Daddy to the Rescue

by Susan Kearney

  “On the government side, I just don’t know.” Sara finished her food and washed it down with more coffee. “Several corporations were working on projects similar to mine, and I know of two independents who are about a year or two behind me. One tried to buy me out several years ago. Another competitor suggested we work together, but I wasn’t interested.”

  “Maybe one of them wants to catch up in a hurry by stealing your program.”

  “Last week, I would have told you that you had to be mistaken.”

  But last week she hadn’t been in a plane that crashed on a mountain during a blizzard.

  Chapter Seven

  Kirk might have been hoping for a sleeping baby and a romantic night alone with Sara by the fire, but he didn’t get it. All thoughts of stealing a kiss evaporated with the baby’s restless crying.

  They spent a long, sleepless night in the cave. Sara had been right about Abby; the baby didn’t like Kirk holding her while she slept. She’d been so cranky that Kirk had considered retracing his steps in the dark to retrieve the carrier for the baby to sleep in, but he didn’t want to leave Sara alone.

  Kirk couldn’t put out of his mind, either, the firing of that stray gunshot during his climb, nor the whir of the chopper that shouldn’t have been searching for them during the storm. Jack Donovan might fly the chopper by the seat of his pants, but he was clearly ex-military and obeyed orders. And Logan was waiting for Kirk to send a radio signal. He feared they weren’t alone on the mountain. So, as much as they all needed rest, it was better to miss a little sleep than to leave Sara and Abby in danger.

  Abby didn’t fall asleep until the next morning during the hike down the mountain. After fussing through the night while they sang softly and rocked her, she’d finally fallen into an exhausted sleep on Sara’s back.

  The weather hadn’t really cleared, although the snowfall had let up. They’d seen no sign of the sun. Instead, a flat grayness blanketed the slope, making the walking treacherous and judging distances difficult. Kirk led them carefully down the slope as gusts of wind howled through the trees, occasionally hurling sharp icicles at them, or shooting stinging flurries of snow into their faces.

  He stopped at frequent intervals to listen, giving Sara an opportunity to rest and drink. She hadn’t complained, but he could see the fatigue in her eyes and in her drooping posture. Much more accustomed to marathon sessions in front of her computer than walking in the outdoors, Sara kept her pace slow, but steady.

  He handed her his canteen. “You okay?”

  “I’ve been better.” She glanced over her shoulder at the sleeping baby. “If we let her sleep, she’s going to be up all night again.”

  “Don’t wake her.”

  She looked at him searchingly. “Expecting trouble?”

  He hesitated.

  “I need to know the truth,” she prodded between sips.

  “We probably aren’t alone on this mountain, and the other guys may be hostile.”

  “Oh.” She swallowed hard, twisted the canteen’s cap back on and handed it to Kirk with a brave nod.

  “If they’re going to attack us, they’ll try to do it during extraction.”

  “How do you know?”

  Because if he were the hunter, that’s when he’d do it. “Because that’s when we’re most vulnerable and distracted.”

  “So how do we not become vulnerable and distracted?”

  Kirk almost smiled at her straightforward question. To Sara, every problem had a solution. The key was asking the right questions. However, her world of computer programming tended to be more predictable than an unseen enemy about to close in from any number of directions.

  “I want to delay sending the radio signal to Logan for the pickup,” he told her.

  “Why?”

  Another woman might have complained of the cold and the snow. Sara always had to know the reasons for his decisions before she made up her own mind. And as much as he was in charge of their current safety, she would insist on participating fully in the decision making.

  “I want to check out the clearing, make sure it’s safe and secure before I give away our location.”

  “To make sure no one is there?”

  He nodded. No point in telling her that the landing site could be booby-trapped and their enemy already miles away. Before she and the baby set one foot inside that clearing, he and Pepper would thoroughly check the ground.

  “And what are we supposed to do while—”

  “I’ll find you a place to rest, out of the wind.”

  She shook her head, her eyes narrowing. “Separating is not a good idea.”

  “I’ve wanted to tell you that since you sent me those divorce papers,” he teased her, deliberately misunderstanding her words.

  “Don’t joke about our failure,” she snapped.

  Abby stirred, her eyelids fluttering before she fell back into a sleep. Pepper cocked her head as if wondering at the sudden bickering.

  “Sorry.”

  Sara was so touchy about the divorce that she obviously still found the subject as painful as he did. The problem was that she clearly wanted to go forward—alone. While he wanted to reclaim what they’d once had.

  Didn’t she see that this time the military wouldn’t come between them? He’d resigned. For good.

  Sara glanced around, trepidation in her eyes. “If you leave us, can I have the gun?”

  Here he was thinking about the two of them getting back together, and Sara was thinking about survival. The role reversal jarred him back to reality. He forced himself to consider her idea.

  “You don’t know how to shoot—”

  “Yes. I do.”

  “Really?” He reached into his pack, made sure the gun was on safety, then handed it to her. He expected her to cringe under the weight. But without hesitation she smoothly pulled the gun from the holster, checked the safety, expertly removed the clip and checked the load before ramming the clip home and easing off the safety. She’d had training. At no time did she point the gun at him, herself or Pepper, showing she’d also learned safety precautions well.

