by Jillian Neal
Miller and Sheriff Dillon sank down at Luke’s table as soon as Jean disappeared.
“We can’t find Brant. He took off,” Miller sighed.
“Come again?” Luke huffed.
“We’ll find him, but he didn’t attend that stock contractor meeting. We’re checking the bars he’s been frequenting.”
“Since they’re both gone, can’t we tap their room or whatever that’s called?”
Miller and Dillon both chuckled.
“Well, that’s illegal, and we’d both lose our jobs, but I like the way you think. We do have a few other ideas.” Dillon sighed. “We show up enough places that they are today, and something’ll come out of the chute, so to speak.”
“Well, pardon me for pointing this out, but you can’t even find Jr. Think I’ll go see if I can’t locate him. I promised my brother I’d keep up with him.” With that, Luke joined the throngs of people out and about in Cheyenne.
On a gut feeling he rarely ignored, he located Preston just before noon at an A-frame biker bar in the industrial section of Cheyenne. He could see him at the bar through the plate-glass windows. His profile was outlined by the red-glow of the Budweiser sign. Weren’t too many cowboys bellying up, however. Brant was either up to something or had already done something and didn’t want to be found. Luke’s boots were gonna stand out in a crowd of black leather and chains, no doubt about it. Instead of entering, he parked his truck across the street, and called Miller. “He’s at the Eagle’s Nest.”
“How the hell did he get all the way out there?”
“I’m guessing he didn’t want to be found. Seeing as how he’s trying to kidnap J.J., that makes sense to me.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. We’re on our way.”
By Monday evening, the cops had shown up at the bar, which Brant had slithered out of faster than shit off a shovel, and again at the hotel, then finally down at the PBR tent where he was getting his ass chewed for missing the meeting that morning.
They’d eaten lunch at the Chop House with Mrs. Preston and a few other women she’d apparently met poolside at the hotel a few days before. She eyed them cautiously, but continued on with her show for her counterparts. When they’d followed her out, she’d spun around in the parking lot and demanded to know why she was being followed.
After informing her that they still had a few questions about Brant, she’d made up a hair appointment and had raced away.
Brant had returned to his post at the hotel bar at five. Nothing too interesting seemed to be happening, so Luke ducked back into his room to phone Austin.
“Summer’s about to lose her fucking mind. We haven’t heard anything all damn day. What the hell?” Austin bellowed furiously.
“Miller didn’t call you?”
“No one called. You ever tried to keep a mother whose ex is trying to kidnap her kid off a ledge? It’s a bitch, let me tell you.”
“I’m sorry. I was trying to play detective and make sure the actual detectives were following Brant. They lost him for a little while this morning. That’s probably why they didn’t call. I’m sure no one wanted to tell you that. Brant’s ducked out on the cops several times now. They’re being careful not to push too hard since Miller wants him scared.”
“Yeah that seems to be his tactic with everything. I’d prefer him go in shooting and leave the scaring for later, but that’s just me.”
“I’m gonna take a quick shower. Got Cheyenne dust all over me from following him around town. He’ll still be on that bar stool when I get back. Tell Summer I’m sorry no one let you know anything. You think she can hold on another day or two?”
“We don’t have two days, and I don’t know. She’s ready to run right now.”
“Sometimes it’s better to know where you’re running to before you take off,” Luke commented while he braced the phone between his shoulder and cheek so he could rid himself of his jeans.
“I know where we’re going, but I ain’t telling anyone, not even her. Once we run, I don’t want anyone getting grilled by the cops.”
“Bet my left boot I know where you’re going, but I’d take it to my grave. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know.” Austin’s nervous chuckle said Luke’s guess was correct.
“Try to get Summer to simmer down. Like I said, Brant’s running and his mama’s looking loonier than usual, which is saying something. Maybe tomorrow one of ‘um will crack.”
“God, I hope so.”
An hour later, Luke begrudgingly returned to the hotel bar. Fuck. He ducked behind a column in the lobby. He was too late.
