"By any means necessary."

──────⊱⁜⊰─────

𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒏

Duke and Stevie's howling and growls make me toss and turn in bed, thus waking Chris. I'm too much of a light sleeper to try and ignore the dogs so I ask Chris to go check on them.

I sit up in the complete darkness and rub my eyes.

"Baby," I whisper, shaking Chris's naked body. "Can you go make sure the dogs are okay? I can't sleep."

"Neither can I, Morgan." He huffs, adjusting his pillow.

I smack my lips and roll out of bed to take matters into my own hands.

I try my best to find some clothes as the room gets so dark at night with the blackout curtains covering both windows.

Clumsily, I trip over a pair of boots and this angers Chris out of bed.

"Jesus Christ, Ann." He grumbles, sitting up to pull some clothes on.

I rub the pain out of my shin and still struggle to find my clothes on the floor.

Chris finishes peeing in the bathroom by the time I'm back in my night clothes and turns on the light.

"What time is it?" He asks through a yawn.

It takes me longer than I'm proud to admit to read the old fashioned analog alarm clock on the nightstand, but it's three AM I tell Chris.

He picks the corners of his eyes and then looks around for a flashlight.

Once he has one in his hand, I flick off the overhead light.

First, Chris looks out of the window. I follow.

We don't see anything.

"They probably just wanna come in." Chris guesses, stepping away from the window.

He gets ready to lay back in bed but I decide to go get our babies.

I march downstairs and call for them from the porch.

"Duke! Stevie! Come on." I project my voice and wait patiently for them to come running.

It isn't long before Duke comes flying in, I know it's him by the spot on his eye.

"Where's Stevie, boy?" I drop to my knees to pet him.

Duke nods his head the other way, he starts leading me that way and I get curious.

I'm only a few feet off of the porch but I turn around the house and see Stevie limping towards us.

I cover my mouth with my hand and look around, wondering what creature is to blame for this.

Stevie whimpers, stumbling over. Duke uses his snout to will her body back up but when she can't move, he begins to cry and lays beside her.

I hurriedly pick her body up and carry her inside, shutting the door once Duke is in the house, too.

I try not to yell or cause a commotion just in case some predator is still lurking, but I run up the stairs and wake Chris up by turning on the light.

"Look!" I cry, showing him Stevie's poor paw.

Her front one, it looks broken. Poor thing is crying and can't even move it. When I tried to touch it, she growled and bit at me, suggesting it's far too painful.

"What happened?" Chris asks, getting out of bed to examine our girl.

"I don't know!" I whine, pacing.

Chris rubs her fur coat and then flicks her wet nose.

"We'll take her to the vet in the morning." Is his bright idea.

"In the morning?! Chris, look at her! Can't you go out there and see what it was?"

"It's probably gone, babe."

I make my eyes large with worry. "And if it's not? It could attack the kids, or us! What if it was a coyote o-or a bear?"

"What the fuck and I gonna do against a bear, Morgan?" He replies with some attitude that I scoff at.

I flail my arms. "Chris, please!" My scream comes from the pits of my stomach. I won't be able to sleep until I know nothing is out there.
The last thing I want is for it to come back in the morning when any of us, especially the kids, are outside playing.

"Fine. I'll go myself." I insist, stomping back down the stairs.

Chris's footsteps aren't long behind mine, I knew they wouldn't be.

He grabs me by the arm to pull me away from the door so he can go first.

"Oh now you want to come? Move." I give him a hard time.

Chris uses his hand to cover my mouth.

I look at him questionably but try to listen.

"You hear that?" He whispers to me, eyebrows furrowed.

I nod my head and get even more worried than before.

It sounds like some sort of chanting and banshee calls. I hear dirt bikes and the obnoxious engines of old pick-up trucks coming down the road.

I stay in Chris's shadow as we move across the first floor of the barn-house and stand in the window.

Chris peeks through the shades as do I, and we witness the same thing.

"Fuckin' rednecks." Chris mumbles, balling his fists.

They wave their confederate flags, hopping out of their trucks and dirt bikes.

The men start pissing on The Adams' lawn and then toss their beer bottles at the exterior of the White House.

"The kids!" I gasp.

Chris looks at me with a clenched jaw and then returns his gaze to the scene. I know that look in his eye. . .

We watch them step onto Yara and Nick's land and start yelling all sorts of hateful language.
Nick said this is what they do, try and scare them. As bad as this already is, I hope this is as far as it goes.

As Chris and I are backing away from the window, we spot a shadow of a man walking by it.

I almost yell at him but Chris covers my mouth and keeps me close to his body.

I realize the situation we're in and channel his bravery and strength.

My first thought was if that's the person who hurt Stevie, I'm going to personally hurt him.

Chris tiptoes across the floor to make sure every door and window is locked. I duck down so I'm not spotted and crawl upstairs to lock the dogs in the closet, knowing there are hiding spaces secure enough to keep them a secret in there. Nick and Yara had shown me how this place is so old they have passage ways and intricate crawl spaces so I knew everywhere else on their property would be like that, too. I couldn't hear Duke or Stevie and I knew one or both of them would be barking since I contained them in the dark alone, but that's a good thing.

I start moving book cases, turning door knobs, and rotating photos on the wall until finally, I find a safe.

I input the code that I watched Nick use earlier and it works.

In it, a couple of handheld guns.

The idea of pulling a trigger scares me but now is no time for fear, only actions.

I return downstairs and recognize Chris's body in the kitchen. He has put on his boots and found some knives to arm himself with but I offer him the gun and take the knife instead.
He checks to make sure it has bullets, and I know now isn't the time, but I find him so sexy.

While Chris equips himself, I stalk over to the window to see what else has happened, and I can't believe my eyes.

