Page 23 of Longest Ride

“Does Tammy know Bobby’s real identity?”

“I don’t think so. She always called himEldon. Never once did she refer to him asBobby.”

“Okay, she doesn’t know. We don’t know what he may have told her.”

“When we got to the cabin, I grabbed the paperwork out of the dead bounty hunter’s hand, and nobody saw the picture or Bobby Prescott’s name but me.”

“I’ll arrange the surveillance in Midway, Mom.”

“Let me know if Tammy shows up. Travis will want her to come home to him in Montana. He officially adopted her and she’s his daughter.”

“Will you let him know what you think might happen? Or do you want to wait until it’s a reality?”

“I’ll call and give him a heads up. He might as well be ready for it.”

“Yeah,” said Blaine. “I think you should tell him.”

Annie called Travis next and dumped the Bobby Prescott story on him.

He listened quietly as Annie told him about the rage killings on the Interstates, and how the only reason the Agency got close to him was after Bobby’s wife was raped by three welders and Bobby killed all three of them and ran for it.

“And this is the guy Tammy wants to marry? She’s not thinking straight, Annie-girl. She might be heading for Mexico.”

“We don’t know her final destination, sugar. If she shows up in Midway, are you coming to Texas to get her? What do you want to do?”

“I’m not sure.”

“What the hell is wrong with you, Travis?” Annie hollered at him. “You adopted her and now you have to take the bad with the good. That’s the way it goes.”

No comment from Travis but Annie could hear him breathing hard while he dealt with the information. Finally, he said, “Will you let me know if you hear anything?”

“Of course, I will. Catch a fucking brain, Travis. If you don’t man up for this, I’ll come up there and beat the living shit out of you.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Annie ended the call furious with Travis. If Tammy came to Midway, she’d take her home to the ranch and she doubted she’d ever tell Travis where Tammy was. He could eat shit.

Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.

When me and Virge came in from the barn, Dad was talking on the phone to Annie. We poured ourselves a coffee, sat down at the table and waited for him to finish talking.

“What did Annie say, Dad?” I asked.

“She laid some hard facts on me, boys,” said Travis.

“Like what hard facts?” asked Virge. “Like worse shit than Tammy taking her boyfriend out of the hospital and running away from us?”

“Yep. Worse than that, Virgie.”

“How much worse?” I asked.

“Annie found out who Eldon Fontana really is,” said Travis.

“That a fake name?” asked Billy.

“Yep. His real name is Bobby Prescott and he’s wanted in several states for rage killings on the Interstates. Eldon Fontana is the Interstate Rage Killer.”

“A serial killer?” Billy raised an eyebrow.

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