by Cara Carnes
TJ remembered when it had just been him, the mean men and the woman. His mom. Whatever that was, she wasn’t good. She was the reason Lilly was in the hole. She’d said the woman needed a lesson.
She was always telling Gomer and the other mean men he and DJ needed lessons.
DJ had been the only good thing the mom-woman did. She’d dumped him in TJ’s lap one day, said he was his brother. Whatever that was, TJ knew he had to figure out how to keep him alive. Safe. He’d been too little to chew. He didn’t have teeth, and he pooped all the time. TJ hadn’t done too good taking care of DJ at first, but Gomer had thrown bottles at him every now and then. DJ liked whatever was in them.
Then Lilly had showed up and he’d learned what to do. How to make the smelly poop go away. How to keep him from screaming. At first DJ had been easy to handle. He ate. He shit. He drank his bottle. He slept. Then he pooped again and then ate.
That was a long time ago.
Now DJ was big and way easier to handle. He learned quick, too.
Lilly finally accepted the fact that TJ wasn’t leaving until she ate the food. She called it stubborn. He was lots of that. It kept her fed and DJ clean and their bellies full.
Most of the time.
He’d looked everywhere for a key, the small thing they needed to get the thing off Lilly’s neck and legs and arms so she could leave the hole. But Gomer must’ve taken it with him when he went away a long time ago, right after the mean woman didn’t come back.
TJ couldn’t find it. He’d found a place in town that had lots and lots of keys. It was a long walk that hurt his bare feet, but he’d made it a few times and gotten keys when the old man wasn’t looking. He never left without paying, though.
Lilly said that was stealing and bad. Real bad.
He figured he didn’t want to be bad like the mom and the mean men. They were real bad.
Lilly said good people paid for what they needed. He didn’t have money, whatever that was.
So he left meat.
Or eggs.
They had three chickens now, which meant they always had one egg each to eat now.
DJ was a good fisher, too, way better than TJ.
“We’re fishing at the creek tomorrow.”
“You be careful out there and get back before the sun comes up too high. Mo and them will be back. And the bears are awake; you don’t have any business taking their fish. They’ll get mean if they see you, especially the mamas. They have babies to take care of.”
“I know. I’ll be safe. DJ’s real quick.” TJ lowered water down to Lilly. She never took much, said they needed it more than her. But at least she’d take some. Mainly ‘cause of that stubborn he had, whatever that was. It always got him what he wanted with Lilly.
He waited until she tugged on the rope. He raised the cup, dropped the keys he’d taken from the old man in town into the empty cup, then lowered it again. All those keys. One of them had to work. He waited a couple seconds. “Well?”
“Afraid not, baby. It’d be really small.”
“I’ll go again tomorrow, after we fish.”
“I want you to take DJ this time and find a policeman. Tell him you’re lost and need help.” Lilly’s voice raised. “It’s time to get you away from this place. You heard what Mo said before they left.”
He looked back at the cabin to make sure DJ hadn’t followed him out. “Yeah.”
“He’s gonna leave soon, too. Then you and DJ…” She cut off the words, but he knew. They’d be dead and so would she. “It’s time to get to town or head to the one I told you about. Find a policeman there.”
“Not leaving unless you are.”
“Such a stubborn little man.”
TJ smiled. He liked when she called him a little man. One day he’d be like one of the superheroes on the shows he sometimes got to watch when Gomer, Mo, and the mean men drank too much of the smelly stuff.
“Fine. Tomorrow, you go into town and tell the first person you see with a badge about this place and me. Bring them out here.” Lilly’s voice lowered. “Policemen have guns on their belts, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Look for the badge.”
“Dunno what that is.”
“It’s a shiny piece of metal they’ll be wearing.”
“Oh, okay.” That he could find. “Town’s small. Don’t think they have that there.”
“Then find someone you think is nice, someone you feel in your gut is a good person. You’ve got one hell of a gut, TJ. It won’t steer you wrong.”
