Not an everyday occurrence in his world.
The first time he’d ever been that close to a dead body, actually.
It could have been Kerry.
“They’re headed out to the mountain,” Kerry said. “They know we’re right behind them so we can assume that they have plans to get rid of us out there.”
He glanced over at her, hearing a different Kerry. A woman in complete control and capable of doing whatever it took to get her job done. She didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the dead body she’d left behind on her front walk.
Not the Kerry he’d known at all.
“I’m going to stay close, but not too close, just in case one of them tries to take a shot at us out here on the road. I’d appreciate it if you stayed down, so you won’t be a target.”
“I’m not getting down,” he said. “I’m going to watch your back.”
“You need to watch your own.”
“Are you kidding me?” he said, watching his side mirror to make certain there was no one coming up behind them. Odin had a crew. He could be planning an ambush greater than two against two. “We’re in this together, Kerry. A couple. Facing the challenge together.”
He knew he was slamming her. Right then and there. In the middle of what might lead to both their deaths, he was letting out the anger that had been slowly building inside him since he was five years old and had his life stripped away from him. She’d thought, all these years, that he hadn’t had her back? “It’s what I want to do and it’s damn well what I’m going to do,” he told her, adrenaline firing up his insides in a way all new to him.
She glanced his way, and then returned her focus fully to the road.
“Just be smart, and if I give you an order, you take it,” she said. “I’m trained at this, Rafe. I know things you do not.”
She knew a hell of a lot more than he did. About most things.
Too bad it took him thirty-six years to figure that out.
Grabbing the duffel that was still in his back seat—a guy never knew when he might need an extra toothbrush these days—he pulled out the tennis shoes he’d bought the other day. Took off his tie. Five-hundred-dollar pants paired with twenty-dollar tennis shoes didn’t matter at the moment.
“You’ve got your gun in here, right?” she asked next.
“It’s a hunting rifle.” On the floor behind them.
“Is it loaded?”
“No, ammunition’s in the glove box.” He was already reaching for it.
“Get it loaded,” she said. “But don’t shoot unless you’re in immediate danger,” she said. “No matter what these guys have done, as a citizen, you can only shoot in self-defense, you got that?”
He got that she was worried about him. And he didn’t want to distract her. “I’ve got it. I’m not going to go all commando on you and charge ahead, Kerry. You’ve got the lead here. I’m just your wingman. But I can guarantee you I’ll be a good one. I’m not going to let you down.”
He’d witnessed a woman go from talking to dead in less than a minute. He and Kerry could die out there. He needed her to know where he stood.
His rifle was loaded. He prayed to God they wouldn’t need it.
“The chief will have as many people out here as he can gather up,” she said. “There’s a posse in town who can pinch-hit as needed. Unfortunately, I don’t have a radio, though, so we’re going to be on our own in terms of intel.”
He liked the first part, not the second. Wanted to know if she’d done something like this before
He didn’t trust her any less. Just would worry about her more.
“There’s a gravel road just before Mustang Mountain Drive,” she was saying. “I’m going to pull in there. It leads up to the other side of the mountain, but then dead-ends. I’m assuming Rogers knows that. I want him to think that’s where we’re headed. He’ll head us off from the other side. Then we’ll double back and head up the road. I’m not giving him a chance to get back down off that mountain.”
Rafe just cared about getting her off it.
In one piece.
Nothing else mattered. Not being a Colton or a Kay. Not money or oil or ranches, or even cops. All that mattered was her, Kerry Wilder, home, safe and happy.
Chapter 23
Kerry couldn’t afford to be distracted. Not by Rafe’s talk of facing challenges together—throwing back in her face what she’d accused him of not doing all of their lives.
Like he thought that a moment of danger on a case was enough to make up for letting go when the times got tough.
Danger was a blip in time. If you lived through it, that’s when the hard part of living happened. The everyday, nonexciting, getting-up-and-doing-the-dishes stuff.
She turned off, saw the brief flash of red lights ahead as the driver of the SUV noticed them turning off. Slowing just enough on the gravel road to see that the SUV turned onto Mustang Mountain Drive, she waited to make certain that the vehicle wasn’t coming back. No way was she going to get trapped on a dead-end road that no one knew she’d taken.
But if this worked...
Five minutes without sighting the SUV and she turned around, and then right, approached Mustang Mountain Drive slowly. She’d have liked for her backup to be there. Thought about waiting. But knew if she was just sitting out there when the SUV came back down off that mountain, she’d be dodging bullets. Without great odds.
She and Rafe would be sitting ducks to desperate men with a vehicle full of contraband. They’d die before they’d let themselves be caught.
And if she pulled back and waited?
They could pull right back off that mountain and get away with the goods.
She had to go up. But she didn’t have to take Rafe with her.
