Cherry Adair - T-flac 06 (34 page)

"Of course they will," he said sarcastically, glancing at his watch, having to angle his wrist to see it properly with his good eye. "I'll keep in touch. Let me know when there's someone there to make my pickup, and my merchandise is secure. And Dare? This request is nonnegotiable." Once he clicked the phone off, he tried again to dodge the snow sock.

"Don't be such a wuss," Lily chided. "Keep this on your face or your eye will swell closed permanently."

"You're a vet, not a people doctor," he reminded her, apparently feeling as surly as he looked.

"Fortunate," she quipped, "since you're acting like an ass."

"Stubborn, aren't you?"

"Hello, have we met? I'm Lily." She motioned toward the phone. "What was that all about?"

Derek rose and held out a hand to pull her to her feet, even as he clapped the snow sock to his face with the other. "We've got to get cracking. This storm's moving in faster than anticipated. They're predicting snow, gale force winds, all followed by a severe ice storm."

"Don't worry about it," Lily said with more confidence than she really felt. "We're well equipped for that kind of weather." While they had all the dogs, her sled was toast. She was rapidly reaching the point where if she didn't sleep soon she'd slip into a coma of exhaustion, and Derek was swaying on his feet and had a pretty serious head injury. Things weren't looking good right now.

This big storm was going to complicate the next leg of the trip.

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"Trust me," he said tightly. "It's a bad one."

The lover was gone, and in his place stood a grim stranger Lily almost didn't recognize. He dropped her hand and turned to the fire, which he proceeded to cover with snow. The flames fizzled and died, then gently steamed.

What wasn't he telling her? "Okay, ice storm. What else?"

"Nothing."

The dogs, sensing something, milled around looking worried. Dingbat huffed anxiously and Lily went over to rub his ears. "It's okay, baby." Still squatting beside the dog, she looked up at Derek. "Talk to me. What's really going on?"

The wind started picking up, swirling small flurries around their feet. Derek scrubbed his battered face with one hand. "I want you to continue on to Nikolai on your own."

Lily tried to read his expression, but it was like trying to read a closed book with a blank dustcover on it.

She had exactly the same sensation in her chest now as she'd had that night on her honeymoon when Sean said he was going down to the bar for one drink while she primped for a romantic dinner in their suite: a hard, taut band of foreboding squeezing across her chest. Dingbat nudged her cheek with his icy nose. She kept her eyes on Derek. "Why?"

"Would it be possible for you to just do what I ask without asking questions?"

"Yes. I'm sure the time will come. But this isn't it."

"Lily—"

"Something's wrong. Don't shut me out. I know. I know," she said quickly when he gave her a one-eyed glare. "I can see you're in a hell of a hurry. Tell me quickly so we can be on our way."

He paused long enough for her to think he was going to blow her off, then said quietly, "I was going to tell you this anyway. But this was neither the time nor the place I would've chose—"

"Yeah, yeah. Fine.
What
?" Lily said impatiently, getting to her feet and trying not to wince at his poor prizefighter face. She wondered briefly what she'd do if he told her he was a serial killer, wanted in fifty states. Or a bigamist—

"I work for an organization called T-FLAC," he told her, watching her face intently. "It's a privately funded black ops anti-terrorist group."

It took her brain a couple of seconds for it to compute. "Are you telling me you're a… spy?"

"Anti-terrorist operative."

"Holy crap." She shook her head as if she couldn't quite believe what she was hearing.

"Lily, I wanted to ex—"

She cut him off. "That is
so
cool."

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Surprised, Derek just stared at her. "You think it's—cool?"

"Hell, yeah. Don't you?"

"Actually, yeah. I do." His smile was a bit lopsided because of the swelling. "Whoa." He put up a hand as she opened her mouth. "I can see the questions bubbling over. I'll tell you what I can about my job—when we get back home, okay? Right now I've got to haul ass."

"You're on a mission
now
?"

"Right now."

