by K. C. Crowne
“Holy shit,” Adam said, surprised. “What the hell you got in there?”
He stepped up to my side. In the safe were a few weapons – long rifles and shotguns and pistols – along with several thousand dollars in cash. It wasn’t the money I was looking for – it was the guns.
“Load up,” I said, grabbing one of the rifles. “We got a hell of a night ahead of us.”
Adam
“Can’t believe we’re fuckin’ doin’ this.” I was in the passenger seat of Travis’s truck, riding through the evening towards Bryce’s place.
“Not much else we can do,” Travis said, his eyes fixed on the road. “This is one of those damn situations where we’re on our own, can’t count on no one but ourselves.”
“Not too late to tell the rest of your family. A whole squad of us might be able to do more good than just a pair.”
Travis shook his head. “Nah. They’ve got our backs, no doubt about it. But we’re not invading Bryce’s place. If we keep to the two of us, we’ll be able to sneak in and not draw attention.”
“Yeah, but that means if we get into some shit, we’ll probably be outnumbered.”
“I know. Two options and they both suck.” His scowl deepened. “But this way we can get movin’ now, figure out what the hell happened to Skye.”
Last thing I wanted to be doing was waiting around for something to happen.
“There,” I said, pointing ahead. “There’s the ranch.”
Travis nodded, killing the headlights and pulling the truck over to the side of the road. “We’ll go on foot from here,” he said. “Load up and let’s get moving.”
I still couldn’t believe we were going in armed. It was like we were a pair of cowboys from the Old West getting ready for a shootout with some cattle rustlers. I put all that out of my head as I climbed out of the truck, sticking a pistol in the back of my jeans and slinging a rifle over my shoulder.
“What’s the plan when we’re on the grounds?” I asked, our boots crunching on the dirt, the sound filling the otherwise silent air.
“Keep out of sight. We stick together, look for any sign of Skye. And if we need to break into the main ranch house, we’ll do it.”
“Good call. I’m not leaving without knowing what the hell’s goin’ on.”
“I’m right there with you.”
We reached the ranch gates quickly. They were locked; we wouldn’t have gotten through in a vehicle. But on foot we were able to climb over. Moments later we were on the main grounds. The last time I’d been there it’d been for legitimate business, and now I was breaking in like a damn crook. But it needed to be done.
No one was around. The usual bustle of ranch hands and other employees was gone. Off in the distance, I spotted Bryce’s ranch, a few of the windows lit up with lights inside.
“He’s home,” I said. “And maybe Skye’s there with him.”
“Right. Probably where we need to go.”
We moved quietly through the dark, ducking behind buildings when we could.
“That’s the barn,” I said, pointing to the building up ahead. “The one we built.”
Travis offered a grin in response. “That’s fine work.”
I allowed myself a slight laugh. “Somethin’ like that.”
The barn I built happened to be the one closest to the main ranch. We hid behind it for a moment, catching our breaths and preparing for the final rush. But before we did, one of the barn doors opened.
“Fuck,” I hissed. “Stay still.”
A figure stepped out, and I wasn’t able to see his face in the dark. But we hadn’t done a very good job of hiding, as I could see his attention turn to us as soon as he shut the door.
“Who’s there?” he said, his voice accented. “I know you’re there.”
Shit – busted. I did my best to stay cool and calm as the figure moved toward us. Were we going to have to fight? Knock this guy out and tie him up or some shit? He flicked on a flashlight, and the light from the beam was enough for me to make out his face. Gael.
“Meirda,” he said, pointing the beam at me. “Is that you, Adam?”
I didn’t know whether or not to be relieved. I’d been friendly with Gael, but I sure as hell didn’t know how he was going to react to seeing me breaking into the ranch.
“It’s me,” I acknowledged. “Mind turnin’ that thing off?”
“You here to work on the barn or something?” he asked. “Little late for that, I think.”
“The light, Gael.”