It’d steered him wrong last time, but she was right. They had to be gone before Mo and his goons got back from their hunt, which meant he had to try again. Surely not everyone in the town was bad. Right?
They made a four-day trek in two out of sheer determination. Mary and Vi had vehicles waiting for them, along with a fresh supply of clothes and replenishments for gear. They’d found a small roadside gas station and taken turns cleaning up with the hose outside the bathrooms. By the time they were done and on the road, it’d been an hour since they’d hit civilization.
Friendly Junction wasn’t on any maps. No land records indicated anything resembling a homestead. Per computer records, the town simply didn’t exist, which was why they hadn’t notated it earlier. HERA was the best tech around, but tech was only as good as the databases it was connected to, and since the speck of a town was so small, they’d missed it entirely during their grid search.
The coordinates they’d been given were off. Way off, leading them all to suspect there’d been a relocation somewhere along the way.
But they had a location now.
The town was a small gas station across from what looked to be a general grocery and hardware store rolled into one. Dallas wheeled the vehicle holding himself, Tanner, Jesse, Jud, Kamren and Nolan to a stop in front of the latter, while Marshall parked the other SUV by the gas station. A couple of other small buildings peeked out from the trees nearby. A small diner was on the side of the gas station.
“Didn’t realize this was here,” Tanner said.
“Thought you knew these parts,” Dallas commented.
“Me knowing all of the Wyoming wilderness is a bit like me assuming you know all of Texas,” the man replied.
Nolan chuckled as they entered the small store. An old man leaned forward, both hands on the wooden counter holding an antiquated register.
“Evening,” he said.
“Evening,” Dallas replied as he pulled out the identification the FBI had offered them back when the hunt for his son initially started. Consultants. If it greased people’s mouths, he’d flash just about anything. “We’re working with the FBI to track a couple of missing children. We received some tips indicating there’s a cabin in this area, likely inhabited until recently by a large group of men. Not too friendly. Kept to themselves.”
“I know the crew you’re talking about. Always ripping through town, taking whatever they want, even got their kid doing it. Haven’t seen them around, but that brat’s been around. Stealing the dangedest things, too.”
“Like what?” Kamren asked as she wrapped an arm around Dallas.
“Keys.” The man motioned toward the back wall. “Keep them for the hunters when they need extra sets made. Lots of remote cabins in these parts, I’m afraid. Not sure which they’re in, but they’re trouble. Every last one of them.”
“Keys?” Mary asked.
“Keys,” Jesse confirmed. “You ever ask him why he’s taking them?”
“If I catch the little cuss, I’m gonna wallop his butt. No excuse for stealing.” The man’s jaw moved a few beats even though he didn’t speak. “Gotta admit, he’s been looking a little worn thin, if you know what I mean. Dirty. Skinny. Always been skinny, never that dirty. Leaves smelly meat and eggs on the counter.”
“Barter.” Kamren’s voice was low. And pissed. Hands fisted, she took a step toward the old man. “Boy brought food in exchange for those keys. Likely the only thing he had of value, which means he’s ski
nny because he was giving away his only food for what he needed more.”
“Huh, never thought of that.” The old man’s jaws worked as he looked at the woman. “Guess I shouldn’t have thrown it away.”
Dallas left the building before he beat the man. What the fuck was wrong with people these days that they’d see a boy in that kind of condition and not do anything? Before the rage got the better of his common sense, Kamren was at his side, arms around him.
“We’re close,” she said. “He was in here just yesterday. That’s a good sign.”
She was right. It was. Marshall whistled from the other side of the narrow road. Dallas and the others crossed the street.
“Got a hit. Gas station owner saw a young boy, dark hair, ragged, walking north along the road. He was gonna go see if the kid needed help, but he was gone by the time he pulled free from customers.” Translation—he’d taken his time.
“North. Anything else?”
“No, but it’s a start.” Brace looked around. “Your women got a map of this area; we can start knocking on doors til we find the right one.”
“We’ll grab some real grub first,” Fallon said. “We throw some cash into the local economy, maybe lips will loosen.”
