Not one of them had even heard Notch enter.
Yelena kept her arms folded across her chest. Raised her chin, stared down her nose at the group. "I kind of think that's what they're saying Notch."
Bennett raised his eyes, opened his mouth. For the first time ever, the lawyer in the group couldn't find the words.
Again Judge Tanner jumped in to help.
"Nobody is saying anything of the sort," he said. Voice low, even. "We know how many girls there are here. It would be impossible for you folks to keep tabs on that many. We're just saying, something has occurred that has started making them rethink things."
"Hmm," Mayor Sloan said.
Her sister snorted beside her. Lifted her gaze to Notch. "Anything new?"
"Not a damn thing," he hissed. "The house is empty. Nobody's even looked at it as they drove by."
"Anything else?" Mayor Sloan asked.
Notch twisted his head, glared at her. "That's the problem with picking girls off the trash heap of society. There aren't connections to follow when things go to hell."
The air went from tense to holy shit.
The sisters stood and stared on one end. Notch on the other.
Every single person between them tried to make themselves as small as possible.
The standoff lasted two full minutes. Notch blinked first.
"Three days ago I saw her talking to somebody on campus. Can't be a coincidence. I'll find him. He'll talk."
Not a single word held any uncertainty. Simple, declarative statements on every point.
Yelena nodded her head. Equal parts at his plan and the fact that he had spoken first.
This was the group's first real foray into the weeds. It was important the group hierarchy was still observed.
"Good. In the meantime, the rest of you keep a sharp eye and ear out. I don't think I need to remind anybody here what would happen if this girl went public."
Everyone waited a moment to make sure she was done. Stood and filed out without another word.
None of them needed reminding.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Drake pulled his truck to a stop in front of Professor Lauer's house just shy of eleven. He parked right on the curb, made no motion to get out.
Beside him, Ava stared at the two-story home just a few blocks away from the law school. The truck engine ticked in an even rhythm.
Ava was the only one to have left The Hawthorne the night before. After she did, Kade pulled out the sofa bed and the Crew flipped for the bedroom.
Sage and Drake won the bedroom. Ajax and Kade took the sofa.
That morning, Sage drove him back to his place to check on Suzy Q and grab his truck. Kade and Ajax were still asleep when they left. Planned on staying there for the afternoon and watching more football.
Ella and Beth both slept soundly through the night.
Hair still wet, Drake was dressed in jeans and a v-neck t-shirt. Beside him, Ava wore a pencil skirt with matching pullover.
Getting better, but still a long way from Missoula-on-a-Sunday-morning.
"Wait, this is where Lauer lives?" Ava asked.
"Yup," Drake said. "You sound disappointed."
"I mean, I thought he was a practicing attorney in town? And just taught as an adjunct?"
"Yup, and yup." Drake knew already where she was going. Was going to make her say it out loud.
Ava turned and half-glared at him. "I guess I just expected something a little nicer. The attorneys where I come from all live in half-million dollar homes."
Drake leaned around her, stared at the house. It was two stories with a columned porch. Array of oak trees. Maybe a third of an acre of ground.
"Well, you have to keep in mind two key points," he said. "One, this is Missoula. The medium income here is twenty-six thousand dollars."
"You're shitting me."
Drake moved right past the comment. "Second, that is a half-million dollar home."
He could see Ava's eyes bulge from where she sat. "You're shitting me."
A hint of a smile tugged at his face. "Houses in the university district all go for four hundred grand or more."
"On twenty-six grand a year?"
The front door opened and Lauer stepped out. Motioned to the truck.
"Have and have-nots don't only exist in the big city," Drake said. Wrenched open his truck door and swung around the front.
Ava waited for him to join her on the sidewalk. Together they went up the front walk towards the porch.
Lauer stood in a pair of jeans and an oversized sweatshirt waiting for them. The bulk of it seemed to somehow make him appear even smaller.
The scowl on his face gave him the appearance of an angry child.
"You know, when I gave that little speech about not wanting to babysit you guys, this isn't what I had in mind," he said as way of an opening.
The early morning air was warm. Definitely not hot.
Drake was already sweating.
His two emails to Lauer the night before asking for a meeting had both gone unanswered. It wasn't until he and Ava both placed calls and left messages that he reluctantly agreed to the meeting.
He wasn't happy about it.
"We can appreciate that," Drake said. "And we're very sorry to be here under these circumstances. It's just that we're in a little over our head here."
"What about your classmates?" Lauer snapped.
Drake shook his head. "Greg and Wyatt both said to come see you."
He hated bringing his friends into it like this. Then again, what he said was true.
Lauer checked his watch. "This is my Sunday with the kids. You have five minutes."
Drake and Ava relayed what they knew in just under four. They had rehearsed it twice on the way over. Each one knew what they were supposed to say and when the other one would pick up.
In the truck it had taken right at five minutes both times.
The combination of Lauer's icy demeanor and their own nerves made for a twenty-percent decrease in time.
When they were done, both fell silent. Stared at him.
They were each short on breath from the rapid-fire debrief, but didn't dare let it show.