“Sure, sure.” He clicked the light off and the darkness returned. He stared at us for a moment, then said, “Come in,” gesturing to the barn.
Travis regarded me for a moment, silently asking if we could trust this man. I nodded, sending the signal he was on our side.
Gael entered the barn and the two of us followed him in. The lights went on as I shut the door behind us. Gael looked us up and down, worry forming on his face when he saw the guns.
“What the hell is going on here?” he asked, fear in his voice. “What are you trying to pull?”
“It’s fine, Gael,” I said, raising my palms. “We’re not here for trouble.”
I’d meant the words as I’d said them, but I realized they weren’t the truth. We were there to start some shit, get Skye back. But it felt like the right thing to say.
“You’re armed,” he observed. “Doesn’t look to me like you’re not here to start trouble. Tell me what’s going on, now.” He gestured to Travis. “And who’s this?”
“Gael, this is Travis Walker. Travis, this is Gael.”
“Pleasure,” Travis said, extending his hand.
Gael’s eyebrows were raised as he took Travis’s hand. “Travis Walker? As in, Rainbow Canyons Walker?”
“The one and the same,” Travis acknowledged, releasing Gael’s hand.
“What’s one of the Walkers doing here?” Gael asked, glancing at me again. “Adam, tell me what’s going on.”
I didn’t know where to begin, so I cut right to the chase. “Gael, we’ve got good reason to believe Bryce might’ve kidnapped a friend of ours.”
“What? Are you serious? Who?”
“You remember that girl who was here a bit back, the one who led the protest?”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Muy linda. You know her?”
“Yeah,” Travis answered. “We both know her. And we know she’s been on Bryce’s shitlist for a while. We’re thinkin’ Bryce might have her.”
Gael shook his head, trying to process what he was hearing. “You think…Bryce is capable of something like that?”
“He’s a real piece of shit,” I said. “And I’m sure that ain’t news to you. She’s been a thorn in his side for a while and I don’t doubt for a second he’d pull somethin’ like that to get rid of her.”
“You know, I saw a van pull up a little while ago. Bunch of guys got out, real mean-looking gringos I’d never seen before. But was working, didn’t hang around to see what was going on.”
“You think that might’ve been them?” I asked Travis.
“Hard to say. But if I were gonna kidnap someone, a van’s the kind of vehicle I’d do it in.” He thought the matter over. “And where we found my truck, there were two sets of tire tracks.”
“Could be them,” I said, nodding. “Gael, you know anything else?”
He furrowed his brow, focusing. “Wait…Bryce had some weird work done to the ranch not too long ago.”
“What kind of weird work?”
“For the basement,” he said, and my stomach clenched. A basement was a rare thing to have in Texas. “He had some guys come in and soundproof it. It was strange, but I didn’t ask questions. I guess I thought it was so he could play his music loud or something like that, you know?”
Travis and I turned to one another. “Soundproofing,” he said. “Perfect if you want to keep someone down there where no one can hear them.”
“Maybe he’s been planning this for a while,�
�� I said. “Sick fuck.”
“You two are…going to break into the house?” Gael asked.
“That’s the plan,” I said. “If she’s there – and I got good reason to think she is – then we’re gonna find her.”
“Then I want to help,” Gael said. “I’m not much in a fight or anything like that, but there’s an entrance to the basement that I know about. You can go in through there, not have to break in through the main entrance.”
“And what do you get out of this?” Travis asked, still suspicious.
“I saw the way Bryce treats his animals,” he said, anger coloring his words. “And if he’s moved on to people…I’m not going to stand around while it happens, you know?”
“Right,” I said. “Then let’s move out.”
Gael flicked the lights off in the barn and we were on our way. He led us through the dark toward the house, the three of us staying low to the ground, making sure no one took notice. Gael led us until we reached a solid-looking steel door.
