Mountain Ranger Recon

Chapter Two

Meg’s skin blanched beneath her freckles. This was why he’d kept his business to himself when they’d been together. He’d never wanted to scare her or make her feel any fear.

Or put her life in jeopardy.

But, for her own safety, he had to make it clear that one of her tourists had just shoved Kayla through the wooden railing. Had Kayla’s attacker identified her as CIA, or just pegged her as a nosy tourist who’d stumbled onto something she shouldn’t have?

Ian covered his face with his hands and hunched his shoulders. He rocked forward, moaning Kayla’s name. Twisting his head to the side, he peered at the hikers between his fingers.

If the killer ID’d Kayla as an agent, he had to know Kayla’s so-called husband was part of the team. Which one of the shocked faces masked a killer?

Meg’s radio crackled as she reported the incident, her voice strong and steady. Whatever Meg felt right now, she’d do her job.

She turned toward him, her blue eyes wide. “They can’t send in a helicopter—too dangerous with the falls so close—but the El Paso County Search and Rescue is going to hike in and move her downstream. The sheriff’s department is sending in a helicopter to airlift her from that area.”

Ian shrugged off his pack. “I’m not waiting for some search-and-rescue team to get here. She might be alive.”

And if Kayla still had breath in her body, she’d identify her attacker.

“I can’t let you do that.” Probably wondering how far she had to carry the charade, Meg shifted her gaze beyond him to the group of shocked tourists, and Ian followed her line of sight.

The birthday girls huddled together whispering, while the honeymooning couple, stumbling on the scene late, clung to each other, faces white. The German tourist…snapped photos.

A burst of anger exploded behind his eyes, but Ian took a deep breath. He had to get down to Kayla. Meg knew he was just as capable of hiking down to Kayla and moving her body downstream as the volunteer search-and-rescue team on its way. More capable, since he’d been a member of the army’s mountain division before joining the covert ops team, Prospero.

Ian decided to make it easy for her. He raised his voice, a sob cracking his words. “That’s my wife down there. You can’t stop me.”

He launched over the side of the deck, his boots fitting into the footholds he’d scoped out minutes earlier. As he scaled down the rocky cliff side, he heard voices above him. Several minutes later, a shower of pebbles rained down on his head. He glanced up to see Meg following his path down the side of the cliff.

He tilted his head back and called to her, “Shouldn’t you be keeping an eye on your group?” Although, in all honesty, he’d rather have Meg down here with him than up there with a possible killer.

She responded in a tinny voice. “One of our guys in the area heard the radio call and just showed up. He’s going to get the group to the top.”

For the next several minutes Ian heard only his own heavy breathing and the roar from the waterfall. Meg, following his path, made a steady descent in his wake, occasionally dislodging pebbles that pelted his head and hands.

Reaching the bottom of the craggy cliff face, Ian jumped to the ground, his boots splashing in the river where it tumbled over slick rocks. He reached Kayla in two strides and crouched beside her lifeless form. Her blond hair floated in the water, and her eyes stared, unseeing, at the falls.

Ian checked her pulse. Nothing. He hadn’t known Kayla well, but she’d shown a fierce loyalty to Jack Coburn. She’d volunteered for this mission as soon as she found out about Jack’s disappearance. And she’d done so without the approval or knowledge of her employer, the CIA.

There’d be hell to pay for this screwup.

Meg panted over his shoulder. “Is she…?”

“She’s dead.” Ian passed his hand over Kayla’s eyes, closing them to the world for the last time.

Meg grasped his shoulder for support as she choked. “Who did this?”

“One of your so-called tourists.” He pointed his index finger toward the top of the cliff.

“Do you think Scott will be safe?”

“Scott?”

“The other guide who’s finishing the hike for me.”

“He’ll be fine as long as he doesn’t start asking questions. And why should he? But I’ll need a list of all the people on the hike.” The colonel had misjudged the enemy. He thought the terrorist scum would sneak in here in the dead of night to recover their lost property. Instead, someone had posed as a tourist, hitting on the same plan as Ian.

With deadly results.

“Why are you so sure Kayla was pushed? Maybe she fell.” Meg kneeled on the ground and felt for a pulse in Kayla’s neck.

“You told me yourself, nobody has ever had an accident on that trail. Kayla falling from the platform is too coincidental. She and I are on this hike looking for…something, and she winds up dead at the bottom of a cliff.”

“Do you think she found that something?”

“If not, she must’ve been getting warm.”

Meg’s radio crackled, and she informed her home office that she and the victim’s husband were with the body and that Scott was leading the rest of the group to the top of the mountain.

She ended the transmission and pocketed the radio. “Did you hear that? They want us to wait with Kayla until search and rescue gets here.”

“I can move her downstream to wait for the helicopter. The El Paso County Search and Rescue doesn’t have to waste its time hiking down here.”

