No wonder it had been so impossible for him and the rest of the bear patrol to track it down. Stonewall666 definitely had done his job. Harley and Chris told Gauge to follow them further into the compound where there were lines of tents nestled between the trunks of dense evergreen forest. There was still snow in the crevices and dark corners below craggy slopes.
Harley and Chris told Gauge to drop his pack near his cot in the tent the sentries shared. Gauge slid his pack under his cot and followed Harley and Chris outside again.
Gauge noticed that the camp didn't have any wood burning fireplaces, stoves or fire pits. They were that careful about keeping their presence unknown.
The men took Gauge on the rounds of the sentry towers, introducing him to the other guards. Everyone was packing a military grade semiautomatic rifle. They took Gauge to the main sentry tents and equipped him with similar gear.
As they were about to leave the munitions tent, a man with jet black hair and dark eyes strode into the tent. He fisted his hands to his waist and looked Gauge up and down.
"This must be the new recruit," the man said. "Anarchy161?" he asked.
"That's right. Stonewall666?"" Gauge asked.
"Justin Lockheart," he said, reaching out to shake Gauge’s hand. “This is my compound.”
"It is an honor to be on board,” Gauge said giving Justin a salute.
"I assume Chris and Harley have informed you of our rules. We don’t allow electronics in the compound. If you’re found with electronics, you face the greatest consequence.”
"Understood," Gauge said.
Justin Lockheart stepped back and turned around to exit the tent. Now Gauge had a name and face. This was his kingpin. The leader of this drug pushing militia was Justin Lockheart. Gauge had his man.
He knew he needed to play it cool and gain their trust. He needed to find the right moment to call in the Bear Patrol. From what he'd seen in the munitions tent, direct assault on the camp could mean the loss of many lives. That was the last thing Gauge wanted.
He followed Chris and Harley out of the tent and up the trail toward the sentry tower for his first shift. The sentry getting off duty climbed down the ladder. Just as Gauge was about to climb up into the lookout, he smelled the most intoxicating fragrance he’d ever smelled. Lemons and roses and apple pie. He turned abruptly and saw her standing there. It was Lola Lockheart. Of course, Justin Lockheart’s sister.
Gauge felt his heart quake inside him, and his bear charged against the back of his mind, roaring. He had to force himself to change his body language so Chris and Harley wouldn't catch on. He turned back to them and frowned.
"There's a woman in the camp," he grumbled.
"It's Justin's stepsister," Chris said. “You aren’t allowed to talk to her.”
"She's the only woman in the camp," Harley said apologetically.
"I thought we were all living by the ideals we discussed on the deep web, but I understand why Justin would want to protect his stepsister," Gauge said.
“She’s not allowed to leave,” Chris said. “Remember that.”
Not allowed to leave? Was Justin keeping her here? Gauge wanted to asked, but left it for now. His inner bear was going mad. It had never been so excited in his life. The polar bear was roaring and pacing back and forth behind Gauge’s eyes. It pawed at the ground with a tortured roar.
Gauge squeezed his eyes closed and then opened them again before climbing quickly up the ladder. He hunkered down in the deer blind, doing his job as a sentry for the camp.
The blind was equipped with binoculars. Gauge took them off the hook and brought them up to his eyes. He had a three hundred sixty degree view if he leaned around the tree trunk. As he was looking through the binoculars, he took a slow sweep of the area and scanned over Lola. He stopped to watch her.
She looked the same as she did in her picture. Maybe a little thinner, but pretty and curvy. Her hair was thick and lustrous, bouncing around her shoulders over the thin camo jacket she wore. She was walking into the forest by herself. Gauge wanted more than anything in the world to follow her and to speak to her.
Had she gotten his text?
Then Gauge considered it. Did Justin allow Lola to have electronics? Was she in on this crystal operation?
He watched his mate disappear into the dark forest, and Gauge knew that she couldn't be a part of this place. He couldn’t believe his girl wanted to hurt all of the people Justin Lockheart had hurt. Chris said she wasn’t allowed to leave. Gauge imagined that the young woman caught up in this circle of sociopaths probably didn't stand much of a chance to have her own life. The idea that Justin Lockheart was keeping her here disgusted him to the core.
That must be it. Why else would she be here? She would never do what Justin Lockheart had done to the people of Fate Mountain. He could sense deep in his heart that she was a kind and generous soul who would never want to hurt anyone.
He knew at that moment that the most important thing in his life was to protect Lola and to save her from her stepbrother.
Chapter 6
Lola came back from the forest holding a pail of the first huckleberries of the season. She had taken to harvesting wild food for her own sustenance because the camp so often lacked anything other than military rations and wild game.
The men in the campout compound were more than happy to go hunting, but if she wanted to eat anything other than meat and flour three meals a day, she had to go and find it herself.
The pipeline up and down the mountain was so crowded with transporting crystal there was little space for anything else. Justin did keep a store of things like sugar and coffee, but most of those things he kept for himself and his closest advisers. Lola was not among them.
