by Cara Carnes
Frustrated, she whipped off the headgear and refocused through the sights. Ah, much better. A presence settled beside her. She looked up and behind her where scary-as-hell Jud crouched.
An assassin? She gulped, a bit intimidated by the fact he probably knew a hundred different ways to kill someone. He glanced at the fancy headgear she’d tossed and smiled.
Crap. She’d tossed away his fiancée’s fancy headgear thing.
“You have a call,” he commented as he held out a com thingie similar to the one she’d forgotten was on the headgear thingamabob. “I’ll verbalize for you. Viviana wants to know what you meant by colored arrows.”
“Vi’s busy,” Kamren said. How the heck had she heard that? Yikes. Those women were like Skynet or something.
“She multi-tasks. She wants to know what you’d recommend since you think the display’s bullshit.” Jud’s shoulders shook from laughter she didn’t hear fully. “You’ve got to give her time to answer, Viviana.”
“You call her Viviana,” Kamren said. “To everyone else she’s Vi.”
“My woman deserves way more than a one syllable name,” he replied with a grin. “Answer her question, or she’s coming out here.”
“I guess I expected something cooler or fancier. Like a doomahickey attached to the scope that’d feed into whatever fancy thing they’ve got. You know, like an automated arrow or something color-coded. Like green if I’m sighted right. Or whatever. Color might not work if you’ve got color-blind people, but ignore me. I’m not trained or anything. A doohickey that can track where the gun’s pointed, measure wind speeds and distances, and zoom in the target closer and show what we’re aiming at. To me, that’s impressive.”
“Did you get all that?” Jud asked, his lips thinned. “Right, will do.”
He clicked off the com and offered a tight smile. “Thanks for the info. She loved your idea, Kamren.”
Then why did he look like he’d sucked on a dozen lemons? She nodded as he walked away. He paused near Dallas, but they were angled away so she couldn’t read what they said. She directed her attention to the target downrange. Okay, she pretended she saw the target downrange. Wowza, these folks were crazy talented to hit that far out.
Maybe the fancy headgear thing was a good idea after all. She squinted, dialing into her target, and shot. At least the dang thing wasn’t moving. That’d be a serious pain in the ass. She fired another couple of shots, then surrendered to the rifle gods around her.
They were loads better.
She sat up and noted Jesse’s amusement. Arms crossed, he stood beside Dallas.
“Sorry, I think I’m not ready for the deep end of the kiddie pool yet, boys.”
“Really?” Jesse asked. “You hit a target twelve hundred meters out without the headgear. I’d say you swam with the sharks.”
“I hit it?” Kamren turned back and squinted downrange. “No, I didn’t.”
Dallas squatted and offered a pair of binoculars. Heat crawled up her hand when she touched his. She peeked through the binoculars and focused. She’d hit the target, right in the center. It was more a shoulder wound than a kill shot, but not bad.
“Hell of a shooter, Kamren,” Jesse complimented.
“Come on, Lucky,” Dallas said. “The girls are ready to go over what they found. They’re calling this exercise done without the free shooting. They tend to get a bit impatient when they’re whiteboarding. Or so Dylan’s assured me.”
Kamren swallowed the response lodged in her throat. Vi had said it’d be hours, but they were ready way sooner.
Because there’s nothing to find, idiot.
She put her hand into Dallas’s woodenly and let him navigate her through the gathered group of men. Bolstered with a bit more confidence thanks to the fun shooting, she headed into the room with Dallas.
Scents assailed her. Her stomach rumbled again. A massive spread of lasagna, spaghetti, bread, and salad was along the back wall. The women all sat around the table, plates half consumed. Dallas guided her toward the food.
She’d typically turn down the offer, but she was starving. Either the bar Jesse had given her had worn off, or she was hungrier than normal. No, she hadn’t eaten enough. Two bars, two strips of bacon and a couple of eggs in two days, closer to three. Oh, and the cereal earlier in the morning. Now that she’d eaten, her stomach was awake and demanding more food to compensate for the many days of very little.
