Dangerous Shores: Book Three; The End of the Road

by Christine Conaway

  “They went this way alright. The more I think of getting shot at and what Matt said about those people; the Makah Indians, the surer I am that we are on the right track.”

  Seeing that Rob was going to protest, he held his hand up to stop him. “I don’t think it was the Makah’s. I think it was someone else who invaded them and took their village over. They shot at us to keep us away. I’m thinking that seeing as we wanted to come to shore there we would stop at the next port. I don’t know how they beat us, but that’s what I think happened.”

  Ellen capped the bottle and pushed it back into her pocket. “Well standing here freezing isn’t getting us any closer.”

  The sound of running footsteps made them look up the road. The corner prevented them from seeing far and the night made the corner look like a black hole. Alan came running from the center of the hole.

  He ran to them but was too out of breath to speak. He bent over at the waist and placed his hands on his knees. He stood like that, his breath forming clouds around his head. When he could talk he straightened up and wiped the sweat from his face.

  Still breathing hard be began, “I think they’re up there in the woods. I smelled smoke and thought I heard someone talking. I came right back.”

  “Okay, let’s get this done. Alan, you lead the way. Because you found them, we’ll let you take the lead.” Frank told him.

  That wasn’t good enough for Ellen. She wanted to know everything. “Did you notice anything we can use to our advantage? Are they off the road? Did you see how many there are. Did you even see them for sure? Did you hear any of the girls?”

  Chapter Thirty-four - Somewhere safe is our priority.

  Alan hung his head and he appeared to be thinking. He rubbed his hands and they were all reminded just how cold it was. He shifted from foot to foot. Finally, he raised his head and looked at each of them. “No. I can’t say I saw anyone. I didn’t see their camp. I heard them and smelled the campfire smoke. I didn’t hear the girls at all.” He made eye contact again, “I know in my heart it’s them. I don’t and never did believe in coincidence and I’m not going to start now.”

  “Okay. We don’t know which side of the road they’re on or even if they have a lookout, but they’d be foolish not to so we have to assume they do. Tighten anything on your person that can make noise. No talking, coughing or sounds of any kind. Our one advantage is they don’t know we’re out here. It’s up to each of us to maintain the silence until we lay eyes on them.” Frank thought he had covered every point but realized he had been amiss when Ellen added her voice.

  “Our first priority is the safety of the girls. We need to establish where they are relevant to each other. We need to deal with whichever has an immediate threat. Hopefully we can surprise them and the girls don’t do anything stupid.” She chuckled softly, “I can see Maggie making it hard on anyone who would treat those girls disrespectfully. I know I wouldn’t want to tangle with her.”

  “I saw Mom take on one of Uncle Cal’s bulls when Dana wandered into the bull pen. She backed that old bull into a corner and held him there while Dana was gotten out. No one even thought to take her place because she made it known that she had the situation handled.”

  They split in to two teams one on each side of the road. Frank and Alan were one team and they headed up the left side of the road. Ellen and Rob chose to move off the road and make their way through the trees. Because the grass was damp and not brittle dry they moved soundlessly through the brush.

  It was when they finally set eyes on the men sitting around a small campfire that Ellen and Rob realized that other than being quiet, they hadn’t set up a course of action.

  Ellen didn’t know what they were going to do. She hoped when the time to move came she and Rob could improvise and do their part. Four men sat around the fire and at first they didn’t see the girls. Ellen looked at Rob and was about to back away when another came out of the shadow of the trees with and empty cup in his hand.

  “That fucking old bitch spit on me. I don’t know why we had to bring her or those two brats. All they do is whine and snivel. Next time one of you can look after them.” He sat down on the end of a log they’d pulled up to the fire.

  Ellen could feel the tension from Rob hearing the man talk about his mother like he was. She put her hand on him as if it was enough to stop him from doing something stupid. They needed to wait for Frank to make a move. She looked at him and shook her head no.

  She saw his shoulders rise and fall and knew he was frustrated. She used two fingers and pointed at her eyes and back at the men. He nodded his understanding.

  One of the men looked up and asked, “Where the hell is the Weasel? He looked at the guy who had come back with the empty cup. “He was with you wasn’t he?”

  “Yeah. He’s still back there. Said he was going to keep an eye on them. I don’t know why the boss keeps him around. You ask me any guy that has a thing for little girls is a sick fuck.”

  Ellen had to clench her teeth together to stop herself from speaking out. She could only imagine how Rob must feel hearing the men talk like that. She was pretty sure they hadn’t time to do anything to any of the girls.

  “Hey Weasel, you better get away from those girls. You want the boss to find out you were pestering them?”

  They giggled like girls after he had finished speaking. Every one of the men could have passed for the other. They all were dirty, shaggy haired and unshaven. They had the look of someone who was used to going hungry. Their clothes hung on them as if they hadn’t been eating enough food.

