Chapter 13 #2
He landed a punch on Robert that hit with a smack. Robert made an oof sound as the air left his lungs. Stevens must have hit him in the solar plexus. He then hit Robert in the face as the man gasped for breath.
“You should have left me alone!” Stevens yelled. He got to his feet just in time for Michael to reach him.
Using his own momentum and Stevens’s lack of balance as he rose, Michael pushed him. The man toppled over, landing on his side. Michael gave him a blow to the right ear, hard enough to make the man stagger around dizzily.
“Stop, Stevens. Please!” Michael cried. “We don’t want to hurt you. We want to hear your side of the story. Will you come and talk to us?”
Stevens turned to him, his face flushed, his lips pulled into a scowl.
Michael waited, hoping the man would see sense and agree to talk.
He saw what Stevens was planning as the idea came into his eyes, and as his balled fist came flying, Michael ducked.
He caught the fist and pulled Stevens off balance, sweeping his feet from under him.
Stevens crashed to the ground, and Robert, who had recovered his breath, pressed a knee into his back. “Enough of this!” he said through gritted teeth. “Enough! We’ll take him to see Andrew.”
When Stevens’s hands were secured behind his back with ties that Robert produced from a pocket, Michael helped him up.
“What is going on with you, Stevens?” Michael asked as they began the march back to camp. “What did you run for?”
“What do you mean? Aren’t you looking for them?” Stevens muttered sullenly.
“I don’t know who them is,” Robert retorted, “but you’re going to tell us everything.”
He sounded so menacing that Stevens cringed.
Walking Stevens through the camp with his hands tied behind his back drew quite a crowd. Michael scanned the crowd to see if Emily was among the onlookers, but she wasn’t around. Where was she? He wanted to share this triumphant moment with her.
“What is going on?” Andrea Carlson asked, descending on them with her hands on her hips, looking annoyed. “What have you tied Stevens’s hands behind his back for?”
“We’ll explain once we have all the information,” Robert said. “Ryan Stevens is a person of interest in a case we’ve been working on. We need to talk to him, and then?—”
“Oh really?” she asked, looking annoyed. “Does Andrew know about this? Where is he?”
“Andrea,” Michael said, taking her by the arm and stopping her from following Robert. “Robert is doing something really important with Andrew’s blessing. Can you just let us do what we need to, please, without making a scene?”
Andrea glared at him before, turning on her heel, she stormed off. Probably to get herself some reinforcements. She had some very outspoken friends.
Michael followed Robert and Stevens into Robert’s tent and closed the flap.
“Okay,” he said. “We’d better keep our voices down because the whole camp is out there, and unless you’d like everyone to know what you’ve been up to, Stevens, I would suggest you cooperate.”
Stevens stared at him. He was sitting on a stool, his hands still tied behind his back.
“We know about you skimming copper out of the shipments, Ryan,” Robert said, sounding weary. “We know you’ve been stealing from every single person who lives in this camp by doing that. Did you think about that before you decided to take what wasn’t yours to sell?”
Stevens smiled. He was actually grinning. “You don’t understand,” he said. “In fact, no one does. We saw a problem, and we fixed it better than you all did.”
“What are you talking about?” Michael asked.
Stevens stuck out his jaw in defiance. “You and Andrew promised us that the bandits would never get us again, and yet here we are. It’s the same as it was in San Cristo. We work and work, and the bandits still come and take what we have.”
“But they don’t,” Michael said. “We keep them out.”
Stevens shook his head. “No, Mike, we keep them out. Not you. You don’t understand about El Aguila.
You think the eagle will leave you alone because you’re a little bit of a challenge for a while?
Do you think that we laid down and let those blackguards walk all over us in San Cristo?
” He shook his head again. “We fought. We tried. We thought we had them beaten, and then they came with more and more and more men, and they burned it all to the ground. We lost everything. I’m not losing everything again. ”
Cold dread filled Michael. There was something very wrong here. Some part of the picture didn’t fit.
“What did you do?” he asked.
