Rescue Me (7 page)

Her voice softened as she gave him a hint of
a smile. “Would you like to come in? We have the heater going.”

“I'm fine.”

“Your lips are blue.”

He chuckled. “Thanks, but I really should be
getting back.”

“Okay. Spencer?”

He braced himself. She was being too nice. He
knew better than to trust that she'd had a sudden change of heart.
“Yeah?”

“You'd tell me if you had information about
this search that would alter its outcome, wouldn't you?”

The honesty in her expression, swirling in
those beautiful eyes, tore at his soul. God, he couldn't do this.
Guilt weighed on him. He wanted to talk to her, he really did. But
Weber was right.

The less she knew the better.

Kat fought the disappointment squeezing at
her heart. It would take more than offering Spencer a radio before
he'd open up about this search. He was hiding something. She just
didn't know what.

Why did he just stand there? He kept glancing
at the Com Van, then toward the woods the TREX agents hid in, and
then back. Something bothered the hell out of him. She wished he'd
talk to her.

Maybe she should talk to him instead.

“I'm going mobile,” she announced to her
communications officer and grabbed the handheld radio Spencer
refused. As she left the Com Van, closing the door behind her, the
noise caught his attention and he turned to face her. He watched
her approach, his gaze never faltering, even when she slowed. He
had the power to hold her right at the edge of sanity with nothing
more than a look. A tight swirl of energy coiled around her womb,
tantalizing her with muscle spasms centering between her legs.

How did he do that?

On any other TREX agent, no one would bother
a second glance at the way the black outfit hugged his muscular
frame. On Spencer it looked downright wicked. He could pose for one
of those hot male calendars and never even have to remove the
shirt.

And Kat would buy every last one.

The shirt displayed his bulging arms and
hard, tight abs. If only she could see him without it on. She loved
his chest and let out a petulant sigh that it was hidden.

For some insane reason, the way he held
himself, his broad shoulders squared and flawlessly poised, he
appeared at least seven feet tall. He couldn't be any taller than
his six feet three inch frame allowed, and deep down she knew that,
but he seemed so much larger at that moment.

At five feet nine inches, she was by no means
a small woman, but Spencer dwarfed her. With him, she felt safe,
protected, and her body always tingled in a heightened state of
arousal.

A shudder ripped through her. She conjured up
the memory of their last time together. Him lying next to her,
possessively holding her close, their bodies hot and wet with
perspiration after a frenzied lovemaking. The walls of her vagina
tightened at the vivid memory, sending chills up her spine. Her
heart slammed against her ribcage as if she'd just run a mile
uphill.

Not once did his gaze stray from her as she
continued to close the distance, and his unmoving stare warmed her
entire body. Too warm. If possible he was even sexier than her
memory allowed. He shrugged, moving those immense muscles, and Kat
opened her mouth to release a sigh.

How could a simple gesture like a shrug
excite her? When he coupled it with that gleam of obstinate hunger
in his eyes, she shifted, feeling dirty as she mentally undressed
him, and too damn horny to ignore her reaction to him. If he met
her half way to capture her mouth with his, to plunge his tongue
deep into her mouth, she wouldn't even hint at a protest.

His features held an inherent strength that
she wished she shared right now. She could use a little boost. His
jaw tensed visibly once she stopped in front of him, and his
shoulders seemed to square, always ready for the next attack.

Kat fought off the urge to tear into him like
a worried spouse. From the way he stood, his stance solid, he
expected her to do just that.

So, instead she flashed the friendliest smile
she could muster up on such short notice. “Hi there.”

He answered with an impersonal nod and
narrowed his gaze, clearly suspicious of her sudden change in
attitude.

“What are you doing?”

He shrugged. She watched as his gaze traced
the Black Hills surrounding them.

“It sure is beautiful out here,” she offered
when he didn't speak.

