Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 162

Will

Relations would have to wait. The next morning, Moose and Dolly pulled us together for a meeting outside Caleb and Jacey’s room. We all sat on beat-up folding chairs.

From what McKenzie and I had heard the night before, I was impressed that Dolly could sit at all.

“So, we’ve got ourselves a situation,” Moose said.

“Please, dear God, tell me the situation is that Masterson hung himself in prison,” Caleb called from his bed.

Moose grimaced. “No such luck, I’m afraid. The situation I’m talkin’ about is how to keep you out of Masterson’s hands.”

“I think we’re off his radar,” I said. “I mean, way out here in the middle of nowhere. Where are we, anyway?”

“Outside Melrose,” Moose responded, naming a Minnesota town north of St. Cloud. It was about an hour and a half northwest of Minnetonka, where the Masterson Estate was.

Caleb gave a low whistle. “Pretty far off the beaten path. At least Masterson’s beaten path.”

“Yeah, but he’s not going to stop lookin’ for you,” Moose said. “We’ve gotta be smart about this. First thing I gotta do, and I should have done it right when you got here, is see if any of you are tagged.”

“Tagged?” Jacey echoed. “What do you mean, ‘tagged’?”

“Just like it sounds. Subdermal tracking device,” Moose replied.

My blood froze in my veins. “Shit.”

“You think you might be tagged?” Moose asked.

“I feel sick,” McKenzie murmured.

I put an arm around her, though I couldn’t say I didn’t feel the same. “I don’t know if we are,” I said. “I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I am. But I’d be willing to bet money Caleb and Jacey are.”

“He always knew where we were,” Jacey whispered, going pale. “Always.”

“Right. Well, lucky for us, I keep this property covered with signal disruption, but they might have been able to follow your tracker up to the property. That could be a problem,” Moose said.

“We don’t want to get you killed!” McKenzie burst out. “We should leave.” She looked up at me. “So many people keep dying….”

I nodded. “You’re our friends. We can’t bring Grandfather’s wrath down on you. If you give us an hour or two to figure out where we can go—”

“Pfft.” Dolly shook her head. “A bit late for that now. We’re in it up to our necks. Now, you listen to Moose, and we’ll see what we can figure out.”

“Okay.” I squeezed McKenzie’s shoulder, offering her comfort while she looked completely crestfallen.

“I’m gonna use a scanner on all of you. Then we’re gonna pack up and take off. I’ve got property near Grand Marais,” Moose said. “Not in my real name. Not like this place.”

“That sounds very well thought out.” Caleb complimented him.

“You gotta be prepared. You never know what’s gonna happen.” Moose stood and got what looked like a wand they used at the airport out of a cupboard. He turned to McKenzie. “You first.”

McKenzie got up and spread her arms and legs, allowing Moose to wand her more easily.

I scowled when the wand beeped around her hand.

“That’s where my IV was in the hospital,” she murmured. “Oh my God.”

“There are slippery assholes in this world,” Moose said. “Since there’s no raised bump under your skin here, I’m assumin’ they got it between the bones. Means it’s gonna to be a bitch to get out.” He sighed. “But we’re gonna have to.”

My chest swelled with pride when my honeybee simply set her jaw and nodded. “Do what you have to do.”

“See, why can’t you find a nice girl with big lady balls like that?” Dolly asked Shep.

Shep just laughed goodnaturedly.

“I’m gonna wand the others first, then we’ll start gettin’ trackers out,” Moose said. “Okay, Will, you’re up.”

I kissed McKenzie on the cheek then stood in front of him.

My tracker, as it turned out, was in my left calf.

“Yep, embedded in the muscle, if I’m not mistaken,” Moose muttered. “Another fun minor surgery happenin’ today.”

“I had a football injury there once. Someone got me with their cleats.” I shook my head angrily. “He used it as an opportunity to chip me like a dog.”

“He sure did.” Moose took the wand into Caleb and Jacey’s bedroom. Both of them had trackers in their left arms.

Moose motioned to McKenzie. “You and me are goin’ in the kitchen.”

She swallowed and walked with him into the kitchen.

Luckily, it was an open kitchen, so we were all able to see what Moose was doing. Still, it wasn’t enough for me, and I wandered in and took her other hand. “You can squeeze my hand off if you need to. I know it might hurt.”

McKenzie gave me a nervous smile.

“I’m gonna numb the area. It shouldn’t hurt too much,” Moose reassured us. “And Will, you gotta stay outta my way.”

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

Moose took a syringe of something else and slowly made small injections around the area of her hand where he’d be performing the surgery. Then he pressed down on the site. “Can you feel that?”

“Just a little pressure, but nothing else,” she said.

“Good. That’s what we want.” Moose got out a kit and pulled out a scalpel. “I’ll probably have to stitch you up when I’m done. I’ll make sure the area’s still numb.”

“Okay. Thank you,” she responded.

I didn’t want to watch. But I had to. I couldn’t let her go through it alone.

