“Not with the problem,” Maliki answered, meaning that The Strong Hands only had one excellent tracker.

  “Anything special about the advantages coming?”

  “Nothing of consequence.”

  “If the five didn’t want this information passed, why are you?”

  “If that advantage is chasing the warning, it’s not chasing the five,” Maliki said pointedly.

  She nodded. “Very well. The advantage will disappear.”

  She heard a click and hung up, letting out a sigh, knowing it was William that Maliki was referring to. “I should’ve killed William in France,” she said and vanished.

  Kenneth was lying on the bed, reading on his laptop. How Harry got the information was way beyond him. It spanned the last twenty years of the group’s activities. Harry had been right not going out with the information; the group was in every organization. The money involved was staggering. Reading some of the ledgers, Kenneth didn’t know dollars could go with that many commas.

  A ringing made him look up, and he moved the laptop and pulled out the cellphone Harry had put in the bag. He looked at it and saw it was a call, not a text.

  Flipping it open, he said, “Hello.”

  “Run,” Harry slurred.

  “Already have,” Kenneth answered.

  “Good, and congratulations,” Harry really slurred out.

  “Thank you. Are you still safe?” he asked.

  “Oh, I’m about to be,” Harry said, and Kenneth heard gulping.

  “So they won’t touch you?” Kenneth asked.

  “Nah, I won’t be worth the effort,” Harry belched.

  The door opened, and Kenneth moved for his gun but saw Besseta walk in. “Harry, have they got more assets?”

  “Sixteen at last count. You have four heading to your home now, and I’m told one can find anyone,” Harry said as he gulped down a liquid, and Kenneth knew what it was.

  “Don’t you want your mind clear?”

  “Shit no,” Harry said, smacking his lips. “I’m not doing this sober.”

  “Do they know anything ‘special’ about us?”

  “They won’t till they reach your house,” Harry slurred.

  Kenneth sighed. “When did you know?”

  “At the restaurant. You got mad at the wrong time,” Harry said. “You love her and can’t hide it.”

  “I’m not going to deny that,” Kenneth said and heard barking on Harry’s end.

  “Will you do what I asked in the letter?” Harry said, grunting.

  “Yes, but you need to run.”

  “Nah, this way buys their safety.”

  “Harry—” Kenneth snapped, and Harry cut him off.

  “Shit, I have company. Destroy that phone. It’s a clone, so they shouldn’t be able to trace which tower it used, but better safe than sorry,” Harry said and dropped the phone. “Hello, didn’t know I was having guest. Sorry, I’m leaving,” Kenneth heard over the phone followed by a bang.

  Kenneth dropped to his knees, still holding the phone. “Mate, why didn’t you stop him?” he heard a very British-sounding man say.

  “I didn’t think he’d do it,” another voice answered. “Can we take him in and see if the docs can save him?”

  “Mate, half his bloody head is gone,” the first voice replied, and Kenneth hung up the phone. He popped the back off and pulled the card.

  He looked up at Besseta with tears running down his face. “There was nothing you could do,” she told him.

  “I know, but he didn’t fight,” Kenneth said, throwing down the phone and breaking the card. Besseta picked up the phone and threw it in her bag.

  “Yes, he did. He fought to protect his family. He gave his life freely for them,” she said. “I know one of those voices. The one with the English accent is William.”

  “We need to leave,” Kenneth said, standing up.

  “Very well, but I’m driving. You can sleep. We need your brain working,” she said, walking over and hugging him. “William will find us. He can track by smell and thought. Once he has the scent, it’s only a matter of time.”

  “Come. I want to get out of here,” Kenneth said, walking to the bed to pack their stuff.

  “Kenneth, can you build stuff? Like work with your hands,” she asked.

  “Sure, I worked on the house and remodeled the kitchen,” he said as she helped pack.

  “Is there a way to block the signal from reaching the bombs in the chest of the vampires?” she asked.

