Chapter 10

"It's Dan's father. He's real mad, and he's come to get Dan," then she turned to Jonny, "Please, Daddy, don't let him take Dan. He plans to kill him!"

"Don't worry, I won't!" Jon said then took off out the back, heading for the RV and the weapons. Jason was right behind him.

"Girls," Jen said as she turned, "Take Mr. Daley into his bedroom and show him how nice it looks. You might even help him put away the clothing that is still on his bed."

"Hey, I'm not going to..." William started.

"William, you just had a new pacemaker put in, and you don't have any weapons. I want you to keep the girls safe," said Jen just as Jason came in.

He handed her a web belt. Her 9mm was already in place.

Just as the sheriff was going to say something, Jen spoke again, while putting her belt on.

"Sheriff, you need to get out there. We don't want him to come in. Jon is heading for the roof to cover you. Jason and I will back you up and protect Dan."

Walter stared at the woman before him and saw the slight change that took her into a mode that made it clear you were looking at a Marine. He also knew there was no need for words, as they would protect him and the boy to the best of their ability. Walter turned and walked out the door and into the shop. William took the hands of the girls, and walked them to his room without saying another word.

Adam Janhket was pissed. First his deal went south as someone fucked up and got busted which meant he almost got busted. Then, when he gets home he finds his worthless son's not there but several messages on his machine telling him, the boy had gotten into trouble again. One of the messages was from a friend that told of how the boy had gotten caught breaking into an RV and that the people had scared him so badly he had pissed himself. Then the whole episode was told to everyone in the county.

That was too much for Adam. The humiliation of that was not going to be allowed. It was the last time his son would do that to him. Therefore, he took off to head downtown as he picked up his cell phone and made some calls to find out where his brat was. When he was told, he headed over there to deal with the little wimp.

He pulled into the parking lot and skidded to a stop but had second thoughts as he saw the sheriff's car. He wondered just what was going on. Then the laughing of his friend that told him where his son was most likely hiding came back to him, and he got out of his truck.

"Boy you better get the hell out here!" Adam yelled but got no response.

He was about to yell again when the front door opened and the sheriff came out.

"Adam, what's all this yelling for?"

"Sheriff, I don't care what kind of trouble my boy's been into. I'll just take him home and deal with him, just like I did his bitch of a mom."

"Well, Adam, I think this time it might be good for him to go through with the program I've set up for him." Walter didn't miss what Adam had said, and had always wondered if Adam hadn't helped Dan's mom disappear.

"He's coming home with me! Now have him get his ass out here, or I'm going to go in there and drag him out!"

"Go home, Adam. I heard you just got back from some kind of road trip, you're tired. Dan's in good hands."

Inside, Jen, Dan, and Jason watched the exchange.

"Watch him, he always has a pistol in the back of his pants," stated Dan.

"If he makes a move for it, I'll jump out to distract him enough to let the sheriff either move or tackle him," said Jason.

"Don't worry he won't hurt you! The girls would get too mad at me if I let that happen..." Jen froze and looked out the door. "Jason go!"

Jason moved out the door with a tumble drawing his gun at the same time and taking aim at the madman that was Dan's father.

"FREEZE,"

Adam had had just about enough of the sheriff and was going to pull his gun when he saw movement then suddenly there was a man crouching to the side of his son's truck with a gun in his hand.

"Freeze!" yelled Jason. "Sheriff, move back, he has a gun."

Walter knew that if the Marine next to him said it, then it was most likely true, though he hadn't seen anything.

"Adam," Walter said as he pulled his gun, "Turn around really slowly and lift your shirt. I'll take the gun then we can talk some more."

"I want that fucking kid out here now!" Adam yelled.

"Not happening. Now turn around like the sheriff said!" replied Jason.

Walter wasn't surprised to hear that Adam had a gun. He knew that man was trouble, but deep down, he was not a brave man and Adam was crazy, which was why he never really confronted him. This time he had to do something. That something was to draw his service weapon.

"Turn around Adam. Kneel down, cross your ankles and put your hands on the back of your head. Then I want you to grab the collar of your shirt and slowly pull it up."

Adam just glared at the sheriff, though he kept the other man in sight. Slowly, he turned, dropped to his knees and crossed his ankles as he placed his hands on the back of his head and waited.

Walter waited for a moment, glanced to the man named Jason, who nodded and kept his gun trained on Adam. Walter decided he needed to use both hands, so he put his gun back in his holster and moved to stand closer to Adam, so he could take the gun once the shirt cleared the handle.

Adam took hold and slowly lifted the back of his shirt. He wasn't worried about the chicken shit of a sheriff but the other man was a real threat to him and his goal of finally being rid of that brat. He felt the sheriff take hold of the gun and was removing it when he chose that time to strike.

