Page 22 of Night Blind

Naomi eyeballed him, looking at Hump. “Is she your Mommy?”

“Yep,” Bud said.

“She’s pretty, but not as pretty as my mommy,” Naomi said.

Bud shrugged. “I think my Mommy is the mostbeautifuliestwoman in the world. And she makes a good peach pie. Do you like peach pie?”

“I like peanut butter cookies,” Naomi said.

Slow, over all of it, “Can you guys go to Naomi’s room and play in there?”

“Okay Daddy,” she said, her gaze going back to Hump as if she were silently threatening her to not try any funny business. However, Naomi still hadn’t moved. Too much was happening and she didn’t want to miss anything. He bit into the burger, chewing as if he had all the time in the world. His focus returned to Hump, “I had to call in back up to help locate Helen, that’s my wife’s cousin, but the Collector got away. The tracker is still on the trail and hopefully, has some good news for me.”

“Okay, then it explains the mystery man in the bathroom,” Hump said as the sound of a toilet flushing echoed through the house.

The doctor, busy with Cherry’s foot, didn’t look up as Azreal wanted to know the extent of the damage. As she feared, the Cherry on Top was out of play. The day was coming anyway to the end of her reign as the team sniper, living with a man like Slow who would want a son to go along with the cute little daughter. The edge in Cherry wasn’t there anymore either; Azreal spotted that as well when he carried her through the door. Her mother-in-law was fussing over her, and the sister-in-law brought her food; Cherry was loving the attention and affection, leaving the angry bitter female tiger who blew out people’s brains for a living to morph into a now domesticated feline. Domesticated cats didn’t like to hunt. Now she had two problems – an unfulfilled contract and the loss of a prime piece of fruit in her salad bowl.

From the bathroom walked in a man with wide shoulders that carried so much of the weight of life; he entered the living space, nearly sucking the air out of the room. He didn’t say who he was but Mark and Ruth Neary knew him well, giving him access to the house. Cherry looked up, saw him, and smiled, and to Helen, he appeared to be a distant memory, fuzzy around the edges, but familiar.

“Mustang,” Slow said.

“Slow,” he replied.

“To what do I owe the honor?”

“Came to deliver some news,” Mustang said, looking at the cake on the neat saucer. “Hey, I didn’t get any of Mama Ruth’s pound cake!”

Slow squinted, staring at him with determination to get to the crux of the matter, “Will you focus, man?”

“No, I want some of Mama Ruth’s pound cake too,” he complained, and a slice on a saucer got shoved into his hand by Helen. “Thanks; good to see you’re doing well.”

Helen blinked several times. Her memory banks were overloaded as she searched her mind to remember the man, but a scent hit her. A woodsy, oaky smell, then it came back. He’d carried her. On the street where she collapsed, her eyes fluttering, feet bleeding, and nearly exhausted, he was with her cousin on the rescue. She nodded to him.

“Thank you for helping to save my life,” she said softly, “Have you located him? Do you know where he is?”

Now everyone was looking at Mustang. “Yes, I’ve located him and the women. I was coming to let you know as well as Azreal and was informed that all of you were in one place.”

Azreal stood up. She wasn’t an attractive woman by any means, but capable, skilled, and smarter than your average bear. Unfortunately, she had the features of one as well—an angry bear, fresh out of hibernation seeking food from an unsuspecting picnicker who would be shocked at her arrival.

“We have a pressing matter at hand,” she said, looking at Cherry. “The assignment needs to be closed. You left your shop with a great amount of equipment in it. Where is your weapon?”

“Still in the tree whose inhabitants objected to me being in the branches,” Cherry added, “along with my ammo belt and Tech phone.”

“Not good,” Azreal said. “Before we can think about The Collector, we have to close the job.”

Mustang spoke up, “I can’t do it since I’m assigned to Oregon. Who do you have closest who can pitch hit?”

“Bad Apple is too far away. We don’t have enough time for Passion Fruit to stage an accident, and Lemon is down with the flu,” Azreal explained.

A small voice spoke up, “I’ll take care of it.”

Everyone looked around to see who had spoken. The voice said again, “I’ll close the contract if I can get a second set of hands as a backup. I’ll close the contract, then go take care of The Collector and free those women. Besides, I told them I was coming back, and I promised him I’d be back to take care of him too.”

Mark stepped forward, about to speak, but Slow shook his head no to his father. Ruth wanted to speak, but Slow shook his head no to his mother. His eyes were on his wife. She looked at Helen.

“Melody, my favorite rifle is in the center tree. There are five trees. Melody is on branch 7 seven in tree three,” she said. “My shop is one mile down the road, west of the tree, and my cards for fuel and other identifications are in the secret compartment.”

Helen didn’t flinch. “You’re set up in the tree, is the weapon fixed on the entry or the exit?”

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