Cut Off (Book 3): Cut Loose Read online

  “How do you want to handle this?” Katie said.

  “There you go with your plans again.”

  “You just said plans are good.”

  “In some cases.”

  “Not this one?”

  Bill spread his hands. “What do you want me to do? Run in there without a weapon and hope they’ll give themselves up? Our job is to find them and inform the authorities. That was the plan. There’s no need to put ourselves in danger to capture these people. It’s not our fault they managed to escape in the first place.”

  “What if they creep back toward the lodge?”

  “If they knew we were there, they would be there already, not out here in the freezing cold. Come on. Let’s get back. We’ll see what delicious meal Jodie’s made for breakfast today.”

  He edged back down the incline, Katie on his heels.

  10

  The hill overlooked the prison, and from there they made out the full extent of the damage done during the mass breakout. The gates curled open wide like some hideous monster escaped a government facility. Smoke erupted from the far side, the charred remains of a distant but as-yet undead fire.

  Michael lowered the binoculars. “Looks like the fires did the worst of the damage.”

  “Plenty of firestarters in there,” Jack said. “They’d be itching to light a spark the first chance they got.”

  “Won’t be long before the whole town is alight,” Jill said with unconcealed excitement. “The whole forest for that matter.”

  Michael wasn’t listening. He focused on the prison and in particular, the middle section where their leader Quentin Morse was being held right as they spoke.

  “Looks like the power’s still up on the maximum security section,” Jill said. “I don’t suppose Quentin will be getting out anytime soon.”

  “He will if I have anything to do with it,” Michael said.

  The others turned to him. He brought them there to look at the task they faced. None of them were cowed by it.

  “We’re going to break him out,” Michael said.

  “All right,” Jack said. “How?”

  “I’ve got a couple of ideas. First, the less drastic option.”

  “And the second option?” Jack said with a glint in his eye.

  “Drastic.”

  Jack crowed with a loud ‘Yippee!’ He danced in a circle with Jill as his partner.

  “I can see where your vote lies,” Michael said. His smile faded when his attention came to Isaac sat beneath the grasping claw of a dying tree branch.

  “Isaac?” Michael said.

  He looked up at Michael and for the briefest of flashes, Michael caught a glimmer of the boy he used to be. Young, carefree. The baby of the gang.

  Was it really there or had he only imagined it?

  “Can I join you?” Michael said.

  Isaac nodded to the exposed tree root beside him. Michael sat and tried to get comfortable. He couldn’t.

  “It’s no use trying to get comfortable. It wasn’t made for that.”

  “So why sit here?”

  “Things are fashioned the way the Lord wishes them to be. They cannot change, no more than a splinter can become a sponge.”

  Michael stood up and stamped on the root with his heel. He sat back down and got comfortable. He smiled over at Isaac. “Much better.”

  Isaac chuckled.

  “You smiled!” Michael said. “I saw it. Don’t try to deny it. I knew there was still a little Isaac inside you.”

  “I am all Isaac.”

  Michael’s tone turned dark. “But you’re not, are you? The Isaac we knew, the one who went into prison, is not the same as the one that came out. So, things can change.”

  “Only when the Lord wishes it.”

  “So, you accept no free will? All decisions are made by a higher power?”

  Isaac nodded. “They are. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have free will.”

  Michael groaned. He hated arguments like this. They were largely academic and provided no use in everyday life. At least, not in the life he chose to live.

  “We’re going to spring Quentin out,” he said. “Are you in?”

  “The Lord wants Morse inside. That’s why he put him there. It’s not for us to spring him out.”

  “How do you know it’s not God using us as his instruments to break him out?” Michael said.

  Isaac’s smile didn’t waver. “Because he would have given us a sign.”

  “What if the sign is inspiration for us to do this job?”

  “Ideas and thoughts are not always inspired by the Lord.”

  “Only when you want them to be.” Michael chuckled. “Well, I believe the good Lord wants us to break Quentin out of prison so we can be a complete family again. What do you make of that?”

  “I don’t hold your beliefs. Only mine.”

  It was infuriating. Michael got to his feet and smacked the dirt off. “Are you sure you don’t want to help us release him?”

  “I am.”

  “All right then.” Michael turned to the others. “We’re going to have to do it on our own. It would have been easier with four of us but now we have no choice.”

  Isaac stood up and clutched his hands around his Bible as he descended the hilltop. Jack sidled up to Michael.

  “You have to talk with him,” he said. “If we do manage to get Quentin out, he’s going to be unhappy Isaac didn’t help.”

  Unhappy was an understatement. Michael wouldn’t have been surprised if blood was spilt.

  “He’s chosen his path,” Michael said, watching the youngest member of their gang descend into the shadow’s clutches. And now he has to live with it.

  11

  Katie caught the flutter of flags out the corner of her eye. It was the signal that someone was coming. They preferred not to use noises but sometimes there was no avoiding it.

  A man on horseback trotted toward them at a gentle pace. He glanced at Aaron perched with his rifle across his arms and continued, nonplussed. He reached the driveway, climbed off his horse, and handed the reins to Katie, who didn’t lift a finger to take them.

