Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Caleb crept to the rear of the cabin where Tessa’s father supposedly was. The location he’d sent to Tessa over that phone call.
The squat structure looked like a stiff breeze would blow it over. One of the windows around back had been smashed and boarded up with wood planks. He wanted to get a full circle look at the place but had to be able to do it without being seen by anyone inside the house.
Pine trees towered over the structure, and they had dropped needles all over the roof. One of the gutters was completely clogged.
Caleb could see his breath in front of him. The daytime temperature wasn’t much higher than the early morning chill, and he wondered if there was a winter storm on the forecast.
Probably better not to be out here overnight if he could help it. Even if he had spent time in worse places.
To the left of the cabin he spotted three ATVs. That meant at least three people inside the house, unless one of them belonged to the man he’d seen, and shot, in the woods. Two plus Tessa’s father at the least. Maybe more.
He wanted to say he had faced worse odds, but considering Tessa was on her way here he didn’t think he’d ever been in a situation like this before.
He stopped and asked for wisdom, praying for their protection and asking for justice.
He still didn’t even consider contacting the sheriff’s department.
He didn’t want to coordinate with anyone else, adding so many more variables to the mix.
Not just that, but he needed to keep this situation under wraps for as long as he could.
He crept out from behind cover, praying he wasn’t seen. All the way over to the ATVs. The closest one had wide enough tire tracks that it could have been the vehicle in front of the preacher’s on the highway. The vehicle used to lure him off the road.
Caleb pulled out his multitool and flicked it open.
He cut the fuel line on the underside of the ATV, then did the same with the other two.
With them leaking that liquid into the dirt, he crept back to the bushes and moved down the side of the house to the front.
He hunkered down in a spot where he could see the front door.
This was the kind of place anyone could enter at any time.
A pitstop used in hunting season, or for anyone who came upon the structure.
A refuge for anyone to get out of the weather.
No one kept up with repairs or maintained the spot, but a person in need might be able to find a couple of cans of chili and a blanket inside.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
Caleb slid it out and saw Tessa was calling. “Hey.”
“I have the envelope and I’m almost there.”
“What did you tell Pops?”
“Nothing, like you said.” She paused a moment. “Do you really think this is going to work?”
“It’s not an army. It’s just a few guys, and they’re the kind who were paid to be here.
They don’t have any loyalty at risk in this,” he said.
“So when you get here, show them the envelope but don’t move away from the car.
I need you to be close to cover if it comes down to it.
The car will give you something to duck behind. ”
“You think they’re going to shoot at me!”
He tried to keep his voice low so that he wasn’t discovered.
“There’s a slim chance. Don’t quit on me now, Tess.
If you didn’t want to be in this situation, you could have just called the sheriff’s department and told them what your dad said to you.
You’d have let them take care of the whole thing. ”
“You’re probably better at stuff like this than the entire department.”
Caleb tried not to let that complement go to his head. “I will be here to keep you safe, but you also need to do what you can to keep yourself safe. If it comes down to it.”
“Okay, I can do that,” she said.
“They need to see the envelope, but I need them to come outside. So don’t make any move to go toward the house. Get them to come to you so that I can get a head count of how many there are.”
“What about my dad?”
Caleb gripped the phone, one knee in the dirt. Trying to be reassuring while he also tried to gear himself up for the fight ahead. “We need them to bring him outside. So you’re going to demand they bring your father outside so you can see him before they get anywhere near the envelope. Got it?”
“Okay,” Tessa said. “I just pulled off the highway. I should be there in a couple of minutes.”
“Can you do this?” He didn’t want to doubt her, but she also needed to understand what she was getting in the middle of.
“I want to help.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to put your life in danger. Or that you might want to.”
“I want my nice, normal and safe life back.”
Caleb wondered if that would even be possible at this point. Her peace had been shattered, but if she needed to do this to feel like she was working to get her sense of security back then he wasn’t going to argue. “Say a prayer before you get out of the car.”
“I feel like I haven’t stopped.”
“Me too,” he said. “God has this in His hands, right?”
“Absolutely.” She hung up on him then. Probably to give herself a few seconds before she came into view of the cabin so that she could collect herself. She’d get out of the car at least attempting to look calm and collected.
Caleb spotted the front end of her car between the trees and turned to watch the cabin. The curtain moved in the front window as someone looked out, but he didn’t see who stood inside. At least not enough to make out any features.
She parked the car and shut the engine off. A long second later Tessa pushed the door open holding the envelope. She stared at the cabin.
The front door to the structure opened and a man stepped out. Jeans and boots, a gray T-shirt and heavy blue jacket. “Bring me the envelope.”
His voice boomed across the clearing.
Tessa pulled in on herself for a second, then rallied and lifted her chin. “I want to see my father first.”
