“Those men,” I gasped. “You sent them…” Suddenly so many things made sense all at once. I thought back to everything that had happened. How Hannah had seemed so concerned when Sarah had been grabbed at the carnival, even though Sarah and Reid had said it was probably nothing. How she’d seemed shocked, but not surprised, at the appearance of the men in the forest surrounding her apartment. About what she’d said after it all happened. I hadn’t been paying a lot of attention, distracted by the fact that there had been some sort of bet about me, but I could recall her talking about knowing we needed protection and that father wanted us home. I just hadn’t put it together that father would ever be the one to send those men. That he was the one she was trying to protect us from.
But why? What was she so afraid of back here that she would get the Brody brothers involved to try and fight off men simply sent to bring us home. And why would my father send men like that to bring us back in the first place?
“Who were they?” I demanded. “They weren’t Amish. How do you even know men like that?”
My father’s back stiffened, and in his eyes I saw a flicker of something that I couldn’t identify before he recovered his composure. “Your place is not to question me,” he boomed. “You will do as you’re told from now on, without exception.” He pushed back from the table and stood, still glaring down at me. “That you still haven’t learned your place in the world only serves to prove how right I was. I have been far too easy on you girls. We will continue this conversation later. Right now I have elder business to attend to.”
And then he stormed off, slamming our front door as he left.
I leapt to my feet as soon as he was gone and ran to the window to watch him go, anxious for him to be gone so that I could have a chance to figure things out. His buggy was hitched to two of our horses, which was odd as we typically only needed one. I wondered if he had done that on purpose so that I wouldn’t have a horse available to hitch our second buggy to if I wanted to leave while he was gone. Not that the idea hadn’t crossed my mind.
Yet as he climbed aboard and started to roll away, I noticed how low the back of the cart was hanging, as if it were overburdened with cargo. That would explain the need for both horses. Yet the entire load was completely covered with thick burlap, fastened closed so that whatever he was hauling was totally hidden. That was also strange. There was rarely the need for such secrecy around here.
Nothing at all was making sense right now. My head was spinning, seeing conspiracies where none existed. I needed time to think things through, to reason through what my father had just said and piece it together with everything I’d learned from Hannah.
Something strange was going on, and I meant to at least try and figure out what it was.
24
Wyatt
My intention had been to stick around the area until we were ready to rescue Beth, but I ended up having to drive back to Hannah’s place the next day after all, for a couple reasons.
The first was that Ash told me he needed help calming Hannah down. Apparently she’d freaked out when he told her that Beth had gone back home, and wanted to lead the charge back in to get her out. I might not have been the best person to talk her out of that plan, since I was feeling much the same way. But where I did agree with Ash was in leaving Hannah and Sarah out of it.
When I arrived, Hannah was still pretty livid but Sarah was sitting on the edge of a chair with a blank look on her face. She was still sort of in shock.
“Hey, what’s up with Sarah?”
Reid motioned me into the apartment where they were sitting. “Hannah just explained what she had to endure before she left the village. Sarah isn’t taking the news very well.”
I could understand that. I was still having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around it myself.
“How could you just let her go back without telling us?” Hannah demanded.
I tried to keep my cool at the accusation, even though I’d already answered it when Ash asked me the same damn thing last night. Hannah was upset.
“Like I already told Ash, it’s not like I could just throw her over my shoulder and drag her away. And she made me promise not to tell you guys. She didn’t want you to try and talk her out of it.”
“Well you should have told us anyway,” Hannah snapped back. “Some secrets are too big to keep.”
“Like the secret you were keeping about what the hell was going down with your father? I bet if you hadn’t kept that one, Beth would never even have considered going back there in the first place.” I couldn’t help myself, I clearly didn’t have as tight control over my temper as I thought. Still, it was a low blow and I regretted it even before I got the death stare from Ash.
“Sorry,” I said quickly. “I didn’t mean—”
“No,” Hannah said, shaking her head and holding up a hand to stop Ash from coming over and punching me in the face. I would have deserved it. “You’re right. This is more my fault than yours.”
“Hannah,” Ash started, but she waved him off again. “No, it’s true. I should have come clean with Beth and Sarah years ago. Leaving them alone with our father was a cowardly thing to do. I’m just grateful… if he had done anything to them….” She seemed close to tears now, which seemed to snap Sarah out of her fugue state. She rose from her chair and went over to give Hannah a hug.
“Hush,” she whispered. “Nothing came of it, so there is no need to spend any more time in regret. You’ve told us now, and as hard as it is to hear, I know you would never lie about something like this, nor even stretch the truth. I can’t imagine how hard it is to talk about, so I do not blame you for avoiding the subject.”
“Thank you,” Hannah whispered back.
“For what?” Sarah asked, still holding her older sister close. “I’ve done nothing. You’re the strong one here.”
Hannah’s voice was so quiet now I could barely hear her reply. “For believing me.”
I instantly felt sick to my stomach, the words reminding me of how her own mother hadn’t believed her. No wonder she had been so scared to tell her sisters.
