Page 8

“Dad!” Andy cried out.

Dad?

Cobble was stunned.

“This is your…family? They’re…preppers?” he hissed incredulously.

Andy let out one of the first, carefree laughs he’d ever heard from her. “Yeah. That’s my Dad. And just for the record, we like to say ‘survivalists’ here. But whatever floats yah boat.”

“Uh…okay,” Cobble sighed before seeing the humor in the situation. “You know you blindsided me, right?” he chuckled, amused at Andy’s purposely orchestrated bombshell. “I— Watch out!” Cobble yelled, his gaze drawn to sudden and inexplicable movement in the woods. He grabbed Andy by the shoulders and pushed her behind him.

Just in time.

Two, giant behemoths of indeterminate species rocketed directly toward them.

Cobble braced, prepared to fight.

Massive paws hit his chest, nearly bowling him over, until…

Twin tongues licked his face, covering him in slobber.

“What the…?” Cobble choked, then laughed, lifting his chin to escape the brunt of the messy love before opening both arms wide to fill them with sleek dogs. Andy scooted around him to also hug the twin colossi.

“Griffin! Banshee!” she sang out, smothering the pair in kisses.

The two dogs easily pulled their attention from Cobble, focusing solely on Andy, toppling her to the ground where they nudged and cuddled into her prone body as she squealed joyously even more.

“Boys!” A sharp whistle came from the man whom Andy had called, Dad, and the pair of glossy canines that Cobble had identified as bullmastiffs, stopped their enthusiastic antics and looked downcast. If dogs could be credited with making faces. With one last swipe of their oversized tongues, they stoically trotted toward the truck where the headlights still blared.

“Aw, Dad,” Andy called out. “They were just happy to see me,” she yelled jubilantly, picking herself up and brushing herself off.

“Well, sure. And I’m pleased to see you, too,” the gruff voice returned. “But you don’t see me taking you to the ground.”

Andy snickered heartily, then with her shit-eating grin still firmly in place, she ran in the direction of that raspy declaration and leaped.

By the “oof” Cobble heard, he assumed she’d made contact.

Cobble listened to the reunion, still unable to see anything because of the blinding headlights. But if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a second, then perhaps a third male voice that joined in on the homecoming, chortling and teasing Andy who was clearly in her element.

Slowly, Cobble walked forward so he was out of the glare, to see three very large males embracing petite Andy.

Family.

What the hell was he supposed to do, now? He felt…adrift, not having seen his own parents in over five years.

Andy solved his immediate problem.

Untangling herself from the big frame of her father, she dropped her feet to the ground and ran back to Cobble, taking him by the arm to drag him forward.

As he walked, Cobble was able to peruse the three who were waiting.

Andy’s father was an enormous man; barrel-chested and long, gray-bearded, dressed in flannel and overalls like some character from a fifties lumberjack movie. Her brothers were more of the same, but without the middle-aged weight, and their facial hair was much shorter and neatly groomed.

That’s all the time he had for a look before Andy introduced him.

“Cobble, this is my Dad, Theodoros Andriopolos, and my brothers, Nikos—Nik—and Atticus. Everyone, this is Cobble, uh, Sawyer. He’s…” She blinked up at Cobble, suddenly at a loss for words.

As the three took his measure, Cobble stepped forward, holding out his hand for a shake from the patriarch, followed by a firm grip for each of her brothers. “I’m actually one of her current cases,” he explained.

“Ahh,” all three men emoted at the same time, as if they understood.

Why? Was this something Andy did all the time? Bring people she was safeguarding, home to meet the fam?

Andy saw his confusion. “No. I have not used these guys as a landing point before,” she explained. “Actually, without mentioning your name, I’ve told them all about you, and what we’ve been going through since…well, you know.”

It was still hard for either one of them to talk about the needless deaths of their friends.

“Right,” her father said, breaking the tension. He wagged a finger at Andy. “And it’s about time you brought him here for safekeeping.” He turned to address Cobble. “Call me Theo. And welcome to our compound.”

As if it were all settled that he’d be staying, Cobble mused.

“Now,” her father continued, clapping Cobble on the back. “Do you prefer we use Cobble, or Sawyer?”

“I, uh, don’t really have a preference,” he managed. “Andy calls me Cobble from our time in the Army.”