Lauer again checked his watch. Made a face that went from icy to Three Mile Island.
"The only thing I can see that even resembles an attorney about either one of you right now is that you stayed on time. Otherwise, I am offended that they'd even consider either one of you to be competent to practice law."
Drake's jaw dropped open. Ava went rigid beside him.
"Let me see if I have this straight. Some hard luck case let herself get knocked up for money, then had a change of heart? Believed you could help her, and is trying to get out of it?"
Drake’s face betrayed his confusion. "What? No."
Lauer blew right on through it. "And then you thought you could interrupt my Sunday and I would sing your praises for being such complete idiots? That about cover it?"
Neither one said anything. They knew better than to.
Lauer kept his arms folded across his chest. Shook his head in disgust.
"There's nothing we can do. We're lawyers, not miracle workers."
Ava started to say something. Never got the chance.
"Get the hell off my porch."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"Is it any wonder I hate this place?"
Drake sat behind the wheel in a daze. The truck was running, but he made no effort to move it.
"Huh?" he mumbled.
"Shit like that," Ava said. Her arms were folded across her stomach. She was fuming. "I should have known yesterday when you lured me to a hotel room this was all going to end badly."
The comment snapped Drake awake.
"Lured you to a hotel room? What, with a battered girl, a pregnant girl, and my three friends?"
"Crock of shit. Whole damn thing."
Venom welled in the back of Drake's throat. Veins bulged in his forearms as he squeezed the steeri
ng wheel. "Don't you dare blame this on me. I had no way of knowing that Napoleon-Complex-having-prick would react that way."
Ava remained silent a moment. Pushed loud breaths out through her nose. "Sorry. I've just never, and I mean never, been talked to like that before."
"Me neither," Drake muttered. "At least not by someone that didn't get his ass lit up for it."
Ava remained silent. If she didn't understand the football reference, she let it go just the same.
"You know what I don't get?" Drake asked.
"Why the little ones are always the biggest asses?"
"No, that I get," Drake said. "What I don't get is why he was so combative. He didn't listen to a word we said. We could have walked up there and said we have video of a client getting carjacked in broad daylight and he still would have shot it down."
Ava considered the idea. "Yeah, now that you mention it."
"And that couldn't have all been because we asked for five minutes of his precious Sunday could it?"
Ava shook her head. Said nothing.
Drake sighed loudly. Continued to mull the entire thing over in his head.
"You planning on letting this go?" Ava asked.
Drake continued thinking in silence. Kept his eyes trained straight ahead, his grip tight on the wheel.
"No," he said. "I don't care what that pint-sized prick says. I saw what these assholes did to Ella. How scared Beth was."
Ava nodded. "Just so we're clear, I have no interest in being a sidekick in some superhero fantasy."
Drake managed a small snort. "And just so we're clear, I have even less interest in becoming a martyr."
Ava matched the snort. "So we're on the same page here?"
Drake nodded. "We are." Offered his fist to her.
She stared at it like it was a second head.
"Never mind," Drake said. Pulled the hand back and used it to slide the truck into drive.
"So what do we do now?" Ava asked.
On the dash, Drake's phone started to vibrate. He eased the truck up to the stop sign at the end of the street and flipped it open.
Managed a small smile.
"Now, we go introduce you to Rink."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The suite was awake and alive by the time they got there.
The bed in the living room was folded back into a couch. Kade and Ajax manned either end of it. On an armchair across from them sat Beth. Sage used a wooden chair from the kitchen table.
Every one of them was circled up around the coffee table in the middle of the room.
Standing on it was a wiry man in a black and red flannel tucked into faded jeans. Thick wool socks adorned his feet. A trucker's cap was pulled down over flame orange curls. A matching beard protruded from his chin.
Drake and Ava walked in to find him perched in a precarious position on the table. No doubt in the middle of a story. Every eye in the room trained tight on him.
He stopped mid-sentence. A smile grew across his face.
"Well if it's not the next mayor of Missoula, Montana," he said. Thick accent. North Dakota, maybe Canada.
Drake matched the smile. Stepped forward with his hand outstretched. Retracted it and embraced the man in a hug.
"I'll never be half the man your mama was," Drake said, slapping his friend on the back. He released the embrace and looked him up and down. "I see you're going with a different look these days?"
The man ran his hands down the front of his flannel shirt. "Yeah, been up in Banff the last few months. Gave up my fashion sense for something a little more efficient for the summer."
"Meaning something you don't have to wash very often?" Drake asked.
The man pursed his lips, tilted his head. "You forgot warmer. That too."
Everyone in the room laughed.
Drake stepped to the side and extended a hand towards Ava. "This is my partner Ava Zargoza. Ava, this is Rink."
Ava made a face. "Rink?"
"An unfortunate nickname," Rink said. "These guys were footballers, I was more of a hockey man."
He stepped forward and thrust his right hand towards her. Swept the cap off his head with the left. Under it his curls were formed in a deep widow's peak.
A jagged scar over two inches long ran right along the hair line.
Ava accepted the hand. Looked him up and down.
