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Hank appeared in the doorway. “Everything okay?”
Judged nodded. “It will be. Given time.”
Hank smiled at Brian. “Let us know if you need anything.”
He walked out of the room with Judge and out onto the front porch.
“He wants to go back to TCW,” Judge said.
Drake frowned. “Stockholm Syndrome?”
Judge nodded. “They really go after their weaknesses and make them feel that they weren’t loved and were thrown away. That their only family was there with TCW. It’s going to take time to reprogram these people.”
Hank crossed his arms over his chest. “First, we have to get them out of the situation.”
“No,” Judge said. “First, we have to find them.”
Chapter 13
The following day started well before dawn, with everyone up and working on setting up tables, chairs and floral arrangements.
Molly and Parker had brought in extra kitchen and wait staff for the Grand Opening of the Lucky Lady Lodge. They were all busy baking bread, cookies, cakes and breakfast for all the workers who’d come to help.
Molly’s entire McKinnon family arrived with their significant others and dove in to help. The guys got the huge grill going with brisket that would take half the day to cook. Then they set out ribbons to mark off the guest parking area in the parking lot and adjacent grassy areas for the overflow.
Word had spread through Eagle Rock and out into the county that the Lucky Lady Lodge was throwing a party. Everyone for miles around was coming.
All of Hank’s Brotherhood Protectors who weren’t tasked with a mission were coming with their wives, fiancées or significant others. Hank had asked them to hold off on the alcohol to keep their eyes open for anyone who looked suspicious. They’d run perimeter checks often to ensure TCW didn’t take advantage of the high concentration of Brotherhood Protectors in one place and make a play for revenge.
Hank had offered to keep his guys away from the lodge so as not to tempt anyone who wanted to get back at them for upsetting their dastardly plans.
Molly and Parker both nixed that idea immediately. They’d rather have the protection than be left wide open with a lot of innocent people at risk. TCW might choose to use them as an example.
No matter how fast Judge worked, he couldn’t free up the time he needed to go to Hank’s and visit Brian.
He hadn’t liked where they’d left off the night before and had lain awake most of the night, wondering if he’d hit the kid with too much too soon. It would take time and patience to detox his mind from the garbage TCW had fed him for so long.
Halfway through the day, Hank called Judge and let him know they were on their way and that they were bringing Brian with them. He was up and moving around well enough that they thought he might enjoy the festivities. Hank promised to keep an eye on him while he was at the Lucky Lady Lodge.
“Just bring him,” Judge said. “I’ll keep my eye on him. I hit him pretty hard with facts yesterday. He needs to know we’re not all gloom and doom, badmouthing the only family he’s known for a while. We need to let him see that living outside TCW can be happier and that he can be allowed to have fun.”
“Agreed,” Hank said. “We’ll see you soon.”
With festivities planned to kick off at three o’clock, people began arriving after noon. Hank’s Brotherhood Protectors trickled in over the next hour, some carpooling with others to limit the number of vehicles they had to park. There to help, they were assigned tasks, including standing guard at the corners of the building, manning the parking detail and guiding people into the parking lot and overflow parking as the paved area filled.
Though they’d rented seating for one hundred, the open invitation encouraged attendees to bring a lawn chair.
Chairs had been set up in front of the lodge, and no one was allowed inside until the giant red ribbon that had been hung between the front porch beams was cut with the ceremonial scissors.
The Mayor of Eagle Rock, Sheriff Barron, Molly and Parker would all hold the giant scissors to cut the ribbon. Guests would be welcomed into the lodge at that point and allowed to look around at all the work that had been done to restore it to its former glory.
As more and more people arrived, Judge worried that if TCW sent someone to cause trouble, they wouldn’t be able to pick them out of the crowd. He’d been around them during his time in the compound, but he wasn’t sure he would recognize them in different surroundings.
Hank arrived at two-thirty with Sadie, Emma, McClain and a sullen Brian. The kid looked out of place among the happy, smiling faces of the people who’d come to celebrate the reopening of a landmark they’d thought they’d lost for good a year before.
Molly and Parker moved among the crowd, talking, laughing and welcoming people as they found seats or set up their own.
Judge greeted Hank and Sadie and shook hands with Brian. “I’m glad you came. I wanted to show you what me and the guys on my team have been working on since we came to Eagle Rock.” He grinned. “We’re kind of proud of what we’ve accomplished with hard work and Molly and Parker’s design ideas. But come with me. We have front-row seats for the ribbon cutting.”
