Читать книгу: «Night Hawk»

CHAPTER ONE

KAI TRIED TO get her heart to stop pounding so hard in her chest. She sat in her Ford pickup in front of the Triple H Ranch, rubbing her damp palms against her jeans. This was the twentieth ranch she’d traveled to in order to apply for a job as a mechanic and wrangler. She’d been to six ranches in South Dakota, ten in Montana, two in Idaho, and now Wyoming ranches didn’t look like they were hiring, either. Worse, she was a fine mechanic due to her US Army time as an Apache helicopter repairer, but the listless economy was stopping any new hires. Plus, she was a woman and the ranch owners just rolled their eyes when she said she was a mechanic.

Kai could fix anything. You name it, she could handle it. She knew being a woman brought prejudice to the table. And ranchers tended to be conservative, old guard and even outright Neanderthal in their view of women. She’d had one rancher nearly fall off his chair in his office laughing hysterically when she said she was a mechanic.

Hell, it was tough enough getting out of the military after enlisting at age eighteen and separating from the Army at twenty-eight because of downsizing. She thought her job rating would make it easy to get hired. In the military, women did so-called men’s work, and no one thought anything about it. But they sure did out in the civilian world, she was discovering.

Kai wiped the dampness off the top of her lip, taking a quick glance around the ranch. There was an opening for a mechanic and wrangler. She was a perfect fit for it. The owner, Talon Holt, was the contact. Would he laugh her out of his office, too?

Money was tight. Kai didn’t have enough left, after buying the tools she’d need and her wrangling gear, to try to rent an apartment in Jackson Hole—if she got the job. She’d already cased the town, looked through the rentals in the newspaper and found exorbitant demands for a small one-bedroom apartment. It was sticker shock. Yes, she had savings. Yes, she could pay that kind of highway robbery, but she was counting on a bunkhouse where she could live, instead, until she got her feet under her. Her goal was to eventually buy a house.

Looking around, the main ranch home was built of cedar and two stories tall, a silver sheen to its aging wood. The roof looked new. There was a white picket fence, recently painted, surrounding it. It was June first and Kai knew Wyoming winters hung around forever. She saw someone had bravely planted flowers in beds along the inside of the fence in hopes they could survive and struggle to stay alive in the near freezing temperatures that occurred at night. As she gazed out beyond the graveled parking area, she saw a number of rusted pipe fences that were in sad shape. This rancher would need a welder. She knew how to weld. That would be a plus, something she could tell the owner in hopes of him hiring her.

Kai sat there, feeling her stomach knot. Desperate for a job, her hope long since fading, she didn’t want to apply for government assistance. It just wasn’t somewhere she wanted to go, and she fought the idea. Swallowing, her throat dry, she closed her eyes, knowing she couldn’t go home. Home to Cody, Wyoming. Home to her father’s ranch, the Circle T.

Her father had disowned her when she joined the Army at age eighteen. He favored her older brother, Steve, over herself. He’d written her out of the will when she left for the Army. And he never believed a woman could run a ranch, so he’d left it to her brother when it was his time to die. At age 59, Hal Tiernan was the same gruff, terse, mean son of a bitch he’d always been. Kai had been an unwanted addition to her father’s life. He doted on his son and barely tolerated her because she was female. He called her Troublemaker.

Rubbing her dark blue long-sleeved blouse that was feminine looking but functional, her heart ached for what she wished might have been with her broken family.

If her mother, Olivia, hadn’t died when Kai was eight years old, things might have turned out a lot different. Kai was in constant touch with Steve, who loved her fiercely, begging her to come home. But home to what? Hal verbally digging at her on a daily basis? Making sniping remarks because she was a woman? He looked at all women as useful only when they were pregnant and barefoot. That was her father’s favorite saying. Kai didn’t know how her mother, who had been a high school principal, tolerated that kind of shit from him. She certainly didn’t. And that was why he called her Troublemaker. He never called her by her real name, only his nickname for her. Kai hated it.

She pulled herself out of her pain. Opening the door, she climbed out, her cowboy boots crunching across the graveled driveway to the gate of the picket fence. Kai heard a dog barking but couldn’t see it. Walking down the red-tiled sidewalk, she liked the wide, U-shaped porch that surrounded three-fourths of the house. There was a large, dark green porch swing in one corner and it looked inviting. A person could sit in it and look out over the lush swales and small hills of green grass that grew thick and abundant all around her.

