Under a Tell-Tale Sky: Disruption - Book 1 (32 page)

Laura suppressed her anger, something she was having to do more frequently as the days dragged. She took a calming breath.

“You’re right, Jana, it’s not fair, but neither is life, so you’d best learn to deal with it. Regardless of how Julie got sunburned, she IS burned and that can’t be undone. If she gets back out in this sun too soon, she could get seriously ill and we have no way to handle that. That leaves just the two of us. To keep eating, we need to keep the garden in good shape and I can’t do it by myself, so fair or not, you have to help me. And it’s not like Julie isn’t working. She’s washing all the clothes by hand and I’ve given her ALL of your inside chores.” She paused and her voice softened, sounding weary to the bone. “I’m doing the best I can, honey, and it’s not fair to me either, but help me out here a little, please.”

Jana stared at her mother for a long moment and then a single tear rolled down her cheek. Her shoulders began to shake in silent sobs. Laura was on her feet in an instant, stepping over the rows separating them, to kneel at her daughter’s side and fold her into an embrace.

“It’s okay, honey, it’s okay,” she said, patting Jana’s back. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“N-no, Mom,” Jana stuttered between sobs, “it … it’s ME who … who should be sorry. You … you’re working so hard … and Dad’s gone and we don’t know … we don’t know whe … when he’s coming home … or even if he’s okay. And the power’s out and we don’t even know if it’s coming back … and we haven’t seen any of our friends … and people are getting really mean and it just SUCKS so bad.” Jana took a ragged breath, tears flowing freely now. “Mom, I’m just so scared, and Julie is too.” She sniffed loudly, and Laura released her to peel off her own gloves and dig a crumpled handkerchief from the pocket of her jeans.

“Blow,” she said as she held the handkerchief to Jana’s nose.

Her daughter complied and Laura smiled. “You haven’t done that since you were a little girl.”

Jana smiled back through the tears. “I remember.”

Laura pulled her close in a fierce hug. “Then remember I took care of you then, and I’ll take care of you now.”

Laura released her daughter and stood, then reached down to grab a hand and pull Jana up after her. “And on second thought, I think we’ve done enough today. What say we go in and have a big glass of iced tea?”

Jana nodded emphatically. “Thank God for the generator. I don’t think I could stand this without ice. And since making tea is an INSIDE job, I do believe the sunburn queen can SERVE me my tea.”

Laura burst out laughing. “You just talked me out of an hour of weeding, so don’t push your luck. I am NOT going to spend my OWN goof off time refereeing another fight between you two. I get to play hooky a bit too, you know.”

***

Texas State Highway 124

Westbound

Day 16, 5:00 p.m.

“There ain’t nothin’ out here, Willard,” said Kyle Morgan. “We ain’t seen jack since we went through that shitty little town a while back. We need to go back and check that out. There’s likely some loot to be had there.”

“Would you just shut the hell up and do what I tell you,” said Willard Jukes. “Who’s in charge here, anyway?”

“I’m just sayin’—”

“And I’m just sayin’ shut the hell up! We been over it. We find an isolated place nobody’s likely to find; otherwise it’s too risky,” Jukes said.

“I know, Willard, but I been thinking. Maybe we should just loot like usual. If Snag or Spike find out—”

“Don’t you go gettin’ chickenshit on me now. You’re just as pissed as I am about bringin’ in all the good stuff and having it dripped back to us like we’re some sort of pimply-faced jerk-off kids on an allowance. And I’m doubly pissed off about the pussy. We brought in eight or ten of them bitches our own selves, so we should at least get one apiece for our very own, and the pick of the lot too, leastwise of the ones we brung in.”

“I know, Willard, but if we get caught …”

“For the umpteenth time, we AIN’T gonna get caught. We just find us an isolated place on one of these crappy country roads and take it. Then when we find some good stuff or really smokin’ hot bitches, we bring ‘em here along with our share of the loot and take the rest of the stuff back to Spike. We’ll lock the women up first until we got ‘em broke in good, then we have ‘em run the place. We visit when we want. And here’s the beauty part, if anyone gets suspicious, we just close down and ‘find’ the location and bring all the loot back to the prison. The women won’t say nothin’ ‘cause they know we’ll kill ‘em if they do. Matter of fact, we can kill one of ‘em ahead of time, just to show the others we mean business.”

