Mountain Ranger Recon

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Ian shifted to the side of the irritated deputy to study Meg’s face. She avoided his eyes and focused on Cahill’s square jaw instead.

“I have a personal emergency, Pete.” She held up a cell phone. “I’m going to make a call first.”

Ian’s brain had started functioning again and he realized the man, Matt, had referred to Meg’s son as your son. Matt couldn’t be the father. So who had that distinction? That lucky distinction.

Meg turned her back on him and put the phone to her ear. It didn’t look like an explanation to him rated on her list of priorities right now. Payback was a bitch.

“We’re set up in there.” Cahill pointed a steady finger toward the corner of the room.

Ian trudged after the sheriff, feeling as if lead lined the bottom of his hiking boots. He wanted to listen in on Meg’s conversation. Was she calling the boy’s father?

The thought of Meg with another man tightened hot coils of anger in his belly. Then he let out a long breath. Although neither one of them had filed for divorce, Ian had no right to these possessive feelings about Meg. Had he really expected her to be as pristine as the snow frosting the top of the Rockies?

He hadn’t thought about it. Didn’t want to think about it.

Ian trudged into the room behind Cahill, and squared his shoulders as he faced the room with two other deputies seated at a serviceable table nicked with scratches and scars. Seamlessly, his thoughts shifted from Meg to the job at hand. Meg had resented his ability and propensity to switch his focus so quickly. But his work had always been a top priority for him. His parents had demonstrated to him what happened to people who couldn’t commit to a job or responsibilities, and he refused to follow their example.

Cahill reached around Ian and snapped the door closed, the glass set in the center trembling with the force. “Okay now, Mr. Shepherd, or whoever you are, do you want to explain what’s going on? Why did you stay behind and hike out of that canyon instead of boarding the chopper with your wife’s body? And I don’t want to hear about any wedding ring.”

Ian reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and yanked out his wallet. He dug into one of the many compartments, his fingers closing around his I.D. Then he snapped it on the table top. “My name’s Ian Dempsey, and I’m on a high-security mission for the United States military. The woman who…fell was my partner and CIA.”

The three deputies sucked the air out of the room. That probably wasn’t what they’d wanted to hear. And technically Ian hadn’t told them the whole truth and nothing but. Colonel Scripps would vouch for him. He’d better, because the Agency didn’t have any knowledge of this operation and would hang him out to dry.

“Dempsey?” Cahill cleared his throat. “What branch of the military are we talking about?”

His name seemed to stick in Cahill’s gullet. Ian ran a finger along the inside collar of his jacket. He knew Cahill wouldn’t be a pushover, by the set of his jaw and the suspicion in his eyes. “Intelligence. Covert ops.”

Cahill cursed. “How much are you going to tell us and how much of that is going to come close to the truth?”

“My partner and I…” The door swung open and Ian snapped his mouth shut.

Meg poked her head into the room, her ponytail sliding over one shoulder. “Sorry.”

“Everything okay with your little man, Meg?” Cahill’s eyes softened to brown pudding when he looked at her. So she had that effect on the sheriff, too. All men wanted to be her Sir Galahad, but she preferred to don the armor herself. She’d learned from an early age that support came with a myriad of strings attached.

“How’d you know it was Travis?”

“Matt told me before all the craziness started. Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. A cut beneath his chin and a few stitches.” She folded her arms across her chest. “What did I miss?”

“Mr. Dempsey here was just telling us he’s on a top-secret mission, and the poor lady who died wasn’t his wife.” Cahill wedged his hands on the table top and hunched forward. “How did your partner wind up at the bottom of the gorge, Mr. Dempsey?”

“I have no idea, Deputy Cahill.” Had Dempsey been the school bully who’d stolen Cahill’s lunch money? The good sheriff seemed to sneer every time he said Ian’s name.

Ian felt Meg’s glance slide across his face, but he kept his gaze pinned to Cahill, as unpleasant as that was.

“Any chance you’re going to tell me what you’re doing in our neck of the woods?” The deputy’s dark brows created a deep V over his nose.