“Hah. Andy .” The big man chortled. “That’s what my friends used to call me when I was in the service,” Theodoros mused. He grinned at his daughter. “You never told me you’d also been blessed with that moniker.”

“Well,” Andy shrugged, “it was a few years ago now and pretty short-lived.” Her mouth turned down at the corners, clearly thinking again about how truncated her Army career had been…and why.

“Now, Missy,” her father tsked. “Stop beating yourself up. We’ve gone over it. There’s nothing else you could have done. And after the incident, if anyone else had been finagled into changing hats like you were—rapidly and under such duress—they probably would have folded. But you kept it all together. I like to think it’s because you were born and raised not only to take on any new challenge thrown your way, but to relish a bit of turmoil. You handled everything well. Including that abrupt transition. And,” he ran a hand over the back of his neck, “I can’t say your mother and I were too upset when you left the highly structured American military.”

Andy blinked up at her father. “What? Youze never told me you didn’t like me signing on with the Army.”

“That’s because we brought you up to be a free thinker, and didn’t want to influence you or your brothers in any way with your career choices. And you’d made up your mind that being in the armed services was what you wanted to do, so…” he trailed off, beaming proudly at her.

To Cobble, Andy’s upbringing sounded ideal. A support-system family, who also let her explore.

His childhood, although filled with love, had been much more structured. He and Chuck—live wires for sure—had never been allowed to get away with very much— if and when it could be helped. And when they’d finished school, government service—always having been a family tradition before returning to civilian life to pursue a career in the trades—was where they had both been expected to head; serving American interests. Cobble had chosen a military track, and Chuck had gone with the FBI. Not that either one of them had ever regretted it. Cobble was certain that if the debacle in South Sudan hadn’t taken place, he would still be in Army green.

“Well, then,” Theo interrupted Cobble’s thoughts. “I think we’ll call you Cobble so there’s no confusion. And now we need to head to the house,” he added, guffawing heartily, turning to Andy. “Your mother and sisters-in-law are probably nervously waiting to see who we found out here. I know Eleni is going to be over the moon that her little girl is home, and she’ll be very glad to meet you,” he told Cobble.

It was unclear to Cobble why that would be so, but he’d roll with it. If this was going to be his new, temporary home, he didn’t want to start second-guessing anyone already.

Her father pointed to the rental car. “You want to leave that little shit-box here and pile in with us?” he asked Andy. “I’ll have the boys maneuver it up to the house in the morning when there’s more light.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Missy agreed. “The keys are in it.”

One brother took two steps toward the car. “You have any luggage, philia?” he asked.

She turned to Cobble and whispered, “philia is a term of endearment from my brother.” Andy then addressed her sibling. “Just my bag in the trunk. Cobble traveled light.”

The men exchanged looks that told Cobble they understood what had probably happened to make him bereft of personal belongings.

Nik, or was it Atticus, nodded, then strode to the miniscule vehicle and doused the headlights. He turned the ignition off, popped the trunk, pocketed the keys, and closed both doors. Lastly, he retrieved Andy’s bag before trotting back. “All set,” he said.

The next thing Cobble knew, he was in the back of the family’s monstrous vehicle, sandwiched between two drooling dogs, with Andy grinning crazily on the opposite side of one large pooch…Griffin?

It only took Cobble a few seconds to settle in. Amazingly, Andy wasn’t the only one who was uncustomarily upbeat. Cobble found himself grinning from ear to ear with an arm around each of the enthusiastic pups as they made their way toward a warmly lit cabin. A huge cabin, if what he saw in the headlights was correct.

Wow. Life wasn’t what he’d imagined for preppers…umm, survivalists , and as bleak as his existence had seemed a few hours ago, Cobble was suddenly…happy. He had Andy, two dogs, and several fascinating hosts with whom to share, hopefully, a few years.

What a freaking adventure this day had turned out to be.

And it wasn’t over yet.

Peering out the front window as the vehicle came to a stop, Cobble saw three women standing under the overhang of the porch. He wanted to laugh. They were all tiny like Andy. What was it here that made the men so huge, and their women so diminutive?

