Brady’s phone signaled that somebody was at the bridge, so he sent the code to open the heavy steel gate and disarm his traps. In two minutes, Riley’s old Jeep pickup truck came lumbering over the bridge and down the dirt road approach to his cabin. It was like déjà vu seeing him drive up like that, almost as if the last ten years had never happened. Those were the days before Maggie, when he’d just bought this place and planned to get out of the teams. He had reconsidered once Maggie came along and re-upped one last time. But during that period, she disappeared—kidnapped and murdered.
So Brady returned home alone.
In an odd sort of way, today things looked hopeful again, kind of like that time way back when. Before he’d lost her.
Tate stayed alert, standing by Brady’s side, and waited until given the signal to go greet their guest. He didn’t jump, but he licked and nuzzled Riley’s knees and legs and thigh, nearly knocking his old friend over. Brady had forgotten about the finger that Riley lost on one of their missions. Riley told the whole team it was a good omen since it was the fourth finger on his left hand and meant he would never have to get married.
Of course, time changed all that.
“Bones, I thought I had paradise, but God almighty, this place is gorgeous. Green. And it’s summertime.”
“I’ve re-routed a few creeks. Not sure the Corps of Engineers would like it. I’ve managed to dig a few wells. I’m almost off the grid except for electricity. I use propane, but everything I got here, I put together myself. It’s like meditation, you know?”
“I totally get it.” Riley said, eyeing the horizon. “I see your vegetables over there and grapes. You make your own wine?”
“Yep, and you’re going to taste some tonight. It’s not as good as it’s going to be eventually, but I got time.”
“I don’t see any greenhouses. Where’s your grow?”
“Down there a ways, out of sight, I can’t fool the airplanes but managed to put a canopy over it. You want to see it tonight or you want to eat?”
“I’d rather eat, to be honest.”
“You old pothead, Riley. She’s really domesticated you, hasn’t she?”
“Yeah, pretty much. You know, when you look into the eyes of a little person, half her and half me, it does something to you, Brady. I’m not going to lie. We faced some awful bad guys in our day, but it scares the shit out of me that I would ever disappoint one of those kids. I hope to God that Cassie never finds out how freaking scared I was when she delivered our first. I was so worried she wasn’t going to make it, and the doctors finally had to haul me away. I missed the whole dang thing. Second time, I was a little smarter. But not much.” He shook his head. “Kids, they do something to you. It’s unbelievable, Brady.”
Brady had been looking at his boots, making little designs with his toe. The subject matter was difficult for him to grasp. He decided to end it.
“Riley, you got to stop that. If we’re going to do this, I don’t want to hear anything more about your wife, your kids, the whole thing. I just don’t want to hear it. It’s not part of my life. It’s not anything I’m ever going to have or do, and I just don’t want to think about it. All I want to focus on is getting this monster picked up so he can’t go hurt somebody else like he did my Maggie. And it makes it hard to sleep at night knowing that he’s out there preying on other women and children. That’s what I think about. I want to stop this guy. I want to make it so he’s permanently off the map. If she’ll let me, I’ll put him away, too.”
“It’s not about the money at all, is it?”
“Not at all. I just want to get it done. As fast as possible, as efficiently as possible, nobody gets hurt except the bad guy. That’s what we want. That’s the goal and the mission.”
The two friends turned around and headed toward the back door. Crossing their path were several chickens.
“So you got them too, right?” said Riley.
“Yep, I only keep the hens alive, though. When I find out we got a chick that’s a rooster, well, I cook it up and give it to Tate. Ain’t that right, Tate?” he said as he patted the dog on his head.
“So how do you get babies then, if you have no roosters?” Riley asked.
“Well, about the time they start to crow, they can start having babies, right? They get a couple of days of fun. They start mounting my hens and get a few of them to lay fertile eggs. I separate those, and I hatch them. Then I let those grow up, and we have chicken for me and cooked rooster for old Tate here. But no, I don’t have time for a mean old rooster like you got, Riley. That guy would not last on my farm. He’d either get a boot on his neck or blasted with my shotgun.”
Riley chuckled. “Some things never change. You got to be in control all the time, don’t you?”
“I can say that’s an affirmative.”
Laughing, they came inside. Brady fixed his simple dinner, and they sat talking about times past, some of the guys who didn’t make it home, and some of the guys who did and what they were doing now. Brady had lost track of most of the men on his team, but he still remembered every man he failed over the years. He was careful not to tell anyone about that, though. Riley, on the other hand, was better at staying in touch.
“You’re going to have to help me pick out some guys,” Brady started. “I think we need a sharpshooter, a mechanic, a driver, and I’d like to get a backup medic, you know, just in case we run into something. I don’t know if we’ll find him in a warehouse full of damaged women or whether we’ll find him on a back road somewhere, but it’s possible we could even chase him all the way to Mexico. It would be good if we got somebody that spoke Spanish. I was thinking of Enemario Rodriguez for that job. And he’s a hell of a shot too.”
“Enemario would be a great choice,” said Riley. “I like John Pawley for medic. You trained him yourself, I think, Brady.”
“I did. He’s a hell of a good guy. But I thought he was going to go to medical school.”
“No, he couldn’t make it. His grades were bad, and well, he kind of drifted off to doing some other things. He’s doing carpentry now, building houses somewhere in Nevada. I’ll bet he’d be interested, though. And he never had any money, remember that?”
“Oh yeah I remember that. He still owes me 40 bucks.”
After a pause, Brady asked, “What about Carter Livingston for our driver, our mechanic, and general gadget guru? He could do some good stuff for us. I don’t know exactly where we’ll find Esquivel, and Carter’s done some truck driving, too, so if we happen to find Esquivel in a big diesel rig, Carter could probably drive that puppy, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, he’s a solid guy. Got a family, though. He moved back to the South, but he’s one I would go after. I got a friend who knows him. I’ll reach out, if you want, after dinner and see if we can locate him.”
“I know Enemario lives down in San Diego. That’s where most of his family is. I’ve got his number, but I don’t have John Pawley’s.”
“I have you covered,” said Riley.
After several phone calls, the three gentlemen they were hoping to get were finally onboard. It was going to take a few days for the team to assemble, so Riley and Brady decided to do some surveillance of the area where Rojas had been sighted near the Fresno area, a small sleepy town called Selma, California. They decided to bring Tate along. The rest of the men were going to show up within the week. Plus, Brady wanted at least a day to plan their operation. But first, he needed to see what they were dealing with.