Chapter 11
“Do I need to go over the plan again?” Apollo demanded in that aggressive, older brother way that made Micah want to shave Apollo’s head and draw a fake mustache on him. But since he wasn’t twelve, he shoved that urge down.
Before he could respond, Cormac repeated the question, but in a soprano voice. Because Cormac would forever be an adolescent boy, apparently.
“Are you twelve?” Apollo muttered.
Micah smothered a laugh as Cormac repeated him again. If he fed into this, things would devolve. Fast. He cleared his throat. “We’re good. We know what to do. And thank you both again for coming with me.”
“Are you kidding me? I’m excited about this,” Cormac said.
“How boring has your job been that this is exciting?” Micah asked.
Cormac just shrugged. After quitting the DEA he’d been working construction and didn’t seem in a rush to find something that he actually liked. Which wasn’t like his brother.
“So how long have you and Clover been dating?” Apollo asked—demanded in that same older brother tone.
“Are you asking for you, or did Krystal put you up to this?”
“Krystal said she saw you two today. You really think it’s smart getting involved with Nick’s sister?”
“Probably about as smart as getting involved with Berkley’s best friend,” he said dryly.
Apollo surprised him by laughing. “Fair point. I’m going to propose to Silvia.” And he sounded absolutely thrilled by that.
“Congrats,” Micah and Cormac said almost in unison. He wasn’t surprised. A year ago, yeah he’d have been shocked, but Apollo had fallen hard and fast. When he’d come to Micah about picking out a Christmas present last year, he’d known his brother was serious.
“Thank you. And you still didn’t answer my question.”
“How are you going to propose?” Cormac asked, because his other brother knew how to deflect.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. And I’m still weighing my options.”
“So you’ve got nothing?” Micah asked as Apollo neared the turnoff, which was just an open spot between some trees where they could park deeper into the woods.
They’d be heading in on foot to Betty Anne Kendrick’s house.
After more research today, he and Clover had confirmed with absolute certainty that the woman’s nephew was “renting” the place from her, but in reality the guy was living in an expensive condo on Wrightsville Beach with no discernible job.
Which meant he knew about the grow house.
Or had people running it. But given what Micah had dug up on Chance Kendrick, he was guessing the man was simply looking the other way and raking in the cash from his aunt’s place.
Micah still wasn’t sure what was going on with Ilena or if she and Mosker were involved in that.
If Ilena didn’t need help, he’d be walking away, even if it hurt Clover to do so. Because you couldn’t force someone to get help if they didn’t want it.
He’d found…interesting things on Mosker, and he still wasn’t certain what to make of them.
He was hoping tonight would give them more intel.
Then hopefully Clover could figure out what she wanted to do.
Which might end up being nothing, because not all abuse victims wanted to leave.
Or maybe that was wrong—he was certain they did, but for whatever reason, they didn’t always leave in time.
“I just want the proposal to be perfect,” Apollo said as he shut off his headlights and pulled into a cluster of trees.
Apollo and Cormac had both been in the military, had extensive training. Micah’s background was a little more colorful, but he had similar training thanks to some of the people he’d worked with and both his brothers, who’d made sure he knew how to use every weapon possible.
When they’d discovered that he’d been training in Krav Maga while they’d been gone, they’d demanded to see his moves. They’d all walked away bloody.
“Well if you need help with a proposal, we’re here,” Cormac said, uncharacteristically serious. “We’re really happy for you.”
“Agreed,” Micah added. As the second oldest, Apollo had helped Krystal the most when they’d been growing up. After their mom had been murdered, something he hated thinking about, Apollo had supported Krystal in a way Micah hadn’t appreciated until he was older.
Now that he had more life experience, Micah understood that their lives could have been a hell of a lot different if his older siblings hadn’t loved them so much and stepped up to take on those responsibilities. Because their father had been useless until the day he’d left.
So even if it was a little weird that Apollo was now dating and might marry Berkley’s best friend, he was glad his brother had found his person.
“Thanks,” Apollo murmured, cutting the engine.
