The Legacy Series (Book 2): The Ranch [A Legacy of Violence]

by Liscom, Sean

  “If you move, if you make any noise, if you do anything other than stand there and piss your pants, I WILL shoot you dead. Do I make myself clear?” not knowing what else to do, I nodded in the affirmative. I

  caught Melissa nodding in my peripheral vision and I’m

  pretty sure the men behind us were also nodding. She waived her left hand and the others that were with her moved forward to take our guards weapons. Once they had been thoroughly frisked, they were tied up and shoved into the corner. Melissa and I were also searched and then forced to our knees along with the guards.

  Our new captors suddenly dropped to the floor and covered their heads. Only the woman, who seemed to be in charge, kept her rifle trained on us. Her back was to the front of the store and I thought that was something odd to do when there were more of Ray’s men outside. With no warning, there was a massive explosion from outside. The shock wave demolished the overhang on the front of the building and brought portions of the sheet-rock ceiling down on our heads.

  The ground hadn’t even stopped shaking when five of the six people jumped to their feet and ran out what was left of the front door. The woman in charge was the first one out the door and in the glow of whatever was burning, I could see her picking targets and firing as she moved. There was one older man left guarding us and one of Ray’s men thought it would be an opportune time to make a move. He lunged for the man’s legs. Two things happened at the same time. As Rays man jumped past me, I shifted to block him. It was a glancing blow but enough to throw off his balance. The old man was fast enough to sidestep and

  deliver a crushing blow to his head with the wooden

  stock of his rifle.

  Rays man hit the floor and didn’t move. The gunfire outside intensified and rounds started hitting the building we were in. The old man crouched down again and it’s a good thing he did. Several dozen rounds tore through the building. Another one of Rays men tried to make a move on the old man but Melissa tripped him up. Using the distraction to their advantage, the two remaining men had slipped the ropes that bound their wrists and ran at the old man. He happened to be watching Melissa and the other guy wrestling on the floor.

  Again, I rolled to block the men but one got past me. It was everything I could do to keep my guy on the floor with my wrists still in handcuffs. Using my arms and fists like a club, I got in some good blows to his head and back. He’d roll away and I’d go after him any way that I could. I needed to keep him on the ground because if he got to his feet, he’d have the advantage and probably kick the crap out of me.

  I don’t know how long we wrestled around on the floor but I got the upper hand after I smashed a knee into the side of his head. It stunned him long enough for me to get straddle of his back. I grabbed his dirty hair with both hands and repeatedly smashed his face into the concrete floor. When I felt him go limp, I rolled off and looked for my next target.

  Melissa was still having it out with her guy and it looked like she was holding her own. I looked across the room and I could see that the old man was just

  about done for. His attacker was sitting on his chest and landing blow after savage blow to his face. He was still trying to block the punches but I knew he couldn’t last much longer under the brutal assault.

  I scrambled to my feet and lunged the 10 or 15 steps to where they were. Without slowing, I plowed into the attacker. I managed to knock him off the old man but I ended up on the floor again in the process. He was faster getting to his feet and came after me with a vengeance. He kicked at my head but missed as I rolled out of the way. His next move was to try and stomp on me. I kept rolling away and he kept missing. When I rolled up against the still form of the old man, he knew I was trapped.

  The AK-47 that he had been trying to get from the old man was laying on the floor about four feet from him. He stopped his pursuit of me and bent down to pick it up. Once again I found myself looking down the barrel of a loaded rifle. He took a step toward me but stopped when he heard someone come in the room from behind him. He spun the rifle around as the woman came back inside.

  “It’s over…..” she started to say but stopped when she realized what was happening. She stared at the man holding the rifle. I felt the old man move behind me and then his arm draped over my shoulder. In his hand was a snub nose revolver. I grabbed it from his hand, cocked back the hammer, took aim and squeezed the trigger.

