“Lawrence, how many times do I need to say it? That murdering slut and that bastard are worthless. Your wife, God rest her soul, died at her hand. That bastard shouldn’t be breathing air and neither should that murderous bitch. They killed your wife.”
Cassie closed her eyes and cried harder. As soon as she returned to the States, she’d used a pregnancy test to confirm her fears. When the results appeared on the slender stick, she’d sunk to the floor in the bathroom of the Atlanta hotel, horror-struck. It had been stupid on her part to ignore the morning sickness and the way her body had changed in the weeks leading up to Sierra team’s transition to the States, but she’d been terrified to acknowledge what the symptoms meant. Shame had overwhelmed her at the thought of explaining to Van she was pregnant with his child, that the contraceptive her father and uncle had demanded she receive hadn’t worked. Would he think she’d lied to him—that she’d tried to trap him into marriage?
She'd fallen in love with the gentle giant while they'd lived overseas. Van embodied everything she'd ever dreamed of in a man. Love, protection, tenderness and compassion, all the qualities she'd heard existed, but had never witnessed, much less experienced. Her body still ached for his touch, his gentleness. None of it changed what she knew to be true, what she’d heard from his own mouth when the guys bantered back and forth at night. Van did not want a family. Her heart had shattered the second she’d turned her back on him in Atlanta and walked away, but leaving was better than experiencing his condemnation, his almost certain rejection and anger. She’d rather have only good memories of him.
When she had come home pregnant, her religious father had disowned her, and her uncle had taken over the duty of meting out ‘discipline’. She remembered curling into a ball to protect her unborn baby from her uncle’s relentless punishment. To make matters worse, her mother was punished for Cassie’s transgressions, but her mother was beaten by her husband. They were both lucky to survive the months after her return.
Cassie had always lived with abuse. She knew it wasn’t right, knew that she and her mother deserved a life without fear and pain. She’d briefly experienced a far different life, but…she closed her eyes. Growing up, her family had lived in Wyoming. She’d gone to high school and learned to play chess with the chess club. Strategy came easily to her. She could picture the moves an opponent would make for the entire game after the first three moves. She never lost. Her club went to regionals, and they won because of her. She went to nationals based on the generosity of her teachers because her father wouldn’t pay for the trip. She’d won every match she’d played.
A gentleman from Guardian approached her teacher, who was also her chaperone, and asked if Cassie could look at a word game he’d brought. He said there wasn’t a key or a cipher for the game, but he was wondering if she could unscramble it. The teacher called back to Wyoming to ask her parents, and her mother gave permission. Cassie solved the puzzle within eight hours. Guardian sent her mom and dad a check for ten thousand dollars. That was the start of her work for Guardian.
Three times since then, she’d answered a request from Guardian. Each time it was harder to come back to her family—to live without utilities, running water, or indoor plumbing—to live in constant fear. Her father and uncle had bought a small patch of land in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana and had found a trace of gold. The two men used every dime Cassie earned to sink a shaft deep into the earth, chasing the elusive vein of gold that would make them rich. Her father had threatened to beat her mother to death if Cassie didn’t return to the mountaintop or if she told anyone “lies” about exactly what happened in that remote Montana cabin.
The physical threats against her mother had made her return to this wretched cabin in the Bitterroot Mountains. She’d known what was waiting for her on top of the mountain, but she’d needed to do what she could to protect her mom. After Kashmir, she’d tried to leave. She’d begged her mother to come down the mountain with her. She’d explained she could have a full-time job if she wanted it, and that she’d found a man who treated her with respect. She told her mom all about Van. What she couldn’t tell her mom was why she’d left him to come back. Her mother didn’t need that guilt.
Her mother was only forty-five, but the life her father had forced on them all had taken its toll on the small, fragile woman. Cassie numbed at the memory of her mother begging her to stay on the mountain with her. Her mother swore she’d be able to make Cassie’s father understand. Three weeks later, after her mother suffered yet another beating for trying to protect Cassie and her unborn child, her mom finally begged her to leave, to find a safe place. Cassie ultimately agreed out of fear for the life that grew inside her. The next day, as soon as the men left for the shaft, Cassie headed down the mountain.
