My 6-year-old granddaughter phoned me in panic just after midnight. “Mommy says the baby is coming! Help!” I asked, “Where’s daddy?” She answered, “He k!cked mommy’s tummy and left.”…..

How long until the new sheriff arrives? 5 days. Word is he’s bringing a state investigation team with him. Going to audit the entire department, review all the corruption complaint from the past 2 years. Perfect. Time to give them something to investigate. Harry spent that evening making phone calls to contacts across three states.

Oil rig work created a network of hard men who owed each other favors and Harry had been collecting IUs for 30 years. By midnight, he had commitments from a reporter in Helena who specialized in exposing smalltown corruption, a state gaming commission investigator who’d been looking for an excuse to audit rural gambling operations, and a federal agent who tracked money laundering in the mountain states.

The net was closing, but Harry needed one more element to make it perfect. But Marshall’s next report came 2 days later, and it changed everything. Trent lost it, the ex-soldier said, his face grim. He’s convinced you’re orchestrating everything that’s been happening. The mechanical problems, the competition, the financial pressure. He thinks you’re some kind of criminal mastermind pulling strings behind the scenes.

What’s his plan? He wants to kidnap Lydia. Harry’s blood turned to ice. Explain. Figures if he grabs your granddaughter, he can force you to back off and call off whatever operation he thinks you’re running. Rafe thinks it’s a bad idea, but Trent’s not listening to reason anymore. when tomorrow morning. Lydia is supposed to start back at school, right? Trent knows the route she takes.

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