Last Second Chance (A Thomas Family Novel Book 2)

by Kristi Cramer

  Angelisa frowned as Kenny pulled forward again. “I hope it doesn’t take much longer,” she said under her breath. As far as Kenny knew, there wasn’t any reason to worry about the cops coming out here after her, and she wasn’t about to explain to him why they needed to hurry.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Mitzi came over the hill overlooking the Homeplace hollow and frowned. Everything looked pretty much the same as when she’d left earlier...with the exception of Janie’s truck parked up by the barn. No one was in sight and everything looked normal, although the four horses in the corral munching on some hay was a little out of the ordinary. As she got closer, she saw two more horses by the garden gate near the house, and noticed one of the gates to the pasture had been left open.

  Now she knew someone was out here who didn’t belong. No one on a ranch left a gate open. It was ingrained into every child to close the gate after going through.

  A quick look in the barn showed her that there were three ATVs missing. Janie had said Tim fell off his horse, which meant Salgado was after them using the off-road vehicles. It didn’t explain how Salgado had arrived at the ranch, or how she knew about the ATVs, though.

  Mitzi frowned. Something didn’t quite add up.

  Back outside, she took note of the tire tracks pressed into the sandy mud leading through the open gate and out into the prairie.

  Resisting the urge to follow the tracks, Mitzi checked to see if Sheriff Jonas was within radio range yet.

  ⋘⋆⋙

  “This isn’t working!” Janie said as they heard the sounds of the ATVs getting closer. “They’re tracking us!”

  “How does a city girl like Angelisa know how to track horses on the prairie?” Tim asked. It was a rhetorical question—neither of them had an answer. “What now?”

  “We’re going to have to leave the river,” she said. “At the next draw, there’s a dry creek bed...well, it might be flooded some now. But if it isn’t, we can ride up it. The ground should be harder, so it’ll be easier to hide our tracks. If it is flooded, maybe we can coax Roo into it and hide our tracks in the water.”

  Tim nodded grimly and followed Janie around the next hill. As she had suspected, the wash was flooded, but it wasn’t a steep drop and the water was fairly calm, wide, and shallow. She urged Carmelita into the water, checking back to see if Roo was giving Tim any trouble. Thankfully, the horse followed Carmelita as she turned up, away from the river. They forged through the water carefully, even though they could hear the sounds of the ATVs even better once the sound of the rushing river fell away.

  She didn’t breathe easy until they rounded a bend, putting a hill between them and where their tracks entered the water. Too bad there hadn’t been time to lay a false trail, although she knew the cattle and horse herd often watered on the other side of this draw. With luck, whoever was doing the tracking would assume they were keeping to the river, and the livestock tracks would confound them long enough that they could put some more ground between them.

  “We can’t run forever, can we?” Tim asked. “We’re going to run out of steam before they do, or they’re just going to catch up.”

  He was right, but Janie kept thinking furiously. Then she remembered the ruins of the old, original homestead. It was up this way, and not far. They could hole up there and even defend it, if they had to, until Mitzi got there.

  “I’ve got an idea,” she said, turning Carmelita to the right and out of the water, heading up over the hill. “I know a place we can hide, if we can just get there without being seen.”

  As far as they could tell, they made it over the hill unobserved. A lull in the ATV motors suggested their pursuers had stopped, probably at the wash where they had turned away from the river. That meant they were close!

  One more hill and they could run flat out for the old homestead. Which they did. Within fifteen minutes, they reined up in the compound and tied the horses inside the decrepit barn.

  “What is this place?” Tim asked, looking around.

  “It’s the old homestead. My great-great-grandmother, Johanna, and her first husband built it in the 1880s. After he died in a tornado and my great-great-granddaddy Blue came along, they built it up even more. But it had to be abandoned during the depression in favor of the current site when an upstream neighbor diverted the river away from it. It was a pretty big battle over water rights. Several families were involved and, to this day, many of them still have bad blood between them.”

