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“Dylan is honest to a fault,” she whispers to herself. “Unlike his father.”
I place Sara in her bassinette and start to cross back to the woman who has been as much a mother to me as my own was; thinking that a hug could do us both some good. Instead, I stop short when Elsbeth holds her hand up, waiting to make sure that I halt before she continues.
“I don’t know where I went so wrong with him, Shelby.” She squares her shoulders and looks me straight in the eye. “But it’s time I had a hard talk with him.”
“Elsbeth,” I say her name and start toward her again, but she rises and crosses to pull on her coat. “Why don’t you wait until he comes back, or bring someone with you?”
“I doubt he’d kill his own mother.” Elsbeth’s reply sends shivers down my spine. Although I try to tell myself they’re due to the gust of wind that blew in when she opened the door, I can’t help but feel that someone will end up dead.
Eddie
“What do you think?” I ask Russ and he shakes his head.
I’m taking cover behind the trunk of the massive cedar tree near the gate, as he lays in the trench we had created before the snow fall. Moving the binoculars away from his face, he turns his head to look in my general direction. Enough that I can see his face without him giving up my position.
“Jace is not with them. I’ll talk, you keep your rifle trained on them,” Russ says, looking at the three figures slowly making their way up to us.
After Elsbeth confronted Jace about a week back, he took off—we assume heading to town. Mike has been kicking himself that he let his ex-son-in-law know about the supplies that Dale had to leave behind in his crawl space. Naturally, no one blames him as this situation is beyond anything we had expected.
Peeking out from the tree, I study the men and the one thing that sticks out in my mind is that their clothing seems fresh. Their coats are sturdy and well-insulated, one of the things I notice is that their movements seem like they’re trying a little too hard to look worn out. One is helping another walk, while the third man holds his hands up, attempting to look unarmed.
“That’s far enough,” Russ barks out, his head is just over the edge of the trench, so I know his feet are planted on the ground rather than one of the ladder rungs. “This is private land and there’s nothing for you further up the mountain, so turn your asses back around.”
“My friend cut his leg on the fence down there,” the tallest of the three men states. “We could use some help.”
“The fence has No Trespassing signs on every third post. He’s lucky he only has a cut on his leg.” Russ lifts his rifle up, aiming it at the group. I keep my eyes on the road beyond them, wondering if they’re really so stupid to stand bunched up—giving him a big enough target that even he would be able to hit one of them—and get worried about any back-up they might have.
“He’s the big one we heard about,” the man who is, at least, acting, injured murmurs to his buddies; only to be quickly hushed up.
“Come on, can you at least give us some water?” the third one finally speaks up.
“Why don’t you head back to where you left your supplies and melt down some snow?” Russ brings up the solid point that besides two visible rifles, slung over their shoulders, none of the men are wearing backpacks.
“Why don’t you put your gun away and just let us by,” the first man speaks again. “We ain’t causing any problems.”
“Last warning, because I can assure you, the next home up this road won’t give you any warning at all.”
With Russ’s words, I pump the shotgun I’m holding, getting their attention pretty darn quick. The fact that there’s a second person on guard duty seems to persuade them to turn back and I wait until they’re out of sight to rejoin Russ.
“Should I follow them for a bit?” Russ asks and I stop to consider it before shaking my head.
“No, they came up here to check on the information they received,” I tell him, relaying what I heard from my spot, nearly on top of them. “I think I’m going to head to town later. We need to get a better idea of what’s happening. I’ll tell Trisha and Mike beforehand.”
“Yeah, because Rachel will think you’re going to the mall without her if she catches wind of you going.”
We share a grimace over that comment. I feel that Rachel has been making more of an effort lately, but she still needs to win people over. Not an easy task after all the bitching she’s done since she arrived.
“Good catch on them not having any supplies with them. They seemed surprised to be called out on it,” I tell him.
“Nah, I think it was your pump action coming from within ten feet of them, that surprised ‘em!”
We share a chuckle over that before Russ decides to walk the perimeter.
*
I happen to see Trisha heading to the barn when I’m returning to the house later and I run to catch up with her. As she’s opening the door, she catches a glimpse of me and gives me a smile that gets my heart racing.
A part of me says I’m being an ass for wanting to go play spy games in town, that I should stay here—in bed—with her, but my big head stamps that thought away. I’m going to check things out in town, so Trisha, Sara, and the others will continue to stay safe up here.
