Night Hawk

by Lindsay McKenna

  Sandy, who had helped Miss Gus make the birthday cake, held up her hand. Everyone quieted. She gave Cass a look that clearly would be interpreted by everyone as a look of love, but no one said anything about it because, as they’d grown closer, it was obvious to everyone.

  “Kai, this is a very special birthday party for you.” Her eyes grew warm with tears. “And I think Gil has a gift for you. Gil?”

  Kai turned, smiling at him. “What did you do? Get me that copper teakettle I was drooling over at the hardware store in town?” Because she loved copper in all forms. She had excitedly told Gil two weeks earlier about the beautiful hand-beaten copper teakettle. That it would be a wonderful addition sitting on top of the elegant Wolf stove in his condo.

  “Well,” Gil murmured, moving to one side and drawing something out of his pocket, “not exactly. But I thought you might like this even better.”

  He brought out a small green velvet box and opened it up in front of her. Inside was a set of wedding rings. “Will you marry me, Kai? Be my wife? My best friend? My lover?” His voice faltered with emotion as he held her widening, stunned gaze.

  The table completely quieted, all eyes on Kai as she stared in shock at the glittering diamond solitaire engagement ring and plain gold band wedding ring. She pressed her hand to her lips, staring at Gil, tears running down across her fingers. He gave her an understanding smile, taking her hand away, holding it.

  “Just tell me yes?” he teased, tears glittering in his eyes.

  Sobbing, Kai nodded. “Y-yes. I’ll marry you. You know I will!” She pulled her hand out of his, stood and threw her arms around his broad shoulders, holding him as hard as she could with her woman’s strength.

  The table broke out in cheers and clapping as Gil released her, pushed back the chair and stood up. He held Kai against him, their heads buried against one another.

  Gus cackled. “This is one birthday Kai is never gonna forget.” She beamed at the happy couple standing at the other end. “Put the ring on her finger, Gil, before she changes her mind!”

  Laughter rang in the warm kitchen.

  Gil gave Miss Gus a grin and picked up the engagement ring. Kai extended her left hand, her eyes moist and only on him. He slipped it on her left finger and it fit perfectly. “Now,” he said unsteadily, “it’s official.” He took her into his arms, kissing her tenderly amidst more cheers and clapping.

  As they eased apart, Gil sat down and guided Kai between his legs and she sat on his long, hard thigh.

  As she slipped her arm around Gil’s shoulders, holding him close, her head resting against his, she saw Cass stand up. He pulled the chair aside and he looked at everyone, a softened expression coming to his face.

  “Well, we’re going to make this a very special day,” he told everyone. Turning, he knelt down on one knee in front of Sandy and produced a red velvet box. Swallowing hard, Cass held her look of surprise. “Sandy, I know you aren’t expecting this,” he began, showing her the box, “but I can’t see my life without you in it.” He opened the box, producing a set of wedding rings. “These belonged to my grandmother, who has now passed. She gave them to me before she died and told me when I found a woman who made me wake up in the morning smiling and going to bed at night smiling, I should ask her to marry me.” He searched Sandy’s stricken expression. “Will you marry me, Sandy Holt?” he said, and he offered her the box of rings.

  Giving a cry, Sandy burst out into tears.

  Everyone made sounds of sympathy.

  Cass set the rings on the table, rose and slid his arms around her shaking shoulders, drawing Sandy gently against him. He patted her back and soothed her with words against her ear. When she finally got a hold of her escaping emotions, she sat up, embarrassed, wiping her tears away until Miss Gus offered her an embroidered linen handkerchief she always carried in her pocket.

  Sandy thickly thanked her, gripping the handkerchief in her lap as Cass brought the ring box over to her to look at the very old-fashioned diamond ring set. She gave Cass such a loving look, reached out and touched his cheek. “You know I’ll marry you. You always did.” She managed a slight laugh that mingled with his proud, burgeoning smile.

  In no time, Cass had slipped the diamond engagement ring on her slender finger. “Well,” he warned her good-naturedly, “I’m your last husband, dear woman. You’re stuck with me for the rest of our lives.”

