Click and several others were watching the perimeter of the property for hours as the clubhouse was quiet. Most of the others were asleep or on watch.
Delaney was pacing in her bedroom as she couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to disturb anyone else.
Being inside the four walls was driving her crazy so she grabbed her rifle, a box of bullets she never went anywhere without and quietly left the room. She went back and grabbed a small pair of binoculars from her pack as well.
Making her way to the roof, she stepped out into the cool evening air. She saw two men hunkered down below the lip of the roof. She quietly made her way to the other side of the roof and hunkered down. She sat there for a moment as she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
Picking up her binoculars, she surveyed the area, looking for anyone out beyond the fence line. While the binocs were still at her eyes, she flipped a switch and looked through the heat seeker lenses—that’s when she found them. Eight bright spots standing not far from the edge of the trees to the left of the front gate. They were watching the dark compound. They all seemed to be waiting for something or maybe someone.
Moments later, someone joined her. When she lowered the glasses, she found it was Memphis. She just stared at him for a moment then raised the binoculars back up to her eyes. She frowned as she watched them. “Huh…” she whispered. “I don’t think things are going so well in the enemy camp.”
Memphis peered out into the night. “How can you tell? The darkness hides a lot of sins.”
She snickered then held the nocs out to him. She pointed in the general area of where the figures stood.
Memphis used the binoculars to see where she pointed to and snorted. “Yeah, you could be right about that. By the way they are shoving at each other, it looks like they are arguing about something.” He handed the glasses back to her.
Delaney centered her sights on the group again. “I wonder what the hell is going in between them?”
“What do you mean?” Memphis asked.
“One of them is leaving the group.” She watched for a few minutes, tracking the man. She slowly lowered the binoculars and glanced at Memphis. “Damn, I know where he’s going.”
“Where?” Memphis asked.
Delaney shook her head. “When I was a kid, grandpa and I would come here to make his shine. I always got bored, so I would explore the area. One time, I found a cavern well away from the building. The next time we came a few days later, I brought a flashlight with me and while grandpa made his shine, I explored that cavern. I found a tunnel inside of it and I followed it. It came right into the kitchen here. I thought about the stories my great grandpa used to tell us and I knew I’d found one of his escape tunnels.”
Memphis shook his head. “Honey, we found the kitchen tunnel already and there’s no way it comes out inside a cavern. It came out into the woods. We were able to close that tunnel from the doorway in the kitchen pantry.”
Delaney frowned and glanced over at him. “The tunnel I found wasn’t in the pantry area. It came out near the corner by the stove.”
Memphis looked troubled. “If there is another tunnel we haven’t found it yet.”
She looked again through the binoculars and saw two more men breaking away from the group. They were following the first man. Then two more men broke away and they went over toward their vehicles. They went the other way. She thought for a moment then dropped the glasses and stared at Memphis. “I think some of them are headed for the tunnel that’s caved in. They stopped at their vehicles and got some shovels. They must not know we’re watching them. What do they think, that we’re dumb or what?”
“Dumbasses always think everyone is dumber than they are.” He chuckled. “It’s how they end up face first in the dirt.” He paused. “So what are you thinking?” he asked her as he thought about what she said.
“I think some of the men are going to try and dig through the caved in part. You better tell your brother to get some men down there to wait to see if they make it through,” she paused to think for a minute. “Come on, we have to take care of the three going through the cavern. If we don’t stop them, they could get into the house and they won’t care how many of your brothers they have to kill.” She rose up and headed back to the roof door.
Memphis growled under his breath and got up to follow her.
When they got to the ground level, Delaney turned to him. “You go get your brother and I’ll go to the kitchen. Meet me there.” She slipped away from him.
Memphis made his way to his brother’s bedroom door. He sure as hell didn’t like waking Zeus up in the middle of the damn night, but it had to be done. He knocked lightly on the door.
When Zeus opened it from the other side he growled, “What the hell, Memphis? What do you want?”
“Delaney was watching the group we got watching us. She saw two men going to their vehicles and grabbing shovels. They must know about the caved in tunnel. She thinks they might be coming in that way. She wants you to get some of the guys down there to surprise them just in case they do get through.”
“Fucking hell. I better get dressed then.” Zeus slammed the door in his face.
Yeah, just like Memphis thought, his brother was more than pissed about this. He made his way to the kitchen.
Delaney was there already as she smiled and pointed to a doorway in the corner. The wall was opened up almost like a round revolving door, the kind going into a department store.
Memphis stepped closer and studied it. “Sonofabitch,” he whispered under his breath. Shaking his head, he looked at her. “Your great grandfather was a crafty old bastard wasn’t he?” He paused as he heard Zeus out in the main room. He glanced at Delaney and went out the door to see what his brother was planning.
Zeus was directing Diabolus and Grave Digger to head out to the area where the collapsed tunnel was.
After a moment, he went back to the kitchen but Delaney was no longer anywhere in sight.
Her grandpa came in behind him and asked, “Where is she?”
Memphis shrugged. “She was here a minute ago.” He looked toward the corner of the room and noticed the wall was shut tight. “Damn her.” He snarled. “She went down to intercept them.”
“Intercept who?” Alfredo asked.
“She saw men heading to some cavern that leads to this kitchen.”
Alfredo sat down hard on a kitchen chair. “Oh, caro signore, no.”
Memphis stared at him as apprehension grew inside him. “What? What do you know that I don’t?”
