A Cowboy's Love Part 18

"I don't know nothing about where Ray is. I'm just waiting here for him." His voice had slid into a disgusting whine and Cal knew he was lying.

"Don't give me that c.r.a.p, Fletcher. You know d.a.m.ned well where he is." Cal's voice was getting quieter, and he could feel a kind of slow, steady pulse growing stronger in him, like a bull pawing the ground, getting ready. He knew what was coming.

"Where's the little girl?" he asked. "Is she with him? Fletcher, don't mess with me. Is the little girl with him?"

"I told you, I don't know nothing." Fletcher's pale eyes moved back and forth as though he was trying to think through something that was too difficult for him.

Cal's mind was crystal clear. Like in the minute before you give the signal and the gate is opened and the ride begins. And your breathing and your timing and your reflexes all come together and you know exactly what you're doing. He reminded himself, be careful not to kill him.

Then he took two long strides toward the sofa and before Fletcher could move, Cal brought up his arm and backhanded him, throwing him back into the sofa. Fletcher's face twisted grotesquely, his mouth hung open, stupidly. He tried to come up off the sofa, and Cal hit him once more with the flat of his hand, hard, and then back again, a third blow. He saw the blood begin to run inside Fletcher's mouth and the quiet part of Cal's mind wondered how much would be enough to make up for what this stinking sonofab.i.t.c.h had done to Jamie.

"I told you, Fletcher. Don't mess with me." He grabbed the man's hair and twisted his head around so that he came off the sofa, one knee bent to the floor. "Where's the little girl?"

Fletcher was clawing at Cal's hand, trying to make him let go. "I don't know. Jeez, I don't know!"

Cal lifted him up from the floor, still holding him by the hair, and pulled his head back, his chin forward, a perfect target for Cal's fist, which drove solidly up against Fletcher's face, throwing him across the room. His body crashed into the door and he spun through it, stumbling into the dirt outside the trailer, with Cal right after him.

Nearby, sheltered by a thick stand of juniper, Jamie was waiting in the truck. She saw the two men spill out of the trailer and, in the light that came through the open door, she saw that it was Orrin Fletcher and not Ray, and she saw him hit the ground and she saw Cal, following hard behind him, pull him up and turn him around to face him. Cal hit the man again, once in the belly, doubling him up, and a second time in the face, throwing him into one of the cars that was parked there, the resounding metallic noise reaching Jamie in the truck.

Oh, G.o.d! Cal is going to kill him!

There was blood messing up Fletcher's face and splattering onto his s.h.i.+rt. Cal was straddling the slumping figure, with one hand holding him upright against the car and with the other smacking his face, back and forth, repeatedly, grimly timing the deliberate blows, putting his maximum strength into them. Gradually, as he continued to hit him, he let Fletcher slide slowly to the ground. Then, as he flattened out in the dirt, Fletcher rolled himself over, drawing up his knees and covering his head with his arms, trying to protect himself. Cal dropped to one knee beside him, pinning Fletcher's hands to the ground, the heel of his boot digging painfully into Fletcher's back. He spoke to him very quietly, his voice just barely above a whisper.

"That's just for openers, Fletcher. Now listen to me real close, you filthy piece of slime, before I kick your ribs into your dirty heart. I want to know where that no-good buddy of yours is and I want to know where his little girl is."

The heel of his boot dug in once, sharply. Cal was making sure he had Fletcher's full attention.

"All right! All right!"

The blood from Fletcher's face was running freely into the dry dirt, making an ugly mess beneath his head.

"A plane's coming in tonight, out in the desert. Ray went out to meet it. Him and his girlfriend. Tina." He squirmed futilely under Cal's boot. "They had the kid in the van when they left here. I don't know what they did with her."

"Where? Tell me, you sonofab.i.t.c.h!" Cal's rage made it hard for him to get the words out. Those freaking b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had taken Mandy with them on this job! "Where's the G.o.dd.a.m.ned drop?" He ground his foot angrily into Fletcher's back once more.

