I sprinted toward them.
“What’s wrong?” Levi asked, frowning.
I leaned my hands against my knees while I caught my breath, then forced myself to stand up straight. “The brigade is coming. We need to pack everything up.”
“How do you know?” Hannah’s face paled and she clutched at Levi’s arm.
“Ripper radioed me,” I said. “There isn’t time to explain. They’re on their way. We need to clear out now.”
“You tried to call?”
“Yeah.”
Levi patted the front pocket of his jeans. “I must’ve left the radio on the nightstand. Sorry, dude.”
From his stricken expression, it was clear that Levi knew he’d made a mistake. Instead of piling on, I swallowed back my irritation. “Let’s get packed up and out of here.”
I backed the jeep up to the kitchen door. We ran back and forth between the house and the vehicle, throwing all of our gear into the back. Once we’d packed up all of our belongings, Levi and I walked through the house, checking for evidence of our presence.
Hannah and Hector stood watch in the yard, looking and listening for any sign of approaching vehicles.
There’s a world of difference between a house that’s been standing empty for months and one recently vacated. Cooking smells lingered in the air. The fine layer of dust that had covered everything when we arrived had been wiped clean. We’d picked up the piles of crap that the previous tenants had scattered during their hasty departure. I opened the window over the kitchen sink and in the bathroom. With any luck, circulating air would banish the food smells.
“Dump some clothes on the floor,” I ordered Levi. “Make it look as messy as it did when we got here.”
“On it,” Levi said. He rushed through the house, tossing the family’s clothes on the floor and opening kitchen cupboards, spilling spice bottles on the counters.
Hannah dashed inside. “I saw dust on the horizon. Someone might be coming.”
So much for making our escape before the brigade arrived. Time for Plan B. “Where’s the sedan?”
“Behind the barn,” Levi said.
“Park the jeep next to the car. I’ll grab tarps from the barn. We’ll cover the vehicles, then run.”
I sprinted toward the barn while Levi moved the jeep. We hastily threw tarps over the jeep and sedan, grabbed weapons, and retreated to the cluster of trees on the top of the hill behind the house.
Hannah knelt and wrapped her arms around Hector’s neck.
From our vantage point above the house, I spied a silver pickup crawling up the gravel drive. I glanced at the teenagers. “Bet he’s trying to sneak up on us, so he can catch us unawares.”
“How did they know we’re here?” Hannah asked.
“Dwight and Darryl were driving by yesterday evening, and they heard gunfire. Boyd decided to check all the houses between Valhalla and town.”
“Shit,” Levi hissed.
The pickup parked at the back of the house. Ripper and Boyd climbed out of the cab. They put their heads together in a hushed conversation, then Ripper pointed toward the barn. Smart. He must’ve figured that even if we didn’t get away, we’d take refuge outside the house. Let Boyd check out the empty house. Boyd nodded. Gun in hand, he pushed open the door and disappeared into the kitchen. Ripper stalked into the barn. Thirty seconds later, he emerged from the barn’s back door. He lifted the tarp over the jeep, then scanned the hillside behind the house.
I stepped out from behind a tree and waved. Ripper nodded—good, he saw me—and I dropped into a crouch. At the sight of Ripper, Hector whined and tried to wriggle away from Hannah. She held tight to his neck, and he barked.
“Quiet, boy,” Hannah whispered, hugging the dog close. I wrapped my fingers around Hector’s collar in case he bolted.
Ripper jogged back toward the house. Boyd came out the kitchen door, throwing his hands in the air and shaking his head. Another hurried consultation, then the men climbed back into the pickup and drove away.
“That was close,” Levi said. “What do we do now? If Boyd doesn’t find the shooter, do you think he’ll give up? Or come back and check again?”
“Dunno,” I said. “As soon as he can, Ripper will let us know what Boyd says. Until then, we need to make a plan.”
“It’s my fault,” Levi said. “If I hadn’t been teaching Hannah how to shoot, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Not your fault.” I squeezed his shoulder. It was pointless to waste time and energy on blame games. “Hannah has to learn how to defend herself. There’s no way you could have known that anybody would hear the gunfire.”
“But—”
“Let it go,” I ordered. “We have to focus on what we do next.”
“Is it too dangerous to stay at the house?” Hannah asked. “If we leave, where can we go?”
Hannah looked at me like I had the answers. Levi, too. Shit. Levi brought so many unexpected skills to the table that sometimes it was easy to forget how young he was, how young they both were.
It was on me to come up with the plan. I sucked in a deep breath and stood up straight. “They checked all the houses between the ranch and the town. Chances are, they won’t come back.” I forced a reassuring conviction into my voice. “At the very least, if they decide to do another search, Ripper will give us a heads-up. I suspect that we’re safe staying put, and we have to stay within radio range of Valhalla, but we need to keep our guard up. Keep the radio close. Leave most of our stuff in the jeep, in case we have to take off fast.”
Levi and Hannah nodded, relief flooding their features. I hoped to hell I’d made the right call. I pulled the jeep up next to the door and we brought the bare essentials into the house: sleeping bags, weapons, some food.
“Instead of you going back to Valhalla, I’ll start my watch early,” Levi said. We’d planned to switch places midafternoon, but there was no point in my walking all those miles back to the ranch just to turn around a couple of hours later.
Hannah and Levi had rehydrated a dried-chili mix. We warmed it up and ate a quick lunch. Levi was loading a backpack with water, snacks, and extra ammo when my two-way radio sounded again. We gathered around the radio.
“We’re back at Valhalla,” Ripper said in a low voice. “Boyd thinks the gunfire was most likely from somebody passing through, maybe somebody hunting deer.”
“So we dodged a bullet,” I said.
“Not exactly.”
“What do you mean?” Levi asked.
“There’s a National Guard armory nearby full of weapons and equipment that Boyd wants for the cause. He plans to attack it. Kill the surviving soldiers. Fucker thinks I’m gonna help him. Says we’re gonna go tomorrow.”
FORTY
Kenzie
Jerrilyn would have the hide of anybody who lit up around Libby, so Tuck had retreated outside for a late-night smoke. I found him in the side yard. He paced back and forth in the moonlight, a cigarette dangling from his hand.
“Hey, Tuck.” Tilting my head, I offered the stocky biker a coy smile. I held my right hand conspicuously behind my back. “I got something for you.”