by Kaylea Cross
Together they hunted out a good location. Ryan had to keep reminding himself he was back home, rather than in the mountains of Afghanistan. The climate might be different here, but his combat instincts wouldn’t shut off. To his body, he was still back overseas, and every tree and rock could hide either an IED or an enemy fighter.
When he stepped around a large boulder and into a small clearing surrounded by forest, he noticed something glinting on the ground in the dying rays of sunlight. As he got closer, he confirmed that they were spent casings. Nudging the ground with the toe of his boot, he uncovered more. Someone had made more than a half-assed effort to hide them, but there were a shit ton of them out here.
He glanced up at the surrounding trees and realized with a start that a large stand of pines in the distance were riddled with bullet holes. So much so that in places the dying sunlight streamed through the holes. Upon closer inspection, the entire area seemed to be littered with brass casings. “Hey, guys, come check this out.”
Wade, Cam, and Jackson appeared out of the trees behind him a minute later. “What’s up?” Cam asked.
“Whole area’s covered with 7.62s,” he said, holding up a casing. “And then there’s that.” He pointed to the shot-up trees. A few smaller ones were even cut in two.
Turning in a half-circle to take it all in, Jackson let out a low whistle. “Somebody’s been trigger happy recently.”
Wade had been moving away to the southeast. “Camp fire here,” he called out from behind a stand of trees blocking him from view. “They covered it but it looks recent. Maybe used in the last couple days.”
“One over here too,” Cam said from Ryan’s right. He used his boot to dig away some of the dirt. “Pretty big. Around eight feet across.”
Ryan continued walking west, scanning the ground. He paused to drag a fallen branch aside and uncovered another fire pit. “Another one here.” Lots more cartridges littered the ground as he dug the surface layer of dirt away. He turned and looked back at Wade. “How well do you know this area?”
Wade lifted a shoulder as he scanned their surroundings. “Not that well.”
“Is this a common campsite, or is there something else going on here? Because that’s a shitload of ammo to waste shooting at trees.” Last thing they needed was to set up camp and bed down with drunk, trigger-happy yahoos around.
Wade nodded, a frown pulling at his eyebrows. “No shit.”
Ryan reviewed the possibilities. People could be stupid. So it could be just a bunch of idiots who had come all the way out here to shoot the hell out of some random trees for no apparent reason.
It also could mean something more sinister.
This area was a long way away from anything, so remote it was accessible only by foot, horse—or mutant donkey—or ATV. Not even a good dirt bike could handle this kind of rugged terrain. Whoever had been out here before them, it must have taken a hell of a lot of effort for that many people to come here with that amount of firepower. If someone wanted to hide paramilitary or even terrorist training or other activity, this was a good place to do it. The prickling at his nape reinforced the suspicion.
“Something sure as hell doesn’t feel right.” He examined the ground, bending to point at the dirt. “I count at least five different sets of prints in this area here.” He drew a circle with his arm, indicating an area of about ten yards across.
“More over here,” Cam said to their left.
A slight unease in Ryan’s gut warned him that this so-called “remote” area might not be so secluded after all. Someone might be watching them right now. “Let’s split up and check it out,” he said, untying his rifle from the back of his ATV. The four of them sectioned off the hillside and spread out to search it, weapons at the ready in case anyone was still lingering around.
Half an hour later they met up again. Ryan shook his head. “Found more prints and more casings.” Not nearly as many as in this area though. “Tracks led to a trail about half a klick that way.” He pointed due west.
“Same,” Jackson said, and the others confirmed the same as well.
The sun was already setting and they hadn’t yet unloaded anything. They needed to make a decision. “You wanna stay here, or keep moving?” Ryan asked Wade. It was his party. His call.
Wade glanced around the clearing. It was the only place in the near vicinity free of rocks and giant tree roots. “I think we’re good. Whoever was out here is long gone and we can report what we found once we get back to the resort.”
“Okay,” Ryan agreed, sweeping his gaze over the surrounding trees. His gut said they were alone, and the telltale prickle at the back of his neck was pretty much gone.
“All right, let’s set up camp,” Wade said, then grinned. “Time to kick back and enjoy my last few hours of bachelorhood in style.”
Eric stared at the monitor in front of him, seething with anger as he tried to make out who exactly was trespassing at the training site—the ultra-remote one that was supposed to be a secret, one that no one else should have ever found. His sensors had alerted him the moment the strangers had stepped onto his land only minutes before.
Lyle stood next to him, leaning over the desk to take a better look. “Four of ’em.”
“Yeah.” The angle of the camera mounted in the tallest pine tree was too high to give him a good look at their faces, but Eric could see enough, and what he saw wasn’t good.
They were all big men. They all carried rifles. And as they fanned out in a search pattern, they moved with a familiar, military precision that triggered his inner radar. “I want to know who they are and what they’re doing out here.”
“Yes, sir.” Lyle got out his radio to call one of their members, but Eric stopped him with a raised hand, gaze glued to the screen.
“Let’s watch them for a while longer.”
The four men gathered together again to talk for a minute, then began unloading gear from the backs of their ATVs. Two of them put up tents in the clearing while another uncovered one of the fire pits made by Eric’s troops. The fourth appeared to be preparing food for cooking.
