Close To Danger (Westen #4)(79)

He nodded, breaking off the connection to look back through the binoculars. “It would appear so, counselor.”

“Don’t do that,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Call you counselor? You are one.”

God, she wanted to yell in frustration, but couldn’t. “Don’t go all cold and dismissive on me, Deputy. You need to talk to me. We need to figure out who that is gunning for us before they get here and before W?den dies.”

“I know who it is.”

She blinked at the quiet answer. “You do?”

“It was the war cry.” Anguish laden his voice.

“You’ve heard it before?”

He nodded. The muscle in his jaw tightening. This had to do with that last mission. She knew it in her heart.

“When?”

“The first real battle we had in Afghanistan. Snake made that same sound just before we charged. Scared the shit out of half our men and the other half were damn glad he was on our side. Afterwards, he told us his father taught him and his sister to make that sound. It was part of their family’s heritage from ancient warrior times.”

Sister.

“Snake?”

“Isaac Bridger.”

“Isaac was the red head in the photo, right?”

Wes lowered the binoculars and looked at her. “Yes. Why?”

“Remember I told you he looked familiar? It was the hair and the height. I’ve seen his sister before. Here in Westen.”

His brows drew down as he tried to follow her logic.

“At the café?” she prodded.

“The new waitress…Hannah.” His mouth hung open a moment in shock as the realization that he’d missed the connection. “You’re right. Why didn’t I see it before?”

“Because you weren’t looking for it,” she said softly. “You’d buried your friend thousands of miles away and years ago. How were you to even suspect his sister would come to Westen?”

“You saw the resemblance.”

“I knew I’d seen someone with that color of red hair before. It wasn’t until you said he had a sister that I remembered the waitress.” She moved to flank the window opposite him. “You think she blames you for her brother’s death?”

He didn’t say anything and Chloe chose to ignore the no-duh look he gave her. She was on a fact-finding mission and no amount of sarcasm, silent or not, was going to get her off topic.

“So, she’s waited, what five years?” She raised her brows at him.

“Six and a half.”

“Six and a half years. She searched until she found where you’re living and inserted herself quietly into your community to keep an eye on you, study you.” It hit Chloe hard. “She’s been stalking you like prey.”

“Yep.”

“How much trouble are we in here, Wes?”

His jaw was tight and he fixed his intense blue eyes on her, serious as a judge before passing sentence. “Her brother was a world class tracker and marksman. If she trained with him, which I remember him telling me she did, I’d say we’re in trouble.”

“How bad?” she asked, already knowing she wouldn’t like the answer.

“Somewhere between deep shit and royally fucked.”

Her heart slammed into her throat for a moment. “Wow, don’t try and sugar-coat it or anything.”

“I won’t ever lie to you, Chloe. I wouldn’t insult your intelligence that way. Besides, you wouldn’t want me to sugar-coat anything. It’s not in your make-up.”

Well, crap. As much as she wanted to spar with him, needed it to take the edge off her fear, she couldn’t argue with his assessment of her. It was spot on.

“There’s some beef jerky in that top tub and a bowl. Maybe you could see if W?den will take some water and a bite to eat?” he asked, pulling out the phone from his pocket. She didn’t remember him slipping it in there earlier. “Dammit.”

“What’s wrong?” As if anything was going right.

“No cell service out here and I didn’t have one of the sheriff department’s sat phones to bring with us.”

“Sat phones?” she asked as she poured water from one of the bottles in his emergency stash into the shallow bowl and set it next to the injured wolf-dog. W?den started lapping at it where he lay.

Wes was back to watching out the window with the binoculars. “Since cellular reception is a little tricky out here in the country, Gage’s dad invested in sat phones a few years ago for the department. They route calls through satellites, instead of cell towers, which are fewer out here than in a city.”

“Smart man.”

“Too bad they’re back at the station. We only sign them out when we’re on duty or there’s some sort of emergency or inclement weather is expected.”

“Like a blizzard?” she couldn’t help teasing him.

He chuckled, with a slight lift of the corners of his mouth. “Yeah, like a blizzard or crazed woman with revenge on her mind.”

“Or both at once?”

“Or all that and being trapped in a deer blind with a gorgeous attorney and a wounded wild animal.” He grinned, actually grinned at her. “Definitely a sat phone situation.”