by Sheri Landry
Speaking of trust, I’m not sure I’ve built up enough of it with the guys around here. My secrets are catching up to me. One of them tried to kill me tonight, and I’m floundering. I lost the only person I trusted with my life a year ago. Now I’m out here, among strangers, begging for someone to help me.
“Okay.” He nods once at me and turns to Kaley. “That’s good enough for me. Thanks, Kaley. You get home. We’ll keep her here until Tyler comes.” Then, focusing on me, he continues, “I want to talk to this person you trust before you leave my sight tonight. You understand me, Kim?”
“I understand. Thanks, Dale,” I whisper. Kaley gives me a wave and leaves me at the bar as quickly as her legs will carry her out of the room.
“Good. Now, Bonnie and Steven are here. Why don’t you sit with them?” He waves to Bonnie, who bounds out of her seat and makes her way toward us. “Can I get you a soda?”
“I’d like a drink.” Looking around the bar, my night catches up to me. I don’t want to deal with anything right now.
“What?”
“I’d like a drink, Dale,” I say again, matter-of-factly.
“But you don’t drink.”
“Yeah, well, it’s been a night.” I lift my hand to tuck a stray hair behind my ear, and Dale straightens. I catch the dried blood on my fingers. There is no mistaking what it is.
Our eyes meet, and for a moment I think the questions are going to start flying. As if on cue, my hand shakes before I fist my fingers and shove my hand into my pocket to steady myself. Instead, he remains silent. The sound of a glass on the counter makes me jump, but Dale doesn’t break his motion, just tosses me a damp towel to wipe my hands and reaches for a bottle of something.
I force a smile as I wipe the dried blood off of me before Bonnie gets to my side.
I know Dale is trying to look out for me. I noticed his interest in me when I first got to town, but I couldn’t burden him with, well, me.
“Sure thing. Coming up.” He pours different mixes into the glass, and a tap on my shoulder has me turning around with a disingenuous smile on my face.
“Hey, honey. What brings you by?” Bonnie smiles and looks over my shoulder at Dale, who’s mixing away. “Oh, that looks good. I’ll have one too.”
I pause, trying to come up with an answer, but Dale shoots Bonnie a short shake of his head.
I shrug as Dale hands me my drink. “Just thought I’d drop by.” I take a sip, then turn back to Dale. “This is good. What is it?”
“Mai tai.”
“Well, keep them coming, please.” I hold the drink up between us and point at it.
He looks me over, and I know my expression is serious.
“Sure thing.” I hear the hesitation in his voice as he hands a glass to Bonnie, then motions for us to take a seat. I follow Bonnie over to the table. When I look back, Dale is gesturing to his group of guys, and one of the men saunters up to the bar. No doubt Dale is giving instructions to not let me leave and to watch the doors. I feel like a burden.
“Oh, these are good.” Bonnie takes another sip of her drink and slides it over to Steven, who takes a sniff and scrunches his nose up. She laughs. “And it’s too frilly for this one, so I get it all to myself.”
I smile and try small talk as I nurse my drink. “How’s everything on the farm?”
I ran into Bonnie and Dale at the little gas station on my way through town. I was looking for lodging, and they offered me a place to stay out at their lavender farm. One night turned into eight, and I never ended up leaving the area.
“It’s getting better. Lavender is fairly drought tolerant, but that dry spell did a number on us. Thanks to the rain last week, things are coming back, and we still have a lot of water in our reserves. That’s why we’re celebrating. We were able to make our payment at the bank today. We’re good for another month.” Bonnie lifts her glass.
“That bad, huh?” As I ask, a thick, warm sensation settles into my arms. I’m not sure if it’s the alcohol or the stress.
Steven drinks the last of his beer. “Naw, I think we’ll be okay now. Forecast is for more rain next week. Should get us through the summer heat. I’ll be back. Going to play a round.” He stands and walks over to the group around the pool tables.
