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"I thought about just giving you the highlights first, but I think it'll be better if I just tell you everything."
"Whatever you need to do, Babe." He got comfy and snuggled me into his side. "Is this going to explain why you were out of touch for a while. I noticed a big gap in your messages."
"Yeah. Sorry. It'll make sense eventually."
I started with the reading of the will and explained how Cassie and I ended up at Renee's cabin. I'd just gotten to the part of being woken up by noises and seeing a light outside.
"Let's stop for a minute. So far, it's all good. Dr. Bellamy left you a cabin in the woods with a biology lab plus a chunk of money. Sounds like things started off good."
"Yeah. You're right. It was OK until something woke me up." After we refilled our drinks, I picked up the story. I'd just gotten to the part of the story where Cassie and I laid out our weapons on the bed and made a joke about us being the wrong women to mess with, when both our phones sounded their message alarms. We picked them up and read the text message.
"Is it safe to assume that your story will explain why we've been summoned to another meeting at BITES headquarters?"
I just nodded and resumed my story. I explained about checking outside and finding Renee's lab in the Quonset. "It's a lot like Harry's except this is really like a biology lab with lots of stainless steel and equipment like microscopes and other things I didn't recognize. Anyway, we got locked in the lab, so we were trying to find a way to escape. That's the last thing I remember before waking up captive."
Chance couldn't sit still any longer. "Are you telling me you were kidnapped again? What's it going to take to stop these people? What the hell is wrong with DHS? They can't even protect their own agents."
I stood up and followed him as he paced around the house alternately raging against DHS and asking me if I was OK. I guess he worked off some of his frustration. He pulled me into a tight hug. "Sweetheart, I never would have involved you in cryptid hunting if I had any idea it was going to become so dangerous. Please believe me. It was never like this before."
"I'm OK. We need to get back to the story."
"I'm not sure I can handle it. Did they hurt you?"
"No. I'm fine."
After a bathroom break, we returned to our seats on the sofa. I could tell it was hard for Chance to sit and listen. By the time I got to the point of our trip to the bank, he'd tossed his pad and pen on the table and had both arms wrapped around me. It felt good being in his arms again, but if he squeezed any tighter I was going to have to ask him to ease up. "Let's take a break and get some food," I said. "It gets worse from here on?"
"Worse? Worse than being held captive and threatened? Worse than Cassie getting beat up? I'm not sure I can handle worse."
"You need to hear all of it, and I need to tell you."
"I'm sorry. You're right. I can't tell you how sorry I am that I wasn't able to help you. We've got to work out the business thing. I'm not leaving you alone again. Not after this."
"It's on a long list of things we need to discuss. I was thinking maybe you could get John to take the next trip. I don't think a week's going to be long enough."
It was good to talk about something other than what happened for a bit. We ate in the kitchen and didn't talk about the situation with Randerran at all.
Once things were cleaned up and we had fresh mugs of tea and coffee, I headed back to the living room. "Are you sure you don't want to stop for tonight?" he asked.
"No. I need to get through this. I've been waiting to tell you. I need to get it out."
I suspected Chance might be angry that Randerran and his men had been in the A-frame. It felt like a violation of our home. I had felt that too, but I also thought it gave me an advantage. "So those bastards were in my house eating my food?"
"I knew it might upset you, but I thought I gave me an advantage. At least I was able to get some warm clothes for Cassie and me and some jerky. I hoped I might be able to sneak out a weapon, but I never managed that. I'm sorry I brought them here." The tears were threatening to fall.
"Everly, none of this is your fault. If it helped you to bring them here, then it’s OK. I'm just angry, and there's no outlet for my anger right now. I could never be mad at your for doing whatever you had to do to survive. Hell, if you had blown up the house with them in it, I'd be OK with that."
"I actually tried to figure out a way to do that."
"That's my girl. Always thinking." He pulled me close again, and I resumed the story. When I got to meeting Jim at the bank, I could feel Chance relax a little. "So, Jim came to the rescue, huh? That's good."
"He did get DHS involved, but it didn't work out very well for him."
I continued my story explaining that I used the same move that had accidentally pushed him off a cliff, to push Henson off a cliff. "I'm glad I taught you something useful," he said with a strained grin.
When I got to the part about taking out Blue with my knife, Chance said I should send Leif a thank you for discovering my knife throwing skills. "I'm so proud of you for doing what you had to do to survive, but I'm pissed that you had to go through all of that. How did Cassie fare?"
"I'll get to that, there's more to the story. Do you have any whiskey?"
He looked at me but didn't ask. He knew the story was going to get even worse. He brought over a bottle of Jack Daniels and two glasses. We each downed a shot and settled in for what was coming next. I explained about finding the cave entrance. "Randerran pushed me through the tunnels. We looked in every cave we passed, but I never saw any sign of bigfoot before we reached the large chamber where Jim stepped in front of me, and Randerran shot him." I broke down after that.
"How's Jim doing?"
"He's dead," I said, sobbing into Chance's chest. After I calmed down a bit, he asked, "How did you escape?"
"Jim fell on me and knocked me down. I took his gun and shot Randerran."
He didn't ask, he just poured us each another shot of whiskey and handed me my glass. I downed it.
He had a lot of questions about how Randerran was able to shoot Jim with so many DHS agents hidden in the cave. I still didn't know the answer to that. It happened very quickly. Randerran didn't hesitate at all. He just pulled the trigger.
"I was taken to the FBI office in Spokane to give my statement. Dr. Bellamy's cabin, the A-frame, and the cave were all worked as crime scenes by DHS."