From there, they were silent, slipping out of the truck into relative quiet. The faint sounds of frogs croaking in unison filled the air. They all had backpacks with night-vision binoculars and other appropriate weapons, though they slipped on their NVGs for the hike and headed out.
He hoped that no one ever saw them and that they didn’t have to use any weapons, but they had to be prepared for any scenario. Given the kind of cash a grow op could generate, someone would want to protect it by any means necessary.
He’d promised to contact Clover as soon as he could, but he’d left his cell phone back at his house.
Sure he had a burner with him, but his cell phone being located at his house would work as an alibi if necessary.
Not that anyone should have any idea he was here, but if something happened, Clover had said she would lie for him.
He…liked that more than he wanted to admit. At first he’d simply been infatuated with her but the more he got to know her… She was funny and weird in the best way possible and he wasn’t sure how the hell he was ever going to get over her.
She’d made it clear that nothing was going to happen between them, and that their one and only kiss had been a mistake. Which was bullshit.
And also not something he needed to be dwelling on at the moment.
The three of them fanned out into the woods, making good time the first half mile. But at the second half, they all slowed and looked for any sort of traps or alerts that might set off an alarm.
Micah spotted a trip wire first, let out a soft whistle that sounded like a local bird. Because yes, he and his brothers had been doing that since they were kids and getting into all sorts of mischief.
His brothers stopped, and since they were all wearing night vision, he held up his fist then pointed down to the invisible wire. They wouldn’t see it yet, but they’d know what he was doing when he stepped over it. Someone was clearly protecting this area.
From there it was much slower going, and they found four more trip wires that looked as if they would trigger an alarm.
So not actual booby traps that would hurt someone, but alerts.
That lined up with drug runners and growers.
Though some growers set up real traps to injure people.
But they tended to be the ones who worked in truly rural areas where help couldn’t arrive quickly if someone called—so no worry about cops.
Those types of growers were a different breed and he despised them.
Twenty minutes later they were all in place, crouched down in what had once been a greenhouse on the edge of Betty Anne Kendrick’s property. Everything inside was dead, but it made the perfect hideout to spy on the main house’s comings and goings.
They stripped off their goggles since there was enough moonlight and ambient light from the nearby house.
Micah set up first, using one of the busted-out glass panes to watch through with his night-vision binoculars.
“I’m going to go around, see if I can get closer,” Apollo murmured before he disappeared from the greenhouse.
Which had been expected. Micah was good with computers, good at sneaking into places he didn’t belong online. Whereas Apollo was really good at getting into places in person. Krystal was too. Unfortunately they hadn’t been able to bring her in on this, for her own good.
He and Cormac both nodded. Moments later Cormac motioned that he was going to follow Apollo for backup.
Micah used the zoom-in function to get a good view of the house and front porch. Hopefully they would get to see anything useful around the back of the property.
Even as he wondered whether this was worth the recon at all, Ilena and a younger-looking woman, also a blonde, stepped out onto the front porch.
They were both wearing hoodies and jeans, the porch light illuminating their faces clearly. They looked…tense. Potentially scared.
Something was definitely off. These women didn’t want to be here, that much was clear.
A man followed after them, his strides confident as he shut the front door behind him. He motioned with his hand for them to follow.
Moving fast, Micah grabbed his long-range camera—the one that had cost a fortune, but had been recommended by a professional PI friend because of the infrared ability to take good pictures at night—and started snapping images.
He hadn’t seen this man before, and the more information they gathered about the people here, the better.
Ilena stopped at the driver’s side of a vehicle, with the smaller woman stopping at the passenger side.
The man handed Ilena something small. She was on the opposite side of the car so Micah couldn’t tell for sure, but it might be an envelope.
It seemed clear she was about to leave, however, so he started packing up fast.
By the time he’d finished, both his brothers had returned. Luckily he didn’t have to say anything, they all hurried out—because they needed to get back to the truck and follow her.
Once they were clear of anyone potentially spotting them, they raced through the woods, backtracking the way they’d come. It was easy to avoid the traps now that they knew where they were.
