Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 76: A Puddle of Something

-Jacey-

I froze, and so did Caleb, the smiles wiped right off our faces.

Mike and Ed noted the change and quickly drew their weapons. “What’s wrong?” Ed asked, his voice clipped.

“The only people who say that to us are the bad guys,” I gulped. “The puddle of puppies thing.”

All congeniality left the room as Bea went for her weapon, but the other woman drew down on her first. “I suppose I should start watching my language from now on,” she smirked.

“Please don’t be the Trinary. Please don’t be the Trinary,” I prayed aloud.

“What? No, nothing like that. Mr. Masterson just wants you both to come home,” the woman said.

Bea walked forward so the woman’s gun was right against her forehead. “Men, after she kills me, I want you to mow down every one of these bastards and get the kids out of here.”

“No!” I cried.

Caleb moved so he was blocking me with his body.

I didn’t see the men coming up behind the three new ‘handlers’ from the woods. I did see them when they got inside the house and pointed their semi-automatic weapons at the newcomers.

“You don’t really want to be arrested, do you?” Bea asked as the woman turned to see what we were all looking at.

While she was distracted, Bea grabbed the gun and wrenched it away from her, turning it on the woman who’d been holding it on her.

The woman curled her lip. “Nice. Earpiece?”

“Every waking moment. I’m thinking of having it surgically implanted,” Bea replied.

“Of course you know, we’re not about to get caught,” the woman said.

“Of course,” Bea agreed.

The new male handlers went for their guns.

Guns went off all around us, and then, in a spray of blood, the alleged new handlers were dead.

Bea, who had blown a hole right through the woman’s head, tucked the woman’s gun into the waistband of her skirt. “We need to leave,” she said urgently.

Caleb and I just stared at the carnage.

“Now!” she ordered.

“Right.” Caleb lifted me up in his arms and picked his way through the viscera as quickly as he could, following Bea out of the cabin.

The perimeter guards formed a circle around us with Mike and Ed inside it with Caleb and me, Bea taking point. She led us quickly into the woods.

A loud explosion rocked the terrain just as we got inside the tree line, and I looked over Caleb’s shoulder to see the cabin blown sky high.

“Was that us or them?” Caleb asked.

“Could be either. In any case, they’ve done us a favor. Now, move!” Bea said.

“I can walk, Caleb,” I reminded him.

“Yep, you sure can,” he agreed without putting me down.

I felt the tickle of air against my toes as Caleb jogged with me in his arms and came to the realization that he was wearing slippers, but I was barefoot.

At least Caleb was still keeping his head in all the confusion.

Bea led us to a nondescript, grassed-over back road, at the side of which was a blanket of rough camouflage. She yanked the blanket away to reveal two SUVs.

“Please don’t separate us again,” Caleb asked, still miles ahead of the situation. I was still seeing the new handlers dead on the floor of the cabin.

“No choice. We’ll reconvene at the next safe house,” Bea said. “We need at least one of you to bear witness against Masterson, and that means we can’t keep you together right now.”

Caleb’s grip on me tightened, but I rubbed his back soothingly. “It’s okay. We’ll be back together at the next location, like she said.”

He looked at me, and I knew there was something he wasn’t saying. He was worried about something more than just us getting separated.

“It’s going to be fine,” I tried to reassure him.

“You can’t promise that. No one can,” Caleb murmured. But he finally loosened his grip. “We’re wasting time here. I’ll go with Mike and Ed. You take Jacey.”

“Giving orders now?” Bea raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Yeah, I am,” he replied.

“Fine. Get her in that SUV. Mike, Ed, if I don’t see you at the next safehouse, I’m going to be very pissed off, you understand? Very pissed off.” She opened the back door behind the passenger seat, and Caleb gingerly placed me inside.

He then fused his lips to mine, his hand at the nape of my neck to anchor me in place. “You make it in one piece. And you give that bastard what for in court, with or without me,” he whispered, his breath feathering my skin. Then he buckled me in, and with a sad expression, closed the door.

“Caleb?” I asked, wondering what was bothering him. I wished he would tell me.

But he either didn’t hear me or didn’t want to answer because he went over to the other SUV without a word and got himself in the back passenger side.

Bea slid behind the wheel of our SUV, and the engine soon roared to life.

“What isn’t Caleb telling me?” I asked as she pulled onto the hidden road, slowly following it through the woods.

“Caleb is a very bright young man,” she responded, eyes scanning the trail ahead as low-hanging branches and shrubs scraped against the side of the SUV. “He thinks the mole might be one of the three of us.”

The blood left my face, and my heart pounded. “You mean he thinks the mole is either Mike or Ed.”

“I knew I liked you. No surprise over there being a mole at all,” Bea said.

“I’ve been around the block a few times.” I curled my fingernails into my thighs, hoping the pain would mitigate the panic I felt in my chest. “Which one do you think it is?”

