by Aimée Thurlo
“Figure it out,” Huff snapped. “Your lives depend on it.”
Ten minutes later, they were hiking among waist-high boulders that, over the centuries, had tumbled down from the cliffs. Huff was breathing hard, and so were Ron and Bewley. To Kyle’s surprise, Erin actually seemed stronger than before.
“You should have let Bruce go a half hour ago,” Erin said, stopping. “We had a deal, Huff.”
“New terms. I’ll let you all go after I get what I want.”
“No. Once you have the detonators, you’ll kill us. Either honor your deal, or this is as far as we all go.”
“Even if I let Bruce and Kyle go, what makes you think I won’t kill you after I get what I want?”
“Because there’ll be two people who will know what happened,” she answered. “I’m betting that one, or both, will eventually make it out of the canyon.”
“You’re looking at this all wrong. Once I have the detonators, I’ll have no need to kill any of you. Nature will take care of it for me. My men and I will tie you up, return to the van, burn down the house, then drive away. It’ll take you hours to get loose, then two or three days to hike out of here, if wild animals or the icy nights don’t get you first. I’m willing to let fate decide whether you live or die. Either way, by the time you manage to reach a phone, or flag down help, we’ll be halfway across the country.”
“And if I refuse to take you to the detonators?”
“Bang, bang, bang. You’ll all be dead,” Huff replied, pointing his gun back and forth. “And we’ll still get away.”
“Take the deal, Erin. It’ll give us a fighting chance,” Kyle said.
“Good advice. Listen to the man,” Huff added.
They inched along for another hundred yards, walking parallel to a high bluff, when Huff’s patience finally ran out.
“Okay, I’ve had it. No more stalling or one of you dies right now,” Huff said, drawing his pistol again.
“Relax,” Kyle snapped, pointing three hundred yards away. “The gap in the cliff she talked about is just past the next arroyo.” With luck, his brothers would be in position by now.
“Okay, if that’s where you said you buried the detonators, Erin,” Huff said, “where, exactly, are they?”
“You hid them at the place I showed you, didn’t you, where I played as a kid?” Kyle asked, hoping she’d pick up on his cue. “In the metal box I’d buried my old keepsakes in, too, I’ll bet.”
She nodded, trusting him. “It was big enough and still looked watertight and solid. I knew that eventually you’d find them.”
Kyle wanted to kiss her. Once they set out in that direction, Preston, Daniel and Gene would know exactly where they were headed. Paul, monitoring the tracker, would know it, too.
“I’ll take you up the easiest trail. Let’s get this over with,” Kyle said.
Each of Hosteen Silver’s sons had staked out their own special places in Copper Canyon. As foster kids who weren’t used to trusting anyone, one of the first things they’d all done was find a secure hiding spot for the things they’d treasured most.
He’d found out years later that each of them, including Hosteen Silver, had known where he’d hidden his small stash, but no one had ever disturbed it, respecting his privacy.
That had been years ago, and he’d never come back for the box. Undoubtedly it was still there. If not, their time would run out then.
After walking another fifteen minutes up the sandy bottom of the arroyo, they climbed out next to the cliff and entered a narrow, steep-sided canyon visible only up close. From this point on, Kyle knew there was a chance that Erin’s tracking signal would be lost.
Only two people could walk side by side down the trail, which climbed gently at first, then more steeply. The going was slow, but they soon arrived at a small grotto cut into the base of the rock wall. He gave Erin a tiny nod.
“It’s over there,” Erin said, waving at an indeterminate point ahead. “I don’t know the exact spot, because it was almost dark by the time I got here. I packed down the dirt again with my shoes, but the wind and rain have worn away the tracks. You’ll have to dig.”
“You,” Huff said, gesturing to Kyle. “Get busy.”
He almost smiled. Great save, Erin! “All right, but I’m going to need a shovel.”
“You see a shovel anywhere? Make do.”
“Without a shovel, I may be digging for an hour,” Kyle warned. “At least give me a knife with a long enough blade.”
“That’s not going to happen. Start now or someone’s going to bleed,” Huff snarled.
As Kyle began digging with his hands, Huff pushed Erin forward. “Help him out.”
After digging about a foot into the sand, they found nothing.
Huff glared at Erin. “If you’re playing a game—”
“No, I swear I’m not,” she said. “If I could try poking through the dirt...”
“Find her a stick,” Huff ordered Bewley. “No longer than a foot, though.”
A few minutes later, Bewley returned with a juniper branch as big around as his wrist and the length of a ruler.
She dug away more dirt, then poked through the sand layer.
“Maybe you should move a little more to your left,” Kyle said. “The sand looks softer there so that’s probably where you loosened it up.”
Erin swept more dirt aside, then poked the branch downward. “I’ve got it,” she said, thumping against something hard.
As the men focused on Erin’s find, Kyle felt a trickle of dirt drop down onto his neck. He looked over at Erin, scooped up a handful of dirt, and nodded almost imperceptibly, signaling for her to do the same.
