"Evie," Gary stared at the ground. "I'm not doubting the alien child's abilities, but how exactly do you think we're gonna fight the military?"
I shook my head. "Everyone thinks they're in some locked down facility, and maybe they are when they're not fighting. But Dev said he stole a cell phone and they thought he was unconscious when he was talking to me. So they can't be watching them too closely. I just have to wait until they get into a fight and go in and find a way to run with them. Harm at least has to have thought that part through."
Gary nodded, and we stood there, taking it all in, each of us lost in our own thoughts until Gary's mom yelled that the steaks were almost ready. Dinner was quiet, and everyone seemed to have trouble eating. We didn't stay too long after the meal. The consensus was that a good night's rest would help everyone process it all.
Back at the rental house, Sonya and I kicked back on lounge chairs that we dragged to the grassy area farthest from the house. I opened my laptop and began researching the sale of property. It was beyond difficult to find the answers I needed. I couldn't find a way to own property without reporting it to the county. Someone's name would have to be on it, and that left the military with the ability to trace it back to us. Sonya was sprawled out on her lounge chair watching me and talking through possibilities.
"Can't we just pay cash?" she asked.
Gabriel came up behind me and leaned over, narrowing his eyes at my laptop. "You need to be careful about the sites you visit. They could be tracing where you've been."
"Gabriel, Gabriel." I shook my head sadly. "You so underestimate me." I allowed a small smile to push through the heaviness that was still sitting on my shoulders. "Some kind soul in this neighborhood has unsecured wireless set up—such trusting individuals."
He came closer to us and sat on the edge of Sonya's lounge chair. "You know I have faith in you, and Dev's dad will too once he gets to know how capable you are. There just really isn't a way for anyone to imagine how Harm raised you. I remember telling your dad he was nuts for allowing Harm to teach you everything he'd been learning in the military. We got into a pretty good argument over that. But he trusted Harm's judgment, and he was right. I just wanted you to know that you've got my support, kid. I'm not the least bit happy you're putting yourself in the line of fire to go after your boyfriend—"
"Fiancé," I corrected.
He rolled his eyes in response. "Right, that."
"And my big brother, Gabriel. I'm going after Harm too, you know. He'd do the same for me and has."
He bobbed his head up and down slowly. "I do understand, kid. But I'm always gonna want to keep you safe."
I set my computer aside and got up to wrap my arms around him. "You're the best second dad in the world, Gabriel. And I promise to try to keep us all as safe as I can."
"I know you will, kid." He pulled back from me and gestured toward my laptop. "Where we at on research then?'
Sonya was lying on her back with her head hanging off the edge of the chair. "We can't figure out how to own property so the gov can't trace it back to us."
"Hmm, that is a tricky situation. Well, Evie's bank account isn't traceable since it's beyond the reach of the government, so we don't have to worry about the removal of funds being reported. We could have someone purchase the property for us, but I don't know anyone in—wait just a darn minute here." He jumped up, smiling wide and rushed back toward the house.
Sonya and I stared at each other. She raised her eyebrow. "Darn? Who says 'darn?'"
I laughed and shrugged. "You know old people."
A few minutes later, Gabriel came back with Evelyn right behind him. "I can't believe I forgot about Crazy Larry."
Evelyn put her hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "We haven't heard from him in four years, Gabriel. It's really not that big of a surprise."
"Who's Crazy Larry," I asked. Sonya started laughing and Evelyn smiled at me.
Gabriel sat back down on my chair. "He's sort of an adopted family member. He lives up in Montana in the middle of nowhere—he's not too good with people. I worked my way through college at a construction job where I met Crazy Larry."
"He's so insane," Sonya said through laughter. "I remember when we moved into the old house and he and Dad got into this dare battle. Dad bet him a case of beer he couldn't lift the fridge on his own. He's not that big, not like Dev, but he's really strong. Anyway, he not only lifted the thing, he decided it would look better out back and carried it all the way out there."
