Chapter 3
Sully woke the next morning, grateful for the sunny skies that greeted him and the quiet night that had allowed them all to rest. He’d taken the first shift so Piper could sleep, then he’d passed the baton to her, slipped into a bed, and was out within seconds.
An unusual occurrence, but his body had reached its limit.
Thankfully, he was refreshed and ready to go—or would be once he had a couple of cups of coffee.
He checked on Ollie and found her still sleeping, which was another oddity. She never seemed to sleep. She didn’t wander or try to leave their protection, but almost every time he’d checked in on her at night for the past three months, he found her awake.
He smiled. The ranch was already weaving a little peace into their lives. Something like a gentle healing. His grandmother would say this came from God. That the Lord was using his creation and the people on the ranch to bring about this blessed transformation.
Maybe so. Sully believed in God—and talked to him often. He just wished the Almighty was more active in taking out the bad guys and protecting the good ones. Especially kids like Ollie.
His grandmother would also argue that just because it looked one way to human eyes didn’t mean it was so. God was omnipotent. Sully was not, and he needed to remember that.
He rubbed a hand over his eyes. His grandmother had no idea that he was well aware he wasn’t omnipotent—and was reminded of that fact every time he thought about his dead partner.
But those memories needed to stay in their little box in the back of his mind. He slathered a bagel with cream cheese, took his cup of coffee, and sat at the table.
A few minutes later, Piper stepped inside dressed in her heavy winter gear. “There’s an inch of snow out there and it’s cold.” She stomped her feet on the entry rug and pulled her gloves and hat off, then shrugged out of her coat to hang it on the hook by the door.
He set his cup aside and pulled on his coat and gloves, checked his weapon, and walked to the door. “I’m going to talk to Maya, see if she can spare any staff to patrol the perimeter.”
Piper frowned. “You think you should? They’re pretty busy already with the vets.”
He paused. She wasn’t wrong. But they needed more eyes, and he didn’t want to bring anyone else in. Not even his colleagues. They were off the radar with everyone except his SSA, and he wanted to keep it that way. “She’s offered protection before.”
“I know.”
“I mean, nothing like our situation with the mob looking for their next hit, but victims of domestic violence and such. She even had a woman hiding from a stalker. Maya treated her at the hospital and brought her home to heal and hide until he was caught.”
She shrugged. “Maybe they could be an option.”
He nodded. “Possibly. Elena said something about Felicity and the dogs. She felt sure she wouldn’t mind using one to patrol.” He gave a decisive nod. “I think that’s what we need to do. I’ll talk to Maya about a few others.”
“This is a pretty big place, Sully. You’re going to need a lot of eyes.”
“It is. Five hundred acres. It’s all fenced. There won’t be any vehicles coming in without someone cutting the fence—and if we have regular patrols, someone will notice it pretty fast.”
“Unless they put it back after they cut it.”
“That would take time and tools for someone in a hurry.”
“What if they’re not in a hurry?”
He shot her a hard look. “You love playing devil’s advocate, don’t you?”
“I’m good at it, so why not?”
He rubbed his chin and shook his head. “No, a vehicle is too obvious. If they come, it’ll be on foot.”
“Or by air.”
“Drones? Maybe. Chopper? Possibly. But it would give us a good amount of warning.” Well, the choppers would. The drones maybe not so much.
“And if they don’t care? If they think they’re invincible and can take us out regardless?”
“You’re in rare form today.” He pursed his lips. “Then we’ll just have to be prepared for that.”
“How?”
He sighed. “I’ll talk to Gideon, David, and Maya, and we’ll come up with a plan.”
“I’ll be thinking while you’re talking to them, but you need to keep me in the loop, Sully.”
“Of course. You know I will.”
She studied him as though she wasn’t quite sure about that. Then nodded. “Good.”
“I’ll do a perimeter check around this cabin before I come back in.” He hesitated. “Some of the ranch is only accessible by horseback. We’re going to need help patrolling that.”
“That’s a lot of land,” Ollie said, walking into the kitchen and rubbing her eyes.
“It is, but we’ll figure it out.”
“Five hundred acres? Patrolled by horseback?”
“Some of it. A lot of it is drivable. Golf carts would work.”
“Hmm. Well, one square mile is six hundred forty acres.”
“Yes.” He frowned. Where was she going with this?
