They were on a snack break, everyone having done chores and eaten breakfast, or vice versa., except for Alo, Alicia, Elu, and Yanaba, who had gone to work with Tito for the day. Henry ran the GED classes on the Pomodoro method, so they had four rounds of two, twenty-five-minute classes, with ten minutes in between. So, they had a thirty-minute break, where everyone ran around grabbing snacks and sodas, and played video games at the table. Jacy and Yas were having a “fuck you” conversation, with them saying, “Fuck you!” to each other.

Ajai gave them a little glare; they settled down and fought in their video game. She kept an eye on Tam and Nico; they were finally eating healthy snacks, apples and nuts. They actually spoke occasionally, too, and their bruises were gone.

Nantan heard shouting outside, and he stood up. He looked out the glass surrounding the front door, and he held his hands at his side. He touched his ring finger to his thumb, first on one hand, then the other.

Tam and Nico went wide-eyed, stood, and ran out the back door. What the fuck?” asked Yas.

Ajai shushed him with a glare, and hurried to the sports box as Nantan opened the door and stepped out. She grabbed two baseball bats. “Willow and Ruby, follow the boys. Guard the door.” She took out two more.

Willow rushed to her, and took it. “The rest of you, go upstairs.” Ajai pulled out her phone, and, one-handed, typed a 911 and sent it to Henry.

She sent a second 911 to her mothers, Herja and Rota, replying to one they sent. She didn’t know that both Wraith and Ivy were CC’d on it; it had been about a Valkyrie’s picnic.

She nodded to Yoki, who nodded back. They stepped out on the porch, bats in hand. The arguing boys finally realized that the girls were deadly serious about something, and they looked out the window. There was a man that looked like a wider, meaner version of Nantan, standing at the bottom of the steps and screaming. He was glaring at Nantan and waving his fists, and swaying a little. He looked either drunk or high.

“Oh, shit,” said Jacy. He pulled out his cell, and called David. “Get over to our house!” he shouted. “Really big angry guy going after Nantan.”

“You stay put,” said David, who grabbed the gun out of the locked case in the living room.

Henry already had the pump-action shotgun off from over the door, and was loading shells.

“Sister,” he said, “Turn off the ovens and whatnot and get you and Sofia upstairs. Bella’s gone. Guard Inola and the baby.”

“I’ve got them,” said David, as the lock opened. He filled the rifle with bullets.

“Love you,” said Henry, and he was running out the door with the shotgun.

Ivy was walking out to go to work when she got the text, and so she texted Henry. There was no reply, so she sent a text to Ace to open without her, who sent a 911 to Gregory and Tito, and went full throttle toward the farm.

Wraith was typing up a report on one screen, and researching a nasty little gang of meth head thieves with the other. They’d killed their first cop, and the hounds of Hell were after them. Her phone beeped, and she saw the 911 from Ajai. She grabbed her jacket and was on her bike before she realized she was moving.

Rota had much the same reaction; she was at the new house doing demo with Tito and the kids. Tito got the same text, and told the kids to literally drop what they were doing, and get in the fucking van, now. He barely remembered to lock up behind him.

Herja finished teaching a karate class for the police department. She watched them leave, in various shades of red and pink, depending on how many times she’d thrown them, or had them in locks. Her cell phone shook, and she opened it, thinking Rota was inviting her to dinner or out. She saw the 911, and she ran out like a bat out of hell.

“Iron Knight to me!” she yelled.

“I’m off duty,” said Thrasher, running with her.

“Henry’s farm. 911. My daughter.”

“Fuck,” he said. They put on their helmets, and Thrasher had a police bike, so he opened up with the siren, and they rode like the wind.

Nantan kept his hands by his side. The man in front of him was rock-solid. His nose had been broken several times. He was screaming in a mix of Sioux, English, and Spanish, and he kept changing speeds, from fast to slow and fast again. His pupils were dilated, and he sometimes slurred his words.

Nantan knew who he was the minute he saw the man, and that he was looking at the boys’ father. Henry had gotten his hands on the police reports. Bodaway was not allowed to be within a thousand feet of his wife, who was dying in the hospital in a coma from her injuries. Or his kids, multiple bars, two bosses, and three ex-wives. The boys were too traumatized to see their mother, who looked nothing like the woman they knew, with the side of her face bashed in. There were no other relatives to take the boys.

Bodaway should have been in the process of being convicted of his wife’s murder; he was definitely facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon. He’d taken a baseball bat to his wife after she’d finally gotten a backbone and attempted to stop him from beating the kids with his fists. He’d lost a fight that night at a bar, and had gone home to “win” a fight, by beating up his wife and children.