  The round hit Rays man under the left armpit and

  exploded out the right side of his neck. While I did expect some recoil from the small handgun, I hadn’t expected it to kick nearly as hard as it did and I almost lost my grip on it. Before the body could hit the floor, the woman had her rifle up and trained on me. I removed my finger from the trigger and slid the gun across the floor to where she was standing.

  She put her foot on it and retrained her rifle on Melissa. There was a moment of indecision on the woman’s face as she was trying to figure out which one to shoot. Melissa made the decision for her when she snapped the man’s neck. Melissa pushed the body away and held up her still cuffed hands. Without saying a word, the woman pointed her rifle back to me and motioned for me to move over by Melissa. I did and she moved in to check on her man. He was still alive but severely beaten. The woman stood up as two more of her people came in.

  One of her men quickly moved toward the old man. He shed his backpack which had a big red cross on it and began to dig through it. He produced some bandages and began to tend to the man’s wounds.

  “Get their cuffs off,” the woman said to the other man. He slung his rifle and moved toward Melissa. Fishing a set of keys from his pocket, he motioned for her to hold her hands up. He quickly unlocked the cuffs

  and she began rubbing her wrists.

  “Thank you ma’am. I’m Jill,” she said sticking to her cover.

  “I figure it’s probably the right thing to do, Jill.

  You two probably saved Dutch and I’m pretty sure you saved my ass,” she said looking at me. Her man moved to get my cuffs off. “Dana Wesson,” she introduced herself and held out her hand to Melissa.

  As soon as I heard the last name, I shot Melissa a look and she returned it as she shook Dana’s hand. Dana released her hand and extended it to me.

  “And you are?” she asked.

  “Jason,” I replied. What were the odds of this happening?

  I thought to myself.

  “Just Jason?” she insisted. I locked eyes with Dana as I shook her hand.

  “Jason Sterling,” I said. In the dimly lit room, I could see a change in her eyes and her face as she recognized my name. She quickly withdrew her hand and took two steps back. She drew her pistol and pointed it directly at me. I held both hands up in the air to signal that I wasn’t going to make any moves.

  “Get those cuffs back on them!” she ordered.

  “Mrs. Wesson, judging by your reaction, you know who I am. I only know who you are by your last name. Ray judge told me about Paul and I'm on your side,” I tried to reassure her. The reaction that she was having seemed a bit extreme.

  “You know nothing, Sterling!” she snapped.

  “I’ll tell you this, if I had known who you were when I had that gun in my hand, I would have made the same decision to shoot Rays man, not you,” I told her as I was being cuffed again.

  “It would seem to me, Mr. Sterling that you are having a really bad day.”

  “You could say that.”

  “I should just put one between your eyes right now and haul your carcass home like some trophy for my husband.”

  “Well, for obvious reasons, I hope that doesn’t happen,” I paused, still confused over her reaction. “I really need to talk to Paul. I can’t do that if I’m dead,” I replied. She just stared at me over the sights of her pistol. I could see the struggle going on in her eyes. I didn’t dare break eye contact with her. This went on for about a half minute before another of her men came into the room.

  “Dana, we didn't get Judge, he got away
. We gotta get moving. We’ve been here too long already,” he said from behind her. “What’s this about?” he asked, looking between Dana and myself.

  “Judge may have gotten away but we still scored one hell of a win tonight. You know who we accidentally captured?” she asked the man.

  “Who?”

  “None other than Jason and Jill frickin Sterling!” she said, still staring at me. There was a silence hanging in the air.

  “Mrs. Wesson, please. I need to speak to Paul. You said that Ray Judge escaped your little ambush here and that’s really bad news for all of us…..”

  “Paul would just as soon put a bullet in you as look at you Mr. Sterling. There are three people on this

  planet that he would like to kill, and have no remorse over it, and it just so happens that two of them have the last name of Sterling. If you really want to see him, it’s gonna be the last thing you do. You may talk to him, but you will be dead by this time tomorrow.”