Near the southern end of Puget Sound, the
Black Hills rose over half a mile high. The conifers blanketing the
hills offered shelter from the capricious elements. She loved it up
here, just not when she had to find a subject lost in the midst of
it all. And when the fog set in, a regular occurrence in western
Washington, she'd be lucky if she'd be able to see her hand in
front of her face, let alone navigate the land. A six-year-old
little boy didn't stand a chance out here alone.

She studied Spencer, wondering what he had
going on in that handsome head of his that had him so distracted.
Looking at him now, how the lines on his face deepened with each
passing moment, she saw for the first time how much of a toll their
breakup took on him. She folded her arms in front of her to stop
herself from reaching out to him.

As his stormy eyes searched hers, he asked,
“How's our progress?”

“Slow. But if you'd just talk to me and tell
me what you know, I could direct my teams better.”

Spencer shook his head, straightened and
leaned closer to her. The warmth of his breath tickled across her
lips and it made hers catch in response. Standing like this, she
could easily lean in and kiss him. Licking her lips, Kat sucked her
lower lip between her teeth to stop herself from doing exactly
that.

“Don't rely on what I know. You're the
expert, Kathryn. There's a reason why TREX called you in on this.
You're the best SAR coordinator out there.”

She lowered her eyes and pulled back. Her
arousal settled down as she focused on the search and not on her
need for him. “I used to be.”

“Your instincts have never been wrong.”

“Sure they have. The last time we were
together, the search—”

“Wasn't your fault,” he cut her off, his
voice low and thick with sincerity.

There it was, the one thing she'd been
waiting a year to hear from him. Harsh reality twisted in her
heart. It didn't fix anything like she thought it would. She knew
the truth. That search
was
her fault. A rescue turned
recovery. Nothing he could say would change that. She realized that
now.

Spencer sighed hard before adjusting his
earpiece. He then switched off the mic against his neck. “There.
Now we can actually talk.”

“Were we being monitored?”

He nodded. “I'll get my ass chewed for
turning off my radio, but there are some things Weber doesn't need
to know. I need to talk to you without worrying about whether I'm
going to end up in front of the board at TREX again.”

She sucked in a breath, hating that his own
agency nearly kicked him out, all because he got involved with the
head of a competing agency. “I'm sorry about that.”

“It was my choice.”

“Spence—”

“We don't have much time. I've worked with
you enough, Kathryn. I know your abilities, what you can do. Work
your magic. Put yourself in the kid's frame of mind. You've got
firsthand experience at this.”

“I was ten when I got lost. And only a few
miles from my house.”

“And yet it still took the teams two days to
find you.”

Two days of hell, of absolute terror. She'd
never been so scared in her life, then and now. Hell, she had to
sleep with a nightlight because of it.

Not enough resources
, she'd heard them
tell her father when he demanded answers on why it took search and
rescue so long to find her. Those three words still resonated with
her and sent chills scattering across her skin. When she worked for
the state and had those same destructive words tossed at her,
something snapped. She refused to accept that as an answer. As an
excuse.

And K-SAR was born.

No other person—man, woman, or six-year-old
little boy lost in the mountains—would ever have to hear those
words. Not if she could help it.

“Channel everything you remember from your
own search and combine that with what you know now. You've got the
most organized National Incident Management System out there. No
one knows NIMS the way you do.” He searched her eyes. The
determination in his tone settled into his gaze.

“I don't know if it will help with this one.
It doesn't fit any of the scenarios or any of the profiles I used
to create my own NIMS. It's like Tommy isn't even out here.”

He straightened as cold purpose hardened in
his expression and darkened his eyes. “He's out here. He's got to
be.”

“Why? Because you want him to be?”

“Because—” he stopped. His lips thinned.

“What are you hiding from me?”

He closed in and left her no room at all,
trapping her with his large hands on her shoulders. She couldn't
pull back as he moved in, his lips a breath away from hers. His
intense gaze paralyzed her. Fear and lust enveloped her.