Nantan parsed enough of the mess the man was yelling to realize he was demanding to see his children.

Who was a stupid enough judge to let this guy out? How did he find this place? Nantan thought.

Their location should have been blacked out in court documents. The tribal elders were the only ones who should have been aware of where the boys were.

“Stop,” he said in Sioux. “Why are you here?”

The man stepped forward, his face getting stonier. “Do you have a brain of stone? You stole my sons!” he screamed.

Behind him, Nantan heard the door open. He saw Ajai out of the corner of one eye, Yoki out of the corner of the other. Both girls were armed with baseball bats. He knew Ajai had been learning from her mother Herja, and that Yoki had played baseball for the past seven years. He actually thought of how to get out of the way if either girl started swinging. He would probably lose a kneecap.

“I stole nothing and no one,” said Nantan.

“You were seen! They got into your van! You are some sort of sick monster!”

The word “pedophile” was an English one, but Nantan knew perfectly well what the man meant.

“I do not harm people,” said Nantan. “I grow plants.”

“Who are these? Your wives?” Bodaway said, swinging his arms. He was building himself up for a fight.

Some people are too mean and stupid to go on, Nantan thought.

“I am Sioux,” he said. “Not a monster.”

Jeffrey came flying up on the big stallion, with a harness but bareback. He reined the horse in behind Bodaway. Bodaway was too stupid to realize that Jeffrey could have let the horse land, feet first, on his head.

“You good?” asked Jeffrey.

“So far,” said Nantan, switching to English.

“You fucking moron,” said Bodaway, swinging an arm at the horse. Jeffrey backed the horse up perfectly.

“I think you may be referring to yourself,” said Henry, riding up on the gorgeous gray mare. Smoke, they had rescued and was training to jump, bareback, with no reins.

Henry held a shotgun loosely in his hands. He let go of the reins, and the horse stood, patiently. He racked the shotgun, an unmistakable sound.

“You are not wanted here. You will leave now.”

“Fuck you,” said Bodaway. stalking towards Nantan.

Nantan held out his hands. He preferred no fighting to fighting. He also didn’t want Henry to have to fill out paperwork, or explain to the boys how their father had died on his doorstep.

“You will stop,” said Nantan, in Sioux. “You will leave this place.”

“Why the fuck would I do that?” asked Bodaway, stepping forward.

The girls readied their bats. “He said to leave,” said Ajai. “I am not Sioux, but even I understand his words,” she said, in English. “You are the fool that drinks and injects the money into his veins and wonders why it is gone. That tries to harm others, and wonders why he has no friends. That steals and lies, and wonders why no one trusts him. That destroys a family, and wonders why they are gone. That kills, and wonders why he is in prison. Leave this place, and never return.”

Valkyrie, thought Nantan and Henry, simultaneously.

“Fucking bitch,” said Bodaway. “Tear your fucking arms off and beat you with them.”

“You threatened a child,” said Nantan. “Who does that?”

“Child?” asked Bodaway, genuinely confused.

“This person is sixteen,” said Nantan. “You threatened a female who is sixteen.”

“She...” Bodaway swayed.

“Go,” said Nantan. “I do not care if you drink, or smoke, or do drugs. You can be an asshole somewhere else.”

“Fuck you,” said Bodaway. “Worthless,” he said in Sioux.

“Even I understand what you said,” said Ajai. “It is you who are worthless.”

Bodaway took two steps forward, but he hadn’t seen the boys. They had filled balloons with a mixture of water and dish soap. They opened the window just above the porch. They had to be careful not to strike the roof or the horses. They knew, instinctively, that Henry would kill them if they spooked a horse. So, they both crept out onto the roof. Then, they let fly.

The first water bomb hit Bodaway in the face. The second hit him in the shoulder. He gasped, breathed in water, and choked. Henry looked up, gave a thumbs-up, and specified with a finger. Jacy threw one more, and it hit Bodaway in the legs. The green soap stained his jeans.

“What the fuck!” he said, screaming. He charged, but he had been blinded by the soap.

Nantan held out both hands, and the enraged Bodaway ran up the stairs right into Nantan’s iron grip on his shoulders. Ajai held the bat on the handle farther up, and poked him in the stomach. He attempted to double over, but Nantan’s iron grip held him. Ajai moved her hand back up the grip of the bat, and swung a golf swing in between his legs, holding back. She didn’t want to maim him, just prevent him from fighting. Nantan let him go, and Bodaway doubled over, mewling.