Her boots thunked hollowly across the cedar porch. She saw the screen door was open and knocked loud enough so that someone would hear that there was a visitor. Heart pounding, Kai removed her dark blue baseball cap, nervously running her fingers through her short auburn hair.

A blond-haired woman in her late forties, who was very thin and frail looking, walked slowly down the foyer. She wore a bright apple-green-colored knit shawl around her shoulders, jeans and a pink sweater.

“Hi, I’m Kai Tiernan,” she said. “I’ve got an appointment with Mr. Holt for a job interview at one o’clock.”

The woman smiled and pushed open the screen door. “Nice to meet you, Kai. I’m Sandy Holt. Come on in. I’ll let my son, Talon, know you’ve arrived. Make yourself at home.”

Kai smiled and nodded, noticing Sandy moved at a halting pace. She appeared very ill, her skin not a good color, but her blue eyes were alert and the smile on her lips was genuine. Stepping into the foyer, she waited for the woman to guide her. She smelled bread baking in the kitchen and her mouth watered. Her mother used to bake bread and it brought back poignant memories. There were also other wonderful fragrances, apple pies baking. Her heart ached because she remembered her mother baking pies just like these in the kitchen of their ranch home. It brought back so many good but sad memories.

“This way,” Sandy invited. “Sorry, I’m a little slow...”

“No worries,” Kai replied gently. “Do you need some help?” She offered her hand.

Sandy shook her head. “No, but that’s sweet of you to ask.” Her face took on a wry look. “As it is, Cass is like a mother hen and I’m his chick. I’m lucky I got to answer the door before he could race to get to it, first.”

“I heard that, Sandy,” Cass called. “You must be feeling better because you were faster to answer that door than I was.”

Kai saw a tall, sandy-blond-haired man with glinting blue eyes poke his head around the corner of the kitchen entrance. He was wearing a red apron around his narrow waist. He wore jeans, cowboy boots and a dark brown shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His hair was rather longish, but she could see his ears and the nape of his neck. There was something about him that alerted Kai. She’d swear he’d been in the military. It was nothing obvious, but frequently she could meet someone and tell if they had been in or not. It was the way they carried themselves and that rock-solid confidence they had about themselves.

“This is my broody hen caregiver,” Sandy deadpanned, weakly lifting her hand toward him. “Cassidy Reynolds, although we all call him Cass, meet Kai Tiernan. She’s here for a job interview with Talon in about ten minutes.”

Cass grinned and came around the corner, holding out his large, work-worn hand toward her. “Hey, nice to meet you, Kai. Can I get you anything to drink while you’re waiting?”

Kai gripped his hand. The man was definitely ex-military, no question. He was probably about six foot two, with powerful shoulders, his forearms thick with muscle, telling her he worked hard. She saw some bits of flour spotted across his shirt. “Nice to meet you, Cass. And no, I don’t need anything to drink, but thank you.”

“Ah,” he said, giving Sandy a wicked look, “she’s just like you. Kai has this look on her face of what is a man doing in a kitchen and wearing, of all things, an apron?” He released her hand and chuckled. “Just FYI, Kai, I do the cooking around here five days a week. And—” he gave Sandy a warm, teasing look “—I take care of this headstrong, wild filly, plus I’m the operating officer for this ranch.”

“Wow,” Kai said, put at ease by Cass’s easygoing nature, “you’re a multitasking guy if I ever saw one.”

Sandy chuckled and shook her head. “I’m going to the living room to sit down. Come join me, Kai?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said.

“Don’t ‘ma’am’ her,” Cass warned gravely. “Things around here are loosey-goosey. No one stands on much protocol.”

“Good to know,” Kai murmured, giving Cass a grateful look. Already, she liked this ranch. Sandy worried her, though, and now she knew Talon Holt was her son. Was he like his mother? She didn’t know but hoped some of her DNA had made its way into him. Cass was a man in the kitchen. So maybe Talon wouldn’t think it odd she was a woman mechanic. Here at this ranch, they seemed not to care what the gender was as long as they were good at what they were doing. Mentally, Kai crossed her fingers.

