Shades of Grey: Book Two of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles

by Phelps, J. C.

  I remembered the outside of the cabin had looked like it had been in these mountains for centuries. The exterior of the building in its place was definitely unyielding. The large logs used in place of the planks just professed strength and security and that was something I was longing for.

  “We had a log cabin built in place of the old cabin mainly for security reasons,” Red was explaining.

  “You’re worried about security up here?” I was confused. The cabin was cut off from everything. Come to think of it, I didn’t even know how the place got its electricity. Probably from a generator of some kind, somewhere. However, I wasn’t complaining at this point.

  “Of course, this is our safe haven. It should be impenetrable.”

  “I suppose…” This place did have the look of a fortress, but smaller than one would imagine. We had reached the front deck. It was proportionately bigger than before. I don’t know why I’m comparing, I thought, this is an entirely new building. I felt a pang of loss for the little cabin that used to live here.

  We walked inside and the first thing I noticed were the three bedrooms to my left and the vaulted ceiling and loft area. There was a sunken area with a rounded couch that looked like I could spend a year lying on. The couch sat in front of a fireplace, making it even more inviting.

  I walked in a bit further and saw the kitchen had expanded somewhat. The bathroom was to the right of the front door and Red explained that the room off the kitchen with the large table was a meeting room.

  The stairs to the loft were right at the edge of the kitchen. We climbed them to find four more bedrooms. The bedrooms took up the entire side of the house opposite the entrance on the first floor and the open sitting area along the other wall had bookshelves filled with books and four computers waiting to be used. I could tell where I was going to spend most of my time.

  “This must be your room.” Red hiked his thumb behind him to the room directly off the loft sitting area.

  “Why do you say that?” I asked walking toward the room he had pointed at.

  “See for yourself.”

  I looked into the room and saw my buck hanging on the wall. I had almost forgotten about that thing. That had been an interesting experience. All of us had been on a hunting trip in these mountains and each had gotten their very own buck. It was some sort of initiation and I had gotten the largest buck. Entirely by accident, but nobody had been there to see it, so I claimed all the glory without any of the shame.

  “Which room is yours?” I had been told that Red’s was the largest until I happened upon my monster and I was eager to see it.

  “My room’s on the first floor. Shall we go compare them?” He knew exactly what I was up to.

  We walked down to his room and I found that my buck was noticeably larger.

  “Nice.” I praised his because it was still quite large.

  “Nothing like yours though. I still don’t know how you managed it.”

  “Luck.” There were times it paid to be modest, especially when it was the truth. I left Red in his room to unpack and I went to do the same thing.

  After I was unpacked I walked to the kitchen and sat at the table with Brown and Red. Everyone else was either still unpacking or off doing something of his own choosing.

  We three just sat at the table looking the cabin over for some time. Finally Red broke the silence.

  “I’m going upstairs to do some reading.”

  “I think I’m going to walk down to the lake,” I replied.

  “Yeah, me too.” Brown stood from the table.

  “Grey,” Red got my attention. “Don’t get too relaxed. Tomorrow you’ll be starting your training with Blue.” He climbed the stairs to the loft.

  Brown and I got outside and headed in the direction of the lake.

  “You may have to go to work tomorrow, but you might as well enjoy what’s left of today.” He reached over and gave my hair a hard tug.

  “Ouch, what did you do that for?”

  “Why not?” He reached for my hair again. This time I was prepared and I was able to swat his hand away. He stuck his tongue out at me.

  “You are such a child.” I picked up my pace to get away from him. I was a few paces ahead of him and almost to the rock beach of the lake when I felt a sharp tug on my hair from the back.

  “You don’t want to play these games with me, Josh.” I used his real name to let him know that I wasn’t too serious and the smile on my face helped out a bit too. It had been a while since I had roughhoused with anybody and I was more than ready to kick his ass.

  “Really? Why not?” We reached the beach and started moving in circles around each other.

  “I’m going to win, that’s why.”

  “You think so?” He had his mischievous smile on.

  “Well, yeah… You’re too much of a creep to win. Have I told you that you’re a creep lately?”

  “Not lately and actually I don’t think you’ve ever been so verbally nice about what you call me.”

  We sparred for the better part of an hour. Each of us had our small victories and we both had our share of cuts and bruises. Brown and I had become closer in the three months that we had spent together but until today all of our “sparring” had been verbal. He had some moves that I wasn’t familiar with but it didn’t take me too long to make them mine.

  The darkness closed in on us and we decided to head back. We were laughing and having a good time when we walked into the cabin. The rest of the crew had found their way into the kitchen and were seated around the table. They all took notice of us walking in.

  “What have you two been doing?” Blue raised his eyebrows at us. We both were a bit beat up and disheveled.

  “She started it,” Brown replied pointing his finger at me.

  “What!? You pulled my hair first.” What was really strange was that I said it without thinking of how it sounded and I was seriously defending myself.

