Chapter 12

“Tre! Douglas needs you over at cabin twelve!”

Trevor smiled and waved at Ava as he passed the office. “Sure thing, I’ll head over there as soon as I go check the toilet in number three for Mr. Jacobs!”

“I’ll let him know!” she called back before she disappeared back into the office.

Trevor grinned and headed toward cabin three. Mr. Jacobs had called this morning to let Ava know that his two kids had done something to the toilet, he wasn’t certain what, but he was certain that they’d stuffed something down it that wasn’t meant to be flushed. He ran lightly up the steps and knocked on the door to cabin three.

His glance traced over the trees around him as he waited for the door to open, the casual glance had become habit in the two months since they had arrived here. Something both Snaf and Kirk had drummed into him.

If you know what’s out there, you can be prepared for what’s coming. Kirk had repeated over and over. So he’d developed the habit of looking around for anything out of the ordinary.

His eyes were drawn back to the door as a harried and worn Mr. Jacobs pulled it open and sent him a strained smile. “Hey, thanks for coming so quickly. Sorry about the bathroom, there’s water everywhere.” He sent a glare at the two small children sitting on one of the beds.

Trevor grinned and slipped past him into the room. “No problem let me see what’s going on.” He winked at the two kids as he passed them. The little girl, who was probably around six, giggled. The boy, who was about eight, sent him a suspicious look.

Mr. Jacobs hadn’t been kidding, the bathroom was flooded, and the toilet had overflowed all over as if the kids had shoved something down it and simply continued flushing in the hopes that whatever it was would eventually go down.

At least it was clean water. He grimaced at the thought of having to try and do this if the water had been filled with sewage.

Shrugging, he stepped forward; hoping the heavy work boots he wore kept the water from soaking his socks. Rolling up his sleeve, he shoved his hand into the toilet and immediately found what was blocking it up. It took only a second to get a grip on the blockage and another few seconds to yank it free. He shook his head as he stared down at Barbie in a fluffy, frilly pink dress.

Obviously, the kids had gotten into a battle and the brother had found the ultimate way to win. Flush Barbie. Trevor shook his head, grabbed a towel, and dried poor Barbie to the best of his ability. He gave the toilet and experimental flush and grinned when it went down.

Mr. Jacobs appeared in the doorway. “Thank God. I don’t know what to do with those two.”

Trevor chuckled. “Kids fight; it’s what they do best.” He held up Barbie. “Found what was backing up the toilet.”

Mr. Jacobs groaned and rubbed a hand over his face before turning on the kids. “Jason! You tried to flush your sister’s Barbie doll?”

Trevor followed Mr. Jacobs into the main room of the little cabin. Jason was staring down into his lap, quiet as only a little boy in trouble can be. He ignored the boy and went straight to the girl. “Here you go. She’s a little wet, but she can tell all her friends about her adventure.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “She’ll have to be careful what she says though, you know secret agents can’t reveal everything, some secrets need to be kept.” He winked at her and she giggled.

“Tanks,” she whispered shyly.

“No problem little lady.” He turned to Mr. Jacobs. “I’ll get the office to move you to another cabin right away.”

Mr. Jacobs shook his head. “No, just send someone to clean up the water.”

“It’s really all right; we have the room to move you.”

“No, these two need to learn that simply because they want to act foolish that people are not going to jump and accommodate them. They will live with the consequences of their actions.”

Trevor smiled at him. Mr. Jacobs was trying to teach them right from wrong. Though the sharp glare he sent the kids probably wasn’t necessary. “All right, I’ll send someone to clean it all up then. Come on out on the porch with me for a moment so we can figure out how long it’s going to take. You two behave while I’m talking to your father or I might have to send Barbie and G.I. Joe over there on a mission … together.”

Jason’s eyes went wide at Trevor’s words and he stuffed the G.I. Joe figure he’d been doing his best to hide from his sister, further under the pillow beside him.

Trevor closed the door behind him and Mr. Jacobs as they stepped out onto the porch.

“Look, if you want me to pay for the cleanup, I understand.”

Trevor smiled as he shook his head, reached down, and pulled a brochure for the resort out of his tool belt. “No, that’s not why I wanted to talk to you. Can I ask you a personal question sir?”

He watched Mr. Jacobs take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Their mother and I divorced about six months ago, she ran off with her personal assistant. I’m doing the best I can, but as you can see, I’m more than a little lost. His mother and I were both more or less consumed by our jobs; we had a nanny, so all of this is new to me. Annnd I have no idea why I’m telling you all of this.”

