Degüello

by Billy Kring

  Hunter took a deep breath and looked over the terrain and saw no one, only the house in the distance. Her mounting stress had Hunter’s jaws aching as she took time to prep for the confrontation. She pictured Kelly and Anita, and the other children as well as Ramona. Her breathing changed when she pictured Solomon, Suretta, and the others. Gripping the shotgun, she trotted across the thorn-dotted, rocky hills, looking for enemies as she went.

  An hour later, she lay on her stomach under a bushy cedar at the edge of the hill’s crest and scanned the interior of the walled compound with her binoculars. The interior was a courtyard with a cabana and small swimming pool, and a flowing fountain arranged to look like a small spring. A large metal grill was against the wall next to the glass doors. Two large propane tanks rested on a bottom shelf, and the propane was on because Hunter saw yellow flames flicking under the steaks and sausages on the iron grill. Ringing the inside of the courtyard were small rooms along the walls, except for the one part which showed glass windows and doors. Behind the glass loomed an expansive home of oversized plush couches and chairs. Animal hides covered the Saltillo tile floor. A large bar showed along the back wall.

  Solomon Chapa walked by the glass window as she watched, and she felt her jaws clench again. Behind him were Suretta and Kit, with massive La Osa behind them. She touched Kit’s shoulder and the two women walked out of the room and out of Hunter’s sight.

  Paco brought up the rear, hanging back some five feet behind the others. Through the binoculars, Hunter made out a large red spot on the side of his face showing the imprint of a fist. As the others stopped to talk, he walked by them, flinching when he passed close to Suretta, who used her hands to emphasize her words.

  Solomon gave instructions to the others, mostly to Suretta. They nodded and left, then Solomon walked to the bar, where a small man in a white jacket poured him a drink. The oversized, etched crystal tumbler twinkled like diamonds in the house lights as he lifted it to his mouth. Hunter felt odd, because it appeared that he was looking at her.

  She shook her head, couldn’t be, she thought. Hidden like she was, and with eighty yards separating them, there was no way.

  She wondered where they kept the children, and whether they were together in one room, or separated. A man exited Solomon’s home and walked to the open gates and closed the large, ornate wooden barriers.

  A door at the far side of the pool opened, and Kit and La Osa emerged, herding most of the children into the open area. Hunter stiffened, watching as the two women arranged the children in a single line, facing the hill where Hunter lay hidden. Neither Kelly nor Anita were among them.

  They waited as Suretta called to someone in another room, and Paco emerged a moment later, pushing a male into the yard. his hands were tied behind his back and a flour sack covered his head down to his shoulders.

  Paco guided and pushed the man to the end of the line of children, then forced him to kneel. Hunter’s palms sweated as she watched it unfold.

  In the distance, where the main road intersected with Solomon’s ranch road, Hunter watched a large truck and trailer similar to a furniture delivery truck start down the road toward the compound. It travelled at a tortoise pace because of the potholes and rocks in the uneven road, but it continued to come.

  A movement in the yard brought her attention to it, and she watched Suretta go to the kneeling man and slap him so hard that dust flew from the sack on his head. He fell to the side, hitting the ground and causing another pale cloud of dust to rise.

  “What the hell?” Hunter said.

  She glanced again at the truck and saw it still coming down the road, much closer now, and close enough for her to see the two men, one the driver and one the passenger, in the truck cab. It appeared the truck would drive past the compound walls, taking a road that stayed close and circled to the back.

  Solomon Chapa opened the glass door and walked into the compound yard, drink in his hand and nodding to the two men who had been in the black Suburban as they tended the grill. He definitely looked at the hilltop where Hunter lay, and it made goosebumps on her arms to realize that he and the others knew she was there.

  Solomon went to the line of children and the man, and pulled off the sack covering the man’s head.

  Ike blinked in the sunlight, squinting his eyes as a bright red trickle of blood ran from his nose and down his chin.

  Hunter’s heart thudded in her ears.

  Another door opened and Nadine came out with Kelly in front of her. Nadine put Kelly beside Ike, and remained behind her.

