Tyler’s mouth had begun to water at the sight of all that food. “Thanks, Max. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I smelled all of that.” He glanced at the large servings of banana pudding that the truckers had just finished. “Do you have any pudding left, or did they eat it all?”
The truckers all laughed and took their final sips of coffee. One of them slapped Tyler on the back and said, “Son, if you haven’t learned by now…this place never runs out of food. I don’t know how Max does it, but there’s always plenty for everyone. I’ve never seen anyone leave this place hungry.” He laughed again and shook Max’s hand. “Thanks for the food, the company, and the song, Max. We’ll see you again on our turnaround.”
Max walked the three truckers outside and bid them all a safe trip. The parking lot was empty except for Tyler’s truck. He peered through the darkness and saw a familiar dark shape moving stealthily toward him. He crouched down and reached out his hand. “Well…hello there, my friend. How have you been, Sam? Oh look…I see you’ve brought your friend, Spartacus, back to see us. Well…you two look hungry. Why don’t y’all mosey around to the back porch, and I’ll fix you a pork chop or two?”
“Thank you, Max,” Sam answered back. “I think we have some time to kill tonight. Tyler is supposed to be taking us in the woods to hunt wild game and whet our appetites for the fight tomorrow. Pork chops sound wild enough for me…what about you, Spartacus?”
Spartacus licked Max’s hand. “I’m not sure what they are, but I’ll try my best to force one…or two…down…”
Max rubbed both their heads and said, “Okay, then…I’ll meet you on the back porch. I’m going to put the CLOSED sign up early tonight. Things have been pretty slow tonight, so it shouldn’t hurt closing a little earlier than usual.” He watched the two dogs disappear around the corner of the building and sighed. He looked upward into a star-filled sky. “Please keep them all safe, sweet Lord…”
He went back inside and saw Amanda and Tyler sitting next to each other at the counter. Something was definitely happening between the two of them, and Max wanted to give them some time alone. He smiled when he passed them and said, “I’m going to leave you two alone for a while. It seems I have two hungry dogs waiting for me on the back porch, and I need to clean up the kitchen area before Bertie gets back.”
Amanda started to get up and said, “I can help you Max…”
He turned back to her and said, “I can handle this, Amanda. Why don’t you keep Tyler company until Bertie and Doug return. We can wait until they get back, Tyler, for you to tell us how things went with Mr. Abbott today.”
“Okay,” Tyler smiled at all the food on his plate. “I’ll just keep on eating until everyone is here and then catch y’all up on what’s going on.”
Max disappeared into the kitchen and Amanda sat back down on the stool beside Tyler. She looked over at him and was surprised to find him staring at her. “What? What are you looking at? Did I spill something on myself?” She looked down at her frilly white apron and adjusted the halo headband.
Tyler put down his fork, smiled, and shook his head. He didn’t know when it had happened exactly, but it had happened. This feisty specimen of the female population had gotten under his skin. He knew that he wanted to get to know Amanda Turner…he wanted to know everything about her. “No, you look fine…you look…beautiful…”
Amanda raised her brows and pursed her lips together in a happy-duck fashion. “Well, well…it’s about time Mr. Foster. I was beginning to wonder if I was imagining all those feelings I’ve been having about you.”
Tyler leaned closer to her and whispered, “What kind of feelings have you been having about me, Miss Turner?”
“Oh…the kind that I’ve read about in all those romance novels. Mind you now…I’ve only read about those feelings. I’ve never really experienced them with anyone…until I met you on Monday. Is it possible to have those feelings about someone you’ve only known for four days?”
Tyler leaned in closer to her and nuzzled a slight kiss against her neck. “If you had asked me that yesterday, I would have said, absolutely not,” Tyler responded.
“But you feel differently today, huh?” Amanda grinned and closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of his warm lips against her neck. She suddenly shivered and opened her eyes. “Oh…”
Tyler pulled back and stared. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure…” Amanda paused. “Maybe you should kiss me again so that…you know…so that I can be sure…that I’m…okay…”
Tyler stood up and pulled her up along with him. He took her face between his hands and smiled. “I don’t know what kind of spell you’ve cast on me, Amanda Turner, but…” he stopped talking as he bent toward her and kissed her softly against her comically-puckered lips. He pulled back and looked down at her. He grinned again at the expression on her face, her eyes still closed and her lips still puckered up for another kiss. He waited for her to open her eyes and said, “Come on, let’s go sit at a table and have some dessert. I want you to tell me everything about yourself.”
“Everything? Really?” Amanda grinned back at him. She closed her eyes and immediately thought about her parents. “Oh, I can’t wait to tell you both all about Tyler Foster…”
31. Little John Confronts the Investigators
Tim Breydan sat on the floor with his back pressed against the wall. Their ropes had been retied shortly after Clint had cut them loose, and Tim’s fingers tingled with the loss of circulation. He tried to wiggle his fingers but couldn’t tell if they were moving or not. The ropes from the men’s feet had been removed earlier in the day so that they could move around the small, dark cabin. He listened to the soft snoring of his fellow investigator. He knew that Ross’ injuries were much worse than his own, and he worried that Ross might not last until they could be rescued.
