Chapter 18 #2
Tavish watches over my shoulder as the man who currently lies dead in my front yard starts in on the door. I can’t quite see what he’s doing, but it’s obvious he’s skilled because before long the door swings open, and then he does something to the security system that keeps it from going off.
That’s about how far he gets before Sarge has hold of his wrist. I’m not even sure the man heard Sarge before the dog is on him.
Sarge grabs his wrist in his mouth and shakes it hard.
The man screams and falls out through the open front door, dragging the dog after him.
He kicks Sarge and the dog loosens his grip, but I’m pretty sure it was only loosened to get a better hold on him or to go for the other arm.
The man pulls out his gun, but before he can take the shot that would have ended Sarge’s life, the man falls back and collapses where he stands.
The masked man walks up, checks for a pulse, then drags him out of sight before taking a seat and patting Cayenne who is already prepared to make friends with him.
“This whole situation is fucked,” I say.
Tavish snorts. “I’ve noticed.”
“Help me pack some shit for Waylon. Do you know how to take down a gaming console?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you pack that up for me? Make sure you grab his spare controllers. I’m going to get a few things,” I say as I alert Cassel that someone took down the security system, which he’s not going to be pleased about. I’m pretty sure this kind is his favorite system to use.
I go into my gun shrine to choose which of my babies to take. I hate leaving them here in this unprotected house, so I decide that maybe I should pack them all up and take them with me. Honestly, it’s the smartest thing to do. One never knows when they might need all the guns.
“What… what are you doing?” Tavish asks when he peeks into the room.
“Just packing up the most important ones,” I say.
“Is that why every single gun in this room is now inside gun cases that are stacked to the ceiling? Did you even leave anything behind?”
I look around the empty room and then at the tower of cases and conclude that Tavish is just jealous of my children.
“While you did the very important job of making it so that we have to spend the next thirty minutes loading both vehicles with guns, I packed up Waylon’s console, some clothes, a few books, toothbrushes, and other essentials.”
“When the hell did you become so normal?” I ask. “I don’t like it.”
“Ellis smacked it into me. A few smacks on the ass was all it took,” he says with a waggle of his eyebrows. “Maybe he can set even you straight.”
I grimace and go back to stacking my cases. Once I have an appropriate tower, I hurry out the door and see Tucker’s cleaners pulling in.
They give me a greeting and set to work.
After my car is packed, I realize that I didn’t actually pack any clothes or anything of importance.
“I need clothes,” I comment.
“I got bored of watching you pet every gun while you tucked them into their case, so I already got you shit. We’re working against the clock here, remember?”
I raise an eyebrow while wondering if this incompetent man has somehow been replaced with a competent one. “You… you touched my husband’s underwear.”
“Sure as fuck did. I touched yours too.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“Tough shit. How long do we need to stand here? We need to move,” he says.
“Fine, fine,” I growl as I grab Blow-Up Randy.
“Why the fuck are you taking your blow-up doll?”
“What if someone breaks in and pops him?”
“You think they’re going to break in and go, ‘Damn, they’re not here, I better shiv that sex doll, just in case.’”
“That’s what I was thinking too,” I say as I step out with Randy tucked under my arm and take one look at The Fence. “What if they go after The Fence?”
Tavish gasps. “We better take it with us. You think it’ll fit on the plane? Maybe you can ride on top of the plane and hold on to the chunk of wood while we fly across the country? If you fall off, just use it like a parachute; I’m sure you’ll both survive.”
“I will fuck you up. These men are professionals. They’re going to look for my weaknesses.”
“You think they’re going to call you up and be all, ‘Hey… we got your fence. Bring us two mil before the hour’s up or the fence is gonna get it. Every minute you’re late, a plank is going in the chipper.’”
“Did I ever tell you that you cause me physical and mental pain whenever I look at you?” I ask.
“Good.”
I glower at him. “Let’s go. I’m going to drive through the mall parking lot, and then down County Road 251 before catching the highway to make sure that asshole isn’t following us.”
“Got it,” he says. “You know, I wouldn’t even have to follow you if I just took your guns to my place.”
“Hell no.”
Tavish looks disapproving for some reason. “How can you be so problematic?”
“Just keep up.”
“Don’t worry, I’m good at riding asses.”
“Ellis is too sweet for you,” I decide. “Is he going with us?”
“For… for some reason. I really wish he’d just stay home, but we nearly got in a fight over it. He’s paranoid I’m going to get hurt, but even if I do… what exactly is he going to be able to do? I’ve tried teaching him how to use a gun, and he’s as good with a gun as you are at reading the room.”
“So he’s phenomenal, then?”
“Nope.”
“He could stay with Waylon.”
“Ellis wants to be helpful even if he doesn’t know how. He nearly stabbed me with a knife yesterday just cutting potatoes. Then he acted like he’d severed an artery and vowed to never touch a knife again.”
