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After Dillion disappeared, Hawke returned to the lodge. Tuck was sleeping on the couch in the great room. Sage and Kitree were cooking breakfast. Dani was in her office.
He and Dog entered Dani’s office and closed the door.
Her eyebrows shot up at the closed door, but she spun her desk chair to face him. “What’s up?”
“I’m sure they will be back tonight. The one I had tied up in the cabin is gone. Someone let her loose.” He raised a hand when she opened her mouth. “We’ll all stay in the lodge. In the great room. As soon as it’s dark, the other officers on this detail will move into the other buildings. I told them to get in close. I’m sure they are going to come for the girl. They can’t afford to have her in our hands much longer for fear we discover whatever it is they are after.” He wasn’t telling anyone he’d discovered what they were after.
Dani studied him. “You know what it is.”
He shook his head.
“Sorry. I’ve dealt with a lot of slackers and I can tell when someone lies. But I’ll not pry. What do I need to do tonight?”
“Before we go to bed, you need to keep Kitree away from the windows and doors. Anywhere that it would be easy for someone or several to surprise us and swoop in and grab her.”
Dani looked around the office. “I’d say this is the best spot. No windows, a door I can lock, and even push the desk up against if need be.” She pulled out a drawer. A Beretta M9 lay on top of papers. “I have my sidearm within reach.”
He nodded and grasped the door knob to leave.
“Why did you lie to your mother?”
He released a huge lung full of air. “I didn’t lie. White lies when it comes to family, in this business, help relieve the stress for them and for us. With her thinking I wasn’t in as much danger as a Fish and Wildlife officer as I was when being a full-time trooper, it eased my mind she wasn’t worrying as much.” He shrugged. “I just wanted to give her peace of mind.”
“That’s nice, but she is a big girl. Women are stronger than you men give us credit for. And I’m pretty sure she knows you’re a good cop. Good cops get hurt less in the line of duty than a sloppy one.” She smiled.
It wasn’t the first time he’d noticed how when she genuinely smiled her face had a softer, almost sexy quality to it.
Mental slap. He didn’t need to go there. Not that long ago he was telling the females at this lodge why he didn’t want or need a woman in his life.
“Thanks,” he pushed out of his clogged throat and strode into the great room.
“I was looking for you.” Kitree launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
What was wrong with the females here? He pried her arms off his waist. “Why?” His irritation came through.
Her eyes narrowed and her lips puckered into a sour expression. “You don’t have to be so mean.”
“Sorry. You took me by surprise.” He wasn’t going to tell her, he didn’t like being undercut by the opposite sex.
“We made pizza. All the way from the crust to the cheese on top.”
The amazement in her voice drew his attention. It was apparent she didn’t know how pizza was made. Had only eaten it.
“Are you enjoying helping Sage in the kitchen?” he asked.
“Yes.” She spun around and walked over to the fireplace. “I like this place. I hope everything works.”
He liked seeing her here. Even though Dani had worked hard to make this more than a hunting lodge, the child’s presence would give the place more of a resort feel.
“It will. But tonight, you have to do everything Dani asks you to do.” He crouched in front of her. “Kitree, I’m pretty sure the man who killed your parents will come for you tonight. You don’t need to worry, but you need to do as you’re told.”
She nodded. “You’ll arrest him?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Good.”
«»«»«»
Dinner was over. Hawke, Tuck, and Tyson were all keeping their eyes on the doors and windows of the lodge. The birds had stopped singing about thirty minutes after they’d taken their spots. It was either the deputies and troopers moving in or the person after Kitree.
Hawke sat in front of the big window, looking out at the other buildings. Tuck was in one of the bedrooms keeping watch out a window and Tyson was in the dining room watching the smaller out buildings. Dani, Sage, and Kitree had all disappeared into Dani’s office shortly after dinner. Once they had all left, Hawk turned down the lanterns in the great room to see outside better and so no one outside could see in. He didn’t want them completely off, if someone entered and they needed light, it would be easy to turn the lanterns up.
He believed the law enforcement officers that were on their side had stationed themselves in all of the outbuildings. Now they just had to wait and see how Dolan and the killer approached the lodge.
The clock on the mantle ticked the seconds in a slow monotonous tone. He would have rather been sitting outside, listening to the forest sounds of the night. They had their own cadence. There was nothing monotonous about the sounds.
A shadow moved over by the helicopter. Hawke hoped someone was keeping an eye on the aircraft. He didn’t want Dani to go out and find her plane and helicopter had been vandalized.
He kept an eye on the shadow as it crept towards the barn. The person slipped through the barn door. He hoped whoever was waiting in the barn captured the intruder and kept them silent.
Hawke stood and walked to another window for a different view of the area. He saw two more people walk out of the trees from a different direction.
One headed to the bunkhouse and one to the cabins. Maybe these were the deputies and troopers heading to the buildings. But he’d thought they had entered the buildings earlier.
