The Hunters Series Box Set

by Glenn Trust

  48. Undeniable Truth

  The moon had set and the two-lane highway stretched ahead into the dark like a tunnel through the trees. He had been unable to sleep.

  Clay had lain in his bed waiting for the day. He had waited until he could wait no longer, until the anxiety of waiting was overruled by the need for motion and action.

  Dressing quietly, he threw a small bag in the pickup and backed as quietly as he could down the gravel drive, away from his mother’s house. He knew she would hear him, but he had said goodbye the evening before.

  “Gonna be away for a few days.”

  “Away?” She had turned from the stove where she stirred flour and drippings into gravy with a wooden spoon. “Away where?”

  “Got a small job to take care of...not far…over in Alabama.”

  “Alabama?” Martha Purcell pulled the cast iron skillet from the flame and looked at her son. “What about Cy? Is he going with you?”

  “No. He’s going to stay on the job in Valdosta. I’ll take care of this and be back in a few days.”

  She eyed him. He had never been able to lie to her.

  He smiled, speaking quickly. “Don’t worry, Mama. Nothing’s wrong.”

  “Mmm hmmm.” She sat across the kitchen table from him, waiting. When he gave no additional explanation, she placed her hand over his and nodded. “Seems you aren’t inclined to talk about it, so I’ll just ask you to take care, son. Whatever you are doing on the job in Alabama, you come home.”

  “Don’t worry; I’ll come home, Mama.” He grinned. “I promise.” He managed to say it with an air of confidence he did not feel. Even so, he was fairly sure he had not fooled his mother.

  He had made no further effort to deceive her. At any rate, it was an impossibility. They had learned that at an early age. She sensed things…knew her sons too well.

  After supper, he sat with her…spent time with her that normally would have been spent doing chores or with Lyn. That concerned her more than anything else did. He never missed an opportunity to be with Lyn. No matter how reassuring his words were, she would worry, and he could do nothing to prevent it.

  Leaving the house just after four in the morning, he planned to arrive in Mobile around ten…nine local time. He did not know if Albert Stinson was aware that Alabama was on Central Time, but he was taking no chances.

  The day would be painfully long, waiting for the next call from the Stinsons. Why they had given him until the next day to make the six-hour drive to the Gulf Coast city was a mystery to him. Maybe it was to increase his anxiety. If that were the case, they had succeeded.

  As the miles passed and the sky lightened with the first pink rays of sunlight, he thought of Lyn. Every image of her that he kept stored inside passed through his mind. Her face…her smile…holding her hand…her touch…the softness of her hair on his face when she placed her head on his shoulder …sitting on the porch.

  He tried to understand the hold she had on him. After all these years, it remained a mystery. She had never said the words. He didn’t know if he would ever hear them, but the one undeniable truth in his life was that he loved her.

  49. Starting Today

  For the first time in months, he turned to her when she touched him. His arm slid under her back holding her close as his hand came up to rest on her breast. Sharon put her hand over his, holding it there.

  “You know I have to do this…go with him.” His voice was a low whisper in her ear.

  “I know.”

  “I don’t know that it changes anything…if things will be any better after.”

  “It doesn’t matter. You have to do it. Do me one favor, though.”

  “What?”

  “Come back to me, Mackey.”

  Her head turned and she kissed his lips, tenderly at first. As the kiss lingered, she held her body close against him, lifting a leg over his hip.

  His head lowered to her breast where his hand still rested. His tongue slid over her nipple, circling it until she moaned softly. Sliding his hand slowly down her waist, over her hips, he let it rest between her legs, lost in the soft, dewy wetness. He moved slowly, gently at first…then, as her desire rose, faster, harder. She came in his arms, her body taught with passion.

  Sliding on top of him, she rested her head against his chest, feeling their hearts beat in counter rhythm to each other. Raising her hips, she took him in and then slid forward so that their bodies touched along their entire lengths, their faces together, lips touching. He breathed the air she exhaled, and it was perfume to him.