He was proud of her that she didn’t pretend like she had no idea what was happening. This man wasn’t going to respect a woman who just wailed questions the whole time. She needed to be decisive—and he’d told her exactly that.
Still, they had surprised this guy enough that it took him a second before he turned back to the door. He said something too low for Caleb to hear. Probably Tessa too.
Another man came out, holding onto the preacher.
Miles Ashland looked years older than the last time Caleb had seen him.
Maybe not just from what he’d been through today, but it was certainly a factor.
He had blood down the side of his face and on his T-shirt.
His head dipped, and he swayed slightly as he walked. The other man kept him steady.
Tessa gasped, lifting her hand to cover her mouth.
Caleb had talked her through this as well but seeing it with her own eyes was a whole lot different than him explaining what she might likely see.
No one else came out of the house.
He shifted his rifle and lined up the sights. The guy holding up Miles had a gun pointed at the preacher’s chest but didn’t have his finger on the trigger. It would take him a second to be able to fire. That gave Caleb a distinct advantage—but not one that would last long.
“Let him go!” Tessa yelled across the clearing.
“We trade,” the man replied.
Before he took a single step toward her, Caleb put pressure on the trigger of his weapon and squeezed. The man crumpled to the ground in front of the cabin.
He shifted his aim and watched for less than a second as the man holding Miles looked around, trying to figure out where the shot had come from. Moving his gun to point at the preacher’s chin.
Caleb squeezed again.
Both the man and Miles crumpled to the ground, but the gun didn’t go off. Thank you, Lord. Caleb left his rifle where it was and ran over, pulling his pistol from the holster on his hip just in case.
Tessa met him there, breathing hard as she crouched next to her father. “Dad.” She rolled him to his back, and he flopped there, unconscious.
“Is he alive?” Caleb didn’t want to ask it quite that definitively, but she needed to check for a pulse.
“He’s breathing, but he’s unconscious.”
Unlike the two guys Caleb had shot before they could kill him—or Tessa and her father. He scanned around the cabin quickly, glancing every way just to make sure there wasn’t a third man in the area around them.
He needed to check the cabin as well and did so as quickly as he could. The smell in there was pretty bad and the living conditions weren’t much better. But he didn’t find any more bad guys.
Back outside he said, “Let’s load your father into your car so you can take him to the hospital. It will be quicker than waiting for an ambulance.”
“What about a medical helicopter? There’s one in the area.”
“I’m not sure this clearing is big enough for them to land.” He crouched next to the first man and picked the guy’s pockets, collecting everything he found. Wallet and phone. Even some cash. He would drop that in the collection plate the next time he went to Sunday service.
The other guy had two phones on him, as well as his wallet.
Caleb shoved it all in his backpack and collected up his rifle. He helped Tessa get her father up, carrying most of the older man’s weight all the way to the car where they laid him on the backseat.
He walked with her around to the driver’s side. “Drive fast but be careful. Keep your eyes open just in case. You don’t want to get in an accident on the way to the hospital.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“Yep.”
Tessa moved closer to him, touching the sides of his face. “No, I mean it. Thank you so much for helping me get him back, Caleb.”
He nodded, swallowing against the lump in his throat. “You’re welcome.” He lifted his chin. “You should get out of here.”
She slid in the car and pulled out, turning in a circle in front of the house.
Caleb slid his backpack from his shoulders and dropped it to the ground. He kept the rifle in front of him, shifting the strap over his shoulder so that it was across his body. If he had to drop it and run he could bring it with him.
A redhead man stepped out from between the trees, over by the ATVs.
“You’ll find those won’t get you anywhere,” Caleb called out to him. “Guess you’re out of luck.”
The man had a pistol in one hand. Probably a knife somewhere on his person. A tattoo snaked out of the collar of his jacket up to his ear on the left side of his neck. Tattoos on the back of both hands, and on his fingers. The guy you messed with in an alley, or on the prison yard.
“So what’s it gonna be?”
The man grinned, flashing pearly white teeth. “Tell me where the envelope is and I won’t pay that pretty lady a visit.”
“I don’t know what envelope you’re talking about.”
“That’s a shame. I guess she and I will have a nice visit. I’ll be the one showing her how a real man treats a girl like that.”
Gross. “You’re not going to get anywhere near her.”
He grinned again. “I guess we’ll see who gets what they want. After you toss those weapons aside and we figure this out like men should.”
“You go first.”
He laughed, raised his gun—
Caleb squeezed the trigger of the rifle but missed. The other man’s gun fired. Caleb felt the impact of the shot in the center of his vest. He landed on the ground, blinking at the sky.
Didn’t let go of his rifle.
Caleb lifted his head and shoulders off the ground, far enough he could see the other man coming over.
Caleb squeezed the trigger and the man dropped.
Now the problem was taken care of.