Unsavory thoughts banged around inside his head. What if the first people he’d seen were actually the suspects and not the law enforcement officers? If that were the case the deputies and state troopers’ lives were in peril.
Pacing back and forth, glancing out the window every other step, he chastised himself for getting so many people involved in a scheme that was highly irregular. He’d been confident it would work, but hadn’t counted on the FBI having an informant in their midst who wanted the disk at any cost. Who were they working against? A group of terrorists or their own government?
If this didn’t work, Kitree could lose her life, they all could be dead by morning. And if he lived, he would never work in law enforcement again.
A noise on the porch caught his attention. He slipped up to the side of the window and peered out.
Dolan.
The FBI agent had something that looked like a tear gas launcher in her hands.
Damn!
He hadn’t expected them to try to flush them out with tear gas. There wasn’t a window in the office for the three hiding there to get out or to get fresh air. Maybe...just maybe...
Hawke hurried down the hallway and knocked quietly on the door. “Dani. Cover all the cracks around the door and put the desk up against it. They may be using tear gas to get in. Stay there until I tell you to come out.”
Hawke didn’t wait to see if she’d heard. There was only one way to stop the FBI agent before she could shoot the canister into the house. He hurried back into the great room and threw the front door open, startling the agent. He grasped the tear gas launcher out of her hands at the same time he landed a kick to her stomach, knocking her backwards.
He tossed the gun into the lodge and grasped the women by the arm, dragging her in before slamming the door shut with his foot.
“Tuck! Tuck, get out here!” Hawke grappled with the fighting woman. She knew about his injury. Her fist or head connected with his sore shoulder as much as she could, but he refused to let her go.
The wrangler burst out of the back bedroom. “What’s going on?” His gaze landed on Hawke and the struggling woman. He raised his rifle. “Stop moving or I’ll put a bullet in your leg.” His voice sounded more menacing than Hawke had ever heard him.
Dolan stopped fighting. Hawke grasped both her hands behind her back. “She was going to shoot tear gas in here.”
Hawke nodded to the launcher on the floor. “Over there. Grab it and get it away from the window.” Hawke was glad he’d picked up the handcuffs the agent had left behind when she got loose in the cabin. He pulled them out of his pocket and quickly had her cuffed and immobile, sitting in a chair.
“Find something I can tie her feet with.”
Tuck arrived at his side with cording from the blinds. Both ends had been cut. Hawke cursed in his head. Dani would get him for this.
He tied the agent’s feet to the legs of the chair she sat in.
“You think you’re so smart. All you had to do was turn over the girl and you wouldn’t have had to go through all of this,” Dolan said.
“Why do you want the little girl so bad? She knows nothing.”
Dolan sneered. “She knows everything.”
Hawke shook his head. “I don’t know who you’ve been talking to. She knows nothing. She’s innocent. Whoever you’re working for is a monster to kill her parents and now to kill her. He knows more than you even know.”
She laughed. “You don’t know who I’m working for.”
Hawke decided it was time to give her a piece of his knowledge. “You belong to the Taliban.”
Her jaw dropped down, and her eyes widened as she stared at him.
“Yes. I’ve seen what you’re looking for.”
He knew he’d just made himself the new target. But he might have given Kitree a chance to stay alive.
“What are we going to do with her?” Tuck asked.
“Shove something in her mouth, so she can’t give us away. Then get ready for all hell to break loose.”
Tuck found a box of tissues and pulled out a handful, shoving them in Dolan’s mouth.
“Go tell Tyson to keep an eye out. I have a feeling even though the tear gas didn’t work, they’ll still storm the place.
Tuck nodded and walked into the dining room.
Hawke decided to try a little interrogation with the woman. “Were your people in the out buildings before the law enforcement showed up?”
She couldn’t answer with the gag in her mouth.
Words could be held back, but physical reactions were harder to control.
Her eyes narrowed. He was pretty sure that meant she hadn’t known there were lawmen in the buildings. This was a relief. It meant there were probably only the killer and a couple others to try the lodge. That gave them a better chance.
Tuck returned. “Tyson said he saw a shadow moving between the outhouse and shower house.”
Hawke nodded. “They’re probably getting ready to get the girl.”
He didn’t take his gaze off Dolan. She looked pretty smug. Which didn’t set well in his gut. What did she know that he didn’t?
Tear gas hadn’t worked. What did they have for plan B?
“Do you want me to go back in the bedroom?” Tuck asked.
“No, just open the doors. That way we’ll know if someone comes through a window.” Hawke noticed the women’s eyebrow raise a tad at the mention of the back windows.
“Why don’t you set a chair over there along the wall and whoever walks through those doors, blast them.”
Tuck grinned. He opened the doors and positioned a chair in the corner by the fireplace and took a seat. “This will be like shooting coyotes.”