Justin didn't trust her at all and he never had. Part of it was because she was a woman, and in his personal philosophy, women were not built for leadership. Something about how women were put on earth to be cared for and protected by men. He had some pretty strange ideas, which she wouldn't really have cared about if not for the fact that he was keeping her prisoner in his psycho land.
She emerged from the woods, popping a huckleberry into her mouth. When she looked at the tree line across the compound, she saw a man emerging from a lookout. It must have been a new guy because she didn't recognize him at all.
When he turned and stepped into the bright sunlight, Lola had to take a step back. There was something about him that absolutely glowed in her eyes. She wanted to reach out and touch the light. Where had he come from? How could any man who supported Justin seem so delicious? She looked away and continued past the guard tower where the man stood.
He caught up to her and spoke. She was so lost in anxiety that she hadn't heard what he said. She turned to face him, fear and longing mingling in her heart.
"What?" she gasped.
"I asked where the latrine is?" he said with an uncomfortable look on his face.
The man had a dark beard and dark hair with shining brown eyes that invited her deep into his soul. He rubbed the back of his neck as if he were embarrassed by his question.
"The latrines are across the compound behind the tents," she said, pointing in the direction of the latrines.
"Thank you," he muttered. "What's your name?"
"I'm Lola Lockheart," she said challengingly. "I'm Justin Lockheart’s stepsister."
"I heard he had a woman in the camp," the man said. "But I had no idea that she was so beautiful."
His skin flushed behind his tan, and he looked like he had just put his foot in his mouth. Lola rolled her eyes and started to walk away.
"I'm not supposed to talk to you," she warned. “And if you want to keep your head attached to your body, I suggest you don't speak to me again."
"Sorry," he muttered. "I just needed to know where the latrines are and I noticed that you are really pretty and… Never mind. Thanks for the help."
"Don't mention it. Seriously, don't mention it," she said, walking towards her tent.
> She'd spent the last twelve hours mixing drugs and another hour harvesting huckleberries. She was ready for some rest. But instead she found Chris sitting on her cot looking at her irritably.
"What are you doing in my tent, Chris?" she said, sitting in the one other folding chair she had next to her table.
She’d known Chris since elementary school, and he was one of the few people Justin ever let talk to her. Lola suspected Justin would eventually give her to Chris as a prize for his loyalty.
She set the bucket on the table and started eating the huckleberries. Chris rose from her cot and dipped his dirty hand into her bucket, taking a huge portion of what she’d harvested. She looked up at him with a shocked expression, her mouth hanging open.
"What?" he asked. "We share everything here."
"Then why haven't I had any coffee in the last six months?" she asked.
"You can take that up with Justin," he said.
"What are you doing in here, Chris? This is my private place. Justin wouldn’t like you in here.”
“Justin is suspicious of you. I would hate to see something happen to you if he questions your loyalty. I’ve always seen you as a friend.”
“That’s great, Chris,” she said, hiding her sarcasm. “I see you as a friend too.”
“Justin told me you had a cell phone," Chris said, folding his arms.
"Just because I had a cell phone, doesn't mean that I'm not loyal to Justin. It just means I’m bored out of my mind. I haven't been off this mountain in a year. I'm sick of it. So I had a cell phone? It doesn't mean anything," she said.
"He said you signed up for Mate.com. That shifter/human dating website," Chris said. "Is that true?"
"I was just messing around. I told you; I'm bored."
"How can you be bored with so much to do?"
"I'll tell you a little secret, Chris. Believe it or not, cooking crystal was never my dream as a little girl."
"You never were very ambitious," Chris said, moving to the tent flap.
Lola didn't want to counter his logic by informing him that not wanting to be a drug dealer was not the same as not being ambitious. But she didn't bother. Chris was so far up Justin's butt that she didn't think he could ever come out.
His one saving grace was that he wasn't quite the psychopath her stepbrother happened to be. Not that Justin wasn't trying to change that.
Chapter 7
Gauge didn't know what had gotten into him. One of the first things they’d told him was that he couldn't talk to Lola, but he had walked up to her and talked to her anyway. And of all the things he could've said, he asked her where the latrine was. What was he thinking?
He realized he wasn't thinking. It was his bear who was doing the thinking, and he couldn't let it happen again. Ever since he’d been matched with Lola on Mate.com, he hadn't been able to get her out of his mind. Then he came to find her at the compound, in the middle of his undercover investigation.
This was the worst possible scenario. Every moment that they were in close proximity drove his bear just a little more crazy. Gauge rubbed his face. He couldn’t deal with distractions like these. When he was in the middle of an investigation, he always kept his head down and his eyes on the prize. The only thing that mattered was closing the case. But now the only thing that truly mattered was Lola, his mate.
Gauge had signed up for Mate.com as a joke around the same time the rest of the Bear Patrol had signed up. But after a while with no matches most of the guys had just forgotten about it, including Gauge.
When he had gotten permission from Rollo to go undercover, he made sure to erase himself completely from all social media and all references across the internet. The one thing he didn't completely remove was his questionnaire information on Mate.com. He did, however, remove his picture and profile information from the site.
At the back of his mind, he knew that if he kept his account open on Mate.com, his mate could eventually find him. And that is exactly what happened. Fate had intervened and the two of them were matched, despite everything that stood in their way.
