Chapter 7

Friday...

The girls were up early. Today was the day that the furniture arrived, the last piece of the puzzle that was their home. Mary had called to say that the truck would not arrive until after lunch. This had led to Amber deciding that they should go get groceries so Don had readied the same trailer they had taken with them to Odessa. Earlier in the week Jack had hauled a steer and six wethers, castrated sheep to the Trans-Pecos Packing Plant. The chest type freezer that was bolted over the axles would make sure the meat kept frozen plus any other goodies until they were back at the ranch.

Before leaving for town Jack had called the kids into the living room. Jack looked around the room at his son and his new daughters, the thought of anything happening to them was more than he could imagine. "The Sheriff is not happy about the idea of a seventeen year old kid carrying a pistol. He's not happy about it but he's not going to stop it either. So Don, starting today, I want you armed at all times. Do you understand me?"

Don nodded his head, "Yes Sir I understand."

"Girls, tomorrow we are all going to help one of our friends gather all of the livestock off of a ranch that they are buying. While we are gathering, Matt, George and Tammy are going to be teaching all of you how to handle a gun. Scott and Angie have a firing range that they have built at their house." Turning to Matt, "I forgot to tell you, Jack Rimes is a Texas Ranger, he has been living at the ranch for the last few months recovering from an accident and using up his comp time. He'll be there to help you if you need it."

Turning back to the girls Jack explained, "Yesterday I spent the day getting these." Jack brought out two boxes, one long the other square and about three inches thick. He opened the smaller box first, "This is Beretta's new PX4 Storm," he took the gun out of its box, dropped the clip out of it, checked to make sure the chamber was clear and handed the pistol to Kiesha. "I got one of those for each of you, but that's not all." Jack opened up the long box and pulled out a Beretta CX4 carbine. After making sure it was safe he handed the carbine to Amber.

"And Matt is going to teach us how to shoot?" Amber asked.

"Yes," Jack was nodding his head, "any of you having to fire a shot at this bastard will be the absolutely last defence, but..." Jack's bullfrog like voice started to crack, "Nothing or nobody is going to hurt my girls."

Kiesha handed Don the pistol at the same time Amber shoved the carbine into his other hand, then five girls mobbed Jack as though they were trying to smother him in hugs and kisses. Jack was trying to get the girls to sit back down, "Come on girls, there's a bunch more to tell you." The girls took their seats and Jack began again, "On my way to Odessa yesterday I stopped at Scott Miles' place. I was telling him and Jack Rimes about all this and Jack had an idea. He called an old buddy of his, Jake Dingle, who was visiting some girl in Del Rio, he's an ex Seal and will be here later this afternoon. He knew some men that needed some work and they'll be working under him to provide security for all of you until this is all over. We have filed an order of protection against Jackson which won't mean anything to him but if he steps on ranch property he will be shot on sight. As far as the Sheriff and the Judge is concerned, if he shows up in Ft. Stockton he is declaring that he wants to harm you and he is not going to get away with it. I'd like for you kids to stay on the ranch if you can. The Sheriff understands the need for y'all to protect yourselves, but he's not too up on the idea of the six of you going into town armed to the teeth. Do you have any questions?"

Kiesha had taken her pistol back, "Can someone show me how to shoot today? We were going into to buy groceries."

Jack looked at Matt, "What do you think? I know they want to get stuff so they can get moved into their house and frankly that house is the safest place they can be if they have food."

Beth realised she had the solution and spoke up, "I could go in and get the things they were wanting. You were going to wait to fill everything up when you could go to Odessa weren't you Don?"

"Well yeah, we wanted to get most of it at the discount club," Don replied.

"Well," Beth began, "You guys stay here and learn to shoot then tomorrow you can either practice some more or get a sore butt riding herd on a bunch of smelly old sheep."

Tammy looked at Matt, "Do you think it would be too risky for me to go with Beth? Jackson does know me."

"He can't know you all that well and he's sure not liable to be expecting you to be here. I say put on one of Don's feed caps, a long sleeve work shirt with the tails out to cover your gun and I don't think he'll know you from Adam." Rose got up and ran from the room returning a few minutes later with an old broken down straw cowboy hat, and one of Don's blue chambray work shirts. She put the hat on Tammy while she slipped the shirt on. Jack picked up a pair of shades that were lying in the kitchen and handed them to Rose. When she put the shades on Tammy the transformation was complete. "That ought to work," Matt said. "Another thing Tammy, you know him, if you should see him call for help don't try to take him on by your self."

