Chapter 5 #3
Stone frowned. “Shouldn’t you have gone?”
Kujo shook his head. “Hank and Chuck went with them. I understand Six and I will be the advance team to clear locations prior to our candidate’s speaking events.” He glanced around. “Where’s our candidate?”
Liliana stood. “That would be me.”
Kujo’s eyebrows hiked, and he laughed. “I was expecting an older woman.”
“Sorry to disappoint.” Liliana grinned. “However, if things continue to go like they did yesterday, by the time the election rolls around, I will have aged significantly, especially if we have more explosions. I’m Liliana Lightfeather, by the way. Nice to meet you…Kujo, is it?”
Kujo stepped forward and shook her hand. “Joseph Kuntz,” he said. “You can call me Kujo.”
She glanced down at the German Shephard. “And this is?”
“Six.”
She frowned. “Six? Like the number?”
Kujo reached down to scratch the dog’s ears. “That’s right. He was my sixth Military Working Dog.”
“And he had your six?” Liliana asked.
“That’s right,” Kujo said. “Six has had my back since I got him as a pup.”
“Thank you for coming all this way and for tagging along with us on my campaign trail. Hopefully, Six won’t find anything for us to worry about.”
“Though that might disappoint him,” Kujo said. “I’d be more than happy for a boring job—meaning no explosives found.”
Dax held out his hand. “Daxton Young. Dax for short.”
Kujo shook his hand and looked around at the others. “Hank has good things to say about you and the team here.”
“We’re glad to be here,” Stone said. “If not for Hank and the Brotherhood Protectors out of Eagle Rock, Montana, we might still be fighting our way out of Afghanistan.”
Kujo rubbed his chin. “That was quite the extraction. Glad it went as well as it did.”
Stone grinned. “Us, too.’ He nodded toward the buffet. “You and Six should grab some breakfast.”
Kujo faced Dax. “What’s the plan?”
“We’re leaving in fifteen minutes.” Dax nodded toward Liliana. “You can follow later if you want to catch up with the Yellowstone operations. The speaking event isn’t until tomorrow. We’ll have time to run Six through the site in the morning.”
“After being on the road for several hours, Six and I would like to stretch our legs and see how the renovations are coming along.” He glanced toward the buffet. “Six loves bacon almost as much as I do. We didn’t have time to eat before we left at zero-dark-thirty.”
“Please, grab some chow and join us,” John Jacobs said. “I’ll get a pot of coffee and a mug for you.”
“I’m finished here if you want to get on the road,” Liliana said. “I looked at the route to Jackson. The shortest way is through Idaho. I’d rather take the longer route through Wyoming if you don’t mind, but it’ll add an hour to the trip.”
“We have all day to get to Jackson,” Dax said. “We’re not in a hurry.”
“Good. We’ll be driving past Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, some of the most beautiful areas in the country. Makes me proud to be from Wyoming.”
“Sounds like a nice drive,” Kyla said.
“Hopefully, an uneventful one,” Carter said.
“Yeah, but if you get in a pinch, give us a yell,” Falcon said. “Wouldn’t mind a trip through the parks myself.”
Liliana and Dax left the others at the table and headed back to their rooms.
“I just need to brush my teeth, and I’ll be ready,” Liliana said. “I assume we’re riding in your vehicle since mine is back in Riverton…?”
Dax nodded. “We’ll go in my truck. It’ll be its first big road trip since I bought it.”
“A new truck, huh?” she said.
“Yeah, I sold everything before I left for Afghanistan, fully expecting the job to last more than a year,” Dax said. “I saw no use in keeping furniture and a vehicle in storage if they weren’t going to be used.”
“You’re starting over, then.” Liliana shook her head. “As poor as I was growing up, I always knew I had a home to go to on the reservation. If my family wasn’t there, other people I knew and grew up with would take me in and be there for me. I don’t know what it’s like to be completely rootless.”
Dax’s lips pressed into a tight line. “As a Navy SEAL, you get used to it. Until you don’t. Then it’s time to get out and plant some roots of your own. After our stint as mercenaries in Afghanistan, I was ready to find a place to call home.”
“And have you found it?”
He shrugged. “I’ve found a career. As for a home, not yet. That’s a work in progress.”
“Have you considered Wyoming?”
He laughed. “The entire state?”
“Or somewhere inside the state.” Liliana’s cheeks heated. “It’s a beautiful place to live. Or are you tied to West Yellowstone since that’s where your team is located?”
“I think we can live where we want as long as we can get together when needed.” Dax stopped in front of her door.
Liliana ran her key card through the scanner and pushed open the door. She waved him inside. “After you.”
“Good. You remembered.”
“I might not have been trained in the military, but I learn quickly.” She grinned as he entered her room first and made a quick pass.
When he came back to where she was standing, he nodded. “All clear.”
“Thank you.” She looked up into his eyes. “I’m glad you’re going with me. I feel safer with you around.”
His gaze met hers and held. “I’m glad I’m going as well. And I’m glad Kujo and Six will be ahead of us at the sites. I can protect you from actual, physical attacks, but bombs… That’s where Six will earn his pay in treats.”
“Let’s hope for an uneventful campaign tour,” Liliana said.
For another long moment, Dax stood before her. “I have the feeling that nothing about being on a campaign tour with you will be uneventful. And I don’t mean that in a bad way.” He bent and brushed his lips across hers.
When his head came up, Liliana stared, transfixed, her heart fluttering, her knees going weak. “Practice makes perfect?”
He grinned. “Damn right.”