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Hawke noticed the stone fireplace pretty much hid Tuck where he sat in the corner watching the bedroom doors. What if he made it look like there was no one in the great room but Dolan all trussed up?
“Stay tucked in that corner,” he said to the wrangler and walked over to turn the lantern light up brighter. “If she tries anything, shoot her,” Hawke added and ducked into the shadow of the hallway. He’d catch anyone who came through the back door or the front door.
Hawke leaned his back against the hall wall and listened. Tyson was moving around in the dining room. He hoped the young man hadn’t decided to make a sandwich and left his post.
The thought had barely died from his mind and the door to the dining room burst open. Tyson struggled with an arm that was around his throat and the large body behind him making him move forward.
One look and Hawke froze in the shadowed hall. It was the man who’d shot him, and they were pretty sure had killed the Poulsons.
The man pushed Tyson into the great room. “Where’s the girl?” he asked in a heavily accented voice.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tuck said from the corner of the room. His voice was hard and not a waver in it. The man had to be tough to have ridden broncs, but standing up to a terrorist took a whole different set of balls.
When he figured the intruder had to be far enough into the room he could come up behind him, Hawke crept up the hall and peeked around the corner.
The man was just reaching out with his gun hand to take the tissue from Dolan’s mouth.
Hawke rushed in, smashing the butt of his shotgun down on the man’s head. The intruder crumpled at Hawke’s feet and Tyson fell forward onto Dolan.
Hawke grabbed Tyson. “Go get some handcuffs from one of the other officers outside.” He glanced at Tuck. “Get me more cording.” He didn’t care if he had to buy Dani all new drapes, this man was going to be trussed up like a tom turkey on Thanksgiving.
Tyson ran out the front door.
Tuck arrived with cording and his rifle aimed at the man’s back. Hawke pulled the hands behind the man and quickly tied them tight. Then he pulled the man’s legs together and tied them tight. He didn’t want this person getting loose.
Tyson and Sullens burst through the door. Sullens handed his handcuffs to Hawke. He also put those on the unconscious man not taking off the cording.
“What did you do to him?” Sullens asked.
“Hit him with the butt of my shotgun. Did you get the others?” Hawke stood and glanced at the door.
“We caught everyone who tried to hide in buildings and caught one syphoning fuel from the helicopter.” Sullens glanced around. “Where are the women and the girl?”
“I’ll get them if you’re sure we have them all.”
“I believe we do, I can’t be sure, since we don’t know who all was involved.” Sullens’ gaze landed on Dolan. “Isn’t that the FBI—”
“She’s a terrorist who infiltrated the FBI.” Hawke smiled as the woman glared at him.
“Does that other agent, McKinney, know about her?”
“I doubt it. Let’s radio that we have suspects to transport out of here.” Hawke glanced at Tuck. “Keep that gun on him. When he comes to, he’s going to be one angry son-of-a-bitch.”
“If he tries to cause trouble, I’ll put a bullet in him, one limb at a time.” Tuck grinned.
“Where do you get your help?” Sullens asked as Hawke led him down the hallway to the office.
“Rural America.” Hawke knocked on the door. “Dani, it’s Hawke. All’s clear. We need to use the radio.”
Scraping noises on the other side of the door and some feminine grunts ensued. Several minutes later the door opened.
Sage looked shell-shocked but Dani and Kitree’s eyes questioned him.
“We think we have them all. No one but the bad guys were hurt,” he said, to Sage.
She released a huge sigh.
“We need to radio for a copter to take at least the two ringleaders out of here. The rest can be trailed down on horseback.” Hawke stepped aside, to allow the two women and the girl to step out of the room.
“Should we go into the living room?” Dani asked.
“Why don’t you three hang out in the dining room until we get the two that are in the great room moved out of the lodge.” Hawke didn’t want the man or Kitree to see one another. He wasn’t sure what the man would do and didn’t want the child scared.
Dani nodded and put an arm around Kitree. He watched as they turned at the end of the hall, going straight into the dining room.
Hawke entered the office to contact dispatch. “How many did you capture outside?”
“Four.”
He nodded. “Dispatch, patch me through to State Police, Lt. Titus.”
The radio crackled and after a minute the lieutenant came on. “Titus.”
“This is Hawke. We have six suspects to transport. Two should be helicoptered out of here. You’ll want to question them right away and keep a close eye on them.”
“Is one the killer?”
“I believe so. If not, he is the one who shot me.” They could get the man for assaulting an officer.
“Hold them overnight. I’ll send a copter there first thing in the morning for the two. Have the officers up there bring the other four out on horseback.”
“Copy.” Hawke signed off and turned to Sullens. “I think the best thing to do would be to put them all in the barn with guards for the night.”
“I agree.” Sullens stepped out into the hall. “I’ll help you move the two in the lodge.”
They walked into the great room and found the man had regained consciousness. As Hawke had figured, his dark eyes spit hatred and his face was screwed in an angry scowl.
“We’re moving them to the barn with the others,” Hawke said and drew his knife out of his boot to cut the cording holding Dolan to the chair. Her eyes glowed with as much wrath as the man.
