Page 7 of Wrong Turn

“I’m one-fourth.” Lei held out her cup for a refill. “Half Japanese, and another fourth Portuguese.”

“Classic local girl blend. Interesting to meet you out here—I’m half Hawaiian.” Harry refilled Lei’s cup.

That too was unusual, but they didn’t have time to swap stories. Lei was here to get help for Kelly. She mustered her scattered attention. “My friend Kelly and I were on a road trip, coming down here to Cabo for spring break.” Lei, loosened up by relief and tequila, quickly told the sorry tale.

“What direction did the men go down the road?” Harry turned and opened a cabinet. Reaching in, she took out a pistol. It was an old-fashioned six-shot Colt, and Lei frowned as the woman flipped open the barrel, pulled a box of ammo out of the cabinet, and slid bullets into the circular chamber.

“They went inland, farther toward the mountains. Do you have a phone? We have to call the police,” Lei said.

“No phone out here. The folks in the house don’t have one either.” The woman pointed with her chin toward the bunkerlike house. She snapped the Colt’s chamber shut.

Lei’s pulse accelerated—what was Harry doing with that gun? They had to get moving! “I need to get help, somehow! Kelly’s been kidnapped, and it would be a miracle if she hasn’t already been raped by now. One of the men, Fernando, tried to get me to come back to the car by holding her up by the hair. He did this.” She made the throat-cutting gesture the thug had used, her skin crawling with fear for Kelly. “I was lucky to be able to take this off one of them.” Lei pulled out Joao’s large knife in its scabbard and set it on the table. Harry picked it up, turning it back and forth. Lei well remembered the bite of the shiny steel on the skin of her neck.

“Not likely they’re going to kill her. Maybe ransom her or sell her off to a brothel. Fernando and Joao, eh? What did they drive?”

“A big Ford truck with a winch.” Lei held out her cup for more of the margarita. Harry obligingly filled her cup again.

“Well, I know that road you were on, and where it goes. I’m sorry about your friend.” There was a note of finality in Harry’s voice, as if whatever were being done to Kelly was already an irreversible fact. “But we can get her back.”

Lei frowned. “Seriously? What can we do against those guys?”

“The cops are useless here. In fact, your perps could be off-duty cops trolling for victims. We call for help, you’ll likely end up in jail and never hear from your friend again, unless you’ve got a wad of cash for bribes.” Harry raked Lei with a glance. “Got a wad of cash?”

“No.” Lei turned out her empty pockets. “I don’t even have an ID right now.”

“We’re better off without the cops. Trust me.” Harry stood up from the vinyl-covered bench seat of the dinette area, a tiny nook off the back of the truck.

“Are you telling me you’re thinking of going after those guys with that little six-shooter of yours? You don’t know what we’re up against. I’m pretty strong, been takingtaekwondofor a couple of years and I’m planning to be a cop, but this bald guy Fernando threw me around like a rag doll. Only reason I got away is that they didn’t have guns, and I’m a fast runner.”

Harry’s brown eyes lit with excitement. “I guess you think we need a few more weapons.” She gestured for Lei to get up off the seat.

Lei did. Harry lifted up the seat pad. Lei sucked in a breath of admiration. A shotgun, a rack of various pistols, with and without silencers, a knife the size of a machete, a brace of grenades, and a small rocket launcher packed the container area. Harry gestured. “Pick your poison.”

Lei looked up. “Whoareyou?”

The Hawaiian woman shrugged. “Harry Vierra. That’s all you need to know.”

Chapter Six

Lei turnedher face to the side, pressing it against Harry’s shoulder to block out the dusty wind churned up by the all-terrain vehicle they rode. Lei’s back felt heavy with the backpack of weapons she carried. She shut her eyes against the grit as the ATV tackled yet another dune.

“I think I know where they’re going,” Harry had told her back at the RV as she began loading and packing the weapons they chose and they waited for the light to wane into darkness. “There’s an old copper mine at the base of the mountains, where that road you were on dead-ends. No one lives there anymore, but it would be an ideal place to stash a prisoner.”

“Yeah. No one to hear her scream,” Lei said morosely. “Can’t we get going now?”

Harry just looked at her, and Lei sighed. “I know. Waiting for dark. As if the deck wasn’t already stacked against us.”

“It isn’t stacked against us.” Harry shrugged into an odd harness. Lei frowned curiously until Harry picked up a short samurai-type sword in a slightly curved scabbard that had been stashed behind the seat cushion. Harry slid the scabbard into the harness. The hilt protruded up behind her head for easy access. “My trainer, Cruz, left his blade. He’s away for the weekend, so I think I’ll take it.”

Lei shook her head. “I like these.” She patted twin Glocks she’d chosen, wearing them in a pair of crossed shoulder holsters. Lei had been shooting at her local range with the Glock she’d bought but didn’t know how to use half of Harry’s arsenal. “You’re still just getting trained? In what, exactly?”

“Combat techniques. Weapons. Tracking. Surveillance and sabotage. We’ve even done some explosives work. I graduated. I think. With Cruz, it’s hard to tell.”

“Why would you be out here studying all that?”

Harry quirked a brow. “Reasons. You’re not the only one interested in a career in criminal justice.”

“So who is this Cruz?”

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