Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
Pru stood next to Clark and stared at the stunned expressions of the people sitting around the dining room table at one of the large cabins on Broken. No one said a word as they’d watched the tape from Ryan, and listened to what both Pru and Clark had said they’d discussed with the men from Brotherhood, and on their way home. She looked at Clark with raised brows, and he only shrugged in confusion when no one spoke. He sighed when someone finally talked.
“Let me get this straight,” Erin said through clenched teeth. “The fuckers that are trying to take me out are now going to commandeer Mr. Ducky’s property and come at me that way?”
“Yes.” Clark didn’t mince his words. He knew how his sister operated. The more honest, the calmer she became. He looked directly at his sister, as he asked, “When was the last time you went over to Mr. Ducky’s?”
“I’m sorry to say that it’s been over a year. Before Reid came. I didn’t want him to think that I was waiting for him to die with me hovering around him. Last time I saw him, I told him to reach out to me if he needed anything.”
“I can understand that. What do you say the two of us go over and see him tomorrow. We can explain to him that I’m now home, he knows about you owning his spread, right? And that my name is on it?”
“Yes. So do his grandchildren. If he’s there, then I would feel better if he was secure over at Erin’s Way.”
“He can stay at my place,” Pru spoke up then. “I mean no offense to you, Erin, but do you have a bedroom that he can go to on the ground floor? From what you guys are saying, the guy is pushing ninety. I’m sure he’ll have a walker. I have a spare room with Ryan still gone.” She grinned at them. “Who knows, maybe he can take care of the chickens and we can take him to the barn so he can see the horses then. What did he farm when he was operational?”
“Chickens,” Erin and Clark said as one. “At one point he had at least five hundred thousand chickens in his barns. He raised them until the eggs came, then he sent them to Campbell’s soup. If I recall, he had two batches of chickens a year.”
“If he didn’t do the chickens,” Clark said then. “He had a pair of draft horses that he used around the garden, and he had just enough cows to keep him in milk and meat. He was completely dependent on his farm. I remember Mrs. Ducky was forever canning things from her garden. I’d go over there and there were jars and jars sitting out waiting to cool off.”
“Why don’t we,” Naomi spoke then, “…let Mr. Donaldson decide where he wants to stay? That is, if he’s still there.” She looked around and shook her head. “Like Pru, I wouldn’t take the word of Firth or Miller that he’s not there. I would feel better to err on the side of caution.”
“We’ll go over in the morning,” Erin said decisively. “Seven okay?” she asked as she looked at Clark. He agreed, and the others said they’d get back with him after reviewing the tape and taking notes. They decided to leave the laptop and papers on the table as a base of their operations. After they broke up and went their separate ways, Pru was doing her chores when Clark came over and told her a plate of food was on her table. She thanked him, finished her chores, then made her way inside. After she ate, she showered, then went into Ryan’s old bedroom, grabbed his pillow case, and smelled it. With his scent still on it, she took the case off and took it to her room. She knew it was sappy, but she’d missed him. She thought she could get through his being gone until she’d seen him earlier. On a sigh, she went to bed that night with Ryan’s pillow case beneath her head.
“Ready?” Clark asked as he put the truck in park and looked over at his sister. They had just arrived at the Donaldson ranch, and were going to see if he was home. They both exited the truck, and before they could take three steps, a voice called out,
“Who’s there!”
“Mr. Ducky, it’s me, Erin Riceman!” Erin responded, and she and Clark started toward the voice. They stopped when a man that looked to be at least a hundred years old came from around the corner of the house pushing his walker.
“Erin?” he asked in shock, and grinned at her. Erin rushed forward to give the man a hug. When they broke apart, he had his hands on her shoulders and scowled down at her. “You’re not here to take my place from me yet, are you? I’m far from ready to give it up.”
“That’s what we’re here to talk to you about, Mr. Ducky. First, do you remember my brother, Clark?” Erin turned to point to the other man, and Mr. Ducky looked at him and laughed.
“You don’t need my horses to pull you out again, do you?”
His question shocked Clark, then he threw his head back and laughed. “Nope, I brought my own,” he said as he turned to point to the truck they had arrived in. “How are you, Mr. Ducky?”
“Good, good, you home for good now?”
“I am.” They stood there, and sighed in relief when the older man asked them to come inside. Clark was shocked by how clean everything was, but it was sparsely furnished. Mr. Ducky answered his confused look.
“Over the years, my grandchildren have been taking things I was going to will to them when I go. They all know the ranch goes to Miss Erin here, because she paid off that fiasco from years ago. I don’t mind it, in the long run, it’s helped us.”
“How?” Clark thought he knew, but he wanted to hear it directly from an old family friend.