Fletcher gasped, unable to speak, and Cal eased up, letting him catch his breath.

"I got it written down," Fletchers said, when he could talk. "I got it on a piece of paper. In my pocket." He was still struggling to breathe. "Let me loose. Let me get up. I'll give it to you."

Cal backed off him, ready to kick him down again at the first wrong move. Fletcher raised himself painfully on all fours, his head hanging, the blood and dirt smeared on his face. He dropped back against the car, sitting heavily against the front tire, and reached with a couple of fingers into the pocket of his bloodied s.h.i.+rt, pulling out a torn piece of note paper. With his other hand, he wiped at his nose and mouth, looking at his hand as though he was confused by what had happened to him.

Cal took a step back into the light from the trailer and held up the ragged sc.r.a.p of paper in order to read the numbers that had been penciled onto it.

"Are these the coordinates for the landing?"

Fletcher was testing a loosened tooth with his fingers. He didn't speak, but he nodded his head up and down.

"And this is the time written here, one-thirty? That's one-thirty this morning?"

"That's right." Fletcher only muttered his response. "I'm supposed to be meeting him in a couple of hours."

That's not giving us much time.

"After the pick-up, where is he storing the stuff?"

Fletcher was looking more and more like a trapped animal every moment, dropping his head, snarling his answers sullenly.

"He rents one of those self-storage units. It's a place just north of Butcher's Fork."

Cal kept his guard sharp. He knew that this animal, although trapped, could still be dangerous.

"Who's he distributing to?"

"Jeez, how would I know? You think he'd tell me?" He saw Cal's fist clench and he added quickly, "Some guy up north, in one of those ski towns, I think, is one of them. They all use code names, anyway. Honest, I'm not lying. I don't know any more than that."

Cal looked down the road and saw the truck waiting about fifty yards away. He raised his arm and motioned to Jamie to drive down to him.

"I don't have any more time for you, Fletcher. You're coming with me."

Jamie brought the truck up close and leaned her head out of the open window.

"Jesus, Cal, you scared the h.e.l.l out of me. I thought you were going to kill him."

"I wouldn't have killed him. He just needed a little convincing."

"Convincing? What about?" Oh, G.o.d, she thought, the knife-edge of panic beginning to screech up her spine. "Where's Mandy?"

"I'll tell you in a minute. First, back the truck around so I can get at the tailgate. And toss me that lariat that's hanging down behind the front seat."

Jamie twisted around and found the coiled rope that was suspended from the bottom of the gun rack. She pitched it over to him, and then, while she backed the truck around, Cal flipped Fletcher flat into the dirt and tied his hands and feet, much as he would have roped a calf, only there'd be no getting out of these knots. When he had the man safely trussed, he stood up and quickly unlatched the tailgate. Fletcher could have been a big bag of feed, the way Cal pitched him onto the bed of the truck. He slammed the tailgate shut and came around to the driver's side. He opened the door and Jamie scooted over to make room for him.

"There's a map in the glove compartment," he said. "Let me see it." While Jamie dug around for the map, Cal pulled a couple of papers from his s.h.i.+rt pocket. When he'd found the one with Jerry Metzger's number on it, he took his cell phone from the dashboard and dialed the number the drug agent had given him.

The familiar voice barked at him through the phone.

"Yeah?"

Cal motioned to Jamie to open up the map, and she spread it out in front of him, across the steering wheel.

"This is Cal Cameron. Is this Metzger?

"Yeah, Cameron. What's up?"

"I think we've got something for you here. A plane's coming in tonight at one-thirty. I can give you the coordinates."

"That's great, Cameron. Let me have it."

Cal read off the numbers from the paper he'd taken from Fletcher. "There'll be a black van meeting it." With his finger, he located the exact spot on the map, about fifteen miles from the previous drop site. "I'm heading out there right now. Should take me about an hour to get there. Listen, Metzger," Cal flashed a smile at Jamie, "I'm in a blue and white pickup, and I've got someone with me. Try not to shoot us up, okay? The bad guys are in the black van. And there's something else, Metzger." Cal paused.

