Montana: Two weeks earlier
Working a ranch is tough but working a horse ranch is fun and still tough. I get to ride and boss around the four hired hands we got for Daddy while he broods most days. I love that when I walk in the room he smiles but sometimes I can see him staring off into the distance and he is hurting terribly. I know it was Momma's doing. She trusted the family and I got taken but then she just tried to drown herself and when Daddy was trying to save the family she cut him deep. I miss the idea of what my family could have been but that does about as much good as teaching a horse to drive a truck. So I was all sorts of kidnapped and then one morning I woke up and my Aunt, she tried to convince me I was hers but it never took, is sitting at the table scared out of her wits by a man sitting at the table drinking a cup of coffee. The nice man made me breakfast and I learned he was my Daddy and have been with him ever since. Alright I wasn't with him all the time, sometimes he used to leave on work trips and one time he was gone for almost four whole months but every time he came back there was more money and finally he retired and at my begging he bought land and now I run our horse ranch.
Problem is Daddy isn't living, yeah he's breathing and eating and stuff but he doesn't go out or meet people. I've tried getting him to date and that turns out worse than when he caught me Wally Thompson in his truck. When I ask him what is wrong he tells me he's thinking and doesn't get into anything else. My problem, I need my family. So I kinda took some of the Ranch money, we have enough and I paid someone to go digging and find whatever gutter my Momma dragged my baby brother into so Daddy and I can go get him. He's gotta be eighteen at least by now but that won't matter once I put Momma in her place. It took six months and finally I'm in town talking with the man I paid as he gives me a file with some good information to start but no real address. He offers to continue but needs more money. I ain't a fool and tell him I'll consider it before driving off in my truck. Lazy ass smelled like a bar meeting me and I'm pretty sure I know where he spent his paychecks.
I drive up the ranch road and get my headset to deal with Daddy. He's stubborn but so am I and I'm not taking no for an answer, we pack some stuff, leave someone he knows in charge while we're gone and go find my baby brother. I get in the house and find him in the same place he usually is when he's not doing stuff, sitting in his chair looking out the window at the big sky. He smiles as he sees me but it's a sad smile.
"Hey honey, head into town," Daddy asks, knowing I was in town.
"Yeah, I had to settle some business. Papa we need to talk," I sit down in front of him on a foot stool.
"Honey Mrs. Watkins is a nice woman but I'm all wrong for her," Daddy wants to argue about the lady I've been bringing up here to get him out and living again.
"It's more important than Marble, Pa. I took some money from the ranch and hired one of those Investigator guys," I told Daddy and he looked doubtful.
"And who do we need to worry about on staff," he asks and I shake my head at him.
"I was trying to find Momma and Guy," I say and his face changes.
"They're gone, leave them gone honey. We have a good life here and that's what is important," Daddy is in his blues again.
"No Papa, we're doing this. I got a report that says they're in east Texas and that Momma does some charity work. We can head down there and with a little luck and a shit ton of work," Daddy loves bringing hard work into everything so I am too," we can find them and at least give Guy a safe home."
"Gwen please, we don't need to go down there and dredge up old painful memories," Daddy is trying to talk me out of this bad move.
"No, we need to get down there. You're dying," I say it and he gives me a doubter's look," Not like a heart attack or anything but you don't do anything Daddy. You talk to me but don't have friends or even go out with women. You won't try to get involved in anything on the ranch even though I've begged you to just to get you out of the house and that damn chair. Daddy you need to live and that means we get up and go find our family."
I stand up and grab his hand pulling him out of the chair so he's standing and lead him to his room before pulling down a suitcase and telling him to pack. I get myself a bag packed, I don't need much and when I get to the front room there is Daddy in his chair holding paperwork.
"Daddy you need to pack if we're going to find them," I tell him and he hands me the papers.
"That is their address, your mother's charity work, her husband's law firm, where his son goes to college, his two daughters and your brother's high school transcripts. Your brother was stabbed in October of last year and he survived. Nobody was caught and tried for the attempt," Daddy is crushing me with his words.
"You knew where they were? You knew what was going on this whole time," I look at the file and see it dates back a few years more than he said," You've known where they were for years and you didn't tell me, you didn't go get my brother?"
"I can't Gwen, just leave it alone and we'll talk about it when I'm feeling better," Daddy is avoiding me and I'm not taking it.
"NO, you don't get to brush me off, I'm family. You came for me after Momma ripped your heart out and you took care of me and even gave me my dreams. Now get up off that damn chair and pack up your shit," I bark orders at my Daddy and we begin to fight.