"Wow."

"We gotta move."

Right. She and James Bond had to get a move on. Holy crap, she thought again, sliding him covert glances as she helped him break camp. Lily stuffed the million and one questions down with difficulty.
An
anti-terrorist operative. Wow
. Bore some thinking about. She threw equipment into its storage compartment as she asked, "Was that your… person who sends you out on jobs? Don't tell me anything if you're going to have to kill me afterwards!" she added quickly, not sure if she was joking or not.

He smiled. "Control. Yeah. I have less than ten hours to reach a location south of Nome." He touched a finger to the lip she was biting to prevent herself from blurting out a string of fascinated questions. "I can tell you this much. We've known of a terror attack somewhere in the vicinity for several days, but not the exact location. Now I have it. Now I go."

"For heaven's sake, Derek, you can barely
see
." Terrorist attacks were something she read about in the paper or watched on the six o'clock news. Not something someone she lo—
cared
about was involved with.

A clutch of panic closed her throat. Spy types were sexy and fun to watch—in movies; she suddenly realized it wasn't fun finding out Derek was one of the people who put themselves on the line every day to keep her country safe. She swallowed the metallic taste of fear. "Let them send someone else."

Packing and getting on with business, he didn't even spare her a glance. The snow flurries whipped around their legs as the wind got stronger, and the sky darkened accordingly. "The storm has already closed the airports where our people were waiting for the coordinates. Getting that intel, even half an hour ago, would've made the difference. But now… There is no one else, Lily."

He wasn't grandstanding or being arrogant. If he said there was no one else, then there was no one else.

He stumbled over the coffeepot lying on the ground at his feet, turned slightly, then bent to pick it up.

Oh, God.

"Forget the next checkpoint." Lily snatched the pot from him and emptied the last few inches of coffee on the ground. "I'll have to go with you. Be your eyes."

"Jesus." He looked appalled. "Are you out of your mind? You'll go to Nikolai, where I know you'll be safe."

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Yes. She was out of her mind. For even
thinking
about going into danger. She'd had more danger in the last few days than she'd had in a lifetime already. But she was also out of her mind worrying about
him
.

Under normal circumstances she presumed he was capable of doing whatever he was supposed to do—and doing it well. But how could he do when he couldn't
see'
?

She fisted one hand on her hip and stared him down. "How will you know I'm safe?"

"I'll have people waiting there to take you back to Montana."

She thought about it. Frankly, with some relief. She was tired of being scared. "Fine. Come with me, and let them go with you wherever you're going. You need the help. I can see myself home."

"You can't," he said, face grim. "There aren't any flights out for the next twelve to sixteen hours. The storm—"

"So you aren't even sure if your people will be waiting for me when I get there, are you?" she asked.

"They will be."

"Before either
I'm
dead or
you're
killed by these bad guys?"

"Lily, we don't have time for this."

"And you were just going to pull me out of the stupid race like I'm a child needing a time-out? Without a damn explanation?"

"There'll be another race next year. Win that."

She wanted to hit him. She helped him fight to hold down the tarp as they tried to cover the sled and secure the gyrating canvas. It felt as though it were alive and fighting for its life. "Damn it, Derek," Lily snapped. "I don't give a rat's ass about this race. I'm thinking about Mr. Super Spy, who just tripped over the damn coffeepot."

"I didn't see it."

"My point exactly."

"Just do this for me, will you, Lily? Cut me a break here? Take pity on the blind?"

"Fine. Say I do it your way. Who says I'll be safe between here and the checkpoint? I lost my gun in the water, and my rifle's jammed." She paused, gathering ammo. "Did Barber tell you who'd sent him?"

Derek shook his head with a wince. "No? I rest my case. So far we've had both Croft and Barber after me. What if there's someone else just waiting for us to separate?"

Beneath the bruises, he actually paled and Lily knew she'd scored a direct hit. It didn't make her feel any better.

