CHAPTER ELEVEN #2
“She gets to all of us at some bloody time.” Winter laughs, and I see what she means. Star did tell me that, too.
Looking around for our fourth and final weapon, Winter gives us a mischievous grin. “I’ve cleared the private range for our final contest. We need to go up to the roof for this one.”
“Well, before we do, I’m going to use the restroom. I have a feeling you’ve laid on something special since you’ve broken out the Barretts, and I won’t want to be distracted by a full bladder as I’m lying down,” Cork states and ambles toward the building.
Watching him walk away, I must have a look on my face that gives the game away, as Winter gives me a nudge with her shoulder.
“If you feel that strongly, you should nail him down before he knows what’s hit him.
He’s a fine man, but he’s still a little boy sometimes.
I doubt very much that a subtle approach will work with Cork.
You’re going to have to hit him harder than those thugs did the other night to make him see what’s under his nose. ”
“You have no idea what he has missed so far with my subtle approach. I’ve moved it up a notch now, though.” Explaining the pajama episode and how it left him, she bursts out laughing.
“That-a-girl, Dallas. Way to go!” Winter says between fits of laughter.
Seeing Cork walking towards us, he looks more than a little distracted.
Something has clearly got him rattled. “You okay, Kemosabe? You look worried about something,” I ask as he stands before us.
Getting no response, I wonder if his head is giving him trouble.
Taking his face in my hands, I look into his eyes.
“I know you’re in there. What’s happened? ”
His eyes come back into focus, and he sees me looking at him. His face breaks into a huge smile, and he takes hold of my wrists but doesn’t make any effort to move my hands. He just stands there smiling at me.
“Hey, handsome. What’s going on?”
“Oh, hi gorgeous. Something, but I don’t know what. It’s probably nothing.” Winter has a grin that would do any Cheshire cat justice, and I’m not far behind. Gorgeous? I’ll take that any day of the week, thank you very much.
Winter leads us away, and as we dutifully follow behind her I deliberately don’t let go of his hand, from when I let go of his face, as we walk along and he doesn’t seem to mind.
In fact, I’m sure he has given it a little squeeze.
Once she has all the weapons secured, including my Winchester, we’re off again.
On the roof, we see two sniper positions set up. Winter explains that she will be our spotter and give us details that we have to interpret to find and hit the target. Heavy stuff, I think to myself.
I go first and manage to see the target she has put out. I didn’t hit it, though. I was fairly close for my first attempt at ‘snipering.’
Cork gets comfortable, and Winter starts giving him ranges and shit, as she did with me. “I see a red flag. Is that the target?” He saw that faster than I did, I think to myself.
Before Winter can say anything, Cork rolls away from his sniper position and squats there looking, not so much at me, as through me, muttering.
“Red flag, red flag. Red, red.” Jumping up, he grabs Winter by the shoulders.
“It was red. His piss was red. That’s it.
We need to find out who the guy I saw in the restroom is.
You have to drink some serious Bordeaux for it to turn your piss red at this time of day.
” Grabbing my hand, he drags me off the roof and down to the reception area where the restrooms are.
As we get there, he tells Winter to get Target and Chaos and tell them what he saw. They need to find the guy.
Winter dashes off, and as Cork looks around, he sees someone walking from the vending area towards the exit. “Fuck, that’s him and he’s leaving. We need to find out where he goes,” Cork whispers.
“Okay, when the others get here we’ll organize it,” I respond.
“He’s in his SUV already. By the time Winter has explained it, they stop their class or whatever they’re doing, then get here, we’ll have lost him.” Cork sounds near panic as he watches the guy drive out towards the road. Grabbing his hand, it’s my turn to drag him.
Reaching my truck, I push him to the passenger side and I jump in the driver's seat. By the time he climbs in, my old girl is ready to go. Watching the SUV turn out of the parking lot, I slowly make my way to the exit and then follow a suitable distance behind. It’s not long before both Cork and I think we’ve been spotted, but we play it cool and carry on anyway.
A few minutes and we’re clear of the town limits, heading out to where all the small horse ranches and homesteads tend to be.
The SUV continues until I think we could be headed to the next town over, when he indicates a right turn onto a drive that leads to a run-down house and a few outbuildings.
He pulls up outside a building that looks to have had new doors fitted recently, but I keep rolling by rather than stop and stare.
Only a hundred yards on we see some trees set back from the road and it looks like cars have been stopping there in the past. As I swing in, Cork tells me we’ve certainly been spotted, and the guy is watching from the front of the run-down house.
Not knowing what to do in a situation like this, I think we’ve blown it.
A screech of tires and a cloud of dust startles both of us.
My door is yanked open, and Winter is screaming at me to get my ass home now.
She grabs my arm with one hand and my hair with the other and drags me screaming to her SUV.
As I slide onto the rear passenger seat, I see Target holding Cork and Chaos punches him in the stomach, while shouting something about his sister.
Target throws Cork to the ground, and then the two of them get back in the SUV, and we drive off.
“What just happened? Why did you do that to Cork?” Before I finish my questions, Target spins on me from the front passenger seat.
“What the fuck were you two thinking? Chasing off after someone you suspect could have robbed the wine shop without a damn word? We just saved your asses, is what happened. You should have stayed at the range, and waited for Winter to come back with Chaos and me. You damn fools.” Target is angry, and I see a pulse throbbing at his temple.
“If we hadn’t chased after him we would have lost him. We wouldn’t have known which direction to go in,” I shout back at him. “Now you’ve left Cork back there all alone.”
“Cork is fine. He’ll already be on the road heading back to the clubhouse.
We wouldn’t have lost the guy either. We can see for miles in every direction from the roof of the range.
We have drones that we could have used to track him without you two going off half-cocked.
” Target turns back to look out the windshield.
I glance through the back window to look for my truck and my man.
“You won’t see him, Dallas. He was told to go in the opposite direction from us.
He’ll arrive at the clubhouse five minutes after we do.
He’ll be fine, too. Don’t worry, Chaos didn’t hurt him.
It was all for show,” Winter assures me.
Looking at Chaos in the rearview mirror, I notice he won’t meet my eye, and I wonder if he didn’t get just a little payback for Cork sucker punching him.