“Stay safe, and stay in touch.”
He went back inside and found Vera in the kitchen.
“There’s food if you’re hungry, or how about a beer?”
“Both sound good,”
She had beef stew, and he ate it with homemade bread and two bottles of beer, while Vera sipped on coffee.
When she asked him what his real name was, he hesitated, but then told her, and she repeated it as if she were whispering a prayer.
“Are you married?”
“Yes.”
“Any kids?”
“One on the way,”
“And what are you, some kind of Fed?”
“More like a consultant,”
“I see.”
“What about you, what’s your story, living out here all alone,”
“I have my reasons for that.”
“I see,” he said, knowing not to pry, but after a few moments passed, he asked another question.
“You knew that I was related to the Gants, how did you know?”
“If you looked any more like William Gant you’d have to be his clone.”
“You knew my grandfather?”
“I was there when Jake Caliber killed him.”
“And do you know my father?”
She broke eye contact, but nodded. “Yes, I know the devil,”
He studied her, and suddenly knew something with certainty.
“Your last name is Steele, isn’t it?”
She raised her head and then shook it.
“My last name isn’t Steele, but it was my mama’s maiden name. How did you know I was related?”
“You bear a strong resemblance to a friend of mine, Blue Steele.”
“Blue Steele is dead.”
“The father, yes, but not the daughter, she’s also named Blue,”
“Blue Steele, the Texas Ranger, he was my mama’s second cousin, and the Steeles and the Calibers are actually the same family.”
“I knew about the Steeles and the Calibers. I’d learned that from Jake Caliber.”
“The old man is still alive?”
“Yes.”
“He must have wanted to shoot you at first sight; he and William Gant despised each other.”
“He recognized me right away, and that’s when I learned that I was a Gant.”
“Jeffrey Mitchell was also a Gant, and he had Billy’s looks,” Vera said, and then she brightened as she realized something. “Your name, I remember it now. You and your wife are the ones who discovered Jeffrey was a serial killer.”
“Yes, he tried to kill us.”
“He didn’t overcome what he was like you have, that damn Gant blood made him rotten, and now he’s dead.”
“He’s not dead, but he is missing an eye.”
“I read that he’d been killed by the fathers of two of his victims?”
“No, they now think that those men were framed, and that Billy Gant was behind it.”
“Jeffrey’s alive...”
“You know Jeffrey?”
“I, um, was part of William Gant’s cult; my parents were members back then. I only knew Jeffrey as a very small boy, and I also knew you then, and your other brother.”
“Other brother? I have another brother?”
“Oh yes, didn’t you know? You’re one of—,”
An alarmed sounded and Vera jumped to her feet.
“That’s the perimeter alarm; someone’s coming,”
They rushed to the front of the house and he looked out the window. A pickup truck was approaching and it looked packed with men, as two motorcycles followed behind.
“Who are they?” Vera said.
He remembered what the man had said before he died.
“Billy’s coming,”
“I think my father is here,” he whispered, and watched as Vera’s tanned face turned white.
CHAPTER 15
“Whoever’s in there, you’d best come out, or I swear I’ll burn you alive.”
He stared out the window at the man making the threat, and knew that he was at last gazing upon the face of his father.
Billy Gant was nearly his height, had his build, but Jeffrey’s face. He was standing behind his men, eight of them, and he paced back and forth while holding a gas can.
Vera’s dog ran towards Gant, barking as he came, and Gant took out a weapon and shot him.
“God damn you to hell, Billy Gant,” Vera said, as tears formed in her eyes. She then gripped his arm tightly.
“There’s a back way out of here, a tunnel, but it’s tight, we’ll have to drag the boy along.”
“How far does the tunnel go?”
“There’s a small hill behind the house, the tunnel ends on the other side of it, out of sight.”
There was movement outside, as Billy and his men turned their heads to look back at the road. He squinted and could see a car approaching. It was the state police. He took out the satellite phone and dialed the number that Lawson had given him.
“Trooper Jones, how may I help you?”
“This is Mr. White. Those men you’re approaching are armed and dangerous.”
“Understood, where are you?”
“I’m inside the house. My partner is wounded and there’s also a woman here, the homeowner.”
“How many are there? I can’t tell yet.”
“There’s nine men altogether.”
“Are you armed?”
“Yes.”
“Stay inside, defend your position, we’ll call for back-up and try to stall until it gets here.”
“These men won’t stall, they’ll attack you.”
“Understood, Jones out,”
The line went dead and he spoke to Vera.
“Where’s the tunnel?”
“It’s in the room where the boy is, the wall behind the bed can be slid aside.”
“Gather any valuables that you can carry, and get ready to move.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll hold them off with the cops and then follow along with Jace if I need to.”
“I have a gun. I can fight.”
“By coming here, I might have cost you your home; I don’t want to risk your life too. Use the tunnel and get to safety.”
Vera stared at him for a moment, and then stretched up and kissed him on the cheek.
