Virgin River (Virgin River #1)(113)

Before the sun was even up the next morning, she was awakened by the sound of amassing vehicles. She looked at the clock and saw that it was barely 5:00 a.m. She rummaged around for clothes and went through the bar onto the porch to see what all the commotion was about. There in the street were trucks, campers, AWD vehicles, SUVs, cars. Men were standing around in the street, checking their rifles, even putting on flak jackets and bulletproof vests. Some wore jeans and work shirts, some wore fatigues. She recognized faces among them—Mike Valenzuela from L.A., Zeke from Fresno, Paul Haggerty and Joe Benson from Grants Pass, Oregon. There were also neighbors and ranchers and farmers from Virgin River. She saw that Ricky was with them, looking for all the world like a grown man.

She watched them for a while before Jack noticed her standing there, her hair all mussed from sleep, her feet bare. He handed his rifle off to Paul and went to her. “You look like a girl,” he said. “A little pregnant girl, but I know better.” He grinned. “I thought maybe you could sleep awhile longer.”

“Through this? What’s going on?”

“Scavenger hunt,” he said. “Nothing for you to worry about.”

“Come on, Jack.”

“We’re going to check, see if the woods need to be cleaned out,” he said.

“With weapons? Vests? My God, Jack.”

He pulled her against him briefly and said, “I doubt we’ll have any trouble, Mel. But we should be prepared for whatever we run into. We’re just going to cut a wide circle around the town—be certain there are no drug farmers or criminals close by. No camps like the one Thompson came from. No camps for people like Thompson to hide out in.”

“How will you know whether there are dangerous people in ordinary camps? I’m told there are plenty of those kind of camps scattered around. Squatters, vagrants, mountain people.”

He shrugged. “Then we should know who’s out there. Look for what’s in their camps, check their weapons so we know what they have. Pot’s pretty easy to spot—it has a real distinctive green color and it almost always comes with camouflage and a generator.”

She put a hand on the vest he wore. “And you need this because—”

“Because I’m going to be a father soon, and I don’t take foolish chances. One of these idiots could misfire.”

“You’re taking Ricky with you?”

“I look out for Ricky. We’ll all be looking out for him, but believe me—he’s up to this. I taught him to shoot myself. He wouldn’t be left out, because it’s about you.”

“Is this absolutely necessary?”

“Yes,” he said, and looked down at her with the expression she had learned meant he was all about business.

Jim Post was beside Jack, grinning. “Morning,” he said.

“Does June know you’re doing this?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And what did she say?”

“Something like, ‘You better be careful.’ The hard part was convincing old Doc Hudson he couldn’t come.”

“Isn’t this better left to the police? The sheriff?”

Jim put a foot up on the porch step. He shrugged. “We’ve already told Henry about Paulis’s camp and gave him the description of the vehicle being driven by the man who probably had it set up. Hopefully, the Paulis camp is deserted and their plants left behind. We saw ’em, Mel—and there’s no question—those old squatters didn’t bring a semi in, bury it, camouflage it and set up a grow. But someone did—and there could be more of those. There’s real trouble way back in there—on federal land. We’re not going that far back. We’ll stay out of their business. We’ll leave that up to the professionals.”

“It just seems so vigilante-like,” she said.

“Naw, we’re not going to do anything illegal, Mel. We’re just going to send a little message. You don’t want to give our women, our towns, any reason to feel they have to fight back. Understand?” She didn’t answer. “If there’s anything like that near enough to threaten Virgin River, we’ll give them a chance to run for their lives before we disclose their location to authorities. It’ll be fine. We’ll be home by dark.”

She said to Jack, “I’m going to be scared to death all day.”

“Do I have to stay here with you, so you won’t be scared?” he asked her. “Or can you believe in me one more time?”

She bit her lip, but nodded. He slipped an arm around her waist and lifted her up to his mouth, kissing her deeply. “You taste so good in the morning,” he said, smiling down at her. “Is that normal?” he teased.

“You’d better be careful,” she said. “Remember that I love you.”

“I don’t need any more than that,” he said, putting her back on her feet.

Preacher came to the porch. He nodded at her, bushy brows drawn together in a frown that made her almost shudder. “Just send him in,” Mel said. “That’ll scare them all away.” And to her surprise, Preacher smiled so big, for a moment she didn’t recognize him.

When they had finally left in a grand parade, Mel called June. “Do you know what your husband is doing?” she asked.