by Jenna Kernan
That was exactly what she had read.
Rylee pictured the bar in Germany, the drunken servicemen. The MPs called to restore order. She covered her hand with her mouth and then forced it down. She had asked and the least she could do was listen to him without sending judgment.
“But then there’s the part that they don’t put in the reports. There is the part that you see at night when you close your eyes. That first serviceman? He was drunk. Really, really drunk, according to his blood alcohol. When I shot him, he fell backward against the bar. He looked at me, and it was as if he suddenly realized what was happening. He seemed to me like a man who had just woken from some kind of a nightmare and into another one, where he had attacked an MP and now he was going to die. He knew it. He started to cry. His partner didn’t have the opportunity...” His words trailed off. “He just...” Axel swallowed hard.
Rylee placed her hand on his. He turned his hand palm up and wove their fingers together, squeezing hard. Then he tried again.
“He just died instantly. I found out later, he was a newlywed expecting his first child. He was a boy. They named him after his father.” Axel lifted his gaze and held hers. “That’s the part they don’t put in reports.”
Rylee found her voice trembling when she spoke. “But you know that wasn’t your fault. You were doing a job, responding to drunk and disorderly. That serviceman raised his weapon. Drew his weapon on you.”
“His partner did what any good wingman would do, backed up his friend and it cost him his life.”
“He attacked you.”
“The price was too high.”
“You had a right to defend yourself.”
“There are other ways, Rylee. I could have thrown an empty bottle at him. Especially the second guy. He was drunk and he didn’t have a weapon.”
“He was a weapon, trained by the US Army.”
“I think, believe, that a gun isn’t the only option.”
“It’s the safest one.”
“Safest?” He gave a mirthless laugh. “Not for the person on the wrong end.”
He stared at her with eyes that beseeched her to understand. But she couldn’t. Not really. Because she’d never faced such a situation. All she knew was that she was in no position to judge his feelings and that killing those two men had taken a toll on him. The urge to comfort overwhelmed. She stared up into those blue eyes and lost her way. Like a pilot flying in the infinite sky, there was nothing to help her recover her bearings.
She stepped forward, taking their clasped hands and bringing them behind her as she used the other to stroke the back of his neck, threading her fingers into his short thick hair. Rylee stepped closer, pressing her body to his.
He lowered his chin as his arms came around her. Rylee pressed her lips to his. Her urge to comfort dropped with her stomach as her body’s reaction to his overwhelmed her. She reveled in the pleasure of his hungry kisses, as his strong hands stroked in a steady rhythm up and down her back. His mouth was velvet. She pressed herself to the solid wall of muscle as his arms enfolded her, taking her mouth with greater urgency.
Looking back on that first kiss, she would have liked to take credit for drawing back first. As an analyst, she should have done some figuring and recognized that kissing the sheriff was a bad idea. But it was Trace that eased her away. He groaned as he broke the kiss, as if it cost him something to do so.
The next thing she knew, she was blinking up at him, missing the comforting heat of his body and the new buzz of desire that made her inch closer. He allowed it but simply knotted his hands behind her back and leaned away.
“What are you doing to me, Rylee?” he whispered. His voice was a soft rumble that seemed to vibrate low and deep inside her.
“Making a mistake.” She followed that with a half smile.
“No doubt. And it’s the sort of mistake that I might just approve of, but you said something about wanting to go to Kowa land?”
Her brain snapped back into action. How could she have forgotten the information she had been given by Agent Diel?
“They have something. That duffel. I need to get it back.”
Chapter Nine
“What’s so important about that bag?”
Axel waited, marking her indecision by the furrows now appearing on her brow. Apparently, he was good enough to kiss but still not good enough to collaborate with.
She pressed her lips together, giving him a fierce look, and then she dropped her chin and studied the ground. When their eyes met again, he could tell she’d reached a decision.
“That illegal I was after? He was picked up by Fudderman’s group after leaving the Kowa Reservation.”
“You know this how?”
“I have a contact who also told me that Fudderman’s people took him.”
“Took him where?”
“My contact believes he was transported back over the border.”
“Why bring him over only to take him back?” asked Axel.
“Because he wasn’t important. His cargo was.”
Axel felt that tingle at the base of his spine. The one that told him things were about to go south. He locked his jaw, not wanting to ask the next question. Turned out he didn’t need to.
“Whatever he carried was left behind at the Kowa Nation. They have it. The question is, are they complicit in this carrier’s plans or did they intercept him and his goods by accident because of my pursuit?”
“All right, you convinced me.” Axel stood before her. The concern that had vibrated along his spine now moved to his stomach, twisting it in a way that told him they needed to move. “I have a friend on the Kowa Nation. We’ll give her a call.”
Rylee’s brow descended on the word her. He failed in keeping his smile a secret. Was she concerned with the fact that he had female friends? All sorts of possibilities danced through his mind, distracting him from the task at hand. Primarily, he wanted to kiss her again.
