Wind River Protector

by Lindsay McKenna

  “He must be really good, then.”

  “Luke is twenty-eight and respected in the firefighting world. He’s single still because he doesn’t want to get tied down. He likes traveling and he usually drops in for about a month every March and stays here at the ranch, catching up with Mom and Dad, plus doing indoor wrangling duties with the employees.”

  “No moss grows under his feet,” Dev agreed. “I’d almost say he had Irish blood in him, because we’re a wandering genotype.”

  Growing sad, Andy said, “Well, like me, we’re all adopted. And I know it bothers him and my other brother, Gabe, like it does all of us, wondering who our birth parents were and why they abandoned us.”

  He became serious. “I was thinking about that.”

  “There’s a year’s difference between each of us. Gabe is the youngest, twenty-six this year. He, like Sky, has Hispanic blood. He doesn’t know what country he comes from either. Gabe and Sky were always close, I think, in part, because they shared that background.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “My dad was in San Diego on a job when he checked in with a local adoption agency, and Gabe was three years old. He’d been given back to the agency because of emotional issues. My dad saw him, took photos of him, sent them to my mom, who said he would be number four.”

  “Did either of them worry about his behavior issues?” Dev wondered.

  “Gabe had anger issues. When my dad looked into the foster family he was with, he felt it just wasn’t a good fit for Gabe. He was restless, bored, wanting to be outdoors all the time, and the family he lived with wasn’t outdoorsy at all. Plus, they were older, in their forties, so there was a huge generation gap.”

  “As you get older, you get more fixed,” Dev agreed. “Did Gabe’s anger simmer down, then?”

  “It took about two years,” Andy recalled. “Sky had a huge influence over him. She became his sounding board, which was really positive. And once he learned he could trust Mom and Dad, he settled down. But it was a rocky start for him, for all of us. He had terrible rages, almost uncontrollable when they hit. I remember my parents sitting the three of us down, explaining why Gabe was raging. It’s not uncommon for anyone who is thrown away by their parents to be angry. Gabe held a grudge. He hated his parents for deep-sixing him.”

  “Did Gabe ever find them?”

  “Not yet. But he’s in DEA, and they’re privy to a lot of information because they are in federal law enforcement. If he’s that interested in finding them, he probably could.”

  “If,” Dev stressed gently, “he really wants to find them.”

  Her mouth twisted, “Yes, but growing up with him, all we heard was his hatred for what they’d done to him: thrown him away. When you meet him, I’ll bet you’ll feel that tightly held rage he buries deep inside him.”

  “Did he ever take it out on any of you?”

  “No,” she said firmly, shaking her head. “He felt we’d been thrown away, too, so he treated us with nothing but kindness, patience and was always there to support us. We supported Gabe, too. Sky, Luke and I wanted so much to help him get rid of that rage. But he never did. He just buried it.”

  “Did he get angry with Steve and Maud?”

  “Not usually. Gabe was headstrong, but they never were hard or dictatorial with him. My dad would often go for walks with him, find out how his day at school went, and if something upset him, he’d spill it to him.”

  “Sounds like Steve was a good father to him, then.”

  “They’re wonderful people.” She sighed. “I’m so hoping that someday Gabe will see how lucky all of us were to be adopted by them. Each of us had a hole in our hearts from being given away. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but my parents healed me with their incredible love and acceptance. They were teachers as much as they were parents. And I’ve often heard them say that we four are the best things that ever happened to them. My dad is a world-renowned architect. My mother comes from one of the richest families in the world. And yet, we kids knew they loved us with all they had to give. My dad never missed anything important in school for any of us. My mother was very active in parent-teacher meetings. And they were always working with the people of the county to make Lincoln a place where everyone could get a good-paying job.”

  “They’re overachievers,” he agreed, “in the best of ways. They give you love, they support you and they’ve taught you morals, values and integrity. Not all kids get those things. I’m lucky in that I got those same, basic teachings and support.”