Eric clenched his jaw. “You were supposed to sanitize the area.”
Lyle shifted his stance and cleared his throat. “Things ran later than planned. We didn’t have enough time to do more than cover up what we hadn’t already gathered. The sun was coming up and I made the call to abandon the area. I was planning to take a crew back tonight and finish cleaning everything up.”
He aimed a lethal glare at the man. “Too late. You’ve already risked our exposure.”
Lyle’s face turned red but he didn’t argue. “I’ll fix it. They don’t look worried, and none of them have pulled out a sat phone or anything. Maybe we’re still okay.”
“They saw the casings, and the trees.”
Lyle stared straight ahead at the monitor rather than meet his gaze. “I’ll fix it.”
Damn right you will.
A few minutes later a fire was going inside the circle of stones one of the men had cleared out. All four of them brought out folding chairs and gathered around the campfire, drinking beer as they cooked what looked like steaks over a portable grill.
“They sure don’t look like Feds,” Lyle said.
“They don’t look like ordinary civilians, either.” The image on screen suggested the men were nothing more than a group of hunters setting up camp for the night, with no clue of his presence.
But Eric hadn’t survived this long by being naïve. For all he knew, they were undercover agents from some government agency, looking for evidence that would lead them to him. He’d been on the Feds’ radar ever since rumors of his activity had first begun to circulate a few years ago.
Hypocritical assholes. They should have protected him, stood up for him when he’d needed them. Instead they’d turned on him and made him an enemy of the very institution that had locked him up for doing what he still believed was the right thing.
They’d never find his hiding spo
t, even if they put all the clues together and figured out that his militia had trained in the clearing last night. He’d been here for years without detection and wasn’t about to give himself away now. All this time he’d been right under the locals’ noses, and no one even realized it.
He straightened and folded his arms across his chest. “We need to take defensive measures.”
Many people would brand him a traitor, or even a domestic terrorist. He didn’t give a shit what others thought. He was a patriot. He loved his country more than anything, had sworn an oath to defend its constitution and fought and bled to protect it. Only to discover that the system was corrupt, and the government he’d been so proud to serve had abandoned him. Turned its back on him in his most dire hour of need to avoid an uncomfortable political situation with the Afghan government.
Fuck. Them.
Soon enough, they’d pay. His followers would carry out attacks he’d planned on government installations all across Montana.
Only a few small attacks at first. Subtle, with a pointed message. Using explosives and impersonal weapons that could be planted and detonated later, on his command. Nothing too big or ambitious to start, nothing that would tip his hand and risk his future operations. Once his scattered network here and in other states joined forces, however…
From the proverbial ashes he intended to create, a new era would begin. The true leaders would rise and wipe away the old regime, restoring this great country to the glory his forefathers had intended.
Until that day came, he had to be very, very careful.
He stared at the flickering campfire on screen, his mind whirring. “Send out our two best scouts and tell them to follow these guys. I want to know everything we can find on them. Hopefully they’ll leave the area once the sun comes up, but I’m not taking chances.”
“You got it. What if they don’t leave?”
“Then we do what we have to in order to protect the cause.” Eric watched the four men eating their dinner, certain they had military training. Killing four people was a huge risk, but it might come to that. He had to make them disappear.
For now, he’d wait and see what happened. If they didn’t leave the area come sunup, he would have to do some hunting of his own tomorrow.
Chapter Six
With a yawn so big his jaw cracked and his eyes watered, Ryan bundled up the last of his gear and stowed it on the back of his ATV.
Though it had been a pretty relaxed night out here with the guys, the evidence at the site made them edgy enough to take watch in shifts. He’d taken the second one, giving him about four hours of broken sleep total, and his sleep-deprived system was having a hard time waking up this morning.
“You boys ready to roll?” Wade asked them from beside his own ATV.
“Yeah,” he said as Cam and Jackson replied the same.
Truthfully he couldn’t wait to get back to the resort and see Candace. And this entire area gave him the creeps. He’d scanned the surrounding trees for surveillance cameras last night before losing all the daylight and found none, but he still couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling that someone was watching them. The sooner they got out of here, the happier he’d be.
“Let’s head out then.” Wade climbed onto his ATV and fired up the engine.
Luckily, the wrangler at the resort’s stable had found Ryan a full-size horse for the return trip back from the ATV drop-off point, so he made it to the barn at the same time everyone else did.
After stretching their legs for a minute, they grabbed their gear and headed back to the main buildings to drop it off. He found Candace busy helping Maya, Devon, and Erin get everything set up for the welcome dinner in the glass-paned conservatory.
“Hey, you’re back early,” she said with a wide smile that flooded him with warmth, and walked over to give him a kiss and a hard hug. Their talk yesterday had obviously made her feel a lot better, so that made him feel better as well. “You guys kill anything out there?”
“Just Ryan’s ego,” Cam answered, and Jackson and Wade snickered.
She grinned up at him, deep brown eyes sparkling. “Aww, did my badass hubby’s ego take a beating, riding poor little Poncho up the mountain?”
