Page 43 of Outlaw Road (A Hunter Kincaid Novel)

“Okay, but if you’re not there in one hour, I’m leavin’.”

“I’ll be there.” Bobby hopped down and said, “I’ll get the gate, then move my Toyota.” He took out a large ring of keys from the passenger side of the Toyota and opened the gate, swung it back, got in and drove through and to the side. The semi pulled slowly through. Bobby drove out of the gate and pulled it closed, leaving it unlocked, but hooked with a wire so that it appeared locked. He drove into Presidio and across the International Bridge into Ojinaga, then turned upriver, following the river road.

Bobby saw the six men leaning against the old pickup. He pulled beside them, “Let’s go, they’re here.” The men grinned and slapped each other on the backs as four got in the bed of the old truck and two got in the front. They followed Bobby down the turn to the river, everyone driving with lights out. The moon was up and gave plenty of light to drive by, if you were used to it. They reached the edge of the river and parked.

Bobby exited and looked across the river, easily picking out the huge bulk of the semi. He pointed the small flashlight at the semi and blinked it twice. The driver blinked back. “Let’s go, boys,” Bobby said, and waded across the shallow ford to the U.S. side.

The six men followed and they reached the semi while the truck driver opened the back and arranged the metal ramps for unloading. They unloaded the five John Deere tractors and drove them across the river into Mexico.

Bobby and the driver watched them fade into the darkness. The driver said, “They know where to take them? You don’t have to go?”

“They know. They’ll have to drive most of the night, but they’ll be at my little ranch before daylight. We’ll haul them out tomorrow, take them way south.”

“You have a buyer?”

Bobby nodded, “Yep. Been doing business with him for years.”

Bobby and the driver shook hands, and the driver climbed into his rig and drove away, lights out. Bobby waited until he could no longer see the rig in the moonlight, then waded across the river. He stopped at the Toyota and took out a spare set of jeans, socks and tennis shoes, and changed, tossing the wet clothes into the brush. Bobby thought, No need to have somebody at the international bridge stop him for inspection and find wet clothes in the car. No sir, that would not do. Bobby started the Toyota and drove downriver toward OJ.

***

Five minutes later, Jesse and Johnny Barbosa seemed to materialize from the top of a low rise at the edge of the crossing. Jesse had wrapped his burned scalp in an ace bandage spray-painted black. Insects buzzed around it in a small whining cloud.

Johnny’s burned forehead and eyebrow were wrapped the same way, but the bandage kept slipping down over his eye. The agony of putting even a sterile pad on his eyebrow had almost been too much, but the cloud of gnats swarming around the ooze drove him crazy, so he felt he would rather deal with the pain of the bandage.

Jesse said, “Godoy finding out about this, he’s got some good spies.”

Johnny said, “Yep. I wish he’d sent us to shoot that ponytailed bastard, instead of watching Mata and his boys laughing and hooting about their little caper.”

“No shit. Shoot Mata’s ass, walk over and let him see who did it, let us be the last thing he sees.”

“We’ll get our chance.”

“Yeah,” Jesse paused a moment, “A shame we can’t get those tractors.”

“We’re not crossing Godoy. He’s got a damn hair-trigger temper as it is. We’ll just give him the info so he can do what he wants. He’s paying us, so he knows we ain’t doing this because we’re scared of him.”

“Damn straight. We don’t get scared, we make ‘em scared.”

“People see us comin’, they just step aside.”

Jesse said, “Use the cell phone, call Godoy from here and tell him what we saw.”

“I don’t have it. I thought you had it.”

Jesse sighed, “Did you at least put it in the truck?”

“Don’t be blaming me on this, Jesse! I put it on the table at the house and told you to get it. It’s not my fault you forgot.”

“I didn’t forget it, I told you to get it, remember?”

“I did get it! I got it from the bedroom and put it on the table!”

“That ain’t what I meant!” Jesse looked at the night sky, “Lord, you blessed me with an idiot for a brother.”

Johnny got face to face with him. “I’m goin’ to the car. You gonna keep on whining, or are we gonna get into town and tell Godoy?”

“I’m coming,” said Jesse, then he muttered, “Next time I’m gonna duct-tape that phone to your forehead so you don’t forget it.”

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