Page 35 of See How They Hide

Thalia and a half dozen others were fishing and wouldn’t be back until sunset. Peter and his larger group were hunting and not expected back until end of day tomorrow. They had most of the guns. Havenwood stocked up on food from April through September so they didn’t have to worry about hunger during what could be harsh winters.

“Secure Riley and the rest of the children in the schoolroom,” Calliope told Glen. “Get as many people and shotguns as you can. Find Anton.” She detested guns, but they needed rifles to hunt deer, and shotguns to scare away wild animals. “Anton will know what to do. We need to send these people away.”

“Calliope, we can’t fight them. And if they go, they’ll just come back, maybe with more people. Let Athena find out what they want, she’ll convince them to leave.”

Would her mother be able to fix this? Calliope didn’t know. But Todd and Sheila wouldn’t be here threatening them if they hadn’t been allowed to leave in the first place. Her sanctuary had been invaded by evil.

Like the evil that killed her father.

Never.

Calliope was scared, but more than the fear, she was angry. She approached her mother. Glen tried to stop her, but she looked pointedly at him, then at Riley. “Protect her with your life,” Calliope said in a low whisper, then turned away, trusting that her partner would comply.

“Mommy?” Riley said. “Mommy!”

“Shh,” Glen said and walked briskly with Riley toward the schoolhouse. Calliope breathed a bit easier. She loved Glen, but he was the weakest of her men.

“We don’t want trouble,” Calliope heard Athena say as she neared. Worry clouded her mother’s expression—a concern Calliope rarely saw in her. “I will sell you twenty percent of our harvest, and then ask that you never return.”

“That’s not going to work for us,” Todd said with arrogant confidence. “Come now, Athena, we’ll take it all, as I said, and then maybe we won’t come back.”

He was smiling, but it was a dark smile, a cruel, lying grin that made Calliope’s blood run cold.

Todd nodded to Sheila, who started to walk toward the barn where Havenwood dried and stored the marijuana they grew in their greenhouse. The marijuana sales gave them enough money to pay property taxes, buy medicine and fuel and other goods they couldn’t make or grow. Twice a year, in late spring and early fall, a small group would deliver product to a distributor. It was an arrangement they’d had for as long as Calliope could remember. Then Robert would clean the money using their craft fair business.

Without the fall sale, Havenwood would be at risk. They couldn’t survive on what they made at the craft fairs. They needed the revenue from the marijuana.

“No,” Calliope said. She blocked Sheila. “How can you betray us like this?”

Sheila backhanded her. “I bought into your mother’s pathetic ideas for too long, Calliope. Grow the fuck up.”

Athena stepped forward. “I am reasonable, but do not touch my family.” She had a calm, soothing voice, though Calliope, who knew her mother well, heard the tension.

“This is how it’s going to go,” Todd said. “We’ll fill our trucks with as much product as we can fit. Whatever is left you can keep. We’ll be back in May with four trucks. Be prepared to fill them.”

Calliope laughed. These people would tarnish Havenwood like this? “You are the grasshoppers and you think we are the ants?”

Sheila grinned. “Yeah, I think you are.”

Calliope shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “No.”

“You don’t have a choice,” Todd said. “Who are you going to tell? The authorities? You’re going to call the cops? Oh, boo-hoo, someone stole your marijuana crop. We all know you’re not telling anyone. This arrangement will suit me, and you’ll adjust.”

Her mother had invited Todd and Sheila to live with them. Taught them how to live off the land. Treated them as family. And for two years, theywerefamily...until they left in April, as soon as they could get out of the valley during the first snowmelt. They left and Athena didn’t stop them. She asked why, and they said they were bored.

Now they were back, to steal from the community who had taken them in.

“Most of your men are gone this weekend,” Todd said. “Can’t have the testosterone and guns around to cause a fuss.”

“You’ve been watching us,” Athena said.

“Of course I have. You’ll stay here by my side, Athena, just in case someone gets a foolish idea to try to stop us.” To Sheila he said, “Go, I want to get out of here quickly. I’m sure someone has gone to the lake to get help, but it’ll take them at least an hour to get back here.”

“No!” Calliope screamed and lunged for Sheila’s weapon.

The man closest to her hit her in the stomach with the stock of his rifle before she could disarm her former friend. Calliope collapsed to the dirt, unable to breathe, a horrific pain tearing through her body.

Athena rushed to her side. Sheila was about to hit Calliope again, but Athena screamed, “Don’t touch her!” She squatted and held Calliope in her arms. “Darling girl, it’s going to be okay. I promise.”

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