The car whirred to life, and I shit you not, it felt like I was entering into the Twilight Zone with the amount of lights and gadgets that filled the space around me.
The drive home was pleasant—I felt like it was kind of hard not to be pleasant seeing as I was in a brand-new car that cost more than most people’s first homes.
“Whoa,” I said as it came to a gliding stop in my driveway. “So smooth.”
Turning the car off, I rounded the corner of my house and stared in dread at the huge back porch.
“Should’ve put a box down or something already,” I grumbled as I walked closer.
I had to take everything off to set on the porch before I was able to heft my ass onto it.
Pulling out my key, I pushed it into the lock and opened it up, taking my usual hard look around to make sure nothing was stolen, or no one was hanging out that shouldn’t be.
Appearing empty, I did a walkthrough just in case, then stripped out of my work clothes and into my comfiest pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.
My next stop was the kitchen as I contemplated a box of ramen and an old container of chicken fried rice.
I’d just put the box of ramen back into the cabinet when a knock sounded at my door.
It only took one look through the sheer curtains of the front door to know exactly who it was.
Seventeen
I might be laid back, but I can lean forward real quick.
—T-shirt
Creed
“You out of here for the day?” Major asked.
“Not quite,” I said. “I have to stop by the hiking trail off Gunnery. I’m going to put some eyes on the ridge to get a lay of the land.”
We’d decided to put up some cameras along some of the most popular trails that led to the popular hunting spots in hopes of finding who was out there single-handedly destroying our moose population. I wanted to make sure that the cameras were still working, since I wasn’t getting any feedback from a few of them.
“Call in your location when you get there,” he ordered.
I gave him a chin lift and headed out, my mind once again on Birdee, and what I was going to do once I got done at the trails.
So lost in thought, I arrived at the trailhead with zero memory of taking any of the turns that would lead me there.
After rubbing my eyes furiously for a few seconds, I got out and shouldered on my jacket. I caught my rifle from the spot between the passenger seat and the console before slinging it over my shoulder. My bear spray came next, and I started heading down the trail, keeping my eyes on my surroundings.
When I got to the coordinates of where we placed the camera, I called in my location, then took a look around.
The camera was gone, as were any signs of it ever being there.
I called that in, too.
The second camera was gone, too, letting me know that this was probably the right place for the cameras. We just needed to put them in a place where they wouldn’t be seen…or stolen.
I called Major on my way back to my truck using my satellite phone.
“Both of them are gone?” he asked.
“Gone.” I narrowed my eyes at my truck. “Shit.”
“What?”
