Chapter 5
C helsea heard the men approaching and swore under her breath. She hunkered down lower and deeper into the brush at the base of the tree line, hoping they wouldn’t see her. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if they did. She didn’t want to meet them in the dark, and she had no clue what the hell their problem was, other than a severe hatred of women. She figured it would probably be because of divorces or something along that line, but these men were a little too angry and adamant about women for her liking. It’s almost as if they were in a dedicated women-haters club.
“What the fuck, man? What are you bringing up your wife for?” Chad asked Hawk, as they walked onward. “You know that’s a taboo subject for us. Christ, you’re the only one who’s even still married.”
“Yeah, and I want to keep it that way.”
“Why?” Chad snapped. “She’s fucking ugly.”
“Hey, hey, hey, you want to keep things civil around here? Then you stop insulting my wife,” he snapped.
One of the other men laughed.
Hawk noted, “Back in the day none of us had wives, or, if we did, we didn’t like them, and that was what started this lovely little gang to begin with. We were the wife-haters club, the women-are-bitches club,” he shared, with a laugh. “Then slowly over time, more and more stepped out of that.”
“Just you,” Darren noted.
“No, not just me, Darren . Maybe you guys haven’t even heard, but Darren here is engaged.”
Everybody froze, and Chelsea could still see them right at the edge of her vision. She held her breath, waiting, wishing they would just get moving.
Chad gave Darren a hard smack on the shoulder. “What the fuck, man?” Chad muttered.
“What?” Darren asked. “I’m in love. I want to get married, and it’s none of your fucking business.”
“What the hell are you even here for?” Chad asked.
“I don’t know,” Darren cried out. “I have no clue, and you guys are fucking nuts. What started out as half a joke and a need to just get out and vent because we were unhappy has now turned into some poisonous little group. Just look at the way you talked to that poor woman today, Chad, even the woman from the lodge. Jesus, Rick’s wife, Julie, she’s a sweetheart, and you treat her like shit.”
“I never treated her like shit. It’s the other bitch who I treated like shit. Come on. We all agreed that nobody would get married again.”
“Sure, we all agreed to that when we were all hurting and hating,” Hawk admitted, as he walked forward, “but life doesn’t stay stagnant, Chad. You move on, or at least you hope you move on, because, Jesus Christ, you guys, this is sad. Listen to you all. You’re just pathetic.”
Darren snapped, “Two of us now have partners. Surely we don’t need to all be part of the same old women-hating group anymore.”
“What? So, you want to disband the group?” Chad asked.
“Christ, you know Rudy was looking at getting married again, right?” Darren asked, a hurting note in his tone.
“What, Rudy was divorcing his wife, the mother of his kids?” Hawk asked.
Darren nodded. “Yeah, Rudy was because he really cared about somebody else.”
“Maybe his current wife fucking popped him one,” Chad snapped.
Chelsea could barely see, but now she heard footsteps thumping on the ground as the men headed back to the lodge. She didn’t know what was going on, but, man, that conversation was something else. Just when she thought they had passed, and she was safe, a cold wet nose slipped into her hand, making her jump, which completely blew her cover.
Walton heard the rustle too.
The four men froze. “What the hell was that?” Chad asked.
Hawk nodded. “I heard something. It sounded human.”
“I don’t know about human, but a lot of birds out here talk,” George noted.
More muffled sounds came, and then there was a bark.
Walton swore, realizing that Brutus had effectively found Chelsea. It was also the kind of work that Brutus used to do, and it was a good thing on his part, but really shitty timing here. Walton should have considered that. Swearing softly, he heard the men speaking again.
“Stop being such a baby,” Chad ordered.
“He’s right, man,” Darren snapped. “All kinds of animals are out here. Just because we’ve got guns doesn’t mean that we’re prepared for any attacks.”
“Let’s just go back and grab some lunch,” Hawk added.
“We’ve got a take-out lunch, for Christ’s sake. Remember that we’re supposed to be out hunting?” Chad sneered. “You guys are no more fucking hunters than that other duo up there.”