  Katie arched an eyebrow at him and folded her arms. The man looked momentarily confused and then smiled at Bill.

  “Your grandkids I take it?” he said amiably. “My kids are the same. Must be a generational thing.”

  He wrapped his arms around Bill’s shoulders, his long grey hair whispering against Bill’s shoulders, and gently slapped him across the face. Bill did the same in return.

  “You don’t look a day over ninety, Preston,” Bill said.

  “Wish I could say the same to you,” Preston said.

  They shared a smile before Bill led him toward the hitching post.

  Half their number worked the farmland, preparing the soil for the seeds Oscar their friendly neighbour would soon be gifting them. They wanted the plants to grow as fast as possible. They had a large number of food supplies to rely on but couldn’t keep picking at it forever. Nine hungry mouths were a lot to feed.

  Luke and Louisa turned out to be great little workers and knew more about farming than the rest of them combined. They showed them how to properly prepare the soil and when to plant and harvest them. There wasn’t a lot they didn’t know about the subject.

  They were bent over the field now and didn’t notice old man Preston, but he certainly noticed them. Bill led them into the tool shed where they each took a worn deckchair.

  “Now why would you bring me to this old shed?” Preston said. “Expecting to pop my clogs?”

  “If you thought that was going to happen, you wouldn’t have come here by yourself today,” Bill said.

  Preston jabbed the brim of his hat up out of his eyes. “As obvious as always, huh?” He smiled and looked over at Katie and Camden. “Will you kids be joining us for our conversation today?”

  “Saves me having to relay all the information,” Bill said. “I haven’t got the memory for it these days.”
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  “Tell me about it. I barely remember to put my socks on in the morning.”

  “Underwear for me.”

  Katie curled her lip. It was more information than she needed.

  “I never thought I’d get this bad, Bill,” Preston said. “Please tell me there’s something better waiting for me when I get over the hill like you.”

  Bill chuckled. “There’s been no hill for us for years. It’s all downhill from here on out.”

  The door opened and Preston didn’t start or reach for any weapon he might have on him. He lay in the deckchair like he had no bones and watched as Hannah poked her head inside.

  “Cup of tea?” she said.

  “Yes, please,” Preston said. “Milk, no sugar.”

  “Tea all around thanks, Hannah,” Bill said with a nod.

  “You’re lucky to have so many young people around you not vying to tear each other’s throat out,” Preston said. “Half the time, I expect to hear my grandkids are dead and gone and the family will fade away to nothing. Maybe then we can leave all this blood feud nonsense behind us.”

  “You never left it behind you.”

  “It was what you did in those days. All Thornhills carried open hostilities with the Wedges. It was like a written law.”

  “It’s the same now. Nothing has changed.”

  Preston leaned forward and tucked his grey hair behind his ear. “It has changed. Now you’re involved.” Preston clapped his hands and slapped his hat against a palm. “Now, you’re at the centre of it all. One of my boys has run off with one of their girls. I don’t understand what could have gone through their heads when that idea occurred to them. How could it ever work out?”

  “It couldn’t, which is why they tried to run away. But your families would let them go.”

  “Of course we couldn’t let them go. Word would spread of our two families joining together. That would prove we were the same underneath all our clothes and sensibilities.”

  “Human, you mean?” Bill rolled his eyes. “That’s a real surprise, that is. Why are your two families at war again? Something over a hog, I seem to recall.”

  Preston Thornhill’s eyes narrowed. “Not a hog. Honour. My grandfather sold the Wedges a good pig that they never paid for.”

  Katie blinked. “All this is over a pig?”

  The words were out of her mouth before she registered them. She also failed to temper her incredulity. Their grandkids had to run for their lives because of a Large White?

  Preston fixed Katie with a look and punctuated his sentences with his hand. “It wasn’t the pig that caused the trouble. It was all the accusations flying back and forth. Both families are too proud to stand down, so neither side apologised, and it left us in our current situation. It was always going to come to a head eventually.”

  Preston looked at Katie and Camden. “I suppose this seems real funny to you, doesn’t it? Coming to a town where two families have this animosity toward each other.”

  Katie shook her head. “I can’t see anything funny about it. Especially now. You should both be worrying about getting enough food to eat and water to drink instead of this pointless fighting.”

  Preston snorted. “I can see at least one of them possesses their grandfather’s famous sharp tongue. Remember when we were that age, Bill?”

  “It’s too long ago to remember.”

  “Ain’t that the truth.”

  “I suppose you’re expecting them to replace you at some point?” Preston said.

  “I do.”

  “I’m doing the same thing with my own but it isn’t easy. The one I had most faith in up and left, and now everyone knows where his true allegiance lies. With a girl, not his family.”

  Preston stared into space. The whole thing was giving him more stress than he needed.

  “Don’t be too hard on the boy,” Bill said. “We were that young once.”

  “We knew better than to mess with family though. I don’t know how everything is going to work out but by the end, you mark my words, there’s a big change coming. I can feel it in my bones.”