“Five hundred acres is . . .” She scrunched her nose for a full two seconds then said, “about zero point seven eight square miles if it’s square shaped. That’s roughly zero point eight eight miles on each side. Multiply that by four . . . about a three-and-a-half-mile perimeter.”
Her mind was pretty amazing. “It’s not square, more rectangular.”
“Then the perimeter could be somewhere between three and five miles.”
“True.” He paused, then narrowed his eyes. “Where are you going with this?”
“A horse moving three to four miles per hour would take forty-five minutes to a little over an hour to make one perimeter pass. At five miles per hour? Maybe forty minutes. But that’s not counting terrain, weather, trail conditions—stuff like that.”
Piper gaped. Sully managed not to, but barely. He cleared his throat. “And if we’re in a vehicle going a little faster, we could lower that time.”
“Or just assign people certain areas to check,” the teen said. “And the whole thing’s done in like five minutes.”
“That’s where my mind was going,” Sully said.
“But mine got there first.” She tossed him a cheeky grin and her eyes twinkled for a moment. The innocence in that look made his heart ache. They had to protect her.
“On that note, smarty-pants, I’m gone.”
“I’ve got Ollie,” Piper said.
He shut the door behind him and headed toward the main house, his mind on Ollie and how to do best by her.
She was an extraordinary kid, and frankly, he wanted to see where she would wind up in life.
God, please protect her. The prayer slipped out before he could bite it back.
He sighed. Guess he was going to be on speaking terms with the Almighty whether he wanted to or not.
And he did. He just wished . . . well, it didn’t matter what he wished.
He just prayed that whatever plan God had, he was working it so that everyone Sully cared about was safe.
Losing his partner had gutted him. Losing Ollie?
Well, he couldn’t take another hit like that.
The crunch of snow under his boots blended with the sounds of the ranch. A horse whinnied and another answered. A gate to the pasture slammed shut. Birds chittered in the trees and fluttered around the feeders.
Movement near the tree line caught his eye—a startled jerk of motion near a tree.
An animal? Or a person? Not about to take any chances that someone had snuck onto the property, he changed direction, keeping his eyes on the area.
The figure froze, then bolted, and Sully caught a glimpse of dark clothing disappearing into the deeper shadows of the forest. “Hey, federal agent! Stop!”
The person ignored him. Of course they did. He continued the pursuit and started gaining, getting close enough he could hear their ragged breathing. A branch snapped back, nearly catching him in the face.
He ducked and stumbled forward. She—because with the smaller frame and the way she moved, the intruder had to be a woman—appeared to be running blind, zigzagging, trying to throw him off her trail.
She scrambled over a fallen log, then veered a sharp left.
No strategic movements now—just the desire to put a lot of distance between them.
He continued to gain on her until she dove through a thicket, thorns catching at her clothes.
He had to slow down to navigate the same thing, trying not to draw blood, and in those precious seconds, she vanished.
He pulled up and did a careful sweep, weapon ready, but the tracks were everywhere now, a crisscross of footprints in the snow showing how she’d scrambled in multiple directions, possibly trying to confuse her trail—or simply trying to figure out which way to go.
A black ball cap lay in the snow, a dark splash against the white. No doubt it had been snagged by a thorny branch and pulled off her head. The fact that she left it said she really didn’t want to be caught.
Sully picked up the hat. A blank Velcro rectangle stared back at him. A place for military or law enforcement patches. A tac hat. Interesting. He pulled out his phone and called Maya while his gaze swept the area. “We’ve got a situation here. Someone was watching the house.”
“Watching it? You ask him why?”
“It’s a her, from what I could tell. And no, I didn’t get a chance to ask her.
When she spotted me, she ran. I chased her but lost her near the northwest section.
I’ve no idea if she’s armed or not, so be careful if you spot her.
She left behind a black tac hat.” She could have gotten the hat from anywhere.
“Are you sure she’s not someone who works here?” Maya asked.
“I realize I don’t know all the staff here, but why would one of them want to avoid me seeing them?”
“Could be someone was triggered by something and having a PTSD moment. If so, we definitely need to find her. Let’s see if anyone is missing.” She sighed. “If it’s not that, then I agree, it’s weird.”
Sully nodded. “All right, you get a head count. Anyone else you can ask to help out with the search?”
“A few.”