“And blow your cover? Remember, you’re a tourist who just lost his wife.”

And an agent who just lost his partner.

Ian sank down on the nearest boulder and buried his face in his hands—for real this time. He’d wanted to go on this operation alone, but the colonel thought he’d be less suspicious as part of a couple. That didn’t work out too well. He plowed his fingers through his hair and cursed.

The pressure of Meg’s hand rubbing circles on his back calmed him. He squeezed his eyes shut and allowed the warmth to seep through his body. God, he’d missed her touch these past three years.

Why had he let Meg go without a fight? Because she deserved better. A better husband than one who’d been halfway across the world when his wife suffered a miscarriage. He blamed himself. His mission had caused her too much stress. His secrets had strained the trust between them.

Truth was he had no idea how to be a good husband and even less of an idea how to be a good father. His role model had been neither.

Apparently, he also sucked at being a good partner.

His muscles tensed, and the pressure of Meg’s hands increased. “I’m sorry about Kayla, but it’s not your fault, Ian. If she was an agent with Prospero, she knew the risks.”

Ian twisted around to look into Meg’s clear blue eyes. Did she really know so little about Prospero, the military covert ops team that worked so deep undercover, sometimes their own government didn’t know what they were doing?

What did he expect? He’d compartmentalized that entire side of his life, keeping Meg so far away from it that she’d felt abandoned by him and excluded from the closeness he’d shared with the members of that group.

He dragged in a deep breath of crisp mountain air. “Kayla wasn’t part of Prospero, Meg. She joined our mission from the CIA. There is no Prospero anymore. We disbanded almost two years ago.”

She pushed up abruptly. “Th-then what are you doing here? Are you working for the CIA now?”

“Not exactly.” He rubbed his knuckles across his jaw. What the hell. They were alone and he owed her big time. Through no fault of her own, she was smack in the middle of this thing, and she had a right to know why he and Kayla, and apparently some terrorist, had commandeered her hike on a fresh fall morning.

“Sit down. We can’t do anything for Kayla now anyway, except wait for search and rescue to move her body.” He patted a space beside him on the rough boulder.

She perched next to him, looking poised for flight, her back stiff, her eyes wary.

“Do you remember Jack Coburn from Prospero?”

She nodded and her silky strawberry-blond ponytail bobbed behind her. “I remember all the guys from Prospero—the colonel, Jack, Riley and Buzz. You were all so close. You had some kind of unspoken bond, so thick it was a like a cord binding you all together.”

Her voice sounded wistful, and Ian reached out and grabbed her hand. He should’ve been forging that bond with his wife, but those guys had been the closest thing he’d ever had to family. Until he’d met Meg.

“Jack went missing a few months ago.” His own words punched him in the gut all over again, and he convulsively squeezed Meg’s hand. “After Prospero disbanded, we all went our separate ways. Always the silver-tongued devil with nerves of steel, Jack took a job as a hostage negotiator.”

“You mean like with the FBI?”

“No. Jack worked…works freelance. Large corporations, newspapers and private citizens hire him to rescue loved ones, usually being held hostage in foreign countries.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“You don’t know the half of it. Jack was working a case in Afghanistan when he disappeared off the face of the earth.” Ian clenched his teeth. The CIA had labeled Jack a traitor, but the spooks in the Agency didn’t know Jack. Except Kayla, Kayla knew Jack.

Meg ran a finger along his tight jaw. “So what are you doing in Colorado?”

“One of the other former Prospero members, Riley, traced Jack’s disappearance to a drug cartel in Mexico, which in turn led to an arms dealer here in the States. The arms dealer’s clients were transporting some kind of weapon in a private plane over this area. We had a line on the plane, and Buzz Richardson picked it up and forced the plane down at the air force base. Unfortunately for us, the weapon wasn’t onboard.”

Meg covered her mouth with her hand, her brows shooting up to her bangs. “What happened to it?”

Ian spread his arms wide. “Buzz thinks they jettisoned it right here, once they spotted him on their tail.”

“A weapon here in Crestville? Why wasn’t it on the news? How come there was no rescue operation?”

“This is all under the radar, Meg.” He rubbed the pad of his thumb across her knuckles. “The pilot never filed a flight plan, had no instruments on board and had no radio contact with any towers. It’s as if that airplane never existed…except on Buzz’s personal radar.”

“How did Buzz figure out the occupants of the plane ditched their cargo here?”

“He did a little creative interviewing of the folks on that plane. One couldn’t take the pressure and cracked, admitting they’d tossed the suitcase overboard.”

“What’s in that case, Ian?” Meg clamped her lower lip between her teeth, her eyes round and definitely worried.

He lifted one shoulder, hoping she’d believe him. “We don’t know. Whatever’s in that case came from an arms dealer named Slovenka. We know it’s a weapon of some sort. A very expensive weapon. A very dangerous weapon.”

