Chapter 27

The evening passed in the blink of an eye. Teri climbed out to go see about the children, and I waited until she was gone to emerge and dry off. There was no sense showing her my scarred, mangled, chest.

Colleen accepted my scars without comment. She's been through it before, and when you've buried your husband, boyfriend, lover, or whatever you want to call me, at least twice, you get used to certain drama. Rebecca was a doctor, so wounds were her bag, literally. Regina hadn't seen much in the way of damages to my person, and I would have avoided showing her those scars, just like I did for Teri.

After spending hours in a hot tub, sleep looked like the perfect way to end the evening. Sammy needed a walk and some attention, so I took him out for a stroll, and then we both curled up on the bed for some serious sack time.

I could hear all kinds of noise when I awoke. It sounded like a big argument was underway, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it, so I dressed and went to find out the problem.

Norm and Jack were arguing with the contractor, who was trying to finish Teri's apartment. He apparently brought on extra help that didn't pass Norm's background exam, and he was not budging. The maladjusted construction workers were not setting foot on the ranch, and Jack was backing his decision to the hilt.

That would have all resolved itself, had the worker in question not produced a small caliber firearm and tried to shoot me. Norm launched himself into the man, clubbing him in the head, while securing the weapon. Jack took the easy route. He kicked him in the balls and let him drop, with Norm holding the gun.

Norm's guys turned to the other workers, who seemed just as shocked by what went on as we did ... all except one, who reached for an automatic pistol on his belt. That didn't work out like he'd hoped, and four of our guards dropped on him like an avalanche. For that poor soul, it was NOT going to be the best day ever.

The good news was that this all happened while Teri and the children were at the grocery store, so I didn't have to worry about their safety ... at least for the moment.

That wouldn't last.

Norm and his guys took the two off to be questioned. Jack made a few calls to get the Judge up to speed and to find out if he knew of anything that would have caused this to occur. While they were on the phone, I called Verizon and ordered iPhones for Teri, Judy, and Timmy. I needed to talk to talk to her and couldn't. That had to change.

When I got the Verizon call, Jack was ready to give me the four-one-one from the Judge. "It seems that the President is done waiting for the co-conspirators to act. He's got Victorello and his 'special' squad crawling all over the Vice President and everyone else that is implicated, and they're doing it overtly. There is no attempt at keeping their investigation a secret. Dryden WANTS Branford to know he's coming for him, which is causing all kinds of heartburn around D.C.

"The Judge says to tell you to take the jet and go somewhere that nobody would think to look, stay there two days, slip away late at night, and go somewhere totally different. He wants you to keep everybody off your tail while this comes to a head." He smiled his slightly embarrassed smile and shrugged just a tad.

I needed to come up with a plan and had no intention of sharing it until it was time. Sammy and I went up to my bedroom, and I stretched out on the bed and thought about it.

Where would I like to take Teri and the kids, to get out of the way of this thing while the Judge shuts down the Vice President and whoever is controlling him?

I grabbed my iPad, Googled Dale Hollow Lake, and found just what I wanted. Sunset Marina, on the lake rented cabins, houseboats, jet skis, and pontoon boats. There would be something fun for the children, and lots of room to play and have a good time.

Just as I suspected, this early in the season, there were plenty of available boats. It would be cool at night, but gorgeous in the daytime, and the hot tub would add a bit of leverage as far as enjoying the outside air and views. I prepaid for a week's rental of their best luxury boat, and arranged for the marina to stock the fridge and get everything ready for us. All we needed to do was get there, board, and untie, and leave.

I called the pilots and got them moving, so we depart as soon as Norm's guys got back with Teri and the kids. I spent the rest of the morning puttering around the house getting ready to go, and it was after one o'clock when I realized Teri wasn't home. When I asked Norm to check up on her ETA, he called them on a special radio they use, and turned white when whoever was on the other side answered.

I knew they were in deep trouble and signaled Jack for help. Norm came to me and said, "Jose answered Greg's radio. He's got Teri and the children and is using them as cover to get out of the country. He wants thirty million dollars, and a jet to take him anywhere he says, or he'll kill them all. He also says you have to deliver the money, or they die."

Jack had walked up behind me and said, "If Kevin gets within sight of Jose, you can forget about him living through it. The whole thing is a ploy to kill Kevin, not Teri. Let's walk it back to the moment they left here, and see what the tracking identifiers have to say."

Jack had installed tracking devices in Teri's purse and the children's shoes. It turned out that at least two devices were still transmitting, which meant we might have a shot at recovering them before anything truly bad happened. He called in the team and everybody went to work tracking their movements.

Teri and her bodyguard were apparently intercepted in the parking lot of the grocery store. According to the transmitter under the hood, the Toyota Highlander was still there. Timmy's shoes and Judy's hair bob were moving west, away from us, at about seventy miles per hour. That meant they were on the interstate, heading towards Tennessee.

As locate and recovery missions got underway, Jack called the Judge and put him in the picture. He promised to send reinforcements that would arrive within hours, and use the satellites to track the kidnappers' movements. Jack ordered choppers from someone that the Judge arranged, and they began to move in on the vehicle carrying Teri and the kids. It would take a long time to intercept, but now that the fast choppers were on the job, every second brought us closer to a resolution.