The Fall (Book 1)

by Mathews, Mark

  “No, I don’t want to chain them in case we have to beat a hasty retreat. Bring the bike and we’ll hide them over here.” Garrett led the way to a huge bush that seemed to have a hollow in the middle that would be big enough for both bikes.

  The men muscled the bikes in, then ran to the front door, hoping to make a quiet entry without being noticed. When they snuck into the main room, they could see that the sheriff was up at the podium. The murmur of voices still reached their ears. That led Garrett to believe he hadn’t been able to quiet them down yet, so he and Max hadn’t exactly missed anything. Finally, Sheriff Ramsay put two fingers in his mouth and blew out a shrill whistle that instantly got the room silent. He smiled.

  “Thank you all for coming tonight. In light of recent events, I’ve decided to do a little recruiting, and I’m happy to announce I’ve assembled a bigger team to try keeping the peace around here. However, if you go doing things that were illegal before this happened, expect much harsher punishments for them. We want to keep order and set an example. Try your best not to turn on each other. I know that sounds somewhat stupid to ask, but when things happen and stress gets high, sometimes we tend not to think things through before we act. I simply am asking you to think through your choices before you act on them.” He had a smile on his face the whole time, but it seemed to Garrett that it was almost predatory. Someone shouted out from the crowd, and the sheriff did his best to pinpoint the individual but came up short.

  “What can they do?” His smile slipped, but only for a second, and Garrett felt sure that only he and Max saw that it did.

  “This new team will have all of the authority and privileges of my old team, and they will be enforcing the law by whatever means they deem necessary.”

  There it was. Garrett’s worst fear. These were going to be bullies, ruffians with weapons, and they were going to be doing whatever they wanted with no one to check them. That wasn’t going to work for Garrett. It seemed now that he was going to have to extend his family to basically everyone in town if he wanted to keep things from getting out of hand. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he had to reign himself in. No. He couldn’t risk the safety of his own family to protect everyone else in the town. As much as it hurt him to think that people would end up dead or worse, he had to set his priorities straight now, so he wouldn’t falter later. He knew his little group would protect each other until their last breath, but he hoped and prayed that it wouldn’t get to that. His attention went back up to the podium as the men started to get out of their seats. He saw Max tense up, and he did the same, but he saw that the dozen men at the front of the room just were standing there, waiting for the sheriff to introduce them to the public.

  A cold sweat broke out all over Garrett’s body as he saw a face that he recognized. Austin was now up there, looking as smug as could be. Austin was part of the sheriff’s new team. It took a few minutes for that actually to sink into Garrett’s consciousness, and that meant that he missed the introductions and whatever else came out of Sheriff Ramsay’s mouth. Max, however, was doing his best to memorize every man’s name and face, storing it for later. As far as Max was concerned, the sheriff and his team were public enemy number one. Garrett leaned a little closer to Max.

  “Second from the left. You see him?” Max nodded, letting his focus zero in on Austin. Garrett knew, even now, Max was making sure to remember every little detail about him.

  “That someone you know?” Max’s voice was tense, and Garrett knew his friend already was expecting trouble.

  “That’s Alice’s new husband. Remember what I said about why he wasn’t with us anymore?” Max breathed in sharply, and looked over into Garrett’s eyes.

  Try as he might, Garrett couldn’t hide the anger and the pain from his eyes. Max was the type of guy who didn’t question anything, just took it all in stride. He would back up Garrett no matter what. The meeting was over, and people were starting to filter out around them. Garrett hadn’t even realized what was going on, because he was still shaken by seeing Austin up in the sheriff’s lineup. Before he knew it, Austin’s face was right in front of him.

  “Garrett. How nice to see you again. How’s my wife?” The silky tone of his voice was like poison running out of his mouth.

  Garrett squared his shoulders and looked Austin right back in the eyes. He wasn’t afraid of the man, and he didn’t care what Austin thought he could do. Max took a step back so it wouldn’t look like he was with Garrett. If Austin wanted to get into it with Garrett, then the element of surprise would be on Garrett’s side when Austin showed up and he had four people behind him who were trained to fight.

