Rival Forces (27 page)

The damn wonders of the Internet. Douchebag Number Two had probably Googled Harmonie Kennels, aerial view, and found both the property and road on the ridge. Maybe even had the trajectory and angle of the slope he was clinging to like a damn sheep, or Lily.

He spared a thought for his K-9 companion, knowing her absence was not a good sign. Lily had the agility of a mountain goat. Under other circumstances, she would have been up and over this hillside like a gazelle. Poor Lily. He hoped she was hidden well and tight. He'd make it up to her somehow.

He looked over again. Had they even expected they might be hauling a body? Maybe the bounty was for dead or alive.

That thought acted like a kick in the gut. But no, Gunnar had to be wanted alive. Or his captors would just have dragged him any kind of way up the hill. Someone wanted to interrogate Gunnar. Then his life would be worthless. That thought reinvigorated Kye.

He blew out a final breath, ignoring his fiery throat, and launched himself into the light. He moved quickly, not caring that his scrambling dislodged rocks that tumbled and fell with soft plops into the snow below. The men were busy moving Gunnar. No time for gunplay in that precarious situation.

In only seconds he was across the kill zone. He scrambled up into the tree line and into shadow once more. He could feel cuts and scrapes burning his hands and face, but the satisfaction of reaching safety without a bullet whizzing past his head was its own kind of wonderful. He didn't stop to celebrate. Once in the trees the ground was more solid, the canopy of limbs shielding it from a lot of the snow. Strangely enough, there seemed to be more light here. Snow clouds overhead reflected light back from metropolitan areas many miles away. It was almost like having a half-moon to guide him.

He scrambled up and on. He was going to beat those dickwads to their own getaway site.

He looked back only once, when he thought he again heard sirens. The mountains distorted and reflected sounds. He didn't see a single rotating red light on the road below, but a pair of headlights was turning into the property.

Shit.
Friend or foe? He really didn't have time to figure that out.

He swung around and returned to climbing, determined to give those bastards the surprise of their life at the top of the road.

He almost let out a yelp of satisfaction when his fingers finally dug into a flat surface where gravel rolled beneath his fingers underneath the snow. He'd made it to the road. He hauled himself over the side and let the kick of adrenaline power him to his feet. The past two weeks of navigating the ski slopes gave him extra power in his arms and legs that had propelled him up the steep hillside. Even so, he was a bit wobbly for the first few steps. And then he veered left.

He didn't see anything on the road ahead. No one was keeping watch. The dim, almost fairy light here was just enough to allow him to move confidently and quickly. Until he heard voices nearby. He paused. The men were just below him now. He could hear them arguing and cursing. Maybe that had something to do with the car that had pulled up in front of Yardley's house.

Kye let his gaze range out to the parking lot. He saw a man step out of a dark automobile and then he heard that man's voice over the loudspeaker say, “FBI. Surrender now or you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Kye smiled. Maybe the sheriff had called in reinforcements. Or the doc.

But he wasn't about to signal to the agent below and risk giving away his position. The FBI wouldn't know him from the mercs. And he most positively did not want to be shot at if the men abducting Gunnar were stupid enough to fire on a federal agent. If they were smart, they'd just keep doing what they were doing. The FBI didn't know where they were. With luck, they might get away before the FBI located them up on this ridge.

His work wasn't done.

Kye pulled his weapon a second time. With all his old habits in full military police mode, he moved forward deliberately toward his planned destination.

He moved only a few yards forward before he saw the vehicle. He wouldn't have known it was there if he hadn't been searching for it. It was big all-terrain truck but painted flat black so that no light bounced off it. No shiny surfaces. Even the lights must have been coated with Veil. These men were hard-core.

He moved into the shadow on the other side of the truck as the men began topping the slope onto the road. He could barely see them. In the diffuse light they looked more like twin golems crawling out of a place in Middle Earth.

Kye waited, heart hammering in a thick steady cadence for the moment when both armed men would be most vulnerable.

Purdy came first. Kye recognized him by his voice.