  “I’ll take my chances. I HAVE to talk to him.” I told her. I could see the indecision in her eyes. “Please. If any of us are going to live, I have to speak to your husband.”

  “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” she replied. Turning to the man that was behind her, “Bag ‘em, we gotta get out of here before Judge comes back with reinforcements,” she ordered. The man reached into his pants cargo pocket and pulled out a bandanna. He folded it a couple of times and put it over my eyes, tying it tight in the back.

  From there, Melissa and I were escorted out of the building and into what I guessed to be a large SUV or van. We were pushed into the back seats and several other people climbed into the vehicle. I counted a total of four doors and a tailgate closing.

  The driver started the engine and dropped it in gear. We were only on the pavement for a couple of minutes and then it was dirt road, rough dirt road.

  CHAPTER 16

  Tuesday, August 15th, 2017

  Southern Nevada.

  If I had to guess, the ride was right about an hour from the time we were picked up by Dana Wesson and her crew. The person behind the wheel drove it like they stole it. I felt us gain air and fishtail more than once. Over the roar of the engine and the bottoming out of the suspension, I could pick out blurbs of whispered conversation from the front seats.

  “..... Running out of time.....”

  “….. He gonna do with them?”

  “..... Faster, it's almost.....”

  It was just pieces really. Wherever we were headed, we were in a hurry though. The vehicle slowed slightly and made a hard left turn and the driver was back on the throttle, hard. A couple more minutes and we started to slow down rapidly. The sound of wind coming through the open windows was replaced with another sound. I could hear the reverberation of the rigs exhaust as plain as day. It sounded like we were in an enclosed space, like a tunnel. The vehicle abruptly stopped and the engine was shut off. Doors began to open and I was yanked from my seat. Instead of dirt, we were walking on a hard surface, concrete or asphalt.

  We went through at least one door and then we were forced into hard metal chairs. The blindfold came

  off and it took my eyes a second to adjust to the bright florescent lights. Melissa was sitting to my left and there was a metal table in front of us. With no windows, I was clueless as to our location.

  “Wait here and Paul will be along shortly,” Dana ordered as she left the room. The steel door was closed behind her but I could still hear her talking to the man in the hallway. “I don't care what you hear in there, do not open that door. Understand?” she asked. He replied with a quick yes and then it was quiet again. I looked over at Melissa, she was studying me intently.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You remember what I said about being a shit magnet?”

  “What can I say? At least we aren't dead yet.”

  “OH? At least we're not dead..... Yet. Good Lord, what the hell did I sign on for with this outfit?” she said as she looked at the ceiling. “Not dead yet.....” she continued to grumble.

  “C'mon Melissa, you're still breathing, I'm still breathing, we still got a chance,” I said with a half grin. She just shook her head. I stood up and walked around the room. It was about 10 feet by 10 feet square. There was the steel table in the center, two chairs on one side and one on the other. The floor was concrete and so were the walls and ceiling. There was one air vent in the center of the ceiling but it was far too small to escape through. Other than that, there was nothing else in the room.

  After waiting for about 20 minutes, I finally heard

  voices coming down the hall. One I recognized as Dana’s, I'd never heard the man’s voice before. It was obvious that they were arguing about something.

  “..... Last chance to finally nail Judge and he got away! We can't afford this, Dana.” the man said.

  “I know! By the time I got the shot off he was using one of his own men as cover! I would have had him.....” Dana’s voice trailed off.

  “In here?” the male asked. They were right outside of the door.

  “Yeah,” she said and the door opened. The man standing in the door was an apparition from the past for me. If I weren't certain that Marvin was dead, I'd swear a younger and leaner version of him was standing before me now.

  “Holy shit.....” I whispered.

  “That's not Jill Sterling,” he said flatly then looked at me. “What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost.”

  “I..... You're Marvin’s brother.” I stammered. He came all the way in the room and sat in the chair across from me.