Inola came up on another horse. “Stupid men, forgot the rope,” she said, and lassoed Bodaway. She went up the line right between them. Jeffrey backed up, and Inola tied the rope to her saddle.

Henry kept the gun at his side. “Wrap him up,” he said. “The police will love seeing him.”

Inola jerked, and Bodaway fell over on his side. Inola hopped off the horse. Henry looked up, and motioned for the boys to get back in the house. They helped each other back in the window. Ajai and Nantan walked down the stairs. Henry pointed the gun at the ground as Inola expertly hog-tied him. Bodaway tried to take a swing at Inola, although he could only move his arms up to the elbows.

Ajai handed the bat to Nantan, and expertly grabbed the hand and twisted it in a way that made Bodaway howl.

“Thanks, girlfriend,” said Inola, and she finished hog-tying him.

“Jeffrey,” said Henry, “Text an all-clear to David.” The young man took out his cell and sent the code.

Henry had no idea that Ajai had sent her own 911, and Ajai was too busy pulling back her baseball bat, considering cracking it against Bodaway’s head as he spewed a stream of curse words and invective in three languages.

The dual sounds of the police siren and the Harleys were unmistakable. “Who called the police?” asked Henry.

Ajai recalled her 911 text. “My moms did,” she said.

Herja and Thrasher came running from the parking lot, Herja’s hair streaming out behind her. She took in the horses, Henry’s gun, the baseball bat in her daughter’s hand, Inola’s rope, and the hog-tied man. She motioned for Thrasher to stand down. He figured out the same thing, so he took his hand off the butt of his gun.

“What have we here?” Thrasher said as they arrived at the porch, after stopping to draw breath.

Herja looked at her daughter standing over the man, baseball bat in hand. She smiled with fierce pride. “My daughter, are you well?” she asked, coming to a stop near the horses so as not to spook them.

“I am well,” said Ajai. “This man threatened me, called Nantan nasty things, threatened me, and tried to assault me and Nantan.”

“Assault on a minor,” said Thrasher, advancing with his cuffs.

“Trespassing, attempted murder that will be murder when his wife passes away, and violating restraining orders,” said Nantan.

“Violating court orders,” said Henry. “He wasn’t supposed to have any idea about us.”

The other Harleys were right behind, Rota running all-out to get to her daughter, and Ivy content to watch Thrasher leading away a cursing man. Ivy saw the collision when Rota hugged Ajai. Wraith came up, took in the scene, took off her helmet, and went at a more sedate pace towards Ajai and her mothers.

Ivy went into the main house, and smiled at David, who was watching from the front porch, gun in hand. “You can put that away,” she said.

“What? Oh,” he said, and he broke the gun and took out the bullets. “Thanks,” he said.

“They did good,” said Ivy. “You got any Coke?”

“Yes,” said David, “but you are not supposed to be drinking it.”

“It’s either that or the booze, and one is less bad for me than the other.”

“Hiding behind the pies,” said David.

“We have pie?” asked Ivy.

“Good God, woman,” said David. “A man comes to steal our children, and you want to drink Coke and eat pie?”

“Bad guy is in custody. Two girls on the porch with baseball bats, so if he miraculously gets out of the cuffs, he’s in for a beatdown. Jeffrey has that huge monster horse, and Henry still has a shotgun. I think we’re safe. What kind of pie?”

“Apple, and a peanut butter pie.”

“Good god,’ said Ivy. “Now I can get the year off my life that the kid gave me (sending me a 911), back.”

“Smart kid,” said David. “Cut me a piece, too.”

“Will do,” she said.

Tito arrived then with the van, kids spilling out. He took in the man in cuffs, and Jeffrey walking the stallion back to the barn. Nantan quietly talked to Henry with a gun, and Herja, Rota, and Wraith talked to Ajai.

Nantan waited until Bodaway was off in the parking lot until he said, quietly, “I have to tell the boys they are okay, without showing where they are.”

“Go,” said Henry, breaking the gun and turning the horse back to the paddock.

Nantan walked through the house, to the back, and walked out the back door. He walked over to the hydroponics house, then went in and climbed the stairs.

He found two girls with baseball bats guarding the door. “He’s gone,” he said. “Good job.”

They nodded at him. Willow said, “We’re Valkyries. What do you expect?”

“Go help your sister,” he said, nodding. They nodded back, and went back to the main house to help Ajai.

Nantan knocked on the door. “He’s gone, or he will be once the cop car shows up,” he said. “Stay in here until he is gone, about half an hour. He committed a lot of crimes today, so he’s going down. I know you’ve heard that before, but judges here know the Nighthawks and Valkyries, and Iron Knights.”

