Wind River Undercover

by Lindsay McKenna

  “Good. This report of yours is incredibly detailed. Nice work.”

  She felt her cheeks heat up. “Thanks. We pretty much parroted each other on them.”

  “I’m going to fax DEA these notes and then convert them to a Word document and put it into their cloud.”

  “Did your ears perk up when Elisha said he was scouting around for a part-time job? You know him. What do you think of that? Everything I’ve read on the Elson family is that they moved and sold drugs together. That didn’t make sense to me. Does it to you?”

  His mouth twisted. “It jumped out at me, Anna. I don’t know what to make of it. Maybe he’s angling for a job here?”

  “I had two paranoid thoughts. One, he’s onto us and knows we aren’t what we seem to be, or two, he’s conflicted within his family gestalt and wants a second job to pay for Roberta’s cataract operations.”

  “I thought the same. But Kaen would kill him if he tried to leave the family drug business. He’s a cold bastard, a sociopath.”

  “So? Why would he tell you that, Gabe? I just got this sense there was such a deep, old, trusting bond he had with you. I felt as if he were reaching out for help. What did you get from it?”

  “I’m not as intuitive as you,” he said wryly. “I saw the pleading in his eyes when he said he was looking for a second job. I picked up that beneath it, he wants out.”

  “And it seems he’s VERY devoted to his mother. Every time he talked about her, his voice went soft. You could almost hear the yearning in his tone that he wished for a different life than the one he was leading.”

  “I agree. What else are you thinking, Anna?”

  “That maybe you could give him a part-time job if you think it might work. That way, we would know when he was leaving and could alert the DEA.”

  “Elisha isn’t the sharpest knife in the Elson drawer,” Gabe admitted. “What you see is what you get. He’s plainspoken, and more emotional or at least wears his feelings more outwardly than his brothers. He looked tired with those dark circles under his eyes, and he was completely exhausted and stressed out.”

  “Hauling an eighteen-wheeler full of drugs would stress anyone out,” she answered dryly, pushing her notes toward Gabe.

  “We need to think through all the possibilities. I’m going to talk to our handler at the DEA in Salt Lake about it, float the idea of hiring Elisha part-time. I’m not sure I want him around here, especially with all that video and electronic gear up in the second floor of the barn.”

  “If Elisha ever sees it, I’m sure he’ll put two and two together.”

  “Let’s see what our handler thinks, give him a couple of days to digest our first face-to-face with an Elson.”

  She tilted her head. “What about you? I see the stress in your face and hear it in your voice. Are you okay? Is there anything I can do?”

  He reached out and barely grazed her hands that were clasped on the table. “I’m finding it unsettling that you read me so well.”

  “But I’m safe, Gabe. My interest isn’t professional, it’s personal. I watched the strained dynamic between you and Elisha. I tried to put myself in your shoes. What if I had a longtime buddy from my younger days? And we had to painfully separate from each other because of Elisha’s horrible, monstrous addict father? And yet, you had to go to the same school? It had to be very tough on both of you.”

  “Yeah,” he admitted hoarsely, looking away for a moment, “it was. Elisha was the outsider. Cree tried to fit in with Hiram and Kaen, who were as cruel as their father. I never told my parents this, in fact no one, but as a kid, my heart hurt all the time for Elisha. With my kid brain I couldn’t understand it all, because I truly liked him. We worked like a team, we played sports together and we did hiking and a lot of fun things after school together. He was the only Elson who ever came up to our ranch and had picnics and hikes or boating outings with us. Those were happy days for me and Elisha.”

  “I’ll bet he’s never forgotten them, nor have you.” She opened her hands. “Listen, with all this other information you’ve given me I have a strong feeling that Elisha’s trying to pull away from his drug world. He may not be telling Kaen or uttered a word of it to Gonzalez’s drug cartel because they’d kill him.”

