Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (45 page)

“
What?”

“
Those
kids down there, one of 'em just punched that old man in the face,
knocked him down.”

“
Those
teens there?”

“
Yup, six
of 'em, and they're laughing and coming this way. And the kid in the
orange board shorts looked like he was videoing it all. Call 911 and
go down and see if you can help him, okay?”

“
Okay.”

As Rosemary
dialed, Gordy stood up from his lounge and moved casually in front of
the oncoming gang. When they got close to him, he put his hand up to
stop them and said, “What do you assholes think you're doing?”

“
Just
having some fun. Whatcha gonna do about it, Grampa?” the
musclebound teen who'd hit the man said, smirking and poking his
finger at Gordy.

“
Not a
good move, sonny,” Gordy said, grabbing the boy's finger and
bending it back, then applying a
kote gaeshi
wrist lock, which brought the teen to his knees and then flat on his
stomach, his face in the sand.

Two of the
other boys ran forward and started beating on Gordy's back, but he
kicked out and tripped one and then the other, then shouted, “Any
of you punks come any closer and I break your buddy's arm. Got it?”

“
Ow, ow,
ow! Let me go, you old fuck!! Ow!! Let go!”

“
I don't
think so, punk. Now, tell your buddies to back off.”

“
Fuck
you!”

“
Another
not-so-good move, asshole,” Gordy said, breaking one of the
kid's fingers.

“
Ow! Oh,
shit!”

By now, several
regulars had gathered around the gang, cell phone videos recording.
Norm and Joel stepped out of the crowd and grabbed two of the teens
in chokeholds, pulling them back away from Gordy. Rona, Janet,
Jenny, Sharon, Jill and Carie stood in front of the remaining boy,
who pulled out a switchblade and began swinging it in front of him.

“
Stay
back, you fuckin' whores! I'll cut you!”

The women
spread out, now encircling the teen, dancing in and out of his
knife's range, taunting him. Finally, as he lurched toward Carie,
Jenny grabbed him from behind, immobilizing his arm in a fierce grip,
and then the other women moved in, immobilizing the rest of his body
and forcing him down until he, too, was facedown in the sand. Jenny
pulled his hands behind his back, holding them down, and sat on his
butt. Jill moved in and held his legs down. Carie pushed the knife
out of reach with her foot.

“
On your
knees, the rest of you!” Gordy shouted. “Hands behind
your heads, fingers interlocked.”

“
Hell,
Gordy, I'll bet all of them know the drill,” Norm said, letting
his teen loose from the chokehold and forcing him to his knees. Joel
did the same with the teen he was holding.

The two that
Gordy had tripped scrambled to their knees and put their hands where
Gordy had instructed, fingers interlocked. Gordy released his teen
and pulled him up to his knees, then pushed his hands behind his
head. But the teen had difficulty interlocking his fingers.

All of the
teens glared at everybody around them, defiant, until
they
heard sirens approaching.

First to arrive
were the EMTs, who were directed south to the man who'd been punched.

Next came four
Collier and two Lee deputies, followed by Sgt. Dooley, who
immediately strode down to Gordy, the other regulars and the teens
kneeling on the sand.

“
What's
going on here?”

“
This kid
punched an old man down there,” Gordy said, pointing south,
“and we caught 'em and held 'em for you.”

“
He
fuckin' broke my fuckin' finger! Asshole!”

“
Shut up,
kid,” Dooley said.

“
Looks
like he's got a broken jaw and a broken arm, but he's conscious,”
Rosemary said as she returned. “The paramedics are looking
after him. And another guy down there got it all on video.”

“
And this
clown was videoing it, too, we think,” Gordy said, pointing at
the teen in the orange shorts.

“
Oh,
shit,” one of the other teens mumbled.

When the man
who had videoed the actual punch came up and Sgt. Dooley watched the
video, he thanked the man and asked him to stand by.

“
Read 'em
their rights and handcuff 'em all,” he said to the Collier
deputies, who followed orders, using flex ties to
bind the six teens'
wrists behind their backs. The
Lee deputies kept watch, but stood their ground, out of their
jurisdiction.

