Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
TALON
Austin gave us a tour of the cabin and then I dropped him back at the house.
The Rogue Ops teams generally do protection work for women getting out of bad situations, there's a system of safe houses set up around the country, places where teams can keep people safe in environments that are more or less comfortable.
"Might wanna stop by Jeb's and pick up a few things, no one's used the place since last year," Austin tells me off-handedly while he climbs out of the Bronco.
"Jeb's?"
"Sorry, forgot it's your first day." He gives me a grin that holds the sympathy of a man who's been in the same place as me. "Little market, down on sixth street. Only real grocery place in town."
Then the grin goes serious, replaced by the curiosity of a man who sees something in me that he can't identify with.
"You think her story's credible? I mean, shadow men sounds kinda like a trauma thing to me. Maybe her brain is just refusing to process what she really saw."
I nod at his assessment.
"Especially if she witnessed the final attack at all," I agree solemnly. "She might be blanking out details."
"Details we need if we're going to get her friend back. Sounds to me like we're dealing with two different problems now."
"Rival outfits, or maybe in-fighting-- suppose it'd be an insult to ask if you guys have done a fly-over to check for illegal grows?"
"Don't suggest otherwise in front of Sagan." Austin chuckles. "Yeah, woods are clear. Anything going on in there sure as fuck doesn't need sunlight. Can't remember ever seeing trees that thick outside of the jungle."
The Ward brothers are both Navy; team-guys that knew the boss while they were still active duty. Austin's comment is a reminder that I'm not the only one here who's seen parts of this planet that no one pays a travel agency to send them to.
It also reminds me of stories I'd heard whispered in smoke pits on late night watches back in the desert. Stories I wish I'd paid more attention to now, from men confessing the things they saw that didn't go on reports. Shadows that weren't cast by anything natural.
"You should get back to her, man." Austin slaps the hood of the SUV twice, standing back to his full height. "Doesn't sound like she's in any immediate danger, so I'm sure she's all right at the cabin alone, but..."
My head dips once in a curt nod of acknowledgment.
Zona's our only witness and our best lead on finding the men who are obviously still using the local mountains as a hide out for conducting some seriously fucked up business, and our best hope at getting her friend back before she's off the radar forever.
"You need me to send one of the guys up there with you?"
"Nah, we'll be good on our own. Like you said, doesn't seem like she's in danger. Just need to make sure that doesn't change."
This time, it's Austin's head that nods as he heads toward the house.
Normally, we'd pair up when we have someone in the cabin, but the team is down a man while we wait on Caspian to finish up whatever he's been on. Since we all agreed that Zona doesn't appear to be in danger, I'm the only one who'll be staying up there to make sure she stays that way.
After finding the local grocery store and filling a cart with things I figure the cabin's cupboards are probably lacking, I check in with the team as I make my way up another desolate mountain road that leads to the remote cabin at the edge of the woods.
Jay gives me an update, letting me know what Sag and Leo have reported in so far-- they took the Jeep up a four by four trail and then got into the site from the backside. They're still up there, checking in via satellite phone on the regular.
"Sag says those bodies were pretty fucked up," Jay tells me.
"Probably animal attack, unlikely to be a bear.
Maybe cougar. There's a wolf pack recently confirmed in the area, but there haven't been any reports of them going after humans.
..not that that area had seen a whole lot of human activity until they started logging the west side a couple years back. "
"Keep me posted," I reply, pulling into the cabin's drive and parking right out front. "I want to know what they find."
"Will do. The guys are going to stay up there and get deeper into the woods once the site clears out. Still waiting on the coroner to pull the bodies out."
Ending our call, I stare at the cabin in front of me. Light shines from every window, but the place is built like an incognito fortress, with the windows running horizontally along the top of the walls, so it's harder for anyone inside to be seen-- and for anyone inside to get shot.
There's a barn where I could park if we needed to keep the place looking unoccupied, but it's not called for in this situation. In fact, the goal is to make it look like the place is being used as a vacation rental-- perfectly reasonable for the lights to be on and cars in the driveway.
The fact that the simple, two room cabin has bullet-proof walls, a state-of-the-art security system, and a high-tech panic room hidden in the basement isn't anyone's business unless they're Rogue Operations insiders.
Hauling the bags of things I picked up in town up to the door, I punch in the code and let myself inside.
Every light in the place is on, music plays from the back bedroom, sounding tinny at the high volume on what must be Zona's cell phone speaker.
The door that separates the main living space at the front of the cabin and the bedroom in the back that closes between the two bathrooms is wide open, as is the door to the bathroom on Zone's side of the space we'll be sharing until we can be sure it's safe for her to go home.
The cell phone's speaker isn't adequate to drown out the sound of the front door opening and then being shut behind me, or the heavy thud of the grocery bags when I set them on the counter of the tiny kitchenette at the front of the main area.
"Talon?"
Her voice is laced with fear, calling my name hopefully.
"Yeah, Zone, it's me."
"Oh good."
She pops her head out from the bathroom, then smiles wide when she sees the bags on the counter.
Fuck me.
Arizona emerges into full view wearing nothing but a goddamned towel.
The thing is about two inches shy of fully overlapping itself around her thick curves. Pulled tight around her top, it pushes her full tits up so the cleavage runs all the way up to her throat, pillowy mounds spilling over the edge of their terry-cloth prison.
She heads toward me, her eyes pinned on what I've brought back with me, oblivious to the way the lower edges of the towel don't even fight to stay closed, parting to show a hint of hip and soft stomach with every step she takes toward me.
