Page 13 of River Ride

Chapter Three

Tuesday, July 2nd.

Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.

While Travis cooked breakfast, I read Lucy’s text and told Virge where Annie and the kids were. “They’re leaving from the Best Western in Cheyenne this morning.”

Dad nodded his head. “They’ll cross into Montana later today.”

“They’re making good time,” said Billy. “Be here by tomorrow night late, or the next day.”

“Barn is all ready,” said Virge. “Couldn’t get any cleaner if it tried.”

Travis chuckled as he put ham and eggs on our plates.

Best Western. Cheyenne. Wyoming.

They ate in the breakfast room at the hotel and the kids were dragging their butts with another long day of driving ahead of them.

Annie wondered how long the boys had stayed awake watching movies on the pay-for-view channel. She’d find out when she checked out and saw the receipt.

Mick and Rowdy had already exercised the horses, put them back into the trailers and fed them their breakfast.

While the kids were packing up their stuff and getting ready to leave, Annie expressed her worries over Tammy to Rowdy. “I don’t think she’s as stable as Doctor Fielding thinks she is, sugar.”

“Could she have been faking it a bit at the hospital?”

“I hope not,” said Annie. “What a mess that would be if they let her out too soon.”

“Call the doctor and if he doesn’t answer his phone this early in the morning, leave a message to call you.”

“I think I will call,” said Annie. She tried Chance Fielding’s cell number and was surprised when he picked up.

“Annie, is something wrong? How’s Tammy doing on the trip?”

“Not too badly, but she has mentioned Eldon a couple of times. Not to me, but to Lucy. She’s confiding in her sister.”

“She shouldn’t be saying that name,” said Chance. “I was sure we’d worked through her fixation on Eldon Fontana. We worked hard on her grasping the concept that Eldon Fontana was an alias for Bobby Prescott. Time after time we went over who Bobby really was and what he was—a wanted serial killer.”

“She always called him Eldon,” said Annie.

“I had to make her face the fact that they were the same person and Bobby is a killer and a fugitive—not Eldon Fontana, the nice trucker who gave her a ride when she needed one. I’m sure she was there, Annie. We spent weeks on it.”

“Lucy said she was calling him Eldon and talking about not being able to sleep without him in the bed beside her.”

“Aw, I’m not happy to hear that.”

“One other thing happened.”

“Tell me.” Chance sighed. “I think I’m ready for it.”

“When we stopped for lunch, Tammy stepped away from us to have a smoke with the driver of a big rig. She’d never seen that driver before.”

“That’s upsetting,” said Chance. “It’s obvious she’s watching for Bobby Prescott’s truck. Watch her closely, Annie.”

“I will.

Annie ended the call with tears in her eyes.

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