“Didn’t Buzz’s creative questioning unearth the type of weapon?”

“Uh, the suspect killed himself before he gave away anything more.” Damn, he hated exposing her to this stuff.

Meg hugged herself and said, “And now the rest of them are back trying to find the weapon…along with you. Do you think the arms dealers are after it, or the terrorists they sold it to?”

He didn’t want her involved, but that decision was beyond him. He eased out a long breath. “Slovenka got his money. The location of the weapon is now the purchasers’ problem.”

She snapped her fingers, getting into the spirit of the thing. “The German tourist—he lingered behind to take pictures. Maybe Kayla saw something and he pushed her.”

“A lot of them lingered behind. It could be any one of them, Meg. Just because the German traveled solo doesn’t necessarily make him the prime suspect. Maybe it’s one of the married couples with the same idea as Kayla and…”

Ian squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. This is one aspect of active duty Ian didn’t miss—losing coworkers.

Meg entwined her fingers with his. “Did you know her well?”

He shook his head. “Not at all, not even her real name. It’s better that way.”

The whomping sound of helicopter blades cut off further conversation.

Shading her eyes, Meg pushed up from the boulder. “Search and rescue is here. The chopper will drop off the team and they’ll hike upstream to retrieve Kayla.”

Meg radioed the helicopter, giving the rescue team their exact location. Fifteen minutes later, two hikers emerged from the thick foliage.

As the men examined Kayla’s body, Ian held his breath. He couldn’t get into anything with them right now. He wanted to search the immediate area before anyone else had an opportunity to return.

One of the search-and-rescue members rose and patted Ian’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Shepherd. Was your wife leaning over the railing when she fell?”

Ian shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. “I wasn’t with her…and neither were any of the other hikers.”

At least nobody on the hike claimed to have seen what occurred, but Ian knew at least one person, possibly two, knew exactly what had happened to Kayla.

The rescue team unfolded and secured a stretcher and lifted Kayla’s body onto it. As they turned her, Kayla’s camera dangled from her neck.

Ian’s hand shot out. “Can I take her camera?”

“Sure.” The search-and-rescue hiker carefully slipped the camera strap over Kayla’s head and handed the camera to Ian. Then he turned to Meg. “Meg, once we load the stretcher onto the helicopter, there’s room for only one more. We’ll take Mr. Shepherd with us and you can hike back up.”

“No!” Ian shouted the word, and three startled faces turned in his direction. Ian curled his hand over Kayla’s cold fingers and slid the wedding band from her left hand. “M-my wife’s wedding band is missing. I need to find it. I can’t leave without that ring. Leave me here. I want to be alone.”

Ian covered his face with his hands so he didn’t have to do any more explaining. He felt Meg’s hand on his arm. “It’s okay, Greg. I’ll hike back up with Mr. Shepherd. I’ll make sure he gets to the top, and I’ll arrange transportation for him to the hospital in Colorado Springs.”

Through the spaces between his fingers Ian saw the rescue workers exchange a worried glance, but it didn’t look like they wanted to argue with a bereaved, irrational spouse. He should’ve figured Meg would volunteer to stay behind with him.

Before the search-and-rescue team hiked back to the chopper with Kayla’s body on the stretcher between them, Ian clutched Kayla’s stiff fingers, kissed her cheek and whispered, “I’ll tell Jack you sacrificed everything.”

He and Meg watched the hikers disappear before turning back to the river and the falls. “You could’ve gone with the chopper.”

“And leave you here alone?” Meg twisted her ponytail around her hand. “I’m going to be in big enough trouble as it is. I’ll most likely be suspended from my job, if not fired, while Rocky Mountain Adventures waits for the phone call from your lawyer.”

Ian smacked his fist against his palm. He hadn’t thought of that. Any red-blooded, litigious American would sue Rocky Mountain Adventures in a heartbeat for this accident.

“Sorry Meg-o. I waltz back into your life after three years and look what happens.”

She shrugged, her cheeks flushing a rosy pink at the nickname. “At least I know you don’t have any intention of suing us.”

Ian clicked the buttons on Kayla’s wet digital camera. “If I’m lucky, Kayla snapped some photos of whatever she wasn’t supposed to see, or maybe even got a couple of shots of her attacker.”

Meg leaned over his shoulder, but the camera’s screen remained black. Ian blew out a breath and dropped the camera, where it swung from his neck. “The water may have damaged it or maybe the battery’s dead.”

“You stayed behind to search this area, didn’t you?”

“Of course, but I didn’t plan to involve you.”

“You never do.”

Ouch.

Meg slid her backpack from her shoulders. “I have some binoculars. Maybe Kayla spotted something across the river or at the top of the falls.”

Their gloved fingers met as Meg passed the binoculars to him, and for a moment the electricity crackled between them, even though their skin didn’t even touch. Meg snatched her hand back, as if burned. Yeah, she felt it, too.

