Chapter Two
Amelia pulled to a stop outside the tattoo parlor and was relieved to see Yang and Christmas ready to go but she was puzzled as to why Tool was all packed up too.
"Tool? You coming with?"
"Of course I am darlin'. I've gotta feeling that you're going to need a fourth person with ya." Amelia smiled softly as she jerked her head towards the back of the truck for them to place their bags.
"Put your bags in the bed. Who wants to start the drive there?" Amelia asked as she hoped out of the driver's seat and leaned back against her truck as she waited for the three.
"I'll start driving. Where're we going?" Lee asked as he came around and moved to open the driver door.
"Montana is where we're going."
"Huh. Montana it is." Yang got in the back with Amelia, shooting her a glance at the two large dogs that were sitting on the floor of the back seat. Tool got in the front passenger seat. They started driving, Lee having the GPS up on the truck to make sure they didn't get lost.
"So, darlin', who are these beautiful beasties?" Tool asked, twisting around and making eye contact with her and giving scratches to Tia. Winston was laying over Amelia's feet and hadn't moved anything besides his eyes after they had started driving.
"That is Tia and this is Winston. The others I left at home."
"Others?" Yang asked.
"Yep, I have nine dogs, five of which are rescued puppies."
"And you have horses, if I'm remembering your last phone call right?" Christmas asked.
"Yep, I have a small ranch with five horses that I use to teach riding and barrel racing with."
"So you know animals pretty well?" Yang asked.
Amelia snorted.
"I should hope so. I grew up on a cattle ranch, had to have picked up a few things there, right?"
Tool whistled.
"I never woulda guessed that! What made you decide to join the military then?"
Amelia shrugged. "One of my brothers had joined so I followed his footsteps. He went home afterwards and I found you all and I stayed."
Silence fell over them as Tia laid down, tucking her head beside Winston.
"For what it's worth, can't imagine the team without ya," Christmas rasped. Amelia met his eyes and grinned.
"I know, without me you definitely would've been killed."
That caused Tool and Yang to laugh as Christmas began to protest. Amelia just kept grinning as she relaxed as well as she could against the backseat. Yeah, these guys and the rest of the Expendables were hers.
Three stops later and 19 hours later, Amelia was now driving on familiar roads. It was almost dark out. Lee and Yang were in the back with Tool still in the passenger seat.
Amelia called Beth.
"Hello?"
"Have they left yet?" Amelia didn't beat around the bush, Beth is the same way.
"They just did."
"Damn, I'm about thirty minutes away from the house. Which pasture was the fence cut at?"
"Pasture 14."
"Okay, I'm starting to see the beginning of our property. How pissed do you think Daddy will be if I drive through it all?"
"Little sister, I think he will just be happy to see you... as long as you help repair any fences you break."
"Deal. I'll call when I can. Love you, Beth."
"Love you too."
Amelia came to a stop on the side of the road as she put her truck into 4 wheel drive.
"Okay, here's the plan. I'm gonna have to drive through a couple fences - luckily they are my family's so won't have to worry about property damage. And we might be coming into a firefight. I'm gonna hop in the back of the truck with the dogs and put the bags in here after I roll the cover back. Tool, you drive."
Amelia hopped out the driver's seat to do just that, opening the back door to let Winston and Tia out. The two dogs must've sensed that danger was about and so stuck behind Amelia. Tool got out and came around to the driver's side, Yang going into his previous spot with Lee joining Amelia. Lee and Amelia hopped in the back after arming themselves, Yang and Tool had begun to do so once their weapons bags were in the truck.
"Tool, keep your window down and I'll tell you where to go. I'll hit the side of the truck once to turn lights off and twice to stop and turn off the truck. Once we turn it off we will be almost in the danger zone. Got it? And once we get there, try to go for nonlethal shots."
"Got it, darlin'." Tool tipped his hat to her.
"Winston, Tia, up." Amelia commanded. The two dogs jumped up into the bed without question, sitting beside each other and waiting for further instructions. Lee stood in the bed on the left, Amelia on the right. "Let's go!"
With a roar, the truck was leaving the road and driving through the fields towards pasture 14.
By the time the truck was off, they could already hear the gunfire.
"Winston, Tia, track!" Amelia jumped out of the bed and dashed behind her two dogs, the others following just as silently as her footsteps. All of them had their guns cocked and ready. All of them were ready to defend her family from those that wished them harm.
Amelia came through the trees just in time to see a few of those from the reserve shooting at Rip and a couple ranch hands.
Without hesitation, Amelia raised her gun and fired, her bullets ripping into the shoulders of the shooters. Tia and Winston kept right on her as Lee, Yang, and Tool fired their shots as well. Rip turned his head so fast that Amelia was surprised he didn't have whiplash.
"Rip! Are all the cattle and our guys back on this side?" Amelia shouted over the gunfire.
"Amelia?!" He exclaimed.
"Yes, yes. It's me, Amelia. Focus!"
"Yeah, as far as I know, they all are."
"Good, we'll cover y'alls retreat. Get going!"
"Amelia-"
"Rip, not now. Go!" She knew that wasn't going to hear the end of that from him but he nodded as he whistled for the others to begin to retreat. "Tool, Yang, go with them. Take Tia with you."