Rink made no attempt to hide his leering back at her. Without removing his eyes he asked, "So when you say she's your partner..."
"I mean she's helping me on this case," Drake said.
"But I'm just as off-limits as if we were sleeping together," Ava said. Gave him a sweet smile.
Kade and Ajax both rolled with laughter. Beth raised a hand to her face. Feigned embarrassment.
Sage shot a raised eyebrow to Drake.
Drake laughed and slapped his friend on the back. "You'll have to pardon Rink here. Poor kid doesn't have the manners the good Lord gave a dog."
Rink released Ava's hand. Gave a twist of his head. "That's not necessarily true. Depends on the breed."
Drake pulled a pair of chairs from the table and set them up facing inward. He took up a spot beside Sage. Ava settled in beside him.
Rink returned to the coffee table. Dropped down onto it.
"Rink came to Missoula the same time most of us did," Drake said. "We were here to play football, he was here to play for the junior hockey team."
"Play being a very loose term," Kade added.
"Meaning?" Ava asked.
"Meaning, I was a pugilist," Rink said.
"A thug," Ava corrected.
"It's a matter of opinion, but yes. You could say that," Rink said. "Say, has anybody taken you out to Paul's yet? Best breakfast in town."
A few more snickers from the crowd.
Ava turned to Drake. "You brought us a hockey player?"
Drake held a hand up to her. "Listen, he might not look like a whole lot, but this man's battles were legendary. Epic."
"Packed the Ice House every weekend just to watch him go," Ajax added.
"And now that your gladiating days are over?" Ava asked.
"Now I coach the team," Rink said matter-of-factly. "Spend my summers off the grid, winters in ice boxes all over the Rockies. You guys were lucky to catch my sat phone when you did."
"Oh yea, real lucky," Ava said. Added an eye roll for emphasis.
Rink looked at her, twinkle of mischief in his eye. "Hu-Hot? You like Mongolian barbecue?"
Ava glared. Shook her head. Drake jumped in before she could say anything.
"So, Rink, the reason we asked you here was to act as a security detail for us for a little while."
"Done," Rink said.
"Not for us, but for Beth and Ella. You can stay here with them as long as it takes."
"Done."
"I'll be honest, right now we have no idea what you're up against. We know of at least one sadistic bastard. Few other followers."
"Done," Rink said again. Never questioned anything. Never took his eyes from Ava.
"We'll be around to help as much as possible. Should get this figured out fast. Until then..." Drake let his voice drop off.
"Done. How about Italian sweetheart? I know a great little place down in the Valley."
Ava sighed. Shook her head. Turned to Drake. "How many shots to the head did this guy take?"
Drake smiled, shook his head. "Hey, we needed an enforcer. The man's good at what he does."
Chapter Thirty
Two sounds filled Drake's ears.
The South Fork River flowing by and Suzy Q's labored breathing.
Drake was well aware of the fact that bulldogs can't swim. Had discovered that first hand on more than one occasion over the years. At the same time though, he couldn't condone leaving her behind.
He'd missed her like hell the entire time he was gone. Had gotten to spend precious little time with her since getting back.
Per usual, his was the only automobile in the lot. During the su
mmer it wasn't uncommon to see the Flats teeming with fisherman out for an early catch.
Now that the calendar had eased forward into September, the place was pretty much his.
Drake waited until six o'clock before climbing from the truck. Walked around to the back and dropped the tailgate.
Suzy Q followed right on his heels, a clatter of toenails on pavement. Just as fast, she disappeared into some high grass nearby to sniff around.
The only sign of her was the exaggerated breathing through her flattened nose.
With practiced hands, Drake uncased his fly rod and assembled the pieces. Threaded the thick, neon yellow line through the eyelets.
Above him, the morning sky turned from charcoal to light grey. A thin breeze pushed around the Aspen leaves in the trees lining the lot.
A single pair of low-slung headlights cut through the morning. They pulled into the parking lot and came to a stop nose to nose with his truck, headlights washing everything in harsh fluorescent light.
A moment later they blinked off and Sage emerged from the car.
"Thin crowd this morning?" she asked, climbing out.
"Am I not good enough?" Drake asked. Tied another caddis fly onto the end of his line.
Sage stood and stretched her hands high overhead. Rotated at the waist. "Didn't say that."
"Besides, I happen to not be alone," Drake said. "For the first time ever, the womenfolk have the guys outnumbered at a Zoo Crew gathering."
Sage's face fell flat. Her hands dropped to her side with a slap. "Really?"
Without looking up, Drake whistled a two-note call to Suzy Q.
A second later she burst out from the weeds, bounding as fast as her compact body would allow.
Sage coughed out a laugh. Squatted to the ground and scratched behind her ears.
"You seem surprised," Drake said.
"No," Sage said, fingers working through Q's short brown hair. "Well, maybe a little."
"Who else would I bring to out here?" Drake asked. He had a vague idea who Sage had in mind. Preferred to feign ignorance just the same.
Sage pushed herself to a standing position. "Don't play dumb. It doesn't suit you."
Drake smiled. "I'm not sure if you remember last night, but that poor girl has her hands full right now."
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