  Snorting, Gabe said, “Hell, they’d put a bullet through his head in a heartbeat. And they might through Kaen’s as well as Roberta’s. You know how they are. One defector and they snuff out the rest of the family back to uncles, aunts, and grandparents.”

  “Yes, I know that all too well. What if he is trying to defect, Gabe? What if he’s reaching out to you in code, hoping you can read between the lines? He trusted you with his life growing up, I’ll bet. Why wouldn’t he reach out to you now?”

  “Desperate people do desperate things,” he agreed, pushing the chair back and standing, his hands going to his hips as he pondered her observations. “Damn, this is getting sticky in ways we never anticipated, Anna. I worry for you, too.”

  “I’ll be okay, Cowboy,” she teased him quietly. “I’m more concerned for you, the emotional tug on you.”

  “I’ll remain clearheaded,” he promised her gruffly. “Don’t worry about that.”

  “I’m only concerned for the personal stress on you, Gabe. Professionally? I know you’ll do what is by the book and what is right. I guess,” Anna admitted ruefully, holding his wounded stare, “my concern is purely selfish, and I know we’re not supposed to mix personal stuff with professional.”

  His hands dropped and he gave her a lopsided bit of a smile. “A little late for that, mi corazón, my heart.”

  Anna felt the world halt, her gaze narrowing upon his. Yes, she’d heard his roughened endearment, never expecting it. Okay, he had guts. She was going to be just as courageous. “You just said something out loud that I secretly feel for you, Gabe.”

  Chapter Seven

  Gabe’s heart thudded over her quietly spoken words. A new level of seriousness in her eyes made him lose his voice momentarily. Feeling the tension ratchet up between them, he felt paralyzed over his spontaneous admission. Rarely did his mouth get ahead of his brain. He sat down, holding her thoughtful gaze, not feeling any blowback from Anna. Gabe swore he could see her eyes glinting with amusement. It forced him to rasp, “Did I shock you with what I think of you, but never say?” He saw a wry twist of her lips, lashes dipping as she stared at her clasped hands on the table for a moment.

  She stared up at him. “That was a dangerous thing to say, Gabe. Did you mean it? Or are you just flirting with me?”

  “I don’t flirt, Anna.”

  “Okay . . .”

  “Look, I know I’m crossing a line here with you and I’m not at all sure you’re in this with me . . . us . . . or not.” Frustration tinged his lowered voice. “I’ve been fighting my attraction for you since the afternoon I met you.” Automatically, his gut tightened, afraid that Anna didn’t share his need of her.

  “Are you ever in trouble, Whitcomb.” She sat back in the chair appraising him. “I’ll give you this: You aren’t shy.”

  “I’m surprising myself.”

  They both gave a strained laugh, more out of relief. Pressure of something that had been building up within both of them had finally been released and was being aired.

  “I thought this was coming,” Anna admitted, shaking her head. “Whatever magic or cursed energy that’s between us, it’s mutual, Gabe. I’ve been fighting my attraction to you, too, telling myself I had no business sticking my personal wants or desires for you into this. That’s the cursed portion of this. I could blame it on the fact I’m used to working alone, that I don’t know how to share, but that would be a cop-out and I’m not about to do that. The magic that exists between us is something I want to explore, regardless, but I’m cautious.”

  He rubbed the side of his bristly cheek. “I’ve been going through all the same reasons, but you keep luring me toward you with your incredible intelligence. I don’t mean it to sound like this is your fa
ult, because it isn’t. It’s my issue. My curiosity, I suppose, about you.”

  “Oh. Then it’s not my body but my brain that you’re a moth to a flame with?”

  He chuckled.

  “I appreciate your dry, cutting humor,” she pointed out, matching his bashful grin.

  “Yeah, well I think people in this trade automatically develop it, don’t you?”

  Anna smiled a little more. “It’s a symptom.”

  He became serious. “You fascinate me, Anna. You have from the outset. Every day it has become tougher for me to ignore you. There’s times when I want to really let down and just explore you instead of keeping that professional distance.”