The two Expendables nodded and began to retreat, Tia with them, growling at the current enemy. Soon, it was just Christmas, Amelia, and Winston. But the reservation attackers began to retreat on their own.
Finally, the gunfire died down. Amelia and Christmas looked around cautiously.
"Winston, seek." Christmas and Amelia began to sweep the area, making sure that there weren't any others left. Those that had been wounded by their bullets had been picked up by their comrades and taken back home to lick their wounds.
I hope they've learned their lessons now.
They rounded their corner just in time to see an Indian aiming at Lee whom was on his back from falling, Amelia's oldest brother. Rage consumed Amelia and she didn't hesitate.
His head jerked back as her red knife pierced him with a solid thunk, falling backwards, dead. Amelia came to stand beside Lee.
He gaped up at her, she looked like an avenging angel to him, with the faint rays of sunrise behind her.
"Amelia?"
"Yes, now get up. We don't know if there are any more out here."
Kayce had now joined them, dismounting from his horse to help their oldest brother up to his feet. Both of her brothers stared at her in shock still as she ignored them and turned to Christmas whom had been looking down at the body, looked at her with a slight grin.
"That was impressive. Not as impressive as I would've done, but still impressive."
Amelia scoffed as she accepted the cleaned knife and placed it smoothly in its holder on her body.
"Christmas, that is a battle you are never going to win."
His grin widened but their banter didn't even get to begin before her brothers shook themselves from their shock.
"A-Amelia?" Kayce asked, shocked.
"Yep, hello brothers."
"Huh, so these are your brothers?" Christmas asked as he came to stand beside her relaxed figure, Winston sitting at their feet between them.
"Two of them, yeah... So, are we going to head to the house, or?" Amelia asked, raising her eyebrow at her brothers.
"You can't just show up out of nowhere, kill a person, and then expect us not to have questions." Kayce said. Amelia met his gaze head on, not intimated in the least with him.
"I'm not saying you don't have questions. I'm saying that I'd rather answer them at home, especially since my friends and I saved pretty much everyone. Weren't for us, Lee would be dead. Weren't for us, more Livestock agents, ranch handlers, and possibly more of the reservation would've been killed. This man, the one that was fixing to kill our oldest brother, is the only one that we killed. So, Lee, are you coming?"
Lee sighed as he began to follow Amelia whom didn't wait for a response from Kayce. Lee's horse had ran off back to the barn and he did need a ride back. Kayce scoffed but followed behind on his horse.
"Winston, truck!" Amelia ordered, all of them following the dog back to the truck. Christmas and Amelia easily disengaged their guns and packed them back in their bags, zipping the bags closed.
"What'd you do to get your truck down here?" Lee asked as he and Kayce examined the scratches that adorned the truck.
Amelia grinned sheepishly.
"I might've had to drive through a couple of the fences... that I'll totally help the ranch hands fix later."
Kayce scoffed. "Of course you did. I'll meet you guys up at the house."
The two siblings watched him go as Christmas got in the back of the truck with Winston.
"He is still a little temperamental, huh?" Amelia said with a smile as she turned to meet Lee's eyes. He returned it before he drew her into his arms.
"Thank you, little Lia, for saving my life."
"You're welcome, big brother. Let's go home."
"Yes, there are some people I'm sure that are wanting to see you."
They got into the truck and began to drive.
A short time later, they officially went under the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch sign.
"Welcome home, Amelia," Lee said softly.
Christmas let out a whistle as the house, bunkhouse, and barns came into view. Amelia could see Kayce just now going around a corral, Rip, Beth, Jamie, and her father up by the porch. Tool and Yang with Tia stood a few feet away, not moving a muscle. Amelia was kind of surprised that no one was questioning the two.
They all looked over as Amelia came to a stop next to a Yellowstone truck and they all hopped out, Tia barking in happiness and coming over with her tail wagging as she greeted her and her brother.
Amelia and Christmas came up to Yang and Tool while Lee continued onto the porch with Kayce following.
Amelia received a punch to the shoulder from Yang and a slap on the back from Tool after Christmas and herself told them what had happened on after they had separated.
"Nice throwing there, darlin'," Tool whistled, impressed.
Amelia smirked at him.
"That's right, you and Christmas be jealous of my skills... that'll teach the two of you to challenge me next time!" They all laughed, lost in their own world for a moment before it was interrupted.
"Amelia?" Her daddy's raspy voice rumbled from behind her. Amelia sighed and turned around to meet his dark gaze.
"Hi daddy."
He came down the porch steps and stopped right in front of her.
"Lee says that you saved his life."
"I did."
"Beth says that she called you?"
"She did. She usually tries to keep me in the know of anything important going on."
"These your...?" John Dutton trailed off as he waved at the three men behind her. Amelia ducked her head to hide her smile. She never told anyone in the family what exactly she did.
"These are my friends and coworkers," Amelia said, elbowing Christmas when he opened his mouth to no doubt elaborate on that.
Amelia could tell that no one in the family believed that a 100%.
"Yeah, right." Then surprisingly, John pulled her into a hug, kissed the top of her head. "Thank you for coming and saving our asses. Missed you, honey."
"I've missed you too, Daddy."