Chapter Fifteen
A groan broke from me. God, I hurt all over. Had I been in a fight? Ugh. My mouth was dry as sandpaper and I really needed to pee.
A dog whined.
Huh? We didn’t have a dog. Did we?
Bodacious snuffled my hair.
“I’ll get you some oats in a minute. Tired. Need to sleep.”
Little paws patted my face. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.
“Miss Kitty?” Memories came flooding back. “Oh, shit!” I bolted upright. Grandpa! Had he survived the explosion? He was a cantankerous old bastard, but I loved him anyway.
Edgar licked at my tears.
I petted him. “I love you too. Do you have any idea where we are?”
Woof.
“Me neither.” I glanced at my watch. Damn, I had been unconscious for about five hours. I could be anywhere. The question was: How did I get all of us out of a locked hauler in one piece? The lock for the hauler was on the outside and the metal slots were too small to fit my hand through.
The semi-truck slowed down.
I glanced through the trailer’s metal slots. On the other side of the road were white-washed concrete Indian teepees. Oh, my, God! I knew where I was. The Wigwam Hotel was in Holbrook, Arizona. Crap. I was two hundred miles from home and totally on my own. If I could get to a phone, I could get the cavalry started in the right direction. I knew there was a statewide alert on me, but who would look here? The answer would be no one.
Bass had picked the perfect place to hide out. Once upon a time, Holbrook had been a bustling cow town full of outlaws and rustlers. The Hashknife gang robbed trains and stagecoaches as a form of recreation when they weren’t rustling cattle. Was Bass behind the string of I-40 train robberies?
The semi-truck stopped at the one and only red light.
I looked around for help. Damn, the sidewalks were empty except for one little girl holding a yellow balloon. “Hi, what’s your name?”
“Tina. That’s a big cow.”
“Yeah, he is. Where’s your mom?”
“Workin’.”
“I need help.” I took out a business card and wrote Holbrook on the back. “Can you give this to your mom? It’s really important. Bad men kidnapped me.” I pushed the card through the slots. “Please.”
Tina ran over and took the card. “Is that a coyote?”
“Yes. His name is Edgar.”
“Can I pet him?”
“No!”
“Can I pet the kitty?”
I resisted the urge to scream. “No, the bad men will see you.”
“Where are the bad men?”
“Driving the truck. Now, run and give the card to your mom. Right now! There’s a big reward.”
“Okay.”
The light turned green, and off we went. I watched Tina until she was out of sight. She hadn’t moved a muscle. My shoulders slumped. Damn.
Miss Kitty rubbed against my face. Meow.
“You’re right. I can’t give up. As fast as I could I wrote Holbrook on the back of my remaining business cards and shoved them through the slot. Would anybody pick one up? God, I hoped so.
The semi-truck made a hard left turn onto a dirt road. I bounced as we hit pothole, after pothole, after pothole.
Bodacious bellowed.
“I know. Pretty scary. I won’t leave you behind. I promise. I just need to figure a way out of this without getting us killed.”
The semi hit the mother of all potholes. I locked my jaws to keep my teeth from being jarred loose. I peered through the slots. No sign of civilization. Just cedar trees dotted the rolling hills.
The semi-truck turned onto another dirt track.
I caught a glimpse of an old, crumbling adobe house surrounded by dead cottonwood trees.
The truck stopped next to some weather-beaten outbuilding. To my utter relief, Max was at the back of a large corral.
A hint of malicious humor in his voice, Bass called, “Honey, we’re home.”
My stomach knotted and I quickly covered Edgar with hay. “Stay.”
“Billie Bob is going to drop the ramp and you’re getting the bull into the corral with the horse. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.” Nausea rolled my stomach. Bass radiated a sexual menace that was both frightening and disgusting.
Bass unlocked my handcuffs. “I’m going to enjoy breaking you.”
“And I’m going to take immense pleasure in killing you.”
His mouth drew back into a feral snarl, and he gestured with his gun. “Get the bull in the corral.”
“I need some oats.”
“Get her the oats, Billie Bob.”
“Yes, boss.” He disappeared into the closest outbuilding.
“I think the fastest way to beat the sass out of you is with a whip.”
It took everything I had, not to show any fear. “You won’t live to see tomorrow.”
Billie Bob burst out of the building. “Boss, you’ve got a phone call.”
“Who is it?”
