Mojave Rescue

by Tanya Stowe

  A doe crept out of the bush behind him.

  Drina caught her breath. She stood in awe as the two fragile creatures trusted them with their precious, unguarded presence.

  Cal slowly reached across the space and linked his fingers through hers. She clung to his hand.

  The doe posed, timid and shy, behind the buck, her nose gently lifted in the air as her mate stood guard. After a few moments she made her way across the gully and up the side into the bushes. The buck remained a moment longer, staring directly at them with his oh-so-dark, round eyes. Then with a flick of his tail, he leaped away to follow. Drina released her breath in a wondrous gasp.

  The sight made Drina feel special, unique...touched by God. As if He’d chosen this one moment with this one man just for her.

  Then another sound echoed outside the clearing. The distant whine of an engine sent ripples of fear shooting up Drina’s spine.

  “Is that a quad?”

  “A snowmobile. We have to get back.”

  * * *

  Cal turned and pulled Drina behind him, back the way they’d come. The storm’s cold breath bit into them. Cal dragged her, slipping and sliding over the snow as they tried to outrun the ever-increasing rage of the blizzard and the drone of the snowmobile. His lungs seared with each breath and his thighs burned from struggling through the drifts. How much more was Drina suffering?

  Why had he let them move so far away from the cabin?

  Drina said something about burning but he couldn’t hear clearly over the shrieking wind. He raised his gaze and saw the cabin ahead of them. He pulled her onto the front porch with the wind snarling behind them, opened the door and almost pushed her inside.

  “Go to the bedroom, where the blinds are closed.”

  She followed his directions and moved toward the bedroom, tracking mud all the way.

  “Plug in the router. See if we have a connection.”

  Drina dashed to the desk, pulling her gloves off as she went. Cal stalked across to the wall safe. He pulled off his gloves, dripping melting snow on the credenza beneath him. With fingers stiff from cold, he punched the code into the safe and pulled out his gun. He jammed a cartridge in and checked the bullet in the chamber.

  The clicks of her fingers sounded on the keyboard behind him as he stalked back to the door and peeked into the living room.

  He held his breath as the noise of the snowmobile engine came closer, pausing just outside the front door of the cabin. One...two...three seconds. The engine revved.

  Cal caught a glimpse of the man’s face before he ducked back behind the edge of the door. The gun clicked as he released the safety. He was pretty sure he knew the guy from town. He released his breath slowly but didn’t move until he heard the sound of footsteps pounding on the wood porch.

  “Hello? Anybody there?” The words were muted by the whistling wind. It seemed like forever before footsteps stalked back across the porch and the engine revved as the snowmobile sped off.

  Cal clicked the safety back into place on his gun and leaned his head against the wall.

  That was too close. He’d slipped up again. Drina made him lose all sense of caution.

  “Is he gone? Have they found us?” Drina’s harsh whisper echoed across the room.

  “I’m not sure, but I think I recognized him. I believe he’s with the volunteer fire department here. Probably on a run to check the outlying cabins before the storm gets worse.”

  He could hear her sigh of relief from where he stood. The sound pierced him like a needle. She was relying on him to keep her safe. So far, he’d been doing a lousy job.

  He looked back over his shoulder and kept his voice low. “Were you able to connect?”

  “No. No reception. I had it for a moment before that last blast of wind.”

  “Just as I expected. The storm’s too powerful even for my satellite.” The community was cut off and hunkering down for a serious storm, as was evidenced by the volunteer firefighter checking the cabins. The fireman also left in a hurry, probably trying to make it back to safety before the storm unleashed its full fury...which sounded like it just happened. Cal’s cabin rattled like an earthquake had hit.

  Drina let loose a little squeak. Cal caught himself. Gritting his teeth, he purposely released a long, slow breath and stepped away from the wall. They needed to dial down the stress, and that wouldn’t happen as long as they were trapped in this room.

  “Stay here. I’m going to take a look.”

  He peeked around the corner. Staying close to the wall, he edged to the large window and looked out as far as he could see...which wasn’t far. The snow was coming down hard and fast, slanted at an angle by the sharp wind. He could only see a few feet beyond the cabin.

  No sign of the snowmobile or the rider. In fact, snow had already obliterated his tracks. Cal moved to the kitchen to examine that side of the house. No sign of movement or activity. Then to Drina’s room and finally, he returned to his own room and raised a blind.

  “It’s clear on all sides.”

  Drina slid her hood back and unzipped her parka with trembling fingers.

  “Are you cold?”

  She nodded.

  “Sorry. A fire would be nice, but I don’t think it’s wise to light one just yet. Let’s find you some dry clothes and I’ll fix you something warm to drink.”

  He placed his gun in the safe but didn’t seal it shut. He wanted it accessible if he needed it quick. Then they walked to the living room, where he took off his coat and gestured for Drina to sit. She handed him her damp parka then plopped on the couch and wrapped the throw around her. Cal hung the parka near the back door to dry.

  In minutes he returned to the front room and placed a cup of steaming hot chocolate in Drina’s hands. She gripped both palms around the heat and blew on it before taking a sip. When she finished, a blot of whipped cream clung to her upper lip. He handed her a napkin. She took it with fingers that still trembled.