  Sara, hater of all things military, had learned to shoot a gun. The contradiction confounded him. He stared at her as she sighted down the barrel with ease, wondering if he really knew her as well as he’d thought.

  “Do you have a silencer?” she asked.

  He placed a hand over hers, flicked the safety back on and took back the weapon. He didn’t need to see her shoot to know that she could. Her weapon handling alone had revealed new skills, new determination. While on the one hand he was proud of her, his heart pinged with the regret that she expected to protect herself now. She no longer thought that she needed him.

  As if sensing his confusion, she explained. “As a single mother I wanted to be able to defend myself and Abby, so I bought a gun and learned how to use it.”

  Another man might not have noticed her quiet hesitation, but Kirk had known Sara a long time. She had left out a vital element of her story. Not exactly a lie, but an omission.

  “You got pregnant and, out of the blue, you decided you needed to defend yourself?” he asked skeptically.

  “Our house was burglarized,” she admitted. “Even after I put in an alarm system, they still broke in.”

  So why had she just hesitated? “Why didn’t you want to tell me?”

  She looked him square in the eyes. “I don’t want you thinking that I can’t look out for Abby.”

  “And that worries you?”

  Sara nodded, her expression fierce and protective. “I won’t have you thinking that you can take better care of Abby than I can.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m not interested in sharing custody.”

  “Sara.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, his blood rushing in his ears as he fought to throttle back his anger. “Did you ever think that Abby might want to spend time with me?”

  “She’s not old enough to know you exist.” Sara’s to
ne might be clipped, but he saw the fear she was trying so hard to hide. And her fears contradicted one another. No way could he return to the military and at the same time take a baby with him. But not all fears were rational—not even Sara’s.

  He gentled his tone. “Didn’t you think that I might want to spend time with her?”

  “You never answered my letters telling you about my pregnancy, so I just assumed that you didn’t have any feelings one way or another.”

  “But now you know differently.”

  “Besides, I’m breast-feeding. I couldn’t exactly wrap her up and send her to you for a weekend visit.”

  He suspected Abby could drink formula from a bottle, but that wasn’t really the issue. “I could have visited.”

  “And then she’d get to know you. You’d bond, and then leave on a mission. I don’t want to put Abby through that kind of pain and I don’t want to deal with the fallout. I don’t want you to have anything to do with Abby.”

  He realized Sara was so thoroughly convinced about his future that she couldn’t even consider that he really had changed. “Sara, I’m not going back—not even if the military offers me the position of head of worldwide operations for canine rescue. I’m ready to move on.”

  “To the job Logan Kincaid offered you?”

  “That’s rescue work and not as dangerous. And I haven’t yet decided to take his offer.” Trying to defuse the emotional moment, Kirk started walking down the mountain again. “I’d like for you both to come visit my ranch.”

  Sara followed, but she didn’t say anything for a long time.

  They strode through a thick stand of pines, the snow hip-deep in places. In other spots, the ground resembled sheets of ice dimpled by rocks. Kirk didn’t see many signs of animal life. Not even fresh tracks in the snow. These mountain creatures had the good sense to stay holed up in weather this cold.

  Finally, from behind him, Sara spoke softly. “Tell me about your ranch, Kirk. Did you buy the land?”

  Was her attitude finally easing toward him? Had it been smart not to push her about Abby’s custody? Or mention paying child support?

  “The cabin is just one room, but it’s all I need,” he told her. “Someday, I plan to build a proper house. But the land is fine for training the dogs. I have an obstacle course almost set up, pens, a barn for bad weather and enough acreage for the animals to roam.”

  “Sounds like a good start.”

  “It’s more than a start, Sara. It’s my home now.” When she didn’t say more, he added, “You’d like the solitude. Deanna and Trey Marks are the closest neighbors. He raises some kind of timber crop.”

  “You’re making civilian friends and putting down roots, are you?” she teased. While he socialized easily, she was a natural loner and had never understood why he liked to make new friends with small talk.

  He neglected to mention that town was several hours away from his property. “Bumped into the neighbors at the butcher’s while buying bones for the dogs.”

  He glanced ahead. Saw tracks in the snow. “Shh.” He spun around so fast that she stopped talking in mid-sentence.

  Pepper hadn’t warned him of anyone’s scent, so whoever had made the tracks must be long gone. But the shepherd could still be surprised by a person downwind of them.

  Kirk didn’t take any chances. He whispered “Stay here” to Sara, then headed about fifty yards toward the tracks. When he stopped to study the footprints, Sara edged up next to him.

  He sighed. “I thought I told you to stay.”

  “I’m not a dog.”

  “Of course not. My dogs behave better.”

  “Your dogs give you blind obedience.” She stared at the footprints. “One man?”

  “Yeah.” Kirk’s area of expertise was canine rescue, not tracking, but over the years he’d worked side by side with skilled trackers and had picked up a fair amount of knowledge. “He’s either heavy or traveling with a big pack and moving fast. I’d estimate he hiked up the mountain about four hours ago.”

