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drive to rendezvous with the group by nightfall.

Chapter Thirteen

      Amy and Carey stood post at two different windows on opposite ends of the first floor, staring out into the darkness for Mack or any of the faceless and possibly unlimited number of people who could be working with him. His burns still wrapped in gauze and still excruciating, Carey didn’t trust himself with a loaded gun, not when he still needed so much pain medicine. Instead, he kept watch, ready to alert Amy if anything looked strange. He also had a radio connecting him to Anders and to Amy, but they’d agreed not to use it until they had to so anyone lurking outside wouldn’t know their whereabouts.

      They had spent the whole day converting the kitchen into a safe zone, moving enough beds for the remaining house staff into the large, windowless room. It was pure luck that they had plenty of bottled water and prepared food in the supply room, because Mack, or someone working for him, had cut the wires to the house, leaving them without electricity. As Anders had realized that first day when they huddled in fear, the large industrial refrigerators provided an added layer of protection if bullets started flying, even if they no longer kept their food from spoiling.

      It was Anders who thought of also cutting the gas to the three oversized six-burner stoves, just in case Mack tried anything that could cause an explosion. And Amy had been the one to reject the high-powered rifle and ammo the sheriff had left them in case it was intentionally ineffective, helping herself to the store of the Carson’s small artillery instead.

      That left Carey feeling pretty much useless, and missing his twin brother even more. Casey would have taken charge from the very beginning, and would probably have caught Mack that first night. He also wouldn’t have been stupid enough to bring the sheriff out here when he was in on it the whole time. Carey felt more lost than ever without his twin.

      Wait a minute, Carey thought to himself in shock, sitting up so suddenly that pain shot through the damaged nerve endings in his heat-seared skin. This isn’t about those two girls. It might have been at first, but not anymore. He picked up his handheld radio and brought it close to his mouth and spoke in a low voice.

      “Amy, come in,” Carey said quietly, waiting with his fingers on the volume knob, ready to dial it down in a hurry if her response was too sharp. She took the hint from his whispered transmission and responded by simply pressing her transmit button without saying a word.

      “I think I know what’s going on. Mack wants his two cash cows back; sure, I’ll believe that. But why would the sheriff help Mack with his little prostitution ring? He might look the other way, especially if his deputies, or heck, even the sheriff himself, had spent some after-hours time at the bar. But to come out here and know that Mack was going to try to burn us out? That would have been almost a dozen counts of murder if Mack’s plan had succeeded. You don’t take a chance on killing people, accidentally or not, over a couple of runaway prostitutes. There has to be more to this than that.”

      “What else are you thinking it could it be?” Amy whispered into her radio, suddenly very business-like. Carey could almost see her face in his mind, her forehead creased with worry, her blue eyes practically burning as she thought over what he would say next. He pushed aside the thoughts of her beautiful features and answered her.

      Carey’s anger at his own understanding of the situation made him no longer concerned about secrecy and silence. “Those two showed up here looking like the most pathetic, half-starved, half-dead, and half-alive creatures I’ve ever laid eyes on. They were so strung out on drugs, it’s a wonder they could even walk on their little stick legs, let alone find the place. My dad put them up in a cabin off our property so they could clean up a little before we helped them figure out what to do next.”

      “It’s not uncommon for prostitutes to use drugs, Carey.” She knew from her several years’ experience on the street and had always felt some level of empathy for those working women—many of them just kids, while just as many of them were hardened, older women—who’d ended up in prostitution and drugs, because it was often hard to tell which had come first in their lives.

      “Yeah, but where’d they get the drugs? Even the sheriff said Mack was suspected of selling drugs. He’s been doping those girls up and pimping them out with the same stuff he sells. And the sheriff’s getting paid to look the other way, if he’s not actually a part of the operation.”

      “And you think Mack isn’t worried so much about getting his hookers back as he is getting his witnesses back,” Amy stated boldly, her voice beginning to shake with anger as she put it all together.

      “Exactly. By the time he fed them, clothed them, and kept them pumped full of drugs, he couldn’t have been making that much money off them. They were just another draw to get guys in the door of his bar. But now that they’re gone, he has no way of knowing what they’ll say and who they’ll say it to.”

      “But for the sheriff to put himself at this much risk, he has to be in pretty deep. And those girls must have seen him,” Amy said angrily. There were a lot of things she could tolerate, but a crooked cop was not one of them.

      Carey felt anxious. A part of him was kind of hoping that Amy, with her years of police training, would shoot his theory full of holes and tell him it just wasn’t possible. He’d been counting on her to come up with a different idea, one that was safer and meant that the police and a drug dealer weren’t outside at that very moment, ready to stop at nothing to protect their business and their secret.

      At the same time, it felt good to be believed and to finally make sense of what was happening. His contentment was short-lived when Amy’s voice came through the radio again.

      “I know you don’t want to scare your dad, especially with your brother in the hospital, but this is now officially bigger than both of us. We need to get on the satellite phone and have him radio the DEA. We need some armed officials we can trust, not any of these local or even nearby state guys. There’s no telling how far Matthews’ reach spreads.”

      Carey held his radio up to answer, but never had the chance. He felt the dull blow of a solid object colliding with the back of his head, momentarily blinded by bright flashes of radiating pain behind his eyes. His knees gave way underneath him and he crumpled to the floor, landing facedown and unconscious.

Chapter Fourteen

      “Miranda!” Gracie screamed in excitement, flying at her older sister and tackling her in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re back! Did you have a good honeymoon? Was it…romantic?” she asked, batting her eyelashes and pretending to swoon.

      “I'm not answering that until you are much, much older,” Miranda answered with a shocked laugh. She was most surprised by the change in Gracie’s whole personality, for the better of course. The mousy girl who’d been through one horrible ordeal after another in her short life had been replaced by this exuberant, bouncy cowgirl. We’ll live on this cattle drive year-round for all I care, if it will keep that smile on Gracie’s face, She thought. “Have you had a good time? Did you behave yourself?”

      “Yes, and yes,” Gracie answered soundly with a firm nod. She grinned broadly, lighting up her sun-kissed face. “So are you guys gonna finish the drive with us?”

      “That we are! We’re here ‘til the end of the line!” Casey said, coming up behind Miranda and pulling her in a passionate hug that made Gracie stick her tongue out.

      “Ewwwww, it’s not gonna be like that the whole rest of the trip, is it? They only feed us so many meals a day, and if I puke…”

      “We promise to behave ourselves,” Miranda promised with a sly smile. “At least when impressionable children are around! Weren’t you the one who was just asking me for juicy details?” Casey stiffened behind her, the look of embarrassed horror on his face enough to send Gracie into fits of giggles.

      “I’m out! Girl talk can commence upon my departure!” He walked away with a wave behind him, headed off to check on their horses and to load their gear for the ride. Gracie turned to her older sister