Courage Under Fire (Silver Creek #2) - Lindsay McKenna Page 0,31

branch that breaks one of her wings.”

“I’d love to do that, Jenny. I’ll ask Chase if he minds.”

“Oh, he won’t. I’m sure he’ll keep you busy with bee work, but he’s not a slave driver, either. Just text me if you can make it over at one p.m. tomorrow?”

A thrill went through Cari. “I promise, I will.”

As they got back to the office, Chase was just walking up to the door, his hat coming off.

“Well?” he teased. “What do you think?”

Jenny gave him an evil look. “I’m stealing her from you, Chase, from time to time. She’s gonna work with our famous Wild Child when I’m off on one of my trips.”

“Ohhh . . . that hawk. I call her Trouble.”

Cari laughed. “That’s not very kind!”

“No,” Chase grouched, “it isn’t, but Valkyrie has a very stubborn mind of her own and she flies like she’s got jet engines strapped to her wings.”

Jenny joined in the laughter. “Aye, you’re right about that!”

Chase gave Cari a look of respect. “Jenny wouldn’t ask you to take on Trouble if she didn’t think you could do the job. I’m impressed.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get too impressed,” Cari warned him, walking toward the door. “Let’s see if we can keep our problem child out of the forests and not busting through tree limbs and twigs first.”

Rolling his eyes, Chase said, “Oh . . . that one . . . yeah . . . she has another nickname around here: Tree Buster . . .”

Chapter Five

June 1

Where was that bitch of a stepsister of his? Dirk Bannock sat inside a tent on a Los Angeles sidewalk, smoking a joint, waiting for one of his men to come and give him information on some coke and the deadly drug, fentanyl, coming up from the Mexican border near San Diego, California.

His mind churned over and over on Cari. To no avail. He’d tried calling her cell phone number. He’d had his men stake out the condo and they hadn’t seen Cari’s car, or her, in a two-week period. He’d had a friend of his hack into his parents’ desktop and found nothing about Cari on it, or where she might be. The job she’d had, she’d quit, and no one knew where she’d gone.

Yeah, Cari knew he’d kill her the first opportunity he’d get. Right now, he was busy setting up his old drug network, taking down and killing those who thought they could replace him. Four men were dead at either his hand or his gang’s hands. Now, he was on top again, as it should be. Until he could stabilize and renew his drug ties with Mexico and Canada, Cari was an addendum to his life. There would be a time when he was ready to hunt her down. And once he did that, then he’d go after his stepmother. First, he wanted Nalani to suffer when she found out her daughter had been murdered. Of course, he wouldn’t leave any evidence he had been the cause of her death; he’d be careful about that, but Nalani would know it was him. He smiled, allowing the pleasure of that moment to flow powerfully through him. That little bitch stepsister of his always kept him in hot water, always tattled on him to her mother. His father had allowed him to get away with everything, but once his dad married Nalani, trouble began in earnest for him. His hatred of women was well in place, thanks to those two who had conspired and worked against him every opportunity they’d gotten. Yes, they’d both pay. With their lives.

The morning air was a mild temperature. Today would turn hot, probably in the eighties. Outside, through an opening in the front of the gray nylon tent, he could see other homeless people walking past his place of residence on the sidewalk. He could smell breakfast cooking in someone else’s tent.

Yesterday, he’d gotten a call from Pablo Gonzalez, a well-known drug lord from Guatemala. The forty-five-year-old cartel king was a smart, careful player, wanting to create drop zones and drug routes in Wyoming, with an eye on taking the drops to Chicago, a main area where drugs were wildly popular. Pablo’s lieutenant told him they’d run into a lot of problems in Wyoming, in a place called Wind River Valley. He’d pulled out of there and was now looking for a new valley to move quietly into, without the fierce blowback from law enforcement or the citizens, in his first foray into