“Tell him I’ll teach him how to get to the artery with ease so he’ll do a better job next time,” I say.
“Every evil word you speak to me is one gun that goes out the window while I drive,” Tavish growls.
I decide that silence is probably best and get into the car with my dogs, leaving the cleaners to finish up. They’re now scanning the yard for any spots of blood, and I trust that when they leave, there is no crime scene expert who could find a trace of what went on here.
Taking off with Tavish following me, I drive the most roundabout way to the safe house that I can think of. The nice thing is that Lucas put the house on a long road where you can see anyone else on it for a good distance, and the driveway is a dirt lane that one would turn onto to do field work.
After turning onto the dirt lane and following it about a hundred feet, I make a sharp turn into the trees where a house that is completely unnoticeable from the road appears among them.
I might hate Lucas with every fiber of my being, but the man does know how to fuck the best over. He’s smart, calculating, and knows exactly how to play everyone.
Maybe if I was better at that, I could keep the ones I love safe. But then wouldn’t I slowly become a monster myself?
The last thing I ever want is to become like Lucas.
When I reach the house, I drive straight into the garage, as does Tavish. After both doors are closed, I get out and let the dogs out. They’re excited to explore the place as the door to the house opens and Jackson and Waylon peek into the garage.
“Everything go alright?” Jackson asks.
“Perfectly normal,” I respond, which really isn’t even stretching the truth.
Jackson sighs… I swear that man can read my mind sometimes. “What happened?”
“The… masked man was waiting with our dogs,” I say as I pull out my phone and hand it to him so he can watch the security camera and see what happens for himself. Waylon nosily stares over his shoulder.
“This first guy gets shot,” I warn, so Jackson tips it away from Waylon during that part.
While they do that, I quickly unpack all of my guns, hoping he won’t notice.
Tavish helps by stacking them in my arms until I struggle with the weight.
Then he grins, pleased with himself while I debate whether I’d drop something if I kicked him.
Realizing that I likely would, I decide I’ll kick him at a later date and time. Preferably when he least expects it.
I have almost all of the guns in the house before Jackson is done and looks up at me. “I don’t know what’s more concerning, that a man was trying to break into our house and this guy took him out, or that you wasted time in our house packing up all of your guns when there are people after us.”
“He considered packing up that fence too,” Tavish says. “I had to be the voice of reason.”
“Voice of irritation is more like it,” I mutter.
Jackson is staring at me while I try my best to avoid his eyes, but I can’t avoid his words when he says, “Is it? Do you really find it strange that Tavish was the voice of reason here?”
I simply smile at him.
He sighs and rubs his head. “Alright, now that we’re happy that all of your guns are safe, let’s get settled in for the night.”
“Tavish, you need to see my new cat,” Waylon says, dragging him off to do that as I follow Jackson inside.
Jackson eyes me, and even though his expression clearly says, “Why did you bring so many guns?” it really feels like, “You’re a sexy beast,” which is much more fitting. “Did you actually pack anything we can use? Like clothes?”
“Of course I did,” I reply, not wanting to admit that Tavish packed the “essentials.”
“Good. I thought for sure you’d forget all about that.”
“I would never,” I say, well aware that I never thought about it once in the midst of thinking about how many guns I needed to take with me.
We head downstairs where Waylon shows off his new cat to Tavish.
I pop a leash on both of the dogs before bringing them over to meet the cat.
The cat is not even afraid of the dogs, and Sarge couldn’t care less that he exists, but Cayenne is already in love.
She’s play-bowing and rolling around and acting like a goof as she tries to reach him.
Thankfully, the cat isn’t overwhelmed by her display of love.
We keep them leashed for a little bit until it becomes obvious that the dogs won’t hurt the cat before releasing them.
Cayenne belly crawls over to the cat who is curious and sniffs her.
Once Waylon shows me what he set up for the cat while I was gone, we plug in his console and finally settle in for the night. He’s on the other side of the house since tomorrow the room next to him will be taken over by Tucker, and Waylon will share the bunk bed with Cam.
“You positive you feel okay?” I ask Waylon as Cayenne hurries in to join him. He’s on the top bunk, a single that sits over the queen mattress below it.
Cayenne thinks this is little more than an obstacle, leaping onto the queen and springing onto the top bunk. Waylon laughs while he pulls her in.
“I’m good. You showed me all of the defenses this place has. I’m pretty sure we could live through the apocalypse in here.”
“Alright. Good night,” Jackson says.
I smile at Waylon. “Sleep tight. Hopefully your new cat doesn’t keep you up all night.”
“I think he’s exhausted,” Waylon says as he eyes the cat who is already asleep next to him and Cayenne who is curled up on his other side. Why he wouldn’t sleep in the larger bed with all of the animals, I don’t know, especially because he’ll have Sarge beginning tomorrow as well.
“Night,” Waylon tells us.
“Good night,” I say before Jackson and I head toward our room.