Expelled

by Claire Adams

  “Yeah, I couldn’t believe he went so long without hiring someone. We were getting pretty damn shorthanded. Have you all told him how to wake up in the mornings yet?”

  “Oh, no way. They tortured me for weeks with that. I’m not going to give in that easily. He’s got at least another week of missing breakfast before we get him a watch.”

  Because all of the ranch hands had the same joke pulled on them, it seemed like new hires had to spend longer and longer periods of time not knowing how to wake up. If it had been up to me, I’d have just put an alarm clock in the bunkhouse and been done with it, but my father said it was a bonding thing with the men and to stay out of it.

  “You guys are so mean to each other. It’s a wonder you can keep any new hires at all.”

  We both laughed as we cuddled up together and listened to the rain. I was joking with Garrett about the new hires. I knew that since Garrett had become the lead ranch hand we had actually kept almost all of the old workers. Our rate of men leaving had declined rapidly and I blamed it all on Garrett. He got along well with the men and they respected him. Garrett worked just as hard, or harder, than the other ranch hands and that gave them the perfect example of what to work towards.

  When Garrett decided he wanted to leave, it would be a sad day for all of us. My father loved him, my mother adored him, and I was falling in love with him. He was a great leader to the other men and he did a really damn good job at running the ranch. If he did stay around I bet my father would eventually even give him a piece of land from the ranch so he could start his own family and ranch. Although, that didn’t seem like something that was in the future for Garrett.

  “We aren’t mean to each other. It’s just how men are.”

  “So men just like to keep other men from eating breakfast?” I laughed.

  “No, we just like to make sure the men we are around understand who the boss is. That new kid will certainly understand his place in the pecking order by the time we get him his watch. I know I did.”

  “Yeah, I remember when you first started. Wow, that seems so long ago.”

  “I know,” Garrett said as he yawned. “But I’ve loved every minute of it.”

  “Me too. I’m so glad I got fired and forced to move back home with my family. I mean, the sweat, hard work, no pay; it’s so much fun,” I joked.

  “You love it and you know it. Don’t even pretend like you’re not happy here.”

  “You’re right. I’m happier than I’ve ever been,” I said as I closed my eyes and cuddled close to Garrett.

  As we fell asleep, I could tell the storm was calming down and I couldn’t wait until morning. We were likely going to have quiet the mess on our hands from broken tree limbs and other debris from the storm.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Garrett

  The sound was foreign to me at first as I woke up out of a deep sleep. But then I realized what I was hearing: it was gunshots. I wasn’t all that familiar with the sound of a gun going off, but I had heard them enough in Los Angeles to know what they were.

  In Los Angeles, the gunshots had always sounded like they were miles away from where I was at. But the ones I heard that morning were clearly very close to us. They sounded like they were right outside the barn and I was scared to death. Even through my fear, I knew that I wanted to keep Sarah safe. No matter what was going on outside of that barn, I wasn’t going to let her be harmed. If it meant that I was killed instead of her, I was willing to end my life that way.

  “Get up,” I said as I jumped up and started to get my clothes on. “Stay up here and hide in the corner.”

  I was firm with Sarah and I hoped she would listen to me. The sun wasn’t out yet and my alarm on my watch hadn’t gone off yet, so there was no reason at all that gunshots should be going off at the ranch.

  The only time we heard gunshots on the ranch was when Sid was chasing away coyotes, and even then, he used his shotgun and not a pistol. But the two shots I heard sounded much more like a pistol and that scared me. I didn’t even think Sid owned a pistol; he had no use for such a small gun on his ranch. It wouldn’t help him with the animals that he had to put down and a pistol wasn’t really Sid’s style either.

  As I started to descend the old ladder, I couldn’t fathom why gunshots would be going off outside the barn. At least for a moment, I couldn’t fathom why; but then a fearful thought started to fill my head. What if Frank Gordano’s men had finally found the ranch? It was a chilling thought and the only thing I could think off for why there would be such horror going on at that hour. I hoped I was wrong. I willed myself to be wrong as I climbed down.

  “What is it?” Sarah asked.

  “I don’t know. But you’ll be safe up here. Don’t come out until I tell you to. I’m serious, Sarah; do not leave this area until I or one of your parents come for you. Not under any circumstances.”

  I could tell she wanted to protest my directions, but then something stopped her. She just shook her head in agreement and slipped her clothes back on as she moved into the corner of the loft area. She grabbed one of the blankets off the makeshift bed and covered herself with it. I hadn’t explained anything, yet she trusted me enough to listen to me in that moment.

  As I climbed down the ladder, I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a man’s voice begging for his life. The terror in his voice made the moment real, although it still felt like I was in the middle of some sort of crime show. I desperately hoped that I would wake up and realize it had all been a nightmare. If only what I heard outside the barn wasn’t really happening at all.

  “Please don’t shoot me. Please; he’s in the cabin. Please don’t kill me; he’s in the small cabin over there.”

  The man’s voice was followed by two quick shots and then silence. I would have been more scared had I had the time to think about what was going on. But all I could think about was keeping Sarah safe and getting to Sid and Meredith to keep them safe as well. They were my family now and I couldn’t imagine anything happening to them. But it was happening. There was someone just outside the barn door shooting people, and from what I heard, it sounded like they were really looking for me.