Tim watched Ross’ dark form curled up on the floor at his feet. They had both been in and out of consciousness so much over the past thirty-six hours; so, it had only recently dawned on him that they might be able to help each other untie the ropes that cut roughly into their wrists. “Ross? Are you awake?”
There was no answer, but relief spread quickly across Tim’s face when he heard the soft intake of breath from his friend. He tried again to stir Ross awake, this time, with a gentle nudge of his foot to the top of Ross’ head. “Ross…wake up…”
Ross had been lying on his left side, attempting to keep the pressure off his bruised ribs and lungs. “I wasn’t sleeping…can’t sleep…it hurts too much to even close my eyes for very long.”
Tim thought that his friend’s voice sounded weaker than it had since their last conversation. “Well, try to open them long enough to help me with something.”
Ross sighed. “Hey…I’ve got nothing on my calendar…just name it…”
Tim smiled into the darkness and wondered what time it might be; the only thing he was certain of was that this was their second night of darkness. A meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, and bottled water had been delivered to them around dusk, but he didn’t think that they had been asleep for more than an hour since then. “Well…it just occurred to me that we might be able to untie the ropes around our wrists…if you could loosen mine, I could get the circulation going in my hands again and get yours off.”
Ross groaned into the darkness. “You’re assuming, of course, that my circulation is working better than yours, huh, ‘ole man? Can’t believe we haven’t thought to do this sooner…can you come to me? I don’t think I can get to a sitting position by myself…”
Tim scooted down the wall, rolled onto his right side, and began to inch his way downward towards Ross. “I’m going to try to position us back-to-back. Try to find my hands and see if you can loosen the knot.”
Maybe it was because he was younger, or maybe he just had better circulation than his friend, but Ross still had some sensation in his hands and fingers. It was the rest of his body that was
pretty much useless to him. He waited until Tim had positioned himself against his back, and then began to search for the end of the rope that secured Tim’s hands. He found the knot and wiggled it; the knot was looser than he expected it to be. It took a full ten minutes, but Ross smiled beneath a groan when he pulled the end of the rope through the knot. “I think I got it…”
Tim’s hands were so numb that he was not even aware that the ropes had been loosened. “Okay…let me try to get them off…” He couldn’t feel the rope, but he did his best to wiggle his hands around. He didn’t feel the rope slide off, so he was startled when he saw his left hand come from behind and drop to the floor in front of him. “My, God…you did it…you did it, Ross…”
Tim maneuvered himself into a sitting position and shook his hands vigorously in front of him. He pumped his fingers in and out to help improve circulation to them. He grinned broadly when healthy coloring returned to the tips of his fingers. “I never knew something could feel so good…” He pushed himself to his knees and turned toward his friend. “Hold on, Tim…I can loosen your ropes now…”
Another ten minutes passed before Tim had assisted Ross to a standing position and they both began to move slowly around the room. It felt so good to feel the blood returning to their other limbs.
“I don’t know if moving around is good for you or not,” Tim said. “On a scale of one-to-ten, what’s your pain level?”
It did feel good to be able to move, without constriction, around the room, in spite of the pain caused by his bruised and broken ribs. “It still hurts to breathe, but I’m thinking that it might just be fractured ribs…if the lungs had been punctured, I don’t think I’d still be here…so…that being said…current pain level is around…thirteenish…”
The pair moved instinctively closer together when they heard the key in the padlock. They were standing side-by-side when Little John Abbott pushed open the door. He held a large, battery-operated lantern that filled the small room with bright light. They both shielded their eyes in a reflexive, protective manner. Little John removed the old, kerosene lantern off the hook and replaced it with the battery-operated one. “I’m feeling generous tonight, boys…thought I’d replace that old kerosene lantern with one y’all could use on your own…wouldn’t want to risk you burning down my cabin with that old lantern, so couldn’t leave you matches for it…”
Clint Meacham had accompanied Little John to the cabin, and started to enter the room with his boss.
“No…you wait outside…I can handle these two.” Little John commanded as he kicked the door closed. He hung the lantern on a large nail that had been pounded into one of the load-bearing columns. “Well, well…it took the two of you long enough to figure out how to get out of those ropes…guess you college boys aren’t as smart as you want folks to think you are…” The smile on his face never reached his eyes…eyes that bore into the two men with evil intentions. “But…I guess they don’t teach you guys too many escape techniques in your animal advocate classes…now, do they?”
To their credit, both men remained expressionless. Ross could feel the tension in Tim’s body as they stood side by side. “Don’t say anything…” he tried to whisper.
Little John clicked his tongue and shook his head. “It’s a small room…I heard that.” He took three slow steps toward them. The younger man was slightly taller than he was, but Little John’s solid 300-pound body weight gave him all the confidence he needed to know that neither of them was a physical threat to him. “Let’s see…you…bent over in pain…you must be…Ross Taylor…and, you…” he pointed at Tim, “You must be Tim Breydan.”
Ross tried to sound strong, but the pain in his broken ribs tripped him up. “Well, well…it took you longer than we thought to figure out we aren’t really cousins…” He choked on the last of the sentence.
