Both of my kids are worthless.
He would run the business alone.
Chapter Forty-Five
Maya and Josh pulled up near the Ray Ranch. They would assess the scene from an area where they could see the ranch, but not be seen. That way they could still respond if needed, but it would be better to wait for backup. Josh had called in the closest SWAT team. The response time would be about forty-five minutes.
That could be too long. This might all be over before SWAT arrived.
Maya still wanted to confront Josh. He should have told her everything. This wasn’t the time to interrogate him, but if he was the informant, she had to be careful too. She and Juniper could be in danger.
She had learned in battle that strategy and surprise could go a long way. She had Juniper, and the K-9 could give them the upper hand. Sometimes people gave up once the dog was present. Somehow, though, she didn’t think the Rays would just surrender.
Maya jumped out of her vehicle and started grabbing important equipment, including her shotgun, M4, and portable radio. She wanted all these items accessible in case the Rays had a way to destroy the patrol cars. She put on Juniper’s leash and brought her out. All three of them gathered in an area not too far from the patrol vehicles and hidden by a stand of pine trees.
Josh took out his binoculars and began scanning in the direction of the Rays’ ranch.
“What do you see?” Maya asked.
“We have ourselves a situation. I see Jenna Ray on the ground, Carson is aiming a gun at her. The lady we pulled over also has a gun. She’s pointing her gun at Carson. Nice standoff going on.”
“Shit,” Maya said. “We may need to move in.”
“We need to wait for backup. I think if they were going to shoot Carson, they would have. And it’s just the two, I mean three of us,” Josh said, nodding at Juniper, “against who knows how many. We need to wait.”
“Any sign of Pops?”
“No.”
“Damn it,” Maya muttered.
“He’s probably inside somewhere. If he’s here.”
“Where else would Jenna have him?”
“I don’t know,” Josh conceded. “Look, let’s see if we can hike in closer and get a better look. I have a couple deputies responding. They should be here soon.”
“This whole thing could be over by then.”
“True, but let’s be smart about this.”
“We can sneak in and set ourselves up for a better response. Let your deputies know that they can meet here and start setting up a command post. Maybe we can get a phone in for negotiations,” Maya said.
Josh put his binoculars down. “Yeah, you’re right. If you flank them from the west with Juniper and I come in from the east, behind the building, we can back each other up. What we don’t know is how many militia members are there waiting and watching. We could be ambushed and outnumbered.”
Or if you’re the informant, Juniper and I could be ambushed.
The sound of a gunshot echoed through the valley. Maya grabbed the binoculars and stared through them. No one appeared to be shot, except for a tree that had taken the brunt of the bullet’s impact. “Shot fired. We should move in. Are you sure you don’t know how many militia members are down there?”
“How would I know that?”
“Just asking.”
“Let’s at least get in closer and disable their vehicles. That’s a good start. Especially the rental car. We need to start thinking about containing this scene. No one is down, so we need backup or else this is a suicide mission,” Josh said.
Maya stayed quiet. The less she said to Josh, the better, since she didn’t know if she could depend on him. She would figure out her own plan—one that kept Josh from surprising her. She agreed they needed backup, but she also wanted to know if Pops was inside. If he was, the longer he was there, the more his life was at risk.
Thunder echoed down the valley, sounding like battle drums. A few drops of rain started to fall. Maya wiped away the beads of water on her face. Her body shook with a chill. Whether it was from the cool rain or the situation, she wasn’t sure. Bad weather wouldn’t help them right now. Visibility could be difficult, and lightning posed another threat.