Destroyer

Chapter 13

Despite the pouring rain and fog, the jail stood out easily as the truck approached with it's two silent inhabitants. As they drew near, the outlines of both Whitetails and Cougars standing guard atop of its walls became more prevalent. They watched with suspicious eyes as the truck hauling three rolled up tarps in its bed parked just short of the gates. Jacob had assisted in retrieving the body of Whitehorse from the lake. Nayeli could not bear to look at the husk that had once been Earl Whitehorse. The last bit of family she had left. They wrapped him in a tarp that they had found inside the main building. What was normally used to cover the boats at the marina had now become a self-enclosed tomb for the three bodies, including Burke and Rachel.  The journey back to the jail had been an awkwardly silent one. Nayeli sat quietly the entire ride back as Jacob drove. They had yet to say a word to one another but given what Nayeli had just endured, they knew it was going to be a little longer before she was ready to talk.

Jacob had pulled up about twenty feet from the main gate. People were already shouting when they recognized the driver with one deputy in tow. Nayeli looked at Jacob, her eyes still visibly red and puffy from crying. On one hand, Jacob's face, as always, gave no tells away as he gazed back at her. On the other, he looked absolutely exhausted. He had the look of a man losing an internal fight. He was about to lose another one as armed guards began to approach them. She glared at him as she removed her seatbelt.

"Do not move." she ordered before she exited the car.

By the time her feet hit the ground, Eli, Pratt, Hudson and the others were already approaching. Seeing as how Eli was tier-2 in command following Nayeli, he spoke first.

"I'm just going to jump right to the point deputy. Why the hell am I seeing Jacob Seed sitting in that truck and not Sheriff Whitehorse?"

Nayeli took a deep breath, the words rolling off her tongue almost too easily, "Whitehorse is dead...he's dead as well as the Marshall and Faith. Jacob saved me."

"That's bullshit." Pratt scoffed.

Both Eli and Nayeli looked to the youngest of the deputies, visibly shaking at the sight of Jacob Seed.

"Saved you? How do we know it's you that's all in there?" he said, thunking his head with his fingers for emphasis, "Huh? How do we know he didn't just sick you on the Sheriff and Marshall?"

Nayeli didn't need him to speak it out loud, but she knew that look on Pratt's face: the look of betrayal. Hudson muttered some words to Pratt, placing a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him but he swatted it away.

"No this is bullshit. This-" Pratt paused before shouting in frustration.

The lamb did her best to try and de-escalate the situation, raising her hands cautiously as she approached him.

"Staci I understand but you have to trust me. Let's just take a moment-" the sound of the truck doors shutting garnered Nayeli's attention as Jacob began to approach, hands raised in the air.

She cursed under her breath, rolling her eyes. What did she expect from him? He looked to her nodding his head slightly as though it were to comfort her.

"You should listen to the dep, Peaches."

As though triggered, Pratt began to yell, pushing Nayeli aside as he rushed forward, snatching a gun from Eli's thigh-holster. Jacob remained calm, hands still raised as Pratt raised the gun at him. Pratt pulled the hammer back, his finger just barely squeezing the trigger when one Nayeli Lamb went hurtling towards him, tackling him to the ground, the gun firing into the air.

"Pratt that's enough!" she hollered.

Nayeli pinned him face down to the ground as he kicked and yelled until Eli and Hudson could help her restrain him. Nayeli removed herself as they hauled him upward.