Page 77 of Midnight Ride

“Me neither. Can we catch up to them before they cross?”

“Don’t think we can do that. Their truck is a lot faster than my big baby.”

Tammy started to cry. “You’re right, Eldon. Let them cross. If they go looking for me in Coyote Creek, they’re as good as dead anyway.”

“Are you okay with letting them go, Tammy? I don’t want you to think I wouldn’t kill them for you because I would. No hesitation.”

“There’s been enough killing already, Eldon. Let’s deliver this load and get home to the cabin. I need some down time in the worst way.”

“Attagirl.”

Eldon pulled me close, and I realized I had to let it go. No peace without forgiveness. I’d done some bad stuff myself. I had to suck it up and stop crying and wishing things had turned out different.

Canada/U.S. Border Crossing.

Korva pulled up to the customs officer sitting in his little booth and handed over the IDs for the three of them.

The officerlooked over the passports, handed them back and waved them through.

“Fuckin hate going through there,” said Milo. “Gives me the creeps every fuckin time.”

“They got nothing on us,” said Korva. “I’m clean and so is Franko. We like to keep it that way. It’s best for our business.”

Inside the office at the border point, Mark, the customs guy, noticed a red flag on his screen. “That’s the black Ram the Harrison County Sheriff is looking for. I’ll let him know it’s heading his way.”

I-15 Northbound.

Travis took the call from the border police and thanked Mark for the heads up.

“Who was that?” asked Billy. “You’re smiling.”

“Border cops. The black Ram just crossed and it’s heading south. The fuckers are coming straight for us, Billy. We’ll run them off the road and take them into custody… or kill them if we have to.”

“Or want to,” said Billy. “Is Tammy with them?”

“Don’t know that,” said Travis.

Billy pulled his gun out of his holster and kept his eyes on the southbound lanes.

They passed the gate for Sunburst Acres and there wasn’t too much highway left. Maybe twenty more miles to the border.

“We’re going to run into them soon,” said Billy.

“Yep. We’ll soon be to Sweetgrass, and they must’ve passed through there already.”

“There they are.” Billy pointed to the fast-moving Ram in the southbound lane.

“We need a turnaround,” said Travis.

“Don’t see one. The only other choice is four-wheeling the Bronco through the fuckin median and hope we don’t get stuck.”

“Yeah. Hang on. Here we go.” Travis cranked the wheel and the Bronco dove down the embankment, through the long dead grass and almost got stuck. Travis stomped his foot on the accelerator, and they shot up the other bank onto the highway.

“We’ve got them now.”

“Did they see us crossing over?”

“Don’t think so. They were already gone by.”

---