Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
The next morning, Ryan woke to the smell of coffee and bacon, he immediately looked over and saw the bed beside him empty, then noted it was only six in the morning. “So much for sleeping in on your day off,” he mumbled as he tossed the covers to the side and rose. He grabbed a set of clean clothes and made his way to the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, he walked into the kitchen and looked intently at Pru.
“How are you this morning?” he asked as he walked up to the counter to get himself a cup of coffee. He smiled when he saw the cup he had been using was sitting on the counter for him.
He liked that she didn’t try to play coy with him, as she answered, “Raw. I haven’t told anyone what happened since I woke in the hospital and had to tell my commanding officers what I saw.” She shook her head as she cracked eggs into a bowl, without looking at him, she made their breakfast and talked to him. “I told you I was in the hospital for six months, that was how long I was in a coma. I came out of it, was assessed, and was debriefed. I only stayed there for another three weeks before they sent me to a rehabilitation center for people with injuries. There were people with all types of injuries. If you had been in the states with your injuries, I’d bet you would have been there. Where did you do your rehabilitation?”
“Germany.”
She nodded and finished making the French Toast. She set the plate of bread, and bacon on the table as he took out the juice, syrup, and filled their coffee mugs. They settled down to eat, and neither said a word as they filled their stomachs. It wasn’t until they finished their meal that Pru leaned back in her chair with her coffee cup cradled in her hand, she looked at Ryan with a smirk. He liked how it lit up her entire face.
“What?”
“What did you learn yesterday?”
“Christ, who knew you could basically jack off a horse for his seed? When Reid told me what he was doing, I about shit my pants. Then he laughed at me when he said we were in the sex barn. Thankfully, Erin wouldn’t allow me to help.”
“Why not?” Pru demanded in shock. “As far as I know, all the guys have done it so far. What makes you any different?”
Ryan loved that she didn’t treat him like he was an injured soul. As he settled back in his own seat, he slowly lifted his shirt, and watched her. It took several seconds for her expression to become cloudy.
“Sexy abs, but what do they have to do with you not helping Reid?”
Ryan chuckled. “Thank you, but I still have stitches. Erin doesn’t want them to pull apart and set my healing back by wrestling with one of the stallions.”
“Ah, I can totally understand that.” She nodded and sipped her coffee. She didn’t lift her eyes to his face until he lowered his shirt. Only then did she shake her head, give a body shudder, and look at his face. She grinned. “Sorry, I was admiring the view.”
“Don’t ever apologize to me for liking what you see.” He reached for his coffee cup, and because they’d brought the carafe to the table he refilled his cup, and reached across to do the same for her. He leaned back in his chair and shook his head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing really, but before I helped Reid yesterday, Erin took me into her office to have a word with her.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I gave her the paperwork I’d forgotten before, you know, for payroll purposes. Then we got to talking.” He took the next fifteen minutes to tell her what they had talked about. About fifteen minutes before he finished his tale, he thought he had lost her, because her face became blank, and she stared off into space, lost in her own little world. He remained silent after telling her about his meeting with Erin, and when she still remained silent, he got up and quietly took care of the breakfast dishes. For some reason, he believed that Pru hadn’t ignored him, but was getting her thoughts together. Ten minutes later, he sat back down across from her and studied her expression. He saw the faraway look in her eyes, and continued to sit there quietly. It took at least ten minutes for her to give a total body shudder, shake her head, and look at him.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I had a thought that I had to go through the steps to see if it would work.” She shook her head sadly. “Before my accident, I could do it in seconds, but now, it takes a little longer. When I get an idea, I like to follow it along like a movie in my head to make sure it will work.”
“Tell me.”
“Okay, but don’t think I’m crazy because I don’t know the proper words.”
“Tell me what you came up with, and I’ll fill in the words.”
“Good, and please, don’t think I’m being mean for things I’m going to say, but I think I might have come up with a plan so that we can find the asshats that are after Erin, and get them taken care of right away. However, if we go with what I suggest, then we’re going to have to have a meeting with everyone.”
“Everyone? Who?”
“Your former teammates, but after I talk this over with you, we should go tell Erin what we think, then we’ll probably have to call in Jake and the Brotherhood.”
“What’s that?”
She told him who Jake was, and what he did, then frowned at him. “You don’t remember much about the night we met? Because he was there.”
“Not really, I was exhausted, hungry, and had to deal with those assholes trying to drag that woman away from her car.”
“Okay,” Pru said, then continued to sit there. Ryan finally rose to his feet, went to a chair beside her, and after he sat back down, he gathered her hands in his. “Tell me, don’t worry about hurting my feelings or anything, just tell me your plan, and we can go with it from there.”
Pru looked at him deep in the eyes, drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “What if we put an enemy to Royal and the Firths in their front yard.”
Ryan didn’t say anything for a long time, waiting for her to continue. When she didn’t, he squeezed her hands again. “Please, explain how that would work.”
“No one knows you, right? We saw you in the parking lot to Gunny’s your first night here, and I basically got you the hell out of there after you gave your statement. You haven’t returned to town yet.” She cocked her head to the side and studied him intently. “I’m assuming you weren’t in town long before we saw you at Gunny’s? That hour we took when we went grocery shopping shouldn’t have caused any problems either.”
“Correct, I’d say I was only there five minutes before I got out of my truck. I heard the kittens, then the men accosting that woman. Next thing I know, you were there.”
“Good, great, this will work in our favor then. Remind me to talk to Jake to see if those men are any association to Royal, if they are, then our plan might not work. If they aren’t then we should be good to go.”
