The Moon is Not Enough by ThePekingNoodle
----------------------
Chapter Eight: Make Hay While the Sun Shines
In which apples, horoscopes and thunderstorms await our hero and heroine…
Logan was always slow to wake up in the mornings, but Max gave him no opportunity to push her away while he dozed for 'just a few more minutes'.
"Logan, you have to get up now." She was insistent as she knelt next to him, and shook his shoulder lightly.
"Gimme ten minutes and I promise I'll get up." Eyes still closed, he reached for her and tried to pull her down next to him.
"Logan, it's important. Amelia just called. I think something happened to Don."
Finally Logan's eyes snapped open. He sat up rubbing his hand through his hair. "What happened?"
"She didn't say. Just that we needed to come right away. She sounded pretty upset."
"I'm going to grab a fast shower. There are two stalls upstairs so you can take one at the same time if you want." Logan was already mounting the stairs with long strides. Max sighed as she thought of the night before, and of what might now lie ahead of them. Then she followed him up.
Within half an hour they were dressed and outside. Max started to head for the car but Logan stopped her. "Wait. Come this way." He led her around to the back of the house. A small barn sat there and he headed inside. Max followed and saw that there were three stalls. Two of them were occupied by a chestnut stallion and a honey colored mare. Logan was already making their acquaintance, talking to them in low soothing tones as he let them sniff his fingers.
Max joined him. "How did you know they'd be here?" she asked.
"Don told me last night that he'd send them over first thing this morning. The day starts at dawn for the workers so I figured they'd be here. It'll be much faster to ride over to the house. There's a trail that cuts through the woods and we can get there in about ten minutes. Do you know how to saddle a horse?" He was saddling the stallion as he spoke.
Max looked at him indignantly. "I've only been riding since Nathan brought me home with them. Of course I know how." She grabbed a saddle and quickly fitted it on the mare.
They were on their way in moments following a well cleared trail leading off into the woods.
"This isn't exactly how I planned our ride to go today." Logan said ruefully.
Max shrugged. "Does anything ever seem to go the way we plan?"
He laughed and they rode on in silence. True to Logan's word they were at the main house in not much over ten minutes. Logan led the way around to the large stables that Max had noticed the day before. A groom came out and took charge of the horses and the two walked quickly to the house.
"Logan, thank god you got here." Amelia was waiting at the door and ushered them inside.
"What happened? Where's Don?" Logan didn't bother with niceties as they followed her into a small breakfast room.
"Sit down and eat something while I tell you." Amelia gestured to the buffet that held an assortment of breakfast dishes. "I know you probably had no time to eat after I called."
Max and Logan didn't protest and they quickly filled plates with food. They sat down and began to eat as Amelia explained.
"Don went out first thing this morning to check on the west vineyard. He was planning on beginning the harvest next week and he wanted to be sure that the timing was still good. I expected him back about ten because he had an appointment in town, and I knew he'd want to wash up before he headed in. Instead this came." She handed a folded piece of paper to Logan who briefly looked at it and then passed it on to Max.
WE HAVE YOUR HUSBAND. DELIVER $500,000 TO THE APPLE ORCHARD BY 2:00 PM TODAY IF YOU WANT TO SEE HIM AGAIN ALIVE AND IN ONE PIECE. DON'T CONTACT THE POLICE IF YOU KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR YOU.
The printing on the note was in crudely formed block letters.
"If I deliver that money it will break us. We're land rich but cash poor. That's almost everything we'll need to make payroll and get the harvest in. Without it we'll have to sell the vineyard." Amelia explained.
"So this is part of the pressure tactics to get you to sell out. Don't worry about the money. I can help you out if it becomes necessary. But I have some other ideas." Logan assured Amelia after locking eyes with Max who nodded slightly.
"Logan. I never intended for you to pay this when I called. I just didn't know what to do." Amelia protested.
"Don't worry, Amelia," Max said softly. "The money is nothing to Logan and to me. My parents were wealthy, and when they died it all came to me. There's plenty if it comes to that. But we aren't going to let it, are we Logan?"
"No we aren't. How far from here is the orchard?" Logan wanted to know.
Amelia started to explain and for the next several hours they were involved in planning. Finally Max stretched and rose from the table. "We have to move out in about fifteen minutes if we're going to make this work."
Logan joined her. He gave Amelia a reassuring squeeze on her shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll get him back for you."
They walked outside to the stables. Amelia had called ahead and their horses were waiting. They mounted and headed back to their cabin to pick up Logan's laptop and some other materials Max wanted. The trip back was as easy as the trip to the main house had been. Once they had unsaddled the horses they went inside. Max changed into her black cat suit, while Logan booted up his laptop and checked out a few things. By the time she was dressed he was shutting down the laptop and packing it up.
"You ready?" she asked.
"Ready."
"Let's roll."
They were on their way to the orchard in no time, once more riding the horses rather than taking the car. They figured the kidnappers would be watching the road and this would allow them to arrive early and set up their surprise for them. All went smoothly and they were in place well before the deadline.
"Max, are you all set?" Logan asked looking up into the thickly leaved apple tree in which she had concealed herself.
"Ready to go. Just get them here."
"You know how to start the frequency jamming so they can't call out for help?"
Max's voice was impatient. "Logan, I know. Just get them under the tree. I'll deal with them from there."
Logan mounted up and rode off, leading Max's horse behind him. At a safe distance from the orchard, he looped her reins around a convenient branch and left her to graze while he headed back to approach the rendezvous point from the road.
