Mathers and Compton both stood and headed toward the door. Mathers turned and smiled. “Thank you for your time, Sean. We’ll be in touch.”
Their second departure was much more amicable than the first. After I closed and locked the door, I turned to my new companion. “What did you say to them in the hall?”
“I just reminded them that judging anyone in your position wasn’t their job. Law enforcement meant enforcing the law. They agreed and came back. Now, I’m going to go get my things from my truck. Lock the door, and I’ll knock three times when I come back. Don’t open the door for anyone else.”
His handsome blue eyes were trained on me, and his gaze made my blood travel south in a hell of a hurry. I had the feeling there was so much more to Jericho Hess than met the eye. I hoped I had time to discover at least some of his secrets.
Camp Brotherhood
Southern Pines, North Carolina
“It... I...”God, man, put words together for an excuse!
“Let’s go.” Twin Two grabbed my other arm, and the two of them dragged me into the woods.
“Where are we going?” I stopped walking and let my feet slip from under me, hoping they’d stop. They were hot in a weird sort of way. They were very muscular, but their white-blond hair reminded me far too much of kids from thatChildren of the Cornhorror movie I saw when I was seven and had nightmares about for a month.
“Get the fuck up, or I’ll slit your throat and bury your fag ass with the preacher.” Oh god, did that mean Martin Dale had actuallyconfessedto killing his molester and the beard wife in front of probably a hundred people?
Twin One swung his right arm and backhanded my face. The pain of the strike rattled my brain.
“What are you trying to pull? I did it because of a bet, you assholes, with one of my fraternity brothers. I have an appointment next week to cover it with another tattoo. It was stupid to do it, but he had to pay me a grand, and that’ll make some of my student loan payments,” I snapped.
“Oh yeah? I don’t believe you. How did you get into the campground? We have people stationed around the perimeter to keep spies out,” Twin Two informed me.
“I was told to get on the bus in Fayetteville.” I didn’t even blink.
It wasn’t actually a lie. Heath’s friend told us how the Defenders ferried guys to the camp for the sales pitch and cookout. Heath and I found the bus on the Walmart parking lot in Fayetteville and followed it. When the bus stopped in Ashley to pick up more guys, many of whom appeared to be younger than eighteen, I blended in and got on the bus with them as though I belonged. I’d even let Heath give me a military haircut before we left home.
The twins stared at each other for a moment before they jerked me to my feet, me fighting to get out of their respective grips. “I don’t trust you, but we’ll let Martin deal with you. Come on, or I’ll gut you.” Twin One pulled out a switchblade and laughed. I didn’t struggle anymore.
We walked for about ten minutes, but everything looked the same to me. I wasn’t sure we weren’t just walking in a circle, but I kept my mouth shut. Finally, we approached a cabin that looked as bad as the ones at the campground.
Half the cedar-shake siding had rotted away and several roof shingles were gone. There was a dirty beige construction tarp rigged like a tent over a concrete patio where an old lady was sitting in a rocking chair, a colorful paper fan wagging in front of her face and a glass of lemonade on the table next to her.
The screen door was hanging crooked and wouldn’t shut, and there was a hand pump on top of a concrete slab to the woman’s left. It was a damn grim sight.
“Who’s that? Don’t be bringin’ none of those campers here. You know this is gonna get all of us kilt, don’t ya? Marty’s lost all common sense, I tell ya.” Her white hair was twisted up in a bun on top of her head, and her feet were bare. It was like something out of a bad horror movie.
“Granny, this one is a spy. Uncle Marty needs to deal with him. We’ll chain him to the pump. Just ignore him,” Twin Two said.
Twin One went into the cabin and returned with a thick, rusty log chain and a padlock as Twin Two shoved me to the ground next to the pump. He wrapped the log chain around my ankle before joining the ends together to secure the lock.
All I had to do was roll over to free myself and take off into the woods. I doubted the older woman could run very fast.
She walked over to me, something in her front pocket weighing down the apron around her waist. She checked the poorly thought-out lock-and-chain restraint, shaking her head.“If both of their brains were in a blue-jay’s ass, it’d still fly backward.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it sounded as though she was insinuating they were stupid. I tended to agree.
“Don’t get any ideas about taking off.” She pulled a comically massive handgun from her apron pocket and pointed it at me. “This is a Desert Eagle .44 magnum. It’ll blow a hole clean through ya, and I’m a better shot than these yahoos running around here.”
I swallowed the bile traveling up my throat. “Yes, ma’am.”
I reached into the pocket of my jeans to be certain the small voice recorder that looked like a key chain was still there. It was voice-activated, so I hoped it would continue to pick up everything. It claimed to have ninety hours of recording time in one charge, but I couldn’t forward the recordings to Heath without my phone. That sucked.
“You’re right there by the water if you want a drink. I’d get up from the concrete before I pumped it if I was you or you’d look like you pissed yourself. Did you get to eat anything over there?” She pointed in the direction I assumed was the campground.
“I’m not hungry.” Like I’d eat anything they gave me. I made sure to keep an eye on the older woman though. If she decided to shoot me, I’d have nothing to hide behind. I had no doubt she was every bit as good a shot as she’d bragged.
