Sticks & Stones

by Abigail Roux

  Ty swallowed hard. The Vietcong weren’t the only ones who’d used those traps. He could still smell the stench of burnt flesh and dry heat surrounding them after that Marine had picked up that can. He breathed in the scent of the wet earth beneath him to calm himself and try to force his mind into remembering he wasn’t in the desert.

  “Whoever or whatever we’re dealing with,” he said slowly as he raised his head just enough to speak without eating dirt, “we need to concentrate on getting off this mountain safely and making sure the rangers close these trails off until we can get people in here and clear this shit out. God knows how many civilians come through here every year. That trap was intentionally set to kill a do-gooder.”

  “At least it’s the offseason,” Deuce whispered.

  “How many people come up this far, anyway?” Zane asked in disbelief.

  “Not many,” Deuce muttered.

  “Picking up litter on the mountain gets you killed,” Ty whispered in disgust. He reached up and carefully pulled a few dried leaves out of his mouth and made a face as he spit out some of the twigs and dirt he’d practically inhaled when he’d landed. He was careful not to raise his head above the log, though. And he was relieved to see the damp woods around him rather than dry sand.

  “Wait a damn minute. Are you saying we run?” Earl asked as he kept his face in the wet leaves on the ground too. Ty knew they both were dealing with memories of past battles, and Deuce and Zane followed their example.

  “Yes, Dad, we run,” Ty hissed in annoyance as he glanced sideways at Earl.

  “The hell you say,” Earl growled back at Ty. “The four of us is more than capable of taking on some pissant little backwoods pot growers, even if they do know how to lay trap. We know the signs, what to look for. Hell, we’d probably be back up here helping the search as soon as we report it!”

  “Yeah, with guns and bomb-sniffing dogs and a lot of people who are carrying first aid kits and food,” Ty argued.

  “Someone could get hurt up here while we run off with our tails between our legs,” Earl argued in outrage. “You remember those missing hikers the ranger told us about? God knows how many people already been hurt.”

  “Dad,” Ty said in frustration. “We have two weapons with minimum ammunition, we’re on unfamiliar ground, and we have very little supplies. If one of us gets hurt bad, we’ll never make it off the mountain in time. And you’re not twenty-five anymore!” he grated out, trying to keep his voice down.

  “I may be an old man, Beaumont, but at least I ain’t a coward,” Earl growled.

  The harsh words landed with force, knocking the breath from Ty’s chest and wiping away any argument he’d been about to put forth. He blinked at Earl in shock before forcing himself to look away, resting his forehead against the ground again to make certain Earl wouldn’t see the crushing impact the implication of the words had on him.

  “That’s enough, Earl,” Zane hissed.

  “No,” Ty muttered as he raised his head again. He reached up and plucked off a leaf that had stuck to his forehead, looking at it dejectedly. “He’s right,” he told Zane as he dropped the leaf to the ground.

  “You’re damn straight I am,” Earl told him angrily. “You and I both got enough deaths on the conscience. We can’t afford anymore.”

  “There’s four lives here to take care of,” Zane snapped as he motioned among them with one hand. “That ought to register loud and clear on your conscience.”

  Ty pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded, not speaking in response to either statement. He began to move, pulling himself toward Deuce while still staying below the level of the log. He reached for Deuce’s pack and gave him a shake of the head when Deuce opened his mouth to speak. Deuce snapped his mouth closed and glanced at the others. Then he closed his eyes and rested his cheek on the ground. Ty knew what Deuce was thinking. He was just as stunned as Ty was. They both loved and respected their father a great deal. He’d always been strict and expected the very best from his sons, but Earl had never been mean, and he’d never resorted to saying things that cut painfully deep in order to get his way.

  Ty tried to let it slide. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. He shook his head as he snagged Deuce’s pack, taking care to stay behind the fallen log as he pulled it close. Whoever came up with that stupid-ass rhyme deserved a few sticks and stones to the head.

  He unzipped the outer pocket and extracted the small case that carried Deuce’s extra set of contacts. He flipped it open and carefully lifted it, using the tiny mirror inside to peer at their back trail.

