Lawson frowned. If there was one person he always expected to jump into a new mission feetfirst, it was Xavier.
“Yeah, I know we can,” Lawson replied. “Unless you’ve got your doubts.”
“It’s not doubts, exactly.” Xavier sighed. “It’s just…this guy sounds like seriously bad news and we have no idea how many men he’s got working for him. I don’t want to bring that kind of trouble here to the lodge. Again. We built this place as a safe haven for people who needed it. To help them recover and find their way after the hell they’d seen and been through. And this place has seen more danger than it ever should have over the last year. We’re still recovering from the last. And… Hannah. Now there’s something here I know I need to protect.”
Lawson grimaced. He should have expected this. Xavier and Hannah had fallen for each other hard and fast these last several months, and Xavier wasn’t the guy he had been when they had first started Warrior Peak and the tactical unit. He was more settled now, more focused on what was good for him, instead of what would give him a thrill in the moment.
“I don’t crave the excitement or need the adrenaline rush the way I used to,” he continued, gesturing down to the file in front of him. “Justice? For sure. But danger? I don’t know if I can handle that again. Or handle putting Hannah in the middle of that. I’m still dealing with what happened last time.”
“Agreed,” Cade echoed. “This really hit home for River. She’s been more unsettled since Kieran mentioned the missing women at dinner. She could have been one of those women. Ittook her a long time to feel safe again after all she went through and it’s brought a lot of that back up for her.”
Lawson could see why Cade would be particularly protective of her. A crazed cult leader had chased River hundreds of miles to kidnap her, planning on taking her home to marry him. Cade had actually picked her up hitchhiking on the side of the road on his way to the lodge a few years ago. So, yeah, he understood. Everyone there at the lodge had demons of some sort they dealt with and this would stir a lot of them up.
He got it on a more personal level, too. Because there was someone here he cared about, more than he could put into words. Hell, when she had asked him to elaborate earlier, he hadn’t been able to. He could still remember, all too clearly, the way she had looked at him, the pain in her eyes when he hadn’t been able to come out with what he needed to say.
He should have told her a little of what was going on. She’d asked if there was danger, and instead of ignoring her question, he should have offered something. Anything, so she’d understand that he was just concerned about her safety, that he wasn’t trying to kick her out or get rid of her for good. It was for protection…because he cared and he didn’t want her in the line of fire. Knowing what a man like Victor was capable of, if he got his hands on Sarah…
“I don’t get why the cops can’t handle this, anyway,” Cade remarked, interrupting his thoughts.
Lawson shook his head. “That’s the problem,” he explained. “When Lainey brought this to me, she said she took her findings to the higher-ups and they shut her down. Told her to drop it immediately. She thinks a few might be looking the other way deliberately or involved in some way. Shortly after that, she was targeted. Had to move her family to Florida and she came here for help. She’s determined to finish it and she can’t go home until she knows her family is safe and the threat is gone.”
“And she came to you because you worked together?” Cade asked.
“Because she knows she needs this dealt with by people outside law enforcement,” he replied, narrowing his eyes. “And by people who aren’t going to get tangled in red tape.”
“And you think we can trust her?” Xavier wondered aloud.
“I know we can,” Lawson said. “She needs our help. If she could have dealt with this on her own, she would have. But she can’t. And if this guy gets to her…” His gut clenched at the thought. He didn’t even want to let his mind go there.
Xavier rolled his shoulders back, nodding. “Then I guess we have to do something about it,” he said, his voice certain.
“And you agree with her assessment that this Granger guy and his sons are responsible for the women who’ve been going missing on the highway?” Cade asked.
“It makes sense from the information she collected on the guy. I would be shocked if that wasn’t mostly him,” Lawson replied. “All the more reason to get this under control. I don’t want him operating close to us, when we’ve got so many vulnerable people coming here. If he picked up someone who was looking to get to the lodge, I don’t think I would be able to forgive myself.” He shook his head, trying to eliminate the thought from his mind.
“So how exactly do we move forward with this, then?” Cade asked, flipping through the file on Granger once more.
“We need to get our hands on one of the guys working for him,” Xavier suggested. “The file said he had a bunch of guys stationed out along the road. They likely aren’t heavily armed or well-defended. It wouldn’t be too difficult to shake one of them loose, get them talking to us. I doubt they’re all that loyal to him.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Lawson warned. “This guy’s got his hands in everything. There’s probably no limit to what he’d doto keep his thugs loyal to him. Threaten families, hook them on drugs.”
Or maybe that was just what Lawson had to believe. Because if he was honest with himself, and admitted that there were people out there willing to do stuff like that without any good reason, it would have messed with his mind.
“Either way, we can’t afford to wait around. Aside from your friend being in danger, think of all the innocent women they’ve already grabbed or plan to. Our women here,” Aaron reminded them.
“We have to find his base of operations in the area, and we need at least one of Granger’s guys to give us a location. And we need to do it fast before another woman goes missing,” Cade confirmed.
The thought of it set Lawson’s teeth on edge. He knew they were right. He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that this had been going on in their backyard and he hadn’t known. It could have continued happening right under their noses and he would have had no clue.
Until it came to Warrior Peak. Until it hurt someone he cared about.
Until it came for Sarah.
He shifted in his seat, turning his attention back to what mattered here. They needed a tight plan, and the guys were right—they needed to act fast.
“Alright, let’s do this then. We also need to call Sheriff Willis and go over all this with him when we have an idea of how we’re going about it,” Lawson declared. “We know for a fact he’s on our side, and he’ll be aware of the disappearances since it’s outside Blue Ridge. We’ll need his help officially, if we manage to catch anyone.”
They went through the file again, running over every detail to make sure they were all on the same page. It was a lot to takein, Lawson knew that, and he didn’t want to risk anything by not making certain that the guys were clear on the task at hand.
