Page 24

We were at the site where they found Deputy White. Becarra and a few others insisted on coming out there with us. The rest were looking for her. They’d called in more of their people. I made my call to my bosses on the way there. They assured me they’d have reinforcements within three hours or less. It seemed they had Benedict and Heath in Pullman, Washington. It would take almost four and a half hours by car, but once a plane took off, it would be less than an hour’s flight. And since they had a plane on standby, for some reason, they would only have to register the flight plan and get clearance to leave. Then they’d be on their way.

With the knowledge I had my kind of backup coming, I was able to keep myself from yelling for Lennox to get the fuck away from me. He was one of the ones who came out to the abduction site. Unfortunately, right around the area where the body had been found, they’d made a mess of it. The ground was covered in so many footprints in the snow that I couldn’t tell what was what.

“Who the hell has secured this scene?” I barked. When a deputy stepped forward, I got in his face. “Then get all these extra bodies out of here! They’re making a mess of any tracks we can use to find Keeley!”

“Hey, listen, I don’t know who you think you are, but this is my jurisdiction,” the sheriff puffed up to say as he came rushing over to save his deputy.

“Well, Sheriff, then I suggest you do it. As for who I am. I’m someone who can have the Feds crawling all over this place if you prefer. Hey, Justin, do you think we can call your old pals at the DEA and get them out here?” I only half-yelled.

“Sure, can. I’ll make the call right now,” Justin replied.

He was taking out his phone when the sheriff thought it was better to listen and go along with me than to have Feds mucking around his jurisdiction. I knew he’d hate that. Although, if he pushed the matter, I could make a call or two and get someone higher in the food chain to come out here. The Dark Patriots had contacts they could call upon inside and outside the government.

Most people were pushed behind a line that they made in the snow. Justin, Aryan, and I were concentrating within a fifty-feet diameter of the kill site while Arnie, Reed, and Dickie were further out. I didn’t bother to ask what they were doing. I knew they wouldn’t miss anything. This was Keeley. I’d come to see how much they cared for her and Kensington. They were their family in all ways but blood.

I was crouched away from the body, trying to see if the disturbance in the snow was recent, aka this bunch of boobs, or not. I came bounding to my feet when my name was shouted. I saw Lennox rushing toward me. I wasn’t in the mood for him or his crap. I went charging toward him, and we met somewhere in the middle. We were almost chest-to-chest. I was glaring at him. I saw his fists were clenched down at his sides.

“This area is restricted. Get behind the goddamn line, McAdams,” I snapped before turning to yell over at a deputy. “He needs to be behind the line like the others.”

“Who the fuck are you to come in here, issuing orders and expecting people to obey? Just because Keeley is sleeping with you or whatever doesn’t give you rights. This is for the professionals to handle,” Lennox snarled.

“She’s doing far more than sleeping with me. I’m gonna marry that woman. As for not having the right, that’s where you’re wrong. I have the right to be here and do what I am. My buddies over there and I do this for a living, among other things.”

“Oh, and those old guys are what? Part of your crew,” he sneered.

“No, they’re consultants. They have a particular skill set that’s crucial to finding Keeley. However, if you’re tracking all over the fucking place, then you’re making it harder, maybe impossible, for us to find her. And if that happens, you’ll be the next dead body they find in the snow,” I said softly. It wasn’t because I was worried the sheriff would hear me or anyone else. It was all due to my seriousness. I was making a vow.

He must’ve read the resolve on my face and the fact that I wasn’t playing games. I would kill him and point the cops to the spot myself.

His following words weren’t ones to egg me into a fight. “Who do you think did this? Why? Who would want to hurt her?”

I didn’t want to acknowledge it, but the guy did care for her. It was what made me answer him truthfully.

“We believe whoever was responsible for her sister going missing is behind it. Keeley has been helping us investigate her sister’s disappearance. She got too close, or they became afraid for some reason and took her. We have to find her before they have time to hurt or kill her. Every second I waste on you, the more likely that becomes.”

He studied me briefly, then gave me a single nod. “Then find her, and when you do, kill the motherfuckers who took them both.” He walked off and got behind the line in the snow without another word. I was honestly shocked.

“They’re talking about moving the body and starting over in the morning. It’s dark and too cold out here, the cops said.” Aryan came up to tell me. I shrugged.

“They can leave if they want. It’ll make it easier for us if they do.”

“I was thinking the same thing, but I got the feeling they’re gonna tell us we have to leave, too,” he muttered.

“I’d like to see them try. This is ridiculous. Let’s get them gone, and then we can see what we find. Shit, I wish we had more men,” I told him.

We walked over to the sheriff, the head ranger, and Becarra. While they all appeared stressed, none were as worried as Becarra. He gave us a hopeful look, but he wilted when I shook my head.

“Have you found anything?” the head ranger asked as we joined them. They were over by the do-not-cross line so those gathered could hear us.

“No, we have not. However, my buddy said you planned to head back until daybreak and resume in the morning. I think that’s a good idea for all of you. My people and I will stay here and continue to search for clues. I have two more men joining us soon.”

