Their Ex's Redrock Twilight (Texas Alpha) (Texas Alpha Series Book 4)

by Shirl Anders

  Vincent swerved, not turning, as he slowed his truck.

  “Did they go straight?” Vincent yelled.

  He was going to gun the truck, but what Navi yelled made him stop.

  “They’re nearly at the crossroads, Boss! I can barely see her SUV if I get on top of your truck!”

  Vincent’s blood ran cold. Luna had Tess.

  Navi leaped like a true warrior, and Vincent heard him pounding into the bed of the truck.

  “Boss, the hill in the road! Go to the top.”

  Vincent curbed his need to floor it, but he didn’t go slow either. He knew Navi had the strength born of a young and hard life. He knew the boy could hold on and he knew how smart he was, warning that they needed to see which way Luna’s SUV went at the crossroads, if they had any hope to track her.

  Vincent kept his foot on the gas, but as they neared the rise, he braced his other leg so he could lift his body as high as he could go in the truck to see if he could see them. But it wasn’t high enough.

  Small fists pounded on top of the truck.

  “Vincent, I see them!” Navi yelled, using his name for the first time, and Vincent felt it slam through him. “Stop and let me watch the dust,” Navi shouted.

  Vincent felt as if he was going to splinter, he was so wired, but he forced his body and mind to calm down as he slowed. He grabbed his cell, praying Navi got the direction as he pushed his cell phone on.

  “Hell,” he muttered under his breath. No signal. But he typed a text to Cabe anyway, since Sam was out alone on reservation land and out of touch.

  Navi’s long black hair flipped into view from Vincent’s left, and he turned his gaze to see the boy’s black eyes looking at him as he hung from the top of the cab.

  “Boss, that bad lady took Missy to the left. I see the dust.”

  “Thank you,” Vincent uttered. “You sprint back to the home and tell—”

  “No!” Navi cried, pounding on the roof of the cab once. “I need to get Mom.” Then he gasped and yelled, “Missy! Need to get Missy. I can help!”

  “No,” Vincent said.

  But Navi’s eyes and hair disappeared and there were thuds on the roof, then feet shot into the open passenger window, with Navi’s long, thin body following, until he bounced to sit on the passenger seat.

  “You’ll need me to look out if she turns again,” he said stubbornly as he grabbed his seatbelt to hook up and his dark eyes challenged Vincent with intensity.

  Damn it, Navi was right. He did need him.

  “Hold on,” Vincent growled, and the truck surged forward. Vincent tossed his cell phone to Navi. “Keep checking it for a signal. You see one, you push send every time. You hear me?”

  “I do, Boss, I do.”

  Vincent knew there was no way in hell Navi had meant calling Tess “Mom” to slip out, but it confirmed what Vincent had thought for a while now: the two of them were getting very close.

  “Tell me everything you saw,” he ordered harshly.

  But the boy could handle harsh—he was a survivor. Navi reminded Vincent of him and Sam when they’d been young Indian orphans. They’d been tough and resourceful and hadn’t let life throw them away.

  Just then, his cell phone rang and Navi whipped it to him. Vincent fisted his phone and punched answer, then slammed to his ear. He’d seen the number calling in a flash. He had to be fucking brilliant, more brilliant than he’d been in his entire life, and his eyes blazed with determination.

  “Luna ... babe, you got my attention. Talk to me,” he said, with his voice rumbling deeply.

  Navi made a startled sound from across the seat. He’d heard a little bit about crazy Luna before.

  “You’re all I have,” Luna said, sobbing. “I need you. I need to get rid of her so you’ll come back to me.”

  Vincent clenched his eyes closed for a second, then when he opened them, he pressed down on the gas even harder, as he gestured at Navi to keep looking out ahead.

  “Luna, you got me,” he said roughly. “But you only got me if you don’t hurt anyone doing it. You got my word.”

  “Vinny,” she said, but it sounded hopeful.

  Vincent prayed to the Great Spirit as he’d never prayed before, then he played a card that had always worked before.

  “Babe, gotta tell you I was getting bored. She’s got no sparkle and shine like you. Maybe I’m glad.”

  Navi made a hissing mad sound from the passenger seat. Vincent took the cell and slashed it in the air at him, shaking his head.

