Page 81 of Orphan Girl's Mountain Men

I close the front door behind me and follow as fast as I can.

Over at the boys' place, I find Lennon in the yard, sniffing around, hunting for tire tracks and other signs of a struggle. It's still early evening and at this time of the year there's a good couple of hours of sunlight still to come, so at least he has full illumination to work under. Over to the right in one of the outbuildings I see a light on and the sounds of rummaging—presumably that's Reed going through their 'emergency kit'.

I head inside and follow the sound of voices to the kitchen. Marsha is there—a sweet girl from the local town, no more than nineteen years old, lending a hand for the summer to gain farm experience—and she's finally stopped crying, though she looks a mess. Dean is standing over her, asking her questions, though not unkindly. They both turn to look at me as I come in.

"All okay?" he asks.

"Sure. Any news?"

"Yeah. Lennon found a note pinned to the windshield of our jeep by the wiper blade." He points to a grubby piece of paper on the kitchen table, containing a short, type-written note. I pick it up and unfold it.

If you want to see your little girl again do as you're told.

Sign the document the Sheriff left with you and then leave it together with this note under a stone at the turning to your property tomorrow morning by sunrise.

Do what we say and everything will be alright. We will release the girl unharmed.

Don't involve the police, don't come looking for us yourselves.

We're watching you. Put a foot wrong and you'll never see her alive again.

My face turns ashen. So, they really have kidnapped her—poor Grace! What must she be going through? I hope she's not too scared.

I glance at Dean's grim face, and suddenly I realize how much of a change has come over him. Gone is the local farmer, worrying about crop rotation and struggling with his account book. In his place I see an elite soldier—a trained killer, and a man who will stop at nothing to fulfil his mission objectives. I cannot help but give a shudder. Sinclair has no idea who he is up against. I doubt anyone around here understands these three men and who they are. Well, something tells me they are about to find out.

Just then, Reed comes in, half carrying, half dragging a heavy, black canvas bag. He is wearing the same look on his face that I had seen with Dean. His stride is purposeful. He's no longer the relaxed joker, the casual ladies' man. All that has gone. He's back to what he used to be. A trained killer. A professional soldier. Various lethal-looking gun nozzles andother pieces of equipment are poking out of the carryall. With some little effort he manages to heave it onto the table, whilst I walk over to Marsha and put my arms around her to comfort her.

"It's all there," Reed tells Dean. "Rifles. Sidearms. Spare mags. flashbangs, smoke grenades, flares, night vision goggles. Everything's tested. Everything's ready."

I gulp.Bloody Hell—are they starting a war?

"Okay, good work. Go check on Lennon, see how he's doing and report back."

"I'm on it." Without a backward look, Reed strides back out of the kitchen, heading for the yard.

Finally, Dean turns to me. "Thanks for coming, Hailey, it's good you're here because we could use your help."

"Of course. Anything I can do, just name it."

"Well first off, I want you to take Marsha home. She's in shock, she needs to be with her family, and in any case we can't afford to be worrying about her because… well, we have other things to worry about. It's what—an hour and ten minutes into Cedar Falls from here, so if you leave now, you'll be back well before ten. We'll still be here. We're going to wait for darkness before we do anything, so you won't have missed nothing. But I do want you to come back, if you will, because, well… this mission's got two goals."

"Two goals?"

"Yeah. Of course, the first and most important one is to get Grace back unharmed. That goes without saying." I nod to show my understanding and agreement.

"So, what's the other goal?"

He smiles, but it's not a pleasant smile. "Our other objective is to find out for sure who's behind all this, and why. I mean, we think we know, but he may or may not be there himself, and we need to know for sure, so we know what to do about it."

"What to do about it?"

"Yeah." That smile again. "What to do about it…afterwards."

It's ten at night, and the sun set about an hour back. There's still plenty of light left in the sky though.

The four of us sit around the boy's kitchen table. They seem mighty relaxed, considering what's coming.

"Okay," says Dean. "Let's run through it one final time." The other two nod. I sit in the corner in silence, trying not to be a nuisance.

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