“We can’t leave civilians out here at night. We’ll be looking for your bodies in the morning,” the head ranger said. The sheriff was nodding his head in agreement. Becarra was the only one who didn’t say anything.

“I’m afraid you have no choice. And before you threaten to arrest us, don’t. One, you’ll have to kill us to get us in those cuffs and off this mountain. Two, I wasn’t blowing smoke up your asses about having jurisdiction given to me,” I warned.

Before they could respond, the sheriff’s phone rang. He took it out and answered it. The way he snapped to attention, I knew it was his boss or someone over him. He rapidly answered.

He listened for a minute or two. He didn’t say anything after hello, just nodded. Finally, he stated, “Yes, sir, I understand. I’ll let the others know. I will. Yes, sir, I won’t.” When he hung up his phone, he met my gaze.

“That was the governor. He said that you, your men, and anyone from the Dark Patriots have been given the lead on this case. We’re all to do whatever you command. If there’s anyone who doesn’t, their heads will roll.” Mixed with anger was awe on his face and in his voice. Talk about perfect timing.

“Then you know the deal. Go back and get some rest. Come out fresh tomorrow and start at this point. I’ll be in contact to let you know if we want you to deviate from this area based on anything we find. The priority is to rescue Keeley. The secondary objective is to capture the ones who took her. If you have to kill to recover her, then do it. Understood?”

“Understood,” he said.

It took them several minutes to confer and get the rest moving. It took all my patience not to yell at them to get their asses gone. As they got onto their snowmobiles, the roar of engines was heard approaching. Two sets of headlights cut through the darkness, and I listened to the sheriff swear and mutter. “Goddamn idiots, I told them not to send any more people out here.”

When the snowmobiles came to a standstill, two men got off them and yelled my name. I knew who it was, but with all the snow gear on, only their voices told me who they were.

“Sheriff, those are mine,” I called out.

Ben and Heath rushed over to me. After exchanging handshakes, we watched the others leave. Justin and Aryan had joined us. The three older men were still searching the snow a distance away from us. They’d left it to me to handle the authorities.

“We got here as fast as we could. Anything?” Ben asked.

“We’ve got to see if our trackers have found anything. Now that we got the others to leave and stop mucking up our scene,” I informed them.

Not wasting more time, we made our way carefully toward Arnie, Reed, and Dickie. They held up their hands when we were within twenty feet of them. We stopped moving.

“These are the two you were waiting on, Beau?” Reed asked.

“It is. This is Heath and Ben. Guys, this is Reed, Dickie, and Arnie, Keeley’s uncles. Have you found anything?”

“We might’ve. It’s a bit hard to tell with the snow still coming down and filling in tracks, but this looks to us as if someone tried to cover their tracks and did it sloppily. It leads off to the west. We didn’t want to say anything while the dipshits were still here. We don’t need them along for the capture and rescue,” Arnie said.

“And why would that be?” Heath asked.

“So we don’t end up in prison for torturing and killing the fucker or fuckers we find responsible, of course. Are you sure of him?” Arnie asked as he eyed Heath like he wasn’t too bright.

“I am,” I confirmed.

“I was just checking to see what you’d say. We don’t want any squeamish shits along,” Heath shot back.

“You worry about yourself. We were doing that before your daddy knew what to do with that sperm in his sac,” was Dickie’s comeback.

Before it could get into a major pissing contest, I called them to order. They complied reluctantly. Digging into my pack, I took out the night vision goggles I had in mine. Seeing what I did, the others did as well. I’d tried to outfit the preppers earlier today when we went through our packs, but they showed me they had their own. While snowmobiles would’ve let us cover more ground, they were noisy and would have given away our element of surprise. Instead, we left the two that Heath and Ben rode out there and fell in behind the trackers.

I’d learned a lot in Recon, as did Ben and Heath in the Army Special Forces. Justin’s years with the DEA also gave him skills. Aryan might not have been in the military, but he’d had on-the-job training with the Patriots for a few years, so I had no doubts about him. He wouldn’t be out here if he couldn’t do the work. After listening to their stories, I was sure the three old-timers did as well. I was confident we could do this.

Thank God for our Arctic gear. We were warm as we made our way through the dark, blustery cold night. When we were close to a mile away from where the body had been found, Reed stopped and indicated for us to halt. We let him confer with the other two without going to them, although it was hard for me not to do it. I almost ran to him when he gestured for us to come to them. Getting to them, he pointed to the ground. I saw it was disturbed.

“Check this out. We were right. She was taken this way, and the person who took her stopped trying to cover his trail. He figured no one would follow it this far if they found it. From the size of these boot prints, the depth of snow packing, and the amount that would’ve been added since she was probably taken, we’d say he’s a big guy, two hundred pounds without her weight added. He’s at least six feet or more. He isn’t used to the terrain or being out in weather like this. He’s a city slicker with some knowledge of Montana winter but not a professional,” Reed stated confidently, then pointed a foot or so past the disturbed snow. “See those. They’re snowmobile tracks. He thought he was safe enough to use one after he got this far.”