Once witness
statements were taken and the teens had been removed, Sgt. Dooley
said to Gordy, “That was foolhardy; you should leave that kind
of thing to the professionals.”

“
I know,
Sarge, but I had to intervene or they would have gotten away and you
would have had to go looking for 'em.”

“
You're
right on that, but still – but where did you learn that hold?”

“
Uh, a
woman on the beach who teaches martial arts.”

“
Oh,
right, right; the one you had the girl use on that drunk spring
breaker in the book.”

“
Right.”

“
I read
it, and I meant to tell you that I'm okay with you using my name in
there. But I would have confirmed Pamela93's credentials and I would
never do what he did in the end.”

“
I don't
doubt that.”

“
Okay.
Off to see to the bookings. Take care.”

“
You too,
Sarge.”

“
You
okay, Gordy?”

“
I'm too
old for this crap, Ro. But yeah, I'm okay.”

- 118 -

April
4, 2013
11:42
a.m. local time

Northwest of Eureka,
Montana, USA

The Cowgirl
weighed as many possibilities as she could come up with, starting, as
she always did when speculating, with abduction by
aliens,
not because she believed in them, but to remind herself that
she
was only speculating, and not to put too much weight on any
particular possibility without facts or evidence.

Had he done an
immediate turnaround and headed back out to the meadow? A quick look
back assured her that no, he had not.

Had he swerved
to the left or the right and halted? Possibly, but she could see no
evidence of either.

Had he kept
riding forward, but placed padded booties on his horse's hooves to
run silently? Highly doubtful.

Had he run into
a group of his fellow eco-terrorists and gone to ground, perhaps in a
tunnel or cave? Almost as remote as the aliens
idea.

Could he have
somehow raised the weight of both his body and a 16-hand horse into a
nearby tree?

“
C'mon,
Cindy, Cindy, no fantasy,” she whispered to herself. But as
she wracked her brain, she was stumped.

What else?
What other possibilities were there? Where in hell could he be?

She pulled her
rifle from the scabbard, and holding it under her arm, she slowly
prodded Shacody further into the forest, which thickened and darkened
the further in they went.

- 119 -

April
4, 2013
12:53
p.m. local time

Bonita Springs,
Florida

“
Do you
still want me to sit in on that interview next week?”

“
Only if
you want to, Ro.”

“
I keep
forgetting her name.”

“
Sondra
something.”

“
Right.
I'm not sure. Maybe you should talk to her by yourself; a third
person always changes the dynamic.”

“
Yeah,
but you're a big part of it all. Whatever; I'll leave it up to you,
okay?”

“
Okay.”

“
But if
you want to come along, you're welcome.”

“
I'll
think about it some more. Feeling a little better?”

“
Oh,
yeah, Ro, lots better. You've got magic hands. You ever go to
massage school?”

“
Nope,
just picked it up over the years.”

“
Ahhh,
maybe just a little more to the right.”

“
Here?”

“
Oh,
yeah. Mmmmm.”

“
Those
kids really beat on you. I don't know how you didn't feel it.”

“
Probably
just adrenaline. Knew they were doing it, but I just reacted and got
'em away. And this was nothing compared to those fake FBI assholes.”

“
Oh,
yeah. So glad you're all healed up from that.”

“
Me,
too.”

“
You know
who surprised me?”

“
Who?”

“
Jenny.
She got right in there with that kid with the knife.”

“
Always
knew she was an alpha female.”

“
Yeah.
And now that Ron's gone, she's having a lot easier time with
everything. Impressive.”

“
When's
his trial?”

“
August,
I think.”

“
Good; he
deserves whatever he gets after what he did to her. Told you he was
gonna explode someday. At least she's recovered most of the use of
that arm.”

“
I'd say
all of it, from what she did this morning.”

“
Got that
right, Ro. Oh, speaking of alpha females, you seen anything of
Dallas lately?”

“
Yeah; we
went out to lunch last week, and she gave me some new ideas for that
scene.”

“
Like
what?”

“
Well,
she thought it'd be cool if JJ was shaved, uh, down there, and Pam
wasn't.”

“
So is
she gonna write that in?”

“
Nope; I
am.”