Bøger af Helen Weeks

Lorie peeked through the curtains in the dark hallway and wasn't surprised that the shooters made no effort to stay behind the over sized dual wheel pickup truck. They had come closer to the front steps on foot, certain they were in no danger. There were only "women" in the house and their boss had obviously neglected to tell them there were also children. That probably would have made no difference anyways. There were six of them shooting, standing in the pouring rain with automatic weapons, but under cover of their steady firing, Lorie very calmly shot four of them, then picked off the last two as they ran for the truck when their friends dropped. They fell and lay still. The others weren't moving, either. Lorie wished she had shot to kill. Glen wasn't happy. Neither were the ambulance crews and the state police crime unit nor the dour state police Lieutenant. They had six heavily armed men with very serious gunshot wounds. The Whitley house, on the ground floor was riddled with bullets; And Loren Whitley wanted to know why Raney and Alan Parker hadn't been arrested. The police lieutenant and Glen Carey stared at her. They were wet. They were very, very, very, wet. They were monsoon drenched type wet. "Exactly what would you like us to charge them with?" State Police Lieutenant Myles Davis asked sarcastically. "They aren't even here, haven't been here." "Two of those men have dog bite scars from the night they were here before, and I saw them at Parker's place today." "What were you doing at Parker's place?" Glen asked, scowling at her. "You shouldn't be anywhere near that joint." "I was at Keller's Fabrics three doors down, getting some thread. Apparently, the Parker's always have a bunch of no goods hanging out there. Mrs. Keller said they harass her customers." "Mrs. Whitley, you gravely injured those men, you...... "Captain Whitley." Glen said quietly, "This is Captain Loren Whitley, United States Marine Corp, Reserve. She's a JAG lawyer." Lorie was more than a little startled and very pleased that he sounded so proud of her being a marine, and a JAG lawyer. Myles Davis sighed. This was not his first rodeo with a military service member; and life always got really complicated. It would probably get more complicated because the Captain was a female marine, and she was also close to the pragmatic police chief, as well as a lawyer. "Could I trouble you for a cup of coffee?" He really wanted whisky, preferably several stiff shots. "Please." "Mrs. Sanchez makes good coffee, Lieutenant." Glen flushed. "She sure does." Lorie agreed, smothering a grin . "Help yourself." Carmen had settled the children down again and the night's happenings would not keep them awake. They had complete confidence that their mother would keep them safe. After all, she was a marine. "The kids are asleep." Carmen told Lorie, pouring herself a cup of coffee.. "It's been a heckuva night." "Kids!" The state police lieutenant whirled on Lorie. "You got kids in this house and you shot people." "I suppose I could have let them kill us." Lorie said and Glen choked on his coffee. "But I'm really quite opposed to being dead." "Why didn't you kill them?" His curiosity got the better of him. "They're stupid enough to let the Parker's talk them into scaring the "women,", and unfortunately, one or more are probably related to my neighbors, so friendly relations with the natives and all that."

Amy shifted the weight of the camera lanyard around her neck and the rifle in its sling on her shoulder as she approached the woodland brook, then froze as a twig snapped. Moving noiselessly, she swung her camera up just as the huge buck stepped out of the brush and for an instant the majestic head with its perfect twelve-point rack of antlers swung in her direction. Amy snapped a series of pictures as he stared at her, then swung away and strolled across the small clearing, splendidly unafraid as he moved to the brook and drank deeply. A little thrill went through her that she had made this magnificent animal feel safe enough to acknowledge a human intruding on his space. This was what she had worked so hard for. It was the reason for her Wildlife Sanctuary. Everything went bad in under three seconds as a bullet hit the big buck in the shoulder and blood spewed from the wound. He fell but struggled desperately and Amy swung her rifle off her shoulder and raced toward the fallen animal just as three men in hunting gear thrashed from the brush. They were ready to finish the buck off but what they were not ready for was a small blonde hurricane who pumped six shots at their feet even as she spoke on a Bluetooth."Drop your guns." Amy ordered the men and when they hesitated, she fired a shot that knocked the gun out of the hands of one. "I said drop those blasted guns! Now!"Shocked and frightened of a woman with a gun she wasn't afraid to use, they stood with raised arms, and meekly complied when she had one man tie his friends to some small sturdy tree's then she did the same to him. She tightened the ropes until they howled. Amy searched along the forest floor by some fallen trees near the brook and came back with a handful of moss. She talked quietly as she approached the big animal on the ground and held the moss out for him to sniff. He went still as she knelt by his head where he could partially watch while she packed his wound with the moss. Had he wanted to hurt her all he had to do was move that magnificent rack of horns and impale her on one of the points. The sound of rotors came closer and the helicopter hovered just above the treetops. A sling bearing her game warden friend dropped and Amy greeted him with relief. "I got the bleeding stopped but the bullet is still in his shoulder." He pulled a syringe from his vest pocket and passed it to her. "You give him the sedative, Half Pint. Animals like you but he'd probably kick my head off." The buck looked at Amy curiously as she knelt by his head again and put her hand on his neck. She talked softly as she readied the needle and he barely flinched when she gave him the sedative. After that it was easy to secure him in the safety sling and radio the helicopter pilot to take him to the wild game Sanctuary Clinic in Wells, five miles south of Amy's home. The veterinarian there would take very good care of the deer. If anyone happened to look up at the chopper going by overhead with the big deer, the game warden seriously hoped they hadn't been drinking or using any other substance. Amy laughed outright, knowing instinctively what he was thinking. "You're warped, Charlie."

On the harsh and unforgiving West Texas prairie a family named Calloway has carved out a farm on the one hundred and sixty acres of land bought with the coal miner savings of a quiet man named Jacob. Young and eager to make his mark on the land, he worked years to sow the seeds of a future in the land he turned into gardens through dogged determination. Never having had much affection in his life Jacob is astonished by the deep love he has for the daughter produced from his first marriage. The happy, sweet tempered Lacy has a way of bringing out everything that is good in Jacob. When fate makes him a widower he marries a woman to mother the little girl and she captures his heart and the love of her step-daughter, Lacy. When the children arrive Lacy willingly helps care for her siblings, learning from her parents the skills to live in the way of the early settlers, making what is needed from resources on the farm, yet eager to embrace modern conveniences. It was an idyllic life that was fated to end in tragedy, and when her parents are killed in a car crash leaving her with seven young brothers and sisters Lacy decides to raise them on the farm her parents left her. In spite of Amos Booth, the Tatum banker who tries to force her to put them into an orphanage and attempts to steal the land, Lacy persists and is backed up by the legal system. The siblings put in long hours of work to wring a living from the land. Lacy Calloway and her brothers and sisters stubbornly refuse to abandon their parent's dream of a self-sustaining farm. Despite the irrational behavior of the Tatum banker, who is also the children's grandfather and some of the people in the town, the land that fights them with drought, heat, and fierce storms, they face every obstacle with sheer determination and an unfaltering faith in their family and a God they believe smiles on them every day.