“Well, that’s good,” Iris said. “Because in the past, you seemed to pick men who had secrets.”
Katie frowned. “I know. Like you and Donna have said, I have this pink lens of romantic idealism. Oh, I know it’s in my nature, but this time, Iris, I think Joe is very different from all the rest.”
“When you two left the dance last night, I figured out it was because it was time to deepen your relationship.”
“We did,” Katie whispered, filled with happiness. Iris nodded. “He’s wonderful. Joe is so...caring. He’s so different from the others.”
“That alone makes me happy,” Iris said. She pointed toward Joe. “Sam’s coming in for a landing. I always like to watch this eagle land. It’s something to behold.”
Katie turned her attention toward Joe and saw Sam descend toward the man’s arm. He held it high in the air, a signal to the eagle it was time to land. Sam streaked down from the sky like a bullet. Fifteen feet away from Joe’s outstretched arm, Sam began to move his wings in swift, backward motions to brake his forward speed. She watched Joe brace for impact, his feet wide apart to take the weight of the incoming eagle. In seconds, Sam reached out with opened talons and gripped Joe’s lower arm. His wings furled and swept around Joe’s head and shoulders.
“Beautiful,” Iris murmured. “Joe’s a very good falconer.”
“Yes, he is.”
Sam folded his wings and sat quietly on the glove. Joe turned and saw them. Instantly, she saw him smile. He slowly lifted his other hand, not wanting to startle Sam. Katie’s heart skittered with joy and she waved in return.
“He’s such a hero, Iris. I just love to watch Joe work with Sam.”
“Ah, now he’s a hero,” Iris teased with a gleam in her eyes.
Feeling her cheeks heat up, Katie giggled. “Oh, you know me, Iris. I see some men as heroic. Others as villains. It’s my Pisces imagination at work! And, yes, Joe is the epitome of a hero. He was in the Marine Corps. He was an officer and leader. What’s not to like about him?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“THAT IS ONE HAPPY EAGLE,” Joe said as he put Sam into his mew. He grinned over at Katie, who seemed to agree.
“Sam likes you,” she said, closing the door and locking it. The late-afternoon sun hung above the rugged Tetons. The western side of the facility glowed. The frosted windows diffused the incoming light and flooded the interior with a golden haze.
“I like him.” Joe walked with Katie toward the office area. He tugged off his gauntlet and studied the puncture marks where Sam’s talons had dug into the leather. “Look at this.”
Katie saw the holes. “He’s strong. And frankly, it takes every bit of strength I have to hold Sam for any length of time.” She grinned. “Since getting my eagle license, I’ve already bought a second glove. The first one is full of holes. Sam can’t help it because when he lands and takes off, he’s got to have a really steady arm to grip.”
Putting his glove in his locker, Joe said, “No argument there. My teacher went through a glove a month.”
“Yes, but he had a number of eagles.” Katie sat down at her desk and opened the bright red appointment book on her desk.
“How did things go with your mother?” Joe asked. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” Katie said watching as he moved to the other side of the aisle. Joe was lean and strong and her body automatically tightened with desire as she watched him. Did he know how devastatingly wonderful he was? She remembered their night together and it haunted her. So did Iris’s words. He poured them coffee, brought it over to her desk and sat down.
“I think my mother is warming to me.”
“Oh?” Joe rested his arm on the edge of her desk, hand curved around his mug. Her face was flushed and he could see the excitement dancing in her eyes. As his gaze dropped to her mouth, heat purled deep within him. There was no way to forget last night’s lovemaking. “Tell me about it.”
“Well,” Katie said, “my mom’s new office is beautiful. It has an inviting entrance. When I walked in, there were about half a dozen people in line with boxes and large envelopes. Janet had just opened and already the word’s out. Isn’t that wonderful!”
“It is,” he agreed. “Was your mother working the desk?”
“Oh, no, she has Eduardo, who is actually the guy she hired to carry the boxes and stuff back to the shipping area. He’s just doing it until I can get trained. Janet also has asked me to drive one of the company vans to Idaho Falls once a week if there’s a need.”
