Lost Shadows Page 10

  The sergeant shook his head in disbelief after hearing about what happened to them. Winters also gave him an update on what was going on in Jackson. Hicks took an interest because he had trained most of the men fighting in the Shadow Patriots.

  Hicks scratched his chin and said, “Captain, it seems every time I see you, you tell me something even worse than before. I keep thinking, that’s the worst it can get, but nope, it’s not. And the thing with those girls, I don’t know why that shocks me especially since I know about the party house you broke up. How is Reese doing by the way?”

  Winters let out a small chuckle and put his cup down. “Oh, she’s good. Although she took a couple of bullets.”

  “Whoa. Has she now?”

  “Oh, yeah. But boy, you should have seen her. She stayed in the fight.”

  “That girl’s got something to prove.”

  “Well, it’s more complicated than that. Let’s just say she’s got her demons,” said Winters not wanting to go into detail.

  Hicks didn’t push the subject and took a bite of his toast. “So, when are these two girls going home?”

  “Tonight. I’m dropping them off in Iowa before heading back to Jackson.”

  “Do I have them for the whole day?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Bring ‘em on by then. We’ll get ‘em fixed up.”

  Winters thanked him and then left the cafeteria to make sure the girls were up and ready to go. A full day with Sergeant Hicks, and his team, would be enough to prepare them to defend themselves. He would not only show them how to properly handle weapons, but he’d put them through the Urban Warfare Course as well. This would be valuable for them since they lived in small town.

  It was seven AM when he knocked on their door. He wasn’t holding out much hope they would be awake but was pleasantly surprised when Laney answered the door ready to go.

  “Morning, Cole,” said Laney.

  “You girls up and about?”

  “We’ve, like, already showered and eaten,” said Laney.

  Collette sat at the end of the bed and got up when Winters entered. “Surprised, aren’t ya.”

  “Just a little,” affirmed Winters.

  “We’ve already seen Finley and have been sitting here waiting for you.”

  “Glad to hear it. I’ve gotten the okay from Sergeant Hicks. He’s in charge of the training program, and he’s waiting for ya.”

  “Well then, let’s go. Chop, chop,” said Laney.

  They left the room and headed down the hallway to the training center.

  “Is he a nice man?” asked Laney.

  “Oh yes. He’s even been training Sadie. Not quite sure why, but he has been.”

  “That’s so awesome,” marveled Laney.

  Winters stopped walking. “Now look, girls, I hope you don’t mind, but he asked about your background.”

  Collette looked at Laney who shrugged her shoulders.

  “Okay, good. I just wasn’t sure if that was something that would upset you.”

  “We’re not ashamed of it,” said Collette. “We survived it, and that’s all there is to it.”

  “Good. That’s a good attitude,” said Winters.

  “Now, Hicks and his men trained all of us including Amber and Reese. So, he’s very patient with rookies. Don’t hesitate to ask him anything you don’t understand. By the end of the day, you’ll know more about guns than most people.”

  The girls couldn’t contain their glee as they entered the training facility. Weapons hung from the walls, and glass cabinets were loaded with all types of pistols.

  Winters introduced the girls to Sergeant Hicks and then decided to hit the range himself.

  Winters spent an hour with an instructor and brushed up on his own shooting skills. Even though he’d become quite proficient with weapons, he always learned something new whenever he spent time with the real experts.

  He thanked the instructor and then walked to a window to watch the girls firing pistols for a few minutes. They seemed enthused as the instructors were talking to them. Winters was about to leave when a man came up and introduced himself.

  “Excuse me, but you’re Captain Winters?”

  Tom Fowler was a lanky man in his forties and sported a goatee and mustache. He had a bad habit of invading your personal space when he talked to you.

  Winters backed up a step before speaking. “Yes, and you are?”

  “Tom. Tom Fowler. I’m one of your drivers tonight.”

  “Oh, yes, I’m sorry. It’s nice to meet you,” said Winters extending his hand.