  Ramona and Anita came out last, with a man Hunter didn’t know pushing them. Solomon beckoned them to him, and when they approached, he pulled Anita beside him and held her there. Ramona stepped forward and Solomon hit her so hard she fell and didn’t move. He motioned for the women, and they drug her to be beside Ike and Kelly, but left her unconscious on the ground.

  The approaching truck rumbled and creaked as it came forward, but Hunter only half-glanced at it. She watched Solomon, her hands on the shotgun.

  Solomon called in a loud voice, “Hunter Kincaid, I have a deal for you.” He waited a second, as if giving her a chance to answer. When she didn’t, he said, “Would you like to hear what it is?” He smiled at the hill, “You will have to answer on this one.”

  The truck made so much noise she had to strain to hear, but she called out, “I’m listening.”

  Solomon said, “Suretta found Ike and brought him and the girl. Suretta always gets it done.”

  Suretta looked at the place Hunter hid, “Always.” Like a taunt.

  Solomon said, “So, here is the deal, a one-time offer. All these lives, except for Ramona and Anita, for yours.”

  Hunter felt the shock the words, like a pail of ice water thrown on her.

  He continued, “You sacrifice yourself to me, and the others can go. But, if you don’t, I will kill them all, one at a time.”

  Kelly yelled, “Don’t do it, Hunter! Run!”

  Paco stepped close and put a hand on her shoulder as he whispered something in her ear. It stopped Nadine from hitting the girl, and Paco remained there with his hand resting on Kelly.

  Hunter felt her chest squeezed like an iron band around it, tightening down, making it hard to breathe. Kelly’s words made her eyes sting, and she shook her head to clear the vision.

  The truck was seventy yards from the compound, and still coming up the rough road.

  Solomon said, “Just to help you along with your answer.” He pulled a small pistol and shot the freckle-faced girl at the far end of the line. Hunter’s heart ached and her eyes welled.

  “Damn you,” she said.

  Solomon said, “Every minute that passes, there will be another one. Make up your mind, Kincaid.”

  Hunter looked at the people in the compound, and at the closed gates that stopped anyone from escaping before they could be shot.

  The truck rumbled closer to the compound. She knew she couldn’t trust Chapa. A feeling of deep sadness settled on her, and she looked at the sky to take it all in. Her last things to see would be the sky and the earth, all the things she truly loved and would miss. She breathed deeply, smelling the dust and the creosote, the sage. These were good things to remember at the last, and she knew, that with so many killers against her, she probably wouldn’t see another sunrise or watch another sunset.

  But, if she could save Anita and Kelly, who she felt so close to, and the others, it would be a good decision to make, and one that was worth her life.

  Hunter made her choice.

  Chapter 20

  There was no way to run fast and carry all her gear. She took off the canvas dove bag, leaving the heavy shells, and put down the shotgun because of the weight, as well as the binoculars. She kept the pistol, then she scooted down the back side of the hill and ran like a deer toward the road and the moving truck.

  No one in the compound could see her because she was below the compound wall, and Hunter ran as fast as she�
�d ever run in her life. Thirty yards from the compound she caught up with the truck and hopped onto the driver’s running board where the open window let her put the Glock against the driver’s temple. His eyes rolled and he said, “What? No, no!”

  “Drive through the gate, break it down.”

  “But it is Chapa’s.”

  She pushed with the pistol, making the man’s head move to the side. “I’ll kill you if you don’t, you and your amigo.”

  The passenger’s eyes widened to the size of golf balls as he said, “Do it, Ramón! Crash it down!”

  Hunter held onto the side mirror and the open driver’s window as the driver floored the pedal and the truck groaned and bounced on the road, gaining speed until it hit the gates.

  Wood splintered and exploded in all directions as the truck shot through the opening. Hunter dropped from the truck and ran with it until she regained her footing, then she stopped, cut behind the still moving vehicle just as Suretta and Nadine shot the truck cab to pieces, thinking the men inside were attacking.