  Their tongues met, touched, withdrew and then met again. They moved together as the hunger for each other rose. Feeling a need that had abandoned him for months, George turned so that Sharon was on her back. Their hips met, urgent and hungry, faster until there could be no more waiting. Sighing as if a great burden had been lifted from him, George let out a long, low moaning breath.

  After, Sharon held him, running her hands up and down his back, feeling his breath against her neck. At least for the moment, she was not shut out from his world, from his pain. For now, they were together.

  He drank in her touch, at peace, feeling that he would do anything to have that touch. A pang of guilt twitched uncomfortably inside at the pain he had caused her by shutting her out. He had pushed her away, wallowing in his own pain, ignoring hers. He had been selfish.

  He owed it to her to make things right again. He pushed the guilt away. Starting today, he would make it up.

  50. There’s A Place

  The bed was raised so that she could sit upright. The little controller that would summon the nurses or change the channel on the television lay by her right hand. A look of puzzled concern crossed her face as the two men walked into her room.

  Cy smiled. “Good morning, Mrs. Stinson.” He raised a hand in George’s direction. “This is…”

  “I know who he is.” Ruby pushed herself up a little straighter on the bed and put her hand out. “How are you, Deputy? Been some years, but I remember.”

  George smiled and took her hand briefly. “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Ruby…you call me Ruby. You saved my Lyn and…” She looked at Cy. “…and his brother. I reckon you’re as close a friend as we have.”

  “All right…Ruby. You call me George. I’m not a deputy anymore. Haven’t been for a while.”

  “I heard.” She nodded. “So if you’re not a deputy, why are you here?” She looked at Cy, the smile on her face fading, replaced by concern. “And where is Lyn. I expected her yesterday. When she didn’t show, I figured she and Clay wanted some more time alone without an old woman hanging about.”

  Cy took a deep breath. “There’s been trouble.” The circle of people who knew about Albert’s call to Clay grew by one.

  Hands clasped in front of her until the knuckles turned white, Ruby listened to Cy’s account of the phone call to Clay and Albert’s threats if Clay did not comply with their demands. When he had finished speaking, she shook her head as tears fell down her cheeks.

  After explaining, Cy added. “We can’t tell anyone. That was the threat…the promise I made to Clay.”

  Ruby nodded. “It’s a good promise. They’ll do it…they think the law’s involved…or you… She looked at them both. “They’ll kill her and hunt Clay down and do the same to him.”

  “You really think they would harm their own niece…their brother’s daughter?” George asked knowing the answer, but he was on shaky ground at best. At worst, he could go back to prison for a long time. He wanted to hear her honest assessment. “It might be best to let the law handle things.”

  “They’ll do it.” Ruby shook her head. “I should have known. I know them…the Stinsons…I should have known.” She wiped at her damp eyes. “Why didn’t I see it? They’re evil.”

  George nodded. “It took everyone by surprise…including Lyn, or they wouldn’t have her now.”

  “You have to save them. The law can’t do it. Albert meant what he said. Call the
law and they’ll kill her…dump her somewhere no one will ever find her. You don’t know them like I do.”

  “Tell us,” George said.

  “Clyde Stinson…their daddy…he was the devil…the things he did…made his boys do…terrible things…evil things. Carl told me some when we were first married. Old Clyde made our life hell while he was alive. When he died, things didn’t get any better. Carl had too much of Clyde in him. They all do.”

  She reached up, waiting for George to put his hand in hers. When he did, she wrapped her fingers around it tightly and peered into his eyes, searching for the place where she could seal her words in him. “They are the devil’s blood. The only way to stop the devil is to send him back to hell.”

  “I understand.” George’s eyes did not waiver.

  “All right then.” Ruby released George’s hand. “You keep in mind that Carl was the worst in some ways, but Albert…he’s the most dangerous. Not so smart like people sometimes, but keen, like an animal…an old bear in the swamp waiting for the deer to step out into the clearing.” Her eyes narrowed. “And he’s mean. Don’t take any chances with Albert. He’ll set a trap…wait for the right time…spring it and be gone.”

