The Long Road Home Job
Chapter Four
Eliot stopped at the end of the drive. He knew that the demons that he ran from so many years ago were gone but he they still seemed so fresh and new. He looked at Kenna sitting next to him. She looked a little pale herself.
"Ready?" He asked.
"As I'll ever be." Kenna looked at the old farm house as Eliot drove slowly up the drive. The house looked so much smaller than it did when she was younger. The car stopped and she took a deep breath. This was going to be harder for him then it was for her. Eliot looked in the back seat at Nate and Sophie.
"Give us a few minutes."
"Take all the time you need." Nate answered. Kenna and Eliot got out. They both stood in front of the car.
"She was never the enemy Eliot."
"She only slept with the enemy." He walked up onto the porch. Kenna waited at the bottom of the stairs. Eliot took a deep breath and knocked on the door. It took over a minute for the door to open but when it did and he wasn't sure he was ready for the reaction of the woman who answered it.
"I…Eliot…" The tears in the old woman's eyes and the grief on her face nearly broke what was left of Eliot Spencer's cold black heart.
"Hey mom." She looked at him and opened the screen door. She reached up and touched his face that he chose not to shave again this morning.
"You finally came home." She looked into his ice blue eyes that hadn't warmed in over a decade. Even with Kenna the ice never melted till now. "I should slap your face for putting me though hell Eliot Lee Spencer." The tears rolled down the old woman cheeks. The woman embraced her son and sobbed into his shoulder. Eliot turned his head to plea for help from Kenna but she was at the bottom of the steps with tears in her own eyes. He returned his mother's hug hopping the two people in the car and the other two in the van on the highway didn't sense his venerability like he knew Kenna could.
"I'm just in town for a couple days but we thought we'd stop by." The woman pushed her son arms length away and looked at him.
"We?" She questioned. Eliot stepped aside revealing a teary eyed Kenna at the bottom of the steps. "Oh dear God, Kenna Shane." The old woman opened her arms and Kenna went up the steps and into the embrace.
"It's been too long Ms Clara." She let the woman squeeze her till she was nearly out of breath.
"I can't believe you two found each other again." Clara looked at her son and her daughter's best friend. They didn't look like life had been treating them right lately. Her son had a bruised cheek that was several days old and Kenna was favoring her right arm. "Come inside and we'll have some tea and catch up."
"We have friends in the car waiting." Clare looked over Eliot's shoulder.
"Bring them with you. You're not leaving with just a front porch hello." The older woman turned and headed into the house. Eliot looked at Kenna. Taking a deep breath he took her hand in his and headed inside. Nate and Sophie had heard it all though their coms so he knew they would be right behind them. Eliot hopped that he could keep his new family from seeing what his old family had done to him.
"They don't care where you came from or where you've been Eliot. All they care about is the here and now." He hated when Kenna read him like a book. He would have to work on hiding things from her if he was every going to walk away from her with any shred of dignity.
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"It seems weird Eliot having a mom." Parker looked at the screen in front of her. Nate's button cam surveyed the cozy farm house.
"Everyone has a mom Parker." Hardison answered, trying to get a handle on the new mayor and his workings.
"But his kept him." She watched the screen. "She wanted kids and she raised her kids in a home. The same home."
"Yeah well not everyone who has kids are deserving of them." Hardison reached over and touched Parker's hand. "You okay?" He asked. Parker looked at him and smiled a half smile.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Just checking." Hardison nodded and went back to his work.
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"That one was the rodeo he won in the tenth grade." Sophie was looking at the pictures on the mantle. Eliot's mom came up behind her. "He always wanted to ride. He got that from his daddy."
"I think he misses that the most." Sophie answered.
"He knows he's aways got a horse and a saddle here. He just chose not to return. But I understand."
"He just recently told us about your ex husband."
"Billy wasn't always a bastard but when he got to the wiskey he turned evil." Clara looked at Sophie. "He isn't the boy who left."
"But he's a good man Clara. That's all you need to know now." Sophie put her arm around the older woman's shoulder.
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Kenna, Eliot and Nate walked down the dusty road that lead to the Hawks ranch. Kenna walked ahead few yards holding her shoulders high making it hard for Eliot to read.
"It went well with your mom." Nate said to him.
"So far." Eliot kicked a rock with his toe. "This is the hard part. I don't know if I can hold her back if Joelle starts spraying venom Nate." Eliot looked at his boss. "I don't know if I'll want to."
"You really think that she's that unstable?"
"No she's that stable. Joelle Hawks is beyond nasty bitch Nate. This woman is demon spawned and devil raised." Eliot looked at Kenna. "I don't about the others but it's a wonder Kenna isn't…"
"Kenna had your family…I don't believe much in the genes make a person Eliot. If a person is raised with good people they will become good people." Eliot knew Kenna wasn't always good. Just like him she had her secrets but she was never ever going to be like her mother. He had known that from the day Jodi brought her home.
"Too bad I didn't stay good people." Eliot chuckled.
"You just jumped the track for a few years. Now your back on track."
"Do you really think that Nate?"
"Three years we've been friends Eliot. I know there were a few times we bent an occasional rule or two but Eliot the track your on now will lead you to good things." Nate looked at the woman ahead of him. "Starting with her."
