After ten minutes of brisk walking, he willed her to slow down a little. The need to stay out of sight made it hard to keep pace with her. Not to mention how quickly his strength was waning. Breathing heavily, he stopped to lean against a huge oak tree and catch his breath.
Just ahead of him, he heard Keri yell. He watched as three men dressed in camouflage uniforms surrounded her. They carried semi-automatic assault rifles and wore full combat gear.
“What the hell?” he heard her exclaim as she looked from one to the other.
Nick tried to quickly formulate a rescue plan as a fourth man stepped into the circle. He greeted her in a warm, friendly tone and gestured for the others to lower their guns.
“Hey, Keri, what’s up?”
As Nick watched, her body relaxed. He didn’t realize he’d stopped breathing until a quick intake of air burned his lungs. The newcomer gave a nod of his head and the others faded back into the woods with professional stealth. Good, but not good.
“Russ? What in the world is going on? They scared ten years off my life.” Her voice rose in indignation. “Who are those men and why are they carrying assault rifles? Nobody hunts game with assault rifles.”
“Nothing to worry your pretty head about,” the other man assured her. “They’re not out to hurt anyone.”
Nick didn’t like the guy’s condescending tone, and he didn’t suppose Keri tolerated it any better.
“Then what?” The snap in her voice carried on the clear morning air, making his lips curve in a smile.
“Just some militia training maneuvers. We do ’em all the time, but we don’t usually come across nobody back here.”
“I thought your militia group had all local guys. I didn’t recognize any of those men.”
Nick flinched as she challenged Russ Carson. He’d met the militia leader in town and thought him a little unstable. He wished she’d be more cautious.
“Jed Coiner’s family is local. The rest are from surrounding counties.”
“Well, you can tell every one of them they’re trespassing and to keep their maneuvers off my dad’s property. I don’t like having guns pointed at me.”
“Don’t be too quick to dismiss ’em, hon,” he said, reaching out to pat her arm. “You might welcome their protection one of these days.”
Keri snorted derisively. “Well, not today or anytime soon. I keep telling the whole world, I’M ON VACATION!”
“I know, I know,” the other man placated. “But what in the world are you doin’ out here in the morning chill? It’s not a good time for a nature walk.”
“I’m headed down to the little orchard for apples. You know the one, near the stream.”
Nick saw the soldier boy glance to his right. “I remember. You figurin’ on baking a pie?”
“Yes.”
“I truly love your apple pie.”
The commando warrior sounded enamored of more than Keri’s pastries. Nick felt a stab of jealousy and quickly squelched it. He’d never been the jealous type, and he sure didn’t need any new issues to deal with right now.
“The storm mighta froze the fruit or blew it half way to Kentuck.”
Keri turned back to her original path. “I’m hoping to get a bag or two before it spoils. The apples should still be cold this morning but if the afternoon sun warms them too much, they’ll all rot.”
“I’ll be glad to help,” said Carson as he fell into step with her. “You suppose it’ll earn me a piece or two of warm apple pie?”
Nick didn’t hear Keri’s reply. The pair moved out of earshot and then out of his sight. He didn’t follow. His feet had frozen and his shoulder throbbed. He’d pushed his body enough for one day.
He remembered Don describing Carson as a longtime friend of the Merritt family. She’d be safe, at least for now, and he needed to get back to the cabin before those troops started maneuvers again.
Local militia, my ass,
he thought. More like mercenaries.
Was it possible he’d landed right in the middle of the operation he’d been sent to investigate? Carson might be a gung-ho country boy, but there had to be more going on in these woods. What better place to develop a covert camp than in the sheriff’s backyard? As Keri insisted, not much got by the good sheriff. So how could terrorist activities escape his notice?
Nick arrived at the cabin and back to square one with his investigation. Was the sheriff involved up to his eyeballs or helpless to do anything with his suspicions?
He’d run into a lot of racist attitudes since coming to Tennessee. Even in the big city, he’d met dedicated officers with supremacist mentalities. There were plenty who thought they knew all the answers when it came to protecting America from outsiders and unpopular government policy.