  A gentle knock came at the door.

  “That’ll be the tea.” Camden pushed the door open and aimed a grin at the opening. But he was wrong. It wasn’t Hannah.

  Luke and Louisa entered the barn hand in hand. “I saw Old Faithful at the hitching post,” Luke said. “You should have told me you were here.”

  “And you should have told me what you were up to.” Preston’s tone was sharp.

  Luke lowered his head and stared at the floor as his grandfather drew close.

  “Did they hurt you?” Preston said. “Are you feeling well?”

  Luke nodded.

  Preston sighed deeply. “Now what am I going to do about this whole problem?”

  Luke said nothing. Katie got the feeling that if Preston told the boy to come home with him right now, he would have done it – not happily perhaps, but he would have obeyed.

  “You were one of my favourites, did you know that?” Preston said.

  Luke nodded, his expression growing more glum.

  “You knew that and you still ran away?” Preston said.

  “It’s love, Dad. I couldn’t help it.”

  “You could help it if you wanted to. You just didn’t want to. You thought about what was best for you rather than what was best for the family.”

  Luke nodded again, accepting the sharp words.

  Preston, unable to be angry any longer at his son, gripped his head and pulled him in close.

  “Well, lad. I can’t fault your taste. I can see why the Wedges didn’t want to lose this beauty. Come here, girl. I won’t hurt you.”

  Louisa looked to Luke, who nodded. She shuffled toward Preston, eyes facing the floor the same as her beau. Preston wrapped his arms around her in a warm, if awkward, hug. She only relaxed when they parted.

  “You two are causing a whole heap of trouble. Did you know that?”

  They both nodded.

  “We didn’t want to, Dad,” Luke said. “We wanted to run away together and never come back.”

  “You could throw your family away so easily?”

  “No, sir. I just… felt like I had to. And she had to do it too. We couldn’t live nearby, not with the way things stand between our two families.”

  Preston sighed and shook his head. “I’m disappointed in you, boy.”

  Luke flinched like he’d been hit. Still, Preston hugged his son and kissed him on the top of the head. The boy was a head taller than his father, but he might have been five years old.

  “I don’t want you to cause any trouble for the people here, you understand?” Preston said. “They’re good people and don’t deserve it.”

  “No, sir,” Luke said.

  “I’ll hear about it if you say a single cross word to any of them,” Preston said. “All right. Get out of here. Both of you.”

  The couple held hands as they left. That only made the old man shake his head further.

  “They’re going to be the death of me, Bill, I know it. You’re keeping them in separate beds, I trust?”

  “Of course,” Bill said.

  “Good. The last thing we need is a hyphen to be born out of this. The truth be told, I don’t know whether to be angry at the boy or proud. It takes a lot of guts to stand up to your family. Especially when they’re willing to cut you down for it. It’s certainly not something I ever had the courage to do.”

  He walked back to the deckchair and fell into it.

  “You used to be something of a tearaway, from what I recall,” Bill said.

  “You’re one to talk,” Preston said. “Every girl I got to, I found out you’d gotten to her first!”

  “Girls around here have good taste. What can I say?”

  The old men shared a heinous chuckle between them that turned Katie’s stomach.

  “This one doesn’t like us talking about our youthful exploits,” Preston said, nodding at Katie.

  “O
r this one,” Camden said, wearing an even worse grimace.

  “Maybe because we’re a living – barely – reminder of what’s in store for them some way down the track. Enjoy your youth while you’ve got it, kids. You won’t have it forever. And then nobody will want you. Even the people who look just as bad as you.”

  “What are you going to do about them?” Bill said, bringing Preston back on topic.

  Preston growled under his breath. “They have to stay here for now. I’ll send food and water and whatever else the boy and girl use. It’s a good thing you’re doing and I don’t want you out of pocket.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I want to. It’s the least I can do. You’re a good man, Bill. So far as I can tell, so are the people you’ve got around you. You all deserve better than this. I fear blood will be spilt on one side or the other before this is over. I only hope it’s not yours.” He stood up. “It’s about time I headed back home. The family will be wondering where I got to. Thank your girl for the tea for me. Sorry I couldn’t stay to drink it.”

  He stepped outside and let the door swing shut behind him.

  Bill sidled up to Camden and lowered his voice. “Organise a second bed for the lovers. They should start sleeping separately from now on.”

  Lies within lies.

  12

  Oscar deposited the final large sack of seed on the ground. By the way he was panting and sweating, you’d have thought he carried them all the way over from his farm rather than lifting them off the back of his horse. Katie set to tying the sacks up tighter.

  “Do you want a receipt for this?” Nancy said.

  “Fat lot of good it’d do me now!” Oscar said. “No. You keep it. Don’t worry about me.”

  “We’d best get it inside before it starts raining,” Nancy said. “Steve? Hello? Steve? Are you there?” She waved her hands in front of his face.

  “Sorry,” Steve said. “I was miles away.”

  “Can you get the seeds stored away in the shed somewhere dry, please?”

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  He hefted the great sackload onto his shoulder and carried it away.