by Barb Shuler
“I know but-”
“Shut it, Squirt. We’re going!” Stella growled out.
“Stel, chill. I’ve got this,” I snapped at her.
“Let’s just hurry up and get out of here,” Stella snapped back at me, shoving a Glock 22 in each of her thigh holsters. She tossed the other Remington rifle over her back and grabbed one of the Ruger LC9s and put it in the holster at her back. I raised a brow at her, but quickly shook it off.
I had the same on me, except my back holster held one of Daddy’s Sig Sauer P229s. The bullets for all, a flashlight and a small can of face paint were shoved in the pack I had and I flipped it over my shoulder.
“I’m going with you,” Derek blurted out.
“No!” Stella said, glaring as she turned to walk out the office. He gave me a look. I knew that look. If I said no he’d just follow us. I knew, that ‘cause it’s what I’d do. Damn!
I shook my head as I grabbed an extra extra vest and a Glock 22.
“If you shoot yourself, or anyone other than someone who deserves it, I will beat you until you can’t see straight.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded as he slid the vest on.
I walked out the office and moved out past the men that were still hovering over a map on one of the desks.
Drew’s Jeep was parked at the curb where he’d left it yesterday when he’d met Jacks to head to Dallas. Jacks had taken his vehicle for their last minute trip. The lawyers had called them in to do a deposition, or something to do with Kristol’s case from a couple years ago. We now knew there was more to it, and that either they’d given us the wrong info, or they’d gotten the wrong info to start with. It didn’t matter right now.
I was just glad they’d left Drew’s Jeep here. There was no way I was taking my SUV or Stella’s loud ass truck up there. They’d hear us coming from miles away. Which, in hindsight, might be okay, but I’d rather not stir up the ant’s nest before I get the gasoline ready.
I tossed the rifle and my pack onto the back seat as Derek hopped in. I took a look around and stopped. Uncle Walker stood with Troy beside a black Jeep that was all decked out, arms crossed. He didn’t say anything, but he did start moving towards us.
Stella cursed.
“Princess,” he said. Oh yeah, he was putting on his ‘good guy’ voice. I scowled.
“Save it, old man,” Stella muttered. I seconded that. I gave Derek a look, but he only shrugged. His face said he hadn’t a clue what Uncle Walker was up to. Not sure if I believed that but…
“You’ll need some help-” Walker started, but Troy cut him off.
“And a headstart.”
“And a prayer,” Derek said a little louder than he meant. His face flushed as I pointed at him.
“You can stay here!” I snapped.
“Not a chance. You need me and-” He quickly said with a shake of his head.
“Me.” Carter jumped into the back of the Jeep, his backpack and another bag in his arms. “Jesus, y’all weren’t playin’. Were ya?”
Shit! Yeah, this was not going to go well. To say Stella lost her shit was putting it lightly. I knew how she felt, I really did.
“You are not going! What is wrong with you idiots? This is NOT a damn game!”
They started shouting at each other and I finally snapped.
“EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP, NOW!” I took in a deep breath and let it back out. “Derek, Carter, you can go, but no farther than the break off point where the trail splits. You will stay with one of Walker’s men. I trust them to keep your asses alive. Except, this time, my kid best not get stabbed or shot. I will skin the mother fucker responsible.”
I gave Troy and Walker a hard look. He had the nerve to smirk. He best be glad he’s on our side, and needed, or I may skin him now just to prove I wasn’t kidding.
“No worries, Kitten. We have back up on the way. He’ll stay in one piece.”
“Don’t call me that!” I looked back to my uncle. “Walker, we are leaving. Either keep up, or find your own way. I am not leaving my daddy out there any longer!”
“Understood. Troy, Jon and-”
“Me,” Marcus said as he came down the stairs of the station. I rubbed the back of my neck.
