CHAPTER 25
“You know you should be out talking to voters, right?” Weston said, full of disappointment. “The election is nine days.”
“Help me unload the horses,” Travis answered, stepping out of his old beat up truck.
“How many phone calls did you make last week?” Weston called after him as he walked around to the back of the trailer.
“Hundred and fifty,” Travis grunted as he slipped the bolt and swung open the door.
Weston caught the gate, frowning. “This is a close election, dammit. You could win this thing, but not if you don’t ask for votes.”
Travis stepped into the trailer and grabbed Flipper’s halter, turning the mare and guiding her out, tying her to a corral post. “Isn’t that what my mail is doing for me?”
“Of course. But a personal ask is always more powerful.”
Travis pulled back the interior gate, and reached for Sunny’s halter, leading the mare out of the trailer and setting her next to Flipper. Hope had introduced the two horses and over the last few weeks, gotten them to accept each other. Excitement fluttered in his chest. Dax’s eyes would be saucers when he saw Sunny here. “I never should have let you talk me into this.”
“A little late for regrets now that you’re neck deep in it,” Weston snapped. “Polling shows the tide turning in our favor if we hit him hard. But we have to take the punch.”
Travis bent over the trailer hitch, releasing the electric cord first. “I’ve already told you, I’m not gonna run DC politics in Prairie. I don’t care what you or your family know about campaigns. Not gonna run my campaign that way. Period.” He flicked the safety chains to the ground, where they landed with a clatter.
Weston placed his hands on his hips, gazing skyward. “That’s the problem. You’re not running a campaign at all. I’ve done all the op research you need, and Lawson ain’t clean. You need to go for the throat this final week and knock him out. Don’t be naive and think he’s not researching you. He’s going to hit you where you’re most vulnerable. I’ve left a dossier on your desk at work sent to me from one of our friends. You might want to spend a little time researching.”
He knew exactly which friends. Weston had maintained deep connections with several units of SEALs in the years since he’d retired. Many had ended up in private security, or in shadow ops. He presumed that some of the collecting methods were… not quite above board. He’d never risk his reputation as a lawman by using the information. However useful it might be. “Never. You know that bends the rules.”
“Not like you haven’t bent the rules.”
“Not at the office. Never at the office.”
“C’mon,” Weston pleaded, a note of desperation in his voice. “Aren’t you the least bit curious? About him? Lawson’s as greasy as they come.”
“Course I am.” His fingers itched to research Elaine too. Dig into the past she guarded so closely. Only he never did it out of a sense of propriety. And the hope she’d share her secrets with him the way he’d shared some of his. He sighed heavily, chest tight. “Look, I do it for one person, what’s to stop me from spying on anyone else? No way, man.”
Weston’s brow drew tight. “What are you going to do if you lose?”
Travis stared at him for a long moment, then threw his head back, laughing. “You really do want my job, don’t you?”
The corner of Weston’s mouth twitched.
“Ha. I knew it.” Travis slapped his thigh, still shaking with laughter. “If I lose, you’ll have to wait a little longer for my job.” He shrugged. “And maybe I’ll become a dilettante rancher, now that I’ve got horses to tend to. Help me get them settled. Storm’s a comin’ and I want to check on Elaine and Dax.”
The clouds were piling up to the west, tall and imposing. The air felt sticky and heavy, the kind that produced ugly storms. A shiver slithered down Travis’s spine. It wasn’t tornado season, but that didn’t amount to a hill of beans in Kansas. Hell, he’d heard the sirens pop in November. They could just as easily sound in September, especially with the weather so topsy-turvy lately. Given Dax’s reaction to a simple summer storm, he wanted to be there with them, or bring them back home if the weather was going to turn dangerous.
The realization hit him like a two-by-four to the head. Home. The thought had slipped out as naturally as breathing. Elaine and Dax belonged here. Belonged home. Would she consider moving in after the election? He’d make a nice dinner and ask her as soon as everything was over.
The sky rumbled ominously by the time he turned his SUV toward town. It was only four, but the sky had gone black. The sirens began their eerie whine as he pulled up to the sole light in Prairie. “Dammit,” he spat, hitting the accelerator. Two minutes later he skidded to a stop in front of Elaine’s trailer, glowing in the eerie dark. Worry thrummed in his veins. Prairie couldn’t survive another direct hit. Crossing the walk in two leaps, he burst in the door, grateful for once that she always left the door unlocked.
His heart wrenched at the sight. Elaine sat huddled on the floor looking up at him through terrified eyes, a very scared Dax cowering in her lap. Crossing and dropping to the floor next to Elaine, he pulled Dax into his lap and draped an arm around her, pulling her close. “It’s okay. We’re safe. I’m here. Everything’s gonna be okay.”
“But the sirens,” Elaine answered tightly just as a clap of thunder opened up the heavens. Rain pounded on the roof of the trailer, turning the tiny space into an echo chamber.
Keeping his voice calm, he raised his voice enough it could be heard over the noise. “Check the weather app I installed on your phone. It should pull up the satellite image.”
Dax buried his head into his shoulder, trembling. Travis rubbed his back and kissed his head. “It’s okay, kiddo. I’m here now. We’re gonna be just fine.”
He was damned well gonna make sure of it. This trailer was a fucking death trap. Anger at himself rising with each flash of lightning. He couldn’t believe how many storms they’d endured over the summer in this din, and she’d never said anything. His brave, sweet Elaine. Soldiering on, an army of one. No more.
She handed him the phone. Relief melted some of the tension in his neck. The worst of it was to the north. They were in for a doozy of a storm though. As if on cue, the lights flickered and went out, casting them into shadow. Dax whimpered and Travis automatically patted his back.
Then a clunk hit the roof, followed by another. And another.
“Hail,” Elaine murmured.
The pinging and clunking increased in speed until the trailer sounded like they were underneath the bleachers at a stadium when fans stomped their feet like crazy.
Elaine turned to him, eyes wide. “Travis. Your car.”
He shook his head. “Will be fine. What’s important is that we’re safe.” He tightened his embrace on the two. At that moment, nothing else mattered. They were together. They were safe. Fuck the election. It wasn’t important. At least not as important as Elaine and Dax. They were his life. His family, his home. Nothing mattered more than having them in the center of his world. “That’s it,” he growled when the hail had passed. “You’re not staying here a second longer. You’re coming home.”