That made Curt grin, neither of the families were criminals and were not being charged as such, at least not anymore. Still, the hyenas in the press wanted their pound of flesh to peddle, and they had tried to keep up. It did not work. Dante and Andrea started heading west on surface roads after an hour, then drifted slowly south west. Curt and Leah had done the same. Both vehicles had been loaded the same in the front seat, so in a pinch, the four of them had an awesome amount of firepower for a small 3-ish man team, four if you counted Andrea.
Twenty
Rob and Angelica had enlisted Steven’s help right away on the heavy equipment. Anna had gone to the farm supply store with the cube van pulling one of the heavy trailers. Angelica ran the smaller tractor, with the auger attachment. Steven was running a larger bulldozer, clearing brush back from the fence lines that were going to be installed. Rob was on a backhoe, digging trenches and piling dirt up in different areas for them to take cover behind.
Anna made it to the farm store without incident and went inside. She knew that all of the wooden posts they wanted were going to be stored in the gated side yard, but she had to go through the front to get it. She had already calculated how much she could bring back per load and had both her and her husband’s cards with her. The Doc’s would reimburse for their part, but there was nothing going to stop her from getting fencing materials.
“Help you ma’am?” an employee asked.
“I need quite a bit of fencing supplies. I brought a big truck and trailer. Think somebody could put it all on with a lift for me?” she asked.
“Sure,” the employee said. “Got a list for me?”
She did in fact have a list and handed it over to him. The employee's face went from a smile, to a confused look, then a frown.
“I think we have a lot of this, but not in the quantities you want. Plus, I think with the barbed wire and razor wire alone, you are talking a few pallets easily. That’ll overload you before you get to the wood posts and the rest.”
“Do you have anybody you work with that’ll deliver? We’re about forty minutes away,” she said, giving him that 10k watt smile.
“I think so, my father in law drives a flatbed…”
“I pay cash, and if he can get as much as you got delivered today, I’ll give him a bonus.”
The employee licked his lips, then looked at Anna. “Just… don’t tell the bosses I recommended him. He is literally the only guy I know not driving something right now, and he’s got the equipment and time. I don’t want them to think I’m trying to—”
Anna laughed and put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a smile and a squeeze. “I won’t tell a soul, I promise. Can you get a good count of what you got and sell it to me, so I can start making arrangements to get him here, get my truck and trailer loaded and give the boys back at the ranch a time to help us unload?”
“Yes Ma’am.”
He spoke into the radio and suddenly things started happening. The manager found her in the parking lot, overseeing the pallets of wire being loaded into the cube van, then she hooked back up to the trailer and that was loaded as well.
“Ma’am are you going to be needing more supplies?” he asked. “Reason is, I have to put in a rush order to replenish what you got. You about wiped us out and I’d rather not have to make more than one rush order, if you know what I mean.”
“I do,” Anna said, turning the charm on for him. “No sense in paying extra for expedited shipping when you don’t have to. This is what I wanted to order,” she said, pointing to her original list, “and you don’t have quite enough, so this is what I still need.” She showed him the handwritten numbers.
The manager took down the skews and the quantities. “Mind if I call another store and see if they have any stock on hand? Might save you a day or two of waiting for the factory to restock us?”
“And you get to spread the expedited shipping between two stores.” She smiled at him wickedly.
“Not only are you something else, you’re smart to boot,” the manager said with a grin. “I suppose you got trucking arranged to get it to the farm?”
“I do. I even have a forklift, and some forks on a couple of the track steers available where I am going. I just have to get it there.”
“New fencing… new farm?”
“Yes,” she said with a smile, both answering truthfully and being a bit deceitful. The farm was new to them and a lot of it had fencing. The parts that did not were about to get it, and then some.
“Ok, if you call ahead next time with a big order like this, I can make sure to have it all pulled and ready to load, that way it’s quicker for you when you get here and we don’t have to drag it through the store. Would that be ok if I can get more supplies here later on today, or for tomorrow?”
“That would be fantastic. I have my card and my husband’s cards. The corporation we formed to run the farm was not expecting to do this expansion so soon, so I might be coming back with cash. Can you break the orders down into nine thousand dollar lots, individually?”
The manager grinned, but that request had him slightly uneasy. Then he realized, it was not like wooden posts and barbed wire were something that drug runners in the middle of Arkansas really bought or used to launder money. It was not an illegal request, but when he thought it out, he decided it was to save time and the paperwork the government would require for anything a payment above $10,000 in cash would trigger.
“I can do that,” he said, putting his hand out.
“Thank you, Jim,” she said reading his name tag.
“Thank you, Missus Castiglione,” he said, giving the bill of his hat a touch.
“I didn’t give you my last name,” she remarked, her head tilted sideways.
“You’re kinda a local hero around here,” he said with a shrug. “Word got around that you’d moved to the county, and I only have like three different magazines you’re on the cover of, right in the store, right now.”
“I sort of forget about that,” she said turning red in the face.
“From modeling and professional shooter, to a farmer and rancher?” the manager asked.
