by D Wolfe
Outside the gas station, Darian was hiding between two vehicles where he could hear the three men, Cliff, Paul and some other guy talking to the cashier. Darian’s ears had perked up when he had heard that the three men were looking for a camp. His suspicions though were confirmed when he had heard Cliff say that they were supposed to be going to Camp Wolfwood. Darian knew that Denthro wasn’t planning on meeting anyone today. He realized that these three men must have been friends of Jared and that Jared was still at the camp or near the camp.
Darian was about to move when the three men came out of the gas station. He began to back away slowly when he felt something poke him in the back. “Don’t move Boy.” A gruff man’s voice said from behind him. “Now drop the bags and get on your knees.” Darian, realizing that he had no choice, did as the man ordered. Cliff, Paul and the third man joined the two of them. Darian mentally scolded himself. He should have realized that the three men would have had a fourth guy with them.
Cliff went up to Darian. “Did you really think we wouldn’t have seen you hiding here?” He asked before he laughed. “Boy, we’re hunters. We can see this kind of stuff quite easily. He took something out of his pocket. It was a small Ziploc bag. Inside it was a picture. Darian’s eyes widened. It was a picture of him and Ellie from when they had been walking to Darian’s home the day before. “And we recognized you the minute we saw you.” The other three men laughed.
“I take it that means that Jared called you here?” Darian asked. He wouldn't be surprise if Jared had called in friends to help with hunting down Ellie. His family had given Jared a challenge.
Cliff nodded and put the bag away. “He called us earlier this morning. Said he was in the hospital and that he might need someone to bail him out of prison. He was able to send us that picture during the call. He told us that a family was hiding his daughter and that he would need help with getting rid of her.” Cliff continued. “It was like fate when we entered this gas station and saw you standing there at the front counter.” The four men laughed again.
“Johnson, get the boy in the truck.” Cliff ordered. “We need him to take us to the camp.”
The man behind Darian, Johnson, jabbed Darian in the back with his gun again. “Get moving boy.” He told Darian. “It’s time we found your girlfriend and end her like Jared said to.”
Darian looked over his shoulder at Johnson. “You do realize you’re talking about killing a girl, right?” He asked. There was no way that so many people from Ellie’s last home town wanted her dead. There was also no way that Jared should have been able to find people to help him kill Ellie. Not unless there was something about Jared that he didn’t know about.
The four men laughed. “You don’t realize how powerful Jared is back home, do you?” Cliff asked Darian. “He got away all the time with abusing his wife and daughter thanks to Paul here.” Cliff nodded to Paul as he said that. “Paul worked in the police station and was able to keep Ellie’s mom in line by threatening to send her to jail and place Ellie in Jared’s custody unless she did what Jared want. The police and F.B.I will see their mistake soon if they try to arrest Jared.”
Darian knew he had to stall for time so he could try to figure out a way to escape or hope that someone would see four men threatening a teenage boy. “So Jared isn’t arrested yet?” He asked. That would be important for Demeter to know. It meant that the police didn’t know about Danielle’s death or that Ellie was at the camp. It would also give them their chance to carry out Demeter’s plan.
Johnson jabbed Darian in the back again. “Enough talking Boy. Now get into the truck and don’t cause a scene.” Darian got up. He knew that he had no choice. He had to keep these men and Jared away from Ellie. If he tried to run to Ellie, he would just be leading these men to her. He couldn’t escape anywhere else. Not until they got to the camp. He would easily be able to disappear there and call for help.
Darian got into the back of the truck and the four men sat around him. Cliff and Johnson kept their guns pointed at Darian. “Now take us to the camp Boy.” Cliff ordered. “Try anything and we’ll kill you before we kill Jared’s daughter.”
Darian glared at Cliff. “Start driving and turn right to get onto the road.” He told the fourth man. “The camp is ten minutes from here.”
