Cover Me

chapter 17



Sunny felt as if she were in the middle of an old war film.

Strapped into the cavernous hold of the helicopter, she wore a helmet plugged into the central intercom system. At least three different conversations buzzed through. The pilots went back and forth about air speeds and headings. Something called “command post” added in weather and cautions. And then there were the people in back periodically piping in with everything else, yammering up the air waves. Roaring helicopter engines capped off the whole cacophony.

Like in the movies, all the big guns to save the day were geared up and ready for action. She felt… superfluous. She couldn’t stand the sense of helplessness. She wasn’t that kind of person. She needed to be able to do something. She had to contribute, to help put a stop to the horrible thing that had been planned right under her very nose for God only knew how long.

Her head was already spinning after how quickly things had happened—the helicopter landing, loading up her, Wade, Misty, and Flynn. Apparently people in her community, people she’d known and trusted, wanted to blow up a power plant and were hours away from making that happen.

She looked around at the packed webbed seats and recognized Wade’s PJ team from the mountain rescue when Deputy Smith had tried to mow them down. And the agent from the air force’s OSI who’d questioned her was at work with some handheld device, scrolling and typing. She struggled for his name… Special Agent Lasky.

Bracing against the inevitable chill, she reminded herself he was one of the guys in white hats now. Could her brother possibly be involved in something this horrific? Would the OSI—would Wade—even believe her when she told them she truly had no idea where Phoenix and Astrid may have gone?

Wade leaned into her line of sight as if sensing her fears. His mouth moved as he spoke, but she couldn’t make out what he said.

She felt like her sister right after she’d lost her hearing, first trying to read lips. “I can’t understand you with all these voices in the headset.”

“Here then. I’ll swap to interphone, just us back here.” A click cleared away the voices of the pilots and the tower until only Wade remained. “Is that better?”

“Much. Thanks.” The silence felt exaggerated after the bombardment of so much noise. She looked around at the other passengers again and they all still seemed oblivious. Catnapping. Reading. Just hanging out, and in no way showing the magnitude of what waited for them once they landed.

“What do you need?” Wade asked.

“Isn’t there something I can do? Talk to the agent over there? Tell him more about the possible players? There has to be something.”

Wade rested his broad hand on her knee and squeezed lightly. “We’ve got it from here. I just want to see you and your sister safely settled.”

Safely settled? “I thought you brought us along because we know the community.”

“Flynn can help with that. Things could get really crazy down there if we can’t stop the explosion in time. In order to focus, I need to know that you’re locked down tight.”

Surprise sparked through her. He really intended to shuttle her aside to some quiet little room at the station, or maybe he even planned to plop her in a hotel with a guard, for crying out loud. Anger flushed through her like splashes of red in the northern lights. “Wade, we’ve worked together for this whole week, helping each other stay a step ahead of whatever’s going on.”

He squeezed her knee a little tighter. “Sunny—”

She pushed his hand away. “Don’t you dare think you can just distract me with a little sweet talk and stirring up my hormones again, Wade Rocha.” She cut him short, on a roll and needing to be heard. “I may be from a small rural area and not some badass warrior, but that doesn’t mean I’m less capable than you—”

A sneeze cut through the airwaves.

Wade stared back at her. And he hadn’t sneezed.

She looked around quickly at a cargo hold of people working very hard not to make eye contact with her. Her gaze finally settled on the quiet, moody PJ, the one they called Bubbles. He had his hand over his mouth, his thumb and forefinger pinching his nose.

Bubbles glanced up slowly, brooding eyes at half-mast. “’Scuse me.”

His two clipped words came through her headset loud and clear.

Jerking back toward Wade, she glared accusingly. “I thought this was a private line.”

He scratched his jaw. “Private for all of us in the back. I tried to tell you.”

“Oh.”

The older guy—McCabe—stood abruptly. “Heads up. All ears cue in. Chopper’s entering the approach pattern to land. We’ll be rolling out right into the parking lot of the power plant. A SWAT team is already on-site. FBI is on their way.”

Her gut knotted. All embarrassment evaporated. The helicopter banked left, swooping downward. In a blink of time they’d traveled what would have taken her days to accomplish on her own. Had her brother been gone long enough to make it here? If he was tangled up in such huge and horrible dealings, would he have access to faster modes of transportation now as well?

The chopper steadied into a hover, descent slowing until… Poof. The military aircraft settled with smooth precision. They had arrived at the Alaska Peninsula Power Plant.

And when she stepped from the military aircraft, she prayed she wouldn’t find her brother waiting.

***



Binoculars in hand, Wade crouched on the rooftop of the outbuilding skirting the power plant. The sun just peeked along the horizon, sparking off the silver structure humming obliviously about fifty yards away.

