Deploy, Part One (Rawlings #1)(20)

“You found her?” the Sheriff asked in an incredulous tone. “Why are you here?”

“Heard about the damage,” Chasen said, calm as ever, as he held on a little tighter to Nolan. He could feel him tensing, wanting another piece of Murdock just because he could take it.

“You heard an entire wing of the high school was gone, and you decided to come and gawk?”

“No,” Chasen ticked his toward Nolan. “He left his truck here. We came to see if it was here or in a tree somewhere. We needed the keys to his toolbox to get the tools to free the truck bed—they were in his locker down here, which is where we found your girl.”

When the Sheriff glanced to Justice as if to confirm their story, Chasen spoke up again. “You need us to take your boy and her home? I’m sure you have your hands full.”

The Sheriff smirked at the audacity of the question. It didn’t matter that they were in the middle of a disaster, there was bad blood between the families and Sheriff Monty Souter would be damned if he’d hand his son over, much less Dawn Everly’s daughter, a woman he regretted not making his, to a Rawlings.

“Best be moving on now, boys,” the Sheriff said as he reached for Justice’s arm. “They’re declaring the building unstable.”

“Right,” Chasen said, urging Nolan behind him before reaching down and grabbing the bag on the floor and then having to use his body to move Declan back. Declan was steadfastly focused on Justice, and she was much the same as she looked over her shoulder at him while being pulled the other way.

“Six days, son,” Chasen said, urging Declan forward.

Outside looked like a warzone in the truest of senses. Emergency personal could be heard in every direction. The fences around the fields were no more, and yes one wing of the school was gone, so was just about every window.

“I was worried about you,” Chasen said to Declan when he nodded for the other boys to walk on. Nolan did walk on, but only a few steps. He was determined to hear what went down. To hear what their daddy’s take on the matter was.

“It didn’t sound like this down there,” Declan said as he watched the Sheriff’s cruiser leave.

“I bet not.”

Declan didn’t bother to respond.

“That girl is seventeen, Declan. Barely that.”

“Yeah.”

“And you have a plan,” Chasen said.

“I do.”

“So you and I are clear right now.”

“Do as I say not as I do,” Declan said sharply. Their father always said that, so much so that Tobias had claimed the saying as well.

Chasen flinched a grin. Hard roads are difficult to regret when you know if you never walked down them, the people you love the most wouldn’t exist. “When I was caught with an underage girl her parents forced us to get married. Justice’s daddy won’t do that, not in this day and time. No, son. He’d put you behind bars for statutory rape. He’ll be in your recruitment officer’s face and if he doesn’t get anywhere then he’ll march up to your drill sergeant. I don’t need to tell you how much you don’t need this.”

“I’m aware.”

“Are you? You get that’s the right girl but the wrong time?”

Declan’s stare shot to his father’s. Chasen was a man’s man and was quick to tell his boys they didn’t need a woman, not beyond their grandmother Missy who knew how to keep them in line. To hear him say any girl was right for any one of his boys was a kick to the gut, and Declan wasn’t sure why. He couldn’t think about anything beyond the fact that Murdock was hip to hip with Justice just then and he was taking her to her father who liked to throw her around like a rag doll.

“You heard me,” Chasen said, hitting him on the shoulder before walking on.

“Holy shit,” Declan said as he noticed Nolan’s truck. The golden, diesel ford F350 had a tree laid directly across the bed.

“Yeah, I for real needed those keys,” Nolan said as he pulled them out of the bag Chasen was carrying then tossed them to Atticus.

“Bag feels a little lighter,” Nolan said when their dad had walked on. “I feel like my supplies have been raided.”

“Not now,” Declan said shortly.

“Yeah, you’re right. We have all the time in the world. It’s not like you’re leaving in six—no, five days now.”

“Ass,” Declan said under his breath as he moved forward to look at the damage on his brother’s truck.

“Good thing you guys are taking Declan’s truck,” Chasen said with a knowing glint his blue stare. “Because, hell, it’s like Mother Nature is all but demanding this truck stay put, right where it’s rooted.”

“No truck is meant to stay still,” Nolan said, avoiding his father’s gaze.

“No, a good honest machine does what it’s made to do, no stopping it. It will run as long as you take care of it. Blood, sweat, and tears can go into one; you give it all you got to make it right. Then boom, out of nowhere the last f*cking thing you’d expect happens. A damn tree slams into you. Now you gotta start all over.”

Atticus glanced from his dad to Nolan, then to Declan, feeling like the odd man out. Then again he had all night because all night their dad had been hip to hip with Nolan, saying things just like that, words that seemed to fit the conversation—but not really.