Real World, page 28
part #2 of Love is Blind Series
“Yum.”
Jakob wandered out, guitar case in hand. “Yum? Are we getting food?”
“There’s swiss steak at the house. I’ll make mashed potatoes and green beans.”
“Corn?” Jakob asked, hopefully.
“Sure, bud. I’m easy.” Corn. Beans. Carrots. It was a vegetable and he was ready to take a shower.
“Excellent.” Jakob loaded his guitar and Penny in the truck easily enough. “Thanks again, Mr. Dix.”
“See you next week, man. Keep up the good work.”
“Thanks for the drink, Audie. Holler about that buggy for Emma, yeah?”
“I will.” Audie took his glass and waved him off. “Y’all have a good one.”
The big truck was gone as they loaded up and headed home, and Weldon checked his phone, a picture of Maddie shooting the ball waiting for him. “How was Jennifer today? Did y’all manage any classes together?”
“We’re not…. She’s dating Greg. He’s a jerk.”
“Oh.” Damn. “Sorry, man.”
“Eh, it’s okay. I have lots of girls I could go with.”
Modesty, thy name was Jakob Weldon. Teenagers. That was how they survived those years though. Healthy ego combined with rampaging hormones.
Weldon stopped out by the Lowe’s in Hutto to get some gas, and to run in and grab some windshield washer fluid. The bugs had been fierce this summer. “Back in two shakes, son.”
“You got it.”
He ran in, grabbed the bottle of washer fluid, two Cokes, and a couple of Snickers bars to sneak to Dan after supper. “I need ten on pump….”
Weldon craned his neck to see which pump he was parked at, and that duallie was there, parked right beside, and he could hear Pepper losing her ever loving shit. “Hold up. My kid’s in the truck.”
“You need me to call the….”
He didn’t wait to listen to what the guy asked. He knew who it was. Weldon dropped everything and ran for it, waving his arms and shouting, because two could work the element of surprise. “Hey! That’s my kid! Don’t you touch him!”
“Dad! Dad, help! You fucker!” He heard someone’s fist making contact and Boyd had better pray it was Jakob that connected.
Weldon didn’t waste more air on shouting. He put his head down and charged like a linebacker going in to sack the quarterback. He hit Boyd with his shoulder right in the breadbasket, spinning the big jerk away from his truck.
“Shut the door, Jakob!”
Pepper came jumping out, lip curled, her teeth bared.
Weldon kept hitting, one blow after another, just hammering the motherfucker.
“Dad! Dad, come on. Someone is gonna call the cops. Pepper!”
Right. Boyd was down, arms over his face, so Weldon spun and stuffed Pepper back in the truck. Fuck “someone” calling the cops. If Boyd so much as moved, he would call on his way home.
The fucker would be lucky if he didn’t run Boyd down. He delivered one last kick. “Leave my son alone, fucker.”
“He’s my son.”
“Never.” But that was why he wasn’t waiting around for the cops, right? Because what if someone looked at Boyd and told him to get a DNA sample, try for custody, screwed up Jakob’s life?
Weldon climbed up in the truck. He’d get gas tomorrow.
“You okay?” he asked Jakob brusquely, starting the engine. He roared out of the lot, only fishtailing a tiny bit.
“He wanted me to come with him! He wanted me to get in his truck! What an asshole! He won’t leave me alone. Why won’t he leave me alone?”
It was all he could do, not to point out that this was why you didn’t fucking lie to your father, but that wouldn’t help. Right? Right.
“He’s an asshole. We’ll figure it. Once we get home.” Mel and Maddie and Kenzie were there, all by themselves. Nausea hit him hard, but he pushed it back. Boyd had to pass him to get there before he did, damn it. Mel could take care of herself. It was fine.
“I swear, Dad. I swear, he keeps texting and stuff and I say no. Every time, I just say no.”
The steering wheel was going to bend under the weight of his rage. “I’ll fix it, son.”
Jakob turned those blind eyes toward him. “I’m sorry. I am. I thought he would be wonderful.”
“Well, not everyone can be me, you know.” Come on, kid. Lighten up.
Jakob chuckled. “Yeah. I know. You rock.”
“I do. I am the best.” He chuckled softly. “It’ll be okay, Jakob. I promise.”