She drove slowly, window down so she could listen for sounds of vehicles up ahead. Off-road or otherwise. The ground wasn’t as smooth as it had been earlier in the week, indicating that there’d been some rain during the night. It happened. Especially in January. You’d get up in the morning, the desert ground would be dry, having greedily soaked up what moisture was there, but you’d smell the rain.
On the mountains, that same hardly noticeable storm could bring snow that would melt just as quickly, but leave the ground moist.
As they rounded a bend, the heavy truck’s wheels spun for a second and then grabbed traction and continued forward. If she’d been in her Jeep, she wouldn’t have had that problem.
“What do you want me to do?” Rafe asked, sitting beside her. That’s when she had an idea. Pulling over in the next lay-by, she told him to get out.
“Stay low, out of sight,” she said. “Wait for help to come and tell them what we know. I’m going to continue on up the road.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
She didn’t have time to argue. Shouldn’t have taken the time to stop at all, except having him down there, able to alert the chief or whomever came first, that she was up there had felt like a good plan.
Knowing he was safe was an even better one.
If she took too long deciding, the SUV could come right back down and trap them—run them off the road. It could turn into a shoot-out that most definitely wouldn’t end well. Most particularly if they’d retrieved a stash of weapons.
She knew she was after Odin’s people, but didn’t know if he was with them.
She didn’t just want them.
She was going to bring him in.
She was going to get Tyler—and now Grant and Lavinia Alvin—the justice they deserved.
Putting the truck in gear, she tried to back up. And then to move forward. Rafe told her to try low gear. He gave her a couple of other suggestions and every one of them just dug them in deeper. The truck was too heavy for the damp, dew-soaked earth.
“We’re going to have to continue on foot,” she told
him. “Find a place to hole up where they can’t find us. Wait it out until the chief gets out here.”
She didn’t like the plan at all. Couldn’t stand to feel like a sitting duck. Nor did she want to fail because of a truck in a ditch.
But she wasn’t going to risk Rafe’s life. Period.
Pulling out her phone she prayed for service, and was denied that blessing, as well.
“Come on,” she said, getting out and closing her door softly behind her. Leading the way, she kept her body pressed to the mountain, gun out in front of her, and continued upward, Rafe right behind her. So close he was touching her.
Not holding on. Not pushing. Just there. In contact.
If she had to die, she couldn’t think of a better way. On the job. Closing the most important case of her life. And touching Rafe.
Up until the part where if she died, and he was right there, probably so would he.
They climbed that way for fifteen minutes or more, taking each step quietly, placing their feet carefully, keeping the mountain as cover, slipping behind ridges that protected them from view of the road whenever they could.
Kerry didn’t speak, and Rafe followed suit, just as he’d said he would.
At one point, when she turned her head to look behind them, bringing her face almost nose to nose with his, he leaned forward and kissed her. Not a peck. A deep, albeit quick, kiss. He didn’t explain himself. She didn’t ask questions. But it was like he’d given her some strange shot of energy.
A reason to go on. As if she needed one.
She was this close to getting Odin Rogers; she wasn’t going to fail.
* * *
Kerry saw the SUV first. Of course, being in front, she would, but she stopped so suddenly his body pushed into hers. He held on. With the arm that wasn’t holding his rifle, he held her back to his front, and looked where she was pointing, her gun in her hand. The SUV appeared to have veered off the road, with its front bumper protruding into the side of the mountain.
“Going too fast,” Kerry said. Rafe agreed with her assessment. Was this a good sign that the men they were pursuing had crashed due to excessive speed?
“They could be hurt,” he whispered back. Just wanting to stand there, holding her, until help arrived. Not out of fear for himself, but with every step she took out there, she risked losing her life. He just needed to know she was safe.
That’s what she hadn’t understood—twenty-three years ago, or even now, apparently. He loved her so much that protecting her mattered more than his own happiness—and still did.
“No one’s slumped over the wheel. If they could move, they’d get out of there,” she said softly. “They could be on the other side of the SUV. Come on.” Taking his hand, she pushed him back the way they’d come until she could turn around and lead them both around the side of a hill and up, moving farther back into the mountain range as they climbed. Rafe watched her back, her front and all around them, prepared to use his rifle as a bat as much as anything. “We need a better vantage point,” she said when they were far enough from the road to allow conversation.
Still, she kept her voice soft, almost a whisper. They had no idea how many people might be on the mountain. Or where.
Ten minutes more of mostly vertical hiking and they’d reached a small peak. Lying on her belly, Kerry pulled herself forward, gun in front of her nose, to the edge of the peak and looked downward.
She whispered, “I’ve got you, Odin.” Four simple words. And filled with world-changing promise. That was the moment he understood just how completely Kerry meant what she said.
* * *
She couldn’t believe it. She was lying flat on her belly, on cold mountain ground with the sun barely coming up on that cool January morning, and there below her, were two men—one gun visible, but she assumed they were both armed—standing at an open mouth in the earth.
