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She was carrying her purse close to her as if it were an old, trusted friend.
She looked in her early twenties. That was the right age too. The age he liked. And there was an uncertainty in her eyes, an anxiety, that drew his attention like a magnet.
Absolutely perfect, he thought with a surge of satisfaction. He quickly checked the bus stop. Nobody was waiting there. For the moment, this quiet street was empty of people.
It was the window he needed. This was his chance to strike and to take her.
He felt a breathless thrill that his new mission was starting. By far his most exciting one yet. Planning exactly how he would make the grab, he cruised toward her, readying himself for what he needed to do.
Fast, brutal, and then she would be his.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
May's heart accelerated as she turned around, staring down from her tree branch at the second-in-command and seeing Owen do the same. She knew this was a precarious situation. They had been told firmly and unconditionally to leave. Now, they were being confronted by a renegade militia man who she feared might take his own laws into his own hands.
He looked angry, furious in fact. One trigger happy moment would be all it would take for herself or Owen to be seriously injured or even killed. No doubt there would be consequences for him, too, but that didn't seem to concern him as he aimed the shotgun squarely at May's chest while she climbed down and stood next to Owen.
"Well, this is a surprise," he hissed, in a tone that told May it wasn't a surprise at all, and that in fact he'd anticipated they might do something like this. "It's you, back again? Spying on us? Were you hoping to see us moving illegal contraband? Is that what you're doing?"
"If you're moving illegal contraband then you are, in fact, breaking the law," May argued back.
"You're on our land. On our grounds. After we told you to leave. You don't have a warrant. You don't have a right to be here. What’s so fine and upstanding about that?"
May was feeling very worried by that shotgun. His finger looked way too tight on the trigger. She knew that he might shoot at any moment.
“We were up a tree. Not on your land.”
“The branch overhung the fence. Therefore, you were on our land.”
That was going to lead to a pointless semantic argument, May realized, deciding to stay quiet as he raged on. "You copsare all the same. You are just looking to cause trouble, to trip people up, to arrest innocent citizens. Nothing we're doing here is illegal! Nothing!"
He yelled at them, the shotgun barrel swinging from one to the other.
"Put the gun down," May said, trying to keep her voice calm. She doubted very much that all the activities here were above board. In fact, just his presence here now, looking for them to come back, indicated that there were good reasons they didn’t want the cops prying around.
"Why should I? You were trespassing. We told you to leave. You didn't."
"And you're trying to hide what you're doing from the police!" Owen retaliated, and May could see that he'd just about reached snapping point.
The man lowered his gun. Then he stepped forward and shoved Owen hard. "Get out of our territory!" he snarled.
Caught off balance, Owen stumbled back. But then, he regrouped, stepping forward, looking livid. "What are you doing inside here? Where are they? The women? Because if you've got them here, if you're holding them, then you are the worst kind of criminal!"
He stepped forward, grabbed the man's shoulder, and shoved him right back again.
"Stop it!" May cried. This entire situation had gone too far. It had spiraled all the way out of control, and now, with Owen and the militia man going head-to-head, there could easily be a disaster.
But to her surprise, it was as if the man had barely noticed Owen's actions. Instead, he seemed confused and appalled by his words.
"Women? What the hell are you talking about?" he spluttered.
May stepped in, deciding that calmness could help to stop this situation from exploding, and that right now, she had the coolest head out of the three of them.
"That's what we came here for,” she said to him firmly. “We're investigating a very serious case. A number of women—six, at least—have been kidnapped in the past few weeks and are being held in an underground bunker location that is in the woods. In this area. Their lives are in danger. So, since you clearly have an underground storage facility, we are getting visual proof of it to confirm the urgency of our application before we go and get a warrant," May said firmly.
She was wondering what the man's reaction would be. Rage was her most likely guess. She thought he would be enraged by her words. Furious. And defensive, too, if he was guilty, and if they were being held here by the militia. Ultimately though, she’d had no choice but to follow the steps of the law and stand up for her authority as a policewoman.
But to her surprise, the second-in-command did not look enraged. Rather, he looked appalled.