  “Sure, seal them in metal. A radio wave is a radio wave. Doesn’t matter the frequency,” he said, closing Harry’s case. “What are you getting at?”

  “Oh, I’m thinking something out. If I can, I’ll tell you in the morning,” she said, picking up the sleeping dogs.

  Loading up, Kenneth climbed in the passenger seat, watching Besseta adjust the dogs around her. “Want to let them ride over here?” Kenneth asked.

  “No thank you. I like having them close,” she said, starting the Jeep. “Don’t get me wrong; if I could curl you around my waist, I would,” she said, slowly backing out. Kenneth had to admit she drove very well for someone who just learned. Leaning the seat back, he got comfortable then reached over, weaving his hands through dogs until his hand rested on Besseta’s leg.

  Shifting gears, Besseta looked down and smiled. “We were made for each other,” she said then shifted, setting the cruise control. As she drove, she started to toy with the idea of cutting off the headlights.

  “No, I’m sure there is a law against that,” she finally concluded. Looking over, she could see and hear Kenneth breathing regular, resting breaths. “We will come through this and start our quest again. There are still many that love being cruel,” she said, looking up and traveling down the lonely, dark road.

  Chapter 16

  Feeling a drop of water hit his cheek, Kenneth slowly opened his eyes to see it was daytime, but dark clouds were ahead. “Pull over under that bridge. We have to put the top up,” he told Besseta, sitting up.

  “Do we have to stop? This will cover our scent, giving us a few more days before William finds us,” Besseta explained.

  “It won’t take long,” Kenneth said, and she huffed. “You’ve given Bonnie and Clyde a bath and know how they don’t like staying wet,” he reminded her. Besseta stomped on the gas, making the engine roar speeding up. She almost locked up the brakes stopping under the bridge.

  “I’m so sorry; I forgot all about that,” Besseta said and picked up the dogs. “Momma is sorry she forgot the babies don’t like being wet,” she told them, hugging them tight.

  When Kenneth finished, he climbed back in as the rain started coming down hard. “Want me to drive?”

  “No,” she said, pulling back onto the road. Bonnie was resting on Besseta’s left leg, and every time Besseta would work the clutch, Bonnie would raise and lower like she was floating. The sight tickled Kenneth. “What?” she asked, hearing him chuckle.

  “It’s nothing,” he said. “Where are we?”

  “Almost to Cheyenne.” She handed him a notebook. “Look at my sketches and supply list. Can we do this in two days?”

  Opening the notebook, Kenneth was blown away by the drawings. They showed intricate detail and dimensions. “Damn, you are good. Can I have these drawings? I want to hang them up,” he said, looking them over.

  “Those are sketches, not drawings,” she said. “But thank you. Drawings are much more involved.”

  He set the notebook in his lap. “You did this driving?”

  “Yes. I couldn’t stop, so I just made some sketches and wrote down what I thought we might need.”

  “Shit, if this is a sketch, you aren’t going to like my carpentry,” he said. “Yes, we can do this, but we won’t be able to carry this in the Jeep even with a trailer.” He saw the smile fall off her face. “I didn’t say we couldn’t do it. We just need to get another ride.”

  “What about the Jeep?” she asked.

  “We can rent a moving truck and car hauler. We will need the moving truck anyway just to buy this much shit,” Kenneth said.

  “Where do we get a moving truck?” she asked.

  “When you think we can, pull over, and let’s see if we can get this stuff in Cheyenne,” he said, still amazed by the sketch. She pulled over just outside of Cheyenne at a rest area. It was still raining but not hard. With their smartphones, they found all the places they needed.

  The first place they stopped was a rental place. “Which one do we need?” she asked, looking at the trucks.

  “One of those,” Kenneth said, pointing to biggest ones, “and one of those car haulers.”

  “You want to come? Or can I just take care of this?” she asked, whipping her head around, making her hair fly around her neck.

  “I’ve bought more cars than you have,” Kenneth said.

  Thinking about that, she nodded. “True, but you haggle over prices worse than an innkeeper.” Kenneth busted out laughing. “Kenneth, I’m going to buy one. You go tell me which one I’m buying.”