  “That’s why we’re here,” George said. “We need an edge…an advantage of some sort.”

  “What kind of advantage?”

  “I figure they’re going to run Clay around the countryside making sure no one is following until they feel safe, then they are going to do what they set out to do.” He nodded. “But when they spring their trap, they will want to do it on ground they know…like you said… the bear, killing on its own territory…in its own clearing in the swamp…the one it controls and knows best.”

  Ruby nodded. “There’s a place…a place they know real good. It would be like them to go there.”

  51. The Here and Now

  Head turned to the side, eyes open, she stared at Lyn. Once, her face winced in pain, then the empty expression returned, distant, lifeless.

  Duct taped to a plastic chair, Lyn could do nothing but watch as her uncle raped the girl. They had raped her repeatedly, Albert and Bain taking turns throughout the night. When they rolled off her satiated, they taped her wrist to the bedframe.

  Albert slept in the bed with her, when he wasn’t forcing his way between her legs. Bain took the second bed. Now and again, Bain would want a turn with the girl and Albert would grumble and give him room on the bed, telling him to hurry up and do his business.

  Once, Albert said no and told Bain to go back to sleep. The denial almost erupted into a fight in the small room…would have, if Bain were not scared shitless of his older brother.

  Lyn turned away as Albert’s hairy buttocks clenched. He grunted and collapsed like a dead weight on the girl. She clenched her eyes closed. Lyn detected the slightest trickle of a tear down her cheek, and then, the eyes were open, staring blankly again.

  Albert stood, scratched his genitals and walked to the bathroom.

  “Watch them. I gotta take a shit.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  Bain sat up in bed. He had been watching his brother rape Danny, for the third time that night. He wondered if he could get it up enough to have a go at her again while Albert was in the shitter. He rubbed his groin, trying without success to stroke himself to an erection. Disgusted he picked up the television remote.

  “I’m Lyn.”

  The girl on the bed focused her eyes on Lyn and nodded.

  “You sit there and shut up,” Bain said nervously. “You want Albert to hear?”

  Lyn shrugged. “I don’t guess it matters much. I figure ya’ll be raping me next.”

  “You’re blood kin. We ain’t gonna rape you. Wouldn’t be right.” He jerked his head at the girl on the bed. “Hell, that ain’t rape. She’s a whore. She fucks for a living.”

  “Looked like rape from where I’m sitting.” She regarded Bain through eyes that had seen evil men before. “I might be kin, but you still got me tied up. I expect you’ll end up doing to me whatever you do to her. Just a matter of time.”

  Bain’s mouth moved open and shut like a fish out of water gasping for air, but no words came out. Damn, he hated how she made him confused about things. Albert said it plain. They wanted the boy…the one that killed Carl. After that…what? She kept making it sound like there would more.

  He said the only thing he could think of. “You…just shut up!”

  Lyn looked at the girl. “What’s your name?”

  “Shut up!” The words came from Bain in a loud, nervous hiss. “I’m tellin’ you, Albert won’t like you two talkin’.” He nodded at the girl and said in a whisper, “Her name is Danny. At least that’s what she told us. Now shut up!”

  “That right?” Lyn looked at the girl.

  The girl nodded and her eyes came to life for the first time. “Danielle…Danny for short.”

  “Goddamnit!” Bain rose from the bed and stood bare-assed in front of Lyn. “You shut up, now!”

  “And if I don’t? You gonna use that on me?” Lyn nodded at her uncle’s penis hanging limp between his thighs and smiled.

  “You little bitch.” Bain’s hand rose, hesitated and then dropped to his side. He threw the television remote against the wall and grabbed his shorts from the floor, pulling them on as the bathroom door opened. The sound of the flushing toilet, whirling sluggishly, swirled into the room.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Albert’s head swiveled from Bain to Lyn to Danny and back to Bain. “I heard talkin’.”

