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Chapter 38

Mila

T he phone rang when we were eating the steaks Henri and Alice had packed. We’d skipped the champagne, too keyed up from our outdoor fuckfest and the anxiety of waiting for news. We’d hiked and had a rock skipping competition in the lake to help pass the time.

If I wasn’t so damn terrified, it would have been fun. Though it seemed impossible that anything could be hotter than Jude making pizza or chopping wood, the man here in his natural element absolutely was.

“What’s happening?” I asked, looking out the window into the dark wilderness.

“This is Parker Gagnon. I’m sitting here with Agent Bryce Portnoy of the FBI and Sergeant Williams of the Maine State Police.”

I let out an exhale, my shoulders sinking in relief. “Okay.”

“Jude’s family is here too. Ms. LeBlanc and Mr. Hebert.”

“We’re happy to report that through joint cooperation, we’ve secured several arrest warrants. They’ll be executed overnight.”

“That’s great news,” Jude said.

As much as I wanted to be excited, apprehension still swirled in my stomach. “Did you arrest Charles Huxley?”

“At this time, there is no plan to seek his arrest,” she said, her voice monotone and official.

“What the fuck?” I snapped.

Jude squeezed my good shoulder, but I pulled it away.

“Ms. Barrett, Sergeant Williams here.” He cleared his throat. “Please understand there are nuances to this investigation.”

Parker piped up. “We expect that several of the perpetrators, including those who broke into your home, will be in custody by tomorrow.”

“We picked up someone who goes by the name Razor yesterday. He was driving while intoxicated in Heartsborough and provided some very helpful information to supplement your work,” Sergeant Williams said.

I bit back a sardonic laugh. That wasn’t surprising. Razor was not known for his discretion or his loyalty. But even he wasn’t close enough to the top to be all that useful.

“This is Agent Bryce Portnoy with the FBI, assistant director of the Portland field office,” a third voice said. “I want you to know that law enforcement has this well in hand. Great civilian work, of course. But…”

I froze as he continued to speak. That voice. Nasal and a bit high-pitched for a man. I’d never met him, but my hands shook and bile rose in my throat. It was familiar and not particularly comforting.

With a concerned frown, Jude squeezed my hand.

“You okay?” he whispered.

I nodded as I scanned the small cabin, looking for paper. Eventually, I settled for a piece of paper towel and a pencil that was perched on the windowsill. As they spoke, I furiously scribbled notes.

“Can you repeat that?” I asked sweetly, trying to get every detail down.

He obliged, though his tone remained borderline condescending.

“What are you doing about the shipment?” I asked. “Friday the thirteenth is tomorrow.”

“We have no intel to confirm that a shipment of anything is coming,” Portnoy continued.

Dread washed over me. “There was an exchange planned,” I explained. “Drugs, guns, cash. They spoke in code, but I heard it with my own ears.”

“Sources on the inside indicate they may have been spooked.”

My stomach churned. No way. They’d been planning this for months. The Jason talk, the random mentions of the date, and discussions regarding meetings and shipments. This was too big. At the poker game, the number fifty million had been thrown around.

And his voice. It had set off an alarm bell in my brain. I couldn’t parse out why. But I had the laptop and my phone. If I could keep this guy talking, maybe I’d figure it out.

Silently, I pointed at Jude’s blue backpack, and he brought it over to me.

“How many warrants, Agent Portnoy?” I asked as I tapped on the icon for the voice recording app.

“Seven,” Parker replied, her tone once again subdued.

Fuck, I needed him to speak.

“And more coming,” Portnoy added. “At the bureau, we build our cases methodically.”

That was bullshit. Only seven? “The conspiracy chart I provided had thirty-one players on it, going from top to bottom.”

“You can’t expect us to go out and arrest thirty-one people based solely on your hunches.” His tone was dismissive.

While I gritted my teeth to hold back a retort, Jude clenched his fists.

I shook my head, warning him to let it go, then tapped the red button on my screen so I could record the sound of the FBI agent’s voice.

“I provided evidence,” I clarified. “And I understand the process and the fourth amendment considerations. But if only seven people are out, that leaves the other twenty-six to continue on with tomorrow’s plan.”

“There is no tomorrow,” Bryce insisted. “We have no solid intel.”

A chill ran down my spine. There was definitely a tomorrow. And it was something big. Arresting Razor would not change that. Men like Charles Huxley worked with precision. They would have planned for all kinds of scenarios. They would have backups.

“You did good, Mila,” Parker said. “They’re running scared. This is how we build cases. The wheels are in motion and justice will prevail.”

As much as I wanted to believe her, my gut was telling me this wasn’t over yet.

Parker, her tone a little more easy, said, “You can come home soon.”

“As soon as possible,” Portnoy cut in. “We need to question you. We can send a plane—”

“No.” I needed more time to think. “We will call Finn and arrange a ride home. It’s already dark here.”

After another few minutes of conversation, we hung up. The minute the connection was severed, I pulled my laptop out of the backpack. “Where is the battery bank?”

Jude hopped to his feet. “On it.”

We set up the computer and the phone on the small table and plugged both in. Then I played a recording from the poker game. Then another. I’d collected so many over the last year.

As the men on the recording talked about Friday the thirteenth while glasses and poker chips clinked in the background, I closed my eyes, taking myself back to that smoky room, envisioning the faces at the poker table, remembering the drink orders I’d filled.

