Page 74 of Midnight Ride

People were flocking into the roadhouse because of the live band and before long, it was packed and getting rowdy and loud. We couldn’t hear ourselves think.

About an hour later, a typical Saturday-night fight broke out on the dancefloor. Travis jumped up from our table and ran right into the middle of it.

Me and Virge went to help him, and he wasn’t even fighting back. Dad was lying on the dancefloor letting the drunk guys pound on him.

He was bleeding from the mouth and nose and from the side of his head when we dragged him out of the roadhouse and got him into the back of the truck.

“Jeeze, Dad. Why in hell did you do that?” asked Virge.

“He’s not in a good place,” said Billy. “Let’s get him home.”

Chapter Fourteen

Sunday, September 15th.

Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.

Travis woke and the silence in the house was unsettling. His nose hurt and there was swelling around his mouth. A couple of his teeth felt loose, and he couldn’t remember being in any fights. Also couldn’t remember being drunk enough to produce the hangover he had.

“Jeeze, I’m a mess.”

He jumped out of bed with prickles racing up the back of his neck like an army of fire ants. In the hallway, he listened, heard nothing, and hollered for Billy.

Billy hurried down the hall to see what Travis was yelling about and was too late. Travis was halfway up the stairs shouting for the boys. “They’re gone, Billy,” he hollered down from the top of the stairs. “I fuckin knew it. I knew they were gone the minute I woke up.”

“I’ll look in the barn,” said Billy.

Travis thumped down the stairs, skipped his morning shower and pulled on clean clothes. “Hurry up, Billy. We’ve got to get going.”

Billy didn’t hear him. He’d already run out to the barn, taken a look and raced back.

“The horses were fed in the middle of the fuckin night. The boys must’ve got up as soon as we were asleep.”

“Jesus Christ, Billy.” Travis yanked at his hair.

“Calm down a bit,” said Billy. “We have to think.”

“No thinking required,” hollered Travis. “The boys have gone back to Canada to look for Tammy, and it’s absolutely pointless without a direction.” Travis glanced around and then whistled for Max and Sarge.

Dead silence.

“They took the dogs.”

“Jesus,” said Billy. “What vehicle did they take?”

Travis stuck his head out the front door and checked. “Both squads are here and so is your truck. They took my pickup.”

“It’s Sunday and we don’t have to go to the station. Bring the sheriff’s phone and we’ll go get them.”

“Yeah. Let’s go. I’m not losing two more kids.”

Border Crossing. Canada/U.S.

Dawn broke over Canada with a rosy, pink glow as Harlan showed his deputy ID to the customs officer and waited to be cleared to cross. The guy in the dark uniform handed back both IDs and motioned for them to drive ahead.

“Do you remember where we went from here to the place we found the dead guy and the guy with his nuts blown off?” I asked my brother.

“Taber,” said Virge. “The trailer park was in Taber, Alberta. How could you forget that so fast?” Virgil reached over and punched Taber into the GPS.

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