Moose

by KJ Dahlen

His eyes widened and he gasped when he saw her. She was tall for a woman. She was around five foot eight, her long blonde hair was mid length of her back, but the woman was badly in need of a shower. Her eyes were green and haunted. She was skinny, almost too skinny but he could tell she was beautiful.

  Right now, he had no clue how to gage her age. “How old are you?”

  “I’m twenty four.” She shook her head. “If you can believe that.”

  “What’s your name honey?” he growled as his eyes studied her from head to toes.

  “Brinn. What’s yours?” she asked as she was trembling.

  “My real name is Seth Daniels but everyone calls me Moose.” His voice was low and raw as he stared at her.

  Brinn nodded. “I can see why.” Then she smiled. “You’re a big guy aren’t you?”

  Moose’s heart pounded in his chest at the sight of her smile. “Yeah, I guess I am.” He took a step toward her.

  The smile on her face faded and she took a step back. “Please don’t hurt me,” she whispered.

  Her plea broke his heart. “Listen Brinn, I’m not gonna hurt you.” Then he realized what her words meant. “Did that bastard Logan Riggs hurt you?”

  She just stood there and nodded.

  He cocked his head and asked her, “How did you come to be here anyway?”

  She shook her head. The haunting look came back to her eyes and she began to shake again. “I can’t tell you. If he ever knew I told you he’d hunt me down and kill me.”

  His hands curled into fists and he growled. “Who? Who is he?”

  Brinn shook her head. “No, I won’t tell you.” She backed up until she hit the wall behind her. She crumbled to a heap on the floor then scrambled into a sitting position and brought her knees close to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. Rocking back and forth, she began to zone out.

  Moose took a couple of steps and squatted down in front of her. “Brinn. Sweetheart, are you still with me? I need you to be here honey.” He tried to coax her back.

  She blinked a few times and looked at him. She didn’t say anything but she did look at him.

  “Who did this to you?” he pleaded with her.

  “He said he was my daddy, but I didn’t know him until I was fourteen. He found my mom back then and she made us go and live with him. He was cruel and really bad. I couldn’t wait until I could leave home but he wouldn’t let me go. He told me if I left, he’d kill my mom. He said he’d beat her to death if I left her alone with him.” She looked at him and said, “He was a crazy man.”

  “What happened to your mom?” Moose asked.

  “He finally did what he always threatened. He got into a rage and he beat her to death. Then he sold me to a man to cover his drug habit.”

  Moose felt the rage building inside him. He finally understood Grizzly’s roar earlier in the day. Whoever this girl’s father was, he was a dead man walking for now. As soon as he knew the other man’s name, he was going to hunt him down and hurt him bad.

  He bent to gathered her into his arms.

  She struggled a little but seemed too weak to give him much trouble.

  Moose then carried her out of that fucking dank, hot ass room and out into the sunshine.

  She turned her face into his neck and groaned. “Too bright.”

  Moose didn’t stop until he came to a vehicle. He set her in the seat and buckled her in. “You wait right here. I gotta tell my boss where I’m going and then we’ll get out of here okay?”

  She looked up at him and nodded.

  Moose turned away and stomped over to Gunner and Boone. “I found the girl and she’s a mess. I’m taking her somewhere to clean her up and feed her. Then I’ll bring her back to the compound.”

  “She needs to be turned over to the Marshals,” Boone reminded him.

  “No, she doesn’t,” Moose growled. “I found her and I’m going to help her.” Then he stunned both men by turning around and going back to the truck.

  A few minutes later, they watched in total surprise as the truck took off, leaving nothing behind but a cloud of dust.

  Chapter One

  The further away they got from Logan’s ranch the more Moose relaxed. His tight white knuckled grip on the steering wheel loosened to a regular hold as he drove to Laredo.

  “Where are you taking me?” Brinn wanted to know as she recognized the road.

  “I need to go to Laredo and pick up my ride, then I’m taking you home with me to Jasper. Why?”

