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“Are you Ms. Foster? Sunny Foster?”
“Yes, I’m here, just me though. My, uh, friend couldn’t join me after all.” Her throat closing with pain, with regret, she resisted the urge to look back at Wade. She juggled her backpack more firmly behind her so she could thrust out a hand. “Thank you for making this flight on such short notice.”
“My pleasure, ma’am. This is how I make my living.” He clasped her gloved hand in his. “My name’s Brett.”
***
His cell phone buzzed in his pocket.
Eyes locked on Sunny talking to the Cessna pilot, Wade ignored the call. He’d taken a week of leave to watch out for Sunny and he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. He would check the number and message as soon as the plane was airborne.
And he was inside it, planted right beside a certain infuriating woman.
Wade reached behind him for the backpack of survival and overnight gear he kept packed in the truck. Countless times he’d landed from one mission only to have the next waiting. And survival gear was a must in Alaska, where a broken-down car could be a matter of life and death.
The cell hummed again, any sound drowned out by the wind roaring down from the mountains to tear across the flat airport. Damn. It could be something about the deputy or those other bodies. He couldn’t afford to ignore it, especially when it could affect Sunny.
He tugged a glove off with his teeth and fished for his phone. “Sergeant Rocha.”
“Rocha, it’s McCabe,” the major said with clipped efficiency. “OSI just passed along some more information on your friend Ms. Foster and I thought you would be interested.”
Wade’s eye zipped back to the plane as Sunny passed over her backpack. He exited the truck and thumbed the automatic lock. “Your tone doesn’t sound great.”
Foreboding crept through him, but he needed every ounce of information he could scavenge, especially with Sunny still holding out on him.
“That’s because the news isn’t good,” McCabe answered unceremoniously. “She and her family had a reason for falling off-the-grid.”
Possibilities raced through his head—criminal ties topping the list. If she was on the run from the law, that was it. His time with her was over. Except she said she’d been in the community for fifteen years, just a teenager. Still… “Details?”
“She has a sister and a half brother. That brother—Phoenix Foster—joined the army straight out of high school.”
Brother in the army. Family slipping away, out of the mainstream. Into hiding. Ah hell, he could already guess at the deserter scenario about to unfold.
“He went AWOL the night before a deployment. He and his entire family haven’t been heard from since.”
Shock, then the bitter taste of bile hit him.
Her brother was a deserter. Her brother had abandoned his brothers in arms when they needed him in battle. Brothers and sisters in arms like his teammates… like his father…
Like his mother, who lived with nursing care round the clock because she couldn’t even dress herself anymore.
What a helluva time to learn the person Sunny had been protecting was the same sort of person who’d turned his back on everything Wade believed in, worked for, was willing to die for just as the pararescue motto declared.
That others may live.
And that very same brother had a lot more reasons for making sure no one left the mountain than the deputy ever had. That didn’t explain the deputy shooting at them, but then little about this had made sense from the beginning.
Charging across the lot, he shrugged his backpack more securely in place along with his resolve. “McCabe, can you do me a favor?”
“Sure. Anything. Ask and it’s yours.”
“Keep checking on Sunny’s dog. Make sure he’s okay. Sunny and I are going, uh, hiking. This could take longer than I expected—”
“No problem. That’s all I need to know. Besides, it’s not often that I get to hang out with a dog.”
Their jobs made having a pet virtually impossible.
“Thanks. I owe you.” He ended the call.
