Page 84 of North

Selah heard North introduce himself to Knox as she headed to the RV, climbed into the passenger side, and picked up her phone.

She opened it. Pressed the power on.

The battery had almost died. But there were two bars of service. Huh. She needed to charge it. She opened up the console between the seats to dig out the charger Josephine had given her.

The canister, the one the size of a Stanley cup, sat snug at the bottom. She pulled it out.

Her heart thumped. What?

“What’s that?” North said, walking over to her.

She got out, slammed the door. Looked at North. “I don’t know. It was…I found it in my backpack at the B&B, and then it was gone, and I saw James—er, Alan—with it, putting it into the seat of the ATV. Or maybe not…I don’t know. But I think it might belong to him.”

“What’s in it?”

“I don’t know.” She took a look at the lock. “Let’s get something to pry it open.” She handed the canister to North.

“I have a knife,” said Knox, walking up and pulling out a switchblade. He handed it to North.

North took it, made to slip the knife between the seal and the cup⁠—

“Stop! For the love—stop! Stop!”

Scarlett ran up to them and nearly pushed North over, grabbing the canister out of his hands. She cradled it to herself, backing away, breathing hard. “Are you trying to kill us?”

* * *

Well, no. I wasn’t trying to kill anyone, thank you, so everyone just calm down.

At least, that’s what he wanted to say to Scary Scarlett, who’d morphed from a rather sweet asset on their team to, well, probably the former spec-ops support person she was.

Bossy.

From deep in his brain, however, the words Ham had spoken to him earlier found their way to the surface. He should have remembered the warning, the connection between the canisters and the train explosion.

So, thank you, Scarlett. Because, yes, maybe she’d saved all their lives as she set the canister down on a picnic table in the backyard.

He loved this place. Loved the smell of the grasses mixed with the scent of faraway cattle and the hay in the barn. And he even liked the silly baby goats. He loved the grandeur of the mountains in the distance and the expansiveness of the land. But also the sounds of the children laughing, and the sense of family and legacy.

This. This was what he wanted with Selah, and that had never been clearer to him than this morning when he’d walked in on her in the kitchen.

When he’d heard the tail end of the ladies’ conversation, starting with Selah’s admission: “It feels like a losing battle.”

But Mama G’s words had sunk inside. Only because you feel like it’s up to you to win it. It’s not. Your job is to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. That means you don’t get to decide the outcome. God does.

That was the connection between justice and mercy, maybe. The way a person like him could live in peace.

“Okay,” Scarlett said as RJ, Ford, Knox, Reuben, Hardwin, and Selah stood around the picnic table. “So as far as we can tell, the train was carrying canisters of obsidite. Like these. They were packed in suitcases, under guard, and when the train was attacked⁠—”

“Attacked?” Reuben said.

“I’ll catch you up,” Ford said. “Go on, Red.”

“When it derailed, the cases went flying. Some of them opened. When the Bratva⁠—”

“The Russian Bratva? As in the mob?” Knox said. “We’re back to that?”

North had no idea what he meant.