“What you should have done a long time ago,” Stevens said. “All El Aguila wants is tribute. So long as you pay the tribute, he’ll leave your town standing. That’s all.”
“What tribute?” Robert asked.
“The copper,” Stevens said, looking from Michael to Robert. “That’s all he wants. We give him a percentage and it’s done. We’re safe.”
Michael couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was this man really that dumb? He thought that someone like the leader of the bandits would be honorable and stick to a deal.
“What makes you think that El Aguila will be satisfied with a portion of our shipment?” Michael asked. “One day he’ll start asking for more. You mark my words. Eventually he’ll want it all.”
“He won’t. He gave us his word,” Stevens said. His eyes were bright now, almost feverish with misplaced hope.
“I can’t believe that you would be this naive,” Michael said, shaking his head. “You’ve put us all in danger.”
“I saved you!” Stevens cried. “And now you’re going to let me and my friends go so that we can continue to supply El Aguila.”
“Why would we do that?” Robert asked. “You’re a fool.”
“Am I?” Stevens snapped. “Look in a mirror.”
Michael was finding it challenging to talk to this man and not lose his temper completely.
Just then the tent flap lifted, and Adams and Perez came tumbling inside. They closed it behind them and then took in the scene.
“Oh no, it’s true!” Perez said, grabbing his head in his hands.
“What have you done, Stevens?” Adams demanded. “Look, it was all his idea. He said he could guarantee our safety. For all of us.” Adams swallowed. “I have a little girl. She’s only three.” He turned pleading eyes on Michael. “Please, Michael.”
“What are you pleading with him for?” Robert asked. “He’s not the sheriff of this little camp. I am. Andrew charged me with this duty himself. Michael was helping me piece all of this together, but make no mistake, I’m the one you have to convince.”
Adams kept looking at Michael. He didn’t blink, didn’t move.
“This is terrible,” Perez said. “It was never supposed to come to this.”
“Stop it!” Stevens cried. “Let me go, or you’ll never see your sweetheart again or your sister-in-law.”
Every eye in the tent turned on Stevens, and Michael felt hot fear and anger race through him at the abrupt realization of what those words meant. When Stevens had said aren’t you looking for them, had he meant …
No. Dear God. Please, no!
“What did you do?” he demanded, grabbing Stevens by the shirt collar and barely refraining from choking him.
“They followed me to my rendezvous with the bandits,” Stevens said. “I had to act fast. They’re both stashed away somewhere safe. If you let us and our families go, I’ll tell you where they are.”
Michael stared, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“No deal!” Robert said. “We aren’t in the habit of sending people to their deaths, and that’s all that will await you at El Aguila’s camp. Just death. So wise up and start thinking straight, Stevens.”
“You know he’s right,” Adams said to Stevens. “You know that bandit can’t be trusted.”
Stevens’s expression became angry and ugly.
He glared at his partners and the men who had caught them.
“You won’t survive. El Aguila is going to rule this whole state, and then you’ll be in trouble.
Then you’ll know that I was right. The only way to keep breathing is to do what he wants. Why can’t you see that?”
“You spineless worm!” Michael cried. “Where are Emily and Lizzy?”
“I think I know!” Perez said softly. “It’s the same place Stevens always stashes everything. I can take you there. We both can.” He looked at Adams, who nodded in agreement.
“Great,” Robert said. “Michael, you take Troy and go and find Emily and Lizzy. I’ll stay here with Stevens.”
“If we do this,” Adams said, “will you consider being lenient with us? I don’t want to lose my family. I was only trying to keep them safe.”
Michael could barely resist the urge to clock the man, his desperation to find Emily was so great. But that wouldn’t help anyone, so he sent up a prayer for God to keep the women safe. “Help me get them back and we can talk about it. I’m sure we can come to some agreement.”
“For me too,” Perez said hastily. “By the time I realized what Stevens was suggesting, it was too late. I was already complicit. Please. It’s this way,” he added, leading them forward.
With his nerves on edge and his mind racing, Michael followed them out of the tent into thick snow he hadn’t even realized had begun to fall.