Her Dominant SEAL(9)

As he got closer to the house, he saw that one of the windows was actually boarded up. Was money so tight that his mom couldn’t afford to get it replaced? When he looked around at the rest of the neighborhood, he wondered what everybody else thought. Damn, Trenda had told him that the money he’d sent had been helping cover these types of things for mom. Apparently it hadn’t.

Drake kept the car moving at a consistent pace and noted that the neighbors across the street still showed the name Pauley on the mailbox.

Perfection! He was in business.

Drake now knew how he was going to keep watch on his family homestead. He drove four blocks over and got out of the car. His coat was dark and warm, which was perfect for surveillance. How often had he cut through the backyards of his neighbors to get home? More times than he could count. The Pauley’s were old back when he was growing up, at least they had been in his youthful opinion. Hell, they weren’t even retired then. His first senior chief would have kicked his ass if he’d told him what his definition of old had been back in the day. Now the Pauley’s were probably in their early sixties.

He parked on Oak Street, which was aptly named since so many of the trees were found in the yards. Grabbing what he needed out of the gym bag, Drake got out of the car and meandered down the street until he got to old man Sherwood’s house if the guy still lived there, and Drake faded amongst the oak trees in his front yard.

The dense foliage continued on into the back yard, and he easily made it to the wood fence that backed up to the next property. He scanned for dogs, and when he found them, he would move to the next yard, until he finally made it to the Pauley’s big backyard, which looked the same. They still had the same faded lawn furniture and the birdfeeder was the same faded yellow.

The three dogwood trees that grew around the Eastern cedar were still in place near the corner of the house, away from the back porch. That cedar was as big and strong as ever. When he was nine, he had longed to build a tree house in it. Now he intended to use it for surveillance since it was one of the few trees that didn’t lose its leaves during the winter months.

Drake stood next to the tree for long minutes, waiting. Just waiting. Finally, he knew that there were no eyes looking his way. He couldn’t explain it to anyone other than a fellow team member, but they would understand. After so many years of being in deadly situations, your instincts told you when you were being watched, and when you weren’t. At the moment, the coast was clear.

He easily climbed up to the densest part of the tree and found a vee between the trunk and a thick branch to plant himself for a good long while. He put on his gloves, then pulled out the night vision binoculars he’d taken out of the gym bag and scanned the street in front of his mother’s house.

He’d noticed a lot of cars parked on the street, besides the one under the carport and two in the driveway. Now it was time to try to figure out who all was making themselves at home at the Avery’s. Before hour two was finished, the side door opened next to the carport. Drake trained the binoculars on the duo who came out of the house. They looked like an unlikely pair. One was bigger than he was, and that didn’t happen all that often. The other guy looked like he hadn’t had a decent meal in decades.

The big guy started walking towards the street, and the small guy grabbed his arm. It was obvious the larger man allowed himself to be stopped. As Drake watched the dynamic, it became clear that the little fellow was the one in charge. He was angry about something, and the big guy just kept nodding his head and wringing his hands. Finally, the smaller man just waved him away, and the guy jogged toward a station wagon parked on the street. It looked like it had been manufactured in the seventies. It took a couple of tries for it to turn over. When it did, he managed to fishtail it as he went down the icy street. Obviously, he wanted to get away from the man who had yelled at him.

Who were these two men? Who were they in relation to his dad? The small man went back to the side door and opened it, and yelled out a name. It sounded like Mike or Ike. Maybe he wanted some licorice candy, but Drake doubted it. No, nothing good was going on in that house. He shuddered, and not from the cold. The idea that Piper had been there when his fucking father brought over his prison buddies made his blood run cold. But knowing his mom was there scared him too.

“What?” Even from the position in the tree, he could hear the question shouted at the man at the side door. Two men came out to the carport. One had his head shaved and was wearing a jean jacket with the arms cut off showing his tattoo covered arms. Drake looked closely at the tattoos and finally found what he was looking for.