by Kate Morris
“I’m headed to your town when we leave here,” Henry tells her after passing a platter of fried potatoes.
“Oh? What for?” she asks and helps herself. Then she spoons a small scoop of scrambled eggs on next and passes it to G on her left.
“Melora wanted to know if I could help her,” he says.
G jumps in to ask, “Help with what? I’d like to come. I’m bored off my ass around here.”
“Gretchen,” Lucas corrects.
She rolls her eyes at her big brother, reminding Sam once again that the girl shares DNA with Reagan.
Henry smiles patiently and answers, “I’m not sure about that, G. I’m not planning on coming back here. I need to get some stuff done on my own farm.”
“Crap,” she swears with disappointment.
Sam repeats her question, “So, what does Melora want?”
“She wants to know if a plot of land she’s found in town would be good enough to keep a few dairy heifers on. She wants to trade some stuff for two cows in production already.”
“That’s great,” Sam replies, knowing how much Melora feels responsible for all of the Campbell kids under her and her brother Hardy’s care.
He shrugs, “I told her I’d help her out. It won’t take long. Plus, I figured she’s taking care of those kids, she could use the help.”
“That’s really sweet, Henry,” Sam praises, to which Simon snorts across the room. He is sitting on the sofa next to Arianna who is chatting his ear off.
“Yeah, I think she’s got the hots for Henry,” his friend Mike says.
“Oh, really?” Sam asks with genuine confusion. She’d thought Melora liked her uncle, or that’s the rumor she heard. Whenever she was around her uncle and Melora, she’d never picked up on that vibe, but now it makes more sense. Melora does seem to pal around with them a lot when she’s in town with Henry. As a matter of fact, most of the time when Henry was working with her uncle, maybe Melora was there not for Uncle Scott but for Henry. It definitely needs further investigation.
“No, not at all. She’s just a nice girl, but she’s not into me. Don’t worry,” Henry states quietly and winks at Sam.
G breaks in to say to Luke, “Uh-oh, bro, you better watch out! Henry’s gonna make a move on your girl.”
“Gretchen, enough,” Luke states firmly as if that will hinder his sister’s machinations.
“No worries from me,” Henry tries to butt in.
Luke squirms and warns, “Gretchen.”
“What? It’s true. You like her,” she continues to badger.
“No, I don’t. I was trying to help her because I felt bad for those kids. That’s all.”
She snorts, and he looks around at everyone uncomfortably. Sam wishes that she had matchmaker skills. Melora and Luke would make a cute couple. They are both on their own since Robert left Luke and G on the farm, only have their sibling as companions, and are loyal to their friends. Melora has a big heart and has taken on the full responsibility of many orphaned children. Lucas has taken on similar tasks, mostly because his father hadn’t given him much of a choice in the matter. He is so fiercely protective of his annoying little sister, who he clearly loves deeply.
“Melora’s nice, and she’s so smart and great with the kids,” Sam remarks, watching for a spark of interest in Luke’s eyes. He immediately looks down at his biscuit and refrains from comment. Interesting.
“I don’t know, G,” Henry says with extra charm. “I’ve heard from more than one young man at my farm and in town singing your praises.”
This catches Luke’s attention, and his gaze jumps to Henry, “What?”
His tone is lower and guarded.
Henry and Mike chuckle and tease him about keeping an eye out for the boys to start coming around looking for G. She simply laughs obnoxiously.
“Get real! As if I’d be interested in a boy. No thanks,” Gretchen states with superiority. “Men are worthless. Who needs one?”
Huntley says from across the room at Simon’s table, “As if a boy would be interested in you!”
“Yeah?” G asks in a mocking tone. “The only girl you’ll ever get is Damn Dog.”
“Easy, guys,” Simon warns.
“You’re right. I wouldn’t want to insult Damn Dog,” Gretchen says and scowls, the diamond stud in her nose twinkling in the sunlight streaming through the window.
“Her name is Shadow,” Simon corrects her.
Huntley attempts to call out another insult, but Simon rests his hand on his forearm to stop him. Then he subtly shakes his head. Sam smiles at Simon’s fatherly behavior. They both took Huntley and his twin brother under their wings during their time with that awful group. Now, it’s just Huntley, but she knows Simon loves him as much as she does, like a little brother.
“Maybe we’ll have to find out who Melora is really interested in,” she suggests to the group mostly to deter the battle between G and Huntley, who go at it all the time.
Henry mistakes her matchmaking comments as being aimed at him and winks and says, “I’ve only got my eye on one girl, and she’s not Melora.”
Simon slams down his fork, takes his plate, and leaves the room. Sam tries to offer a smile to Henry but is too anxious to pull one off. She changes the subject and tells Henry and his friends about the horse with blood on it, which he says he had heard about from Dave.
“Do you think it’s the highwaymen?” she asks.
