Chapter 20
TWENTY
I
t was full to the brim with ammo. Lots and lots of ammo. Cases of bullets and magazines for pistols, and others for what she thought might be automatic or semi-automatic rifles.
“What in the hell?” she whispered, looking around uneasily. Not a dismembered body, but still, not good.
A prickle spread across the back of her neck. This was a remote area. Isolated enough that there were no paths, and other than the odd person wandering around back here with their dog, she doubted anyone else ever came here.
She looked back down at the trunk. Had to be four feet long and two feet across. Lying on top of the ammo was a small, laminated piece of paper. She had no idea what the message on it said or meant because it was indecipherable, written in some sort of code.
Without touching anything else, she used her phone to take pictures of it and the ammo. But that paper intrigued her as much as the rest of it, and it was easy to carry.
She snagged it and put it in her backpack before shutting the trunk lid and standing. “Let’s go, Rufus.” She wanted to get the hell away from here and alert Rafe.
Her phone still showed zero bars as she tried to find her way back to the trail. Rufus was no help in navigating. The whole time a crawling sensation crept along her spine. A subliminal warning that danger was close—or that she was being watched.
Either way, she was outta here.
In the end, she didn’t find any trail at all. She wound up thrashing her way through the dense brush until she reached someone’s back fence. She and Rufus followed it until a break appeared at the end and they finally emerged onto a dead-end street she recognized as several blocks from her house.
Once back inside, she let Rufus off his leash to go get a drink, then enhanced the pictures before sending them to Rafe.
Just found this way off the beaten path in the woods behind my house. I’ll bring the coded sheet in today.
She waited a few minutes to see whether he responded. When he didn’t, she jumped into the shower to get ready to meet Tripp.
By the time she finished getting ready, there was still nothing from Rafe, and the delay from the detour in the woods had put her behind schedule. She didn’t have time to stop at the sheriff’s station before meeting Tripp, so she’d drop off the evidence after.
She left the TV on for Rufus and drove into town, the building anticipation at spending the day with Tripp replacing the disquiet she’d felt from discovering the ammo cache. There was no good reason for anyone to have their hands on that amount of ammo. It was like someone was preparing for war.
Although she couldn’t imagine what would justify anyone having that amount of ammo.
Tripp’s truck was parked at the marina. The main and overflow lots were both completely full.
She had to circle the block twice before finding a spot on a side street and parallel parking there. Leaving her backpack with the coded sheet tucked out of sight under the glove box in the passenger seat footwell, she grabbed her light jacket and hat and hurried down to the marina.
Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Tripp talking to an older man beside a zodiac-style boat berthed at the end of the main dock, his muscular build showcased by a pair of worn jeans and a T-shirt that hugged his sculpted chest and shoulders.
He looked over, and his welcoming smile sent a hot zing through the pit of her stomach.
Oh boy. The chemistry between them was more powerful than ever.
“Ahoy there,” she called out, then caught her breath when she realized who Tripp was talking to. “Mr. Rawlings!”
His grin was almost identical to his son’s. “Hey, sweetheart.” He enveloped her in a hug, smelling of the same cologne he had always worn. “How are you?”
“I’m great.” She shared a smile with Tripp over his father’s broad shoulder. “It’s been a while.”
“Too long.” He released her. “Really glad you’ve come back to the island. Mary would have wanted you to.”
“I’m here because of her. You look fabulous, by the way.”
“Oh, thank you. So do you.”
“Are you joining us on our adventure today?” Much as she’d like to spend the day alone with Tripp, she wouldn’t mind his dad coming along.
“No, I just helped Tripp deliver a finished piece to his client, and came here to say hi before I head back up.”
“Ah.” She looked to Tripp. “What are we doing, by the way?”
“We’re going to spend a few hours with some of the locals, along with someone I think you’ll recognize.”
“Willow!”
She spun around, gasped in surprise. “Xanthe! Oh my God, I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“I know.” The tall, lean brunette came over to hug her. “I hear you’re coming out with us today.”
“I hear that too. Can’t wait, it’s been years since I’ve gone whale watching, and I’ve never been out with an actual marine biologist before.”