Trevor gave him a small smile of understanding. The man was suddenly alone with two small children, who were not only his offspring, but also tiny little strangers, for which he was now fully responsible. “They want your attention. They want their father. This isn’t what they need, not really.” He waved his arm about, indicating the resort. “Sit with them, play with them, and watch their favorite TV programs. Laugh with them. Love them. Hold them when they need it. That’s all. I’m sure they’re feeling a little lost, they don’t know why their mother would choose to leave the way that she did.”

Mr. Jacobs smiled at him, a small smile. “Thanks. Your kids must be little angels.”

“I don’t have any.”

He looked startled. “You know a lot about them.”

“I love children and someday, maybe we’ll have our own, but for now we don’t have any. But I deal with them every day through the resort. Here, we’ve got all kinds of activities for children. I’m sure you can find something that the three of you can agree on to do together. Take them on a hike; we have disposable cameras in the store. Give them each one and let them snap their own photos and when you get home let them make their own scrapbook of the trip.” He handed him the brochure.

“Thank you. I think maybe that might help, at least perhaps Barbie won’t end up in the toilet again,” he said with a twisted smile.

Trevor laughed and sent him a wave as he headed away from the cabin. He was turning onto the trail that would take him to cabin twelve, when Kirk appeared out of the trees beside him. At first, when Kirk would melt out of the trees like that, it would startle him, he was getting used to the other man and his silent ways.

“Afternoon Kirk.”

“I think I liked it better when you used to jump like a frightened girl when I would appear, cuz.”

Trevor snorted. “Too bad, I’m used to you now. What’s up?”

“Nothing, just checking on things,” he answered casually.

Kirk wasn’t casual. The man was tightly wound. Trevor sent him a sidelong glance. Kirk’s eyes never stopped moving. Like his brother, Kirk was tall, lean, and muscular. Both had their father’s deep auburn hair. Kirk had deep golden green eyes that he’d gotten from Ava, while Snaf had their father’s straight up emerald green eyes.

Those eyes of Kirk’s could be unnerving at times. They shifted and blended, the gold and green shades flickering and blending. It made a person want to look away from his penetrating gaze.

“Mmmhmm, checking,” Trevor answered, just as casually. If Kirk had a point, he wasn’t going to get to it until he was good and ready.

“Where’s Chloe?”

“She went with your mother into town. Why?” Okay, now he was worried.

“When they getting back?” Kirk’s tone was still casual. That alone scared the crap out of Trevor.

“Either you spit out what you’re fishing for or I’m going to make one hell of an attempt at beating it out of you.”

Kirk chuckled at the threat he’d just made. “You couldn’t come close to beating anything out of me, cuz. We both know that.”

Trevor was disgusted by the fact that Kirk was right. Kirk knew how to fight, while he didn’t, not really. In the two months since he and Chloe had arrived here, he’d changed quite a bit. Not enough to get any sort of an advantage on Kirk, but he wasn’t the man he used to be. Where before his build had been simply what God had given him, now he’d built muscle due to the manual labor that he’d been doing around the resort, as well as, the training he’d done with Kirk and Snaf.

A grin lifted the corners of his lips. His shoulders seemed broader, arms and legs bigger. All in all, he was more confident as well. Snaf had taught him some hand to hand as well as how to use a gun. He didn’t want to be defenseless if the FBI showed up.

“Are you going to tell me what you’re fishing for?”

“Word has it that the FBI might be headed our way,” Kirk said his eyes landing on Trevor’s face.

“Damn, how close?” Trevor asked.

“It’s not positive, rumor right now, speculation only. My sources only have chatter they’ve intercepted and its garbled crap for the most part. But they got Utah out of it, no definite location though. Just a whole lot of nonsense for the most part.”

Trevor took off the baseball cap he wore, rubbed at his hair, replaced the hat, and look around at the trees. Trees, that moments ago had seemed sheltering and peaceful and now seemed much more able to harbor danger and enemies.

“Fine, keep your ears open and we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. I’ve got to go help Snaf.” He turned away to head down the path, Kirk’s hand landed on his shoulder, and he turned to look at him.

“We aren’t going to let them take you. Either of you. Listen, you’ve changed since you came here, Tre. I’ve seen it and Snaf has seen it. You aren’t the same guy you were when you arrived. You grew up cuz and that makes as big a difference as the changes in your appearance. To us you may look just the same, to them, you might resemble Trevor Madison, but you sure as hell don’t act like him any longer. And that makes all the difference. Remember that if they come.”

Trevor watched him slink off into the trees, the sniper rifle on his back as much a part of him as those freaky green-gold cat’s eyes. He shook off the other man’s words. He’d changed, sure. However, he highly doubted he could stand in front of Agent Brooks face-to-face and dupe the man into believing he wasn’t Trevor Madison.

