Mountain Ranger Recon Page 3

  Meg covered her mouth with her hand, her brows shooting up to her bangs. “What happened to it?”

  Ian spread his arms wide. “Buzz thinks they jettisoned it right here, once they spotted him on their tail.”

  “A weapon here in Crestville? Why wasn’t it on the news? How come there was no rescue operation?”

  “This is all under the radar, Meg.” He rubbed the pad of his thumb across her knuckles. “The pilot never filed a flight plan, had no instruments on board and had no radio contact with any towers. It’s as if that airplane never existed…except on Buzz’s personal radar.”

  “How did Buzz figure out the occupants of the plane ditched their cargo here?”

  “He did a little creative interviewing of the folks on that plane. One couldn’t take the pressure and cracked, admitting they’d tossed the suitcase overboard.”

  “What’s in that case, Ian?” Meg clamped her lower lip between her teeth, her eyes round and definitely worried.

  He lifted one shoulder, hoping she’d believe him. “We don’t know. Whatever’s in that case came from an arms dealer named Slovenka. We know it’s a weapon of some sort. A very expensive weapon. A very dangerous weapon.”

  “Didn’t Buzz’s creative questioning unearth the type of weapon?”

  “Uh, the suspect killed himself before he gave away anything more.” Damn, he hated exposing her to this stuff.

  Meg hugged herself and said, “And now the rest of them are back trying to find the weapon…along with you. Do you think the arms dealers are after it, or the terrorists they sold it to?”

  He didn’t want her involved, but that decision was beyond him. He eased out a long breath. “Slovenka got his money. The location of the weapon is now the purchasers’ problem.”

  She snapped her fingers, getting into the spirit of the thing. “The German tourist—he lingered behind to take pictures. Maybe Kayla saw something and he pushed her.”

  “A lot of them lingered behind. It could be any one of them, Meg. Just because the German traveled solo doesn’t necessarily make him the prime suspect. Maybe it’s one of the married couples with the same idea as Kayla and…”

  Ian squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. This is one aspect of active duty Ian didn’t miss—losing coworkers.

  Meg entwined her fingers with his. “Did you know her well?”

  He shook his head. “Not at all, not even her real name. It’s better that way.”

  The whomping sound of helicopter blades cut off further conversation.

  Shading her eyes, Meg pushed up from the boulder. “Search and rescue is here. The chopper will drop off the team and they’ll hike upstream to retrieve Kayla.”

  Meg radioed the helicopter, giving the rescue team their exact location. Fifteen minutes later, two hikers emerged from the thick foliage.

  As the men examined Kayla’s body, Ian held his breath. He couldn’t get into anything with them right now. He wanted to search the immediate area before anyone else had an opportunity to return.

  One of the search-and-rescue members rose and patted Ian’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Shepherd. Was your wife leaning over the railing when she fell?”

  Ian shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. “I wasn’t with her…and neither were any of the other hikers.”

  At least nobody on the hike claimed to have seen what occurred, but Ian knew at least one person, possibly two, knew exactly what had happened to Kayla.

  The rescue team unfolded and secured a stretcher and lifted Kayla’s body onto it. As they turned her, Kayla’s camera dangled from her neck.

  Ian’s hand shot out. “Can I take her camera?”

  “Sure.” The search-and-rescue hiker carefully slipped the camera strap over Kayla’s head and handed the camera to Ian. Then he turned to Meg. “Meg, once we load the stretcher onto the helicopter, there’s room for only one more. We’ll take Mr. Shepherd with us and you can hike back up.”

  “No!” Ian shouted the word, and three startled faces turned in his direction. Ian curled his hand over Kayla’s cold fingers and slid the wedding band from her left hand. “M-my wife’s wedding band is missing. I need to find it. I can’t leave without that ring. Leave me here. I want to be alone.”

  Ian covered his face with his hands so he didn’t have to do any more explaining. He felt Meg’s hand on his arm. “It’s okay, Greg. I’ll hike back up with Mr. Shepherd. I’ll make sure he gets to the top, and I’ll arrange transportation for him to the hospital in Colorado Springs.”