“’Kay,” said Nico.

“Will you stay with us?” asked Tam.

“Absolutely,” said Nantan. “Come on, let’s do some laundry.”

“Laundry?” said the puzzled Nico.

“The task that never ends. He started singing “The Never-ending Song” and they took their hamper down the stairs. They knew how to separate whites from darks, and Tam separated while Nico loaded. Nico put in soap and fabric softener and turned on the washer while Tam checked the dryer.

“Nada,” said Tam. “Nyet, aniyo, nothing.”

“Okay, do you want this twenty minutes to be picking strawberries or the math module?”

“Strawberries first,” said Tam.”

“Let’s go,” said Nico.

More officers showed up. Jeffrey gave his statement, and Henry sent him with the broken shotgun, minus the shells, back to the house after the officers determined that it had not been fired. Henry gave his statement, then rode the horse around the property to give it some exercise.

Inola gave her statement, and rode her horse with Henry, enjoying the day, before swollen breasts reminded her to go back and feed the baby. Yoki gave her statement, turned over her unused bat, and went to go pick fruit as well. Ivy didn’t give a statement, and went to work after stealing a piece of both the apple and the peanut butter pies, and she drank a “forbidden Coke.”

Nantan finished his statement, then went in to circulate between the picking, and lessons on tablets the teens took draped over beanbags in the living room, or at the kitchen table if they wanted to take notes or do exercises. The Pomodoro buzzer sounded and the students rushed to do short chores —changing over the laundry, vacuuming, dusting a room, or setting the kitchen table for the next meal —before resuming studying. The pickers traded with the studying students, and the studying students went to slice the fruits and veggies and put them in the containers.

Henry came back from his ride, and circulated among all the students to check their progress and ask if they had any questions before he headed off with Jake to the homeschool at the Nighthawks club. Vu came over for extended reading time, and helped the students choose books from the required extended reading list.

The teens argued over what they would do with the part of their salary they were allowed to spend —most of it went into a savings account, with the video game contingent louder than the car or motorcycle contingent. Some were savers, and some spenders, and Nantan and Henry couldn’t budge the spenders too much. They showed them how to get video games for free online, or to pay ten dollars a month for the service; but some wanted the expensive gaming machine and games anyway.

Nico and Tam were given as normal a day as possible after their father’s raging visit. The social worker, Clarissa Rodriguez from the res, came by during a Pomodoro break with the counselor, Ava. They all took horses out for a ride along the trails, giving the boys time to breathe while they related the stories. Clarissa was impressed as hell with the other students blocking their door with baseball bats.

Ava decided to talk to Ajai, but then discarded the idea. The girl had two mothers, to protect her —but she seemed hell-bent on protecting herself. Ava laughed to herself, as she watched the boys settle into the ride, steady on the horses despite their fright. Nantan was a good horseman, and he’d taught them well. Ajai’s speech, as had been described it to her, showed an insight far past her years. Valkyrie, she thought.

Wraith had a vested interest in finding out just what was going on with Bodaway Teton. She checked with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department about the man. She heard nothing for a few hours, settling in to bang out the paperwork about the incident. Thrasher had made the arrest and Wraith was determined not to interfere …yet.

Thrasher told him that the man had received medical attention —no permanent damage, just bruising, and had blood tests. He was questioned, but simply ranted in Sioux, English, and Spanish. The LVMPD dutifully recorded all his statements, and asked various officers to help translate. He was charged with trespassing, violating two restraining orders, and assaulting a minor. The fact that the minor didn’t have a scratch on her was immaterial. He had both threatened the life of a minor and attacked her.

“Keep me posted on the arraignment?” asked Wraith.

“Will do,” said Thrasher. “I get any points with Herja?”

“You literally dropped everything to help her go save her child,” said Wraith. “I call points, but not about her going easy on you in the practice room. She may actually go harder on you because she sees potential in you.”

“Potential in me?” said Thrasher.

“Yeah, as in you don’t suck, and you can get a lot better than what you are now.” Wraith thought of her own training sessions with Herja, and winced.

“I’ll get better,” said Thrasher.

“See that you do,” said Wraith. “Or she may kill you in training.” Thrasher laughed ruefully, and hung up.

The arraignment was held, and Bodaway was held without bail as there were pending murder charges in Arizona. His wife had died. The Nighthawks took a ride to pick up her ashes and take them to Lake Havasu for the ceremony. The boys seemed shell-shocked. They had few good memories of their mother; she was poor, uneducated, and believed she was “sinful” and therefore deserved the beatings her husband gave her. It never occurred to her to protect her sons from his rage, until that last fatal night. Ivy and Wraith talked of her courage in standing up to Bodaway and protecting her sons. The boys then, for the first time, cried, not at the ceremony, but that night in the tent.

