Page 19 of Ava
“Yes,” Dillon answered. “But, it is easier for them to shower here after breakfast to catch the bus to school. They’re here to do chores anyway, and we’ve found if they run back out to the house after breakfast to shower, they miss the bus.”
“Ah.” Ava nodded and reached over, and at least stacked the plates from the teenagers with hers. When she looked up, she again saw Justin smirk at her, so she stuck her tongue out at him, and giggled when he looked shocked, but he only shook his head and handed her his plate. She took it without a word, then rose and took the stack to the sink. She turned and held up her hands to Dolly, then backed away with a grin when the older lady just shook her head at everyone when they brought all the dishes to the sink, and Wyatt and Dillon put the food away, or what little was left of it. She did note that they both made sandwiches with the French toast and the bacon and a few eggs inside. After they stuffed them in their pockets, she looked at Morgan, who was shaking her head.
“Not coming back in for lunch?”
“Don’t know yet, this is just a precaution.” Wyatt patted his shirt pocket, reached out and brought Morgan to him for a kiss. It was so hot, Ava had to turn away, and the first person she saw was Justin looking at her. She shook her head, and hurried to the back room for her shoes.
“I’ll be outside,” she called over her shoulder, and did just that. When everyone came out and started toward a long line of ATVs, she watched as each man climbed on one, and took off down the driveway, sans a helmet. She watched as they disappeared down the road.
Fifteen minutes later Morgan joined her, and her hands were full of files. “I have to take the truck, and I’m sure someone can give you a ride back here if you want, but I have some work to do. Hop in.” She pointed to the dark-green truck parked between a dark-blue, and a white one. As they settled in, Morgan explained, “The blue one is Wyatt’s good truck. What he calls the town truck. The white one is Dillon’s. There are several other older trucks on the farm that they use as farm trucks. You know, to haul hay out in the winter, carry fencing, stuff like that. But, these two are the good trucks. Dillon drives over from his house with the boys every morning, and after supper at night, he drives the three of them home, unless it’s summer and they’re putting in hay, and go back to work after they eat. I’ve seen that happen several times.” They pulled out of the parking spot and headed down the driveway, Morgan talking the entire way. “I haven’t been over here in two weeks, and I might miss something, so if you spot something that needs to be done, or should be looked into, please speak up.”
Ava frowned, but perked up and began to look around in earnest as they drove down the driveway, onto the road, then into the roadway to the job site. The location where she’d almost been run over on her bike.
“First, I’d bring in some more stone, or dirt, or whatever and raise that driveway up, you’re going to want it at least level with the road, like yours is to the ranch, especially if we’re coming in hot, or have to leave in a hurry.”
Morgan nodded as she slowed her truck and looked in her rearview mirror. “I can see that happening.”
“I’d also trim some of the trees at the entrance, so we can see down the road when we’re leaving. Or, trim some further back so we can look in both directions, but still have the coverage at the end, if you understand what I’m trying to describe.”
“Okay, I can see that too, but not a lot. I purposedly had the trees left to obscure the view of the barracks from the road. We’re several acres back through the trees, so no one can see us. Not a lot of people know what we’ll be doing back here, and I want to keep it that way.”
“Okay, that sounds good. Can I ask? Do the J’s, or the A’s know what we’ll be doing?”
“The J’s do, I don’t know about the A’s. I do know that the J’s were trained for six weeks by Uncle Chip and some of his people before coming here, but I don’t know the exact extent of their training.”
“Oh.” Ava didn’t know what else to say after that, she so looked around as they traversed the rough track going further into the trees. She realized that the track would have to be completed, but figured it wouldn’t be until the building was done. They rounded the last bend, and both Morgan and Ava sucked in their breath.
“Wow, this is not what I expected when you called this the barracks,” Ava breathed out quietly.
“I know. It’s beautiful.” Morgan nodded and continued to drive forward, and pulled in front of a smaller building. After she shut off the truck, she removed a key ring, holding two keys, from her own ring, and passed the smaller set of keys to Ava.
“What’s this?”
“The green one is for the office. You will have access to it whenever you want. After I explain what’s going on, then you’ll basically be on your own, but I will expect you to report in every day. I’ve got to type up some letters today and get them in the mail to the other women I want to hire.”
“Who are they?”
“I’ll let you read their files. And speaking of mail, I think for privacy purposes, it would be best if you go into town and get a post office box. If what we’re doing becomes hot, and you develop a tail, I don’t want someone following you back here, and going through the mail in the mailbox. For the time being, I’m having all Boswell mail sent across the street. I already get mail there, so it won’t be any different. Later, if we can take these fuckers down, and you decided to stay, we can get a mailbox out to the road.”
“That sounds good. I’ll do it tomorrow. What’s that building over there?”
“I have no clue. If memory serves, then it’s supposed to be the garage, but I didn’t think it’d be that big. Let’s go look.” The two women hopped out of the truck, leaving the files, and keys in the ignition. As they walked toward the building, they stopped when someone called out to them. They waited for Justin as he jogged toward them.
“What’s up?” Justin asked as he joined the women.
“Is that the garage?” Morgan asked as she pointed to the building they were heading toward.
His cheeks turned pink, then he rubbed the back of his neck when he ducked his head, and admitted, “Yeah, I know it’s bigger than what I’d originally planned, but I had a thought, so made it bigger.” He indicated with his hand that they should continue walking.
“What thought?” Ava asked.
Before he answered, he looked over both shoulders to make sure it was just the three of them, then he opened the small side door, and nodded for them to enter.
“Holy shit,” both Ava and Morgan said at once. “This is huge.”
“Yes, but Ava only has a bike, right, and Morg, I don’t want to tell you how to run your operation, but are you going to let her ride all the back roads on that bike? I thought that maybe we could get some old beater vehicles, but ones that have good engines on them, and tires, but are hard on the eyes to take those roads in. Something if they get into trouble, can haul ass out of there. There’s room for fifty cars here. If you hire six, and if you’ll allow us J’s and A’s to park our trucks and bikes in here, then we can keep them out of sight, and away from the ranch. I’m only suggesting that if we’re out and about and gathering information for you. We won’t want our bikes to be out in the open so if we happen to step on anyone’s toes and they come looking for us, they’ll see them, and make problems over at the ranch. I’m sure Wyatt wouldn’t appreciate that.”
“Wow, I never thought of that. Just between everyone if they have a bike and one vehicle, not counting the ones that will be souped up for work, then that’s twenty-four.”