”My granddaughter likes to fiddle with things she has no reason to fiddle with. She likes small armaments too. She calls them flash bangs and she’s quite good at making them. Out in the open, they wouldn’t hurt much but if she tries to set one off in a closed area, it might have disastrous effects.”
Just then, an explosion of sorts shook the entire house. Smoke and debris bellowed out as the door to the tunnel was blown open. More smoke came up from under the floorboards and men shouted from the main room.
Zeus, Leon and Diabolus burst into the room as the shouting continued.
”What the hell was that?” Zeus demanded.
Alfredo looked up and everyone could see the tears on his face. “Delaney blew up the tunnel.” His hand shook as he pointed toward the corner. “She knew someone found it. And she wasn’t going to let them get into the house.”
“Che cazzo santo?” Leon swore.
Memphis headed over to the corner and wrenched the door away from its hinges. Immediately, he was enveloped in thick black smoke rising from the tunnel.
“Oh mio dio! How could she survive that?” Alfredo asked no one in particular.
Memphis swung his blazing gaze to him and growled. Then he looked over at Diabolus and snarled, “Get me a fucking ladder.”
Diabolus ran to the main room and brought back the ladder they’d used earlier.
Memphis grabbed it from his grasp and stuck it down into the tunnel.
Diabolus tossed him a flashlight.
Catching it, Memphis then moved to it and went down into the smoky tunnel.
Diabolus and Zeus followed him down.
They found mounds of disturbed dirt everywhere. Part of the wall of the tunnel had collapsed and it wasn’t long before they found a man’s body.
Diabolus turned him over but it was clear he was dead. He looked up at Memphis and Zeus as he shook his head.
A little farther into the tunnel, they found a second body. Again, Diabolus shook his head. They found the third man and while he was hurt badly he was still alive.
Zeus hoisted him up over his shoulder and headed back to the ladder.
Diabolus looked over at Memphis and asked, “Where’s the girl?”
Memphis ran his hands over his head and let out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know but we have to find her.”
They began walking back to the ladder.
Suddenly, Memphis stopped and grabbed Diabolus’ arm. “Did you hear that?”
Both men listened.
Memphis heard the sound again. It sounded like a groan. He swept the area with his light and they found an indent they hadn’t seen before. Memphis rushed over to the area. He dropped to his knees and dug into the loose dirt with both hands. Pushing the soil back, he found a deeper recess. He began yelling her name, “Delaney! Are you there? Talk to me, I need to hear your words baby.”
Another groan sounded out and then they heard a muffled snarl. “Get me the hell out of here.”
Memphis laughed with relief while digging in the soft dirt.
Diabolus kept kicking the piles he’d dug, out of the way.
Finally, Memphis reached her.
Buried chest deep in a mountain of dirt, she glared at them both, dirt around her eyes made her look like a human raccoon. “About time you found me,” she yelled then began coughing. “Oh god, that hurts. I can’t breathe.”
“Hold on baby, we’re getting there,” Memphis assured her as he shoveled the dirt away from her.
Diabolus noticed she was bleeding from a cut on her forehead. Blood was also dripping down from her nose and one ear through the smears of dirt. “Are you all right?” he finally asked her.
Delaney looked up at him and slowly nodded. “I think so. Damn this shit is heavy.”
Memphis managed to clear enough of the dirt that he could see her legs. He reached out with both hands. “Grab me, so we can pull you out.”
Delaney grunted and coughed again as she nodded. She reached out with both hands.
Memphis grabbed them and gently tugged her up out of the dirt.
She groaned as he got her free and then she screamed at him, “Wait a second, will ya?” She closed her eyes and seemed to wait for the pain to subside. Then she looked at him and nodded. He finished pulling her up and out of the dirt and she crashed into his chest. She stayed there for a moment as she face planted against his chest to sob quietly.
Memphis just held her close to him. After a few minutes he said, “Come on, let’s get you out of this mess.”
Diabolus grabbed the light and led the way back to the ladder.
When they got there, Delaney stared at it for a moment and said, “I don’t think I can go up that.”
Staring at her small face with only her eyes showing from the brown dirt, Memphis chuckled, as he still felt relieved that she was even alive. “Then I guess I’ll have to carry your ass up. Best way would be over my shoulder.”
Delaney shrugged. “Then do it. I don’t like it, but I don’t have a choice I guess.”
“Well, you do and you don’t.” Memphis smiled. “It may not be dignified but it gets us all up and out of this fucked up tunnel.”
“Just do it, hot shot. I can’t breathe down here.” She snarled. Memphis hoisted her up over his shoulder as she grunted and whimpered as he climbed the ladder.
Diabolus came up behind them in case Memphis had any trouble.
When they got up to the kitchen, Zeus and Scout both grabbed him to help him get up and out of the hole.
Memphis carefully let her down on the floor and laid her out.
Grave Digger was there and waiting for her. He did a quick assessment then ordered Memphis to carry her down to his infirmary.
Leon, Calderone, and Alfredo all waited to one side.
Alfredo had tears in his eyes as he whispered, “Grazie Signore per averla aiutata a superare tutto questo.” Thank you Lord for bringing her through this.
Leon turned to him and said, “An event of her own making.”
Alfredo hung his head. “Si senor, I know this. She protects first and thinks second. I’m just thankful the Lord allowed her to stay with us and that He didn’t call her home.” Alfredo left them standing there as he followed her down the hall to the Infirmary.
Leon sighed in frustration. “This family, sono troppi fottuti guai.” They are too much fucking trouble.
Calderone smirked as he shook his head.
