Chapter Eight
Trudy sat in the corner petting Ivory. The quiet of the shed was almost refreshing for a moment. Dewey, Stone and Boomer were out walking the fence line at the moment. Amanda and Alea were throwing a load of laundry in at Stone’s house with McKenna. There wasn’t anyone else there and Trudy closed her eyes and relaxed. The past few days had run her ragged and she needed a moment to catch up.
When she heard footsteps coming toward her she smiled, thinking Dewey or Boomer had joined her. Then she felt Ivory tense and she growled low.
Fear jumped in and Trudy slowly opened her eyes. Swallowing hard, she saw her brother come into her line of sight. When he paused in front of her, Trudy stared at him for a moment. Then he saw the gun in his hand. “What the fuck do you want Ronnie?” she asked. “How the hell did you find me this time?”
Ronnie snorted and kicked at her. He caught her in the ribs and Ivory growled as Trudy groaned. “I told you bitch, I would find you and when I did, you would be turned over to the cartel. Well, that day is right now. Get up, but first tie that damn dog up. I don’t like being bit, not by a damn dog anyway, now a willing woman is always worth a bit of pain.”
Trudy sneered. “You always were a sick fuck.”
Ronnie kicked out again.
She doubled over as his foot caught her again in the ribs. After she got Ivory tied to the wall, Trudy got to her feet.
Ronnie stepped in closer and back handed her hard, striking her in the face, splitting her lips.
Blood sprayed on the floor and Trudy spit at him.
“Do you know how much trouble I’m in since your little stunt?” Ronnie yelled. “I’ve been worried as hell the cartel will run out of patience and just kill me!”
“Maybe you should just let them?” Trudy yelled back. “Then everyone would be happy.”
“They want their money back bitch and you are going to give it to them.” Ronnie hit her with his fist. Her head snapped back and she fell to the floor with a groan. “I hope they kill you slowly. I can’t wait to hear you scream. Even after they get their money back, they might just kill you,” he taunted her.
“How did you find me this time?” Trudy asked, hoping to delay their departure until someone came along to prevent Ronnie from taking her away from here.
“I found where you stashed Amanda and followed her here when that biker came for her earlier. I had to wait until you were alone to come and get you,” Ronnie boasted.
“Okay, you found me now, how are you going to get me out of here and manage to stay alive, butthead?’ Trudy taunted him. “There are guards posted outside and anyone might come in here anytime.”
“That’s why we’re leaving right now. With a gun at your head, they won’t bother our escape.”
“Are you just plain stupid or what?’ Trudy asked. “You just told me the cartel wanted their money back, if you hurt me they won’t hesitate to kill you. You will have cost them everything they’ve waited ten years for.”
Ronnie scoffed. “I don’t have to kill you. I can just shoot you in the leg or the shoulder, somewhere that won’t kill you.”
“I think all that dope you’ve done has fried your tiny brain.” Trudy shook her head. “You won’t make it out of here alive, shithead.”
Ronnie grabbed her braid and pulled her to him. “You’d better hope we do get out of here, bitch,” he whispered in her ear. “If it comes down to me or you, there ain’t no question, I will kill you. You’ve done nothing but mess up my life. I’m sick of it.” He threw her to the ground in front of him and stomped on her leg.
Trudy cried out in pain and Ivory started growling and barking. She pulled on the rope holding her to the wall.
Ronnie scooted away from the dog and leaned down to grab Trudy’s braid again. He dragged her along until she got to her feet. Then he wound her hair around his wrist and pulled her to her toes.
They stepped close to the door and Ronnie peeked out into the compound. He didn’t see anyone moving around. He hauled his sister close to him and whispered, “If you make any sound at all, I will shoot you.
Slowly, they began making their way across the foreyard of the compound toward the main gate. Trudy’s fought against the pain in her ribs and her leg, not to mention the grip Ronnie had on her hair. Her eyes darted along the fence line but she didn’t see anyone in the shadows. For a moment, she fought against the fact Ronnie might just pull this off. He might just be able to get her away from the men who vowed to protect her.
Suddenly, all the lights shining down around the shop blinked off. The darkness was complete and Ronnie dragged her closer to him. “What the fuck is going on here?” he grumbled in her ear.
Trudy didn’t say anything for a moment, then Ronnie pulled her hair even tighter. She hissed in pain. “I think they know you came here looking for me.”
“They won’t stop me,” Ronnie whined. “They won’t risk your life.”
Trudy snorted. “You won’t know what hit you until it’s too late. Do you even know who you’re up against, asshole?”
“I know I have cartel waiting just beyond the fence,” Ronnie bragged. “They will protect me against anyone in here.”
