Night Hawk

by Lindsay McKenna

  Gil fumbled and opened his harness, jamming his arm upward to push the deflating air bag away from his face. Sliding his arm around Kai’s shoulders, he felt the truck suddenly get whisked out into the center of the dominating river current.

  Taking a breath, he shoved Kai across him and pushed her out the opened window. Nearly filled with water, the pickup turned slowly around in the center of the river. Gil shoved himself out the window, keeping a hand on Kai’s ankle so that she wouldn’t be torn away from him by the current.

  Get her air! The words screamed in Gil’s mind as he grabbed Kai, who floated unconscious in front of him. The water was shockingly cold. Kicking hard, he surged toward her, lifting her by her waist, thrusting her head up above the water.

  He popped to the surface, the current carrying them swiftly around the bend.

  Gil’s whole life, his whole focus, was on keeping Kai’s head up and out of the water. He brought her to him so her head rested on his shoulder, his arm tight around her waist so the river couldn’t pull her away from him.

  The Snake was at least sixty feet wide and right now, they were in the center of it. Gil shook off his own dizziness, feeling warm blood running down the left side of his face. Kai’s face was white, her lips parted. She hung like a broken rag doll beneath his arm, limp and unresponsive.

  Gil knew how to work away from a strong current. Delta Force training was going to get them to shore. He maneuvered in the current, pushing his legs out in front of him, his boots pointed downstream. He wanted to assess Kai. She couldn’t be dead! Using his free hand to plow through the water, drawing them inches at a time closer and closer toward the left bank, he couldn’t take her pulse at the base of her neck.

  Gil knew he didn’t have the time he wanted. The water was glacier fed, near freezing. Hypothermia would kill them in a matter of minutes if he didn’t get them to the safety of shore. He felt pain in his back and hip and ignored it, keeping Kai safe against him, her cheek resting on his shoulder.

  Within two minutes, Gil had maneuvered them close to the rocky embankment. Once his boots struck the slippery bottom beneath them, he hauled Kai up and over his shoulder, getting her out of the icy grip of the water as soon as possible.

  Gil labored, slipped and nearly fell several times as he fought the surge of the current wanting to pull him back out toward the center. No! Adrenaline was fueling him now, giving him the superstrength he knew he’d need to get out of this deadly river alive.

  He looked up, surveying where they were at. Trees were thick along the bank, making an almost impenetrable barrier in front of them. He saw they had floated around the mountain, at least a mile from where the pickup had fallen into the river.

  Relief tunneled through him that they’d gotten to land. Whoever had pushed them over and into the river, had done it on purpose. He had no pistol on him. Just a Buck knife. And his cell phone was not working because it had been flooded with water.

  They were on their own.

  Mouth grim, Gil positioned Kai across his shoulders in a fireman’s carry, holding on to her arm and ankle as he slogged and slipped through the knee-deep water. With every step, it brought them closer to the shore. Hurry! Hurry! His breath was exploding out of his mouth. The air was cool and he could feel himself already trembling and shaking from hypothermia. Kai! He had to tend to Kai!

  God, let her be alive. Let her live!

  His knees were shaking badly as he hauled them up the rocky six-foot embankment and onto a small, oval area of rich green grass. Gently, he eased Kai down onto it, laying her on her back, tipping her neck to keep her air passage open and then straightening out her legs. There was a gash along the left side of her head, the blood running swiftly, covering her temple and neck, dripping and soaking into the ground beneath her.

  Kneeling beside her, Gil placed trembling fingers against her slender neck, willing her to give him a pulse. His fear amped up. She looked dead.

  There!

  Relief sizzled through him. Kai was alive! But the feel of her pulse was weak and thready. Son of a bitch! Gil lifted his fingers away, quickly assessing Kai, looking for more injuries, broken bones or worse. Delta operators had EMT-level training and he quickly used all his knowledge. More relief rushed through him as he found no broken bones. It was a head injury.

  Worried, Gil pushed the blood away for a moment to see the depth of the cut on her brow. It had gone to the bone of her skull. That wasn’t good, but it could have been worse. It could have cracked her skull, leaving her brain exposed to serious, deadly damage.

