The Shack series

Chapter 8

For a fraction of a second Delaney looked like a scared little girl again, but it was gone in a flash.

The Sheriff was much smarter than his "Good 'Ol Boy" demeanor would ever suggest, and he knew my background better than most. I shrugged. "Odd coincidence."

"Seriously, there's more to this. I can't help much if I don't know what the hell's going on."

I nodded. "I didn't think there would be, thought it was all over. Until the shithead showed up."

"That g**g was tied in with South American gangs, and it was involved in drugs and..." He paused looking over at Delaney.

She stared right back and finished for him. "And underage p**********n? I heard gangs like that grab runaways and street kids then break them. With g**g r**e. Then they turn them out as whores." Her voice was mostly steady with just barely a quaver in it.

The Sheriff blinked twice. "Yeah. That's what I heard, too."

I nodded to her and Delaney took a deep breath. "Sometimes karma catches up to them just in time. Sometimes they Damm die screaming before they can hurt someone. That's what I heard, anyway." She shot me a glassy sidelong glance.

He shook his head, looking at the gravel under his feet. "s**t. But I kinda figured it was something like that." He looked up thoughtfully. "How'd they find you this time?"

Delaney looked up at me, desperate. "I swear to God, it wasn't me. I haven't been on the internet or anything."

"They already had your real name from before. Maybe somebody decided they needed to tie up loose ends." Even as I said it, it didn't sound right, I was sure there was more to it. Most gangs lose eight guys they keep their Damm fingers out of the buzzsaw if they can.

Delaney looked down. "I can't believe I was that Damm stupid."

I touched her shoulder. "It's okay to Damm up once in a while, everybody does."

"I know, 'as long as we learn from it.' I remember." She looked up me with a weak smile. "Even short bus kids like us can get by."

"We can, can't we?"

The Sheriff keyed his mike and told his men to be extra cautious with their prisoner. Then pointed to the bag on the ground. "Is that his?"

Delaney walked over and held up Sheree's b*a. "Not unless he wears a Double D cup. I was here to get clothes for Sheree."

A thought suddenly struck me. "Goddammit to Damm."

The intensity of my tone caught the Sheriff off balance. "What?"

"These are the kind of assholes who might go after family. We have to warn Tiffany, Tara, and..." I couldn't say it.

"s**t. s**t. Shit." Delaney sounded as disgusted as I felt. Her head dropped forward and she closed her eyes. "My mother."

My phone started buzzing and Sheree's number popped up. I answered as calmly as possible. "Hey, Babe."

"Is Delaney with you?"

"Yeah, we got held up, sorry for not calling, it was a little hectic. But we'll be up there in a few minutes."

As soon as I was off the phone, I nodded to the Sheriff. "I'll be by to talk, but I need to get Delaney up to Sheree."

"Anytime this afternoon is fine. I assume you aren't pressing charges?"

"You should have plenty without me. Especially if that g*n is unregistered or he doesn't have a license for it."

"There is that. Then I won't need you to come by at all."

I had Delaney ride with me in the truck to the Quickmart. She didn't even argue about it; she had to be really upset.

I waited until we were out of sight of the yard and the Sheriff. "Let's see his phone."

She sighed and wordlessly pulled it out.

"Is it locked?"

She checked. "Nope. He's a dumb-a*s. It's got f*******: and everything on it...Instagram...Tinder...Jesus who'd wanna hook up with him? Swipe left for Damm's sake."

"We'll go through it later. The Sheriff's cool, but I don't need him sticking his neck out for us any more than he has to."

Delaney shot me a look. "You're going after them, aren't you?"

"I have to do something."

"I want to help."

"You already did."

"No, I mean when you go after them."

"It's too damn dangerous."

She fell silent for a minute. "Are you going to tell Sheree?"

"I don't hide things from Sheree. I trust her." I did. More than anyone. I'd told her about my divorce, my d**g problem, and my anger. She'd just smiled and told me about her past, with three months in jail for destroying a cheating boyfriend's truck when she was 20, and almost a year dancing topless under the name "Candi" at the Kitty Kat Lounge in Norfolk to make ends meet a couple decades ago. Neither of us was perfect, but so the Damm what?

When I told her what happened when I went to get Delaney, she had no problem with it.

Delaney smiled. "I trust her, too. I..." She stopped suddenly.

