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“She’s a committed rancher, I’ll give her that much. Any news on Balaban?”
“Not a peep.”
“What do you think the odds are that he came here to take a nice, relaxing vacation in the Big Apple? Who knows? Maybe he’s on the top floor of the Empire State Building right now taking some selfies.”
“Another joke,” Mac said. “I’m beginning to get impressed. And to answer your question, slim to none.”
“Yeah, I know. He’s going to show up sooner or later.”
“Don’t forget we’ve got home field advantage, not to mention as shitty as the weather is, it could help us out. If he mounts an attack in the blizzard, it means he’s counting entirely on the element of surprise. There’s no way he’d be able to take us otherwise.”
“Even so, it would be a bad idea on his part. We could easily wreck him when he attacks. We’re armed, we’ve got a fortress here, and there’s the little matter of how I’ll rip his fucking arms off if he threatens the people I care about.”
“He’s being reckless,” Mac agreed. “But that doesn’t mean he can’t do some damage.”
I sighed, running my hand through my hair. “I’m going to go check on Aubrey, see if I can’t get her to come inside so we can lock up.”
“Good call. I’ll do one more patrol with the rest of the guys, then we can finish hunkering down.”
With that, we split up. I threw on my heaviest coat and headed outside, keeping my head low against the whipping wind. Didn’t take long before I was at the barn doors, pulling them open and stepping inside.
“Damnit, Mike, you can’t eat that!”
I turned my attention in the direction of Aubrey’s voice. She stood in front of one of her half-dozen goats, the animals packed into one corner of the barn. Between them and the llamas and the chickens, the place was crowded. Good thing we had two barns on our land, so there was plenty of shelter for all of the animals. It was comforting to know that they were in the barns instead of in the cold.
“What’s he doing?”
“Trying to eat the barrier,” she said as I came over. “Doesn’t understand that the world’s not his tin can chomp on.”
“He’s just nervous,” I said. “Knows something’s off.”
“Yeah, an anxious eater, it looks like.”
“They’re holding up alright, though?” I asked. “No issues?”
She put her hands on her hips, giving Mike one last annoyed look before turning her attention to me.
“They’re fine. I mean, a little shaken up from the move, but they’ll be OK.”
Silence fell, the real question on my mind surfacing.
“And how areyoufeeling? I mean, about everything?”
She pursed her lips. “Good. I think. Scared, but good. I’ve got a hell of a lot to process, but we’ve got other matters to worry about, you know?”
“Oh, I know.”
“What about the twins? They’re OK?”
“They’re with Aggie, they’re good. If anything happens, they won’t even know about it. The basement’s soundproof and bulletproof. Basically a giant panic room we can seal off with a button if needed.”
“Thank God.”
I glanced aside for a moment. “And we’ve been talking.”
“Yeah? About what?”
“About this arrangement we have going on, with you living here. We were thinking that, if you wanted, we could make it a little more permanent.”