“No, maybe not, and maybe he’s an undercover cop, looking to see if you really did kill somebody.” George sneered. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised.”
A dead silence came that quickly turned very ugly. “Do you think he is?” Chad asked.
“I don’t fucking know, and I don’t care,” George replied. “I haven’t done anything wrong, and, if you haven’t either, then leave it already.”
“I didn’t say I hadn’t done anything wrong. I just said I didn’t kill him. I didn’t kill Rudy.”
Hearing the conversation, Walton moved as quickly as he could back to Chelsea, when all of a sudden there was another bark.
Hawk said, “Get the goddamn dog back here, will you?”
With that, Chad whistled several times. “Come on, Brutus. Get over here. No fun and games for you today. God, these guys are such fucking spoilsports.”
When they saw no sign of Brutus, the men just trudged toward the hunting lodge. “He’ll come. Don’t worry,” Chad muttered.
Darren added, “Maybe it would be better if he didn’t,… considering he’s not even your fucking dog.”
At that came more ugly silence. “Let’s get one thing straight,” Chad snapped, and he sounded mad. “That is my dog, and, if you say anything else about it, we’ll have a problem.”
“I have no problem with it,” Hawk shared, “but why are you so defensive and ugly about it?”
“Because I don’t like you fucking trying to get me in trouble, and it’s my dog.”
As they walked on ahead, Walton just barely kept them in front of him, but it was hard to keep track of the conversation now. Then Walton sensed an absolutely silent movement, just a slip of a motion beside him. He turned, and there was Brutus. Walton grinned, squatted, and opened his arms. Brutus flung himself into them and gave Walton a raucous welcome. The rustling in the bush may have been responsible for the sudden silence of the men, which then had them speeding up their footsteps as they raced away.
“Good boy,” Walton murmured to Brutus, “good boy.” Hearing something else, he turned to see Chelsea straighten up ever-so-slightly. He smiled. “You can come over here and say hi.”
She raced to his side. “He shoved his nose into my hand,” she whispered, as she bent down to cuddle Brutus. “Startled me, and I was scared he would let them know I was here.”
“I was a little worried for your sake too,” he admitted. “Another reason you should stay home next time.”
“Yet I didn’t want to,” she said, with spirit, glaring at him.
“I knew that,” he agreed, with a nod, “but how about now?”
“We don’t want to come in right behind them, so I suggest we skirt around. A lake is about one mile away on the other side over here,” she shared.
“How do you know? Had you been there before?”
“Yes, but I’d forgotten. Julie told me, if we got tired of their fighting, that the water feature was off to the side, but the opposite direction of where we went, and that’s when I remembered it.”
He paused, looked around, and then nodded. “Might not be a bad idea. We don’t want those guys to think that we’re out here following them.”
“Which we were,” she admitted, with a shrug, “so it would make sense if they thought that.”
“Maybe, but we don’t want to confirm that,” he pointed out.
And, with Brutus at their side, who appeared to have no intention of leaving them alone, Walton turned them to the right, even as she started to go off a different way. He shook his head.
“What?” she asked in exasperation, her hands on her hips.
“Wrong direction,” he noted, with a gentle smile. Then he pointed. “The hunting lodge is there.”
She frowned and shrugged. “I’ll trust you on this one, but if you’re wrong…”
“I know,” he replied, with a grin. “If I’m wrong, I’m the one who’s in trouble.”
She laughed. “I don’t imagine trouble is quite the right word, but the sooner we’re away from whatever direction those guys were traveling, the better.”
And, with that settled, they picked up the pace and moved rapidly toward the lake. She looked down at Brutus. “What about him?”
“What about him?” Walton asked in the same tone.
“I don’t like the idea of Chad thinking the dog disobeyed him.”
“Brutus did disobey Chad, and that’s a concern because obviously Brutus would rather be with us than with Chad. That tells us how the War Dog feels about Chad.”
“He also was pretty adamant that the dog is his.”