Chapter Nineteen
Demeter heard a knock at the door to the safe house. She looked at her children and Devoni. “Hide quickly.” Demeter mouthed to them. She didn’t know who was at the door and she didn’t want to take any chances. Even if she went down or was arrested, the others would be safe. Derek and Diane led the others towards the back of the house. Demeter reached for a baseball bat that was in the umbrella stand. She never thought that she would ever actually have to use it but with everything that was going on, she had no choice. If she tried to be an armored wolf and attack whoever was at the door, she could very well put her family at risk.
There was another knock at the door. Demeter raised the baseball bat up and opened the door, ready to swing the baseball bat. She was relieved that she didn’t swing the baseball bat when she saw that it was Denthro and David. She noticed that David still looked like he was in pain. “Has it been done?” Demeter asked Denthro. “Has Danielle been buried?” She noticed that David winced at that question.
Denthro nodded as David and he entered the safe house. “We made sure that it would be impossible for anyone to find Danielle’s grave.” Denthro told Demeter. “Now we can get to work on getting rid of Jared for good.” Denthro didn’t want to say the word “kill”. He felt uncomfortable with that. Sure it was to protect Ellie but they were still planning to kill a man and that wasn't something that they could easily walk away from. Denthro looked around. “Are Darian and Ellie here?” He asked his wife.
“No. I told Darian that he and Ellie should stay hidden.” Demeter answered. “I figured we could get the two of them after we’ve gotten rid of Jared and we can move on with our lives.” If anyone saw Ellie with them before they were able to kill Jared or get away, it would ruin everything. The police would be hunting them down as well on suspicion of kidnapping Ellie and they would never be able to disappear for good. “We need to talk about how we’re going to get Jared to the house so we can keep him in it long enough for him to be consumed by the flames.” She said to her husband.
Denthro looked at David. “How about you go join the others?” He told David. “Let them know that it’s safe to come out.” He waited until after David had left the room before he sat down on the couch. Demeter sat down next to him. “This will be a dangerous path for us.” Denthro told his wife without looking at her. “We carry out your plan, we can’t come back for a very long time, maybe a hundred or two hundred years. Not until all actual pictures of Ellie and our family are gone.” It reminded him of the last time that they had been there. They had waited a very long time before returning to the camp.
Demeter sighed. She knew that Denthro loved the camp. It was never an easy thing to get over. “I know that the camp means a lot to you Denthro but you know that we would have to move on sooner or later.” She reminded her husband. “With Danielle’s death, no one would blame us for wanting to move away.” Demeter knew that Denthro was trying to think of other plans but they didn’t have much time left. If they didn’t go after Jared, Jared would keep hunting them until he killed them all.
Denthro looked around the two of them at the room. They would also have to give up the safe house. With how well hidden it was, even if it was close to the town, by the time they would be able to return, the house would be mostly reclaimed by the forest or destroyed by the town to make new buildings. They would never be able to live in it again.
“Where would we go?” Denthro asked Demeter. “We should have a destination in mind before we leave town.” It got real quiet in the room. The only noise that could be heard was in the other room coming from the television. There weren’t that many places that they could go to. Most of the other packs of armored wolves usual
ly split up into smaller groups and spread out to as many towns that were close together in an attempt to try to make their packs bigger. That was what made Denthro’s pack so different. They acted like a family because of young most of their pack appeared to be.
Demeter spoke after a few minutes. “We could try to head to Germany or a country across the ocean.” She suggested. “We would need to do it carefully and smuggle Ellie across the sea in secret to keep her safe. You can bet that the F.B.I. have agents and police at every airport in Ohio and the surrounding states so we would need to try to get to the ocean and take a cruise ship across the sea.” She knew that it sounded ridiculous but they couldn’t exactly stay in the States. With Ellie being a missing child and an Amber Alert out for her, anyone saw her, it would be all over for them. At least in another country like Germany, they would be able to hide her in a forest home in the mountains until after the Amber Alert for her was gone.