“Her name is Kate Vasta. She’s the younger sister of the acting chief of police.” He drew out his cell phone and scrolled through his contacts. She answered on the third ring. Her voice was full of light animation and what sounded like delight to hear from him. Kate had been more than a good friend. But that was in the past, at least for him.
“Axel Trace. What can I do for the sheriff of the county?”
“Hi, Kate. I need a favor.” Axel went on to explain what he wanted, and Kate promised to allow them in the rez as her guest. She also offered to meet them at the border and escort them directly to her brother.
Axel ended the call and grinned back at Rylee. “We’re in.”
“Thank you,” said Rylee.
Her words showed gratitude. But her voice carried a very different message. He’d known kissing her had been a mistake, but he just couldn’t resist. Now all the complications of a relationship, newly forming, were bubbling between them as they faced this new threat. It was baggage they did not need. In his line of work, distractions were dangerous.
Rylee donned her helmet, straddled the bike and kicked back the stand. She turned over the motor and looked back at him, waiting.
Axel climbed on behind her and tried to ignore the feel of her warm body pressed close to his. He failed. There had been several times in his life when he knew he was in big trouble. This was now one of them.
True to her word, Kate Vasta was waiting for them in a battered green pickup truck at the border of the Kowa Nation. Kate drove Axel, with Rylee following on her bike, taking them directly to her brother’s home. Apparently, they were expected because both her brother and one of the executive board members were waiting outside for them. Rylee was off her bike and at his side with cat-like speed.
Kate stepped out of her truck and addressed her brother. “Brother, I brought a guest. You remember Axel Trace, and this is his friend Rylee Hockings.”
Kate turned to Axel. “Do you need me?”
Axel spoke to her with his eyes fixed on her older brother. “I don’t know. Do we?”
Vasta shook his head and Axel flicked his gaze to Kate. “Thank you for helping us out.”
“Anything for a friend. You give me a call sometime. You hear?”
Axel felt a pang of guilt. It was wrong to call a friend only when you needed a favor. He made a mental note to call Kate soon. Then he glanced at Rylee and saw her glaring daggers at Kate as the woman climbed back into her truck and reversed course.
“Would you two like to come inside?” Vasta asked.
Axel motioned Rylee forward and followed her into the Vastas’ ranch-style home. They were directed to the living room, where Vasta had to ask his children to leave the room.
Rylee did a good job of briefly explaining that the duffel bag that was, perhaps, in their custody contained something of national interest and possibly posed a significant hazard to his people.
Vasta and Executive Council Member Jeffries exchanged a long, silent look. Then Jeffries rose and asked them to follow him. They returned to Rylee’s bike and waited for Jeffries to climb into a new matte black dually pickup. Then they left Vasta behind and followed Jeffries’s vehicle out of the drive and past the city center, the casino and through one of the communities where the Kowa people resided. Beyond that, they headed to the St. Lawrence River and several storage facilities, stopping at a nondescript prefab garage.
“It’s in here,” said Jeffries. He paused only long enough to release the lock on the container door and click on the lights. Inside were storage containers filled with boxes of tobacco and a small desk supporting a computer from the last decade and a phone. Beyond squatted a gray metal filing cabinet that looked to have been kicked down a set of stairs, as the second drawer was too badly bent to close. Jeffries unlocked the filing cabinet with a small key and removed the duffel bag from the bottom drawer. Rylee’s entire posture changed. She was on full alert with one hand on her weapon. Axel gave her a nudge and shake of his head. Her hand dropped back to her side.
Executive Council Member Jeffries set the duffel on the desk.
“We confiscated this from the person you pursued here,” he said to Rylee. “We let them go. It seems to us that the carrier was Japanese. But I really don’t know.”
“Could he have been Chinese?” asked Rylee.
“I don’t know.” Jeffries rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s possible.”
“Has anyone looked inside this bag?”
Jeffries nodded. “Yes. Executive council and the acting chief of police have all seen the contents of this bag. We are in agreement that we do not want it on our lands but were not in agreement as to what to do with it.”
Axel thought of the possibilities. What were the choices?
“Half the council was in favor of destroying it. The other half wanted to deliver it to state officials.”
“Has anything been removed from this bag?” she asked.
“No.”
She motioned to the bag. “May I?”
Jeffries nodded, extending a hand as he moved away.
“Why now?” asked Axel. “You could have given it to her when she first arrived.”
“She didn’t arrive. She entered our land without invitation. This negated any option to deal with her. Now she comes with a friend and with the escort of the sister of the chief of police.”
Rylee flushed. “I am sorry for my bad manners. If I could, I would have done things differently.”
Jeffries nodded. “Do them differently in the future. This is our home. How would you have reacted, if situations were reversed?”
“I would have deemed you a threat. I might not have been as forgiving as you have been.”
Rylee turned her attention to the duffel. The way she unzipped the canvas bag gave Axel the chills. She moved as if the entire thing might explode.
“Is it volatile?” he asked.
“No. But if it is what I think it is, the contents are very dangerous.”