“But you’re not working there full-time, are you?” Joe said, trying not to reveal his emotion.
“No. On Wednesday, tomorrow, my mother’s computer expert, Kyle, is driving over from Cheyenne. He’s going to teach me how to enter orders.”
“How much time do you plan to work with your mom?”
“Maybe three days a week. I can’t do it full-time. I don’t think she realizes how busy we are out here at the facility or the demands for our educational shows with the raptors.”
“You go in for training tomorrow?”
“Yes.” She patted the appointment book. “I was checking to see if we had anything up for tomorrow and we don’t.”
“You seem really happy about this.”
Katie placed her lean fingers around the mug. “I am, Joe. I’m so happy I could burst.”
“You said your mother was warmer to you this time?”
“Yes. She wasn’t grouchy, touchy or as irritable. I mean, she’s like a drill sergeant, but I think life has made her that way.”
“The military is something I know a little about,” Joe said, forcing a slight smile. “You said your mother didn’t feel good the other day when you met her for lunch, that she was perspiring heavily. Was she like that this time?”
“No, she seemed really...up is the word I’d use. She looked happy but I’ve never seen her smile.” Katie shrugged. “She seemed in a happier mood. I was talking to Iris earlier and she said Janet was probably under terrible stress getting this business open. And now that it’s open, she’s relaxing. I think Iris is right.”
Moving the mug slowly around in a circle, Joe wrestled with his own feelings. What was Janet up to? “This Eduardo fellow, did you meet him?”
“No. Eduardo was busy at the front desk. Janet took me back to the small office located between shipping and the front desk. He seemed...okay.”
“What do you mean?” He picked up on Katie’s hesitation. She leaned back in her chair, the mug cradled between her hands.
“I don’t know...just a feeling.” And then she laughed. “He’s a short, thin guy with a narrow face.”
“Did he speak to you?”
“No. He was busy.”
“But? I know you get feelings about others. I’ve seen you do it with these raptors.”
Mouth twisting, Katie looked up toward the glass ceiling of the facility. “Just...a silly feeling, really, Joe. He felt closed up. As if...he had walls or protection up. He never smiled, either. And I can’t say his customer face was very inspiring. All he did was scowl.”
“Not exactly the person you want to greet customers.”
“Right. As soon as I get trained on the computer terminal, Janet wants me out front. She said Eduardo was one of two men she had hired to work in shipping. She said the second guy, Hector, was coming in shortly.” Katie sat up. Looking into Joe’s eyes, she said, “Janet told me never to go back into shipping. She said I was too weak to lift some of the heavier boxes. Eduardo and Hector would do it.” Rubbing her brow, she added, “Janet was really adamant about me never going back there. I found that odd.”
Joe knew why. Chances are there would be guns in long wooden boxes, and if Katie accidentally opened one, it would put Janet in an untenable position. Was she trying to protect her daughter
by issuing such an order? “Well, you’re not weak,” he teased, trying to lighten her mood. “You’re young, beautiful, kind, sweet and I’ve got to think she has your interests at heart, Katie.”
Glowing beneath his heated look, Katie reached out and touched his hand. “You’re good for me, Joe. I love the way you look at me. I feel like I’m a queen.”
He twined his fingers with hers. “In my eyes, you are a queen, Katie. I can’t think two thoughts without thinking of what we shared last night.” Joe saw how his rasping admittance made her blue eyes turn soft. Her fingers tightened around his.
“I feel as if the universe has suddenly decided to give me happiness in a breadth and depth I never knew could exist, Joe. I have you. I have my mother.” She released his hand and pressed it to her heart. “I’m so full of joy I don’t think my feet are touching the ground most of the time.”
A sudden and powerful angst flowed through Joe. Why had he decided to go undercover? He absorbed the shining look in Katie’s eyes and yet his gut tightened. “You deserve only good things to happen to you, Katie.”