The two of them held each other for a few more moments before Hannah pulled away with a shuddering sigh, moving over to the couch and collapsing down into it. Ash was by her side immediately. For some reason it made me miss Beth even more.
“We have to get Beth out of there and away from him,” Hannah finally said.
“I know. We will. That’s what we’re all here to figure out how to do,” Ash reminded her.
“If we could just warn her, maybe she’d leave on her own,” Reid suggested from across the room. He was leaning against a table with his arms crossed.
“How? It’s not like we can just call her. She left the cell phone I gave her on her bed before she left.”
“I could go back and talk to her,” Sarah spoke up.
Almost in unison, everyone else in the room practically shouted “No!”
“You’re not going back there,” Hannah insisted.
“Neither are you,” Ash pointed out firmly. When she glared at him, he just shook his head. “You’re not.”
“Ash is right,” I agreed. “The only thing to do is hit the place hard, go in guns blazing, and grab her before they know what’s what. But it’ll be dangerous. You two need to stay here, just in case.”
“And who will keep you safe?” Sarah asked, looking specifically at Reid.
“I can take care of myself,” he protested. His nose was looking better since the fight but was still noticeably black and blue around the eyes.
“There are far more of them then there are of you,” Hannah pointed out. “They may not all be in league with my father, but the Amish don’t typically look kindly to outsiders poking around in their business. Particularly ones that are looking to grab an Amish girl and take off with her. I went to the police a few days ago and told them what happened, but even they don’t see any point in pursuing it now. They know that the Amish aren’t going to be any h
elp to their investigation. It’s not like anyone is going to turn him in. Most of them probably wouldn’t even believe he was guilty anyway.”
“And even if he does, all he has to do is fucking apologize and they’ll forgive him,” Reid added sourly. “I still don’t understand that. How the fuck can people hear something like that about someone and then just believe him when he says ‘sorry, my bad, I’ll stop now.’ I don’t mean to sound rude about your community, but are they all just a bunch of fucking morons?”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Hannah sighed. “Jesus taught forgiveness over all else. To accept that God has a plan, even when we don’t understand it. Those are very important concepts that we’re taught from a very young age. Forgiveness is one of the bedrocks of Amish society.”
“Still, even we don’t always forgive everything,” Sarah added. “Or at least, there are some who will always remember the sin or crime and watch that person more closely in the future. But even in cases where the crime was so severe that mere remorse is not enough, the community would likely only choose to shun the member and cast them from the village over anything more severe.”
I heard enough. As I had suspected last night, we were on our own to deal with this and the three of us weren’t going to cut it. “You know what,” I said, “It’s good that the police are going to stay out of this. Because right now, I’m feeling like we’re going to have to do something very illegal to get her back.”
The second reason I had agreed to come back here today was because I had another meeting scheduled. I ignored Ash’s raised eyebrow and turned away, stalking to the door.
“Hold up,” he called from behind. “Do you have a plan? Where are you going?”
“I might,” I said. “I have to be somewhere. I’ll be back in a couple hours and we can compare notes.” I left, closing the door behind me before he had a chance to argue.
But I hadn’t even made it to the elevator before I heard it reopen and close again, with Ash running to catch up. Damn it! Why can’t he ever just trust me?
“I don’t like that look on your face,” he growled, just as the elevator doors slid open before us. I stepped in, hoping he would take the hint and back off, but he didn’t. He just hoped right in next to me. “Tell me what you have in mind,” he demanded.
There was no way I was going to get rid of him.
“Don’t tell me you’re here to ask for advice from the old witch, are you? Unless you think she’s brewing up a potion in the back that’s going to give us an advantage… I suppose that isn’t outside the realm of possibilities.”
I’d intentionally not told Ash who we were meeting because I knew he would flip out. I thought maybe I’d be able to spring the plan on him in public so he’d have to hold back enough to hear it out first. Unfortunately, when I’d set the meeting up last night I had been expecting to come alone and intentionally picked a place I knew wouldn’t be too busy at this time.
“You talking about Bea? Nah, she’s a nice old broad. Little kooky, I’ll give you that, but I think people are just being pricks when they call her a witch.” Bea Figgins was the woman that had been running this diner since as long as I’d been coming here. People around town had all sorts of stories about her, but she’d never been anything but nice to me.
“I dunno bro, she just seems to know shit. It’s spooky.”
I gave my brother a sidelong glance, unsure how serious he was being, but other than that I ignored him. I had other things on my mind. Like how this meeting was going to go down now that he was a part of it. Still, even if I could have convinced him to leave me alone, he was going to find out one way or the other. Might as well be now. And if I did somehow succeed in getting him on my side before we headed back to Hannah’s, he could help me convince the others.
As soon as we pushed through the doors to the diner, Bea was passing by with a full pot of coffee. She looked at us both, scrunching up her dark eyes and focusing on me in particular. “I expect you want to head to the back,” she said. “I’ll give you a few minutes before I bring you a couple cups.”
I exchanged glances with Ash and shrugged. There were only a few other diners sitting in booths near the entrance, but as instructed we made our way further in. There was one booth tucked into the furthest corner that wasn’t visible from any of the windows, and it was occupied by a huge bearded man.
