“Yes,” Nancy said. “I can show you guys a few pointers. Some simple techniques that I think would be useful for everybody.”
Carolina’s smile brightened, but she tried to downplay her excitement. “Okay, great. I will go back and let the other ladies know.” She looked to Sarah, still smiling. “I agree with what you said, by the way. I think it’s time for all of us to start pulling our own weight. I know a lot of the other girls feel that way, too, just so you know.”
“Well then, I hope to see everybody join us for our trip down to the city,” Sarah said.
Carolina waved goodbye and then jogged back over to the tents where the rest of the women waited. Nancy watched the other women's reaction when she told them the news and saw how excited everybody was. It made Nancy both nervous and excited herself because now she needed to figure out how to teach all of these women everything that she had learned herself. She hoped the women were better students than she was.
Before Nancy turned around, she saw Willie step out of his tent. He saw Carolina speaking with the other women, and the moment he saw how happy she was, he immediately scowled. He marched over quickly and pulled her arm, yanking her away from the other women.
When Nancy saw how angry Willie was and how he was shoving his finger in her face, Nancy found herself moving toward the pair with her rifle at the ready. The closer she moved toward them, the easier it was to hear their conversation.
“I was just talking with them,” Carolina said, her voice sheepish.
“I don’t need you speaking with those women, getting ideas in your head,” Willie said. “Now get back in the tent.”
“Is there a problem here?” Nancy asked.
Willie immediately turned his angry glare at Nancy. Until now, Willie had been nothing but mischievously playful toward her. But this was the first time Nancy had caught Willie’s real face. This was the first time she saw his anger.
“This is none of your business,” Willie said. “So go and mind your own.”
Before Willie could turn around, Nancy blocked his path, again keeping her rifle at the ready.
Willie snarled. “Move. Now.”
Nancy realized that if she backed down, it would set a dangerous precedent for Willie, and Nancy didn’t want his confidence to gain any momentum. If this was going to be their moment of confrontation, then so be it. Nancy wasn’t about to let Willie intimidate her in front of the women that she was about to teach self-defense classes. This should be their first lesson.
“Hey!” Sarah came up from behind Willie, aiming her pistol at him. “Why don’t you take a step back?”
Willie glanced back at Sarah and then looked to Nancy. He was in a bad position, and he knew it. He held up his hands and hid some of his anger, but he couldn’t get rid of all of it. “Just a simple misunderstanding.”
Nancy shook her head. “I don’t think there is any misunderstanding on my end. I think you were going to try to hurt Carolina. And I was in the way of stopping it.”
Willie chortled and noticed how more eyes were watching them. If he made a move, he would be ousted from the community without prejudice. There would be no way to salvage any type of plausible deniability. And if Willie were as smart as Nancy thought he was, he wouldn’t risk wasting his one move on this silly spat.
Willie raised his hands passively and removed himself from the situation. “I think you got me all wrong, Nancy. I’m just going to take a walk.” He reached into his pocket and removed a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. “I just want to take a quick smoke break, boss.” That easy-going charm returned for one final flash of a smile before he turned around and quickly walked away from the tents and the other women.
Sarah joined Nancy, lowering her weapon. “You all right?”
Nancy nodded. “He’s going to hurt her again. He’s got a lot of stuff building up, and when it explodes, it’s going to be bad.”
Sarah sighed. “I wish we could just kick him out. But my dad says it’s better to keep an eye on him instead of having him out there as a threat.”
“Yeah,” Nancy said dryly. “It’s much better for him to be a threat on the inside.”
Nancy turned to the other women and tried to gauge their reactions. All of them looked nervous, but none of them had spoken out against Willie since they had arrived. Either they were all afraid of him, or he really had been staying out of trouble.
“Sarah, Nancy.” Mrs. Riker jogged up to them, and the moment Nancy saw Mrs. Riker’s expression, she knew that something was wrong. “I need you both to come with me. Keep quiet, and don’t make it look like we’re causing a scene.”
Nancy and Sarah exchanged a quick glance before following Mrs. Riker away from the tents and the rest of the women.
Nancy and Sarah walked on either side of Mrs. Riker as they headed toward the main building. Nancy hadn’t ever seen Mrs. Riker this worried unless there was a legitimate crisis. And the last crisis they had dealt with was an attack on the facility. But as Nancy glanced out around the surrounding area through the fence line, she couldn’t see any immediate threat.
“What’s going on?” Sarah asked.
“We have a situation back in the kitchen,” Mrs. Riker said. “I will explain when we get inside and we can speak privately.”
Nancy didn’t like Mrs. Riker’s tone, and she was worried about what they would find when they entered the mess hall.
The mess hall was empty inside, and Nancy and Sarah followed Mrs. Riker into the kitchen and toward the food storage locker. At first, Nancy thought something had happened with Abe, but when they passed his locker without stopping and saw him inside, she was