If Ian ever did need help, he wouldn’t hesitate to enlist Cahill’s talents. Even though the sheriff clearly didn’t like him, Ian knew he could trust the no-nonsense lawman. But he had no intention of putting the local law in some terrorist cell’s line of fire.

Ian shrugged, raising the right corner of his lips. “I’m on a reconnaissance mission, Sheriff Cahill.”

“I’m gonna need more than this two-bit badge to trust you, Dempsey.” Cahill glanced at Meg and tapped the plastic CIA ID on the table, nudging it with his fingertip. “We have a woman’s death in our jurisdiction.”

Ian fumbled through his wallet to locate Colonel Scripps’s latest cell phone number. The colonel wouldn’t appreciate a call like Cahill’s, but he’d come to expect being called upon to provide the legitimacy of his operatives from time to time.

At least he had. The members of Prospero hadn’t been Colonel Scripps’s operatives for a long time now, but the colonel was the one who had called them all out of retirement to help find Jack. He’d have to accept a few glitches along the way, especially since they were conducting operations stateside now, instead of in the lawless regions of Afghanistan or Somalia.

Cahill swept the card from the table and peered at it. Then he flicked it with his finger. “I’m off to do a little fact checking. Can you keep an eye on this one, Meg?”

Meg chewed her bottom lip as if seriously considering Cahill’s question, or seriously considering something. “I—I can vouch for him, Pete. Ian Dempsey’s my ex…my husband.”

If Ian’s earlier announcement about his true identity had floored the three deputies, Meg’s knocked them out for the count. At least the other two deputies, whose mouths gaped like a couple of salmons swimming upstream. Cahill seemed to take the news in stride, pressing his lips into a thin line, a martial light gleaming in his dark eyes.

Leave it to Meg to put it all out there.

“Are you involved in this mess, Meg?” Cahill put a comforting hand on her shoulder and Ian felt like knocking it off.

She patted his long fingers. “No more than you are, Pete. Don’t worry. Mr. Dempsey has everything under control.”

Ian nearly choked on the snort he half swallowed. He had nothing under control, including his own emotions, but he wasn’t about to correct Meg. Especially in front of this man who seemed way too close to his wife.

Cahill turned his cold gaze on Ian. “Watch yourself, Dempsey. Nobody walks into my town and plays fast and loose with Meg O’Reilly, husband or no husband.”

“Furthest thing from my mind.” Ian held up his hands, flexing his fingers so he wouldn’t curl them into a fist.

When Cahill left the room, the other two deputies got down to business, asking about Kayla’s accident. Although Ian had expressed his firm belief to Meg that Kayla’s fall had been no accident, he backpedaled with the deputies. The last thing Ian or Prospero or Jack needed right now was a swarm of deputies blanketing the mountain looking for a weapon. Hell, Ian didn’t even know what to look for at this point.

Meg kept her mouth shut through most of the questioning, not even raising an eyebrow at some of his blatant lies. She’d learned more as a spy’s wife than he’d given her credit for.

As the deputies wound up their cross-examination, Ian had a couple of questions of his own. “Has anyone located the German tourist missing from the hike yet?”

Deputy Jensen scratched his chin and dropped his pencil on the pad of paper filled with Ian’s lies and half truths. “As far as I know, he’s still missing.”

“How’d that happen, Brock? Matt was leading them out, right?” Meg twisted her hands in front of her, lacing her fingers in an intricate pattern.

Did she still have her son on her mind? Ian wanted to sweep away all her worries. He’d always had that desire and had tried to keep his professional life out of their domestic life. It hadn’t worked out as he’d planned. Meg had always felt shut out when all he’d wanted to do was protect her.

Jensen shrugged. “Apparently the guy kept hanging back and taking pictures, wandering off the trail. Matt was anxious to get the others up to the summit and eventually lost track of the guy.”

“Just great.” Meg rubbed her creased brow. “This is a banner day for Rocky Mountain Adventures, isn’t it? The guy acted the same on our portion of the hike, but it could’ve been some kind of cover. Maybe he had something to do with Kayla’s fall.”