  Everyone broke out in laughter and nodded.

  Cass leaned forward, sealing the deal with a kiss that showed just how much he loved this brave woman warrior who had fought cancer twice and survived it.

  *

  KAI SIGHED, CONTENT to be in Gil’s arms as they sat on the sofa at their condo. She lay across his lap, in the curve of his arm, her head resting on the couch behind them. Gazing fondly over at him, she admitted, “I’ll never forget this day as long as I live, Gil Hanford. You were such a sneak, taking off midmorning. You didn’t have business in town, you were busy helping them with my birthday party at the Triple H.”

  “Guilty,” he admitted, sliding his fingers down her arm, feeling the nubby warmth of the black velvet tee she wore. The color made her hair, now brushing her shoulders, stand out. He enclosed her left hand, looking at the ring gleaming on her finger. “But it was a white lie for a good cause.”

  She smiled. “And did Cass tell everyone he was going to propose to Sandy beforehand?”

  Nodding, he said, “Yeah. We all knew.”

  “Except for me and Sandy.”

  Giving her a wry look, Gil lifted her hand, placing a kiss in the palm of it. “You ladies were the object of our affection. We wanted to surprise you.”

  Laughing softly, Kai stroked his cheek. “Oh, we were both surprised, no question.”

  Gil settled his hand on her hip. “When do you want to get married? Or have you thought that far ahead, Dove?”

  “I was thinking next June.” Wrinkling her nose, Kai said, “I don’t want a winter wedding like Cass and Sandy do. I want sunshine, wildflowers blooming, warmth…”

  “You can have it,” Gil assured her, squeezing her.

  “I don’t know who I’m happier for,” Kai admitted softly, trailing her fingers across his cheek. “Us or Sandy and Cass.”

  “Her doctors gave her a good bill of health,” Gil said. “And personally? I think because Cass is so damned strong, gentle and concerned with Sandy, it’s going to give her the break and support she emotionally needs to really get well.”

  “Love is the greatest healer of them all,” Kai whispered, closing her eyes, her brow against his head. “I predict Sandy and Cass are going to live to a grand old age, silver haired, just like Miss Gus.”

  Gil chuckled and slid his hand over her shoulder and down her curved back. “Cass is going to be a solid foundation for Sandy. She’s come so far since he arrived at the Triple H. And I feel she’s going to continue to improve under his love and care.”

  “Love makes even the worst and darkest days bearable, Gil.”

  He met her half-opened eyes that swam with love for him. “I know you did for me. Those five days you gave me put me back together in ways I can’t ever put into words. But it was your heart, your care—” Gil drew her closer, kissing her lips “—and your love which neither of us had ever spoken about to one another, that healed me.”

  “They were beautiful days,” she agreed in a choked tone, her lips an inch from his. “I’ll never forget them. I never wanted to forget them, Gil. You had loved me so well, was so vulnerable and sharing with me, that I’d felt reborn with you.”

  “Now,” Gil rasped, holding Kai’s glistening gaze, “we have the rest of our lives with each other…”

  *

  In February, don’t miss OUT RIDER,

  Lindsay McKenna’s next story of

  love set in Wyoming!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from RUNNING FIRE by Lindsay McKenna.

  New York Times bestselling author

  Lindsay McKenna

&
nbsp; brings you romance, suspense and heroes who are tough-as-nails in her gripping Jackson Hole, Wyoming series:

  Shadows from the Past

  Deadly Identity

  Deadly Silence

  The Last Cowboy

  The Wrangler

  The Defender

  The Loner

  High Country Rebel

  Wolf Haven

  “McKenna does a beautiful job of illustrating difficult topics through the development of well-formed, sympathetic characters.”

  —Publishers Weekly on Wolf Haven (starred review)

  For more romance and excitement, don’t miss Lindsay McKenna’s thrilling

  Shadow Warriors series:

  Running Fire

  On Fire (novella)

  Taking Fire

  Never Surrender

  Breaking Point

  Degree of Risk

  Risk Taker

  Down Range

  Danger Close

  “Talented McKenna delivers excitement and romance in equal measure.”

