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Wiley shook his head. “Sorry, but the task has already been assigned.”
Her heartbeat stuttered. “Who are they sending?”
Wiley’s lips twisted. “That’s not your concern. Right now, all you need to focus on is helping get this camp up and running. And you’re right, you do need to redeem yourself. Tiberius wants you watched. His confidence in your abilities has been shaken. You’ll need to find another way to earn back his respect and trust.” Wiley turned and walked away.
PJ stood still, trying to force air back into her lungs.
They were sending someone out to eliminate Judge. And she could do nothing to stop it. Had she helped him escape only to set him up as their next target?
Chapter 11
Judge had been back in Eagle Rock for a week, and still, no information had surfaced on the location of The Chosen Way’s new camp.
Hank had promised he’d be the first to know if they heard or found anything. He’d even updated him daily with the disappointing news that nothing had been found.
Meanwhile, Judge had thrown himself back into the renovations of the Lucky Lady Lodge, helping with the final touches before the grand opening on Saturday.
Molly and Parker Bailey had insisted on the opening date being Saturday since it was the one-year anniversary of the day her father, who’d been kidnapped, had been found. Saturday also commemorated the day the mine behind the lodge had exploded, making much of the lodge temporarily uninhabitable.
If not for Molly and Parker’s belief the old girl could be saved, the Lucky Lady Lodge would have been torn down.
Instead, she’d been brought back to life with much of her original 1800’s charm.
Already they had rooms reserved for the huge party, which would be open to the public, especially to the residents of Eagle Rock, for them to see what they’d accomplished and revisit a place that had been a part of their lives.
Judge needed the hard work to take his mind off PJ and where TCW had moved to now. He worked from early in the morning to late at night after the rest of his team had called it a day and gone to bed.
With the next day being the last full day left before the grand opening, there were a lot of little things that needed to be tied up, like tacking down a bit of carpet on one of the staircases, fixing a light that wasn’t working, installing a vent in one of the guest bathrooms, painting the trim in a conference room or caulking a newly installed window.
The punch list had been long, but between all his team members, they’d knocked out most of the items on it.
Judge worked on the trim paint until after midnight, finally calling it a night when he ran out of paint on the last section of trim. He cleaned his paintbrush and turned off the light. As he headed for his room, he detoured to the dining room and into the kitchen, looking for a sandwich and a beer.
He found Drake seated at a table in the kitchen with a half-eaten sandwich on the plate in front of him.
“Why are you up so late?” Judge asked, heading for the refrigerator where they kept deli meats and condiments.
“I could ask you the same question,” Drake said. “You haven’t slowed down since you got back from Kalispell.”
“There’s a lot to get done before Saturday,” Judge hedged.
“Yeah. That’s not why you’re working this late.” Drake sat back and lifted his beer. “What else is eating you?”
Judge laid out two slices of bread, slapped some deli ham on one piece, squirted mustard and mayo over the other slice of bread and laid it on top of the ham. Only then did he look up. “How can that many vehicles and people just disappear? I keep going over everything in my mind, and I can’t think of anything I could’ve done differently to stay with them and save Mud.”
“You did the only thing anyone with a conscience would’ve done,” Drake said. “You have to stop beating yourself up about it.”
Judge nodded. “I know, but I can’t help it. PJ’s still stuck in that nightmare. Augustus and Tiberius are crazy radicals. What they’re doing is wrong. Those people have been wrongfully detained and are being forced to do things they wouldn’t normally do because of the threat of harm to their loved ones back home.”
“You can’t save everyone,” Drake said.
Judge glared at his friend. “We can sure as hell try.”
A smile spread across Drake’s face. “Swede’s good at finding lost people and things. Give him a minute.”
“We’ve given him a lot of minutes and still…nothing.” Judge turned to the refrigerator, his fists balled, wishing he could hit something. Instead, he pulled out a beer, grabbed his sandwich and sat across the table from Drake. “Doing nothing is killing me.”
“I can see that,” Drake said. “The good news is that Chuck is bringing Mud to Eagle Rock. Hank convinced Child and Family Services Division to temporarily release Mud into his care. He told them the boy was in danger and that he’d need twenty-four-hour security until his abductors were caught.”