  Through the spaces between his fingers Ian saw the rescue workers exchange a worried glance, but it didn’t look like they wanted to argue with a bereaved, irrational spouse. He should’ve figured Meg would volunteer to stay behind with him.

  Before the search-and-rescue team hiked back to the chopper with Kayla’s body on the stretcher between them, Ian clutched Kayla’s stiff fingers, kissed her cheek and whispered, “I’ll tell Jack you sacrificed everything.”

  He and Meg watched the hikers disappear before turning back to the river and the falls. “You could’ve gone with the chopper.”

  “And leave you here alone?” Meg twisted her ponytail around her hand. “I’m going to be in big enough trouble as it is. I’ll most likely be suspended from my job, if not fired, while Rocky Mountain Adventures waits for the phone call from your lawyer.”

  Ian smacked his fist against his palm. He hadn’t thought of that. Any red-blooded, litigious American would sue Rocky Mountain Adventures in a heartbeat for this accident.

  “Sorry Meg-o. I waltz back into your life after three years and look what happens.”

  She shrugged, her cheeks flushing a rosy pink at the nickname. “At least I know you don’t have any intention of suing us.”

  Ian clicked the buttons on Kayla’s wet digital camera. “If I’m lucky, Kayla snapped some photos of whatever she wasn’t supposed to see, or maybe even got a couple of shots of her attacker.”

  Meg leaned over his shoulder, but the camera’s screen remained black. Ian blew out a breath and dropped the camera, where it swung from his neck. “The water may have damaged it or maybe the battery’s dead.”

  “You stayed behind to search this area, didn’t you?”

  “Of course, but I didn’t plan to involve you.”

  “You never do.”

  Ouch.

  Meg slid her backpack from her shoulders. “I have some binoculars. Maybe Kayla spotted something across the river or at the top of the falls.”

  Their gloved fingers met as Meg passed the binoculars to him, and for a moment the electricity crackled between them, even though their skin didn’t even touch. Meg snatched her hand back, as if burned. Yeah, she felt it, too.

  Ian had been on high alert from the moment he stepped off the van and discovered Meg was going to be their guide. He hadn’t had a single opportunity to relish being close to her again. This reunion bore no resemblance to the one he’d played over and over in his head these past three years without her.

  And the situation had gotten even worse.

  “I’ll have a look along the riverbank. Maybe Kayla spotted something in the water snagged on the rocks.” She put her hands on her hips. “Just what am I looking for anyway? What kind of suitcase is this?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine. It’s probably a hard-sided case, not too big, not too small.” Ian trained the binoculars on the hillside across the canyon, scanning every ledge, every tree. He caught his breath a few times, only to be disappointed.

  What had Kayla seen from that overlook to prompt someone to kill her on the spot?

  Meg’s radio crackled and a voice sputtered across the airwaves. “Meg? Meg, are you there?”

  As Meg answered the radio call, Ian sharpened his focus to zero-in on an area behind the falls.

  “I’m here with…Mr. Shepherd, Matt. We’re on our way back, unless you can send another helicopter in to pick us up.”

  Ian cursed. The s
hiny object behind the wall of water had been a trick of the sunlight, now throwing shafts of light through the clouds. He hoped if the search-and-rescue team sent another chopper in, they’d take their time.

  The radio hissed with static. “Not sure we can do that, Meg, but that’s not why I called. There’s another hiker missing from your group.”

  Ian spun around and dropped the binoculars, which banged against his chest.

  Meg’s eyes widened as she gripped the radio with two hands. “Someone’s missing from the hike? Who?”

  Ian’s breath stopped as a red dot of light appeared between Meg’s eyes. His gut clenched for one second before he soared through the air and tackled her.

  Chapter Three

  As Meg hit the ground, the radio flew out of her grasp. She opened her mouth to yell, but Ian clamped a hand across her lips.

  “Shh.” He shifted his weight on top of her, pushing the air out of her lungs and smashing her face into the moist dirt.