He shakes his head, “Doesn’t seem possible. You guys have guards on all shifts. That would be like someone sneaking onto our property and killing someone.”
“But how do you think it happened?” Lucas asks. His eyes dart to Sam’s, and she can see that he is apprehensive about the murder of Shorty. He has been hiding it well, probably not wanting to frighten his sister.
Henry says, “Not sure. Do you think one of Robert’s men was fighting with Shorty? Maybe they had a disagreement about something, and it got out of hand.”
Sam considers this for a minute before shaking her head, “I don’t think so. They seem close.”
“I agree,” Luke chimes in. “I’ve never seen any of his men arguing or fighting over anything. They seem like they’re all friends.”
G snorts and says, “’Cept for that freak Parker.”
“What do you mean?” Sam asks.
She shrugs. “He seems like a bossy dickhead if you ask me. I’m surprised he wasn’t the one dead in the ravine.”
“Gretchen,” Luke scolds, “why would you say something like that?”
She chuckles ruefully. “You know why. He was a dick at the bunker. He’s still one here. Hell, if I had to take orders from him, I’d stab him first before anyone else.”
“Gretchen,” he warns.
“Seriously, bro. He sucks. He’s always been like this. Nobody liked him at the bunker, either. I can’t believe Dad brought him here.”
Luke says, “Because our father thinks Parker is a good leader and he’s worked with him for the last two years.”
She groans dramatically and resumes her breakfast as if nothing has transpired. Her brother frowns at the top of her head.
“Do you think Shorty got into it with Parker and something happened, it got out of hand?” Henry questions Lucas.
He shakes his head, though. “No, I don’t think most people care much for Parker, but they’re all completely loyal to my father. They’d never gainsay Parker or go against a direct order that comes from the general. They may not like Parker, but they respect the general.”
Sam frowns, “Then we’re still stuck at square one trying to figure out what happened to Shorty.”
“Yeah,” Luke agrees.
“You guys oughtta amp up security around here,” Mike says to Lucas.
“We have,” he says uneasily. “Until we know what happened to Shorty, I don’t think anyone’s going to be able get any sleep.”
Sam nods and considers what he has said. Luke is right. These highwaymen know who the family is and left a
message in blood on the side of that car. Now one of their allies is dead, murdered on the family farm, and nobody can figure out how it happened. She indeed hadn’t slept much.
When breakfast finishes, they gather and pile into the cleaned dining room, thanks to the kids. She stands against the far wall behind John, who is seated and scouring over a map. The other men are doing the same.
Dave says, “I don’t see a problem with continuing our original plan of attacking next week. They definitely won’t expect it. Maybe it’ll give us a reason to celebrate Thanksgiving.”
“Don’t have to wait for the first day of deer season anymore,” Cory jokes and gets a chuckle from Dave. “We gotta have something.”
“You got it,” Dave agrees and bumps his fist against Cory’s.
“What’d you guys come up with?” Derek asks him.
“We agree with John and Cory. It’s definitely them,” he states decidedly and smooths his hair back, pushing his long ponytail behind his shoulder. “We watched all night. They were still unpacking vans and trucks, moving people around.”
“Same,” John agrees.
“We think they’re gonna keep the women in this building here,” he states, pointing at something that says ‘botanical gardens and gift shop’ that is closer to the main entrance. “At least, that’s what we saw. They have them all clustered together again. Should make it easy not to accidentally catch them in a cross-fire situation.”
Derek nods, “I agree. And what about over here?”
She peers over John’s shoulder to look at the homemade maps. Each group has the same one now, and it’s something Dave and his men must’ve drawn up on separate sheets of paper so that everyone would have the layout of the new compound. Derek is pointing to a separate building that is labeled ‘learning center.’
“That’s where they’ve got the car salesman, Mr. Romano, if we’re guessing correctly,” he explains.
He goes on to say how they saw women carrying trays of food into the back of the building and lights on in the upstairs.
“Seems like an HVT is in there. Lots of guards, same as the main house, the mansion. They were all steppin’ and fetchin’ in and out of this building, though. The mansion was quiet for the most part.”
Derek says, “It was moving day. If the senator is already staying in the main house, he’s comfy-cozy. No need to be moving around in the middle of the night. He’s already set.”
Grandpa asks, “What do you know about the main house? I think I toured it once when I was young, a school trip or some such. Do you think that’s where this senator is staying?”
“We’re assuming so,” Dave answers. “There were a lot of cots and beds set up that we could see through the windows once the sun came up. There were some women in there, too. It’s a fancy old place.”
“Yes, it was. Built by the Maxwell House coffee family,” Grandpa tells those who don’t know.
“Herb,” Derek states, “you might be able to help us get a better idea of the interior layout. That book Simon showed us had the original blueprint layout, but you can confirm if that’s still accurate, or if it still was when you toured it. Then we’ll gather more intel so that we know what we’re going into.”