Erin scooped up more sand, and as Huff bent down to see what she’d uncovered, she threw the dirt into his face.
Kyle tossed a handful at Ron, then jabbed him in the stomach with the stick. Ron recovered quickly, but as he raised his pistol a figure dropped from above, knocking him to the ground. It was Preston.
Huff, still spitting dirt, fired blindly, the bullet ricocheting off the rock wall. Kyle kicked the weapon out of his hand and Huff yelped as the bone in his trigger finger snapped.
A second later, Gene dropped down, pinning Huff to the ground with an elbow to his neck.
Mike tried to maneuver around the chaos in the cramped space and get a clear shot, but Daniel came up right behind him. “Drop the gun, or I’ll drop you,” he growled, jamming the barrel of his weapon into the man’s back.
Moments later, all three terrorists were face down on the ground, lining the narrow path. Preston and Gene stood on either side of them, weapons out.
Erin had Huff’s pistol, but her hands were shaking so badly she quickly handed Kyle the gun. “You take it. I’m shaking like a leaf and I’m going to end up squeezing the trigger by accident.”
Kyle put his arm around her. “You did great. You read my signals like a pro.”
“Hey, what about my flying-cop routine?” Preston said, handcuffing the men as Gene kept them covered. “Remember when we used to ambush each other like that?”
“Who knew the good ole days playing Indians and Indians would serve us so well in the bad new days,” Daniel said, grinning.
Kyle’s brothers got the men on their feet, including Bruce, and led them back up the path toward the canyon opening.
Erin sat down, her back against the rock face. “I need a minute,” she said. “My heart’s still beating so loud you can hear the echo.”
“It’s okay, darling. It’s over,” he said, sitting next to her. “Just in time for the chile harvest, too.”
She laughed. “Now you’re interested in growing and picking chile?”
“What New Mexican doesn’t look forward to the scent of roasting chiles? I know where we can plant a field or two
, if and when you decide to leave Secure Construction, that is. Suppose you can do both?”
She leaned into him and he put his arm around her, drawing her even closer to his side.
She remained quiet for a while, snuggling against him. “How can you stay in a job where you have to face life and death situations like these? I’ve never been so scared in my life!”
“The danger is what initially drew me to the job. I didn’t want to let anyone get close to me, and living on the edge almost guaranteed that.”
“And now?”
“I’m finally ready to come home, to stop running.” Lifting two badly corroded snaps, he opened the box she’d uncovered. There was a faded five dollar bill inside and an empty metal key ring. He took it out and held it for a moment.
“The key ring belonged to my dad. The house key it held had to be returned to our landlord, but I was allowed to keep this. It wasn’t worth anything to anyone, except me,” he said. “For a long time, I pretended that it was magic and would somehow lead dad back to me. After the mine collapsed, his body was never recovered, so I kept hoping...”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, taking his hand and lacing her fingers through his.
“That was the dream of a boy. Now I have another dream.” He pressed the key ring into her palm. “I wish I had a better ring to give you but, for now, this is the only one I’ve got. I’ll be coming home for good soon. Will you be there for me? Can you accept the uncertainty that comes with the work I do?”
“You’re a warrior, Kyle, and your work is all part of who you are—the man I love,” she said softly. “When you get back, I’ll be waiting.”
He kissed her, then offered her a hand up. As they walked out of the canyon, they saw the three prisoners sitting on the ground, their backs to the mesa wall. Gene and Daniel were guarding them.
Preston greeted them. “A couple of four-wheel-drive vehicles are on their way up. One is for the prisoners and Bruce Leland. The feds will have to decide what charges, if any, will be brought against Hank’s brother. The other SUV will take you back to Hartley. You’re needed there now.”
“You’re going to want our statements,” Kyle said with a nod.
“Yeah, that, and your boss will want to debrief you. He flew into Hartley and is at the station. He told me that Ed Huff is really Eduardo Cruz, a college dropout who spent several years in Spain and is connected to Invierno Nuclear—nuclear winter—an obscure anti-nuke group. The two men who were killed the day of the kidnapping attempt are Spanish nationals with radical ties. You’ll have to fill him in on the locals that Cruz recruited.”
“We’re lucky he stayed away for as long as he did. He’s not a patient man.”
“Do you think he’ll try to make it difficult for you to leave your job with NCIS?” Erin asked.
“Probably, but home is where I choose to be now, and nothing’s going to keep me away.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
It was to be a farewell party for Kyle, though he’d be home to stay in a month or so, and by unanimous vote, the brothers had decided to hold it at the ranch house in Copper Canyon.
“What’s bothering you?” Erin, riding beside him in the rental pickup, asked at last. “You’ve been so quiet since we left Secure Construction.”
“Today, I’m going to open the letter that Hosteen Silver left for me just before he died,” he said. “It’s time.”
“A private note, not his journal?”