“Please be careful, don’t let that devil take your life,”
“I’ll be fine.”
Vera headed towards the back of the house and he took out his gun.
The cruiser parked at the edge of the driveway, both troopers sprinted to the rear of the car, and then the trunk opened.
Trooper Jones’ voice blasted from a megaphone.
“This is the state police. Drop your weapons and stand with your hands in the air.”
The men outside laughed, and then Billy gave an order.
“Kill those stupid pigs.”
The men began firing at the police cruiser and destroyed it within seconds, as the two officers, hid behind the wheel wells. The barrage went on for nearly twenty seconds, but then the day grew quiet.
“What do you have to say now, pig?”
Trooper Jones rose from behind his ravaged vehicle and began wreaking vengeance. He had decided to forego his state-issued weapon, and instead held an Uzi, and it was set on full automatic.
The gun must have been loaded with armor piercing shells, because it passed through the body of the pickup truck as if it were made of plastic.
Five men went down in a spray of blood. Two of them were dead, while the other three would soon follow, and the truck they arrived in hissed steam. He grimaced at the scene out the window and knew that Trooper Jones must have practiced for this day many times in order to be that accurate.
Two of the remaining men returned fire, as Jones dived back behind the car, and his partner covered his retreat. While that was going on, Billy and another man grabbed the motorcycles, and were attempting to make an escape.
&nb
sp; He ran out the door, fired several shots, and watched as Gant fell off his bike. As he ran towards Gant, the man on the other motorcycle stopped and went back to help him get up. The man fired two shots at him, and he dived to the ground to take cover. When he raised his head to look, the men were riding away together on one bike, headed north to avoid the troopers’ line of fire, and he could see a red stain spreading on top of Gant’s right shoulder.
Behind him, the gunfire died, and he saw Vera peeking out, she held a revolver in her hand.
“Trooper Jones?” he called.
“We’re here, both wounded, but we’re here.”
“Look out!” Vera said, as one of Gant’s men attempted to raise his weapon, but then the man gasped his last, and died.
He checked the fallen men and found them all to be dead and then he approached the police car.
“It’s me, White, don’t shoot.”
Both cops were on the ground, leaning back against the car. Jones was shot in the right leg, but bleeding very little, while his partner had been hit in the left calf. He bent down and spoke to Jones as he pointed towards the spent Uzi.
“That weapon turned the tide.”
“Long life through superior firepower,” Jones said.
“Can you two make it into the house?”
“Yeah, we can hobble along, and help should be here soon.”
“Good, because I’m going after the two that got away,”
Vera followed behind, and she gazed at the carnage around her with wide eyes.
“Good lord,”
“Vera, where does this road go, does it double back?”
“Yes, there’s a dry riverbed up ahead, at that point the road curves and meets back up with this one. They intersect about a mile before you reach the gas station.”
“Then maybe I can get there before Gant and surprise him.”
He left Vera to help the troopers and ran to the motorcycle that Gant had fallen from. When he made it to the road, he opened up the throttle and rocketed away.
Miles down the road he spotted them far to the left on a narrow road, running some distance ahead of him. He slowed, maintaining the gap, in a bid to keep them from discovering his presence. They flowed together like that for a time, and he would catch sight of them between the hills, but then the narrow road began to curve towards his as the terrain flattened, and he saw Gant point him out to the man who was driving the bike.
He pushed the motorcycle as hard as it would go even as he watched the other one come to a stop.
When the other motorcycle moved again, he saw that it left behind one of its riders.
He stopped the bike a hundred feet from Gant and took out his gun. When Gant caught sight of him, his jaw dropped and he started towards him.
“My boy! You’re one of my boys.”
He raised his weapon.
“That’s close enough,”
Gant came to an abrupt stop with a confused look on his face.
“Drop that weapon.”
“What?” Gant said, he then looked down at the gun in his hand as if he had forgotten it was there, then, he dropped it and started forward again. “I know you don’t remember me, boy, but I’m your daddy, and I’ll be damned if you don’t look just like my daddy.”
“Where are Jeffrey and Hanna?”
“I sent them off somewhere; they said that someone was coming to kill them. I never should have sent Hanna to check out Destina, that town is a lost cause.”
“The man on the bike, where is he going?”
“His name is Dave Cully. He’s headed back to that house. I told him to kill everyone inside.”
“Unless I agree to let you go, right?”
Gant smiled.
“Even as a toddler you were smart,”
“Call your man back, do it now.”
“I’ll need my gun.”
“My gun works just fine, how many shots should I fire?”
“Fire two, wait ten seconds, then fire two more, after that, I walk towards him and meet him on that ridge over there, and you drive back the way you came.”
“And if I come at you again?”
“You won’t, because next time I won’t have a way to call him back.”
He thought things over for a second, raised his gun in the air, and fired the signal shots.
“Join me boy, come make peace with your brother and live life like a true man, free and without rules.”
He ignored the plea and asked a question.