“Well, they sure are. Tomorrow, I’ll be learning my mom’s computer program and how to enter orders.”
“It’s a new chapter in your life, Katie.” Joe sipped his coffee. He didn’t taste it. No one ever told him his conscience would be as sorely tested as it was right now. Katie’s idealism was setting her on a blind and dangerous course. What bothered him most was Eduardo. Who was he? A drug soldier from Los Lobos here illegally in the country? He glanced at his watch. It was nearly 5:00 p.m., quitting time.
“What we have,” Joe told her, his voice low with feeling, “is a work in progress, Katie. I don’t want to crowd you or make you feel as if you need to be in my bed every night.”
She went warm from the inside out. Katie held his concerned gaze. Joe’s beard was darkening the contours of his face. It gave him the look of a warrior. “You’re the first guy who has talked to me about such things. Before, it was me doing the talking and I felt like the guy was a rock.”
“Most of us aren’t good at communicating,” Joe admitted. “I care deeply for you, Katie. Sometimes I don’t think you’re from our planet.” He smiled warmly at her.
“Can I blame it on being a Pisces?” She grinned.
“It makes you very appealing to me,” Joe said. God, where did lies and truth begin and end? He desperately liked Katie. Too much.
“You remind me of a knight,” Katie admitted in a quiet tone. “You care for others, Joe. Your word is your honor. There’s so much about you that just draws me.”
What am I going to do? Joe had never felt so guilty. He was being honest with Katie, not playing her. But he was lying to her. There was nothing in the FBI manuals about how to deal with falling in love with a suspect. Somehow, he had to set some boundaries. “Let’s just leave our relationship open-ended, okay? If there’s a time you feel like coming over, do it. Otherwise, we each have a place to live.”
“I like it, Joe. Thanks for understanding. I’m still working through some issues and I need to take things slow.”
“So do I. Anything worthwhile, Katie, is going to stand the test of time.” But he wondered if it could stand the test of him lying to her. One day, Katie would know the truth. What then? Joe needed to call his boss in Washington, D.C. Things were taking a turn he’d never anticipated.
* * *
“SO YOU’RE FALLING FOR HER?” Hager said on the phone.
Joe paced his living room, watching the sun sinking behind the mountains. “Yes. It wasn’t intentional. I don’t know when it happened.”
“Well, you’re just going to have to suck it up, Joe. There’s nothing to be done. Katie Bergstrom is now connected to her mother’s gun- and drug-running operation whether she knows it or not. And she’s being trained on that computer terminal system we’ve been trying for a year to hack into. We know Kyle works with Xavier and his cartel. You’re going to have to retrieve the information through Katie. Use her. She obviously likes and trusts you.”
Rubbing his jaw, Joe muttered, “Yeah, but I damn well don’t like playing her. She’s innocent in all of this, boss.”
“Can’t be helped. We’re not at a point where we know what Katie will do once her manipulative mother gets her claws into her. This girl has choices, too. Sooner or later, she’s going to see that things at Bergstrom’s courier service aren’t normal. What will she do then? Will she turn to you? To the sheriff’s department? An honest person would.”
“Dammit, you’ve left out the most important key to all of this. Katie has been looking for her mother all her life. She’s just found her! Can you put yourself in her shoes for minute? Wouldn’t you want to please your newfound mother, even if some things seemed out of place?” Frustration curdled through him. His boss, at times, was a brick wall. Joe’s grip on the cell phone increased as he waited for the FBI agent to reply.
“I agree there’s been a lot of muddy water stirred up on this mission, Joe. We can’t sort through things as clearly as we wished we could. You are our eyes and ears. I’m hoping Katie is not like her mother. I’m hoping she’ll stumble onto some guns or drugs and know what she’s looking at. At some point, she’s got to understand her mother is running an illegal operation, don’t you think?”
“No,” Joe said, his voice a growl. “I don’t. Katie is idealistic. All she sees is the mother she’s so desperately searched for all her life. Right now, she’s willing to do anything to get Janet’s attention and her love. And Janet isn’t very loving from what I can tell. I know she’s playing Katie.”