  Brinn shook her head. Her whole body began to shake. “I can’t go to Laredo. Please don’t make me go back there.”

  Moose turned to her and frowned. “You can’t? Why?”

  She fumbled to unbuckle her seat belt then reached for the handle of the door. She seemed panicky and it never registered with her that Moose was going 60 miles an hour.

  He stomped on the brake and grabbed her wrist and hung on.

  When he stomped on the brake, she flew toward the windshield. She hit the dashboard hard and groaned then slipped down to the floor and sobbed. “Can’t—go back—won’t go back. Please don’t take me there,” she repeated over and over.

  Moose steered the truck off the road and looked at her. Putting the truck in park, he unbuckled his seat belt and gently hauled her up and into his lap. She was zoned completely out and he could see the terror in her eyes. “Aww sweetheart, what the fuck did he do to you?” he whispered as he held her to calm her down. “Ok, we won’t go back to Laredo.”

  She peered up at him with her tear filled eyes. “Do you promise?”

  He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yeah baby, I promise.”

  Brinn laid her head on his chest and waited for her pounding heart to slow down again. “I just can’t be there again.” Her whole body trembled.

  “Ok, I’ll get someone else to bring my bike back.” Moose held her tight and had to wonder what or who was in Laredo that she was so terrified of.

  “Can we just go to Jasper? I just need to get away from here. Please?”

  “Yeah, we’ll just go to Jasper,” Moose promised her as he released.

  She slid back to her seat and tried to buckle herself in. She hung her head and whispered, “I really need a shower. I can’t stand myself anymore and I must look a fright. I’m sorry but I was held in that room for a week with no chance to clean myself. With no air it was hot in that room and it stunk to high heaven. He barely gave me any water or food.”

  Moose chuckled under his breath. “I hear ya sweetheart, I hear ya.”

  She turned her head to stare at him. “You don’t have to rub it in big guy. I know I’m a hot mess and I hate it.”

  Moose shook his head and didn’t say anything as he reached for his phone and sent a text to Gunner to pick up his bike and bring it back with them. He started the truck and turned it around. He would have to catch another route back home. They would have to get back to McAllen and catch highway 37 to San Antonio and go from there.

  They headed back the way they came and as soon as possible, he caught the highway and then they were traveling toward San Antonio. It was later afternoon when they made their first stop for gas. While he filled the truck, he looked around. Across the road was a motel and a shopping mall within walking distance. Glancing at Brinn, he noted that she looked worn out. She was barely staying awake and he was tired too. He went inside to pay and grabbed a couple bottles of water.

  When he handed her one, she took it gladly and began to sip the cool liquid.

  Moose pulled out and drove across the road to the motel. Brinn again, turned to stare at him.

  Moose shrugged. “I’m tired and I know you are too. We’ll spend the night here and finish our trip in the morning.”

  Brinn watched him carefully as he registered for the room. He took her hand and led her to the door. When he opened it, she balked about going inside.

  He looked at her and found her staring at the single double bed inside. “I’m not going to hurt you. You have
to trust me on that. You will be safe from me.”

  She let him drag her into the room but kept her distance all the same. She watched as Moose adjusted the air in the room and closed her eyes as she felt the cool air brush her skin.

  “Why don’t you go ahead and shower while I go get us something to eat?” Moose suggested.

  Brinn nodded, walking toward the bathroom while Moose dug the keys out of his pocket again. She waited until he left the room then scrambled to finally get her shower.

  She turned the water on and quickly stripped out of her clothes. She couldn’t stand herself anymore. Stepping in the shower, she just stood there and let the water cover her for a moment. The hot water felt so good, looking down at the floor of the shower she could see the dirt going down the drain. She felt so unclean at the moment. Grabbing the soap, she washed her body. When she felt clean enough, she grabbed a bottle of shampoo and washed her hair. As her fingers massaged the soapy mixture in she groaned at how good it felt to be clean again.

