Rocky Mountain Rescue, Elle James [rooftoppers .TXT] 📗

tinker on all the machines we have that aren’t working. I don’t know what we did without her, but then our machinery is getting older, and Gunny has less and less time to work on it. And JoJo is so much faster and better at it. She’s amazing with machines. They trained her well in the Army.”

“Some people just take a lot of training, and others have a natural knack for it,” Max said.

“That would be JoJo.”

Max filled glasses with orange juice and carried them out to the dining room. RJ carried the plates, while Jake set the table with cutlery.

Then they were seated and eating the scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits that RJ had prepared.

“Where’s Gunny this morning?” Jake asked.

RJ grinned. “He’s out mowing the shoulders of the road to make sure it’s nice and groomed for when the guests arrive. He wants the place to make a good first impression.”

“What time is the politician arriving?” Max asked.

“Sometime after lunch,” RJ said. “Gunny’s got a whole list of stuff he wants to get done before they get here.”

“Make sure you let us take some of those tasks off your hands,” Jake said.

“Right,” Max said. “I’m not sure what time JoJo wants to go out on the ATVs, but if I have time before, I can help out.”

“If you could take the dishes after breakfast, I’ll get upstairs and make sure the rooms are in order.”

“I can do dishes,” Max said.

“And I’ll be back before noon,” Jake said. “Weaver, the new guy, and I will help out with anything after that.”

They finished breakfast, and RJ went upstairs.

Jake headed into Colorado Springs to make his appointment with Cage Weaver, the newest member of the Brotherhood Protectors.

Max carried the plates and glasses into the kitchen, quickly washed the dishes and put them away in the cabinets. Once he’d finished, Max headed out to the barn. It took him a moment, but he found JoJo at the back of the barn in one of the stalls. Instead of horses, there were a couple of ATVs parked there.

JoJo had the engine cover off of one and parts strewn all over one corner of the stall. Her hands were greasy, and she had a dark smudge across her cheek. Instead of making JoJo look dirty, it made Max think how cute she was.

With a battery-operated lantern hanging from a hook in the corner, she worked on the engine. All her concentration was focused on what she was doing. She didn’t seem to notice him right away, so he used that time to study her. He wasn’t sure if it was the shadows thrown by the light or just natural that she had dark circles beneath her eyes, more so than yesterday. Rather than startle her again by touching her shoulder, he cleared his throat to make his presence known.

Her head jerked up, her eyes widening. “Oh,” she said, “it’s you.”

“I came out to see if there was anything I could do to help.”

“As a matter of fact, there is,” she said, pushing the hair out of her face with her greasy hand, making another smudge across her forehead. Can you hand me that socket wrench kit at your feet?”

He scooped up the plastic tool case and carried it across to her.

She selected several of the sockets and tried them on the bolt she was working on until she found the right one, fitted it to the tool and tightened the bolt. She checked the oil on the machine, primed the pump, and then cranked the starter. After several chugs, the engine roared to life.

“Watch out,” she said. “Coming through.”

Max stepped to the side as JoJo drove the ATV through the open stall door out into the center of the barnyard. She shifted into neutral, hit the parking brake and left it running. She went back to the other one, started the engine and pulled it out to the center of the barn beside the first, again leaving it running. Both of the four wheelers had metal baskets on the front and back. She walked to the tack room and emerged from it carrying a chainsaw.

JoJo leaned her head toward the barn. “There’s a shovel inside. If you could get that and a pickaxe, we can load up. While you’re at it, grab a couple bungee cords to tie them down. If you could make sure that everything is battened down, I’m going up to the lodge for a moment.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Max said.

JoJo left him with the two four-wheelers running and jogged up to the lodge.

Max spent the next ten minutes tying things down on the ATVs and just looking around the barn to see what else was left to do. All of the horses were in the pasture and the horse stalls were clean, with fresh wood chips strewn across the floor. Everything had a place, and everything was in its place. Max grinned. He suspected that had a lot to do with Gunny and his Marine background.

JoJo returned carrying a small cooler. She ducked into the tack room and emerged with a bungee cord and tied the cooler to the front of her ATV. “Are you ready?” she asked.

“I am.”

She leaned her head toward the other ATV. “That one’s yours. I’ll get the gate.”

He mounted the ATV, briefly studied the controls, released the brake, and gave it some gas, following her out of the barnyard.

She pulled up sideways to the gate, unlocked the latch, pushed it open and drove her ATV through. When she’d cleared the gate on the other side, she dismounted and waited for him to pass through, and then closed the gate behind him.

He waited for her to remount then followed her away from the lodge and barn across a pasture and into the trees. A narrow trail wove between the tree trunks and, eventually, led up a hill. With nothing blocking their paths, they were able to cover quite a bit of distance until they came to