Chapter 62
Refuge Cove felt warmer in the aftermath of the events of the past several days.
The smell of Brunswick stew made Kori’s stomach rumble.
Wyatt’s mother, Ruby, had arrived with the food two hours ago. She’d brought enough to feed twice their number. She’d even brought a smaller pot that was vegan.
It reminded Kori of something her own mother might have done.
Kori immediately liked the woman.
Wyatt’s family and friends crowded around every available surface—Wyatt sat at the table with Caleb and Millie. Naomi moved between the kitchen and the living room with Grace on her hip. Max, who seemed melancholy since his breakup, lingered between the kitchen and dining room table.
They’d invited Pete, Martha, Herb, and Billie. They’d declined the invite.
Pete had told them about his meeting with Bartholomew. He’d said the man came in to order supplies. But Pete started asking questions and got suspicious when he wanted to order bullets.
When Pete said he wouldn’t be able to order things for him, Bartholomew had told him that was a mistake. That now he knew too much. He’d taken him hostage.
Mackenzie was at Refuge Cove right now also. She sat cross-legged on the floor near the fireplace and played with Biscuit. Something about the sight of her made Kori’s chest ache in the best possible way.
Wren was there too. She’d been released from the hospital and had come here. Right now, she sat quietly in the corner of the couch. Naomi had offered her a room two days ago, and Wren had accepted. She was slowly healing.
The three other women who were guests at Refuge Cove were also here. They’d eaten earlier and had returned to their rooms. Kori could understand.
There was a lot going on out here.
“So walk us back.” Caleb lifted a spoonful of Brunswick stew toward his lips. “From the beginning. How did this even happen out in the middle of our woods?”
Wyatt looked at Mackenzie.
She joined them at the table and blew out a breath before starting. “It started when I took a side job to supplement my income . . .”
She explained everything—how she’d agreed to review trail cam footage for a company that offered cloud storage and footage management as a subscription service. Customers opted in, uploading their feeds to a central platform.
Mackenzie’s job was to organize and catalog what came through. Most of it was wildlife and the occasional hiker—nothing remarkable.
But a local account had caught her attention. She was curious about why someone would place nearly twenty cameras in the national forest. She began watching the feed.
“And then I saw Flint,” Mackenzie said.
Everyone went quiet at the mention of his name.
“I saw him for the first time back in November,” she said. “He was meeting with these people in the woods—and they weren’t your normal hikers or park rangers. It was so strange. I told myself there was an explanation, but I suspected otherwise.”
“When did you confront him?” Kori asked.
“Two weeks later. I kept watching the footage, building up what I had.” A small, rueful sound escaped her. “Old habit, I guess. When something doesn’t add up, I want to understand it completely before I say anything.”
“But you didn’t drop it,” Kori said.
Mackenzie tilted her head at her sister. “Would you have?”
“No way. They don’t call me The Hammer for nothing.”
Wyatt let out a soft chuckle.
“He told me he’d been with them for almost a year,” Mackenzie continued. “Then he told me he’d met someone while doing boundary surveys, a man who had a lot of grievances about government overreach.”
“Bartholomew,” Kori murmured.
“Yes. I recognized his name as soon as he said it. I remembered you talking about that case.” Mackenzie pulled at a loose thread on her sleeve.
“Flint had just come off a frustrating stretch with the Forest Service. There were bureaucratic problems as well as permits being blocked and important projects getting shelved. He was angry, and this man—Bartholomew—offered Flint a community of people who shared his frustrations.”
“Then they had him,” Wyatt said.
“Then they had him.” Mackenzie blew out a breath.
“It took some time to build a relationship, but these people eventually brainwashed Flint. He was all in. Once he was, they asked Flint to stay in his position so he could feed them information about what the Forest Service knew and give them advance warning if anyone was getting close to discovering them.”
“It sounds like Flint believed in their mission,” Caleb said.
“He did. Then he tried to recruit me. He even gave me a necklace with the group’s symbol on it.”
“We found that in your bag,” Kori said.
“I decided to go along with it and see what I could find out.”
“How did they take you?” Millie asked.
“I got careless. I think they began to suspect my motives weren’t all pure” Mackenzie said the words plainly and without self-pity.