“You can tell all that from this track?” Justin asked. He sounded impressed. So was I. Even with what I knew about tracking, this was impressive if it was all true.

“We can. We’ve been tracking since we were kids. We’ve noted along the way here that he paused more than a few times. He’s trying to stay on target, meaning he’s checking a compass or something, not navigating by the stars or anything else. He’s strong, or we would’ve found places where he set her down, but we didn’t. He has to be tall, based on the boot size. That makes us think he’s from Montana but not used to being in the wild much,” Arnie explained.

“Do you think it’s Chase or someone else?” I asked.

“I think it’s likely to be Chase. It’s the boots that tell me that. That tread is standard for winter boots issued to police, rangers, and other first responders in Montana. Think about it. That deputy was killed without raising an alarm. He was snuck up on, or he didn’t feel threatened by his killer. Another law enforcement officer, ranger, or mountain rescuer would be my guess. While there could be other people in those jobs involved, I still think it’s Chase,” Reed added.

“Your logic sounds right to me. Do you need to rest, or can we continue?” I asked. I was impatient to continue, but I had to be careful with three older men who didn’t do this every day.

“Let’s keep going. We wanted to let you guys rest. We’re good to go all night,” Arnie boasted. This made all of us grin. They sure were characters, but I liked them.

As we continued, we kept our chatter to a minimum. It was likely to carry in the snow, and we didn’t want to give away our pursuit. We had no idea how far he got, but we were making no assumptions. The trail veered off the west course a couple of times. I had no idea where she was being taken. This change, and what I recalled from the maps I’d studied over the past weeks, didn’t lead to a town or highway that I could remember. It was as if we were being taken further into the mountains.

We called a brief break two hours in. I hated to stop, but we had to rest, drink water, and grab food. We packed several MREs and power bars in our packs. While we rested, I’d asked the three survivalists if my hunch on where we were going was accurate or if I was off. They confirmed that if we stayed headed in the current direction we were going, we wouldn’t end up in civilization. It seemed more and more as if she was being taken to a cabin. After a ten-minute break and some of us taking a piss, we were back at it. I kept sending up prayer after prayer as we traveled, asking God to keep her safe and to allow us to find her.

???

Four hours after we took off on the trail of Keeley and her kidnapper, we came upon a cabin. It wasn’t unusual to find small hunting cabins all over the mountains. Hunting was a massive thing in Montana. According to our experts, the preppers, people come from all over the country and even the world to hunt elk, antelope, moose, bear, mountain goat, mule deer, Bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, and wolves. They shared this with us on the long trek.

So, finding a cabin out here wasn’t a big surprise. What was a shock was the size and fanciness of the cabin. It was clear someone with a lot of money had it built. They wanted it where there was no risk of others interrupting them, whether they were hunting or something else. I didn’t doubt that in the summer, it was incredible up here. However, the only way to get supplies up here was via a helicopter, a snowmobile, or a good old-fashioned dog sled team. It was that remote.

We dropped into crouches as soon as we saw it through the trees. We were scanning the area for anything that would give us away. While there wasn’t electricity out this far, they undoubtedly had generators, which meant they could have cameras, intruder alarms, or less sophisticated ways of doing the same thing using trail cams or non-electrical alarms. The latter was being rattled off by Reed, Dickie, and Arnie. The rest of us were well-versed in modern security measures. It made me realize we needed to learn more about the other kind and make sure to implement protocols and training for them.

We didn’t give our position away because of the three rugged survivalists. They spotted the trail cams on the last row of trees before coming out of the woods into the open area surrounding the cabin. They were solar-powered. We slowly worked our way around the perimeter. Those cameras were everywhere. They found a gap that had only one camera watching that section. We decided it was the one to disable when it came time to approach the cabin. Having a single camera go down could be seen as faulty, so we had to take the risk.

As we waited to do that, they also surveyed for anything that could be used as an alarm. Again, they found it not us. It was a thin wire low to the ground. It was connected to a primer mechanism attached to a shotgun shell. It was simple yet effective. If the wire was tripped, the primer was engaged and struck the shell, causing it to go off. It would be loud and startling. After seeing that, a question came to mind.

“How do they keep the shells from being tripped constantly by animals?” I asked them.

“It’s harder to detect, but if you sniff, you’ll smell urine. They place predator urine all around the perimeter to keep out other animals. As for the predators, like wolves, there are odors they find noxious and stay away from, and you can have a speaker that puts out a tone that hurts animals’ ears but can’t be detected by humans,” Dickie explained.

“Damn, they need to teach classes to us on this,” Heath whispered.

“Keeley knows all this and more. Her dad made sure his girls knew it, and we kept adding to it after he died,” Reed whispered back.

“We’re not as crazy as everyone thinks, are we?” Arnie asked.

This made us all softly chuckle. We were far enough away that if the cameras had audio, they wouldn’t be able to pick it up. Now, it was time to make our infiltration plan and get in there to rescue my woman and take out anyone who was in there with her. I hoped we’d be able to have at least a prisoner to interrogate, but it would all depend on who was in there and how they reacted.