by Linda Warren
“Hey, Mom, there’s a big party at school tomorrow.”
“I know. I’m bringing food.”
“We’ll be out the rest of the day.” He turned to Elias. “Can I have a party in my man cave tomorrow with all my friends?”
“Yes. But no beer,” Elias replied.
Chase gave him a thumbs-up sign. “Deal.”
Maribel went to bed completely drained, but in a good way. Elias slipped in beside her, but they didn’t touch and that bothered her. She had to do something because it was all on her. She was too tired to think too much, but tomorrow she would have to address the real problem in her life.
The next morning, she was up early to go to the diner to make hero subs to take to the gym. Chase had already left for school and Grandpa had gone home to feed his dog.
Elias came into the kitchen for coffee.
“I’m going to the diner to make food for the party. I’ll be there as soon as I get everything started at the diner. There won’t be much business until the party is over.”
Elias leaned against the counter, sipping his coffee. “Tonight we’re going to talk and neither one of us is coming out of the bedroom until you say the words I want to hear.”
“Have you forgotten? We’ll have about thirty kids here tonight. We have to chaperone.”
“I told Chase the party ends at ten o’clock and that’s when we’ll talk.” He placed his cup in the sink and walked out.
Chapter Seventeen
Elias had decided he had to do something about his marriage. He wasn’t the type of person to let things go. He was a doer and he had to make a big decision about their relationship. The status quo wasn’t working. She had to open up and feel everything he was. At the game when she’d reached for his hand, he’d known she had feelings for him. She just had to admit it.
On the way to the school, he stopped by Wyatt’s office. He wanted to talk about Chase and Jody.
Wyatt was sitting at his desk, writing in a file. He looked up. “Hey, Elias. That was some game, wasn’t it?”
Elias eased into a chair. “Yep. Chase’s feet still haven’t touched the ground. It’ll probably take a couple weeks. He’s having a party later this afternoon, and I hope you’ll let Jody come. Maribel and I will be there to watch over things.”
Wyatt leaned back in his chair. “She’s sixteen and he’s eighteen. Up until he arrived in Horseshoe, her only concern was her grades and college and now he’s all she talks about. She’s too young to get involved with anyone. She doesn’t even date. I’m not happy about this situation.”
“I don’t want Chase to get serious about someone either, but I think it’s out of our control.”
“No, it isn’t. She’s sixteen and she’ll do what I tell her and she’s not getting involved with an eighteen-year-old boy.”
Elias laughed. “Oh, Wyatt. Of the two of us, I always thought you were the smarter one. If you refuse to let her see Chase, she’ll sneak out and see him. The attraction is not all on Chase’s side. Would you rather she does that or would you rather monitor what she’s doing? I’d rather know where Chase is than have him sneaking around.”
Wyatt ran his hand through his hair. “Seems like yesterday she was running in here with her dog, Dolittle, wanting me to go fishing and then getting mad because I had to work. She grew up too fast.”
“Mine grew up without me in his life. Let me tell you, that’s not a good feeling.”
Wyatt pointed a finger at Elias. “I’ll let her come, but you better watch them.”
“Like a duck on a June bug.”
Wyatt smiled.
“Sheriff!” Stewart shouted from his desk. “Freddie Kuntz just called. He says he’s at the school and he’s planted bombs. I don’t know if it’s a hoax or not but he says you better get there in a hurry.”
Wyatt was on his feet in an instant and reached for his hat. “That kid is nothing but trouble. He, his brother and his cousin got expelled from school two weeks ago for smoking marijuana and doing PCP. They spent a few days in jail and the cousin’s mother got them out. Their trial is coming up in two weeks and they’ll probably spend some time in juvie or even prison.”
Elias hadn’t seen Freddie in a while. He’d been too busy with football, but he hated to hear the boy was on drugs. He followed Wyatt to the school. Cars were parked everywhere and there was an eerie quiet around the school. No one was going in or coming out. Wyatt got out of his car with a megaphone. They could see Freddie standing inside behind the glass doors with the school microphone in his hand. He wore fatigues and a red bandanna around his head.