Xanthe shrugged. “Not gonna lie, I know all the local whales pretty well. We’ll start boarding in a few minutes. See you soon.”
She turned back to Tripp. “Now I’m even more excited.”
“Figured you would be. Is Rufus still enjoying his spy holes?”
“He freaking loves them. Obsessed with them. And also...” She took out her phone and pulled up the pictures she’d taken. “He found this buried in the woods behind my place this morning.”
Tripp took the phone and pushed up his sunglasses to study the image, his dad leaning in beside him. He frowned. “Where was this?”
“About three-quarters of a mile behind my house. Don’t ask me in which direction, there were no trails back there. I sent them to Rafe but haven’t heard back yet.”
“That’s a whole lotta ammo,” Mr. Rawlings said, also frowning. “Did you see anything else?”
“No, just this. It was buried in the ground, covered up by branches. Must have been pretty recently though, because the soil was loose. The whole thing felt really creepy, so I closed it and left right away.”
“Good decision. We do have some known, dedicated preppers here on the island, but this is a big cache and pretty far back into the woods from the sounds of it,” he said.
Tripp handed her phone back. “Rafe’ll take a look when he gets a chance. Rufus sure has a nose for finding buried things.”
“Tell me about it. Here I was worried he’d found another bone, but I’m not sure this is much better.”
“He found a bone?” Mr. Rawlings asked.
“Yes, a human shinbone down at Shipwreck Cove. Two pieces, in fact. Rafe’s got them as evidence.”
He shared a brief look with his son. “Ah. Probably from one of the wrecks offshore.”
“Yeah, so everyone keeps saying.”
“Well.” He patted her shoulder gently. “I’ll leave you two to your seagoing adventure. Fabulous day for it. Hope I see you again sooner rather than later, young lady. Come on up to the house with Tripp sometime. You’re always welcome.”
Warmth spread through her at his kindness. After Tripp’s mom had died, it had just been the two of them, and they had a strong relationship. Without a doubt he would have been there for Tripp during his rehab. “Thank you, I’d love that.”
He clapped Tripp on the side of the shoulder. “See you later, son.”
“Bye.”
Willow watched him go, smiling fondly. “He’s as wonderful as ever.”
“Yeah, he is.” He glanced past her toward the boat. “Looks like we’re boarding. You ready?”
After the whirlwind of activity and stress of moving across country, this break was exactly what she needed. And being with Tripp made it even better. “I was born ready.”
Darren watched the video play back on his wide desktop screen with growing unease. One of the cameras had caught a young woman and her dog close to the cache site. The damned animal was digging where the trunk was buried.
The woman knelt down beside the log. She pulled the branches aside, revealing the top of the trunk.
Dammit. “Walk away. Just walk away.”
She didn’t. Instead, she cleared away the top of the trunk, then gripped the release on the front and turned it.
To his utter shock, the lid popped open.
“For Chrissake,” he muttered, anger surging through him, quick and hot. Who the fuck had left the thing unlocked?
It was clear the contents shocked her. She looked around before leaning in to inspect the contents more closely.
Then she proceeded to take pictures with her phone.
He ran a hand over his mouth, his jaw clenched so hard his molars ached. This was not good. Not good at all. It was sheer dumb luck that the fucking dog had sniffed it out in the middle of nowhere. But this...
The woman reached out and picked up the laminated sheet, checking it front and back. There was no way she could understand any of it, but she put it in a small black backpack before shutting the trunk lid and leaving.
He sat back, mind racing. Who was she? How much danger did she and what she’d just done pose to the operation and organization as a whole?
It was unlikely she or anyone else on the island would be able to break the code. But that wasn’t the only risk. The symbol on the sheet was distinct, and if she or anyone else ever figured out what it meant...
He couldn’t take the chance, had to do emergency damage control to try and mitigate the risks. That sheet needed to be recovered, and the cache needed to be moved immediately.
He dialed one of his members. “Get a couple of guys ready to meet me at the rally point. Someone discovered one of the caches. We need to move it within the next couple of hours. In the meantime, I’m sending you on a recovery mission.
Someone took something belonging to us, and I need it back A-fucking-SAP. ”