But he walked away from it, having bought the story that the mud, damage, and bumper stickers told.
Amelia was right. It could have been hikers. It could have been cops. Could have been forest rangers or a game warden. It could have been someone who was hiding from the law like me. It could have been men sent by Valentine.
We were miles from the nearest hiking trail. Whoever it was, they were either lost or looking.
I closed my eyes and listened.
Two sets of footsteps.
Murmured conversation I couldn’t quite make out.
Someone tried to slide open the dust-laden windows. Little did they know, the windows didn’t actually open. And they were bulletproof.
I just hoped they didn’t try to smash one. It’d be a dead giveaway that this place was more fortified than it looked.
More mumbled conversation. More crunching footsteps disappearing into the distance. Then nothing.
I pinched the bridge of my nose as every colorful profanity I could conjure up whipped through my mind.
How the hell had anyone made it out here? There was one safe way up this part of the mountain. The rest was rivers, gorges, and steep rock faces that would best even the most experienced climbers.
There were a million places up and down the coast for Valentine’s men to look for me before they caught wind that Iwas out this way. Sure, there was the possibility that it wasn’t his guys. There were plenty of off-gridders who didn’t like outsiders encroaching on their territory. Maybe there were bootleggers running stills who hadn’t heard the news that prohibition ended ages ago.
But what if it was someone sent by Valentine? What if he knew more about me than I’d told anyone in the organization?
I couldn’t deny the possibility that I hadn’t been as covert as I thought I was.
Logically, I knew Amelia was safe in the cellar, so I grabbed my burner phone from where I’d stashed it in the kitchen, turned it on, and called Cole.
“Crowder,” he said by way of answering.
“We have a problem.”
“Hello to you too,” he groused. “Your little finance bro is the problem. He’s an entitled little shit.”
“We’re not alone out here.”
That made Cole go silent. “Cops, Feds, or the family?”
“Not sure. I’m going with the family. Could just be hikers, though.”
“Sure it’s not the Feds?”
I was exceptionally fucked if it was the Feds. I wasn’t ready to deal with that piece of the puzzle yet. Proactively relocating Amelia had broken the cardinal rule of “don’t commit crimes while committing crimes.”
“Can’t rule it out, but I don’t think they’d be looking for me here,” I said. “Not yet.”
“What do you need?”
“Can you get me an intel package?”
Cole chuckled. “We’re not in the sandbox anymore. Unless you want to go to your local library and risk getting made, I can’t get you shit.”
“What about a dead drop?”
Cole hissed through his teeth. “I can make it happen, but it’ll take a couple days. You’re not exactly easy to get to.”
“I need an exit package.”
