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Traveling through the night Mike didn’t get much rest even stretched out in the sleeper cab. Watching his daughter’s fitful sleep had his spine on fire. There was little in his mind when it came to having done the right thing. He’d saved his daughter and the state a trial and rid the world of a man wasting oxygen. Turnabout Creek would be the last place anyone would think to look for him. Even though he was with two men he could trust, talking wasn’t the way those in his platoon passed the time. Radio chatter and an audio book were both on low from the front of the cab. The level where it was an irritant as if he were in a warzone trying to overhear a set of distant men on a patrol.
The miles from California had been eaten up and they were nearly through Nevada when the semi slowed he looked through the curtains a light ahead told him they were pulling into a truck stop. While it was a decent size one, beyond the bright beacon of lights desert, mountains and a few homes were all he could see letting him know they were in nowheresville.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“Just stopping to top off fuel, snagging some fresh coffee and swapping out,” Connell said with a yawn as he shifted down and made the wide turn toward the bay of diesel fuel pumps.
Buchanan fidgeted around, propped up with a pillow against the window trying to capture a few final precious minutes of sleep. A trick they all knew well, power naps from SEALs had to be the prototype for rapid cell phone chargers. Staying up for seventy-two hours wasn’t technically advised, but thanks to modern medicine and training, with a few strategically gauged crash times, one could stay fresh as a daisy.
“Okay I need to hit the head anyway.” Mike situated himself to get out of the truck. He didn’t want to wake Sydney, but leaving her alone wasn’t an option.
While trust was there for the two men that took him in, the last thing Syd needed was to wake with virtual strangers. The get togethers the men had with family had never really included Syd once she was walking. By then he’d given up on Sassy being anything more than a baby momma which meant she didn’t mix with the men he called brothers.
“Come on honey.” His hand was massive as he placed it gently on her shoulder and shook her slightly.
“Daddy?” Sydney panicked voice cried out in search for him. Her eyes wild as she tried to get her bearings in the dark, tiny mobile room.
“I’m right here Syd,” he assured as she crawled over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Rubbing between her shoulder blades he tried to calm the trembling child as she clung to him. “I’m right here baby, no more monsters I promise.”
“I’ll be good, I promise,” she assured and bile rose in his throat making him want to head back to Cali and snap Sassy’s neck too.
“You’re always good, Syd,” he assured as he unconsciously rocked her in his arms grateful the child was able to let him hold and comfort her, trembling or not part of her understood his arms were safe.
“How long ‘til we gets to the mountains?”
“A bit longer,” he lied because at this point he didn’t know if Hack’s home was in the mountains or on ranch land. “Syd, I have to use the bathroom. I think you better try too. It’s a long ride to Montana.”
“Can I go like last time?” she asked and he released his hold on her, confused by her request.
“What happened last time?” he questioned, a cool chill sliding up his back and not from the night air when Buchanan got out.
“By myself,” she asked.
“Of course, I’ll be outside the restroom door, but I would never go in the bathroom with you unless you were sick,” he said. “Did your mommy or Mitch go in with you?”
“Yeah, at home too, Daddy Mitch said I don’t wipe right, like I’m a baby, but I’m not and I know how,” she protested, her eyes blinking away a fury of tears threatening to break.
Cradling her head in his hands his thumb stroked clear the few teardrops because he couldn’t have her crying as they walked in together. “I need my little soldier,” he said. “Remember, like when you fell at the park and we had to get stitches?’
“K, I can try, but sometimes Daddy, tears come and I can’t stop them.”
Mike had lost men in warzones, watched them gulp their last breath as the medic worked to save their lives and thought his heart had been shattered. Here he was asking his little girl to do the impossible because others had demanded it from her for reasons beyond stealth.
“How about you get them all out and then we go in?” he offered. “I’ll help my friends and gas their truck up and you get all the tears out.”
“K,” she said with a hard gulp as he got out of the cab and approached Connell who was pumping diesel.
“Syd needs a minute,” he said. “Want to head in, I’m pretty sure I can monitor a pump and the cargo until Buchanan comes back.”
“Stupid question,” Connell began.
“Desert Eagle in the shoulder, forty-four on my back and I even got a little twenty-two on my ankle,” Mike answered before being asked.
“A little light,” Connell joked. “When do you walk around with only one shoulder holster.”
“You didn’t ask what I had in my bag,” he offered.
