Page 63 of Stilettos and Outlaws

Chapter Fifteen

A groan broke from me. God, I hurt all over. Had I been in a fight? Ugh. My mouth was dry as sandpaper and I really needed to pee.

A dog whined.

Huh? We didn’t have a dog. Did we?

Bodacious snuffled my hair.

“I’ll get you some oats in a minute. Tired. Need to sleep.”

Little paws patted my face. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.

“Miss Kitty?” Memories came flooding back. “Oh, shit!” I bolted upright. Grandpa! Had he survived the explosion? He was a cantankerous old bastard, but I loved him anyway.

Edgar licked at my tears.

I petted him. “I love you too. Do you have any idea where we are?”

Woof.

“Me neither.” I glanced at my watch. Damn, I had been unconscious for about five hours. I could be anywhere. The question was: How did I get all of us out of a locked hauler in one piece? The lock for the hauler was on the outside and the metal slots were too small to fit my hand through.

The semi-truck slowed down.

I glanced through the trailer’s metal slots. On the other side of the road were white-washed concrete Indian teepees. Oh, my, God! I knew where I was. The Wigwam Hotel was in Holbrook, Arizona. Crap. I was two hundred miles from home and totally on my own. If I could get to a phone, I could get the cavalry started in the right direction. I knew there was a statewide alert on me, but who would look here? The answer would be no one.

Bass had picked the perfect place to hide out. Once upon a time, Holbrook had been a bustling cow town full of outlaws and rustlers. The Hashknife gang robbed trains and stagecoaches as a form of recreation when they weren’t rustling cattle. Was Bass behind the string of I-40 train robberies?

The semi-truck stopped at the one and only red light.

I looked around for help. Damn, the sidewalks were empty except for one little girl holding a yellow balloon. “Hi, what’s your name?”

“Tina. That’s a big cow.”

“Yeah, he is. Where’s your mom?”

“Workin’.”

“I need help.” I took out a business card and wrote Holbrook on the back. “Can you give this to your mom? It’s really important. Bad men kidnapped me.” I pushed the card through the slots. “Please.”

Tina ran over and took the card. “Is that a coyote?”

“Yes. His name is Edgar.”

“Can I pet him?”

“No!”

“Can I pet the kitty?”

I resisted the urge to scream. “No, the bad men will see you.”

“Where are the bad men?”

“Driving the truck. Now, run and give the card to your mom. Right now! There’s a big reward.”

“Okay.”

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