To the Xtreme (Xtreme Ops Book 2) Read online

  If Paul had gone to purchase more explosive, and she gave him the free time to do so, was she also at fault? Of course not. But she still felt a heavy weight descend over her. Slumping in the chair, she continued to analyze every single angle of Paul’s possible crime. She found herself picking apart his tone of voice and expressions he wore, wondering if she might have missed some sign of him going off the deep end.

  In such a short time, Harris had changed her—the way she thought, felt, acted. She was still Jenna, but with a tougher edge, and she didn’t know if she liked the new Jenna.

  Her phone buzzed and her heart gave a leap. Thinking it might be Harris, she grabbed it out of her pocket and stared at the screen.

  Jack…or rather Joshua King. Would she ever be able to think of her friend the same way? She definitely couldn’t meet with him face-to-face for a while until she figured it out.

  One thought turned into a hundred, and hours turned into days. On repeat, she ate, slept, got up the next day and went to work. After ten days of no word from Paul or Harris, she started to wonder if she’d ever see either one of them again.

  The world took on a bleak cast that mirrored her mood.

  With a huge sigh, Jenna dropped a pile of garbage left by campers into the trash receptacle. Things like this ticked her off to no end, but she found people weren’t always considerate or follow the same code as she did about sharing a clean planet. At least there was a restroom near the picnic area where she could wash her hands.

  The small mirror over the sink reflected her tired image—she hadn’t been sleeping well for a couple weeks now. Purple bruises under each eye gave her complexion a more sallow appearance. But what did any of that matter? She’d been keeping to herself even when it came to seeing her coworkers. She didn’t want to hear the latest theories on why Paul hadn’t returned or if the special ops team would ever solve the mystery of the explosions.

  On her way out of the restroom, her phone buzzed. She drew it from her pocket and saw a message flash across the screen.

  Pizza?

  Jack.

  How many days had she ignored his texts now? Doing so left her feeling depressed and guilt-ridden. He might have a past, but who didn’t? As far as she knew, he wasn’t doing anything wrong now. The Xtreme Ops team obviously ruled him out as a suspect or Jack would be in custody.

  The Xtreme Ops team… She flinched at the images of the men rolling through her mind. Funny how she thought of them as friends and yet she didn’t even know most of their full names. Captain Penn Sullivan, Broshears, Gasper, Hepburn, who everyone called Hep. Beckett was one she hadn’t figured out, with his poker face she couldn’t read. Winston and Day, who she knew less about. Pax had guarded her one night at the cabin. And Cora had life-flighted Joffrey to the hospital.

  So many days had passed that Joffrey was now awake and progressing through his recovery, while her own life seemed to pedal in place, like a mountain bike stuck on a rock.

  One man’s name she refused to allow into her mind—he already occupied her every dream.

  The sharp pang stabbing into her heart hadn’t faded in intensity, and after weeks, she wasn’t certain if it ever would.

  She stared at those five little letters on her screen. P-I-Z-Z-A. Her stomach liked the idea.

  Maybe she needed to give her friend a second chance. Wasn’t that what the old Jenna would do?

  She thumbed off a response. Meet you there.

  His immediate reply told her he’d been waiting. How many other times had Jack sat waiting for her response and never received one? More guilt heaped onto her shoulders, but maybe tonight she’d face Jack and confront him with what she knew. Friends were honest with each other—and if he was a true friend in return, he’d listen. Then the pair of them could find their way back to the golden friendship she loved having in her life.

  As she drove out of the park, she passed Rick driving the other direction. They rolled down their windows to chat about their day, but he sounded as depressed as she felt. This limbo they lived in, with the park closed until somebody told them otherwise, and Paul gone too, had kicked all their morale in the teeth.

  Rick sent a long glance up the road where he was heading. “I sure do miss seeing visitors here.”

  “Me too.” For some reason, her throat clogged off.

  “Doesn’t seem to be much point in any of us being here without people,” he said and roused himself from his despondent mood. In a brighter tone, he said, “Well, have a good evening, Moon Shadow.”

  “Bye, Rick.”

  As they both drove away, she experienced a flutter of panic. Moon Shadow had been part of her identity for years, but she didn’t feel in touch with that side of herself lately. Maybe she should take some time off, set out on an adventure of her own and reconnect with nature and herself. Rick had said without visitors, there wasn’t much for them to do around here, and they could do without her for a few days.

  Maybe Jack would even join her.

  The thought raised a different sort of flutter inside her—not one of interest but of worry. Harris wouldn’t like her spending time alone on the trail with Jack.

  To hell with Harris—he was no longer part of her life. She had to move forward, and what better way than to do something she loved with an old friend who understood her?

  Feeling a little more eager for the company than the pizza, she hurried into town. When she pulled up in front of the pizza joint, she saw Jack sitting outside on a bench waiting for her.

  He grinned and threw her a wave, but she saw a hint of hesitation in both gestures. She’d hurt him, and the idea didn’t set with her.

  She climbed out of her truck and walked up to him. He stood, searching into her eyes. “Something happened,” he said.

  Her heart tumbled off the high shelf she’d forced it onto after Harris left and hit rock bottom. Tears thickened her throat. Maybe she did have that friend to confide in, after all.

