by BJ James
In a short pause in the tabulation, there was a clash of gazes. One chin angled another inch. Neither man nor woman smiled.
With a restrained quirk of his lips Rafe returned to his commentary. “As Simon would expect and demand, you’re obviously in good physical condition. A little slender. Yet, I would wager, strong for your size. You’ve a trim figure, a little boyish for my taste, but appealing.”
Dragging in another, slower breath, his unwavering gaze probing the shadows cast by the Stetson, he murmured, “And no matter how you dress down, no man in his right mind would ever forget you’re a woman.” The quirk became a small smile playing over his face. “Shall I go on, Miss...?”
“O’Hara,” Joe Collins interjected, flustered that in his preoccupation he’d been remiss in common courtesy. “Valentina,” he finished lamely. Both their names has been buzzed through the camp. She’d had the advantage of learning of Rafe Courtenay from camp gossip and speculation.
“O’Hara,” Rafe mused aloud over the name. It suited her to be Irish. It suited very well. “Shall I go on, then, Miss O’Hara?”
“By all means,” she responded with the first hint of strained grace. “Perhaps you’d like to look at my teeth, to judge my age.”
Rafe allowed himself a chuckle. “No need. Your face and body say you’re twenty-two. You’re eyes say thirty-two, thirty-three. I put my trust in the eyes.”
“Touché.” Another point for this man who had become her quiet adversary. “An excellent guess. I’m thirty-three.”
Turning, moving toward the tent she’d just left, she stopped at a table set before it. Carefully, she lifted a cloth covering a dismantled rifle. The oiled barrel was gleaming ebony under the yellow lights; the polished stock, warm mahogany. The tool of a perilous trade, and well cared for.
Her fingers trailed familiarly over burnished wood, curled briefly around the trigger, then lifted from it. Dropping the cloth over the weapon again, she faced him once more as abruptly as she’d turned away. “You disappoint me, Mr. Courtenay.”
“How so, Miss O’Hara?” They were back to formalities, the fencing was over, the gloves were off. “Disappointing you is the last thing I’d want to do.”
Valentina laughed. There was wry amusement in its inflection, and in her demeanor. “What you’ve described any eye or any mirror could tell. I expected better from you. More insight. More depth.”
“Perhaps I choose to keep my deeper perceptions to myself.”
“What? No detailed questioning of the logistics? No reservations about my skill? No sly wondering if I can really make the shot to free Patrick McCallum’s daughter?”
“I don’t need to question, or wonder. I have no reservations. Not about the logistics or your skill, O’Hara. Because I know Patrick McCallum, I know every alternate avenue has been closed, leaving only the one recourse. I repeat, because I know Patrick, I understand and trust there’s no other way to save his daughter but to put her life in the hands of one person. Because I know Simon McKinzie, because you are his choice, I know you’re the best, the only one, for the job.
“I don’t need your credentials.” Quietly, he reiterated his point, closing the subject. “That this is Patrick’s decision, and you are Simon’s choice, is enough.”
“Except that you plan one small change.”
“Yes. I’m going with you.” She did not react, and he felt no surprise that she would have drawn this conclusion from the bit of conversation she’d overheard. In his mind the reasoning was only logical. “I go in Patrick’s stead, for Courtney and Jordana. And for myself.”
“You’re mistaken,” Valentina contradicted flatly. “No one goes. I ride alone. I work alone.”
“Not this time.”
“This time above all.” Dismissing Rafe, forestalling any protest he might lodge, without a glance, she walked past him. Pausing briefly by the ranger, she murmured, “Joey, the call to Tyree won’t be necessary. Mr. Courtenay won’t be needing El Mirlo.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Joe Collins didn’t speak again, nor did Rafe, while each watched her take the path to the separate corral that cordoned the stallion.
As she approached the temporary fence, the skittish Black Jack, renowned for both his sure feet and savage temperament, snorted and danced away. From his place Rafe could hear, but not distinguish, the words of her singsong croon as she sought to calm and entice the stallion to her.
