by Kate Morris
She uses her pastels to shade in the red tendrils of Paige’s hair, but it only reminds her of her friend’s brother, whose hair is quite a bit darker auburn than his sister’s. Simon’s hair, the color, the texture and wave of it, she has memorized. She could draw him from memory alone. She has. It’s a stupid form of self-torture, but she does it sometimes just the same.
Sam had worked so diligently to harden her heart toward Simon, even though they were once the best of friends. She stayed away as much as possible. She kept her distance only going to Pleasant View or the farm when she was needed. However, telling her that he is in love with her erased all of her hard work to forget about him and move on. Moping around her cabin and on Dave’s compound isn’t helping much, either. It’s too quiet here. The cabin she shares with her uncle is empty and silent without his companionship. Grandpa’s farm would also be too distracting because everywhere she would look she’d be reminded of Simon. The silence and solitude, two things she thought she wanted, are driving her crazy.
Since everything she is doing to attempt to take her mind off of him is a futile effort, Sam shuts the door on the stove and turns in for the night. She carries her mug of tea and a lantern to the top floor and locks her bedroom door. Then she makes sure she has her pistol and the shotgun beside her bed. After changing, she climbs under the blankets, extinguishes the lantern and wishes so badly that she could also snuff out the flame in her heart where her feelings for Simon have been buried.
Chapter Two
Cory
“Good morning, wife,” Cory whispers to Paige and snuggles into her back. She moans softly and coils an arm up around his head and sinks her long, thin fingers into his thick hair.
He is content to sleep in a few extra minutes with her since he was on the first shift last night patrolling. Soft snoring draws his attention.
“We need a bigger bed,” she murmurs back.
Cory leans over her to find Tessa curled into Paige’s front. He smiles.
“Maybe a bigger room,” she jokes and points toward the door where Damn Dog is lying on guard across the threshold.
“Worst guard dog ever,” he whispers, getting a chuckle out of her. Damn Dog is also one of the snoring culprits. “Worthless.”
“Hey, be nice,” she scolds. “You’re worthless, and we’re not kicking you out.”
“Worthless, eh?” he asks and nuzzles her neck, then places a kiss there. “Five days of marriage and already you’re sick of me?”
“Yep, go to work,” she teases and giggles softly when he rubs his whiskers against the spot behind her ear.
“Alright, I see when I’m not wanted,” he returns.
She turns slightly and presses a kiss to his mouth. “I didn’t say that. Let’s not get carried away.”
“So, you do want me?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” she says and kisses him again.
“We’ll have to explore the depths of that later today,” he says and strokes her hair back from her forehead.
His sexy wife grins and agrees, “I’ll hold you to it.”
Cory kisses her again, this time with more passion and less teasing. Beside her, Tessa stirs, and Damn Dog becomes instantly alert. In the five days since Tessa came to live on the farm, the dog has lived up to her name that the kids gave her and has shadowed Tess everywhere almost as if she has appointed herself as the kid’s personal guardian and protector.
“And it starts,” he comments and ruffles the hair on Tessa’s head.
She hasn’t slept in her own room yet, but Sue said not to rush her too much. This is just one more traumatic transition in her life, coming to live on their farm, that she’ll have to adjust to. She was orphaned by the highwaymen, left behind to survive on her own until they found her, and bounced around with a few different families in town. Cory just wants to give her stability and help her get past what happened to her. Sue, who seems to know the most about children- other than Herb- has said she’ll come around. Cory hopes so. He built her a bedroom and filled it with toys and clothing and things a girl might like. But as far as healing a little person emotionally, he hasn’t a clue. He’s also not so sure how much sex he and Paige could have in the future with a teenager in the same bedroom. He’s holding out hope she’ll be out of their room by then.
Damn Dog pads over and licks the toddler’s hand.
“Shadow,” she says sleepily and pets the dog’s head with her tiny hand.
The dog’s name is another new word for her. Every day she makes more and more progress. Paige got a book from Mrs. B at the library yesterday on children’s linguistics and stayed up most of the night reading it. He knows because every time he passed by their cabin, which is now a regular part of their route on watch duty, the oil lamp was still burning. She was still awake when he came in around three a.m., too. They’d, strangely enough, used Tessa’s bedroom for a brief time to re-consummate their marriage, as Paige likes to joke, and then went to sleep in their already occupied bed.
Today, he has set up a play date with Maddie, who he is to pick up on his horse later and bring back to the farm. Paige was the one to suggest it, knowing how much her other adopted daughter went through on the road with them. She thought it might be good for the two girls to play, just be kids, and join in playing games with the rest of the children on the farm. The McClane kids will be a good influence on both girls. They will teach them how to be kids, how to run through the barns and play tag, how to climb trees and skin knees and elbows, chase the dogs and ride the horses. Mostly, he just wants Tess to relax and breathe and learn how to have fun again. No kids should wear the weight of their troubles on their tiny shoulders. That’s his job.