  —RT Book Reviews

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  Running Fire

  by Lindsay McKenna

  CHAPTER ONE

  “READY, LEAH?” CAPTAIN Brian Larsen asked.

  Chief Warrant Officer Leah Mackenzie picked up the mission information from the US Army 80th Shadow Squadron office. She looked outside, getting a bad feeling. It was raining at Camp Bravo, an FOB, or forward operating base, thirty miles from the Pakistani border. “This is a lousy night,” she told the MH-47 pilot. She saw Brian nod.

  “It sucks,” he agreed. “But we gotta make this exfil.”

  Leah followed him across Operations, helmet bag in one hand, kneeboard in the other. It was 2400, midnight, and they were to pick up a SEAL team one mile from the Af-Pak border. They had thirty minutes to meet the black ops team who had been out for a week hunting high-value-target Taliban leaders.

  Her heart picked up its pace as they walked quickly from Operations onto the wet tarmac. Their MH-47, a specially equipped Chinook helicopter that could fly in any kind of weather conditions, had been prepped by the ground crew and ready for them to board.

  The cold rain was slashing down and quickly soaked Leah’s one-piece desert-tan flight suit. It was June 1, and Brian had told her rain was unusual at this time of year in eastern Afghanistan.

  Bravo sat at eight thousand feet in the Hindu Kush mountains. Leah had arrived three weeks ago, acclimating and learning the Shadow Squadron area that they operated within. She had replaced a pilot who had gotten appendicitis. Being the only woman in the 80th, she stood out whether she wanted to or not. It was time to take to the sky. Soon, they were in the air, heading toward their objective.

  “This is a shitty area to pick anyone up in,” Brian muttered. “You remember? It’s that very narrow valley? With the mountains on the east side at fourteen thousand? And on the west side, at ten thousand?”

  “Yes,” Leah answered. She’d worked hard to commit the terrain to memory. Black ops never picked up a team at the same spot twice—ever. It could be a trap or ambush the second time around. “What I don’t like is that we’re landing too close to a series of caves. The Taliban routinely hide in them.”

  “Roger that one,” Brian agreed grimly, studying the all-terrain radar on his HUD, or heads-up display. “The SEALs said they couldn’t locate any tangos nearby, but that means squat. The Taliban hide in the caves and pop up with RPGs after we land. It’s a game of Whack-A-Mole.”

  Leah nodded. Her adrenaline was already flooding into her bloodstream. Should she tell Brian she had a bad feeling? That when she did, things usually went to hell in a handbag? “Is there any way this team can meet us out in that narrow valley?”

  “No. Then they become targets for any Taliban sitting up high in those caves.”

  Mouth quirking, Leah felt her stomach tighten. She flew the Chinook in the long, flat stratus clouds, the rain slashing downward at four thousand feet. In ten minutes, they’d hit the last waypoint and start descending into the exfil area to pick up the awaiting SEAL team.

  She heard Brian talking with Ted and Liam over the intercom. The two crew chiefs on board would have to lower the ramp once they began to descend into the pickup zone. Brian had made his authorization request with Bagram Airfield where the major part of the 80th Shadow Squadron was stationed. No mission went down unless authorization had been given by everyone in TOC, Tactical Operation Center. And it had just been approved. It was a go.

  Leah listened to all transmissions while her gaze roved across the cockpit instrument panel. Everything felt good and solid to her. Since age sixteen, she’d flown by the seat of her pants, which was when her father, full-bird Colonel David Mackenzie, had taught her how to fly. The reason she’d gotten into the Shadow Squadron was because he was the commander of this particular battalion. She was the only woman in it and Leah hoped other deserving women pilots would be allowed to follow in her footsteps sooner rather than later.

  “I’ll take the controls,” Brian said.

  “You have the controls,” Leah said, releasing them. Brian was worried about this pickup area and she was happy to allow the more experienced pilot to fly them in and out. She busied herself with talking to the SEAL team on the ground and preparing the helo for the pickup with her crew chiefs.