“Please, explain the plan.” Ryan shook his head, not wanting to get upset that she didn’t come right out with it. He had to remember that she had TBI and her neurons weren’t firing like a normal person.
“Oh, yeah, what if you go to Royal and see if he can’t hire you to be a ranch hand on his spread? Maybe you can play the drifting soldier card and say you’re down on your luck and need a job to get money before you hit the road again. Or some such story, I’m sure between all of us we can come up with a beat-up vehicle for you to drive, you know, in case they aren’t as stupid as we think they are and they run your plate. You can be our inside man there, and of course, you can’t live here, not that I don’t want you to, but what if they follow you home? Or they want to hang out at your house? You’d have to stay at Gunny’s bed and breakfast. I, or someone from here that goes to town once a week drops eggs off there, and we can come up with some system to let us here at Broken know what’s going on.”
“Breathe,” Ryan said as she chuckled as she said all that in one breath. “Let’s break it all down.”
They talked for the next hour about what she thought he should do in order to get information from Royal about him and maybe the Firths. When they finally sat back, Ryan shook his head. “I’m not saying this won’t work, but what’s to say that if Royal hires me he would bring me into his inner circle?”
“Nothing,” Pru said honestly. “You’ll have to rely on your SEAL training to get him to trust you. I’m not saying you’ll be able to get in his good graces the first day, you’ll have to be patient. I don’t know how you’d feel about playing up your anger toward your captors and somehow turn it around to having anger against people that think they can get away with things because they’re rich.” She looked at him, then shook her head. “No, that won’t work because Royal is allegedly rich.”
Ryan nodded and looked off into space like he had seen Pru do earlier as he thought about a plan. He looked at her. “I wouldn’t agree to this unless I told Erin and my men the whole thing. I know I was just held captive for twenty days and was tortured. The only thing that kept me going was that I knew help was coming. I had no idea when, or which SEAL team would be there, but I knew they would. If I do this, I’ll have one of the guys, or even you showing up at Gunny’s every week. I can pass off notes to whoever comes.”
“Won’t that be dangerous if they fall into the wrong hands?”
“No, because the members of Delta team have our own form of communication.”
“Wasn’t that long hand?”
“No, it’s shorthand.”
“That’s right. A lost form of writing, which you guys turned into communication.”
“Exactly, and I can get notes to whoever comes to Gunny’s. Or I can give them to Jake, and he can get them here. As far as I know, it’s only us six men that will be able to read my notes.”
They agreed to go out to do her morning chores with the chickens, and when they returned, they made another pot of coffee and sat down to work out the kinks in their plan. Just before lunch, Pru sent a text to Erin saying that she and Ryan would be joining them for the meal. Instead of mooching off her boss, she grabbed some lunch meat, cheese, a loaf of bread, and they headed to the main house.
When they entered the house, Pru kicked off her shoes, and headed toward the kitchen. They found Erin there, and she looked up from making a sandwich. The two women laughed when Pru put her items on the counter. In less than five minutes they were at the table with a sandwich on a plate before them.
“Where’s everyone else?” Ryan asked as he picked up his sandwich, but didn’t take a bite yet.
“Reid’s over at Broken, and my guys are doing their duties here on Erin’s Way. Do you need them here?”
“Not yet.” Ryan nodded as he took a bite, chewed, then looked at her. “I told Pru about what we talked about yesterday about you not being able to find Miller or the Firths. She came up with an idea, and we want to run it by you first before we bring in the others.”
“Hit me,” Erin said as she picked up her half of the sandwich and took a bite. As she ate, Pru explained what she had come up with, and Ryan finished up the plan with what he thought should be done.
“Damn,” Erin said as she swung her head back and forth between the two of them.
“Damn good, or damn bad?” Pru asked.
“Damn good, hell, it might even been damn excellent, damn brilliant. I like what you’ve said so far.”
“But?” Pru asked as she looked at her friend and boss. “Your expression says you have some concerns.”
“I do.” She turned to look at Ryan. “I don’t want to put any undue pressure on you after what you went through.” She held up her stump and shook her head at him. “I’ll back you one hundred percent, but we’re going to have to tell the men about this. If they agree, then we can get all our ducks in a row, so you’ll know what to expect before going in. I’m also going to want to get Jake in on this.”
Pru turned to look at Ryan. “Do you think your former teammates will back you?”
“I do, but if anyone will give me a hassle, it’ll be Reid.”
“Why do you say that?” Pru asked in confusion.
“Not only was he my swim buddy, we shared an apartment together. He was also there when I had problems with my sister.” Ryan shook his head, pinched the bridge of his nose and told him what happened when he left California to go see his sister. It took almost two hours to tell his story to the two women and answer their questions. “Reid was always there for me. I’m betting he went off on everyone when he heard I had been captured.”
“That’s an understatement,” Erin answered. The trio remained silent for a few minutes before Pru sat forward and looked at both of them.
“Let’s get our ducks in a row before we talk to them. I know we want to get on this right away, but a couple of days of planning on our part before we present it to the others may be in order.” Pru looked over at Erin with a frown. “I know we just had our monthly meal together this past Sunday with the Easter dinner, but what if we call everyone to come this Sunday? Maybe even invite Jake?”
“I’ll work on that,” Erin said as she rose to leave the room, but she quickly returned with a pad of paper and a pen. The three of them took the next few hours to discuss what Ryan had in mind if he could infiltrate Rudolph Royal’s ranch. When they were done, all three were satisfied with what they had come up with.
“Now, we’ll just have to convince the others,” Ryan said as he looked at the two women before him. They nodded and he knew that no matter what was said, these two women would have his back.