Angered Seasons: The Worst Birthday Ever (Volume One) (6 page)

“And what about us? You left us out.”

“Well, obviously, I’m the mature and brave
one that will keep everyone from panicking.” He grinned. “And
you’ll be the one that ends up rocking in a corner after you lose
your mind.”

“Bah! I will not! I’m the super awesome one
that will kick ass.”

His chuckle sounded against my ear. “I don’t
doubt it.”

There was a honk outside and I reluctantly
let go of him to see who had made it to join us. Max and Lizzy were
pale as they ran into the building. Lizzy scanned the room quickly
and threw her arms around me when she spotted me. Her short black
hair was held back with a pale pink bandana that matched her tank
top. Her black jeans hugged her slightly thicker frame all the way
down her legs where they tucked into calf high black leather boots
with a one inch heel. She pulled back, wiped her hands over her
face to get rid of the tears spilling from her dark brown eyes, and
smiled.

“Sorry. I promised myself I wouldn’t
cry.”

I smiled and gave her another hug. “Don’t
worry about it.” I gave Max a hug. He was dressed in his usual blue
jeans, work boots, and t-shirt. He ran a hand through his blond
hair and I could see the fear in his light green eyes even though
he tried to hide it. He put an arm around Lizzy’s shoulders and
pulled her close.

Everyone jumped at the sound of the overhead
door being opened. I ran to Lane’s side.

“Are you crazy?”

He shook his head and ran out to the truck. I
watched as he drove into the shop and was followed by Pete in his
half ton. Jason pulled the door shut as quickly as he could.

“Why the hell would you do that?” I tried to
keep my voice from shaking.

“In case we need to make a quick escape.”
Lane was pulling blankets out of the bags we had brought and was
handing them out to everyone. “If they come out this far and find
us and start to break in, we can jump in the trucks and drive out
of here.” He looked at me as he handed me my favorite blanket and
pillow. “Gabs, it’s ok. We made sure there weren’t any out there
first.”

I noticed everyone was looking at us. Marie
whispered something to Pete. Lane didn’t seem to notice.

“Pete, you and Marie can take the office. Max
and Lizzy, you guys can sleep in the upstairs storage. Jason…”

“I’ll take the one ton.” Jason took his
blankets and went off without another word.

Marie elbowed Peter who rolled his eyes. “I
spilled a bunch of pop on the bench in my truck.”

“That’s alright.” Lane waved off the
inconvenience. “Gabs, you can take the back room. I’m going to stay
up.”

I glanced up at the clock over the door. Two
in the morning. I made my way to the coffee pot and started it up
while everyone headed off to their designated sleeping areas.

“What are you doing?” Lane handed me two
cups.

“I don’t think I can sleep.” I put cream and
sugar into mine. “Those kids are acting weird.”

Lane grunted. “They’ve been through a lot
tonight.” We went to sit on the couch we’d set up in one corner of
the shop. That and a table and a few chairs made up our break area.
“How are you doing?”

I shrugged, reached over to the small
television, and grabbed the remote. “It’s been a weird night.” I
took a sip of my coffee and lay down so my head was on his lap.
“What channel should we try?”

“Go to CTV. Maybe they have an update for
here.” His hand smoothed my hair then rested on the top of my head.
The regular programming was on though there was a warning scrolling
across the bottom of the screen: Authorities are strongly advising
to stay indoors. Lock your doors. Stay tuned for updates that may
occur.

A rerun of the Simpsons came on and Lane
chuckled as Homer tried to choke the life out of Bart. It was such
a small thing, but the familiarity of me lying on his lap while we
watched TV was enough to take the edge off of our situation. As the
adrenaline started to wear off, I found myself drifting off to
sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I stretched with a yawn and was glad that
Lane tightened his hold around my waist to keep me from falling off
the couch. I pulled the covers up and gazed around the shop. I
could hear voices coming from the office and snores coming from the
open window of the one ton. The smell of fresh coffee made its way
to me and my stomach grumbled.

“Are you awake?” Lane’s voice was just a
whisper.

“Yeah.” I wiggled around so I faced him.
“You?”

