Phoenix Inheritance (11 page)

“You're asking the impossible of yourself,” Daz said. “No one can be on alert twenty-four/seven. I'm here now. You have help.” He kissed her and wiped the tears on her cheeks away with his thumb. “Go sit on the loveseat out there. I'll get the duffel with the medical supplies.”

She nodded and shuffled to the living room, worry in her every step.

Turkey, Nine Years Ago

Renee had to “borrow” another pack to hold the supplies that Daz wanted for their hike, including rope, the ever-present MREs for food, a med kit, and various small sundries.

She told the guard at the supply tent that she was picking up supplies for a SAR search today. Which she was, just not the one they thought. The guard passed her through, no problem, after petting the dogs. Everyone knew her dogs, if not by sight, then by their vests that clearly marked them as SAR. She'd have to ditch those vests when she headed out. It would make them too noticeable.

She begrudged every minute spent finding and packing the supplies. Time was precious in any rescue and she still had to get the plane coordinates from Kim. As she heaved both full packs over her shoulder, the tent flap opened. Renee braced, expecting the guard.

But it was Kim.

“Got that location for me?” Renee asked.

“Not until you tell me how you're going to do this. As much as I want to find everyone, I won't let you go out unless you have a plan.”

Kim stood with hands on her hips, her white-blonde hair hanging in front of her eyes. The stress of last night's news marked her in the dark rims around her eyes. But she had clearly pulled herself together and was no longer ruled by grief.

“Daz Montoya is going with me,” Renee said.

“Daz? The hot guy from last night that you didn't fully trust?”

“He's American Special Forces. A SEAL, I think. He'll help and also provide protection.”

“And you barely know him. How do you know you can trust him?”

“Thor and Loki like him.”

Kim shook her head, knelt and called to the dogs. Thor padded over to her and she scratched his ears. “I love your guys, have I said that?” She sighed. “I don't want to be mourning more friends than I already am today.”

“You might not have to mourn anyone at all. Give me the coordinates, Kim. C'mon.”

“I wish I could come with you. I'm wilderness trained too, you know.”

“You're needed here. You have to get officials from three countries to stop pulling rank long enough to get the copters and search planes over the mountains. And once you do, I'll make sure they have a beacon to home in on.”

“I don't have a beacon for you.”

“Daz does.”

Kim stood. “They probably weren't just hiking in the mountains, you know.”

“I know.” Renee shifted the weight of the packs.

“Here.” Kim shoved a scrap of paper with coordinates at her. “And be damned careful. Well, given the circumstances.”

“I will.”

“How'd you get this Daz to agree to help on this crazy-ass mission anyway?” Kim asked.

Renee smiled. “I appealed to his humanity.”

“He's military. Probably a jarhead. I'm not sure he has that much humanity.” But Kim smiled back.

“If he's a SEAL, that means he's a sailor, not a jarhead.”

“Same difference, I guess. Just please be careful.”

They hugged, with Kim pulling her so tight Renee wasn't sure she'd ever let go. Renee had to blink back tears when the hug ended. She had to find Kim's fiancé, Jake and the others alive. She had to.

“If anyone asks, we never had this conversation and I have no idea where you went.” Kim took a two-way radio from her waistband. “Take this too. It's good you have a radio beacon but better to have a backup. Cell phone signals are shit in those mountains.” She took a deep breath. “Godspeed, Renee. Find them.”

“I will.”

As they left the tent, Kim waved off the guard. No one would question her.

No one stopped Renee on the way back to Daz's tent either. Again, everyone in the camp knew her dogs. Why would they question her? As she left the outskirts of the camp behind, she took off the dogs' vests and scanned for Daz's tent.

But it was gone. Shit, had they just abandoned her?

But, no, the outlines of the two men became clearer as she trudged closer, the weight of the packs digging into her back. They must have packed up their tent.