  “Said the scientist to the bug he’d just captured.”

  “No . . . not like that. You’re not like most other women who are still finding their own personal power and absorbing it and then becoming it. You already have. You’re ahead of them, and I guess, from the best I can figure out, and that’s my fascination with you.”

  “Women around the world are awakening to their own power, finding their voice and becoming it,” she agreed. “I just got a little bit of a head start, that’s all. So? Me being a Marine sniper doesn’t bother you?”

  “No, just the opposite.”

  “You do know women are far better snipers than men, don’t you? Even your military owns that one and admits it.”

  “It’s a known fact,” he agreed. “What about us? What’s comfortable for you under this circumstance? I need to hear how you feel and what you want to do about it.”

  “You can’t kill desire,” she said dryly. “My biggest issue is learning to live in both worlds simultaneously. When to suppress my personal stuff in trade for taking a professional stance and vice versa. We have never talked on this level with each other before and I think we need to get a clear understanding about it first. Don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Gabe compressed his lips for a moment. He returned his attention to Anna. “I had to develop a relationship, with a woman, in order to survive in the Tijuana cartel.”

  “Of course you would have. You had to fit in, not stand out.”

  “I needed a woman because everyone else had one. The relationship was one-sided. Maria never knew who I really was.”

  “But outwardly,” Anna said, “you fit in and the cartel accepted you.”

  “That was the plan. I didn’t like lying to her. She became collateral damage in a sense and it made me feel guilt over it. I had always wanted a loving marriage like my parents have. I dreamed about it as a kid and through my older years. Call me old-fashioned, but I grew up in a happy home where love was shown every day. Even though we were adopted, Steve and Maud loved us until we realized we were truly wanted and would never be abandoned again by an adult.”

  She stood up and went to the counter, pouring herself another cup of coffee. He came to her side.

  “You want some?” she asked.

  “Please. There’s more I need to say, more I need to hear from you, Anna. How are we going to handle this?”

  She filled his cup and then turned, resting her hip against the counter, studying him. “We know the obvious, that we can’t get personal when things are going south or when we’re in undercover mode.”

  He stood there and sipped the coffee. “Right.”

  “For me, Gabe, I need whatever it is pushing us together to unfold naturally, over time. I don’t want to be chased, pawed, or think I can be used for sex when you want it. That’s not going to happen with any woman in today’s world.”

  “I’ll always honor your boundaries and I’ll respect them.”

  “My mother grew up with my father in Antigua. They knew each other as children, always having that closeness, that friendship that accumulates with one another over time. Later, my mother graduated and went to Yale Law School in the US. My father left to pursue military college. After they received their diplomas, they married and I came along a year later. I grew up like you did: with a lot of lavish love and being adored and appreciated. I was always close with both my parents.” She stopped, frowning. “Maybe that’s why my father’s murder by a cartel struck me to my soul.”

  “And instead of having your family hunted, you became the hunter.”

  She sighed. “I did. My mother worried constantly and had to have guards at our estancia. She knew I was being tracked by the cartels in Guatemala. A price on my head didn’t help her sleep at night, either. I was glad when this assignment came along, Gabe. I was wanting to get out of the business.” She gave a fond look around the kitchen. “At least here? No one knows me. I’m not being hunted.” Her mouth quirked. “At least, not yet.”

  “Your chances of becoming known here are slim,” he reassured her. “And that has to alleviate some stress on you, right?”

  “Better believe it.” Shaking her head, she said, “Gabe, to be honest about where I’m at, is that I’m in a state of transition. I’m yearning, I guess, to settle down. I used to be fine working alone for months out in the jungle. I’ve found myself instead wanting to be in a backwater place where it’s quiet, where there is no violence. My mother told me a long time ago that I would want family again. She was right. I want to find out what it’s like just to have a regular life, not the one I’ve been leading.” She saw his gaze warm on her and it felt damned good. “What about you? Are you going to continue to be in the DEA? You already said you were glad to be out of undercover assignments.”