Kai didn’t have long to wait for Talon Holt. She heard a man come in the screen door, the clacking of paws indicating a dog with him. Sitting on the couch, she saw a beautiful Belgian Malinois dog enter the room. His alert cinnamon eyes instantly settled on her. The intelligence in the dog’s gaze was apparent and Kai lifted her chin, seeing the owner come in right after him.

“Zeke, sit,” he ordered the dog.

Instantly, the dog sat.

“I’m Talon Holt,” he said, glancing at his mother and then at her. He took off his black Stetson. “You must be Kai Tiernan?”

Kai instantly stood. “Yes, sir, I am. Nice to meet you, sir.” She saw the tall man with black hair and gray eyes, grimace.

“Stand down,” he said with a slight smile. He crossed the room and shook her hand. “No need to say ‘sir’ to me.”

Zeke whined.

Talon looked back and pointed at his mother. “Zeke, guard.”

Sandy made an unhappy noise. “Now, Talon. I do not want that dog herding me around like I’m a sheep to be taken care of. Really!”

“No,” Cass boomed, coming into the room, handing Talon a cup of hot coffee, “she has me. Let the dog go out and smell the flowers that you’re trying to grow.”

Grinning, Talon nodded. “Kai, one second? I’ll be right back.”

Kai nodded, fascinated with the family dynamic. Unlike her own, no question. Sandy was the matriarch. Cass was protective of her, for sure. And as Talon turned and gave the dog a hand command, Zeke leaped up, tongue hanging out of his mouth, and ran down the long cedar hallway toward the screen door ahead of him.

Cass handed Kai a cup of coffee. “Might as well be relaxed. Come on, I’ll show you to Talon’s office. That’s where he’ll interview you.”

Grateful for Cass’s warmth and thoughtfulness, she followed him out of the massive living room and kitchen. It was an open-concept area. Down another hall, Cass led her into a small office. There, he gestured to a chair in front of a massive oak desk that looked to her to be at least a hundred years old. She sat, holding her coffee between her hands.

Cass hesitated at the door and said, “Now, just be yourself. And don’t call him ‘sir.’ He was in the military, but he’s out now. Okay?”

“Yes, si— I mean, yes, I’ll remember.”

Cass nodded and said, “You’ve got mechanic’s hands.”

Dumbfounded, Kai stared up at him.

“I was in Special Forces, a sergeant,” he said. “I was the mechanic in our A team. You can always tell someone who works around equipment.”

“Really?” she asked, still in shock that he could tell by just looking at her hands.

“Sure,” he said, “short, blunt nails, calluses on the insides of your fingers, and the skin around your nails is darker, indicating oil or other fluids you’ve been handling.” He grinned. “Hey, be proud of it. I tried to talk Talon into letting me go finagle those sick pieces of equipment in the barns, but he needed me because I’m good at numbers.” He laughed.

A little shaken, Kai wondered what kind of ranch this was. Talon had been in the military. Cass had been an Army Special Forces operator. She was a vet. Did he hire vets? Her hopes rose sharply. Kai heard the thunking of Talon’s boots along the hall. Her heart rate went up. Setting the cup on the desk, she pulled out her résumé from her pocket and unfolded it, placing it on the desk where he would sit. What would he think?

“Cass make you at home?” Talon asked, entering the office and quietly shutting the door.

“Yes, s— I mean, yes, he did. Thank you.”

Talon hooked his Stetson on a peg behind the leather chair and sat down, scooping up her three page résumé. “I’ve been anxious to see you,” he admitted, glancing up, the paper in his hands. “Good mechanics are rare as hen’s teeth. And when you answered the ad and sent me an email, telling me you had been a mechanic in the Army, I was very interested. Let me read this for a moment?”

Kai sat there trying to relax. Talon Holt was as tall as Cass and he walked like he’d been in the military, no question. His gray eyes were darker colored than hers. She remembered her father hated her eye color, accusing her mother of it being her fault that she had been born with the god-awful color. He didn’t like the light gray color because he constantly told her he felt as if she had X-ray vision and was looking straight through him. That it made him feel damned uncomfortable.

Kai watched Talon’s expression closely. The man homed in on the résumé like a laser-fired rocket. Kai could literally feel the shift of energy around him, that sudden focus. She gulped once, realizing that her dead husband, Sam Morrison, who had been a Delta Force operator, had that same kind of intensity, that same telltale energy about him. It was a mark of an operator. And Kai had known enough of them at Bagram in her many tours at that Afghanistan Army base to recognize one when she saw one.

