Page 78 of Midnight Ride

“They can’t be far ahead of us,” said Billy. “Why in hell would they come down here again?”

“Only one reason,” said Travis. “They think Tammy went home. That means they don’t have her. Those fuckers are going straight to our ranch. The guy who took her knew to wait at the Dry Run, so he damned well knows where she lives.”

“You could be right about that. He was stalking her.”

Taber. Alberta.

Me and Virge didn’t know what to do next to find Tammy, so we stayed at the trailer park and knocked on doors on the street where she was held prisoner.

We went up and down that street asking the neighbors if they saw Tammy running off a few days ago. Everybody we talked to said the cops from Taber asked them the same questions and they didn’t see anybody. Then me and Virge got lucky.

We found a lady at the end of the street who was coming home from grocery shopping, and she saw a girl on the highway getting into a tractor trailer.

“Do you remember which way she was heading, ma’am?”

“She was on the opposite side of the road from me, so the truck was facing east. I hope that helps you boys.”

“Helps a lot, ma’am. Thanks a lot.”

“East, Harlan,” said Virge as we got into the truck. “She wasn’t trying to get home. She was going in the opposite direction, for chrissakes. Why in hell would she do that to us, Harlan?”

“I can’t figure it out, Virge. Cannot figure it out.”

“We going home now?”

“Might as well. Don’t know what else we can do.”

“Dogs will be getting hungry, and we didn’t bring any food for them.”

“Forgot to bring dog food. The horses will be hungry too, and pissed off that we left them in the barn all fuckin day.”

“Yeah, we’d better drag our asses home.”

Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.

Travis turned on the siren and screamed his way south to the turn-off for the ranch. Then he cut the noise and went in silent to see if the black Ram was anywhere in sight.

“They just went around the house to the back,” said Billy. “I saw the tail end of the truck.”

“Wish we had the dogs,” said Travis. “Damn it anyway, Billy. Can we take them?”

“Yeah, we can. We only need one alive to tell us what they know—if they know more than us.”

“True dat. Leave one alive. The one with his nuts shot off if he’s among them. This was all his idea.”

“We’ll be able to pick him out easy enough. Park and we’ll get the shotguns out of the gun safe in the back.”

“Copy.”

Shotguns in hand, Travis and Billy went in the front door of the house and ran out the back a minute later. They burst out of the door of the woodshed and surprised the three guys getting out of the black Ram.

“Hands on your heads, all of you,” hollered Travis.

The oldest of the three pulled a gun out of his waistband andTravis shot him in the face. He dropped down dead next to the truck.

The guy getting out of the back seat couldn’t run, but the one coming out of the passenger seat took off around the back of the barn.

Billy fired two shotgun blasts and knocked him down next to the woodpile.

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