The fucking towel is so short, it stops short of covering her shapely thighs and barely leaves room for imagination for what lies between them.
My imagination is very good, and working in overdrive at the moment.
"Did you go shopping?" Zona squeals delightedly as she peers into each bag, pulling out items to see what's beneath them. "Ohmygosh, thank you! I'm starving."
She seems to catch herself before she reaches to hug me, blushing furiously as she catches the edge of the towel before it gives way.
"I'll be right back," she mutters shyly before heading back to the bedroom at a near jog that makes that infernal towel bounce in time with her ass.
I grip the edge of the counter tightly, willing my dick back into compliance.
This is bad.
Arizona
Behind the safety of the bedroom's closed door, I rifle through the available clothes in the drawers.
My backpack is still at the campsite, which is off limits as a crime scene now. Since this cabin is usually used as a safe space for women and families who are escaping abusive situations, the closet and dresser are stocked with extra clothes of various sizes.
Not much in the way of stylish and not a lot that fits me, but I find a pair of leggings in a soft, buttery fabric with lots of stretch in them that fit over my butt and don't dig in painfully at the waist. Finding an oversize t-shirt isn't a challenge, but a bra is out of the question.
By the time I'm dressed in clean clothes that smell of laundry detergent, I feel a little less mortified about trying to hug Talon and nearly ending up naked in front of him and by the time I get my hair combed out, I'm hungry enough that I'm feeling less mortified about trying to hug Talon at all.
When Austin brought us out to the cabin, he gave us a tour of the place and explained what the cabin is used for while he pointed out some of the features that are certainly less typical in mountain cabin vacation rentals.
He and Talon then filled me in on who they are and what they do, including a brief run down on who the other guys I met today were.
A team of private security operators working for a company that specializes in helping find missing persons and get people in danger to safety.
That's how Austin described them.
Those two men who stayed with the Jeep this afternoon-- Leo and Sagan-- they've been living in Paradise Point for the last year already, after human traffickers were uncovered last summer, using the abandoned road that connects this side of the mountains to the other as a route for transport.
But Astrid isn't the first hiker to go missing in the last couple of weeks, and that's why they're all here now; to track down who's behind the disappearances and finally bring them to justice.
That's the story I got, but they left me alone in the cabin while Talon gave Austin a ride back to the house they share in town.
I got the feeling they talked about things I wasn't supposed to know.
What I do know is that Talon is new to their team, he's hot as fire, and I haven't eaten anything since I called a packet of freeze-dried spaghetti dinner last night.
When I open the bedroom door, I'm hit by the smell of food being cooked and my stomach growls loudly.
A few steps past the doors to the dual bathrooms, and I'm in the main living area of the cabin.
Twin sofas face off against one another across the room.
Both upholstered in dark, forest green fabric with silhouettes of bears and moose and tiny log cabins on a tan background in a checkerboard pattern.
One has been pulled out and made into a bed already, while the other has a red and black, buffalo-check blanket folded neatly over the back.
There's a free-standing, wood-burning stove surrounded by brick fire wall sitting cold and unused in one corner and I vaguely wish the July nights were cool enough to warrant lighting it up.
A campfire this time of year is nice when you're sleeping outside, but the robust little cabin is insulated well enough to not need the extra heat until probably well into the fall months.
The kitchen area is at the opposite end of the main room, a counter running along the front wall with a sink, and oven/stove unit that looks like it was ripped out of someone's motorhome. A standard size refrigerator stands against the wall perpendicular to the counter.
There's a table in the middle of it all, a rectangle of lacquered wood taking up the middle of the floor space between the kitchen and the living room, big enough to put six chairs around.
It's a nice little cabin that would make a delightful place for a family to spend a week on vacation while hiking the trails or fishing in one of the local lakes maybe, a great place for a few buddies to set up as a base for hunting trips, or a cozy little love nest for a couple to spend some quality time on a romantic getaway.
My eyes linger on the man at the stove.
Talon has packages opened and laid out across the counter space at his side, a pot takes up one of the tiny stove top's back burners and steam rises from the skillet in front of him.
That t-shirt that clung to developed pecs and abs from the front, stretches to reveal an equally muscled back as it flexes along with his body with every movement of his arms.
The shirt remains tucked into the waistband of those dark pants, the ones with all the pockets along the front and sides, but that fit magnificently tight across an ass that has my mouth watering even more than whatever is cooking on the stove.
I could have hugged him earlier, if my stupid towel hadn't come apart where I'd tucked in together. If my stupid body was a few sizes smaller so that average bath towels fit around me well enough to stay tucked in.
Then I would have known what all that muscle feels like. He certainly didn't act like he was going to stop me when I was in his space with my arms halfway around his neck.
Maybe I'll find an excuse to hug him later. God knows that's the only way I'm likely to ever get that close to him.
To the side, I catch a shadow out of the corner of my eye and startle when it moves. The jump-scare has my heart pounding before I can turn on the overhead light that Talon must have turned back off when he made up his bed for the night.
With the corner fully illuminated, I can see the movement was from Talon's arm as he stirred the pot on the stove, throwing shadows across the open space from the kitchen lights.
"You okay?"
He turns around, giving me a worried look when he sees me still staring into the corner, my hand over my still frantic heart.
"Yeah. Just thought I saw something in the corner." My eyes want to look back at Talon, but they stay fixed on the corner, daring it to trick me again, as I move toward the kitchen with its brighter lights and the safety of the man there who isn't here just to protect me, but feels like he will.