  “She’s recovering nicely. She even made it to Kayleigh’s trial to help her case.” Garrett’s voice was calm, but his eyes were cold and stormy.

  Austin looked confused, which told Garrett he hadn’t been present at the trial. Whether that was by chance, or if the sheriff had set it up that way, he had no idea. Either way, it made him happy that he knew more about what Alice was doing than Austin did. Most of the people were out of the main room now, and Max was outside waiting for Garrett. Granted, if Garrett didn’t come out soon, he knew his friend would come barging in to help him.

  “Just remember, Garrett. Alice is my wife. I’ll do whatever I have to in order to get her back. And if that means getting rid of you, then I’ll do that. So you better start treading carefully, because if you don’t, then I won’t need to convince anyone of why you suddenly disappeared. You heard the sheriff. I have to enforce the law by whatever means I see fit. In your case, I’d want to make an example, of course. So consider yourself lucky. Whatever happens between us, you’ll be the one that no one in this town will want to be.” The threat wasn’t even thinly veiled; it was right out there in the open.

  “Oh, wait. No one wants to be you right now anyway, because you’re the psycho who hoards cans and has barbed wire over the top of his fence.” The dig was meant to hurt Garrett, but it didn’t.

  He was being cautious and making sure his family was safe, so the dig didn’t bother him at all. Part of him wanted to throw back in Austin’s face that he and Alice had kissed, and that it could have led to more if the two of them had let it, but it wasn’t smart to antagonize someone who had a gun and the sheriff on their side. Garrett stood there, thinking back to his basic training days when the drill sergeants would get right up in his face and yell insults, trying to get one of them to snap so they could punish them in front of the other guys. Garrett kept his face carefully blank, waiting for Austin to get bored and move on. Eventually he did, and Garrett walked out alone. Max was leaning against the side of the building, but jerked to attention the moment he saw his friend.

  “Do I want to know how that went?” There was a little humor in his voice, but Garrett knew he just was trying to lighten the mood.

  “I realized that just because he left doesn’t mean he doesn’t plan on getting Alice back. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that, but I can cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, all I know is that Alice is staying at my house, under my protection, and that will not change. I don’t care what he says, he’s not taking her out of my house.” Max nodded.

  That meant he knew what side of the fence Garrett was on, and no matter which side that was, Max was going to be on the same one. The two of them headed over to the hidden bikes, then started their trip back to Garrett’s house. It was a silent ride, and Garrett privately thanked Max for letting him be alone with his thoughts.

  Garrett thought back to the kiss that he didn’t want to discuss. He knew Austin would kill to show Alice that he loved her, but Garrett also was starting to realize that he would do the same thing. He did still love Alice, and now that she was there with him, in his house, with their children, it was just like old times. Before Austin ever came into the picture. The fact that his children didn’t like Austin either made him aware of how stupid he’d been. Why had he never gone after Alice? How could he ever have let her go to any
one? Much less someone as horrible as Austin was turning out to be?

  Never in his life had Garrett regretted something more than this, and he was realizing that now that he knew how he felt about Alice, he wasn’t going to let her go, either. He would have to talk to her about all of this, and that meant he would have to hurt her by letting her know what kind of man Austin now was turning out to be. Hopefully, he’d be able to protect her from the pain by being there for her, keeping her and the girls safe, and letting her know that if she ever wanted to come back to him, that he would welcome her with open arms…and never let her go again. He just had to figure out how he wanted to tell her. He’d never been particularly eloquent, and that meant he’d gotten his foot caught in his mouth on plenty of occasions. This, however, was something that he had to handle with finesse, or he might end up losing her with what he had to say.

  Garrett slowly put his thoughts together and made his case to Alice, "You'll be safe here, and you should stay here. Stay with me."

  But his plea fell on deaf ears, and he watched the woman he loved walk out of his sight, and felt as if she had walked out of his life, too.

  Find out what happens next in book 2! Coming Soon!

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