Chapter 12 #2
“What about the eggs?” Yvonne asked. “Kevin brought some over and we shared them for breakfast.”
“Same thing, Pru gives them away, and any donations go toward their feed.”
“So, basically, though New Double is a different entity from Erin’s Way, and Broken Wheel, we are all under one entity?”
“One big happy family,” Kevin said with a grin, and everyone laughed at his analogy of the way things were laid out. They stepped outside, and Yvonne pointed to a building close to the house.
“What’s that?”
“The summer kitchen,” Lois said. “That’s where I make the horse cookies, and where I’ll be doing the canning.
” They walked over and Yvonne was impressed by the setup.
They left ten minutes later, leaving Lois to do what she had come for, and climbed back into the golf cart.
Kevin drove past the main entrance, and out to the road.
He turned back and stopped as they admired the sign that had gone up the day before.
He looked at her and smirked. “I know you know this, but I wanted you to get a feel for what people see when they arrive here at New Double. I’m not talking about the workers, I’m talking about the people coming to see the horses in order to purchase them.”
“Got it,” Yvonne said as she looked around, then waved for him to move forward. As they rounded a slight curve, he stopped and pointed.
“What?”
“That’s our office,” he said as he pulled before a log cabin the same size as the one she had moved into the day before. She hadn’t even realized it was there.
“What? I didn’t see it.”
“That’s the way Clark, Erin’s brother, had it designed. He wanted it to blend into the surroundings so that if someone wandered in off the streets, and didn’t belong, then we would see them before they saw us.”
“Wow, it worked.” They exited the cart, and when they went up onto the covered porch, he pulled out a set of keys, unlocked the door, and had her enter before him. He watched her face as she entered, and smiled at her shocked expression.
“It’s like walking into my cabin.”
“Correct, but the kitchen is on the smaller scale, while the living room area, if that’s what you want to call it, I refer to it as the reception area, is larger, but it’s functional.
Down the hall where the bedrooms are in our cabins, these are two offices, with a bathroom in the hall, not in the bedroom.
” He nodded and she walked down the hall.
Inside of one office, Kevin went to the desk, opened the drawer, and withdrew a key ring, which he brought back and handed to her.
“This is your key to the front door. I lock it after I leave for the night.” He took her across the hall and pointed to her desk.
“In the center drawer is a set of keys to the filing cabinets in here, along with keys to your desk.” He stood back and let her explore everything, and when she looked up suddenly, he only quirked a brow at him.
“Gun safe?”
Kevin grinned as he walked over to the ‘closet’ which really was one, but only had a bar taking up half of it, and on the other side was a tall gun safe.
Taped to the outside was the combination.
Just for grins, she opened it, then stopped and stared in shock at the contents.
She whipped her head around to look at him.
“What the hell?”
Kevin grinned as he lifted his hands like he was being arrested, and shook his head. “All I can say is that we work with SEALs.”
“Holy shit, is this the only gun safe in here?”
“No, I have the same type in my office. I asked Ryan about it, and he only grinned and said it’s good to be prepared.” He laughed as she shook her head, and closed the safe, pocketing the combination.
“One more thing,” he said, and indicated for her to follow him. At the end of the hall, where she assumed the door led to the outside, she was totally wrong.
“What’s this?” she asked as she entered and looked around, then stopped in her tracks when she saw all the guns mounted on the wall. She went over to inspect them, started opening drawers, saw the ammo, and shook her head. As she turned to face him, she paused as she saw several screens lit up.
“Security cameras,” Kevin said lamely with a smile. “The front entrance, here, main house, barns, track, and the barn at the track. You can pan them around to catch any blind spots, but the main areas are covered.”
“And there’s no way to get to New Double from any other area?”
Kevin walked over to the map mounted on the wall in what Yvonne mentally dubbed the war room and joined him.
“This is Broken Wheel, as you can see, it borders New Double, however, from here to here,” he said as he ran his finger over the map to indicate the distance between the two ranches. “Is roughly ten miles. Over here, is where federal land begins, and it borders the east and north of New Double.”
“Ah.”
“Correct. I don’t know the particulars, but Manchester and some of his FBI buddies were working undercover for some arms dealers and came to New Double.
The guy who quote unquote hired them, wanted to take Erin’s Way from Erin.
It didn’t happen, they are still sitting in jail awaiting trial, and no offense about what I’m about to say, but the Feds didn’t make a move until they were about a mile onto Erin’s property.
” He ran his finger over a discoloration and looked at her with a sly grin.
“Clark and his team set up in these woods, camping out, on a hunting trip. When the bad guys arrived, they stepped out of the trees, Clark said they were trespassing, and when the bad guys lifted their guns, Duane and his buddies revealed who they were.”
“Damn, it sounds interesting.”
“It was, I heard it from Ryan, but yeah, these guys take care of their own. If you need anything let Clark know, and he can get it.”
“Does he get anything from Brotherhood Protectors?”
“I believe this surveillance equipment came from them.” He pointed to the screens. “But don’t quote me.”
Yvonne nodded as she walked around to inspect everything, and when she found that there was coffee, filters, creamer, and sugar in the cupboards and refrigerator, she nodded.
“What time do you start work? What time do others arrive, what time do they leave? Should someone be here when they arrive, then leave?” At his frown, she leaned her hips against the counter.
“Okay, say the workers start arriving around six, and then Cole leaves at seven at night. Do we stay here thirteen hours, or do we break it up so that one of us is here at all times. You know, work in different shifts. You know, six to one, then eleven to seven. We can do that for a week, then switch it around.”
“I can get my head around that, do you want first or second shift tomorrow?”
“Why tomorrow?”
“Since today is Sunday…” he let his voice trail off and saw understanding on her face.
“Shit, yeah, if you don’t mind, I’ll take the second shift. I still have to unpack what I brought with me.”
“Will you need any help with that?”
“Thank you, but no, I’m good.”
“Okay, then how about going back to our cabins, I want to go over to Caleb’s for the afternoon.”
“Is that wise? Using your truck?”
He shrugged, then sighed. “I’ll chance it today, then next week we’ll have to discuss different hours if I’m to go into Fool’s Gold to change my plates.
” He looked at her with a grin. “Part of the reason I’m going over there today is to talk to him about where he got his insurance, see if I can’t use the same agent. ”
“Totally understand.” She nodded and when they left, she used her key to make sure it worked, and they rode back to their cabins in peaceful silence.