Hitched & Hitched Again: A Comedy of Marital Mayhem novel Chapter 1320

That afternoon, they finally reached the foot of the mountain.

They grabbed a quick bite—some sandwiches and coffee from a roadside diner—before hopping into a private car headed straight for the airport.

On the way, Tarquin glanced over and asked, “Those eight guys still behaving themselves?”

He was talking about the eight surviving poachers. Out of a group of over a hundred, they were the only ones who’d made it back down alive.

The wilderness out there was no joke—dangerous and unforgiving.

The driver, who was one of their own, replied, “Their heads are all messed up. Looks like the woods scared them senseless. One’s rambling about seeing ghosts, another swears he saw Bigfoot…”

But no one mentioned the cabin. No one breathed a word about someone living deep in those woods.

Honestly, just making it out alive was miracle enough—their minds were shot to pieces. Remembering a random cabin? Not a chance.

Tarquin pressed on, “What about their partners on the outside? All caught?”

He knew where there were hunters, there’d be buyers. Those poachers definitely had a whole network behind them.

The driver nodded. “Yeah, all of them. They’re a big operation—really slick, like a well-oiled machine. Everything they hunted up there—hides, antlers, you name it—got shipped overseas. There’s another team waiting on the other end, moving the goods straight into black market sales. Even a bunch of officials were mixed up in it.”

Tarquin frowned. “And the officials? They get them too?”

“Everyone we could identify is locked up.”

He planned to put in a state-of-the-art electric fence, set up surveillance, and station a few trusted people to keep watch. That would seriously cut down the chances of trespassers.

Fewer people wandering in meant less risk of their secrets being discovered.

Sure, almost no one ever made it as far as the hidden cabin, but you could never be too careful.

He wasn’t putting his own name on the project—no need to attract attention. If he suddenly started pouring money into a patch of forest that had no obvious benefit, people would start asking uncomfortable questions.

Elysia caught on. She gave him a grateful look. With the driver there, she didn’t mention her grandparents, just reached over and quietly laced her fingers through his, squeezing his hand tight.

…