As she approached, Daz grabbed the second pack from her and divided up the gear between him and Gabe. When done, he tossed his hiking backpack over his shoulder as if it were empty.

“You were fast with these. Thanks,” he said.

“Time matters. You've been busy too.”

The small holes in the grass were the only evidence left of the tent. Renee assumed the camping gear was packed into the oversize hiking backpack that the other SEAL, Gabe, carried.

“Gabe's coming too,” Daz announced.

“Just to save you two from an excess of heroism,” Gabe said.

She handed over the third water bottle, glad she'd grabbed a spare. “I'm happy to have more company.”

“Give me the coordinates and I'll get us going in the right direction,” Gabe said.

Renee handed over the slip of paper that Kim had given her. Gabe pulled out a smartphone-like device, though it seemed to have far more bells and whistles than a regular smartphone. She guessed he could access classified channels not available to civilians, and maybe even classified information, with it.

After few seconds, Gabe pointed northeast, to the mountains. “That way.”

“I think we could've figured that out without your doohickey.” Daz slapped Gabe on the back.

“Genius is never appreciated.” Gabe shrugged and took the lead.

Any other day in September, any other situation, and Renee would have enjoyed the hike. The skies were that particular shade of crystal blue, the sun shone down as if mocking the tragedy around the camp, and only a slight breeze disturbed the air, just enough to ruffle the hair on the back of her dogs' backs and cut down any unpleasantness from the heat.

She shifted the pack, hoping to get the weight to settle, glad she'd worn her hooded sweatshirt, because it was colder than she'd expected.

Her dogs loped ahead of her, and she let them roam in the tall grass. They needed to do their business but they also needed to have a little fun. Dogs liked to play too, especially young dogs like hers. For the most part, they thought SAR was fun and involved treats, but they knew when they'd found dead bodies and didn't like it.

And they'd found too many dead bodies the last few days.

“Won't they run off?” Daz asked.

“Not Thor and Loki.”

“That makes you their alpha, right?” Gabe asked.

“It certainly does.”

“Hah,” Daz said.

Daz set a pace that was almost too much for her. For every long stride he took, she had to take two or risk being left behind. She pushed herself because she'd be damned if she showed weakness in front of these men, not after begging them to help her. And the sooner they got where they were going, the better.

“How many miles in all?” she asked Gabe.

“As the crow flies, about twenty. But I'm not sure what obstacles we'll encounter on the way, topographic or human. I'll know more as we get closer.”

“Okay.” She finally managed to get a good pace going by following in Daz's footsteps. He was so fascinating to watch move, like a perfect sculpture come to life, all muscled grace.

“How'd you get into this line of work?” she asked.

Daz turned, walking backwards, never breaking stride. “‘This line of work' meaning what?”

“The military thing.”

Daz turned back around, shaded his eyes and looked at the sun. The tree line above the meadow loomed ever closer. That was when the hike would start to get tricky. The wild animals would likely leave them alone, especially with the dogs around them, but people were another story.

“Military service is a family tradition,” Daz finally said.

“Your father is an officer?”

“He's a mustang. That means he worked his way up from enlisted to officer. And my youngest aunt, my two uncles, and my grandfather on my mother's side also served.”

“Does your mom wear combat boots too?”

“You'd think but, no, my mother broke the mold and became an engineer.”

“Sounds like a great family.” She whistled for Thor because she couldn't see him through the grass. He came bounding into sight a second later.

The clouds cleared and the sun shone brighter around them. Daz pulled sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on. She pulled her hat lower on her head and realized she'd forgotten her shades in the rush. At least she'd remembered sunscreen. That had become a habit in the last few days.

“What about you?” Daz asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you do search and rescue? It's a serious time commitment, especially training your dogs.”

“I always loved animals. I wanted to be a vet until I realized I wasn't cut out for working with dying animals.”

“You do this full time?” he asked.

“I would if I had the money. But I do part-time accounting work, mostly during tax season, and private dog training. It pays the bills and frees me up during the rest of the year. I travel as much as I can when I'm not needed.”