“This goes into the basement,” he said. “I have to open it for you. But if I do…I don’t know…Bryce will know someone did, and I’m the only one with the key who’s still on the clock.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” Travis told him. “Bryce is goin’ down for fuckin’ sure. If you somehow end up without a job after all this, there’ll be one waiting for you at Rainbow Canyons. You’ll be taken care of.”
A small smile formed on Gael’s face. “Thank you, Travis. That’s no small comfort, you know?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. One went into the heavy bolt of the lock, and with a turn it was opened. Inside was a dimly lit hallway.
“This is as far as I can go,” Gael told us. “I hope your friend’s okay.”
We thanked him for his help and he was left as quietly as he’d led us.
“Nothin’ left to do but do it,” Travis said, sucking in a deep breath. “You ready, bud?”
“Ready as all hell.”
We stepped into the hallway and slowly shut the door behind us. There were several doors lining the walls, and any one of them could have Skye behind it. But we didn’t get too far before one of the doors opened, and a big, burly man stepped through.
“Holy hell,” Officer Mayer said, shocked. “It’s…you two fucks!”
Any doubt that there was a connection between the cops and Bryce was gone as soon as I laid eyes on him.
“Fucking criminals,” he growled, putting his hands on his hips. “Movin’ on to breakin’ and enterin’, I see.”
“Travis,” I said. “I’ll hold him off. You go look for Skye.”
“Got it.”
“Come on, fucker!” I said, putting up my fists.
We rushed each other, his body slamming into mine hard. Travis slipped past, and then it was just me and Mayer.
Skye
I was tied to a chair in Bryce’s basement. And he was with me – him and two of his goons, some of the guys that had loaded me into the van and brought me to his place.
My mind was racing in fear, the adrenaline spiraling through my body. I couldn’t think straight.
The room was huge – big enough to fit my little place inside a few times over. It was some kind of multi-purpose rumpus-room kind of space, with lots of couches, a bar, and a TV screen bigger than any I’d seen before.
Bryce paced back and forth, a silver pistol in his hand. The fucker had gone to the length of kidnapping me, but he was nervous.
“Alright,” he said. “How the hell are we gonna do this?”
One of the goons, a beefy, tall guy in denim with a shaved head, spoke. “That’s your call, boss. You wanted us to bring her to you, so that’s what we did.”
“Yeah,” said the other goon, a shorter guy with stringy black hair. “What happens next is up to you.”
Bryce turned his attention to me, as if looking at me would answer his question. “We have to get rid of her. That’s the only solution. Cops are on my side, but if we let her go, she’ll just head to the next town over and tell them what we’ve done.”
“What you’ve done,” the shorter guy emphasized.
“Hey,” Bryce interjected. “You helped me kidnap her – you’re just as much on the hook for this as I am.”
As worried as I was, I could see this wasn’t any kind of evil-genius sort of operation. Bryce had clearly never done anything like this before – he was the sort to give orders from afar and let his men handle all the dirty work.
“Then kill her,” the taller guy said, almost like he was talking about a wounded bird. “You got her tied up, you got a gun. One pull of the trigger and that’s the end of it.”
“No,” Bryce said quietly, shaking his head as he paced back and forth. “That’s not the end of it. I shoot her and blood everywhere, right? And blood’s hard to clean up. Then we’ve got the body to worry about. I can’t risk burying her on the property, so we’ve got to drive her somewhere.”
He was talking so clearly, so openly about killing me and doing away with my body. A wave of fear rolled through me, a feeling I’d never known before. I sucked in a breath and found all my courage. I had to save myself and my baby. “May I offer a suggestion?”
Bryce’s head snapped towards me. “And what’s that?”
“Let me go. Let me go and don’t kill me. I can tell you don’t wanna do it, Bryce. Just let me go and this’ll all be over.”
“Yeah,” he said in a disdainful tone. “Over until you report me to the police.” He shook his head. “No. We’ve passed the point of no return here. We have to kill you – that’s the only thing to do.”