“Hey, sheriff, how you doing? Scooter, Leonard and I are doing just fine. We’re not going to prison and you know why?”
“What are you up to, Freddie?”
“Well, you see, sheriff. The principal expelled us from school and we couldn’t go to the football game. So we decided to get even. There’s a bomb on every outside door and window of the school. While everyone was celebrating, we were hard at work.”
“You don’t know how to make a bomb, Freddie.”
“Okay, sheriff. The first bomb is going to go off in exactly fifty-two seconds. It’s the principal’s office. He gets it first for expelling us.”
“Is he for real?” Elias asked.
“Let’s hope he’s joking. That kid’s not smart enough to make a bomb.”
Elias looked at his phone. “If he’s not, the bomb should go off right about now.” As the words left Elias’s mouth, they heard the explosion and smoke spewed up from where the principal’s office was located.
“Hot damn, sheriff. What do you think now?”
“Holy crap.” Wyatt was on the phone with local law enforcement and the FBI. Freddie wasn’t joking. This was serious. Wyatt called in all the volunteer deputies. They checked the principal’s office and couldn’t get in or see anything. Beams obstructed the window.
“What do you want, Freddie?” Wyatt asked. “You must want something.”
“You’re darn right, I do. We have everybody locked in the gym. Just about everybody in this town is sitting on the floor. Some are crying, some are begging, wanting their mamas. They’re a joke.”
“Jody’s in there,” Wyatt said under his breath.
“Chase is in there,” Elias added.
People started to gather around and Wyatt gave Stewart orders to hold everybody back. Hardy arrived and so did Judge Henley. Rico walked up to Elias.
“What are you doing here?” Elias asked.
“I was picking up feed and someone said there was a bomb at the school so I came to check it out. Most of the family is in there.”
“What?”
“The women came in to help with the party, except Paige. She had to go to work. But everyone else is in there with some of the kids.”
“Is my mother in there?”
“No. She and Grandpa were coming later.”
“Oh, man.” Elias had heard this happening in other towns, but not here in safe Horseshoe, Texas. It couldn’t be happening.
Peyton, Wyatt’s wife, and Angie, Hardy’s wife, ran to Wyatt. “Our kids are in there,” Peyton told Wyatt. “I let J.W. go with Jody. He didn’t want to miss anything. And Angie let Trey go with Erin. Our kids are in there, Wyatt. Do something.”
Elias could see Wyatt was trying to maintain his composure. “Peyton, law enforcement will deal with this.”
“Wyatt...”
People gathered around on their phones, trying to reach the people inside to no avail. Wyatt was also on his phone. He clicked off. “A SWAT team from Temple is on the way. It’ll take fifteen to twenty minutes. The FBI said to stand down until they get here.”
“Are you listening, sheriff?” Freddie bellowed through the microphone. “Here’s what we want. We
want a hundred thousand dollars in cash, no large bills, and a brand-new pickup truck. If we don’t get it, this place is going to go up like it’s the Fourth of July. The first bomb has already gone off and in one hour another one will go off and then one will go off every five minutes. Do you want to test me on that one, sheriff? We’re ready to die. Are you ready to watch your kids die?”
“Okay, Freddie. I’ll need more than an hour.”
“You have an hour, sheriff. That’s it. And if anyone comes near a window or a door, I’ll trigger the bombs to go off and you can say goodbye to most of the people in this town.”
“Freddie, I need more time.”
Freddie disappeared from the front of the school and in a moment they heard him again on the microphone. “Sheriff, I’m standing in front of your daughter and she’s holding your son. She sure is a pretty thing. I can kiss her and you can’t do anything about it.”
Wyatt tensed.
“And, Mr. DA, your daughter is right here, too. A pretty blonde holding a little boy who’s glaring at me. I bet I can make them cry. What do you think?”