“’Bout fucking time,” he bellowed as we approached. “You think I have all day to sit around here waiting?
“Moose?” Ash’s voice was filled with surprise as we approached. He turned to me, his voice getting lower. “What’s he doing here, Wyatt?”
“Just sit down,” I said, ushering him forward and into the seat across from the big security guard. “I thought we were keeping this low profile,” I muttered to Moose as I sat next to my brother.
“I haven’t told a soul,” Moose objected. In front of him was a steaming cup of black coffee, half empty.
“How’d Bea know to send us back here, then?”
“Who’s that? The old waitress? I haven’t a clue, but she’s been shooting me the ol’ stink eye since I came in. Gives me the creeps. Probably just figures we all look like trouble so we must be together. That’s some serious stereotyping right there. Now I know how black people feel.”
I could feel Ash staring at me but I intentionally ignored him. “Yeah, maybe.”
“Listen, let’s cut the shit here. What’s going on. Why the fuck are we meeting him?” Ash is still looking at me and jerking his thumb towards the big man across from us. Of course I should have known Ash would remember Moose from back in the day. As the bouncer at the original clubhouse, Ash knew even more of the old members than I did. So much for easing into my plan. “I thought we discussed this. I thought you were done with the MC.”
Sometimes Ash’s memory was a bit revisionist. I never told him I was done with the MC. That was what he and Reid were trying to tell me, that night at Trick Shots. The fact that I had decided, on my own, to be done with them later wasn’t something I had shared with him. But it didn’t matter.
“I didn’t invite Moose here because I’m looking to become a prospect, I invited him because we need their help. The chances of us getting Beth back on our own are pretty fucking slim, and if you aren’t able to see that then it must be because your head is jammed too far up your own ass. I don’t fucking care about your beef with the MC, Ash. You need to put it the fuck aside for today.”
To my surprise, Ash didn’t have a smartass comeback. He simply pursed his lips and glared back at me.
“Something happened to Beth?” Moose rumbled from across the table. “Isn’t that the golden-haired beauty you brought to the zoo last week?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “And we need help getting her back. I figure the club owes me one after the Desperados war I helped them avoid. I was hoping you could help convince them of that.”
Moose let out a low grunt. “I heard about that. You might be right about them owing you. As to whether I can talk them into helping, I need to know the details first.”
Just then Bea approached with a couple of cups in one hand and a pot of coffee in the other. She set and filled the cups and then Ash immediately grabbed his and started to fill it with everything within reach.
“Thanks, Bea,” I smiled.
The old waitress pursed her lips as she looked over the three of us. “You lot look like you’re here to talk, not eat.”
“Yeah, sorry, the coffee is fine,” I agreed. Bea only nodded, still looking at us critically.
“How’s your dog, Keebler?” Ash asked, probably in an attempt to get her to stop staring at us quietly. “Last time I was in you were telling me how he’d had his heart broken by a little French poodle. He ever get over that?”
Bea’s dark gaze swung over to my brother, focusing on him for a moment before she responded. “Oh yes, Keebler got over his heartbreak just fine. That little dog doesn’t let anything get to him for too long, but he’
s never too far from getting into a fresh batch of trouble.”
I smiled and nodded, hoping Bea would leave again so we could get back to our plan, but now that she was talking about her dog, she seemed to have forgotten all about giving us dirty looks and instead seemed intent on telling us a story instead.
“Yep. Been that way since he was a puppy. I remember the very first time I knew he was goin’ to be a handful, that one.”
I looked over at Ash with a helpless look but he just grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
“I was living on a farm not far from here, and we’d just gotten Keebler only a couple months before. He was the first dog on the farm, but there was a cat that used to come around. A stray, really, but as he was good at chasing mice from the barn we would leave food and water out for him to keep him coming ’round. Well, there was this little patch of trees at the edge of the property that led into a forest, and Midnight, that was what we’d called the cat because she was jet black, she would like to run through those trees chasing and stalking birds. That was, until Keebler came along.
“I don’t know what it was, but Keebler took a liking to that patch of trees as well, but he was never a fan of Midnight. Any time he saw that cat he would growl and give chase. I wasn’t sure what he’d do if he ever caught her, but Midnight wasn’t anxious to find out either.”
I cleared my throat as Bea paused, hoping to cut in and stop her rambling, but she ignored me and charged ahead without so much as a glance.
“Anyway, this one evening when Keebler was back at the house having his dinner, Midnight took the opportunity to head back to her little patch of trees. It was nearing dusk, and I guess she ran into more than she was bargaining for because before you knew it, an angry and half-starved raccoon had her cornered. Well, Midnight was hissing and yowling, and just about that time young Keebler came wandering back. Midnight saw him and meowed, like she was calling for help. Keebler saw the raccoon, who was twice his size by the way, but he didn’t let that stop him. He growled and barked and chased that raccoon straight away. Think he may have even nipped it on the tail as he fled.
The Brody Bunch Collection: Bad Boy Romance Page 57
