Page 26 of Desert Angel

She walked, looking down for the odd rut or snake, feeling the slight chill in the air and her tired feet. How long they’d walked when Dylan suggested they turn back she didn’t know but suspected it hadn’t been more than a mile.

They were near the ATV when everything broke loose. First Nikki heard an engine, then yelling. Dylan grabbed her hand and started sprinting toward the four-by-four, just a few yards away. As she ran, Nikki became aware of movement in her peripheral vision. She turned to look toward it and stumbled into Dylan.

He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off her feet, carrying her a few feet before putting her down again and pulling her behind him. “Get on and start the engine,” he said shortly before turning his back to her.

As she turned the key, Nikki glanced around and cried out. A headlight had come on just as she turned to look and everything turned green. She blinked but couldn’t make out anything then remembered the glasses. As she pulled them off, she tried to make out features with no success.

Dylan climbed on the ATV behind her. “Go.”

“I can’t see,” she said.

He cursed then and scrambled off. As she scooted back, Nikki apologized. “It’s okay, just hold on.” He gunned the motor and turned the ATV as tightly as he could, heading off to follow the other off-road vehicles.

As they trailed the group, Nikki made out four different vehicles. There was an ATV like hers, a small truck, and a Jeep. The other vehicle was a motorbike, a dirt racing bike from the looks of it. She hadn’t seen one around the area, so she didn’t expect to recognize the driver and didn’t, with his head covered with a concealing helmet. The other men wore dark clothes as they did but the Stetson on the man driving the Jeep, she recognized. Wayne.

He glanced over his shoulder and though she knew it wasn’t possible, Nikki felt like he met her gaze as Wayne turned the steering wheel toward a scraggly group of people, causing them to break into a run. Dylan yelled and tried to speed up but the ATV was at full throttle and couldn’t keep up with the Jeep.

Nikki shouted as Wayne almost clipped a woman running with a child in her arms. How could he? “He’ll kill them,” she shouted. “Slow down.”

“No,” Dylan shouted back at her and tried to get in between Wayne and the woman. He’d managed to wedge them into a small opening when Wayne recognized him and guessed at his passenger. The Jeeps slowed until Wayne was beside Dylan, his face fierce in the faint light cast by the headlights. “Get her out of here.”

“Stop this, Wayne,” she yelled in desperation.

“Get out of here, Nikki!” he swerved away from them and toward a man who was running along the fence line. Dylan followed, his focus on Wayne.

The first contact felt like they’d hit a rut. Nikki tightened her hold on Dylan and glanced around for the hole she was sure they’d hit. What she saw turned her blood to ice.

The small truck she’d spied earlier was close enough she could reach out and touch it. As she squinted into the glare of the headlights, she could make out in her peripheral vision two dark images in the truck. A yell and a whoop followed by another bump sent her into Dylan’s back with a thump.

He cursed again, this time not under his breath, and turned away from the truck, this time away from the border fence. Nikki held on and kept her gaze on the truck but yelled at him, hoping he’d hear. “They’re following us.”

“I know,” he yelled back and started weaving. As she jerked left and right, Nikki sent up prayers of thoughts rather than words. She had no words, right now. Only terror and pleas.

She thought they’d make it out of danger when the truck’s headlights grew fainter. Nikki took a deep breath and started to let Dylan know when everything tumbled into darkness and pain.

14

Dylan’s first thought on opening his eyes was that he was in Hell. He hurt from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet and he was cold. When he got his vision focused, he realized he was on the ground but pinned under something. He looked around in confusion for a second then remembered where he was. “Nikki? Nikki!”

“She’s okay. She’s okay.” Someone from beyond his vision was speaking but Dylan couldn’t see, from his position. The ATV was on top of him.

He heard the men talking before he realized what they were doing. A couple of pain-filled minutes later he was free and he scrambled to his knees, his head whirling and his shoulder aching.

“Stay still, you might be hurt.”

“Where is she? Where’s Nikki?”

“Mark’s taking her to the ranch,” Wayne French stood, his hands at his side, beside the ATV, now on its side.

Dylan looked at him and then tackled him to the ground. As he was trying to make contact with the man’s face, Dylan felt hands on him, pulling him away.

French backed away with an expletive. “Stop it. I’m not to blame for that.”

He gestured toward the ATV and Dylan ground his teeth and tried to shake the hands off him. “Let me go.”

When French nodded to the other men, they backed away from Dylan. Now that he got a look at them, he recognized faces he’d seen in town. Other landowners, a couple of men that he figured were townspeople or who worked for the ranchers. But there was only one other vehicle besides his and French’s present. He’d counted at least six in the dark earlier. “Take me to the ranch.”

French looked at the ATV and Dylan said tersely. “I’ll come back and get it when it’s daylight.”

---