  “Nothin’ Albert…nothin’ at all. They started to talk…” Bain nodded at Lyn. “I told ‘em to shut up.”

  Albert nodded and sighed. Turning towards Lyn, his arm came around in a wide-swinging backhand slap that caught her on the side of the face. His index finger pointing an inch from her nose, he leaned down.

  “You been warned!” Spit flew from his mouth into her face. “You shut up and do like we say!”

  He turned to Bain, standing open-mouthed still holding the waistband of his undershorts. “That’s how you handle it, you little pussy. Be a man, goddamnit!”

  Face stinging, Lyn’s eyes found Danny’s. They had taken on the blank empty stare once more. She knew that look. It was the escape to somewhere far away…someplace in her mind where no one else could go.

  She knew the look because she had been there before…to the place in her mind where she could hide from what was happening to her. She wanted to go there now, escape, the way Danny…Danielle…had. If it had been only her, she might have gone there.

  It wasn’t only her. Clay was coming for her. She had no doubt of it. Albert would kill him. After that, he would kill the only witnesses…Lyn and Danielle. There was also no doubt of that, either.

  This time, she could not escape to that faraway place in her mind. It was death to run off to the place in her mind. She had to stay in the here and now.

  52. Longshot

  “Where we going?”

  “Mobile.”

  “But I thought…”

  “Thought we were going to the place?” George nodded as he steered Cy’s pickup down the entrance ramp to the interstate. “The place Mrs. Stinson told us about.”

  “Yeah. Wasn’t that the point?” Cy was confused. “I thought we wanted an advantage.”

  “We did…we do, and we might just have one now. But we can’t count on it.”

  “Then what are we doing?”

  “We’re going to follow your brother for a while.” George nodded at Cy’s cell phone on the truck’s console. “You keep that thing charged up. When your brother calls, you don’t let him know we are following, but you try to find out where he is.”

  “All right. What then?”

  George peered into the hazy morning thinking things through. “We’re gonna have to play this a little loose…keep our options open. We think we know where they are headed in the end…where they intend to do what they plan…at least where Ruby Stinson thinks they will likely hea
d. She might be right…probably is. Knowing the place might give us an advantage. But we can’t be certain…not yet. So, we stay ready for them, follow your brother until we know more. Then use our advantage when we can.” He nodded and looked at Cy. “That’s the best case scenario.”

  “What’s the worst?”

  “They pick some place at random….don’t go where we expect them to…lead Clay all over creation until it suits them to reel him in and…”

  “And kill him…you can say it. I know that’s what they intend to do. It’s why I came to you.” Cy went back to George’s worst-case scenario. “And if they do that? Run him around and do it somewhere else?”

  “Then we have to get lucky. Anticipate where they might be headed and make sure we’re there when they bring Clay close enough for a face-to-face.” The muscles in his jaw clenched once and relaxed as he considered that possibility. “We have to be there. We’ll only get one chance. You keep that phone charged.”

  “Right.” Cy nodded, picked up the phone stared at the screen and put it back down. He turned to George. “Sounds like a longshot the way you talk…being there…finding Clay and Lyn.”

  “It is.” George nodded his face serious. “I told you I would help. I didn’t promise it would be enough.”

  53. Matter And Anti-Matter

  Not many miles after passing the environs of Pensacola, Florida, I-10 crossed the state line into Alabama. Driving, but scarcely aware of the road, Clay lifted his cell phone every few minutes to scan the screen for any missed calls. There was none.

  As he approached the city, the interstate crossed Mobile Bay on a long low bridge called the Jubilee Parkway. Seven and a half miles farther, it dove down beneath the Mobile River, through the George C. Wallace Tunnel. Clay blinked, surprised by the tunnel lights flashing by on either side. Coming back out into the daylight, he looked for an exit into downtown Mobile.