  “Can we just…walk first? Then eat?” she asked him.

  “Anything you want.”

  They strolled away from the pizza place and past several small tourist shops, including the store where she’d sold Harris’s carvings in order to get money to help her friend. Her heart thudded faster as she passed the window, not daring to peek in case the owner had displayed the tiny bear or the pair of squirrels with their walnut.

  “You’ve been avoiding me,” Jack said after a long silence.

  She met his direct gaze and nodded.

  “Did I do something to hurt you?”

  “No. It’s on me.”

  “Tell me what I can do to help us get to where we started.” True concern pinched his brows and creased his eyes.

  She started to talk, telling him first about the threat to the park despite the fact she shouldn’t be speaking about it. Briefly, she touched on the special forces team coming to investigate. Jack asked about Harris, and Jenna folded her fingers into her palms to stop them from shaking.

  “He’s gone,” she said quietly.

  They turned and set off across a field that separated road from mountain. Walking got her blood pumping, which meant her heart kickstarted…along with the realization that she couldn’t get over Harris now or ever…because she loved him.

  She found herself spilling all this to Jack, confiding her fears and secret thoughts to her friend. And when she finished, he put his arms around her and drew her head onto his shoulder. While he held her through her confession, he gave his own, beginning with his personal story of his crime that had begun as a test to see if he could get away with it and ending with him leaving everything behind, forsaking all material things and setting off on a soul-walk into the wilderness.

  When he finished, she searched his eyes and saw nothing but the truth glowing in their depths. “Thank you for telling me, Jack.”

  He scuffed at the grass with the toe of his hiking boot. “You can call me Joshua.”

  She shook her head. “No. To me, you’ll always b
e Jack.”

  “Thanks, Moon Shadow.”

  She glanced away. “I don’t know if I can connect with that part of myself anymore. I feel as if…” She didn’t want to speak the words that had been burning a hole through her ever since Harris left.

  Dragging in a deep breath, she met Jack’s gaze. If he could be brave, so could she. “I feel as if he broke me.” To her shock, her voice didn’t waver as she thought it would.

  Jack raised a hand to her braid and gave it a light tug. “Oh Moon Shadow, nobody could break you. You’ll find your way back in time.”

  “What if I can’t?”

  He gave her a crooked grin. “Then I’ll track this Harris dude down and kick his ass.”

  Her jaw dropped at the violent words coming from her very passive friend and burst out laughing. “That’s exactly what I needed to hear from my friend right this minute. C’mon—I’m starving. Let’s get that pizza.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Three weeks. Three weeks we’ve been on this asshole’s tail!” Lipton’s voice rose an octave until every member of the team raised his head.

  Penn leveled his stare on him. “What’s crawled up your ass?”

  “I’ll tell you what—we know the park ranger came north and we followed him north. We found where he went, what he bought and who he bought it from. We spent a week hunting the explosive seller down and another getting him to take his fucking thumb off the trigger and not blow up the whole town. We interrogated him until we know about the dreams he had about his own mother, but we still have no idea where our original mark is.”

  Penn watched him for a long minute and then grabbed him by the shoulder and walked him away from the group. Lipton’s chest burned with fury and irritation, and dammit, if he’d gotten in touch with any of his feelings over the past month, he knew some of that burning was a raw need to see Jenna.

  Penn spoke in a low tone so they weren’t overheard. “Do you need a break from this, Lip?”

  “Hell no.” The words shot forth without him conjuring them—his will spoke for him.

  “You’ve been stuck in that cast for weeks and unable to exert yourself the way you’re used to. I think you’ve got an extreme case of cabin fever.”

  That may be true but it wasn’t the reason for his outburst, and Penn knew it too.

  Penn never removed his grip from his shoulder. “Look, every one of us needs a break at times. Take a short leave, return to Denali…”

  “Why would I do that?”

  His captain stared at him. “At least call her.”

  His heart turned over at the suggestion that had been racing through his mind for weeks. He shook his head. “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “She wouldn’t want to hear from me.”

  “And you know this because…?”

  They hadn’t spoken a word about Jenna or Lipton’s entanglement with her, but the team was his brotherhood, and they were all trained to detect the most miniscule of changes in each other and their surroundings. If anybody knew Lipton had been fucking around with her, the guys did.

  Lipton bowed his head. “It was stupid of me to make a move on her in the first place. We’re too different, not like you and Cora.”

  “Differences can be worked out.”

  “Not in this case. I apologize for my behavior, and I won’t be a drag on the team anymore.” Lipton raked his fingers over his hair. “I’ve got my shit together now.”

  Penn didn’t appear to buy his story. Hell, he didn’t either. But he had to say something to get the captain off his ass. The last thing he needed was to be sidelined on this case. Seeing it through to the very end was the only thing driving him on these days.

  With a nod, Penn turned to the group clustered in their temporary base, which happened to be a cabin in the region where Gibson had come to buy C-4 off his dealer.

  The group roused, awaiting Penn’s orders. By now they all knew their captain’s body language, and the set of his shoulders told them he was ready to take action.