Her mother must have had a change of heart, because she’d packed a small bag and attempted to follow. Cassie’d managed the climb down the bald face of granite that led to the flatter land below when she’d heard her mom’s scream. She scrambled back to find her mom lying at the base of the granite face, broken and dying. She had no idea why her mom had attempted the sheer drop off when the trail cut into the mountain to the right led down a far less challenging descent.
Cassie blinked back, her mother’s dying plea echoed through her mind. “Leave me, please, baby. Run, go and don’t look back.”
“It’s okay, momma. I’ll get you down the mountain. I’ll get you help.” Cassie held her mom, the woman’s small broken body convulsed.
“Go, hurry. I’m so sorry…I tried.” She took her last breath in Cassie’s arms.
In her grief, she didn’t hear her uncle’s approach. The man beat her and then strangled her until she blacked out. Cassie came to as he dragged her back to the cabin, beat her again, and locked her in the small wood closet on the back porch—all the while screaming at her that she was the reason her mother was dead. Sometimes, she thought he was right. If she’d tried harder, if she’d stayed, maybe her mom would be alive.
She’d only thought she’d lived in hell before. Life in true hell began that day. Since then, she’d been starved and the beatings from her uncle increased in severity. Still, she’d managed to survive and, with no help from either of the men, deliver her baby. Her strength had waned to the point her uncle and father no longer feared she’d run. Besides, as her uncle had taunted when he’d taken all her shoes, who would take an infant down the mountain barefoot…unarmed, alone? No one. Both her father and her uncle knew it. Coyotes, wolves, bears, lynx and mountain lions hunted in the dense forests. She heard their cries at night. The dangers for a woman without a gun, carrying an infant, were too many to count. But she’d accept the risk of probable death from exposure or those predators over her certainty she and Samuel would die if they stayed. Protecting her son from her family had become her only focus.
Cassie flinched as chairs scraped the floor in the kitchen. She pulled Samuel closer and turned in toward the wall to protect them both as the men walked past.
“Clean the kitchen, slut, and keep that bastard quiet or I will kill it.” An unprecedented level of fear shook her to her core. The rough, threatening voice was her father—not her uncle. Cassie braced herself on the wall and stood while still holding Samuel. Despite her weakness and the continual tremors, she couldn’t calm down, she must escape—now. Her father had never threatened her or Samuel before. He’d never protected them, but his threat tonight ignited a powder keg. If her father gave her uncle any indication he’d allow the man to carry out his threats unopposed, neither she nor Samuel would live to see the next sunset.
Cassie tied an old shirt into a sling and snugged Samuel close to her, so she could keep him warm and quiet. Gingerly, she washed her swollen face, blotting the blood off her cheek. Tomorrow, she’d take Samuel and escape down the mountain.
In the meantime, she needed to keep her uncle and father pacified. Before she cleaned the kitchen, she used a small piece of bread to wipe up all the meat juices from her father
’s plate. She ate the fat from the meat that he’d cut off and licked off the gravy left on her uncle’s plate. She ate the food baked in the small Dutch oven the same way and filled her mouth with the meager amounts of food left in the serving bowls. Cassie walked on the floorboard that concealed the supplies for her escape. It had never been if she would leave, but when. The when had come.
The front door slammed as either her father or uncle went out to use the outhouse before they went to sleep. The low light of the oil lamp cast a flickering glow against the back wall of the kitchen. The cold breeze did little to still her fears about taking Samuel down the mountain, but she had no choice. She’d run out of time.
Cassie made her way to the corner and slowly slid down the wall onto her little stool. She rubbed Samuel’s back and hummed quietly. The front door slammed open again and she jumped, startling the baby. She quietly hushed him and rocked him, although her ribs screamed for her to stop. Heavy boots moved from the front of the cabin to the rear. A door slammed, and the noises in the cabin subsided again.
