by Dale Mayer
She waved at him to sit down. “You’re making me nervous standing up there. Is everything okay?”
He smiled, his face bland. “Of course.”
She rolled her eyes. “Right super secret spy stuff.”
With a big grin, he said, “Not quite.”
The beignet was too enticing to resist. She took a big bite, sending a dusting of powder sugar everywhere. She chuckled.
Glancing over at him, she caught the worried look in his eyes. She slowly lowered the treat to the top of the package and laid it down. “What’s the matter? Is he being sent out somewhere?”
Cooper shook his head.
“Right, he is, but you can’t talk about it, and that’s not why you’re worried.”
He raised both his eyebrows at that.
She slumped back. “I’m being sent home, aren’t I?”
This time he did smile. “Don’t think of it as being sent home. Consider it more a heading home to safety time.”
“And yet that’s where I was kidnapped from.”
He nodded. “We know. You’re welcome to stay here of course. There’s no one forcing you, but in our opinion, you should be at home with your father.”
She nodded. “It is time, I guess.”
She’d been thinking about that just a little while ago but hoping against hope that there’d be Hawk running through the door asking her to stay with him forever. She was a fool. He was never going to say that.
“I do have a problem.”
He frowned. “What’s that?”
“I don’t have a way to get home.” She glanced down at the clothes she was wearing. “And did you provide these? If so, thanks.”
He nodded. “They look good on you. And thank Hawk, he gave me the size and told me what to get.”
Of course he did. Somehow his years of experience with women had given him a trained eye to know exactly what size she wore.
Figured.
There was no reason to stay now. If Cooper said it was time to go home then Hawk wasn’t coming back.
So she’d be staying for nothing.
And in that case, she’d rather go home. “I could leave anytime if I had a way to get home.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
She raised her eyebrows and looked at him over the cup.
“Your father is on his way,” he said. “To pick you up.”
*
He could sense the other men watching him. Wanting to say something but not actually giving voice to the words. Too bad. It would ease the tension around them. What did they expect him to do? She needed to go home. At least until this nightmare was over.
If he survived this mission then he might look her up. Regardless of his thoughts early this morning about keeping her, he wasn’t a good bet. There was always another mission. This was a tough job. He couldn’t tell her much about it, and he’d always be on the road.
But damn it was an impossible thought to let go of.
Besides, they were approaching the ship they were prepared to board. Hardly the time. As the Coast Guard vessel they were riding in came along side, he pulled his mask down and slipped overboard. They were looking for the bombs. The intel had been solid. But so far, finding the goods, that was a whole different story.
And this could go easy or it could be a shit storm. He swam around down below the front of the tanker to the small fishing boat tied up on the far side. It was the twin to the one they’d rescued Mia from. While the Coast Guard took care of the crew, his team would check out the fishing crew. If there were any.
He signaled to Swede and swam up. He rose slowly, checking out the size and breadth of the vessel. It was big enough and had a small lift on the back so it could have easily lifted the bomb off. Once in the water, it would be easy to drag the device into position.
They worked to the back of the fishing boat and slipped aboard. It was empty. They gave it a quick search. There were bits and pieces of wires left behind and some powder on the floor. A worktable. Ropes.
He messaged the Coast Guard about what he found.
After another quick search, they retraced their steps and slipped back into the water. And went straight down toward the bridge pylons. They were down long enough the air became an issue. They gridded the space and searched the entire area. And found nothing. Back at the Coast Guard they switched tanks and a second team joined them in the search. The Coast Guard motored over to the next rendezvous. Six hours later they’d checked out all the points they’d had marked. And still nothing.
Afterwards, pissed and exhausted, they met to reevaluate.
“We can’t have missed it.”
“No. Therefore it’s not there.”
They stared at each other in frustration. “If not there, where?”
Mason’s phone rang. His conversation was short, explicit. When he put away the phone he said, “We’ve found one.”
That set up a series of conversations and another plan.
This time the trip would end differently.
Chapter 24
Life at home had a different edge to it.
Mia loved having her father back. The attack and loss of his brother had him taking an interest in the store again. He’d been reorganizing it after the vandals finished. Oddly enough there was mostly candy and gum missing. She had a good idea who to blame for that, but as she hadn’t seen Tom’s son and his cousin since her return, she couldn’t be sure. After all, his father had been involved in her kidnapping. That he’d gotten his comeuppance was one thing, but to imagine that his son was part of this was a different thing altogether. There was an uncle around somewhere as well, but she had no idea where. And she didn’t want to know.
Things had been quiet.
For that she was thankful.
“Mia, can you bring the horses over here. The farrier will be arriving soon,” Eva called out.
Mia chucked at the two retired quarter horses Eva fostered. Amongst other animals. Then Eva had a heart as big as the acreage she owned and lucky for the animals, did something with it – for both.
