Page 12 of Barron

“I found Mom and Dad.” She could have wet her pants she’d been so happy to hear from Thad. “I told them about the link and how it didn’t work when we were so far away. He said that we’d have to take their blood when we got home. I did that already and that’s why I can talk to you. I was never so happy in all my life. They’re getting people gathered up to get you two. It’s working now, so Mom said it might have been nerves that made it not work for us. Are you and Belle all right? I should have asked that first. Sorry.”

“Belle is still hiding. I’m glad. She’d be building up a storm of tears if that crazy woman had hit her like she did us. Are they coming to get us?” Thad told her that they were gonna use her plan. “Good. It’s a good plan, you said. That way, we won’t have to be looking over our shoulders all the time about this nutball coming for us.”

“I talked to Mom about her. She said that she only wants Uncle Barron. She wants him to marry her so that she can be rich and don’t have to work. I’m going to work no matter how much money I got. Mom told me that it builds character.”

Maria knew the real reason that the woman, Caitlynn, wanted to marry Uncle Barron, and it had very little to do with him having money. She wanted to show off the marriage stuff that he got her to be married. The ring and the big limo. Caitlynn didn’t really want to be married. She wanted all the stuff that went with it. Big everything. Party. Wedding dress. Big jewelry. That Maria didn’t understand why anyone would want a big diamond ring. She had a pretend one, and it was forever falling off her hand. But then she didn’t much care for boys but her family ones.

“Honey, how are you doing?” Maria had to fight really hard not to beg her Dad to come and get her when he spoke to her. She told him how she was hiding Belle and that they were waiting for them to come get them. Also that her leg was broken in two pieces. “I’m so sorry, love. There will be someone there when we find you who will make sure you get good care. Your parents are coming too. We’re working on that now. Aunt Amelia is going to come for you and Belle. She’s going to just pop in there and pop back out with you so that you’ll know when we arrive. Just stay where you are and we’ll take care of you getting out of the barn. All right?”

“Yes, but I have to tell you, Dad, that crazy woman had all kinds of guns and knives. She wants to make it so that Uncle Barron marries her. That boy that was with us, his name is John, she’s gone and killed him like he wasn’t a person or anything. I guess Thad told you all about that. My goodness, Dad, my heart hurts bad for him and his momma right now.”

“We have known about him, sweetie. He’ll be picked up by his people and taken care of in their own way. Don’t you worry about a thing, honey. We’ll be there soon. She beat you guys up pretty badly, didn’t she?” Maria told him that she’d knocked them down a long hill and into the water until they thought they were going to die. “You’re getting help now. As soon as Amelia gets there, don’t say a word but take her hand into yours. But you have to warn me when Caitlynn has her back to you so that she doesn’t hurt the three of you.” She asked if her mom and brother would be there. “Yes. They’re waiting right here, baby. We’ll all be coming in the second chopper so they can get help to you guys before we pick you up and squeeze the love out of you.”

She told Belle to get ready to stand up. Maria was glad that she’d said that before Aunt Amelia came. Belle had cramps in her legs for laying for so long. Telling them that Belle was going to need help had her daddy cursing. He didn’t do it very much, but he surely did today. Maria just told Aunt Amelia to do the popping thing to get Belle, then come back for her. It was done in seconds.

Aunt Amelia not only popped in to get Belle, but she kissed them both on the cheeks and carried her sister out and came back for her all without the crazy woman ever knowing. She’d never been so happy to see her little brother as she was then. Hugging them all, including her aunts and uncles, Maria cried, big girl tears Jamie called them when they were all safe. Now they had to get the crazy woman and poor John.

As soon as she was a bit away from the barn, Maria watched as the men dressed all in green with guns and knives on them made their way, sneaky-like, toward the barn. Stopping one of them, a real nice man that called her Miss and everything, she told him to be extra careful that the crazy woman had several guns and a bag of knives. He then asked her if she’d noticed her having any kind of bombs.

“Gee whiz, Mister, I didn’t even think of that. But she just has guns and knives. Do you think that a bomb—you know, never mind. I don’t want to know if you know how to disable a bomb or not. In my head, I’m going to tell you that you can. I’m scared enough about that crazy bat.” He laughed and then mussed her hair. “Do you know if anyone is going to get me a drink or something? I’m very thirsty.” He handed her his unopened bottle and made his way down the hill more. She was going to write him a thank you note. Her mom told her that was the proper way and the nicest way to thank someone.

~*~

Caitlynn tossed the straw or hay, whatever the hell it was everywhere, trying to find where that damned girl was hiding. She was her ticket to getting Barron. She was going to be the one who found the kids, brought them to safety, and then be the hero. Who didn’t love a hero? Everyone would love her and treat her as the best thing since sliced watermelon. Her grandda used to say that to her all the time, Caitlynn just remembered.

The kids had been tossing sticks, not too many of them, over the falls to have a race to see which one got to the bottom the fastest. It was a silly game, but it entertained them enough that she was able to sneak up behind them and hit them all over the head. The bigger boy, he was a bit harder to get to go down. After telling her that he was going to find their parents, she shoved him off the top of the falls and threatened the other two—or three. It seemed to her there were three little kids there. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t going to go out and look for another kid for them when she thought that two was two too many. Now they were all missing, and she didn’t know how the hell that had happened.