It took what seemed like forever, but finally he removed the tracker with tweezers.

“What do we do with it now?” I asked, glowering at the small device.

“This.” He opened a drawer, took out a meat cleaver, and slammed it down on the tracker. It was very satisfying to watch.

Then he expertly stitched up McKenzie’s hand and bandaged it. “Not too bad, McKenzie?”

“No. I didn’t even have to squeeze Will’s hand off.” She gave a nervous grin.

“I’m sure he appreciates that. Speaking of which, pants off and up on the counter you go,” he said after sterilizing the space.

My tracker, as it turned out, was very deeply embedded in the muscle.

“Guess Grandfather was afraid I’d run off on him and wanted to make sure I couldn’t.” I grunted while he put in a third round of numbing injections and kept fishing for the tracker.

“Your grandfather is an asshole.” Moose finally came up with the tracker. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ. That’s gonna be sore for a while. Here, McKenzie, you do the honors. I’ve gotta start stitching him back up.”

She took the tracker and slammed the meat cleaver down on it. Then she did it two more times.

“Okay, it’s dead. You can stop any time now,” he said, working on my stitches.

“It’s not nearly dead enough,” she muttered but stopped beating on it.

“I love you, too,” I chuckled, trying not to wince when Moose hit an area that wasn’t quite numb enough anymore.

He tapped my thigh. “None of that manly stoic bullshit, now. You need to be able to walk on out of here in the next couple of hours. You tell me when it hurts so I can numb it some more. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” I said contritely.

“What he said,” McKenzie agreed, glaring at me.

Moose numbed the area again then finished stitching me up. He put a dressing on the area. “All right, Caleb and Jacey. I’m comin’ in there next. You hop on down, Will. Try not to put too much weight on it for the time being.”

I nodded and carefully got down from the counter.

McKenzie hugged me. “I’m glad that’s over. Watching was awful. He really had to dig in there.”

I hugged her back. “I felt the same way when he was doing your hand.”

She snorted. “He didn’t have to dig in my hand as much as he had to in your leg.”

“Still, I didn’t like it.” I kissed the top of her head.

“I’d say go pack, but I don’t think any of you have anythin’ but the clothes on your backs,” Dolly said. She looked at Shep. “Go get our bags. There’s a second bag in Moose’s room. He already packed.”

“Sure, Ma. I’ll be right back.” Shep took the stairs two at a time.

I waited impatiently for Moose to finish, praying Ike hadn’t already tracked the signal to this area.

Shep didn’t come back downstairs right away.

“Is Shep okay?” I asked Dolly.

She frowned. “Shep! What’s keepin’ ya?”

“Well, Ma, we got a problem,” Shep replied from upstairs.

“What problem?” she asked.

“There’s a bunch of men with guns outside, and one of them’s got their rifle pointed right at me,” he said.

I couldn’t believe he sounded so calm. I was not calm. “Fuuuuuuuck….”

“Oh God,” McKenzie whispered. “We’ve got to get my parents out of here!”

“Moose, you done?” Dolly asked, just as calm as her son. “We got World War Three building up outside, according to my son.”

He came out of the bedroom holding a tracker, dropped it on the floor, and crushed it under his foot. “Still gotta get Jacey.”

Someone banged on the front door. “Open up! We don’t want to shoot, but we will if you don’t hand them over!”

“I hate being interrupted while I’m workin’,” Moose complained. “You three might want to get behind the counter.” Then he took what looked like a TV remote out of his back pocket, flipped off a protective cover, and pressed a button.

The front porch exploded.

Glass, wood, and sheetrock dust rained down around us. The counter did provide a good barrier, however, and Dolly, McKenzie, and I did not get hit by any nasty shrapnel.

“Bet those fuckers weren’t expecting that,” Moose said with a slight snicker.

The insurgent team backed off, and Shep came pelting down the stairs, holding three duffel bags. “What now?” he asked.

“I gotta get that tracker outta Jacey, or it ain’t gonna matter what we do now,” Moose replied in frustration. “Will, Shep, you get Caleb and take him to the basement. Dolly, Jacey, McKenzie, you follow them down. We’re gonna have to go to the bunker for a bit.”

“Bunker?” Dolly responded. She chuckled. “Aren’t you full of surprises?”

Moose just grinned. “All right, people, let’s get this show on the road before they regroup.”

Dolly, Jacey, and McKenzie each took a duffel bag while Shep and I went and lifted Caleb out of the bed as carefully as we could. To his credit, he didn’t make a sound as we carried him down the stairs.

Moose went to a sturdy-looking cabinet and pressed a cinder block on the wall next to it. The cabinet swung outward with a loud creak.

“You always were good with your hands,” Dolly said fondly, preceding us all down the long corridor behind the cabinet. The way was lit with LED lights, and there was only one direction to go, so it wasn’t difficult to follow Dolly even with Caleb suspended between Shep and me.

“Love you, too,” Moose mumbled under his breath and took the rear after Jacey and McKenzie, closing the cabinet behind us.