Beth turned to Don and asked, "Were you going to pick up your meat at the packer?"

"Yeah, Mom, the freezer is already in and bolted down," Don stood up and reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his keys, "here's my keys to the truck, we'll take the Yukon."

Beth took the keys and she and Tammy headed for town. Jack brought the rest of the guns in while Don taught the girls the basics of firearm safety. Don let Matt handle the shooting instructions and worked the girls hard for three hours. Kiesha, Rose and Missy turned out to be naturals with the handguns. Kim and Amber were fair with the hand guns, but found the carbines to be right up their alley. Don brought his Dad's rifle bench and the clamped the carbines down and sighted in the red dot scopes and the laser sights. Don and the girls practiced until they interrupted by the furniture delivery guys. The girls holstered their pistols and helped Don, Matt, George and Jack gather the targets, ammunition, and spent brass and led the furniture trucks to the new house.

They were surprised to see Mary, the girl that had helped them with their purchases, get out of the second truck. Mary smiled, "My boss said that I should follow up on such a big sale so I hitched a ride. Oh by the way, you were right about my co-workers, one of them even tried to claim that the commission was his because I jumped my spot in line. But when I told my boss that the reason I did it was because the others were ignoring you, my boss got very unhappy. So from now on, if a five year old walks into the store, he's going to get asked if he needs help. Your sale also made me the top salesperson for the month so I brought you guys some throws for your sectional."

The girls gave Mary the nickel tour while Don directed the guys on where to put what knowing all the time he was putting it in the wrong spot. Once the tour was over Amber took over directing where the furniture was to go. While this was happening, Don and the other girls got the custom made mattress brought in from the garage where it had been stored, and set it up in the Master bedroom.

While Mary and Amber were going from room to room showing the guys where what went, Mary looked at Amber and then looked around to see who was around, "Can I ask you a personal question?"

Amber smiled one of her Amber smiles having a pretty good idea as to what the question was about, "Sure go ahead."

"Are all six of you really going to live here?" Amber nodded her head as Mary kept quizzing, "And you all sleep together?" Amber's smile was threatening to reveal her teeth as it got bigger and bigger. "What do your parents think of all this?"

Amber's smile slowly faded, Mary began to panic thinking she had asked one too many questions Amber bailed her out, "Well except for Missy we don't have any parents to say one way or the other. We were all in foster care before we ran away and found Don."

Mary's smile returned and then she sighed, "Don is so handsome but I don't think I could ever share him."

Amber put her hand on Mary's shoulder, "That's where you would lose him. Don was just not made to be able to love just one person. There is still one more person out there that will join us."

Mary slipped into a day dream wondering if she could ever be that person, then she wondered how they knew, "How do you know that there will be another person?"

"Don saw her in his dreams. I know that sounds strange but it is apparently how the Gods meant for it to be." Amber's conversation with Mary was interrupted when one of the drivers came up to tell her that everything had been unloaded.

Don tipped the drivers and movers and slipped Mary a little extra as well and thanked them all for a job well done. They watched the furniture people as they drove down the dusty road headed back to the highway. Since it was already starting to get hot they retreated back into the cool of the house. There was still a lot to do.

Don had bought two of Sears biggest roll away tool boxes, one was for Amber's art supplies, and he had put his tools in the other. It was easy to roll them around so Don pushed the empty one from the garage to Amber's studio. He found her deep in thought. "What are you thinking about sweetie?"

Amber jumped as Don's voice startled her. She turned and walked into Don's embrace, "I was thinking this room needs something."

Don looked around at the still primer covered walls and bare floor, "Ya, think?"

Amber swatted him playfully on the arm, "No, what I mean is I want to paint a mural on the walls, but I don't want to use this kind of paint," she held up a tube of oil paint.

"Well why not get just plain house paint." Don suggested.

"I can do that?" Amber asked.

Don shook his head, "I don't know. Can you? Amber all you have to do is ask baby. Quit worrying about the money. I'll tell you what, tonight we'll all sit down and go over our finances. We'll need to go to the bank next week and get all of you on my accounts. That reminds me too, I need to make a will and I still haven't called Tom Masters."

Amber hugged Don, "When will we go back to Odessa?"

"I don't know sweetie, we have to go to the Miles ranch either this afternoon or very, very early in the morning. We'll be busy there Saturday, Sunday and most likely Monday as well, and if needed we could be even longer. So it could be Thursday or Friday before we could get loose. What else are you going to need in here?"

