Chapter Thirteen
Thirteen
Fifi was already nodding. Apparently, their psychic-sister link was up and working. “Even though Clint couldn’t have killed Cobra, it still might’ve been someone wanting to take over the militia.”
“After hearing about how Cobra treated his wife, I can’t really blame her,” Charlie said. There were mutters of agreement all around.
Charlie could barely contain her impatience as Gabrielle got ready. She appreciated that the woman got dressed in the bathroom after showering, so that she didn’t feel like more of a creeper than she already did for setting up a camera in a stranger’s bedroom.
Finally, Gabrielle took her phone off the charger and tucked it in her pocket.
She stood by the closed door for several seconds, her shoulders curling in and her head bowing, making her look like a completely different person than the confident woman striding around her bedroom a few minutes earlier.
“What’s she doing?” Rory asked, leaning closer as she frowned at the screen.
“Getting into character.” Kieran’s voice was flat and filled with antipathy. Charlie couldn’t blame him. The woman was trying to frame him for murder, after all—or at least allowing it.
“That’s wild,” Lou breathed, sounding a bit impressed. “She’s like an actor before a play.”
Gabrielle swung open the door and scurried out, looking for all the world like a timid, beaten-down mouse who’d never commit murder or manipulate an entire militia.
Once she was out of range of the bedroom camera, Rory maximized the feed from the camera lurking in the taxidermied bear’s mouth on the main level.
Charlie mentally complimented herself on her camera placement, because almost the entire room was within view.
A half dozen men were milling around, including skinny Daryl.
Except for one surly-looking man, they all rushed over to Gabrielle when she arrived, solicitously helping her get settled on the couch.
Once they’d all taken their seats, Gabrielle spoke, her voice soft and hesitant.
Rory maxed out the volume on the bug stuck to the antler chandelier.
“Clint is very…angry about last night,” she started. “He’s sure it’s the PIs visiting from Denver.”
“Bounty hunters from Langston,” Charlie muttered, only to be shushed. “Well, if I’m being accused of something, they should at least get their details right.”
“Accused?” Kieran gave one of his harshly amused grunts. “We did break in.”
“And blow up most of their arsenal,” Fifi said absently. “Local law enforcement should thank us for that. No one on that compound should have a grenade launcher in their sticky little fingers.”
“If you guys don’t zip it, I’m going to start gagging people,” Lou warned, and they all settled in to watch the video feed.
“…this time,” Gabrielle was saying. “It’s obvious—Clint said it’s obvious—that the coffee shop wasn’t enough. We need to end them this time.” As if she’d realized how strong her voice had gotten, Gabrielle ducked her head. “He’d like to hear your…ideas? On how to accomplish that?”
“I don’t like this,” one of the men said, but Charlie barely heard him over the pounding in her ears.
“The coffee shop?” she repeated, rage surging through her. Unable to stay still, she turned abruptly and began pacing the floor. “She was the one who almost killed us?”
“Be mad about it in a minute,” Fifi said, her eyes still fixed on the screen. “We need to hear what their next attempt will be.”
“The sheriff already has her eyes on us because of Cobra, and now Clint wants us to murder a bunch of PIs?” The sour-looking guy—the only one who hadn’t rushed to fawn over Gabrielle—was talking when Charlie managed to dial back her anger enough to pay attention to the video feed.
“Guess he won’t be happy until we’re all in prison with him. ”
Gabrielle glared at the man for just a split second before looking down at her knees. “You know Clint wouldn’t set you up, Saul. He just trusts that you can pull this off without getting caught.”
“Ooh.” Lou gave a dramatic wince. “Did you see those deadly eye lasers?”
“She’s definitely the boss.” If Gabrielle hadn’t been in the process of convincing a bunch of militia guys to murder them, Charlie might’ve been a little impressed.
Gabrielle had likely knocked off her abusive husband—or at least taken advantage of his death—and was now ruling the militia in his place, all without any of the misogynistic members knowing they were taking orders from a woman.
Since she was, in fact, planning to murder them, however, a fresh flame of anger burned any admiration Charlie felt for Gabrielle right up.
“How does Clint want us to do this then?” an older guy with some unfortunate facial hair asked. “Blow ’em up?”
“We don’t have much as far as explosives go after last night,” Daryl said doubtfully. “I suppose we could just…shoot them?”
“How’re we supposed to do that without getting caught?” Saul huffed.
“Tank, you’re our best sniper.” Gabrielle’s breathy voice held an extra heaping of admiration.
