Amber’s phone rang again just as she was stuffing the last bits of her clothing into her go bag and zipping it up. She’d had enough of her lieutenant, and that was without this third phone call. Apparently, using governmental maps to find and access the privately held mines had been a breach of protocol—a policy she hadn’t known and wasn’t aware of, but had gotten her in trouble nonetheless.
She should have known that the mineral rights and the mining claim were not a part of the Widow Maker Ranch and the STEALTH complex, but it hadn’t occurred to her—in their search for answers—that this kind of thing would have caused a problem. Rather, she had seen a need and fulfilled the need. Now it was her neck that would be taking the axe.
If only she hadn’t clocked in to the computer for the day, they would have not had grounds for dismissal. She wasn’t sure exactly how, or if they were going to fire her for trespassing on private property without consent for search or a search warrant, but this was far outside her normal working parameters. Still, she had definitely screwed up.
Her bosses had every right to be upset with her, but since she had been a game warden, it was the first major screwup on her record. In fact, normally she went above and beyond the call of duty.
And here she had been thinking that she would be getting an “atta girl” for her work on the bear and discovering the truth of the attack and Tammy’s resulting death.
She picked up the phone, telling herself to stay strong as she answered. “Hello, Lieutenant King. I’m just heading out now. I’ll be at your office within an hour or so.”
“It’s fine, Sergeant Daniels. You don’t need to come down to the regional offices. We have decided to put you on administrative leave, pending a thorough investigation by the regulatory board. As you know, Daniels, this is going to be a tough one to make it out of. If I were you, I’d be brushing up on my résumé. In the meantime, you need to return all state-issued gear within the next day or two.”
She swallowed back the lump that had started to form in her throat. “Sir, I’m sorry for any perceived mistakes or breaching protocol. It was not my intention.”
“Stop right there, Daniels. Ignorance is not a defense.”
“What does it hurt that we were inside the mine?” she countered, not waiting for him to continue his tirade.
There was a pause on the other end of the line. “The mine owners have ties that run deep. They made a call and the higher-ups had to do what they felt was required. Rest assured that thanks to you, others’ heads are going to roll. If anything criminal comes from what you found, you may have very well just caused us a lot of headaches.”
Of course, that’s what they’re worried about—legal headaches...
Her stomach ached with guilt and embarrassment. Not only was this misstep going to cost her the job that meant so much to her, but she was also going to have to tell the STEALTH team what had transpired. Her guilt and mistakes were going to be public knowledge on a grand scale.
That was all to say nothing about the effect it would play on her private life. AJ would be supportive, but it would affect everything between them. In fact, if it wasn’t for him and the blinding effects her feelings for him had on her, she wouldn’t have found herself in this position.
Though logically she was aware that she shouldn’t, and couldn’t, really be upset with him for her stepping into the wrong, she found she was still angry with him. He had to have known that his family didn’t retain the mineral rights to the area, and therefore they couldn’t legally access the mine shafts beneath. If he didn’t, there had been enough time for him to check in with Zoey to see if there would be any conflict.
“Amber?” her boss asked, sounding as though he had been waiting for an answer to a question she hadn’t heard.
“What was that?” she asked, anger lashing within her like a loose live wire.
“I will be awaiting the return of your things to the headquarters no later than five tomorrow evening. Does that work for you?”
No. It didn’t work for her. None of this worked for her, but she didn’t have a real choice.
“Fine.” She cleared her throat. “Please set aside some time for me tomorrow morning. I’m going to need to speak to you in private regarding all of this.”
There was a pause; he probably wanted to tell her there was no use. That he wasn’t the one pulling the strings on this, but he remained quiet. Finally, he said, “I really do appreciate all that you do, Amber. If it was up to me, we would be sweeping this under the rug. Your heart was in the right place and good things came from your work. Unfortunately, this is coming from the top down.”
As hard as she had worked in this job and regardless of all the advancements she had made and animals and people she had helped, it disgusted her that when push came to shove, all that mattered was politics. Right there was the problem with every governmental job. There was no real loyalty—there couldn’t be, because everyone was just a cog in a machine that would limp along with or without a person.
“Yep, got it. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, hanging up her phone. Though she knew she was mishandling this, she couldn’t help the rage and bitterness that filled her.
She would be the first to admit she had screwed up, but in doing what she had done, she had only helped...and stepped on toes. Even though everyone close to this understood and would have probably done the same damn thing, in the end, it wouldn’t really matter. She was fired.
She grabbed her go bag, then went outside and threw it in the back seat of the pickup. She was going to have to run back to her place and take out everything that belonged to her before she left for headquarters tomorrow. On top of that, she wasn’t even sure how she would get home after she returned the rig. She could ask AJ, but at the thought the live wire within her sparked.
No, he had gotten her into this mess.
That left her with asking her mother.
Great.
She would have to tell them what happened, if that was the case. There was no way she would want to go into detail about her life. They would make a huge deal about what had happened and want to know everything—and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to tell them about AJ.
If she did, first, she would have to get over being pissed at him for this, but on top of that it would also imply a depth in their relationship that she had started to feel, but she wasn’t sure he reciprocated.
She should have never been so quick to trust him. Getting close to AJ had been against her better judgment, but she had allowed her heart to lead. She was definitely a fool when it came to men, and this was one man who was damn good at making her feel like the most special woman in the world.
She stepped on the gas pedal, a little too hard for what the conditions allowed, and the back end of the pickup fishtailed as she roared out of her parking spot and got onto the main ranch road.