Jukes paused and looked at Morgan. “It’s just like skimmin’ in the old days except now there ain’t no cash involved. I used to do it all the time and I never got caught, for that anyway.”

Morgan said nothing, but gave an unconvincing nod.

They rode in silence a few minutes until they approached a minor intersection.

“Take that road to the left,” Jukes said, and Morgan complied.

“This don’t look like it goes nowhere,” Morgan said.

“Every road goes somewhere, it’s just a question of what’s at the end of it,” Jukes said, “and in this case, I’m thinking this one will take us to that buncha trees way over yonder.”

Morgan followed Jukes’ pointing finger to a dark green blot far across the flat pastureland.

“Why there?” Morgan asked.

“‘Cause if we can see ‘em this far away, that means they’re damn big trees. Trees like that don’t just spring up in the middle of this flat pastureland. They gotta be planted and a long time ago at that. Like as not, there’s a house there, and maybe a pretty big one. And you can’t get a whole lot more isolated. Must be ten miles to the nearest neighbor, easy.”

They rode in silence, broken only by the road noise outside the car, barely audible through the closed windows over the welcome hum of the air conditioner. The green blot grew in the windshield, and as they neared, they saw a large white farmhouse nestled in the edge of the trees and a barn and other outbuildings nearby. Jukes looked at Morgan and grinned as the car turned up the long drive.

“Now this might be just the ticket,” Jukes said.

Hughes’ Residence

Pecan Grove

Oleander, Texas

Day 16, 6:15 p.m.

Laura was in the kitchen, putting together a salad for supper as the car turned up the drive. She’d decided to let the girls goof off a bit more, and they were in the air-conditioned guest room, playing video games. It wasn’t the best use of generator fuel, but the social isolation was especially hard on the girls. She was learning allowances from time to time made their new lives tolerable.

She looked up at the sound of the tires on gravel and parted the curtains over the sink. Her heart almost stopped at the sight of the police car. A hundred scenarios played out in her mind since the power outage, and among those were half-formed and quickly dismissed visions of official notification of something bad happening to Jordan.

Panic set in as she watched the cop car roll to a stop, and she gripped the edge of the kitchen counter and squeezed her eyes shut to say a short but fervent prayer for her husband’s safety. She opened her eyes to look out the window again, studying the car more closely—Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department—now that was strange. Two deputies got out of the car and moved towards her front door. She hurried to meet them.

The front door was open in an attempt to catch a bit of a breeze. As she hurried across the living room, she studied the approaching deputies through the latched screen door. They were both large men, their uniforms stretched tightly across muscled shoulders, the short sleeves of their khaki uniform shirts straining around bulging biceps. Both had heavily tattooed forearms. She sensed something was wrong immediately, despite the disarming manner of the first deputy up on the porch. She didn’t open the screen door.

“Afternoon, ma’am. How are you?” the deputy asked through the screen.

“I’m fine, officer. How can I help you?” she replied.

“Well, it’s us who hope to do the helping,” he said. “We’re just visiting folks to make sure they got what they need and to see if there’s anything we can do to assist.”

“Quite commendable,” Laura said, “but I’m a bit confused. Y’all crossed the county line about three miles back. This is Chambers County.”

The man hesitated only a fraction of a second, then smiled and nodded. “Times like these, we all gotta help each other out, so county lines don’t mean much. If folks need help, we’ll do our best to give it. Protect and serve, that’s what it’s all about.”

Laura nodded. “Again, quite commendable, but we’re fine.” She immediately regretted the ‘we.’

The man didn’t register the plural, he just nodded. “I’d say so. Looks like you have a nice setup here. Is that a generator I hear running?”

“Just a small one. We, that is my husband and I, run it a few hours a day to keep the fridge cool and the freezer in the barn from defrosting. We don’t have enough fuel for more than that.”

“Well, might be we can help you out with the fuel. I’ll check it out when we get back to the office and see if there’s some allotment to spare. In the meantime, I guess we’ll be going.” He turned as if to leave, but the second deputy looked confused. Then the first deputy turned back.

