Chapter 7

C hapter S even

Thor was excited. He figured he might finally have gotten the drop on these guys. It had taken months to get all of this set up, and he had even managed to think one step further ahead of the department. Now all he had to do was wait to see if it paid off. And it had better, because he was running out of ideas.

He stayed up much of the night, too keyed up to sleep, watching his laptop and a dot that never moved, just sitting in place. Part of him was pleased that the boat hadn't gone out, but he also wondered if the tracker might have been found.

"Did you sleep at all?" Michael asked the following morning, coming into the living room in his boxers and nothing else. Damn, Thor's breath hitched for a few seconds. Michael was still the most beautiful man he had ever seen, and he never got enough just looking at him.

"Not really." Thor stood, then stretched his back to get the kinks out. "I know I'm being stupid. It wasn't like they were going to go out in the middle of the night."

"But they could at any time now, and you want to be ready,"

"Everything hinges on this. The DEA is ready. If they go out, they'll use the other boat to try to intercept them. But my best guess is that as soon as they see someone else coming, they'll dump the product overboard, the DEA will end up with nothing, and the entire operation will be over. These guys will park the boat somewhere and disappear. Up until now, they have no idea that they're being watched, that anyone is on to them. It's all been from a distance. But that's about to change in a big way."

Michael nodded and scratched his belly. "I need to get dressed and ready for work. You need to get yourself some rest. Sitting up for hours isn't going to do you any good." Michael leaned over him. "Rest for a while, at least until your phone arrives. Promise me."

"I will," Thor agreed before kissing him gently.

"I have a client I'm meeting with, and then I have a ton of details to work on, as well as their updates and changes. I should be home on time, but who knows…. I'm determined to stay on top of things. There's also a message from my dad. He wants to go over the details of the new project." Michael didn't sound thrilled.

"You know you don't have to do this. If he's pressuring you, you don't owe him anything."

"I know. But I really think this could be great for me. And designing a number of homes this way… it's a real opportunity. I'm still worried that my dad has some hidden agenda."

"You'll figure it out." Thor stretched, and Michael slipped his arms around his waist, resting his head against Thor's shoulder.

"Be safe, okay? Rest so that you can keep your mind sharp. Then when something does happen, you'll be ready." Michael held him for a long time without saying a word before hurrying off. Thor watched that amazing backside until it disappeared from sight. He was so tempted to join him in the shower, though he didn't want to make Michael late. But damn, the temptation was so very real.

As soon as his phone arrived, he got it programmed and headed out. The tracker still showed the boat in the Albion River, and he needed eyes on it. His worst fear was that the tracker would be found, because that would put Peter in danger. If these people did find anything on that boat, they would assume Peter had figured out what they were up to, and they would go after him. That was not going to happen.

Instead of driving down to the river, he parked off the side of the upper road and headed through the brush before finding the trail he and his friends used to use when they were kids. The Pacific Ocean was always cold because the current brought the water south out of Alaska, but the river was warmer in the summer, and they used to swim in it. He made it halfway down before he reached the spot where the trail leveled out, and he had a perfect view of the marina. The boat they'd delivered sat against the dock, bobbling lightly in the water. As he watched, a man in his early twenties came up from below, stretching as soon as he stepped out on deck. Thor pulled out a pair of binoculars to get a closer look, smiling as the man stepped off the boat, went down the dock to a truck, and unloaded two boxes from the back seat. The man returned to the boat and went back down below, then came out again ten minutes later with the flattened cardboard.

Thor took pictures, getting in as close as possible. He sent them to Miller as another truck went down the road and stopped at the base of the dock. A woman got out, one he recognized. She grabbed more boxes and headed down to the boat. She handed them off to the man and went back to the truck and returned with a cooler, suitcases, and other bags; to anyone looking, it would look like a couple going out on the boat for a few days. Thor got her picture and sent it to Miller, along with the information he knew on Renata Killian. She and his sister had been friends in high school, and Thor remembered her. He hated to think of Renata as having gotten involved with drugs.

He continued watching as they packed the boat. Renata then left the other man at the boat and drove away from the river and up to the main road. Thor settled in for a long haul, moving into the shade of one of the stubby trees.

Thor pulled out his phone to make a call. "Angie," he said when she answered. "I need some info, and please don't ask any questions or draw any conclusions."

"Why the hell not?" Angie snapped.

Thor groaned. "What the hell has gotten into you? The last time you were this snappy, you…." He groaned. "You're pregnant again, aren't you?'