“Makes sense,” Addy said. “Gotta admit, food smells way better than the MREs.”
19
Kamren broke off from the group as everyone headed toward the small eatery. Keys. She couldn’t beat back the sense of dread that settled within her. Why would a little boy steal keys? He was bartering, which meant he’d learned the value of items from someone. The bastards they’d met earlier wouldn’t have bothered. So who had taught him to pay for items? And why would he need keys?
Because he needed to unlock something real important.
She swallowed back the fear clawing her throat. Dirty. Scrawny.
Hungry.
She remembered those times growing up, never knowing where the next meal was coming from. Or when. Or what.
“You okay?” Dallas asked. He cupped her face. The intensity in his gaze seeped into her.
“No.” She splayed her palm across his chest. “He gave away his food for keys. I…”
“It hits close to home. You remember being hungry.”
“Yeah. I remember bartering for things I needed to survive. That’s a skill, Dallas. Someone taught that boy the value of items. Gomer and those bastards we caught wouldn’t have done that.”
A smile broke on his face as his amusement boomed in the area. Heat rose in her cheeks. He’d laughed a lot about what’d gone down at the campsite. They all had.
“Stop laughing.”
“No way, sweetheart. You took Gomer and all those men down. Fuck, I could live to be a thousand years old and never see a sight like you plowing through those beans like it was the first meal you’d had in a year. And the way you dished out that shit to knock them out, all so you could get what we needed to find my kid? Fucking beautiful.” He cupped her face. “Just like you.”
Movement to her side drew her attention. A young boy with dark hair stood there looking at the knife strapped to her side. His shirt was in tattered strips along his little torso. Mud, twigs, and debris filled his hair. His dark chocolate eyes latched onto her. “You a policeman?”
She swallowed. “No, honey. Afraid not. I can get one for you, though. I’m Kamren.”
The boy looked up at Dallas. His eyes widened when he saw the dog tags Dallas wore. “That a badge?”
Dallas crouched, putting himself on the same level as the young boy. “In a way, yeah. Got these fighting bad men and keeping people safe. That’s what I do. That’s what we all do.”
The boy’s gaze swept the area. He took a hesitant step backward as he eyed Kamren skeptically a moment. A world of nightmares resided within those depths. She crouched down.
“You know Gomer. I heard you.” His little dirty hands fisted at his sides. Anger seeped into his tense stance. “Gomer’s mean, a bad man. Mo is, too.”
“Yeah, he is,” Dallas said. “But he’s not ever gonna hurt anyone again. My woman here made sure of that.”
“We all did,” Kamren clarified, but the impact had already taken seed within the boy.
“You fought Gomer?” He looked at them. “What about Mo? You fight him, too?”
“She didn’t have to. She outsmarted him and all the others, knocked ‘em all out,” Dallas said, pride evident in his voice. “I’m Dallas, she’s Kamren. What’s your name?”
“TJ.” His gaze remained on her thigh, the knife Jud had given her. She took a chance, pulled it from its sheath as the crush of her team rounded the building and froze.
“Stay back,” Mary ordered in the com. “Let her do this. Nice and slow.”
“A friend gave this to me. I…” She wasn’t sure what to say, but she knew trust was essential. Whoever this kid was, he was too old to be Dallas’s boy. He was probably eight or nine, not five. “I had a rough upbringing, was raised in the country, the wild.”
“You good with that?” His voice was soft, hesitant.
“Yeah, pretty good. My friend back there’s probably better, though. He said he’d show me a few things, but I’m not gonna let him unless I can show him a few things in return. I’m a real good tracker and hunter.”
“Figured. You smell like you are ‘cause you don’t smell.”
“Yeah. You wanna hear a secret?”
“I guess,” the boy whispered skeptically as he took a step toward her.
“I’m with a group of people right now,” she crawled one step closer to the boy and lowered her voice slightly. “We came out here looking for someone real important. They trusted me to lead them through the woods and find him.”