“Hard to say. I’ve worked with those men for years. We’ve been a team for nearly a decade.” Her hands squeaked on the steering wheel as she gripped it harder. “I’d guess it was one of the perimeter guards, but Caleb wasn’t willing to risk your pretty head on that possibility. He assumed the worst. Frankly, in his position, I’d have done the same.”

Oh, Caleb. “He thinks he’s going back to Masterson. And he didn’t take me with him.”

“That boy has it bad for you. He had that walk-through-fire expression on his face. I’m hoping neither of my men are the leak and that he’ll arrive at our next destination as planned,” Bea said.

“Are we going to the same destination?” I asked.

Her lip lifted a little on one side. “Smart girl. I’d have made different plans for the two of you to be separated, but Ed and Mike know where the next safehouse is. If they don’t arrive with Caleb, or there’s some kind of ambush, then I’ll know.”

“So… you’re trying to flush out the mole with me?” I replied.

“Yes. But don’t worry. I’m not just going to drive up to the place with you.” She crooked her head in my direction briefly. “I’m stashing you in a motel in the next town.”

“You’re… what?” I blinked at her.

“We both know this might be a hell of a showdown if one of my men is involved. So I’m keeping you out of the way of any whizzing bullets. If I’m lucky, the men will just arrive with Caleb as planned, and we can get both of you to a location not even my superiors know about. If things go bad… well… I’m going to leave you with a number to call if you don’t hear from me within twenty-four hours,” Bea said.

I dug my fingernails deeper into my thighs. I was not freaking out. I was not freaking out. Now was not the time to freak out. “How will I know the number goes to someone who isn’t in on it?”

“Because if that person is in on it, there’s no hope for the nation as a whole,” she assured me.

“That’s… both reassuring and frightening,” I mumbled.

“Most things in this business are.” The SUV thudded over a small fallen branch, causing the whole vehicle to rock, and Bea swore.

I grappled with the oh-shit bar, but the upset was over almost as soon as it had begun. “I hope the motel doesn’t mind me coming in without luggage. I don’t want to draw attention.”

“The motel I’m taking you to would be more surprised if you did show up with luggage,” she said.

“Oh. A by-the-hour place?” I asked, rubbing the back of my neck. I wasn’t going to be at all comfortable in a place like that. I looked down at my modest clothes. I wouldn’t fit in as a streetwalker.

“Not quite, but close. Anyway, you won’t be leaving your room, so you’ll have nothing to worry about,” she replied.

I nodded. “I can do that.”

We emerged through the trees and onto a grated dirt road, and Bea took a hard left, sending gravel flying.

I grasped the oh-shit bar again. “We in a hurry?”

“To get away from what’s left of the cabin? Yes. I don’t want any more Masterson goons popping out of the shadows. Best way to avoid that is to get ourselves on the highway,” she explained.

I felt sorry for anyone following in our dust trail, because when I looked behind us, it looked as though we were creating a sandstorm. I didn’t let go of the oh-shit bar, feeling the SUV fishtail ever so slightly over the dirt. Bea was keeping us at a pace that was almost dangerous, I could feel it, though her face in the rearview mirror showed nothing but control.

When we finally hit the highway, I was nearly faint with relief. Sure, she was still speeding, but now it felt like all four wheels were under us, which gave me a much better sense of wellbeing.

We exited the highway less than an hour later, and Bea circled behind a very sketchy-looking bar into the parking lot for the Waystop Motel. Or rather WAP MOL, from the missing letters. I looked at the two-level dingy building with outfacing doors to the rooms (rooms that had three deadbolts on the door), and decided that if I owned a place this run-down, I wouldn’t have thought replacing the lights in the sign would help much, either.

“Stay here.” Bea got out of the SUV and locked the doors then went to the main office.

Her being gone the less than ten minutes it took to get a key had me hyperventilating. When she returned and unlocked the SUV, holding a pair of flip-flops and a set of keys, I nearly leaped from the vehicle. Bea held me back and presented me with the flip-flops. “Wear these. Last thing we need is you slicing your foot open on a broken beer bottle.”

“Oh. Right. Thanks.” I slid the flip-flops on.

The keys jangling from Bea’s fingers boldly stated “107” on the keychain. We walked to the room, and she jiggled two different keys in the locks to get the door to open.

When we got inside, she quickly pulled the drapes closed and gestured for me to sit on the bed, which had a comforter riddled with cigarette burns.

“If I don’t come back in twenty-four hours, call this number,” Bea said, pressing a business card into my hands. “Lock the door behind me, including setting the bar against the door. Don’t open the door for anyone except me and the man on that card. You understand?”

I nodded, clutching the business card to my chest.

She squeezed my shoulder. “If all goes well, I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

“Okay. And in twenty-four, I call this guy,” I repeated.

“Good girl.” Then Bea left.

Per her orders, I locked the door and put the bar under the knob just in case. Then, still not feeling quite safe enough, I started pushing furniture in front of the door as well, uncovering stains I didn’t want to try to recognize.

“Caleb,” I sighed, sitting cross-legged on the bed after I was finished. “Please be okay.