About the time the words left his mouth, headlights flashed in his rearview, coming out of nowhere. Fuck. Fuck.
“Jakob,” he snapped.
“Dad?”
He yelled for his boy to hold on about the time the duallie rammed them, sending his old work truck right into the bar ditch, the world going black.
37
The phone buzzed, and Dan jumped, then grabbed it up off the dash, frowning when he saw Jakob’s name.
“Hello?”
“Dan-Dan? We…. You gotta help. You gotta help us.”
“Jakob? What is it?” Cold dread lodged in Dan’s chest, and he glanced in the rearview at Emma and Caleb. Both pretty disinterested so far.
“Boyd. He tried to take me and then he hit the truck. He broke the truck and we wrecked.”
“Where’s Weldon? Is Boyd still there? Where are you?” He shot the questions off in quick succession, needing answers so he could form a plan.
“Dad’s trying to fix the truck. He says….” Jakob hiccupped, then took a deep breath. “Dad says go home. The girls are there with Granny Mel. Dad is calling them. Dad says we can take care of ourselves until the police get here.”
“Do you know where you are, son?”
“We were heading home from the gas station.”
“Do you know which one?” Dan had to stay calm, because Jakob was losing it. “The one by the Lowe’s on 79?”
“It sounded like it.”
“Okay. I’ll be right there.”
“Dad wants you to get to the house. This is all my fault.”
“Now, Jakob, I need you to keep your shit together. Is Pepper okay?” Jakob needed to focus on something.
“Uh-huh. She’s scared, shaking. I don’t feel any blood though.”
“Good man. Make sure you keep her with you in case you need her. I have to come right by you to get home. I’m in the truck, so I’ll be five minutes, tops.”
“He’s ahead of us. It’s a big truck.”
“He has a diesel, right?” He’d keep Jakob talking and believe it when he said Weldon was okay.
“Yeah. Yeah, stinky. Tall.” Jakob’s voice dropped. “I’m so sorry.”
Not as sorry as that motherfucker Boyd was fixin’ to be. This was Dan’s family; these were his kids and he wasn’t going to put up with this shit one more second.
Dan turned off 79 and gunned it, which caught Emma’s attention. “Dan-Dan?”
“Just hang on, kiddo. Okay? We’re good.”
“You sure? Is Jakob okay?” So smart, his girl.
“Uh-huh. I need you to talk with Caleb, okay?”
“Sure. No problem. Did you like the football?”
“Yeah. I like kicking.”
Dan nodded. “I bet you’re good at it.” He kept searching the side of the road for Weldon’s old truck. He pulled over, squealing to a halt. Weldon looked up from the ditch, a flap of skin open on his cheek.
“I’m going to kill him,” he growled just about the time Emma screamed in pure panic.
“DADDY!”
“Em!” Dan snapped. “Pull it together, girl. Now.”
He needed her to help with Caleb.
She sniffled, but damned if his girl didn’t nod and set her wee chin firmly. “He’s bleeding, Dan-Dan.”
“You watch your brother.” Dan climbed out of the truck, cutting off Weldon with a raised hand. “I had to go right by you. If I have to I can take Jakob while you wait for the police.” He’d rather not leave Weldon alone, but the kids came first. He got that now.
“Please. He was heading toward home. I called Mel. She’s got the girls at the house.” Weldon looked shocked and dazed as fuck, but his words didn’t waver. “Go take care of the kids and I’ll tell the police everything. If he comes back, I got my .22 in the gun rack.”
Dan hated this. He gave Weldon a hard kiss. “You have your phone?”
“Called Mel. Go. If he’s at the house….”
“Jakob, get in my truck. Bring your dog.”
“Dad.”
“No,” Dan said as if he was ordering a man out of a plane. “Now.”
“I don’t want to leave him here alone. I can help. I can. I swear. I’m not a kid. Take Pepper with you, but let me stay so if Boyd comes back Dad’s not all alone.”
“Jakob!” Dan hated to snap, but he did it anyway. “Your dad needs to know you’re safe at the house with someone to keep Boyd from making any more fucking trouble. Got it?”
“Yeah. Yeah, fucking eyes.” Jakob stepped out of the truck, though, reaching out and Dan took his hand.