"Ding, ding, got it in fucking one," she growled. "I told Brian we needed to wait and that he needed to get some protection because I wasn't going on the pill. It makes me crazy. But…."

"The condom broke?" Thor asked.

"Yeah," Angie breathed before she sniffled. "Now what am I going to do?"

"Be the great mother you are to both your kids," Thor said. "You always wanted a big family, and I know this is faster than you expected, but timing isn't something we always get to choose."

"Tell me about it. It seems I don't get to choose anything right now," she sniffled again. "Don't pay any attention to me. I'm hormonal, and this is running my ass into the ground. I'll be fine. Brian gets home tomorrow, and I'll pile everything on him." She blew her nose. "What do you need from me?"

"Renata Killian," Thor said.

Angie growled. "What do you want with that two-faced bitch?"

"Didn't you used to be friends?" Thor asked.

"Yeah. And she was at my wedding. Got herself drunk and high as a kite. Nearly did a header into the cake. Don't you remember?"

"That was her?" Thor asked, watching as the guy came back out on the deck sunning himself in the back of the boat. It was cold, but bright, and Thor shook his head. The guy was crazy. "Anyway, what else do you know?"

"Brian was out with friends six months after our marriage, and Renata tried to pick him up. She made a pass and told Brian that what Angie doesn't know wasn't going to hurt anyone. She's lucky I didn't snatch her bald-headed. Since then, I heard she's gone downhill big-time. But I suppose a skank will always be a skank. I take it you ran across her in your work. She has a really bad reputation, and if you take her down, I want pictures."

"I need to know the people she hangs around with."

"No idea. Since her little whore-of-Babylon incident, I haven't had anything to do with her. She runs in a completely different crowd from Brian and me, which is good, because I swore the next time I saw her, I'd gouge the skank's eyes out and feed them to her."

This was not helpful. "Okay. I get it. And thanks for the info. I need to go now."

"Yeah, sure. It's what all you men do. You call and want something, and then when you get it, you're off to a conference or going out with friends and…."

"Angie," Thor chastised. There was nothing he could do about the hormonal roller coaster she was riding at the moment. "Once this case is over and I have things sewn up, which I hope will be soon, Michael and I can babysit Auggie again to give you and Brian some together time before my newest niece or nephew makes an appearance. Okay?" He really needed to get back to work.

"Are you sure?" Angie asked.

"Of course. Auggie is great, and we loved spending time with him, even if he does have radioactively toxic diapers." He laughed, and thankfully Angie did as well.

"I'm just overwhelmed at the moment, and Brian isn't here to help me through this."

"Does he know?" Thor asked. Angie's hesitation told him everything he needed to know. "I take it you literally just found out."

"Yeah. The stick turned blue, so I called the doctor, and he confirmed it this morning. I didn't want to get Brian all excited if it was a false alarm, but now I wish I had told him so he could be prepared." She sighed. "I'm excited for the new baby, and I know Brian is going to be thrilled. But I was just about to go back to work, and now everything has changed."

"So go back to work for six months and then take maternity leave again. You're allowed, and I'm sure the hospital is going to understand. They deliver babies and know that women have them and that things aren't always predictable. Do they offer daycare?"

"Yes."

"Then enroll Auggie and let him make some friends, and you can go to work and get out of the house." She was a nurse and a really good one. Her patients loved her, and Angie loved the interaction with people. That was probably a big reason why she was going to stir-crazy. She needed to be around others. "Think about it, sis," he said before telling her again that he needed to get back to work. Once he hung up the phone, Thor checked the activity below.

Renata returned with a load of green plastic tubs that Thor figured had to be product. There were at least a dozen of them, and by the time they were loaded, the cabin area of the boat had to be largely full.

It's on. The boat is chock-full , Thor sent Miller. I suspect they're going out tonight. There is no way they are going to chance their product being found. He lifted his binoculars as Renata and then the man carried a few things off the boat and loaded them into the back of the truck. Then they cast off the lines and backed away from their mooring, heading out toward the ocean.

Tell us when they leave , Miller messaged.

They're going now , he sent back. Our boys at Noyo need to get out now and head south. If the rendezvous is soon, they could miss it. He held up the binoculars as the boat slowly made its way out to the mouth of the river. Thor checked his phone, smiling as the trackers showed the boat's movement. After it was out of sight, he sent another message, and soon after that, the mics on board activated, the sound coming clearly through his phone.