“If you turn me over to the cartel, they won’t need you anymore. If these guys don’t kill you, the cartel will.” She sneered. “Either way, you’re still dead. What would Daddy say then?”
“He’ll still blame you.” Ronnie scoffed. “You are the family fuck up, not me.”
“Oh, I think you’ve proved that isn’t necessarily so.” Dewey’s voice came from behind Ronnie.
Ronnie jumped when he felt a gun shoved into the back of his head. “You have two seconds to let your sister go before I blow a hole in your head.”
“I can’t do that,” Ronnie whined.
“He has cartel guys waiting for him beyond the fence,” Trudy told him.
“Well now, I think they’ll be waiting for a long time.” Dewey chuckled. “That is if they aren’t dead already. My boys like to watch both sides of the fence. Just in case something like this happens.” He paused then jabbed the gun into Ronnie’s head again. “Put the fuckin gun down and give yourself up. I will kill you.”
“What makes you think I won’t pull the trigger? I can kill Tremaine before you kill me,” Ronnie boasted.
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll do that,” Dewey hissed in Ronnie’s ear. “By now, my men have the cartel men either dead or unconscious. This is on you and you alone. I’m told you’re quite the coward, looking for anyway to keep on living. If you kill your sister, I’ll make damn sure you don’t live very much longer at all.”
Ronnie swallowed hard as his fingers trembled. He hated the fact he was weak. He tried not to show it but he hated it all the same. The drugs were the only thing that could make him feel strong, but he hadn’t had anything for some time now and he needed a fix. “I’ll live if I let her go?” he asked the man behind him.
“You’ll live but you’ll be my prisoner until this is over,” Dewey promised.
Ronnie tightened his grip on his sister then suddenly pushed her away from him. He held the gun up and allowed Dewey to take it. He then grabbed the back of his head with both hands and surrendered to the other man.
“Lights!” Dewey yelled.
When the lights came back on, Stone moved over and helped Trudy to her feet.
Trudy hobbled over to Ronnie and kicked him in the balls. He screamed and fell to the ground. “You fuckin bastard. You miserable fucking bastard!” she yelled as she kept kicking him.
Dewey grabbed her and hauled her a few steps away.
Stone cuffed Ronnie and then he and Boomer hauled the injured man into the shop.
Trudy watched from the safety of Dewey’s arms as her brother was led away. Then she looked at Dewey.
He growled when he saw the blood and bruises on her face from where Ronnie had hit her. “That little cock sucker.”
“I’m fine.” She told him as she laid her head on his chest. “He didn’t hurt me too bad, this time.” She tried to suck in a deep breath but winced when her ribs protested the action.
Dewey noticed and laid a hand on her ribs. Trudy grunted in pain and Dewey lifted her shirt to see more bruises on her ribs. “Where else did he hurt you?” he snarled.
“He just kicked me a few times and stomped on my leg. It’s just bruises. He didn’t break anything.”
“Tremaine.” She heard her sister call her name. Amanda came running toward her. “Are you okay?”
The others came into the light as well. Alea and McKenna gathered around her.
Trudy nodded then hugged her sister. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. Ronnie found us again.”
“He did this to you?” Amanda asked. “What the hell is wrong with him?”
“He brought the cartel guys with him again,” Trudy informed them. “He said they were waiting on the other side of the fence.”
“They aren’t waiting anymore, baby girl,” Sniper called out. “They’re dead. All four of them.”
Trudy shuddered. “God, will they ever give up?”
“Probably not,” Stone told her as he and Boomer joined the group. “You still have their money. They want it back. They also want the gift you have with computers. With that, they figure they can rule the world from the safety of their own homes. They would be able to hack anything they wanted, even our own government.”
“They would have to kill me before I’d do something like that.” She shook her head.
“Maybe if they took you alone,” Boomer said out loud. “But if they got their hands on your sister, they could force you to work for them. They know you would do what they wanted in return for her protection.”
Trudy growled. She turned and marched into the shop. Gazing around, she saw her brother tied up to the wall in the corner of the room. Ivory was sitting just out of his reach growling at him, daring him to move. Trudy marched over to him and raising her leg, she kicked out at him.
Ronnie screamed and people came rushing into the room.
“You fuckin coward!” Trudy screamed at him. “All this is your fault.” She kicked him again. “The god damn cartel wouldn’t know anything about me, if it weren’t for you.” She kicked him a third time.
Ronnie was curled into a ball at this point. Whimpering as Trudy laid down the law.
“You put us all in danger, you bastard.”
Dewey grabbed her and hauled her away from her brother before she could let lose another blow. “Honey, you can’t kick a man when he’s down. That’s just not sporting. Behave yourself. Ronnie isn’t going anywhere.”