She was tempted to keep going and roar out of this ranch and never look back, as she thought about the mine. There were too many questions for her to just ignore them, and she parked in front of the main office. She had to talk to Zoey.
She got out of the truck, and tapped on the door of the office. She was met with the sound of AJ’s voice. “Yeah, we’re here.”
His voice made her stomach clench and she was tempted to turn around, but she wasn’t one to run when things got tough.
She opened the door and made her way inside. Zoey was sitting behind her computer, typing away. She barely looked up as Amber came inside.
AJ’s face erupted into a wide, genuine smile, but as quickly as it showed up, it disappeared and was replaced by a deep look of pain. It hit her that they had no idea what had just happened in her life, and as angry and hurt as she was, she wanted to lash out and tell them everything.
She glanced at the laptop that was open next to her. On the screen was the picture of a little boy who looked similar to the picture she had seen of Charlie. She could tell that she had missed something in their search for the boy.
“What happened to him?” she asked, staring at the pained expression on AJ’s face.
As mad and confused by everything as she was, she couldn’t stop herself from worrying about him.
“Charlie is with the people who put out the bounty on us,” AJ said, his voice cracking. “They are going to kill him. They think Tammy reneged on her deal with them.”
The blood rushed from her face and her body turned cold. They couldn’t hurt the baby. Charlie was innocent. They had to get him to safety, now. “What was the deal?”
“That, we don’t quite know.” Zoey turned to face her. “I’m working on trying to dig up all of Tammy’s deleted messages to find out, but it’s possible I won’t be able to find them. The person she was talking to was using an app called TextZap. It is a spoofing app. Once things are gone, I’m thinking they are gone, unless I can hack into the provider’s network and pull up the last thirty days of information. Even then, we may not get what we need.”
“Have you tried texting the people back?”
Zoey grumbled, sounding annoyed. “I considered it, but only as a last resort.”
“Just do it.” Amber smiled as she felt some of her anger toward them dissipate. “Here, hand me the phone.”
Zoey disconnected the device from her computer and handed it over. “What are you going to say?”
“I’m going to ask them when and where they want to meet for the handoff.”
“Handoff of what?” AJ asked.
Amber shrugged. “I have no idea, but they clearly are waiting on something and they still think Tammy is alive. For the moment, we need to take advantage of their ignorance. At the very least, we have a chance to know where Charlie will be and when we can find him.”
“A lot of things can go wrong with that plan,” Zoey countered.
“Yeah,” Amber conceded, “but it’s better than inaction.”
AJ nodded. “Damn, do I know that. It’s gonna be a hell of a lot easier to pivot while moving than while rooted.”
Amber smiled over at him, thankful that he seemed on her side with this, though she hadn’t really expected him to be any other way—not when it came to Charlie. If they didn’t get their hands on Charlie, all they had been working for, all they had done and all the sacrifices they had made would be in vain.
If they got Charlie, at least she would have lost her job for a reason.
She tapped on the phone’s screen, sending off the text.
Her heart was pounding as she looked up at AJ and Zoey. “Now we wait.”
Zoey sighed, but Amber couldn’t decide if it was out of anger or just her being resigned to the fact that their moves were limited.
She put down the phone on the desk next to her.
Zoey took the phone and tapped on the screen, reading the text. She seemed satisfied by the simple words: I’m ready. Where and when?
They didn’t have to wait long. The phone buzzed with a reply: One hour.
A second text hit the phone—a GPS coordinate.
Though things were still in the air, and there was a chance everything could go wrong, they were a step closer to saving a life and Amber couldn’t help but feel a little excitement. However, it was met with resistance as she thought about what had just happened back at the cabin.
“Zoey,” she asked, not sure how she would breach the subject with them without actually letting what happened to her career slip.
“Yeah?” Zoey was punching in the GPS coordinates as they spoke.
“Does your family own the mineral rights to the ranch?” Amber asked, trying not to give it any sort of inflection that would raise an eyebrow.
It didn’t work.
As she glanced over at AJ, he was studying her. “Why would you ask that?”
She shrugged, thinking about the moment when he had made her promise that she wouldn’t keep any secrets from him. “I was just wondering.”
He looked perturbed, like he knew she was trying to avoid any kind of real answer, and she was forced to look away.
“Zoey?” she asked, hoping to relieve some of the pressure.
“I think we do, but I’d have to look.”
She nibbled at her bottom lip as she considered what to say. “I think you guys may have a problem. From what I’ve managed to learn in the last little bit, there is another company that owns the mining and mineral rights to the mine that sits partially under this ranch.”
“What?” Zoey stopped typing and looked up at her. “That’s not possible.”
“If you look up mining claims, we could figure it out in a matter of minutes. The mine was once called the J-Bar-P claim.” She walked over to Zoey’s computer as she turned to face the screen.
Zoey tapped away, pulling up mining claims and plat maps within a matter of minutes.
AJ stepped beside her, putting his hand on her shoulder. She loved the feeling of his touch, even if there were so many mixed emotions that came with being so close to him.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Zoey said, slapping the desk hard with her hand. “How did you find out?” She glared over at her. “How did they get away with this?” She jabbed a finger at the screen.
“Who owns it?” AJ asked, leaning in toward the screen trying to make sense of what Zoey was raging over.
“J-Bar-P is in a holding company, but there are direct ties—albeit, not legally binding ones—to the Fellini family.” Zoey spat out the name. “I knew they probably knew where we were located by now, but this is complete and utter nonsense.”
Zoey closed her eyes and ran her hands over her face. “We need to get off this ranch. If that mine belongs to the Fellinis, then we are in incredible danger.”