Killing Game (Veritas Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

She stripped it off and was pleased to see the canoe looked in good shape.
    Her phone rang. “Landry,” she said.
    “It’s Kia. We’ve got a problem.”
    Cait looked back at the tour office and realized Mike wasn’t around. As the tour operator, he usually went out of his way to make the campers feel welcome, ease their nerves. “What’s up?”
    “We got in an accident this morning on the way to the office. We’re at the hospital now. Mike needs surgery and—” There was a pause. “Hold on. He wants to talk to you.”
    “Landry?” a gruff voice called out.
    “Colonel.” It was impossible not to refer to his rank. “What’s going on?”
    “It’s all fucked up,” he said. “Can you believe it? I busted up my leg in some goddamned car accident.”
    If he was swearing, he was fine; for Mike, cursing was like breathing. Cait began mentally editing out those particular words. Because if she didn’t, her own curse rate went up dramatically, something her mother would not tolerate, despite being married to an Army major. Cait’s expletives had earned her more than one lecture at the dinner table, even after she’d left the Marines.
    “Is Kia okay?” she asked.
    “Just a few bruises. She got lucky.”
    “So what happened? Did you hit a deer or something?” she asked.
    “No. The brakes failed, and I just had the car serviced last week. The problem is that I have a full tour today.”
    “I’m sure your assistant can handle it.”
    “Yeah, but I don’t want Preston to handle it. I want you to lead the tour.”
    “What?” she blurted.
    “You heard me.”
    “I—”
    “Sergeant, I need you to keep those folks safe.”
    He was pulling rank. “You know I’m not in a good place right now.”
    “What I know is that you’re not accepting the fact that you’re no different than any other damned soldier who’s seen action. That you have bad shit in your head that’s doing a number on you. I get that, but you need to SITFU.”
    Suck it the fuck up .
    “Mike . . . ” she said. There were voices in the background now.
    “Do this for me, Cait. You owe me.”
    He’d never thrown a guilt card like that before, not in all the years they’d served together. “What’s really going on?” The noises increased, then ended. “Hello?” Cait called out.
    “They took him back to surgery,” Kia said.
    “How bad is it?”
    “Two fractures in the right leg, both real nasty. They’re going to put in some pins.”
    “Damn.” Cait hesitated. “I owe him everything, but I can’t handle the tour right now.” I can’t handle me, let alone anyone else .
    “I know you’re in rough shape, but there’s a reason Mike wants you out there. In the last few months, there’s been increased activity in certain parts of the swamp. More boats, for one. Mike thought it was because it was spring, more tourists, but now he’s not so sure. There’ve been rumors of people camping out on some of the remote islands.”
    “Like me?”
    “You’re not running guns, Cait.”
    “ What? He has proof of that?”
    “No, but Mike met up with a couple guys in a Jon boat who didn’t act right. They didn’t have any fishing poles or cameras, and when he tried to talk to them, they blew him off. There was a big wooden box in the bottom of the boat. Mike said it reminded him of what you’d use to ship AR-15’s.”
    “Not dissing him, but that’s a stretch. Somebody would have to be crazy to bring unauthorized weapons into a national wildlife area.”
    “He knows that, but he says something feels wrong and that’s why he wants you on the tour. His sixth sense has kicked in. You know what that’s like.”
    Damn . Her former commander’s instincts were why Cait was still above ground, or not a prisoner of Al Qaeda. She took a shaky breath. Could she handle it?
    Before she could reply, Kia added, “I know what it’s like for you. I was there when Mike was going through it. He’s better now. You’ll get there too