Page 68 of Warrior Security
She stepped closer.
“All of it. And don’t leave anything out.”
Chapter 20
Lark
I’d never been inside the Warrior Security office. I’d driven past the building a hundred times on trips to Resting Warrior Ranch, dropped off animals for therapy sessions, waved at Hunter through the window. But I’d never had a reason to walk through the door.
Now I was sitting at a long table under fluorescent lights at three in the morning with a county map spread between my elbows and a fury in my chest that hadn’t dimmed since Logan told me what he suspected was happening on my land.
Someone had been using my property to move drugs through the county. My land. My fences, my back roads, my shed that I’d been meaning to clear out for five years.
I couldn’t do a damn thing about the mortgage or the grants or Pinnacle Property Group. But this, I could fight. And I was going to with every tool available to me.
The sharpest ones being the men who belonged to this office.
The door opened, and Beckett came in, hair pushed back like he hadn’t even bothered to try to fix it since it was three a.m. He dropped into a chair across from me and looked at my face for a second longer than he needed to before his normal smile showed up.
“Hey, Lark.”
“Hey, yourself. Sorry about the wake-up call.”
“Don’t be. Sleep is overrated.” He glanced at Logan, then back at me. “How are you doing with all this? I had to force Audra not to stow away in my truck to come check on you.”
I tried to smile myself, but I couldn’t. “I’m pissed off, Beckett.”
“Don’t blame you a bit there.”
Cooper came in behind him. He nodded at me once, pulled out a chair, and sat down. No rush, no tension. His eyes moved around the room and took in everything without hurrying past any of it.
Travis was already on the big monitor mounted on the far wall. I could see the glow of multiple screens behind him and a Red Bull beside his keyboard. His hair fell across his forehead, and he hadn’t bothered pushing it back. He’d been mid-sentence with Hunter about satellite coverage when Sera appeared behind him and leaned into the frame.
“Hi, Lark. Sorry to hear about all this.”
It was good to see my friend’s face. “Hey, girl. Thanks.”
She squeezed Travis’s shoulder and disappeared from the screen. Travis kept talking without missing a beat.
Hunter stood at the head of the table with his arms crossed. He’d been the first one here, had the building open and the lights on before Logan and I pulled in. The maps were already out. He didn’t raise his voice and he didn’t need to. Every person in the room was already oriented toward him.
The last person through the door was Lachlan, Garnett Bend’s sheriff. He wore jeans and boots, his badge clipped to his belt instead of a uniform. He caught my eye as he sat down and gave me a nod that carried more weight than a greeting should at this hour.
I’d known Lachlan for years, even before he took over as sheriff. He’d always been steady, solid. He showed up at Pawsitive fundraisers and knew every animal by name. Seeing him here, at this table, at this hour, made the back of my neck prickle.
This was real, all of it. The fury bubbled back to the surface, and I struggled to keep it from erupting.
Logan walked the team through everything: the tire tracks, the cut fence, the shed, what we’d seen tonight. His voice was measured and unhurried. For me, everything felt like such a personal affront, but this was another day at the office for these men. This was what they did. By the time Logan finished, the room had gone quiet in a way that felt operational.
“How many access points off the county route?” Cooper asked.
“One that I’ve seen them use,” Logan said. “South boundary, where the road cuts in through the tree line.”
“Could be others,” Hunter said. “Travis, what are you seeing?”
“Pulling it up now.” Travis’s fingers moved across his keyboard. An aerial image of my property filled a second monitor, grainy but legible. I could make out fence lines, tree cover, the pale rectangle of the barn roof. “Give me the coordinates for the shed, and I’ll overlay the road network.”
Logan gave them from memory. I watched my property appear on the screen, reduced to coordinates and access points, and the fury tightened another notch.