  “Lip and I’ve had a little chat.” He swung his stare to Lipton.

  Pax and their other two newcomers, Winston and Day, had recently begun to settle down among the team members and show their true personalities, but they mostly stuck together. Now, they bowed their heads to hide their amusement at Penn’s sarcastic tone.

  Penn went on, “And I think he’s right. We’ve been sitting far too long on this. My idea to lay low and allow a weasel to pop up when he feels he’s not being hunted anymore hasn’t worked, and our mark seems to have gone underground. In Alaska, it could be years before he shows himself. We can’t wait that long.”

  “What are our orders, Captain?” Hepburn asked in his deep Southern twang.

  “We’re going to Denali National Park and wait.”

  “What about the intel that Gibson’s been spotted in this area within the last week?” Hep pressed.

  “Thanks to Lipton’s profiling, we know Gibson is the type of man to see a plan through to the end. He’s a box-checker. He ticks off an item on his to-do list before moving on to the next item. He’s got his materials to create more bombs, and I think we’ve got to draw the lines to the fact he will return to the park to finish his plan.”

  Hepburn shoved to his feet. “Ready to roll when you give the word, Captain.”

  “Four of you remain here in case Gibson does show his face the minute we leave town. We might have flipped over all the rocks we came across, but clearly we’re missing a few. Four of you will stay.” He scanned the group. “Pax, Winston, Day and Hepburn, you’ll be remaining here. Be vigilant. Continue the search and we’ll leave you with all the equipment you need.”

  They bobbed their heads in acknowledgement of their orders.

  “The rest of us will be leaving by chopper as soon as Cora can get here.” His wife had been assisting in a big search and rescue that had spanned weeks so far. A group of hikers had gone missing in the mountains, and Lipton knew at this point in the game, the search and rescue team must be flagging. Cora had been flying over the mountains where they were claimed to have been last seen.

  When the team moved to grab their gear, Lipton followed. He was a relatively neat person and his belongings were never far from his pack. He’d only taken a few things out, and one of them was the black shirt Jenna had worn to bed. Laying his hand on the fabric flooded him with memories. They might have been together mere days, but those days had been the best of his life.

  He rolled the shirt and added it to his gear, his chest burning once again.

  He listened to the banter taking place between his brothers but hardly registered any of it. His mind was too far away, in Denali, with a beautiful park ranger who managed to ensnare his heart without even trying.

  Returning would be painful, though. Their final words didn’t inspire hope that they could make a relationship work, and too many weeks had passed since.

  Yet his heart thumped harder at the prospect of seeing her again. He got so lost in the daydream of staring into her soul-deep eyes, listening to her soft voice, that he didn’t hear Broshears until he called his name two more times.

  He looked up.

  “Chopper’ll be here in an hour.”

  “Thanks.” Lipton inflated his lungs with the deepest breath he’d been able to take since the minute Jenna walked away from him.

  One hour until he’d be in the air. And not long after, he’d be in Denali National Park, on the same soil as Jenna.

  “Have a seat. See if my handiwork stands the test of two people sitting on this bench.” Al grinned in a way that had Jenna chuckling.

  She eyed the bench, handcrafted by her friend from scraps he’d traded with another homesteader for one of his laying hens. “It appears to be sturdy enough. Challenge accepted.” With an exaggerated move, she took a seat on the bench. He sat at the other end. When the legs didn’t collapse and they didn’t hit the ground, they beamed at each other.

  “My f
urniture making is a success,” he declared.

  “I’d say it is. Comfortable too.” She tilted her face up to receive the sun’s warmth. The peace she kept searching for came in spurts—taking a short walk with Jack, petting a dog that Joffrey’s family had just rescued or sitting here with her friend Al on the new bench he’d built.

  She opened her eyes and found him watching her. Understanding lit his eyes. “When was the last you heard from that military man of yours?”

  Her breath hitched. “That’s all over, Al.”

  He studied her. “I’m sorely sorry to hear it. I’ve never seen you so happy.”

  He meant well, but his words sliced through her and left her bleeding inside. She took a second to regroup and compose herself before speaking. “It’s for the best. And I’m not unhappy about it.”

  No, she was miserable—and clearly not as good at hiding it as she thought.

  “You know you can always come sit on this bench and talk to me, Moon Shadow.”

  She warmed. “Thank you. I will. Right now, I’d best get moving. I have some errands to do before I head home.” She stood, and he did too.

  “I’m glad you could take the time to stop and check on me.” Al beamed at Jenna as she walked away with a wave.

  “Take care of yourself,” she called. As she turned for the truck, the radio she wore on her hip hummed with a staticky voice.

  “All park rangers needed at…”

  Jenna jerked at the command coming through her radio, and at the location not far away from here. She took off running to her truck, grabbing her radio off her belt as she ran. “I’m close. Ten minutes away at most!”

  She jumped behind the wheel, cranked the engine and headed down the rutted track leading from Al’s property. “Rick, this is Moon Shadow. What is happening?”

  “Call just came in from the Xtreme Ops team. They’re on the ridge and made a discovery.”

  Oh my God! When had they returned? What was the discovery? It could only be more explosive…or they’d found Paul.