He wasn't smiling now and her reached out and took Jamie's hand.

"They may have a little girl with them."

Jamie had been looking at the map, but at his words, her head came up sharply, her eyes wide with alarm. Cal nodded grimly at her.

"Four years old. It's Nixon's kid, but I don't think they're going to be watching out for her. Your guys had better be real careful."

"A kid? How did that happen?"

"It's a long story. It's her mama who's with me." He pulled her close to him, protectively. He couldn't bear the look in her eyes.

Someone had better be keeping an eye on Jamie, too. If anything happens to Mandy, Jamie'll do the killing herself, for sure.

"Just be careful," he continued. "If you people get there before we do, just watch what you're doing. And Metzger, there's something else. Take a look at your map." Cal's finger traced around the drop area until he found what he wanted. "There's a graded road, leads into the desert from the state highway, about four miles south of Sharperville. It runs about six, seven miles and then becomes a dirt cattle trail. Right there, I'm going to drop off one of Nixon's buddies. An ex con named Orrin Fletcher. He's tied up like steer for branding and he's not going anywhere, but I'll put him off to the side so no one runs over him-though they'd probably be doing the world a favor if they did. You might have to wait till daylight to find him, but I expect he'll be making a racket so as you can hear him. It gets plenty cold out there at night, and we'll be getting some rain here pretty soon, so he'll be real happy to have you locate him."

"Okay," said Metzger. "I've got it. We'll get our agents on it right now. And something else, Cameron. You carry a CB in that truck of yours?"

"Yeah, I have one."

"Good. I'm giving you a restricted frequency you can use to contact me later."

Cal wrote down the information.

"And Cameron?"

"Yeah?"

"You watch yourself, you hear."

"You bet." Cal switched off the phone and put it back on the dashboard. He marked a circle on the map and then handed it to Jamie.

"We've got to move fast." He pointed to the circle he'd drawn. "That's where we're headed."

Chapter Twenty-one.

Mandy was too little to understand, and she was scared. Ray and Tina had pushed her into the black van and slid the door shut, with a loud bang, like they were mad at her. When Tina got into the front seat, she was complaining.

"I don't see why we have to take the kid with us." She lit a cigarette, nervously, and dropped the match onto the floor of the van.

Ray had enough to think about without listening to Tina b.i.t.c.hing at him.

"For Crissake, Tina, use your head. I couldn't exactly leave her at the trailer, could I? We're not going to be getting back till late tomorrow. And you yourself told me there wasn't going to be anyone at my mom's place, that she's up in Salt Lake and my dad went there with her."

"Well, you could have found someone." She turned her head away from him, looking petulantly out of her window.

"Sure. I can just hear it. Hey, would you mind looking after my kid for a couple of days while I run out into the desert to pick up a load of cocaine.' Jeez, you sure can be stupid when you want to, you know that, Tina?"

Tina had a smart response for that one, and they went back and forth for a while, both of them really edgy and each of them taking it out on the other. Mandy tried not to listen because their anger scared her. That wasn't the only thing that scared her. She didn't know what cocaine was, but she knew it was something bad. And she knew her Grandma was in Salt Lake again, only this time she was going to die. Grandpa had told her. And he told her she couldn't live in their house anymore and he had called Tina to come and take her away.

She made herself as small as she could in the corner of the seat, and put her thumb in her mouth. Mommy said she wouldn't have to be with Tina and Daddy anymore. Her mommy promised. If Mommy knew, she would come and get her. If Mommy knew- She was afraid to cry, afraid to make Tina and her father even madder at her. Through the window, she could see the sky, beginning to get dark now, with just a little bit of light still left to show a big cloud collecting up there, looking black against the tops of the mountains. Those clouds looked scary, too, and Mandy closed her eyes, keeping them shut for the longest time, while the van rolled along, its occupants silent now, thinking their own thoughts.