He gave her a long look, impossible to interpret behind his shades. “I don't usually picture accountants as flying halfway around the world to disasters.”

“We're a daring bunch. For my next trick, I'll even attempt to make this hike a tax write-off.”

He laughed. “I guess it's a better setup than what I was thinking.”

“Which was?”

“Stripper by day, SAR hero by night.”

He said it with such good humor that she laughed. “Nope, sorry.”

She whistled again. Loki appeared next to his brother. Enough frolicking. Better keep them close now.

“Your family is military but why did you go into Special Forces?” Renee asked. “Like SAR work, that's a serious commitment.”

“I wanted to push myself,” Daz said.

“Why?”

“No particular reason.”

Silence after that answer. She suspected that was all the explanation she was going to get. Maybe he liked a challenge or he wanted to one-up his relatives who'd been in the service? Hard to tell given she'd only known him one day. Daz was a military brat and that meant the concept of duty had been pounded into him. Maybe that was reason enough for him to volunteer for SEAL training.

“How about you, Gabe?” she asked.

“I've been underestimated my whole life,” Gabe said. “I'm not anymore.”

Gabe's tone invited no more questions.

Around them, birds chirped and she heard the buzzing of bees and even a few crickets. The quake hadn't driven them all away. Interesting. She wondered if that was standard and realized she had no idea of how quakes affected the local floral and fauna, at least beyond the areas it destroyed. She'd been too focused on SAR work to dig into the science surrounding a disaster.

They stopped at the edge of the tree line. Her back was drenched in sweat. Not that she would admit to being close to her limit to the men.

“The trail will go up sharply from here,” Gabe said.

She drank down water from her bottle. “Thanks for the warning.”

“We have a choice of two paths,” Gabe said, checking his device display. “This first one is shorter but hillier, according to the topographical display. The second is more visible, more traveled, and probably an easier walk.”

“Pick the one that will get us closer faster,” she said.

“How much time would the high road save?” Daz asked.

“We're about eighteen miles from the last known location of the plane. We'd shave about two miles off by going up and over the mountain rather than around the base of them,” Gabe answered.

“And if we take the high ground, we might have a better chance of spotting a downed plane,” she said. “I'm game. Are there any hazards I should know about?”

Daz grimaced. “We stirred up some very trigger-happy people when we were out here earlier. They could have scouts watching the path as well as the road in case we come back.”

“What's the real story about that?” she asked.

“Zach was shot by armed men guarding a convoy of trucks that barely fit on the unpaved mountain road,” Daz said. “Smugglers, probably.”

That sounded closer to the truth than his previous story of panicked locals. “Would these smugglers bother the survivors of the plane?”

“Maybe, if they thought—”

Gabe cut the air with his hand. “Should you be telling her all this, Lieutenant?”

Daz shrugged. “We have to be on the lookout for trouble and she needs to know what it could be. Renee, I've no idea if these same guys would bother any survivors of the crash or even if they're in the area. But we have to assume they could be and they might be interested in your plane, especially since it was carrying drugs.”

“And they'd probably be glad to steal them,” Renee said. “They're less likely to be on the mountain path than the regular road, right?”

“That's a guess but, yeah,” Daz said.

“My dogs will be our scouts. If they scent anyone in a quarter of a mile, they'll let me know,” she offered.

“Great. That's a help.” Daz looked at Gabe. “Mountain trail it is, by unanimous agreement.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Let me just give the dogs a little water. I need them to stay hydrated.” She poured water into a portable dish, and they lapped it up. Daz watched, amused at the way she also tossed treats at them.

“Are you ever going to tell me the real reason you were out here?” she asked.

“Classified,” Gabe and Daz said in unison.

“But,” Daz clarified, “the guards for the vans weren't the reason we were here. Running into them was just bad luck.”

“Let's hope that your luck turns good, then,” Renee said.