While Derek is gone with Doc and Simon and Robert’s doctors who were working in town, he has to keep up his duties and stay on the added watch shifts until they return. Herb had even allowed Huntley to go with them. He said that the kid hadn’t been off the farm much since he arrived on it and it would be good for him. Cory wonders if he’ll feel overwhelmed, but he is an excellent tracker, scout, and an even better hunter if something were to go awry on the road there or back. He took that HK Cory stole from those highwaymen assholes in the cabin, hiding out from the McClanes like the rats they were. K-Dog was and still is a tad jealous about the gun, but Cory’s little bro had to come first. Besides, there were plenty of stray weapons lying next to their dead owners on the grounds of that old mansion. They took in hundreds of firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition and new toys like bazookas and mortars. He still can’t figure where they were getting supplies like that. They’d all raided every military base in a fifty-mile radius and had never come across anything that good.
“Alright, and we’re up,” he states and kisses Paige’s cheek.
Then he gets dressed and takes his dog out to the bathroom. His goal is to finish the solar panels for the roof with John and Kelly’s help before the end of the week. When he returns, the girls have dressed and are ready for the trek to the big house for breakfast and chores with the family. He hefts Tess onto his shoulders for the walk and holds Paige’s hand securely in his. Across his back is his rifle.
“I’ll be back out here later today with Kel to work on the panels while John keeps watch,” he tells her. “Stay close to the house while we’re gone, alright?”
She doesn’t answer but scowls.
“Did you hear me?”
“What? Yes, I heard you,” she says and bites her thumbnail.
He can tell something is wrong. “What is it?”
“Just worrying about Simon,” she answers. “I don’t like that he went up there. It’s so far.”
“Trust me, Red,” he says, trying to alleviate her fears, “nobody’s messin’ with the fort. Robert’s got the place locked down. You saw it. He’s done even more since we were there.”
“I know,” she agrees with a subtle nod. “I’ll just feel better when he returns.”
“Must be nice having someone worry about you.”
He catches her grin right before she slugs his shoulder, “Shush. You know I worried just as much about you every time you left the farm. It’s just weird now, ya’ know?”
“How’s that?”
“I’m not going anywhere. This is my home now,” she says, shaking her toboggan-covered head. “I’m so used to moving around, living like a nomad. Picking up and leaving when the heat was on. I didn’t think this would ever happen, having an actual home base, somewhere permanent in all this. It’s just weird now.”
He nods with understanding and gives her hand a gentle squeeze.
“Home,” Tessa repeats.
“That’s right, kiddo,” Cory tells her. “This is home. This is our home. For good. No more moving. Right, Red?”
“Yes, that’s right, Tessa,” she affirms for her. “We’re not going anywhere. We’ll be together here on this farm forever.”
There is something in her tone, the finality of it that makes Cory feel a slight apprehension crawl along his spine. Robert McClane’s archenemy is coming here to destroy him and probably try to destroy all of them. If he succeeds, which he most likely would if he brought even half of his army, then Cory could lose everything he holds dear in life, everything he holds above his own life, everything he holds in his hands and arms right now.
Once they reach the barnyard, Arianna runs up to them and entreats Tessa to a game of tag in the barn. Cory is quite sure she is supposed to be collecting eggs or feeding the goats, but he also isn’t going to rat her out. Besides, Ari does what Ari wants. She is a rather obstinate child. He pities her future husband. But she’s been especially good with Tess, inviting her to join their games and talking to her. Yesterday, she even braided her hair into neat rows. He doesn’t know what her ethnic background is because her parents are long gone, but she is definitely some portion African American. Her hair is super curly, even more than Reagan’s, and a very light brown with blonde on the tips. She has high cheekbones and a tilt at the corners of her light brown eyes. She’s a striking child, so he’s pretty sure he’ll be chasing the boys off with a shotgun someday when she comes of age.
Later as he’s working in the equipment shed with his brother, Kelly asks, “Do you guys want a break from Tessa? Hannah and I would be glad to keep her with us for a few days.”
“What? No. Why?” Cory asks with confusion.
His brother smiles and says, “’Cuz it’s your honeymoon, Cor. Or it’s supposed to be. And here you have a toddler livin’ with you already. That’s gotta be hard.”
“Not on me, it isn’t. Paige hasn’t brought it up, either. As a matter of fact, last night, she said she was glad for the company even if it is a four-year-old. I’m always workin’ on watch duty, so she’s happy not to be in the new house all by herself.”
“If you say so,” Kelly comments. “But the offer still stands if you guys change your minds and decide you need a break at night here or there until you get adjusted.”
“Nah, I think we’re good,” Cory says. “But thanks for the offer.”
“Whatever you say, brother,” he teases and goes back to their schematic drawing.
“Have you guys heard from Doc yet today?”
“Not yet. He said he’d try and call in tonight sometime,” Kelly tells him. “They’ve been pretty busy up there, I guess.”
“Yeah, I heard,” Cory adds, knowing they are trying to gain as much insight into the situation with the President, as well as working with the researchers and doctors at the compound.
“Plus, I heard Robert’s pretty sick again,” Kelly says quietly. “Doc told me privately a few days ago before he left that it doesn’t look so good. One of Robert’s men brought him a medical report that one of the doctors wrote up on him. It wasn’t good news.”
