I can’t tell him about that. Just the thought made Colin a little queasy.
“What’s wrong? You look like a goose stepped on your grave.”
The afternoon had gone quiet around them, the kind of mountain quiet that still caught him off guard sometimes—no traffic sounds, no ambient city hum, just wind moving through the pines around them and the occasional creak of the fence.
“It was the little girl’s eyes,” Colin said. “I need you to understand about the eyes.”
Mac braced. “What about them?”
“You know Arden’s eyes.”
Mac considered this. “Yeah. Silver-gray. Very unusual.” His brow furrowed. “Are you saying…”
“That kid had the exact same eyes. Not similar. Thesame.”
“So…a cousin?”
“Nope. Herniece.”
Mac was quiet for a moment. “Sean’s eyes,” he finally said.
Colin nodded. “Has to be. Thing is, Arden didn’t know about her.”
Mac whistled. “Holy moly.”
Neither of them had met Sean Volker. They’d come on two years ago, hired into Mountain Division after most of the founding story had already happened—Kyle and Arden falling in love over Camo, buying up the properties on the foothill, installing the gate. They knew the shape of it the way they knew any team’s mythology: Sean was Arden’s brother, SWCC, killed while trying to extract a SEAL team under fire. Charlie and Shane had been there. And Camo, who had been a Military Working Dog with the SEALs had guarded Sean’s body and wouldn’t leave him. Colin didn’t want to ask for more intel than that.
“And the woman is her mother?” Mac asked.
“No. She said she’s the aunt.” Colin shook his head. “She was jumpy. Kept looking behind her. I asked her if she was in immediate danger.” Colin paused. “She said no. But she’d checked over her shoulder before she answered.”
Mac raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“And I don’t know. She was exhausted. Coming off an all-night drive from San Diego. You drive that road solo with a littlekid in the back seat, you’re going to be running on fumes by the end regardless.”
“True.” Mac let out a long, low breath. He looked up at the sky. He looked back at Colin. “Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s—wow.”
“I know.”
“Boss must be out of his mind. Not to mention Arden.”
“That’d be my guess.”
The kennel door swung open.
Camo came trotting out first, scanning the yard like an old pro. Then Jodie, with a squirming Malinois puppy in her arms trying to lick her chin. Beside her was Juniper, beaming up at the puppy.
Then Maren.
Her hand rested on Juniper’s shoulder. She’d taken out her ponytail or it had come down on its own somewhere between the conference room and here. It was brown with golden highlights in the sun and it was longer than he’d registered back at the gatehouse. His fingers itched to run through its length.
Stand down, soldier.
He straightened off the rail and put the thought somewhere he wasn’t going to look at it.