“I need you to help with the kids, Jakob. Please. Listen to Dan.”
“I am. I swear.” Jakob looked shaky walking Pepper to his truck, but Emma hopped out to help.
“You be careful and keep your eyes peeled,” Dan told Weldon.
“I’m on it. Get them home.” Weldon touched his face, winced. “Go, before the police show and you get stuck here for an hour.”
“Call me if anything happens.” He gritted his teeth and turned on his heel. Time to go get his girls. He keyed his phone again, dialing Dix.
“Bubba, hey. What’s up?”
“Are y’all home? Is Audie with you?” Dan climbed behind the wheel, checking kids and dogs. Pepper was in the backseat between Emma and Caleb. Caleb was crying quietly, eyes huge. Emma had her game face on, and Jakob looked shocky but intact.
“We were just heading out for supper. What’s wrong? Audie, something’s wrong with Dan. I’m putting you on speaker.”
“That Boyd guy. He tried to snatch Jakob at a gas station, then ran Weldon off the road about a mile and a half past where you turn off 79 to get to the house. I have to get to the house with the kids. Weldon is waiting for the cops, but he’s going to need stitches.”
“Okay. You want us with him or you?” Dixon’s sure voice was what he needed to hear. He’d counted on his big brother’s steady presence since the day he was born. He was grateful as fuck to have it now.
“Go to Weldon. He needs y’all.”
“We’re on it,” Audie said. “You call us right away if the situation changes.”
“Roger. Out.” He took one last look at Weldon, the stubborn man back to changing the tire on the truck. Butthead. “Come on, cowkids, let’s ride.”
He wasn’t going to fucking let anyone hurt his babies.
“Dan-Dan….”
“I got this, Caleb. Okay? Daddy is gonna be fine.” He eased back on the road, needing to make sure Mel was okay. She had to be.
“Dad is a stud, Caleb. I swear. He was like a superhero, coming out of the truck. He was so cool.”
Caleb sniffled. “For reals?”
“Totally.
Good boy, Jakob. Good deal. Caleb was so into superheroes right now. That was the perfect tack to take.
Dan turned off at their lane, the gate down, hanging from one fucking hinge. Goddamn, the bastard had rammed it.
“Hang on!” Dan called to the kids. He was going in as if his F150 was a tank, and he was storming the house. “When we get to the house we’ll go in the back door. Emma, I need you to hold Caleb’s hand very tight. Jakob, don’t let Pepper go for any reason. Got it? Say, ‘Yes, sir!’”
“Yes, sir!” They spoke as one.
“Okay, Caleb. You and me and Jakob, fast as we can together.” He was so proud of his little soldier. Emma was a fucking trooper. Dan would run them in, keeping himself between the yard and the kids, making him the target.
He parked and Emma didn’t hesitate, she tugged Caleb out and grabbed Jakob’s hand. “Now, Jakob. Now. Now. Dan-Dan said. Now.”
Jakob grabbed Pepper’s harness with his free hand. “Go, Pepper. Take me to the house.”
Mel was standing at the door, Weldon’s .32 in her hand. “Come on, kiddos. Now. Come watch cartoons. You want this, Dan? Is Abe okay? I haven’t seen him.”
“I do. Weldon is waiting for the police. Take them all to the master. The gate is down. I’m going on foot to find the son of a bitch.”
“Be careful, honey. We need you.”
He knew that. He also knew that his calling in life was to serve and protect—whether it was his country or this group of kids—and he was going to deal with this shit. Boyd was going down.
Dan checked the pistol quickly before heading out. With the new grade on the road, he’d seen where Boyd had pulled off to circle around, and he would go the opposite direction, keeping to the cover of the outbuildings.
He ducked and listened, thankful as hell that he had a full moon to light the way. No footsteps sounded, but he heard the dogs barking like fiends. The most telling sound, though, was Barney, the donkey. He? Was going apeshit.
Bingo. Barney and the zebra had moved to the little paddock behind the tractor barn so Emma’s new percheron had room to settle in.
He almost felt sorry for Boyd. That donkey was evil incarnate and the llama thought the kids were his flock. They would protect themselves, violently if necessary. Hell, the zebra was far from domesticated.