They weren't even allowed to have electronics at the compound so he had no idea how Lola could have possibly even gotten online. Yet they’d been matched, and now here they were both here.
He went back to his sentry post, his bear roaring and grumbling in his mind. Gauge couldn't stand the noise. He was usually a reserved person, which came in handy in his line of work. He had to stay in the shadows, undercover.
His bear was making it impossible to think clearly. He had to stay cool around Justin Lockheart's gang. If he revealed his shifter nature, he would be dead.
Ordinarily, a shifter could withstand one or two bullet wounds if they didn't hit anything too important. But there's no way he could withstand the firepower Lockheart's men were packing.
If anyone found out he was a shifter, he was done for. Now, he also feared for Lola’s safety. When he'd spoken to her, he could smell the fear rolling off of her body like a thick black cloud. It smelled of sorrow and loneliness and desperation. Like the scent of wet cigarette ashes. He needed to help her get away from here. But until he could, he had to stay away from her for her own safety.
He sat in his sentry post and looked out at the broad expanse of forest below him. This location was so remote that it probably didn't get any visitors for years at a time. Not even cross-country hikers or hunters would make it up to these treacherous climbs.
Justin was extraordinarily paranoid, but he had a reason to be. His operation was corrupting the entire population of Fate Mountain and all of the towns surrounding it. He had to know that the authorities of Fate Mountain were doing absolutely everything in their power to stop him.
Gauge still couldn't understand the man's endgame. Clearly Justin Lockheart had a screw loose. How was addicting the humans of his hometown going to help him rise up against the shifter oppressors he hated so much? He would only have a bunch of strung out zombies who barely had the physical health left to continue shooting up and smoking their destructive drugs. They certainly wouldn't be able to take out shifters like the Bear Patrol.
But it wasn't Gauge's job to understand the mind of a madman. It was his job to gather information and send the alarm when he believed it was the right time for the Bear Patrol to move in. He’d done the research and investigation up until this point. Now, he’d nearly achieved his goal of bringing down Lockheart's gang. He had to bide his time and wait. But most importantly, he needed to stay away from Lola Lockheart.
Just the thought of staying away from her sent his bear into hysterics. He palmed his forehead and groaned. He heard a voice below him, shouting up at him.
"What's wrong with you?“ Justin Lockheart's voice called out.
Gauge hurried down the stairs and stood at attention in front of the man who ran the operation.
"Are you backed up?" Justin asked. "Is that why you asked my sister Lola about the latrine?"
"Must been the road rations," Gauge said.
"Since you're the new guy, I'll let it slide, this once," Justin said wrapping his arm around Gauge's shoulder.
He was at least five inches shorter than Gauge but something about his wiry strength fueled by drug addiction and insanity somehow filled him with a kind of dark power. "But if I ever hear about you speaking with my sister again, you'll never be able to take another shit for the rest of your life because your crapper will be broken from the broom handle that I ram up there until you hemorrhage."
Justin said the words with such detachment that the cruel insanity of it was almost lost on Gauge’s ears.
"I wouldn't expect anything less," Gauge said.
Justin slapped him on the back. "Good man. I'm glad we have an understanding.”
Chapter 8
Lola’s one day off a week was on Monday. Justin at least gave her that much. She always wanted to sleep in, but somehow her body wouldn't allow her to. She got out of bed at six a.m. and washed her face and brushed her hair. Her hair was
still clean from the last time she'd washed it, relatively speaking anyway. It would never be as clean as it was a year ago, before Justin had forced her to come live up on the mountain.
They had gone through a hard winter and there’d been a point when she had mild frostbite on her toes. Even then, Justin wouldn't allow her to leave the mountain. He wouldn't allow them to light fires for warmth. They all huddled around tiny electric heaters inside the cave as the snow piled up outside.
Unless they wanted to have the crystal fumes in their face all the time, they had to wear gas masks most of the winter. It had been grueling and horrific, and sometimes she didn't quite know how she had survived.
The fear of another winter was still deep in her bones. The cold, the closeness of the men, everyone's general agitation, and that feeling of constant hunger that gnawed at her belly night and day from lack of food. In winter, even the wild game was sparse. Everything in her refused to believe that she would have to live through that experience again.
She slipped into her boots and walked out the front flap of her tent, carrying her berry picking basket in her hand. Her walks into the forest to gather wild food were some of the only times that Lola felt at peace. As long as she didn't try to escape, no one bothered her when she collected huckleberries, mushrooms, or pine nuts. They watched her, making sure she didn't make a run for it, night and day. As long as she stayed, they left her to her own devices when she wasn't working.
It had been so long since she'd been part of society, since she'd had any friends of her own. Except Chris, who wasn’t really her friend so much as Justin’s.
What would she do if she ever got off this mountain? Where would she go? How would she survive? Without Justin, she had nothing. There was no inheritance or money waiting for her. There was no job. She'd never gone to college and started a career. She’d barely finished high school after her mom died.
There was no hope left. She had no idea how to function in the world, even if she could gather the courage to run away.