“Exactly,” Dave agrees. “We ain’t blowing up three-feet thick limestone blocks.”
Grandpa frowns and says, “That would be a shame to do so anyway. Such a grand old mansion, a real showpiece of the area.”
Everyone is quiet a moment as he remembers. Sam doesn’t think any of the men care about the old mansion or blowing it up. They want to defeat the highwaymen no matter the cost.
John finally says, “The women told us that some of the women who chose to trade security for whatever they’re offering would stay with the men, not the women, whoever they work out the deals with. I would think those are the women in the main house and the learning center and that they’re keeping the others, the workers over here.”
He is still talking about the botanical garden center.
“Right, we saw women in that building, too. The main house wasn’t as occupied with women. Lucky even took Jazz and got a closer peek at the place,” Dave says of his sniper.
“How close?” John asks.
“Through the window,” Henry tells them.
“That was a pretty ballsy move,” Kelly states.
“Yeah, well, a few of the guys are pretty…mad about their friends getting killed by these…people,” Dave says, cleaning up his language. He is probably afraid of Hannah, who is standing next to her husband.
“I understand,” Grandpa says. “What did your men observe?”
Dave says, “Lot of men on cots, in sleeping bags on the floor, women bringing trays of food.”
“How can we be sure their leaders are there?” Derek asks thoughtfully, not wanting to make a mistake. “And who was this president person the women kept referring to?”
“We’re not sure on that idiot,” Dave admits. “But Lucky said he heard one of the women saying something about Mr. Romano.”
“How’d he hear her?” Derek asks.
Dave’s eyebrows jump twice, and he grins. He points again to the botanical garden. It is drawn in pen as a double-story building. She’s pretty sure this is the place that had the butterfly enclosure.
“He got reach-out-and-touch-someone close. Don’t worry. She didn’t see him. Lucky’s got just a tad bit of experience in the field. Sniper school ain’t a picnic, so he’s got some play in the hide-and-go-seek game. Hid in a bush on the backside of the building here,” he explains. “We think the women are all housed there. It’s a large structure, large enough to house a lot of people on two floors. Anyway, he heard her say the name Mr. Romano for sure. He said he thought the other one with her said something about the senator, but he couldn’t be sure. Something about taking fresh sheets to Mr. Romano.”
Hannah and Sue leave the room as the children run through the kitchen and loudly slam the outside door. One of them is crying, likely a scraped knee or a bashed elbow. They never stop, their energy always running at maximum RPM from dawn until dusk when they collapse exhausted and sleep like baby foxes tucked away in their dens. They are wild hooligans around the farm, running to and fro, climbing in the haystacks, and playing on the tire swings, and riding horses. When they are allowed, which is not right now, they even play in the woods behind the barns. With what is going on with the highwaymen, Huntley and Justin are carrying rifles with them to keep watch over the kids when they are outside. Their activity is reduced to the immediate yards, front and back, and the horse barn. Even G has been helping out with babysitting. Everyone is on edge.
Charlotte begins fussing in her mother’s arms, so Reagan leaves next. Sometimes the house feels like it is full of fussing babies and crying children, but Sam misses it. She misses her family, the noise, the bustle, the crazy kids. She doesn’t miss that feeling of being in love with someone who does not return it. Staying away has been exactly what she’d needed. It has helped her immensely being around her uncle and focusing on horse training, her art, and working at their new clinic and not thinking about Simon. She needs to get back off the farm and home to Dave’s compound again. Working with her uncle will help, too, and her leg is feeling much better. Staying here served its purpose so that Grandpa could take care of her wound, but it is time to return home.
“Sounds like our highwaymen are for sure holed up at this mansion,” John says.
“Oh, yes, it’s them,” he comments. “We also found another building, some sort of guard shack or something closer to the entrance down here.”
He points to the map again, and Sam cranes her neck to see around John. She’d like to be in on this fight but knows it is unlikely it will happen. Between the McClanes, Dave’s men, volunteers from Pleasant View who have named themselves the Second Committee of Vigilance, and others from Hendersonville and the condo community led by K-Dog, she won’t be going to war anytime soon. Not even factored in yet are the men coming fro
m Robert McClane’s compound.
“Anyone in it?” Derek asks.
Dave says, “Yep. Got a few guards posted at the gate like someone might just drive right up to it. There’s also about thirty dudes staying in the shack.”
“Shack? Sounds like they’re packed in like sardines,” Derek comments.
“Oh, it’s slightly bigger than a shack,” Dave tells them. “It’s about the size of my old house.”
“On base or off?” John asks, and the men laugh. Sam doesn’t get it but smiles just the same. When the laughter dies off, John continues, “So we’ve got hostiles spread out all over this rat trap?”
“You got it,” Dave confirms.
“I’ll discuss this later on the radio with Robert and make plans,” Derek offers.
Dave groans, drawing their attention.