When he reaches them, no one makes a move to play. I’m sure everyone is trying to figure out what is going on, and no one will ask me directly. It’s some kind of unspoken rule in small towns. Secondhand information is always the first option here.
As my drink goes down, so do my nerves. Frustration is starting to set in. I lost Jessa because we allowed ourselves to trust. In less than a day, my entire life has been uprooted, and a friend of mine is dead again.
I brought all of this here. I led a hitman to this town, and no one here is prepared to deal with any of this. As Bonnie talks about their upcoming harvest, I go over the options I have left in my head, and they seem to dwindle as the hours pass.
Then there’s Michael. I froze when Jack yelled “gun” on the street. But not him. He placed himself between me and the shooter without thinking anything over, without considering his own life, and now Dale and the kids are keeping me safe. But they don’t know the extent of the threat that’s hunting me.
I know what terror feels like. I watched my only friend kill herself to save me. I can’t let anyone else here suffer the same fate.
As I slurp the last of my drink through my straw, I turn back to the bar. Dale is already mixing new drinks, but he has one eye on me. Lifting up my glass, I shake it, and he nods.
I’m going to need a few more of these fancy drinks if I’m going to face everyone later.
9
Michael
This has been the longest two hours of my life. Trusting someone else with Dana’s safety— those kids, no less—was a challenge.
Jack and Logan left as soon as the kids dispersed. Their job was to secure our base. It’s our only refuge in the area. If the cabin becomes compromised, we’re all out in the open.
While Charlie and Grey swept the area and grabbed a photo of our dead shooter for Link to ID, I put a temporary bandage on my wound. Tyler gave us the spare key to the coffee shop, and we put our corpse in the oversized freezer. Then, without Tyler’s knowledge, I sent Grey and Charlie out to Stan’s place to retrieve his body. The last thing we need is more casualties, and the more we cover up now, the better.
I’m not sure Dana will be too happy with Tyler’s suggestion for a temporary hiding place for this DOA, but it’s all we’ve got right now.
As we drove around town, Tyler gave me some insight into the locals. For a group of people who thrive on keeping to themselves, their community roots run deep. They sure know a lot about each other.
Outside of Dana’s coffee shop, there’s a small hardware store, a surplus and hunting store, a one-pump gas station with an attached convenience store, a town watering hole, and a lavender farm, of all things. Not much else thrives here. Tyler told me most of the residents go to neighboring towns or to the big city for their entertainment.
He answered some questions easily; others he danced around or shrugged off altogether.
We found one vehicle with out-of-state plates abandoned on a dirt road outside of town, but everything else was quiet. Staying true to my word of keeping Tyler safe, we drove on by, but the vehicle will need to be checked out when I have one of the guys with me.
After we got the all-clear from Logan, everyone regrouped at the cabin.
Now we’re sitting at the table, and all eyes are on Tyler. Everyone is quiet.
This is a shit show.
“Guys, this is Tyler.” I point around the table to my team, who now look exhausted. “Tyler, this is Grey and Charlie. You’ve met Logan and Jack.”
“Hey.” The kid nods around the table. I have to hand it to him: he’s a brave one. At his age, I would have been in a complete panic. But here he sits, surrounded by five guys twice his size. He must really trust Dana.
�
�What’s the status on the perimeter?” I ask as I look over to Logan.
“Eastern perimeter alarm was tripped, but the camera couldn’t get a good shot; it wasn’t angled properly. I’ve corrected it. We don’t have confirmation of intruder or wildlife, but nothing else is disturbed so I think it’s the latter,” Logan answers, and Tyler follows the conversation around the table.
“I thought he killed the guy,” Tyler cuts in, angling his thumb at Charlie.
“He did. We’re being careful.” Logan’s response is clipped. Tyler isn’t in a position to know anything further. The last thing we need is to terrify this quaint little town with the news there may be three more where he came from. Tonight was enough.