  “Kai?” he growled, “stay with me. You hear me? Stay with me. Don’t you dare leave me! Fight. Fight to stay with me!”

  Gil had worn his jacket. He jerked off the wet material and wrapped it up, placing it beneath Kai’s neck. It was absolutely imperative that her airway be kept open. If she shifted, it could close the airway and she’d suffocate. Even though he was doing an assessment, his hearing was keyed to everything around them. Had the driver of the dump truck stopped? Had he followed them down that cliff? Was he hunting them right now? The urgency to get Kai out of sight pushed him into moving quickly.

  Gil looked toward the dark barrier of fir and pine. The back of his neck prickled. It was a sign of coming danger. Coming at them.

  Cursing softly, he picked Kai up, her head lolling against his chest. Hurrying into the tree line, Gil found an old fir that had been uprooted. The root ball was massive, at least ten feet in diameter, the roots sticking up in all directions like a wheel on its side. Beneath it, he saw the hole and slid down into it. Settling Kai so her air passage remained open, Gil quickly climbed out of it, heading back to where he’d left his rolled-up jacket next to the bank of the river. If he left it in plain sight, whoever was following them would find it and know they were in the vicinity. He had to retrieve it now!

  His neck prickled again. Mouth thinning, Gil leaned down and picked up a fallen branch. It was a good four-foot-long club that could be used as a weapon. He hefted it into his hand.

  Slowing, Gil hung back, crouching behind two firs growing close together. The trunks provided him good protection.

  His heart was still thudding with adrenaline. He sensed an enemy. He’d been an operator far too long and had an extraordinary sense of when danger was coming his way. Slipping down on his belly, hidden by the darkness of the forest, as well as behind the huge trunk of the tree, he saw a man about six feet tall, a pistol in hand, slowly walking along the bank.

  He was looking for them.

  And dammit, his jacket was about ten feet away from him. He’d spot it in a minute.

  Rage flowed through Gil. The man was Caucasian, wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap. It had to be the driver of the dump truck. And he was a pro. Gil could tell by the way the man walked and moved as he slowly gazed around the area that he was a hit man. Probably former black ops because he had a military bearing.

  Gil wanted to take this bastard alive. Find out who had paid him to kill them. Excitement thrummed through him as he spotted a cell phone on the killer. It could get Kai to a hospital quickly if he could only get his hands on it.

  Stealth and silence were a Delta Force specialty and Gil waited until the hit man had passed him by about six feet. The man suddenly halted, spotting the rolled-up jacket. Perfect!

  Gil surged silently to his feet as the killer leaned down, hand extended to pick up the jacket. As he did, Gil moved behind him and lifted the club he carried, bringing it down on the man’s right hand carrying the pistol.

  The wood smashed into the man’s lower arm.

  Bone crunched. The man gave a scream as the pistol dropped from his nerveless hand.

  All of Gil’s rage funneled into a narrow focus as the man staggered, grabbing for his broken lower arm. He whirled to meet his attacker, and Gil was waiting for him. He closed the distance, hand curling into a fist, arcing out at the man’s face. The impact of his hand into the man’s face made satisfaction roar through him. Flesh met
bone. Gil felt the man’s cheekbone shatter beneath the power of his assault.

  The man screamed, knocked off his feet, flung backward. He landed on his back.

  Gil advanced upon him with the club. “Stay down!” he snarled.

  The man’s lips lifted in a snarl, blood running out of his nose and across his chin. He jerked a hunting knife from the sheath on his waist, staggering to his feet.

  “You’re dead,” he muttered, lunging toward Gil, his right arm dangling uselessly at his side.

  Gil dodged the slicing motion. He understood this hit man was going to either live or die. And he wasn’t going to stand down.

  With a grunt, Gil brought down the limb on the side of the man’s neck with all the force he could bring. There was no way he was leaving Kai unprotected. He would do whatever it took to give her a chance to survive the crash.

  The man gave a gurgling cry as the limb snapped his neck. His eyes widened. And then, he fell bonelessly to the grass, dead. The knife clattered to the ground beside him, released out of his fingers.