“Is Katie stupid?”
“Just the opposite. Katie’s idealism and trust in others goes too far.” It did with him. She couldn’t even see he wasn’t what she thought he was. “She simply doesn’t think the worst of people. She thinks the best.”
“Well,” Hager growled back, “that’s going to land her in a helluva lot of hot water sooner or later. And we all hope she’s got better morals and values in place than her mother. Because sooner or later, Joe, she will put things together.”
Joe felt a migraine stalking him, the pains sharp in his temples. “I will not put her in jeopardy, Mr. Hager. This guy named Eduardo, I’m sure he is part of the Los Lobos cartel. Katie just thinks he’s odd, but she wouldn’t know a soldier from a cartel from a man on the street. She’s naive about the world in so many ways.” And he wanted to protect her. Oh, God, how Joe wanted to stand between Katie and the world that wanted a piece of her.
“She’s not in any danger,” he said flatly. “You’re knee-jerking, Joe. You’re feeling guilty because you fell for this girl.”
“She’s not a girl,” he ground out, “she’s a twenty-six-year-old woman.”
“She acts like a teenage girl, all starry-eyed, trusting, and doesn’t have a clue about how the real world operates. In my eyes, she’s a girl. Let’s move on. You’re getting cold feet because you like Katie. And now, because of what’s happened, you want to shield her. Well, you can’t. There’s no threat here I can see.”
Anger moved violently through Joe. He stopped pacing, his breath coming faster. “Not yet. But there will be and you and I both know it.”
“Let’s revisit this conversation at another time, Joe. Right now, you need to get clear about who and what you’re doing. You’re an FBI agent undercover and trying to get inside info to prove Janet Bergstrom is connected to Los Lobos. Katie is the key to us finding that out. Without her, our mission can’t move forward. And I know you want to tell her everything and, dammit, you can’t.”
“Because you don’t know if she’s on our side or the cartel’s?” he demanded harshly, anger leaking through his tone.
“That’s right. Until there is a clear signal, we sit pat.”
“But you’ll need Katie in the courtroom once this situation is opened up.�
�
“You’re right, we will. Until then we have to find out whether she’s on our side.”
“If you’re looking for her to turn over evidence, she has to be protected.”
“Yes, but not right now, Joe. You need to separate your head from your heart. Otherwise, you’re hindering this operation. Do you understand?”
Joe heard the threat in Hager’s darkening tone. “Yes, sir, I do.” Was it possible Hager would remove him from the case? How could he? Katie would wonder what happened. And to his knowledge, there were no other agents trained in falconry who might step in to take his place. Savagely rubbing his face, Joe said, “I’ll continue to report whenever Katie gives me something new.”
Hager hung up without a word. Joe softly cursed and punched the end button on the cell phone. He threw it angrily on the couch, watching it bounce before it hit the wooden floor and skidded against a closet door. It was a throwaway cell and couldn’t be traced, so Joe would dismantle it anyway and he didn’t care if it had been destroyed.
Joe ran his fingers through his short hair. He yearned for Katie. The world was a bad place and God knew, she’d had plenty of bad things happen to her along the way. Halting, he looked out the large picture window. The sunset was a flaming orange and pink, the long wisps of clouds across the sky making it look festive. He felt anything but.
He glanced at his watch. His parents had invited him over for dinner. Somehow, he had to get himself together so he didn’t show his feelings.
* * *
“HI, JOE,” KATIE GREETED the next morning. She was choosing a travel box for one of the raptors. “How are you?”
His expression looked dark and serious. He wasn’t his usual, ebullient self. Had something happened?
“’Morning, Katie.” Joe struggled to gird his feelings and not get them entangled in the coming conversation. The sliding door closed and he walked over to the coffee machine on the weight table. “We have a show at the visitor’s center at Grand Teton National Park at 1:00 p.m. today, right?”
The Defender Page 24
