Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
“All right, folks! Gather around!” Mr. Wolfe called out two days later to the crowd that had gathered. When he had everyone’s attention, he stood tall, and began, “We are here today because Jimmy John challenged Scott to see who the better man was for taking on The Oasis.” Mr. Wolfe looked at Scott and shrugged when the man who had his face painted stood next to several others with the same green and black paint smeared on their faces.
“There are rules here,” Mr. Wolfe continued. “These men,” he said as he pointed to Scott and the others. “Are all former military. Jimmy John called one of our own a cripple for losing her leg while serving her country. That’s how this all started. Scott took exception to it and defended his lady.”
“Bullshit!” came a cry on the other side of the gathering. “She’s mine!”
“Like hell!” Julie said coldly, and watched as several of the men with Boom-Boom shivered as she looked at them. It was ninety-seven degrees already, so it must have been her look, or the coldness of her voice that caused that reaction.
“That’s why we are here.” Mr. Wolfe said. “It will be Boom-Boom Garrison and his entourage against Scott and his. No weapons will be allowed unless it is a bean bag gun. No knives, no throwing stars, no guns that shoot real bullets. If there are any, you will be arrested on the spot. I have a dozen officers here to keep the peace. Are there any other stakes at risk?”
“Yes,” Sara said as she stepped up to her sister. She didn’t know if she liked that it looked like the entire town seemed to be in attendance. “If Scott and his team wins, then we demand that Boom-Boom and his mother tell the truth.”
“About?” Mr. Wolfe asked with a smirk.
“Mrs. Garrison tells all present about the lies she’s been spreading about my family to anyone who will listen. She is to tell the truth about our house. And know that I have documentation to back up what she will say. If she says the truth. If she doesn’t, then I will go to my friend down at the paper.”
“I’m here,” came a voice in the distance and they all turned to allow a tall, lanky man in his mid-twenties to come through. “Don’t worry, I’ll post today’s entire event.”
“Mrs. Garrison, do you agree?”
“Since I have never lied, I have no problem with what she’s asking.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, Boom-Boom has to reveal the truth as to why he lied about that last game where he wasn’t recruited by the NFL.”
The entire crowd held their breath and Julie and Sara exchanged looks. Julie saw hatred come into Boom-Boom’s face when he looked at them, then at his mother. At her nod, he said, “Fine. I agree.”
“Okay, now Boom-Boom, what are the stakes if you win?”
“When me and my boys win, then Julie will marry me, and her snot-nosed little brat of a sister will get the hell out of town and never return.”
“Like hell,” Scott whispered from beside Julie, and wrapped an arm around her.
“I accept,” Julie said, and turned to Scott. “Take them out.”
“With pleasure.”
“Sir,” Mr. Wolfe called out and everyone looked at him, then looked to where he was looking. “Is there a problem?”
“Gould!” Reid barked out.
“Sir!” Scott actually saluted him, because Reid was higher in command than he was.
“Sand? You have us doing this shit in the fucking sand?”
It took everything Scott had in him not to smirk.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Then tell me there are no fucking camels in the area.”
Scott lost it, he looked at the other men and when they busted out in a gigantic grin and started laughing, Scott did the same. He had to bend over and grip his stomach. “No, Sir, not that I know of.”
“Thank fucking god.” He looked around, then back at Mr. Wolfe. “Sorry, I’m ready now.”
“That looks like there’s a story there,” Mr. Wolfe smiled.
“There is, but if I told you, I’d have to kill you,” Reid deadpanned, and Mr. Wolfe swallowed hard. Julie noticed that several of the towns people took a step back after that statement, Boom-Boom included. She turned a smile onto her sister when they both saw doubt creep into his expression.
“Understood.”
“Why?” Boom-Boom asked, but he swallowed hard and wiped his upper lip and brow first.
“Military secrets,” they all spoke as one.
Before anyone could say anything, Mr. Wolfe spoke, “Okay, Boom-Boom, who is on your team?” Everyone watched as twenty-four men stepped forward. Some of the other police there had the spectators step back and everyone got a good look at the participants.
“Scott?” Mr. Wolfe asked and twelve men and women stepped forward.
“We don’t play with no girls,” Boom-Boom called out.
