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“That’s good,” Dad replied. “He’ll figure that shit out.”
“We shoulda recruited that motherfucker when we met him,” Uncle Will said, shaking his head. “Coulda used his expertise the last twenty years.”
“Tried to.” Dad huffed. “He wasn’t interested.”
“Shame.” Uncle Will looked at me. “So, congratulations in order?”
“What?” I looked at him blankly.
“That girl’s either got the worst growth I’ve ever seen or she’s gonna have a baby,” he said dryly. “Yours?”
“Mine,” I confirmed, trying to wrap my head around it.
Shit like that didn’t happen. I’d been having sex for years and I’d always been careful. I didn’t get women pregnant. I was careful. Never went without a condom. Ever.
“That complicates shit,” Uncle Will mused.
“Told him to take her back to the clubhouse,” my dad said. “She doesn’t need to be sittin’ here in the cold while we figure this shit out.”
“She shouldn’t be out here at all,” Uncle Will countered. “How the fuck did she end up here? She tell you?”
“She hasn’t said much,” I replied. “Beyond askin’ me to call her dad so we couldclear everything upand she could go back inside.”
“You’re shittin’ me.”
“Nope.”
“Hell, Molly isn’t even that naïve.”
“I don’t think she’s got any idea what’s goin’ on,” I said with a sigh. “She barely seems rattled. It’s like she thinks it’s some big misunderstandin’.”
“Christ,” my dad muttered.
“Woods are fuckin’ wired,” my brother Rumi called out incredulously, jogging toward us.
“Say what?” I barked.
“No shit, man,” he said as he reached us. “About fifty feet in. These are some paranoid motherfuckers.”
“Get her out of here, Otto,” my dad said, his voice vibrating with anger. “Go now.”
“They wired the woods and she’s been out here choppin’ wood?” Uncle Will said in disbelief as I strode toward Esther’s side of the truck.
My hands were shaking as the implication of that settled in my gut. The idea of Esther walking into the trees looking for wood to split and being blown to pieces ran like a reel over and over again. I was livid that we’d known where to look the night before but we’d waited until morning to come searching and she’d spent all that time oblivious to the danger around her.
“Careful drivin’ outta here,” my dad called. I waved my hand in acknowledgment.
Esther was sitting sideways in the truck seat, her rubber rain boots perched on the edge of the floorboard with her skirt tucked tightly around her legs.
“What’s going on?” she asked as I reached her.
“We’re leavin’,” I replied, gesturing at her to pull her feet inside.
“What?” She glanced at the cabin. “No, I can’t. My dad said—”
“I don’t give a flyin’ fuck what your dad said,” I barked, making her jump. Instantly, I lowered my voice. I didn’t want to fucking scare her, but every second we were there made me more nervous. It was one thing to know that there were explosives under the cabin, it was something else knowing we were surrounded by them. “I’m goin’ to take you into town until we get this all sorted.”
“He’ll be really angry,” she said, her voice strained. “I don’t think I should leave.”
