having a tough time finding work. Seems word got around,” Joe added.

  “I’ll look further into that,” Kyle said. “Meanwhile, I’d like to get the Hartley P.D. to post an officer close to your house in case you run into trouble, Joe.”

  “No thanks. I’m going to send my family out of town to my sister-in-law’s for a while. They’ll be safe there. I’ll stick around, of course, but I can look out for myself.”

  “You can’t be awake all the time,” Kyle warned.

  “I’ve got all kinds of monitoring stuff here,” he said. “I can also handle an intruder if I have to, and I know how to dial 911.”

  “All right. It’s your choice. If you think of anything else that might help us wrap this all up, call me,” Kyle said, handing Joe a card with his cell number and nothing else.

  “Feds. You’re all a veritable fountain of information, aren’t you?” Joe muttered, studying the card.

  “I’m one of the good guys,” Kyle said, meeting his gaze. “That’s what counts.”

  * * *

  ONCE THEY WERE back in the SUV, Kyle called his brother and described their meeting with Joe.

  “I hadn’t heard about Bewley. I’ll check him out for you,” Preston said.

  “I’ve also been working, and have what you need,” a familiar voice piped in.

  “I appreciate your help, Dan,” Kyle said.

  “No problem, little bro.”

  Daniel was two inches taller and never failed to rub it in. Kyle grinned.

  “I’ve got that list of explosives and other related inventory Zia Limited has in storage. I’m sending it over to you right now.”

  “Just to verify, he’s giving us run of the place?” Kyle asked.

  “Yeah, and he trusts me, so leave everything the way you found it. Clark’s compulsive about order. You’ll see that when you visit his warehouse. If anything’s missing, I’ll guarantee it’ll be easy to spot.”

  “Thanks for the heads-up. We’re on our way there now.”

  “One more thing. I found out that one of Frieda’s many clerical duties there was inventory control.”

  “Why did she leave?” Kyle asked.

  “Clark fired her because she was sloppy with details—but, in this case, you’ve got to look at the source. By his standards, most people are. He has a high rate of turnover.”

  After getting directions to Zia from Dan and programming it into the GPS, they headed to the site, just outside H
artley’s city limits.

  “With the exception of your brothers, you don’t trust anyone,” Erin pointed out.

  “Is there a question in there?” he asked, wondering where this was going.

  “I don’t like fighting on the same team with a man who doesn’t trust me.”

  He glanced at her, then back at the road. “You heard Joe and I talking?”

  “Not everything you said, but enough,” she answered. “Here’s what I don’t get. Why are you protecting me if you think I may be out to harm you?”

  “I don’t know where you fit in, and until I have more facts, I can’t afford to lower my guard,” he said. “In my business that’s what keeps a guy in one piece.”

  “But the way you kissed me...”

  “You don’t like my technique?” he said, eyes dancing.

  “That’s not my point,” she answered. “If you’re not sure of me, how could you—”

  “Sometimes adding a little danger to the mix can spice things up.”

  She sighed loudly. “That’s where we differ. Danger goes hand in hand with fear, and fear is the opposite of love.”

  He didn’t answer, his attention on the rearview mirror, his expression hard.

  “Are we okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I’m just being careful,” he replied.

  Kyle Goodluck was big trouble. He brought an incredible single-minded intensity to everything he did—whether it was kissing her or hunting down a killer.

  Her gaze slowly took in the way his strong hands gripped the wheel. Those big hands could be incredibly gentle, too....

  “You have a little smile on your face. What are you thinking?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Try again,” he said with a ghost of a smile.

  “You’re good with women, and I’m sure you know how to get exactly what you want, but I’m not in your league. My lifestyle would bore you to death.”

  “We’re different, that’s true, but every man needs balance to walk in beauty. That’s what Hosteen Silver taught us, and that man was always right.”

  “So what are you saying?”

  “Yin and yang, black and white, day and night, both are needed to make things complete. Man and woman also become stronger when they balance each other out.”

  “What he taught became his gift to you. What a beautiful legacy,” she said softly.

  “I can appreciate it now, but at the beginning, it was a different story. I was convinced that spiritual stuff was what adults used to control others. Hosteen Silver knew how I felt, too, and never pushed anything on me. He figured actions spoke louder than words, and I’d come around eventually.”

  “And you did.”

  He nodded. “As time went by, I began to see the value of what he was teaching us. He lived in tune with everything around him, at one with the pattern. Everything about him spoke of what we call ‘álíl, power not easily seen by the material senses.”

  “I think everyone, to one extent or another, wishes they could meet a man like Hosteen Silver.”

  “Living with him wasn’t always easy,” he said, “but the man helped us see ourselves in a new light. Without him, I’m pretty sure I would have landed in jail. I was always looking for trouble, testing myself, pushing the limits.”

  “You still are.”

  He chuckled. “Maybe, but now my actions have purpose. What I do is for the greater good.”

  “See that? You and I aren’t so different after all.”

  “You’ve lost me,” he said.

  “On the face of it, it appears we’re worlds apart, but we’re not. You’re in law enforcement and I’m a farmer, but our goals are the same—make life better for others.”