  “So, glad to finally meet you, sir. We’ve been here for the past week and have heard all about you. We’re very excited to be joining you.”

  “Your timing couldn’t be better. So, I’m the one who’s excited to have you guys.”

  Fowler looked through the window. “Who are those girls?”

  “The girl with the spiky black hair is, Collette, and the other one is Laney.”

  “Are they volunteers too?”

  “No. No. They’re just getting some weapons training. We’ll be bringing them back to Iowa before we head to Michigan.”

  “Why are they here?”

  Winters didn’t want to go into full detail on the girls, so he gave him a rough sketch.

  “Alright, cool,” said Fowler. “I need to get going so if I don’t see you again, what time did you want to leave?”

  “Let’s say nine. You can meet us down at the motor pool.”

  “Okay. Hey, again, so glad to meet you,” said Fowler as he shook Winters’ hand.

  Winters watched him leave thinking he was a bit of an odd duck. Not that it mattered much. The Shadow Patriots were filled with all sorts of personalities and characters.

  Fowler hurried back to his room excited by having just met Cole Winters. He opened the door and found his friend Butler sitting in an easy chair watching television.

  “You’re not going to believe who I just met?”

  Butler grabbed the remote with his rough hands. He turned the TV off and waited for Fowler to continue.

  “Just ran into Cole Winters.”

  “So? We’re going to be leaving with him tonight.”

  “Yeah, but did you know that we’ve got a couple of passengers?”

  This got Butler’s attention, and he sat up straighter. “Who?”

  “A couple of teenage girls.”

  Butler let out a sigh. “Oh, jeez. I thought it was more men. They’ll be the last thing we need.”

  Fowler grew frustrated by his friend’s disappointing response. He sat on the bed next to Butler. “Dude, these girls are friggin hot, and I want them.”

  “We’re hijacking the trucks. Is that not enough?”

  “Hell no! Not when there’s also a couple of hot girls. And once we’re done with them, we can sell ‘em. Trust me these girls are worth good money.”

  Butler leaned forward. “They’re that good looking, huh?”

  “Oh, yeah. And from what I gather, they were some kind of prostitutes.”

  “Prostitutes huh? Now they don’t sound so hot.”

  “Trust me, you’d never know it by looking at them. And they’re young. I mean, they’re like sixteen or seventeen.”

  Butler leaned back in his chair and gave it some thought. They came to Winnipeg when they heard the Shadow Patriots came here to get supplies. They thought they’d be able to take advantage. So they came pretending to want to join them. However, they were growing tired of waiting and were actually getting ready to leave when Cole Winters had arrived last night. Butler couldn’t believe his good fortune when he learned they’d be driving trucks filled with supplies worth tens of thousands of dollars. Now their luck had improved even more with the addition of two attractive girls. Fowler was right when he stated they were worth money. There was a growing sex trade happening, and they could sell them after having their own fun.

  “Alright, we’ll take them on one condition,” said Butl
er.

  “What’s that?”

  “Only if it’s easy. The trucks come first, then the girls. I don’t want to get into a gunfight with this guy. I’ve heard he’s pretty damn lucky.”

  “Fine. All I want is a chance,” said Fowler as he rubbed his hands together.

  Chapter 28

  Washington D.C.

  Stormy Robinson reached for the coffee decanter and remembered she was out. The former model with the long raven black hair cursed aloud. She needed coffee first thing in the morning to get herself going. She didn’t have the mindset to go to the grocery store, so she decided to go to the coffee shop. She threw on a pair of baggy gray sweatpants, to go along with the white t-shirt she slept in. She took a quick look in the mirror and used her fingers to comb out her messy hair. Satisfied, she grabbed her keys and hopped into her white BMW.