“The shooter has been secured and stored for now. Tyler here suggested the cold storage room at the coffee shop. It’s only temporary, but it will keep our guy out of sight. Before I forget, there’s a car out on the back road behind the gas station with out-of-state plates. It’s a rental, and it looks abandoned. I sent the plates to Link to run. Jack, can you and Charlie check it out in the morning?” Tyler nods beside me to confirm my update. The kid might make a good team member one day.
I intentionally left out Stan’s death. I don’t know Tyler well enough to trust he’ll keep that information to himself, and I have no idea what Stan meant to the people of this town. I got the keys to Dana’s shop, telling Tyler we would return them, and handed them off to Grey and Charlie before they retrieved his body.
“Sure thing.” Charlie speaks for the both of them.
“Does anyone else have anything they’d like to add?” I silently hope no one does.
Everyone shakes their heads. It’s getting late, and we’ll have more information in the morning. As I finish looking my way around the table, Tyler slowly raises his hand like he’s in a classroom.
“Um, I have a question.” His eyes look at me for permission, and I nod for him to continue. “Who are you guys?”
I knew the question was coming. I expected him to ask earlier, when we were driving around his town.
Everyone outside of my team at this table is on a need-to-know. So now, we start deciding what everyone needs to know. Grey and Charlie sit back in their seats, happy to let someone else answer.
“We’re part of a larger security team. Kim was caught up in something a little over a year ago, and she’s in trouble. We’re here to make sure nothing happens to her.” As Jack speaks, Tyler eyes all of us carefully.
“Okay.” Tyler draws out the word, and I know he’s hoping we’ll give him more to go on.
“It’s important you know: Kim is not the bad guy here. Neither are we. But she is in danger, and we need to be able to protect her.” He stares in silence, and I hope it’s enough for now.
“People around town aren’t going to be too happy you’re here. It disrupts—business,” Tyler slowly responds.
“What business?” Logan chuckles.
“The business of minding our own business.” Tyler’s response feels more like a warning.
I like this kid, and I sense Logan does too.
“Fair enough. We’ll work as quickly as we can. We’re waiting on information. For now, we need to assume the shooter wasn’t the only one. The silver lining is that hired hits don’t usually become full-on massacres unless there is no other option. So one of us will be with Kim at all times, but we need to keep this as quiet as we can.” As Logan finishes, it’s Tyler’s turn to chuckle.
“Good luck with that. Every kid in town was on the street during the shoot-out.” Then, pausing, he looks like he’s trying to come up with his own plan. “I might be able to help with that though. Most will be heading home to tell their parents. I think we can keep it under wraps for a while; I just need to talk to Pops,” he offers, and everyone around the table leans in to listen to this teen.
“Your dad?” I ask as all eyes shift to me, then back to Tyler.
“No. Pops. He’s the owner of Dale’s. I mean he’s Dale. He’s the leader of the biker gang in town. Most of the group’s members are our parents, and Dale is kind of the resident dad, especially to those of us who don’t have one, so we all call him Pops. We can go talk to him right now,” Tyler offers, and everyone looks at each other for a better idea.
“Okay, we’ll stop in on our way to get Kim. Grey and Charlie, you stay behind. We need to keep the base secure.” I stand, reaching for the keys. I’m ready to get this night over with.
Tyler cuts into our conversation. “No need. Kim is with Dale right now. I mean, she’s at Dale’s—with Dale.”
“You sent her to a bar? She should be hiding somewhere,” I state incredulously. I’m instantly back on guard. She’s a sitting duck in an open establishment. I should have handled this on my own.
“Trust me. It’s the safest place in town. The guys are all there, and Dale has a thing for Kim. He’d never let anything happen to her,” Tyler offers innocently.
All eyes slowly move back to me, and no one says a word.
Fucking great.
The moment the door to Dale’s opens, everyone looks up. Some tense, then relax as they watch Tyler step in beside me.
The kid was right. Strangers wouldn’t get very far in here.
Jack and Logan step into the bar after us. They stay a few steps behind as we walk toward the bar, and Tyler stops in front of the burly guy who hasn’t moved since we came in.