"Man you've been hanging around Sophie way too long." Eliot stepped up his pace and caught up to Kenna. "Five more oaks and a cypress." He said in her ear.
"I think I'll stop at the third oak and throw up if that's all right with you." Eliot put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
"You my friend are one of the strongest people I know. You can do this." Kenna stopped at the third oak and looked at the rundown farm house that wasn't so run down anymore.
"She fixed the place up."
"It's been years Kenna; she would have had to do something to keep up the place."
"No, since I was here in March. The paint, the roof, the porch. It's all new. The land has been cleared and grass planted. The garage was ready to fall down when I was here now it's gone and there's a car port with a shiny new car in it." Eliot tightened his grip on Kenna before she had a chance to pull away.
"Take a deep breath." He whispered in her ear. Taking out his phone he took a picture of the license plate. "Hardison run this plate."
"You got it." Hardison answered. "Oh my, oh my. The car is registered to one Chester William Reed."
"The Mayor?" Both Nate and Eliot said at once. Kenna turned and looked at the two men standing behind her.
"Really, she's doing the mayor?" Kenna looked back at the house. "Guess she's going for the big time payout. Sell her kids to the politicians." Eliot put his hand on her shoulder.
"We will get this guy and take your mom down with him. Kenna we need to hook her just like anyone else." Kenna took a long hard look at the house.
"Take a long hard look and follow the money Hardison. He had to have paid for this." Nate said.
"I'm on it."
"We need to get in there before someone wonders why we're all standing out her like this." Eliot stood next to Kenna. "You can do this McKenna." She nodded and headed toward the front door. She rang the bell that hadn't worked as long as she could remember. The bell chimed. A little girl about seven answered the door.
"Hello." Kenna swallowed hard. Eliot held his breath. The little girl was the spitting image of Kenna that first day Jodi brought her home.
"Hi." Kenna kneeled down to the little girl's level. "My name's Kenna, what's yours?"
"Kenzie." A man came behind the little girl. A big man. Eliot's protective instincts kicked in. Nate put his hand on the hitters shoulder.
"Let Kenna handle this for now." Kenna stood. The man towered over her five foot six frame. She smiled at the man.
"Hi. I'm looking for Joelle."
"And you are?" The man pushed the little girl to the side.
"Kenna…Kenna Shane Hawks." The man looked her up and down. Eliot took a step forward but Nate stopped him again.
"Will you stop that?" He hissed out between clenched teeth.
"She'll let you know when she needs you." Kenna stood confident and her chin held high. If she felt threatened she wasn't showing it. The man looked over her shoulder and saw the two men standing near the driveway.
"They with you?" Kenna turned.
"Yeah. They came to make sure Joelle lets me leave." Kenna folded her arms across her chest. She shifted her weight to see behind the man. Eliot relaxed a bit. "Are you coming out mama or do you want me to come in?"
"Let her come to you baby. Let her come to you." Eliot whispered.
"What do you want here McKenna?" The years had not been good to her mama the last time Kenna had visited but she too had received a big time make over.
"I just came for you to confirm a few things for me. One being who my daddy is." Joelle laughed and lit a cigarette.
"You're thirty years old. What does it matter now?"
"I'm thirty one." She looked at the older woman. "Which makes you…?" Kenna looked at the man standing at the door. Joelle took a step forward and Kenna didn't move.
"You were always a brat." The step forward brought Eliot and Nate into view. "You still have that Spencer boy protecting your assets I see."
"That boy turned into a man and that man is way more pissed at you now then he was when he was twelve so you better just make sure you stay arms length away from me."
"That's my girl." Eliot looked around the property. "Do you smell that?" Kenna tilted her head. Eliot looked at Nate. "That's meth."
"Kenna is she on anything?" Nate asked. Kenna shook her head.
"Do you really want to start airing our dirty laundry in front of your new sugar daddy?" Kenna looked the man up and down. "You're really much better looking than some of the others." Kenna leaned against the door frame so Hardison could get a good picture of the man. She smiled. "So should we play who's my daddy or what?"
"That's not the mayor. It's his top aide Sinclair Davis. He's been involved in some small town politics and has been on the city council for about three years till Chester took office."
"What kind of games are you playing Kenna?"
"They found Simon LaForce's body in Mexico. He owned the bowling alley and the land around it. If rumors are true me and a few of my siblings are owed what is rightfully ours." Kenna heard the rifle before she saw it but Eliot heard it first. He was up over the railing before Kenna grabbed her mother and pulled her out of the house. He yanked the gun out of a young boys hand and tossed it over the porch railing to Nate and grabbed the boy pulling him out of the house. Kenna pushed her mother against the railing. "Teaching them a little young aren't you mother."
"He was just protecting what's his." Kenna looked at the boy no more than fifteen that Eliot held loosely against the door frame.
"Kid you can have her because I'm though with her." Kenna pushed passed her mother and headed down the steps.
"Don't ever point a gun at another person unless you willing to kill them." Eliot ground out and let the boy go. He followed Kenna and Nate down the road. Things were not as they seem and they were getting more and more dangerous by the minute. Eliot wasn't liking the odds on this one and by the look on Nate's face either did he.