  The truck continued forward, through the courtyard and going like an arrow toward the large grill and the wall behind it. Suretta continued to shoot the cab, but the truck didn’t slow down, and everyone watched as the truck crashed into the grill, knocking meat in all directions and the grill tops spinning through the air.

  The children screamed when the two large propane tanks tore loose and the open flames ignited the spewing gas in a hollow roar like a jet engine. The tanks bounced and spun across the yard, propelled by the compressed propane inside, and sprayed fire like two large flame throwers. One tank glanced off the wall and spun like a blazing pinwheel, covering everything near it with fire, including the two men tending the grill. Nadine and Suretta held the children in place as they watched the flames scorch, then ignite the stucco and wood walls of the building. Everyone stared dumbfounded at the fires, everyone except Hunter.

  She came around the rear of the truck at a sprint and brought her pistol up, knowing she had to kill them all if the children were to survive. Fear moved inside her like a living thing, but she ran forward.

  One magazine, thirteen rounds, she thought, with the place on fire and so many enemies.

  Her first shot took La Osa in the forehead, and the huge woman staggered back several steps before falling into a burning pile of wood as the propane tanks gradually lost their pressure and dwindled to nothing.

  Suretta shot at Hunter and missed, but the bullet snatched at her shirt.

  Ike came to his feet as everyone’s attention focused on the fires and Hunter. He hopped into the air and pulled his bound wrists under his feet so his hands were in front. He clubbed Nadine with them, knocking her to the ground, but not unconscious.

  Paco left the children and ran to the wall, crouching behind a decorative rain barrel to stay far from the fighting and the flames.

  No one guarded the kids. Kelly yelled to the other children, “Run outside, run away!” She helped them go, herding them in front of her, and at the last, she hesitated, almost going for Anita, but Hunter caught her eyes and waved her to the gate.

  Suretta kicked Ike in the chest and he went down again, rising slow, and not making it to his feet before she was on him, launching terrible kicks and punches to his face.

  Ramona clawed at Solomon’s face, but he brushed her away like a nuisance fly as he shot at Hunter. The bullet stung like a quick electric shock as the bullet grazed her forearm across the top, leaving a red, oozing groove that burned like touching a hot stove.

  Hunter snapped two fast shots and hit Chapa square in the chest. Solomon staggered back, and she shot at his head but missed as his footing slipped.

  The small bartender in the white jacket kicked open the glass door and sprayed bullets at Hunter with an AK-47. She swung her pistol toward him and fired as fast as she could until he dropped, then she put one more in him to make sure.

  Nadine momentarily panicked at all the shooting, and then she noticed Kelly as the girl urged the other children out the gate. Nadine caught her twenty feet from making it through. She turned with Kelly against her chest and her pistol at the child’s temple. She yelled, “Kincaid! Drop your damn gun or I’ll kill her!”

  Everything seemed to stop.

  Nadine said, “You know I will.”

  Hunter looked at the distance between them. Ten yards. Both heard Solomon’s voice, “Go ahead and shoot her, and the kid, too. She’s nothing but trouble.”

  Hunter looked at the cartel leader as he pulled open his shirt and slid his hand under the bulletproof vest to rub where it stopped the bullets but still bruised him. He lifted his pistol, “Adios, Kincaid.”

  Hunter didn’t remember how many rounds she had left. Save Kelly first, she thought. Her arm hung at her side, the Glock in her hand. She whipped up her pistol, shooting Nadine through the right eye, dropping the tattooed woman on her back as her clenched hand drug Kelly down on top of her.

  Solomon shot and his pistol sounded loud to Hunter because she was directly in front of the muzzle. The round hit her on the hip and spun her half-around, causing Chapa’s next two shots to miss. Hunter’s right hip numbed from the bullet’s impact, but she remained upright and still had the pistol.

  Before Chapa could shoot a fourth time, Hunter fired as she stepped to the side, putting her round into his upper lip right below the nose. He dropped loose-jointed, hitting hard and dead before he struck the ground. Hunter jerked as she heard an animal-like scream behind her.

