Lost in Shadows (25 page)

Then KC walked through the door and all heads turned to her.

Vinnie was amazed by the woman’s acting performance. KC was a natural, allowing the men who leapt to the assistance of the “damsel” in distress to ease her into a chair, sipping at the warm coffee Faye brought her with both hands circled around the mug as if the brew was a lifesaving elixir, and letting Tammie, the waitress, wrap her in an old blanket. 

Every face inside the café was a familiar one and no one seemed to question KC’s story or her motives. Vinnie relaxed slightly, glad that the people she called friends weren’t in league with The Preacher and that there would be no need for Vinnie to follow KC’s final instructions.

Faye escorted KC to her office to use the phone there in private. A few minutes later KC emerged, ran her fingers through her short curls in the sign they had agreed upon. She’d gotten the message out, mission accomplished.

Vinnie sat back on her heels and blew out the breath she’d been holding. KC’s people—whoever they were, Vinnie still wasn’t exactly clear on that—would be coming to get The Preacher and Chase. And Lucky. He’d be gone, vanished from her life as quickly as he’d came.

Damn the man with his irrepressible spirit, that sly half-grin, those puppy dog hazel eyes. He was strong, vulnerable, courageous, funny, smart, kind, and cute. 

The perfect man, and he’d be long gone by the time she made it back to her cabin. Unless they needed her to testify or something, she’d most likely never see him again. Good thing she hadn’t fallen for him.

She sniffed back her tears. Now wasn’t the time. Once she was alone again, then she could cry over what could have, might have been. 

At least they had last night. Despite the fact that it had been a totally irresponsible thing to do, Vinnie was glad now that she had made love to Lucky. She only wished that she’d known at the time that it was more than sex.

Vinnie rose to her feet, concealed the gun in her waist pack and went inside Faye’s. Just as she and KC had arranged, she would pretend surprise at all the people gathered there, let them make a fuss over her and concoct some story about why she had come down the mountain. KC would watch, make sure everyone believed her story, and Vinnie would pass the hard drive to her.

KC hadn’t been sure if Vinnie could fit on the helicopter with them—and Vinnie wasn’t sure if she wanted to face Lucky again. She decided there was safety in numbers. She’d stay at Faye’s today, let Faye would bundle her into one of the guest rooms for the night, and tomorrow Vinnie would return home. 

Alone. With no one the wiser about her involvement in the night’s drama. Or, if Lucky and his people did their jobs, even that there had been any drama at all. And her safe, solitary, monotonous life would go on. Alone. 

Lucky grabbed Chase’s MP-5 and ran to the porch when he heard the helicopter approaching. It was almost dawn. 

Either The Preacher’s men worked fast, or Vinnie and KC had made it through. He sighted on the helicopter’s hatch as it settled to the ground, mere yards away from the carcass of its sister machine. The hatch opened and a familiar figure leapt to the ground, followed by two others who wrestled a stretcher through the snow.

KC. The cavalry had arrived as promised. This nightmare was almost over. Then Lucky would be free to—the thought stopped him in his tracks. He’d been focused for so long on merely getting through life one day at a time, going through the myriad motions of living from rolling out of bed in the morning to willing himself to fall asleep each night, that he’d forgotten how it felt to want tomorrow to arrive. 

He smiled, gave KC a quick hug and looked beyond her for a figure that didn’t appear.

“We had weight issues,” KC answered his unspoken question. “Vinnie’s safe at the diner. I told her I’d send someone to pick her up, bring her to meet us at the hospital. How’s Chase?”

“Slept a little. The pain seems less now that the swelling’s gone down a bit.” 

She left to check on Chase while Lucky escorted their prisoner to the helicopter. It was a tight fit with Chase on a gurney, KC on a jump seat at his head, the medic and pilot in front and Lucky and The Preacher strapped into seats behind them. 

The sun was just appearing when they flew over the diner at the base of the mountain. Lucky craned his head to watch it until it vanished from sight, wondering if Vinnie was thinking about him.