Was Talon Holt an operator, too? Shaken by the synchronicity, if that were true, Kai felt her hopes rise a little more. If he was, he’d speed-read it, memorize it and have it locked permanently into his brain. That’s the way operators were. She waited, barely breathing. Hoping against hope. Finally he looked at her after rapidly skimming the three pages.

“I like that you were an Apache helo mech. Only the cream of the Army crop of mechanics get that important position. Were you the only woman?” He smiled a little.

“No, s— No, I wasn’t. In my squadron, we had four women. The rest were men.”

“I see you had six deployments to Bagram. You were kept busy.”

She nodded. “Well, if I wasn’t on Apaches, I and a few others were sent over to work on Black Hawks and MH-47s for the Night Stalker squadrons located there with us.”

“Yes,” he murmured, “I’m a little familiar with Bagram.”

Kai was dying to ask him what branch of the military he served in but didn’t dare. That would have been inappropriate.

“So,” Talon said, holding her stare, “if you were being asked to work on other birds then, you were a multi-engine qualified mechanic. They don’t let mechs work on anything but what they’re trained in on.”

“That’s correct. I was multi-certified.” Kai saw a pleased look come to his face. He didn’t hide how he felt. If he was an operator, usually they had a game face on and no one knew what they were thinking or feeling. Maybe Talon Holt wasn’t an operator, after all.

“I see here you were born in Cody, Wyoming? That your father owns the Circle T?” Talon cocked his head, studying her. “Why aren’t you home working for your parents instead of applying here for a job?”

Her throat tightened for a moment. Yeah, Talon was an operator. They had an unerring ability to home in on the exact issue that needed to be revealed and investigated. She told him the least she could, keeping out the fact she had a permanent rift with her father. His expression became sympathetic when she told him her mother had died when she was eight years old.

“That had to be tough on you,” he murmured. “And you have an older brother?”

“Yes. Steve works at the Circle T.” Her hands grew damp. “My father didn’t need a mechanic. I needed to expand my horizons and stay in my MOS after I separated from the Army. That’s why I’m applying for a job here.”

Rubbing his shaven jaw, Talon regarded her for a moment, the silence thickening in the office. “And you grew up helping to repair tractors, trucks and hay balers?”

“All of those,” she said, “and more.”

“Did your father think it odd for a girl to be a mechanic?”

Shrugging, she said, “He did, but I persevered.” Because she would work with her brother, Steve, who taught her everything that her father refused to teach her about fixing equipment.

“What are you looking for, Kai?”

The question caught her off guard. It was a thoughtfully posed question, without rancor. She saw kindness in Talon’s gray eyes, his face fully readable. There was a gentleness around this man despite how tall he was. Holt wasn’t pretty-boy handsome—he was deeply tanned and tough looking. For a moment, a man from her past, Gil Hanford, came to mind. He’d been a Delta Force operator and Sam’s best friend. Kai quickly slammed that door shut in her memory—too much grief and loss came with it. Moistening her lips, she answered honestly.

“I wanted a family. The military was my family for ten years, but they were downsizing and a lot of us were being let go when our enlistment expired.” She opened her hands. “I love people, children and animals. I like being part of something greater than myself. I was hoping to find a ranch owned by a longtime family and become a part of it.”

He glanced at the résumé. “You’re a widow?”

“Yes. My husband was a Delta Force operator and was killed in action in Afghanistan five years ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Talon said, meaning it, giving her a frown. “Are you in a relationship right now?”

“No.”

“How do you see yourself fitting in around here?”

Kai was shocked at the kind of questions Talon was asking. No one had ever asked her questions like this. “I’m a good mechanic. And I’ll be responsible for keeping all the equipment up, running and perform routine maintenance on them. Then, when I’m not busy with equipment, I’d like to be a wrangler. I can do anything asked of me because on my father’s ranch, I did everything. I like working. I like being out in the weather. I don’t mind dog work because I always take personal pride in the job I perform.”

She saw his eyes twinkle. Kai didn’t know if her answer meant he was pleased or not because his expression gave nothing away.

“What if,” Talon said, setting the résumé aside, “our ranch manager asks you to go work on the employee house we’re building presently? Do you have any house building or construction skills?”

