CHAPTER FOUR
“She wasn’t married when we gave her the referral to the Feed Store,” said Ham. Zane looked down at the receipt for the food and then back at the others.
“This isn’t from the Feed Store,” he frowned. “I didn’t even look at it. It’s from a company called Wild Feed.”
“We don’t do business with them,” frowned Gator. “Hiro? Call Tom down at the Feed Store and find out what the hell is happening.” Hiro nodded, turning back to his cave.
“She looked scared and those bruises were varying ages,” said Zane. “I’ve become somewhat of an expert with them over the years.”
“Hey, Gator? Feed Store answered as Wild Feed. When I asked for Tom, they said he died and the store went to his nephew.”
“We would have heard if Tom died. He’s been around these parts for years.”
“No obituary that I can find,” said AJ.
“I think we go introduce ourselves,” said Ham.
The drive to the Feed Store was only about fifteen minutes but you would have thought they were preparing for war on the western front with as many men as were in the vehicle.
There were a couple of cars in the parking lot and that struck them all as odd. Unless you were picking up feed for a dog or cat, you would generally need a pick-up truck or flatbed. Not a sporty, two-door, coupe.
“Something is wrong,” said Ham. When they reached the door, they heard it.
“You were supposed to get right back here!” screamed a man. The sound of a slap resonated in the room and Zane tried to push forward. Cowboy held him back, shaking his head and pointing down the aisle.
“I-I did come back. It took me a minute to drop the feed,” said a familiar voice.
“You fucking bitch,” said another male. “Knew you’d be trouble. Guess we just have to teach…”
“Teaching someone something?” asked Gator.
At six-feet-six Gator was not a man you would mistake for easy to overcome. To top that with the size of Ham, Cowboy, Matt, and Christopher, the three men in the shop suddenly stilled.
“Hey, friend, we didn’t see you come in,” said the man behind the counter. He was still gripping the woman’s arm and Ham stared at him.
“Looks like you’re hurting your employee. Let her go,” he said calmly.
“She ain’t my employee, bitch is my wife and I can treat her how I like,” he snarled.
“Well,” said Christopher, “you can either let her go all by yourself or I can make you let her go and you won’t like how that ends.”
The man stared at the woman, then back at the group of men. Before he could think twice, he let go of her, shoving her to the floor. He thought she’d stay but instead, Zane was there to pick her up and pull her back.
“Where’s Tom?” asked Ham.
“Ain’t here no more. I’m his nephew. He left the place to me.” The man smirked at him and the other two did as well.
“You three have got to be the worst liars on the planet but if you decide to take up poker, let me know. Now, I know that Tom wasn’t your uncle because Tom had no nieces and nephews. He had one daughter who served in the Gulf War, died in the line of duty. That was it.”
“People surprise folks all the time,” said one of the men quietly.
“Blake? You okay, honey?” asked Ham.
“No, sir,” she said. “I had no idea you all were in the area.”
“Are you this man’s wife?” She nodded. “By force?” She nodded again.
“You fucking bitch liar!” yelled the man who’d abused her when they walked in. Gator slammed his fist into his face so hard, he wasn’t sure the man would ever get up. Nor did he care.
“I-I asked you for a referral and I spoke to Tom. He was wonderful. He said for me to come down and I could work here part-time while attending vet school. Except when I got here, he wasn’t here.
Those three were. He said if I didn’t marry him, they’d blame me for Tom’s death and all three of them would use me.
“I tried to call you but they took my phone, took everything from me. They made me wear this stupid walkie-talkie that they could track me on. I’m sorry,” she said looking up at Zane, “I wanted to tell you. You seemed nice.”
“It’s okay,” he nodded holding her beneath his arm and slightly behind him. Zane didn’t quite have the muscle mass as the other men but he was tall, physically well-built and was a man used to using his hands, mostly in self-defense.
“I’m going to ask one more time,” said Ham pulling the man up off the floor and slamming him against the wall. “Where is Tom?”
The room suddenly exploded in a roar of gun fire and animal feed, spilling the contents all over the floors. Zane pushed Blake to the ground, covering her with his body as the others swarmed toward the windows.
Two of the men who had worked at the store were lying in pools of their own blood, the third was gasping for air against the wall.
Before they could make their way outside, the two pick-up trucks raced down the road and disappeared around the bend.
They slowly stood, staring at the mess made by the gunfire. The man against the wall was taking short, raspy breaths.
“Who are you working for?” asked Ham. The hissing sound of air leaving his lungs but not returning made them all know he was about to die. “Who?”
“Ca- Ca-,” he whispered the last syllables of his life. Ham looked at the others and nodded.
“Call the sheriff and coroner, then call home for help.”