Apollo had taught him how to do that when they’d taken camping trips as teenagers. How to spot any potential dangers, man-made or otherwise. His brother seemed to become one with the woods, and what he’d taught Micah had saved his life more than once.
He wondered if he’d ever thanked him for that, made a note to later.
Once they were in the truck, Micah sat in the passenger seat as Apollo drove. It didn’t take him long to pull up the tracking device on his tablet.
“Looks like she’s headed toward Sanctuary Falls proper. Or at least in that direction. You guys see anything interesting?” Micah asked.
“Not really. Just two men doing walk-arounds in the back area, but it’s pretty lax security if that’s what they’re going for,” Cormac said.
“They were vaping and relaxed and I didn’t see any visible weapons.
This doesn’t feel like a drug operation.
Or at least not a large one.” And Cormac would know.
He’d spent a lot of time in South America and other places in the US he couldn’t talk about—though he had with Micah and Apollo—taking down various drug operations.
“I agree,” Micah murmured, Apollo nodding as well.
Almost twenty minutes later, the tracker stopped. “They parked behind the Santa Maria retirement community.”
“That parking lot needs better lighting,” Apollo murmured, more to himself than them. “And we’re only two minutes out.”
His brother had made good time catching up with Ilena and her passenger.
“Wait, I think that’s Ilena.” Micah didn’t point. He didn’t have to. There was only one woman walking down the decently lit sidewalk on the right side of this particular downtown street.
On the opposite side of the street were two restaurants, an ice cream place, and a vintage resale shop that let locals sell their wares.
All of them were closed since it was close to four in the morning.
The side of the street the woman was walking on was mostly professional offices.
They were also closed… There was no good reason for her to be down here right now.
Apollo pulled up to one of the curbside parking spots a few spaces past her. She didn’t turn around, didn’t look anywhere except straight ahead. She was moving with purpose.
“That’s an awful wig,” Cormac muttered.
Micah had been thinking the same thing. If he hadn’t seen what she’d been wearing before with the oversized hoodie, jeans and those neon sneakers, he wasn’t sure he’d have known it was Ilena with the curly redheaded wig under the ball cap.
Apollo turned his truck off as they all turned around to see where she went. Downtown was ghost quiet, with a low fog hugging the street.
“She’s at that law office,” Micah murmured. He had to strain to see where she’d stopped, but he knew the downtown area fairly well. Had done work for a number of businesses.
It looked as if she dropped the envelope into one of the mail slots, then she abruptly turned around and hurried back the way she’d come. Toward the parking lot where the dot was still blinking on his GPS dashboard.
“I’m going to follow her,” Apollo murmured even though it was just the three of them. “On foot. You two sit tight.”
Micah wanted to argue, but his brother was already out the driver’s side door, quietly shutting it behind him. He watched as Apollo used the cars as cover to follow after Ilena, who was talking quickly into an older-style flip phone.
Then to his surprise, she pulled the phone away from her ear and broke it in half—and dumped it down a sewer drain.
Huh.
After that, she started jogging toward the Santa Maria building, head down.
Micah slid into the driver’s seat, ready to follow her, then Apollo appeared out of nowhere and jumped into the passenger seat.
“Give it a few minutes,” Apollo said. “She was agitated on the phone. I couldn’t make out what she said. She spoke too quickly, but her body language is off. And did you see the way she dumped that phone?”
“Yeah.” Micah had a bad feeling about all of this. “We can tail her using the GPS.” It would ensure she didn’t spot them, and at this point it seemed clear she and her acquaintances weren’t checking for trackers.
After five minutes had passed, he started to turn the engine on but froze when a black SUV zoomed past them, lights flashing, no siren.
All three of them paused, watching as the SUV jerked to a halt in the middle of the street right in front of the law office Ilena had been at.
A man and woman, both wearing jackets that clearly stated FBI on the back, jumped out and made a beeline for the front door of the office.
He turned back around, not needing to see any more. “I think I know what Ilena Grady is involved in. And it’s not good.”