To finance the upgrades to the property—the security, the bunkhouse, the new command center that was almost done, my cabin—we took jobs. Wet work. Security and protection. Rescue.
My former commanding officer, Lincoln, had tossed us a few private security gigs—whether it was out of pity or to keep me from digging into Buck’s death more, I couldn’t be sure. The upshot was that word of mouth made Alpha Mountain take off. Private mercenary work was lucrative. Lucrative enough to fully fund an entire team of ex-special forces guys, which I would need to continue to grow my business. And if I was going to keep digging into whatever happened back in Afghanistan.
Clients who paid seven figures for a job. We were flush in cash but not answers.
I pushed past Hayes and grabbed the pitcher of tea and shoved it back on the shelf in the fridge. “Who and how?”
Kennedy sent me a meaningful look that had my skin crawling before he even delivered the news. “This is what I’ve been working on the past few days while you’ve been moping around over a girl.”
I gave him the finger. “Tell me.”
“William Gentry. The original translator from the Ranger Beta Team. They’re calling it a suicide.”
“The original translator? The food poisoning guy?”
Buck had said he’d been asked to fill in for the rangers as a translator because a guy on the team had food poisoning.
“Holy shit. Was it?”
“Too much of a coincidence for me. Two translators from that team dead?”
I stared back at Kennedy as the words sank in. This was news. Big news. I didn’t want another soldier dead, especially knowing it happened, but this was something. “This means it’s not a Buck thing.”
“Our buddy couldn’t have planned that shit from the grave.”
“This proves it’s bigger than Buck just as we fucking knew.” I slapped Kennedy on the shoulder.
When I glanced Hayes’ way, he nodded.
My mind swirled. Buck had been the translator for our team. The Navy quickly learned the fucker had a talent for picking up languages like a hooker did sailors during Fleet Week. After the fill-in for Mr. Food Poisoning, things started to go sideways. Even after the guy recovered, Buck kept getting called in for missions with them. Missions he couldn’t discuss with our team. That wasn’t anything new, but over the next few weeks and months, he’d grown agitated and withdrawn.
Then he was killed. The bombing was officially ruled as drug-related. They said Buck was parked in front of the building that housed a known drug trafficker. Supposedly, he’d been there to make a transaction. They floated out the theory that the drug dealers had killed him.
Kennedy and I suspected it had been an inside job, especially when a murder rap was added after he was dead and couldn’t defend himself.
“So whatever Buck knew—whatever got him killed—this guy knew, too,” Kennedy said.
“Sounds like it.”
“So back to my question. What exactly did Buck say to you?” he asked.
I shook my head and thought of that moment. “He just said Indi. They can’t know.”
He scratched his temple. “That’s all?”
“Yeah. Like I was going to tell Buck’s family about how he died. They have enough with his record. Thank fuck people here in Sparks are forgiving.”
Gram was the first to take the Buchanans a casserole and told them how proud she was of Buck. That whatever happened, she knew Buck had done the right thing.
Except I couldn’t do that with the Buchanans. Not until I knew the truth. Gram’s faith was one thing, but I was the only one stuck with the real nightmare.
“I told you it’s not relevant,” I added.
Kennedy shrugged and unwrapped a lollipop he pulled from a jar on the counter. “Okay. So he didn’t say, keep her safe from Kennedy.” His dimples winked as he stuck the candy in his mouth with a grin.
“You’re not touching her.” I glowered then turned and shared the look with Hayes. “I mean it. I will kill both of you on Buck’s behalf.”
“Are you filling Buck’s shoes protecting her, or is there actually something between the two of you? Because the way you’ve been chopping wood for days screams of sexual frustration, my friend.”
“Yeah, your balls must be so blue, I’m surprised they haven’t fallen off yet,” Hayes added.
“Fuck off.” I picked up Indi’s clothes, resolved to finally go into town to the wilderness guide office and drop them off. I wanted to see what kind of outfit she worked for, anyway. It seemed fairly successful, as far as I could tell, but I didn’t love that her boss sent her out in the wilderness alone. Or that they’d fucked. Although she was smart and knew how to take care of herself. I may have had a shitty attitude about finding her in my greenhouse, but she’d done all the right things to get out of the dangerous weather.