Page 30 of Training Rain
Jess clutched his arm and shoulder where Rain had stitched him up. “I had a little mishap with a hunting knife, ranger. It took a few stitches.”
The ranger seemed to be giving the excuse some thought. “You two know anything about an explosion? I heard it all the way back at the station.”
Jess finally spoke up. “We heard it too and thought it would be a good time to get moving out of here. I left my car back at the lot. Any chance you’d give us a ride, Ranger Bailey?”
She couldn’t tell if the ranger believed them or not. He just nodded and they loaded into his truck. She and Yas got in the backseat while Jess sat in the passenger seat up front.
“Where you folks from?” Bailey asked.
“Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas,” Rain said.
“Long way to come to find a dog.”
“Yes sir. He’s a good dog though.”
Jess smiled and used a thick Louisiana accent. “She wouldn’t give me a moment’s peace in the past few months. Had to burn another vacation to find that mutt. I’d much rather have gone somewhere warm.”
Ranger Bailey smiled for the first time. His fingers seemed to loosen on the steering wheel. “We all do those kinds of things to keep our women happy, son.”
“Yes sir. I suppose we do.”
They arrived at the parking lot and found the small SUV completely plowed in.
She heard a barely audible “shit” from the passenger seat.
“Sorry about that. The plow driver probably thought your car was abandoned since the fall.”
Jess shook his head. “Any chance you could drive us to a nearby airport? Maybe we can get a charter back to Billings.”
With a nod, they were on the move again. Rain looked out the back window half expecting to see the ATV behind them, but the road was clear. An hour later they pulled into a small airfield, said goodbye to Ranger Bailey and headed toward the hanger door.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust from the brightness of the outside with the sun reflecting off the snow to the dimly lit hangar.
“I’ve been waiting for the two of you,” a familiar voice said.
How could that be? She blinked a few times to bring the cavernous room into focus. In the center of the concrete floor a very expensive-looking, though small, airplane was parked. In front of the stairs leading up to the open doors stood Will Starkey with a big smile on his face.
Rain knew that Will was a sharpshooter, an assassin, but she could never equate the easygoing bear of a man with a cold, calculating killer.
Jess stepped forward immediately and shook Will’s hand. Jess was a pretty big guy, but he was dwarfed by the gentle giant who pulled the smaller man into a hug. Jess laughed and patted Will’s back. “Good to see you. How did you get here so fast?”
“Josh got a signal when the cabin detonator was triggered. We figured you two were either dead or in trouble. It stood to reason if you survived the explosion, you’d head for a way out of the area.” He shrugged and patted the side of his plane. “Josh would have come himself, but he’s in D.C. trying to deal with the Breckenridge situation.”
“Joshua Lakeland, most powerful psychic in the world, reduced to a politician. Sounds a bit nuts to me,” Jess said.
Rain kept quiet as she took it all in and tried to hide her surprise that they could have figured all of that out and sent transportation in such a short time.
Will’s smile brightened. “He’ll do fine. We’d better get going. I’m assuming you blew the cabin for a reason and whoever it was, they’ll be looking for you.”
“I think we took care of them all, but it might be a good idea to have a clean-up team go in to deal with the fallout when the rangers find bodies strewn through the park.”
“I’ll radio Tessa and tell her the situation. Good to see you again, Rain.”
“You too, Will. I’m a little surprised about how fast you got here.” Between the explosion, running and fighting it was near midday.
“It’s not a long flight and Tessa had me in the air only minutes after the alarm went off telling her you’d blown up the cabin.”
“I sure appreciate you coming.”