Tears formed in my eyes. “Why are you doin’ this, Bryce? Because I wanted you to take better care of your horses? This is really the length you’ll go to?”
“It’s about more than that,” he shot back. “It’s about sending a message to anyone who wants to interfere with my business. You’ve been a pain in my ass for months, and if you disappear, people will get the message.”
“But…” I said, trying to fight back the tears, to stay strong. “I’m…pregnant. You wouldn’t just be killin’ me, you’d be killin’ my baby, too.” I expected sympathy, but that wasn’t what I got.
His eyes lit up with anger. “You get knocked up by one of those Walker jackasses? I know you been hangin’ around with Travis. Him and that shithead I was stupid enough to let work on my property.”
He pointed his gun at me, and my scream echoed as he did. But even through the fear I could see his hand was shaking.
“I need to end this now,” he said. “Right. Fucking. Now.”
I closed my eyes, waiting for the bang. But it never came. Instead, a commotion in the hallway interrupted. It sounded like men yelling and fighting.
Bryce lowered the gun and turned to his men. “What the fuck is goin’ on out there?”
The shorter man stepped to the door and opened it. As soon as he did, Adam and Travis rushed into the room. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
They barreled into the room, knocking the shorter man on his ass. The taller man, reacting quickly, raised his pistol and fired a shot. The bang echoed through the room, a hole appearing in the wall behind Travis and Adam instantly. They took cover behind one of the couches, Bryce doing the same near me.
“Skye!” Adam yelled. “Get down!”
Rocking my body, I tilted the chair over and fell onto my side, pain shooting out from my arm as I landed. A damn gunfight began around me, and I tried to curl my body into itself, to make my body tiny as bullets began to fly. The two goons took cover with Bryce, one of them raising his gun over the couch and firing off another shot.
The men took turns raising their guns over their cover and firing shots. It was loud, so damn loud. My ears rang with every squeeze of a trigger. As I winced, I realized the impact of me hitting the ground had jostled my restraints. I was able to slip a finger under the nylon rope and start to undo the bindings.
More gunshots ra
ng out as the men exchanged fire.
“Fucking do it!” Bryce shouted. “Kill those assholes! That’s what I’m paying you for!”
Bryce, a wild expression of anger on his face, pointed the gun over the couch and fired off three quick shots. His aim was terrible; bottles behind the bar shattered into shards, dumping their contents all over the floor. The smell of booze mixed with gunpowder as the fight went on.
I was terrified – never had I been in a situation like that before in my life. As the men shot back and forth, I struggled against the restraints, desperately trying to free myself. It took some doing, but I was able to loosen the rope on my wrists enough to get my hands free. When I did, I went to work on the restraints on my ankles. Soon those were gone too.
“Skye!” Adam shouted over the noise. “Where the hell are you?”
“I’m free!”
Bryce glanced over his shoulder at me, seeing I was no longer tied to the chair. “Fuck!” he cried out before turning his attention back to the fight. He seemed to get that if he wanted to come for me, he’d risk getting shot.
“Come to us!” Travis yelled. “And stay low!”
My heart racing, my breaths short and ragged, I belly-crawled to the nearest couch and took cover. When there was a brief break in the gunfire, I crawled to the next one. The place was a warzone, and all I could do was focus on the next step, and then the next.
Before too long I was behind the couch near Adam and Travis, near enough to see them. They spotted me, and Travis held up his palm, indicating that I stay right where I was. Then he said something to Adam. Adam nodded and raised his rifle over the couch. He fired one shot after another. The gunshots from Bryce’s side stopped as they took cover from the barrage. Travis gestured with wide eye for me to come to him. I dashed from my couch to theirs, relief washing over me the moment I was next to them.
“Thank God,” Adam gushed, wrapping his arm around me. “Thank God you’re safe.”
“We’re not out of this yet,” Travis reminded him as he reloaded his pistol.