  “Huh.” He was understandably distracted from full appreciation of the story.

  “I’ll tell you about it someday. Cody’s family was a key player, so I got to hear all about it from them. The Thomas family liked the new site better anyway, so we didn’t kick up too much of a fuss.”

  She gestured toward the main house. “Let’s set up over here. It’s pretty rundown, but we used to go up the stairs when I was a kid. Maybe we can get some elevation on them and be able to hold them off if they find us.” She held up the 30-30 and gave it a meaningful shake.

  “Sounds like a plan, I guess. How much ammo did you bring?” he asked as they crossed to the weathered two-story house. She could tell he was trying not to let on how uncomfortable his ankle felt, but his limp gave him away.

  “Only about a dozen.”

  They fell silent as they entered through the gaping doorway, pausing a moment to let their eyes adjust to the relative gloom. Janie pointed to the left, where a staircase still climbed toward the second floor. It didn’t look very different from when she was a kid and her brothers had reinforced the steps so they could play upstairs, although two risers were now missing treads.

  “Think you can get up there?” she asked.

  He looked at it dubiously. “Maybe. Not sure about getting down, though.” He reached out and shook the railing, which didn’t give much.

  “I could go up alone...,” she began.

  “I think not knowing what was going on would make me crazy.”

  “Okay. I’ll go up first, make sure it will still hold weight, then you can make your way up. Sound good?”

  “Sure.”

  He watched as she climbed, careful to stay close to the wall. When she reached the top, she made her way to the window, then called down to him. “The floor still feels pretty sturdy. Come on up!”

  She followed his progress by listening to the sound of him shuffling along. In a few moments, he joined her to look out across the prairie in the direction from which they had come. They didn’t have to wait long before they saw first one ATV, then two more crest the hill, followed by the black SUV.

  “She brought an army,” Tim said. Janie reached out and pulled him low against the window frame to reduce the chance they would be seen. But if they had followed their tracks this far, odds were they would figure out where their quarry had gone.

  She squinted at the lead ATV, which had two riders. The flowing black hair of the woman on the back was unmistakable, but the driver....

  “Well, that explains a lot,” she said. “How did she hook up with Kenny?”

  “What?” Tim asked. He followed her gaze, then let out a terse oath.

  Kenny pointed toward the homestead, and Janie knew they were going to be found momentarily. Resolutely, she knelt and positioned herself low in the window to brace her shoulder and elbow against the frame as she brought the 30-30 to bear on the approaching vehicles.

  “What are you doing?” Tim asked.

  “When they get into range, I’m going to fire a warning shot,” she said. “We don’t want them to get close enough to use handguns. I don’t have much more distance than they do, but at least we have a little cover. If I can keep them at enough of a distance, their bullets won’t come through the walls. Unless one of them has a cannon.”

  “How accurate are you?” he asked, glancing at her with worry on his face.

  She just cocked her head to the side as she worked the lever action to load a cartridge into the chamber.

  Sigh
ting down the barrel, she gauged the distance to the vehicles, trying to factor in the headwind. When the lead ATV crossed the imaginary line she’d drawn in her mind, she took a steadying breath and squeezed the trigger.

  The shot rang out, loud in their enclosed space, and a puff of dust flew up directly in front of the lead ATV, which skidded to a stop. She quickly chambered another cartridge as the riders jumped off their vehicles and sought cover.

  All except the black-haired woman, who stood her ground. It was hard to tell at that distance, but she seemed to be looking right at them.

  ⋘⋆⋙

  So that’s how they want to play it, eh? Angelisa thought.

  She studied the sun-bleached bones of the buildings standing about two hundred and fifty yards off. The lone bullet had struck the ground with a distinctly weak sound, and her military training told her it was a smaller caliber rifle. More than likely, she stood just outside its longest reach, definitely outside its effective range. Even if one of them had been hit, the bullet’s velocity had been so slow, it wouldn’t have done much damage.