“Good,” Opal said as she waved her stump in the air. “Because I’m Army, and I’m a woman.”
Again, Mr. Wolfe didn’t wait for anything to be discussed between the teams and he called out the rules. “Okay, because they had no idea what The Oasis is, we are going to allow Scott and his teammates a ten-minute head start to go in, get their bearings, then wait. They will give a signal that they are ready, then Boom-Boom and his team will go in and find them.”
“Why?” Someone in the audience called out. “Why aren’t the military people going after Boom-Boom?”
“Because Jimmy John opened his mouth and said that the military are worthless, and he disrespected Julie Truman, Scott, and anyone who ever wore a uniform. I myself am a Marine. I take exception to what Jimmy said. If they don’t believe in the military, then they can go in and find them. Again, there will be only bean bag guns allowed.”
“How do we know when Boom-Boom wins?” Mrs. Garrison called out, and it took everything Julie had not to snort a laugh.
“You’ll know the winner when they are standing in front of us, and you have to go in and get your own people,” Julie informed her.
The entire crowd froze when they heard a loud horn, and Mr. Wolfe grinned as he looked at his watch. “Very good, it only took them six minutes to get in position.” He continued to look at his watch and just before he called for Boom-Boom and his posse to enter The Oasis, he looked at them sternly. “You have one hour to find them and be back here.”
“We won’t need that long,” Boom-Boom bragged, and when Mr. Wolfe fired off a gun to indicate they should enter, and it also warned Scott and his team that they were coming.
He walked up to Julie and smiled. “How long do you expect it will take?”
“My money’s on Scott and his team. I’d say they’ll be back here in forty-five minutes.”
Her words set off a flurry of bets from the audience, and it seemed like the biggest person talking smack was Mr. and Mrs. Garrison.
Scott paused with his back to the tree and slowed his breathing down, then smiled without revealing his teeth when he heard Ann’s voice in his ear. The night they’d arrived they’d gotten the information, and didn’t really do any planning until the next day, and it had been decided that the women would be in the trees giving the men directions as to where any of the disrespectful assholes were. He didn’t consider it cheating, because if this had been a real military mission, they would have spotters. Besides, the only rule was no weapons that could penetrate the skin.
“Gould, ten yards on your six,” came the voice in his ear.
He froze, evened his breathing, and whispered, “Understood.”
“Eight, six, four, two,” came the calm voice.
Scott waited until he saw the man and grinned when it was Boom-Boom himself. Instead of shooting him with the bean bag gun, he took the gun off his chest, set it against the tree, and when Boom-Boom had his back to him, Scott crept up behind him on silent feet, wrapped his arm around his neck, and put him in a sleeper hold. As soon as he helped the man to the ground, he got out a set of the zip ties and tied his hands behind his back. He looked up at a sound and grinned when Ryan and Manny had a man each over their shoulders. They tossed the men on the ground and tied their hands the same way Scott had, then they sat them up and had them back-to-back with their hands tied together.
“Oh, I like that,” Scott laughed quietly, and then they looked up when they saw the women join them.
“What’s up?”
“Those were the last three,” Marcia said as she pointed to Boom-Boom, Jimmy John, and another man Scott recognized from the place Julie had purchased their truck. They started making bird calls, then voices came over the earwigs, and Scott led the way back to where they’d entered.
“How many shots were fired?”
“None, we took them all out like you did,” Ryan grinned. With his eye patch, and the paint on his face, it was a sinister look.
As they walked toward the entrance, the others joined them, so when they approached the people on the beach, they were all in a group. It was the classic military formation with on person in front, and the others fanned out after them. It would have normally been Clark in the lead, because of his rank, but since this was all Scott’s doing, they told him to take the lead.
“Holy shit,” someone called out, and the entire group turned to watch the team come out of the woods, and the first thing they did was grab a bottle of water and down it.
“Your people are in there,” Scott used his gun to point toward the path they had just stepped off. “They’re on the path,” he said to Mr. Wolfe, and it was him a few of his men and about ten townspeople that rushed in.
“How long?” Scott asked Julie as she rushed up and hugged him. He wanted to kiss her, but he didn’t want to get the grease paint on her face. She didn’t have any problem with it, because she grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him.
