Page 40 of Keeper of Talon Mountain
At 3 AM, Zeke calls again. "Caleb Thompson just reported an attempted grab outside the Grizzly. Two men, federal bearing, tried to force him into a vehicle. He fought them off, but one of them mentioned your name, Gabe."
My throat tightens. "Is he okay?"
"Pissed off and looking for a fight. Holed up at the sheriff's office now because I won't let him go hunting. But Gabe—they're escalating. Whatever you're planning, you’d better do it fast."
After we hang up, Sarah's expression is grim. "Crane's getting desperate. Running out of time. That makes him more dangerous."
"Then we don't give him any more time." I look around the room at these people—Sarah and her team, Mara, even Zeke on the other end of that phone line. People risking everything to help me fix my mistakes. "We move at dawn. Hit the bank, make the exchange, and end this before anyone else gets hurt."
"Agreed," Sarah says.
The team disperses to prep gear and catch a few hours of sleep. Mara and I retreat to her room. Neither of us bothers pretending we'll actually sleep.
She sits on the edge of the bed, and I kneel in front of her, hands on her thighs. "Tomorrow...”
"We survive tomorrow." She cuts me off. "Then we figure out what comes after."
"And if we don't?"
"Then at least we tried." Her fingers thread through my hair. "Better than waiting for them to come through the door."
I pull her closer, resting my head against her stomach. Her heartbeat steady and strong. Real. The one constant in all this chaos.
"When this is over," I say quietly, "I want to remember everything. Not just the missions or the evidence. Everything. Including how we started."
"The blizzard?"
"Before that. Why I ended up on this mountain. Why I chose to run here instead of anywhere else." I look up at her. "I think some part of me knew. Even with the amnesia. Knew this was where I needed to be."
She doesn't answer, just holds me tighter.
She kisses me then, soft and fierce and desperate. We don't make love. We simply hold each other in the darkness, drawing strength and comfort, preparing for whatever tomorrow brings.
Somewhere in the lodge, Sarah sleeps with her tactical gear within arm's reach. Outside, hidden in the treeline beyond Crane's surveillance range, the Echo Ridge team maintains a cold watch—thermal dampening blankets wrapped tight, no fires, no lights, just three operators invisible to both eyes and sensors in the Montana night.
Fifty-three hours left on Crane's deadline.
At dawn, everything changes.
13
MARA
Dawn comes too fast and too slow at the same time.
Gabe moves through the lodge in the grey pre-light, checking weapons and equipment with methodical precision. Each movement deliberate—magazine checked, chamber cleared, sights verified. Sarah mirrors him across the room, the same economical gestures, the same tactical rhythm. They move like siblings even if Gabe doesn't fully remember. The resemblance is there in small ways—the set of their shoulders, the way they both tilt their heads slightly when concentrating.
Rhett and Colton left three hours ago, ghosts disappearing into the darkness. By now they're halfway to Anchorage, racing against business hours and whatever surveillance Crane has on financial institutions. Alex remains outside somewhere in the predawn cold, invisible in his hide with overwatch and communications. I haven't seen him since they arrived, which Sarah says is exactly the point.
"You don't have to come." Gabe says it without looking at me, his hands steady as he secures a knife to his belt.
"We've been over this."
"Mara...”
"I said no." My rifle leans against the wall—my grandmother's old hunting rifle, kept at the lodge all these years. The wood stock is worn smooth from decades of use, first by her hands, now by mine. "You're walking into a trap. You need someone watching your back who isn't Crane's primary target."
Sarah glances up from her tablet, satellite imagery of Grotto Falls glowing on the screen. "She's right. Crane expects you and me. He won't be looking for a third shooter. Won't have planned for her."
