Indi strolled up, her usual hiking boots on her feet. She’d recently quit her job at the outdoor adventure company since the owner was the fucking asshole who’d told the kidnapper where she’d be in the mountains. Not on purpose but because he’d been duped. Still, no man should tell a stranger a woman’s whereabouts, no matter what line he was fed.
Ford had threatened his life, and he’d bailed Sparks and most likely Montana.
Because of what had gone down, she had the motivation and support to start her own company. One whose first client was Alpha Mountain Security. Ford wanted her to help us with our wilderness skills. Not that the crew already here hadn’t learned how to survive in the wild for weeks, but not everyone Ford would hire would be former SEALs. Like Quincy, to start. She was from somewhere in the south where there were no mountains. Not even winter.
“Help me out, Indi,” Taft said, giving her his signature smile. “Put Hayes here out of his misery and tell him Megan’s been writing her new married name—Megan Reyes—in little hearts on her notebook.”
Indi’s eyes sparkled as she replied, “Definitely. She told me all about it after our pillow fight.”
I glared. She had mercy on me and gave me a shoulder bump. “I’m just playing with you, Hayes. Megan hasn’t said a word.”
I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a sign that she really had been one and done.
“I know she was pretty interested in meeting you guys when she heard about Alpha Mountain,” she added. “When you installed the security system at my house, let’s say the chemistry between you two was pretty obvious. The Sparks dating pool can get pretty shallow. Believe me, I know.”
Ford cleared his throat behind her, and she turned and looped her arms around his neck, instantly turning soft. “I’m not talking about you, of course,” she murmured.
“You’d better not be,” he said gruffly, but his hands began to roam up and down her back like he couldn’t get enough of touching her. “I might take you behind the barn and—”
She covered his mouth with her hand and grinned. I’d known Ford for almost ten years, and I was seeing a whole new side to him with Indi. A side I honestly didn’t know existed. She was a good thing for him because he was still up to his eyeballs in trying to root out corruption in the military.
We’d gotten a good lead from the fucker, Tully, who’d kidnapped Indi. Her brother, Buck, had gotten caught in the middle of shady US soldiers moving drugs from Afghanistan. He’d been murdered for it, to keep him quiet. Because Ford had poked around into his best friend’s death, he’d been kicked out of the Navy on a bogus charge.
He was getting on with his life, building a solid company that did similar jobs as the SEALs without the red tape, but his name hadn’t been cleared yet, and whoever was in charge of the drug ring was still at large. While all of us were doing jobs for Alpha Mountain, we were on standby to deal with whoever was fucking with Ford. Kennedy’s computer digging had yet to reap any results. We wouldn’t stop, though, until the assholes were six feet under and Ford’s honor returned.
But the silver lining of all of this was that Ford had returned to Sparks and had his second chance with Indi. Now nothing could bring him down. I guessed that was what a good woman could do for a man.
And fuck if I didn’t want to experience that with my own small town spitfire. The one with the long thick brown hair and sultry eyes. The one who made a boxy deputy uniform look hotter than a thin white t-shirt under a spray of water.
“While those two have another workout” —Kennedy said as Ford and Indi veered off toward the main house to get cleaned up— “I’ll check the overnight data on Tully and his known associates.”
Quincy offered a little wave and took off at a jog toward the bunkhouse. She was living there with us, each in our room with a private bathroom.
The three of us followed at a slower pace. “It’s been a month. Anything new?” I asked Kennedy.
He shook his head. “No. It seems the assholes behind all this are just as cagey as your woman.”
I punched him in the arm then shook my head. “Asshole.”
CHAPTER
FOUR
HAYES
I saw the flashing lights in the distance. Sparks had mountains all around, but the open space was vast, and it was easy to see for miles. It was the same in Albuquerque where I’d grown up, but there was something more… vast… in Montana. It was easy to pick up on weather–or trouble–well in advance.
I pulled my truck off the road a short way behind the sheriff's patrol car. The sun was high and bright, yet even so, it wasn’t crazy hot this time of year like it would be in New Mexico. Not a cloud in the sky. Megan, along with her partner, were questioning a man standing by the hood of his older sedan.