  By the time the water was cooling down, she shut the water off and stepped out. Grabbing the towels, she wrapped her hair in one and dried her body off with the other. She wiped off the fog off the mirror and studied the face looking back at her.

  Her green eyes stared back at her. They were calm and clear for the first time in days, weeks even. Then she thought about why. She looked at the door and thought about the man who waited for her on the other side.

  He promised he wouldn’t hurt her and he hadn’t. She begged him not to take her back to Laredo and he hadn’t. She told him she hated being this dirty and he brought her here. Could she believe in him or was he setting her up for a bigger fall?

  She had trusted too often in the past and she’d always been burned. Dare she trust him now? Opening the door, she went through it to the room and found him sitting there.

  He was on the bed channel flipping, eating a slice of pizza.

  When the scent of melted cheese and pepperoni hit her nose, her belly growled loudly.

  Moose looked her way and smiled. Then his eyes widened as he really looked at her.

  Only clothed in a short towel she knew she looked totally different than she had before. She was clean and smelled so good now, since she’d washed off a week of sweat and dirt.

  Moose swallowed and pointed at one of the bags on the bed. “I got you some clean clothes.”

  She approached the bed and began opening the bags. There were a couple pairs of shorts and tops as well as a sundress or two in one of the bags. In the other bag was a hairbrush, toothbrush and a few other things a woman might want.

  She pulled out one of the sundresses and the hair brush then disappeared into the bathroom again. After getting dressed and brushing out her hair, she hung up the towels and went back out to join him.

  She sat down on the bed.

  He pushed the pizza toward her.

  She grabbed a slice and began eating it. She groaned as the flavors of the cheesy pie burst inside her mouth. “Oh my god, that’s so good.”

  Moose just chuckled as he watched her for a moment. He sat up and kicked off his size fourteen boots. He settled back again and turned off the television.

  Finally, he turned to her and said, “Ok little Brinn, now we have to talk.”

  Chapter Two

  Brinn swallowed hard and laid her piece of pizza down on the box. Wiping her mouth with a napkin, she said, “Ok, what do you want to talk about?”

  “How did you come to be at the Rigg’s ranch?”

  “I already told you, a man I knew as my father sold me to Riggs to settle a drug debt.” She repeated what she’d told him earlier.

  “What’s his name sweetheart?”

  She trembled at the question and clasped her hands together. She had a habit of wringing her hands when she was nervous and she was trying so hard not to do that right now. It took her a moment to gather her thoughts and answer his question, “I won’t tell you that.”

  “Why can’t you?” he asked. “All you have to do is say a name.”

  She looked up at him. Cocking her head to one side she asked, “Why do you want his name so bad?”

  “He murdered your mother and sold you to the cartel, why wouldn’t I want his name?”

  Shaking her head, she looked away. “His name doesn’t matter. He doesn’t matter, not anymore. He did what he did and there’s no changing that. Now that I’m free of him, I’m gonna do what I have to do. I’ll change my name and get as far away from him as I can. He’ll never touch me again.” She wet her lips with her tongue and went on, “My mom made some bad choices in her life and dragged me along with her. She was my mother and I did love her but her choice in men was terrible. I chose not to make the same choices she did. Does that man deserve to face the consequences for his actions? Yes, he does. But I want nothing to do with him or that situation.”

  Moose stared at her, as he shook his head.

  She got nervous again, at the determined look on his face. “You won’t be able to get close to him anyway.”

  “What makes you say that?” Moose wanted to know.

  “Laredo has an underground faction. No one knows who they are but the minions of the faction collect the protection revenues and everyone knows if you don’t pay or you disrupt the route they take every day, then you are inviting the factions to rain down hell on you and your family. That’s just the way things are run there. The man who sold me to the cartel is one of the five in charge of the city. The main faction knows he’s taking the product he’s supposed to be selling on the streets but as long as his money comes in, they don’t care how he gets it. I’m not the only one he’s sold and I know I won’t be the last.” She shivered and then admitted, “In the past few months, five other women have disappeared. I overheard him talking about setting up a traffic port with some of his gang members. That was something I was never supposed to hear. When I told my mom, she warned me to never let him know that I knew about any of their business. She told me if he knew, he’d kill both of us.” She paused then swallowed hard. “I have to wonder if that was why he killed her. I wonder if she told him that I knew what he was doing and she got herself killed because of me.”