He couldn’t help but smile at the thought. She’d said she would get them off the mountain alive and by God, she had done it—despite everything going wrong that could have gone wrong. 

He’d sure as hell earned his nickname, finding a woman like her. Who could have guessed that something that had started out so horribly would end up with The Preacher in custody and Lucky greeting the coming day with a smile? 

Vinnie didn’t feel the way he did, not yet. But he was looking forward to the challenge of convincing her of his many virtues. 

Including the fact that he could be just as stubborn as she was.

Billy Price and two burly State Troopers were waiting when they set down at the Winchester hospital. 

“As soon as the doctor gives the okay, we’re going to have a long talk,” Price assured The Preacher as they handcuffed him and led him into the ER. 

Lucky followed and wasn’t surprised to find Rose, Hollywood, and EZ all waiting as well. Rose and Hollywood were the best interrogators the Team had, as soon as they finished debriefing Lucky they would be well equipped to question The Preacher. 

EZ already held the hard drive KC had brought, looking like a kid who’d gotten what he wanted for Christmas. 

The ER doctor, a tall, wiry man with long brown hair braided behind him and a gold hoop earring, stepped between Lucky and his welcome committee and ushered Lucky into an exam room.

“Wait,” Lucky protested. “I need to talk to them.”

“You can,” the doctor, the name on the tag clipped to his jeans pocket was Shunderson, assured Lucky. “Just as soon as I see if we need to get you to the OR. Your friend’s headed there and we only have a limited staff available. How long ago were you shot, Agent Cavanaugh?”

Lucky answered Shunderson’s questions as a nurse stripped him of his clothes and the dressing Vinnie had so carefully applied. The nurse wrinkled her nose as she removed the tea bags with a pair of long tweezers, dangling the offensive material for the doctor to see before depositing them in the trash.

“We were in the middle of nowhere, we had to improvise,” Lucky said, feeling obligated to defend Vinnie’s treatment. Where was she? He hoped she would get here soon.

“Your friend did a good job,” the doctor said, pressing his fingers along Lucky’s collarbone and ignoring Lucky’s wince of pain. “The wound looks nice and clean, no active bleeding, even some early granulation tissue forming. We’ll debride it, shoot you up with antibiotics, but I think she’s saved you a trip to the OR. Your AC joint is another story. We’ll see once the swelling’s down, but you’ll probably need surgery to repair that ligament.”

“Tonight?” Lucky didn’t want to be sitting here in a hospital bed, he wanted to watch Rose and Hollywood interrogate The Preacher, wanted to be in on the end game.

Shunderson shook his head. “No, not tonight. A few weeks. I can get you the names of some good ortho guys. For now we’ll just immobilize it. Good thing you’re not left-handed.” 

He stood back to regard his patient. “Do you have any idea how lucky you were? A half inch in any direction and you’d be dead or facing permanent damage. As it was, if it wasn’t for your friend taking such good care of you—”

“Wouldn’t know it to look at him now,” Rose’s arrival interrupted Shunderson’s diatribe, “but when he was a Navy corpsman, the guys raved about his bedside manner.” 

Shunderson grunted and probed Lucky’s scalp wound. Rose dismissed the nurse and took her place at Lucky’s bedside. 

Lucky noticed the way Rose seemed to anticipate Shunderson’s needs, handing him instruments without his asking and wondered how long they had known each other.

“Is Chase all right?” Lucky asked trying to take his mind off the six inch long needle Shunderson now aimed at his shoulder. It looked wicked and the medication burned, but the doctor had assured Lucky that it was only a local anesthetic. 

“He could have lost the leg with a break like that,” Shunderson answered for Rose. “He’ll be in the OR for a few hours while they put everything back together, but he’ll be fine.”

“Okay doc, Lucky and I have work to do now,” Rose said.

“And work always comes first, doesn’t it, Rose?” Shunderson’s voice took on a wistful tone. 