“Everybody has to retire someday,” she said sweetly.
“Looks like your truck is done, and the flatbed is pulling in now,” he said, walking to the truck.
Anna got in and fired it up, pulling it up and out of the way for the semi-truck and trailer. She got out and went and talked to the driver, giving him the address. In the end, she decided to wait and let him follow her back, after slipping him a wad of bills. He was only too happy to get paid in cash.
Loading the semi took almost no time at all compared to her little truck. The store's two forklifts were working nonstop and soon, both were on the road.
“Hey,” Anna said as Steven picked up his cell phone.
“Hey yourself. Did you run into any problems?” he asked, a hint of concern leaking into his voice.
“None at all. What the store doesn’t have, they will in the morning,” Anna said then pulled the phone back from her ear as Steven started shouting in joy a moment later.
“So how much were you able to get?” He asked, knowing whatever his wife had loaded might be it for a while, depending on how fast the shit storm fell on them, if it did at all.
“I’ve got my truck full of barbed and razor wire, trailer as well. Got a lowboy flatbed being pulled by a semi that’s stacked to the thirteen-foot mark with posts, a couple pallets of wire and all the fencing staples and supplies they could cram on it.”
“You hired a semi?” Steven asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, his rate was pretty good. Three hundred a trip. I broke into petty cash but listen… we are going to have to dig hard into our cash stash unless folks have some there. I think I have about 18k worth of supplies to get still.”
Steven sucked in his breath, but he had not written the list out, Rob had, and not all of it was going on the front fence. The veteran had an idea of how he wanted to use all of it.
<
br /> “That’s a lot of money, but hell, to be honest, I thought it would have been more.”
“I know, I was shocked at first too,” she admitted. “Can you have both the forklift and the track steer with forks ready for us? I don’t want to hold this truck up and there’s another load there that’s almost as big for him to bring us.”
“We’ll have both ready, and manned. How about you have him stop near the front driveway and we will start unloading there, then unload you after he’s emptied?”
“That sounds good. Drive safe, see you in forty.”
She hung up the phone, feeling like for once, they might be ahead of the curve. For the moment, maybe they were, but so much could go wrong, and hell was about to break loose.
Twenty-One
Rob and Steven worked non-stop getting the semi unloaded. The driver rolled up his straps then headed back to the supply store for another load. Steven pressed a wad of bills into his hand and told him that Anna would call the store and let them know he was going to be picking up the last of what they had tonight. The driver smiled big, said no problem, and asked if he was still on for tomorrow, same place, same rates.
Anna assured him he was, and he gave them all a wave before heading out. He would not be back until about supper time, but that was fine.
It looked like the family had hustled, and hard. Holes for the fence went as far as her eye could see. The brush had been pushed back almost a hundred yards, almost to the end of the property line at the road. The piles of brush and branches that made the wild bramble coming up to the house were now nearly ten to twenty feet tall, as far as she could see down one side.
“When the post hole digging was done, they used the bucket on the front to help me,” he said with a grin.
“Let’s set some poles,” Angelica yelled from the tractor. “Anna, you come up here and drive this for me, would you Hun?”
“I…”
“It’s easy,” Steven reassured her.
She got the five-minute primer and was a ball of nerves as the forks went under the first pallets of fence posts. She tilted the forks back as far as she could, then Rob cut the steel banding that held things into place. She thought they would lose the whole load, but it only rolled and spread out along the long forks, the tilt back keeping them from rolling off the back end.
Slowly, they would drive, and somebody would pull a post off the rig and drop it into the hole that had been dug while she was gone. They all got into a rhythm after the first dozen and soon Anna was not watching the time, just marveling at how fast the posts were going up. When it looked like she was almost out, Rob came zooming in around her with the track steer with forks, loaded with another pallet full of posts.
The group worked all afternoon, setting posts along the front of the property. They would come in tomorrow and backfill. They planned on cementing in about every third post, the corners, and anywhere they even thought they were going to be putting in a cross brace, but for right now, getting this in place was going at a pace none could quite believe. What the group did not know was, a long time ago, Dewey’s grandparents had farmed this wild area in front of the property facing the road. They had already removed much of the large rocks that would have made this job harder and had used them when finishing off the basement.
“Doc Hollywood, this is the Estate of Real, do you have a copy?” Curt said into the handheld radio they were using to get in contact.
“Copy… and… wow, dude. You’re all fancy ‘n’ stuff. Nobody out here has been using GMSR, so why not use names?”
“Feels safer not to,” Curt replied. “Glad you’re close again. I was getting nervous listening to the radio. Did you have any problems losing your tail?”
“Not at all. Honestly, once past the hospital, the helicopter was the only thing I think we saw, and it wasn’t for long. Our little country drive must have worked.”
“Good, we haven’t seen anything either. Glad we got the extra fuel tanks on our beasts last year. We haven’t had to stop.”
“Likewise,” Dante said over the radio. “Do we want to do a straight approach to the compound, or do we want to do a drive by first?”