“Yeah, and I am also adamant about checking out the police report on the man who was beaten up and lost the dog,” Walton shared, “because I’m starting to get a pretty good idea who did it.”
“Jesus, would Chad really do that?”
“What do you think?”
“Yeah, you don’t even need to ask me again,” she muttered. “Chad absolutely would do that. He’s just that kind of belligerent asshole.”
“Let me send a text, if we have any cell service among this tree cover. If not, at least I can get it written up.” As they walked, their pace a little slower, he quickly texted the detective he’d spoken with earlier. With that Sending but not yet sent, he smiled at her. “At least now we have a better idea of what’s going on.”
“No, we don’t,” she countered, frowning at him. “Every one of them is saying they didn’t have anything to do with the killing of their friend, and they’re all basically saying the dog isn’t Chad’s.”
“That’s because the dog isn’t his, but, for whatever reason, he ended up with it. Whether he beat up the guy himself, or during the beating he decided to take the dog, I don’t know. However, we can obviously see that the dog doesn’t obey him and doesn’t know him, outside of maybe Chad being the one who brought Brutus here. Dogs have particular loyalties, and, if Brutus has an owner to go back to, you can bet Brutus will want to return to him.”
“But only if he was well treated there too.”
“Exactly, but I don’t have any reason to believe that the man who was beaten up abused the dog. Brutus is a beautiful dog, in good shape but slightly handicapped by his past injuries. Brutus would have been able to relate to his retired veteran owner on so many levels.”
“Right, Brutus is not currently injured though, right? It’s not as if these guys have hurt him any more than he already was, correct?”
“No, I don’t believe so,” Walton replied, with a nod, “and that’s a very distinctive point because I don’t think they’ve beaten him up any more than he may have already been beaten up in terms of life and war in general.”
She smiled. “That is something you should recognize.”
He shrugged. “To a certain extent, yes, but, other than that, it’s just life. I got beaten up too, but I’m still here and still kicking.”
She chuckled. “I would think so, and you’re doing a mighty fine job of it.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know about that, but I am still kicking, and you know more about my condition than I do.”
“I know that you’re still working at it,” she shared, “although you canceled our last appointment. Why is that?”
He nodded and then squared his shoulders, and she felt his guard going up. “I did. I wasn’t feeling so great.” When she raised an eyebrow, he shrugged. “I ended up getting more surgery and needed to lay low, to recover a bit.”
“But then,” she added, “you used it as an excuse to not come back in again.”
He grinned at her. “What’s the matter? Did you miss me?”
“Maybe,” she replied. “We’ve worked together for quite a while, and it’s hard when patients suddenly decide that they’re independent and don’t need me anymore. It’s almost like being jilted.”
He burst out laughing, but, when he realized she was serious, he stopped. “I hadn’t considered that, but you’re right. You do spend a lot of time and effort invested in our care, and it really was thoughtless of me to not follow up.”
She shrugged. “You and everybody else in this day and age,” she muttered. “It’s fairly common, even though I can’t say I like it.”
“Of course not,” he admitted, “and it’s a good reminder. I hadn’t considered your feelings at all, and I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to consider my feelings,” she pointed out, “because I’m fine. I was just wondering if you were doing okay because you canceled, then never rescheduled. I don’t have a recent follow-up on you, so I don’t really know what shape you’re in right now.”
“I’m doing fine, as you can see.”
“I can see, and I’m glad,” she said, with a smile. “It still doesn’t change the fact that you canceled the appointment.”
He chuckled. “I did, but I promise I’ll come back again.” And he smiled at her. “It’s really nice to see you out here, outside of the office, out where you’re not forcing me to do shit that I don’t want to do.”
It was her turn to laugh. “You know it’s for your own good.”
“Of course I do, but since when is knowing that something is for your own good also easy to stomach?” He held out a hand to her.
She grabbed his hand, and the two of them walked together with a sense of peace and camaraderie. When they exited the forest, she stopped and gasped in awe at the lake before them.
He nodded. “Julie was right. This is spectacular.”