  Sara looked behind them as if expecting their pursuer to appear out of the woods. “How long until we reach the spot where the chopper can land?”

  “A half hour?” he guessed. “That’s if we don’t follow this man’s tracks down the mountain.”

  She pierced him with a frustrated look. “Why would we do that?”

  “To see where he came from?”

  Sara rolled her eyes at the sky. “You want to take Abby on a wild-goose chase up and down this mountain?”

  “Of course not. But a man can’t help his curiosity.” He stood looking at the tracks, trying to glean more information from the set of footprints. Although he’d dearly love to confront the man who’d made those tracks, his first obligation was to get Sara and Abby to safety.

  Sara tugged on his arm, her tone more insistent than afraid. “Come on, Kirk. Please. Let’s get out of here while we can.”

  SARA WAITED with her sleeping baby while Kirk did a perimeter sweep of the clearing. He’d been searching for a good hour to make sure that no one secretly waited in ambush behind boulders or a heavy snowbank, and he had yet to return. Meanwhile, she snacked on a power bar, thought about feeding Abby soon and tried to control her impatience. Sara was ready to be off this mountain. Ready for a hot shower, a change of clothes and a cell phone signal.

  She needed to call her contacts in California, let them know she had the software so she could set up a new meeting. Only after completing the sale would she feel safe. Kirk had assured her that Logan Kincaid could arrange travel. Another twenty-four hours and the deal would be done.

  She stomped her feet in the snow to help her circulation and glanced toward the direction in which Kirk had disappeared. She wished she’d asked him exactly how long he expected to be gone. She had no way of knowing if she should be concerned.

  At least he’d left her the gun. The solid feel of the grip in her hand made her feel better. So did knowing that probably only one man was out there hunting them. After all, this mountain was huge.

  Where was Kirk? She hadn’t been around him for two full days and already the man occupied her thoughts much more than she would have liked. Of all the men she’d ever known, Kirk could be the most determined—and the most tender. Without her saying the words, he seemed to know so much—like how on edge she was about spending this time with him. He would have made the greatest of husbands…if he’d agreed to stay home. But the man had the heart of a gypsy. Even back in college, he’d used spring break to travel to the Florida Panhandle or to explore the coast of Maine. During his first hitch in the Marines, they’d explored whatever country they happened to be in. Now she knew better than to wait for him to end his roving ways.

  Finally Kirk returned from checking out the clearing and signaled the chopper on the radio. Sara listened, holding her breath. She half expected the radio not to work. Or for no one to answer. But Logan Kincaid responded at Kirk’s first hail.

  “The chopper and Jack are on the way.” Kincaid’s voice came calmly through the radio. “Do you require medical assistance?”

  “Not at this time,” Kirk replied, clearly pleased that Jack was the man who would pick them up. He’d mentioned to her that during their flights to Colorado together, Kirk had come to respect both the man and his skill.

  Kirk had already told her that he intended to keep the conversation short. Although she didn’t understand how it was possible, she knew he worried that the other man whose tracks they’d seen on the mountain might triangulate their position from the brief radio conversation.

  Kirk clicked off the radio. “Let’s get out of sight.”

  He led her back from the clearing into the trees, where the thick pines would hide them from searchers. But she couldn’t help feeling they were going in the wrong direction.

  “But don’t we want the chopper to be able to see us?” she asked.

  “I sent them exact coordinates from my GPS. Jack Donovan knows where the clearing is to within
twelve inches.”

  “And now so does that man whose tracks we saw.”

  “Exactly.”

  She read the worry in his eyes and tensed. Abby continued to sleep, although Sara imagined the baby would waken soon from hunger. “Do I have enough time to feed Abby before the rescue?”

  He ordered Pepper to circle their location, and followed after the dog. “She’ll give us warning if she spots anyone.”

  Sara woke the baby and fed her. Abby nursed quickly and had barely burped before she fell back to sleep in her sling. Sara had just finished buttoning her shirt and closing her jacket when the sound of the approaching helicopter had her looking skyward.

  She wanted to run, waving her arms and shouting with happiness at the helicopter. Soon she would be warm, sitting in the heated aircraft on her way back to civilization.

  Only the memory of Kirk’s warning made her hold back, waiting impatiently for him to rejoin her. Sometimes Kirk could be overcautious. And she really didn’t want to miss their ride.

  Kirk and Pepper slipped out of the trees together. He came up next to her and took her hand, squeezing gently. “Ready?”

  It would have been churlish to pull her hand from his. Besides, these might be their last moments alone together, and she did owe him. So she kept her hand in his, reminding herself not to get used to leaning on his strength.

  She expected the helicopter to land in the middle of the clearing, but the vehicle circled the site’s perimeter. Kirk already had his binoculars out and focused on the chopper.

  He frowned. Must not have liked what he’d seen.

  “That’s not Jack piloting. Get back!”

  Suddenly he yanked her against him and up against the tree, jamming their bodies among the branches. Seconds later, bullets struck the snow where they’d just stood.