“Boost the package. Higher. Fuck.” When Gunnar's head appeared over the edge of the ridge, Purdy bent to drag the man up onto the road by his armpits.

Kye stepped out from behind the truck, keeping the hood between him and his prey. Gun double-fisted for accuracy. “Hold it right there, Purdy.”

“Shit.” Purdy dropped Gunnar like a hot potato and went for his gun. Of course, Purdy couldn't see that he held a gun.

“Don't move. I'm armed.”

“I am, too, you son of a bitch.” The dull gleam of a barrel appeared in Purdy's hand, aiming downward. “Move and I'll blow the doctor's head off.”

“That won't save you.”

The crunch of someone coming toward them jerked both of their attention toward the road in front of them.

As crazy as it seemed, all Kye could think of as an explanation was that Yardley had somehow—impossibly—found them.

He yelled a warning and raised his gun to fire just as light exploded from the end of Purdy's pistol. Only then did he hear it. The low grinding growl of a wolf who'd found its prey. A streak of something dark gray crossed his vision at chest level and then Purdy screamed and fell over backward.

A second shot went off as Purdy screamed. Oleg had made his bite. Kye didn't have to worry about him letting go. The Czech wolfdog was trained to hold until further notice. By the sounds of savage snarling, he was good for the duration.

“Fuck this.” By the sounds of it, the man who hadn't made it onto the road began to climb back down. But he must have lost his footing. Kye heard a cry and then the man was cursing and thrashing as he backslid down the slope.

Kye jerked open the truck door and turned on the brights and then laid on the horn. Now the FBI would be a good idea. Along with whatever was arriving as a caravan below with sirens and lights going.

*   *   *

Kye leaned against the intruder's truck, the area around it lit up like a movie stage set with law enforcement lighting, as he waited his turn to be looked after. Local, state, and federal agencies were now all involved. Purdy's partner had been picked up by the sheriff's deputies and taken into custody. But FBI agent Jackson was giving the sheriff an earful about jurisdiction.

Purdy was dead. Oleg had caught him high on the shoulder at the neck, fangs sinking in and tearing the jugular. Kye knew that hadn't been intentional but the canine was trying to take down a danger to someone he thought he should protect. Only later had he learned Yard had been on the road several yards behind the dog.

His heart knocked against his ribs as he realized she might have been shot instead.

He glanced at her. Her face pale and tight in the glare of the lights as she hugged herself and hovered over the EMTs working on Gunnar. It seems his abductors had drugged him with an injection to make him unconscious so that carrying him would be simpler. But he'd lost additional blood in the rough treatment and the EMTs were talking in low tones about the wet sounds on one side of his chest. A possible broken rib puncturing a lung.

He wanted to go and put his arms around Yardley and tell her everything was going to be okay. The worst was over. It would be better in the morning, and better still the day after. But something held him back. And it was more than the way she gazed at Gunnar, bending down to grasp his hand when an EMT moved aside.

He had yet to tell her that he was pretty sure not all the blood on Purdy was his own. The man had fired two shots at close range. The likelihood that Oleg had taken one of them was high. That could explain why the K-9 had run away as soon as Yard had called him off. Instead of returning to her side as he'd been taught, he'd run back into the dark from which he'd come like a feral creature.

Kye was only waiting for a chance to slip away and look for him.

That chance seemed to arrive when the first of three ambulances appeared on the utility road. One for Purdy's body. One for the FBI agent who, unbeknownst to them, had been monitoring the house for Agent Jackson. He'd been shot attempting to stop Purdy's partner from breaking into Yard's house. He'd lost a lot of blood but he'd been able to call for help.

The first wagon was for Gunnar, who would be transported to a nearby hospital. However, Agent Jackson had already made it clear that Gunnar was under his protection as a federal witness and he would be transported to D.C. as soon as he was stable enough.

As they loaded Gunnar into the ambulance, Yardley suddenly seemed to remember Kye was alive. She came toward him slowly, looking like a kid in his coat. It swallowed her figure and hung over her fingertips. She looked so young and vulnerable. He wanted to wrap her up in his arms and carry her away to where it was warm and quiet and very safe.

