by Elle James
Bastian drove up beside her. “Hop on.”
She slid her leg over the back of the seat and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her body ached, and she was bruised, but she’d felt worse. And holding onto Bastian made it all worth it.
He’d been distant and unapproachable that morning, and she didn’t know why.
At that moment, though, Jenna couldn’t think about anything but hanging on and getting back to civilization in one piece.
The ride back to the trucks seemed to take forever.
Kujo and Six brought up the rear, remaining vigilant as they watched for a return of the gang who’d attacked their drone and then their group.
Why had they stopped coming after them? The day before, they’d chased them all the way out to the county road. And then they’d hung around long enough to chase them away from the downed bike. Today, they’d given up after one of their own was killed.
Ahead, Angus, Special Agent Greenbriar and Colin emerged onto the county road and raced toward the quarry where they’d parked the trucks and trailers.
Bastian burst from the underbrush out onto the road and followed Greenbriar and Colin.
Jenna glanced back at Kujo as he broke free of the forest and skidded sideways on gravel before straightening and gunning his throttle.
Six leaped over a log and raced to catch up with Kujo.
The two remained a little behind to provide protection.
When they arrived at the quarry, they didn’t slow, but drove the four-wheelers up on the trailers before they stopped.
Jenna slid off the seat. Her legs wobbled for a moment then held. She could still feel the vibration of the engine running through her body. She suspected she’d have residual tremors for a long time afterward.
Bastian and Colin stood guard at the entrance to the quarry while Kujo parked his four-wheeler on the trailer and raised the ramp.
Angus and Kujo loaded the body into Angus’s truck bed.
Everyone piled into the two vehicles, and they drove out of the quarry onto the road and back toward town.
Jenna didn’t breathe easy until they entered Eagle Rock and pulled to a stop on the street in front of the sheriff’s department. She wasn’t used to people shooting at her or having to transport dead men in the backs of pickups.
Her head ached, and her body felt bruised all over. She was beginning to think that was the least of her worries.
Bastian felt like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. He’d turned his head in every direction so many times, he thought it would twist right off. He’d never been so glad to see the town of Eagle Rock, Montana come into view.
Sheriff Barron had just gotten out of his service vehicle when the trucks came to a halt.
Colin waved to him and called out, “Sheriff, we need your assistance.”
The older man walked over, his brow furrowing. “What’s the problem?”
Colin dropped down from the passenger seat and climbed into the bed of the pickup. Angus, Bastian, Kujo and Greenbriar gathered around the truck bed and the body inside.
Jenna joined them, limping slightly.
Bastian slipped an arm around her, pulling her close so that she could lean on him and take the weight off the leg she was favoring.
The sheriff drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “Wanna clue me in on what’s going on?”
“We will,” Angus said. “But first, can you identify this man?”
Colin pulled the black ski mask off the man’s head.
“Damn.” The sheriff shook his head.
“You know him?” Angus pressed.
“Yes, I do. And his daddy isn’t going to be too happy that his boy is dead.” The sheriff looked around at them. “That’s Brandon Fletcher.”
“As in Troy Fletcher’s son?” Jenna asked.
A lead weight settled into the pit of Bastian’s belly. He knew about Troy Fletcher. The man was loaded and had bought his way out of every scrape he or a member of his family had ever found themselves in.
The sheriff nodded.
“Brandon’s been in and out of trouble all his young life. Two years ago, his father threw a team of lawyers at his defense to get him out of serving time for manslaughter.” The sheriff raised his eyebrows. “How’d he end up like this?”
“We shot him,” Angus said. “He and a gang of guys dressed all in black combat gear chased us down in the woods. When they started shooting at us, we had to hunker down and return fire.”
“I had a feeling he was hanging out with the wrong crowd,” the sheriff said. “Well, his daddy won’t have to bail him out again. I’ll need you all to fill out statements and stick around town until a thorough investigation is done. Any death due to gunshot wound is an automatic investigation and autopsy.”
“We’ll be at the ranch,” Angus said. “And if you have names of some of the folks he hangs around with, that might help in our search for our father.”
The sheriff glanced at Angus, his eyes narrowing. “You think it’s his gang holding your father hostage?”
Angus nodded. “They’re the ones who chased Jenna away from the cabin with the torture setup, and they did it again when we returned to the cabin. They don’t want us up in their business.”
“That doesn’t mean they have your father,” Sheriff Barron said.
“We’re still waiting on the results of the blood sample we took at the cabin,” Bastian said. “If the blood we had analyzed is my father’s, we’ll be on them like bees on molasses.”
The sheriff nodded. “I’ll get on the horn to the county coroner’s office and have them come collect Brandon’s body. I’ll notify the coroner he has work heading his way. And I won’t notify Brandon’s father until the coroner has him. The senior Mr. Fletcher is likely to take it out on anyone close at hand. I suggest you be out at the ranch when that happens.”
“We will be,” Angus said.
“Good. I don’t want to have to call the coroner for a second time in the same day.”
“How long do we have?” Angus asked.
“An hour or two.” The sheriff glanced at his watch. “The ambulance will take young Fletcher to the coroner’s office in Bozeman. That will take time.”