“First, I want to tell you how sorry I am about you losing your parents. I was in the midst of losing my wife to cancer, and I didn’t really get out to the funerals.”
“Thank you, and I’m sorry you lost Mrs. Ducky.”
“Thank you. Now, with that out of the way, what brings you here?”
Clark looked at Erin, and shrugged. They hadn’t thought of who would tell him what was going on. He smiled when his sister took control.
“Mr. Ducky, I’m going to be brutally honest with you here. I have made some enemies and they’re trying to come after me. They’re going to do it by coming after you first. Clark and I are here today to tell you what’s what and that we have plans to stop these people.”
“Does Jim Faulker, the sheriff, know about your enemies and your plans?”
“Yes, he’s going to be stopping by here around ten this morning to inform you of what he’s going to be doing. Before he gets here, I, or rather, we, want to tell you what we have planned. Before you ask, Clark was a Navy SEAL, and his entire team is working at Broken.”
“What’s Broken?” Mr. Ducky asked in general confusion.
Erin went on to explain what she had done after she’d fixed what the Millers had tried to do with her property, and had been almost successful with his. By the time she was done, they had also informed him that one of Clark’s former teammates was working on the inside with Royal, the Firths, and Miller.
“Well,” he drawled out as he sipped his coffee and looked at the younger people before him. “I might be in my upper eighties, but I’m not willing to die yet. I have a feeling if those asshats arrive here with me still alive, they might unalive me in a hurry.”
“We fear that also, that’s why we are offering you a place to stay until all this blows over.” Erin breathed out. “I just have one question for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Are any of your grandchildren due to arrive here anytime soon? I don’t want them to get caught in the crossfire, so to speak.”
“Not until the Fourth of July.” Mr. Ducky struggled to his feet, and shuffled over to a calendar on the wall next to a phone hanging there. He flipped the pages, nodding the entire time. “Yes, the Fourth of July.”
“Okay, that will be easier, we’re hoping this will only take a week to solve,” Clark said. “And that’s padding the time. Now, I’m not saying you’re old or anything, but does anyone come here to check on you? Do you have a home health aide, or someone that comes in?”
“My grandkids set up a grocery delivery service for me last year. They come in every two weeks. As a matter of fact, they’re due today.”
“Good, good,” Clark said, and they all jerked when a loud knock sounded on the back door, Clark was the one to go answer it, and took the two bags of groceries from the young woman standing there. She never even questioned his presence, just handed them over, waved, and left. Back in the kitchen he set the bags down, then went back to open the door when it was banged on again. This time, Jim Faulkner walked in behind them. After coffee was again poured for everyone, they sat down and discussed what they wanted to do. By noon, all the men from Broken were in the driveway with their trucks carrying items out of the house. Jim made sure that all of Mr. Ducky’s guns were removed. He didn’t want to give the asshats any extra firepower. By five o’clock that night they made their way in a convoy toward Erin’s Way.
“Mr. Ducky,” Erin asked as they entered the driveway to her ranch. “Where would you like to go, to Erin’s Way, or The Broken Wheel?”
“Is there space for me at The Broken Wheel? Someplace I won’t need to do stairs?”
“Broken it is,” Erin said, and explained that all the bedrooms in her home were upstairs. They drove toward Broken, and when they approached the rise, Clark stopped, and when Mr. Ducky asked why he stopped, Clark grinned and pointed out the windshield.
“What in tarnation is that?” Mr. Ducky asked in shock.
“That’s Erin’s brainchild, Mr. Ducky,” Clark said with pride, and on the way down the hill, he explained what Broken was all about.
“Can I see the barn?”
“Sure,” Erin said, and Clark drove there first. They spent at least an hour there, and the guys had waited to unload their trucks until they reached their destination.
“Hey,” Pru called out as they entered. “I’m just finishing up.”
“That’s fine,” Erin said, and turned to hold out her arm. “This is Mr. Ducky, he wanted to see the barn before we took him to his cabin.”
“Okay,” Pru said, and walked up to the man and held her hand out to him. They shook, and she stepped back to watch her bosses with the older man. When it was time to leave the barn, they all followed Clark, but before Mr. Ducky got into the truck, Pru said, “You’re more than welcome to stay with me, Mr. Ducky. I think I would like to pick your brain on something.”
“What’s that?”
“I have some chickens.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Mr. Ducky said immediately, and they all caravaned to Pru’s cabin, but Clark and Erin explained about the other cabins on the way. By eight that night Mr. Ducky was settled into Pru’s cabin, and it was planned that the next day Clark, and the other men would go back over and get his chickens. He didn’t want them to be killed if those bad people were going to take control of his home.
Pru made supper for the two of them, and they talked well into the night.