Rescue Me (11 page)

It didn't matter how much he wanted the
happily ever after. He had a duty and that duty took priority over
anything else. Thinking about a future, dreaming of a life with
Kathryn, poured salt into the already gaping wound that had been
his childhood without a father. He'd watched helplessly as his
mother died a little more with each passing day.

Could he do that to Kathryn?

An epiphany hit him so hard he jerked his
head up. Was it really his choice to make? She'd already made her
decision. She wanted him, despite what he did for a living. And,
goddamn it, he didn't want to live another day without her. He
needed her, even more than she needed him. It wouldn't be forever
and he knew that. But it would be
something
, and that was
more than he had now.

His gut pinched as his pulse raced. What
right did he have to play with fate? He'd screwed up a year ago
when he let her go. He wouldn't make that same mistake. Fate
brought them here. And now he had the chance to make it right, to
put the past behind him and go on living. Hell, he even had the
board's permission.

Could it really be that easy?

“Are we there yet?” Spencer leaned forward in
the seat.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Weber
growled.

Gessler laughed. “Told you that I should have
driven. Sit back and relax, Allen. You look like a kid at Christmas
about to pee his pants from excitement.”

“Just want to get out there and finish this.”
Spencer slowly sank back in the seat as his epiphany continued. The
minute they completed this find, he'd go to her. He'd right the
mistake he made a year ago. He just hoped it wouldn't be an even
bigger mistake. Would this be the happy ending he'd been searching
for?

Or would this ultimately destroy them
both?

* * * *

Kat studied the large map posted to the
outside of the Com Van. The awning protected her from the snow as
it came down even harder. The storm brought in a good two inches
just in the last hour since they'd moved base camp to the Peak.
They had to find Tommy now. If he wasn't mobile, the snow could
have already covered him to the point the searchers would miss
him.

Travis joined her and handed her a cup of
steaming coffee. “We could have run the search from where we were.
We didn't have to waste time moving base camp.”

“I want to be as close as possible to the
PLS.” She traced the new search grid with her finger and shivered.
Damn was it cold out here and the temperature kept dropping. “All
these main logging roads are like spokes on a bike wheel, with the
Peak the center hub. The easiest way back down is following the
C-Line logging road.”

“Someone would have seen him,” Travis pointed
out. “We've got the mobiles on the C-Line. Our horse teams are on
those skinny ass trails the four-wheel drives can't fit on. The
ground pounders are scattered all over this side of the mountain.
If he's out there, we'll find him.”

“Unless he's hiding.”

“Why would he hide?”

Kat wished she could tell him more, but
couldn't. Hell, she wasn't even supposed to know as much as she
did. TREX definitely didn't like that she knew the truth behind
Tommy Miller's disappearance. Too damn bad.

But she also knew the less people that knew
the truth, the less likely anything would leak to the authorities,
or worse. The press.

“Because he's six.” She paused and scanned
the map for where'd she'd be if she were a kid lost in the woods.
Tapping into her own personal experience, she put herself in
Tommy's situation. “He's got to be heading downhill.”

“How can you be so sure?” A warm baritone
voice sounded from behind her.

She spun around to see Spencer and his TREX
men standing there, the white snow falling around them a stark
contrast to their all black attire. Travis snapped his brow into a
frown as he swept his gaze across them all.

Wow. It was like staring at a football team's
frontline. They were huge, well over six feet, and all hard-bodied.
All very male. Each set of eyes settled on her, but she only felt
the smoky gray gaze as his look heated her, liquefying her from the
inside out.

“To what do I owe the honor of a visit from
the entire entourage?”

“We want to help,” Spencer offered after a
longer-than-necessary warning glare at Travis. He took a step
toward Kat and Travis took a step back in response. “Tell us what
you need.”

“We've got it covered.” Travis crossed his
arms in front of him. He clearly didn't like the sudden appearance
of the TREX men.

“Travis, have Ed move radio checks to every
ten minutes. It's getting dangerous out there.” When he didn't
move, she turned to him. “Please?”