So far, all they had done was complain and bitch about everything. The stuff they were sitting on was too itchy. They had to pee. Didn’t she bring them any snacks? The one with the broken leg was the noisiest. All she did was cry that Caitlynn had broken her leg and that her daddy and mommy were going to be so mad at her. She hated it when they whispered, too. Calling her what she thought was Crazy Caitlynn. Even watching them, she couldn’t see them saying it, but it was circling around in her head like a mantra all the fucking time. Crazy Caitlynn, over and over.

The pee-whining one got on her nerves the most. How many times did a kid have to pee in one day, for Christ’s sake? It wasn’t like she was letting them get into the water to get a drink or anything. Not even when the water wasn’t raging by them she made them stay back. She was going to have the two kids even if she had to listen to their shit for the rest of the day.

Now the damned little boy was gone—she’d sent him to find a police officer or whatever they were called around here and bring them here. She knew that she was taking a chance in him telling his version of what happened and not what she told him to tell them, but she’d take care of that with a couple of wallops to the head.

He was to bring the officer, just one of them, to come and find them because and she had to make sure he remembered how to say it four times that she’d found the Cross children, that she was their hero. Also, Caitlynn told him that he’d better never mention the other boy, or she’d come after him and his family in the middle of the night and cut all their throats.

There were police everywhere in the forest around the only fucking barn that she’d been staying in since she’d found it. There were drones, too, a lot of them zooming around like it was an international airport, and they had to get into the sky all at the same time. Helicopters too. Christ, those things were loud. But not one of them landed to help her get rid of these damned kids.

Of course, she’d not found them yet but had been trying to find a place to pee when she came upon them playing with some other kid that she had to get rid of. He was strong, and when she found out he wasn’t related to the Cross kids, she just pushed him over the waterfall where they’d been playing. Christ, both were a pain in the fucking ass if you asked her. It didn’t matter if they were big or little. They were a pain in the flipping ass. However, something did bother her just enough to make her think that she was going mad.

She would have sworn there were three of them kids after tossing the extra one off the hill. But neither of the two would tell her any different, and that pissed her off enough to have had to her break the leg of the little girl. That was a stupid mistake she made. She knew that when she had to carry the brat everywhere. If she’d killed her, that would have lightened her load and only given her one to keep track of. Then Barron, the slimy bastard wouldn’t take to her killing off one of his brothers’ kids. But she surely was tempted all the time.

Climbing down the ladder to get to the main section of the barn, Caitlynn wondered again why barns weren’t equipped with elevators or even stairs. How on earth did they get the pigs and cows up to the top to eat the grass, straw, whatever it was? She’d seen a horse or two while hiding out. They would have been impossible for five men to carry up the barn ladder, not to mention they were so narrow she barely could get up there without carrying a damned thing.

Perhaps that was why horses were forever out in the grassy areas. Because they were just too big to carry up those stairs. But still, she thought, there wasn’t any possible way for a person to be able to climb up them with anything but using both your hands. And climbing down was worse. How was one supposed to see where they were putting their feet as they got down to the next one?

Coming out of the other half of the barn—that was another thing that confused the hell out of her. Why did a barn need two big doors, wide enough to pass your car through, when they could just have one opening and not have to worry about the cold or weather getting to the animals and hay straw stuff? Also, who knew which was the front or the back as they both had large openings there to get confused over. Christ, no wonder farmers were at the bottom of the line of smart people. They couldn’t even build a simple structure to keep their animals in. She would hate to see what their homes looked like.

As she turned while trying to brush a thousand years of dust and shit off her to look presentable, a shadow passed over her, and it took her a moment in the blinding sun to realize who it was. The man standing there was the one man that she wanted above all others. She started toward him and stopped when he put up his hand. Still unable to look at his face with the glare Caitlynn might give that brat nephew of his a hug if he were here now.

Men stood up behind him. It looked as if they had guns. All of them pointed in her direction, but more than likely, it was at the kids. She couldn’t find fault with them, the kids had been a pain in the ass, and she’d not go near them either for whatever germs they might have. Then the sun was washed out, and she could see him perfectly. Taking another step toward him, she nearly sobbed she was so thrilled.

“Barron. Oh, love, how I’ve missed you.” When he backed up, too far for her to touch him, she noticed that there was an Indian standing next to him. Caitlynn wasn’t positive that she was using the right term for the man, but he certainly looked like the Indians of the old west movies she’d watched with her grandda when he’d been alive. “What’s going on? I see that you’ve found the kid. I sent him for you when I knew I couldn’t find my way back with the two of them. One of them has a broken leg. You have no idea how hard it’s been for me to keep them safe until I found you.”

“Is that the story that you’re going to stick to, Caitlynn? Or do you want a few minutes to come up with something else? Before I let you do that, I’d like for you to meet Chief Grey Wolf Ironhorse. His boy has been missing since early this morning, and we have a story about you like my nephew does. They said that you beat them. Then, when you found out that young John wasn’t a Cross, you pushed him over the waterways and killed him. I believe them over anything you might say because you’re a liar since you were a child. Isn’t that right?”

“I haven’t any idea what you’re talking about. Kids are natural-born liars, all of them. I think that was something that you brought up when you and I talked about not having children. Remember that. It was right after you asked me to marry you.” He said that he was already married. “I’m sorry, what?” She laughed, looking around to see if anyone else thought it was funny. “You can’t be married, Barron. You and I have plans to wed. Remember? It was going to be a huge wedding with all kinds of important guests. You were going to be showing me off, you told me. You have to remember that. It’s not that long ago.”

“We never discussed marrying in any capacity, Caitlynn. I remember a conversation that you and I had about me telling you that I didn’t love you. That you and I would never have children as we weren’t mates. I never asked you—”

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