“Leave them alone.” That was Chase’s voice and Elias clenched his fist.
“I’m fixing to put the butt of this AK-47 in Chase Rebel’s face. Let’s see how tough the big football hero is.”
“Come on, Freddie. Don’t hurt my son,” Elias grabbed the megaphone from Wyatt.
“Elias? Is that you?”
“Yeah, Freddie, it’s me.”
“Tell the sheriff I’m serious.”
“He knows and he’s working on getting the money. If it’s not enough time to get a truck here, you can have mine.”
“Hot damn! Now we’re talking. You got any beer, Elias?”
Elias looked at Wyatt and whispered, “Get some beer.” Two six-packs were shoved into his hands.
“Yeah. I got beer.”
“Bring it in. I’ll let you in the side door, but no one else. If I sense anything funny, I’ll pull the trigger on these bombs. Understand?”
“Sure thing. I’m on my way.”
“The FBI said stand down, Elias. We don’t know what’s going on in there.”
“We have about fifty-five minutes to get those people out of there. If he’s willing to let me in, I’m going in to try to talk him down. I’m not waiting around for the FBI. My son is in there and I’ll never stand down. Never.”
Wyatt threw up his hands but didn’t say anything. Elias walked toward the side door and no one tried to stop him. Rico fell into step beside him.
“What’s your plan?”
“Go back to the group, Rico. If Freddie sees you, it could be dangerous.”
“You need backup.”
There were three guys inside with AK-47s. Elias didn’t know what was waiting for him. He didn’t want to endanger Rico’s life, but he would need help.
He stopped to face Rico. “Okay. When he opens the door, I’ll try to distract him and you put your fingers in the door jamb so it doesn’t close completely. If it closes, we’re out of luck and I’ll have to handle him alone. Just be careful and make sure that he doesn’t see you.”
“Got it. I can be as quiet as a mouse.”
Elias looked back at Wyatt who was watching him closely, but he didn’t call him back. Wyatt’s kids were in there, too.
He tapped on the door and he heard scrapings on the other side. In a minute, it opened a crack and Freddie’s glazed eyes looked around. “You alone?”
Elias held up the two six-packs. “Just me and the beer.” Rico was standing flat against the building so Freddie couldn’t see him.
Freddie opened the door a little wider and Elias slipped in. He stepped in front of Freddie, forcing Freddie to face him with his back to the door. He pulled a beer from a six-pack and held it out. “Have a beer, Freddie. It’ll calm you down.”
The boy’s eyes were glassy and Elias knew he was on something. He tried not to look at the door so as not to draw Freddie’s attention to it. He stepped back farther and Freddie took a step toward him to get the beer. The rifle was still in his hand with his finger on the trigger. He took the beer with his other hand.
“You’re a good man,” Freddie said.
Rico crawled in like a snake and slithered down the hallway. Freddie turned around quickly. “Did you see something?”
“No. It’s just us.”
Freddie swung toward the door. “I have to set this or those dumb cops will come rushing in.” Elias watched as Freddie did something with his phone. All the while, Freddie kept one eye on him.
“What are you doing?”
“Resetting the bomb above the door. I bet you didn’t think I was that smart, did you, Elias?”
Elias shook his head. “Did you make these bombs?” There was something like a can with wires hanging down attached above the door. Elias had never seen anything like it in his life.
“Yep. Scooter sorted it all out. We got it off the internet. We didn’t understand it all so we made some adjustments. Everybody thinks Scooter’s dumb, but he isn’t. He figured out how to hook up all these bombs to my mom’s phone and all I have to do is push a button and the school goes up like a big ol’ dark cloud.”
So that meant no one could get out or come in. The bombs were set.
“What are you doing, Freddie? These kids haven’t done anything to you.”
Freddie laughed. “They’ve bullied me, my brother and my cousin all our lives. It’s payback time, Elias. Once we get the money and the truck, we’ll be gone.”
“How are you going to get out of here?”