  Then off the phone, where Luna couldn’t hear, he muttered, “Playing a game, son. You keep your shit together.”

  Navi’s eyes drew down shrewdly, as Vincent put the phone back to his ear.

  He heard Luna saying, “She’ll always be between us. It won’t be good unless she’s not around.”

  Then, heartbreakingly, he heard Tess crying, “You can have him! I don’t want him if he thinks you sparkle and shine.”

  Vincent knew that Tess knew the con he was trying to lay down. They had been through it before—not as dangerous, but close. His woman had the heart of a warrior, and he was proud.

  “Shut up, bitch!” Luna screamed.

  Vincent’s jaw ticked when it sounded as if Luna had hit Tess and Tess cried out in pain.

  Fuck.

  “Tell me where you are at, baby,” he asked harshly. “Quit messing with her. I do not want the law to mess up our chance together.”

  Damn it, the thing was that he would never believe him spewing that crap, but Luna was madly self-centered and couldn’t see anything she didn’t want to see.

  “Twin Pines. Be there! And Vinnie, you better not be lying to me,” Luna exclaimed.

  Vincent wasn’t sure, before she cut the call, if she’d heard him yelling, “You want us together, no one gets hurt!”

  Vincent fisted his phone, his gaze cutting to Navi, as he ordered, “Tighten down that seatbelt, son, and hold on.”

  Vincent pushed his truck to ninety on the back roads of reservation lands, which shouldn’t be driven that fast over, but it was the shortest route to get to Twin Pines Motel. Along the way, he heard his shocks blow, his back axle crack, and his engine, or his brakes, he wasn’t certain which, was billowing smoke by the time he swerved the truck and skidded to a stop, a quarter mile from Twin Pines.

  Navi’s black eyes were wide and intent when he looked over at him turning off his truck. Then, before Vincent could utter a curse or a word, Navi jumped ahead of him.

  “You need me, Boss. Don’t tell me to just sit here.”

  Vincent grabbed Navi by the back of the neck and brought them eye to eye.

  “You’re going to do what I tell you, son, you get that.” Vincent saw Navi’s eyes grow sharp—he was going to argue, but he didn’t. Vincent squeezed his neck. “You work your way around back of the motel. Get to the front, on the far side of the office, where no one will see you going in. And you tell them in there to call the reservation cops. You tell them Luna Whitehorse, whatever room number she’s in, has a gun.”

  Navi was nodding by the end of his instructions. Vincent understood he couldn’t just let the boy sit there and wait; it wasn’t in their blood just to wait out dangerous situations.

  But he needed this.

  He needed Navi to do this.

  Also, Vincent knew it probably wasn’t going to help, because there was no way they could get there in time.

  “I’ll do it just like you tell me, Boss. You go get her safe.”

  Vincent looked intensely into Navi’s black eyes. “Everything I do is to get her safe, Navi. You remember that.”

  ***

  Tess wiped the blood off her lip with her free hand. Her other wrist was cuffed to the exposed pipe under the bathroom sink. She sat on the floor with her back to the wall, watching Luna furiously pacing in and out of view in the motel room beyond the open bathroom door.

  Vincent was coming ... Tess knew it.

  And that terrified her more than
the depraved woman that had kidnapped her by gunpoint and was pacing in front of her. But Tess couldn’t think of anything to help her husband. Not one blasted angle added up in her mind. And she’d be damned if she’d just hand Vincent over to the crazy bitch.

  Here, take my husband and let me live.

  God, after this Vincent might try to leave her again, to save her. Tess glared at the frantically pacing figure whipping in and out of her view.

  No way that was happening this time. If she managed to live through it, this time that bitch was going to prison forever. Incarcerated so long that Vincent would never try to be noble and leave Tess to keep her safe again.

  So while she had no good escape strategies, she did start scheming ways to ensure Luna Fucking-Crazy-Whiterose got what was coming to her delusional ass.

  Luna came stomping up to the open bathroom door, and Tess noticed again that she looked as if she were a drug user trying to hide it. Too skinny, pale looking, and with insanity in her eyes. Tess watched the gun Luna had in her hand swing by her hip.

  “You’re just too much of a boring little housewife for him. Men like Vincent need sexy, powerful women, not mothers with apron strings, like you. I bet you are a frigid fuck,” Luna spat.