  A man came staggering out of the shadows and Ellen thought it had to be the guy they called the Weasel until she saw he wasn’t wearing tennis shoes like the others. He did have the same plaid jacket like the others and his hat was pulled low on his head. The shoes spoke volumes. She pulled her 357 out of her belt while Rob pulled his Glock out. They waited for Frank to make his next move. They didn’t have long to wait before he drew his 45 and pointed at the men at the fire. Before he could say anything one of the men pulled a revolver out of his pants and fired at him. Frank threw himself to the side and aimed at the closest guy and placed a bullet between his eyes. Alan shot another. Ellen didn’t get a shot off. She ran through the trees until she found Maggie and Hannah tied back to back with a tree between them. Olivia and Dana were wrapped around another one their wrists tied together. Both girls were blue lipped and beyond shivering. Neither had their coats buttoned and were sitting on the cold ground. Rob came out of the trees behind her. He dropped to the ground with a small pocketknife in his hand, He cut the ropes holding Olivia and Dana together and turned to cut his Mother and Hannah free.

  Ellen pulled both girls to their feet and was taking them to the fire when she saw a man laying coatless in the snow. Franks jacket lay on the ground beside him. She thought the man was dead and was going to block the sight of him, when she heard him moan.

  Olivia, you and Dana go through there.” She pointed through the trees. There’s a fire so go to it and get warm.

  She saw Rob was helping his Mom to her feet. Hannah was standing but she looked like she was numb from the cold. She looked at Ellen but Ellen wasn’t sure Hannah even saw her.

  “Rob, can you get them to the fire? I’m going to take care of him.”

  “Sure what are you going to do with him?”

  She picked up the rope he had cut from the girls. “Tie him up because I bet Frank will want to question him.”

  “Yep my thought too.” Rob took his mother’s arm, “Come on Mom let’s get you over to the fire. It’s warmer over there and maybe we can find something to drink.”

  Ellen tied the guy’s hands behind his back and rolled him over. He was a twin for the rest of the men. His eyes were open and he grinned at her showing his tobacco stained crooked teeth.

  “Oowee! The boss is going to like getting his hands on the likes of you. It’s been a while since we saw a white woman, all we got out there is some squaws.�
� Ellen kicked him as hard as she could in his side. He groaned at the impact and curled up. She drew her foot back for a second kick when she was grabbed from behind. She immediately started fighting. There was no way anyone was going to tie her up and she would fight like a banshee to get lose from the arms wrapping her up.

  “Ellen stop that! Why is it you always swing first and question second?”

  She brushed him off, “Why is it you always grab me from behind?”

  “I was worried you were going to kill him.”

  “I wanted to. I still want to. I think they’re at that village and they are using those people.”

  Frank reached down and grabbed the guy by the scruff of his neck and hauled him to his feet. He hauled him to the tree that Olivia and Dana had been tied to. With the pieces of rope off of Hannah and Maggie he tied them together, looped it through the rope on the guy’s wrists and tossed it up over a branch just above their heads. He pulled it tight. The guy was literally hanging from his arms which were now twisted in their sockets He was bent over from the pressure on his arms and his toes were barely able to touch the ground.

  Frank took Ellen by her arm and led her back to the fire. The bodies were gone and the girls were sitting around the fire.

  “Hey you’re not going to leave me like this are you? Come on! Let me down.” Frank walked back to the guy and must have said something because he shut up.

  Frank came back to the fire as Rob was piling on more wood. Alan walked up with another arm full of branches and dropped them by the fire.

  Frank pulled the end of a fallen tree around so it wasn’t so close to the fire. He looked at Hannah and then Maggie. “Okay do you want to tell us what happened?”

  Maggie and Hannah looked at each other.

  “It’s my fault.” Hannah said, her voice was barely audible.

  “That’s not true. Hannah wasn’t feeling good. She was having stomach cramps and I took her below to lie down. We left the girls in the cockpit for just a minute. When I came back up they were on the dock. One of the men had a hold of both girls. They said if we didn’t come quietly they were going to hurt the girls.”

  “I was leaving a trail for you, like in Hansel and Gretel. I didn’t have crumbs but I was hoping you could see my tracks.” Dana volunteered. “Then the man slapped me and made me walk on the other side.”

  “You did good Dana. We saw your tracks.” Ellen told her. She looked at Frank, “What now? We can’t stay here and I don’t think anyone can walk that far back tonight.”

  Rob had been sitting with his Mother. She had been quiet since she was cut lose and her face was pale.

  “This is my fault too. I am the elder and I knew we should have been on guard. The truth is, I thought we were being too paranoid. I wasn’t giving our whole situation the proper amount of concern. I couldn’t see how anything could happen to us here.”

  “Mom, it’s okay. You’re back now and that’s what matters.”

  Frank interrupted, “Actually it’s not fine. I don’t think any of you understand how critical it is for us to be aware of our situation at all times. The truth is we have to think that every person we meet is against us. Even that old man back there. We don’t know what his intentions were when he walked up on us. We all just assumed he was one of the good guys because he had the kid with him. I don’t think we can use that as a basis for trust anymore. I’m as guilty as the two of you for not holding up my self-proclaimed duties as a leader. If you want to get to the bottom of this, Dana and Olivia are as guilty as the rest of us.”

  “Wait a minute Frank…They’re just kids. Little kids, little girls. You can’t hold them responsible. They didn’t plan on getting captured.” Rob had his arm around Dana as if that simple gesture could protect her from Frank’s words.