He gave her a curt nod, delivered a final
glare Spencer's way, and then disappeared into the Com Van,
slamming the door so hard the motor home rocked.

“Is he always like that?” An agent with
midnight blue eyes and dark brown hair nodded toward the Com
Van.

“An asshole?” Spencer clarified. “Yes, he
is.”

“He's just stressed,” Kat defended. “We all
are. Searching for kids always adds another layer of anxiety to any
search. So are you going to introduce me to the boys?”

“David Snyder.” A sandy blond man with rich
chocolate eyes that danced as he smiled stepped forward.

The blue-eyed agent with the dark hair went
next. “Logan McKoy.”

“Alan Cummings.” A man with long brown hair
nodded, knocking some of that hair into his equally brown eyes. Kat
didn't know they allowed agents to grow their hair out that
long.

“Bruce Aims.” When the blond with hazel eyes
nodded, his glasses slid down his nose. He pushed them back up with
a single finger to the bridge.

“Gabriel Lyons, ma'am.” The chestnut-haired
agent rested ardent green eyes on her.

“One big happy family?”

“More like a brotherhood,” Spencer answered
and tossed a look at the team before holding his attention on her.
“Tell us what we can do to help.”

She had plenty of teams in the field, but men
with TREX training out there with them made her feel better.
Although Weber insisted TREX's intel showed only three
kidnappers—all now dead—that intel didn't pick up on Salazar's
involvement. There could be others.

“Are you all on foot?”

They nodded.

She turned to the map. Because of the gates,
she couldn't get any of her horse teams or mobile units on the
switchbacks. Her ground pounders were already on the more likely
trails. The chances that Tommy passed through those gates and got
himself stuck on the switchbacks were slim to none, but it kept the
agents busy while keeping them close in case she needed them to
protect any of her teams.

She followed the switchbacks with her finger.
“See these spurs? Let's check each one. He's panicking and
disoriented. Hypothermia can set in pretty quick in the smaller
bodies.”

“Especially the wounded ones,” Spencer
added.

“Exactly.” She highlighted the trails she
wanted them to check. “Do voice checks every quarter mile. Be sure
you identify yourself as friends of his grandfather so he'll
answer.”

“If he can answer.”

“Right.”

The team broke into a jog and disappeared up
the hill leading to the switchbacks, but Spencer stayed back.

“Aren't you going with them?”

“I'll monitor their traffic from here.” His
voice softened and she immediately didn't want to trust it. And
yet, for some crazy reason, she did.

She didn't trust him when he looked at her
like that. Smoldering gray eyes held her still. And he was being
nice, which set her alarms off. “Why? What's going on?”

“We have a chaplain and ambulance on the
way.”

Good. One less call she'd have to make to
Rand. But that didn't answer her question. “Why are you staying
behind, Spence? Shouldn't you be out there with your team?”

“Someone needs to relay radio traffic to
you.”

“You could always give me one of your
radios.”

When he smiled, she knew better than to
believe it to be genuine. It broke her heart that they couldn't be
honest with each other. “Why don't you head inside the Com Van and
get out of this snow? I'll sit with the family. If my team finds
anything, I'll come get you.”

“Sounds good.” Besides, she didn't have much
of a choice. She stepped into the Com Van and stared at the map she
had posted on the big wall. They had to find that little boy. She
didn't want to think about the mood base camp would be in if this
turned into a recovery. Especially with a kid.

“Coffee?” Travis lifted the pot in offering.
She nodded and handed him her Styrofoam cup. He topped it off and
then set both cups on the table before sliding onto one of the
benches. “So where did you send Rambo and the Rambettes?”

“Switchbacks.”

“But those are gated. He's not back
there.”

“I'm just being thorough.”

“He's not back there,” he insisted.
“Seriously, Kat. Why waste their time sending them somewhere you
know this kid isn't at?”

