Epilogue 3

Epilogue 3
“KENNA MCINTOSH! ANNABELLE BAUCHMAN LANDON!” VD’s irate voice woke us the next morning.

Eyes blurred, I tried to look around. Pain shot through my head. Oh Gawd. I slammed my eyes shut again. There were explosions behind my eyes. There had to be nails sticking out of my skull. Oh To-kill-you. How much did we drink. I had a fuzzy memory of playing a Mario with his racoon tail. But nothing after that.

Groaning, I pried my eyes open again. I was on the couch. In the barn office. Uh oh. Why was I out here? On the couch my mom and that tramp’s uncle had violated? VD was standing over me.  His face was red and his blue eyes bulging as he stared down at me.

I managed to look around until my eyes fell on Elle. She was on the coffee table, snuggled under a saddle blanket. She was blinking owlishly at the man screaming at us. I’d say her head hurt as bad as mine.

“Why are we” Her voice trailed off she grabbed her head with a squeal of pain.

“I needed a smoke.” Some of it was coming back to me. “Couldn’t smoke in the tunnel. You’d get second smoke.”

“Oh yeah.” She made the mistake of nodding. The cry of the hung over escaped her at the movement. I smartly hadn’t moved my head again. My hands were holding it in place.

“You two require full time supervision!” VD ranted, loudly. “No wonder Mac was always in a foul mood!”

“Shhh!” I shushed him. Gawd. “Just because you are a nerd who has never had a hangover doesn’t excuse you being ignorant.”

Laughter came from the corner. Using my hands to keep my head steady, I followed the sound. Jackson was standing by the door to the barn. He was grinning at me with his blue eyes twinkling.  I smiled at him. He was cute.

“I’ll supervisor her anytime you need it, boss.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me. VD shot him a dirty look.

“That won’t be required, Wright.” He didn’t sound happy at his deputy chief’s offer. “Come on drunkies, let’s get some food in you.”

Grinning wickedly, Jackson stepped around him to hold a hand out to me. Groaning, I allowed him to pull me to my feet. The room spun as stood. Ugh. Squinting so I could barely see, I allowed him to lead me out of the office into the barn. Thankfully we weren’t going back into the tunnel. I couldn't handle that right now.

As I shuffled down the aisle between the stalls, I could hear Elle shuffling behind me. I assume VD was helping her. VD was ranting about us being irresponsible the whole way. Finally we made it to the side door. Elle and I both groaned when it opened and the sunlight hit us.

“Bright Light!” We screamed together, proving we do in fact share a brain.

“Suck it up, gremlins.” VD was not sympathetic.

“Mogwais!” We spoke together.

“Nope. You two were clearly created by someone eating after midnight.” VD slammed the kitchen door behind us. We groaned at the loud sound. The men tried to shepherd us to the  kitchen table. Where there were bags of food. “Now that it’s daylight, it’s safe to feed you.”

I veered off to the cabinet with drugs in it. Seeing the bottle of pain killer in my hand, Elle was on me.  “Give me.”

I shook some out into her hand, then took some for myself. Carrying our precious cargo to the table, we washed them down with the glasses of orange juice the boys had ready for us. As we sat there with our heads in our hands, the guys slid containers in front of us. Inside of them were pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage links. Bottles of water were also added to the mix.

Silently we ate our food. About half way through the meal, Elle and I started to feel human again. Curious, I looked at my phone to check the time. It was almost noon. I glanced at Elle, she was doing the same thing. I snickered. She snickered. All right, maybe we were teens.

“You two sobered up yet?” VD asked. I shrugged.

“Sober enough.” I looked at him over the rim of my glass. “What did you expect when you locked us in a room with a fully stocked bar?”

“Didn’t lock you in enough, obviously.” He muttered. We laughed at his frustration.

“What’s the sit rep?” VD rolled his eyes at my word choice. Jackson tried to fight the smile that was twitching his lips.

Vince informed us that during the night, they had raided Markus’ house. Where they found him in his recliner watching a program teaching the differences in fine wine while drinking wine from a box. Elle and I looked at each other before we slumped forward, laughing at the image.

“You done?” Man, VD was cranky this morning. A few more chuckles escaped us. Then we nodded. “We raided several houses last night.”

They had found everyone on the list provided by my step cousin’s shady lawyer. Unfortunately, none of them matched the description I had given of the guys that were playing Zeus.

“So not his swan song then?” I snickered. Jackson and Elle chuckled. VD glared. Wow he was cranky this morning. “So, my imprisonment is over.”

VD frowned. “There’s still a danger.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not living in fear, Vince. I won’t be stupid, but I’m not going to be locked away either.”

His face softened. Probably because I never call him by his actual name. He nodded in agreement. Yes! Freedom was mine.

We tantalized the menfolk with our antics from last night as we finished breakfast. After we finished eating, they helped us clean up the kitchen then went home to get some sleep. They had been up most of the night dealing with all the criminals. After they left, us women folk went downstairs to clean up the mess our drunken selves had left.

Chuckling about our mastery of the Nintendo, we stepped through the hidden door into the basement.

“NOOOOOO!” I screamed. My not so departed mother was sucking face with her mostly see through boytoy. On my couch. NOOOOOOOOO.