“Right now, Brantley! Right this very moment!” Mrs. Jean Preston, Miss Rose Autumn 47 herself, was effectively losing her shit in the bar of the Cheyenne Suites hotel, complete with stomping her feet.
Detective Miller pulled his hat lower and shot a quick glance at Luke.
“Fuck the hell off, mother. I don’t have time for this.”
When her face reached the approximate shade of her hair, she started spluttering and shrieking for Brant to come to the room with her. Brant, Miller, Luke, and the entire lobby area of the hotel turned to stare in shock.
Clearly embarrassed, Brant escorted her to the elevators, looking thoroughly confused. Luke and Miller caught the next one up. The Prestons’ door slammed just as they stepped into the hallway.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Brant’s deep bellow could be heard through the door, along with muffled crying. Luke gestured to his room, hoping they could hear more through the adjoining wall.
Miller followed him inside, keeping the door from slamming shut and alerting anyone to their presence. Luke pressed his ear to the wall, but couldn’t make out anything but blubbering. Miller was frantically texting on his phone. Everything went silent. Time seemed to drag on endlessly. Able to hear nothing but his own heartbeats, Luke pressed his ear closer. What the hell was going on next door? Frustrated with the cat and mouse game, he had half a mind to march in over there and demand to know, but suddenly the wall right in front of his face bowed with an echoing boom. The wall studs reverberated the blow as if they were just as shocked over the impact as Luke.
Jerking his face away, Luke’s eyes goggled. Miller’s mouth hung open as they stared at the dent clearly created by Brant Preston’s fist.
The next hour offered nothing but Miller pacing and occasional muted shouting from next door. Luke had no idea what to do. He ducked in the bathroom to give Austin an update. Miller quietly talked to Sheriff Dillon and the officers assigned to the case, but there was no sign either Brant or his mother left the room. Dillon had deputies downstairs in the lobby that confirmed neither had made an appearance.
“You’ve been following them all damn day telling them you wanted to talk to Brant. Go knock on the door and demand to talk to him now,” Luke finally ordered.
“Patience, Mr. Camden. We have no idea if all of this even has anything to do with Ms. Sanchez. I’m not upping the ante until I know I have a winning hand. Not when it comes to kids. We can’t afford one misstep.”
Austin’s gut was ravaged with nerves. Something was coming. He could feel it. He’d spent all damn day trying to get Summer to relax, but he couldn’t fight it anymore. His gut had never failed him.
Luke’s call had come ten seconds after he’d decided they were loading up, even if they weren’t going anywhere yet.
He hurled another cooler full of food into one of the old ranch trucks. Summer frantically buckled J.J.’s carseat in the front. They nearly collided on their way back into the house.
She reached for him. “We won’t have to run forever, right? I mean, once they have the forger or get Brant to confess, we can come back. Please just say we can come back.”
Wrapping her up in his arms, he kissed the top of her head. “We’ll be back, honey. I swear to you. We just need to give the cops a little more time.”
“Why won’t you tell me where we’re going?”
“Because I don’t want to
tell Mama and Daddy. I don’t even want to say it out loud, okay? Just trust me, please. I’ll keep you safe.”
“I know you will. I don’t understand what’s happening. Jean’s always so worried about what everyone thinks of her and the Prestons. She’d never cause a scene that she didn’t think made her look important. I can’t believe she freaked out in a hotel lobby.”
“Yeah, I got a feeling we need to get out of here soon. Something’s not right.”
Luke and Miller passed each other in their relentless pacing that wasn’t accomplishing anything other than wearing out the hotel carpeting. There’d been another argument between the Prestons, but they’d been unable to make out any distinctive words.
Miller’s cell phone buzzed. He answered it immediately. Luke halted his trek to nowhere and listened.
“Cab just pulled up in front of the hotel.” Miller explained quietly. Cabs weren’t too common in Cheyenne, especially during Frontier Days. This sure as hell wasn’t New York City. The cool slivered slip of a door closing from Brant’s room ricocheted through Luke’s head.