  “Little girl, no... don’t think like that.” Moose tried to assure her. “I think if your dad was as bad as you claim, then it was only a matter of time before he killed her. I don’t know for sure but he sounds like a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off.”

  “Maybe you’re right. My mom made a lot of mistakes in her life but he was the worst one. She had terrible judgement in men but she just couldn’t stay away from the bad boys. She was always so attracted to them. She tried to clean up her act for my sake but she just couldn’t stay away from them.”

  “So, you said your dad belonged to this underground faction, is it part of a bigger organization or what?”

  Brinn shrugged. “It’s really nothing more than a street gang. They call themselves the Rebel Runners. They split the city into five territories.”

  “And your father is one of the five bosses?”

  “He likes to think so.”

  Moose frowned. “What else is there?”

  She turned her head to look at him. “He likes to drink and he’s been doing hard drugs, his own men are watching him and I’ve been hearing things. His own men are beginning to talk and he either doesn’t hear it, or he just doesn’t care. He thinks he has more power than he actually does. He doesn’t realize his own men are waiting and willing to take him down.”

  “So things are ramping up, huh?”

  “Could be a showdown sooner than he thinks.” She looked away. “His number two man is Craylon and he’s been waiting three months for my dad to make a big enough mistake, then he has plans to slit his throat. And he won’t care if he has to do it while he’s sleeping.” She swallowed hard. “When he’s awake and not drunk, my dad is a bastard, he’s just ugly mean and no one will touch him, but I’ve seen the hate in Craylon’s eyes when he looks at
my dad, especially when he’s high or passed out. He wants him dead sooner rather than later. And I think my dad knows it. He pisses Craylon off on purpose.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Moose demanded.

  “He knows Craylon wants me. Craylon announced his intentions to my dad and the old man laughed at him. He told Craylon he’d see me dead before he allowed him access to me. That was just a day or so before he sold me to the cartel. I don’t know what happened after that. I’ve been locked up at the ranch for a week. I don’t know who is in charge of the west side Rebels but I can’t stay here.”

  “Why do you say it that way?”

  She shivered again as if she couldn’t get warm enough. “I have to disappear and stay out of sight until this blows over. If my father is still in charge and he figures out I wasn’t taken over the border, it will mean he didn’t keep his word. Mr. Brago hadn’t accepted the deal as of yet and if daddy dearest doesn’t get either the money or the ok on the deal for me this week or the next, then his totals won’t match what the Rebels demand from his part of the whole deal. My father could lose everything then. The cartel owns their gang or their so-called faction and they make the rules.”

  “And you think your dad, this Craylon or even the cartel will or could come looking for you?” Moose frowned.

  She nodded and swallowed hard. “I don’t think...I know. Probably as soon as word gets to them about what happened today. The cartel won’t take what happened to Mr. Riggs lightly. You and those men might have started a war today, a war you can’t win.”

  Moose snorted. “Don’t you worry about the cartel. We took out Francisco Brago today. We’ll have a little time to regroup before they come after us, if they even know who we are. They’ll have to make sure they get the right people first. We weren’t there alone either. We had Texas Rangers and US Marshals with us as well. They won’t know who took the shot that ended Brago’s life.”

  Brinn gulped heavily as she thought about what happened. She didn’t know all the details but she was smart enough to know the cartel would come back hard and ruthless to find out who murdered their leader. “You started a war with the cartel on purpose? Are you guys crazy? They will use whatever and whomever they have to, to find you guys. They have more than just the Rebels on this side of the border. They will hunt you down and take you guys out.”