Chapter 7
SEVEN
“
I can’t believe your grandma was a WWII spy!”
Candace rolled her eyes at Ryan as they stepped into the elevator hand in hand, having just left dinner a few minutes ago. He sounded so excited and impressed, but she was more concerned about the possibility that Ryan and the others had stumbled across something dangerous.
“So what, now you’re her number one fan or something?”
“I told you, she’s growing on me. And come on, how freaking amazing is that? Ruby a badass CIA operative.” He chuckled to himself as he hit the button for the fourth floor.
“I’m sure she wasn’t an actual spy. You know how she likes to tell stories, and even the real ones are embellished. Maybe she had one too many drinky-poos and decided to use a little poetic license with this one to give it more...flair.” Or something.
“Nah, she’s the real deal, Wade said so. It’s so awesome,” he muttered under his breath, then grinned.
It wasn’t awesome, it was bizarre and Candace couldn’t picture it. She was definitely calling her dad in the morning to get answers.
Just as they entered their suite, her phone rang. She dug it out of her purse and sighed when she saw Grandma’s number on the display. “Dare I?” she asked Ryan.
“Hell, yes,” he said, all excited as he reached for it. “Let me answer it.”
Shooting him an annoyed frown, she angled her upper body away to block him and answered. “Hi.”
“Hope I didn’t interrupt anything?”
“If you had, I wouldn’t have answered.”
“That’s my girl. I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off him either at your age.”
God. She cleared her throat. “What’s up?”
“Bring everybody back downstairs. I’ve called a meeting.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Now? What for? It’s midnight.”
“Oh, you’ll have lots of time to enjoy your young stud of a husband after. Come down and meet us in the study right away. It’s important.” The line went dead.
Exasperated, Candace growled and began punching in a text, beginning with the word Sorry. “Come on, we gotta go back downstairs. Grandma’s apparently called us all to a meeting.”
Ryan paused in the act of unbuttoning his shirt, his expression lighting up. “A secret meeting?”
“Who the hell knows?” She was definitely calling her dad to find out what was going on. Her grandma was a character, but sometimes Candace worried she was losing it. A little damage control or medical intervention might be in order here.
Ryan practically dragged her out into the hall, a giant grin on his face. “I can’t wait to see what she’s got up her sleeve.”
Shaking her head, Candace finished typing out the message, then sent it to the others and followed Ryan back to the elevator. After receiving several WTF responses from the others, she replied that no, this wasn’t a joke, and yes, there was in fact an actual meeting. She hoped.
On their way to the elevator a door opened behind them. Candace looked back to find Maya and Jackson hurrying after them. Maya was tying the sash on her robe tighter, her hair mussed, lipstick gone. Her blue-green eyes shot sparks at Candace as she strode toward them.
“This better be damn important, Ace.” Jackson was right behind her, the laid-back Texan looking uncharacteristically annoyed. Yep, her text had definitely interrupted some sexy times.
“Yeah,” she agreed, badly wanting some alone time with Ryan.
After their talk yesterday she was anxious to hash out the rest of what she wanted to say, as well as talk about the timing of having a family, and she also craved the intimate connection that came only from having him inside her.
She wanted all of that tonight, for peace of mind, so she hoped this meeting didn’t last long. “It better.”
By the time they reached the study, located off the lobby in the main building, the others were there waiting.
Everyone was gathered around the rectangular table, along with a well-built, dark-haired man in his forties Candace didn’t recognize.
A scar ran along the edge of his square jaw, and his intense blue gaze and bearing told her immediately he had some kind of military or law enforcement training.
“Grandma,” she said by way of greeting. “Okay, we’re all here.” And nobody’s too thrilled with you right now. “What’s this all about?”
Grandma stood and took her by the arm. “This is my granddaughter, Candace. The gunship pilot I told you about,” she told the stranger proudly. “Candace, this is Jeb Taylor.”
She recognized the name. “Hello,” she said, shaking hands with him. Everyone around these parts knew who the Taylors were. “Taylor, as in co-owner of this resort?”
The man’s eyes warmed a fraction as he smiled. “Well, not just me. My family.”
“I understand you two know each other,” Grandma said to Wade. “Being that you used to work for the same...organization.”
So Taylor was a former spook? It made sense that he and Wade would have crossed paths, if he had in fact been with the CIA.