  Wet sand from the riverbank flooded her mouth, settling between her teeth, and she sputtered. Ian couldn’t have picked a more perfect way to remind her why she’d left him—his complete devotion to his career at her expense.

  His warm breath tickled her ear as he covered her body with his large frame. He draped his thigh across her hip, protecting her, shielding her. He couldn’t have picked a more perfect way to remind her how much it had hurt to leave him—his complete and utter protectiveness of her.

  He whispered, “Stay still a few more minutes. I saw a red laser bead from a weapon on your forehead.”

  Meg bucked beneath him as if someone had shocked her with a cattle prod. Was Ian trying to finish her off?

  Ian stroked her ponytail and then lifted his head. Taking a deep breath, Meg turned her face into the wet mulch, the smell of the damp leaves and earth invading her nostrils. Maybe if she buried her head in the dirt this would all go away. Except Ian. She didn’t want Ian to go away—not yet anyway.

  Straddling her thighs, Ian rose to a sitting position. He held his finger to his lips and scanned the area with the binoculars. He reached for the backpack he’d dropped when he’d taken her down and pulled out a weapon.

  Meg gasped, although Ian’s hiking accoutrements shouldn’t come as a surprise to her. Her husband had always been armed and dangerous.

  Gripping his gun, Ian rolled off her body. “Stay low. We’re going to have to hike out of here beneath some heavy cover. Get on the radio and find out who’s missing from the hike.”

  Meg rolled onto her stomach, pointing to the racing river. “My radio’s downstream somewhere. Another good reason for the company to fire me.”

  “I suppose you didn’t happen to catch a name before I…uh, knocked the radio out of your hand?”

  “No, but if we see one of the tourists wandering around out here in the wilderness, it’s a pretty good bet he’s our man.”

  “Or woman.”

  She grabbed his arm and pulled him close to the base of the hill. “We’ll be safer following this path, instead of traipsing along the banks of the river.”

  Ian ducked beneath a tree and chugged some water from his bottle. He wiped the rim on the sleeve of his jacket and offered it to Meg. “I was hoping to search the area while we’re here.”

  “You can’t do that with someone aiming red lasers at our heads.” She gulped the water down her parched throat too quickly and coughed and sputtered.

  “Are you okay?” Ian pounded her back.

  She twirled around, holding out her hands. “I’m choking on water. I don’t need CPR.”

  Ian rubbed his brow with the back of his hand, still encased in a thick glove. “Sorry. How long can we hike along the base of the mountain before heading up to the trail?”

  “About an hour.” Meg tipped her head toward the falls. “Once we get past the waterfall, we can take a path back to the trail that’s not as exposed as this one.”

  “Keep your eyes open. We might see the case or something else incriminating down here.”

  She blew a piece of hair, which had escaped from her ponytail, out of her face. “You don’t have to tell me to keep my eyes open, but I’ll be watching out for guns and red beams instead of someone’s luggage, even if that luggage is lethal.”

  “I wonder if we’re close.” Ian adjusted his backpack and squinted into the dense foliage across the river. “That guy back there must’ve had a good reason for trying to take us out.”

  “Oh no, you don’t.” Meg had seen that look on his face one too many times. She tugged on his arm, which responded like an unmovable granite rock. “You’re not wandering around here with someone taking potshots at you.”

  Ian quirked one eyebrow at her. She’d seen that look before, too. In fact, she knew his facial expressions as well as her own, as well as her son’s, which imitated his father’s in a remarkable way.

  “You really care about my well-being, Meg-o? A few years ago you would’ve been pushing me out there to explore to my heart’s content.”

  She shook her head, her ponytail swinging vigorously from side to side. “I just didn’t want to live with you anymore. I didn’t want you dead.”

  “That’s a relief.” He chucked her under the chin and then tramped ahead of her on the trail hugging the mountainside.

  Despite the chilly air, her skin burned where he’d touched her with his gloved finger. No wonder she couldn’t get any kind of relationship off the ground. This man still had a place under her skin, and in her heart.