But he wouldn't. She was going with Gunnar.

She walked right up to him, so close he began to straighten from his slouch, and then she was plowing into him, her face going against his neck and burrowing there.

His arms came up about her. His SAR parka kept him from feeling any part of the woman beneath. It was enough she was leaning fully into him, her chill cheek on his even colder chest. Someone had tossed him a blanket that he'd put around his shoulders. But from the moment Yardley touched him, he burst into a blazing inferno inside.

Those around them seemed to understand it was a moment more private than most, and discreetly turned their backs and went on with their work.

Finally she lifted her head, but only so that her lips were turned up to his ear. “I thought, when I heard the shots, that you were dead. And David…” She seemed to run out of breath.

“I know.” He pressed her tighter to his body. “Didn't I promise you I'd take care of you? And him.”

“But I didn't want you to die doing it.” She lifted a hand and pounded her fist against his chest. “You idiot! You left me.” She was so weak the pounding was more like pats.

He lifted her chin and smiled at her. “You can beat me up later. I promise. I won't hit back.” Beyond her shoulder he saw the EMT signal that the wagon was ready to roll. “You need to go with David. I'll catch up when I can.”

She tried to smile at him but the muscles in her face wouldn't seem to work. “You … you sure you're okay? Your skin's like ice. And your poor nose.”

“Yeah. Well, I was too pretty for my own good anyway. Now I'll just be an average Joe.”

“Liar.” This time the smile made it onto her face. “You'll always be a beautiful man. The doctors will make you better than ever.”

He began releasing her. “The EMTs need you to go now.”

She nodded and reluctantly turned away.

“Wait.” She turned back. “How did you get up here so fast?”

Yardley blew out her breath. “There are steps cut into the slope behind the kennel. Dad made some SEALs do it for him as an exercise in cooperation. I think he just took advantage of their willingness to do anything to gain his approval.”

He would have done it by himself, to gain her approval. Hell, he'd climbed a hill in the snow in his undershirt for her. Pretty impressive. But he didn't say any of that. She was in love with another man.

She turned away only to spin back once more. “Here. You need this.”

She unzipped his coat and slipped it off to hand it to him. “I can't believe you've been out here dressed like that.”

Kye smiled. “Why? Are you cold?”

He waited until the ambulance pulled out and then approached the sheriff. “Can I borrow a high-beam flashlight and a FLIR? If you've got one.”

“Sure. But why?”

“Ms. Summers's K-9, Oleg. Purdy fired on him at close range. He's disappeared and I'm pretty sure he was hit.”

“Wait. I'll go with you.”

Kye nodded. “I'll need to go back to the house first. I need a few things, and my K-9, Lily. She's search-and-rescue-trained and will be able to track him faster in the snow than I can.”

“And get yourself some clothes, son. This ain't Florida.”

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Sheriff Wiley and one of his deputies who ran his hunting dog as a retriever agreed to help Kye search. First he had to go back to the house, pick up Oleg's muzzle and leash and a blanket he thought Yardley wouldn't mind him borrowing. And, of course, Lily.

He'd found her curled up on the bed he'd slept in the night before. Well, pieces of it. She had chewed up both pillows and the comforter, so that the room look like it had exploded. And then she'd had a go at a corner of the mattress itself. He couldn't blame her. Shut up all evening and half the night with strangers coming and going and gunshots. The bedroom looked like he probably felt if he had time to think about it, which he didn't.

She launched herself at him when he came in, yipping and screaming in joy. He took a few minutes to play with her. Letting her tug on one end of a sock and then giving her several treats as she performed tricks they usually practiced daily. It seemed to quiet her. The only strange thing about all this was that it was done by flashlight.

The sheriff told him he'd see to it that someone came out to check on the generator in the morning. After all, it would be Monday, the first working day of the new year. Until then, Kye would need to find a motel room. After he found Oleg. And after he visited the hospital to check on David and Yardley. He hoped he would be able to give her good news.