  “Anything?” Earl asked.

  Ty shook his head. “It appears to be an unmanned deterrent system,” he reported in a low voice. He was surprised to find speaking difficult, and he cleared his throat quietly. “Early warning system, maybe. That’s why it was so damn big. If there’s anybody up here, they know we’re here now,” he decided grimly as he snapped the contact case shut and slid it back into Deuce’s pack.

  “Whether we’re going or not,” Zane growled, “we need to figure out what the hell to do next. Sitting here is not safe. We need a defensible position.”

  “If they’re coming, they’ll be coming soon,” Earl agreed. He raised up slightly and peered over the log. “Be nice to see who we’re up against from a safe distance.”

  Ty made his decision. “I may have an idea.”

  Chapter 9

  TY LAY in the underbrush, unmoving, watching the trail. He and Earl had made a makeshift ghillie suit out of a few branches and the wet, dead leaves that littered the forest floor. He’d had nothing to cover his face with but dirt and debris, but it worked if he didn’t move. Even blinking risked the cover as he lay near the edge of the clearing in hopes of hearing or seeing whoever came to check on the explosion.

  It had been a long time since Ty had done this properly. And God, was he getting twitchy. It had only been fifteen or so minutes of lying there, and he already wanted to move. His biggest hurdle had always been the incessant rocking he did when he was tense or nervous or bored. Even lying alone in bed at night sometimes, he had to rock just to keep himself from going crazy. It wasn’t nearly as bad when he was with Zane, if for no other reason than Ty forced himself to remain still so as not to disturb him. Zane slept precious little as it was, and he tended to jab Ty in the ribs when he rocked.

  Luckily, he didn’t have to wait much longer. A twig broke in the underbrush just yards away from where he lay. Ty resisted the urge to turn his head and check the positions of the others. He’d already made certain none of them could be seen; they were further away. Ty was only this close so he could hear.

  Suddenly, two men moved through the overgrown foliage to his right. Ty could just barely see them out of the corner of his eye. They were both dressed in heavy, camouflage Carhartt jackets. The bigger of the two wore a hunting cap with earflaps, which were pinned up so they made him look a little like a moose in the woods. They both carried shotguns slung over their forearms and held in the crooks of their arms. Earflaps gave a low whistle as he peered out into the clearing at the crater the explosion had produced.

  “We got somebody, huh?” he whispered to his buddy, who nodded and looked around wordlessly.

  “No body,” the smaller man observed as he chewed on what looked like a plastic swizzle stick.

  Both men looked skyward, as if expecting to see a body in the trees. Ty caught himself almost rolling his eyes. They expected someone to have been blown up into the air?

  “Must have been a lucky one,” Earflaps decided quietly. ”Got away,” he murmured even as he turned his head and peered around the quiet forest.

  Ty closed his eyes quickly and mentally cursed himself. He should have been more thorough with his camouflage. He should have known whoever was up here wouldn’t be green city folks. He’d underestimated their opponent already, and he damn well knew better.

  “Looks like he just got scared and ran,” the thin, cruel-
looking man with the swizzle stick said with a sneer. Ty risked opening his eyes into slits, watching through his eyelashes as Earflaps nodded wordlessly and continued to look around suspiciously. “Should we follow him?” he asked after a moment.

  Swizzlestick shook his head and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “No way he made it out without being hurt, and he’s four days’ hike from help. Mountain’ll kill him before we have to. Let’s get back.”

  The bigger man nodded, and they both turned to slink back into the woods. They moved quietly, and Ty was impressed. They were speaking louder now, though, no longer worried about being overheard.

  “Radio back, let him know,” Earflaps ordered. “He’s all tetchy about people gettin’ to his damn treasure before we do, he’ll probably go nuts if he don’t hear from us soon.”

  Swizzlestick nodded and stopped moving again. He reached for a small radio at his hip. He pushed the button and called, but got nothing but static in response. He sighed in annoyance and waved the radio. “Still don’t work. Must be a tower washed out somewheres.”