Multiple things happened at once, and when the dust settled and the sound of a gun going off faded away, Adam was lying on the ground dead. The sheriff was sitting on the ground with Adam's gun in his hand pointing at where Adam had been.

Jason had watched, and was ready. He had also read the body language of the sheriff and knew that he was facing a hard choice. Mentally, he told Jon, who was on the roof, not to fire unless the man got passed the sheriff. When he saw Adam turn to hit the sheriff who went down, Jason grabbed a hand full of stones and pitched them at the man.

It gave the sheriff that extra second to get is wits back. He then saw Adam turn and start to move towards Jason and yelled, making Adam turn his attention back to him. Adam did, and lunged for the sheriff. Walter let his training take over. The gun in his hand came up, and he fired one round.

Jon didn't really agree with Jason's assessment, but knew he was better at this than he was, so he let Jason take the lead. When things started to happen, he agreed with Jason and held his fire, too. When Dan's father was down, Jon knew the trouble was over, so he went back to the roof access hatch, and down to the RV to put away his weapon.

Jen, too, watched everything. She would have rather taken out the target herself, also, but went with what Jason wanted to do. She held Dan's arm to keep him with her, just to make sure he didn't run out at the wrong time.

When it was all over, Jen let him go, and the two walked out of the building.

Jason got up and moved over to the sheriff who was still staring at the place where Adam had been. Jason knelt down, and placed his hand on top of the gun, "You did good sheriff. What you did is always hard the first time."

Walter looked over at the man next to him, then said, "Twenty-two years I've been doing this job, and I have never felt I had to shoot. Yet, for some reason, I just knew he wasn't going to be stopped unless he was dead."

"The training you've had over the years is what told you that. You did what you needed to do."

"Thank you, Colonel," Walter said, and then got up, "I'd better check things out and call this in."

Jason rose and gave a hand to the sheriff and helped him up. The two went over and checked Adam. He was dead with a hole in his chest; the bullet would have hit the man's heart dead center. Jason then turned to see Dan and Jen walk out of the building.

Walter didn't see them but walked to his car, took up his radio and called it in.

"Is it over? Is he ... is he dead?" asked Dan as he walked up to the man that he had called his father for sixteen years.

"He can't hurt you any more, awake or asleep," Jen said, standing next to Dan, "Let's go inside. You can go get the girls and bring them out of the back room."

"No need," said Cathy as she came out of the building, her black bag was in her hand as she knelt next to the body to officially certify that Dan's father was dead and pronounce his time of death.

In the distance, sirens were heard. The sheriff turned to everyone that was outside.

"Ok folks, Jen get rid of your hardware. Jason you can keep yours. Dan, get your truck and go to your house. I know you, if you have anything in your room that I shouldn't know about, move it! Then pack some clothing and get out of there. Hell if you can, lock your door and crawl out the window. It should take me about forty-five minutes to an hour to get this handled, and then I'm going to have to head over there."

"I'll go with him," stated Jon.

Dan looked around and realized what the sheriff was doing and so ran over to where he had parked his truck. Jumping in, he started it up and waited.

"Thanks, sheriff. We'll get Dan settled in here, then we'll get out of your hair," said Jen.

"Little lady. I don't know why, but I think your men helped me. I know they could have taken out Adam long before I did. It's strange how one can see a lesson after it's given, and you didn't know you needed it."

"We've all been there," stated Jon then turned to walk over to Dan's truck and got in. The two then drove off.

The other cars showed up with the coroner who took the body away. The deputies asked a bunch of questions of their boss, but they also knew Adam and what he could do.

An hour later the sheriff and his group packed up and left with nothing else needing to be said. The deputies liked the idea of young Dan staying with the old man and out of their hair. It would keep the kid out of trouble, and would keep an eye on the old man, just in case he had another emergency.

It was about forty-five minutes after the sheriff and his men left that Dan and Jon got back. To everyone's surprise there was a new bed in the back of the truck.

"Well, we got everything Dan wanted then I remembered we had to toss the other bed, though the frame was still good. So we went to a bed outlet store and got a new one as well as blankets and sheets for it. He also needed a few new clothes, so we stopped at Wal-Mart. I had him grab a few things as well as some bathroom supplies. I think he's good for a bit," said Jon.

"I tried to tell him he didn't need to. I know it might look bad, but I did know where my dad hid some of his cash. There were two places, one easy to find and I didn't take a lot from that one, but I didn't know if Mr. Daley was going to pay me to work here or if I should be paying him rent. But Jon insisted I take all of the second cache because it was so well hidden, he doubted that the sheriff would have found it. So ... Anyway, I think I have enough to get me through a year or so, if I don't go nuts with it," Dan added.

"We'll talk about it more, later," William took up, "for now, let's get the bed in place and all your stuff taken care of. The girls, I'm sure will be thrilled to boss you around telling you were to put everything."