The SWAT unit had already sealed the place off, bomb-sniffing dogs scouring every inch of the facility. The FBI had arrived minutes ago and the predictable territorial tussles for control had already started.

At least roof duty kept him out of the fray.

He and his team had spread out on top of various outbuildings to watch for suspicious activity and be on call for emergency medical treatment, if needed. They’d been this route hundreds of times, working training exercises and ops with SWAT and the FBI as standby combat medics.

Sunny, Misty, and Flynn were in a nearby trailer with Special Agent Lasky, studying security footage and suspect photos to see if any faces looked familiar. Hopefully by the time they hooked up again, this would all be over and Sunny’s temper would have cooled. Given her brother’s probable involvement, she had to be on edge.

It wasn’t sitting all that well for him either, and he’d never even met the guy.

Major McCabe shifted from boot to boot as he crouched beside him, joints cracking.

Wind whistling fast and colder up high, Wade shot a quick glance sideways, ice pellets stinging his face. “Knees aching, old man?”

“Always.” McCabe tweaked his binoculars, sweeping the side lot while Hugh Franco lay flat on his stomach with a rifle. “I know I’m too damn old to still be jumping out of airplanes, but, well, I’ll keep on until the day they haul me off on a litter.”

Franco kept his eye lined up on the scope. “If your knees hurt so bad from your ranger days, why didn’t you choose something else after OCS, fly a plane or even a desk?”

“I said it hurts,” McCabe answered fast. “I never said I could give it up.”

Below them, SWAT team members darted around the building, the front gates sealed closed. The power plant and grounds around it had been evacuated. Beyond the gate, however, the world carried on like normal, blessedly oblivious. At a harbor dock, a small fishing festival was under way. The FBI had decided the event was far enough away from the plant to continue safely, and too large to stop without creating a stampede.

Wade tweaked the focus on a news crew setting up cameras outside the main gate. “Then why aren’t you still a ranger? Why bother with the swimming and mountain climbing?”

“I guess that’s my story to tell.”

“Fair enough.” Wade scanned past the grid of scaffolding and wires surrounded by chain link fences. A K-9 cop jogged with his German shepherd toward a side entrance, but not with enough speed to cause alarm. The dog probably smelled the moose sausages and fish roasting at the bayside festival. How odd that just seeing the shaggy canine made him think of Sunny’s big mutt. Seemed as if his every thought these days rounded back to her. “Aren’t you going to ask me if I care about her?”

“Nope.” McCabe just grinned.

“Everyone else did after our public argument over the interphone.” He jerked a thumb at Franco. “Starting with this guy here.”

Amazing how they’d found time to jab at him while in the middle of ramping up to catch a bomber. But then this was their life. Standard ops.

Wade glanced at McCabe. “At least you know it’s none of your business.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said dryly, without missing a beat on his scan of the bay on the opposite side of the power plant. “I don’t need to ask because I’ve known you a long time. I’ve seen how low-key you’ve kept other relationships in the past. Even that babe Kammi, the one you actually dated for three months, didn’t get anywhere near this kind of reaction out of you. I can see straight up how far gone you are on Sunny Foster.”

The words struck a little too close to the nerve for his peace of mind, especially considering how soon he would ship out. He needed his full concentration for his Afghanistan deployment. He didn’t need attachments.

He didn’t need to spend every waking minute of every day worrying about what kind of trouble a fearless woman like Sunny was getting into. He didn’t need the mind-bending stress of worrying about her stepping on some kind of land mine—

Shit.

His mother was the one who’d stepped on a bomb. Not Sunny. And hello Dr. Freud, it was too creepy that he was mixing them up in his head.

Irritation grated his nerves much like how the ragged ice along the roof jabbed and poked, making him snap back. “What makes you such an expert on love? Last time I checked, you’re as bad as Franco, never dating a woman more than a week—long enough for a one-night stand.”

Silence settled on the rooftop thicker than a morning fog. McCabe was staring at him with a you’re-a-dumb-ass look. Franco still stared through the scope of his rifle. But his knuckles were stark white.

Damn.

Franco had been a serial dater since he’d lost his wife and kid. Razzing the guy about his relationship history was pretty much taboo, and if he weren’t so damn wrapped up in himself he would have remembered that. His pal had been wrecked then and was still half-cracked now.

And Wade was wondering if maybe he understood where Franco was coming from a little better today than he ever had before. With torturous images of his mother being caught in a bomb’s blast hammering through his brain, all he could think of was keeping Sunny safe. She needed to take off those Pollyanna rose-colored glasses from her isolated upbringing and stay put, stay safe. Let people like him, like his team, like Agent Lasky, handle bomb-building fanatics.

“Heads up,” McCabe called, tapping a finger to his earpiece. “One of the explosives-sniffing dogs have found something.”