According to local gossip, Keri hadn’t been back to the cabin since her mother died. What about her dad and brother? Russ Carson called himself the leader, but he didn’t have the brains or money to organize an operation spanning several states. Were the Merritts the masterminds of a home-grown terrorist organization? If so, he had to figure out their agenda before anyone got hurt.
When Nick got back to the cabin, he cleaned up all traces of his occupancy. He didn’t know if soldier boy would come back with Keri, but he didn’t want to put her at any more risk. You never knew what to expect from extremists and Russ Carson sounded like one when it came to his militia. He might have a soft spot for Ms. Merritt, but who knew what he’d do if he considered her a traitor?
When Keri returned to the cabin, its warmth enveloped her. Despite the bright sunshine, the temperature hadn’t risen much and she’d gotten chilled to the bone. Kicking off her boots on the back porch, she shrugged out of her jacket and carried the bags of apples into the kitchen.
The absolute quiet gave her a minute of panic. Glancing around, she looked for signs of Lamanto but found none. She took a quick walk through the cabin without seeing a hint of his having spent time there. Had he broken his promise as soon as she’d left him alone? Had he taken off with her car?
Moving to the front room window, she pulled back the curtain and looked outside. Her SUV sat right where she’d left it. Surely he wouldn’t have left on foot.
“Lamanto?” she called loudly.
“Right here,” he said as he came through the bedroom doorway. “I hid in the shower in case your boyfriend insisted on coming back with you.”
Relief washed through Keri. Silly of her to care, but she did. They’d made a pact. She’d honored it, and she wanted him to honor it too.
Giving him a slight smile, she said, “He’s not my boyfriend. He offered to carry the apples but got a radio message calling him back to camp.”
“Did you happen to get a look at the camp?”
She turned and headed to the kitchen, wondering how much she should tell him. She didn’t really know what was happening on the neighboring property. Calling it alarming would be a major understatement.
“Don’t bother sugarcoating the details,” he said as he followed her. “I saw those troops he called local militia. They aren’t poorly organized, poorly financed, weekend warriors.”
She glanced toward the window and knew he couldn’t have seen the encounter. Not even with binoculars.
“You followed me?”
“I had your back, that’s all.”
Propping her hands on her hips, she glared at him. “You had my back?” She shot a glance from his head to his toes. “With a bum shoulder and bare feet? What were you thinking? Are you totally lacking in common sense?”
Instead of taking offense, he gave her a grin. “Not totally. I put on shoes and took a gun. I thought I might have to shoot a bear, but I didn’t expect you to run into heavily armed mercenaries.”
Her frown deepened. She dropped her hands to her sides. “You really think they’re mercenaries?”
“I don’t know what they are. I know what they aren’t and that’s good-ole-boys out hunting rabbits.”
Keri agreed, but she needed more pieces of the puzzle. “Maybe it’s time you told me why someone wanted to shoot you and Don. Everyone was so sure you’d shot him that nobody considered you both being targets. So who felt threatened by the two of you?”
“I wish I knew.”
A dodge but truthful, she thought. “Your visit in Thornsbury wasn’t spurred by a desire to share time with an old academy buddy, was it?”
Keri could tell he didn’t want to lie to her but he didn’t want to tell the whole truth. She’d seen the expression on her dad’s and brother’s faces too many times. It annoyed the hell out of her. While Lamanto took a chair and formulated a reply, she started cleaning and peeling apples.
“Well?” she prodded when he took too long to reply.
“Did Russ Carson say anything unusual or suspicious while you went picking apples?”
“Since I don’t know what you’d consider suspicious, I have no idea if anything he said is important.”
“He seemed more than a little friendly,” Lamanto shot back at her.
“He’s been in love with me since kindergarten, despite years of efforts to redirect his affections,” she declared matter-of-factly. “And my brother calls me a dog with a bone if I don’t get answers, so don’t try changing the subject.”
“Carson is the subject,” he grumbled. “I just don’t know what he’s involved in or how dangerous his operation might be.”
“But Don was suspicious enough to involve an outsider? That would mean he didn’t completely trust my dad. I don’t buy that.”