  Giving him a happy smile, she said, “Maybe that’s why we work like the good team we are, because we have terrific parents and were given lots of love.” She held up her hands, palms out toward him. “Look, my fingers have turned into wrinkled prunes. I think it’s time to get out.”

  He sat up, running his long fingers through his military-short hair. “Better get out now or I’ll start calling you Ms. Prune.”

  Giggling, she stood and pulled the bottom of her black bathing suit downward. “At least it isn’t Ms. Prude.”

  Standing, he laughed. “Big difference in words, eh? Prude and prune.”

  She took the five steps, picking up her thick yellow towel off a nearby lounge chair. “Well, don’t you dare call me ‘prune’ in front of anyone.”

  “I promise I won’t,” he said, following her out and reaching for his dark blue towel.

  She pulled the towel across her shoulders.

  “Because?” she teased.

  “DAP pilots are the arsenal in the sky for black ops missions, including the use of Hellfire missiles.” He gave her a studied look. “I rarely missed what I aimed at and I can keep secrets.”

  “Good to know,” she murmured. “I trust you, and I know you’re good for your word. Thank you.”

  “I’ll always have your back,” he said, rubbing the towel across his gleaming shoulders, “Like you, I’m glad to be settling for a quiet backwater in my life now.”

  “What? Thinking of settling down?” There was joking in her tone.

  “Oh, possibly,” he admitted, leaning down and wiping the beads of water from his long, powerful legs. “Maybe a do-over. Maybe life is going to give me a second chance. I just don’t know yet . . .”

  Chapter Ten

  July 2

  Monday, 1:00 p.m.

  “Excuse me, I’m looking for Andy Whitcomb.”

  Dev looked up from his messy desk covered with paperwork. A stranger, someone he didn’t know, stood in the doorway, dressed as a wrangler. He wore a black Stetson on his military-short black hair. He appeared to be Hispanic, his skin a golden tone. Dev creatively tagged the stranger as a predatory wolf on the prowl for his next meal. He often compared humans to the animal world.

  “Andy’s out on a flight right now,” he replied, not knowing who the man was or what business he had with her. The feeling of tension within the stranger, although not obvious, hit his senses. The cowboy might appear relaxed, but he wasn’t. Guessing he was probably in his midtwenties, the man was dressed presentably in a blue-and-white cowboy shirt, the sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows, a clean pair of Levi’s and scuffed-looking boots, indicating he wasn’t some dude playing a part. “And you are?”

  “Gabe Whitcomb. I’m her baby brother.” He managed a twist of his lips, this a family joke he was sharing with Dev as he leaned his shoulder against the doorjamb. “I just flew in a few hours ago, traded in my wardrobe for cowboy gear while I’m home visiting our folks.”

  Dev instantly relaxed. Andy had mentioned Gabe as being a DEA agent. Well, that sure as hell fit. If he hadn’t come from a black ops background himself, he probably wouldn’t have picked up on Gabe for who he really was. Standing, he came around the desk, offering Gabe his hand. “I’m Dev Mitchell. Andy mentioned good things about you, and she was excited that you were going to be here for the opening of our airport. Welcome home.”

  Gabe came out of his slouched position, giving his hand to shake Dev’s firmly. “Good to kn
ow you. Every time my sister mentioned you, she got breathless. That isn’t like her.” He released Dev’s hand, giving him a thorough once-over.

  Chuckling, Dev said, “We share a common experience from years back.”

  “Yeah, I remember the incident, the crash. Thanks for saving her life over in Afghanistan. I was undercover at the time and knew nothing about it. My dad put in an emergency call to the DEA to reach me about it, but I was out of the country and unavailable. I learned about it a month later.”

  “That’s hardcore work,” Dev said, admiring the man. “And damned dangerous. Andy is due to return in about an hour. If you’re not doing anything else, would you like to join me at Kassie’s Café and jaw a little? Interested?”

  “Yes,” Gabe said, “I’m very interested. When Andy survived that crash, she left the Air Force.”

  “It was a pretty harrowing time for her.”

  “For both of you,” he said, giving him a look of respect. “Let’s talk over coffee at Kassie’s.”

