Page 49 of River Justice

“He took the truck, so we have to walk. We have to hurry. Can you do that? I don’t know how quickly he’s coming back.”

Hearing the woman’s fear as they headed down a narrow dirt road, Holly Jo nodded. She walked fast to keep up. As she did, she looked around for something familiar about the landscape. She didn’t recognize anything. As they topped a rise, she could see nothing for a long way but river bottom, the tops of the cottonwoods and the rough outline of the mountains dotted with scrub brush and rocky outcroppings.

What stilled her heart and stole her breath was the sound of a vehicle engine revving up and heading their way.

WHATISITabout this woman?Birdie just didn’t give up. She was determined that Holly Jo was out here. To Brand, it felt like looking for a needle in a haystack. Too much country, too many roads that didn’t go far. What was he doing here with her?

He caught his reflection in the side mirror and didn’t even recognize himself. The old Brand, the one who kept his head down, never caused trouble, followed all the rules and didn’t complain, that cowboy would never have climbed into a rig with this woman. The old Brand wouldn’t be riding shotgun with this impulsive, reckless, impetuous, brash, stubbornly determined woman.

One impulsive action, sending away his DNA sample for the results, and look what had happened. He was now throwing caution to the wind, risking not just his heart but his life. And the scary part? As he looked over at Birdie, he had to smile. He’d never felt more alive, more like his true self, whoever that was.

Birdie slowed to turn down another dirt road. It had been hours since they’d followed Melanie Baker. “I just have a feeling,” she said now. It was the same thing she’d been saying for hours.

He’d already made the argument that it was too easy to disappear back in the rocky terrain and scrub brush of what felt like endless country.

“Okay, maybe she did realize she was being followed and turned off Cache Creek Road as a decoy,” Birdie conceded. “But I think she was headed to the place where she was keeping Holly Jo. Haven’t you ever just gotten a feeling that was so strong you had to run it down?”

“Yeah, recently, actually, when I decided to have my DNA tested, and look how that turned out.”

“Point taken,” she said. “Is that the first impulsive thing you’ve ever done?”

“But not the last, apparently,” he said, looking over at her.

She grinned. “I knew you had it in you. I guess you just needed me to come along and draw more of that spontaneity out of you.”

He chuckled and looked at the twisting, narrow, rocky road ahead. “Even if it kills me,” he said under his breath. They hadn’t gone far when Birdie slowed. He recognized the expression on her face and shook his head. “Here we go,” he said as she followed an obvious hunch and turned.

The road narrowed as it wound back toward the mountains until it was almost a Jeep trail. But it didn’t deter her. They bumped along with him wondering how long it would take before she admitted she might be wrong—if ever. Ahead, he could see that the road only got worse as it led back into the rugged foothills and probably petered out shortly after that.

“Did you want me along as the voice of reason? Or just someone to fix the flat after one of these rocks punctures a tire?” he finally asked.

“All right,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll look for a place to turn around.”

ATTHESOUNDof the vehicle coming, the woman cried, “Quick!” Even in the dimming light, Holly Jo could see that she looked terrified. It ratcheted up her own growing terror. Her heart pounded so hard, it felt as if it would break free of her chest. “Down this way.”

The woman barreled off the road and through the scrub brush and rocks, nearly falling. Breathing hard, Holly Jo did the same, sliding down the slope as the sound of the vehicle grew louder and closer. She could see another road below them.

“Duck!” the woman cried, turning to wave her to the ground as she lay down. Holly Jo dropped to the dirt, rolling over on her stomach to look back up the hillside. On the road above them, a white pickup roared past, sending up a cloud of dust. Before it could settle, the woman was on her feet again.

“Hurry. We have to go,” she whispered hoarsely. She started down the steep slope again, sending rocks cascading after her, and Holly Jo followed, scared that the man might have seen them or that he could hear them. It wasn’t until they were almost to the road that she realized it wouldn’t be long before the man discovered them both gone. All he had to do was look in the room where she’d been held. They’d left the door standing open.

Just yards from the road, the woman fell and let out a cry as she reached for her ankle. She’d apparently twisted it on a rock. She was bent over it, crying softly.

Holly Jo slid down to her. She’d been worrying where they were going, how far it would be before they reached a county road or a ranch house. From what she’d seen, there were none around. The man would come looking for them. Holly Jo knew it and suspected the woman did as well.

Above them, they both started at the sound of the man’s bellow.“What the hell, Melanie! What have you done!”

As the woman tried to get to her feet, she let out another cry and fell back. “I can’t put any weight on my ankle.” She looked at Holly Jo with tears in her eyes. “You have to go on alone.” She looked terrified. They could both hear the man swearing and throwing things. “Go! Run. You can’t let him catch you! Go!”

Holly Jo scrambled on down to the road, then took off running. She could hear the man yelling back up on the hill. She was afraid he would see her and come after her in the pickup. As she reached a curve in the road, she finally dared glance back. She saw the woman lying where she’d left her. Above her, the man was silhouetted against the sun high on the slope they’d slid down.

The man hollered down to the woman he’d called Melanie. “I’m going to kill you!”

BIRDIESLOWEDTHESUV as the road got worse and sighed. She hadn’t even noticed it getting so dark. In the headlights, she could see more of the same rough country. There just seemed to be an endless supply of badlands, brush and scrub broken only by narrow roads that were choked with weeds as they wound back to old mines or abandoned homesteads.

The sheriff had said there were endless old mining roads back in here, and he’d been right. Birdie felt as if she’d driven down them all. Most petered out at a rock pile or just ended for no apparent reason.

She hated to admit defeat. It went against her nature. She hoped there was enough gas left to get back to Powder Crossing. To Brand’s credit, he had helped her search for Holly Jo without complaint. Even now, he looked at her almost with sympathy, as if he knew how hard it was for her to quit.

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