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No one said anything.

“What are you going to do with us?” Teague raised his brows. “How many of you are there? Just two?” He scoffed. “You won’t be able to handle all of us.”

“Where’s the vehicle you drove to get here?” Monica asked.

“Like I’m telling you.” Wendell leaned against the island while sitting on the floor.

Monica took Andy aside and spoke to him privately. “We need to find that vehicle. One of us can look for it now while the tracks are still fresh. If it’s a big enough vehicle, we could take them all back to White Bear, at least to the point where we can get a hold of other law enforcement to help take these guys in.”

“How close were you to the cabin before you had to walk?” Andy called out to Wendell.

“Listen, man, you can’t leave us and go looking for our truck. The bear will kill you, and then what will we do?” Wendell said.

Denny glowered at Wendell, and Andy suspected he hoped one of themwouldlook for the truck. Then they would manage to free themselves and take out the last person who was left watching them.

“I’ll go,” Monica said.

“Okay.” Andy would have suggested it because he figured she would prefer that, and he certainly would if he had to handle one of the men or more.

Monica pulled on her cold-weather gear—hat, coat, snow boots, and gloves. Then she put on her mask and snow goggles. She put all their guns in her backpack. “I’ll be back as soon as I find the vehicle.”

“You’re making a mistake, lady,” Wendell said, sounding panicked.

Ignoring him, she left the cabin and headed out into the cold snow. At least the snow wasn’t coming down as hard now as Andy watched her walk in the direction the men had taken.

He hoped she would find a vehicle to take them to White Bear. He also hoped they could manage five co-conspirators without any trouble. Without a confining cage to put them in, trying to transport them safely to White Bear would be a dangerous prospect.

Monica headedthrough the deep snow on the path the men had made. She walked for about half a mile when she saw a black pickup truck sitting on a clear road. The one that she had just traversed hadn’t been plowed. She immediately felt relieved to see the vehicle and the plowed road.

The truck even had a slide-in camper on the back and over the double-wide cab. She looked in the back—a full-sized bed, pallet, fridge, sink, propane tank, solar module, and storage—nice. Hopefully, they could incarcerate some of the perps in the camper.

She tried her satellite phone but couldn’t get a signal. She tried her phone next, but there was no signal.

She turned around and headed back to the cabin as quickly as she could to give Andy the news when she heard shots fired back at the cabin, sending her heart into overdrive.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

7

While anxiously watching for Monica’s return, Andy heard something rustling by the couch. He jerked his head around and was relieved to see that Lionel was still secure.

“What the hell is going on?” Lionel asked, yanking at his restraints wrapped around the couch leg. He looked to be about six feet three, heavyset, with a black beard and bushy black eyebrows, and he had a crooked nose that appeared to have been broken at some point in his life.

“You’re under arrest for facilitating a case of false kidnapping and obtaining the money for it.” Then Andy continued to watch for Monica, hoping she had found the truck and that it wasn’t too far away.

He wasn’t sure how they would get all the arrestees into the vehicle if they had to travel a long way in this snow, particularly with them all restrained.

The next thing he knew, Lionel must have lifted the couch, gotten loose, and was crossing the floor, heading straight for Andy.

His heart pounding, Andy yanked his gun out, but before he could aim it at Lionel, the guy was on top of him, slamming into him and taking him to the floor. As a polar bear, Andy was formidable. He was muscled and strong, but didn’t have the bulk of a human that Lionel did. Between them, they wrestled for the gun.

The gun went off, the round striking the kitchen island with a thwack!

Denny shouted, “Jesus! Try to kill us, why don’t you!”

Andy wasn’t letting go of his weapon. He was glad Monica had the foresight to take their guns with her when she left.

From the back bedroom, Helen screamed, “Let me out of here! Let me out!”