  She caught sight of movement in one of the upper windows of the dilapidated home and narrowed her gaze. She could make out two figures peering out at her, and she shook her head. The thrill of the chase was wearing thin. Time to wrap up this game.

  “Eddie,” she called, gesturing for her men to gather around her. They hesitantly stood, and she gestured again, more sharply. “It’s safe. We’re out of range.”

  “Are you sure?” Eddie asked, not wanting to leave the perceived safety of the SUV.

  “Yes,” she hissed, letting anger color her tone. That was enough to bring her men closer. They would rather risk an unknown gunman than her wrath, which was how it should be.

  The cowboy approached her faster than the others, throwing a gesture toward the building. “What the devil is going on?” he demanded. “Why one earth would they shoot at us?”

  With no hesitation, Angelisa drew her Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol from the holster at the small of her back, brought it up, and shot Kenny between the eyes. There wasn’t even time for surprise to register on his face before his body fell to the ground with all the elegance of a sack of rocks.

  Perfect. She needed a demonstration of her resolve. Now Tim would have no doubt as to his upcoming fate. Let him absorb this, and learn to fear her once again.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Tim gasped as Kenny’s body jerked and fell backward, sprawling in the dirt. Angelisa’s action had been swift, brutal, and shocking. It had the effect on him he was sure she intended, convincing him she had no intention of allowing either Janie or himself to survive this day.

  “Jesus,” Janie breathed. Her hands shook as she raised her rifle again, but she took deep breaths and they steadied. “She’s staying out of range.”

  “Good,” Tim said. “We just need to hold them off until Mitzi gets here, right?”

  “I hope she hurries.”

  As they watched, the little group on the prairie gathered for a quick conference, then the three men each took an ATV and began to skirt either side of the homestead, leaving Angelisa with the SUV.

  “They’re moving to surround us,” Tim said.

  Janie’s only response was to squeeze off another shot, which struck one of the ATVs with a metallic clang. The rider had not been going fast so he didn’t lose control, but a wisp of steam confirmed she had disabled the vehicle.

  “Good shot,” Tim said in awe.

  “I was aiming for the tire,” she said flatly, shifting her aim to the next ATV and cocking the rifle again. “But whatever works.”

  Another shot rang out, and both the remaining ATV riders bailed off their seats, obviously not knowing who the target was. The shot was off, raising a puff of dust near the ATV that had travelled the farthest from the SUV, but neither rider climbed back up, unwilling to be targets again.

  Angelisa took a step toward the homestead, so Janie shifted her aim, squeezing off another round that struck the ground at the woman’s feet. The four intruders backed off and appeared to be having a heated, albeit short discussion. Then the three men drew weapons of their own and backed farther away from the homestead before turning to skirt around the buildings again, well out of range.

  The woman stepped over to the lead ATV and took something off the rear rack. Then she walked to the SUV, opened the passenger door, and disappeared for a moment, reappearing with something in her hands.

  Janie and Tim glanced at each other, not knowing what Angelisa was up to as she walked back and forth a few times. Her behavior was baffling until a tongue of flame licked up at her feet, followed by white smoke and more flames. With the wind behind her, the flames quickly began to spread toward the buildings.

  The other men were still in sight, taking their time circling the buildings. Tim got the idea that they wanted to instill fear in them, hoping they would panic and make a mistake.

  “Are there other windows?” he asked. “Will you be able to cover them all?” He was starting to wish he had his own weapon, although he was sure he wouldn’t have been able to make even half the shots Janie had.

  “I’m a little more worried about the fire,” she said, her voice tense.

  He looked back at the flames to see they had already covered a quarter of the distance between them and Angelisa, who had disappeared behind the billowing smoke. Fire moved swiftly through shrubs desiccated by the constant prairie wind, and when he checked on the others, he saw them moving quickly now, no doubt wanting to be in position to pick them off if they tried to run.

  “She’s not messing around,” Janie said.