She locked her hands to stave the trembling as she swallowed the saliva building in her mouth. Dallas took two plates and offered her one. The slight tremble in her fingers shook the paper tray, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t comment.
She followed his lead and bypassed the salad. He grabbed two pieces of meat and set them on her plate. She didn’t argue. To hell with what anyone thought.
“One or two pieces of bread?” Dallas asked.
“Two, please.” She swallowed and looked around as his brothers entered. “One, sorry.”
He put two down. “Eat what you want, sweetheart. I should’ve made sure you got to the cafeteria again. I’m sorry.”
Her eyes burned. She blinked rapidly as he heaved a massive pile of spaghetti and lasagna onto her plate. She hid the shameful quantity of food with her body as she edged toward the corner. As rude as it seemed, she sat and faced away from the group gathered at the table.
She ripped open the plastic cutlery and cut into the meat, not giving a damn what it was. The protein bar had staved some of her hunger, but this was nirvana. Hot food. She chewed. Swallowed. Cut. Repeat.
She sensed Dallas sit beside her but kept focused on the task at hand. Eating.
The primal urge dissipated three quarters of the way into her plate. Belly full, she swallowed the bite of lasagna in her mouth and dared a peek at Dallas. Eyes half-hooded, he regarded her without comment. He held out a bread stick.
She took it without comment.
“How long has it been?” he asked.
“I ate with Addy this morning. And Jesse gave me that bar.”
“I wasn’t talking about today,” he replied. “Or yesterday. I know you didn’t each much then. I’m thinking you hadn’t had anything for a while before the explosion.”
He reached over and pulled off the earmuffs. Though the ringing remained, it had subsided considerably. If she focused, she could hear his voice in the distance, as if he stood at the end of a tunnel. The warm smile he offered calmed the unease rising in her as he reached over with a napkin and wiped the side of her face.
Heat rose up her cheeks.
“Eating wasn’t always easy in the field. I had a lot of assignments where I’d go days without anything except a bar here and there,” Dallas commented. “We’ve all been there, sweetheart, but I’ve gotta admit it fucking pains me to see you shoveling food that fast and hiding in the corner like you’re doing something wrong.”
“I didn’t want to get in the way.” She glanced over at where her sister sat beside Riley. She fit in with everyone, laughing and smiling like she had no cares or worries.
“You don’t have to justify yourself to me, Kamren. Whatever beef you’ve got with your sister isn’t my business unless you choose to make it mine. Just know you’re as safe here as she is. No hiding in corners, okay?”
“I’m not hiding,” she argued.
The grin turned lazy. Her stomach did a weird flip-flop when he took the emptied plate away from her. She hadn’t even realized she’d still been shoveling food in while he talked. He set her plate atop his and slowly shifted her around until she faced the room.
Okay, she’d totally been hiding. She shrank toward him as she noted how many people in the room watched her. Talk about awkward. Jesse sat on her other side. Nolan and Marshall were on his other side. Though she’d sat on the floor with her back to them, they would’ve seen her shoveling food quickly into her mouth.
Starved.
“Come on, sweetheart. We need to get where you can see everyone talking,” Dallas
said.
Kamren followed him until they were both situated at the end of the table near the door. A couple extra stools had been dragged in from somewhere. Her heart thudded wildly in her head like a drunken bongo drum as she waited.
Pictures and data filled every inch of the walls and the table display. What did it all mean? Colored lasers pointed from one display to another. Wow.
“What are we looking at?” Marshall asked.
“Honestly, we aren’t sure yet. HERA has so much data to churn it’ll take overnight to get final results, if not longer. We can tell you there’s something very suspicious about the timeline when Kamren’s father died.” Mary motioned toward the table display. “Three days after the accident, which was two days before he was found, a large deposit was put into Sheriff Haskell’s secret bank account.”
“Secret, huh?” Nolan asked. “How much?”