“Good,” Angus said. “We need to pick up a few supplies at the feed store.”
The sheriff glanced around at the people on the sidewalks. “In the meantime, I’ll get a blanket to cover the evidence. Unless one of Brandon’s friends notifies his father first, you have a few minutes.”
“We have to wait for the ambulance to collect the body anyway.” Angus nodded to Colin. “I could use some help carrying feed sacks.”
Kujo joined them as he clicked a button on his cellphone, ending a call. “You can load what you need in our truck. Hank and Swede said they’d like us to meet out at the White Oak Ranch as soon as we can get out of Eagle Rock.”
“Do they have the results of our morning’s mission?” Special Agent Greenbriar asked.
Kujo nodded.
“We could go now,” Bastian suggested.
His older brother, Angus frowned toward Kujo’s truck. “Can you get all five of us in your truck cab?”
Kujo grinned. “It’ll be tight, but doable.”
“Good,” Angus said. “The sooner we know what or who we’re dealing with, the better.”
“Agreed,” Bastian said.
“What about the feed?” Colin asked.
“It can wait until later,” Angus said. “We should be back in town in less than two hours, pick up this truck and trailer and be on our way out to the ranch before Old Man Fletcher gets wind of his son’s passing.”
Kujo held open the back door of the truck. Greenbriar climbed in, scooted over to the middle of the seat and fastened her seat belt.
Jenna got in beside her and frowned. “There’s only room for five adults in this truck. I’ll stay in town.” She started to get down.
Bastian gripped her hips and lifted her to stand on the floorboard. She had to hunch over
to keep from banging her head on the ceiling.
Bastian sat in the seat and pulled her onto his lap. “This will work for now.” He pulled the seatbelt over both of them and buckled it securely.
Jenna had to admit, she preferred to sit this way to riding a four-wheeler. Especially after she’d crashed hers. “What about the four-wheeler I was driving?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Bastian said. “We’ll collect it another day, if it hasn’t been scavenged or torched.”
“Do you think it can be fixed?” Jenna asked. “I’ll pay for it.”
“The heck you will,” Bastian said. The woman could barely afford a crummy apartment over a noisy tavern. She sure as hell couldn’t afford to fix a four-wheeler that could potentially have a bent frame. “It might be cheaper to buy a new one.”
She twisted in his lap, wreaking all kinds of havoc on his libido. “I insist on paying for it,” she said, her brow wrinkling in such a cute way that he felt his groin tighten.
“We’ll talk about it later. Right now, we need to get you to a doctor,” he said.
Jenna shook her head. “I’m fine. I don’t need to go. I want to see what the drone caught on video.”
Bastian frowned. “You could have a concussion.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not going.”
“You’re not going to win that argument,” Angus said, grinning at him in the rearview mirror.
“For the record, I’m not happy about that,” Bastian said.
They made it to the White Oak Ranch in under twenty minutes.
Hank and Swede were waiting on the porch and came down to shake their hands. “Everyone all right?” His gaze sought Jenna. “I hear you took a tumble.”
She nodded. “I’m all right.”
“Are you sure? You might want to have a doctor check you over.”
“Really. I’m fine.” She nodded toward the house. “I’m more interested in what the drone recorded.”
Hank nodded and grinned. “Come inside. Swede’s been hard at work zooming in and focusing the footage. I’ll let him show you and explain.”
He led the way into the house and to a door that led into the basement beneath the main floor.
Bastian was amazed at what Hank had built. The rooms were filled with state of the art electronics, computers and furnishings. A long conference table took up the center of the room and an array of computers and monitors stretched across a wall. Images were projected onto a solid white wall.
Swede sat at a computer and moved his mouse, playing the video in slow motion.
“If you watch closely, you’ll see the trees change colors…right…here.” He stopped the video and zoomed in on the odd color alteration. “That’s camouflage netting.” He zoomed in again, and they could see the tiny lines of woven netting.
“And if that’s not clear enough, watch this.” He played the video again. A truck pulled out from beneath the camouflage netting into the open and along a road obscured by trees. Every so often, the drone caught the sharp lines of the truck between the branches. The truck eventually emerged onto what appeared to be a maintained gravel road.
Swede zoomed in on the truck, capturing the license plate. “I ran it through the Montana license registration data base. The truck belongs to an Otis Ferguson.”
Jenna stiffened, and her face paled.
“Any relation to Corley?” Bastian asked her.
She nodded. “His older brother.” Jenna rubbed her hands together in a nervous gesture. “Otis taught Corley everything he knew about how to treat a woman.”
Bastian slipped an arm around Jenna, his heart tight, knowing what she’d suffered.
She leaned into him. “I should have known he was involved in illegal activities. I’ll bet he has Corley sucked into it as well.”
“Are we missing something?” Hank asked.
Bastian glanced down at Jenna.
She nodded. “You tell them.”
“Corley Ferguson is Jenna’s ex-husband. She has a restraining order against him. He nearly beat her to death.”
“Bastard,” Special Agent Greenbriar said. “They should put animals like that down. They do that to pit bulls who attack humans. Why not humans who attack humans?”
Kujo chuckled. “Remind me not to piss you off.”