  Wiping whipped cream off her lips, she said, “Now what do we do?”

  He sighed as a weight settled down on him. “We wait. The storm may have us locked in but that means the boss and his team are locked out. I’m hoping once my handlers realize they’ve lost contact with us, they’ll send out an extraction team.”

  Her posture perked up. “Is that standard procedure?”

  Cal hated to dash her hopes but lying would be worse. “No. But nothing about this case is standard procedure, especially since you’ve arrived on the scene. I figure they’ll have a team in the air soon, if they don’t already.”

  “So they could be here in a few hours.”

  Cal shook his head. “They’ll be just as hampered by the storm as we are, Drina. They’ll be in the area, as close as they can get. But they’ll have to wait out the storm, too.”

  “Oh.” She sagged deeper into his brown leather couch. “So what do we do now?”

  “Are you hungry?”

  “Starved.”

  “You should be. We missed breakfast and lunch.” He moved to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. “Let’s see what we can rustle up. Do you like strawberries?”

  “Yes.”

  “Perfect.” He pulled the bag of frozen items out of his freezer and got to work. Soon the smell of bacon drew her toward the peninsula separating the small kitchen from the large family/living room. Leaning her elbows over the counter, she surveyed the foods scattered across it.

  “What are you making?”

  “Crepes filled with cheese and smothered in strawberries.” He deftly flipped a very thin, slightly browned crepe in the pan.

  “It’s a good thing we won’t be here for long. I could get used to this and I think my trim figure would suffer.”

  “Well, you don’t stay trim by working out so I have to assume you don’t cook, either.”

&nb
sp; She laughed. “Cup-a-Soup and Chinese takeout with plenty of fresh fruit are my gourmet foods of choice. Grab and Go is my motto.”

  “Then I’ll have to do my best to improve your health and broaden your tastes.”

  “Improve my health...with bacon?”

  He smiled. Quick-witted and capable. He loved how she kept him on his toes. “Frankly, I don’t have much time to cook, either, so when I’m here, I indulge.”

  “Please, don’t let me stop you. Indulge away.”

  He grinned. “My pleasure.”

  She looked around. “I thought for sure you’d sing while you cook.”

  “Trust me, it’s better I don’t sing. That’s why I stayed in the kitchen with my mom.”

  “Too bad. I could have used a little music right now.”

  “I thought you didn’t care for it.”

  “I didn’t say I didn’t like it. I said we didn’t have much of it around...except Beethoven and Bach, of course. My dad was a big believer in classical music stimulating a child’s mental capacity, so I always had it playing in my room while I worked.”

  Drina shook her head. “When I got to college, I realized how much I was missing, so I took a music appreciation class.”

  Something caught her eye and she wandered toward the cabinet. The whole bottom was filled with LPs.

  “Wow. You are quite a collector.” She pulled one of the snugly packed LPs loose. “Who is this?”

  “The quintessential female jazz singer of the thirties. She had a very rough life but her voice and phrasing...” He gave a shake of his head. “Reaches right down into your soul and takes a hold of it.”

  She ducked her head. “I’d like to listen to her sometime. I’d like to—” she shifted her shoulders “—experience my soul.”

  Cal paused to study her.

  She answered his look with another awkward shrug. “I’ve been so locked in, so closed up for such a long time, I’m not sure I have a soul.” She laughed. “I don’t even know what one feels like.”

  He strode across the kitchen and grasped her hand where it rested on the counter. “Trust me, Drina Gallagher, you have a soul. A beautiful one. Any woman who has devoted her entire being to saving lives has to have one.”

  She looked up and the sincerity in her hazel eyes pierced his heart. “Are you sure, Cal? Because if I had a soul, don’t you think I’d know God, see Him in my life?”

  He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the soft, pale skin between the knuckles. “I’m sure. And God has always been in your life. You just haven’t recognized Him.”

  She squeezed his palm. “Where, Cal? Where is He? In your jazz singer’s sad songs?”

  He nodded. “There. But not just in sadness. He’s in good food and good friends. Conversations... Even intellectual ones that solve the world’s problems.” He kissed her hand again. “He’s even in a little girl’s joy when she spins across the floor in ballet moves.”

  She smiled, shy and sweet. “So I missed out in more than one way.”

  “It’s not too late for lessons. Never too late.”

  The smile faded. She disengaged her hand and shook her head. “Two left feet, remember?”

  Just like that the hopeful moment was gone. Drina’s walls went back up and Cal realized why they were so strong. She’d built them with a lifetime of insecurities...the kind only God could heal.

  With a sigh, he turned back to his food preparations. While he worked, he tried to lighten the mood. He talked about music again, the Jazz Age, the folk movement, soft rock and eighties electronic music and how it impacted his teen years. Finally, placing both hands on the counter, he leaned low enough to see beneath the cabinet. “Just think, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the great musicians, and movies...well, let’s not even go there.”

  “I’m not a big fan of movies.”

  “Really? Why not?”