“Troy, Jon and Marcus will accompany you. Dominick and I will follow with the rest of my team and the locals, once they figure out who has authority that is. Boys, we’re on channel nine. If you’re compromised flip to the back-up channel. Dani Lynn, Stella, keep your heads out there. Think before you react. Hopefully this is nothing, but I have a feeling that’s not gonna be the case. Derek, you have the drone ready?”
“Yes, Sir. Carter has the other. Both are ready to go. We’ll record all we can. We have a four mile radius with each of them. We’ll have to be close, but not in the middle of anything. Tablets are synced and they’ll link to your devices, as well as the devices set up at the center. Your team there is set to link with us when we’re ready. We’ll have eyes in the sky within fifteen minutes of getting out there.”
Damn, my kid had been busy.
“Jesus,” Stella grunted. “Can we just fucking go already?!”
There was a loud rumble coming our way from up the street. Stella’s blue truck pulled up to the curb and stopped. Both Trace and Chipper climbed out, as did Tank.
“Great, more fucking alpha men to tell me to calm my tits. I might shoot someone today… ” Stella stated.
I ignored her grumbling and gave all the men a once over. They each had on black cargo pants, black T-shirts, guns strapped to their hips, and each carried black backpacks similar to ours. I raised a brow. I had a feeling Walker had given them a heads up about this.
Neither Trace, nor Chipper, looked happy, but too fucking bad.
Walker tossed Trace a set of keys and nodded to the Jeep behind him. “The first one is yours. Headsets are on the dash. Channel nine. Stay paired up with my guys. Trace, you’re with Stella, obviously. Tank, you’re with Dani Lynn. Marcus, you, Chipper and Jon will be recon.”
“Got it,” he said. Everyone agreed and it was a go.
“We have one more coming,” Trace said, raising his chin. There was a man getting out of a black and red Mustang across the street. He moved to the trunk of his car and pulled out a pack and a rifle bag before he shut the trunk. He made quick work of the space between us.
“Ready?” he asked as he moved to stand before Trace.
“Yep. Everyone this is my cousin, First Lieutenant, Callan O’Brien, USMC. He was here for a vacation, but-”
“Special Forces?” Walker asked.
“Yes, Sir. I’m ready to help,” he’d said.
“Good, can we fucking go now?” Stella asked.
I moved around to get in the Jeep. I started it up and gave the men a look.
“Keep up, or catch up.” I didn’t give them time to argue.
I pulled away from the curb once I made sure the street was clear and headed up the main road. We had a thirty minute drive, and then we had a few hours of hiking before we would reach the cabin. I looked back to see two black Jeeps pulling out onto the road, both quickly made up the space between us.
Once I hit the main highway, I pushed the Jeep to go as fast as I could, safely.
I had to get to the cabin and see if my daddy and the others were okay. They had to be. Daddy had to be… I couldn’t lose him.
That wasn’t fucking happening!
3
To The Woods We Go
Gabe - Four Days Earlier
“Is that everything?” I asked, patting my pockets one last time. We had to leave the truck here, and I was not about to make the five mile hike back if we left anything.
“That’s everything. Come on, old man, move your ass,” Robert said, laughing. I chuckled as my hand shot up to give him a one fingered salute.
“Children,” Wayne called out from where he stood on the path about twenty foot ahead of us.
We all laughed, and adjusted the packs on our backs. We had to
get our asses moving. We were burning precious daylight here. I positioned the rifle over my shoulder just in case I needed to get to it in a hurry. This property may have been secluded, fenced off even, but a fence wouldn’t stop a mountain lion, a bear, or much of anything for that matter.
“I’m ready to get fishing. Y’all are in charge of the fire, I’ll get dinner,” I said as I started a brisk pace up the path that would lead us to a split in the path. The cabin path would take us up to the Northwest side of the property.
We walked in relative silence as we made our way towards the place we would call home for the next ten days. The woods were calm, which was sort of normal, but we had to keep our eyes and ears peeled for danger. It would take us another couple of hours to get to the actual cabin. There we would unpack and get a fire going, and then I was finally goin’ fishing.