  Dev nodded. He grabbed his black baseball cap and settled it on his head. “Let me tell Pete, my boss, where I’ll be and then we’ll go over.”

  Gabe nodded, removing himself from the doorway. “Sounds good.”

  Sensing Gabe was putting himself out a lot more than he would with a stranger like himself, Dev knew undercover work was a hundred times more stressful than any other job he could name. Dipping his head into Pete’s office door, which was always open, he told him where he’d be and for how long.

  “How about,” Pete said, “I tell Andy where you two are when she gets in? I know she said her brothers were coming in on the second and third of July. I’m sure she’d like to see Gabe.”

  “Good idea,” Dev said. “Let her know.”

  “Roger that,” Pete said, lifting his hand and waving goodbye.

  * * *

  Gabe was glad to see Dev Mitchell chose a booth toward the rear of the diner, where he could have his back to the wall, away from the windows and near an exit through the kitchen if things went south. As they sat down, a waitress came over with water and menus. Dev told her that someone else would be joining them in about an hour.

  Kassie’s was just getting done with the lunch crowd. Gabe knew all the locals and didn’t see any. The town was overwhelmed with people coming in for the regional airport celebration and opening. Not that Wind River had that many hotels. He’d heard from his mother that 90 percent of the bigwigs coming had already gone fifty miles north to Jackson Hole, taking up residence in the five-star hotels with which they were accustomed.

  Gabe liked the laid-back quality of Mitchell, and his sincere friendliness. There had been a distinct change in his attitude when he learned Gabe’s identity. Dev protected Andy almost fiercely, with that low growl of his, a warning buried in it to any stranger. Andy had more or less admitted she liked her boss a lot more than she should. Now Gabe saw why. The man was ruggedly handsome, in top athletic shape like himself. Dev Mitchell missed nothing.

  Taking off his hat, he hung it on a nearby wall peg, pushed his fingers through his short hair and sat back, forcing himself to at least look relaxed, even if he wasn’t. He’d been undercover with a major drug ring in Tijuana for a year, working his way into the organization and taking the names of the soldiers and the cartel bosses, identifying them, getting photos and sending them back to the San Diego DEA office. If he was ever caught, they’d kill him after days or weeks of torture. No, he wasn’t able to relax hardly at all.

  The waitress returned with mugs of steaming coffee.

  “This is on me,” Dev said. “Have you had lunch?”

  “No, not yet. I just flew in, rented a car at the Jackson Hole airport and drove to the ranch, said hello to my parents, changed clothes and went to see Andy.”

  “Go ahead and order,” Dev urged.

  Gabe chose a hamburger and French fries. The waitress took the order and left.

  Warming to the man whose face was unreadable, but with a voice filled with emotion, Dev said, “Andy will be happy to see you. Did you know Sky was here, too?”

  “Yes,” he said, pulling the thick white ceramic mug toward himself. “I saw her at the ranch. She and my parents were having lunch when I walked in on them unannounced.” Shrugging he added, “I should have texted them, but I’m so used to not having electronics on me, I figured I’d surprise them instead.”

  Grinning, Dev murmured, “I’m sure you did, but it was a good kind of surprise. The best kind.” He took a sip of his coffee.

  “In my business? I don’t like surprises at all.”

  Chuckling, Dev nodded. “For damned sure. How long can you stay? Andy was hoping you could hang with the family for a month.”

  “The only reason I’m here is because I’m being sent somewhere else in the drug ring food chain,” Gabe said. “I have five days, is all. I know Andy and Sky are going to be unhappy, not to mention my parents, but it’s the most I can give them.”

  “I wouldn’t like undercover work.”

  “Andy told me you were a Night Stalker, a DAP pilot, over in the Sandbox.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s undercover work, too. Just a different kind.”

  Dev leaned back, liking Gabe a lot. He knew the man was revealing far more than he ever would to a stranger. “That’s true, it is. But I didn’t have to change my persona, my name, and pretend to be someone I wasn’t,” he pointed out.