***



How did bomb squads manage to do this for a living, day in and day out?

Sunny hooked arms with her sister and watched the power plant in the distance, the metal structure nearly swallowed by morning mist. And watched. And watched with Flynn and Agent Lasky and his team once the bomb had been located. The rest of the plant workers were still behind the fence, about fifty yards farther than where they’d been since the initial evacuation. At least she hadn’t been hustled out of there, that much farther away from Wade.

As much as she tried to help, he kept shuttling her behind guards and into a secured room to look at pictures. She wanted to protect herself as much as anyone, but she knew her community. She had valuable profiling insights to offer on every person in that town. They’d all come through her business at one time or another, working out, grabbing a quick muffin, or using the Internet service.

God, she felt so helpless and angry. She hated not being able to help and was so enraged that she hadn’t somehow known a person in her community, a person close to her, could be capable of something this horrendous. To think that all of their emails, their primary form of communication with the outside world, had been so horribly manipulated made her ill. How many town members had used her Internet?

A hand clamped around her arm and she damn near jumped out of her skin. Looking up sharply, she bumped her head against… Wade’s chin.

She sagged with relief. “Thank God, it’s you. You scared the crap out of me, sneaking up like that.”

“You need to go,” he said abruptly.

The roots of her hair burned with apprehension. She lowered her voice to keep from risking a panic in the crowd. “Have they found a bomb? Is it about to go off? Is that why we were all evacuated so quickly?”

His face tight and closed off, he ducked his head to her ear. “Yes, they’ve found an explosive device. The bomb squad feels confident they can defuse it, but I don’t want you anywhere near here.”

“Wade, if this wasn’t a safe distance, I believe the authorities would have moved us farther out. I want to be on hand in case they catch whoever’s responsible…” Dread closed her throat for a gasp. “Or do they already have someone? Is my brother here? Are you trying to get me away from here so I won’t freak out about my brother? Be honest with me.”

Her voice rose with panic, but it was all she could do not to grab Wade by the parka and shake some answers from him. She could handle anything, except being kept in the dark.

He clasped her shoulders and guided her away from the eavesdropping crowd. His steady, determined step crunched along the ice until he stopped beside a boat dock tucked by the bay. “You need to calm down and do what I say.”

And didn’t that just rub her every last independent nerve the wrong way?

She jerked out of his grip. “Excuse me? Are you ordering me back to the kitchen to rustle up some supper while you go save the world? Do you not grasp that I’ve guided tour groups from our town out of blizzards? Pulled survivors out of avalanches?”

“Is it so damn wrong of me to want you to be safe while I do my job? I can’t be in the middle of a mission in Afghanistan wondering if you’re back here tangling with ecoterrorists or falling off the side of some mountain.”

She resisted the temptation to check for water in her ears because she couldn’t possibly be hearing him correctly. Since when were they talking about his deployment? Wasn’t this an argument about the here and now?

“Is this a backdoor way of asking me to wait for you while you’re overseas?”

“And if it was?”

“I don’t think this is the time to talk about that.”

“Fine, then I’ll make sure one of Lasky’s agents escorts you on the boat over to the lodge where we’ll be staying—”

“I am not leaving. Get that through your head. I have a stake in this today.”

“You’re here to protect your friends.”

“I’m here to protect the ones who aren’t involved. The home I love is about to have the foundation crumble under it. I can’t just drink cocoa by the fire at some lodge and pretend it has no effect on me.”

He clammed up with the stone face and stubborn thrust of his jaw that had earned him his Brick call sign.

“I get that you’re a superhero, macho guy, but that doesn’t mean you can steamroll over me or that you need to protect me.” She rested a hand on his chest, hoping he would reach back and meet her halfway. “It may have escaped your notice, but I’ve done a fine job of taking care of myself this past week.”

“Tell that to the snow machine floating around somewhere in pieces,” he said starkly.

Her anger lost some steam, her heart softening a little as she remembered how freaked-out he’d been then.

“You saved my butt that time, and I’m grateful. But I’ve also carried my own weight. I’m not a wilting flower, and I thought that was something you liked about me.”

“There’s a power plant about to be blown up by some wacko ecoterrorists who lived right under your nose for the whole planning of their crime. Excuse me if I’m not so certain of your objectivity in sifting through the evidence.”

His accusation slapped at her as coldly and harshly as the wind rolling in off the bay.

“I can’t believe you would say that about me. How can you think I would ever let anyone get away with something like this, even subconsciously?”

“You’ve been protecting him for fifteen years. Some habits are hard to break.”

She wanted to throw up. How could he think that of her after all they’d shared, how close they’d been? Or maybe she’d only imagined the connection on his side. Because it was very clear right now that he wasn’t budging.

