Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
“I got it!” Julie yelled laughingly as she went to answer the door a couple of days later. She whipped it open and stared in shock. “Erin?”
“Yes, hi, do you have a bathroom?”
“Down the hall, third door on the left,” Julie said as she laughed and stepped back as the other woman ran inside to follow the directions. Julie turned back to the door and saw several vehicles in her driveway, along with the men and woman she’d met weeks earlier. “Scott!” she yelled, and looked up the stairs when he came to the top of them. “We have guests.”
Scott scowled then laughed when he saw Erin coming back into the room. “Erin? What are you doing off the ranch?”
“I know right? I was there with Manny and Lloyd when you called and heard what you said. It pissed me off what that asshole called Julie, so I did some figuring and we’re all here.” She pointed to the doorway and seven men and women walked into the living room.
“Wow,” Scott said as he walked down the stairs and went to greet the others.
“One thing,” Clark was the first one to speak after they all hugged and caught up.
“What’s that?” Julie and Scott asked at the same time.
“We go in with our faces covered. I don’t want these assholes to know what we look like. No offense, but they’ve seen your ugly mug,” Clark laughed to show he wasn’t being rude. “They don’t need to see ours.”
“I agree,” Sara said as she came down the stairs.
“I thought you were in Denver,” Erin scowled at the other woman.
“I was, but there was a problem with the water main, and instead of fixing it, it’s out-of-date and it needs to be replaced.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, we have to call to see if we can get back in by the date they gave us. It will just put my schedule behind getting to you by a couple of weeks to a month.”
“Don’t worry about that, we’ve hit another snag with the supply of the beams for the bridge. Oh, we can drive over it, but the county and town want it reinforced. As long as we limit what we take over it, we can use it. Thankfully, most of the equipment was already on the build site before they said we couldn’t use it for that until it’s reinforced.”
“Damn,” the three said.
“Yeah, but they’ve been able to break ground on the first bunktel.” She smiled and they all saw the relief on her face.
“Tell us exactly what’s going on,” Reid said as he took one of the beers they had brought in a cooler. Scott called them over to Sara’s laptop and the three of them described what had happened, how Scott had stepped in to defend Julie, and what Sara knew of the location. With Sara’s help, they were able to get on the computer, and everyone laughed when Perry grabbed his own laptop and brought the same location up. He had a program on his that they had used while in the military that could get better graphics of what they were looking for.
As they all looked over the shoulders of the two on the computers, Sara told them about some of the traps others had encountered over the years.
“You loaded?” Scott asked at one point.
“Yes, but we’re not locked and loaded.”
“What does that even mean?” Sara asked in confusion as she looked around the room and saw that both Erin and Naomi were just as clueless as she was.
It was Scott who looked at her with a small smile. “Locked and loaded means that we have our guns, and all our equipment. That we’re loaded to take on anything. The locked part is that our ammo is locked into the chamber and we’re ready.”
“Got it, so if you say you’re loaded, then you have your gear, and you have weapons?”
“Yes,” Lloyd said as he reintroduced himself to her. “I’m Berry, or Jammer. After Scott’s last call, we went to friends of ours and were able to obtain bean bag guns. We’ll be loaded with them. They won’t kill anyone, well, if you hit them in the face, or a head shot, depending on how far away you are, you could kill, or seriously maim, but if you hit below the neck, they’ll just have a gigantic bruise, and if hit right, it’ll take the air out of them.”
“Got it. Okay, this might be a dumb question, and if you can’t answer it I’ll understand.”
“What is it?” Clark asked.
“First, I have all the confidence in the world that you guys will win. With that said, what will you do with them once you take them out?”
“What do you mean?” Reid asked.
“I mean will you just leave them lying there? Or will you tie them up? I for one will not trust them to go back to the beginning and tell the spectators, because believe you me, if Ass-Boom-Boom-Hole is putting this together, the entire freaking town will be there. Anyway, how will you restrain them to prove that you guys are the victors? You can’t trust a word those assholes will say.”
Denver reached in the side pocket of the camo pants he had on and pulled out two plastic strips. “Zip ties, they won’t be getting out of these fuckers. When we take them out, we’ll make sure they’re down for the count. When we’re done with them, their Mommies will have to come and look for them. Oh, we won’t hurt them, other than what a bean bag shot at them would do, but they will know that it was one of us that took them out.”