That was when Derek came into the room. “Denthro, Demeter.” He said.
The two turned to Derek. They noticed that Derek had a worried look on his face. “What’s wrong?” Demeter asked.
“You might want to see what’s on the news.” Derek told them. “It’s serious and we’re all possibly in more danger now.” He went back into the other room. Derek and Demeter looked at each other. This couldn’t be good.
In the living room, the entire family was watching the news on the television. There was a reporter at the Dalton Police Department. “That’s right Jim,” The reporter was saying. “Ellie Summer, the girl who has been missing for a few weeks now ever since her stepfather escaped police custody, was found a few hours ago in the woods all alone. So far the police and the F.B.I. haven’t given any comments but the child will be placed in protective custody for now until she is in a safe home away from her stepfather.”
The television showed a picture of Jared Summer. “If anyone sees this man, you are to call the police immediately. Do not engage with him. He is considered dangerous and murderous.” The reporter said.
Denthro’s eyes flicked to behind the reporter at the police station. He recognized it and looked at his wife. “Demeter, has the police station called you yet?” He asked. As soon as he asked, Demeter’s phone began to ring.
Demeter took her phone out and looked at the screen. “It’s my boss.” She told everyone before she looked at them. She knew that the minute she answered her phone, her boss could have someone trace the phone call to her. She couldn’t risk putting her family in danger like that.
“Answer it.” Denthro told her. Demeter looked at her husband. Denthro looked very serious. “Answer the phone and see what your boss wants exactly. They might have a lead on Jared or it might have to do with Darian.” He explained. “We need to know what the police know and if that means we have to run while you’re on the phone, we’ll do it then.” Denthro looked at the others. “Get ready to run if we need to.” He told him.
Demeter answered her phone. “Hello, Officer wolfe speaking.” She was silent as she listened to the police captain. “She said she would only talk to me?” Demeter asked. She mouthed Ellie to Denthro. “Has her stepfather tried to take her away yet?” Demeter than asked. “No sign of him still? Okay. I’m on my way. Make sure that Ellie is being protected. Her stepfather killed his wife. There’s no telling if Ellie is still in danger or not.”
Demeter hung up her phone and stood up. “Captain Rogers said that Ellie will only talk to me apparently.” She told the others. Demeter started walking towards the door. “As soon as I leave, get out of the safe house and get to another safe place. There’s no telling if they were tracing my phone or how far they had gotten with it if they did.” She looked at her family one last time. “As soon as I leave, you all need to get going.” She told them in a serious voice before she left.
David turned to Denthro. “What do you think happened to Darian?” David asked. “There was nothing about him in that report.” David didn’t want to say what was on his mind but after everything that had happened, he wouldn’t be surprised if Darian was dead as well. He just didn’t want to say it in front of the younger kids. Especially Devoni. She was still new to all of this and he wasn’t sure how she was feeling after hearing that armored wolves could be killed. They would have to explain to her what had happened to Danielle.
“We can’t wait to find out.” Denthro told David. “We have to get away from here before the police show up if they did find this place.” Their safety was their number one priority. Nothing else mattered for now. Demeter would be close to Ellie so Ellie would be safe. Denthro went over to Darine. “How are you feeling now?” He asked her. “Have you healed completely from those gun shots?” They wouldn’t get far if Darine was still injured.
Darine moved her arm a little. “I’ll be good to go.” She told Denthro. She stood up. “So what’s the plan?” She then asked.
Denthro began thinking. He wasn’t sure if they would be able to carry out their original plan now since Ellie had been taken to the police station. He knew that once Jared heard that, Jared would go to the police station to kill his daughter. What worried Denthro the most though was that there were no mentioning of Darian on the news. Either the F.B.I and the police were keeping that part a secret or Darian hadn’t been with Ellie when she had been found.