“Don didn’t involve me directly,” he explained, snatching a wedge of apple as she quartered them.
Keri let out an exasperated sigh. “Are you always so close-mouthed about your work? It’s really irritating.”
“Sorry,” he said. “It comes from working undercover too many years. The wrong word can cost a man his life.”
“If I don’t hear some right words soon, I might slice you up with this knife,” she threatened, waving the paring knife in his direction.
He gave her a cheeky grin. “You’d just have to stitch me back up, so you might as well spare yourself the extra work.”
True enough. She continued peeling and he kept munching. After a long silence, he finally spoke again.
“How about we make another little bargain?”
She arched a brow at him. “I’m listening.”
“Why don’t you tell me why you really came up here for vacation, and I’ll tell you why I chose Thornsbury for mine.”
She didn’t look at him when she replied. “That’s easy. I came up here to get away from everyone down there.”
“That’s it? You just wanted privacy? No other agenda?”
Keri hesitated. She glanced at him and found his dark eyes steadily regarding her. Jack said her face always mirrored her emotions. Did Lamanto suspect she had a secret agenda or was he just fishing?
“You first,” she insisted.
“I came for a couple reasons.” He held her gaze while he explained. “My lieutenant wanted me to leave Miami until the department had time to round up all the suspects in a case I’d been working.”
“He thought someone might want revenge against you?”
“Yeah, but it’s not likely. No more so than any other case I’ve worked. When I left Miami, the rats were all abandoning ship, either lawyering-up or trying to sneak out of the country.”
She knew the risks in law enforcement, but she didn’t like it and never would. No good man should suffer from doing the right thing. “From your lips to God’s ears”, her mother used to say. Justice might not be blind, but she often turned a blind eye. Good men and their families suffered.
“And your second reason?”
He turned his attention toward the bowl of sliced apples and grabbed another piece. “There’s rumor about a buildup of munitions in this area. Some of the weapons are stolen in Miami and transferred through Florida. The trail leads to Tennessee.”
“A lot of people are really antsy about proposed gun legislation,” she argued. “They’ve started buying and hoarding all types of weapons.”
“The munitions include large amounts of fertilizer. It’s high on Homeland Security’s watch list.”
He didn’t have to explain further. She shuddered at the thought of homegrown terrorists. Surely no one she’d known all her life could be involved.
As if reading her mind, he continued. “Those men out there today aren’t guarding a small militia camp. You don’t need assault rifles for that. Did Carson say anything to you regarding the camp?”
She shook her head. “He’s a total chauvinist and wouldn’t share anything like that with a mere woman.”
“Even though he’s hot for your bod?”
Keri chose not to address that issue. She didn’t want to discuss hot bods with the hottest one she’d ever met.
“The orchard is near a stream about half a mile from the cabin,” she said. “Did you follow us that far?”
He shook his head. “I turned back once you had an escort.”
“The orchard is in the far east corner of my dad’s property. It intersects with my Uncle Ned’s land. Dwayne’s branch of the family.”
“You saw something, didn’t you?” he asked, sitting straighter in his chair.
“Not much really. I noticed a new fence and a couple buildings where an old wooden shack used to stand. The militia used it for meetings. Mostly they drank beer and played poker, but Russ called it training maneuvers.”
“Training for what?”
“He’s always been a little wacko. He believes we’ll have another revolution in this country, so he’s spent his life preparing for it. His dream is a reincarnation of the Tennessee Minutemen.”
“How does he support himself? How’s the militia financed?”
“He’s an engine mechanic, but I don’t think he earns much. I never thought of the militia needing funds. They just bought their own weapons, ammunition and beer. I suppose Uncle Ned still pays taxes on the land. He’s a lot older than Dad, has emphysema and doesn’t get out much.”
“So how does Russ fit into the equation?”
“Russ and Dwayne were really tight in high school. They hunted and fished up here a lot, and set up their militia. More like a man-cave back then. I don’t think Dwayne’s very active anymore and I know he never has extra money. Those new buildings look like expensive metal modulars.”
“Did you ask him about them?”
“Yes, but he shrugged it off with a comment about the old shack crumbling and needing something more sturdy.”