"Jesus, Lily—"

"No. Listen to me. I understand you don't want me to come with you. And frankly, I'm not real happy at
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the thought of getting in the middle of some terrorist plot to overthrow the world. But the reality is, you don't have twenty-twenty vision right now. And that's my fault."

"Lily—"

She pulled her goggles on because the blowing snow was starting to sting her face, then jumped as a huge chunk of snow dropped from the swaying branches of a nearby tree with a loud
thwack
! God. She was already spooked.

"The storm is almost here," she told him, keeping her tone even with effort. "We don't have time to debate this, do we? I'll be safe traveling with you until we get to wherever it is you have to go. And once we get there, I can take the dogs and find a safe place until the danger is past. You can do whatever you have to do. Don't look at me like that. You know there isn't any other way to do this. Someone has to be there to take care of the dogs. I'm your girl there. And if push comes to shove, in a crunch you could use my shooting ability."

"I don't want you anywhere within a five-hundred-mile radius in a freaking
crunch
."

"Well, that makes two of us. Believe me." Lily threw both hands wide, then let them drop. "Contrary to the last couple of days, I don't have a death wish. Finish up with the packing and culling of our stuff," she told him briskly, turning around. "I'm going to pick our fastest dogs and reharness them."

"No."

"Talk to yourself," Lily told him. "Time's a wasting."

In the end Derek acknowledged Lily was right. He couldn't do it on his own. His vision was seriously impaired. An ice pack wasn't doing much for the swelling. Not only was she a necessary adjunct to his sight, but in this case, it was Lily who was the expert. She'd put together the fastest dogs with the highest endurance levels. Eighteen of the best-trained sled dogs in the country. Not only were the dogs the best but Lily was acknowledged as one of the best mushers around. She'd get him where he had to be a hell of a lot faster than he could do it on his own.

She'd trained in the worst weather possible. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of trail time. This storm was going to make her experience invaluable to him. Torn between needing her and desperate to keep her safe, he weighed the pros and cons.

What if Croft and Barber weren't the only ones they'd sent? How safe
would
she be on the trail?

Eventually there might be other mushers nearby to give her some semblance of safety. But they couldn't protect her if the next shooter was more efficient than the last.

Matt would see she got home safely. But when she was back in Montana, who knew who was waiting for her there?

Christ. He scrubbed a hand across his jaw. Take her into the kind of danger he was anticipating? It was insanity.

Should he trust her and her well-trained dogs to get him where he had to go in the fastest way possible?

The truth was, he needed the dogs' speed and Lily's expertise. And more than that, the only way he
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could be sure she was safe was if
he
was with her.

No way in hell did he want her out on the trail, alone, in this storm. Any musher with any sense would've already battened down the hatches and found shelter. She'd be alone out there.

Jesus. A catch-22.

If she were with him he wouldn't have to stop, other than to snack and rest the animals, and they could travel through the day and night to reach the location quickly. As much as he loathed putting Lily in danger, she was right. He wondered rather ruefully if he'd ever live this down.

And then realizing, like it or not, that he had no choice, he hoped like hell they both lived to tell their grandchildren about it.

Derek repacked his sled, keeping only what he deemed absolute necessities in a bid to hold down the weight. Then he cleared a space in the cargo bed for a passenger. They were traveling light and fast.

Lily opted for writing a note to Matt, which she attached to Finn's collar, telling her brother she and Derek had decided to go off on their own for a few days. Matt would put a romantic spin on it, which was fine.

With blurry eyes Lily watched the dogs they weren't taking with them disappear over the rise as they followed the trail to the checkpoint, alone. In seconds their tracks were covered by wind-driven snow.

Derek wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "They'll be fine."

"They don't need anyone telling them where to go." She rubbed her nose with her palm, watching until the last tail disappeared over the rise. "They know the trail better than we do."

"Damn straight." He herded her to the team, who by this time were practically jogging in place and singing the Hallelujah Chorus in their eagerness to get going.