  Suretta charged, holding a knife low with the blade facing up, intent on gutting her.

  Hunter brought up the Glock and saw it was empty. She pulled the Gerber knife and crouched, intent on fighting to the death so Kelly could escape.

  As Suretta closed to within five feet of Hunter with her focus totally on the Border Patrol Agent, Paco shot her twice from ten feet. She fell forward and hit the ground in an awkward fall like a drunk person. Hunter looked at Paco, who said, “She is a very bad woman. A bruja, a witch.”

  Kelly pushed Nadine’s lifeless arms off her and struggled to her feet. She ran to Hunter and hugged her tight. Kelly felt light enough to float away, like a balloon.

  Paco walked toward them, stopping to help Ike to his feet. “I am sorry for my part in these troubles,” he said.

  Suretta struggled to her feet again, looking like some bloody figure from a nightmare.

  Paco stepped closer and put his pistol to the back of her head, firing twice.

  This time she stayed down.

  Ike didn’t look steady on his feet, but Ramona and Anita hurried to him, one on each side to hold him upright. He kissed Ramona and smiled at Anita, then looked at Paco for several seconds. “I’m good with what you did.”

  “I am sure you are.”

  Ramona whispered in Ike’s ear.

  Ike said, “If there’s anything you want from this place, you can go ahead and get it.”

  Paco said, “Why?”

  Ramona said, “Because I’m going to let it burn to the ground.”

  “If you will allow me, so I have more time to search, I will watch it for you until it is ash, and then leave this part of Mexico forever.”

  “As you wish.”

  Kelly still clung to Hunter, and she hugged this smart, tough, loyal kid just as hard. Hunter said, “We make a good team.”

  Kelly said, “I hope you’re always around so I can come see you.”

  “I’ll never be far, okay? You need me, you call.”

  “Promise?”

  She put out her pinky finger, “Double pinky promise.” Kelly smiled wide as the two locked pinky fingers and shook.

  Kelly relaxed slightly, but still stayed close to Hunter, touching her with a hand, or leaning closer so her arm touched hers.

  Hunter’s hip throbbed so bad she wanted to cry. She pushed down her jeans to check it.

  The wound looked angry and the edges of it pursed outward, swollen and puckered. She inspected it, seeing the bu
llet had struck the top of her hipbone and bounced out to leave one ragged hole that wasn’t deep, but bruised the dickens out of her side and hip. Her pants around the hole were soaked with blood.

  Kelly looked at it wide-eyed. “I’ll be back.” She ran into the house and a minute later returned with two small plastic sacks, giving one to Ramona and keeping the other to take to Hunter. Both sacks contained bandages, gauze, scissors, ointments, and peroxide.

  “Thanks.”

  “I can do it for you, if you want.”

  Hunter nodded, and Kelly had her hip and forearm cleaned and bandaged in quick time. Hunter said, “Where’d you learn all that?”

  “YouTube.”

  Hunter looked at her. This child had endured so much, and yet pushed through it all to still help others.

  “What?” Kelly said, noticing Hunter’s appraisal.

  “Oh nothing, just how beautiful you are.”

  Kelly blushed hard, her cheeks bright pink spots. “I don’t think so.”

  “Trust me, you-are-beautiful.” She hugged the child again, and both held the embrace for a while.

  Ramona took charge of the other children, pulling them around her and Anita, and telling them she would make sure they returned to their parents.

  Ike’s face looked like the loser of a fight with Mike Tyson. He shuffled to Hunter and Kelly.

  “You handsome devil.” Hunter said.

  Kelly laughed, then covered her mouth but couldn’t stop snickering.

  Ike grinned, and it was good to see he still had all his teeth in that white smile.

  “You don’t look as fevered anymore.”

  “Still a little, but they gave me some amoxicillin when we got here. Wanted to keep me healthy until they could kill me. So, what are we doing now?”

  “We can all go. My Jeep’s up the road, and I’m sure there are a few vehicles here that we can use. What do you think?”