She walked toward Eva, knowing the horses would follow on their own accord. They were big babies and loved to be with their people friends.
She opened the gate and stepped back so they could move toward Eva. All animals loved her. Always had. If the truth be told, Mia was slightly jealous.
She wished she had something to do. Something special she could do. She really wanted to do search and rescue on a bigger scale. Only that would mean leaving Canford. And she wasn’t ready to do that.
She watched her friend as she spoke to the horses and the llama that was on the other side of the fence. She had a good dozen animals here she fostered. And so many more she’d adopted. She was alone and appeared to love it that way. Eva said she hadn’t met anyone that made her want to change her status.
Mia had said the same thing until she’d met Hawk. Only he was a distant memory now. But one that made her smile. She didn’t begrudge his presence in her life, only that it was now in her past.
Her father walked over. “Mia, you okay?”
She smiled up at him. “Sorry, just daydreaming.”
He closed the gate behind her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. Healing well.”
“Are you?” He studied her face as if looking to see if her bones actually healed under the skin. “The ribs?”
“Better.” She walked ahead of him. “I’m back to normal.”
“That’s not true.”
She turned to look at him. “In what way?”
“You’re sad all the time.”
Her head shake was instinctive. “I’m not,” she protested. Yet she was lying. She knew it, but as nothing could change the situation she was determined to move forward.
“You are. At first I thought it was because of what you’ve gone through. Maybe it is?”
“Maybe,” she said noncommittally, wishing s
he could get out of the conversation before her father guessed the real reason.
“As long as you’re mending.” And he walked toward Eva, his own gait unsteady and stilted. He used a cane now, but that beat wheelchairs out any day. “Interesting thing about an event like that,” he said. “It changes us forever.”
“Or maybe for just a little while,” she said with forced cheerfulness.
“I hope so. You’ve been through enough. You deserve to be happy.”
Did she though? She hated that she felt guilty for mentioning Hawk’s name to the young cop in the hospital. A terrible blunder. And one she’d paid for. But it had given her a scare. She’d survived, but what about other victims of crimes? Did she want to do something more to help? The questions roiled through her head in an unceasing hamster wheel.
After they were done helping Eva, her father dropped her off at her trailer.
“I wish you’d move back home again,” he said.
“Not going to happen Dad.” She laughed and waved good-bye to him.
He shook his head and drove off, calling out, “Come for dinner tomorrow night.”
“Okay, will do,” she yelled back, waving good-bye.
With a smile, she headed back into her trailer. She could have walked the short distance from the barn but her dad was more concerned about making sure she got home safe and sound. Not that anything more was going to happen to her.
This was her house. With a big smile at the wide world around her. The birds sang, the tree branches swayed in the wind as the fresh air blew down the valley. It was a beautiful day.
Inside she put the teakettle on. While it was heating, she took off her jacket and boots. The phone rang. She answered to find Paul checking up on her.
“I hear you’re home safe and sound.”
“Yep, I’m back.”
“Good, ready to go caving again?”
“I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet.” But she should be. It was part of her promise to herself to get back to living. She could do a caving trip. After all she’d been through, it was going to be easy. “I’m not sure I’m physically strong enough.”
“We could just do a gentle trip. Go into the first couple of caves. Try a different system.”
“It would have to be a short one,” she warned. “I’m not back to full strength.”
“Right. That’s no problem.” He laughed. “We can always carry you out if need be.”
“Not going to happen.” But she chuckled at the thought.
“Good, so tomorrow then? Say eight am?”
“Damn, make it a little later. I’m not up so bright and early these days.”
“Okay, nine it is, but no later. We don’t want to be returning too late in the day.”
“Just a short excursion though, right?”
“Absolutely.”
At that she rang off with a smile on her face. She had good friends. With his call, she felt like she’d really come home.
*
“Now what?”
The men looked at each other.
“Rest and recuperation time,” Swede said. “We got the bombs, got the men and missed the boss.”
“Not for long. We’ll get him,” Shadow said in that slow drawl of his. “But we need new intel.”
And that was the problem. They’d lost track of the boss and any of his henchmen, if there were any left. The head of the terrorist cell had gone underground but had left a mess of dead bodies in his wake. Cleaning up.
Frustration ate into Hawk’s gut. He wanted the boss captured – or better yet – dead. There’d been no leads in the last four days. He’d likely left the country. They needed to know where. So far everything had come up empty. Until then there was no time off. And Hawk couldn’t determine if that was good or bad.
“The orders just came through,” Mason said. “We’re to take a few days off. Get back in time to move on the intel they’re gathering in the meantime.”
Hawk stared at Mason. “Really?”
Mason nodded. “I’m going to spend my days by Tesla’s side.” He paused. “Are you?”
“I hadn’t asked Tesla if she was ready for company,” Hawk said, deliberately misunderstanding.