A stocky guy who’d been quiet so far lit up at her compliment.
“We’ll just need to find out where they’re going to be and then get you into position beforehand.
There’ll be enough commotion after for you to slip away. ”
Saul gave her a suspicious look. “Shouldn’t you run this by Clint before you start making plans?”
Her head dipped again as her voice softened enough that Charlie had to strain to hear her. “This was one of Clint’s ideas.”
Although Saul didn’t look convinced, he kept his mouth shut—for the moment, at least.
“Won’t I need an alibi?” Tank asked, not sounding that bothered by the idea of shooting several innocent—well, relatively innocent—people.
“I’ll go talk to the sheriff about Cobra’s case at the same time. Saul can wait in the car in a hat and sunglasses, and I’ll make sure to mention to the sheriff that Tank drove me and give her a glimpse from a distance. If the sheriff vouches for you, that’ll be an ironclad alibi.”
“What about my alibi?” Saul whined.
“The fact that everyone knows you can’t hit the side of the barn from ten feet away,” one of the guys said. Everyone besides Saul and Gabrielle snickered.
“Just tell everyone you’re planning to go hunting.
” Gabrielle was losing her breathy, innocent tone as irritation seeped into her voice.
Charlie was a little surprised she’d managed to pull off the whole stealth-leadership thing, since she had a hard time staying in character.
It was possible that the Paxes were testing Gabrielle’s patience, however.
They were good at that. “After we get back from the sheriff’s office, you can drive to Connor Springs and wander around town, making sure lots of people—and security cameras, if possible—get a glimpse of you.
” She paused and when she spoke again, the trembling uncertainty was back.
“That’s something that Clint would do, I think. ”
Saul didn’t look happy. “The timing won’t line up.”
“Fine.” The word came out as a snap before Gabrielle caught herself.
“Daryl, you’ll drive Saul’s truck to Connor Springs before the op, get the license plate on some cameras but keep your face hidden.
Saul, someone else can give you a ride there later, and then you and Daryl will swap places before you put your face on every camera you can find.
Will you do that for us, D?” Her voice was sheer sweetness, and even on the camera feed, Charlie could see Daryl positively melt.
Guys are kind of dumb, generally speaking. She glanced at Kieran, who met her gaze with a curious frown—one that deepened when she gave him an apologetic grimace for mentally slandering his gender.
“How will I know where they’ll be?” Tank asked.
The camera angle was just right to show Gabrielle’s slow, smug smile. “I’ll find out from Lou Sparks. She’s buddied up to them, and she never shuts up. All I’ll need to do is bring them up, and she’ll babble away, telling us everything we need to know.”
“Wow.” Lou leaned back in her chair. “I mean, she’s not exactly wrong, but it’ll still be fun to foil her plan.”
Charlie’s brain spun at a hundred miles an hour as a plan began to take shape. “Rather than foil it, how about we redirect it? Lou, how’re your acting skills?”
“Rusty but still solid.” Lou grinned. “I love when you Pax sisters visit. It’s always so much fun.”
***
“Sooo…”
Charlie groaned softly but with great feeling. “Of course you’re going to start this when I’m stuck in a ceiling with you.”
Despite the dim light in the ceiling soffit, she clearly saw her sister’s wicked grin. “This is the perfect time to get all the details. What else do we have to do while waiting for our wannabe assassin to show?”
“We could talk about the case?” Charlie suggested, even though she knew it was no use. Fifi had a firm grip on this topic, and she wasn’t about to let it go. Charlie was surprised her sister hadn’t pressed her for details earlier actually.
“Orrrrrrr…we could talk about you and your grumpy firefighter.”
“Orrrrrrr,” Charlie mimicked her sister, “we could talk about you and your stalker husband.”
“Sure.” As soon as Fifi cheerfully agreed, Charlie winced at her mistake. “Sometimes, Bennett likes to do this thing with his ton—”
“Okay!” Charlie yelped louder than she should have.
She was just that desperate. “What do you want to know?” Before her sister could speak, she quickly qualified that question.
“I know nothing about his tongue abilities.” She paused.
“Fine, I know some things about his tongue abilities, but nothing I’m going to share with you. ”
“So you two have…?”
Charlie couldn’t see very well in the dim light, but she could almost feel the way Fifi was suggestively bouncing her eyebrows and had to laugh. “No. Just made out a little.”
“Yeah? How was it?”
“Nice.”