“Thirty-seven minutes from the last one of you stepping into The Oasis, to the first one stepping out. How many bean bags did you deploy?”
“None.”
“How did you get them, then?” Sara asked in shock.
“We put them to sleep, then tied their hands together.”
They turned at a ruckus and started laughing when Mr. Wolfe and another police officer escorted Boom-Boom out. The three tied together were all trying to lead, but the way they were tied, they were going in circles. Scott enjoyed the wide grin on Mr. Wolfe’s face. The police officers stopped before the crowd, then they waited until the others came out and found them all in the same position as Boom-Boom.
“Why three together?” Mr. Wolfe asked as he withdrew his pocket knife and started cutting the zip ties. He looked at Scott with a raised brow.
“Because it would have been hard for them to get away,” Scott said after looking at the other men, and receiving a nod from them. “If they were smart enough two could work together to travel, three, not so much. It’s a trick we learned on one of our missions.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Boom-Boom demanded as soon as he was free and started rubbing his wrists.
“Scott Gould, US Navy SEAL.” Scott didn’t expect the reaction his announcement garnered, but he stood there in shock, along with everyone else, when Boom-Boom turned and punched Jimmy John square in the face. Both men screamed and Scott saw Mr. Wolfe roll his eyes as he radioed in for a medic. While they waited for them to arrive, Boom-Boom screamed at Jimmy.
“You fuckwad! You said he was nothing but some washed up Army dude.”
“Hey,” Opal said loudly as she stepped forward. “I resent that statement. There is nothing wrong with the Army.”
“I agree,” Ann said as she stepped forward.
“Are all the women Army?” Boom-Boom asked. Julie saw then that he started to come to the realization that not all military people were bad.
“No,” Julie said as she stepped up to stand beside Opal and Ann. “All the men are Navy SEALs, these two women are Army, I am Navy,” she paused to turn to look at the others, and nodded as they stepped up to join her.
“National Guard,” Marcia said.
“Marines,” Adele said.
“Air Force,” Pru said, and they turned to Erin and Naomi.
“I own and operate a three-thousand-acre ranch,” Erin said proudly. She held up her right stump and nodded. “I got this when I was in an accident where my parents were killed.”
“Two,” Reid said as he came up to her and put his hands on her shoulders. He looked at the men in front of him. “She owns and operates two ranches on that acreage.”
“I own and operate the third ranch,” Naomi said as she stood beside Erin. Clark and the other men came up behind the women and laid their hands on their shoulders, forming a united front to the people before them. The only woman that didn’t have a man standing behind her was Sara, but Scott reached over and placed his hands on her shoulder, showing the people before them that he had her back, as well as Julie’s.
“I don’t allow my people to be hung out to dry,” Erin said coldly. “When Scott called and said what went down, we had to come to his and Julie’s rescue. In case you didn’t get it through your thick head yet, Julie and Sara are ours.” She looked around, then back at Boom-Boom. “Now, get on with your confessions and apologies, I have places to be and a few ranches to run. I don’t have time for pissants like you, I want to go home.”
It must have been something she said, or her expression, but Boom-Boom couldn’t look at them. He turned to the crowd. “Fine, what Sara Truman said was correct. I faked my ankle injury because I didn’t want to join the NFL.” He ignored his parents when they started protesting.
“Why?” Sara asked. “I’m not asking why you didn’t want to join, that’s your business. I want to know why you faked the injury and when you returned home you played it up like it was a gigantic deal.”
“Sales,” Boom-Boom said with a defeated look. “After I returned, people started coming to the dealership and I was able to sell them a car.”
“But your cars are lemons,” Darcy said as she stood beside Julie.
“I know that, but it still brought in business. I could talk them into trading up to a better vehicle. We did everything legally, it’s just that we started out selling them a lemon.”
“That’s dishonest,” Julie said. “These people come to you because you’re cheap, you sell them their first car, or a second car if they have a family, and yet the lemons you sell nickel and dime them to death with the repair charges. I imagine that causes these people to go further into debt, for what? For you to get a good laugh?”
“We’ll be coming in to check out your operation on Monday,” Mr. Wolfe said coldly, then turned to Boom-Boom’s mother.
“What do you have to say?”
“Nothing.”