Ava and Brayden, with help from Kirk, had created identities for both him and Chloe. He smirked. Kirk had connections no one asked after�"connections no one wanted to ask about, know about. He and Chloe each had new identification under false names. He was now Treacy Maher, a distant cousin to Kirk and Snaf. Chloe was his wife, Dale Maher. He’d thought it odd when Chloe had suggested the name, but she’d told him it was her middle name, given to her because it was her father’s name.

He made the final turn toward number twelve and sighed. Well, he shouldn’t complain he guessed, her name was Dale and his was now Treacy. Not that anyone actually called him that everyone simply called him Tre.

He entered the cabin and found Snaf swearing at the new air conditioning unit. “Snaf, I told you not to touch that.”

“Yeah, well I figured it wouldn’t be a problem. You seem to have no problem with the damn things!” He growled at the offensive unit, kicked it, and stomped off.

Trevor chuckled and crouched beside the machine. “Don’t worry I’ll get it working. Go finish the drywall in the master.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll go do what I’m good at, grunt work,” he muttered, though there was no heat behind the words, as he headed for the new master.

Trevor chuckled and shook his head. The cabin was going to be a larger more luxurious version of their other cabins. Meant to be used as a honeymoon type suite. It had been Ava’s idea, for those newlyweds that wished for a more adventurous trip to start their life off together. Perhaps for a couple celebrating an anniversary or another special occasion. So, here he and Snaf were knocking it into shape and so far, it was looking pretty good.

If Snaf left anything electrical to him, that is.

Trevor lifted his iPad from the small bag he’d brought with and powered it up, flipped through the apps until he found the one he wanted. He’d pulled it from the drawer where Chloe had hidden it and on impulse powered it up. He knew Chloe wouldn’t be pleased that he was using it, but he’d found an app for construction planning and he’d spent a couple of hours plotting out the cabin interior. It made it a hell of a lot easier to visualize things, as well as move things about, instead of using blueprints. Besides, he’d shut off the WiFi.

He checked the position of the air conditioning unit shook his head and set the iPad aside, he started work on moving the unit into the correct position. It took a lot of coaxing, sweat, a bit of swearing, but eventually he got the unit where he wanted it. It was installed, in one piece, and it worked. No thanks to Snaf, he thought with a grin.

Standing, he worked the stiffness out of his back, picked up the tablet off the floor, and stuffed it back into his bag out of sight, and just in time too. Only a minute or so after he’d put it away, Chloe came through the door, a bright smile on her face, and a basket over her arm. No doubt stuffed full of food.

“Hey baby, what’s in the basket?” She dodged him when he tried to peek inside.

“Get out, where’s Snaf?”

“Right here brat, you bring us lunch?” Snaf asked her with a big grin as he came out of the bedroom.

“Oh, Snaf what did you do to your knuckles?” Chloe quickly set aside the basket and grabbed at his right hand, inspecting his bloody knuckles.

“Nothin’, come on it’s no big deal. I just slipped and smashed ’em a little.” Snaf sent Trevor a pleading look as Chloe went into full out mother hen mode. Clucking over his poor bruised knuckles and digging into the basket for the first aid kit that she always seemed to have with her.

“No big deal? You’ve busted them wide open!”

Snaf sent Trevor another pleading look over the top of Chloe’s head as she rubbed at his knuckles with an alcohol pad. “OW! Jesus Chloe!”

“Dale,” she murmured as she concentrated on cleaning the cuts.

“Yeah right, Dale, sorry,” he grumbled.

When Trevor snickered, they both glared at him. Chloe finished fixing Snaf’s knuckles to her satisfaction, then moved to the basket she’d set aside earlier.

“All right, lunch time!” She began setting out containers of food. Enough to feed an army. She seemed to think she needed to prepare a four-course meal for them. Not that either of them were complaining, Chloe was an excellent cook. Having to fend for herself, living as she had off the land, she’d learned how to cook the old-fashioned way. From scratch. Home cooked meals. No prepackaged stuff.

His mom, from what he remembered, was the queen of the microwave meal. But Chloe, she knew how to cook from her soul. And that made all the difference in the food. As he watched, Snaf made a low rumbling sound�"similar to the purr of a big cat�"as he ate.

“Aren’t you hungry Tre?”

He focused on Chloe. “Yeah, just thinking a bit.”

She settled beside him, quiet for a moment, looking down at her hands where they fiddled with the lid from one of the containers. “Tre, is there something wrong?”

“Just thinking, you know, we can’t stay hidden forever. Eventually the FBI is going to find us or someone is going to recognize me.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

She was denying the truth and they both knew it. Snaf had recognized him immediately, despite what Kirk had said, about the changes that had occurred in his appearance and mannerisms since then, someone would recognize him eventually.

He was afraid that it was only a matter of time before their luck ran out.