“I got a message saying I needed to come now and come alone. I knew what it meant. I knew you would be in danger if I didn’t listen.
So I went. As soon as I realized it was a setup, I ran.
But it was too late. They caught me, and I was trapped. ”
Ruby appeared from the kitchen with the pot and made her way around the room, refilling bowls without asking.
Caleb looked at Max. “By the way, have you heard how Kendra’s mom is doing?”
Max’s expression was careful. “She’s stable, from what I understand.
They think she’ll go home in a day or two.
” He turned his bowl slowly in his hands.
“Kendra’s not doing great, though. The breakup hit her harder than I expected.
I’m not going to get into all of it. But I’d ask you all to pray for her. ”
“Of course,” Naomi said.
Several others nodded.
The conversation shifted gradually—lighter now as the weight of the last several days began to slowly lift.
Kori leaned back in her chair and let the room wash over her.
She thought about DC. About the missed calls from her office, the flagged emails, and the courtroom that had been running without her for days. It would all still be there when she got back. Everything would require her attention soon enough.
But not tonight.
She looked across the table.
Wyatt was watching her.
She thought about the logging road. About his hands raised as he stood in the snow. About when she’d kissed him.
There were still things left unsaid between them. Questions that hadn’t been asked yet and answers that would take more than a crowded room to give.
But as Kori held Wyatt’s gaze across the room, she realized she wasn’t in any hurry to look away.
Wyatt caught Kori’s eye across the room and tilted his head toward the back of the house.
She slipped away from the group without a word and followed him through the back door and onto the screened porch.
The cold immediately settled around them. The yard beyond the screens was quiet and white.
As Wyatt propped open the back door, Thunder pushed past them both, trotted down the steps, and disappeared toward the dog run.
Wyatt leaned against a post and looked at Kori.
She pulled her sleeves down over her hands and looked back at him. “I keep trying to find the right way to thank you for what you did up there.”
“I was doing my job.”
“You were doing considerably more than your job, and you know it.” She held his gaze.
He didn’t have a response for that, so he didn’t offer one.
Instead, he pushed off the railing and stepped closer. “What I’d actually like to talk about is that kiss you planted on me while I was in the woods.”
Something shifted in her expression. She reached up and touched the front of his shirt and smiled. “The kiss I planted on you?”
“That is what you did.”
“You weren’t arguing.”
He grinned. “Never said I was. Nor would I ever argue about it.”
“Good to hear.”
His smile held a moment before settling into something more serious. “But I also know how hard long distance is. I’ve been down that road before.”
Her expression grew more serious also. “I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve decided that I’d like to live closer to Mackenzie. The two of us have a lot of time to make up for, and I don’t want to do that over the phone.”
Wyatt studied her as he formulated his next words. “But your life and career are back in DC.”
“My life has been my career. I set out to prove something to myself, and I did. But I’ve been going to fancy parties and navigating politics for too many years now, and somewhere along the way I forgot that wasn’t actually what I wanted.”
She looked past him toward the snow falling beyond the screens.
“I grew up in a place like this. A place full of family and front porches and people who showed up for each other.” She met his gaze again. “I’d like that back. I want something real, something authentic.”
“We can give you that here.”
“I was also thinking . . .” A small smile pulled at her mouth. “Maybe Blue Ridge Hollow could use a lawyer.”
“We could, actually. The only one we have in town is retiring sometime this year.”
She tilted her head. “Is that so?”
“It won’t be glamorous. You should know that going in—if that’s what you decide to do.”
“I don’t want glamorous.”
He reached up and tucked a strand of hair back from her face. “Then Blue Ridge Hollow might be exactly what you’re looking for.”
She smiled. “I think it is.”
Wyatt leaned toward her, and their lips met. Snow kept falling quietly beyond the screened porch like it had no worries.
Then something cold and solid hit them both from below.
Thunder had come back inside.
He wedged himself directly between them with single-minded determination.
They broke apart and laughed.
Kori crouched down and took his face in both hands. “You know, Thunder, you’ve completely changed my opinion of dogs.”
Thunder’s tail moved faster.
Wyatt looked at the two of them and felt something settle in his chest.
“Good,” he said. “Because wherever I go, he goes.” He reached down and scratched behind Thunder’s ears. “And it sounds like we’re all headed in the same direction.”