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“Where are we?”
“Almost to the beach.”
“But the fight is scheduled at Midland Bay Park. Wasn’t the beach a ruse for your boss?”
“We’ll get there.” He tried to smile. “With Bingham watching, I couldn’t just pack up my field gear without tipping him off.”
“You don’t have to buy more. There’s gear at my family’s lodge and that’s closer to the park.”
He pointed toward the rows of storage units in front of them. “Not buying, just restocking. Besides, if they caught on and stationed someone to watch the hunting lodge, our celebratory weekend cover story is busted.”
She grinned. “I could convince anyone that a hunting weekend is plenty of celebration for me.”
It was an answer he would’ve considered ideal if the situation was different. “Come on,” he said, feeling his mouth tilt to mirror hers. “It won’t take me long.”
He opened the lock on the door and hit the light switch, urging her to go first. There wasn’t much cause for worry that anyone would find out about his stash. He rented this unit a year at a time under his mother’s maiden name. “Holy cow,” she murmured. “It’s an armory.”
“That was the idea.”
She reached up, admiring, but not letting herself touch the rifles on the wall. “Your boss doesn’t know anything about this?”
“Until today, no one besides me knew about this.”
“Can I have a gun?” She didn’t take her gaze away from the choices on the wall. “Please.” Turning, her eyes were bright as a five-year-old at Christmas. “I don’t mean forever, just for tonight.”
He shook his head. “You’ll have the camera.”
She sent him an overdone pout, then resumed her perusal while he gathered up pants, a jacket, gloves, and boots. She didn’t miss it when he added a small hand gun along with a silencer to the bag. Interesting. Plenty of ammunition for both his private and official weapons.
It would only be the two of them and he wanted to be sure he could protect her. “Take a knife,” he suggested. “In case something goes wrong.”
“That’s a sweet offer, but I have one packed in the camera bag.”
“Smart girl.”
“Woman,” she corrected.
She had a point. While he had several years and lots more hard miles than she did, she was still an intelligent adult. Without her skills and attention to detail, Lester might never have been connected to the dogfighting ring, but they needed more than a cracked email code to bring him to trial.
Hopefully their appearance at the shelter and their reactions to the intruder at his house would give Bingham something to worry about.
Less than ten minutes later he was loaded up and they were on the road again. He felt better about their plan, but Heather grew quiet once more. “What are you thinking about?”
“Tonight. Maybe you should take someone else with you to observe tonight’s atrocities.” Her brown eyes were cold, her jaw hard with pent up stress and anger.
“You’re thinking about the missing dogs.”
“It’s impossible not to,” she admitted. “You’ve said it yourself, I’m a civilian. What if I blow this and everyone walks away?”
“Then Lester and all his associates keep on fighting dogs.”
She folded her arms across her chest, but it didn’t stop the shiver rippling over her body.
“Nerves are normal,” he said, recalling what his mentors had told him on his first operations. He could take the camera and the gun and just get the evidence while she lounged around at the hotel. It wasn’t a bad plan, aside from the inherent problems of going into the unknown alone with a bum leg. But this woman knew the rural areas, she knew more about the dogfighting system than anyone outside of it, and she was the only person he wanted at his back tonight.
Christ, where had that thought come from? Must have sprouted from desperate rationalization. Maybe it was a residual from some wayward positive thinking exercise. Whether he wanted her there or not, he didn’t have any other choice tonight.
He didn’t know who to trust in his office and he didn’t want to put anyone else’s head on the proverbial chopping block. It was go out there with Heather and her camera or go out there alone and handicapped.