Still, she had to say her piece. “That’s totally different from this. I can love my brother without loving the choices he’s made… But I can see that you don’t believe me.”

“I can’t risk it.”

Did he believe she might try to alert her brother? Sneak him away from a military op involving enough firepower to blow them all sky-high? She shook her head in disbelief.

Her heart shattered into a thousand pieces at his words, like the final tap on a pristine sheet of ice that fractured it apart, nothing left but deathly cold water beneath.

“That’s it for us then. You go do your job, and I’ll do my best to stay out of your way. But you do not have the authority to make me leave. As long as Lasky believes I’m a valuable asset, then I’m staying right here.”

She backed a step from him, her eyes memorizing the bold, strong lines of his face. Snow flurries fell between them, melting on his hair and sleeves. Her fingers ached to test the stubble along his jaw one last time, to brush the beads of water from his head.

“Good-bye, Wade.” She forced herself to turn away fast, before she weakened and changed her mind.

Or before he saw the tears clouding her eyes.

Through the sheen, she saw Flynn in the distance, standing just past the boathouse. At least they could work together to try and make some sense of what had happened in their village. Together with Misty they could try to find the people responsible.

Before she’d made it two steps, Wade clasped her arm. “Stop. We can talk later. But for now you just can’t wander off.”

What good would talking do? She didn’t, couldn’t, face him. “I’ll stay with Flynn and my sister. We’ll stick by Lasky. Now please. Let. Me. Go.”

He held her arm so long she thought he might argue. Part of her wanted him to stay and hash this out, reassure her she’d misunderstood somehow. His fingers slid away, releasing her with his own unspoken good-bye.

Her feet moved ahead of her heart, making fast tracks across the deserted frozen lot, needing to put distance between herself and Wade. She searched, anger clouding her mind. Finally, she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure outside the power plant gates. Flynn. He must have taken Misty away to find something to eat at the fishing festival.

She doubled her speed, sidling out a gate, past a guard, racing toward the dock. She glanced back over her shoulder quickly, only to find Wade stalking off into the swirling snow. Collecting his thoughts, maybe? She couldn’t blame him.

Approaching Flynn softly so as not to startle him, she called out quietly, “Flynn? Are you okay? Where’s Misty? Did you find something good to eat, because I just realized I haven’t eaten yet.”

He pivoted on his boot heel toward her slowly. The morning sun streamed down over his windburned face, creased in confusion. “Did you need something?”

“I just wondered if you’re ready to go back with me to talk to Agent Lasky. They’re ready for us to look at some more photos, help figure out who may have been responsible for the bomb.”

A creaking dock plank sounded behind her, giving her only a second’s warning before something solid jabbed against her back. “Don’t make a sound,” a female voice ordered, “or I’ll be forced to shoot you. The gun has a silencer, so no one will know.”

Her eyes shot to Flynn quickly. Why wasn’t he helping her? And then she couldn’t think of anything other than the familiar voice behind her.

Astrid.

The awful, awful recognition gelled inside of Sunny that her brother’s wife had a gun wedged between her ribs and might truly shoot.

Sunny looked back over her shoulder at the woman she’d called family for nearly two years. “What are you doing here? I thought you were camping with Phoenix.”

Some camping trip. Oh God, was her brother here too, somehow tangled up in this nightmare?

Her sister-in-law tugged her hood more firmly over her blonde hair. “Your brother is off doing what he always does, communing with nature as if somehow that’s going to heal the earth. I’m taking action. Since he won’t help me, I’ve just found others who will.” She jabbed harder. “Now, since you interrupted our getaway, you’re going to come along with us in the boat.”

With us? Her eyes went to Flynn. To the line of fishing vessels tied to the moorings down at the dock. To the SWAT team and Wade, all too far away to be of any help.

Oh God, why hadn’t she listened to him about the danger here? All the information they’d gathered and put together with intel pointed to the power plant, but maybe someone on the inside knew there had been a leak, because this group sure as hell appeared to carry off their plan with adjustments to work around the police and military forces in place. Now she truly was alone to fight this battle that could create such far-reaching horror for so many if Astrid got away.

And Flynn. She couldn’t even bear to think of what this would do to Misty. Sunny could have sworn his feelings for her sister were genuine. Maybe there was some hope in getting through to him. “But Flynn? I don’t understand.”

“Flynn? That’s Ryker.” Astrid laughed. Her voice, which had once seemed so lyrical when singing to her infant son, now sounded harsh and discordant. Her eyes lit with fanaticism. She swept a hand toward the nearest fishing boat, with a lean man, his back to them, already at the helm. “And that’s Brett—our partner in the biggest, splashiest front-page news this area has ever seen and just what we need to make people sit up and take notice.”