“Let’s do October 15th,” he said, pointing at that day, trying to sound thoughtful about his choice.
She looked at the square under his finger and began to run through the logistics in her head. This was it. The day was finally chosen. Emotion suddenly welled up inside her. She leapt into his arms and kissed him all over his face and neck. He was struck by her emotion and hugged her as tight as he could. He was also relieved to have the date nailed down.
They returned to their planning, googling venues for their wedding, reception and honeymoon. Patton got lost in the moment. It was a far cry from his first wedding—his first wife had made almost every single plan. She ended up telling him where to be, when to be there, and what to wear. Something was different this time and Patton realized that it might be him. Perhaps he was growing as a person. He took joy in watching Jennifer’s excitement.
They grilled steaks and Jennifer made a salad for dinner. They ate and talked and drank wine. When it was dark, Patton decided that he was tired enough to go to bed. Jennifer, who was reading by her lamplight, noticed him turn over to his side, a sure sign that he was about to fall asleep.
“You turning in?” she asked lovingly.
He nodded sleepily. She smiled and leaned over to give him a goodnight kiss.
“Goodnight Honey,” she said, getting no reply.
Larsen Farms was well out of town, on a quiet stretch of a highway that was usually dead at night. As they approached the turnoff, the driver could see the large iron arch that stood over the driveway. He killed the lights and parked in a gravel turnout on the opposite side of the highway. The four people sat in the vehicle. All but one of them were anxious, if not nervous. All were dressed in black and were equipped with semi-automatic pistols, holstered at their waists. They’d planned this as well as possible, but there were so many unknowns. They didn’t know the layout of the farm. They didn’t even know if the loudmouth from the meeting would be at home.
It had rained earlier that day. The wet road glistened in the bright moonlight. A sudden, strong breeze blew through a large maple tree, causing them all to jump at the sound. Lights were scattered throughout the compound, but were not bright enough to deter them from doing what they were here to do.
The group crossed the road, hunched down but moving quickly. They kept to the long prairie grass on the sides of the driveway to avoid crunching gravel under their boots. As they passed under the arch, two of the team broke off and went to the right, ducking down behind a five-foot tall stone fence. The other two went left, hunkering down behind the fence on the other side of the driveway. The house was down in a small swale and to their right.
A security light suddenly flickered on.
“Down!” Travis whispered.
The others ducked quickly to the ground. Prairie grass rustled and gravel crunched beneath their weight. The night was too quiet and they were being too loud. Travis grimaced as he rose to his knees. He signaled to the team on the left, motioning for them to swing further left, around the barn. Travis and the woman did the same thing—only they circled wide around to the right and made their way to the back door of the farmhouse.
Beep Beep!
“Patton,” Jennifer said sleepily, patting him on the shoulder.
Beep Beep!
“Patton.”
“Huh?” he said groggily.
Beep Beep!
Patton finally noticed the alarm and shot up from his spot in the bed.
“What’s wrong?” Jennifer said, beginning to wake up now.
He fumbled in the dark, but finally found his phone. He clicked the scroll pad and clicked on the alert.
He had a new text message that read “Intruder alert!”
“Patton, what’s wrong?” she asked, frantically.
He was still half asleep but waking up quickly. “Someone’s breaking into my house.”
He said it with a deadly calm, which unnerved her more than if he’d shouted the words in her face.
The team on the left set off another security light as they made their way to the barn. Before departing, Travis decided that if the compound proved to have a security system, they would go in shooting. There were obviously security lights, but Travis couldn’t see any other equipment. No cameras, no sensors.
Crouched at the rear door of the farmhouse, Travis reached up and tried the knob. The knob was locked and Travis noticed a stout deadbolt. Undeterred, Travis reared back and kicked the door with his full force, his pistol at the ready. There was a loud cracking sound, but the door stayed intact. He kicked at it again and this time it gave way, crashing loudly against a kitchen counter.
Patton heard the door crash, panes of glass shattering on the kitchen floor.
“What the hell?” Jennifer gasped, looking at Patton with wide eyes.
He met her frightened gaze with a calm expression. Again, his calm made her even more nervous. He grabbed his iPad from his nightstand and opened his security app. He watched the intruders invade his home from the safety of Jennifer’s home. There were three, possibly four, and all seemed to be carrying handguns.
“You see? This is what you get when you speak up at a meeting,” Patton said, showing her the live footage.
She didn’t know what he meant at first, but then it dawned on her.
“You don’t think—”
He looked at her with that detached expression and said, “I speak up at a meeting against this government and they send out a bunch of goons to kill me. That would make these people ‘wake up’ and see they needed a government right? They’d be killing two birds with one stone.”
She looked at him and for the first time she was starting to believe in his kooky conspiratorial ideas. The thought that they could have been there caused her to shudder with fear.
“They’re not here!” cried one of the men. He kicked a garbage can, which seemed to explode, its contents spilling all over the room.
“Hey!” Travis yelled, pushing his shoulder. “We don’t need to do that! They’re not here, we move out, that’s it!”
The other man nodded reluctantly, but was still angry. He’d been psyching himself up all day to do this. He’d taken a hit of meth before leaving so he’d be sufficiently amped up.
“Let’s get out of here,” Travis said, motioning with his head.
Dejected, the four intruders lined up and filed out of the house.
“They’re gone now,” Jennifer said, still shaking. Patton put his arm around her to calm her but he was shaking too. The only difference was, he was shaking out of anger, not fear.
He was relieved about one thing, though. Had he been there, he would have had to kill four people. That was something he didn’t like doing, no matter how much they deserved it. Someone sent those people on a fool’s errand and he had a pretty good idea who it was.
The four sped back towards town. Travis was on his phone, riding shotgun, trying to calm his team down and update Charlie.
“No one was home. Yeah. We’re on our way back to town. What? Okay. What do you want us to do? You really think he has cameras up in his place? No. I didn’t see any. Okay. We’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Travis ended the call and looked at the driver.
“The old man is unbelievable,” he said, shaking his head, clenching his jaw.