Page 47 of Night Moves
12
While waiting for his brothers to gather, Drake shoved a log into the woodstove in the corner of his shop, letting go of all the warm fuzzies from lunch. He stabbed the log with a sharp poker and stifled a yawn. He needed a nap. How he needed it.
He’d tried to rest, but he couldn’t sleep. Not when Gentry would be coming for Natalie. For his kids. Natalie should probably sleep more, too. Nap while the kids did. But she refused. Said she’d gotten enough rest. And he understood that. It was her life they were talking about here. She clearly had more to lose than he did. But the thought of losing her? Or these kids he got to know better over lunch being harmed? Man, that put a pain in his heart. A sharp one.
He adjusted the logs until the flames licked around them and closed the metal door with a smoky glass pane. When he’d bought this cabin, the workshop was more of a lean-to. He’d roped his dad and brothers into helping him turn it into a place where he could store and maintain his many outdoor toys. Fishing rods and reels, nets, lures, and skis hung on the walls. A kayak rested in the wood rafters above. He hunted from here too, but he stored his rifles in a climate controlled space at home and where no one could easily break in and steal expensive guns and scopes.
Sure, he was an adrenaline junkie, but a guy couldn’t be a thrill seeker twenty-four/seven. So his downtime was spent keeping his toys in mint shape, and he used this space for that too. Although he’d never used it as a meeting room before, there was a first time for everything.
He called Brendan on the iPad and set it on an old door propped on sawhorses so he could join in from his post at the road. “Everything still quiet out there.”
“Yes.” Brendan yawned.
“Hang tight until everyone gets here.” Drake turned to his brothers, Erik and Aiden, who entered the room and dropped into folding chairs. They grabbed a few of their mom’s chocolate chip cookies, which he and his brothers called crack cookies as they were highly addictive, and filled mugs with coffee from carafes. Leave it to his mom to bring insulated carafes so the coffee wouldn’t get cold. It was like her mom radar always had the right things ready to make their lives better.
Sadie and her siblings didn’t have the benefit of a caring mother right now. He thought back to holding her warm little body and the kiss she’d given him when he put her down for her nap. The Gentry kids didn’t have anything nearly as special as what he’d grown up with. He was fairly certain their mother was no longer alive. Now that he knew the kids a little better, it bothered him even more. Maybe it was also because they were under his roof, and he felt responsible for them.
Like he felt for Natalie.
Okay, fine, that was a totally different feeling, one he wasn’t going to think about too hard. No point. They were as incompatible as a cat and a mouse.
She took a seat nearest to him, sipping from one of his favorite mugs, the one with a fish-shaped handle. She’d freshened up but still wore the same suit and those heels that made her legs look a mile long. He and his brothers had all changed, and his dad had gone to the nearest clothing store to get something for Natalie to change into. Thinking about his father picking out unmentionables for her brought a smile to his lips.
“What’s so funny, bro?” Erik scratched Pong’s head.
“Nothing.” Drake grabbed a cookie.
“We gonna get started soon?” Erik leaned his chair back on the rear legs.
A risky move as far as Drake was concerned, as he’d gotten the ancient folding chairs at a church rummage sale and some of them were a bit rickety.
Clay drifted into the room, yawning and stretching. The moment he reached the table he filled a mug.
“Now that we’re all here let me bring you up to speed on Gentry’s house.” Drake stepped to the whiteboard and used a red marker to writeKirk Gentryand told them about the videos.
“Would’ve loved to see that,” Erik said. “I mean, I hate seeing IT being used to foil us, but gotta give the guy props for being creative and prepared.”
“The preparedness isn’t a surprise.” Clay scratched his cheek and sat. “He’s former military.”
“What branch?” Aiden asked, likely because he once served as a SEAL.
“Marines.” Clay took a long draw on his mug. “MARSOC Raider.”
Aiden let out a low whistle. “These guys are swift, silent, and deadly.”
“You ever run an op with them?” Drake asked.
Aiden shook his head. “But before I trained as a SEAL, my company worked a night op with them. We set up an ambush, and the Raiders moved down the heavily forested road. Finally our CO comes up the road and tells us to stand down. The Raiders had gone past us fifteen minutes before that, and we never heard them. Not a sound. Impressive.”
“Yeah, they’re top-notch,” Brendan said. He was a former Delta Force operator and would know too. “If he was a Raider, he’ll be hard to stop, and I don’t feel so bad about his eluding us at the house.”
Natalie clutched her hands on the table.
“Not impossible to stop, though.” Drake firmed his stance. He didn’t like even the hint that they might think this guy could best them and get to Natalie. Or even his kids. Though Drake doubted Gentry would kill them, they wouldn’t have any kind of a life on the run with a serial killer. “There are five of us and one of him.”
“Six,” Natalie said. “Though my role will obviously be limited. But I know people and can read them well. That’s a valuable skill in finding someone like Kirk.”
Drake gave her a tight smile. “Tell us more about the guy before we get started on what we’ve learned.”