Rearing, hooves flashing at the air, the horse squealed his displeasure at unfamiliar surroundings and strange people. Valentina did not flinch, her quiet tone did not change. Black Jack raced the length of the back fence. He pawed the dust and tossed his rippling mane. Ears flattened, nostrils flaring, he paced, he pranced, he ignored the woman.
In response, her tone rose a degree. Assuring, calming, it floated across the clearing. “Having a little temper tantrum, are you? I’m not sure I blame you. I wouldn’t like to be cooped up in a strange place, with strange people, any more than you do. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It isn’t that way. I’m here...and we’ve met before.”
The stallion quieted, stared away from the hand she extended. Her song dropped again to a low murmur, her hand was steady. Black Jack snorted, his ears flicked, his head turned to her. He took a tentative step, paused, snorted again, and took another. Stretching out his neck, he nibbled curiously at her fingers. His velvet muzzle roamed over her gently curling hand and nudged at her arm. Quivering, he stood as she stroked him. Then, with a low wicker, he moved, crowding the fence to snuffle at her cheek.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Rafe muttered in an undertone.
“Yes, sir.” Joe Collins exhaled a long held breath. “Me, too.”
And, in that moment, it all clicked into place. Rafe understood the sense of familiarity. He’d never met Valentina O’Hara, but he’d seen her face many times. It had been years since she’d been an Olympian, sweeping the gold in her fields of choice. First with her skill with a rifle, then with her riding. The name he’d forgotten had been on every tongue, for no woman before her had accomplished as much. And none since.
For a time she was the darling of the media, a household word, the season’s wonder. Then, electing not to cash in on her fame, shunning a fortune in endorsements and advertising, she had, quite simply, dropped out of sight.
She’d been nineteen then, Rafe remembered as he watched her. Intrigued, he wondered where she’d been for the past fourteen years? What had she done? How had her path crossed with Simon’s? Why? When?
He had no answers. Perhaps he would find some of them in the dossier given to him by Joe Collins. Some, he suspected, not all. Not the answers that really mattered. But, he vowed, he would have them, before this was done.
“Make the call, Joe,” he said abruptly. “Tell Tyree to meet me at sunup. Not here, but at the wash a half mile north of the basin. Tell him the old map in Patrick’s study identifies it as the Hacker homestead.”
He had given the order without looking away from the stallion and the woman. Now he turned his face to the sky. “It will be dawn soon. I need to be briefed, and there’s a lot of planning left to do before first light.”
“Yes, sir,” Joe put in smartly. With a quick salute, eager to make amends for the blunder in introductions, he launched into the task.
Rafe watched the ranger till he was out of sight before he turned again to the corral. Concern etched his face, uneased by the sureness and rapport established between the stallion and the woman. She was a champion, an expert rider, a phenomenal shot, and one of Simon’s chosen.
But would it be enough?
“Can anyone do this? God help you, lady, can you?” Wheeling about, he stalked to the tent that was his. Catching back the flap that covered the entrance, he paused, his gaze drawn again to her.
“Sunup, O’Hara,” he pledged grimly. “And, like it or not, you and your new pet stallion will have company on the trail and the mountain. Then we’ll see.”
His grip on the flap was ha
rd and desperate. “God help us both, we’ll see.”
“The shack is here.” In the weak, first light of dawn, augmented by the yellow glow of lanterns, Richard Trent, Commander of Search and Rescue Operations, tapped his pointer against a map mounted on a stand. “The only possible trail is here, and it’s virtually as inaccessible as the rest of the ground. We could make short work of this by helicopter. That is, if we dared. Which we don’t. These people, who call themselves Apostles for a New Day, are certifiable nuts. The unstable fringe of an unstable fringe, each a little crazier than the last. The one thing we can count on is that they do what they promise.”
Taking the pointer from the map, he held it before him, his grip threatening to snap it. “If they say the little girl will be killed at the first hint of intrusion, she will be.”