“My ego is just fine,” he insisted. “How was the spa?”
“Blissful. After our massages we all got our nails done. Dev got a Seahawks mani-pedi, but I just stuck to plain old pink. It was so relaxing.”
“Mmm, I bet I could relax you even more upstairs.” Ryan bent to kiss that smart mouth again. He sucked at her lower lip, teased her with his tongue.
She hummed and opened to him for a moment, then seemed to remember they were in public and pushed him away with a smile that promised to pick up where they’d left off later. “Give us a hand moving these tables around, will you? Spa day ran later than originally scheduled, so we’re tight for time.”
He shot a look at Wade, who had his arms around Erin. “Told you we should have waited another hour.”
Candace snorted and shoved him toward the nearest table. “Here. Start with this one.”
Twenty minutes later they had everything arranged and the staff began setting the tables, so Ryan went up to the room and grabbed a quick shower. When he came back downstairs, most of the guests had arrived, including Erin’s and Wade’s families. After he’d made the rounds to meet everyone with Candace, he left her at their table and went to the bar to get them a drink.
“There you are.”
He mentally cringed at the sound of that smoke-roughened voice behind him, and put on a smile before turning to face Ruby—who was technically now his grandma too, at least by marriage. A terrifying thought. “Hey.”
“Hear you met Poncho,” she said, stopping next to him and waving the bartender down.
He shot her a sharp look and yeah, that was definitely a smirk on her face. “I did, yes.”
“How did you boys make out?”
“Fine. Didn’t come across any game, but we did find some type of training site up there.”
“What kind of training site?” she asked, falling into step with him as he made his way back toward Candace with the drinks. For once, Ruby didn’t have one in her hand, apparently distracted by their conversation.
“Well, guess it could have been something else, but there were a shi—uh, crapload of spent casings on the ground and the trees were riddled with holes. That’s a whole hell of a lot of firepower to waste using trees for target practice.” He edged past an elderly couple he thought might be Erin’s grandparents and made it to the table where his wife waited with the rest of their gang.
“Whereabouts was this?” Ruby asked, taking Jackson’s chair just as he was about to slide into it. The PJ stood awkwardly to the side, between her and Maya, but didn’t say anything and Ruby didn’t seem to notice—or care—about her faux pas.
“West of here, in the foothills.”
“Yeah, but where?” she pressed, sounding exasperated.
Candace leaned forward, winding an arm around him, and he tucked her tight into his side. “What’s this about?” she asked.
She smelled so damn good. “I told her about the site we came across.” They’d mentioned it to the girls while they set up the tables.
Ruby was frowning. “Be more specific.”
Ryan eyed her. “You want like, coordinates or something?”
She raised an eyebrow at his dry tone, her green eyes locked on his like a laser range finder. “Yes.”
Seriously?
She whacked him on the shoulder. “Come on, humor an old woman. If something like that’s going on near my resort, I want to know about it.”
He paused and looked around the table. Everyone was watching him, and Cam seemed to be biting back a smile. “Okay then.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and pulled up the nav app he used, but Ruby made a disparaging noise and flapped a hand in annoyance.
“Not on that thing. I need a map. A real map, made of paper.” She turned in her chair and
glanced around the crowded conservatory. “Anyone here got a map of the area with them? An actual map?” she called out.
Candace winced and reached across the table to set a hand on her wrist. “Grandma—”
“It’s fine, dear. Anyone?” Ruby said, a little louder this time.
A man three tables over rose awkwardly and pulled a folded map from his back pocket. “I’ve got this,” he offered as he walked over and handed it to her. “Will that do?”
“Perfect, thanks.” She looked at Ryan. “Will it?”
Withholding a sigh because he wasn’t completely sure she wouldn’t slap him if he didn’t, he dutifully unfolded the map. Just a regular road map, the kind you got at a gas station. No good topography marks or anything like that. “Hang on a sec.”
He was aware of Cam and Jackson leaning closer to take a look, and Wade walking around the table to look over his shoulder while he pulled up his nav app and accessed the coordinates. “Here,” he told Ruby at last, tapping the exact spot on the map where the coordinates intersected.
She squinted and leaned farther over the map to study it. “Uh huh,” she murmured to herself. “And where are we now?”
“Here,” Wade said, reaching over her shoulder to put his finger where the resort was located.
Ruby muttered to herself for a moment, then raised her gaze to Ryan’s. “Did any of you see a big rock formation anywhere near there? Granite, I think. Kind of looks like a grizzly bear hunched over. Sort of.”
He exchanged a surprised look with Cam and Jackson across the table. “Yeah, maybe what, a half mile east of there?”
Jackson nodded, his gaze shifting to Ruby. “You know the area where we were?”
“Yes, I know the place. Our bunker was near there.”
Ryan swung around in his seat to stare at her. “Your what?”
“Bunker.” She gave Candace a gentle swat on the upper arm. “Candy Cane, be a dear and go get me a drinky-poo. Your handsome man distracted me so much I forgot to get one while I was at the bar.” She reached up and patted Ryan’s cheek. Way gentler than she had been the last time she’d touched his face.