  Kenneth opened the door, still laughing, almost falling out. He walked over to the three of the largest trucks and started looking over them. A young kid ran out with the keys and unlocked all the trucks and ran back to the office as Kenneth continued the inspection until he settled on one. He smiled, thinking about something. He relaxed and purposely smiled, thinking, This one.

  Besseta walked out a few minutes later followed by a large man and the little boy who ran out with the keys. It wasn’t long, and they pulled out with the Jeep on the car hauler. Besseta looked around the cab of the big truck then watched Kenneth drive it.

  “It drives just like the SUV,” she said.

  “Yes, just much bigger and heavier. The trailer will take you some time to get used to.”

  She looked up at him. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I wanted to see if it would work,” Kenneth said, pulling into a large home supply store.

  “I jumped. It sounded like a shout,” she said, smiling.

  When they left Cheyenne, the back was packed with stuff, and the heavy-laden truck slowly built up speed. “Where to?” Kenneth asked, trying to find a comfortable spot on the seat.

  “Nebraska. I have a house there,” Besseta said.

  “Why in Nebraska?”

  She undid her seatbelt and slid over next to him, curling up as he reached down and put his arm around her. “It reminded me of my family’s farm south of Glasgow in Scotland,” she said in a low voice.

  “That’s all that matters then,” he said, pulling her tight. “You can sit there, but put the other seatbelt on please. Just for my piece of mind.”

  She found the lap belt and put it on then put her head back on his shoulder. “I like this driving better,” she said as Kenneth put his arm around her. “You haven’t asked what all that stuff is for?”

  “Don’t need to,” Kenneth replied.

  “You know?” she asked, stunned.

  “What do I do?” he asked, making her laugh. “You’ve done this before but not against this many and with bombs inside them. I’m just trying to figure out why you want to take them alive.”

  She looked down, not answering. “You can tell me,” Kenneth said. “You’ve hunted them before.”

  “Yes, but when I caught Myril, one of the ones who killed my family, I discovered something. I’m going to tell you, but I want you to keep it buried in your mind. There are others like me but can read minds, not just what a person is thinking,” she said.

  “I will,” he promised.

  “I found out I could take what special power they had,” she said. If he was shocked, Kenneth didn’t show it.

  “You want what William can do,” Kenneth stated.

  “Yes,” she said. Just staring out the window, Kenneth rode in silence, thinking. “You don’t approve?” she asked.

  “No, I really think it’s a good idea, but how will it affect what you do now?” he asked.

  Thinking about that, she lifted her head. “I haven’t really thought about that.”

  “What did you get from Myril?” Kenneth asked.

  “Strength like you wouldn’t believe,” she stated in awe.

  “And the others you’ve done this to?” he asked.

  She smiled. “I’ve only done it to one other: Edina. I wanted to see if it was a fluke, and it wasn’t. I got speed from her,” Besseta said. “I’m much faster than others like me.”

  “How long does it take?” Kenneth asked.

  “I don’t know. I just copied what I did to Myril with Edina. I just didn’t make her scream every day,” Besseta admitted. “I do it over a month.”

  “Why are you planning to transport four if you only want William?”

  “I don’t know what the others can do,” she said. “If they can’t do anything, I’ll just kill them.”

  “I’ll make you a deal,” Kenneth offered, and she nodded. “We do this, but you wait after William just a few weeks and see how it affects you. If you keep adding—” Kenneth paused, not knowing how to word it, then for lack of words said, “If you keep adding super powers, it could hurt you.”

  “I won’t get hurt,” Besseta said with a smile.

  Not impressed, Kenneth shook his head. “I don’t want to take a chance.”

  The next afternoon, they pulled up to a small farm house that had been overtaken by weeds on rolling green hills with some rocky outcrops. Kenneth was looking around, thinking this was nice. “There’s a big, metal barn on the back of the property,” Besseta told him, pointing at the dirt road that passed the house.