“Hey, someone just left their room. Presumably coming downstairs. Let’s keep eyes on whoever it was. If they get in the cab, follow it. I need to know where they’re going,” Miller ordered.
Debating phoning Austin again, Luke decided a play-by-play probably wasn’t necessary. It was highly likely that Brant was going on another bender and had decided to get a cab from the beginning this time.
With the minutes stalling his heart, he resumed his pacing. Miller’s phone buzzed again two minutes later. “Dillon says it’s Jean. She called the cab. They’re following it. Okay, just give me a call when you can. Don’t lose that cab.”
Thirty minutes later Miller’s phone buzzed yet again.
“Turn the thing on speaker so I can fucking hear,” Luke commanded.
Miller complied. “You’re on speaker. Go ahead, Dillon.”
“This whole situation just shot way over my pay-grade,” Dillon sighed.
“What happened?” Luke was rapidly approaching panic. His gut swirled ominously.
“Cab just pulled into Cheyenne Regional Airport. Apparently the Prestons have their own jets. Seems the Missus summoned one up from Dallas. We’re trying to pull the flight plan now, but she’s already boarded. I have no idea where she’s going, but if it’s to that tiny ranch town where you’ve got your rodeo heroes stashed, I’d tell them to get somewhere else quickly. That’s a Cessna Citation. Wherever she wants to go, she can get there quickly. It’s barely an hour flight time on a normal jet. He’s got maybe a half hour to get as far away from that ranch as he can.”
“But she may not be going to Nebraska. Austin floated it that Summer was in Santa Fe,” Miller contended.
“Yeah, but she might be. Thought we were in this to keep that little boy safe? From what I’ve seen, his daddy is a drunk with a real bad temper, and his grandmother is crazier than a shithouse rat. If it was my kid, I’d get the hell out of anywhere anyone might think to look for me, at least until we figure out where the hell that plane is flying.”
“You’re right. I’ll call Austin. Let me know as soon as you figure out where she’s heading.”
“I’ll call, Austin,” Luke corrected.
Austin answered the phone before it finished its first ring. “What’s wrong?”
“Listen, get Summer and the baby and get the hell wherever you’re going for at least tonight. Jean Preston just took off in some kind of private jet. Nobody knows where she’s going, but given the events of the night she’s probably figured out what Summer found and is on her way to demand the baby before the law catches up with her,” Luke’s intonation was frantic. Austin had never heard his big brother sound frightened before. He swallowed down bile.
Luke stopped talking but Austin could hear another man’s voice in the room. “Who is that?”
“Detective Miller. Hang on a sec.”
“Go get J.J. Put him in his seat. We’re leaving right now. Hurry.” Austin barely managed the order to Summer. Abhorrent pain broadcast from her as she gave him a single nod and raced back inside their home. His mother dammed back tears with the close of her eyes. His father continued to pace, shaking his head.
“Okay, Miller says he’s given the order for the forger to be brought in. They’re getting him now. But we’re still not 100% he’s the right one. He also says to leave my phone on the ranch and pick up a throw away once you’re out of town so no one can trace you.”
“Okay, I’ll get one tomorrow. I want to get where we’re going tonight. If Jean Preston is coming to the Glen, I don’t want anyone seeing me leaving. I don’t want to be followed.”
Luke was silent for the length of one heartbeat. As if the cell phone held some kind of telepathic link, Austin knew precisely what he longed to say. He still couldn’t quite understand why Austin was willing to leave it all for Summer.
“Be careful, Austin. Call me when you can. We’ll figure this out and get both of you back home,” Luke sighed.
“I know you don’t get it, man. I really do, but I have to do what’s right. I’ll … uh … see you later.”
“Yeah. Hope so.”
Trying his damnedest not to feel anything at all, Austin offered his parents one last wave as he drove off of the only home he’d ever known, the lands that had raised him, and his family.