“Just. Find. Him.” His intense whisper caught
in her senses.

She doubled up her fists. “Then help me! Tell
me what you know.”

“I can't.”

Damn him. “You can't? Or you won't?”

“I can't.”

“Then I'm going to Weber.”

He let out a long sigh and went back to the
original position she found him in, his gaze raised to the sky as
he muttered something about her stubborn side being a pain in the
ass. “He's not going to tell you anything I haven't already told
you. I'll probably get my ass busted for telling you as much as I
have.”

“But you haven't told me anything! Every
single detail about this search I've gotten by guessing and reading
your reaction.” She sighed and allowed the silence to build between
them, her mind retracing the search thus far. They weren't going to
get anywhere fighting over withheld information. Once she finished
with him, she'd track down Dan Weber, TREX Special Agent in Charge,
and get him to talk. He may be Spencer's boss, but he was nothing
more to Kat than a man with the answers.

“Spencer, I refuse to let this search end
like the last one we were on together, all because we can't find a
way to get along.”

“You can't keep blaming yourself for that
search.” A muscle clenched and ticked along his jaw. “Things happen
for a reason.”

“And what reason could there possibly be for
that poor man to freeze to death? I had every available resource in
the field. I had them go over the search grid with a fine-toothed
comb. I should have had better instincts. It's not their fault we
didn't find him in time. It's mine. Period.”

Spencer swung back around and brought his
hands to his hips. He shook his head and said words that left her
speechless. “Maybe he wasn't meant to be found.”

And then he walked away and left her standing
there, leaving a heaviness hanging between them.

Only after he disappeared on a trail did she
turn and march toward the group of trees the TREX agents used as
shelter. As soon as she walked through the two layers, she spotted
them. Most lounged around, waiting. Dan Weber, on the other hand,
paced back and forth as he muttered something about royally fucking
up.

As soon as he saw her, he froze and rested
his attention on her. He ran a hand over his blond stubble of hair.
“Kat? How did you…uh… What are you doing here?”

She forced a smile. “Hello, Agent Weber.”

“
Special
Agent Weber,” one of his TREX
men corrected.

“How about just Weber,” he said after
throwing a glare the agent's way.

“Do you have a minute?”

He nodded and delivered another glare as two
more agents joined in with the first one, snickering as he walked
out of the sheltered area with her.

Kat stopped and turned to face him, locking a
look on him she reserved for times like this, when she didn't have
words to convey just how pissed she was. Right now definitely
qualified.

He physically shrank back. “What did Allen
do?”

“He refuses to answer my questions.”

Weber snapped his brow into a frown. “That's
why we like working with K-SAR. You don't usually ask
questions.”

“When my teams could be in danger, I ask
questions.”

He sighed, downplaying her concern, and
didn't hesitate to lie to her face. “Your teams aren't in any
danger.”

“That's because I'm pulling them. I thought
you should know.” She whipped around and started walking away. Just
as she knew he would, he put his hand on her shoulder to stop
her.

“You can't pull your teams.”

“Give me a reason not to.”

“Because there is a six-year-old kid out
here. We have to find him and bring him home.”

“I don't think he disappeared from here.”

That comment earned her another frown. “What
makes you think that?”

“My teams have been searching for hours now.
They're the best of the best. If there were any clues out there,
they would have found them by now.” Kat thrust out her chin. “You
say the subject's PLS was right here at this campground, yet we've
found nothing to support that. I've spanned my teams in every
direction from this point and found nothing, which tells me one of
two things.”

Weber clenched his jaw. “And that is?”

“Either someone is lying to me or he was
never here. Which is it?”

He narrowed his eyes. Several seconds passed
and he held her there in his gaze. She refused to look away.
Someone was going to give her answers.

The SAC remained stubbornly silent. Well,
fine. She wouldn't send her teams searching all over this mountain
for a subject who may not even be here. If she found out later that
Tommy actually was out here, his death would be on TREX's hands,
not hers.