  “Let’s get goin’, then,” Earflaps said with a grunt. They pushed through the thick underbrush and disappeared into the forest once more.

  Ty waited until he could no longer hear their progress. Then he waited some more.

  ZANE lay still, breathing steady and low, eyes flickering about as he waited. More often than not, they moved to look about twenty feet to his right, where he knew Earl Grady was hidden. Zane gritted his teeth and forced himself to relax.

  If he thought about what the man had said to his own son, Zane wouldn’t be able to stay still, because he’d be over there kicking some sense into him. What kind of man called his own son a coward? Perhaps more specifically, what kind of man would call Ty Grady a coward? Zane knew without a doubt that had those words come from anyone but Earl, Ty would have taken off his head.

  Zane closed his eyes. Ty hadn’t been angry, though. The hurt he’d seen streak across Ty’s face had been heartbreaking. Zane knew he should have said more, done something, but once Ty had quietly agreed with Earl, Zane simply couldn’t contradict him.

  And so Zane lay there, stewing, waiting for Ty to come back from a pointless recon to see who might have set that stupid trap. And while Zane thought Earl’s plan to protect innocent hikers was a lovely, shiny idea, it was also naïve and dangerous.

  Zane’s fingers dug into the dirt, and he jerked in surprise when the underbrush stood up roughly five feet in front of him.

  “Garrett,” Ty muttered as he wiped the leaves and dirt off his face and shook off the rest of his camouflage.

  Zane squeezed his eyes closed for a second before looking at Ty. “How’d it go?”

  “This is trouble,” Ty told him as he glanced around in the general directions of his brother and father. “They’re carrying shotguns. Talked about following and killing. And there’s another one somewhere.”

  “All we’ve got is your Smith & Wesson and my Glock, unless there are more guns I don’t know about,” Zane said.

  Ty shook his head and wiped at his cheek again. “They were talking about treasure,” he said with a wrinkle of his dirty nose.

  Zane peered at him, incredulous. “Treasure?” He pushed himself up to kneel back on his heels. “Like from John’s story?”

  Ty shrugged and met his eyes. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “That’s what they said. But I’m getting really fucking tired of hearing about treasure.”

  Earl and Deuce slowly separating from the foliage drew Zane’s attention. “I don’t like this, Ty,” Zane said quietly, meeting his partner’s eyes. Ty just shook his head helplessly, and Zane curled his hands into fists, unable to hide his aggravation.

  “What did you see?” Earl asked once he reached their sides. Ty related to them everything he’d seen and heard, down to what each man had been wearing and the brand of boots each wore. “Treasure,” Earl repeated in a flat voice after he was finished. Again, Ty just shrugged.

  “Does it really matter?” Zane asked pointedly. “There are traps and men willing to kill us. Who cares what they want?”

  “It matters ’cause money is a hell of reason to kill,” Earl answered thoughtfully.

  “You really think there’s some sort of lost treasure up here?” Deuce asked doubtfully.

  “Don’t matter what I think,” Earl pointed out. “Only matters what they think. And if they think they’re gonna get rich up here, then it’s trouble.”

  “All the more reason to get out of here,” Zane said firmly, “before we get in trouble. We can’t do much to stop them if we’re dead.”

  “So we don’t get dead,” Earl said to him firmly.

  “Swizzlestick did say we were four days’ hike from help,” Ty muttered, still fussing with the dirt on his face. “Either we walked through a time warp, they have no idea where the fuck they are, or they were banking on scaring anyone lost and eavesdropping.”

  “I vote time warp,” Deuce said thoughtfully.

  “Would make the retelling more interesting at the water cooler,” Ty agreed in all seriousness.

  Earl was rubbing at the bridge of his nose as he listened. “What’s your point, son?” he asked finally.

  “I’m just saying, they might’ve known I was there,” Ty answered.

  “Don’t you think they’d have just shot you instead of playing mind games?” Earl countered.

