Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Especially with seven men at my back.
Seven huge, tattooed, men.
“You okay?” Griffin asked me, placing a hand on my backside for a short time before taking it away again.
I nodded, took a deep breath, then released it.
“If anyone knows what it’s like to be lost, it’s me. So I’ll search for the girl, but I’m not promising I’ll be able to get very close to the water,” I answered honestly.
“The tracks run straight from your dock into the woods,” Griffin said. “We know she’s on the property somewhere, and there was a trail of blood on the doc leading into the woods before the trail was lost. So they know she’s at least pretty far from the water now that they’ve been looking for the last hour.”
I’d wondered how they knew she was on my father’s property.
It made sense that Griffin would know.
He was the only one dressed for ‘work’ in faded blue jeans, a long sleeved chambray shirt, and his cowboy hat.
He even had his pretty badge tucked next to the gun at his hip.
“Is it normal for you to be in town so much?” I asked as we looked.
“I was stationed here by my boss. I’m not supposed leave the forty square mile area surrounding Uncertain without explicit permission from my superiors,” he answered.
I wanted to roll my eyes.
The man at my side did whatever the hell he wanted, and didn’t ask permission from anyone.
“And why are you stationed here? I would think this area would be a gray zone. There’s nothing here,” I said.
I’d been wondering this for a while.
There was literally nothing here.
Why wouldn’t he be stationed somewhere further South, like Houston? Or possibly north, like Dallas?
He hummed, stooping down to look at a track on the ground before standing and answering.
“The river,” he answered, adding no explanation.
“That sure clears up a whole lot,” I said dryly.
He turned his head to the side, and smiled at me.
My heart started to flutter.
“The waterway is a breeding ground for criminals. The rivers and bayous go from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up here crossing through Caddo Lake. It travels through Louisiana on the way down, which makes it a perfect shipping route for illegal goods,” he answered.
I blinked.
“You’re shitting me,” I said, stepping over a log.
Griffin steadied me as I moved to the other side before gracefully following me over.
But it was the man named Mig that answered.
“You remember that big weapon shipment that was caught just north of here?” Mig asked.
I nodded my head. It had been big news at the time. A huge bust, and the cops had been astonished when they found it.
The weapons had been stashed in the hull of a boat behind a layer of spray foam. The many assault rifles they discovered were each individually wrapped in plastic to protect them from the foam.
“Yeah,” I nodded my head. “I do.”
“That was shipped from the Gulf by a couple of Cubans looking for a huge payout. They traveled all the way up the Red River and were in the heart of Texas without ever being noticed. Caddo regulars all the way down remembered seeing the boat, and called in the tip once they spotted the boat on the news,” Mig explained.
My eyes widened. “That’s amazing.”
“It’s fucked is what it is. This body of water needs a fucking weigh station that can stop boats just like the highways do with large trucks. They also need some dogs that can sniff out drugs and explosives.”
That was from Wolf.
Griffin, though, nodded in agreement.
“That weapon shipment was one of four apprehended shipments last month. Those are just the ones we knew about. There are probably hundreds more that pass through here with some type of illegal cargo,” Ridley offered his two cents.
I mixed up Ridley and Casten when I glanced at them really quickly. The more you studied the two, though, the differences became more apparent.
They looked incredibly alike, although I was assured by Alison that they weren’t related at all.
Both were around six three or four with dark blonde hair. Both had brown eyes, the same hairline, and a cleft chin.
Ridley, though, was the one with the perfectly manicured goatee while Casten had a well maintained beard.
“Have they learned the kid’s name yet?” Peek called over from his position about ten feet away.
“They must not know because no one’s calling her name,” I said, thinking that was the reason.
“The girl’s deaf. That’s why no one’s bothering to call her name. Her name’s Lucy,” Griffin corrected.
I blinked.
“Well…that’s just sucky.” I then added, “How do you know all this?”
“The man that was with her, the brother, told us before he was transferred to the hospital. The brother thinks that the girl went in search of help. Another boater found the brother clinging to the cooler that came out of the boat,” Wolf said.
I nodded.
Made sense.
And it was eerily familiar.
Hopefully nothing happened to the girl, though.
“We’re nearly at the back of the property,” I said, stopping when I hit the back corner. “This property,” I said, indicating the other side of the fence with my thumb, “Belongs to Old Man Johns. He’s the one that lives on the other side of the road that runs along my father’s house.”
“His property crosses the road?” Griffin asked.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“We should send someone over to check that,” Wolf said as he scanned the area.
I shook my head.
“No, you won’t. He’s got all kinds of traps covering his property. I wouldn’t go on it if my life depended on it. The girl is on this side of the property if she’s anywhere,” I said in disagreement.
“How do you know that?” Mig challenged.
I pointed at the fence, then picked up a worm that was lying on the ground and laid it on the fence.
The worm got zapped by the electric fence before it fell to the ground underneath.
“That’s why,” I answered. “Old Man John doesn’t like anyone on his property, so he’s made it as difficult as he could to allow anyone access to it.”