“I helped my father with roofing, drywalling, painting, laying wood floor, tiling, plumbing and electrical. My weakness is carpentry, like making window openings and setting one into it. I hate hanging doors. I’m not very good at it, although I know I can be if asked to do something like that.” She saw a slight smile come to his mouth.

“You are a jack-of-all-trades and that’s what we need around here.” Talon settled back in the squeaky chair. “I like your résumé, Kai, and I like your can-do spirit. We’re trying to hire military vets here at our ranch. They’re the hardest-working group I know of. They’re responsible, disciplined, enjoy being a team member and they’re the most organized group that I know of. Around here? We work dawn to dusk every day. You get weekends off. I’ll give you two weeks vacation each year. The bad news is that we can’t pay you as much as you’re worth right now, because this ranch has had nine years of disrepair. It means you won’t be able to make the money you’re worth for two years. We have a business plan and Cass has a math degree. He’s got us on track financially speaking, and everyone around here is busting their butts to make it happen.”

“I’m okay with less money for now,” Kai said. “And you’re ex-military like me. I know you’ll give me raises when you can and I’m fine with that. I just want to fit in. I’m looking for a new family, I guess.”

He smiled a little. “You’re good. I was in the US Navy. As you’ve probably already seen, the Holts are a pretty laid-back, easygoing family. Only my ranch foreman is pretty crusty and uptight, but he’s good at what he does. The other thing is, we’ll give you a room here on the first floor of our home. We’re in the process of building the employee house, but it won’t be ready until next June. We’ve only got so much money to buy items for the construction phase of it right now. We’re working to enclose it before snow flies in late August.”

Nodding, her heart was racing, but it was with joy this time. “I know I’ll love working here, Mr. Holt.”

“Call me Talon,” he said, sitting up in the chair. He rested his arms on the desk. “The wranglers’ lockers are located in the big red barn, next to the tack room on the main floor. Just grab one and put all your gear in there.” He looked at his watch. “My wife, Cat, is a paramedic. She works at the local hospital three days a week. She’ll be home at 5:00 p.m. We’ll eat at six sharp, in the kitchen. Cass is a helluva chef. The guy missed his calling and he should have gone to chef school. He’d probably have his own TV show by now.” Talon grinned. “We’re lucky to have him.”

“Your mother seems to really like him. He’s very kind and gentle with her.”

Talon lost his smile. “My mother’s just gotten through her last round of chemo and radiation. This is her second go-around with breast cancer.”

Kai winced. “Oh, no...” She saw the pain in Talon’s darkening gray eyes. He loved his mother very much.

“There may be days,” Talon said more softly, “that me or the foreman might ask you to do a little caregiving for her instead of being out riding fence. Would you be up for that?”

“Of course. I like Sandy. She’s very kind.” Like her son, she thought. The joy bubbling through Kai was fierce, like a tsunami, and she tried to keep a serious face because of the worry she saw in Talon’s eyes. “I see you have a dog. He’s beautiful.”

Talon grimaced. “You need to know that he’s a US Navy SEAL trained combat assault dog. Zeke and I were together for three years before we both got wounded in a firefight. I’ll make sure to introduce you to him so he knows you’re a friend of mine, not an enemy to bite.”

Her eyes widened. “You were a SEAL?” She saw his face turn grim and she saw anguish in his eyes for a split second, and then it was gone.

“Up until about nine months ago,” he said gruffly. “I came home to take care of my mother and get our ranch back on its feet.”

Nodding, Kai felt the sting of tears in the back of her eyes. “I would never have thought you were a SEAL.”

He smiled a little. “No?” He rose and pushed the chair back.

Kai stood. “Operators wear game faces. You don’t.”

“My wife is teaching me to let that be a thing of the past.” Talon opened the door for her. “Go into the kitchen and ask Cass to show you to your bedroom. He’ll get you squared away. And then, take your wrangling equipment to the locker in the barn. By that time, my foreman should be back from his run to town. If you happen to run into him, introduce yourself. If not, you’ll meet him tonight at dinner.”

“Good enough,” Kai murmured. Her voice lowered with feeling. “Thank you for giving me a chance, Talon. I promise, I won’t let you or your family down.”

He patted her shoulder. “I believe you, Kai. Welcome home.”