  If I was what they wanted, then I was what they were going to get. I couldn’t let another person get shot because of me. It was my responsibility and my burden to carry. I looked out the barn and saw two men making their way toward my small cabin. There was no doubt about it: Frank Gordano had found me.

  For some reason, I had thought that he wouldn’t actually come after me. At first, when I had arrived at the ranch, I stayed up late worrying about Frank; but as time went on, I relaxed. The Miller ranch began to feel like my home and I felt safe there. I slept well at night and didn’t worry about my safety. The only thing I worried about was if I was doing a good job leading the other ranch hands.

  The terror of the moment had my body frozen as I stood in the doorway to the barn and watched the two men. The bright lights from the barn illuminated me and I certainly wasn’t hidden at all if the two men had bothered to turn around and look behind them. I decided it would be best to try and put up a fight. At least I could try and do some harm to them before they killed me.

  I grabbed a pitchfork that we used to feed the horses their hay and I was just about to leave the barn when I noticed Sid. No, no, no, I thought to myself as he came out of his house in his pajamas. I wouldn’t let Sid risk his life for me. There was no possible way I would let that man be the person they killed. It was me they wanted and I would be the one who they had, I wasn’t going to let Sid get involved if I could help it.

  I saw Sid as he stumbled onto the front porch with a shotgun in his hands. The light on the barn was shining brightly and Sid looked over toward me. I motioned to my small cabin and nodded my head to confirm what he must have been thinking, then I held up the large pitchfork and started toward the cabin. Those were indeed shots that had been fired and all of our lives were in danger. I had never been so glad to see a man with a shotgun
in all of my life.

  Sid glanced from me to two ranch hands that lay dead on the ground. The sun wasn’t up yet, but the lights from the barn were enough for both Sid and I to see that Ralph and Devin had been murdered. That was all Sid needed to see. He pulled his shotgun up to his face and walked straight toward the cabin without stopping to look at me again.

  Ralph was my second in command and had been a truly good man. I imagined that he had pushed the other men aside when the intruders started asking about me. Ralph had an ex-wife and three daughters he sent money to. He confided in me once that he had never been a good husband, but he wanted to be a good father. He worked hard and didn’t keep any of his salary for himself. Every month he went into town and had a cashier’s check made up and sent to his family. He was proud of the support he gave them and my heard ached to know he had been murdered.

  Devin was one of the youngest ranch hands we had, although you wouldn’t be able to tell it by looking at him. He was six feet six inches and nearly four hundred pounds of pure muscle. He wasn’t the brightest of kids, but he was so kind that we all fell in love with him. He had been in prison after some boys were picking on him at his college and he punched one of them who ended up dying. I honestly believed that Devin hadn’t tried to kill that boy, but just didn’t know his own strength.

  I turned and watched in total astonishment as Sid walked straight toward the cabin without hesitating at all. I ran after him. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t have a gun and only the pitchfork as a weapon, but I wasn’t about to let Sid get murdered by these men who were really there after me. I would rather them just kill me than see Sid or any of his family hurt. Whomever Frank Gordano had sent to kill me, obviously, they were cold blooded killers who didn’t have any problem with murdering an old man if Sid was standing in front of them.

  Sid stood outside of the cabin about twenty feet away and just as I caught up to him the two men walked out the front door. There was no yelling at them. Sid didn’t give them a chance to put their weapons down. There were just two shotgun blasts to their bodies and the men fell straight to the ground. It was quite a sight to see as their bodies collapsed onto each other and everything went silent.

  My hands shook, my whole body shook, as I walked with Sid over to them. He flipped the porch light on and we saw that one of the men was the new ranch hand that Sid had just hired. Sid had known that his hiring of ranch hands was the only way to get close to me. He had held off as long as he could before he finally hired the man. We had talked about it and Sid was going to lose other men from exhaustion if he didn’t get more help. We both shook our heads. It was a horrific scene, but we didn’t have time to linger over their bodies.

  “Go check on those two,” Sid ordered me.

  As I ran over to the other two men, I saw Meredith in Sid’s office. She was on the phone with someone, but appeared remarkably calm. It struck me that she knew exactly what to do and wasn’t crying or screaming in panic. Meredith Miller was a pretty strong woman.

  When I got to Ralph and Devin’s bodies, it was clear there was nothing we could do for them. They had both been shot in the head a point blank range. The other men were standing at the window of the bunkhouse and slowly came out as they realized the two assailants were dead. Their eyes looked at me and I felt their stares even before any of them spoke.

  The brains of Ralph and Devin were spewed out all over the dirt and I was the one the men were looking at. They knew I hadn’t actually shot the two, but I suspected they also knew that the gunmen had really been looking for me.

  That evening I had my fill of gruesome bloodied bodies, that was for sure. I had never been so close to a dead body and it seemed unreal that I had four of them all around me. It was almost too much for me to handle and I desperately tried not to look at them anymore.