  Twigs and leaves snapped and crackled beneath her hiking boots, mimicking the general action of her mind. Maybe if she concentrated on Ian’s mission here in Colorado, instead of analyzing his facial expressions, she’d stop thinking about him in that way. His work had irritated her when they were together, since it seemed as if he’d cared about it and the other Prospero members more than he cared about her. That old shame crept over her again, heating her cheeks at the childish thought.

  At the end of one of their arguments, Ian would laugh and tell her that she should’ve married a banker if she wanted sure and steady. Then he’d grab her and kiss her all over until she’d surrender and admit that she didn’t want a banker. Then they’d make love until she’d forgotten her anger completely, sometimes until she’d forgotten her own name.

  Shaking her head, she patted her cheek with her gloved hand. The mission. Concentrate on the mission.

  Ian glanced over his shoulder. “Are you okay? I’m not going too fast for you, am I?”

  She snorted. “This is my terrain, remember? If you knew the area, you wouldn’t have needed Rocky Mountain Adventures to lead you in.”

  “Kayla and I should’ve tried hiking in ourselves. Then she might still be alive.” He kicked at a rock in his way and it skittered into the bushes.

  “You don’t know that.” She grabbed his belt loop beneath his jacket until he came to a stop in front of her. “I’m sorry about Kayla, but she took the risk and knew the possible consequences.”

  “I tried to talk her out of coming along.” Ian shoved his hands into his pockets and nudged at a stone set in the ground with the toe of his hiking boot. “But she wanted to help Jack any way she could.”

  “He’s the kind of guy who inspires fierce devotion. That I remember.” Meg also remembered Jack’s intensity, his dark eyes and black hair. Out of all the men on the Prospero team, Jack was the only one without a relationship. Riley had been married to that poor society girl who had died in the bombing of that hotel. Buzz actually managed a relationship with a woman, Raven, who worked with Prospero. And of course she and Ian had struggled through a couple of years of marriage.

  Only Jack remained aloof, solo, as if he knew he had a limited time on earth and didn’t want to disappoint a woman with his early departure. Like now. Meg wrapped her arms around her body and shivered.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Ian gripped her shoulders and squeezed, trying to infuse some of his palpable strength into her.


  She hadn’t always felt safe with Ian emotionally, but the man had a protective streak a mile wide and would risk anything to protect her physically. When they climbed Everest together, he’d rushed to her rescue several times, even when she hadn’t needed his help. Later he admitted he used the whole protective scenario as a ruse to get close to her.

  He told her that, and her heart had melted in the middle of a waist-high snowdrift at base camp. Nobody had ever come to her rescue before. She’d always been the strong, resilient type.

  She had to be.

  “I’m fine.” She lifted her shoulders. “I was just thinking about Jack. Nobody has heard anything from him since he took that hostage negotiation job in Afghanistan?”

  “Right.” Ian dropped his hands from her shoulders and passed a hand across his mouth. “The last time I talked to him, I didn’t even know he was going on assignment. He’d just gotten back from Colombia.”

  “What drives him?”

  Ian shrugged. “The same thing that drove most of us in Prospero. A need to protect. A desire for justice.” He grinned. “The thrill of an adventure.”

  “Yeah, you’ve got that last one covered.”

  “So do you, Meg.” He cocked his head. “You could have had some cushy job at Daddy’s software company. Why are you out here in the wilderness, leading people up and down mountains?”

  Rolling her eyes, she jabbed his solid chest with her index finger. “And now you sound just like him.”

  He clutched his chest and staggered back. “Comparing me to Patrick O’Reilly is a cruel blow. Are you two still at each other’s throats?”

  “As long as I’m still mucking around out here in the wilderness we are. I never could quite measure up…” Meg straightened her spine and stamped her feet against the wet ground. “We’d better get moving.”

  Ian pushed off the rock, grabbed her by the waist and swung her in front of him on the trail. “You lead for a while.”

  Long after Ian dropped his hands, Meg felt his touch burning through her multiple layers of clothing. She’d figured, after a few years apart, her automatic responses to the man would’ve died out. No such luck.