Cowboy Commando

“I don’t want to make any rash decisions about what to do next. I like a clear plan of action before I engage. But I’m not leaving you, so get in the truck before the lunatic returns and I have to save you again.”

She shifted, peering out the back window as if she thought his prediction would hex them and conjure up headlights. When she didn’t see any, she picked up Julie’s teddy bear and tossed it to him. “I’ll carry Julie if you’ll get her booster seat and grab my handbag out of the front seat. And remember, you asked for us.”

Mere moments later, they’d abandoned Linney’s car in the ditch and were heading back in the direction they’d come from. He’d hold off on telling her of his conversation with Goose until Julie was asleep or they were alone.

“Why did you choose this road to nowhere?” he asked.

“I’ve been on it before with Al. He has a warehouse a couple of miles farther down. The company outgrew the facility, but Al held onto it. Said he couldn’t get enough for it to make selling it worthwhile.”

“Tell me you weren’t planning to hide out there like some criminal on the run.”

“I don’t owe you any explanations.”

Which meant that was exactly what she’d planned to do. “Do you have a key to the warehouse?”

“No, but I could probably figure out the alarm code to keep it from going off. Al’s not the most creative guy when it comes to passwords and codes.”

“So you were going to break in to one of your ex’s properties and hide out with Julie instead of meeting with Goose.”

“Desperate situations call for desperate measures.”

Desperate measures didn’t appeal to Cutter. He liked his risks spelled out and alternate courses of action in place in case he met resistance. As a SEAL, he’d never accepted failure as an option. He definitely wouldn’t now.

When he reached an intersection, he took a road less traveled, a narrow FM road that headed north, as a plan of sorts started forming in his mind. Somehow the claustrophobic condo with one bed and no weapons didn’t seem conducive to strategy planning or keeping Linney safe.

“How do you feel about Dobbin?” he asked.

“You can’t bring your aunt into this.”

“She’s on an Alaskan cruise.”

“What about her foreman? Doesn’t he still live on the property and take care of the land and her horses?”

“Aurelio is still there, but I can’t see what difference that makes. He has his own house.” The more Cutter thought about it, the better the idea of crashing at the Double M sounded.

So it was back to Dobbin, Texas, and the ranch. And back to Linney and an almost guaranteed one-way trip to heartache.

CUTTER STOPPED at the metal gate.

“I’ll get it,” Linney offered, already opening her door to jump into action.

The weathered condition of the rectangular, hardwood Double M sign suggested that it had endured years of Texas thunderstorms and blazing summer heat. It clattered a dubious welcome as Linney jumped from the truck.

The iron scrolls in the gate seemed to be staring at Linney, as taunting as an evil grin carved into a Halloween pumpkin. Even the ranch didn’t want her here, causing trouble for Cutter.

She unlatched the gate and swung it open. The headlights of Cutter’s pickup truck pushed into the darkness, illuminating the rutted dirt road in front of her.

She knew from past visits that the road led through acres of fenced pastureland before banking what counted as a hill in this part of Texas and then veering off toward a huge pond and the sprawling ranch house.

She’d visited the ranch dozens of times before, albeit never with Cutter. As a teenager she’d come here for hayrides with laughing church youth groups or for the mini-rodeos or 4-H events that Hank and Merlee had hosted.

Good folks, people said of his aunt and uncle, the words not nearly conveying their wealth or the influence the couple had held in the small rural community.

Hank can close a deal on a smile and a handshake, and you can stake your life that he’ll keep his word.

Linney’s own dad had said that too many times to count and she knew that Hank Martin had bailed him out financially on more than one occasion.

Once the vehicle rattled across the cattle gap, she closed and latched the gate and scrambled back into the truck. “I’m surprised your uncle never blacktopped this road,” she said as they dodged a deep rut. “When there’s a heavy rain, the road must be almost impassible.”

“Uncle Hank believed a ranch should feel like a ranch and that cows didn’t need paved roads. And he always had four-wheel-drive vehicles.”

“Your uncle was one of a kind.”

“He would say he was just from good Texas stock.”

“Merlee must miss him a lot.”

“I’m sure she does, but she stays upbeat and busy with her gardening and church activities. And traveling with her friend, Josie Watts. I think they’ve cruised every place there’s a tour. This is their second time to Alaska.”

“What do you think she’d say if she knew you were bringing Julie and me here?”

“She’d tell me I’d better not let anything bad happen to either one of you.” Cutter slowed as a large deer stepped into the beam of his headlights. The buck stood motionless, head high, his impressive rack pointing skyward until they were almost upon him. Only then did the magnificent creature turn and run away.

She wondered if the deer sensed danger the way she sensed it now that someone had tried to kill her. No, not someone. Dane. It had to have been him, though she couldn’t imagine how he’d found her so quickly. More disturbing was the fact that he’d opened fire on her with Julie in the car. Now she was expected to just turn the child over to the murderous lunatic.

She checked to see if Julie was still asleep. Satisfied that the toddler was in dreamland, Linney shifted and turned to face Cutter. “Coming here was probably a major mistake.”

“You tell me.”

“I’m serious,” she said, keeping her voice low so as not to wake Julie. “Dane could show up any minute. He must have someone tailing me. How else would he have known I’d be on that road?”

“With this.” Cutter took a black gadget the size of a half dollar from his shirt pocket and tossed it into her lap. “It’s a tracer, the newest model, highly efficient.”

“Where did you find this?”

“Attached beneath the back bumper of your car.”

“Dane must have planted it there right after I made that complaint to the police department,” Linney whispered. “I’ll bet the clerk went straight to him with my suspicions.”

“He probably thinks of Dane as a reliable cop.”

“No wonder no one’s called me back. Dane probably tossed the report.”

“We’re going on a lot of assumptions here. It’s possible the good detective hasn’t seen the report, didn’t plant the tracer and wasn’t tonight’s sniper.”

“Oh, puh-leeze!” She checked again. Julie was still fast asleep. “He’s behind all of it. He’s so arrogant he thinks he can get away with anything. He would have killed me, then stopped and rescued his daughter. End of his problems.”

“Aren’t you forgetting that the day-care center attendant knows Julie left with you today?”