If she could get to civilization, she could contact the people she knew at Guardian. She could call Jewell King. The woman had been her friend…sort of? She was just as socially awkward as Cassie, kindred spirits her mother would have said. She’d met Jewell King while on her second job for Guardian. They’d become awkward friends, but friends nonetheless.
God, she wished she could call Jewell. The last time they’d spoken was just before she’d come back up into the mountains. Cassie had called her from the pay phone at the diner in Buckskin Junction. Their conversation that day was etched in her mind.
“Why won’t you tell Van you’re pregnant?” Jewell demanded for the fifth or sixth time.
“Because I can’t. I screwed up. I didn’t think I could get pregnant, and to be honest, I listened when he and his men talked. Believe me, he doesn’t want a family. Besides, Van never told me he loved me, nor did he mentioned a future after we got back to the States. Maybe after my baby is born, I’ll seek him out.”
“You said your folks are really religious and strict. Maybe you should come stay with me and figure something out.”
“I can’t. I have two days to make it up the mountain before they…” Cassie’d seen too much to doubt her father would beat her mother into the ground. She cleared her throat and continued, “I think I’ll ask my mom to come down the mountain and live with me. I know my dad and uncle won’t approve, but my mom…Jewell, I can’t leave her up there alone. As much as I love doing these jobs for you, I hate being away from her when I go on assignment for Guardian. She’s frail, and the work is so hard.”
“Are you going to be alright?” Jewell’s concern seeped through the telephone connection, tangible and not unwelcome.
Cassie was silent as she debated how honestly to answer her question. “Yeah, I should be. I’ll leave if I feel unsafe.”
“Okay, but I’m holding you to a promise to get word to me about you and the baby. Snail mail, email, telephone…hell, carrier pigeon or dog sled. Us geeks have to stick together. The puzzle master is important to me. You are important to a lot of people here at Guardian.”
When Guardian wanted her to solve another puzzle, they would contact her on the old ham radio her father used to have in the small living area of the cabin. When she’d finally been allowed unrestricted access to the cabin after her mom died, the radio was gone. No doubt so she couldn’t call for help. She hadn’t been able to send word, and if she could have, what would she have said? What could Jewell do? Dispatch Guardian to storm the mountain? She wasn’t valuable enough to be a priority…to anyone. She was a freelance puzzle solver and nothing more. As her father and uncle told her repeatedly, there were hundreds of people just like her. She wasn’t special. She didn’t matter to a huge organization like Guardian…nevertheless, she shivered, curled around her baby, and sent up a silent prayer. “Dear God, please…if we ever get off this mountain, please let Jewell answer her phone.”
Cassie shuddered and shook her head, clearing it of useless wishes. She rubbed Samuel’s little rump, up his back and back down. The methodic touch relaxed not only him, but her, too. She allowed herself the comfort of thinking about Van, of wondering where he might be. If he was safe. Samuel’s daddy was devastatingly handsome, and he had been kind to her. The man was six-feet-three-inches tall with the silkiest dark brown hair, the most compassionate hazel eyes, and a soft, full beard. With his tattoos and bulk, he could pass as a rogue biker, but Cassie knew the intelligence and warmth beneath the scary veneer. She prayed that Samuel would grow up to be like his father. Her uncle’s snores drifted through the small cabin into the kitchen where she sat. She prayed he’d get the chance to grow up.
Chapter 5
“Okay, these guys will get you where you’re going. Jasper here rides double if the woman decides to come down the mountain with you. The pack horse is a stubborn beast, but he’ll keep up with you. You’ve got the GPS coordinates?” Isiah Reichs swung the horse trailer door closed and Sampson Waters brought down the catch bar, sealing it shut.
“We do.” Van held up a five-inch by eight-inch tablet with the GPS coordinates entered. It was overlaid with the latest satellite imagery and also functioned as a satellite phone. Both Travis and Van had one that slid into the protected front shoulder pocket of their ultra-thin bulletproof vests. Van opened the back end of the Guardian SUV and unlocked their traveling arsenal.
A low whistle sounded right before Reichs and Waters stepped up to inspect the weapons within.
“Did you come here to fight a war?” Waters grabbed a rifle out of the rack. “Fuck me standing…an ESR?”