Keeping her eyes closed against all the scary things, she settled gradually into the steady rocking of the van as it traveled south along the highway, and soon she was fast asleep, unaware, even when the van turned onto the rough side road and then, eventually, onto the dirt trail that went directly into the desert. She slept so soundly, she never heard the thunder over the mountains, or the wash of the brief rainstorm over the vehicle, as the predicted storm crossed the desert.

It was almost an hour later that Mandy awoke to an unsettling stillness. The van was no longer moving, its front doors were open, and Ray and Tina were gone. She could see that the windows were wet, but the rain had stopped and she had occasional glimpses of a cool moon through the rapidly moving clouds.

She didn't like being here in the dark. How was Mommy going to find her if she was so far away from home, in the big car, in the dark? She could hear voices somewhere nearby, and when she looked up over the front seat, she could see her father and Tina up ahead, walking around, smoking, looking at the ground. If they came back, if they drove her even farther away from home, her Mommy might never find her.

To one side of the van, she could see a long way across the big desert s.p.a.ce, and on the other side, not so far away, the hills rose up steeply, deeply cleft by winding canyons, thick with trees and spiny brush.

She remembered seeing a tree like that, with the little leaves, like pale green pennies, shaking on their skinny branches. She remembered a road, running up between the big rocks. There might be scary things out there in the big, black darkness, lizards and snakes and even lions. But it was even more scary with Daddy and Tina in the car.

She crawled over the front seat and climbed down out of the van. She made no sound, and neither Ray nor Tina heard her move quietly away. In the still-damp ground, her baby footsteps were silent, and the clayey soil grabbed at her little red tennis shoes. As she started the slippery climb up the hill, into the canyon, her foot slid backward into a wet clump of stumpy juniper. One little shoe slipped off her foot and wedged into the scratchy growth. She pulled herself upwards, too scared by the dark to rummage for the shoe. And minutes later, the second shoe was lost, too, left behind somewhere in the shadows. It frightened her to be barefoot, like a baby, and she felt like she was going to wet her pants. Grandma would be mad that she lost her shoes. But Grandma was going to die. Grandpa had told her.

Mandy started to cry, but very softly, trying not to.

Her Mommy wouldn't care if she lost her shoes. Her Mommy wouldn't care at all! She just needed to get up to the big rock way up in the canyon where she thought they'd last been together. Her Mommy had told her, just like the mama cow and her calf. Her Mommy would come and get her.

When Ray and Tina returned to the van, they never looked into the seat behind them. They closed the doors, Ray started the motor, and he drove away to the rendezvous point in the desert.

And Mandy continued to find her way up the canyon, her path lit occasionally by patches of moonlight.

Chapter Twenty-two.

Jamie kept the truck's lights off and the engine running, ready to move as soon as the black van showed up for its one-thirty rendezvous. Beside her, in the pa.s.senger seat, Cal was loading one of the Winchesters with cartridges from a box on the dashboard in front of him. Next to that was the radio, set to the frequency Metzger had given him, and he had quickly shown Jamie how to use it so she'd be able to handle the communication with the feds while he handled the firearms. Metzger had said a helicopter was on its way, but the timing was going to be dicey.

"Whatever you do," he warned them, "don't give the bad guys a chance to alert their contacts by mobile phone or radio. We've had this bust in the works for months and we're set to jump people in three states tonight. You two better not mess us up."

Metzger was hoping he hadn't gotten too greedy, trying to net a couple of small fish along with the real sharks. But the information was good and this bust fit right in with the bigger operation.

"You better know what you're doing," he added. "You and the little girl's mother are the only ones on the scene and we have to rely on you, at least until our people get there. So just be careful, you two."

Cal had looked over at Jamie who was clutching the steering wheel tightly, her fingers white with tension.

She isn't thinking about Ray anymore. Or about Tina. She's just going to get her daughter, no matter what. It'll be up to me to do this.