Thunderbolts and Claws Chapter Six

Previously:

"No time to explain. I'll wire later. Please, tell Jarrod and Heath we may need their help. Nick." Victoria read the note out loud. …

"We? Who is he with? What are we going to do?" Audra asked once her mother had remounted the horse she was using.

Victoria rolled her eyes as she turned her horse around. She wished she could pretend her daughter hadn't just asked such stupid questions. "Go home and have a talk with your brothers." She replied as she started riding back in the direction they'd just come from.

Jarrod, Heath and the men who had been searching had just ridden through the gate that led to the Barkley's corral when they saw Victoria and Audra riding towards them.

"Ten to one Mother and Audra haven't simply been out riding for the fun of it." Heath couldn't help but throw a lop-sided grin towards Jarrod. The statement had all their men chuckling-if not laughing. However, Jarrod shook his head and commented how he should have known to at least ask their mother to wait at the house as well. Though, he said nothing until Victoria and Audra had actually ridden up to them.

Jarrod threw a sideways glance towards Heath, and then looked at the women. "I don't suppose you were sightseeing?"

"It's a good thing we weren't, or you'd be starting your search again." Victoria handed the note to Jarrod and told him where they'd found it. Her oldest son took the paper, looked at it and frowned slightly. Victoria looked at the men who had been good enough to join in the search. "Don't ask me what's going on, only it looks like all we can do is go about our business and wait for him to contact us." She went on to thank them for their time and then told them to go home to their families. "It will be dark soon; they don't need to worry about you, too." Victoria told them as she dismounted her horse; Audra and her brothers all dismounted their horses as well.

Once it was just the Barkleys, Jarrod looked at the note again. He didn't like the feeling he got when he read it. The fact that his mother and sister had to leave the ranch to find the note bothered him. Something was not right. "I'm going to go into Stockton tomorrow; I'll have Edith reschedule all my appointments. Anything that is pressing…" he paused for a second and then finished, "I'll talk to Mark. He should be available to help out with anything that may be imperative."

"We could take McColl and Barrett tomorrow and ride out to the area Mother and Audra found that note, see if there is any indication of horses or a wagon. After all, that road isn't used very often. Most likely, any tracks that are out there belong to Nick and whoever he's with." Heath looked at Jarrod. He, like his oldest brother, was bothered by the location of the note.

"Nick said he'd wire later." Victoria, who had been thinking all the way home, looked at both her sons. "I may not like it, none of us may, only we need to give him time to do just that. After all, he is a full-grown man." She turned around and headed for the house, saying Silas had promised to have supper ready before dark. "We don't need cold food."

Audra might have followed her mother only she saw the looks that Jarrod and Heath were exchanging. "You're still going out there, aren't you? I mean, that's what you're going to do the first chance you get."

Jarrod wasn't about to commit one way or the other at the moment. "I don't know; though, let's not worry about it now. Mother's right. Silas is bound to have supper in there waiting for us; we'd best get inside."

While his family was eating supper, Nick was sitting on a crate inside another abandoned building-though this one was a bit larger than the one they'd had to use before – and had more furniture, even if the said furniture was in either fair or bad shape. He was looking out the window and up at the very visible moon, along with a myriad of stars.

"You should be asleep." Leah, who had been asleep on an old cot, walked and stopped beside the window.

"So should you," Nick turned his eyes away from the window.

"I couldn't sleep, had too many things on my mind." Leah rested her shoulder against the wall and glanced at the window. "My siblings and I used to stay up later and star gaze some nights. Papa would tell us we were all a bit odd," Her eyes took on a faraway look. "Of course, he was the weirdest of us all." She couldn't help but chuckle softly. "There was a time we seemed to know instinctively if one of us needed something. I miss those days."

Nick thought on his siblings and mother; he thought about the note that he had no way of knowing had actually been found, and he wondered if any of them 'knew' something was wrong. "What happened? I mean, it sounds as if that bond no longer exists or something."

Leah turned, making it so her back was next to the wall instead of her shoulder. "One of my brothers was killed in a battle during the war between the states; one died of sickness in a prisoner of war camp and the third one? I don't know if he was killed or not. None of us have seen or heard from him since he the day he joined the army in eighteen sixty-three. My sisters? My youngest sister died in childbirth last year, child died too. My second sister married and moved to New York while, as you know, Layla moved to Wyoming. My father died shortly after the war ended. I lived with my mother until she remarried and moved to Vermont. She wanted me to go with her only I didn't want to leave California and Uncle Fen needed a housekeeper. So…it was a win - win situation in my eyes. Glad I stayed too, never would have met Carl if I had left with Mother. He's something else. I hope; whatever the problem is, he's okay." She then thanked Nick for insisting on traveling to Modesto with them. "I would never admit it in front of Uncle Fen-don't want to upset him. Only, whether he or I like it, having someone to help us is a good thing…I just..." she hesitated, not wishing to sound like a broken phonograph.

Nick reached up to take a hold of her wrist and smiled. "Don't worry. It will be okay…with everyone, eventually. Really."

Leah did her best to smile back…and then excused herself. She was tired.