Little John shook his head. “Never believed that story for a minute, but, I didn’t want to kill you without at least considering that it might be true. I mean, if it had turned out that you were cousins, then we could’ve just given you a good ass-kicking and threatened to kill your families if you ever stepped foot on my land again. No…it’s too bad for you both that your story wasn’t true. Instead…I find out that you are investigators, hell-bent on destroying something that brings an awful lot of financial security to this community.”
Tim held his temper in check while he watched the big man strut back and forth in front of them. “You mean, financial security to yourself…so, now you know the truth…or at least you think you know the truth. What happens now?”
Little John’s stare never wavered. “Who else is in on this with you? Tell me the truth and I just might let you live.”
Ross grunted and spat at Little John’s feet. “You know damn well that you’re not going to let us live…” he gasped for a breath before continuing. “And Hell will freeze over before we tell you anything…”
Little John appeared to ignore the interruption. He directed his question to the older man. “Tell me…is the kid involved in your little operation?”
Tim stared back him with his one good eye. “What kid?”
“The one who was here with me last night…calls himself, Tyler Jones. I’ve had my suspicions about him, but I have no real proof that he’s working with you on this. Hell…he’s the one who confirmed your true identities…broke into your hotel room, he did…found your badges. I have some pretty good connections, so it didn’t take long to find out who you work for and what you’re really doing in our town. There have been a lot of rumors flying around the past few weeks about a possible sting to bust the dog-fighting rings around this area.” He moved to within a foot of them and said, “That’s not going to happen, gentlemen. From what I’ve been able to find out…your bust is scheduled to happen next weekend…that’s why I’ve moved our fights up a week.” He pulled Tim’s cell phone from his back pocket and handed it to Tim. “But…to play it safe…you’re going to call whoever is in charge and tell them that you haven’t been able to find any concrete evidence of illegal dog-fighting in Thomasville. I don’t give a damn what they do, or who they bust outside of this area, but you will ensure that they stay away from my city.”
Tim stared at the cell phone in his hand and shook his head. He started to say something but Little John’s rapid movement startled him into silence.
It happened in a split-second.
Little John lifted his pants leg and pulled an 8-inch hunting knife from a sheath strapped to his ankle. He moved swiftly behind Ross, jerked him backwards toward him, and held the glistening knife to his throat. “Do it, Breydan…do it now…and for your friend’s sake…I suggest you be extremely convincing…”
Ross Taylor’s agonizing scream echoed throughout the empty cabin.
_____
Bertie walked ahead of Doug as they exited Room 317. She stopped at the elevator and waited for him to catch up to her. “Woo-hoo!” she exclaimed. “Who would ever have thought that our sweet Amos would have found true love in his late seventies!”
Doug ran his hands through his thick, black hair and was oblivious to the approving stares he received from the nurses’ station. “I didn’t see that one coming, did you?” he grinned at Bertie.
Bertie punched him against his solid bicep. “Ouch! Are you working out? Your arm feels like solid brick.”
“Maybe you should take that as a hint to quit punching people, Bertie,” Doug laughed as he tousled her short, pixie-styled hair. “I like your new haircut by the way.” He received another punch for his conciliatory efforts.
Bertie touched her short hair. “I got tired of trying to keep the curls out of my face; now all I have to do is wet it and go!” She walked a few more steps before stopping and grinning up at Doug. “Seriously, handsome…don’t you think those two were made for each other?”
Doug nodded. “It would seem that way…kind of like Amanda and Tyler, huh?”
The elevator doors opened and they stepped inside. Bertie shoo
k her head and said, “Well, if you ask me, I think that relationship is moving way too fast.”
“But not Amos and Izzie’s relationship?” Doug queried.
“That’s different and you know it,” Bertie retorted and punched him again.
“Why is it different?” Doug knew what her reply would be, but he wanted to hear her say it.
“It’s the whole age thing, if you haven’t figured it out for yourself, handsome. At Amos’ age, he’s gotta just grab it while he can because, let’s face it, he isn’t getting any younger…but, our Amanda, well, she has her whole life ahead of her. She’s only twenty-three and we don’t really know all that much about Tyler Foster, now do we? I just wish things weren’t moving so fast with the two of them.”
The elevator doors opened onto the hospital lobby and the two angels stepped out. A little girl and her mother were sitting on one of the couches. The little girl tugged at her mother’s shirt and pointed at Bertie. “Look, Mommy…it’s that angel who works at the place where we eat sometimes!”
The mother never looked up from the book she was reading, “Uh, huh…that’s nice, sweetie…”
Bertie recognized the little girl and winked at her. She and Doug were about to walk through the automatic doors when she looked back at the little girl and made the risky decision to share the “glow” with her. There were only a half dozen people in the lobby and they were all so engrossed in their cell phone conversations, playing games on their tablets, or reading senseless, romantic novels that none of them saw it; but…the little girl saw it.
The little girl waved to Bertie, and Bertie waved back. “See you soon, sweetie!”
Standing outside in the crisp October night, Doug glanced back at the little girl. He noticed how pale she was, something he had missed while they were inside. “Oh, no...”
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