AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Judge laughed out loud, grabbed her around the waist and swung her around. Then he set her feet on the floor and held out his hand.
She gripped it firmly. “Deal?”
“Deal,” he said, all laughter gone, his face composed and serious.
Drake frowned. “What’s the condition?”
Judge smiled. “One worth living for. So, I’m counting on you and the rest of the guys.”
“Do you have a pen and paper?” PJ asked.
“No, but there’s a marker and whiteboard on the wall Dezi uses for her grocery list.”
PJ walked to the whiteboard and wrote an address across the blank space. When she turned, she looked at Drake. “That’s where my family lives. Please. Keep them safe.”
Drake nodded. “I’ll go myself. But how will you let us know where we’ll meet to bait the TCW leader?”
Judge patted the cell phone in his pocket. “I’ll call or text. Be ready. We only have forty hours to make this happen.”
“I’ll also let you know the location of the current camp,” PJ said. “But right now, we’re living on borrowed time. I’m surprised TCW hasn’t launched their attack on the lodge to get to Judge. We need to get out of here before they do.”
“I could turn on the floodlights in front and wake the guys,” Drake offered.
“If you wake them, do it in stealth mode,” Judge said. “For this to work, Augustus has to trust PJ to come alone with me. They have to think she’s tricked me into coming with her, and then that she’s turned on me out of loyalty to the cause.”
PJ snorted. “I’m still not sure what the cause is.”
“I’m not convinced Augustus knows what it is,” Judge said.
“How are you getting out of here?” Drake asked.
“My truck is tucked into the trees a tenth of a mile down that road,” she said. “Should we go for it or head out on foot?”
Judge shook his head. “They might have tagged the truck with a tracking device. I would if I were them. I have a better idea, and it’ll be a lot more fun.”
“You’re insane,” Drake said. “Being shot at is never fun.”
Judge grinned. “It is if you’re doing it my way.”
Chapter 17
Judge and PJ slipped out the kitchen door and hugged the side of the building, staying in the shadows.
“See that building over there?” he whispered, nodding toward a large metal building half-hidden in the trees south of the lodge. “That’s the maintenance shed where they keep the mowers, tractors and ATVs they use to check the outer edges of the lodge property. This place sits on eighty acres, backing up against the mountain to the west and a national forest to the south—which means no fences.”
She frowned. “ATVs?”
He nodded. “They could be lined up on the road into the lodge, waiting for us to pass through.”
“Those were my thoughts as well.” PJ smiled. “ATVs will get us past them and away from the lodge.”
Judge walked to the corner of the building and peered out at the parking lot and the road leading in. Nothing moved; no shadows shifted. He backed away from the corner. “To take the heat off the lodge and the people inside, we’ll want them to know we left. If they’re out there, they’ll hear the sound of the ATV motors and come to see what’s going on.”
“We can head toward the road then cut into the woods,” she said, nodding. “They won’t be able to follow without ATVs.”
“That’s the plan.” He backtracked to the end of the lodge and followed the base of the mountain, moving in the shadows cast by the ridge above and then slipping into the trees surrounding the shed.
PJ followed, her rifle at the ready, covering Judge’s six. Judge believed in her, trusted her and never once expected her to put a bullet in his back. What they were about to do scared the hell out of him. Not for his sake but for her sake. In that moment, he realized he would die for this woman he knew almost nothing about. He didn’t know her history, where she was from, if she liked sweet pickles or sour pickles, beer or wine, mountains or beaches. None of that mattered. He knew her heart. She was a good person with strength, honor and love in her heart for others.