“Five grand,” Vi answered. “HERA’s still tracing the sender, but so far the corporation is tied to the Austin crew Kamren’s been following. Specifically, Henry Mills. He’s a moneyman, a lobbyist of sorts for special interest groups and the like. He’s the one who owns the lease you were investigating.”
Henry Mills. The name didn’t sound familiar. She studied his profile. Weird, she didn’t remember following him. How had they connected him? Why hadn’t she ever seen him around?
“I helped Dad out with the leases and never saw him.”
“Is he clean?” Dylan asked.
“HERA’s still digging. So far, it’s suspicious enough to warrant an investigation,” Vi answered. “In short, everything we’re seeing so far green-lights Kamren’s suspicions, but we’ve found zero in the way of actionable intel, other than the deposit.”
“Which could’ve been for security work on the lease for all we know,” Cord added with a grim expression. “Bears looking into, though.”
“Despite some awesome reconnaissance…” Mary added, “we don’t have enough actionable intel to have irrefutable answers.”
“So what’s next?” Nolan asked.
“We dig,” Dylan answered.
“We have three threads HERA is flagging as the strongest so far. Henry Mills is the strongest. The second strongest are some foreclosures done by Aaron Patterson’s bank,” Vi said.
“Banks foreclose all the time,” Riley said.
“Yeah, but these foreclosures were bought by our guy Henry Mills.”
“Okay, and?” Addy asked.
“And it’s weird. No one needs that much property,” Rhea said. “One or two pieces of land, yeah. Five? No.”
“Oil,” Kamren said. Everyone looked at her. “Oil fracking.”
“Shit, that makes sense,” Cord said. He typed. A graph came up. “Here’s the latest map of drill sites.”
The map was settled atop the one for foreclosures. Nada.
“If suits are doing something shady, there won’t be a paper trail. They aren’t stupid, just greedy,” Kamren commented. “If this is about oil, then the answer will be on the land itself, not in their offices and the places I’ve been looking. Damn it, I should’ve realized it was about the oil. Money and greed are always the answer around Marville.”
“We need recon teams scoping out the land.”
“We can drop more drones. Jacob’s already installed quite a few around town. It’ll be a good opportunity to test our long-range upgrades,” Mary said. “Excellent feedback on the firing range, Kamren. Vi and I are going to make some adjustments this afternoon. We’ve already talked to Rhea and Bree.”
“Drones will make people in Marville nervous,” Rachelle said. “They’re already nervous when a Mason truck enters the county. Y’all are worse than the law in their minds.”
“Then we stay away,” Marshall commented. “Jud, Gage, Fallon, and Addy can lead teams into the areas. I’m sure Kamren can offer some help getting onto the properties.”
“We need to keep the heat on the Marville Dogs,” Dallas said. “We’re going to see Dom tomorrow, have a conversation to keep blowback contained.”
“We still need more boots on the ground in Marville,” Jesse said. “We won’t get the data we need without more coverage. Marcus is in tight, but he needs backup.”
“I’m in,” Gage said. “I’ll start tonight.”
“Okay, now what?” Marshall asked.
“Rachelle’s shifts at Sip and Spin aren’t filled yet as far as I know. I could take them,” Kamren said. “Just about everything going down in Marville starts there. I’ll be at the farmhouse. Between there and the work shifts, I’ll gather a lot of data.”
“You’ll be at the farmhouse,” Dallas repeated. “When was that decided?”
She shrugged. “Animals need tending.”
“I thought we agreed you’d be tending animals here and Jesse, Riley and I would handle your farmhouse.”
“You, Jesse, and Riley at my place stirs trouble. Me at my place doesn’t. This isn’t up for discussion, Dallas. I’m going home,” she stated firmly.
“Fine. Then I’m going with you. You’re safer out here, but you at home sends a message that we aren’t intimidated by the bullshit the Marville Dogs are throwing down, and I’m on board with sending that message as loudly as possible.”
“What?” Breath swooshed from her lungs. She couldn’t let him leave The Arsenal, not with everything going down. “You can’t do this, Dallas. What about your kid? You’re looking for your son. That has to be the priority.”