“Understood,” Sara said, then turned to Erin. “Are you former military?”
“No, neither is Naomi. She and I will be standing outside with the others to make sure people that don’t belong in there don’t go in.”
“Good, I’ll stand with you.”
They stood around and discussed what they were going to do, and when it was solid in their minds, Erin looked at Julie to ask if she could see the equipment she wanted brought to The Broken Wheel. They all followed Julie out the back door and after she opened the shed doors, she stepped back as did everyone else. The only person that stepped inside was Erin. She walked around and nodded several times then after banging on the side of the building she asked, “What about this?”
“What about it?”
“Is it solid to the ground? Can you remove it?”
Denver and Perry stepped up and inspected it and looked up with a grin. “We can load this on a trailer.”
“Really?”
“Wait,” Ann called out. “Before you decide to bring that, Julie, did you tell your realtor that this was here? Won’t it be a selling point to new buyers?”
“It might, but I only talked to the realtor over the phone. I didn’t want anyone inside until I could pack everything up and clean. What you saw in the living room is the last of our things, besides our beds in our bedrooms, and some kitchen items. Right after I returned home from seeing you, Erin, I hired one of those PODs and it’s full and in storage. They will keep it until I need it. What’s still in the house, garage, and here, I figured we could use in Colorado until we have a permanent place to live.”
“I know this isn’t my business, but have you and Scott hooked up?” Erin asked.
“Yes,” both parties answered at the same time.
“Okay, don’t worry, I’m not judging, it’s just that Manny and Ann get dibs on the first new cabin built, and the two of you can have the second one. It might be four or six months before it’s done, but you can have one.” Erin turned to Sara. “There may be another one by the time you arrive, if not, you’re more than welcome to stay in one of the bigger cabins. I just thought that if we could bring this shed with us, then we won’t have to worry about where to store all of this once we get back to Broken. We can set it up and put this stuff back inside.”
“Can we have use of it?” Ann asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I want to put in a garden, and I see the rototiller, garden tools, and the cages for tomatoes.”
“Oh, sure, it’s for anyone’s use. I just ask that you ask me first if you want to use the tractor. In case you can’t tell by looking, it takes diesel fuel.”
“Thank you for telling us,” Erin said. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
They all agreed as she and Sara showed them the rest of the stuff they needed to bring to Colorado. As they talked, Sara excused herself, and when she returned an hour later, they were still out at the building. She walked up to them and whistled to get their attention.
“Hey, I just went to the store. I have steaks, salt potatoes, corn on the cob, and the makings for a couple of salads. I thought we’d have a little cookout right here, this will keep you guys from being seen and you can relax after your long drive.”
They all thanked her, and the women and Perry headed toward the kitchen. Before Sara could say anything, Scott stood beside her with a wide grin. “Trust me, you want Perry to season the steaks. Do you remember the ones you had in Colorado?”
“Yes, and I can’t find anything that good again.”
“Thank you,” Perry looked at her with a grin.
“He’s our BBQ king,” Ryan said as he came in and carried out a cooler.
Everyone made their selves at home. It took two hours to get everything cooked and then they were sitting down to the meal. When they tried to offer Sara money for their contribution, she only gave them a look that made Julie proud. They sat around, enjoyed the meal, drank beer, talked, relaxed and enjoyed the fire. It was Clark that broke the silence.
“When do we do this shit?”
“I was supposed to call Mr. Wolfe when you guys got here, to let him know.”
“Who is that?”
“A very close family friend,” Julie said. “He is also the father of one of my best friends and he is also a Detective with the State Police.”
“Ah, so if he’s in charge of this challenge, then it will be on the up and up?”
“Yes, I trust Mr. Wolfe with my life. He was also my father’s best friend since grade school.”
“Got it,” Manny said as he nodded and looked around at the others. “Plan?”
They all grinned and Sara noticed that Julie was right in the thick of it planning along with the other women and men. She looked at Erin and Naomi at one point and they all shook their heads and listened, clueless as to what the others were talking about. In the end it took them until midnight, and they had opted to stay in Julie’s house, not wanting to be caught out in public. It wasn’t like they had anything to hide, they just didn’t want their faces shown to the assholes that had challenged Scott, and them by association.