He raised an eyebrow at me and I grinned.
“I’ve been up for about forty-five minutes. I didn’t want to move
in case I woke you up.” He pressed his lips to my forehead.

“Oops. Sorry.” Pete set two cups of coffee
down. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

I sat up and grinned. “You’re not
interrupting anything.”

He grunted. “Alright, then.”

“Pete! Can you bring me the diaper bag,
please? Ashley just puked everywhere. I need some wipes.”

“Coming!” He turned back to us. “So?”

I rolled my eyes. “Sorry.”

Jason pulled his long frame out of the truck
and joined us after getting a coffee. “Do we have a plan for
today?”

Lane nodded. “I want to head into town. If
the stores are open, we’ll stock up on ammo, water, canned food;
that sort of thing.”

“I’ll come along.” Jason took a bite of his
muffin.

“Me, too.” I met Lane’s eyes and frowned at
the shake of his head.

“No. You stay here. These guys are going to
need one of us here.”

“Pete can handle it.”

“No. He’s got Marie and Ashley to worry
about. He’s got enough on his plate.”

“Lane, I’m not just going to let you go by
yourself!” My heart was starting to pound in my chest.

“I won’t be by myself. I’ll have Jason.”

“I’m a better shot than Jason.”

Jason nodded. “She’s got a point.”

“Stay out of this, Jason.”

Jason stood, his hands up in the air. “Let me
know what you decide. I’m good to go when you’re ready.”

I waited until he was in the office with the
others before turning back to glare at Lane. “What the hell is your
problem?”

“I don’t have one.”

“We’ve always done everything together.
Equally. What’s with the macho, order the women to stay home,
attitude?”

“That’s not what I’m doing!”

“So, why don’t you want me to come?”

“Because someone needs to stay here with the
kids!”

Everyone looked up at his shout and he
blushed, running his hands over his face to hide it. If I’d been
about to yell something else, it didn’t come out. Lane never
yelled. Ever. I looked him over carefully and suddenly, I could see
through the calm exterior he’d been putting up the last day.

“Hey.” I put a hand on his arm. “It’s
ok.”

He took a deep breath and shook his head.
“Look. Can you just stay here? Please. I’ll feel better if I don’t
have to worry about you out there and someone should really stay
with these guys.”

I gazed into his pleading eyes and nodded.
“Ok,” I whispered. “Just… be careful. God, be careful.” My throat
tightened and I had to swallow hard. “Lane…”

He nodded. “I’ll be careful.” He looked over
my head to the office windows. “Jason!” He bent, grabbed the ammo
backpack, handed me a few boxes of bullets, and took the rest. “You
need to keep one of the guns. Just in case.”

Jason fired up the one ton and I watched as
Pete pulled up the overhead door. Lane started to walk away.

“Lane!” I grabbed his hand. He gave mine a
squeeze.

“I’ll be back. I promise.” He held my face
gently. “I promise.”

I relaxed slightly. How many times had he
promised me that? Whether it was after he’d made sure my newest
foster family was treating me well, or while he was sneaking out of
my bedroom window because I’d called him, crying about something or
other; he must have made that promise to me a million times. He’d
never lied to me.

He looked up as Jason honked the horn.

“Lane! Let’s go!”

Lane took one step away from me, turned back,
and softly pressed his lips to mine. My heart kicked in my
chest.

“I’ll be back.”

I stared, stunned, as he walked away. I
looked around at the others as the door slammed down and Pete put
the lock on the chain. Everyone was smiling at me.

“He, uh… he didn’t mean to call you guys
kids. He’s just a little stressed out.” It was the only thing I
could think of to say. I wanted to facepalm myself, but managed to
show some sort of self-control.

Pete grinned. “We know you guys give a shit
about us, Gabs. We also know what he meant.”

“I just don’t want you guys to think we think
of you as little kids. We just… God!” I ran my hands over my face.
“Did that just happen?”

Marie and Lizzy burst out laughing.

“It’s about fucking time,” mumbled Max with a
shake of his head as he walked past me to the couch with a
smile.

I busied myself folding blankets and checking
our supplies. My phone vibrated.

‘Got your message. On our way.’