  “I've been told the family resemblance is pretty strong. Must be kind of spooky seeing me sitting here.”

  “It's kinda unnerving to be honest.”

  “Bet you thought the man you killed came back to life and came to haunt you. It would probably make me shit my pants too.”

  “It wasn't like that Paul. Your brother came after us. We did everything that we could to avoid that

  fight,” I said as I finally found my footing.

  “You and your merry band from the ranch drew first blood. You forced his hand. You wanted that fight!” he growled.

  “We went after Marvin and his men because they were running Elko like a bunch of thugs. Rape, murder, theft, and a few other things. We couldn't let him and his men get away with that,” I fired back. “How did you know that wasn't Jill? We've never met!”

  “We've met, just never in person,” he said. Now I was really confused and it must have shown on my face. “You never did put two and two together, did you?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. After a moment of staring at me, he turned to look at Dana.

  “Dana, could you get our guests some water, please. They look parched,” she quickly left the room and he continued to stare at me. Dana returned less than a minute later but it felt like an eternity.

  “You gonna tell me where we've met or are you going to continue this little game?” I asked defiantly.

  “Let me take you back in time a little, Jason. You remember when you guys got Marvin fired from the

  Sheriff’s office? I believe it was over an incident on a search and rescue that he was running.”

  “I remember.”

  “After that, you had a couple of incidents with someone sneaking around outside your wall, right?”

  “Yeah?”

  “That was me. I was trying to do my brother a favor. Ya see, he thought that there was some illegal activities going on at your ranch and he wanted me to gather some evidence for him. He figured that you got him fired trying to cover your own tracks. It didn't pan out and I told him that there was nothing there, he was wrong.”

  “Marvin got fired from the force because he was an incompetent asshole who would have gotten two hikers killed if Jill and I hadn't intervened.”

  “He was my brother, Jason. He may have been an asshole, I'll give you that, but he wa
s my brother. After he got fired from the force, he pretty much went bat shit crazy. He came to see me a couple of times down in Los Angeles and he started hanging out with all the wrong people. See, Jason, Elko was his last chance to be a cop and he knew it. He'd been on four other police departments and he'd been fired every time. Elko was all he had left and you took that from him.”

  “I was as pissed at you and Jill as I was at him,” he continued. “I was in Elko on July 6thth, two days after the EMP. I was there to try and convince Marvin to come back with me. He wouldn't have it. He was obsessed with leaving his mark on you and the city. That's all he could talk about. It didn't help that the shitheads that he was hanging out with were encouraging him.”

  “Wait. How'd you get to Elko AFTER the EMP?” I asked.

  “I had a truck that was built to withstand an EMP.

  Only problem was that it couldn't take a bullet to the radiator. I left Elko in the early morning hours of the 7th and made it all the way to Imlay before I ran into trouble. Some shitheads had set up an ambush on the highway and like a dumb ass, I drove right into it. Luckily I got backed out before they could inflict any serious damage but they still managed to put a hole in my radiator. I had to find a spot to lay low so I could fix it,” he went on and I was really starting to get a bad feeling about where this story was headed.

  “By the time I'd gotten it fixed, it was just after noon so I decided to sack out and get some rest. Figured I'd get a fresh start in the morning. Well, that didn't happen. My head had no sooner hit the pillow when I heard all kinds of gunfire coming from a little farther up the road. I needed to scout out the dirt road I was on so I thought I'd walk it a ways and see what all of the ruckus was about. I was glassing the highway with my binoculars and the assholes from the truck stop had ambushed a couple more vehicles. I watched them for a while before I decided that it wasn't my problem. I needed to get my ass back on the road.”

  “I continued to scout out the dirt road and I was a little miffed when I discovered that it was a dead end. I worked my way back to my rig and got my nap on. I woke up well after dark and set about making something to eat and trying to figure a new route south. None of the options were looking good. I'd lose a couple of days no matter what direction I went so I