Page 22 of Mountain Rescue

As Dallas again listened to her tell the story of her friend’s murder, he wanted to personally hunt down Hargrove and teach him a lesson. There were a few seconds of silence when she finished, as if the agent and whoever else was listening were digesting everything she’d told them.

“Finding Robert Hargrove is a priority,” the agent said. “We can put you in a safe house until then, and I urge you to consider letting us protect you.”

“Thanks, but I’m in a safe place.”

“One other thing before you go. I’m going to be real honest with you. The number you’re calling from is blocked and we haven’t been able to trace your call. Unless you know how to do that, you have someone helping you. If you’d tell us who, we can work with them on protecting you.”

Dallas shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not giving you any names,” she said.

Another sigh sounded. “You’re not making this easy, Rachel. I wish you’d trust us. We are going to insist that you give us a number to contact you if we have more questions or need to update you on our progress.”

Dallas handed her the paper with the number Carter had given them, and she read it off to the agent. When she finished, Dallas took his phone. He didn’t say anything until Carter came on the line.

“I’ve severed the connection, so we can freely talk now. Sounds like you’ve stepped in some bad shit, Rachel.”

“Ya think?”

“You mind if I do a little snooping, darlin’?”

That was exactly what Dallas had been hoping for. “By all means,” Dallas answered for her. “We’d appreciate anything you can learn.”

“Good. Take me off speaker, Dallas.”

He did, then put the phone to his ear. “You’re off.”

“Text me Rachel’s burner number so I can route any calls to it through me, and put my number in her phone so she can reach me if she needs to. Call me back when you can talk without Rachel listening. We need to make a plan for keeping your girl safe.”

“Will do.” He’d make that call tonight when he was with Jack and Noah.

“It’s good talking to you, brother. You need to unload any of that shit I know you got going on in your head, I’m here for you.”

“I’m good.”

“No you’re not. No one’s good after what you went through. The biggest mistake you can make, Ghost, is keeping it all bottled up. Hooah.”

After giving the army’s battle cry, Carter disconnected before Dallas could respond with the Navy’s. Asshole. “Hooyah,” he said anyway.

“Hooyah? What does that mean?”

Dallas set his phone on the table between them. “Hooyah is the Navy’s battle cry.”

“You’re going to battle with Carter?”

She was cute when she scrunched up her eyebrows like that.

“Nope.” He didn’t know how to explain the military brotherhood and their quirky sense of humor, so he didn’t try. “You feel better after talking to the FBI?”

“I honestly don’t know. I guess it’s good they’re involved, but I think Robert’s like a snake. Hard to catch and dangerous. Why did Carter say a ghost was calling?”

“Ghost is my call sign. He was trying to be funny.”

“Like Jack’s was Whiskey?”

“Yeah, and Noah was Double D.”

“So, Carter’s is TG? What does that stand for?”