“Because I don't know for sure.” Nothing
about this search made sense. She chewed on her thumbnail as she
studied the map, waiting for the answer to jump out at her. A
six-year-old would do one of two things. He'd either stay put until
someone found him. Since TREX didn't find him where they found the
blood, he ran. If it were Kat, she'd run away from the person
trying to hurt her.

And then she'd hide.

The ground pounders would check logs and
hollowed out stumps. The horse team wouldn't get off their horses
at every log or they'd never even get a mile in before dark. The
mobiles wouldn't even get out of their rigs.

She knew TREX would check under every rock.
They found things for a living, things nobody else could find. She
counted on that now.

Maybe Travis was right. Maybe she shouldn't
waste their talents by having them search an area she knew Tommy
wouldn't be hiding in. When she turned to leave the Com Van and
tell Spencer to redirect his team, the door opened and he stepped
in. His massive frame took up the entire doorway.

He handed her a radio. “My team finished
their assignment and is standing by.”

“They searched all those spurs already? That
was fast.” Kat tried to downplay the jump in her pulse. He actually
gave her access to his sacred TREX radio traffic.

“They're efficient.”

She looked at the map and chewed on her other
thumbnail. Where could she send them to keep them close? Her
frustration mounted. They only had a few hours of daylight left. If
they didn't find Tommy by dark, they wouldn't find him alive.

“Can you get your teams—”

“Com Van, Horse Team Two.” The radio in her
hand sounded. She frowned and swung her attention to Spencer.

“I dialed in your SAR frequencies. It's got
ours, too. You can monitor the entire search from that radio.”

“Com Van,” Kat answered, covering the radio
while Ed made a fast food run for the team. She turned to Travis to
make sure he listened in.

“We heard something when we did a voice
check. Sounds like it's coming from the valley. The trail is too
steep to ride the horses down, so we're walking them. Hopefully it
evens out.”

“It will.” Kat knew the trail. She'd walked
it many times as a ground pounder when she worked searches with her
dad. “Do another voice check to confirm.”

“Stand by,” the OL said. Several seconds
passed and Kat gripped the radio so tight her knuckles turned
white. “It is definitely a voice.”

“Yes!” she cried and punched the air.
Snapping her fingers to get Travis's attention, she then pointed at
the map. “Make sure we mark their location.”

“We found a sweatshirt!” The OL shouted over
the radio waves. “It looks fresh. Maybe from this morning.”

“Give me your coordinates, Horse Team Two.”
Kat wrote them down and looked at Travis, who then pinpointed the
location on the map. “Mark it, pick it up, and keep moving.”

Kat began to pace, which proved difficult
with Spencer standing a few feet away. She gave up and went back to
chewing on her nails.

“Com Van, we found...” the OL paused. Kat
wanted to scream at him to finish, but remained silent.

Agonizing seconds passed and no longer able
to take the silence, she asked, “What did you find, Horse Team
Two?”

“Prints. We found footprints about fifty feet
down the trail.”

Kat snapped her fingers at Travis again. He
nodded and waited. “Coordinates?”

Travis marked the coordinates on the map.

“There is something else.”

Her pulse leapt in response. “What?”

“They appear to be barefoot. Jesus Lord.”

Oh shit. Exactly what Kat had been afraid of.
“In most cases of hypothermia, the body goes into hyper drive to
heat up. The body literally starts to freeze and blood rushes to
keep warm, causing the person to become disoriented. They strip
because they think they're too hot. Find him, Horse Team Two.
There's no other option.”

“Understood.”

“Do another voice check.”

She paused, her portable radio in hand, raw
fear sweeping her body. What would they find when they did locate
the boy? Finding him being anything other than in perfect health
plagued her thoughts and kept her pulse rate bouncing around like
water on a hot griddle.

The OL from the horse team spoke. “What the…
Who are you?”

The world stopped as she looked to Spencer.
What if there was another kidnapper out there? What if her team had
just stumbled upon a very pissed off man with a gun?

“Spencer?”

“It's okay. It's my team.”

She didn't even want to know how they got to
her horse team so fast or even knew where they were. Her heart went
back to actually beating again. “Proceed, Horse Team Two.”