Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
“Pru, you okay?” Opal asked as she turned in the front passenger seat to look back at her friend. She waited for Denver to get out and come around to open their doors. “Pru?” Opal asked again, and smiled when the other woman jerked.
“Sorry, I was wool gathering.”
“No problem, we’re here.”
“Oh,” Pru reached for the door, and sighed when Denver scowled at her. He let Opal out first, then moved to open Pru’s door. “You know, I’m perfectly capable of opening my own door,” she groused at him.
“I know, and I’m a gentleman to open your door.” Denver grinned at the other woman. He had learned since arriving at The Broken Wheel, that though sometimes Pru Tibbs might be scatterbrained, she was actually pretty smart. He helped her to the ground from the back seat of his truck, then leaned in to get the package she’d brought with them. He handed it to her and nodded to her. “Will you be okay delivering this over to Gunny’s bed and breakfast?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine.” Pru started to turn away, but Opal stopped her both with her words, and a gentle hand on her arm.
“Do you want us to order you a drink?”
“Naw, someone has to be the designated driver.” She grinned when the others laughed.
“You’re going to drive all ten of us home if we get drunk?”
“Yep. Jake’s probably at the bar keeping an eye on things, I’ll just have him toss all of your drunk asses in the back of one of y’all’s trucks and I’ll drive you home.” They all shared a laugh as the others that had joined them and caught the tail end of the conversation, joined in.
“What would you like to drink?” Naomi asked as she joined them using the special crutches with the braces that wrapped her forearms. It had been a few months of intense therapy, but she was now in the upright position. She moved slowly, but she was determined to continue with her recovery. It had been a long time coming.
“Something clear.”
“What’s that mean?” Reid asked with a scowl. “Water?”
“No, Sprite or 7-UP, whatever they serve.”
“Got it.” They all turned and headed toward the entrance of Gunny’s bar. It was two days before Good Friday, and because it had been a long hard winter once the snow arrived, this was the first time everyone had been out since shortly after Christmas. As the ten people headed toward the bar, Pru took her package in the opposite direction to head across the compound to the bed and breakfast Gunny and his daughter RJ owned and operated.
Because she knew the routine, she let herself into the kitchen, and after she opened her box, she looked around, then grabbed the container on the counter. It took at least ten minutes to transfer the six dozen eggs from the box she’d transported them into the basket RJ and Gunny kept on the counter. Satisfied with her work, she nodded, then headed back across the compound toward the truck. She’d toss the box in the back until they went to leave, then bring it inside with her.
After she tossed the box into the bed of the truck, she started toward the door. As much as she loved her friends and their men, she was starting to feel sorry for herself. Oh, they always included her in everything, but sometimes, it was hard being the eleventh wheel. With five couples starting their happily ever afters sometimes it was hard for Pru to feel their joy when she was single.
She paused to look up to see if she could see a shooting star to make a wish on. Imagine her shock when she saw one, then closed her eyes, and whispered feverishly, “Please, bring me a man to love me for who I am, and that I can return that love.” She kept her eyes closed, then sighed heavily as she opened them. The shooting star was gone, but as she headed toward the entrance to the bar, she felt good. Definitely in a better mood than a few minutes ago. At a sound on the other side of the parking lot, she paused, then slowly crept in that direction to see if she could make out the heated words being said. She made damn sure she kept to the shadows and the other vehicles parked in the lot.
Pru rounded the corner behind a vehicle and saw a woman standing off to the side, slightly behind a very tall man who faced off three men that looked like they had been drinking for a long time.
“What’s going on here?” Pru demanded. The only person that answered her was the woman. She came running to Pru, sobbing.
“They tried to grab me and drag me away with them. That man stopped them.”
Pru took in the situation, the gripped the woman’s shoulders. She shook her a couple of times to get her attention. “Listen closely to me, do you understand?”
“Yes,” the woman sobbed, but Pru nodded when she firmed her lips and shook her head. “What do you want me to do?”
“I came here with friends, they are in the bar. Go there and tell them that Pru is in a fight in the parking lot.”
“How do I recognize your friends?”
Pru nodded when the woman was smart enough to ask that question. “What’s your name?”
“Sally.”
“Well, Sally, you can’t miss them. They are a group of ten, five women, five men. One woman has a missing left arm, and another woman has a missing right hand. Look for them.”
“What do I say?”
“Tell them that Pru, that’s me, is in a fight in the parking lot. Tell them to come running.” Pru gave the woman a shove, and said, “Go!”
As soon as Sally turned and ran, Pru slowly approached the tall man. “I’m a friendly, what do we have here?” She noticed the man never took his eyes off the three men before them, but he did nod when she said she was friendly. “My friends are on the way.”
“Good, but I have a feeling we’ll be attacked before then. You armed?”
“I have a knife,” she said as she reached down, without taking her eyes off the men, and pulled a K-bar from her boot.
“Nice,” he said as he looked at it. “How about a trade?”
“For?”
“I’ll give you my cane for the K-bar.”