Almost before the SUV came to a stop, Andy, who’d been fidgeting in her seat, wrenched open the door and flew from the car. From what Cobble could see, she embraced the oldest of the trio—who looked a lot like her—hugging the woman and spinning her around as if she weighed nothing. The dogs, one of whom had climbed right over Cobble to get out, joined the excitement, yipping and jumping around at the pure joy in the air.

It was quite a party.

Theo chuckled from the front seat. “There’s going to be a lot of girl-chatter going on tonight. I can tell. We might want to make ourselves scarce. Maybe find something interesting to do in the barn or the bunkers.”

Cobble was just about to agree when Andy yanked open his door and pulled him out.

“I want youze to meet my mothah,” she said excitedly.

“Sure. I…”

Wait a minute .

As far as Cobble could tell, none of Andy’s family had the Brooklyn accent that popped out of Andy every now and again. Her father’s voice held inflections that spoke of his Greek heritage, and the one brother who’d spoken more than a greeting, also had some Greek inflections, but of a more neutral cadence. What was up with that? Why was Andy the only one who sounded like she was from New York? First chance he got, Cobble was going to pose that question. But right now…

“Let me just wipe the dog-spit off my hands,” Cobble said as his feet landed on terra-firma.

“Not to worry,” the heretofore silent brother assured him, piling out after Cobble from where he’d been in the far back seat. “It’s par for the course around here. You’ll be covered with it more often than not.”

Huh. No Brooklyn accent there, either.

“Come on, come on.” Andy, unaware of Cobble’s confusion, urged him forward.

He banked his questions for later, traversed the walkway leading to the porch, and went up two steps to be instantly embraced by Andy’s mother.

“I’m so glad to finally meet you,” she gushed with no trace of Andy’s intonations. “I feel like I know you after all Andy’s told us.”

And didn’t that fill up Cobble’s chest? Andy hadn’t just mentioned him in passing. It seemed she’d spoken about him at length. At least to her mother.

“Mom,” Andy snorted. “Way to make Cobble feel like he’s been a huge topic of conversation around here. I—"

“No. No,” Cobble demurred not letting her correct her mother.

No takesies-backsies .

“It’s fine with me. I mean, this way we can skip a lot of the bullsh—, uh, baloney, and really get to know each other,” he postured.

Andy’s mother gave a bright, tinkling laugh. “First of all, you can say bullshit. When we decided to raise our kids as independent thinkers, we gave them free rein over their choice of language. And secondly, if what I think is happening here is actually happening, we’re going to have a very long time to get acquainted.”

Yup. There were no flies on Andy’s family. They’d all already figured out she was stashing him here, and were welcoming him with open arms.

Andy’s mother then made the last of the introductions. “I’m Eleni, by the way. Missy’s mother. And these are my boys’ wives, Sue and Bevvy.” She smiled fondly at the pair, then waved an arm airily in their direction.

Cobble proffered his hand, first to the redhead who was nearest to him. “Nice to meet you. You’re...?”

“Bevvy, Nik’s wife,” she clarified.

The big man Cobble had thought was Nik, came over and slung an arm over the woman’s shoulders.

Cobble gave her a smile, then reached out to shake with the second woman, a pretty blonde who looked to be very pregnant. “That makes you, Sue. Married to Atticus.”

“That’s me,” she confirmed, her soft hand sliding easily into his. “And yes, the more handsome of the two brothers is my husband.” She blew Atticus a kiss.

Cobble laughed as she got gently cuffed by Bevvy. It was easy to see that these two got along just great.

“Are you hungry?” Eleni asked him and Andy. “I made avgolemono soup for supper, and there’s still some left.”

“Starving,” Andy responded. “And if I know Cobble, his backbone is about to chew its way through to his stomach.”

“Yeah. I could eat,” he answered. An understatement. Yup. His mouth had actually been salivating as he’d watched the dogs settle down to chew on their beef bones. “But what’s avgolemono soup?”

“A creamy, chicken soup with lemon-egg sauce,” Eleni replied.

“I’m in,” Cobble agreed, and he hoped no one else could hear his stomach growling.

“Then let’s take this inside,” Theo suggested, “where you can eat, and we can find out exactly what brought you two here so unexpectedly tonight.”

His tone held a little less joviality and a tad more concern than before.

Rightly so.

These folks had to understand that his and Andy’s unannounced arrival heralded a precipitous flight to safety.