Amber looked at the big tool box Don had brought in, "Are there any more of those?" she asked pointing to the big red box.

"No, but we can get another if you need it," Don replied.

"I would like to keep my oil paints separate from the acrylics. Right now it's all still in the sacks."

"There you two are!" Rose exclaimed, "Matt wants us to meet him in the garage, he wants to show all of us how to clean our guns."

Don put his arm around Rose and pulled her into the embrace with him and Amber, "Ok," Don kissed Rose and then back to Amber for another one, "I like this," Don grinned as he moved back and forth kissing the two girls. He felt a hand brush across his crotch, "We better go if we're going, besides the floor is too hard to make love on."

Amber and Rose both giggled as they headed towards the garage hand in hand. Matt showed the girls how to break down the pistols and the carbines in order to clean them and keep them looked after where they could be depended on. After they had finished Kiesha asked, "Where are we going to keep them?"

"Well now is as good a time as any to show you one of the secrets of the house. Come on, we need to go to the library first. Go ahead and bring your carbines and I'll show you the gun cabinet." The girls followed Don into the library and watched as he triggered the hidden door, taking the time to show each of them how it worked.

Once inside the room Don showed the girls how everything worked. He also set up each of them with an account so that they could access the system. Kim was in hog heaven and when Don showed her the Beowulf Cluster she gave him a smoking kiss. Kiesha was shaking her head, "We'll never see Kim again. She'll spend every waking hour in here on the computer."

"What about internet access? I know you told us that there are no phone lines but you've got access to the net on here." Kim was smiling at Don waiting for the answer to her question.

"The internet access is through the satellite dish. That's about all that there is to show you here so if you'll follow me I'll show you where we can put your guns." Don led the girls out of the library and into their bedroom. Walking over to the custom headboard that Don and his father had made he pointed to the smooth wood panel at the back of the bottom shelf of the built in book case. He pushed on the top corner and the panel slid up revealing an open space behind it large enough to hide all of their pistols.

"Cool!" Missy exclaimed, "You always did like all that 007 James bond crap didn't you."

Don laughed "If you like that you're going to love the closet." Don got up and walked to the walk in closet. Showing the girls the hidden button he had Rose push it. The faint sound of an electric motor could be heard as a four foot by eight foot section of the mirrored wall behind the dressing counter raised into the ceiling. Behind the mirror several guns were already displayed. "Wow!" Kiesha exclaimed.

"Yeah, dito" Rose added.

"Let me see one of your carbines." Don asked, Kiesha handed him hers, Don pulled out hooks that would fit into the pegboard that made up the back of the hidden space. In a few seconds Kiesha's rifle was mounted to the wall. One after the other the girls handed Don their carbines, by alternating the direction that they faced all five guns fit without taking up all of the available space.

"That's an AK-47 isn't?" Kiesha pointed to the top weapon on the left.

"Yeah, the top one is an AK, the one under it is an HK 91 and then an HK 93,"

"What's the difference, they look almost the same?" Rose asked.

"The 91 is .308 calibre and the 93 is .223, that's another HK underneath the 93. It's a PSG -1, just maybe the best sniper rifle there is." Don explained.

"What are these two?" Amber pointed to the last two guns on the wall.

"The top one is an M-4 and the bottom one is one of the new M-14's."

"Are these all the guns you have?" Kim asked.

"No, there are a couple at Mom and Dad's. Speaking of that, if we would go get our stuff from their house there is no reason we can't spend the night here, unless we end up going to the Miles ranch."

"Yoo Hoo, Is any one here?" Beth's voice carried down the hall.

"In the bedroom Mom," Don shouted, he hit the button and the mirror slowly lowered into place. Don and the girls walked into the bedroom and met Beth and Tammy.

Beth smiled at her son, he had changed so much since Sunday, Rose put her arms around her mother-in-law as Beth began to explain, "We've got the groceries backed up to the garage door. Your Dad got a call from Scott Miles and he wants to go ahead and head down tonight. He's down loading up the horses in the three axle trailer. He wants you to take the Topkick and hook up the big sheep trailer."

"What are we going to do for saddles for the girls?' Don asked.

"Scott told your Dad he was saddle poor. We may be short a bridle or two but your Dad 'said he'd let you know. You and the girls are going to have to make a trip to San Angelo so your Dad's friend can get started on their saddles and some of those custom boots he makes. Speaking of boots, you did buy these girls some in Odessa didn't you?"