Pru took in the situation, his appearance, and did a double take at all the scars on his face. “No offense, Mister, but can you stand long enough to fight?”
“Yeah, I’ll need you to wield this cane if they double or triple tag me.”
“Got it.” Pru handed him her knife and liked that he tested its weight in his hand. From the way he handled it, he knew what he was doing. For some reason, she trusted him implicitly. She stood there with the man’s cane in her hand, and the two of them ended up back-to-back when the three men began to circle them.
“Are they stupid?” Pru asked no one in general. She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins and began bouncing on the balls of her feet. She shook her head when one man lashed out with his own knife, and Pru was able to get low and get him in the side of the knee. When he cried out, she bounced back up and taunted the other two.
“One down, two to go. Who’s next? I could do this all-night boys, what are you waiting for?” She continued to taunt them and after about thirty seconds, she found herself going one-on-one with one of the guys as they quickly parted. One went after her while the other one went after the man she had backed up. Just when she felt she couldn’t hold her own any longer, the man tripped when he lunged for her. She jumped back quickly, swung the cane, and caught the guy under the chin. She lifted him several inches off the ground and he landed several feet away. Instead of stopping there, she whipped around to check on her partner. As the bad man swung his arm in a low arch, Pru was behind the guy and whacked him in the knee hard enough that the man she had been helping looked at her with his nose scrunched.
“That’s going to hurt,” he said as he leaned over with his hands on his knees and tried to get his breath. He only lifted his head and smiled at her. “Thanks, I don’t think I would have been able to take all three of them on.” He slowly straightened, then paused as he cocked his head to the side. “Stupid question,” he said as he looked at her.
“What?”
“Do you happen to have a box or something in your vehicle?”
“Yes, I’ll be right back.” Pru ran away and she had to climb up on the tire of Denver’s truck and she used the cane she still held to bring the box toward her. In seconds she had it in her hands and hurried back to him. She grinned when she saw all three men had been put together in a pile.
“I don’t think this box will tie them up,” she laughed at him, and stared in shock when he removed his belt and made sure the three of them had their backs to one another, and he tied them up. She shook her head as she watched him. “Hopefully, my friends will be here soon.”
“I’m not sure what your girlfriends will be able to do,” the man said in a gravelly voice that caused Pru to shiver as its timbre ran over her spine. She gave a whole-body shiver, then looked at him as she held up the box.
“What do you need with the box?”
“I heard some kittens crying when I got out of my truck, I went to investigate, but I ran into those fucking idiots trying to drag that woman toward their vehicle.”
“Damn, a man that saves kittens and women, be still my heart,” Pru said as she patted her chest and grinned at him. “We probably can’t find them, but let’s go look.” They both slowly walked toward the area the man directed them, and now that the action was over, they could hear what sounded like kittens crying. As they approached, she handed him the box, and the cane. “No offense, but you don’t look like you’ll be able to get up if you crouch down. Let me see if I can get them.” She didn’t wait for him to respond as she bent down and looked into an old pipe about six inches around. This was where the sound was coming from. She crouched down, then had to pull her phone to shine the light in on the animals making the noise. She looked up at the man with a grin. “Three babies.”
“Okay, I’m not telling you what to do, but you might want to use the shirt wrapped around your waist to cover your hand if you’re going to reach in and get them.”
“I don’t want to scare them. Give me the box.” She held her hand out for it, and quick as spit, she had the three little creatures inside the box. She looked at him with a grin. Together, they started back toward where they had left the men tied up, and he lightly gripped her upper arm.
“I’ll explain later, but don’t let anyone touch me. No matter what, I don’t want to go to the hospital. I’ll explain later.” They were about six feet away from where they’d left the men when they heard a woman cry out.
“They’re over here!”
Pru looked up and saw Sally leading the way, and stepped in front of the man when she ran toward them to give him a hug. She braced herself as she blocked the hug she was going to bestow on the man.
“He understands, but he’s holding a box of kittens we found, we don’t want to scare the already scared animals.”
“Oh,” Sally said, then turned back and pointed over her shoulder. “Are they your friends?”
“Yes,” Pru said in relief when she saw Clark and Reid in the lead.
“Are you okay?” Reid reached her first and grabbed her by the upper arms.
“I’m fine, but they aren’t,” she laughed as she pointed to the three men moaning on the ground. It was bedlam for the next five minutes, and Pru wasn’t shocked when Jake arrived with the crew from The Broken Wheel. Sparrow was even there, and she groused that she never seemed to get a nice relaxing night off.
“Maybe you should stay home, then,” Pru said without any malice.
“Yeah, maybe I should,” she laughed. “What went on here?” Several of the people who had just joined them were talking until the man looked up from the box he was looking into and all the men froze.
“What the hell?” Jake asked into the dead silence.