  Slowly driving the big truck on the dirt path, a large, red, metal barn came into view. It didn’t look old, just not taken care of. “I take it you don’t come here much?” he asked.

  “I’ve only been here once—when I bought it,” she said in a hushed voice.

  “Do you own the land your family had in Scotland?” he asked.

  “Yes. I haven’t been there in at least a century,” she told him in a whisper.

  Pulling next to him, Kenneth just looked out the window. “I want you take me there if you don’t mind,” he said. “I want to see where my girl’s family lived.”

  “It was beautiful,” Besseta said, lifting her head up. “It doesn’t look anything like it did.”

  “Then you can tell me what is different so I can see it in your memories.”

  With a thick Scot accent, she said, “Aye luv dat hun.”

  They climbed out and unloaded as Bonnie and Clyde flipped out with the wide open space and abundance of new smells. Before they started, Kenneth grabbed her arm. “Your transport idea is good, but let me design the capture part,” he said.

  “What do you want to do different?” she asked.

  “Ah, not touch them,” he replied.

  “Okay, tell me,” Besseta said. After hearing his plan, she smiled, and they set off to work. Watching, Besseta had to admit Kenneth was a fair carpenter, but he could get the job done. On the second day, they pulled the Jeep inside the barn and parked it then took the big truck and trailer off, hiding it in some trees.

  By nightfall, they finished off their work and went outside to lay on a hillside, looking at the night sky. “I still think we should test it,” Besseta said again.

  “No, it will work,” Kenneth replied confidently.

  Still unsure, Besseta rolled over, curling up beside him, watching him fall sleep. There she lay until the sun came up. Seeing his eyes open, she propped up on her elbow, looking down at him. “You have some neat dreams,” she told him with a big grin.

  “I thought you didn’t do that?” he asked, stretching out.

  “Well, we’re married now, so I just thought…” she said, looking down.

  He pulled her down. “I don’t care. They are all about you.”

  Not able to help it, Besseta grinned. “I don’t think it’s physically possible to do some of that,” she told him.

  He lifted her up. “I thought you couldn’t see my mind just hear?”

  “That’s all dreams are: your thoughts building pictures.”

  “Huh, didn’t know that. I thought it was like a movie.”

  “Nope,” she said, jumping up. “You need to eat. Your stomach has been growling for over an hour. But first, go pee. You’ve thought someone was stabbing you with a knife for longer than that.”

  After eating, they climbed up to the loft of the barn, looking out over the rolling hills. It was just after noon when Besseta said in a calm voice, “They’re here.”

  Kenneth jumped, scanning the hillsides. “Where? I don’t see them.”

  “I can smell them. They’ve stopped at the house and are waiting till dark,” she said, standing up.

  “I thought they had to be close for you to hear their thoughts?”

  She nodded. “They do, but they want to wait till dark because they are stronger,” Besseta told him.

  “They are stupid. They have numbers to offset that weakness,” Kenneth said, shutting the loft door. “If they were smart, they would attack now with you at your weakest.”

  “For that, I’m glad. I know I can take them in the dark,” Besseta said with certainty as they walked downstairs, making sure everything was set up, leaving the front bay door open.

  They sat in the middle of the barn off to one side near the horse stalls but spoke very little as they waited for the sun to go down. “They’re coming,” Besseta told him before the sun was completely down.

  Kenneth turned on the signal jammer and put it down, watching the door. “They want to hit us when we leave,” Besseta said.

  “Fat chance on that,” Kenneth said, checking his pistol.

  When it was dark outside, the solar lights they put up outside and inside the barn started coming on. Besseta reached over and patted his leg when in a small room at the back of the barn, barking erupted from Bonnie and Clyde.

  Four figures slowly walked in the light of the door and stopped, staring at Kenneth and Besseta sitting in chairs next to the horse stalls. “Little Bess,” one called out with a British accent.

  “William, please come in so we can talk. I really don’t feel like killing you,” Besseta said.

 

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