CHAPTER 43
Wyatt stepped awayfrom the table. He needed to think.
He walked to the edge of the floodlight’s reach and stood with his back to the staging area. Thunder remained at his side.
Wyatt looked up through the branches at the stars.
Lord, I need wisdom here.The prayer came out quiet and honest.Because I don’t know what the right next step is, and people’s lives depend on getting this right.
He exhaled slowly.
Whatdidhe know?
He knew the compound was rigged. That two officers were down—injured, not dead. But that could have gone differently by thirty feet.
He knew this group had moved everyone out in the last six hours, and they’d done a decent job covering their tracks. That also meant they were somewhere in these mountains right now with Mackenzie and Pete and whoever else had been there.
He knew this group was organized, armed, and willing to injure others without hesitation.
And he knew the clock was running.
His phone buzzed. It was Micah.
“Tell me what happened,” Micah said. “Galvez just got off the phone with my department.”
Wyatt gave him the short version. A tripwire in the woods. Two officers down, non-critical. Compound rigged and inaccessible until disposal arrived. No forensics tonight.
“I’ll update the FBI liaison,” Micah said. “They need to know the scope of what we’re dealing with out there.”
Wyatt ended the call.
As he did, he noticed the weather service alert that had come through while he’d been on the phone.
His stomach sank.
Another storm system was headed their way. It was forty-eight hours out, and fourteen to eighteen inches of snow was projected.
Wyatt shared the news about the storm with everyone around.
Graham shook his head, his gaze seeming heavier than before. “So we have a compound we can’t search until disposal clears it. Two missing civilians. An armed group that just demonstrated they’re willing to injure law enforcement without hesitation.” He paused. “And forty-eight hours before these mountains become completely impassable.”
No one answered that. There was nothing to answer.
Galvez looked at the glow in the distance, his jaw tight. “My people will hold the perimeter until disposal arrives. Nobody moves until the area is cleared. After that we reassess.”
Wyatt listened as more orders were barked out.
His gaze found Kori, and he studied her profile—the tight set of her jaw, the steadiness she maintained even now—and he thought about the forty-eight hours ahead of them.
They didn’t have nearly enough answers.
But they were getting closer. He could feel it in his bones.
He just prayed they weren’t too late.