“It is. We’ve got two teams searching grids now,” Mary said. “We’re rotating teams in and out. Fresh eyes.”
“You aren’t in this alone, Kamren. You leave this place, then I do, too.” His jaw twitched as he made the declaration. “It’s a short drive. When the teams find the target zone, there’s time for me to get here so I can go wheels up.”
When, not if. She admired the hell out of his determination and everyone’s confidence. They weren’t stopping until they found his son. The kid had an entire army behind him.
Kamren sat back, a bit startled. He was serious about moving into her piece of crap farmhouse. He was putting her so far up on his priorities she was impeding his mission to find his son.
“So you all believe her? Why? You said there was no proof.” Rachelle shook her head. “You’re wasting your time.”
“We disagree,” Vi returned. “It’s not up for a discussion. It’s a go. We just need to know if the base of operations is here, where we’re all safe and secure, or in Marville.”
Base of operations.
“I know your pa likely raised you to keep your cards close, but he’d know when to accept help. With things intense, it’s the only play,” Nolan said. “Think on it if you want, but the decision’s been made. We’re not stopping until we figure out what happened to him.”
Kamren’s eyes burned. She cast her gaze downward as she blinked rapidly, willing the moisture away. No one had ever taken what she’d gathered seriously. Until now. She glanced about the room and noted the intense determination on everyone’s faces, except Rachelle’s. And Riley’s. The latter seemed more confused than anything. Likely Kamren’s sister had been stretching the truth.
She really needed to track Cliff down and get some answers about stuff. What’d been happening out here? Was Rachelle safe? Maybe Kamren should take her back to Marville. Dallas and his family would likely do anything for Rache, but they didn’t know about her problems. No one could fix those.
Okay, no way in heck was that the right choice, but taking Dallas away from The Arsenal wasn’t either. Not even for a short amount of time. “I don’t know what makes the most sense. What would you do?” She asked the entire room but leveled a look at Addy.
The redhead’s eyebrows rose a moment, but she crossed her arms and responded quickly. “The farmhouse. You and your boy playing house out there’s likely to stir the vipers. They’ll surface quicker if we’re in their face constantly. We can’t do that if we crawl back into our cushy compound.”
/> “Make it uncomfortable,” Jud said.
Make it uncomfortable. Kamren admitted the reasoning made sense to her, even if she hated the fact that Dallas wouldn’t be here, monitoring the hunt for his son. “Okay, but the hunt for your son takes priority, no matter what. They can keep you in the loop, even if you aren’t here?”
“Marville’s fifteen miles down the road, sweetheart, not in Timbuktu.”
Dallas made the statement gently, the tone teasing, but she blanched. It was a world apart from what he was accustomed to. Nothing in the house worked, and most of the rooms were uninhabitable. They’d be better off in a pitched tent outside.
“Fine, but if you all are helping me with my problem, I want to help with yours.”
“Like you could do anything,” Rachelle growled. “Come on, Riley. I’ve had enough of this stupid charade. I can’t believe you all believe her. He’s dead. Good riddance.”
“Rachelle,” Kamren called after her sister, but she’d already slammed out the door.
Riley looked at the glass door, then at everyone in the room. “I’ll go talk to her.”
Silence ticked by for a few moments, but Kamren sensed the tension crackling within the air. “Sorry, forget I said anything. I’m not a trained commando. I wouldn’t be any use.”
“I think you’d be a tremendous asset once we find our target zone,” Jesse said. “Everywhere we’ve looked so far is remote, thick forest. The coordinates we were initially given were in Wyoming, but we’ve had to fan outward.”
“Coordinates? Was the source credible?”
“Hardly,” Dallas said. “We were told my kid was stashed there in the woods. The organization I was once with, The Collective, had a hidden base of operations there. But we’ve searched the area and fanned outward with no luck.”
Kamren looked at the map as it appeared on the clear table surface before her. A large dot was in the middle of a swath of red. The red was broken into grids, but they weren’t necessarily touching one another. A large tract of land was untouched by the search grids. “What’s this?”
