Page 92 of Deadly Evidence
The man on the ground moaned and clutched his thigh as he struggled to pull himself up enough to lean against a rock. He glared at Anna, then Dante. “Calaveras.” His mouth curled into a sneer. “We meet again, eh? Only now, I would not want to be in your shoes. Efrain does not ignore betrayal.”
Not Dante.Not the kid she’d been hoping to rescue from his troubled past.Stunned, Anna glanced between the boy and the Nieto. “What does he mean, Dante? Betrayal?”
“Efrain is going to be singing to the Feds if he knows what’s good for him—and Nieto will, too, if he has any sense.” Brady appeared out of the darkness, on the other side of the fallen man, with a rifle in his hand.
He swooped down to pick up Nieto’s weapon and set it out of reach, then pulled the guy’s wrists behind his back and snapped on a set of handcuffs.
He bent down to take a look at the wound on the man’s thigh. “You’re mighty lucky—looks like it went through the muscle and didn’t hit any arteries. It isn’t even bleeding all that much right now.”
The man spewed out something in Spanish and jerked at his cuffs, then winced and sat still, eyeing his leg. He gave Anna a venomous glare. “You and your girl should be dead—just like your neighbor.”
“What?”
“You couldn’t just leave things alone. And for that, you deserved to pay.”
“Brady—”
“I heard.” Brady shifted his attention to Dante. “Now, you don’t have any plans to do anything stupid, do you?”
His eyes wide, Dante shook his head.
“Then put your rifle down on the ground, son, and take five steps back. Nice and easy. I just don’t want to take any chances.”
“What about Lacey? Where is she—is she okay?” Anna searched the shadows, then skirted Brady and started up the trail. “Where’s Tom?”
“Two of these dudes tried to ambush us not twenty yards from here. We’ve got ’em cuffed and ready to haul out of here. Tom is going after Lacey.”
Almost on cue, Lacey raced down the path and flung herself into Anna’s arms, sobbing and laughing until she was out of breath.
“Mom! I’m so sorry! I just went riding, but these guys were there. One grabbed my reins—it was awful! They kept saying that I’d die if I didn’t cooperate.”
“Oh, honey—”
“When they heard someone coming, they divided up. I just knew it had to be you out here—” She gulped and scrubbed her tears away with the back of her hand. “And that they would kill you. I was so scared!”
Anna held her close. “It’s all right, sweetheart. Everything will be okay.”
But looking over the top of her head at Brady handcuffing Dante, she knew that wasn’t so.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ahalf-dozen law enforcement cruisers, unmarked DEA and Border Patrol cars had converged on the highway by the time they made it back to Anna’s truck and trailer.
Anna and Lacey unsaddled the horses and loaded them into the trailer while Dante and the others were taken to the waiting patrol cars and whisked away.
After twenty minutes of answering questions, Anna felt weak-kneed and relieved when Tom finally closed his notebook. But Lacey was next.
“Could you both come with me, please?” the female agent asked. “This won’t take long—I just want to get some notes down before she has time to forget or get a little confused about the details. We’ll both come back tomorrow as well.”
Anna gave Lacey a big hug, reveling in the pure joy of that soft, warm contact and the familiar scent of Lacey’s honeysuckle shampoo. “Are you okay with this interview, honey?”
Lacey nodded and leaned into her. “I—Ihaveto make sure I get this right. I want those guys sent far, far away. Forgood.”
The agent gave her an encouraging smile. “Kidnapping means life imprisonment—and these guys have a lot more charges against them as well, including previous murder charges. You can be sure they will never, ever be on the street again. Your testimony can make sure that happens.”
She led them to a more private spot away from the others, where Lacey cuddled next to Anna on the tailgate of a pickup, and the agent stood next to them with a notebook in her hand.
Anna curved an arm around her shoulders and held her tight as Lacey told them about the all-terrain vehicle that had come up from the shore of the Rio Grande and sped off to the east. It had then done a high-speed donut and come straight after her.
