Chapter 158

THE RETREAT

Jeremy, Denise and Connie were tired. Their bodies were in excellent shape because of their work, but negotiating the rough terrain by snowmobile had stressed muscles they weren't accustomed to using. Jennie and Melissa were good, and it showed. After riding both loops, most of the tension was gone and Denise and Connie were far more confident of their new abilities.

Jeremy had been impressed with the young wives' safety lecture, and once they had stopped to remind Denise to keep a safe distance behind the snowmobile in front of her. "Our husband was serious about bringing you back in one piece," Melissa had said, "and we don't want to make him mad at us."

"Does he get mad often?" Connie had blurted before she could stop herself.

Both wives laughed. "He never gets mad at us, but we would hate to see a look of disappointment on his face."

Jennie and Melissa were not accustomed to leadership. They generally followed Arlene's lead when it came to things like snowmobiling, skiing, or major decisions when Diana or Jeff weren't around. Arlene had laid out the routes originally, and always pushed the other young wives to do their best in anything they tried. If something happened, they could always reach Jeff with their radios, and they knew that Security would be monitoring them too, but they were still a little uncomfortable having guests that weren't accustomed to snowmobiles, particularly in the rough areas.

The shorter of the two trails was easy, but the longer one was more challenging. By the time they had finished the shorter trail, Denise and Connie had gained some experience. After gassing up again, they had started on the long trail feeling a lot more confident.

Late afternoon found them back at the outside garage. "Don't we clean up the snowmobiles before we put them away?" Jeremy asked when he saw the steam cleaning equipment and the other pristine snowmobiles parked in their area.

"Melissa and I will do that after supper," Jennie started, but the three construction workers were all shaking their heads.

"When we're through using them, we always clean our tools and put them back where they're supposed to be," Jeremy said. "We're already dressed for the cold. Now is as good a time as any."

Jennie and Melissa looked at each other and grinned.

Sheriff Tate and his women had returned from Denver, as had Fred and his soon-to-be wives. After Jennie, Melissa and the construction workers came back from storing their cold weather gear, they stopped by the living room. The two young wives walked over to tell their husband they were back from their ride. "Everybody is still in one piece," Jennie said with a little giggle just before she leaned over to kiss Jeff hello.

"We had a great time," Connie said as she watched Melissa take her turn with Jeff.

Shortly, "Come on," Jennie and Melissa chorused.

"Let's go fix our men..." Jennie started.

" ... something to eat," Melissa finished.

Melissa grabbed Connie's hand and Jennie took Denise's. The kitchen was a hubbub of laughter and activity as they entered. Diana raised her voice so they could hear her from the other end of the big room. "How was your ride?"

"Great," Connie and Denise answered, then looked at each other and laughed. Both knew their unison speech was an accident, but before they could say anything further, Jennie suddenly spoke up.

"Once you mate with your Alpha, and another thing or two happens, you two will be doing that just like the rest of us — and not just accidentally, either."

"Then that wasn't an accident in the living room?"

"We can do it anytime we wish," the two said in perfect unison.

As Diana walked over, she joined in with a short cycle of chain-speak to prove their comments.

"Sit," Diana said, motioning to the table area.

"But we came in to help," Denise objected.

"You're guests. Guests don't have to cook," she said as they seated themselves. "Besides, there is a more than a sufficient number of women to finish our meal without taking advantage of our guests."

"But..." Connie started.

"The rest are family, and I expect you will be soon, now that we know your man is an Alpha."

"Family?" Denise questioned.

"We'll discuss that in the morning," Diana added, mysteriously, to the accompaniment of chopped-off giggles from Jennie and Melissa who were thinking about Jeff and Little One's late-night visit to come. "Now tell me about your ride."

In the living room, Sheriff Tate and Fred were comparing notes. "I'm beginning to think we've been set up," Tate said to Fred.

"Yeah, I agree. Granted, it's been a very long time since I bought a wedding dress, but I was expecting a much harder hit. I even questioned the lady about the prices, but she said that she had given us a discount because of Diana's frequent business with her, and also because of all the business that Diana and Wainwright had brought her. She said she had wealthy people flying in from all over the country to buy wedding dresses from her. She seemed to be telling mostly the truth, but her comments about the discount set me to wondering. I don't think a simple ten or fifteen percent discount would account for the price."

Tate frowned. "She said that Diana was the reason her business has expanded so much, but still..."

"Yeah," Fred agreed, "'Still.'"

Both men turned to Jeff, but he held his hands palms out, shaking his head, "Diana looks the bills over, approves them, and the accountant pays them." Which was technically true. But Jeff also knew that his Queen had called the dress shop and the jewelry store long before the two Alphas and their women had gotten to Denver. Anything they had bought at either place had already been discounted seventy percent with Diana picking up the difference, after giving strict instructions to not let Fred, Quinton or their women know about the additional discount.

However, both Quinton and Fred were the equivalent of walking lie detectors. Not even Jeff could lie to them. He might not have lied, per se, but he had lied by omission. Their bullshit detectors went off. "Don't start," the Prime said when he saw the looks on their faces. "If you have a gripe, take it up with my Queen. I didn't have anything to do with it."

"But you knew about it," Fred insisted.

"After the fact," Jeff said, stressing the word.

"Yeah, that's obviously the truth," Fred said, "but..."

"Like I said, take it up with Diana. I'm not into this."

"Yeah. As if we would," Tate said with a grimace.

