Page 37 of Dirty Gambit

Brittle branches cracked beneath her sneakers, sending her stumbling every few steps. She gritted her teeth and fought not to unleash the string of profanities threatening to spill into the muggy air. The tops of her sneakers were half buried in brown sludge. It was beginning to crawl up towards her socks. The swaying wheat blades left wet streaks in her clothes with every accidental brush she made against them. It was not the most ideal situation, but she could see the road ahead, could just make out the promise of escape when she heard the voice.

“You ladies lost?”

Lena’s heart somersaulted up into her throat with the wild panic of a deer caught in the crosshair. She whirled, arms instinctively swinging around Jessie’s tiny frame. The heel of her sneaker slipped beneath her, sending her staggering back a full step straight into the bobbing heads of wheat. Her cry of outrage was met with a guilty chuckle from the tiny man standing a mere five feet away. The fact that he’d snuck up on her was momentarily ignored by the fact that there was another soul there with her in the middle of nowhere, wearing filthy overalls and a flannel top. Jaxon’s comment about Leatherface flickered through her mind a split second before she caught herself and focused.

“Didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, putting up two callused palms. “I’m Roy Beadily. I own this land.”

“Hi,” she blurted, hedging another couple of steps to the right, back onto the path, but away from the stranger. “Sorry. We had some car troubles last night and—”

“Your car got stuck in the mud.” He chuckled and hooked gnarled thumbs into his suspenders. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that.”

Lena offered what she hoped wasn’t a tense smile. “We were just going to go get some help.”

“Well, there is no need for that.” He lifted a hand and nudged the cap on his head higher on his forehead, revealing a patch of white where his tan stopped. “I always make a pass through here after a storm. Like I said, we get a lot of folks who make a wrong turn on that path and wind up stuck.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I even bring my tow truck for this very occasion.”

Lena arched an eyebrow. “You’re a farmer with a tow truck?”

He gave a sheepish shrug of one bony shoulder. “It was my brother-in-law’s,” he confessed. “Left it to me when he passed. Lord knows why he thought I’d need it, but was grateful once it looked to be coming in handy. Now, I bring it along just in case.”

Lena nodded slowly.

“Your daughter?” He motioned towards Jessie.

She shook her head. “Niece.”

“Ah.” He nodded as if that made perfect sense. “Real cute.”

A long, awkward moment of silence passed between them. Lena wondered if that was a subtle way of asking for money because he seemed to be waiting for her to do or say something.

“I can pay you,” she offered at last. “If you wouldn’t mind helping us out.”

The man clicked his tongue. “Don’t worry none about that. Let’s just get you folk on your way.”

It took a solid hour for Roy to hook up the tow truck to the beat-up car. Within minutes, he’d yanked them free and moved the car safely onto the road, facing the wrong way as per Lena’s deliberate instructions. When word finally hit the news about a girl and a baby, the less information people had to volunteer, the safer Jessie would be.

Lena thanked him profusely and offered to pay him again, but Roy just shook his head.

“You just get to where you’re going safely,” he told her kindly.

She thanked him again and made a show of placing Jessie into the car seat and strapping her in. She kept one eye on the man as he put the hooks and cables back in the truck. Maybe it was just her imagination and paranoia, but she could have sworn he was taking a bit too long getting on his way. But he eventually did. He hauled his bent little body into the cabin, sent her a cheery wave from the open window, and rumbled off down the road in the opposite direction, the direction Lena would have to take once they left.

She exhaled. There was nothing to do about it. She had to get Jaxon and get them on track, which was exactly what she did. She pulled Jessie from her car seat, cast a quick glance up and down the road to make sure Roy wasn’t turning around, and sprinted back down the path in the direction of the barn.

Jaxon, understandably, sat in a livid crouch where she’d left him, but the worst part was the open duffle next to him. The crisp, brown bills glinted in the dull light filtering through the grimy windows. A few were out of place amongst the neat rows, but none had been taken.

For a moment, she could only stare at it. Then at him. He returned her gaze with accusation and rage.

“We need to go,” she muttered, at last, deciding avoidance was the best course of action.

Carefully, she set Jessie down. She zipped up the bag, concealing the blocks of money, and moved to uncuff Jaxon.

“Grab the bag,” she instructed, moving to scoop up Jessie.

“That’s it?” He rose slowly, gingerly massaging his wrists. “Where’d that money come from?”

She squinted at him, brows furrowed. “Why is that your business?”

“I’m the one hauling it around,” he retorted. “The least you can tell me is where you got it.”

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