  “Who won?” White’s voice was not amused. Neither Brown nor I answered. Blue soon got up from the table and said, “Let’s get those cuts cleaned out. Alex, you first because you have supper to cook.” I followed him to the bathroom feeling foolish.

  Blue shut the door and started the water running. “You can do this yourself, but I thought someone needed to ease the tension out there. He’s been in a foul mood for a couple of days, so don’t take it personal.” I finished cleaning up and headed out to tell Brown to go get tended to.

  All the men had dispersed from the kitchen table except for White. He sat there with a dangerous look on his face. I wondered what I had done to offend him so much and maybe it wasn’t me like Blue had said.

  “Are you going to make some of your cookies?” I jumped at the sound of his voice, which was friendlier than before.

  “Sure. What kind do you want?” White had eaten my cooking before here at the cabin and was particularly fond of my cookies.

  “I brought some chocolate chips up with me. I put them in the refrigerator freezer. If that’s okay with you.”

  “That sounds good, but I think you should have to help me, since I have to get up real early in the morning and go to work and you get to sleep in.” The cookie banter felt like an apology from both of us, but I had no idea why one was needed.

  “I can’t make cookies like you do, that’s the whole point of asking you to make them.” He had a smile on his face.

  “I’ll show you how I do it, then you can make cookies like mine any time you want.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” He had gotten up from the table and was standing beside me. I handed him a mixing bowl and went to get the chocolate chips.

  I gave him directions while I peeled some potatoes. He didn’t get too far into the process when he asked if we could trade off at least until I got the batter mixed up.

  It didn’t take long to mix up the cookie dough and I put him in charge of baking them while I finished up supper. Soon, the smell of food cooking and especially the smell of the co
okies had drawn everyone back from their hiding spots. The first one out was Black.

  “I see you’ve got some help,” he said with a knowing smirk.

  “He wanted cookies, so I said he could have some if he baked them.”

  “Something smells good.” Green had come from his bedroom. “How long before dinner?”

  “Not long.” The kitchen was filling with men.

  Soon White pulled out his first batch of cookies. I looked over and everyone had surrounded him for a nice hot cookie.

  Eventually we all sat down to eat dinner and White continued to bake cookies.

  “Why haven’t you ever made cookies before? These are really good,” Red asked White.

  “Because I didn’t make these either. Alex did, I’m just baking them because I was the one who asked her to make them. Someone else is going to have to bake the next batch though.”

  “Ms. Grey is going to be too busy to be making you people any more cookies,” Blue interjected and added a wink for me.

  Dinner was filled with the men bantering back and forth. The cookies came into the conversation more than once. Then they started reminiscing about past jobs that I had no involvement in. I started feeling a bit out of place, yet I was enjoying the talk. I was learning a good deal at this dinner.

  The conversations changed to the men browbeating each other about women, wine and song. I got up from the table and started cleaning up. While I was doing that, I found out little things like Brown had serenaded a woman but because he couldn’t sing he was thrown in jail to sleep off his spiritedness. Each of the men had at least one story that stuck to them, whether they wanted them to or not.

  Eventually the digs got to White’s side of the table. He hadn’t joined the other men in prodding each other, but he wasn’t going to be left out. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to hear about White and his past women, so I excused myself and went off to bed.

  The men got steadily louder as I lay in bed. I caught myself straining to hear what they were saying and made myself stop. Ultimately I put my pillow over my head to stop myself from eaves dropping.

  I awoke to a quiet house and made my way down to the kitchen softly. Black was sitting at the table and he had the coffee brewing.

  “Good morning. You’re a bit late,” he said to me.

  “What time is it?”

  “It’s almost five.”

  “Oh, not too late then.”

  “Almost an hour. Blue’s not up yet though. We had a late night,” he grinned. “By the way, what did you do to piss White off?”

  I looked around to make sure no one else was around. “I didn’t do anything. Is he really mad at me?” I said feeling the anxiety welling up in my stomach.

  Black gave forth with that wonderful laugh of his and I looked around almost in a panic.

  When he finished he said, “You two better decide what you’re doing soon.”

  “I’m just not ready for some things and he’s one of those things.” I was watching all the bedroom doors to make sure no one peeked out of them. I didn’t mind talking with Black about this but I wasn’t comfortable enough to share this with the whole crew.

  “Well, keep him on his toes and don’t give in unless you’re sure. That’s my advice to you. You better get us some coffee before everyone gets out here.” He changed the subject just in time. I managed to get us each a cup of coffee before the kitchen was full of men again.

  “What is going on out here? I thought we were supposed to be on vacation,” Brown complained as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

  “Getting up early doesn’t hurt you. I see you’ve spoiled Ms. Grey. She was almost always up before me until she spent some time with you,” Black admonished him.

  “I didn’t know what time she was getting up and I didn’t care as long as the coffee was made when I got up,” Brown put in.

  White was conspicuously absent as the men quietly milled around the kitchen drinking coffee and eating cookies from the night before.

  I looked to Blue and asked if we had time for breakfast.