“I’m a mile out from the compound, how about I do a drive by and you come in straight on. I’ll be able to call you off if things look sketchy.”
“Sketchy in bumbfuck?” Dante said with a laugh.
“Quit screwing around,” Leah said, taking the radio from Curt.
“Yes ma’am,” Dante said, sounding chastised for a second, then he ruined it by laughing over the air.
“Boys and your toys,” Leah said to Curt.
“Hey, haven’t you ever watched Convoy?”
“Like I said… oh wow.” Leah pointed.
They were driving down the road to the farm. It was immediately apparent that a lot of work had been done. A lot of the brush and scrub around the front of the property facing the road had been pushed back, with piles of brush and debris reaching almost twenty feet high in places. Passing the driveway, they could see almost all of the heavy equipment out and working.
The cube van and flatbed trailer were getting unloaded by… Anna?
“Doc Hollywood, it looks like the home front is all clear. Don’t be alarmed, it looks like a home improvement project is ongoing with all but Grandma and the little Wizard out to help play.”
“Good, headed in. Where are you turning around?” Dante asked.
“Good question. I’ll make a loop around and then meet you guys in ten.”
“Be safe,” Dante said and went silent.
“Where are you thinking of turning around?” Leah asked.
“Lyle’s?” Curt said, almost as a question.
“With everything that’s going on, you think he’s heard about all of us?” Leah asked.
“I think that’d probably be a for sure thing,” Curt admitted. “We’ve been all over the news and national media. Hell, you heard the former AG under Obama saying he thinks the DOJ should be stepping in.”
“After it was proven that your wife was defending herself… yeah, but he’s a real piece of work. That bastard is responsible for gun running up and down the Mexican border.”
“That’s why his words didn’t bug me so much. But if our Cheeto Messiah’s boys had said that…”
“You and that Cheeto Jesus stuff. Do not let the Littles or Grandma Goldie hear you saying that. She’s liable to hit you with that wooden spoon of hers.”
“It’s just kinda a joke, like when Hillary called folks ‘Deplorables’. They took that name with pride and turned it into something else. If you believe in God, a right to life, your guns, your freedom of speech…”
“Who wound you up?” Leah asked. “Lordy, let's get this rig turned around.”
Curt grunted and saw the drive in for Lyle’s. He pulled in and saw a turnaround for trucks right near the end of their property. He took that and got their Suburban back on the road and headed back to the farm.
The ride hurt. Andrea was sore from everything, everywhere. Dante had stopped for a moment and talked to everybody at the fence, then he drove up to their cabin. Curt was not back yet, but Andrea did not want to wait. She wanted her own bed, in a location she felt safe. She could not use crutches, because it was her left shoulder, left collar bone, left leg, left wrist that had borne the full-blown anger of the crowd.
She looked at the three steps up to their cabin’s front door and sighed.
“Don’t worry,” Dante said quietly, getting her front door open, “I got this.” He went into the cabin for a minute. “Damn, you guys keep this place clean.”
“Yeah,” she said weakly. “Wish we would have put ramps in instead of steps now.”
“Wiggle to the edge, I’m going to carry you.”
Andrea did, wishing Curt was here. Dante was able to gently get his arms under her and lifted her. She hissed in pain, but it was not the red-hot pain she had been expecting. Instead it was her dangling limbs made heavier by the casts
all over her body. He walked her in and gently placed her in the bed.
“Can you manage to get to the bathroom on your own?” Dante asked.
“Yeah, but I have to hobble. It takes me a minute, but I can do it.”
“Ok, I’m going to park the truck, and I’ll come back over until Curt gets here.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I have got my burner phone handy. I programmed yours in, while we were driving, remember? I can call you if I need anything.”
“Speak of the devil…” Dante turned to see Curt pulling up to the cabin through the open front door.
He got out, and from somewhere nearby, Roscoe let out a huge bark, followed by Ranger’s happy bark. Leah followed behind Curt, but both were almost jam piled in the doorway as the big dogs tried running through.
“Roscoe,” Andrea said, as the big dog jumped up on the bed, walking down the middle of it.
“Damn dog,” Curt grouched as Dante and Leah took a few steps back out of the way.
Ranger stuck his head under Leah’s hand, and she pet the little one-hundred-and-forty-pound puppy absentmindedly.
Roscoe sniffed Andrea’s face, then the casts. He sneezed gently then laid down next to her on her good side, putting his big head on her shoulder. Andrea let out a surprised sound and started petting the dog’s back.
“You cannot drool on me or this bed,” she admonished.
Roscoe started rubbing his head gently on her shoulder and the side of her head, getting a full body wiggle on until he was as tight to her as he could be without squishing her.
“Well, we know whose dog he is now,” Leah said with a grin.
“Yeah, he didn’t even give me some lovin’,” Dante snarked.
“You’re jealous of the dog? How about you go lay down, big boy, and I will give you some loving,” Curt snapped back.
“Ewwwwww,” came from the doorway in a chorus as Anna and Angelica walked in.
Behind The Curve-The Farm | Book 1 | The Farm Page 13