Rose ignored him and sat beside Lucky, alternating playing assistant to Shunderson and letting Lucky hold her hand while he told her about The Preacher’s plans and the events of the last two days. 

Once upon a time, Lucky had had a crush on Rose, probably most of the men working under her command did. Rose was that kind of leader, she asked 100% from her people, but always gave back 110% of herself to both them and the cause.

He was surprised that her touch meant little to him now. Except making him miss Vinnie all the more. 

CHAPTER 38

After everything that had happened, Vinnie watched the helicopter disappear into the dawn twilight with a sense of disappointment. 

The other patrons returned inside the diner, talking about the woman with clout enough to get a helicopter come pick her up after her car stalled in the snow. Vinnie smiled, they would never know her part in the drama that had taken place on the mountain. She liked that, it made her feel special, being in on the secret.

But still, returning to her life of timber counts and wildlife surveys would be anticlimactic after the events of the last two days. A life with safe routines, the comfort zone of wilderness between her and the nearest other human—a life without Lucky or the passion he stirred in her.

The sun spread a purple haze over the treetops, giving the snow an alpine glow. No one else saw it, they were all sheltered inside, eating biscuits and red-eye gravy. An owl made one last bombing run, diving from the trees, aiming for its own breakfast.

“Mrs. Ryan?” The man’s voice behind her made Vinnie jump. She turned to see Mike Rawlins, a deputy sheriff. “Ma’am, I just received a call. They said you need a ride?”

Vinnie smiled. KC had kept her word. She glanced up at her mountain. It would still be there. But this might be her last chance to see Lucky. Somehow, after being with him, living in solitude had lost some of its appeal. “Yes, thank you. I need to get to the hospital at Winchester.”

The young deputy tapped his radio at his belt and hitched his pants. “Then I’m your man.”

Vinnie followed Mike to his Blazer, surprised to see that another man already occupied the front passenger seat. “Afraid you’ll have to ride in back, ma’am. Don’t worry, though, it’s clean.”

Vinnie hesitated, straining through the dim light to see the second man. Before she could distinguish any features, the man left the SUV and moved around to join them. He was dressed in jeans and a thick camouflage hunting parka, wore no badge but she could see the holster of a gun at his waistband.

“I left my gear inside,” she stalled. “Let me just ask Faye to keep it for me.”

“Everything’s taken care of,” Mike said, his smile still wide but with an edge. 

“It’ll just take a second.” Vinnie ignored his gesture to climb into the SUV and turned toward the diner. She unzipped her waist pack and circled her hand around the gun KC had given her.

Before she could draw it, a weight crashed against her back. She slammed into the ground. 

“Damn it, Rawlins,” the second man said, kneeling on Vinnie’s back as the Deputy cuffed her hands behind her. “I told you not to try anything fancy.”

The sharp prick of a needle distracted Vinnie for a moment. Then her world went hazy as if she were falling, tumbling through space, the rest of the world blurring around her.

CHAPTER 39

“The roads are opening up.” Billy came into the exam room just as the doctor finished tightening the Velcro swath that wrapped Lucky’s arm to his side. “We can move John Doe soon.”

“Good, we’re almost done here,” Rose said. “Mr. Doe saying anything?”

“Said he’d only talk to Lucky.” 

Lucky looked up at that. Last thing he wanted was another conversation with The Preacher. “Why? He wasn’t exactly forthcoming when we were alone earlier.”

Billy shrugged. “Head games.” He looked over at Shunderson. “We good to go, doc?”

“Here’s all the copies of the x-rays and paperwork on Mr. Doe and Agent Cavanaugh,” Shunderson said, handing Billy a thick envelope. “As far as we’re concerned, our only patient this morning was Mr. Westin who suffered an unfortunate car accident.”

Rose shook the doctor’s hand. “Thanks, Mitch. I owe you one.”

“Anytime, Rose. You know that.” 

Lucky wasn’t certain which surprised him more, the ER physician’s blush or the hard look Billy gave Shunderson. Rose seemed oblivious to both as he followed her out.