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“I can get you there,” Penny assured her. “Hop in.” She hit the unlock button.
The woman closed the SUV’s hood, reached inside the driver’s side for her purse then closed the door. She climbed into Penny’s passenger seat and gave her a weak smile. “I really appreciate the ride.”
“No problem,” Penny held out her hand. “My name’s Penny.”
The stranger shook her hand. “I’m Linda. Nice to meet you.”
“Where are you going in Eagle Rock?” Penny asked as she shifted into drive and drove away from the SUV. “I probably know where it is. I grew up in Eagle Rock.”
“Actually, I’m not going all the way to Eagle Rock. There’s a turnoff a few miles further,” Linda said.
Penny glanced in her rearview mirror and frowned. Linda’s vehicle had moved into the road behind Penny’s car. “What the— Isn’t that you’re SUV?”
Linda glanced in her side mirror. “Dang. It sure looks like it.” Her lips quirked upward, and her eyes narrowed as she reached into her purse and pulled out a gun.
Penny’s heart flipped, and her foot lifted from the accelerator. “What the hell?”
“Keep moving, or I’ll shoot you,” Linda said.
Penny had thought she’d left a bad situation in LA. Surviving her ex-boyfriend’s anger ranked right up there with the gun pointed her direction. But she had a bad feeling that her life might just get a whole lot worse.
Chapter 1
Eight months later…
* * *
Joe “Judge” Smith scratched at his beard and pulled his NRA ball cap low on his forehead. The cap, the beard, the gun rack and rifle hanging in the back window of his pickup, along with the white supremacists’ stickers on his bumper were all part of his disguise as he drove through Whitefish, Montana.
Former US Army Delta Force operator, he’d left the military killing and combat situations behind. Or so he’d thought. He’d gone to Eagle Rock, Montana to start a new life with a team of like-minded former military who only wanted to build things with their hands.
They’d hired on as a construction crew, renovating the Lucky Lady Lodge for Molly and Parker Bailey. In the process of restoring the lodge, they’d been involved in one incident after the other where their combat skills had come in handy to protect others and themselves.
Hank Patterson had wanted to hire them for his security agency, the Brotherhood Protectors, but the five men of the Lucky Lady renovation team had politely refused. Yet, here Judge was, back in the thick of the action.
His current mission was to find the new location of remnants of the group calling themselves The Chosen Way, after members of his team and the Brotherhood Protectors had stormed their recruiting and training grounds. They’d freed individuals who’d been brainwashed and trained as soldiers or assassins and captured or killed the leaders who’d been responsible for kidnapping young people to staff their army.
Despite the intelligence they’d gathered, they hadn’t been successful in finding the main man in charge. To stop the practice of abducting innocent young men and women, they needed to find their leader and take him out.
Liza Gray, a young mother, and her daughter had escaped one of the camps with the help of a woman who went by the name, PJ. She hadn’t been among the people captured. They wanted to find and help her, if possible.
They’d also uncovered information about a young woman named Penny Baker, a friend of Molly’s, who’d gone missing months ago on her way home from LA. Her name was noted in The Chosen Way’s master list of recruits.
With the grand reopening of the Lucky Lady Lodge looming and members of The Chosen Way still loose and willing to create more havoc, they’d decided to send out a scout to find the group before they caused more trouble. Only they didn’t want to send members of the Brotherhood Protectors as they’d made such a name for themselves that Hank was afraid they’d be recognized too quickly.
Judge had volunteered to take the lead. It hadn’t been his intention to get involved in bringing down a radical group bent on training an army of assassins, but here he was, armed to the teeth with a .30-06 Springfield rifle in the rack behind him, an AR-15 behind the back seat, a Glock in the shoulder holster concealed beneath his jacket and a .40 caliber handgun in the console.
His job now wasn’t to renovate the Lucky Lady. That work was almost complete. He was to infiltrate The Chosen Way. Hank’s computer guru, Swede, had gathered intelligence from the internet that The Chosen Way was recruiting again in the Whitefish, Montana, area.
Since Hank Patterson’s Brotherhood Protectors were given credit for the takedown of the last known location, the leader of The Chosen Way had done his homework and researched Hank and his organization. Hank had received death threats against him, his family and his entire team.
Since Judge and his team of renovators weren’t officially members of the Brotherhood Protectors, they’d agreed it made sense for them to provide the inside link. Judge had offered to go undercover.
He'd been in Whitefish now for a week, hanging out at the diner and the gun range just outside town.
On Saturday night, Judge pulled into the parking lot of the Last Chance Tavern and shifted into park. He’d run into men he suspected were part of The Chosen Way, a couple of whom he’d seen at the shooting range. particular, One had been helping to train another shooter using an AR-15. He’d followed them both here.
Judge entered the tavern, found an empty table at the back of the bar and sat with his back against the wall. Since he’d come to town, he always chose this table because he had a good vantage point to survey the entire room. The added advantage was the waitress who served that area of the bar. She had sandy-blond hair and pretty brown eyes, and she didn’t put up with guff from rowdy patrons.