“Damn straight, that’s an XM2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle.” Travis grabbed his two .45s and loaded them, chambering a round in each pistol.
“What the fuck does this thing fire?” Reichs grabbed the rifle from Waters and brought it up taking aim down the valley.
“.300 Winchester Magnum.” Van picked up the ammo for the weapon and an empty magazine. He loaded the rounds as the two men took turns admiring the weapon.
“What’s the range on this?” Sampson laid the weapon back in its resting spot.
Van glanced up at him and smiled. “I think you know.”
“Yeah, I do. 1200 meters, but not effective after a thousand.”
“It’s effective.” Travis pulled out an Interceptor 911 and slid it into the scabbard attached to the back of his vest.
“I’ve never heard of a shot farther than a thousand with this weapon.” Waters crossed his arms and watched as they armed up.
“Trust me, it’s effective.” Van looked up at the man and gave him a dead-on stare. At thirteen hundred meters, he’d taken out a murdering son of a bitch who’d just killed three women and two children. It was effective.
“Just how dangerous is this woman?” Reichs asked as he watched Van and Travis pull their weapons out of the arsenal.
“It isn’t the woman we are worried about. It’s the bears.” Van said with a serious expression. Holding the smile off his face was a tough job. Van and Travis put in their earpieces. They’d activate them if they were separated. The comms mic was built into the vest collar.
“Right.” Waters and Reichs busted up laughing. “Seriously, what is with the armament?”
“Standard issue. We are going into an area in which we don’t have proper intel. As a recognized, national law enforcement entity, we are cleared to carry all this. I’d rather have it than need it.”
Isiah Reichs tipped his cowboy hat back and looked up at the sky. “Well, damn it the next time Guardian pulls me back into civilization, I'll have to ask for some better toys." His eyes fell to Van and he got deadly serious. "You might make it up the lower third of the mountain by nightfall and if you ride hard, maybe halfway. Build yourself a good enough fire, and the animals won’t be an issue, but the people back there in those hills? They are hardcore. I wish you luck.”
Van threw the keys to the Guardian
SUV to Waters. “I’ll call you when we need a ride back. Take care of her for me?” He nodded toward the SUV.
“Damn straight. I can’t wait to play around with all the shit in this vehicle.” Sampson headed toward the driver’s side door.
Van picked up his rifle. He closed the gun safe and then the rear door of the vehicle. “Hey, Sampson?”
“Yo!” The man leaned out the driver’s side door.
“You can play with, fire, test or have fun with anything in the truck, just don’t touch the red button under the panel on the dash.” Van looped the reins over his horse’s neck and stepped up into the saddle.
“Why? Will rockets launch out of the rear end of this thing?” They all laughed at the comment.
“Nah, man. That duress button will activate an alarm bringing in every law enforcement agency, and any Guardian, posted in the tri-state area.”
“Are there that many Guardians way out here in the Midwest?” Isiah Reichs leaned on the back of his truck, giving Van some serious consideration.
“Nowadays? A lot more than you’d think.” Van winked and turned his horse, nudging the animal into a trot. Travis’s horse fell into step, and they headed west into the Bitterroot Mountains.
Chapter 6
Cassie carried Samuel in the sling she’d knotted around her neck. She’d nursed him before her father and uncle had stirred and made their way into the kitchen for their breakfasts. She’d made the men’s lunch and placed the food in a bucket covered with a small piece of fabric to keep the dirt and bugs out. She’d cut up several rashers of side pork, fried it and added two eggs each from the laying chickens she tended. The eggs were her primary protein. As long as she had four eggs every morning, the men didn’t track the fact she ate any extra she'd gathered. She fried two large slices of bread in the bacon grease and put the food on the table minutes before the men walked into the room. Cassie walked over to the corner and sat on the stool. Her heart hammered in her chest. Today was the day. She and Samuel were leaving, and it scared her, but not as much as staying. She rubbed Samuel’s back, keeping him quiet.
Montana Guardian: A Guardian Security Novella (The Kings of Guardian) Page 4