  His eyebrows rose. “That’s one way of looking at it.”

  Kyle signaled, slowed, then made a right turn off the main road onto an industrial side street lined with one-story metal warehouses. Three buildings down, he turned up an alley, then made another left, pulling to a stop behind a used-RV sales lot.

  “What’s going on? Your GPS keeps recalculating ’cause you’re making it crazy. If you don’t want to use it, shut it off,” she said.

  He sat back, his eyes on the intersection they’d just passed. “I think we’re being followed. I saw a silver-gray sedan when we left Joe’s. Then it disappeared. A few minutes ago, I saw the same car again. If it’s really tailing us, it’ll pass by us in another minute—like right now.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Kyle pointed to the silver car that cruised by slowly. “He’s searching for us. Time to put ourselves in his rearview mirror for a change.”

  Kyle drove to the corner, then pulled out several car lengths behind the sedan. It had New Mexico plates, and there was only one person inside, the driver.

  “You’re right,” Erin whispered. “He’s looking around, trying to figure out where we went.”

  Their tail drove up to the next intersection, came to a stop at the sign and looked left and right.

  Kyle stopped in his lane, waiting, still several car lengths behind the sedan.

  “Shouldn’t we get—?” Erin began, when the sedan suddenly roared to life and raced through the intersection. An oncoming pickup was forced to hit the brakes to avoid T-boning it.

  Kyle leaned on the horn as he raced past the intersection, whipping around the pickup, and accelerating after the fleeing sedan. “Hang on!”

  They entered a street that led past a big auto-repair warehouse. Vehicles lined both sides of the road, which narrowed up ahead to barely two lanes. The sedan took the center, but didn’t have the horsepower Kyle’s SUV did and they closed the gap rapidly.

  The sedan’s brake lights came on suddenly as the driver swerved right, then abruptly cut left. This time he nearly collided with an oncoming truck and trailer stacked with brand-new cars.

  Kyle knew he’d never make the turn, so he accelerated past the truck driver, whose attention was probably focused on saving his own load.

  “Maybe we can cut off the sedan up ahead,” Kyle said, glancing over at the GPS road map.

  Ignoring the next stop sign, Kyle raced through the intersection and made a hard left, turning up a road that ran parallel to the one the sedan had taken. “He’ll have to head in this direction eventually. The street he took is a dead end.”

  Erin nodded, also watching the GPS screen. “But if he circles back before then, we’ve lost him.”

  “I know.”

  “In his shoes, what would you do?”

  “I’d circle back,” he said, then added, “Okay, then. I’ll take the next left and try to intercept him.” Kyle slowed as they drove down the intermediate street.

  “I’ll watch my side,” Erin said.

  After a few minutes, they reached the street the sedan had originally taken, and were forced to circle, checking every vehicle they passed.

  Ten minutes later, Kyle cursed. “Lost him. Might as well go over to the warehouse. At least he never found out where we were headed.”

  “And if he did, we’ll come across him again, right?”

  “Yes, but that won’t be the case. In my opinion, he’s long gone.”

  “Do you think he was watching Joe’s place and decided to follow us instead?”

  “No, I checked the parked cars near his home and no one was keeping watch. Unless they used special long-range surveillance equipment, but that’s not likely.”

  “So how do you account for what happened?”

  “The way I see it, they figured out where we were after we arrived at Joe’s. Maybe so
meone was on foot watching the house, and I missed him.”

  She waited a while before speaking again. “The people you’re looking for are trained and persistent. That’s a bad combination. And you think I’m somehow connected with these people?”

  “Okay. How did you get to be so handy with a pistol?”

  “Dad didn’t get a son, he got me. So I learned to fish, work on cars, drive a tractor, and I was also taught to shoot and safely handle a gun. Good thing, huh?”

  “Sounds like you two were close.”

  “We were. My dad was a good man who worked hard to make his dream come true, but he ran out of time. After he got sick he had to sell the acreage he had along the river. It was prime farmland, where he’d planned to grow his special Encanto chile. Encanto means a sense of wonder and that’s the way he wanted people to feel when they ate his chile,” she said, then in a heavy voice added, “The end of his dream became the beginning of mine.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I swore I’d finish what he’d started.”

  “Do you regret that?” he asked.

  “No, not at all. The land draws me just as it did him.” She stopped speaking and looked at him. “I’m sorry. I’ve been going on and on, but I wanted to get what I’ve been feeling out in the open.”

  “Not a problem. I’m glad I’m finally getting the chance to know you better.”

  “So you can decide if I’m friend or foe?”

  “Okay, there’s that,” he said, not bothering to deny it, “but I also admire your reverence for the land and the Plant People.”

  “The...Plant People? Farmers, you mean?”

  “No, it’s a Navajo thing going all the way back to our creation stories. Our traditionalists see all plants as people who go where they will. They can also bless or harm, depending on how you appeal to them.”

  “That’s right on target, particularly in the case of chile,” she said. “Ever had it burn the roof of your mouth? That’s a perfect example of a plant with attitude.”

  He laughed. “I like you, Erin Barrett.”

  “You may not trust me, but I make you laugh. Is that it?”