  Breathing raggedly, Gil stepped forward, limb raised in a defensive position as he leaned down, pressing fingers to the man’s exposed neck.

  No pulse. He was dead.

  Dropping the limb, Gil quickly grabbed the cell phone from the man’s back pocket. Hands shaking, he quickly punched in 911. Looking back toward where he’d left Kai in the forest, his whole world, his heart, centered on her. How bad was her injury? He knew brain trauma, had seen it in too many others, and seen it wreck lives forever.

  Trying to steady his breathing, he connected with 911, his heart constricted with terror. He loved Kai. She couldn’t die on him! Not now!

  *

  GIL NEVER LEFT Kai’s side after the helicopter from the Jackson Hole hospital picked them up and delivered them back to civilization. They’d placed her, unconscious, on a gurney and quickly wheeled her into the ER, where he met Dr. Jordana McPherson.

  Her face was grim and as Gil walked swiftly with her to an available cubicle, he told her his assessment on Kai. It was a special hell to be with Kai as he waited for results from the MRI they’d given her.

  He’d called the ranch earlier, letting Talon Holt know what had happened. Right now, Cat and Talon were on their way to the hospital. Cass and Sandy would remain at the ranch.

  Because this was a hit, Gil warned his black-ops boss that more attacks might be coming their way. No one had any way of knowing whether there was more than one hit man and whether they might attack the ranch or one of them. Talon grimly agreed, carrying not only a pistol on him but a rifle on a rack in the cab of his truck. Cass would take similar defensive measures at the ranch to protect Sandy.

  The nurses had gotten Kai out of her wet clothing, into a blue cotton gown and she was covered with warm, thick blankets to raise her near-hypothermic temperature.

  Gil was grateful for the swift professionalism of everyone involved. He stood in his wet clothes, keeping guard over Kai, watchful, the curtains open so he could see anyone coming toward them from the side door or from the huge sliding glass doors down at the end of the room. Who had done this? Why? His mind wrenched one way and then the other with no forthcoming answers.

  Sheriff’s deputy Cade Garner entered the ER, his face grim as he made eye contact with Gil.

  Gil remained with Kai, his hand on hers, warming it up. She looked a little better, not as waxen, but still it scared the hell out of him.

  About that time, Talon and Cat came rushing through the doors, spotting him and Kai immediately, their expressions stricken.

  Jordana came into the cubicle, catching Gil’s look. “She’s going to be all right,” she told him immediately, her hand going to his upper arm. “The MRI sees no brain trauma. She’s taken a hard hit on the head and it’s a level-three concussion,” she said, going to Kai, briefly touching her damp red hair. “She should be coming around soon, Gil. The good news is her blood pressure is normal. Her pulse is a little high, but that’s to be expected considering all that she’s just gone through. Stay with Kai. She’s going to be disoriented when she becomes conscious. Call me the minute she opens her eyes.”

  A lump formed in Gil’s throat. “That’s good news,” he choked out, lifting his hand to Talon and Cat, who stood nearby, hearing Jordana’s diagnosis. Relief was etched sharply in their faces, too. Cade Garner, who stood at the foot of the gurney, looked relieved. Gil wanted to cry with sheer relief, too, but forced back the reaction. His gaze went to Kai’s smooth, clear face. Jordana had put the butterfly bandages across the gash, closing it without stitches.

  Kai looked like she was sleeping, more angel than human to him. She was so damned delicate. Now, she was fragile, too.

  Jordana looked around the cubicle at all of them. “Cat? Why don’t you stay with Kai?” She looked at the grim-faced men. “You three? Take your discussion outside where you have some privacy. I don’t want all this going on around Kai. People who are unconscious or in a coma hear people speaking around them. She doesn’t need this extra stress right now. Okay?”

  Cat came over, her hand protective on Kai’s shoulder. “Sounds good. Guys? Take off. I’ll let you know if Kai becomes conscious.”

  Gil didn’t want to leave, but he knew Cade was in a hurry to talk to him and find out what had happened. Talon remained grim, his gaze flicking between him and Cade. “Good idea,” he told Cat.

