An image of glossy, dark curls and intelligent eyes flashed through his mind, along with an unexpected pang of envy. Smoke, Heff, and Mad Dog were lucky men, having found women who not only suited them, but made them happy as well. Cage didn’t hold out hope for the impossible even if a certain reporter had sparked an interest he hadn’t felt in a long time. Unlike Sam, Sandy, and Kate, Bree De Rossi would be heading back to the West Coast in a matter of days. Even if he were inclined to pursue the possibilities, time wasn’t on his side.
“Fair enough.”
Cage tapped a few keys and zoomed in. “There’s Petraski and Joe Eisenheiser,” he said, identifying the only two full-time officers of the Sumneyville PD. “No big surprise there. Recognize anyone else?”
“That’s David Yocum,” Smoke said, pointing to one of the figures operating a manual forklift loaded with unmarked crates. “He manages the apartment building in town. The others, no.”
“I’m recording the surveillance video, so it’ll be easy enough to get still shots of everyone there and run them through facial recognition software. If they’ve got so much as a driver’s license, we can identify them. We can pass the intel to the Callaghans. They’ve been around a lot longer than we have. They might know something.”
“I’m glad the Callaghans are on our side.”
Cage agreed wholeheartedly.
He’d met Ian through a fortuitous crossing of paths years earlier, when he was still active duty, and several of Ian’s brothers since then. Having them within a stone’s throw of Sumneyville had been an unexpected perk of signing on with Church. Not only were the Callaghans powerful allies, but they also had access to tech that hadn’t even been released yet.
“Especially with these yahoos in our backyard,” Cage said, lifting his chin toward the screen. “Why the sudden stash clearance, do you think?”
Smoke considered the question for several long moments before he answered, “Maybe someone stumbled onto something they shouldn’t have, and he’s moving the evidence. We know Freed’s got his inner circle. The rest of the preppers are just extras, cast to make the scene more legit.”
The theory was a good one.
“Could be. Or he might be trying to liquidate some of his inventory. With Renninger in the IRS’s crosshairs, they’re probably strapped for cash. He’s got to pay the bills somehow, and a crooked police chief isn’t going to have pockets deep enough to keep a compound like that up and running.”
“The other possibility is, Freed’s getting paranoid about having all his eggs in one basket, maybe even thinks he has a mole. They could be distributing their stash to a secondary backup location in case the compound is compromised, someplace fewer people know about.”
“Another mine?”
“That’d be my guess. Like Church said, the mountain’s riddled with them.”
On screen, the men in the compound continued to work quickly, systematically loading the crates into the back of an old delivery truck and then going back for more. Cage zoomed in on the vehicle and took close-up snapshots of the license.
“Well, let’s put a tracker on this guy and find out.”
Chapter Seventeen
Cage
Cage couldn’t deny that his desire to see Gabriella De Rossi had only increased. The more he discovered, the more he wanted to know.
The dining room was empty; the others had had their breakfasts and left. Cage poured himself another cup of coffee and stared at his phone, weighing the pros and cons of contacting Bree. Church had made it clear that any further interaction would be solely his choice.
“Still haven’t asked her out yet, huh?” Sam set her own mug down on the table and sat down across from him.
Cage liked Sam. Had since the first time Smoke brought her to the site. She was the perfect match for his quiet, serious friend and had a secret coffee-bean blend they’d all become addicted to.
“No,” he confirmed. “I’m not sure I should.”
“Why not? Don’t you like her?”
That’s the problem, he thought miserably. He did like Bree. Maybe a little too much for a woman he’d just met.
She was the first woman to stir his interest in a long time. Worse, his cyberstalking made him think crazy thoughts, like they might have some kind of connection based on an eerily similar past. How many attractive, available Italian girls who had walked away from organized crime families did he come across?
At least, he believed that she’d left that life behind. Legally changing her name to her mother’s maiden name and moving across the country were pretty good indicators.
He lifted his gaze to meet Sam’s, unsure of how to explain that. Thankfully, he didn’t have to.
“Ah,” Sam said quietly, connecting the dots. “It was like that for me, too. I think that was one of the reasons I avoided Steve when we first met. I felt different around him than I did around others, you know?”
Yeah, he knew.
“I didn’t want to admit that, not to myself or anyone else—especially when I didn’t believe for a minute that anything could come of it.”
He understood that, too. Nothing could come of it because Bree was only in town for a few days. Plus, she was probably more interested in getting inside information than she was in him. He told Sam as much.
She listened and then nodded thoughtfully. “I see what you’re saying. But let me ask you this: if you don’t see her again, won’t you always wonder about the what-ifs?”
Sam had a valid point.
“You guys put a lot of stock in your instincts, right?”
He nodded.
“What is yours telling you?”
That Bree De Rossi fascinates me, and I want to know more. Aloud, he said, “Thanks, Sam.”
“Anytime. And, Cage? Stop overthinking it. I saw the way she was looking at you. You’ll do just fine.”
“What do you mean, you saw the way she was looking at me? You weren’t around when I was giving her the tour.”
Sam’s cheeks flushed red. “No, but Sandy and I were watching on the surveillance cameras in the war room.”
Cage narrowed