“I have another brother, don’t I?”
“You don’t remember shit, do you? Neither did Jeffrey, but yeah, you have another brother.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“No, but I will someday, just like I now know where to find you.”
“Come near me or my family and I’ll kill you, that also goes for Jeffrey.”
Billy smiled.
“You got the Gant blood, all right, murder is in your heart.”
He stepped closer and placed his gun against his father’s head.
“Murder is in my hand; now get out of my sight.”
Billy’s eyes narrowed as his fists clenched, but he turned his back and walked away.
He watched his father amble towards the ridge and then he went over and picked up the discarded gun.
When he got back on the bike, the other one appeared atop the ridge, and he began driving back towards the ranch.
When he stopped to look back, the bike was gone, along with his long-lost father.
CHAPTER 16
The police chopper flew overhead when he was still a mile from the ranch. As he entered the property, two troopers approached him with guns drawn, but then Trooper Jones shouted from the porch that he was all right.
Jones’ pant leg was cut off and a wide bandage showed; he sat in a wooden chair on the narrow porch drinking a cup of coffee.
“What happened?”
“When I caught up to them, they separated, with the threat that one of them would return here, so I let them go.”
“Too bad, I would have liked to have finished things.”
“I didn’t want to take a chance of the woman getting hurt, if she hadn’t given us shelter, the kid and I would probably be dead.”
“I see your point, by the way, the kid’s awake, and he’s the youngest Fed I’ve ever seen. What’s the deal with that?”
“It’s a clever disguise.”
“Right, anyway, as soon as the ambulance comes I’m out of here.”
“I owe you one, Trooper.”
“Pay it forward, brother,” Jones said.
He left the porch and found Jace in the kitchen eating stew.
“How do you feel, kid?”
“Like shit, but I’m a quick healer.”
“Where’s Vera?”
Jace pointed to a side door by the refrigerator.
“She’s out there, told me to send you to see her when you got back.”
He headed for the door and Jace called to him.
“What?”
“You carried me here?”
“Yeah.”
“They say you saved my life, thanks.”
He nodded, said, “Get better, Jace,” and went out the door.
Vera sat at a wooden table beneath a cloth umbrella that looked battered from the wind of the plains. When she heard his approach, she looked up at him with grief in her eyes.
“Did you kill, Billy? Did you kill your father?”
“No.”
Relief flooded her face.
“As much as that man deserves to die, it shouldn’t be you who takes his life. That... that just wouldn’t be right.”
“Vera?”
“Yes?”
“Your name isn’t Vera, is it?”
“No.”
“Are you... are you Amanda Powers?”
Vera said nothing, but rose up from the table and went to him. When she put her arms around him, he hugged her in return.
“You’
re my mother?”
“Yes, and I can’t tell you how good it is to hold you again.”
He said nothing back, as a river of new emotions passed through him, and he realized that his eyes were growing moist.
They separated, and he sat beside her at the table.
“Why did you give us away?”
“To protect you from your father, he is a truly evil man.”
“My mother, the woman you left me with. Why her?”
“I was desperate. Betty was one of the few people I knew outside of the cult members, and Billy knew her by sight, but not her name, it was the same with Gloria Mitchell, and that’s why I left Jeffrey with her.”
“My other brother, who is he?”
The question made his mother wince.
“His name is Michael, and I’ve no idea where he is; the woman I was leaving him with was named Susan, Billy killed her. He caught up to me at Susan’s after I’d left Gloria Mitchell’s. I never should have gone to Susan. Her family had left the cult, but Billy knew who she was.”
“What did Gant do to you?”
“I barely escaped with my life. In all the chaos, Michael must have run away, because I was watching Billy from where I hid, and he left the house without Michael and ordered the man with him to find us.”
“And you never saw Michael again?”
“No, and I searched, Billy nearly caught me again as I did it, but I searched for three days and found nothing, then, I assumed that Billy must have found him first, but at least I saved two of you from his influence, or I thought I had, but Jeffrey is just like his father.”
“Billy Gant never found Michael; he’s still looking for him.”
“Oh my God, then what’s become of him?”
“There may be no way to know, but I’ll try to find out.”
“I’m surprised that you don’t remember Michael, you two were the closest ones.”
“Which one of us was the oldest?”
“You were, but only by six minutes.”
“Six minutes?”
“Yes, I thought you knew. You, Jeffrey, Michael, you’re fraternal triplets.”
“Triplets...”
His mother said his name softly and kissed him on the cheek.
“I love you.”
In answer, he took her in his arms.
***
Jessica arrived the next day.
Amanda smiled in greeting and then cooed as she saw the baby bump beneath Jessica’s blouse. They stayed at a hotel in El Paso, and he put his mother in a suite beside theirs. Lawson called and updated him on the search for Jeffrey and Hanna, but had nothing new to report. Then, he gave him a bit of bad news.
The TAKEN! Series - Books 9-12 (Taken! Box Set Book 3) Page 8