“Actually, there is one thing you could do for us if it ain’t too much trouble,” he said.

“Yes?”

The man flashed a sheepish grin. “I hate to ask, but bein’ as how y’all got a working fridge and all, do you think we could have a couple of glasses of ice water. Cold water’s been pretty scarce since the power went out, and we’re parched from riding around in that car all day. A cool drink would be welcome.”

She hesitated. “Of course. Wait right here and I’ll bring it out.”

“Thank you kindly,” the deputy said, and Laura nodded and turned to go back to the kitchen.

As soon as she was out of their sight, she raced to the kitchen pantry and retrieved the Glock 19, racking the slide to chamber a round before stuffing it into the back of her shorts. She’d considered closing and locking the front door on the pair, but knew they’d break through the latched screen door and the old wooden front door in seconds anyway, and decided not to alert them in order to buy a little time. She left the pantry and raced down the hall to the spare bedroom. The twins looked up in surprise.

“Okay,” Laura whispered, “I don’t have time to explain. There are some very bad men at the front door. I want you to slip out the back door and hide in the barn until I come get you. The gun safe in the garage is open, so stop on the way and get Dad’s shotgun and the .30-.30. Be quiet and be careful not to be seen. Do NOT come back to the house until I come to get you, no matter what happens. Do you understand?”

They both started to speak at once, but Julie got her protest out first. “But, Mom—”

“QUIET!” Laura hissed. “No buts. Just do it and do it now!”

“Wh-what if you don’t come?” Jana asked. “Wh-what if the men come?”

Laura’s face hardened. “Then shoot them. They’re dressed like deputies, but they’re fakes, so don’t hesitate or believe anything they might say to lure you out of hiding. When they … go away … or you shoot them, take the truck and get to the Smiths’ house as soon as possible.”

“What … what about you?” Julie asked, almost sobbing now.

“Don’t worry about me,” Laura said, struggling to keep the emotion from her voice. “Now GO!”

Both girls nodded and then wrapped Laura in a fierce group hug. She hugged them back and then broke away, pushing them towards the door, emotion robbing her of the power of speech. In the hall, she watched them move quietly toward the back door, then turned back toward the kitchen, the Glock at the small of her back a cold comfort.

***

Jukes licked his lips as he watched the woman’s ass through the screen door as she disappeared around a corner. He tried the screen door and found it latched.

“What we gonna do?” asked Morgan.

“Nothing,” Jukes said, “she ain’t gotta clue. When she comes back, she’ll open the screen door. We’ll grab her and have a little party. Easy as pie.”

“Why don’t we just bust in and grab her now?”

Jukes shook his head. “‘Cause this is our new place, dumb ass. There ain’t no need to be destructive.”

Morgan looked around nervously. “What about her husband?”

“I swear, Morgan, sometimes I think you’re dumber than a day-old turd! There ain’t no husband, leastwise not close, or he’d of answered the door, now wouldn’t he? And if he drives up, we’ll hear his tires on the gravel and we give him a nice warm welcome. Maybe we can even let him watch us do his old lady before we kill him. Now you got any other stupid questions?”

Morgan glared at Jukes and fell silent, nursing his resentment.

“How long does it take to pour two glasses of water?” Morgan said.

Jukes looked pissed. “Not this long,” he said, and pulled a switchblade from his pocket to pop the blade and slice the screen adjacent to the hook. He pocketed the knife and stuck his hand through the opening. The screen door opened with the shriek of dry hinges.

***

Laura heard the plaintive squeak of the screen door followed by hurried footsteps, and was reaching for the Glock just as the men entered the kitchen, guns drawn. Outmatched, she moved her hand away from the concealed weapon and decided to play for time.

“What is it? What’s wrong? I was just getting your water, but I wanted to check the pantry. I think we have a little coffee left, and I thought you might like some.”

The lead deputy holstered his sidearm, motioning his partner to do the same.

“Well, that’s right nice of you, ma’am,” he said, “and sorry to bust in, but we were concerned something might be wrong. Can’t be too careful these days, ya know.”

Laura nodded and moved toward the fridge. “I’ll get that water now.”