“Austin, you don’t have to do this. Just let me go. I’ll find my way back to you somehow when all of this is over. Please, you can’t leave here. I can’t let you do this,” Summer pled.
He shook his head, unable to speak.
“Austin,” she tried again but emotion consumed her voice.
“Not right now, okay. Just turn on some music or something.”
Biting her lip, she turned on the old radio and buried her face in her hands.
***
Everett Camden caught his wife as she fell into his arms sobbing. God, it tore him up to see her cry. They watched the back of what had once been Ev’s old Ford drive off the ranch. That was the very truck they’d brought Austin home from the hospital in. It was more than Ev could stand, and far more than he would allow. “I know where he’s going, honey, and I intend to bring them home.”
“He told you?” A glimmer of hope played in Jessie’s beautiful emerald eyes.
“No, but I know my son better than I know my own hands.”
“How are you going to bring him home?”
“I’m gonna do what I should’ve done when they got here a few nights ago.” He lifted his cell phone from his pocket and scrolled through the numbers his old friend Heath had provided. Ev and Heath had gone to school together. They’d rebel-roused the hell out of Nebraska-Lincoln back in the day. Heath had returned to his family’s lands just outside of Dallas when his father’s health had gone down. He hadn’t finished his agriculture degree, but Ev had sent him all the coursework when he was finished with it. Back then, knowledge meant something, and to cattle ranchers knowledge would always mean more than any piece of paper. Ev had flown down for his daddy’s funeral. Heath had come up when Ev’s mama passed. Few years after that, Heath had gone on to get his veterinary degree from A&M. He’d tested out of most of the bachelors’ classes because he’d done the course work Ev provided. Ev had called to get a phone number, but Heath had provided so much more. He always did. That was how they worked.
Lifting the phone to his ear he considered his words carefully.
“Preston Cattle, this is Ginger speaking, how may I help you?”
“I need to speak to Brant Preston Sr. Now.”
“May I tell him who’s calling?”
“Sure, tell him Everett Camden’s calling from Camden Ranch deep in the heart of Nebraska. Friend of Dr. Heath Hotchkins. You might also tell him that Heath has a few questions about the prescriptions his son Brant Jr. requested a few months ago.”
“Yes, sir.”
***
“You know what, you can sit in here on your pan
sy-ass and not do jack shit, but I’m going over there and finding the hell out what that woman is up to. I’m not gonna let my brother go down for kidnapping and be run out of his home.” Luke left a shocked Miller standing in his room and stormed next door. He pounded on the door. “Dammit, Preston, I know you’re in there. Open the fucking door.”
Nothing. No answer, no noise at all.
“Here.” Miller joined Luke in the hallway and lifted his phone to his ear. “Yes, this is Nebraska State Bureau Detective Alan Miller. I have reason to believe that there may be a person in distress in hotel room 318. I need the room opened.”
Two hotel managers got off the elevator less than a minute later. They rushed to open the door. Luke shoved them aside as he stepped inside, but the room was empty. Brant must’ve escaped when the cops downstairs left to follow his mother’s cab.
Luke took off. He flew to the elevator and then out of the hotel, methodically scanning every person in the streets of Cheyenne that night. He went in every bar and when those turned up empty, he got in his truck and headed back to the Eagle’s Nest to check there.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Why are we slowing down?” Summer’s own voice shook through her weary bones. They hadn’t spoken in over an hour. Austin never took his eyes off the road. She’d watched the tiny ranch towns fly by and hadn’t asked why they were driving back towards Wyoming. He clearly had a plan. If it had been up to her, they would’ve been well past Denver by now, but she didn’t question him. For once in her life, she was going to listen to someone else and do it their way. He was leaving everything for her. She still couldn’t believe someone could possibly love her enough to do what he was doing.
“We’re almost there, honey. I’m sorry. I know I’m acting like an ass. I didn’t mean to scare you. Just trying to keep everything in my head.”
“It’s okay. It’s just when you talk it kind of makes me feel better.”