“The journal was a record of his thoughts, but in addition to that, he left each of us a letter. Judging from the ones my brothers received, they all contain a prediction of some kind. Of course they’re worded in a way that only makes sense after the fact. It was his way.”
“I would have opened mine immediately,” she said. “How did you keep your curiosity from getting the best of you?”
“Some of my brothers couldn’t wait, either, but after they read theirs, things happened that eventually led them up the aisle. They’re happily married, but I was gun-shy, so I figured I’d wait a decade or two for mine,” he said, and laughed. “Now that marriage is in the cards for me, I figure I’m ready to read his letter,” he said, tapping his index finger on the wheel restlessly.
“Yet you’re still worried,” she said. “Why?”
He took a moment before answering. “All my brothers, with the exception of Rick, who’s still out of the country, read theirs before meeting their future wives. It’s easier to make things fit in when you go from that perspective, but I’ve already found my match. What if after reading the letter, we all realize that his predictions weren’t real, that in fact, we made them self-fulfilling prophecies?”
“You’re worried that his prediction won’t make sense in light of what’s already happened between us?” Seeing him nod, she continued. “You hold Hosteen Silver in high regard, and that’s the way it should be, but no one’s right one hundred percent of the time. The problem isn’t what’s in the letter, it’s with your expectations.”
“Good point,” he said, then continued up the narrow trail to the ranch house, now well-worn with recent traffic.
“Remember, too, that his prediction was probably based on who you were, not who you are now.”
Kyle smiled. “He knew me as the boy who couldn’t sit still, who knew what he wanted to become, and always had his eye on the goal,” he said. “That’s still me, I guess, but my goal doesn’t require me to go from assignment to assignment anymore. Having you in my arms is all the rush I need.”
After parking beside the other vehicles, Kyle leaned over and kissed her. Just then, his brothers came out.
“Get a room!” Daniel yelled.
Kyle laughed. “Sorry. When the pressure’s off, these guys can be real pains in the butt.”
She chuckled. “Come on. You can introduce me to everyone.”
For the first time, she met Preston’s wife Abby, and Kendra, Paul’s wife, as well as Gene and his wife, Lori. Holly was also there with Daniel.
Erin was soon hugged by everyone and welcomed into the family.
“I’m so glad things worked out the way they did,” Holly whispered in her ear.
“Me, too,” Erin answered with a happy smile.
While Kendra stayed outside watching the kids play, the others went back into the ranch house.
The men quickly gathered around Hosteen Silver’s desk in anticipation.
“I pulled the letter meant for you out of the drawer,” Preston said, pointing to the envelope with Kyle’s name on it.
“Are you sure you don’t need someone to hold your hand?” Gene teased, and Daniel laughed.
Preston gave Kyle a pat on the back. “You might as well open it up, bro, cause it sure as hell isn’t going away.”
Kyle took the envelope and pulled out the note it contained. He read it silently first, then out loud.
“‘Fox will journey to many places before Mother Earth calls him home to fulfill his destiny. Only then will he discover what has come to life at his feet and in his heart.’”
“As obscure as ever,” Paul muttered.
“No, clear. It’s about time you came home to stay, buddy,” Daniel said. “The family business needs you.”
“Or you could work at my ranch,” Gene said.
“Me, a rancher?” Kyle laughed. “Sorry guy. I’m marrying a business manager slash chile farmer. That’s as close to working with Mother Earth as I’ll ever get.”
“Maybe ‘life at his feet’ means Erin’s chiles,” Holly said.
“It may be more than that...” Erin said slowly. “Kyle helped me plant a desert rose outside. The pot had cracked, and replanting it here was the only option. Mind you, it has never been more than one long stalk with some spindly leaves, so it may not have survived.”
“Le
t’s go see,” Holly said.
Erin led the way outside, then hurried over and crouched by the tiny plant. At the tip of its sole slender stalk was a small stem with new growth and two leaves. In the center was a tiny perfectly formed bud. “Look!”
“Even without that, I know my next move,” Kyle said. Reaching into his pocket he brought out a small box. “Erin, I love you,” he said for only the second time in his life. Then, getting down on one knee, and offering her the box, added, “Will you be my wife?”
She opened the box with trembling hands. Nestled inside was a gold engagement ring with a tiny heart-shaped diamond.
She drew in an excited breath. “Oh...”
“Is that a yes?” he asked.
“Yes!”
As he took her in his arms, his family encircled them, patting him on the back and congratulating them.
“Kiss your bride-to-be, and come back inside when you’re ready,” Holly said. “We’ll celebrate!”
As soon as they were alone, Kyle smiled at her. “You already know I come with baggage—and a big family. You sure you’re ready for this?”
“It’s exactly what I’ve always wanted,” she whispered. “Now kiss me again.”
He smiled and happily obliged. With her by his side, his world was complete. He’d traveled all over the globe, but what he’d needed most had been back home all along, waiting to be discovered.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from EXPLOSIVE ENGAGEMENT by Lisa Childs.
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