“Do you have his info from when he signed up for the hike?” Ian scraped his chair around to face Meg.

“I’m sure Matt’s already looked him up, probably even called his hotel. I know his name was Hans, at least that’s what he told me.” She placed her palms flat on the table, as if to still their worried motion. “Do you think he’s involved?”

“There’s only one way to find out. We need to locate him and ask him a few pointed questions.”

“We can at least help with that.” Jensen drummed his fingers on the table in a staccato beat. “We’ll search his hotel room and put a call out for his rental car, if he has one.”

Ian nodded. “I appreciate that, Deputy Jensen.”

The door burst open and Cahill huffed and puffed at the entrance to the office. “That Colonel Scripps is as closed-mouth as you are Dempsey, but you both check out. I mean, as far as I could check you out. Your background is a black hole.”

Ian pushed back from the table. At least Cahill had removed the sneer from his voice when he’d mentioned his name. That had to be an improvement. “If you boys are finished here, I have to make some arrangements for Kayla, and I’m sure Meg has pressing business elsewhere.”

God, he couldn’t even bring himself to mention her son. Every thought of the boy punched him in the gut. They couldn’t leave the subject hanging between them. She knew that he knew. He couldn’t pretend otherwise…even if he wanted to. She’d deem him a coward if he avoided the topic.

Cahill held out the card with the colonel’s number. “You can have this back, Dempsey. Just don’t cause trouble in my town. I don’t want any more unexplained dead bodies turning up, including yours.”

“That’s decent of you, Sheriff.”

“Hell, that’s not decent. Your corpse can turn up anywhere else, just not in Crestville.”

Ian stuck out his hand. “I’ll try my best to die outside of your jurisdiction.”

Cahill squeezed his hand hard. “Appreciate it. Meg, do you need a ride to the emergency room, or is Travis home now?”

“Travis is still in the emergency room and I want to pick him up, but my car’s at the office at the bottom of the mountain. Gabe can take me down in the van.”

Cahill sliced a hand through the air. “By the time Gabe gets you down there, Travis will be home. I’ll take you.”

“I’ll take her. I left my car up here and took the van down earlier, since we were skipping the train.”

Two pairs of eyes, one dark the other bright blue, studied him. Heat suffused Ian’s chest and he battled to keep it out of his face. A minute ago he couldn’t stomach the thought of Meg with a child, someone else’s child. Now he had a burning need to see him. He’d escaped torture by the enemy several times, and now he was prepared to inflict it on himself.

He held his breath, waiting for Meg’s refusal. She had every right to keep him out of this part of her life, out of every part of her life. He’d let her go without a fight, and he’d regretted it every day of his sorry existence after he’d left. He had to pay some kind of penance now, a glimpse into what might have been between them. Hell on earth.

“Okay.” Meg inclined her head, dropping her lashes. “You can give me a ride, Ian.”

Ian swallowed. She seemed almost conciliatory, as if she owed him something. Would she tell him about the boy’s father? Was he still in the picture? Did she want to rub his face in it?

Cahill tugged on Meg’s ponytail. “We’ll talk later. In the meantime, we’ll keep our eye out for the missing hiker, although I’m sure Matt’s already headed back to search for him.”

Meg reached for the door and turned, pinning Ian with her gaze. “Don’t you have to make arrangements for Kayla?”

“I’m sure Colonel Scripps has already started the wheels turning, since the good sheriff here informed him of the circumstances.” Ian tapped his phone in his pocket. “I’ll give him a call and we can work out the details on the way to the hospital.”

Wrinkling her nose, Meg cocked her head. “Are you okay?”

No. He had a sour knot of regret gnawing at his insides for Kayla, and now this child that Meg shared with someone else. Someone worthy of fatherhood.

“It makes me sick to think about Kayla’s family on the other end of this tragedy, but I’m determined to see this through.” He bent his head to whisper in her ear. “For Kayla and Jack.”

“If you need anything else, Pete, you know where to find me. And I’m leading another hike tomorrow.”