  “Yeah, I was hoping you would be hungry because I am and I don’t want to cook.”

  I started breakfast for everyone and hoped they didn’t expect me to cook the entire time we were up here. Even though they seemed like open-minded men it could be that they expected the woman to do the cooking. I had no intentions of becoming these men’s maid or mother. I didn’t say anything though because I was also in training. Black had made it clear when we had been up here together that I would do what was asked of me, within reason.

  Breakfast was much more subdued than dinner had been. Soon Blue and I were out the door, each of us carrying a heavy duffel bag.

  We hiked along the lake for a considerable distance until we came to a secluded cove that I had run past but had never really explored. We walked nearer the water and I saw a firing range with targets on bales of hay with sandbags stacked neatly behind them. I noticed other hay bales put up strategically throughout the area.

  Mr. Blue walked directly to them and dumped out his duffle bag and motioned for me to do the same. Soon the bales were covered with all kinds of guns.

  “Straighten these out nicely and put the pistols together, rifles and so on. I need to know how much you know about weaponry.”

  I did as I was told as Blue fired rounds at the targets. I had a hard time not watching him shoot though. He was an amazing shot. Chief Slade had taught me the basics and had taken me to the firing range on many different occasions. I was a pretty good shot myself, but I didn’t keep up on it. There was something about the kick and loud bang that I found unappealing.

  “Keep your eyes open, Miss Stanton!” Chief Slade would have to yell at me.

  It’s not that I don’t like guns, but they are completely unsympathetic to the ears. When I was younger I didn’t really see the point of guns until my father explained the second amendment to me. It was added to the constitution not to protect us from outside forces but so we could protect ourselves from our very own government. I think a government should have to be held responsible for the actions it takes and a very easy way to keep it in check is to have the right to revolt.

  I looked at guns differently after my dad had explained things and drawn parallels to points in history where restricted or prohibited gun ownership in other countries had led to bad situations, such as World War II. I now knew the importance of the amendment, however I had not purposefully taken advantage of my right.

  Of course I was taught to shoot, clean, disassemble and reassemble pistols, rifles, shotguns and assault rifles, but I had never taken an active interest in the whole weapon thing. I guess now was my chance to make up for lost time.

  I got everything put in its correct category. I had had experience with most every weapon now sitting nicely on the hay but there were some that I was not familiar with.

  Throughout the rest of the week Blue drilled me on the weapons, their uses and even their origins. He had me field dress each of them, so I took them apart and gave them a thorough cleaning and put them back together. I also practiced shooting with the various weapon categories. I found that shooting was an overlooked skill I had.

  I was also taught to create my own camouflage. Blue had me make my own suit called a Ghillie suit. These I learned were standard for snipers and that camouflage for snipers was much more complex than just the suit. After these lessons I was not terribly surprised to find out that Blue had been a sniper for the Navy Seals.

  By the end of the week I had a nice looking Ghillie suit and was proficient with every weapon set before me that first day. I found shooting the semi-automatics and fully automatics was quite fun and they had less kick than I remembered them having. However, my favorites were the 9mm Beretta, it made me feel like a gunslinger, and the beautiful .50 caliber M107 was accurate over a mile away. By the end of the week I was just as good a shot as Blue was, so he said. I knew better though, I was a better shot than he was.

  Red k
ept us all informed to the progress of the investigation back home. The deliveryman who had attacked me was finally able to speak and we found out he had waited outside the office building and paid the real deliveryman off so he could deliver my lunch. We had also learned who his contact was and some background research was done on him before we could question him. It was determined he was more than likely not the financier of the contract so Red had sent someone to talk with the middleman. As of yet, our man or men seeking him out had had no luck.

  White had made himself scarce for the duration of the week. I think he was uncomfortable being around me. He was around but didn’t come out for our breakfasts and only ate dinner with us at the end of the week. I had been thinking about the contact we almost had at my apartment and how we had never had a chance to talk about it. I had also been thinking about the way he acted after Brown and I came back into the cabin the first day we got here. I decided he must have been jealous. After all I had spent the last three months with Josh and we only came back to the office when White had called us back in. I could understand why he might think Josh and I had something going on. Despite all that, I wasn’t ready to talk to White about how I felt because I wasn’t exactly sure myself. The thought of us as a couple had entered my mind almost daily since the first day I walked into White and Associates but it didn’t seem realistic to me. Assuming White wanted more than just a few nights, it just wasn’t plausible. If he only wanted the few nights I knew I couldn’t deal with that. I was brought out of my reverie by Blacks deep voice.

  “So, how’s it going?” He questioned Blue while I cooked dinner.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Blue motion Black toward the living room with his head. They had a short conversation all about me. They were standing in such a way that I could see both of their faces but not hear what they were saying. I was able to steal glances of them and put to use my not so proper ability of reading lips. I was not in the best position to watch their every movement but I was able to pick up enough from the conversation to know that Blue thought I was doing exceptionally well.