  With all the excitement over the last couple of days, she’d forgotten to go grocery shopping and more importantly, to buy coffee. Never did she imagine her life would change so drastically when she had decided to leave New York and come help her friend Kyle Gibbs. The idea of assisting in the capacity she had been doing was both surreal and exciting. Never before had she experienced such a high as she had when she took down Perozzi’s man in the parking lot. It wasn’t some competition where you can tap out to a referee. No, this was the real thing with real consequences.

  She’d done some crazy things in her life but nothing like this. Having grown up in Minnesota, she was a tomboy and liked to ride dirt bikes and skateboards. She was always trying to keep up with her cousins who kept daring her to do dangerous things. They lived near an abandoned rock quarry and would often go swimming there. One day, she jumped from a fifty-foot cliff, which was higher than even the boys dared go. This alone put her in the coolness category with the boys.

  She pulled into the parking lot of the coffee shop and was glad it wasn’t too busy. She decided to spoil herself and ordered a Mocha. She usually didn’t get sugary drinks as she kept to a strict diet to maintain her athletic figure.

  She looked around the place , and was disappointed when she didn’t see anyone on a laptop. The days of hanging out at a coffee shop to use the free Internet were long gone, as was the Internet. Strange thing to get rid of but if you want to control the population, you can’t have the free flow of information.

  Stormy set the troubling thought aside and remembered what Green told them last night about killing his commanding officer in hand-to-hand combat. Talk about a life or death situation. You either win or you die. Now that was the ultimate in fighting, and she briefly experienced it the other day. Of course, she knew in the back of her mind that help wasn’t too far away. Still, it was dangerous and thrilling.

  She broke into a smile thinking how different John was from the men she had dated in New York. They had expensive toys and pretended to do dangerous things to impress the ladies, but in reality, they were nothing but posers. John, on the other hand, was the real deal. Brave, loyal, selfless and kind. An appealing combination that added to his good looks.

  “Mocha,” yelled the barista.

  She snapped out of her thoughts and grabbed the drink. She then exited the shop and got back into her car. She took the lid off and her mouth watered as the mocha vapors rose to her nose. Every delicious sip warmed her mouth as she drank the creamy liquid.

  After leaving the parking lot, she started heading home and wasn’t paying attention to how fast she was going. It was an easy thing to do in this car, because it was so smooth and quiet. Besides having just purchased it before moving down here, she wasn’t used to driving. She always used the subway and taxies in the city.

  A loud siren sent a charge up her spine, and she looked in the mirror to see a cop behind her.

  “Oh, fudge,” she said aloud.

  She pulled into a quiet residential street. She set her coffee down and grabbed her license and insurance card. She then looked in the mirror to run her fingers through her long black hair and combed out a few more loose strands.

  The cop got out of his cruiser. Stormy figured he was about five-foot-seven and weighed a buck sixty. She learned to size people up while taking martial arts. Her instructor told her to always make a habit of it in case she ever needed to take someone out in a hurry.

  She lowered the window and gave him a big smile. “Good morning officer.”

  The officer’s eyes grew when saw how attractive she was. “Morning, Miss. Uh, the reason I pulled you over, was because you were doing forty-five in a thirty mile per hour zone.”

  “I was? I’m so sorry. The car’s new and quite frankly, I’m not used to even driving.”

  “You have New York tags. Are you visiting?”

  “I just moved here,” said Stormy as she noticed him looking at her chest. She then remembered she had forgotten to throw on a bra.

  “You need to get new tags.”

  “It is on my list. I just haven’t had the time yet.”

  He knelt down to her level, which was an unusual move for a cop. “You look familiar. Have we met before?”

  Usually, Stormy would think this was a pickup line, but he genuinely looked puzzled. “Well, I have done modeling work, so maybe something like that.”

  “It’ll come to me. May I see your license and insurance card?”

  “Oh, sure, got it right here.”

  The cop stood back up. “Stormy Robinson? That’s an unusual name.”

  She was used to the response as she’d gotten the same comment all her life. “I was born at home during a blizzard.”

  The cop laughed. “Your parents must be pretty cool.”