Thor left his hiding place and returned to his truck to head toward home. There was no need for him to do anything more. It was now up to the DEA to bust them. Technically, he had no authority to arrest anyone, which sucked. More than anything, he wanted to be on that intercept boat, part of the action. But his job was to provide the information and then blend back into the woodwork so that he would be useful on the next case.

This one was different from any he'd worked before, though. It was taking place at home, in a town he grew up in, and one he never thought he'd return to for any length of time. And now he was calling it home again, with Michael, and more than anything, he wanted the two of them, and for that matter, the entire town, to be safe.

Thor made one of the bends in the road and pulled off, seeing a familiar truck off to the side. He parked behind it and made his way across the tall grass toward the cliff edge. "What are you doing here?" Thor asked gently as Michael turned around. It was sort of their spot. This was where they had first met and where Michael had witnessed the rendezvous that started the case and their relationship.

"I always come here to think," Michael said. "And I saw on your computer that the boat was moving…."

"You know better than to snoop."

"I didn't have to. The messages come up that it was moving, so I came to see if I could see it." He pointed. "It's right out there, sort of bobbing in the waves." He tapped his binoculars. "They seem to be waiting for something or someone."

"Exactly." Thor shifted closer. "That's why I stopped too. I know where they are, but… hell, I hate being on the outside looking in. It seems like that's all I've done for quite some time. I look and watch, but never seem to be part of the action."

Michael turned toward him. "Are you talking about work… or something else?" Sometimes it scared him how observant Michael was.

"Work… and I don't know. Work is easy to classify. I know that I'm on the outside."

"And with us?" Michael asked, those eyes so questioning, scanning him, looking for answers.

Thor tugged him closer. "That's the easiest question I've ever had. You never made me feel like I was anything other than on the inside and part of your life. You are the only one. Angie loves me, but she has a husband and a child, with another on the way, and her own life." Thor sighed. "Sometimes I wish things had been different."

Michael snickered. "That's all of us. Every single one of us has regrets. But so what? We live with what we have now. And I have you and…."

A boom echoed over the water, and Thor turned to see a fireball where the boat had been. Flames reached for the sky as fuel burned on the surface of the water. "What the hell?" Thor puzzled, pulling out his phone. "Miller…?"

"We lost contact," she said.

"The damned boat blew up. I just watched the explosion," he said, not taking his eyes off the fire. "What the hell happened?" He scanned the area around the boat and saw nothing. "There are no other boats nearby that I can see. The fog is off the coast, but I have a pretty good view. Our boat is not in sight yet and neither is the pickup. They were alone." His mind was already whirling.

"Maybe there was a defect in the boat's engines," Miller offered. "Or maybe they brought something explosive on board, and it caught fire."

"Miller…," Thor growled, knowing something else was up. "Or maybe it was rigged to explode as a cautionary measure, and something went wrong. What the hell?" He was angry as shit. "That was not part of the plan."

She was quiet, which told Thor everything he needed to know. "I had to have a failsafe if something went wrong. I couldn't let the contraband get delivered."

"So you stopped one delivery and put someone else in danger." He nearly yelled into the phone, his head throbbing as he turned to Michael, who was as white as a sheet. "And you blew any chance we may have had to catch these guys."

"Or maybe I put an end to it altogether," she snapped, then cleared her throat. "The coast guard has been alerted and are on their way."

"The wreckage is still burning." It was possible that someone made it out alive, but Thor doubted it. That explosion was pretty intense. "Hopefully they'll be there soon." Thor groaned and ended the call. He'd had enough of this for right now.

Thor pulled Michael into a tight hug and closed his eyes for a second. This latest development changed everything. He knew he had to plan for contingencies, but this was something he hadn't seen coming at all.

"What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Thor answered as Michael shivered in his arms. "I do know one thing—that boat was rigged to explode if things went bad. It's possible that there was something wrong with the boat and that set off the charge. I don't know. But this puts Peter in the crosshairs. It's likely they are going to think your brother double-crossed them, and they could come after him."

"Peter?" Michael said, his voice a little strangled.

"Yeah. Call him and tell him to meet us at your parents' house." Thor's mind raced ahead, a plan forming. It was time to bring this to an end, and if someone came after Peter, Thor had a plan to not only take them out. He waited until Michael made his phone call before hugging him once more, letting the plan take root in his mind. This had to work, or a lot of people were going to get hurt.