“Yeah, sounds like they need you to show them some stuff. It’s a good trade.” The boy’s eyes turned sad. He looked down. “Lilly said it’s important to have something big to trade when you need something.”
“That’s how I was raised. It’s bartering,” she said softly. “Sounds like Lilly is a good friend. You know her long?”
“No. Bad men brought her.” His voice lowered. “She needs my help.”
“She’s lucky to have you,” Dallas said.
“I ain’t got nothing left to trade, though. Lilly said I needed to come to town, bring DJ, and find a policeman.” His gaze settled on Dallas. “That you?”
“No, but I’m better than a policeman,” Dallas replied.
“Why’s that?” TJ asked.
“Policemen have rules, things they won’t do to keep people safe.” He pointed to Kamren and then the others. “Me, my woman, and our team? There’s nothing we won’t do to keep someone safe from the bad men. That’s what we do.”
“You got a key?”
“A key, huh?” Kamren tried to play it cool when all she wanted to do was scoop the boy up, hug him tight, and make all his hurt go away. Movement from behind them drew her attention. “Who’s that with you?”
TJ’s eyes widened. “You are good. You heard him?”
“I did,” she said. “Wanna know how? I’ll show you.”
The boy shifted from one foot to another, looked around, then nodded.
“Everything makes a shadow when the sun is out. If you know where it’s at in the sky, you know where something is when a shadow moves. It’s real important when you’re tracking or hunting. You watch the ground, you’ll see the shadows. If you watch them, know what they mean, you’ll see someone or something coming up behind you.”
“Oh, yeah. Wow, I didn’t know that.”
“Birds also flew off when he rustled the branches. Animals flee an area when an unknown threat is there,” Kamren offered as the boy’s gaze looked upward. “When you’re somewhere you don’t know well, watch the animals. Listen to what they’re doing. Animals don’t ever lie; they’ll tell you what’s what if you pay attention.”
“Huh. You track ‘em?”
“Yeah, when I need to, though it’s better to leave some animals be. Respe
cting them is important. You respect them, they’ll respect you.”
“You hunt?”
“Yeah, when I get hungry. I was raised with the rule you don’t eat what you don’t kill.”
“You must be good.” The unspoken statement that she’d eaten plenty made the women on the other end of the com laugh. She couldn’t help but smirk.
“Yeah, I’m good.” She looked back at the shrubbery Dallas’s gaze hadn’t settled off of. If she didn’t get answers now, he’d likely give chase, and that was the last thing two terrified boys needed. “Is that DJ? Is he your brother?”
“How do you know his name?”
“My man here. We’ve been looking for him. He found out that bad people took him away.” Kamren’s voice lowered. “I’m thinking you’re his brother.”
“I guess. The mean woman said he was; not sure what that is, though.”
“My man’s got five brothers. Three of them are back there,” she motioned. The boy tightened when he saw so many people nearby. She settled a hand around his tiny body and continued. “Bet you can guess which ones are brothers. They all look alike.”
“DJ don’t look like me, but he does them. A lot.” TJ sniffled. “Guess she lied. If brothers look alike, he’s not my brother.”
“Not necessarily. See, I’ve got a sister. That’s like the girl version of brothers. She’s got hair that’s really blond, and mine isn’t. We look nothing alike because she looks like our mom. And I look like my dad.”
“I don’t look like her either.”
“Well, that probably means you look like your dad, and that means DJ and you have different dads.”
“What are those?”
“Moms and dads keep us safe, love us no matter what, take care of us, and do everything we need to become just like them one day. Some are really good, and some aren’t.”
“She wasn’t good.”
“Sounds like it,” Kamren admitted. “My mom and dad weren’t good either. They tried, but they weren’t good.”
“They tried?”
“Yeah, they taught me what they could. I hunted, helped keep us fed.” Her voice cracked beneath the enormity of emotion assailing her. “My dad taught me to shoot, use a knife. Hunt and track. So, I guess they were a lot more good than I realized.”