  “Yeah, they are,” she said as she watched the cop call her name into the radio mic attached to his shoulder. He didn’t walk back to his car as was typical but stayed there so he could keep talking to her. He obviously liked her, and she thought she might get out of the ticket.

  The cop snapped his fingers. “Were you on the cover of Muscle and Fitness?”

  Stormy’s mouth dropped. “I was.”

  “I knew it. I knew that I knew you from somewhere. That was a great cover. You looked amazing. If memory serves me, you were wearing a yellow bikini.”

  Stormy had to think back to which cover he was referring to, as she had done covers for various magazines. Not that it mattered, because she had made such an impression on him that he remembered a cover that was at least a year old. “Say goodbye to this speeding ticket,” she said laughing to herself.

  “I was wearing a yellow bikini. You’ve got a heckuva a memory.”

  “Hey, I never forget a pretty face.”

  “Well, thank you.”

  “Listen, I won’t write you up, but please pay attention and get those new tags,” said the officer as he handed back the license and insurance card back to her.

  “I will. Thank you, so much.”

  The officer started walking back to his cruiser and Stormy was just getting ready to hit the window button when she heard his radio come alive. The cop stopped in mid-stride and paused for a moment before turning around. He came back to the window and said, “Miss Robinson, I’m sorry, but there’s a warrant out for your arrest.”

  Chapter 29

  Jackson Michigan

  Scar, bothered by the negative results of the last two operations, headed to the cafeteria. Each operation had seemed like it would be a simple task, but they had failed both times. It wasn’t like he sent inexperience guys to do the job. Hell, if Bassett and Nordell couldn’t get it done, then it was just a streak of bad luck. Bad luck or not, he would try for a third time tonight. This time he’d send just Bassett and Burns to cross the border before sunrise and let them scout out the supply line.

  The one good thing that had happened over the last few days was they had gathered more fuel. Bill Taylor kept the men busy by siphoning gas out of the Jijis’ vehicles that sat on the interstate. They had plenty of fuel to take a large number of citizens across tonight. If the western border was pene
trable, then that’s what they would do. It would certainly lighten the food demand and stretch those rations out.

  After grabbing a cup of coffee, Scar headed outside to get some air. The sun was out, and it was starting to warm-up. He walked to the back parking lot and sat down on a bench. He looked at Winters’ truck which Reese had been driving.

  The twenty-year-old white Chevy Silverado hadn’t been washed in close to a year. The windshield had a crack that ran along the bottom from one end to the other. Both sides shared numerous scrapes and dents with rust spots on the wheel wells. Surprisingly, the gray interior was clean despite the dashboard fading from the onslaught of the sun. To top it all off, it was now covered in mud from yesterday’s escape from the Jijis who were chasing Reese and Nate.

  Scar let out a laugh at how her wild driving skills had come in handy. Poor Nate didn’t look too good after that ride. His bruised body appeared worn out after being bounced around.

  Scar took a sip of coffee and let out a sigh. It had been four days since Winters drove that truck and he needed to return soon. The streak of bad luck started the night they had stormed Mordulfah’s compound. They needed a win. Otherwise, morale would begin to slip if things didn’t start changing.

  He wouldn’t blame the men if they lost faith as it was challenging to keep psyched up while in constant danger. If he needed to step aside to change things, he’d be more than happy to do so. Not that he thought it would ever come to that because he had no doubt Winters would return.

  Scar coughed on his coffee thinking if not for the mission, then certainly for Reese. She was too good of a catch not to come back and collect. He told her that, and he meant it. It wasn’t every day a hot twenty-year-old falls in love with an older man with no money.

  Scar took another sip of his coffee when he heard the door open. He turned his head to see Reese coming outside. Her Colt M4 hung from the sling on her back as she walked over on her crutch.

  “Hey, Scar,” said Reese sitting down.

  “I was just thinking of you.”

  “You were?”

  “Yep. Just thinking about Cole and when he’ll come back…for you,” said Scar as he motioned his hand to her.