Greenbriar sighed. “It burns me up when people throw their weight around and pound on smaller, defenseless individuals.”
Jenna lifted her chin. “Don’t worry. I’m not as easily subdued anymore. I won’t let him hurt me again.”
Bastian’s chest swelled at Jenna’s courage.
Greenbriar smiled. “Good. I still think the bastard needs to be taken down.”
“Do you think that Corley is a member of that group?” Angus asked. “That might be why they were targeting Jenna.”
“If Otis is in it, I’ll bet my last dollar that Corley is following in his big brother’s footsteps,” Jenna said, her lips thinning into a tight line.
“As much as I’d like to nail that bastard,” Bastian said. “We need to focus on their camp and determine whether our father is being held captive there.”
“They shot down the drone,” Greenbriar said. “They know we were looking and might have found their hideout by now.”
“Which means, they might be on the move,” Angus’s brow furrowed.
Colin stepped forward. “If we don’t get out there soon, they’ll be gone.”
Bastian nodded. “Hell, they might already have moved our father.”
“Which reminds me,” Hank said. “The DNA results came back.”
Bastian, Angus and Colin froze, all attention on Hank.
“It was a match. With a ninety-nine-point-nine percent accuracy rating, the test showed that the blood found in that cabin belonged to the person whose hair we matched it against.”
“Our father,” Bastian said, his gut knotting. “Which means he was alive when they held him in that cabin a couple of days ago.”
“He could still be alive,” Colin said.
“Or they could have killed him during the torture,” Angus spoke what Bastian had thought but hadn’t wanted to voice.
“No,” Colin said. “He’s still alive.” His jaw was tight, his fists clenched. “The man is far too stubborn to die. He’s hanging on, knowing we’ll find him.”
“It needs to be soon. He probably needs medical attention,” Angus said.
“So,” Bastian looked around the room, “what’s the plan?”
“We go into the camp and find our father,” Colin said.
“When?” Kujo asked.
“It’ll be dark soon,” Angus said. “We need to get into position and move in after the sun sets.”
“That gives us maybe an hour to get where we need to go.” Bastian started for the exit.
“Before you run out of here, you might want to gear up.” Hank led them into another room that appeared to be an armory. The latest weapons were stacked in racks and on shelves, along with communications devices, night vision goggles, grenades, explosives and detonators.
Colin whistled. “Who needs the army when you have Hank Patterson in your own backyard?”
Hank chuckled. “If any of you decide to leave the military, you know you can always come to work for the Brotherhood Protectors.”
Bastian nodded. “I’ve heard it’s a good gig.”
“The guys who’ve come to work for us aren’t complaining.” He grinned at Kujo and Swede. “Are you?”
“No,” Swede said.
“We like that we can use the skills we trained so hard for,” Kujo said. He rested a hand on Six’s head. “And I can go to work every day with my best friend.”
“And learn new skills that help us with our jobs protecting others,” Swede said. He lifted what appeared to be a necklace out of a drawer and handed it to Jenna. “Wear that.”
“What is it?” she asked. “It’s not something out of a James Bond movie, is it? Is it a miniature bomb that
I can use to blow a hole in a cell wall so that I can escape?” She held the necklace out in front of her, her brow twisting.
Hank laughed. “Not any of those things, although they sound like good ideas.” He winked at Swede. “Make a note to come up with an exploding necklace for our next mission.”
Swede shook his head. “It’s a GPS tracking device. In case you get separated from the rest of us, we can find you.” He removed a small disc from the same drawer. “Or you might slip that into your pocket or in your sock.”
Jenna looped the necklace over her head. “You guys aren’t planning on ditching me, are you?” She stared around at the men in the room. “Oh, wait, you’re not taking me on this mission, are you?”
Bastian shook his head. This wasn’t a mission she could tag along on.
She sighed. “Okay, I get it. I’m out of my depth when it comes to reconnaissance and combat missions, as evidenced by my spectacular crash today. But you won’t have time to go all the way back to the ranch to drop me off, and I don’t want any of Hank’s people to have to do it either. I would rather they went with you. You know, the more the merrier.” She grimaced. “I know. I’m babbling. I’m just a little scared for all of you.”
Bastian pulled her into his arms. “We’ll be okay. And with Hank’s communications equipment, we’ll be even better.”
“That’s right,” Angus said. “We’ll wait until we can sneak in under the cover of darkness. We’ll locate Dad, spring him and get the hell out.”
“I’ll call Parker to come get you,” Bastian said.
“You can stay here until he arrives,” Hank said.
Bastian borrowed Hank’s land line and placed the call. “Mom…Bastian. I need Parker to come out to Hank Patterson’s place and get Jenna.” A frown furrowed his brow. “Okay. He is? No, we need him for something else. You will? How long will it take you to get here?” He nodded. “I’ll let her know. Thanks. Love you, too.” He ended the call and tapped the phone against his palm. “Parker and Molly are out with one of the heifers that’s having a hard time birthing her first calf. They can’t leave the ranch right now, but Mom said she’d come.” Bastian’s brow dipped lower. “I don’t know if I feel comfortable with just the two of you riding around together.”