Never fought about anything before with Daddy but we're going full at it now and it lasts for a good ten minutes when Daddy does something that I've never seen and it scares me.
"ENOUGH! We are not going to Texas! I will not drag myself down to her rich home and be made a fool of again by your Mother. I failed my son," Daddy goes from yelling to crying in a blink of an eye," I failed and I can't fail him again."
I feel like pig shit as Daddy walks away from his chair and back upstairs to his room. I try knocking but stop when I hear he's still crying. I broke my Daddy's heart and now he's suffering. If anyone had done that to him I'd have shot their ass with rock salt but it's not someone else, it's me and I hurt him. No dinner that night, I didn't want to cook and he didn't come down to eat so I sat quietly in his chair holding a blanket that smelled like him and prayed for forgiveness.
Ever wake up because something is horribly wrong and you can't find what it is. I am at my father's bedroom door but he's not there and after thirty minutes of searching he's not in the house, the barn, and the stables or anywhere on the grounds. I finally check the one spot nobody but daddy goes, the basement and there he is with guns. A whole lot of guns and ammo and knives and weird clothing that looks like body armor and I think those are bombs. The little play doh looking things with wires? Yeah those are bombs. Daddy is sitting on a bench cleaning one of those assault rifles you see on TV where Senators are telling you that they need to ban them from existence.
"Daddy," I ask and he doesn't look at me.
"This is the M4A1 Carbine Assault Rifle, fully loaded; it weighs seven and a half pounds. It fires 5.56 millimeter rounds at a range of seven hundred to nine hundred rounds a minute at a muzzle velocity of two thousand nine hundred feet per second. It is the one of the standard operating weapons of the United States Military," Daddy is telling me all this and I'm a little scared and a lot confused.
"Okay Daddy where did you get all this," I ask quietly.
"My work, you want to dig into history then I'm going to tell you about history. I found you after the divorce because I had nothing to lose anymore. I found your 'Aunt's' ex boyfriend in Canada and he told me where he stalked her," Daddy begins and I have to stop him.
"Daddy that doesn't explain anything," I cut him off and he held up his hand.
"He told me because I had taken out all the fingernails on his left hand and was cauterizing the wounds with a bic lighter," he says it, I think and then I feel a little worried," it took me thirty minutes from the time I duct taped him to a chair till he told me everything he knew. Then I pulled out his big toe nail to remind him of what would happen if I found out the Canadian authorities were looking for me. The morning I took you away the only reason your 'Aunt' didn't argue with me about it is because if she did would have found herself in a trunk with rocks tied to it going into a lake."
"Daddy this isn't you, this doesn't make sense," I ask and he stops working with his gun and looks at me.
"Gwen I love you, because you are strong in here," he taps my chest where my heart is," And I'm not, the only way I can be strong is to be cold and hard. You get that from your Mother."
"So you hurt people to find me and now we're playing with guns in the basement," I'm confused and need some direction.
"I'm here because I got some news late last night. A friend of mine told me about your brother being abducted," I want to interrupt but Daddy stops me," He's alive, it happened a couple weeks ago but they tortured my boy and left him naked in the street."
"Daddy we need to do something," I stand up and with a hand he sits me back down.
"First you need to understand something, I'm heading down there to see my son and apologize to him for failing him nine years ago. Second I'm going to find whoever did this to my boy and I'm going to make Guantanamo Bay look like Disneyland," Daddy says it and I'm coming to Jesus with what will happen.
"Okay but what about me," I have to ask and he closes his eyes before looking at me hard.
"If… and this is unbreakable Gwen… If you come with me my word is law. Not the police, not the politicians, not even God overruled my word. You will not show mercy to whoever did this if or when we find them. There will be blood and it will be horrible. If you come with me now you are committed and there is no turning back," Daddy is scaring me a little," And if you break your word to me, if you compromise this you will return home and I will be gone. I cannot do this with you unless you are prepared to do whatever it takes."
"So I go with you, we see Guy and Momma and we hunt down who did this and you do things that could be considered war crimes," I ask quietly.
"Yes, we don't let anyone hurt our family," Daddy says and I finally look him in the eyes.
"Pack me the pump shotgun and a forty four," I tell him standing up," I'll go make sure we have food and clothes for the trip."
I think I saw Daddy smile as I headed up the stairs to get our stuff ready. Daddy's got a burr up his ass for the first time in nine years and we're going to get some answers. In the truck and on the road Daddy finally turns on the radio so we can listen to some music. I know he has a lot of regrets but there is a cure for that it seems… bullets. Lots and lots of bullets.