He was slightly early as he had planned and he took his time riding up, making sure that anyone watching would see the now empty laptop case he carried. He rode his horse beneath the tree that concealed Max and then dismounted, being careful not to look up or indicate in any way that there was someone there. Then he waited.
It wasn't long before he heard the sound of a car engine climbing the road that led to the orchard. The sound ceased and there were the clear thuds of two car doors slamming. Logan watched the direction of the road and within moments two men came into view. They spotted Logan and one pulled a gun, holding it ready as they approached him.
"You got the money?" one of them asked.
"It's right here." Logan indicated the case he had leaned against the tree trunk.
"Step away from it with your hands in the air."
Logan complied, making sure to move well away from the trunk of the tree. The man moved to the case and kneeling down tried to open it. "It's locked." He glared at Logan.
"Oops. Let me get you the key." Logan started to reach into his pocket. Both men watched him intently.
"Do that real slow. No funny stuff or we shoot you and take the key from your body."
"No problem." Logan responded.
Suddenly an apple fell from the tree above the men with amazing force. It landed on the gunman's hand and he dropped the gun cursing. "What the hell?"
The other man laughed. "It's an apple dummy. They fall out of apple trees."
"How would I know?" The gunman demanded sullenly bending down to pick up his gun. As he did, another apple fell and hit him hard on the back of his neck.
"Ow." He let out a string of curses and gun forgotten, walked over and delivered a hard kick to the trunk of the tree. Said kick only caused him to hop around a bit and curse more as Logan listened in fascination to the extent of his vocabulary. At least when it came to obscenities; some of which he had never heard before. He made note of some of the more exotic ones for future reference.
The other man looked at his partner in disgust, but before he could say anything an apple hit him on the head. He looked straight up into the tree just in time to see a black object descending on him. As Max hit and knocked him to the ground, Logan scrambled for the gun.
"Hey…" the cursing one said.
He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and punched some numbers. Logan and Max heard soft music and then a female voice saying, "Thank you for calling Miss Theo's daily horoscope line. Please hold and one of our clairvoyants will be right with you. For a charge of twenty dollars per minute…" The man held the phone away from him, staring at it as if it was a snake.
"I can give you your horoscope for free." Max said sweetly. "I see a long time behind bars for you." As the man gaped at her she swiftly knocked him unconscious with a hard right.
"Nice job Max. Especially the apples. Those weren't in the plan." Logan said with a smile.
"Miss Theo's Daily Horoscope wasn't either. Nice touch." Max smiled at him. "You think Don is in their car?"
"Since the exercise was to extort the money and bankrupt the vineyard I think so. These guys weren't out to do hard time for murder or anything. My guess is they're some kind of crooked corporate security guys rather than hard core." Logan was walking to the car. Max poked both men with a foot to make sure they were out and then followed. When she arrived Logan was assisting Don from the back of a black SUV.
"Guess you were right, hacker boy." She said with a grin.
Logan grinned back. "Aren't I always? Here use this rope to tie up our friends. And get me my laptop so I can remove the call jamming and call the police to pick up these clowns." He tossed some ropes at her.
Max trotted off and was soon back, carrying his laptop.
"Our friends are tied to a couple of tree trunks."
Logan handed Don the gun and then worked on the laptop for a few minutes. "The police said they'll be here in five minutes. Do you mind if we go? I'd rather not spend my honeymoon sitting at a police station giving a statement."
"Go." Don said. "The chief is a buddy of mine. I think we can arrange to leave you out of it."
Max and Logan headed back into the orchard to pick up his horse. Logan climbed into the saddle and Max jumped up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. They started off to where he had left her horse. As they rode fat drops of rain began to fall.
"Looks like we're going to get wet." She said as they reached her horse. She jumped down and Logan did as well, holding his horse's reins loosely. Max had just untied the mare when there was a flash of lightning and a loud burst of thunder. Both horses reared in fright and yanked their reins free. Max and Logan stood watching as the horses vanished and the rain began to pour down.
"Now what?" Max turned to him in disgust. She couldn't believe they had been so careless.
Logan looked around getting his bearings. "Come on." He grabbed her hand. "There's an old barn not too far from here. We can wait this out in there."
They were soaked already and Max had no desire to walk any further in the rain than she had to, so she followed Logan willingly. Sure enough they reached the barn after only a few minutes of brisk walking and she easily shoved open the door. As they walked into the dry darkness the scent of fresh hay met their nostrils.
"Don stores extra hay in here." Logan explained feeling around to the left of the door. He let out a grunt of satisfaction as he located and pulled down a lantern from a wall hook. "Damn, I can't see to find the matches."
"I can." Max grinned as she reached onto a small shelf and handed them to Logan. He struck one and then lit the lantern. They stood looking at each other in the soft glow. Outside thunder rumbled and the rain poured down but it was warm and dry in the barn.
"You should get out of those wet clothes." Logan said to Max noting how her drenched garments clung to her. "You'll get sick."
"I don't get sick. But you will." Max said to him.
Logan looked her over with a glint in his eye. "I'm not stripping down unless you do."
Max smiled as she met his grin. She slowly pulled down the zipper of her cat suit. "In that case I guess I'll have to keep you company. Batgirl can't let Batman catch pneumonia from wet clothes."
Logan grinned as he walked over to her. He took her hand. "Let me show you the finer points of our accommodations…"
He grabbed a couple of blankets that hung from hooks and hand in hand, they walked back to where a soft stack of fresh hay awaited them.
End of Chapter Eight…TBC…