Tuck and Sullens stepped to either side of the man. Hawke reached down to cut the man’s legs so he could walk and had second thoughts. If he were an ex-special ops soldier he would be deadly with just his feet.
“Grab him under the arms and drag him. I don’t trust him to not try something if I untie his feet.”
Tuck and the trooper grabbed the suspect and dragged him out of the lodge. The man’s dark eyes narrowed on Hawke.
Dolan stood. Hawke grabbed her handcuffed hands behind her and moved her out of the building ahead of him. They may have caught this group of people looking for the disk in his boot, but until he got it into the government’s hands, he would be the target of who knew how many other groups who had spies on the list. The woman pushing against him knew he had seen the list and knew he probably had it.
At the barn, he found all the captured suspects sitting on the floor along a wall. He shoved Dolan over to a pole and sat her down with her back to the others. He didn’t need her giving any kind of eye blinking morse code to the deadliest man of the group.
Sullens was talking to a deputy.
Hawke walked over. “Keep them gagged. We don’t need them talking to one another.”
The others nodded.
“And keep the woman away from the men, don’t take her gag out, and don’t let her make eye contact.” He peered into Sullens, and then, the deputy’s eyes.
“I’ll talk to whoever comes for them in the morning.” Hawke walked out of the barn.
The door closed behind him.
Tuck stood by the corral, petting a horse that stood next to the railing.
“You did a good job in there,” Hawke said, stopping by the man.
“It seemed like a joke until that man burst out of the dining room with his arm around Tyson. That boy’s face was turning blue. That man...” Tuck swallowed loudly. “He would have killed us all given the chance.”
“He’s a paid killer. Nothing will keep him from getting what he is paid to get or who he is paid to kill.” Hawke slapped him on the back. “Let’s go. Hold Sage tight tonight. You never know when that could be taken away from you.”
“No shit.” Tuck fell in step beside him.
In the lodge the women had made hot chocolate and set out cookies. It seemed tame to sip cocoa and nibble on cookies after what they’d gone through. He would have preferred a shot of whiskey. He doubted Dani kept liquor in the lodge. Booze and hunters or families with children didn’t mix well.
“Is Kitree safe now?” Sage asked.
The child’s gaze landed on him. Hope sparked in her blue eyes.
“I’d like to say yes, but until the right people get their hands on what these people were after, I have to say I don’t know.” Hawke put a hand on Kitree’s shoulder. “You should be safe in the next couple of days. Until then, we’ll have to keep smothering you.”
She stood and hugged him around the neck. “I’m glad you aren’t hurt.”
He wasn’t going to tell her his shoulder throbbed from the beating Dolan had given it. He’d pushed that aside to make sure they caught the biggest threat. “I’m glad no one from the lodge was seriously hurt.” He glanced across the table at Tyson. Bruising had started to appear on the young wrangler’s neck.
“How did that guy get in?” Hawke asked.
Tyson’s face turned a deep crimson. “I got hungry and went in the kitchen to get something to eat. I came back out and saw him coming through the window. Before I could get to my rifle by the window, he had me in a headlock.”
Hawke had a feeling the young man was having second thoughts about becoming a game warden from the way he rubbed his neck.
“I suggest we all sleep in the lodge tonight. Safer in numbers.” A glance around the table proved no one objected to this.
“Kitree can sleep with me so you have a bed,” Dani said.
Hawke shook his head. “I’ll be on the couch in the great room.” He smiled at Kitree. “I’m not taking any chances that we missed someone.”
“Then I insist you nail the window to the sill in her bedroom. That way if anyone tries to enter, you’ll hear breaking glass,” Dani said, rising and heading into the kitchen.
Hawke stared after the woman. “I think she doesn’t trust that we rounded up everyone.”
Kitree giggled. “She said a lot of things while we were in the office listening.”
“She did? What kind of things?” He grinned at the child as if they had a secret.
Dani walked back in, and Kitree put a finger to her lips.
“Here is a hammer and nails.” Dani handed the tool over to him.
Hawke scooted his chair back. Tuck followed him into the bedroom closest to the hallway.
“How do you put up with her bossy nature?” Hawke asked.
“Just like I’ve learned over the years. Say ‘yes, Ma’am’,’ no Ma’am’ and do what you’re told.” Tuck grinned and Hawke laughed.
“That is true.” He put two nails through the window frame and into the side of the window casing. It was a good idea and one he probably would have come up with about daylight. Speaking of which.
“Have Sage get Kitree to bed. We only have a few more hours and it will be daylight and the helicopter should be landing to take the two away.”
Tuck hurried out of the room.
Hawke sauntered through the great room and on into the kitchen when he didn’t find Dani in the dining room. She was washing out the mugs they’d had their hot chocolate in.
“Sorry I brought more problems to your lodge,” he said, picking up a towel to dry the dishes.
“I’m not. Kitree needs someone. Sage and Tuck are good people.” She turned from the pan of sudsy water. “You’re good people.”
He stared into her eyes, trying to figure out if she was making a pass at him. “I have my good and my bad days.” Dropping his gaze, he picked up another cup. This woman did things to his brain and body that hadn’t happened in years. However, now wasn’t the time to forget he was guarding a child.
His job was his life.