  Ty remained conspicuously quiet, his head down and staring at the ground devotedly. Zane felt his chest tighten as he looked at his partner. He’d never seen Ty back down from an argument when he thought he had a case to make. Anger bloomed again in Zane’s chest and he turned on Earl to speak, but the older man beat him to it.

  “We need to track them down,” Earl decided. “Shut down whatever they got going and deliver them to the rangers to take care of.”

  “Is that all?” Ty asked drolly.

  “Dad,” Deuce started uncertainly.

  “I will not have people gettin’ killed in these mountains!” Earl snapped stubbornly. Deuce and Ty both looked at him oddly, obviously surprised by the vehemence. “Those men think they’re safe up here, not being careful,” Earl went on. “All the noise they was making, they’re not trying to hide sign.”

  Ty looked at him doubtfully but remained silent, refraining from reiterating his opinion from a few moments ago.

  “If they’re setting more traps like this around, we may be the ones getting killed,” Zane argued.

  “Son, if you want to head on back and bring in the cavalry, you do it,” Earl said with a look at Zane. His voice was calm and cold, and it raised Zane’s hackles. “That goes for you too,” Earl said as he gestured at Ty and Deuce. “But the next goddamn word I hear that ain’t helpful is gonna be met with violence, that clear?”

  Deuce didn’t even look up; Ty was watching Earl calmly. Zane stared at Ty, gritting his teeth, waiting on his decision. This was a truly shitty situation, but he would not leave Ty behind. Ty glanced at him and met Zane’s eyes for a moment. Zane had always detected a spark of enjoyment in Ty’s eyes before, even in the most dangerous of situations. That spark was gone now, replaced by something more sedate and sad. Resigned. Ty sighed and looked back at Earl. “If we’re going to follow them, we need to get going,” he suggested softly. “Trail’s getting cold.”

  Earl continued to fix a glare on Zane for a moment longer before he turned and nodded at Ty. He handed him a clean handkerchief as he passed by him. Ty took it and looked down at it with a mumbled, “Thank you, sir.” He used it to wipe at his face as he turned and followed his father back toward the small clearing.

  Zane clasped both hands behind his neck and just watched him go. He’d never seen Ty behave this way, as if someone had just taken all the spirit and fight in him and crushed it to dust. It was acutely painful to see, especially after seeing him so relaxed and carefree just a few hours ago.

  Deuce stopped next to him, and they watched the other two move off. “He�
��s not usually like this,” he told Zane in a whisper.

  “No. He’s not,” Zane agreed, fully aware that Deuce was talking about Earl and that he wasn’t.

  Deuce glanced sideways at him. “Can you blame him?” he asked finally.

  Zane sighed, dropping his arms and watching the rigid line of Ty’s shoulders as his partner walked away. How could Earl not see the pain coming off Ty in waves? “No,” he said quietly. “I can’t.”

  Deuce shook his head and started through the thick foliage, muttering to himself as he went. After another silent curse, Zane followed.

  WITH Ty on point, following the trail through the dense woods, they were making excellent time. Earl watched Ty’s back as he moved, the set of his shoulders, the somewhat jerky movements. Every time Ty glanced over his shoulder to make certain they were still on his six, Earl felt a pang of guilt. He knew what he’d said had been inexcusable and unnecessary and patently false. Ty was anything but a coward. Now, though, was not the time to apologize. It would keep until the danger had passed, he told himself.

  Zane Garrett was getting on his bad side, though. The boy just didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. Earl glanced over his own shoulder to look back at the FBI man doubtfully. He wasn’t certain why Ty didn’t just demand Richard find him a new partner. He couldn’t imagine how Zane was an asset to him.

  Ty stopped and held up his fist to halt their progress. Earl slowed and watched as Ty stood with his head lowered, listening. Finally, Ty turned and looked back with a deep frown. Earl followed Ty’s eyes; Ty wasn’t looking at him. Ty was watching his partner. Zane patted Deuce’s shoulder and walked forward, passing Earl without comment and joining Ty at point.

  “What’s up?” he heard Zane say quietly.