Pru, being who she was and not comfortable with absolute silence began, “I came back from dropping the eggs off over at Gunny’s. They’re on the counter, by the way. I ran into this woman.” She pointed to Sally. “She was upset, and the three men on the ground tried to drag her away from her car. I saw this man defending her. I stepped in and helped him. They attacked us. I gave him my K-bar, and I used his cane. When they attacked, we defended ourselves.”
The men had woken up from being knocked out and started yelling to anyone that would listen that she was lying and that the big man attacked them for no reason. Everyone turned to Jake when he told them to shut up. He had his phone out, and looked at it, then passed it to Sparrow. She shook her head and then grinned at Jake.
“I love that you have state-of-the-art security cameras here in the parking lot,” she said it loud enough that the three men still on the ground whipped their heads up and swore. They paused long enough to look up at the wailing sirens, and the man at Pru’s back, who had turned his body to the side so no one could really get a good look at him and leaned in to whisper to her.
“No hospital for me. I’ll explain.”
“Got it.” Pru nodded and when the ambulance arrived she looked between Jake and Sparrow. “Those three are going to need medical attention. Oh, and you’re probably going to have to help them get up.”
“Why?” Sparrow asked as she lifted her head from watching the fight from Jake’s phone.
“I took out a knee of two guys, and between the two of us, I think we broke the other guy’s jaw, if not his nose.” She pointed to the man who looked at them with glassy eyes and blood pouring down his nose. The ambulance crew arrived and winced as they saw the damage done to the guys. It took some time, but they were untied from where the man had used his belt, and Sparrow had put fisticuffs on them in place of the metal cuffs.
Pru stood off to the side with the man holding the box, and he leaned down and whispered in her ear, causing her to shiver. “Could you get me a couple of gauze pads from the ambulance people?”
“Sure,” Pru said as she left the guy and went over to talk to them. With no questions asked, she was handed them, then they left with the three men sitting on the gurneys in the back of the rig. With them gone, a cop car arrived and everyone was separated as Pru was led away to give her statement. As she talked she kept an eye on the guy still holding the box of kittens. She wondered who he was. Almost two hours later since returning from leaving the eggs at Gunny’s, they were heading back toward the bar when Pru turned to the other guy.
“That was fun. Now that it’s all over, can I get your name?” she asked and hadn’t realized the others had stopped to turn back and look at them. She sucked in her breath when she saw his eye patch for the first time. “I know this might not be politically correct, but I love the patch you’re sporting.”
The man wasn’t looking at her as he cleared his throat. The crew from Broken was watching him intently. “My name is Ryan Carter,” he said clearly, and watched as the five men before them did a triple take, then rushed forward. Pru stepped up and stopped them with her hands out and pushed them away from him.
“I don’t know what’s significant about that name, but you guys need to back the freak off. He asked me not to have anyone touch him. He said he’d explain later, now back the freak off.” She shoved Reid about two feet away from her. She looked between the man at her back and the men staring at him, then scowled when all of the men had tears coursing down their faces. She heard all five of them say some form of, “You’re alive.”
Pru sighed in relief when Jake came over and stood beside her. “Guys, what’s going on? Do you know this man?”
“Yes,” Reid was the one that spoke. “This is Ryan Carter, he’s a former Delta teammate, and ten days before Christmas last year, we were informed that he was taken captive while on a mission with his SEAL team.” He looked around wildly. “We were never told he’d been recovered.”
“They didn’t tell you?” Ryan asked in shock, and handed the box with the now silent kittens to Pru, he took the cane from her and leaned heavily on it. “I’m out, and I was headed to The Broken Wheel. I stopped here because I only wanted a fucking hamburger, but I first heard some kittens crying. When I went to investigate, I found those three men that just left trying to drag that woman away.” They all looked up when they heard the screech of tires, and a man jumped out of a car to rush them.
“Daddy!” Sally yelled as she rushed to the man’s open arms. After he reassured himself that his daughter was fine, he walked up to Ryan and held his hand out to him.
“Thank you for looking out for my little girl. I don’t know if those men did that to your face, and if they didn’t, I hope the people that did are dead. I can’t thank you enough for protecting her.” Without another word, he took Sally away with him, and they left in his car, but saying that they would come back later, when it was light out, to pick up her car.
“Hey, guys,” Ryan said, and looked at the group before him. He laid his eyes on the woman who was missing a right hand. He remembered her from years ago. “Are you Erin?”
“I am.”
“I don’t know if I should talk to you or the lieutenant here, but I’d like to come work at The Broken Wheel.”
“You’re more than welcome, but first, I think we better get you cleaned up.”
“Yes, but I can’t drive.”
“I’ll drive you,” Pru said. “Give me your keys.” She held both the box and her hand out. In ten minutes Ryan was in the front seat and sighed heavily as he leaned against the door. The window was open, and he looked at his friends. “I’ll explain, I promise. Come see me when we get to wherever this pretty lady is taking me to.”
The men chuckled and Reid stepped forward. “Still want a burger?”
“Please.” He sighed and closed his eyes. The last thing he heard was the woman who had been by his side tell Clark to call someone and have them meet them at her house. He didn’t remember anything after that.