Gabriel laughed fondly. "Yeah, I thought he was gonna drop it in the pool. I can't believe you remember that, sweetie, you were only like six."
"Hey, I also remember him teaching me to play 52-card pickup." She rolled her eyes. "But I was older then."
"52-card pickup?" I asked.
Sonya sat up and stared at me like I was insane. "No one's ever tried to play 52-card pickup with you?" She turned to Gabriel. "I can't believe you haven't hit her with that one yet, Dad. You're slipping in your old age."
He jogged to the house, smiling. "I'll get the cards."
Evelyn shook her head. "I am not helping."
Gabriel came back a moment later with a deck of cards in his hand. He sat on the grass and shuffled the cards then shuffled them again. He put them out and had me cut the deck then cut the deck again. Sonya was giggling, and Evelyn was doing her my-husband-is-a-total-nut-but-I-sure-love-him face.
Gabriel shuffled the cards twice more before Evelyn sighed exasperatedly. "Okay, get on with it."
"Okay," Gabriel tapped the cards into a neat stack. "The rules are very important, so listen carefully."
I set my laptop down beside me and swung my feet to the grass. "I'm listening."
"Never, ever, ever, in a million years, or a trillion—"
"Dad," Sonya scolded.
"Okay, geez." He looked back at Sonya and Evelyn. "You two are cramping my style." He shrugged it off and turned back to me. "Never take your eyes off the cards. Got it?"
I looked to Sonya and Evelyn, who were smiling knowingly. "Got it." I nodded.
"Here we go. There are fifty-two cards in this deck." He fanned them out, and I kept my eyes on them. He tapped them into a stack, put his hands around it, and flung them out across the grass. "Pick 'em up."
"Whhaaat? Nooo." I complained. "That's it? I thought this was a real game."
We all laughed and Sonya got off her chair to help me pick up the cards as Gabriel sat back laughing.
"That was really lame," I complained. "I can't believe you encouraged him to do that to me."
She shrugged. "It's a life experience everyone must have. Crazy Larry's pretty cool. He has his moments, so I thought the game would be cool. He got me pretty good with that one. But he's not really the brightest crayon in the box, if you know what I mean."
Evelyn nodded. "He has his eccentricities, that's for sure. But he's such a teddy bear and really loyal."
"As long as you don't piss him off," Gabriel amended. "Anyway, Larry can put his name on the property and sign the deed over to us."
"You think he's learned to sign his name yet?" Evelyn laughed.
Gabriel pointed at her, his right eyebrow raised high on his forehead. "Hey, an 'x' will certainly suffice. The best part is that he can't be traced back to us." He turned back to Evelyn. "You'll have to fly out there and walk him through everything."
"I can do that. But—" Her eyes widened. "Larry will be so shocked to see me, and he'll be so excited to have you living in the same state."
Gabriel patted my leg. "One solution down. Find us some property."
I pulled my laptop back in front of me. "On it."
I typed away and Sonya got up and moved her chair next to mine so she could stare at the screen. It wasn't easy to find property listings for the most remote areas of Montana. And when I finally did locate some listings, there were so few choices. But that was a good sign because it meant that there weren't many people in the area. I found several empty lots and land for
sale, but clicked through them. Three homes were also listed, but the first two were way too small.
"What about this?" I nudged Sonya. It was a big house by the Musselshell River in Winnett.
She nodded. "Evie found one."
"No," I said sadly. "It's small. It's only three bedrooms. That won't work."
Gabriel walked behind me and looked at the screen. "Looks larger than that—go back up to the square footage." He motioned with his finger to move up the page.
"4800 square feet," I read. "How big is that?"
He smiled. "Our old house was 1300 square feet."
My eyes widened. "Geez. Then why is it only three bedrooms?"
He shrugged. "No pictures?" But there weren't any images from the inside of the home. "Well, with that much space, we could build bedrooms. How many bathrooms? Those would be tricky."
"Four and a half," I read.