Even more miraculous was that the man holding the gun was Odin Rogers. She had him.
She could take him out right then and right there. He’d never know what hit him. She could say it was self-defense.
She could...
Never do such a thing.
No way was the thug stealing her life away from her.
She’d found his mine.
She had him in her sights.
And now she had to figure out a way to get him in her cuffs.
“If we circle around down the other side of this peak, we should come out to the left of them. We could then circle back to come at them from behind. The advantage is ours because we know where they are and they have no idea where we are.” Rafe’s breath tickled the back of her neck as he lay beside her, leaning over to whisper close to her ear.
Probably no need to whisper, but the way sound traveled down, especially echoing in the mountains, she knew the call was a good one.
Never mind the shiver his breath sent through her. It kept her energized. Alive. Ready to move.
His idea was a good one. Except... “I don’t think they plan to be there that long,” she said. They were talking at least half an hour of hiking. Probably more. “Clearly Odin wants his thug to go down in the mine. Probably to stay down and guard the weapons. He wants them safe until he gets us off his trail. No way he could move them knowing that we’re out here. And that we’d have called for backup.” She’d understood the plan as soon as she’d seen them.
“Otherwise they’d be out looking for us,” she finished. “Either he thinks that SUV is drivable, or he has another way out.”
“Lavinia said they use off-road vehicles,” Rafe said, as though reading her mind. “Could be they have one or two stashed out here.”
Made perfect sense.
“And they’d be close to that mine,” she said, searching the landscape for a sign of any place that could house a vehicle or two. The terrain was rough, but four-wheelers were made for that. If she could get down to the road, wait until the thug was safely underground and then confront Odin when he was trying to drive off...
It could work.
It would work.
“We’ve got to get down there,” she said, pointing toward a curve in Mustang Mountain Drive just under where Odin and his man were standing. She couldn’t actually see the drive from their vantage point, but she knew it was there.
Around a curve slightly on the other side of a mountain peak. They could be there in twenty minutes tops. She might not have that long.
She had to try. Checking for service, she saw one bar and handed her phone to Rafe. “Call the chief. Speed dial two. Let him know where to meet us. I’m starting down. You stay up here and watch my back.”
She didn’t wait for his reply. Didn’t look at him, or consider the fact that she might not ever see him again.
She had to go.
* * *
Rafe watched Kerry get farther and farther away as he waited impatiently for her phone to connect. She’d left without even looking at him. Without a kiss for luck. Or a promise that she’d be fine. She’d left without telling him to be careful or stay safe.
She left without telling him she loved him—or letting him tell her.
It was like what they’d shared—the searching they’d been doing these past few days—hadn’t mattered at all. Just like she was trying to get him to believe that the past didn’t matter anymore. She’d just walked away.
Put the job above all else.
Without giving him any say in their fate at all.
On one hand, he didn’t blame her. Their safety was her job. Facing danger was her job. He’d opted to sign on, knowing there was danger. He’d jumped in his truck before she could drive off without him. It all made sense.
They were all sound decisions.
She hadn’t even tried to connect with him one last time. Now all he could do was pray.
As her body moved in and out
of view with the easy, stealthy movements she made, he watched her go knowing that she’d given up.
And he understood that, too.
It’s exactly what he’d done twenty-three years ago.
Chapter 24
“Kerry, where are you?”
The phone had connected. Chief Barco’s voice boomed in Rafe’s ear. In as few words as possible, he described what was going on.
“She found the mine,” he said, as soon as he’d explained that Kerry had taken off on her own and they needed backup as soon as possible. “We can’t see what’s inside it, but it’s pretty clear that Odin Rogers has an intense stake in it.” He told the chief Kerry’s theory of what was going on below, and said, “Not clear why the guy isn’t going down below, but he’s clearly trying to convince Rogers of something. Lots of gesturing and pointing.”
“Are they both armed?”
“You’d assume so,” he said. “I can only see one gun.” He answered Barco’s questions succinctly.
“Are you armed?”
“With a hunting rifle.”
“What’s going on now?” He described the mine opening, the two men whose argument seemed to be heating up as Odin’s thug looked down into the mine, shook his head and threw up a hand. The hand Rafe hadn’t been able to see until then.
“They’re both armed,” he said. Kerry was already halfway down the vertical part of the climb. Would make it to the road in half the time he’d figured. He told the chief to hurry.
“Dane and I are almost there, and there are six others behind us,” the chief said.
Townsmen who’d agreed to help search if need be. Kerry had already told him about them. He was told to stay where he was, to keep his eye on Kerry at all times. The chief deputized him over the phone. He had no idea if such a thing was even legal, or if the chief had meant him to take it that way, but he didn’t care.
He had a sister who could sort all that out later, if need be.
Colton's Lethal Reunion (The Coltons 0f Mustang Valley Book 2) Page 20