  She leaned against the breakfast bar so close, Cal could smell her soft pine scent. “Where should I begin? They’re full of clichés, trite plots and sappy endings. The heroes and heroines are so unrealistic. I mean come on...a treasure-hunting female who lives in a multimillion-dollar house and can fight off six bad guys with her bare hands. How silly can you get?”

  “I don’t know. I saw a female with no experience fight off one bad guy. She made him dive off the side of a hill.”

  His statement made her laugh. “That was pure adrenaline.”

  He bent low again to emphasize his words. “That was pure bravery.”

  Drina paused. “You think I’m brave?”

  “I know you are. Not many men would have left the cover of the rocks or had the sense to get in my car and drive it straight at Carter.”

  She couldn’t seem to face his honest admiration. She looked down.

  “You’re pretty good yourself, rushing in to rescue me and driving us through the desert. I still don’t know how you wrangled that ATV through the riverbed. You have to have muscles of steel.”

  His shook his head. “I’m not a superman, Drina.” The image of the murdered engineer flashed through his mind, quickly followed by Buddy’s smiling face and all the others. He was letting them all down, including Drina. She wasn’t safe yet and no one else in the boss’s path would ever be safe again.

  Unaware of his dark thoughts Drina said, “I don’t know. A guy who can shoot like a cowboy and cook like a chef is pretty super in my eyes.”

  He smiled slightly. Her attempt to salve his wounded ego helped a little. He plopped the plate down in front of her. “Taste this and we’ll continue your education on fine dining.”

  Strawberries spooned over golden crepes stuffed with cream cheese filling. Drina picked up her fork and almost dived in before Cal dipped his head and clasped his fingers together. She halted, fork midair as Cal began.

  “Lord, we thank You for saving us and for the storm that’s keeping us safe. We also thank You for the chance to listen and laugh and remember.”

  As soon as he said amen, Drina cut off her first piece of crepe. Another bite went into her mouth, and another before Cal could even walk around and sit beside her.

  “This is...” Speaking with her mouth half-full, she stopped, covered her mouth with her hand and finished chewing before she spoke again. “This is probably the best crepe I’ve ever eaten...bar none. The best.”

  She paused, staring at him, then popped another bite into her mouth, not bothering to finish chewing this time. “Is there anything you don’t know?”

  He frowned. “Yeah, I can’t figure out the identity of one very important man.”

  Seven

  Cal’s somber tone brought the shadows back into the room. Drina placed her fork on her plate. “You would know by now...if I hadn’t interfered.”

  Cal shrugged. “You know, I’ve been giving that a lot of thought. I’m not sure that’s true. It’s likely you didn’t interfere. If anything, you just provided them the opportunity they needed to test me.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Think about it. You’d barely scratched the surface on your discovery. It’s going to take more work to bring it to a functioning level. Who’s better qualified than you to do that?”

  Shrugging her shoulders, she shook her head. “No one.”

  “Then why were they so anxious to kill you before your work was done?”

  “I guess they thought they could do it without me.”

  Cal’s lips thinned into a straight, determined line. “No. They needed you. What they didn’t need was a questionable informant like me. They needed to prove my unquestionable loyalty.”

  “Wait...are you saying they set up my kidnapping just to test you?”

  “No. Something forced their hand.”

  “What?”

  He shrugged. “The clicks on Carlisle’s phone. I think
they were CIA wiretaps. He realized we were close so he panicked and told Whitson and Carter to snatch you and make a run for it.”

  She tensed and gave him a hard look. “Or maybe Jacobi’s men were tapping Bill’s line. Since he got the alert from our server, maybe he decided to have his men kidnap me before I could get the info to Bill.”

  “It’s possible.”

  Drina was glad he conceded her point. Nothing Cal could say would sway Drina’s confidence in her mentor. “I trust Bill implicitly.”

  “Like you trusted your parents?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He shifted his shoulders uncomfortably, obviously aware that he’d treaded on dangerous ground. “You ended a relationship because your parents didn’t like the guy and you’ve felt guilty ever since. Don’t you think it’s time you made your own decisions, based on your own feelings?”

  Anger flashed through Drina. “Feelings? It’s always about feelings with you. What about facts? Evidence. Four years of working day to day with Bill tells me I know him.”

  He shook his head. “Drina, you’re not sure about your own reasons and motives. How can you possibly be so sure about someone else’s?”

  She didn’t have an answer for that. And the truth of it stung. Deeply. She’d spent a great deal of time telling him how little she trusted herself. Now she regretted it. Regretting being open and honest with him at all.

  In the sudden silence, they heard sleet beating against the windows like pellets. The ping of the snow was almost painful. A constant reminder of the zinging bullets they’d been avoiding for days.

  She studied him, her brow furrowed. It was time to get back to safe ground...ground she understood...the kind that would help. She clenched her fingers. “We still have the emails. Let’s read them and find out what Jacobi was up to after he had me kidnapped.”

  Cal gave her a steel-eyed blue glare before he nodded. “Good idea.” He carried the plates to the sink while Drina retrieved her computer from the bedroom and plopped down on the couch. He sat down next to her and she scooted away, putting more space between them. Thankfully, before he could comment, the emails popped up.