  “Wait! I think I see where Frank is coming from. I have the perfect example why he thinks none of us are taking this seriously enough.” She stared hard at Frank, “Not even you.” She stood and walked in circles around the small fire. “Before we walked in on these guys did we know how many men there were? Did we know exactly where the girls were being held? Did we take the time to study the situation? No we did not. How do we know they didn’t have another guy standing guard? The answer is we didn’t and still don’t. For all we know there’s someone out there watching us right now”

  At that moment a man laughed. “I was wondering when one of you was going to get smart. It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people are. Don’t even move!” He said waving his gun at Frank. He was standing in the shadow of a fir tree with his gun showing. “Now throw all of your guns on the ground and kick them away.”

  They did, at least their visible guns.

  He stepped out of the shadows. The man was huge. He looked to be every bit as tall as Rob and outweighed him by a good hundred pounds. Ellen looked from the guy to her friends. Hannah and Maggie looked beat, but she also noticed both women looked surprised. It was apparent they didn’t recognize him. Dana and Olivia were staring at the guy open mouthed. They didn’t recognize him either.

  Ellen saw Frank was sitting with clenched hands and she felt he was preparing himself to do something. Then it dawned on her that Rob was nowhere in sight. Allan was looking past the man at the trees.

  Frank flinched, drawing the man’s attention back to him. “I said don’t move!”

  “You going to cut me down or what?” It was the guy that Frank had strung up in the tree.

  “Nope. You can hang there for all I care. It was your own stupidity that put you there. You got four good men killed because you wanted to have a little plaything. And what happened to the quads? Did you leave them somewhere?”

  “Oh come on Blaine! They’re parked in the barn right up the road from here. We were planning on picking them up in the morning.”

  He turned just a fraction to speak to the other guy and Rob appeared behind him. With one hand on the guys shoulder he stuck his pocket knife into the guy’s kidney area. The guy swung around trying to bring his gun up and Rob slammed his fist down on the guy’s wrist. As if it had paralyzed him his fingers opened and he dropped the handgun. Frank closed the distance and head-butted the guy to the ground. Rob kicked the gun out of reach and dropped on top of the guy. The guy grunted with Rob’s weight. He lay silent and not moving. Rob sat back on his knees puffing from the exertion. He leaned over and put his mouth close the guys ear. He whispered, “Do you know how much I wanted to cut your throat?” He threaded his fingers through the guy’s hair and lifted his head off the ground. He twisted the guy’s head to face where Maggie and Dana sat by the fire. “That’s my Mother and my Daughter sitting over there in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night, and miles from our boat.”

  “Hey man…I didn’t have anything to do with them being here.”

  “Blaine? That’s your name right? Can I call you Blaine?”

  The guy started to nod his head, but Rob holding his hair prevented him from doing it. “Yes!” he forced out.

  “Where’s this barn your friend was talking about?”

  The guy shook his head as if he didn’t know. Rob forced his head up farther. “I’m not playing games with you. Where is it?” He placed his knee on the guys back right where he’d hit him with his knife and put his weight behind it.

  The guy screamed in pain. “Okay…okay I’ll tell you.”

  Rob removed his knee and sat back. He looked up when Frank touched his shoulder and showed him a length of rope. Rob nodded and held the guy while Frank tied his hands behind him.

  Between the two of them they managed to sit the guy upright against a tree trunk. Frank reached down and unbuckled the guys belt and pulled it from his belt loops.

  “What? What are you going to do with that?”

  Frank went behind the tree, slipped the belt through the gap at the guy’s elbow, across the tree trunk and through his other elbow gap and then threaded the end of the belt back through the buckle. He pulled until the guy’s arms
were as tight to the tree as he could make them and did the buckle up.

  “Always did like leather belts. Especially a quality one like yours.” Frank said as he came around to squat in front of the guy. “Now, about that barn?”

  Ellen walked over to Frank, “Are you thinking what I am? The girls are cold and tired. At least we could get them somewhere they can lie down and wait until morning to go back.”

  “I was thinking about what he said about the quads. I’m wondering why they are able to run and how many people are out at Neah Bay.”

  “Right now I think getting the girls somewhere safe is our priority. To me this barn sounds like the best option for right now. Hannah is not feeling well.”

  Frank looked at Hannah. She was leaning against Alan by the fire. Her face was pale in the firelight and her hand was rubbing her stomach in a circular motion. She did look like she was in pain.

  “The baby?”

  Ellen shrugged, “That or the long walk here, the cold, she’s hungry or it could be a compilation of all that’s happened today. I just think finding somewhere for her to rest out of the elements would be good.” She blew on her hands to warm them. While the fire helped, it seemed as if the cold air leached the heat away before it had a chance to warm them. “Rest and something to eat would be good for all of us.”

  They had dropped their packs when they came upon the group of men holding the girls. In the bottom of each bag should be a couple of freeze dried meals. All they would need to heat them would be water and the fire of which they had both.

  “Are you okay alone here? I’ll take Rob and Alan with me. I thought we could go see about this barn. We’d not only be able to have a less noticeable fire but we’d be out of the elements.”