They went back to get anything the boys wanted from the house, but it looked as if every single piece of furniture had been smashed, the boys’ things scattered, torn, and broken, and blood still on the floor. Henry kept them outside as Ivy and Wraith went in, and came out fuming.

The house was sold for next to nothing, as it was sagging, with peeling paint and holes in the roof. The house was razed by the new owner, who wanted a log cabin she could build herself. The money was put aside for the boys’ education. Nantan finished his parenting classes, and as he’d already been investigated because of the school, he got custody of Nico and Tam while the father’s rights were severed.

Herja and Rota bragged about their daughter to the Valkyries. It was decided that Ajai was ready to begin more advanced training; they had been holding off until her eighteenth birthday. Ajai was pulled out of Henry’s farm for a few hours or days at a time. She brought her school laptop with her. She was trained in fighting skills, aikido to begin with, then sword, knife, staff, and spear training. Her archery was so accurate so early, that Henry set up hay bales with targets on them behind the hydroponics farm to shoot. While walking, running, and on horseback. They also trained her how to use a rifle and a handgun.

David and Henry took the students out with Native guides hiking and rock-climbing, so that part was covered. As her body got hard and strong, the other students clamored for the training. The girls went with the Valkyries, and some of the boys learned aikido. Others preferred their video game time.

The winter winds came, frigid off the mountains. Everyone wore leather jackets and gloves. Rides grew less frequent, as the wind gusts made long rides dangerous, especially through the mountain passes. They rode to California before the winds got too bad, and spent a lovely few days wandering from Santa Monica to Venice Beach in Los Angeles, before heading down the Pacific Coast Highway to Long Beach. The Valkyries came, so the female teens rode behind them, and the males rode with the Nighthawks.

The teens took surfing lessons, and they ate fantastic seafood and shopped. They sent boxes of art posters home; the teens finally found something they could spend their money on that wouldn’t break the bank. They built huge sandcastles and drank sodas on rented chairs. Then, they took the Pacific Coast Highway to San Diego. They hit up Balboa Park, Old Town, and Point Loma. They found a campground and went out to pick up huge bags full of Mexican food to eat on park benches, overlooking the ocean. They drank sodas and played soccer and threw Frisbees. They got into a game of tag football, then found a field and had their own kickball game with a soccer ball. Tam and Nico began to laugh again, even fight over who got to ride with whom.

They rode back up the Pacific Coast Highway to Redondo Beach, where they learned to surf again and eat more seafood. They hit Griffith Park Observatory late in the day, so they wandered the park and caught a planetarium show, then went out to watch the stars through the telescope. They rode out to the high desert, and ate a late meal at a burger joint. They got home late, went to bed, and slept in the next morning. Inola had animal-feeding duty, and she was up early already, after she fed her own child.

The day after the trip, they did laundry and picked veggies, but classes were suspended. They rode horses and shot arrows and walked trails. Nantan brought the veggies into the cutting room, and he, Henry, and Vi prepared the delivery orders. Nantan and Henry filled up the truck, and Nantan and Henry did the deliveries.

They made it back in time for a lunch of grilled chicken, cheese, and mushroom sandwiches, with home fries, and various juices and sodas. The teens became completely inert, barely making it over to the house to get their tablets; they laid around on the beanbags. Nantan played Uno with some of them.

They were eating a snack of veggie and corn chips and salsas when the police car drove up. They walked straight to the student dorms, hands on their guns. Jeffrey saw them, and sent a 911 to Henry and Wraith. This wasn’t normal, and he knew it. He got on the horse, and jumped her clean over the fence to the officers. He rode up as they were pounding on the door.

Ajai opened the door. “May I help you?” she asked. They shouldered past her. Infuriated, she pulled out a phone and sent a 911 text to Wraith and Herja.

Nantan stood. “Did anyone give you permission to enter?” he asked. “What seems to be the trouble, officers?” he said.

He didn’t know either of them. One was dark-haired and short, with obvious lifts in his shoes, with the name tag, “Fuller.” The other was tall and blonde, with a pock-marked face, with the nameplate that said, “Dalca.”

Fuller pulled out a gun and pointed it at Nantan. “Freeze! You are under arrest,” he said.

“On what charge?” asked Nantan.

“The murder of Bodaway Teton,” said Dalca.