“You’re certain there’s only one person guarding her?” Until now Valentina had been content to stand a little apart, listening, asking no questions. “I’ll be lucky to get one shot. Two would be asking for a miracle.”
“Dead certain. One man. That much we’ve proven from surveillance. His name is Edmund Brown.” Laying aside the pointer, the commander tipped back the brim of his hat. “But don’t derive too much relief from the fact that he’s alone. Next to Father Tomorrow, Brother Brown is the most sadistic in their cult. Before he found religion he collected a string of convictions and arrests on a number of charges, ranging from attempted murder to petty theft.
“He was always skating on the edge of insanity. We have reason to believe the association with the Apostles finally tipped the scales.”
Valentina left her place. Threading through the gathered group, she made her way to the front. Arms folded, eyes narrowed, she studied the exquisitely detailed and graphic map. She was knowledgeable about the land in general, but not specifically. “This peak,” with a short cut nail she tapped the spot as she addressed the commander, “it has the best vantage point?”
“For the distance you would require, yes.”
“What sort of cover does it offer?”
“Some scrub, but mostly rock.”
“If he should see me?” She turned an unwavering gaze on the commander.
Richard Trent did not hesitate. “He’ll kill the girl and then himself.”
Valentina’s sigh signaled her understanding of the gravity of the challenge she faced. “Then I’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t see me.”
Rafe, who had been as content to listen, listened acutely to Valentina’s responses. A map and a woman had done what a thousand words couldn’t do. For until now, despite his quick study of the circumstance and Patrick’s own maps, he hadn’t fully comprehended the monstrous complications that tent the word impossible to the desperate gamble.
If they were to succeed, the key was this woman. Courtney’s life was literally in Valentina O’Hara’s hands.
The hands of an unlikely assassin.
And Rafe Courtenay would be by her side every step of the way.
Under the watchful eyes of the camp, Valentina led Black Jack from the corral. With her gear stored in bulging saddlebags, a bedroll snapped at the back of the saddle, a Winchester and its case strapped to the front, her preparations were complete.
She was ready to ride.
“Val.” Richard Trent approached her cautiously. He, as much as the rest of the camp, was astonished at her control over the stallion. But he didn’t trust it would last through any startling moves. When she halted and stood looking up at him, her impatience evident, he embarked on his last-minute warning. “Remember, this man is worse than dangerous.”
“I think you’ve suitably impressed that on me, Richard.”
“Don’t try to outthink him. And don’t even begin to think you can outguess him. In a pressure situation, he won’t know from one minute to the next what he’ll do himself.”
Valentina stirred restively, anxious to have done with this. Now that there was enough light to see the trail, it was time for talk to end and action to begin. “You sound like Simon.”
“There are worse people to emulate.”
“Certainly,” she agreed. “There are.” Swinging into the saddle, she looked down at Trent. “Don’t worry, he taught me well. I wouldn’t be here if there was anyone better.”
In the watching crowd, someone coughed. Black Jack jumped and backed away, fighting the reins and Valentina. Leaning over his neck, riding light in the saddle, she stroked him, soothing him with whispered words only he could hear. In a matter of seconds the stallion was quiet again.
“Damn horse,” Richard Trent groused. “He’ll kill you before you ever get to the shack.”
“No, he won’t,” Valentina replied as she overheard the comment she was not meant to hear. “We’ll be fine when it’s just the two of us.”
“About that,” Richard braved a step closer. “A couple of us could ride along for the first two days. Make it easier going on you for that time, then back off at the last.”
“We’ve been through that time and again.” She kept her voice low, but the impatient emphasis was there. “I ride alone, I work alone. Even if I didn’t normally, this time I would. I must. You just see to it the men who are there now, surrounding the base of the peak, are ready to move in on a minute’s notice. That’s all they may have, a minute.”
“Val...”
