“Thanks, dear,” she said. “Are you sure you can handle this?” she said with a wink. “I mean you’re walking around with a machine gun, but I’m not sure you can handle buying tampons.” It felt good to be joking around again. So good.
Grant started laughing so hard that it turned to tears. Happy tears. He quickly got control of his emotions. He was having a lot of these emotional spells lately. But so much had happened. He hugged Lisa again.
“You will be well taken care of,” he whispered to her. He wasn’t gloating, but he wanted her to remember that he had promised to take care of her months ago. She kept hugging him, too. She appreciated that her husband had gone to all this trouble to take care of them, even if it meant her being mad at him if she caught him And she appreciated that he wasn’t gloating.
After a while, he let her go and said, “I gotta get the Team all set up in their cabin.”
She said sternly, “There is something you need to do first.” She smiled and said, “Cole needs to be tucked.”
More of the happy tears. Oh, God, how Grant had wanted to tuck that boy in. For days.
“Hey, Cole,” Grant called out. “Time for tucking.” Grant climbed up to the loft and went over to the bed where the kids would be sleeping.
“Oh, yes, Dad,” Cole said with a huge smile.
Grant tucked in Cole. The lights were still on and people were moving around the loft putting their things away, so Cole wouldn’t be sleeping for a while, but that wasn’t the point. Tucking was about Dad being there. Grant hugged Cole so hard that he was afraid he would squish him.
“Good night, lil’ buddy,” Grant said.
“Good night, Dad,” Cole said with a big smile.
This is what you are supposed to be doing. I put you and them here. You’re safe, but you all have jobs to do.
Grant hadn’t heard the outside thought in a long time. But it was crystal clear. Grant said out loud, “Thank you.”
Chapter 78
The Third Amendment
(May 7)
Grant was so happy that he was tearing up again. He needed to stop that, especially in front of the Team. He was the oldest one and couldn’t have them thinking he was a sobbing old man, so he got back into his persona as Grant, the member of the Team.
He walked over to the yellow cabin. It was fully dark now. There was some moonlight, but it was still hard to see. He didn’t want to twist his ankle when he had so much to do. He got out his Surefire E1B flashlight from his 5.11 pants and noticed his pistol. There it was on his belt in the holster. It had been on the whole time he was talking to Lisa and the grandparents. No one had said anything like, “Get that dangerous thing away from me.” It was now perfectly appropriate to wear a side arm, when just a few days ago, he hid his guns from them.
“Things have changed,” Grant said out loud to himself as he walked down the gravel road to the yellow cabin. He listened to his Romeos, that he called “hillbilly slippers,” softly crunch on the gravel. He would never forget the sound of car wheels on a gravel road. Never. It was the sweetest sound of his life.
The guys’ trucks were all parked near the yellow cabin, which was right next to the guard shack. What a great place to house four extremely well-armed and well trained men. He wondered about the owner of the cabin, that guy from California. Would he be pissed that they sort of took over his property? Oh well. He was probably stuck in California and couldn’t use it, anyway. Besides, if he did make it to Pierce Point, they would give his place back and pay him some kind of rent.
The Third Amendment. Grant thought about the little-known Third Amendment to the Constitution. It said that troops would not be quartered, which meant housed, in private homes without the owner’s permission, in most cases. The British had forcibly quartered troops during the Revolutionary War and the colonists hated it. Grant and the Team would honor the Constitution out there, Grant thought. Even the inconvenient Third Amendment. That’s how they would do things out there.
As Grant walked up, Bobby and Wes were unloading a final load of things from their trucks. They were happy to see him.
“Awesome place, man,” Bobby said. He was grinning so wide he couldn’t contain himself.
“My pleasure,” Grant said. “Well, it’s not exactly mine, but I’m guessing it’s OK to borrow it.”
Bobby and Wes nodded. Grant pointed down the road the opposite direction from his cabin. “There are lots of empty cabins here. If the guy who owns the yellow cabin comes back, it shouldn’t be hard to find one for the neighborhood’s security force. I would think most people in the neighborhood would kind of welcome it, to be honest. You know, having armed men who they can trust nearby. Kind of a bonus, nowadays.”
Grant grabbed a duffle bag from Wes’s truck bed and brought it in with them.
Pow and Scotty were inside putting their stuff in dressers.
“Bobby’s got the couch,” Pow said. “He’s the shortest and can fit on it no problem.” Bobby shrugged.
“Like when I’m at your momma’s house and you have to sleep on the couch,” Bobby said. Momma jokes. Some things never change.
Scotty opened the refrigerator, which was empty. “We gotta do something about this,” he said.
“Yep,” Grant said. “Way ahead of you. Make up a list. In the morning we’ll go into town and get a last batch of whatever is still on the shelves. I have some ‘feminine products’ to get.” They all laughed at him. Grant was actually proud that they were laughing at him. He was taking care of his family, which was the highest honor a man could have.
“But, seriously,” Grant said, “I am not letting my family know that this is probably the last set of supplies we can get in town. They haven’t been in the stores like you have and don’t know how bad it is. I am trying to make them believe things are as ‘normal’ as possible. I’m selling this to them as a few days of a ‘vacation.’ I need you guys to play along.”
“No prob,” Pow said, understanding how hard it must be for Grant to try to keep his family calm during all that was going on. “Hey, you’re the landlord so what you say goes.”
That was reassuring to Grant. A house with four extremely well-armed men, who couldn’t be dislodged from the place without a professional SWAT team, were saying, “Hey, you’re the landlord.” Grant would never trust well-armed strangers with the location of his cabin. He realized how important it was to know—really know—the people invited out to a bug out location. Grant was thankful for the “coincidence” that he had been training with these guys for a couple of years and had gotten to know them extremely well.
He thought about the outside thoughts and all the things that had fallen into place to make this whole set up possible. He knew, with absolute certainty, that everything was happening for a reason and they had a job to do. Absolute certainty.
“Can one of you guys help Chip with guard duty tonight?” Grant asked. “We really should have two guys out there. Besides, I don’t want Chip to be lonely.”
Scotty raised his hand. “No biggie. I can’t sleep now, anyway. I’ll grab one of you tonight to replace me if I get tired.” They all nodded. That’s how the Team did things. It was amazing.
“So, Scotty, to answer your question about the fridge,” Grant said. “We’ll be making a milk run tomorrow morning, but we should have a nice big breakfast first. I have some grub at my place. Can you guys keep a secret?” Grant paused for effect. “A couple months of food, at least a couple months for my family, but you can have it, too.”