  Gabe raised his brow momentarily and then nodded. “Yeah, takes a special kind of chameleon to pull that off,” he said, derision in his tone.

  Understanding that Gabe trusted him because he came from the world of the military and black ops, he asked, “Normally? I don’t think you’re this loose with details about your undercover life. Did Andy say something to you about my background?”

  He saw Gabe’s mouth pull in a wry position. “My sister told me a lot about you.”

  Stunned momentarily, Dev managed, “Oh . . .” He saw amusement dancing in Gabe’s eyes, but he didn’t supply anything further. “The fact we’re both military, worked in the black ops world? That creates a bond of trust, for sure.”

  Nodding, Gabe assessed him for a moment. “Do you like Andy?”

  Dev was surprised by the question but regarded him levelly. “Very much.”

  His fingers relaxed around the mug. “Good to know. Andy, as well as the other three of us, has never trusted anyone easily because of our background. That has nothing to do with the love Maud and Steve gave all of us. That was real and it was binding. But with anyone other than them? We don’t trust nearly as easily as kids who weren’t jettisoned out into the world, not knowing where they were going to land. Trust has to be earned.”

  Hearing the bitterness in Gabe’s tone, the censure in his look, Dev offered, “Our trust was forged in a life-and-death, five-day run to escape the Taliban after the crashes. That’s our connection. We never got personal with each other out there because we were being hunted down like animals.”

  “Did you know that when Andy returned home to us, her biggest regret was never seeing you after you got airlifted back to Bagram? She wanted to thank you for saving her skin. And then, when she couldn’t locate you, it was really hard on her. She desperately wanted to find you, and at that time, she felt there was something more between you that she never got to follow up on. That’s why I asked if you liked her. There was something in her voice that tipped me off that there was more to this than gratitude for saving her hide.” He managed a wry, one-cornered smile.

  Uncomfortably, Dev moved around. He didn’t know the family that well, or the dynamic among them, except for what Andy had shared with him, plus one dinner with her parents. “From my perspective, it’s because of our escape from the crash sites.”

  “That’s true. When you survive an event in which you think you might die, two things happen. First, you’re surprised you made it out against overwhelming odds. Second, the realization that you were part of the reason you�
�re alive becomes very important.”

  “No question about that,” Dev agreed, somber. “I was the one with the Boy Scout and nature ability, knew about tracking, had a compass and all that. Andy brought in a lot of details I overlooked.”

  “And it’s the details that will get you killed or get you out alive. Every time.”

  Dev began to understand the strain Gabe was under. He wasn’t sure the man’s family knew about his stress, and sensing he was highly protective of those he loved, he’d probably kept all his secrets from them. Parents tended to worry about their children, so he was sure Maud and Steve worried about all their kids, all the time. All four children had gone into high-risk careers. “You’re right about that.”

  “Andy being a Warthog pilot, working twenty to a hundred feet above the enemy, just her in that cockpit, was always in danger of being shot down. Even though our parents weren’t in the military, they understood clearly that Andy was a prime target of the enemy.”

  “And finally, one night, she did get shot down.”

  “Did you see it happen?” Gabe wondered, eyes narrowing a bit.

  “Yes. I’d just left my crashed helo when I saw her eject. I was wearing my NVGs and saw it happen. At the time, I didn’t know she was a female. I automatically assumed it was a male bailing out.”

  A sour smile crossed Gabe’s mouth. “Bet you were surprised when you found out otherwise.”

  Laughing, Dev said, “Yes, I was.”

  “You seem like someone who protects people who aren’t capable of doing it for themselves.”

  Dev knew undercover agents were peerless in evaluating other human beings. They had to be because their lives depended upon that skill. “I am.” And then he grimaced. “With #metoo, men are having to reevaluate how they interact with women, how they see them. But four years ago, I was having knee-jerk reactions to Andy having been a combat pilot, surviving an ejection, and I was on the ground in the dead of night realizing all that. That was another shock. She’s always been a survivor, but she showed it in spades.”