“I take it his parents are still together?” Allie smiled, sighing as she leaned over to listen to Laura talk about her in-laws.
“Yeah. They are amazing. His mom, she’s so supportive, always asking if we need anything. Offering to have the kids come out there for summer breaks, willing to come out here if need be. She loves Cody like he’s one of theirs.” Laura’s eyes started to tear up remembering the conversation she had when she first started dating Highlander.
“When Highlander and I first got together, I was scared about how he and his family would take to Cody. Cody has to be able to sign. Unfortunately, like me, Cody has a hearing loss. It’s progressive too. Highlander, his brothers, his sisters and even his parents all got the books, videos, everything they could to learn American Sign Language so they could communicate with him in both voice and sign. They wanted to learn sign language so they could talk with him.”
Sadie and Allie sniffled, dabbing at their eyes. “I’m so glad that you and Cody have that. I know from our previous talks that wasn’t always the case before you met Highlander.”
Diesel’s phone rang while the group of women talked, laughed and spoke on other subjects. “What the fuck? Are you sure? Okay hold on, I’m putting you on speaker phone.”
“What’s going on?” York asked, going into officer mode.
“Go ahead Kas.” Diesel ordered the caller.
“Hi Ladies. Sorry to crash your vacation time. Have you heard from the bossman in the last several days?” Jackson ‘Casanova’ Jacobson, the newest team member to Highlander’s SEAL team apologized quietly over the phone.
“Not since they left yesterday morning. What’s up Kas?” Laura said, moving to the edge of her seat.
“Do they have their phones on them by chance?”
“Kas, what’s wrong?” Laura asked again, trying not to lose her patience.
“One of our guys just went A.W.O.L. He, his brother and another SEAL were under investigation…”
“The Jones brothers?” York interrupted, knowing right away who he was referring to.
“Yes. They were all placed on shore duty pending the investigation, along with another SEAL, Marcel Buduoxe. Buduoxe was under investigation because he was pretty close with the older Jones brother.”
“Ok, what does their going A.W.O.L. have to do with us?” Diesel asked in confusion of the situation.
“Because a source overheard the older Jones brother talking about taking out the trash. In his statement he was bragging how he and his ‘boys’ were going to Montana to go hunting for the son of a bitch who ruined their military careers.”
“Pretty sure they did that on their own when they got into human trafficking, hiding behind their SEAL status to find their victims.” York remarked, upset with the news.
“Highlander, Hank and Swede have their cells on them. If you’re not getting through to them, then you may want to try the satellite phones.” Laura said, watching Sadie get up and run into the house. “Hold on, Sadie ran to get the numbers so you can try those. Do you know how long ago these boys left for Montana?”
“Rumor has it, the day after you guys left. So, they could already be there. And, Red, be careful. We figured out what was going on when they attempted to go after Speedy and Doc. Both are ok, just banged up pretty good. I was on base at the gym, so they couldn’t do anything to my vehicle.”
“These fuckers went after you guys?” Diesel growled, clearly upset.
“Yeah, they cut the break lines on Speedy’s car. He and Doc were together, wrecked the car, but they are ok. Banged and bruised, but ok.”
“York, get Brocard and the Captain on the phone. Let’s get them up to date. Captain can call the local authorities here, inform them that we are here and it will possibly turn into a situation where we will have to use deadly force. Allie, help Sadie inform the guys with the Brotherhood that aren’t on cases that we need them here to watch you, Sadie and the kids. I’m not taking any chances. Kas, if you can’t get a hold of the guys on the satellite phone, call us back ASAP because that means we’ll have to go hunting. They have the boys with them.”
While York made her calls, Laura rattled off the satellite numbers to Casanova, Sadie and Allie made their calls to find out who was on cases and who wasn’t. An hour later, the women had a solid plan while they waited for everything to fall into place to execute their moves.
Chapter 9
“Da,I want to catch the fishy from the water!” Willie yelled at his father, getting frustrated he couldn’t play in the water.
“William, ye need to settle down son. Ye are scaring the fish. Ye can’t be mean like ye were and expect to get what ye want.” Highlander advised his youngest son, kneeling down to his level. “I will make ye go into time out if I have to.”
“It’s ok dad. I’ll go play with him for a bit. You and the uncles can do the fishing.” Cody offered, taking his younger brother’s hand.
“Nae. Ye earned the fishing time with the extra help ye did with ye uncle Hank. Willie needs to learn he doesn’t get what he wants by throwing a fit. Ye go and have fun with ye uncles. I’ll deal with Willie.” Highlander winked at Cody, ruffling his hair.
Highlander took Willie into the forest tree line to spend some time with him, one on one. A short time later, the two came back to the campsite, heading to where the others were at over by the river.
Highlander bent down to grab something off the ground when the bark of the tree next to where he was standing exploded, sending shards of bark all over the place.