  Tim wished he knew what to do. This was not his style of fighting. He knew how to take someone on face to face, meeting their might with his fists. This elemental attack cut through his strength and made him feel completely useless. With his bum foot, he couldn’t even try sneaking up on anyone.

  He checked the sun, wishing for darkness, but it looked to be about half an hour before dusk. Clouds of smoke billowed around the homestead, obscuring the sky and prairie around them.

  “Screw it,” he said after a moment, pushing himself to his feet.

  “What are you going to do?” Janie asked, concern tingeing her tone.

  “I’m done running,” he said, heading for the stairs. He was conscious of the throbbing in his ankle, but he wasn’t ready to concede to helplessness. If he survived, he could drown the pain with ibuprofen. “I’m going to try to use the smoke as cover.”

  He heard Janie following him, but he focused his attention on making sure he didn’t fall through the holes.

  As they left the building, they heard the horses whinnying.

  “They smell the smoke,” Janie said as they hurried to the barn.

  “I think we should split up,” Tim said. “You go north out the back. I’ll go east, straight into the smoke to try and take out the two guys who went that direction. You see if you can find Mitzi.” He didn’t mention the fact that if he survived, he was going to take on Angelisa.

  Janie took a step toward him, catching his gaze and searching it with earnest green eyes. She raised her free hand and caressed his cheek before leaning in to kiss him hard.

  “When this is over...,” she began. He nodded, covering her hand with his. He knew there were a hundred other activities he’d rather be doing with her.

  Without another word, Janie swung up onto her horse’s back. She looked composed, but he took note of her white-knuckled grip on the rifle. He hurried to mount Roo.

  “Be careful,” he told her, gathering the reins.

  Before he could say more, Janie wheeled Carmelita around and headed away from him. Knowing he needed to project calm confidence to keep Roo from panicking, Tim patted the beast’s neck and made soothing noises. He supposed he was talking, telling Roo what he planned to do, but he was focused more on the doing than the talking.

  As he turned, Tim spotted a weathered branding iron hanging on the wall by the
barn door, and he reached out to lift it off the rusty nails.

  Glancing back toward Janie, he saw her disappear into the smoke and breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t exactly safe, but every step she took in the opposite direction was one step closer to making it home.

  He turned to look at the thick smoke and urged Roo toward it, not knowing how he was going to do what needed to be done. He leaned against Roo’s neck, both to reassure the beast and to try to minimize the smoke.

  Then he heard a wracking cough in front of him. Before he could overthink it, he spurred Roo toward the sound. The horse eagerly charged forward, and Tim had only a brief moment to appreciate his friend’s trust in him before a figure loomed out of the smoke. Swinging the branding iron like a polo mallet, Tim clobbered the man, the blow striking him just below his ear. There was a glimpse of his startled expression before he fell heavily to the ground.

  Tim could only imagine how his attack had appeared to the man. To a city dweller, twelve hundred pounds of horseflesh coming straight at him would easily shock him into freezing on the spot.

  Knowing he couldn’t leave him with a weapon, Tim swung Roo around and slid off. Hopping on one foot, he picked up the gun the man had been too startled to bring to bear.

  The man moaned and writhed on the ground, but Tim couldn’t bring himself to do anything more than disarm him. The branding iron had done serious damage. It would be a while before he could make any further trouble for them.

  Not knowing what else to do with the pistol, Tim tucked it into the waistband at the small of his back. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be in possession of a firearm, but he couldn’t chance the man picking it up and getting back into the fight.

  Roo, who had been nervously crowding him as he worked, abruptly tossed his head, causing Tim to look up as a shape moved through the smoke. The shadow turned toward him, outstretched arm holding something that looked like a weapon.

  Snatching the branding iron and ignoring the pain in his ankle, he lunged toward the shape and swung in a downward arc, hitting the figure on the arm. Yelping in pain, the man dropped the pistol, then swung a fist, which Tim blocked with his left arm before taking another swing with his makeshift club.