Page 65 of Shine On Oklahoma

Kiley sniffled. “Kendra?”

Kendra went to her. “You did great. Rob’sgonna be so proud.”

“You saved us,” she whispered. “Just likealways. I love you so much, Kendra.” She locked an arm aroundKendra’s neck and hugged her hard.

“I love you, too.” She gazed down at thebaby. Diana had stopped crying. She had an elfin face, a face likea newborn fairy child, and wide eyes of the darkest, wettestblue-black-slate she’d ever seen. They were magic, those eyes.

“I’m gonna go get help, okay? Your dotinghusband is worried sick.”

“Okay. Don’t go far, Kendra. I need you.”

“Yeah,” Dax said. “Don’t go far. I need you,too.”

#

Kendra was in awe of Dax Russell, the guy shethought she knew already. She hadn’t had a clue, though. She’dthought he was soft, but he was strong. She’d thought he was sweet,but he was good. He was justgood. Too good for the likes ofher.

She found a spot to climb up the hill. It wascold, and she’d given her jacket to her sister. Dax was down thereshirtless. At least she was moving. The effort warmed her a little.She got to the top of the drop off, and then looked back and wavedat the three people she loved most in the whole world. Then shemoved along the ridge at the top, back to the spot where Dax hadfallen over. Sure enough, the radio was there in the dirt near theedge. She picked it up and keyed the mic. “I found her.Everything’s fine. There’s a steep drop. She and Dax are at thebottom.”

“Kendra, be careful!” She didn’t recognizethe voice. Was it Chief Jimmy? “Caine got away.”

“What?”

“He said, ‘Caine got away,’” Vester Cainesaid. He was standing behind her. She turned around slowly. Sheglanced at the radio.

“Not another word. Put the radio down.”

Her thumb was working the transmit button,depressing it and releasing it, 3 times quickly, 3 times slowly 3times quickly. She got two S.O.S. sequences out before dropping theradio to ground, and then “accidentally” kicking it over theside.

“Come with me.”

“What the hell do you want, Caine? You gotJack. You had your revenge. Didn’t you see how bad off he was backthere?”

“He’s still alive. Or was. They choppered himout of there after you left. I should’ve killed him right away, butI thought I might need a hostage to get out of there. They tookPhil by chopper, too. You should’ve shot me instead of him. Whydidn’t you?”

“I knew he’d talk if I hurt him. You wouldn’thave.”

He pressed his lips and nodded slowly.“You’re right, I wouldn’t.” He waved the gun barrel. “This way.Move.”

She didn’t look back. Maybe he didn’t realizeJack’s other daughter, and grandchild were so nearby. She movedquickly, to put distance between them before the baby cried or oneof them called her name. But the path he made her take led aroundthe top of the ridge, so they were circling, rather than movingaway from them. Dax would take care of Kiley and the baby untilhelp arrived. And if help didn’t arrive, he’d carry them both downoff this hill on his back, one-legged. She didn’t doubt it a bit.All she had to do was keep this animal from noticing them downthere.

“So you’re gonna kill me to get back at Jackfor stealing your whiskey and cigars? Is that what this is?”

“I oughtta kill you for what you did to Phil.You know how hard it is to get good help these days?”

“Right. I bet soulless thugs are hard to comeby.”

“They are. But no. I’m not gonna kill you.Not yet anyway. I need to get across the border.”

“Mexico?” He didn’t answer, but she was surehe had a billion-dollar spread south of the border. Heroin was bigbusiness. All this wasn’t even going to put a wrinkle in his silksheets.

“Follow that trail there,” he said, waggingthe gun.

The trail he indicated circled arounddrop-off, and the place at the bottom where Kiley had given birth.It kept them too close. She wanted to get him to move further awayfrom them.

“Why this way? I think the road is over here.If we cut through—”

“The road is the way we’re going,” he said.She didn’t know if he was right or wrong, didn’t know how hethought he knew, and didn’t care. “Move it.”

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