“Brent and Grant are on their way.” I sent a
silent thank you up to God. “Has anyone heard from Johnny?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“I tried phoning him this morning. His phone
goes straight to voicemail.” Pete didn’t hide any of the worry he
felt. At seventeen, John was the youngest on our permanent
crew.

“Have you tried the community service
kids?”

Max nodded. “Albert is already in Manitoba.
His parents left town last night thinking it was just in this city.
Mason’s not answering his phone, Teddy’s on his grandpa’s farm, and
Heather’s mom told me to go fuck myself.”

“That woman needs a shot to the head,”
grumbled Lizzy.

“What happened? I thought Mrs. Richards liked
you two.” Max had been put in charge of picking up Heather, which
meant that Lizzy was usually along for the ride. The two had met on
the jobsite and were inseparable.

“She did, but Thursday afternoon, when we got
off early, we stopped off at Georgie’s and grabbed a case of beer.”
Max stared at the ground and I held my tongue, waiting to hear the
rest of the story.

“She only had one beer, Gabby, I swear!”

“Max! You know she’s underage! Do you know
what would happen to me and Lane if Mrs. Richards decided to report
this? We’d be done! We’d get kicked off the community service
program!” I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. “It is our job
to give these kids a safe working environment so they can learn
life skills and people skills.”

“I know and I’m sorry.” He looked down at me,
looking just a horrible as he sounded.

“I’ll have to talk to Lane about this, but
maybe we were wrong in thinking you were ready to take on more
responsibility.”

He seemed to shrink in front of me, and for
as bad I felt for him, I already knew what Lane would have to say
on the subject.

“I gave her the beer. I don’t see what the
big deal is. It was just one beer.” Lizzy shrugged.

I turned to Max. “Lizzy gave her the
beer?”

He hesitated before nodding. “But I should
have said something. I should have told her no.”

Lizzy grunted. “It was just one beer!” She
looked at me defiantly. “It’s not a big deal.”

I had a flashback of two years ago when she’d
first started on with us. It was that look right there that had
given me doubts as to whether or not she’d finish the program.
Though she’d completed it and stayed on with us full time, I’d
always had a feeling that Max was the main reason she was still
around.

She glared at Pete who was staring at her,
his mouth open. “Don’t you stand there and act all better than me!
You were worse than me when you started the program!”

Holy shit, I thought to myself. This is going
to get out of hand.

“I don’t think I’m better than you. I know
damn well what I was like when I started here. I also appreciate
everything Gabby and Lane have done for me. That’s why it blows my
mind that you can sit there and act as though what you did was
nothing! I remember what you were like when you started, too,
Lizzy. Turning tricks for a living all cracked out on whatever drug
you could get your hands on. You want to tell me you don’t care
that Gabs and Lane gave you a chance to get away from it all when
no one else gave a damn?”

Marie put a hand on his arm and I watched as
he visibly calmed down at the touch.

“Whatever, Pete. You’re not my dad. Gabby and
Lane, they’re not my parents! You guys all walk around here acting
like they’re gods. I’m sick of it.”

“Really? You’re going to do this today,
Lizzy?” I counted to ten to ease the anger away.

“I’d say today’s the perfect day. We’ll all
be dead by tomorrow, so why bother acting like all is fine with the
world?”

I ran my hands over my face and watched as
she marched up the stairs.

“Gabby…” Max took a deep breath. “It was
wrong, and I’m sorry, but please… I’ll do anything. Please don’t
fire me.” He swallowed hard and I could see he was trying not to
cry. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

My heart broke at the sight of a nineteen
year old looking more like a ten year old and I couldn’t resist the
urge to give him a hug. “We’re not going to fire you, Maxy. We’ll
go over the ground rules again and you won’t be able to be in
charge of the newbies for a while.” I squeezed him tighter to
emphasize my point. He’d been tossed out of every foster home and
every school he’d ever been in. To say he was a handful was the
understatement of a lifetime, but this was one family he wasn’t
going to get thrown out of. “You’re stuck with us for a while
yet.”

He snorted and I felt my shoulder getting
damp with his tears. He stayed that way for another minute before
straightening and wiping his arms over his face.