"One little Queen against two big husky men. You two are definitely outmatched," Jeff teased. "Tell her thank you. That's what I would do," he said with a laugh. "Trust me, that's a hell of a lot safer."

"I still don't..."

"As I said, take it up with my Queen."

"Think it will snow tonight?" Tate said.

"Supposed to," Jeff returned with a grin.

SEVERAL HUNDRED MILES AWAY — MIDVILLE, WYOMING

When Pastor Luther Cambridge and Captain Bill Madison walked into the house after returning from their visit to the church, they met the women in the living room. It was apparent from the look on Megan's face that Jill and Kathy had told her about the proposed vacation. She stood and hugged her husband. "We need to talk."

"I know. Bill told me, too."

At a look from Bill, Kathy and Jill stood. "You two need some time alone," Bill said to Luther. "We're going to ride around for a while and look the area over. We have a map and there's a GPS in the SUV, so we'll be fine."

"We were going to give you the nickel tour," Megan injected.

"We would love for you to do that, but let's put it off until tomorrow. Keep in mind that you don't have to make your decision about the vacation now, but I really hope you don't put it off too long. We aren't lying, and we aren't after anything from you. We just want you to go on that vacation you've thought about for years. If you need to talk to us, you can reach us on my cell."

Bill gave them the number and Megan wrote it down. "We finally got a cell tower, but a few miles out of town and you're out of luck."

"We'll be back before six," Bill said as they walked out.

In their SUV, the three slowly cruised down Main Street. "Looks like this was probably the main highway before the Interstate came through."

"That's what Megan said," Jill agreed.

When they reached the outskirts on the other side of town, they turned back, then took the first street to the right. "Looks like the place consists of one main street with one other street paralleling on either side a block over, plus the cross streets," Bill commented. They went on down a short block of the cross street, then turned to parallel the main road. They passed several deserted businesses, some recognizable by faded signs, others not. Most of the buildings had roofs that had withstood the passage of time, while some of the older, abandoned buildings had leaked and the roofs had eventually fallen in or were in the process of doing so. Still, there were a number of buildings that could probably be salvaged, and also a small number of businesses that survived and remained open.

The main highway was paved, but the side streets, as in many small western towns, were not. Still, there was evidence of a once-booming small town. They rode down the parallel street until the edge of town, then crossed over the main highway, reversing their direction to take the parallel street on the other side of the highway. They eased down the street at a snail's pace, meeting only one farm truck as it left a large building with a fading sign that proclaimed it to be Collier's Feed and Grain.

They found a small drugstore still in business, but the laundromat next door had not been as fortunate. Bill turned into the lot anyway, stopping near the building where he got out. Curious, the women exited the vehicle with him. The front windows were covered in dust and grime, but he wiped a place with his hand to better see into the darkened interior.

"The machines are still in there, but the place looks like it has been closed for years," he said. "In a big city, the windows would probably have been broken out or boarded up, and the machines stolen long ago."

Back in the SUV, they continued their tour and discovered a small Mom-and-Pop type grocery store a couple of blocks on down the street. It was open and appeared to be doing a good business. Bill turned into the lot and parked near the entrance. "Let's go get something to drink," he said, shutting the engine off.

Smiling, the women got out and followed him to the door. As he reached to open the door for them, an elderly man stepped out and held the door. They thanked him, then turned to watch as he put his small purchase in his pickup, a 1980 Ford F150. Bill stood in the doorway to listen as the man started the pickup and drove off.

"I wonder how many times that motor has been rebuilt," the pilot mused. "Whoever did it must have known what he was doing. I could barely hear it run."

Inside the store, there were two registers, both staffed with women over fifty. On the side of the store just to the left of the registers was a raised, half-walled office occupied by a woman using a computer. They assumed she was the owner or manager. Both clerks greeted them as they turned right near the registers to walk down the first aisle.

"And you're suddenly thirsty?" Kathy said.

Bill chuckled. "Oh, I could use something to drink, I guess, but I'm more curious than thirsty."

They spent the next ten minutes just walking through the store. Finally, Jill touched her husband's arm to stop him. "Notice anything?"

"Well, we've been asked twice if we needed help finding anything," Bill answered.

"Yeah, that too, but notice the stock. There is almost no choice between brands, like you would have in a large grocery store, but aside from brand choice, they have just about everything you could need, unless you get into something exotic. Whoever chose the stock was smart."

"And they're still open while the two other grocery stores we saw were closed. Improvise, adapt and overcome. Somebody did just that."

Back in their vehicle a few minutes later, they sipped their drinks as they meandered on down the gravel street. Bill touched his brakes and turned to pass an old dog that walked down the street in front of them, refusing to move aside. "He wouldn't last five minutes in a city," Bill chuckled as he finished off his first candy bar.

"That must be the restaurant up ahead," Kathy, who was sitting in the second seat, said, as she leaned between the seats to point.

Bill turned into the lot and stopped.

"Hey, isn't that faded green pickup by the front door the one with the old man from the store?" Kathy asked. Then, without waiting for an answer, "But how did this place stay open when the two others on the main road closed? You would think that at least one of them would have made it, rather than this one back here."

"So let's go have a cup of coffee and ask," the pilot said as he parked near the pickup.

"But we each have a drink in our hands," Jill started, then stopped. "Okayyyy, let's go have a cup of coffee," she said with a giggle.

Since it was between meals, there were only a few customers in the restaurant. A small sign near the entrance read, "PLEASE SEAT YOURSELF." The sign could obviously be turned over to read, "PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED."