Chapter eight
Noah
I walked over to the window for what had to be about the hundredth time. Jackson had assured me that the men couldn’t get out of the woodshed, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that they would find some way out and come after us. I looked out, but the door was shut, the padlock still in place.
“How much longer will it be before they get here?” I asked as Jackson stepped up beside me.
“They won’t be long now.”
I let out a sigh. “I still can’t believe they found us.”
“Whoever this guy is, he has a lot of resources at his disposal, but so does Three Bears Tactical. We won’t stop until you’re safe, Noah.”
I gave him a smile and then looked back out the window. I knew he meant what he said, but I wasn’t as sure as Jackson was. Not that I didn’t believe they would try their best, but if this guy was as rich and powerful as Wolfe said, I wasn’t sure I would ever be safe.
A little bit later, I went back over to the kettle to refill my cup when Jackson announced that his proximity alarm had alerted him that someone was there.
“Is it them?” I asked.
Jackson went to the front window and looked out. “Yeah, it’s them.”
Hawk came through the door first, Gator right behind him. They both swept the cabin in one look, the way I’d noticed all the Three Bears guys did when they entered a room. They cataloged everything before their eyes landed on Jackson.
“Everyone good?” Hawk asked.
“We’re good.” Jackson nodded toward the back of the property. “Two hostiles secured in the woodshed around the side. One with a GSW to the shoulder, the other has a headache he’ll be feeling for the better part of a week. We need to know who they were working for, so you guys will have to question them. ThenI’m sure Wolfe will want Chance to send someone to collect them.”
Gator’s gaze moved past Jackson and found me at the counter. Something shifted in his expression. “Julius is going to be glad to see you,” he said.
“I’ll be glad to see him, too. I miss him and that crazy bird of his.”
Hawk’s hand landed on Jackson’s shoulder. “We can take it from here. We came to bring him back to HQ, and you get back to your vacation.”
“No,” Jackson said.
Hawk blinked. “No?”
“I’ll take him.” Jackson’s voice was even. “You brought the armored SUV?”
“Yeah,” Gator said slowly. He was watching Jackson the way you watch someone when you’re working something out. “It’s out front.”
“Good. I’ll take Noah in that.” He paused. “You can take Blackbird back.”
Silence.
I looked between the three of them, not entirely sure what I was seeing. Gator turned to Hawk with a grin already forming. “Did he just say we could drive his car?”
Hawk pressed his lips together like he was physically containing a reaction. “I believe he did.”
“I’d like the record to show,” Gator said, turning back to Jackson, “that the last time I asked to borrow Blackbird, you told me you’d sooner run the camp’s obstacle course in your bare feet on a hot summer day.”
“And before that,” Hawk added, “I believe the phraseover my cold dead bodywas used.”
Jackson held out his keys, but neither of them moved. They just looked at him, and then they looked at me, and I understood all at once that I was the reason neither of them was surprised. They weren’t teasing him about the car. They were really teasing him about me. My face went warm.
“For the record,” Hawk said, taking the keys slowly, “she’ll be treated like she’s made of glass.”
“She’d better be,” Jackson said.