“In what way?”
“I can’t say,” she said through clenched teeth, gingerly drawing back the sides of the bag.
Axel glanced in to see a second container of vinyl, rolled with a Velcro fastener. It reminded him of the sort of thing he used to carry lures for fly-fishing, only his version was canvas. Rylee lifted the orange-and-black bag to the desk and released the fastenings. Then she unrolled the container until it lay flat on the desk. The rectangular vinyl was divided into dozens of slots, each containing a glass vial.
“Ampoule transport roll,” she said. Her voice had an airy quality and her breathing now came in short, rapid blasts from her nose.
“Get it out of here,” said Jefferies.
“The foreign national carried this onto your land?” asked Rylee.
“No. This little guy crossed onto our land and we were in pursuit when we saw the drone with the duffel. Both in the same area, near the river. One of our people shot at the drone and it dropped the duffel, but we lost the thing in the trees near the river. Runner also got away. Recovered the package, though.”
“A miracle it didn’t break on impact,” said Axel.”
“Fell through the pine trees. My son caught it. And the guy who was there to retrieve it took off.” Jeffries looked grim. “That spy came onto our land to retrieve this,” Jeffries motioned at the bag, but now stood well back from the desk.
“Your son is very lucky. It was a good catch,” said Axel.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Rylee rolled up the transport container holding the vials and then pointed at the duffel. “Burn that.”
The rolled container went inside her leather jacket. She extended her hand to Jeffries and thanked him again. Then she turned and headed out of the storage building like a woman on a mission.
She had been correct, he realized. She had gone against the odds and gotten it right. But her people were all in the wrong place.
Axel thanked Jeffries and then jogged after Rylee.
Chapter Ten
The ride to Kinsley was a blur.
They stopped at her motel to switch from the motorcycle to her vehicle and collect the drone given to her by Stanley Coopersmith. Then they headed to his office in Kinsley.
As Rylee pulled to a stop at the curb, he saw his battered SUV parked before the station. Pete, of Pete’s Garage, had beaten them here, managing to tow his sheriff’s vehicle back. Axel paused on the sidewalk to take in the damage. One side looked as if it had slid a hundred yards on gravel. The sheriff’s insignia had all but disappeared, along with most of the paint on the passenger side.
Rylee was like a schoolgirl, nearly skipping the distance between her car and his office. He unlocked the door and held it for her, then flicked on the lights.
Her expression was animated; she seemed to have an external glow, like a halo or aura surrounding her. In his office, she paced as she spoke with an excited ring to her voice. She kept the phone pressed to one ear and her finger in the other.
Rylee seemed to have completely forgotten he was even there, as he took his seat and scrolled through his emails. Why did he care if she knew he was there or not? But he kept glancing her way, hoping to catch her eye. He didn’t.
She described the cargo they had recovered. Arrangements were made for a pickup. After the call, she came to rest, collapsing into the big chair beside his battered wooden desk. The chair had been in the former sheriff’s home, but when the stuffing began to show in one worn armrest, Rogers’s wife had insisted it be banished from the house and it ended up here.
“Can you believe it?” She pressed one palm to her forehead and stared at the tiles of the drop ceiling above his desk. “I wish
I could call my dad.”
“It’s not that late.”
“He’s in Guam again, I think. But, boy, I’d love to call him. I can’t, of course. This isn’t public info, but...” She smiled and sighed, happy in the prospect of telling her family of her coup.
“You were right.” He moved to sit on the edge of his desk, keeping one foot planted on the floor. It didn’t help. Rylee at close range still made him feel slightly motion sick. Did she know how pretty she was? “You gotta be pleased.”
“More than pleased. Did I tell you that I’m one of seven? Seven!”
“No, you didn’t tell me that.”
“Oh, yeah. And as the youngest, I have never successfully commandeered my dad’s attention for more than a minute at a time.”
“Well, this ought to do it.” He had lost his need to gain his father’s respect the day he had asked his father which of the women in the compound his mother was and been told that it didn’t matter.
Not to his father, maybe, but it sure did matter to Axel.
“What’s he do, your dad?” Besides ignore his daughter, he wondered. Had he ever been that in need of his father’s approval? He hoped not, but he admitted to himself that he had been back before he started sneaking off the compound. Only then did he begin to realize how twisted and aberrant his childhood really was. Early on he began to suspect that the warnings about the outsiders being damned had been a lie. A way to keep them all apart from anything that might undermine his father’s control over them all. At first, he had sneaked off for attention. But no one had seemed to notice or care. If he hadn’t left, would he right now be dressed in brown robes with his head shaved?
“My dad is a colonel in the US Marines, Indo-Pacific Command. All my brothers and my only sister are marines, too. I’m the black sheep, did not follow my marching orders.”
“He wanted you to enlist?”
“Of course. He wanted me to attend officer training school and be a marine. He expected all of his children to serve their country.”
“You are serving your country, Rylee. Working with Homeland Security would certainly fit that bill. He must know that,” said Axel.