After only minutes, I was overwhelmed with impatience. I stood and paced the small space, running my hands through my hair.

“It’s still happening tomorrow,” I said. “I know it in my bones.”

“Let’s call Parker.”

I held up my hand, then turned to cross the room again. “Don’t. She’ll think I’m crazy. I need to think.”

At the window, I spun around, only to find Jude blocking my path. He pulled me into his chest and pressed his lips to my crown. “Whatever it is, you will figure it out. You are brilliant.”

His words ignited a tiny spark of hope in my chest.

I eased out of his hold. “Can we look at the maps of the restricted bat territory again?”

“Sure.”

The laptop screen wasn’t big, but we studied the map section by section, reviewing the most recent restrictions.

“Where was the fire?” I asked. “The Sinistre Nord.”

Jude took off his glasses and used the hem of his shirt to clean them, shaking his head. “It’s hard to say, looking at this map. But it was in the northern section of our land, bordering the state section.”

“Is any of that area included in what’s closed now?”

Squinting, he zoomed out, then in again.

“Possibly. The fire happened before I was born, but I do know it destroyed the old river road.” He traced his finger along the river. “It ran right here.”

“And that’s one of the roads we suspect they’re using now?”

“It would make the most sense, seeing as it’s a direct shot to Sainte-Louise,” he said. “Let’s look at one of the big aerial maps.”

He toggled around in my folders until he located it.

Once it had loaded, we studied it silently.

“Look,” I said when I caught sight of the river trail. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. “If you head west, you hit the border, where we know they’re crossing to avoid detection.” I traced my finger down the map on the screen, scrolling down. “And if you follow the river trail.”

“Fuck.” Jude roughed a hand down his face. “That’s Pine Hollow Farm.”

We looked at one another. Midway between the border and the farm where we’d seen the SUVs was what we were looking for. The spot that had slowly been added to the bat protection zone.

“So the big road had been cleared, and then a fire took out the old-growth trees.”

“Yes.”

“And it’s deep in the protection zone where no one would be allowed to drive?” I arched a brow. “This is the spot.” I tapped the screen. “They created a network of roads and trails to transport drugs and God knows what else from Canada. The fire cleared a lot of the land, making more room for roads and potentially more.”

Jude hummed. “So you’re saying—”

“There’s got to be a hub here. It’s smack-dab in the middle of the protection zone. It’s difficult to get to, and there are no caves anywhere. Look at the topography.”

The light of the computer screen reflected off his lenses as he studied the map. “Yeah, definitely no caves for bats to nest.”

“Exactly. So of all the hundreds of acres, this is the spot they wanted to protect. And we know why. It’s a convenient midway point between the two destinations, and mother nature did some of the work by clearing the forest.”

Sitting back, Jude frowned at me. “Why haven’t the police or the FBI found it?”

“They’re still under the impression that there are no roads there.” I wiggled in my seat. There was more to it, but that was my gut instinct. “It’s been two days. They aren’t wasting resources by sending people hours into the woods. Not yet, at least.”

“How far away is it?” I tapped the screen.

“On the ATV?”

I nodded.

He shook his head. “Far. If the trails are dry, maybe two or three hours?”

“Do we have enough gas to get there?”

“We have two full cans. So yes, we definitely have enough to get there. But we don’t have enough to get back.”

I considered his words as I studied the map again. If something was going down, this was where it would happen.

“What do we do?”

I thought about being chased by Razor and the other flunkies. I thought about poor Hugo in a coma in Boston and Jude’s family being haunted for years.

And I knew what I had to do.

“I’m going there tomorrow,” I said.

He lurched up in his seat. “ No .”

I held up a hand. “I’m asking you to come with me. It’s dumb and dangerous, but if we give up now, they may get away with this completely. I’ll spend the rest of my life running and sleeping with one eye open.”

“But—”

I squeezed his hands. “Jude, I love you and I want a future with you.”

His dark blue eyes widened.

“But there is no future unless we end this.”

“Together?” he asked, the single-word response surprising me.

I nodded. “Together. But…” I blew out a breath. “We may get killed in the process.”

“I’m willing to risk it. I swore to protect you no matter the cost, and I will.”

We needed a plan, some more time reviewing maps, and a way to get photos or videos that would send these fuckers away for good. “Are there any guns here?”

“There’s a hunting rifle in the shed. It probably needs to be cleaned.”

“Do you hunt?”

He shook his head. “There are bears out here. They mostly stay away, but it’s better to be safe.”

“Can you shoot?”

He scoffed. “A bear? Yeah, if I had to.”

“How about people?”

His face paled. My sweet lumberjack was a lover, not a fighter. “If I have to.”

I pushed up onto my tiptoes and kissed him. “Good. Make sure the ATV is gassed up and good to go. I’ve got to pull up some maps and make a plan.”

“You sure we shouldn’t get reinforcements first? The two of us can’t take on a whole trafficking ring by ourselves.”

He was right, of course. We couldn’t take them all down, so we’d have to go undetected and observe. We’d only intervene if absolutely necessary. Based on the way he’d described the land, there were plenty of potential approaches and ample forest to keep us out of sight.

“I’m a woman. Which means I’m perpetually underestimated. And we’re gonna take advantage of that.” I stood. “Now let’s get to work. This criminal enterprise isn’t going to take itself down.”

He wrapped an arm around me, squeezing my ass hard. “I fucking love you, Trouble.”