“No, Richard,” she said firmly. “We can’t risk any chance that there might be spotters in the vicinity who would connect me with Search and Rescue. If I’m seen, they have to think I’m just a rancher, or a dude, out for a ride. Someone they needn’t be concerned about.”
“When you’re on foot? What then?”
“When I go to ground, no one will see me. I guarantee it.” Curbing her irritation, she tried to speak moderately, when she wanted to shout and be done with this. “Richard, no one else can go.”
“I know that’s the way we said we’d do it.”
“And that’s the way we’ll keep it.” Black Jack danced away again. This time not in fright, but in eagerness to run. Drawing him to a stand, Valentina leaned down, offering her hand to the commander. “Wish me luck.”
Richard Trent took her hand in his. His face was grim with worry as he looked up at her. He’d known her less than twenty-four hours. In those hours he’d learned to like her as a friend, as someone he’d like to know better. He respected her and trusted her judgment.
She was right. The reasonable part of him knew it. But this was his country, these were his people, his charges. Protecting them was his job. It did not set well with him to let her go into jeopardy while he stayed. “Val...”
Taking her hand from his, she cut him short. “Time’s wasting. The temperature’s rising.”
“Dammit! I’d pull rank if I could.”
“But you can’t. You have no authority over special agents. Certainly none over me.” Softly, she said again, “Wish me luck, Richard. I need it, you know.”
Lips pursed, a hard held breath released, he nodded grimly. “Luck.”
“Thanks.” She laughed and tossed her braid from her shoulders. “I’ll see you in three days. No,” she corrected. “We’ll see you in three days. Courtney and I.”
Touching spurs to Black Jack’s glistening flank, she set him into an easy canter. At the entrance of the natural basin, she drew the stallion to a halt. Turning in the saddle she scanned the camp and the crew. But no eyes blazing green fire looked back at her.
“Strange,” she murmured. “I thought...” Shrugging aside the thought she couldn’t complete, she lifted a hand only an instant before she turned the stallion in a whirl. Then, giving him his head, she let him run.
“Three days,” Richard Trent said as she disappeared from view. “Both of you. Child and woman, God willing.”
As if sensing the need in her, the stallion ran as he hadn’t in a long while. Black mane streaking behind him, tail high, his hooves pounded the hard-packed ground, taking the rough with the smooth as if there were no dif
ference. Crouching low in the saddle, offering no resistance, Valentina urged him on.
There would be tune for caution later. But, for now, it suited her purpose to be seen, as if she were someone just passing through in a hurry. Leaning even lower and dropping the reins, she caught Black Jack’s mane, letting him run as he would. Her body rocked smoothly, gracefully, in concert with the horse, as if they were one. “That’s us, boy, just passing through.”
Needing no urging, Black Jack skidded down a wash and back up the other side with hardly a break in stride. Gaining level ground, racing his own shadow, he sped across the desert. Once more, with no change in his pace, he responded to the tug at his mane. Veering from the flat land, he made the turn that would begin the climb toward the cabin.
Dust stirred by the stallion had scarcely begun to settle as a second horse and rider burst through a clump of stunted trees at the wash. El Mirlo slid to a halt, dancing in his impatience as he obeyed the saw of the reins. Soothing him with a touch of his hand, Rafe stared after the figures fading rapidly into the distance.
“Irish,” he muttered angrily as he held his mount in check, “before you get where you’re going, you’ll break your reckless neck and the stallion’s.” As he glared after them they climbed higher. Small dots on the face of a hillside that would only grow steeper. “Your neck, for sure. And maybe mine.”
El Mirlo snorted and reared, backing futilely away from the inescapable control of the reins. Rafe rode easy in the saddle, his anger giving way to intemperance.
“What the hell.”
The low rumble accompanied a lash of the reins as he spurred his frenzied mount on. Scrambling up the side of the wash and over the top, grim rider in tow, the gelding that gleamed as darkly in the sun as Black Jack, galloped furiously into a dusty wake.