I think we have all been counting down the days until today. Our lives have been crazy as hell for the last few months. Truthfully, things have been crazy for the last few years. Talk about feeling your age. This has been the first time the three of us could get our schedules cleared so we could disappear into the wilderness. No drama. No kids. No grandkids. Just us and Mother Nature.
Whoever said life in a small town was quiet and nothing ever happened there? Well, whoever it was, has no clue what they’re talking about.
We’ve had men thinking they could come into my town and run us off, and that really pissed me off. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we had to have people in the county that thought it was okay to have a compound where they kept women against their will. We’ve had drugs, illegal stills, and maniacs on the loose who put our kids and grandkids in danger. People bombing the high school. Then we’ve had people in town, people we all knew - even if we thought they were shitty people - turn into crazy psychos. It’s been a lot to deal with.
Robert had even come back to the force, though not in the same capacity as he had been before. He was a liaison between the Sheriff’s Office and the Police Department. He dabbled in this and that as well, but he kept his secrets. Which was what a lot of our days consisted of. But he needed it. He needed the stability and responsibility again.
After finding out his wife, the woman he had spent sixteen years with, had lied to him since the day she met him, hurt him deeply. Robert was the type to take the things that he had no control over, fret over the outcome and in the end he’d just take what was dished out. His daughter, Lana, had to go through all of this with him.
Kelly, his now ex wife, had made it appear that Lana was hers on paper, forged papers at that, but that was far from the truth. She was Lana’s biological grandmother, not her mother. When it all blew up, and the truth came out, it hurt everyone around them. Lies tend to do that. Robert had been able to adopt Lana again, but the toll that Kelly’s lies had taken on them both had sucked the life out of him for a while.
The two of us were ready to burn the town down and start over. That’s how we knew it was time to have a little vacation. Especially with everything that happened a few months ago between Shelby and her abusive prick of a father, Harrison. I thought we’d rid ourselves of that trash long ago.
Guess the past never stays in the past. In certain cases, anyway.
Wayne may not be a cop, or in any way be involved in the shit storm we had been dealing with, but he’d been through some heavy shit lately as well.
His construction company was expanding, he had stepped in to take over the MMA gym he helped train kids at on the weekends when it fell on hard times, and his daughter got beat up by a psychotic man. It was a lot for even a saint, let alone a regular man to deal with. Then, a year or so later, he received a call informing him that Stella had been arrested for shooting at a bowl of squid. Jesus, that was one day where Robert and I had been anything but professional.
I’d never seen Stella Malone unnerved, but it seemed that a bowl of squirming squid was her weak spot. I’d laughed, then had to scold her for being reckless. Just when we thought all was clear, Wayne had called saying she’d been hurt during an incident where she was working undercover as part of being a bounty hunter, which surprised the shit out of us all. No one knew Stella was a bounty hunter, not even us. Finally, Stella had gotten herself shot by Harrison while trying to protect a very pregnant Shelby. So, yeah, it was time for some relaxation and for this year to be over and done with.
Thank God the rest of his kids were calm and not into everything. The poor man had it ten fold with Stella, anything else and I’m sure he would break. We all would.
“Thank Fuck!” Robert groused as the cabin came into view.
“You were here about six months ago,” Wayne shot back at him.
I chuckled.
“Yeah, he likes to hide,” I quipped. He had a right to take a few days away after the shit that happened with Kelly. None of us had any idea that someone we knew, and had spent so much time with, was lying to us all. Guess it makes the saying, “you never really know people” true.
I dropped my pack by the porch steps and stretched my back and tired muscles. The cracking and creaking of my old bones made me shake my head. I clapped my hands together and started digging in my bag for a small shovel I carried.
“Okay, boys. I’m going to find some crawlers and go fishin’. Don’t ya break anything while I’m gone.”