  Gil leaned down, kissing Kai’s slack, cool lips. Gil wanted them all to know what Kai meant to him. He wasn’t going to hide it from now on. Not after what had just happened. When he lifted his head, he saw them all grin, happiness gleaming in their eyes. They got it. Besides, they’d have been well aware they hadn’t come back to the ranch last night and put it together.

  Gil followed Cade out. Talon walked beside him. They left the hospital premises and halted near the brick wall where they could be more or less unseen, and have the privacy they wanted. Gil told Cade everything. The deputy was writing it all down on an iPad. At one point, he got on his radio, ordering another deputy to go to the crash site and find the license plate on the truck. The driver of it had been brought in earlier on the helo flight with Kai and Gil.

  The medical examiner had already taken fingerprints from the dead man and they were being run through a national system to try to identify him. Gil had searched the hit man earlier and found no information on him. None. He’d taken the gun, and Cade would get the ballistics at the sheriff’s office. He’d noticed immediately that the number had been filed off so it couldn’t be traced. It wouldn’t help them to track the man’s name or who he’d bought the weapon from. That avenue was closed to them.

  Talon rubbed his face after Gil and Cade were finished discussing the attack. “What do you think, Cade? Who’s behind this?”

  Cade gave them a grim look. “Gut hunch? Chuck Harper.” He looked over at Gil. “It’s a slender thread, I’ll admit. Harper is known to be obsessive about a woman he puts in his sights,” he warned them.

  “But,” Gil muttered, “all because she was over at his repair shop? Is this what triggered his response, you think?”

  Shrugging, Cade said, “I don’t know. We need to get Kai conscious. We need to find out more from her about Harper possibly approaching her at Ace Trucking. What did Harper do when she was there? Did he accost her? Try to touch her? Hell, we don’t know.”

  “If Harper did, Kai has never said anything to me about it,” Gil admitted, frowning. “Plus, she always had one of us escort her there when she needed to use the equipment.”

  Talon snorted. “Do you honestly think Kai would tell you anything? If something did happen, she’d be afraid you’d go over and pound the shit out of him. Kai had already been warned by Cat weeks ago that he was a major regional drug dealer. She’s not dumb.”

  “What?” Gil growled. “Kai was afraid if she told me what happened that I’d confront Harper?” When he’d arrived back at the table at the Armory and Kai was in the restroom, Talon had told
him about Harper approaching Kai. It had made Gil burn, and he didn’t like what Harper had done, but he wasn’t going to accost him at the Armory last night, either. Harper hadn’t tried to talk with Kai after that. Gil had kept an eye on the bastard, but Harper had disappeared into the crowd, not to be seen again. Every particle of him wanted to find Harper, slam the bastard up against a wall and tell him to never touch Kai or approach her again. But he hadn’t. He didn’t want to upset Kai, and he desperately needed the time to connect with her. Gil had planned to drive over to see Harper at Ace Trucking and set the record straight with him. He was going to warn the bastard to never touch Kai again, that she was his.

  “She may have been afraid of reprisal,” Cade said, nodding his head. “You’re the foreman. It’s your responsibility to protect her. And I’ll bet if something did happen, she was afraid she might get fired by you, Gil.”

  Talon blew out a breath of air. “Hell, this may or may not be Harper at all. We just don’t know yet. The fact that Harper went over to our ranch’s table last night, put his hand on Kai’s shoulder and talked to her is suspicious. But it’s not out of character for Harper. You know when he stakes a claim on a woman he hassles her and he stalks her.”

  Gil glared at the deputy. “If Harper did something to her, his ass is mine.”

  Holding up his hand, Cade warned, “Look, it’s too early to go there. Let’s all take a deep breath and stand down until we get more information. I just hope Kai regains consciousness soon so I can find out the rest of the story.”

  Restless, angry, wanting to punch something, Gil snarled, “If we’re done, I’m going back in to be with Kai. You’ll find me there.” He stalked off, turned at the corner of the building and disappeared.

  Cade shook his head, giving Talon a worried look. “You should stay with him. I don’t need Gil going after Harper.”