Wade inclined his head. “We know of each other. Good to meet you finally, Taylor.”
“Likewise. That was great work on the Rahim case. One for the books.”
“Yeah, it was memorable.” Wade held out his hand.
The details of the Rahim case were classified, but the story had been splashed all over the news for weeks after the dirty bomb attack outside of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Erin had been directly caught up in it. Thankfully she had suffered only a broken arm and minimal radiation exposure, but Candace and their entire group knew all about what had happened.
Ryan wound an arm around her waist. She leaned into him, savoring the feel of his solid, muscular body against hers.
Wade shook hands with Taylor, then the man smiled at Erin. “And this must be your beautiful bride-to-be I’ve heard so much about.”
She shook his hand. “I’m Erin. I’m a Montanan too, grew up outside of Billings. I recognize your name and know of your family.”
“Well, sorry to interrupt your night, but given what Ruby told me tonight, I thought this needed to be looked into more.”
“Sure, no problem.” Erin took the seat Wade pulled out for her and scooted in closer to the table.
After all the introductions, Grandma clapped her hands once. “All right, let’s sit down and get started.”
“On what?”
She shot Candace an exasperated look. “On the camp your boys found up in the hills.”
Everybody looked at Taylor.
“My company does contract work for the government. I’ve been gathering intel on something, and given what you found the other day, I thought you should all see what I’ve got.”
They all moved closer to the table. A map was laid out in the center of it, this one complete with all the topographical information the previous one had lacked. “Ruby tells me the site you found was about here?” Taylor said to them.
Wade nodded. “Ryan’s got the exact coordinates.”
Ryan released her to pull them up again on his phone and Taylor marked them on the map. “And about how many casings would you say were out there?” the man asked.
“Few thousand at least, maybe more,” Ryan said. “Some of the smaller trees up to about ten inches thick were cut in half by the volume of fire.”
“Know something about it?” Cam asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“There’ve been rumors,” Taylor said. “Stories about hunters hearing large volumes of fire in the distance, but no one’s ever seen it happening. People are saying they’ve heard talk about a militia operating in the area.”
Jackson frowned. “What kind of a militia?”
Wade spoke before Taylor could answer. “Are you talking about the March Madness?”
Taylor nodded, face grave. “Yes.”
“What’s that?” Candace asked, not liking the sound of it or the direction this was taking.
Wade straightened but kept his palms flat on the tabletop as he answered.
“For over a year now there’ve been rumors of a guy named Eric March forming a secret militia here in Montana.
He’s former army, and after he was court-martialed and convicted of conduct unbecoming, he received a dishonorable discharge. ”
“What did he do?”
“Got caught up in the politics of war,” Wade said.
“Intervened to stop a nine-year-old boy from being raped by a villager and beat the shit out of the guy. Put him in the hospital. The villager pressed charges and the Afghan government put pressure on ours to do something. So to calm the situation down, they charged March with assault causing bodily harm, convicted him, and kicked him out of the army.”
It disgusted Candace. “That’s so twisted.” He should have been praised for his actions, not punished.
“Yeah. Needless to say, he wasn’t too happy, and now he’s anti-government and looking to stir up shit by training his own militia to attack government installations across the state.
” His gaze shot to her grandma. “Sorry, Ruby.” Apparently even Wade knew her grandma didn’t like people cussing in front of her.
She preferred to do all the cussing herself.
“No, something about this smells bad, so it’s definitely shit,” her grandma said.
“He should have gotten a medal, not a conviction, but even though he was right to be angry, it doesn’t excuse his current plans to arm and train people around here to attack the government. Does he pose a serious threat?”
Wade nodded. “Yep. And now word is, various agencies have been looking for him for a long time. He went off grid a few years back and no one’s been able to find a trace of him since. Unless we did just that last night,” he added, looking at the other guys.
“Got a file on him here,” Taylor said, laying a manila folder on the table and opening it to reveal a picture of March.
Candace studied it. White male, early forties. Graying, light brown hair, pale blue eyes.
“Latest intel estimates his followers are numbered around a thousand or so, but it could be more. His ability to avoid detection and capture says a lot about his capabilities. Wherever he is, he’s well stocked and has had lots of time to plan whatever he has in mind.”