"That's workable for a main building. We could always pull in some trailers if we wanted to."
I went back to reading the description. "Septic tank, well water, it says the roads are tricky in rough weather, fireplace, wood burning stove, large barn for horses, pasture for grazing, and two propane tanks."
Gabriel smiled at Evelyn. "Babe? You wanna fly up there and see about our future?"
She got up slowly and looked at the images of the house. "Print that out for me, Evie. I'll go book a flight."
We spent the next several hours making supply lists, planning out day-to-day tasks that needed to be accomplished, and trying to make sure all our bases were covered.
"Are you nervous?" Sonya asked me when I'd gotten too tired to continue planning. When Sonya asks a serious question, it's almost always her way of telling you she feels that way.
"Yes. I don't have a clue what's gonna happen. I'm scared, but I know we're going in the right direction. We can't stay here."
"I know." She sounded so small, and I felt that small, too.
We were headed into unknown territory. But I had the hope of seeing Dev again to pull me through. I turned out the light and stared at the ceiling, letting my mind wander back to the night in the tree house with Dev. I'd felt so loved, so cherished, and so happy with him. I wanted those things now and hoped with all my heart that we would actually get them. Dreaming about Dev was an end to the first hopeful day in a long time.
We Go Now
"Evie!" The excitement in Gabriel's voice pulled me away from my machine more than the bellow he'd let out. He'd been gone all day with some secretive business he wouldn't talk about. "Hurry up, Evie!"
I cautiously poked my head out the door. Gabriel had taken to pulling pranks on Sonya and me. His most recent was to put those annoying snap things you throw at the ground that explode. He'd put a bunch of them above our door so that when we opened it, they fell and burst into a bunch of small firecracker snaps. We'd gotten him back with purchasing five cheap alarm clocks. We set them to go off every twenty minutes starting at two a.m., and we hid them where he couldn't find them. He went nuts. Evelyn thought it was hilarious. It was childish and silly, but we really needed something to keep our spirits up.
Evelyn had left that morning to fly to Rapid City, South Dakota with Gary's mom. There, they were renting a car and driving to Winnett, Montana. Gabriel thought this was best in case anyone thought to look at where they'd been travelling to find our location.
With her gone, I was really worried about Gabriel's pranks. But when my body was outside the door and nothing fell on me, I ventured farther out and down the hallway. Sonya and Gabriel were standing by the front door, staring out.
"What's going on?" I asked.
He glanced at me. "You have a delivery." He gestured toward the door.
Standing on the porch was a young man in jeans and a white polo with a car dealership logo on it. He was holding a clipboard and a manila envelope. "Piper Kenley?"
"Yes."
He smiled politely. "I apologize for the inconvenience, but could I please see some identification?"
I turned around to the coat rack behind the door and pulled out my license from my purse. Handing it to him, I looked to Sonya and Gabriel, but they seemed as confused as I was.
"Thank you. Please sign here." He held out a heavy, black pen with the dealership name in silver lettering.
I scribbled my signature, and he handed me the envelope. "Everything's inside," he said, smiling genuinely. "You enjoy that now." He winked at me and turned to step off our porch.
I watched him walk down the driveway to a sleek, black car with another man in a matching white polo in the driver's seat. "What on earth?" I asked Gabriel.
He put his hands up in the air. "Don't look at me. We don't even have one of those dealerships around here. Nearest one is probably in Fresno. Open the envelope."
Right, stupid me, envelope. I walked to the couch, sat down, and tore open the envelope, emptying the contents on the coffee table. A set of keys tumbled out and a white envelope. Sonya grabbed for the keys as I carefully opened the envelope. Inside, I found a greeting card with several different cars on the front. In perfect writing, it read:
To my perfect baby sister,
Tell Gabriel he's off the hook. It's all in your name now. Make it last, but don't be afraid to get what you need, what will make you safe. I've purchased something for you already. It will make me feel better to know you have it. May it lead you on your chosen journey regardless of whether I approve.