Freddie held up his phone. “I can turn this door bomb off with my phone and turn it on again as we leave. Once we’re out of sight, I can turn it off again. Genius, isn’t it?”
Elias nodded his head. “Yeah, Freddie. I’m impressed. Just don’t understand why you want to do this.”
“The principal said we couldn’t come back to school because we smoked some weed in the bathroom. Everybody smokes weed. And the DA and the sheriff said they were going to put us in prison. We’re not going to prison.”
“Freddie...” Elias took a step toward the boy and Freddie pointed the gun at him.
“You’re asking a lot of questions.”
Elias held up his hands. “You wanted some beer and I brought it just like all the times I saw you walking and gave you a ride. I’m just trying to help.”
Freddie waved the gun around. “Do you know how many rounds I can shoot with this thing?”
“More than I want to know,” Elias replied. “Where did you get something like that?” The kid never had any money and Elias didn’t know how he got the money to set this up.
“My mom’s boyfriend works in a gun shop in Temple. When we got expelled, my mom told him to take us with him because we were driving her crazy. We wanted to go to the movies, but he wouldn’t give us any money. So we sat around the gun shop all day and when he was with a customer, we snuck the guns out and hid them in the truck. Later, we hid them in the backyard. If we were going to take out the people of Horseshoe who had hurt us, we were going to need firepower.” Freddie laughed, a chilling sound. “The jerk got arrested when the owner found the guns missing, and he’s in jail.”
Elias needed to take Freddie down here so he could deal with the other two later, but he wasn’t getting an opening. The gun was pointed at his chest and Rico wasn’t going to pounce until Freddie moved the gun. He didn’t. Instead, he waved with the beer can. “Go to the gym. Scooter wants a beer.”
Elias had no choice but to walk toward the opening that lead to the gymnasium. He paused in the doorway. The gym was packed with students, teachers and parents getting ready for the party and he saw fear in their eyes. His sisters-in-law sat together and he saw Jake, John, Annie, Martha Kate and Justin.
Man, the kids were here with their mothers. Cell phones were on a pile in one corner. There were two tables of food and it looked as if Freddie and his friends had already helped themselves.
Chase sat in the front with Zane, Erin and Jody. He jumped to his feet when he saw Elias. Scooter pointed the gun at him and shouted, “Down.”
Chase eased back to the floor.
“If anybody else jumps up, you’re dead meat. I’m tired of dealing with you,” Freddie yelled.
“Yeah,” Scooter mumbled angrily. He was mad and hyped up on something. He was big and stout and it would be hard to take him down. Elias searched for a way to get everybody out of there safely. He didn’t know if he could do it, but he was grateful Maribel wasn’t here.
* * *
MARIBEL WOKE UP to searing pain. She couldn’t understand what was wrong. Her whole body ached and her head throbbed. She reached up to touch her head and it felt wet. Looking at her hand, she saw it was blood. Blood! She realized some other things, too. She was lying on the floor with something. Dust filled her nostrils and stuff was pressing up against her body. Where was she? Was she dreaming?
She coughed and tried to sit up. More dust and debris rained down on her head and she suddenly remembered where she was. She’d brought the sandwiches to the school and Chase had helped her take them in. When they were walking out, they had met Cindy and Cheryl, Gunnar’s and Malachi’s wives, with their two little girls. They had brought food and were running late. They had to take Amber and Kelly to the principal’s office to get a tardy slip so they could go to class and to the party. Maribel had offered to take the girls to the principal’s office so Cindy and Cheryl could continue to carry the food inside.
Once they were there, they could hear someone talking on the school microphone. Something about bombs. Principal Gaston had tried the door and had found it was locked. He’d pulled out his phone to call the sheriff and all Maribel remembered was a loud sound. Had it been a bomb?
She wiped dust from her face and looked around. There was debris and rubble everywhere. A steel beam lay across the single window and another beam was across where the door used to be and electrical wires were hanging down, giving off sparks. Principal Gaston lay on top of his flattened desk. Oh, no!