Trudy struggled with him for another moment then stopped. Looking up at him, she glared her disapproval. After a moment, she turned back to her brother and spit on him. “You are a bastard and one day, I hope it all catches up to you. I hope you pay the price for every dirty thing you’ve ever done.”
Dewey passed her over to Boomer who pulled her away from her brother.
Stone came over and spoke quietly to the other man, “I think we need to move this operation to the safe room. If the brother found us, so can the cartel. We don’t have time for this shit right now, not with everything we got going on.”
Dewey agreed. “Yeah, I know. Fuck a duck, between the cartel and good ole Terik, I don’t know which is worse.”
Stone agreed. “Yup, six of one, half a dozen of the other. But we have bodies to protect and we can’t do it here out in the open. Have everyone grab something and haul it down stairs. We leave nothing up here that could give the game away. If Terik comes here, I don’t want him to know where we are. If the cartel comes back, we won’t be here.”
Dewey nodded. “We’ve got security cameras down there that will keep us in the loop as to what’s going on up here.” He turned to Ronnie. “What the hell do we do with him?”
“Keep him as far away from Trudy and Amanda as possible.” Stone grinned. “I’d hate for them to hurt themselves any more than necessary.” Glancing over at Trudy he asked, “Is she okay?”
Dewey nodded following his line of vision. “He kicked her in the ribs a few times and stomped on her leg but she says he didn’t break anything this time.”
Stone snapped his head around to glare at Dewey. “What did she mean this time?”
“I don’t know but I mean to find out.” Dewey growled. Turning to the man tied in the corner, he marched over to where Ronnie lay. Grabbing his hair, he raised his head to glare at him. “What did your sister mean when she said you didn’t break anything this time?”
Fear showed in Ronnie’s eyes. “I don’t know,” he whined. “I never hurt her before.”
Dewey leaned in closer. “I don’t fuck believe you coward. Tell me the truth.”
Ronnie cowed away from Dewey but didn’t get very far. “After the drug dealer found them years ago and beat the hell out of them, I caught up with Tremaine one time after that. I needed to get the cartel money back or they would have killed me. Tremaine wouldn’t tell me where it was so I smacked her around a bit.” Ronnie noted the look on Dewey’s face and he backed down a bit. “I might have hit her a little hard one time. I think she broke her arm but it wasn’t my fault. She moved at the last minute.”
Dewey felt a rage inside him like no other. He stared down at the man who was supposed to protect his younger sister and instead, found a man not worthy of them. He really hated a man that would hit a woman. “When this is over, remind me to return the favor.” He threw Ronnie’s head as far away from him as it would go.
Ronnie cried out as his head hit the cement floor.
Dewey had to walk away before he killed him. He went over to where Trudy and Amanda sat with Alea and McKenna. The men were busy packing things up, getting ready to move their operation below ground.
“Where are we going?” Trudy asked quietly.
“We have safe rooms underground. We can’t protect everyone from here anymore. Your brother showed us that by sneaking in here,” Dewey told her and the others. “We need to protect you and the others from whatever is coming. Your brother might have led the cartel straight to our door. Between them and Terik, we no longer have the element of surprise on our side.”
Trudy began to shake. “But I can’t go underground. I don’t like the dark.”
Dewey frowned. “What are you telling me?”
“She’s doesn’t like the dark,” Amanda reiterated. She reached out and took Trudy’s hand. “When we were ten, Ronnie waited until our dad was gone then he pulled a bone move. He locked us both in the basement for three days. He made sure we had little water and almost no food and just left us down in the dark.” She shook her head. “Tremaine hasn’t liked dark places since then.”
“What the fuck?” Dewey growled as he ran his fingers through his hair. “How did he explain that to your old man?” He frowned and asked, “What about the safe room at your Port Arthur place? Isn’t that underground?”
Trudy shrugged. “I have it but I’ve never had to use it.”
Amanda snorted. “Dad didn’t ask and we never told him what happened. He wouldn’t have done anything to Ronnie anyway,” she seethed bitterly. “He would have thought it was a good idea, training as to what to do in a time a crisis. That sort of thing. He was always putting us through that sort of shit.”
Dewey shook his head. He couldn’t believe what these girls had gone through. “Your old man needs a lesson in child rearing. He screwed up all the way around with you three.”
“Welcome to our world,” Amanda told him. “Tremaine never did follow orders very well. I think that was part of him kicking her out. That way, he no longer had to deal with her. She was someone else’s problem.”
“That is so fucked up,” Dewey muttered. Then he looked at her. “Can you at least try? We can’t protect this area anymore. We need everyone down in the safe room.”
Trudy swallowed her fear. “I can try but at this point, I won’t guarantee anything.” She turned her head to glare at her brother. “Just don’t leave me alone with him while we’re down there. One of us might not make it back up here.”