“I’ve worked up an appetite. I expect at least three fish on my plate,” Wayne chuckled.
As if I’d only get one or two fish.
“Two big ones would be good, if you think you can handle that,” Robert said, a smirk on his face.
“Keep that up and you’ll have to go get your own, ” I said pointing the shovel at him.
“I’d hate to out fish ya, old man. You’d pout like a toddler,” he shot back. I chuckled and shook my head.
“Like that would happen.”
I got the small tackle box and fish bag from my pack. With a wave at the guys, I headed off down the well worn trail that lead to the river. It was small most times of the year but this was Texas, and if it rained the river would swell and we would have really good fishing. It didn’t take long to get myself set up on the bank. I moved to the edge of the woods where there were a few felled trees, dug up a few night crawlers and got the two rods into the water.
Ten minutes after I got the poles in the water, I got a bite. I got the fish up on the bank, killed, bled and slapped it in the cooler bag quickly. I was putting the pole back into the water, and a new nightcrawler on the hook, when I felt as if someone was watching me. After looking around and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I shook it off and went back to my fishing. I was here to unwind, and relax. Not think I was seeing or feeling things. There was enough of that in town lately.
“Yes!” I shouted a little too loud as I rushed to the other pole. Another fish had been snagged. This was gonna be a good night if this kept up.
An hour later I started packing up everything. I had seven pretty good sized fish and two that were legal but not all that big. They’d do just the same. My head tilted to the side to listen to the sounds around me. Something still felt off. I couldn’t tell you what it was, just that my instincts were screaming at me. I rolled my neck, picked up my things and headed back to the cabin. I was getting hungry.
“Seems the old man hasn’t lost his fishin’ skills,” Robert said, dropping his empty plate into the pan with the other dirty dishes. I leaned back on the ground, the big tree we used as a seat pressed comfortably into my back.
“Was there ever a doubt?” I said, my eyes narrowing slightly.
“Nah, he’s just mad he can’t do as well. If we waited on him we’d starve,” Wayne added.
I chuckled.
“That’s not true. I could out fish the both of you.” Robert looked offended, which only added to the laughter around the fire. Hell, even he started laughing.
We all laughed and cut up for a little longer. It was so quiet and peaceful out here. I leaned my head back against the log behind me an
d just watched the stars. The sky was always so much brighter up here. Stars could be seen in all directions. The insects and animals around in the bush filled the night with their musical calls of the wild.
“Alright men, I’m taking my tired ass to bed,” I said, groaning as I got up off the ground.
“We’ll clean up and be in soon,” Wayne offered.
“See y’all in the morning.”
“Sleep well. We have a long trek tomorrow.” I nodded at Robert.
“Roger that!”
4
Three Old Men
Gabe
This is the way to start a morning. The sun had crested the tree line by the time we left the cabin. We each had our packs, rifles and a bed roll - just in case. We’d planned to hike about six miles up the river, then try to find a buck. Though, you never know what kind of luck you’ll have, so we may have to hike a little further. Now that we were out here though, something felt off. I saw it in Robert’s face, he felt it as well. Maybe it was the training from our years in the military, but something was shouting at me to be careful and to keep my head on a swivel.
If I knew nothing else in life, I knew to trust my gut.
“Let’s camp up here.” My gaze went to where Wayne stood, his pack falling to the ground under the canopy of a few large trees. I nodded and moved up to where he was. It didn’t take long to get firewood collected and a fire pit dug out. We had a fire before too long and then it was time to get dinner going.
“Tell me about the new kid you have working at the gym. You think he’s gonna cut it now that Tommy’s out of the picture?” Robert’s question seemed to make Wayne tense slightly.
“I hope so. He’s still afraid of his own shadow, if you ask me. I left Peter and Trevor to watch over the place, and him. He’s a good kid. His mama’s had a few rough years, but one thing she has always made sure of, is that he got his schooling.”