Page 16 of The Scenic Route
“I’ve got this.” Daisy sent a text, and her phone rang seconds later. “Hey, what’s up?” She paused and then answered whoeverwas on the other side of the call. “Because I figured you’d know where our Freedom Survivor friends hang out. Do you?” Smirking a little, she spoke again. “Idon’t need to go there. My new friend, Felicity, needs to go there.”
Felicity was a little surprised she’d been elevated frombrand-new acquaintancetofriendso quickly.
“Because her bail jumper is there—well, it’s likely he’s there.” This time, the pause was shorter. “She’s a bounty hunter. How awesome is that?” Daisy smiled at Felicity, looking positively delighted. “Lou met her first, and then she got the murder club back together.”
Whatever the person on the other end of the call said made Daisy’s smile disappear.
“Oh, don’t worry,” she assured the person. “Dino isn’t a murderer. He’s just a meth dealer.” She sighed at the response. “That’s okay if you don’t want to tell us. Rory’s pretty sure she knows the general location. We’ll just go there and wander around a bit until we find it.”
Everyone looked at Rory, who looked mildly surprised at this news.
“Uh-huh.” Daisy’s grin was back, triumphant this time. She jumped up from her chair and hurried to the whiteboard, accepting the marker Lou offered her and scribbling directions on the empty top left corner of the board. “Uh-huh. Got it. Love you. I will. See you at home tonight. Bye.” As she ended the call, she looked proud. “Chris gave me the location.” After a glance at Felicity, she clarified, “My husband is a deputy for the Field County Sheriff’s Department.”
Felicity thanked her as she copied the notes from the whiteboard into her phone. Apparently, she’d picked the right murder club to ask for help.
“Does anyone know the new leader of the militia?” she asked. “Clint Yarran?”
Rory frowned. “What happened to Cobra?”
“Cobra?” Ellie repeated. “Someone’s trying a little too hard to compensate for something.”
Felicity snorted at the comment but focused on Rory. “Clint took over the position six months ago. You knew Cobra?”
“I don’t know him well.” Rory was beginning to look uncomfortable with everyone focused on her. Felicity could relate. “He just bought a couple of shotguns from me.” Her gaze moved to meet Felicity’s. “I own a gun store.”
“Gun store?” Felicity smiled in surprised delight. She knew she didn’t fit the bounty-hunting mold, and people were always shocked when she told them what she did for a living. She imagined this quiet, slight woman got a similar reaction.
Rory didn’t elaborate. She just watched Felicity with wary light eyes.
Letting her curiosity slide since she figured Lou would give her all the details later, Felicity asked instead, “Have you seen Cobra since Clint took over?”
Rory’s gaze turned thoughtful before she shook her head. “Not for almost a year.”
“Know what his legal name was?” Felicity asked.
“Cobra Jones.” As hard as it was to believe that any parent would name their child Cobra, Rory’s voice was confident.“That’s what he used for the background check, so if it’s a nickname, he had it legally changed to Cobra at some point.”
While they’d been talking, Lou had listed Cobra and Clint on the whiteboard, and she’d sketched out a timeline with Rory’s last sighting of Cobra on it.
“Are we going to be researching the Freedom Survivors’ leadership?” Ellie asked, sounding hopeful.
“Possibly.” Lou added Clint’s takeover of the militia to the timeline. “I’m curious now. Did Cobra willingly give up control, or did something more nefarious happen? Did Clint literally kill for his new position?”
“It’s more likely Cobra bought an RV and retired in Texas.” Bennett’s bass voice came unexpectedly from his spot by the door and made them all jump.
“Do you know something we don’t?” Felicity asked.
His eyebrows drew together. “No?”
“Your hypothetical was just very specific.” Turning back to the women, she said, “He’s right though.” She hated to ruin their fun, but she also felt responsible for her little bounty-hunting army, and she didn’t want them poking around in the local militia and making potentially dangerous enemies. “It’s most likely he’s safe somewhere else.”
The other four women exchanged a look with one another, but the only response was a half-hearted “maybe” from Lou.
“So what’s our next step?” Daisy asked, changing the subject with more enthusiasm than smoothness.
Felicity let it slide, reminding herself that she was not these women’s mother. If they were going to investigate the FreedomSurvivors’ regime change, there was really nothing Felicity could do except warn them of the dangers. “I’m going to the address your husband gave us and poke around a little. If I’m lucky, Dino will be there, and I’ll nab him.”
“Is it usually that easy to find a bail jumper?” Ellie asked.