Ian had been on high alert from the moment he stepped off the van and discovered Meg was going to be their guide. He hadn’t had a single opportunity to relish being close to her again. This reunion bore no resemblance to the one he’d played over and over in his head these past three years without her.

And the situation had gotten even worse.

“I’ll have a look along the riverbank. Maybe Kayla spotted something in the water snagged on the rocks.” She put her hands on her hips. “Just what am I looking for anyway? What kind of suitcase is this?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. It’s probably a hard-sided case, not too big, not too small.” Ian trained the binoculars on the hillside across the canyon, scanning every ledge, every tree. He caught his breath a few times, only to be disappointed.

What had Kayla seen from that overlook to prompt someone to kill her on the spot?

Meg’s radio crackled and a voice sputtered across the airwaves. “Meg? Meg, are you there?”

As Meg answered the radio call, Ian sharpened his focus to zero-in on an area behind the falls.

“I’m here with…Mr. Shepherd, Matt. We’re on our way back, unless you can send another helicopter in to pick us up.”

Ian cursed. The shiny object behind the wall of water had been a trick of the sunlight, now throwing shafts of light through the clouds. He hoped if the search-and-rescue team sent another chopper in, they’d take their time.

The radio hissed with static. “Not sure we can do that, Meg, but that’s not why I called. There’s another hiker missing from your group.”

Ian spun around and dropped the binoculars, which banged against his chest.

Meg’s eyes widened as she gripped the radio with two hands. “Someone’s missing from the hike? Who?”

Ian’s breath stopped as a red dot of light appeared between Meg’s eyes. His gut clenched for one second before he soared through the air and tackled her.

Chapter Three

As Meg hit the ground, the radio flew out of her grasp. She opened her mouth to yell, but Ian clamped a hand across her lips.

“Shh.” He shifted his weight on top of her, pushing the air out of her lungs and smashing her face into the moist dirt.

Wet sand from the riverbank flooded her mouth, settling between her teeth, and she sputtered. Ian couldn’t have picked a more perfect way to remind her why she’d left him—his complete devotion to his career at her expense.

His warm breath tickled her ear as he covered her body with his large frame. He draped his thigh across her hip, protecting her, shielding her. He couldn’t have picked a more perfect way to remind her how much it had hurt to leave him—his complete and utter protectiveness of her.

He whispered, “Stay still a few more minutes. I saw a red laser bead from a weapon on your forehead.”

Meg bucked beneath him as if someone had shocked her with a cattle prod. Was Ian trying to finish her off?

Ian stroked her ponytail and then lifted his head. Taking a deep breath, Meg turned her face into the wet mulch, the smell of the damp leaves and earth invading her nostrils. Maybe if she buried her head in the dirt this would all go away. Except Ian. She didn’t want Ian to go away—not yet anyway.

Straddling her thighs, Ian rose to a sitting position. He held his finger to his lips and scanned the area with the binoculars. He reached for the backpack he’d dropped when he’d taken her down and pulled out a weapon.

Meg gasped, although Ian’s hiking accoutrements shouldn’t come as a surprise to her. Her husband had always been armed and dangerous.

Gripping his gun, Ian rolled off her body. “Stay low. We’re going to have to hike out of here beneath some heavy cover. Get on the radio and find out who’s missing from the hike.”

Meg rolled onto her stomach, pointing to the racing river. “My radio’s downstream somewhere. Another good reason for the company to fire me.”

“I suppose you didn’t happen to catch a name before I…uh, knocked the radio out of your hand?”

“No, but if we see one of the tourists wandering around out here in the wilderness, it’s a pretty good bet he’s our man.”

“Or woman.”

She grabbed his arm and pulled him close to the base of the hill. “We’ll be safer following this path, instead of traipsing along the banks of the river.”

Ian ducked beneath a tree and chugged some water from his bottle. He wiped the rim on the sleeve of his jacket and offered it to Meg. “I was hoping to search the area while we’re here.”

“You can’t do that with someone aiming red lasers at our heads.” She gulped the water down her parched throat too quickly and coughed and sputtered.

“Are you okay?” Ian pounded her back.

She twirled around, holding out her hands. “I’m choking on water. I don’t need CPR.”

Ian rubbed his brow with the back of his hand, still encased in a thick glove. “Sorry. How long can we hike along the base of the mountain before heading up to the trail?”

“About an hour.” Meg tipped her head toward the falls. “Once we get past the waterfall, we can take a path back to the trail that’s not as exposed as this one.”

“Keep your eyes open. We might see the case or something else incriminating down here.”

She blew a piece of hair, which had escaped from her ponytail, out of her face. “You don’t have to tell me to keep my eyes open, but I’ll be watching out for guns and red beams instead of someone’s luggage, even if that luggage is lethal.”