Love Always,
Harm
I scrunched my face up. "That was cryptic." It was also odd that he would encourage me to do anything he didn't approve of.
Gabriel read the card and stopped smiling. He looked intensely at me. "It's less cryptic than you think." He put his hand out to me, and I placed mine in his. He pulled me toward the front door.
Outside, parked in the driveway was something I hadn't expected at all—ever. Shining up at me was a brand new silver SUV with a red bow on the hood.
I shook my head. "Is this—this isn't—"
Sonya giggled. "It's yours, Evie." She held the keys out to me.
I blinked several times, trying to focus on it.
Sonya pushed me forward. "This is so awesome, Evie." She steered me toward the sticker on the side of the SUV and turned into a car saleswoman. "Tinted windows—must be so no one can see who's inside, two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, touch screen navigation system, Bluetooth hookup, front and side airbags, heated seats and steering wheel, satellite radio, 5,000 lb. towing capacity, premium sound system—okay I'm stopping there, or we'll be here all day. He seriously got you all the bells and whistles."
My eyes fell on the price at the bottom of the sticker $47,838. "Oh my God! This is too much," I mumbled. "He wouldn't buy me this." I turned back to Gabriel. "Why would he buy me this?"
"Evie, listen to me." Gabriel's "serious voice" made me focus back on him. "Think this through. Why would he buy you a vehicle with satellite navigation, a vehicle that was super-safe, and a vehicle capable of being driven on any terrain? Why would he do all that and tell you that it was to lead you on your next journey regardless of whether he approves?"
When he said it like that, light bulbs burst with too much electricity in my brain. "Dev told him I'm coming after them. I still can't—this is too much money."
"He wants you to be safe. Accept that and go from there."
Slowly, I nodded and walked forward. "It's pretty," I said with a half-smile.
Sonya ran her fingers along the side. "What will you name it?"
"I don't know. I guess I should drive it first."
"Agreed, let's go." She pulled away from me and ran back inside. She appeared a minute later with our purses and climbed in on the passenger side.
Gabriel got into the back seat and looked around with wonder. When I put the SUV in reverse, a camera appeared on the screen in the dashboard showing the view behind me.
"Cool." Sonya laughed.
I was still too in shock to say much. Ga
briel's truck was pretty amazing with technology, but this was so far beyond that. I just couldn't believe Harm had spent this much money on something.
I tried to digest all the information as we drove to Gary's house to show off the new vehicle. Along the way, Sonya tested everything out, declaring the sound system "in-sane." Gabriel had to cover his poor old man ears as she blasted a Katy Perry song.
Gary was even more impressed than Sonya. He'd been up early getting everything packed. That evening they would be packing the moving van with their things. Time was moving very quickly.
When Evelyn and Alice, Gary's mom, got back from Montana, they had a ton of pictures of the house. It was going to need some work inside and out, but Dev's dad insisted it was all superficial and could be easily dealt with. Evelyn worked it out without an agent or lawyer, and it felt really odd, but I simply hopped online and transferred $205,000 to Frederick Honeycutt. He signed the deed over to Crazy Larry in front of a notary and that was that. Evelyn's stories about Crazy Larry and the way he freaked out the previous owners of our new house made us all laugh hysterically. Things were running fairly smoothly, which only made me worry more.
On the way home from loading up Dev's parents' things, I stared out the window, biting my bottom lip. Gabriel glanced at me a few times, but I was lost in thought.
"What's wrong?" He finally asked.
"It's too easy. Doesn't it feel too easy—or not easy, but smooth?"
He was quiet for a few moments as we drove past the building that would become the new high school. The steel beams were all in place, and it was starting to look like the skeletons of a building, but there was no way they would be done by August.
"They're watching the internet and phones because it's really easy to do that. But they don't have a reason to have us followed, and I really don't think they have the spare manpower to tail us either. Unless they caught Devlin on the phone with you, they have no reason to suspect what we're doing at this point."
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