“And Mia, is she?”
“No idea.” He stood up. “Not my problem.”
Mason nodded. “In that case, I can ask Swede.”
Hawk froze. He slowly raised his head to look at Mason, catching the smirk on his face. “Why would you ask Swede?”
“Because as I understand it, the guys plan on visiting both Mia and Eva. At least Swede and Dane are.”
“And the women know they are on the way?”
He shrugged. “I doubt it.”
He loved the guys, but he didn’t trust them around women. They’d never poach but they’d certainly rile things up.
He turned back to the door. “So are you coming to visit Tesla and me or are you…” Mason stopped and raised an eyebrow at Hawk.
“Damn.” Hawk shot him a disgusted look. “You know exactly what I’m going to do.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys.
“Say hi to Mia. I’ll bring Tesla up to visit one of these days,” Mason said laughingly.
Hawk’s jacket was on the back of the chair. He snagged it up, threw it over his shoulder and walked to the doorway.
Chapter 25
The cave entrance was lit in sunshine. She was happy to see it. She’d woken in a great mood and was looking forward to being out and about today. She needed to know that her body was working the way it was supposed to.
She knew she wouldn’t be able to pass a physical right now. Running was out of the question. And that was definitely something she needed to get back doing again. Except she was still so exhausted.
But she was here and that was good.
A little bit every day. She’d have her strength back in no time. And she didn’t want to be so weak any more. She’d been through too much to want to be back into that helpless mode again. So self-defense training was next. “It’s a beautiful day.”
“It is, that means it’s a lovely day to go caving,” Paul said, coming to stand beside her.
“How did you think that? It’s beautiful to be topside so that means we should go into the dark?” She laughed at his logic.
“Think about the joy of seeing the world underground in all that shadowy beauty then coming to the surface to see the glorious sun.” Peter and Paul grinned in unison at her. “It’s a special world down there.”
“You two are special nuts,” she said with a laugh. “Lead on.”
“I’m in front, then you,” Paul said. “My brother will bring up the rear.”
“All right. You just want to make sure I don’t screw up.”
“No, we want to make sure you’re up for this. If you collapse we can get to you faster this way.”
“And I appreciate it.” She did too. These two men had been keeping an eye on her since she’d started her search and rescue work. She trusted them. When going into caves it was important to trust the people you were with.
The two men were retired and spent the bulk of their time exploring the natural caves around them. And shared their love of their hobby with anyone who’d listen.
She strapped on her hard hat, adjusted it in place, checked her riggings then fell into place between the two.
“Let’s do this.”
The walk at the beginning was light and breezy. It felt good to move her body the way it was supposed to move. To feel her muscles groan when they stretched. It would take an hour to really loosen, but this activity felt good. Her ribs ached slightly and her face was still tender if poked too hard. But the doctors here had been pleased with her progress.
Now she just needed to deal with the rest of the shit in her life. Maybe more rescue volunteering. After all, who knew better than her about being in need of saving? Still, that was only part of the answer.
“Brought your camera again, did you?” Peter asked. “G
onna turn us into cover models.”
She grinned and after adjusting the lighting quickly snapped a photo of him. “There, now I can submit you to those romance stock photo sights.” And she laughed.
“Ha, girlie, I could show them a thing or two.”
She grinned. “Gray and grizzled is a popular look. There’s at least a third of the population looking just the same.”
The two men snorted in mocking disgust, but it set the tone for the next few hours as they took a different pathway through the caves.
“Did you guys map all this section yet?”
“We’re just about done. There’s at least one more to check out. After that we should be able to map it down and call this system quits.”
“Anything glorious here?” she asked. “An underground river? A fantastic waterfall?”
“No. Lots of ways in and out. Another entrance someone else appeared to have found as there are truck tracks driving right into it. Had no idea one of the entrances was big enough.”
“It likely wasn’t,” Paul said. “Probably they widened it to get that truck in.”
Mia stilled at the sound of a truck in one of the cave entrances. That brought back images and memories she wasn’t ready to revisit.
“Is that close by?” she asked in a neutral tone. She had no idea if Hawk’s team had managed to put a stop to the bombing or not. There’d been no coverage in the news about it so she presumed so, but that wasn’t the same as knowing for sure. It was as if the whole thing never happened. She might be okay with that, but a little closure would help.
“It’s not far. Why, do you want to swing by and take a look? That entrance would be a huge boon in case of an accident. Big enough to bring an ambulance in. Not sure it’s big enough for a search and rescue truck, but it might be.”
“It would be good to know either way,” she said. “How many people have been out here this morning al-ready?”
“A half dozen at least. It’s getting more popular every day. We’re really hoping to find something major to bring in more people,” Paul said.
“That would create a lot of business to the small town,” she admitted.