  At one thousand feet, she gave Ted the order to open the ramp. Instantly, a grinding sound began throughout the hollow fuselage. The closer they descended to the ground, the harder it rained.

  The hairs on the back of Leah’s neck stood up. A sense of real danger washed through her. Compressing her full lips, she watched as the Chinook came out of the low-hanging cloud cover at three hundred feet. Looking to the east, she saw the caves, all black maws. Their exfil was down below them, on a gentle slope that would be easy to land upon. Her heart rate picked up and she felt a strong thrust of adrenaline burning through her.

  *

  NAVY SEAL CHIEF Kell Ballard lay in his hide, fourteen hundred yards west of where he saw the Shadow helicopter dropping below the low cloud cover. He was hidden and dry, his .300 Win-Mag sniper rifle covered with fabric to camouflage it from enemy eyes. He’d been watching through his Night Force scope for any thermal activity other than his two SEAL brothers on the opposite side of the narrow valley who were about to be picked up. The problem was that the rain was so heavy that Kell knew Taliban could be in those caves and even he wouldn’t be able to spot them.

  The whumping sounds of the twin-engine MH-47 Chinook vibrated the air throughout the narrow-necked valley. He panned his rifle slowly, looking through his infrared scope at the helicopter descending.

  Then, he moved his scope farther down and to his left. He saw two thermal images of the SEALs, hiding behind brush, waiting for exfil. They’d been in contact with one another all week, although Kell’s single-sniper mission was different from theirs. He’d already been out here three weeks, waiting for an HVT to slip into Afghanistan. He was sitting on the mountain to intercept the bastard when it happened. So far, he’d just waited and watched.

  He’d been in touch with one of the pilots on board the Chinook, a Captain Larsen. Having the daily code word and radio contact channel for any Shadow helo, Kell had warned him earlier that Taliban could be hidden in those caves. He had no way to find them unless one of them rose up and fired an RPG at the helo. He turned his scope toward those caves once more, trying to protect the helo, just in case.

  Kell watched the Chinook swing over the valley, staying as far away from those caves as possible. But the valley was exceedingly tapered in shape and the huge rotor circumference
on this transport helo forced it to make a long, wide turn.

  The Chinook was at one hundred feet, descending rapidly. Shadow pilots got in and out as swiftly as possible, knowing they were always vulnerable when landing and taking off.

  Kell inhaled deeply, the night air moist and the rain punctured by the heavy echo of thumping blades. His heart rate slowed and he focused on the caves, watching the helo cautiously approach the exfil point.

  His intense focus was primarily on the caves. He panned his rifle scope slowly, right to left and then back again. No heat signatures so far. His finger was on the two-pound trigger. He had a bullet in the chamber and two more in the magazine. The wind gusted and whipped around his hide. The rain thickened, making his visual blurry. Kell’s heart suddenly plunged. He saw three heat signatures suddenly pop up from a cave.

  Son of a bitch!

  All three Taliban had RPGs on their shoulders, ready to fire! There was no time for a radio warning as the first enemy fired his RPG at the helo. Kell pulled the trigger, taking out the second Taliban. Moving swiftly, he scoped the third one, firing.

  Too late!

  *

  LEAH SAW A FLASH off to the right, out of the corner of her eye, as Brian brought the Chinook down onto the slope.

  “RPG!” she yelled. And then, the entire center of the helicopter exploded, shrapnel, fire and pressure-wave concussions slamming Leah forward. She felt the deep bite of the harness into her shoulders. Brian screamed as the fire roared forward. Leah ducked to the left, toward the fuselage at her elbow, feeling the burning heat and the precious oxygen stolen from their lungs.

  A second RPG struck the rear of the helicopter. The thunderous explosion ripped off the rear rotor assembly, the blades flying razors shrieking out into the night.

  Leah’s head got yanked to the right by the second RPG hit. The entire cockpit plexiglass blew outward. Thousands of shards shattered and rained around her, glittering sparkles catching the fire within the bird. She heard Brian screaming, fire enveloping the entire cockpit. She smelled her hair burning.