  Instead, I looked at the ranch hands and searched the hate in their eyes; it wasn’t much easier to look at that. These men had been my co-workers and friends, but in that moment, they appeared fearful of me. I saw it in their eyes. They thought I had something to do with their friends being murdered. Which, technically I did. It was me who those men had wanted and I knew it.

  “They were looking for you,” one of the ranch hands said. “They had your picture.”

  His voice was filled with contempt and hate toward me. I didn’t know what to say or do. It was true, I knew it. If I hadn’t of been at that ranch Ralph and Devin would still be alive.

  “I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

  The group of men just looked at me and then at Sid. They were scared and didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t blame them for hating me. I had put their life at risk and their friends had been murdered all because of me. I deserved their hatred. I deserved every stare they were giving me. My heart sank as the scene unfolded and the reality of the situation began to weigh heavily on me.

  Never in my life had I felt responsible for a man’s death before I got mixed up with Frank Gordano. My money hungry decision had changed the lives of so many people and ended the lives of good men. I was sick to my stomach. In that moment, I was feeling the true consequences of my actions. Up until that second I had believed my consequences were only that I had been sent away to the Montana ranch and that I had to take time out of my life. But that was not true at all.

  My actions in deciding to work with Frank were a ripple effect that had changed so many people’s lives. I wished I could take it all back. I would give every last penny that I made back and I would live the already great life I had. But I couldn’t take it back, nothing I said or did could change what had happened that night.

  Two good men were lying there dead, all because of me. It was a senseless act of violence and I felt so guilty I almost collapsed right there in the dirt. Since arriving at the Miller’s ranch I had only worried about my own life. It had never dawned on me that Frank Gordano would actually kill innocent people to get to me. And from what I heard, Devin had even willingly told them where I was, but the killers didn’t care and shot him anyways.

  I stood there looking at Ralph and Devin as tears filled my eyes. They were dead and I was alive. It was a horrible injustice yet I couldn’t do a thing about it. I couldn’t bring them back to life and I couldn’t change what had happened.

  Everything had happened so quickly that when I looked up and saw Sarah standing in the barn doorway it felt like it had been hours since I had been lying next to her. But in reality, it had probably only been about five or ten minutes. She had stayed in the barn like I ordered her, but with the talking of the men from the bunkhouse, she finally emerged.

  “Daddy,” Sarah yelled as she ran over to her father who was walking toward me with his shotgun in hand. “What happened?”

  “I need you to gather the men and keep them occupied. Take them to the north barn and feed the animals or something. Just keep them away from all this,” Sid said without actually answering her as to what was happening.

  Sarah stood looking at Ralph and Devin in total shock and then looking at me. There was no time to explain what had happened; I would just have to talk to her later. For the time being, we weren’t one hundred percent sure that we had everyone who had come there to kill me and it wasn’t a good idea for Sarah, or anyone, to stay there.

  But I knew that Sarah had heard Devin’s pleas to save his life just like I had heard them. She knew that the men had been looking for me and she knew that I was the reason that poor Ralph and Devin were lying there with holes in their heads. I couldn’t take the disappointment and sadness in her eyes. I couldn’t stand the way she was looking at me one more second.

  She moved toward me and reached out to touch my arm. The look of concern on her face wasn’t something I deserved. She could keep her pity for Ralph and Devin and their families. Sarah had no idea the truth behind it all. She didn’t know that it was my fault those men were dead. Sarah had no idea what I had done to be sent to her ranch and how many lives I had ruined because of my selfishne
ss. I couldn’t take her sympathy another moment. I didn’t deserve sympathy.

  “Go!” I said firmly as she looked at me and tears continued to stream down my face.

  It caught her off guard how I yelled at her and I was sorry about that. But I couldn’t have her staying there and looking at me the way she was. I couldn’t have her asking me a bunch of questions, because I wasn’t going to answer them. But most of all I wasn’t going to have something happen to her while I had a breath left in my body. She could hate me if she needed to, but I needed her to follow her father’s directions and get out of the area.

  “Agent Walker is on his way. He’ll arrive in a couple hours. He said to let local police do what they needed to do with the scene,” Meredith said as she walked up to the three of us.

  Sarah looked at her mother and then her father; she had no idea what was going on but she followed her father’s directions and gathered the men to bring up to the other barn. She was shaking as she walked past me and I wanted to reach out to her, but I kept my hands to myself. When this was all over with, Sarah wasn’t going to like me all that much. She was probably going to hate me for lying to her and hate me for putting her family’s life in danger, but because of her father, she was alive and so was I.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to Sid as we stood there waiting for the police to arrive.

  It had been a few minutes since Sarah had left with the men and none of us knew what to say or do. We couldn’t touch anyone and we couldn’t leave. We just had to stay there and wait. The only thing I could think to say was some sort of apology for the face that I was there and that those men had come after me.

  “Boy, don’t be sorry. What’s done is done. I’m just glad I took those bastards out. Your agent will be picking you up when he arrives. You’ll need to gather your things, but wait until the local police have arrived. I don’t want you disturbing the crime scene.”

  “Has this ever happened before?” I asked, suddenly curious how Sid seemed to know the exact protocol for what was going to happen next.