  Tess realized she was trying to convince herself that Vincent was really coming to her because he wanted to, and was bored or whatever with his wife.

  “I could never compete with you,” Tess muttered disgustedly.

  Luna flipped back her dull, stringy hair back with the hand not holding the pistol.

  “He’s too much man for you,” Luna said.

  Tess kept her eyes on the floor, then eventually, as if reluctantly, she nodded slowly. Inwardly, she was like, No way, bitch.

  Luna made a satisfied sound. “I knew it!” she exclaimed. “There’s no way he’d want you over me.”

  “He’s not been home ... overnight sometimes,” Tess muttered, putting as tragic a look as she could manage on her face as she lied.

  “Who’s he with?” Luna demanded sharply, sounding manic again.

  Inwardly, Tess cursed. It wasn’t the direction she’d been aiming for, and so she was stuck. The only thing she could think to say was: “I’m not sure he’s with anybody, just getting away from me.”

  Luna whirled around and left the bathroom, while Tess shuddered and wondered if she’d just made everything worse. Luna might not be looking at Tess as such a rival now, but now Luna was thinking Vincent could be cheating with another woman.

  Tess lifted her hand with the small motel soap she had hidden in her palm and returned to rubbing it all over the handcuff and her hand, with the hope she could slip the cuff off, while she fought tears. There was no way this was going to end well.

  Just then, she heard a sound. It wasn’t Luna in the other room and it wasn’t the cuffs ticking, because she was very careful not to make a sound while she worked. She looked around the small room. It had sounded as if it was in the bathroom. Another sound clicked, and it made her eyes lift.

  Then she saw the small bathroom window moving outward.

  Vincent!

  In the other room, she heard a crash, and she scooted to see if she could see what was happening by extending her arm. It looked as if Luna had broken a bottle of liquor against the wall. Maybe she’d thrown it across the motel room or something. Then Luna continued to pace the room and mutter to herself.

  When Tess looked back, the window was fully opened outward, and a face she knew too well was looking down on her.

  “Nnn—” she started to exclaim, just keeping from crying Navi’s name out. No, no, no. She lifted her hand and she started frantically waving it for him to go away, while she mouthed, “No! Go!”

  There was a pounding on the motel room door, and Tess didn’t even look that way as she said under the loud noise from the other room, “It’s too dangerous, Navi. Go back.”

  He didn’t listen. Instead, he climbed through the window, while the noise out in the motel room covered him.

  It was Vincent arriving, with Luna yelling, “Put your hands up and come in slowly!”

  Tess stared in horror at Navi landing in the bathroom by the toilet. She knew without a doubt Vincent had no idea Navi was doing what he was doing. Navi scrambled to the shower tub, where a curtain was pulled across it.

  “Hush, Miss,” he whispered, and he slipped behind it until she couldn’t see him.

  Tess’ heartbeat thundered. She wanted to scream at him to go back out the window.

  Just then, Vincent’s voice turned her head. “You fucking let her go, and you and I will—”

  “No!” Luna screeched. “Who are you fucking, Vincent! Tell me who you’re fucking or I will shoot your bitch wife in the leg.”

  Tess gasped, trying not to look where Navi was hiding, as Luna flung a step past the doorway into the bathroom. Vincent was behind her as Luna stood sideways in the small space pointing the pistol at Tess. Vincent’s face was hard as a rock and his eyes were blazing.

  “I had to tell her you weren’t coming home most nights,” Tess cried. “Navi told me! He is so close to me right now.”

  Vincent’s gaze cut to the open window Luna hadn’t noticed, then it went around the small room, landing on the shower tub. Tess nodded, trying not to look frantic.

  “Damn it,” Vincent uttered.

  “Navi!” Luna screeched, waving the pistol. “Is that her name, Vincent?”

  “Hell no,” Vincent growled. “I’ve been looking for you those nights I was gone. Hard trail to follow with your fucking band and everything.”

  Oh my God, it was such a horrible lie. Tess held her breath, thinking there was no way Luna would believe that. However, Luna turned toward Vincent with a hopeful look. Then she looked him up and down, trying to decide.

  “Cabe would know,” she exclaimed suddenly. “Get him on the phone!”

