“Hey Spencer, what’s up?” Evan Lawson wasn’t expecting his daughter to call him. He’d only been on the road for fifteen minutes, she couldn’t have burned the house down in that short period of time. Though stranger things have happened.
“Where are you?” Spencer asked, She tried not to make her voice sound too strained. The last thing she wanted was for her father to panic while he was driving on the highway (if he was on a highway).
“Kent. Why? What’s you do?”
“Nothing! But, um… something did happen. Not to me, or Eric. Well not exactly, but it does affect us. Well not so much Eric as it does…”
“Spencer, calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
“Could you stop driving and promise not to overreact.”
“Well now you’ve got me really worried, so I don’t know.” Evan said. He was still on the local roads, so he pulled alongside a side street. It was quiet, until Evan started shouting after what his daughter told him.
Jeremy Bower, the gift that kept on giving. Now his asshole of a father was coming to ruin their lives.
“Eric wanted to call the cops, but I thought you should know first. Besides, there’s not much they can do. We don’t even know where Jeremy’s dad and his goons are. I don’t think Jeremy even knows.” Spencer said quickly, hoping that would keep her father from storming into a prison to interrogate Jeremy.
“I’m coming home, NOW. Call Samantha and tell her what’s going on. She can get in touch with the right authorities. And I want you and Eric to go to his house. Bower probably has our address, but not theirs.”
“Uh, how am I supposed to leave the house?”
“You’re familiar with the woods. Go that way. I’ll call your mother, don’t worry about that. And then I’m taking a few of the guys out to track this son of a bitch down. Just stay safe.” Evan said before hanging up and doing a hard U-turn.
No doubt they’d wonder where their designated driver ended up. They had the best chance of finding Bower Sr. and his gang. Being weres, and SEALs. That was a deadly combination for those on the opposing side. Werewolves were already natural trackers. With proper training, they could follow a trail halfway across the country.
Spencer and Eric did as Evan Lawson instructed. Spencer went upstairs to grab Eric’s backpack, along with her own, while Eric was trying to get through to the Twist house. When that didn’t work, he switched to his own house phone. Call it a hunch, but he just assumed that if no one was answering at the Twist house, then the two women were at his house.
It took a few tries, as those in the Anderson house were otherwise preoccupied (Samantha, Francis and Martha in the basement. And William and Nate were busy cleaning the kitchen).
“Hello?” Nate answered the phone.
“Nate, listen are Samantha and Francis at our place? I’ve been trying to call them.”
“Uh, ya. Why do you need them?”
“You can listen in, just get Samantha for me!” Eric said. He and Spencer were walking through the woods. Eric couldn’t run as fast as Spencer, and talk on the phone at the same time. Nate told him to wait a second while he got them.
“Eric calm down. Everything’s going to be okay.” Spencer said, squeezing his hand in hers.
“How can you say that? One nightmare ends, another one starts. Of all the…”
“Eric, it’ll be okay. Jeremy’s dad and his buddies won’t get as far as Moon Lake. Trust me. You can’t outrun a group of angry Navy SEAL werewolves.” Spencer said with a weak smile.
But deep down inside, she was worried. Not about her safety, about her father’s. It was just like when he was deployed. She’d spend some nights staring at the ceiling wondering if the next day she’d open the door and hear the dreaded “We’re sorry to inform you…” sentence.
“Eric?” Samantha came onto the phone.
Eric began frantically telling her what happened. Eventually Samantha told him she couldn’t understand him. Eric held out the phone to Spencer, who was much better at keeping her cool. She maintained a level head the entire time she spoke to Samantha. And like Eric said, everyone else was eavesdropping.
“That poor family can’t catch a damn break.” William remarked. The others nodded in agreement. This went beyond bad luck. If there was a God, then he really liked screwing with the Lawsons.
“I’ll get Martin Stovall on the phone as soon as we’re finished. How close to the house are you?” Samantha asked.
“A few minutes away.” Spencer guessed.
“See you soon then.” Samantha said. The two ended their call, and then Eric and Spencer hurried along. Samantha went into another room to call Martin, who she hoped wasn’t busy. Thankfully he wasn’t.
Martin, Melissa and Julie were spending their Wednesday afternoon sitting in their living room having a “Charlie Brown” marathon. Martin slipped into his office to take the call from a very distressed sounding Samantha Twist.
His reaction to the news of Jeremy Bower’s nutty father and his crew heading for Moon Lake was somewhat subdued since he’d been tipped off. But he never thought they’d act so quickly. Right before Thanksgiving too, which might have been the reason. It guaranteed that the Lawsons would be in one place.
“You know?” Samantha asked after martin explained his mild response to the threat.
“Agent Johnson warned me that Bower’s father was coming up for the trial, and that he might try to contact Evan Lawson. I never dreamed he’d be here less than twenty four hours.” Martin said.
“What do you want to do?”
“You said Evan was going to go after the men with some of his SEAL friends?”
“That’s right.”
“Then nothing for now. If they catch that nutcase, then this doesn’t concern us. If not, I’ll ask Cooper to set up some defenses around the town. But right now it looks like we’ll just have to play the waiting game. But keep Spencer there at the Anderson’s place. Where is Maggie Lawson?”
“Work.”
“I’d suggest she stay there too, though they might know what she does for a living and seek her out.”
“Evan was going to contact her himself. I would assume she'll be here in a few minutes. Though it might be better if she stayed at the hospital. Surrounded by lots of people, there's no way anything would happen there.” Samantha said.
“Alright, keep me in the loop, and try to keep everyone calm. This might blow over and turn out to be nothing.” Martin hoped that would be the case. This past week was a mess. He needed to enjoy his holiday off. And the Lawsons deserved to get a 5-star vacation in Fiji for what they’d been through.