“That’s too bad,” Cory says with a nod. “They just reunited.”
“Yeah,” Kelly concurs. “He’s got the best chance of survival up there, though, ya’ know? They have a team of scientists and docs. They’ve got medical supplies. And they already know how to treat it. From what that one young doc was sayin’- you know, the one who has it bad for the Professor- they’ve treated the Small Pox for quite a while out in Colorado. Guess the general just got it the worst.”
“We had diseases, still do. They have, too. Suppose that’s just how this goes now.”
“Unfortunately.”
“You think Dr. Avery’s got the hots for Si, huh?” Cory jokes and gets a loud laugh from his brother.
“Yeah, not sure why, but seems like she does,” he teases in return at the expense of their mutual friend.
“Must be one of those chicks into those pseudo-intellectual types or something,” Cory says.
“That would explain why she didn’t have the puppy eyes for your dumb ass.”
Cory laughs but secretly finds himself wondering if perhaps Simon also has feelings for the young, pretty blonde doctor. He sure as hell isn’t making it happen between himself and Sam yet. When the knucklehead comes home, he’s going to have a chat with him. After his wedding, Simon became distant and left a few days later with Doc. Cory had tried to ask him if he’d made any progress with Sam the night of the reception because he’d seen his friend talking to her near the punch bowl. Cory hadn’t gotten the impression that he had. Maybe he’ll have to help things along and get Sam to the farm where Simon can talk to her one on one without the constant interruption of the family.
They are able to install two more panels on the roof of the cabin before dinner is called and then the radio chirps soon after from Doc, who reports in that everything is going well and that they plan on staying a few extra days. John assures him that they are fine on the farm without their help and to take their time.
After the call from Doc, he joins John in the milking parlor where their patient/prisoner is awake. They allow him food, one meal per day, which in Cory’s opinion is too much. The man was sick, still is, but is at least he’s cognizant again.
John leads them off, “Yesterday you told us that this Angelica works with the President. How do you normally contact her if you want to get information to him?”
He is too busy scarfing his food to answer, so Cory nudges his shoeless foot with his boot. The man startles and pauses. They took his shoes the first night they captured him. If he escapes, he’ll have to do it shoeless, which will make him easier to track.
“By radio, on the radio. Sometimes she’d send a runner with messages, too.”
“So, she’s working with someone other than just the President?”
He nods and tears off a large chunk of his bread, stuffing it into his mouth.
“How many have infiltrated the general’s compound, which I assume is where she works from?”
There is no need for pretense. The new President hates Robert McClane. If this woman is working against them, she’s doing it from the inside somehow. They discussed this last night at a meeting and Reagan came up with the theory that this woman must be working at her father’s compound to have so much inside information about them, including when they were planning attacks and raids on the highwaymen. The alternative is that she lives in one of their towns, and that just seems too unlikely a scenario.
The used car dealer shrugs. “I don’t know where she works. I never asked. I assume she was with the President at first. Then I realized he just had her here closer doing his spying and all that.”
“How many work with her?”
“I’m not sure,” he says and takes another bite of chicken. Cory kicks his foot again. “Um, maybe ten? A dozen? I don’t know.”
“How many different runners did you notice coming to your place at the Gaylord?”
“Not more than three different men. Oh, and one woman. There was a woman one time, too.”
“Really?” John asks and pauses to consider this. “I want full descriptions of them, their names, and descriptions of their vehicles.”
“I can try,” he says weakly. “I don’t know any of their
names, though. But I can try and give you vehicle descriptions.”
“That would be very wise of you, car dealer,” John warns with ominous intent.
They continue to question him further for a while before John calls an end to it for the night. Then they convene in the dining room to discuss the information with Kelly and the others. Paige sits next to him while the children play together in the music room. Arianna and Justin are teaching them to play UNO, the card game. He sincerely hopes Ari doesn’t also teach them to cheat. He’s played cards with her before. It’s not always an honorable endeavor.
“He still insists that he’s never met her in person, but I wonder if he’s lying,” Cory states.
“He’s a used car salesman,” Sue says. “Lying is his specialty.”
“True,” John agrees with a chuckle.
Reagan jumps in to add, “And he’s a piece of shit that was ordering the mass murder of innocent people.”
“Reagan,” Hannie scolds gently and toys with her long, white braid and the pink ribbon securing the end.
“Sorry, Hannie,” her sister apologizes. “I really don’t like the idea that we’re keeping this creep alive on our farm. It worries me that he’s a bigger player in this and that this new President that has some bone to pick with our idiot father is going to come here to spring him. It wouldn’t take long to figure out where he is being kept. It could get leaked. People confess a lot of things when they’re afraid.”
“Simon’s been checking around up at the fort, trying to figure out who Angelica could be,” Kelly tells them. “So far, he’s got nothing.”
“Maybe I should head up there, too,” Cory offers and meets Paige’s worried eyes. “Simon’s working in their labs all day. It’s not like he’s got a lot of time to run intel and look for spies.”
