Family Ties
Chapter 24
Jack set Brennan down not far from Lydia. She was still sobbing. I looked from her to Ranger. "What's her problem?"
It was Jack who answered. "She's afraid to go to jail."
Pat whispered. "She's afraid?"
Ranger took one look at her face and backed away from Lydia as she approached. Jack was watching his wife, concerned.
Pat stalked over to her, then grabbed her by the hair and forced her to look up. "You're scared? You think Sam might have been scared, Lydia? You think she might have felt terrified as your fucking boyfriend beat her and raped her?! What do you think, Mom, your little girl was feeling then?" Her fist was tightening in Lydia's hair. None of us were willing to interfere.
Lydia sobbed harder. "Please...don't hurt me! Please, I don't want to go to jail!"
The woman disgusted me. Apparently Pat felt the same. She lowered her voice until it was little more than a whisper. "Don't hurt you? You think Sam said that? You think she was crying, begging, pleading with him to stop? I think so. Until he beat her unconscious, anyway. When you left Trenton, no one even knew whether she'd live or not. Did you spare a thought for your daughter at all, Lydia, while you were fucking the man that tried to kill her?!" Her voice had been rising steadily, and she nearly yelled the last question.
Jack took several quick strides over to them, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Pat." His voice was quiet and soothing.
She took a deep breath, and lowered her voice again. "If you're looking for sympathy, we're fresh out." She loosened her hold on Lydia's hair before pushing her over. Lydia lay where she fell, still sobbing.
Jack took Pat's hand, and glanced in our direction. "We're going to take a quick walk."
Ranger nodded as they passed.
I turned to him. "She gonna be okay?"
The small smile was back. "She'll be fine. Pat's got a hot temper, but she wouldn't have let it get completely out of control."
I looked up at him, thinking. "And if she had?"
He shrugged. "We'd have shot Brennan, buried them both, and spent a few more days out here 'looking' for them before giving up."
I took a deep breath. "Okay."
Pat and Jack returned, Pat wiping her eyes. Jack's arms were around her, and she leaned into him. Pat flicked her eyes toward Ranger. "Sorry."
"Nothing to apologize for, Kap. I probably enjoyed that more than I should have."
She gave him a shaky smile.
Jack decided it was time to change the subject. "I've got smelling salts in our kit if we need to wake sleeping beauty over there to get moving."
Ranger shook his head. "We've got just under an hour or so until sunrise. And I promised a lady a hot breakfast. If he hasn't come around by the time we're ready to go, we'll wake him. In the meantime, he's quiet and no trouble."
"Works for me." Jack looked at the two of us. "You two keep an eye on them. I'll help Ranger with breakfast."
The two of them headed to the horses, and I turned to Pat. "You okay?"
"Yeah. A little embarrassed. I tend to get a little emotional when kids are involved."
I smiled. "Ranger told me about how you and Jack met, remember?"
She laughed a little. "Yeah. I think I shocked him. And he's not easily shocked."
Lydia's sobbing had quieted to hiccups and sniffles, which we ignored. Brennan was starting to stir, however. Nothing purposeful yet. Pat noticed.
"Steph, I'm going to go get the leg shackles. Watch them." I nodded.
Pat returned fairly quickly, the guys right behind her. She shackled Brennan's legs, then Lydia's. Neither of them spoke.
The guys were building a fire and getting everything ready for breakfast. I was starving, and from the amount of food they were getting out, I wasn't the only one.
Pat rejoined me, and we sat together, watching both our captives and our men. After a bit, Jack wandered over with cups. I took one from him and gasped. "Coffee! You are a god!"
Turns out Pat has a wolf grin of her own. She flashed it in her husband's direction before agreeing. "Yes, sometimes he is."
After a fairly large breakfast, we were on our way. Ranger had declined to feed our guests, telling them both that if they behaved themselves they'd get dinner.
Lydia was pouty, Brennan was sullen. We ignored them both. Ranger and Jack had worked out a way to shackle their legs together under the horses without interfering with the horses' ability to carry them.
Jack and Pat took the lead, being more familiar with the area. Jack led Brennan's horse, Pat led Lydia's. Ranger and I followed them, leading the pack horses. We were traveling at a pretty fast pace. I guess we were all eager to get them back to civilization.
I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Things were going too smoothly. Ranger broke into my musings. "Serious thoughts?"
"Not really. It's just that after all the worrying and waiting and planning..." I wasn't exactly sure where I was going with this.
"It seemed too easy? Anticlimactic?"
"Yeah, maybe."
"That's the way it goes sometimes. You try to plan for everything to go wrong. You have a good team that can handle it if it does. And when it goes like clockwork, you wonder if it was all necessary. But skip it one time, and it all goes to hell."
I pushed my misgivings aside. Ranger had much more experience than I did. I did have some questions though. "So what happens when we get back?"
"We turn them in to the local authorities. They'll check out our paperwork before turning them back over to us for transport to Trenton."
"How long will that take?"
"Not long. If we can get them back tomorrow afternoon, we can probably pick them up late the next morning."
"Well, at least we'll be able to get a decent night's sleep in there somewhere."
"Who said I was going to let you sleep?"
I grinned at him. "I get really, really cranky when I'm sleep deprived."
"So what are your plans after we drop these two off?"
I sighed. "A two hour shower and a twelve hour nap, followed by a big breakfast. If there's time, another nap."
He thought about this for a minute. "Can I wash your back?"
"I'm counting on it."