Chapter Fifty-Three
Saturday, May 26th
“Daddy!” Reed giggled. He sat tethered to Wes as they returned to the barn riding Alamo’s Pal. Pulling to a stop and looping the reins around the saddle’s horn with one arm, Wes lowered Reed down to Eleanor’s waiting arms.
“Did you have fun with Daddy?” She unlatched his helmet and kissed her little boy’s face.
Wes hopped down, handing the reins to one of the farmhands. “Thanks,” he said. “Mommy, we had a wonderful ride. In fact, we brought you these.” He pulled his hand from behind his back and handed her a bouquet of fresh-picked flowers.
“I guess I need to thank both my men.” She placed a kiss on Wes’s cheek.
“I have another surprise for you,” he said in his sexiest tone. “Aunt Riley and Uncle Brandon are going to babysit, and I’m treating my best girl to dinner. We have a meeting with Uncle Ian first.”
Eleanor’s eyes lit up. She and Wes had little time alone since that day in the West Virginia woods. Wes was airlifted out and spent eight days in a DC hospital, then seven days more in the Center’s clinic. Sent home on a strict program, he had only been allowed to return to full duty at work four days earlier.
Wes now held the flowers. With Reed on one hip, Eleanor held Wes’s hand with the other. “Kiss, my princess. I’ll be back at six. I have a staff meeting.” Wes kissed her lips. “I need to move, or I’m going to scar our little boy for life if he sees what I want to do to his mommy.” He winked.
Yvonne, his secretary, jumped up and hugged him. She’d done it every time she’d seen him since being transferred to the clinic from the hospital. “Everyone is in the conference room.”
“Thanks, Yvonne.” He walked down the hall into the conference room. Troy, Kip, Zach, Kyle, Christian, TJ and Ken sat waiting for him. “Good to see everyone. I guess this is our last meeting together for a while.”
“You can’t stall to keep me any longer,” Troy said. “I’ve got a list of new doctors to meet and a table for one reserved for me in Ethan Miller’s OR soon.”
“I’ll send you some delicious lemon drop soup. Clear broth.” Wes smiled at his friend. “What’s the plan? Where are you going to recover?”
“Okay, Daddy. My mom is going to fly out for the surgery until I get discharged. I’ll recover at Smooth’s house, unless our dear decorator and my mother find something suitable. I apologize, but Tim Holland is assigned as head of my medical team. Eric also added additional medical staff. I give up Seth’s leash for Eric’s.
“Smooth sent my official laptop so I can begin getting to know San Diego staff on the plane. Now, all of you shut up. Gwen will be coming with me as my support person. Brandon said she knows my program, and I will benefit from the continued work I can do there. She’s also agreed to go house hunting for me with my mom. And I do need an XO.”
Wes had leaned in to listen to Troy, a huge smile on his face. “Good for you.”
“Thank you, everyone. Especially to Ice for sitting on the stable floor with me, well, more like a bale of hay.”
Zach and Wes both knew the emotional break was coming. He discussed his whip master persona as Master Alamo. Wes also let some of his other demons go, all the way back to Kiara Gordon’s death. After talking through the ache with Zach, he’d been seeing Brandon. Part of what he learned was his dream was a snapshot of who he was. Kiara may have died, but he didn’t give up trying. It affirmed his insecurity about succeeding as a medic and as the Center’s director. He was working on that. Wes lifted his chin at Zach.
“I’ve got an update. We were able to return the girls found to their families. Sadly, Theresa Murrow is in custody. Gideon resigned from the FBI, and he and his wife have taken their other children and left the state. Forsyth and Nash also retired,” Zach said.
“Eleanor’s seven surviving brothers are being held without bail, pending trial. Thanks to Troy’s purse strings, we rounded up the rest of the militia members on the Serenity Falls site. Sixty-one alive, eleven dead. We’re also tracing their records to see if we can track the girls and babies who were sold and the dead,” Kip added.
“Checked on the name on that medic bag…was KIA in Syria. Tech is trying to trace it from there,” Ken said.
“Nurse Frey gave a lengthy statement, but before we were able to ask some more questions, she suffered a major heart attack and died,” TJ said.
“Lenore Williams cut herself a deal. She was married to Albert Drake. She turned in the remaining wives, including more dirt on Desi and Tara.” Zack pinched the bridge of his nose. “Tara Blanchard is a PA, but she is also Cheryl Frank from Homeland. She’s going to plead guilty rather than talk before being put in the federal prison system to pursue a missing suitcase bomb believed to be in transit to a Michigan militia group,” Zach said.
“But she was going to drug Ellie,” Kyle protested.
“She didn’t know if anyone else was part of the staff. The vial had saline in it.” Zach sighed, “Damn brave woman.”
Kyle chuckled. “She never flinched.”
Christian handed Wes a file. “We now own the Knolls’ property. We’ve identified six discreet tunnels. I’ll have the satellite and underground diagrams for you by next week.”
“Fantastic. Ken, TJ and Chris, make me a list of ideas. What happened to the Serenity Springs property?”
“Sold. Profits divided among the survivors,” Kip advised.
“Have we hit all the marks?” Wes asked.
“You all right? I can stay?” Kip offered.
“I’ve got this,” Wes said, “but I hope you’ll come back for a wedding. I’m asking tonight.”
“Hey, everyone, our little boy is all grown up,” Troy teased.
Wes smiled. “I’ll see everyone tomorrow before you leave.”