“Dixon. Something about a screw up in the fentanyl shipment.”
Bass snatched the phone out of his hand. “What happened? The fucker did what? We’ll have to hit the train outside of Winslow. I’ll meet you at Smith’s ranch in an hour.”
He stuffed the phone in his pocket and turned his attention to me. “Get the bull in the corral. Now!”
“Back Bodacious. C’mon back up.” To my relief, he obeyed me. Once we reached the end of the ramp, Billie Bob handed me the bucket of oats. “Yummy oats, Bodacious.”
He followed me through the gate.
Max let out a loud whinny and galloped toward us.
Billie Bob quickly shut the gate.
Max skidded to a stop next to me and nickered wildly.
“I know. You’re safe now. You’re safe.” I petted him and slowly poured the oats into the trough. I eyed the back gate.
“Go ahead. Try to run. I’m an excellent shot,” Bass taunted. “Let’s go before I decide to gut-shoot you.”
My back spasmed as I climbed over the fence. I was in serious need of some muscle relaxers.
“No food or water for you until you learn some manners.” Grabbing my ponytail, Bass dragged me inside the smaller outbuilding and threw me into a metal cage with a piss bucket in the corner.
“You’re smuggling people too, huh?” I tried not to show how much pain I was in.
Bass locked the door, turned and left without saying a word.
My shoulders sagged in relief when I heard the semi-truck start up and leave. Bass probably wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours, and I needed to be long gone.
Edgar scratched at the door and whined.
“Give me a second.” A grin curved my mouth as I examined the lock. Easy peasy. Taking the lockpick out of my bra, I inserted it into the lock, twisted and poof! It opened.
Miss Kitty meowed.
Max whinnied.
Bodacious bellowed.
Huh? It sounded like they were standing at the door. I turned the knob, and they all rushed in, pinning me against the wall. “Back up, you’re squashing me. C’mon back.” They all licked me at once. Ugh. “Okay, okay. I love you too, but we need to leave before Bass, and his crew come back.”
Max nosed a bridle hanging on the wall.
“Good idea. I’m not in any shape to walk very far.” I quickly fastened the bridle on him.
My eyes widened when I noticed three complete pipe bombs lying on a table. I rubbed my hands together. Paybacks were a bitch. I set the timer on the first one for twenty minutes. It should give us enough time to get out of range.
Reaching for the other two I stopped dead as a sudden thought hit me. Had Chuck made them? Probably. After a careful examination they looked safe. Very cautiously, I picked them up and carried them outside.
The critters followed me.
Hmmm. Where would I get the most bang for the buck? I needed my smoke signal to be seen for miles. My gaze settled on a large five-hundred-gallon propane tank. Perfect. I set the timer for twenty minutes.
Tapping my chin, I looked around for another spot, and my jaw dropped. Someone had dropped a cellphone! I snatched it off the ground. Damn. No bars, but it was evidence. One glance at my watch and I placed the last bomb next to the smaller outbuilding.
I tried to mount Max, but my abused muscles locked up. I gritted my teeth until the pain subsided.
Miss Kitty skittered up my leg. Meow.
“I know. I’m being a pansy.”
Bodacious snuffled my hair. I didn’t even want to know how much bull snot I had in my hair.
Max nuzzled my face.
“Sorry, buddy, I’m really banged up.” I led him over to a stump and used it to get on Max’s back. “Let’s go before everything goes boom.”
Max broke into a gallop with Bodacious and Edgar running behind us.
Ow. Ow. Ow. As soon as we were two miles from the ranch, I slowed him down. It was all I could do to stay upright.
A thunderous cracking boom shook the ground, and a huge fireball rose high into the air.
Yeow! That should get some attention.
To my relief, Max didn’t even twitch.
Bodacious pawed the ground nervously.
Edgar jumped on my lap and shivered.
I hugged him to me. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
Miss Kitty tunneled under by shirt.
Kablooey! Another explosion rocked the ground.
Bodacious took off at a dead run.
Grabbing a handful of Max’s mane, I urged him into a gallop.
Three miles later, Bodacious finally slowed to a stop.
“Oh, thank God.” I slumped over Max’s neck. “I want a massage. A big glass of iced tea, some chocolate and a bunch of Tylenol.”
Edgar licked my face.
“And a doggie bone for you.”
The whump-whump of a helicopter had me raising my head. It was Mom’s Huey. “We’re going home guys.”