I assume this is Dale.
“Hey, Pops.”
“Ty. Who are your friends?” He asks the question to Tyler but keeps his eyes on us.
“These are—um—friends of Kim’s. This is Grizz,” He starts as he looks around the room. Then, locating her, he asks, “Is she okay?”
“She’s had better days. What’s going on?” Dale asks, still keeping his eyes on me.
“Is there somewhere we can talk in private?” I ask, and he’s already shaking his head.
“You’ll be doing your talking right here. Some of the kids have already been by to talk to their dads, and I’m keeping my eye on someone.” His eyes shift to the table where Dana is sitting. Her back is turned to us as he continues talking. “You want to tell me what’s going on before the whole town starts making up their own stories?” He keeps his voice low. Judging by the glares around the room, everyone is on edge.
“Pops,” Tyler cuts in, surprising the guy behind the bar, and for the first time he shifts his attention off of me. “Kim is in trouble. Someone tried to kill her.” He hisses his last sentence in a lowered tone.
Dale’s stern expression cracks into concern as he mutters under his breath, “Shit.”
“These guys are trying to help her, but we need to shut the gossip down. They don’t know if she’s safe yet.” Tyler stops talking, and the two of them exchange a glance I can’t place.
Then Dale shifts his stare between Tyler and I as he considers his options. He points to a chair by the door, and Tyler makes his way over to it and sits. As Dale opens his mouth to speak, a loud voice calls out from across the room.
“YOU!” Dana stands and points her finger in my direction. My eyes land on all the empty glasses on her table.
“How much has she had?” I turn back to Dale, who picks up the rum and jingles it in front of me.
“One.”
“You let her drink a bottle?” This is fucking great. I may have had a chance reasoning with an irate Dana, but now she’s intoxicated.
“No, soldier. She had one double. I made the rest virgin. Kim rarely drinks. We all know that.” His words carry the accusation that I don’t know her at all, and he’s right. I only had time with her for a few days. She’s been here for months. Dale continues speaking as I watch Dana make her way across the room to us. “The worst you’re dealing with is a sugar crash. That fury you see there? That’s one hundred percent Kim. Good luck, buddy.” He raises his hands and backs away in supplication as Dana stops a few feet in front of us.
He knows enough to get out of her line of fire. Smart
man.
“You!” She says again, a little lower, and points, but this time she is looking past me, at Logan, and I mentally chastise myself. I shouldn’t have brought him here tonight.
“I’m not going anywhere with you. You all got what you need.” Then, lowering her voice even more, she hisses out, “The guy’s dead. I don’t have the phone anymore. Just leave. Leave me alone. Nothing good comes from your protection.” She adds dramatic air quotes around her last word.
My heart breaks as tears well up in her big brown eyes and she blinks, letting them roll down her face.
“We can’t do that.” Jack steps in front of us and attempts to control the conversation by speaking to her as the friend he once was, but he only aggravates her further, and she takes aim at him.
“Stay out of this, Jack. You lost her too. I lost my only friend. I watched her die. And for what? She was only trying to get out. She didn’t deserve any of this.” Her voice is back to full volume, and everyone around us has a front-row seat to her downward spiral.
I’m willing to bet she hasn’t spoken about this with anyone. She’s been living with it all alone, trying to push it down.
Dana’s pain can topple the most fortified of souls, and Jack turns back toward us. His cracks are starting to show. He remembers the moment he realized Jessa was dead, and Dana is still living in the hell he was able to escape from. His guilt at not being able to grant her the same peace is chipping away at him.
“Grizz, I’ll be outside. Logan, join me.” His subdued words barely register as the two of them walk out the front doors to the barn, leaving me in the room alone.
Then it sinks in. Jack isn’t running away; he’s turning the situation over to me. I’m the only one of our trio who has a chance at getting through to Dana.
Okay, maybe he’s running away a little.
I may not know everything about her, but I know she gave up everything she loved for her friend, and I know she won’t let anything happen to the new friends she’s found.