Dan moved low and slow, keeping his head down but his eyes up. He needed the upper hand.
He heard a bray, a grunt, and a wild flurry of feet, then he hit the lights for the pasture, Boyd standing there, hands over his belly. Funny, tore up like that, he looked a hell of a lot less like their oldest son.
That made it way easier to go rough on him.
Dan pointed the pistol and cocked it. “Stop right there, buddy.”
“I’m here for my son.”
High as a kite and paranoid and a fucking looney, more like. This fuck was never coming near Jakob, or anyone else again.
Dan advanced, knowing the police would be on their way. He just needed to make his point before hog-tying this piece of shit. “I want you to listen to me, man, and listen close, because I will only say this once. I was in an elite military unit for years, and I picked my fucking teeth with the bones of smarter assholes than you. I know where you live. I know where to find you. I will hunt you down and make you wish you were never born, twice.”
Boyd began to back up, but he was gonna end up with his back against the donkey fence. Dan followed, smiling.
“You will not be the first man I’ve killed in my career, but you might the first I will enjoy tearing up. I’d stay still, if I were you.”
“Fuck you! That’s my son!”
When Boyd fetched up against the fence, Dan rushed him, moving too damned quick for that drugged brain to even register in time. He slammed his arm across Boyd’s chest, then pressed the barrel of the pistol to Boyd’s forehead. “No. You fail to understand. I’ll use small words. Jakob is Weldon’s son. And mine. And if you ever show up here again, no one will find your body.” He stared into Boyd’s eyes, making sure the fucker saw his determination.
The sound of water hitting the ground made his eyes roll. God save him from assholes who started trouble and pissed themselves when Dan decided to stop it.
“I think you get my point. Give me your fucking hands.” He took one hand and spun Boyd around, slamming it up between his shoulder blades. “The other. Now.”
He grabbed Boyd’s hands and walked him closer to the house, chucking the pistol under the porch. Why explain when you didn’t have to? He could see the lights now, hear the sirens. Dan stopped next to the porch rail, then held Boyd in place with one hand so he could strip off his belt and tie up the man’s hands.
“Do yourself a favor, asshole, forget this place, forget that boy. He’s sixteen. You got nothing. No. Chance.” At the final two words he tugged his belt up, making Boyd cry out.
What a giant fucker. The donkey should have been the scary one….
The police showed up, three cars, and it didn’t take more than Mel and Jakob telling them that one, this wasn’t Boyd’s kid, and two that the fucker tried to abduct a blind kid before Boyd was in the back of a cop car and he was on the phone to his brother.
“Where is Weldon?”
“We’re at the ER. Audie stayed until they towed the truck. He’s on his way here now. Weldon got stitches and a few chest x-rays but he’s fine. How are the kids?”
“Safe. Jakob is bruised and Pepper is stiff, but Mel looked them both over and they’re okay.”
“Weldon says there’s swiss steak in the cooker, but you need to make potatoes.”
Dan laughed, the sound crackling in his throat. “I’ll see how hammered it is. We might order Rio Grande to go pick up.”
“I bet he’d love that. Just let me know what you want. The truck is totaled. Y’all just want us to bring him home?”
“Yeah.” He wanted to zoom out of there and see his lover, but he had two sons and three daughters who needed him to make things normal again. “I’ll call it in in your name, okay? I’ll pay you back once things settle in.”
“Yeah. I’m worried. Get enough for us, too, man.”
“I know what y’all like. I love you.” That seemed important, to let everyone know that.
“Love you, Bubba. We’ll be there soon and we’ll bring your man.”
“Thank you.” Dan ached to talk to Weldon, but he might snap in two if he did. So he hung up and went to marshal the offspring.
“Dan-Dan, where’s Daddy?”
“Dan-Dan, I’m hungry!”
“Dan, I got a headache.”
“Dan-Dan, I gotta go potty.”
“Dan, what happened to the gun?”
“Caleb first!” Dan swung Caleb into his arms and charged to the bathroom.
“The sirens are all gone? Daddy’s better?”
“Daddy is good. He’s coming home with Mr. Audie and my brother.”
“Mr. Dix. Okay. I can do it.” Caleb gave him a worried look. “The sirens won’t take you, right?”