  Right before Luna swung out of the room, while pointing the gun at Vincent, he moved around so he was in the bathroom doorway.

  “I don’t want to look at her face,” Vincent growled, and he grabbed the door and slammed it shut.

  Oh.

  My.

  God.

  “Navi, you leave now. This instant,” Tess said. “She will kill you if she sees you in here. You have to go!”

  “I’m not leaving you, Miss,” Navi said when he pulled the curtain back. “We got each other’s back, right.”

  Tess wanted to swear. It was something Vincent said a lot.

  “Navi, honey, this is not the same. This is so very dangerous. I can’t stand that you could get hurt,” she pleaded.

  His dark eyes looked at her, with his face a mask of stubbornness. Oh my God, he was like a little Vincent.

  Completely ignoring her plea, he asked, “Can you twist it off, Missy?”

  Tess jerked her wrist against the cuffs, probably bruising herself more. Her hand slipped out of them further with the soap, but it still got caught on her knuckles. Maybe she could break her knuckles, she thought desperately.

  “No,” she said. “You have to go, baby. Please.”

  Vincent thought he might have had a damn chance, until Luna decided to call Cabe. The situation was deadly, and besides Tess, he thought Navi might be in that bathroom too. It looked like he was going to have to jump Luna and hope she didn’t shoot him any place vital.

  But Luna was over-the-top manic, and before she got Cabe dialed, she swung the barrel of her .357 Magnum back at him.

  “You put these cuffs on and cuff yourself to the bathroom sink pipe, like your bitch! You’re not getting away this time, Vin,” Luna snarled, throwing a set of handcuffs at his head.

  Shit.

  “In the bathroom!” Vincent bellowed, praying Tess could hear. “You want me on the fucking floor in the bathroom!”

  Then shit got worse as Luna leveled a shot right in the wall to the left of his shoulder. The boom was followed by a wail from Tess in the bathroom.

  “Now!” Luna screeched. “Mov
e!”

  Vincent had his hands raised, still thinking he’d have to rush her, but Luna pointed the barrel right at the bathroom door, and he knew that she knew the bullet could penetrate the flimsy wood of the door, right in the direction of Tess.

  “Fuck. Your fucking pussy better be slick and wet for me when you get what I am telling you is the truth,” Vincent snarled, hoping to throw her off. He bent to snag the cuffs off the floor and he turned toward the door, praying Tess had heard him.

  When he popped the bathroom door open, he was relieved at not seeing Navi there trying to free Tess, but he saw the window was closed. His gaze cut to Tess, but she shook her head, which meant the boy still had to be behind the shower curtain.

  He wanted to swing the cuffs back and catch Luna in the head, but the big barrel of the .357 she was holding kept him from doing it. A shot in the small bathroom had too much chance of hitting his wife.

  “Put the cuffs on!” Luna shrieked.

  And Vincent knew he’d probably signed his families, Tess and Navi’s death sentence, when he lowered to his knees and snapped one cuff on his wrist and the other to the pipe that Tess was hooked to. But he couldn’t see his way out of not doing it, even if by doing it it meant the end for all of them.

  At least he was close enough to Tess he could throw himself in front of her if Luna tried to shoot her. Luna’s gun was big enough it would go through him and still hit Tess, but his body would stop most of the forward velocity.

  When he went down on his knees to cuff himself, he got a good look at Tess’ face, and he saw the branding marks on it. Her lip was cut, one eye was turning black, and her cheek held a red and purple bruise. Fiercely, he wanted to reach out and cup her cheek.

  Because of him, this had happened to her.

  His eyes cut away from the bright illumination of her gaze, as he turned to sit with his back against the wall beside the bathroom sink.

  “Don’t you dare, Vincent!” Tess cried. “Being with you was worth any danger, any risk, and I would have lain down and given my life for just one moment with you.”

  Luna started to screech—

  As Tess yelled over her, “Now you give it all to her! Her!”

  Luna’s screech dwindled like a cat’s yowl, while Vincent’s jaw turned to granite. His wife was the strongest, smartest warrior he knew, and she’d just found a way to set him straight in the middle of disaster. He couldn’t look her way, but he knew she understood that he’d heard her deeply when he moved his wedding band around on his finger, below the edge of the sink. Luna, who was standing over them, wouldn’t be able to see that gesture.