The barn has been set on fire. The men are running around, hooting and hollering as if this is some sort of celebration.

I shake my head and wonder why some people are like this, and what to do with them. There's about twenty of them, two of us. Chris can definitely take on four of their best men, but that's it.

I wish I could call Nick, see what he's doing.
I get scared, wondering if they're hiding or if he's about to bust out the windows and start shooting.
Mostly, I'm imagining the kids and how terrifying this is for them. And Yara, is she bravely backing her husband, gearing up, or is she cuddling her children, telling them it will be alright?

I continue peeking out of the window and I see who I assume is Nick on his porch with guns in both hands. These aren't regular guns, these are like fucking hand-cannons.

He starts shooting at the men. I can't make out exactly what he's saying but it's enough warning to scare the masked racists off. They scramble to their trucks and dirt bikes and rally away.

I see another shadow of a man run past the same window. I crawl backwards and stop at the bottom of the staircase.

Suddenly, they start jiggling the handle and banging at the door.

I watch as Chris stands behind the door and signals me to hide in the shadows.

Suddenly, the door busts open and I can only see a black silhouette.

Chris immediately throws his fist, knocking the person out. Their body falls right in front of me and I jump over them to turn on the light and see who it is.

Whoever the hell it is, is gonna get it for hurting my Stevie.

Except, I flip the body over and see that it's Nick.

Chris and I look at each other and he shrugs.

"Shit," Nick coughs once he wakes up, "that's one hell of a right hook you got there."

Chris helps him up. "You have no idea..." he says.

We sit Nick at the table and I get him a pack of frozen peas to put over that eye, it's definitely gonna be black and swollen soon. He fell pretty hard, too, best not to fall asleep for a few hours. Although, after what just happened, I doubt he was going back to bed anyway.

"Wait," I pause. "If that was you, then who was—"

"Is everyone okay?" Yara asks, barreling in.

I see her with two guns and she jogs over to Nick's side.

He chuckles as much as he can without it hurting and tells her that he's perfectly fine.

"That was you on the porch?" I ask Yara in disbelief. Hell, I'm proud.

She sighs, "While Nick took the kids, I had to scare them away somehow. Not my proudest moment, I was like Scarface."

We all laugh but I'm still curious.

"Where are the kids-" I can't even finish asking the question because Mina and Robbie appear in the light.

"Where did they come from?" I wonder aloud.

"There's an underground tunnel from the main house to the barn to here, they know it well." Nick informs me.

"Wow." I mouth, folding my arms over my chest.

"No one got hurt, right?" Asks Nick, putting Robbie on his lap.

I look around and see everyone shaking their heads no.

"Just our dog." Chris speaks up, rubbing his hands down my arms.

"I used to be a vet, I can take a look at your dog." Yara offers. I smile at her as a non-verbal thanks.

"Thank you all for having our backs. Morgan, I see you were watching, after all, and listening." Nick says, standing.

I nod my head. "I haven't figured the gun thing out, yet." I make them all laugh.

"We can shoot in the morning, Barbie." He winks at me.

"Chris, you too, thanks. Even for the punch. You'll have to teach me that in the morning." Nick shakes my boyfriend's hand.

Yara follows me upstairs to get the dogs so she can examine Stevie.
She can't see anything internal, of course, but her guess is that one of those inbreds probably stomped on her paw and tried to break it when she was being the guard dog that I know she is.
Stevie was brave and still as Yara gave her a sort of split to hold her over until we can get her to the vet. I couldn't thank her and Nick enough.

Mina and Robbie play with Chris and I until we all tire ourselves out again.

Mister and Misses Adams assure us that those people wouldn't be coming back and that we're fine to rest for a few more hours.

~~~

"I'm sorry we have to go right after all of this. Are you sure there's nothing we can do to help?" I question as I hug Yara.

"No, Morgan, you've done enough. Everything we need is right here. Nick and I will rebuild the barn and it'll be like nothing ever happened. How about you, will you be okay?" She asks me.

I squint at her and use my hand as a visor from the sun.
"I will be. We will be. It's been a crazy three days but I'm happy we got out here. You guys really do have it made."

I smile down at Robbie and rough up his hair as he hugs my leg.

"Morgan, I hope you never have to use this, but if you do, have Chris there show you how." Nick presents me with a gun.

"Oh, no, I-" I start stammering as I don't know what to say or if I can even accept this.

He pushes it towards my chest and smiles surely. "You are a brave and strong girl. Like I said, hopefully you'll never have to use it." He slaps my arm.

Chris returns from loading the truck and shakes Nick and Yara's hands one last time.

He lets Mina down from his shoulders and she clings to my leg like her brother.

"I'm going to miss you!" I squeal at them both, squatting down to look them in their beautiful eyes.

"Will you please come back, Squirt?" Asks Mina.

I pinch her cheeks and scrunch my nose. "Of course I will!"

Her and Robbie both give me a big squeeze before I stand and give them back to their parents.

"Whenever you're in the city..." I say, typing my address in Yara's Samsung Galaxy phone.

She smiles big and starts to wave as Chris and I walk towards the truck. I'm sure Jabari misses it, and I can't wait to see them again.

Our seatbelts are fastened and Chris honks the horn twice as he pulls off.

I stop waving once we're halfway down the dirt road before my arm falls off.

"Ahh," I sigh, settling back in the passenger seat. "You know, that isn't what I expected coming here."

Chris puts his hand on my thigh and looks at me briefly. "No? What did you expect, crop circles and scarecrows?"

I laugh at him. "No. I guess everywhere you go, there's gonna be some crazy people."

Chris nods, slapping my thigh. "Hey, you don't need to stop at that store, do you?"

I deadpan and then bust out laughing. "Hell no! Get me far away from here, please!"