“Where would Darian have gone?” Denthro asked out loud. “He wouldn’t have left Ellie’s side unless it was very important.” What could have been so important though that Darian would leave Ellie alone? Maybe to get supplies but there was no way that he would have been gone that long. Something must have happened.
Darian looked at his captors with his one good eye. The other was swollen shut. The men had started beating him, demanding he told them were Ellie was. They had searched the house, the temple and every camp building only to not find Ellie. Darian knew why they weren’t finding her but he wasn’t about to let them know why. Despite having a swollen closed eye lid, a bruise on his cheek that got darker with each punch and a blood lip, Darian refused to talk.
Cliff looked at Jared. Jared had a bandage around the stubs where his missing fingers used to be. “This kid isn’t telling us anything.” Cliff told Jared. “Should we go after his family? See if that would make him talk?”
Jared was about to say something when Johnson and the other guy came in. “Jared, we’ve found your daughter.” Johnson said. “It’s all over the news.” Darian’s ears perked up. He wanted to hear this.
“She’s at the police station in protective custody.” The other guy said before he laughed. “Like there’s any safe place from us.” That made all four men laugh.
Jared took his gun out and looked at it. “I’m going to enjoy killing that armored wolf.” He said. Once he killed Ellie, he would hunt the others down.
Darian’s eyes widened. How did Jared know that Ellie was an armored wolf? Ellie hadn’t changed in front of Jared. He knew that Denthro would want to know this. Darian wasn’t sure though how he would get the message to Denthro. He had already tried to contact Denthro through mind speech but it didn’t work.
Jared looked at Cliff. “Keep that mongrel here.” Jared ordered, pointing at Darian. “If he tries anything, kill him.” With that, Jared, Johnson and the other guy left the room.
Chapter Twenty
Ellie looked around her as she waited for a detective to come speak to her. The last time she had spoken to anyone was when a police officer had locked her up in an interview room after telling her that there would be someone coming to see her. It seemed like she had been in there forever. Ellie stood up and walked to the glass mirror in the wall. She knew that there was a room on the other side and that there was a good chance that there were people watching her on the other side.
That was when the door opened. Ellie turned around. There was a detective standing there. He had an open file in his hands. “Ellie Summers.” The detective said. Ellie nodded but didn’t move. She didn’t know what this detective was going to
do. The detective sat down at the table and continued to flip through the pages of the file. “You’ve proven hard to find as of late.” The detective continued before he looked up at Ellie. “Care to explain why that is?”
Ellie leaned against the glass wall. She didn’t want to bring Darian and his family into this. The last thing they needed was to be looked at closely. She had a feeling that if the police were to look into them, the police would find out that the Wolfe family didn’t exist a few years ago. Ellie needed to keep the focus off of the Wolfe family. “When Jared told me that he had killed my mother, I thought he was going to kill me so I ran away.” She answered simply. “I didn’t know who to trust since you guys didn’t arrest him for killing my mother.”
Ellie noticed that the detective flinched at that. She knew that she had hit a nerve. No doubt the police were trying to recover from that failure. The detective looked down at the file. “It says here that besides Jared killing your mother, he has no other record of violence.” He looked up at Ellie. “So why on Earth would he kill your mother? What would make him snap like that?”
Ellie wanted to groan. Of course the file wouldn’t have any of that information. Jared had forced her to lie each time that she had had to go to the hospital because of his abusing her and the police back home had refused to arrest him. They always said it was because they had nothing on him. No proof, no witnesses and Ellie’s mother and Ellie had always been threatened by Jared. Not to mention that Jared had a few friends who would always cover for him as a precaution. Ellie wondered if Jared’s friends were trying to convince the police and the F.B.I. that Jared was innocent at that very moment.
Before Ellie could say anything, the door opened again and Mrs. Wolfe came in. “Detective Anderson.” Mrs. Wolfe said, her eyes focused on the detective. She walked to Ellie’s side and held Ellie close. “Why are you interrogating this child instead of putting her into protective custody?” She demanded.