Dewey chuckled. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about your brother. The boys will take care of him.”
Trudy curled her lip. ‘As long as I don’t have to look at him, I’ll be fine.”
Dewey paused then asked, “Are you sure you can handle being underground?”
Trudy shrugged. “I don’t know until I try. It’s been a number of years since I’ve even tried. Maybe this will help me get over my fears.”
“The safe rooms are lit very well and there’s plenty of room down there,” McKenna assured them.
Trudy turned her head and watched as several of Stone’s men took down the map and all her research. Rolling it carefully, they added it to a box of equipment they were transferring to the underground safe rooms.
Boomer’s men were packing up the kitchen area and Colt was in charge of taking care of his own equipment.
Trudy began shutting down her own programs and packing up her computers. When she was finished, she turned to Dewey and asked, “Do you have security cameras down there? Something we can use to keep an eye on this place?”
Dewey nodded. “Yeah, we got everything down there. Security, internet, satellite phone, the whole works.”
“Good, because I just got a phone call. They are moving some of the bombs to Kansas now. The trucks are playing their game of guess which truck I’m in and we’ll have to call Trent when they all get into place.”
“What about the circuit codes for the bombs? Are they still intact?” Dewey asked.
Trudy nodded. “Yup, Terik will never know they aren’t where they’re supposed to be until it’s too late.”
“With everyone under wraps, all we have to do is wait for Terik to make his move,” Dewey announced.
“Unless my dear brother is bringing more cartel after me,” Trudy suggested. “Then we have more problems.”
“They won’t get to you in the safe rooms,” Dewey assured her. “No one knows they’re there.”
Trudy took a deep breath and when she exhaled she said, “Okay, let’s get this show on the road. I’m gonna need time to set up.”
One by one, the men disappeared out the back door. By the time Trudy and the other women joined them in the passage way leading down deep into the ground, she was already dreading her decision to come down here. She could feel the walls closing in on her but she wouldn’t let the fear inside her win. She couldn’t chicken out. She had work to do.
When she reached the bottom of the ramp, Boomer stood there waiting for her. She felt grateful to see him. When she got to him, he threw his big arm around her shoulder and led her the rest of the way inside while Dewey went back up for her brother.
Amanda had taken Ivory and Ebony with her, so the only one left up top was Ronnie. When Dewey approached him, he noted the other man was sweating a lot. He also was looking like he was cornered. Ronnie’s eyes were darting everywhere as if looking for a way to escape. Dewey noticed his hands were shaking bad and then it dawned on him. Ronnie was crashing. He’d been high earlier and when things hadn’t gone his way he began to come down off his high.
Dewey squatted down beside the other man. “Are you going to be a problem?”
“I need a fix man,” Ronnie whined. “I need it bad.”
Dewey shook his head. “I don’t have anything to help you boyo. You’re on your own.”
“Man, just fuckin kill me now then!” Ronnie begged.
“Don’t tempt me. I just might have to do that,” Dewey muttered under his breath. He unlocked the chain but left the cuffs on and helped Ronnie to his feet. Ronnie’s legs failed him and he almost fell to the ground. Dewey growled and hauled him back to his feet. “Be a man for once in your selfish life. You put us all in danger and by god, you won’t be giving us anymore problems or I’ll leave your ass right here. Maybe your cartel friends can help you because we won’t save your ass again.”
Ronnie whimpered. “If I can’t get my sister to them this time, they promised to kill me.”
“Then I suggest you move under your own power because I’m not carrying your worthless hide.” Dewey snarled. “And you won’t be giving anyone over to them. Not while I’m alive to protect her.”
“Where are we going?” Ronnie muttered as Dewey pushed him forward. His legs could barely move by this time. His arms hurt from being cuffed behind his back and his head was swimming. He could barely see two feet in front of him.
“Somewhere we can be safe from the menace of you, you bastard.” Dewey growled. “Now move!”
Ronnie stumbled and would have fallen but Dewey grabbed the cuffs and hauled him back to his feet. By the time they got to the ramp, Ronnie was all but useless. Dewey grabbed him and dragged him along as he shut down the way inside. The darkness was almost complete when the emergency lights kicked in, giving them light and air. When he joined the others, he threw Ronnie to the floor. “Somebody take care of this piece of shit. He’s crashing big time. Put him somewhere where we can’t hear him and he won’t hurt himself.”
Parker and Colt grabbed him and hauled him down the hall. They put him in a room by himself and locked the door behind him. This was a room meant to hold someone in trouble. It had a barred window in it, so whoever was checking on the person inside could do so safely from the hallway. They found it very easy to ignore Ronnie’s whimpering as they walked back down the hall.