Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“Armed terrain consultants.”
“Under federal direction.”
“If federal direction is competent.”
“Wilder.”
“I didn’t hand you all the intel so we can sit in our cabin and wait for Turner to send six men here next time.”
There’s another longer silence, then Novak says, “I’ll do what I can. And if Turner moves before we’re in position, do not engage alone.”
“If Turner comes back to this cabin, all bets are off.”
Novak mutters something under his breath about twenty-four hours, and we end the call.
We spend the rest of the day cleaning up, repairing the windows, reinforcing the perimeter, checking weapons, and walking Wren through every possible contingency protocol, until she can answer every scenario.
“If the north alarm is tripped, I go to the safe room,” she says. “If the safe room’s compromised, I follow the crawl access to the split boulder, not the treeline. If comms fail, I wait three minutes, unless there’s fire. If we separate, I go to the root cellar first, creek bend second.”
Despite his injury, Boone insists on helping with all the preparations, until Wren finally threatens to staple him to the couch.
We reset the perimeter alerts farther out, move the go bags, check rifles, sidearms, radios, batteries, and tourniquets.
Turner’s moving his final shipment early, and Novak’s repositioning under pressure. We’re all racing the same clock.
Turner thinks he’s racing the DEA, but he’s wrong. He’s racing us, and he’s out of time.
CHAPTER 40
WREN
Novak calls just after midnight, and Rhett answers on the second vibration.
Cade’s out on watch. Boone’s on the couch, sitting with his eyes closed, though I know he’s awake. I stand at the sink with my hands wrapped around a mug of tea, and every inch of my body goes on alert.
“Copy,” Rhett says. It’s just one word, but it’s more than enough to make my pulse start climbing.
He listens for another minute, his gaze moving over the map that’s spread in front of him, then he says, “Dawn. Understood,” and my body goes cold.
Rhett ends the call and sets the phone on the table. “Novak moved faster than expected.”
“Dawn?” Boone’s eyes are wide open now, and he gets to his feet.
“His primary team is already staged near the corridor,” Rhett says. “Off the spur road, under tree cover. He also has a unit below the bridge and two overwatch positions on the ridgeline.”
My fingers tighten. “Near here?”
Rhett’s face softens in the almost invisible way it does when he’s about to tell me something serious and doesn’t want to make it worse. “Near enough.”
“Novak’s people are guarding us?” Boone asks.
“Covertly. All the approaches are covered. If Turner sends another team, they’ll walk into federal crosshairs before they get anywhere near the property line.”
As Rhett radios for Cade to come inside, I let out a small breath. The coverage outside is a relief, but it’s small comfort when dawn is only hours away.
“What time do we move?” Boone asks.
When Cade comes in, Rhett tells them both that Novak wants them ready at four-thirty. “He’ll brief final details here, then we step off before first light.”
My stomach drops, like a block of ice.
Cade picks up the magazine beside his rifle and checks. “He wants to hit them when they’re tired.”
“After a night move,” Rhett says. “Before they reset. Turner’s people were trying to extract before the week’s out, but Novak doesn’t think they’ll wait anymore.”
“Turner knows the walls are closing in,” Boone says.
“He knows enough to run,” Rhett says. “So we don’t give him time.”
We. At dawn, the three men I love will be walking into the wilderness toward armed traffickers.
Standing in the middle of the kitchen, I suddenly have no idea what to do with my hands. I look around the room at the three men who took my work seriously, respected me, took me in when I needed protection, and held me together when I was afraid. The three men who made me theirs.
Suddenly, Boone’s at my side, putting an arm around my shoulders. “Wren.”
I won’t break down now. I won’t.
I set the mug on the island and look them each in the eyes, one at a time. “I need you all tonight,” I say.
Boone holds me tighter. “You have us.”
“No, I mean, I need you. I want you. If the cabin’s being defended, I want us all to be together.”
Ever since the attacks, it’s been rare that the three of them are in the cabin at the same time for more than a couple of minutes. But tonight, they don’t need to stand watch. None of them needs to be out there alone in the dark. For a few more hours, they’ll be safe from danger.
“I don’t want anything between us left unsaid,” I tell them. “Or unfelt.”
Rhett looks at the door, then the windows, and Cade says, “I checked the sensor lines twenty minutes ago.”
“Novak’s men have the approaches covered,” Boone says, stroking my back gently. “If anything moves out there, we’ll hear it.”