  “Friendship is a good place to be at,” he agreed. “I like that it doesn’t make demands or expectations on either of us.”

  “Good,” she said, relief in her tone.

  “This is my last gig with the DEA,” he said. “I only took this one because it involves my family and where I want to live and settle down.”

  “This is a mess for you, then.”

  He made an unhappy sound. “I worry for my parents, my brother and sisters, not myself.”

  “Well, I worry for you. . . .” She gave him a frustrated look. “So let’s be friends? It’s a good place to start. Being friends has no pressure or expectation to it. And I don’t want any more than what we’re in right now, with Elisha suddenly showing up at our door and hinting he wants a part-time job here. If he’s allowed into where we’re living, that’s double jeopardy in my book. You may know him well, but I don’t. For all we know, the cartel is putting him up to this because they want to use this area as a drug drop. We might be stepping into sensitive territory.”

  “You’re right.” He gave her an unhappy look. “I’ve thought about that, too. And there’s no way to prove that Elisha is telling the truth or not.”

  “We’re going to have to take this a day at a time with him if he shows up again.”

  He studied her. “We need to wall off our video gear up on the second floor of the barn. We can’t have him snooping around if we’re ever both gone from the property.”

  “Agreed.”

  “That’s something we can do now. It’s a good day to work inside while it rains.”

  “I’m not a carpenter, but I’m a good second pair of hands,” she told him.

  “My dad is a master carpenter, never mind he’s a world-famous architect. He taught me because I showed an interest in it. Now”—he smiled slightly—“I get to use it.”

  April 30

  “Something’s going on,” Anna told Gabe as he met her up on the second floor of the barn. She held up the laptop. “Look at this. . . .”

  He leaned over her shoulder, feeling the warmth of her body, but he was careful not to get too close and make her uncomfortable. Watching the video, he saw Kaen and Elisha climbing out of their camouflage-painted truck. There was a huge tarp over the rear of it, with something stored beneath it. They had parked in back of the house and up against two open sliding-barn doors. The time on the video read four A.M.

  “What time did they leave?”

  “One A.M.,” Anna said. “Kaen was driving, made a left turn out of their drivew
ay, then he was out of range of the video. The truck bed was empty at the time he left. I suspect they went to a drug drop place and picked up bales of some kind, bringing them back here to their barn.”

  Lifting his chin, he saw the tarp being pulled off by the brothers. Beneath it were what appeared to be one foot by one foot squares, each roughly three inches thick. They were all wrapped in dark green plastic and tied up with brown cord rope. “Looks like cocaine.”

  “Maybe heroin, too,” Anna said. “Both drugs come in that size of package and wrapping. It’s probably all laced with fentanyl, anyway, which makes it deadly to the user.”

  “That stuff is a killer,” Gabe agreed, watching the two men take as many as half a dozen parcels into their arms and disappear inside the barn with them. There were no lights on except for a dull red one above the barn door. They hadn’t turned on any lights within it, either. “We need to get over there and check it out,” he said, glancing up at Anna.

  He unconsciously inhaled her scent that always reminded him of a summer meadow filled with wildflowers. Her hair was tamed into a ponytail, warm clothing on because it was just above freezing in the barn. The last two weeks had been a special hell for him. He wanted to touch her hand, her shoulder, and let her know he craved a more personal and intimate relationship with her. Time wasn’t on his side. He had to cool his own selfish needs.

  “That’s what I was thinking, Gabe.”

  He straightened. Anna shut off the video and sat down on a bale of timothy hay. “Do you want to contact Salt Lake City and get approval for it?” she asked. They couldn’t just step into this without higher-ups signing off on it first.

  “I’ll call now,” he said, and he looked at his watch. It was six A.M. “The night watch will be on duty and I’ll ask for approval for tonight, say, around two A.M.”

  “With the brothers being there?” Anna demanded, shutting the lid on her laptop, frowning.