"What?"

"She's just great, that's all."

"She is." I parked the truck behind the Quickmart and we climbed out.

Sheree walked straight out, with her head c****d to one side, staring fixedly at us. "I'll clean up after we eat. Got yer food all laid out on the counter already. Whatcha all been up to?"

"One of the g**g that grabbed Delany showed up in town. Sheriff has him."

She looked over Delaney. "Are you okay, Baby?"

If anyone else in the world had called Delaney "Baby," she'd have gone ballistic, but she just stepped forward and hugged Sheree. "I'm fine, I didn't even know what was happening until Needles got him."

"Got him?" Sheree raised an eyebrow as we sat down at the little table.

"I pinned him in his car with the truck, and just held him till the Sheriff got there."

"Oh, I thought she meant, like, beat him up. Or shoot him."

Delaney giggled around a mouthful of hotdog. "He did hit him once. Right in the head. Really hard. Right in front of the Sheriff."

Sheree nodded. "That sounds more like it. I 'spose since you ain't callin' for bail, the Sheriff was okay with that."

"Yeah, the asshole broke away from the deputies."

Sheree looked out the window for a bit. "You think there'll be more?"

"Maybe. Can't be sure, but maybe. No way to keep him from telling anyone else what happened."

Sheree took a sip of her soda. "I don't know what kind of shape it's in, 'cause it's been a couple years, but I still have Pop's cabin down at the river. Two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. No electricity, and it may be a mess, but nobody'd know to look for us there."

Delaney looked up from her rapidly disappearing hot dog. "Sort of like camping. I've never been camping."

Sheree smiled. "I let Big Ed use it to go fishing last April, so it should be all right. He said the hand pump worked and the camp stove just needed a propane bottle."

"What kind of heat?"

"Big brick wood furnace to heat, a woodstove for more serious cooking and a fireplace."

"I can get John's son to drop a coupla of seasoned cords out there by this evening. Maybe a good idea to move out there tomorrow."

Sheree looked relieved. "We'll have to get some kerosene, some camp lamps and lime for the outhouse."

That was pretty much that.

Except for a phone call to Delaney's mother. I'd rather have had a root canal without anesthetic, but I'd just managed to get my two daughters to start talking to me after almost two decades, so if I didn't warn her, I might lose that.

"Les." She was wary when she answered the phone; she'd probably peeked out the curtains to make sure I wasn't parked out front. I had promised to kill her once or twice, so I could understand the sentiment.

"Listen, Charli, one of the assholes that grabbed Delaney showed up at the yard today. Not sure why, but I'm pretty Damm sure it wasn't to offer an apology."

"Jesus, Les. I thought this was over." She managed to sound as if she were blaming me for the problem.

I bit back a comment. "Look, just make damn sure your security system is on. If they can find us, they can find you. I don't need the girls blaming me if you Damm up and get yourself killed. Make sure they know to be extra careful."

"Just how do I explain that?"

"I don't give a Damm. Act like a concerned mother for once and find a way to get them on their toes. Or do you want me to explain things to them in detail?"

She went silent for a bit. I knew her relationship with Tiffany and Tara had gotten pretty strained when they found out how thoroughly they'd been lied to about the reasons for our divorce. They'd also figured out how ruthlessly Charlotte and Charles had worked to destroy me. Tara must have dug up the old court filings. I suspected they might have even had a hand in forcing Charlotte to give me guardianship of Delaney.

She sighed. "I'll take care of it."

"You better, Charli. If I something happens to either of them and I find out you didn't, there'll be hell to pay."

"I said I have it, Les. Is there anything else?"

"Nope..."

She hung up before I could say anything else.

Bitch.

***

Sheree, Delaney and I had everything packed up into one flatbed truck and headed out to Sheree's cabin on Sunday.

The four room cabin was made of squared off logs and had a metal roof. It'd had been battened down tight. Solid shutters were locked over the windows and the place looked surprisingly clean and uninhabited by wildlife. Sheree seemed embarrassed until she saw Delaney's reaction. She was walking the entire place, touching every surface she could reach.

"Your Grandfather built this?"

"No, his father did."

Delaney touched a window sill almost reverently. "That's like a hundred years ago. All by hand, right?"

Sheree nodded with a slight smile. "Some of it's had to be fixed over the years, but all built by hand."