Chasing the Tumbleweed (4 page)
Read Chasing the Tumbleweed Online
Authors: Casey Dawes
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The woman came into the small building. “You okay?”
Jeff gestured toward his head. “Probably not. Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch.”
The ranger shined her light on his hair and gently ran her fingers over his skull.
Pain exploded and he yelped.
She pulled back her fingers. “No broken skin that I can see—got a good goose egg forming, though.” She glanced at his arm. “What happened there?”
“Bullet grazed me.”
At that moment, Jeff’s supervisor, Dwight, pushed his way into the building. “Jesus, Jeff, what happened?”
Jeff willed himself to a standing position, ignoring the flashes of pain and bile. “Where the hell was that backup I requested, Dwight?”
“Didn’t you get my message? Oil rig overturned on Highway Fifty — all hands were needed to contain the spill. I told you to wait!”
Jeff held out the broken walkie-talkie. “Never got it.” And it wouldn’t have helped anyway. He’d already turned the thing off by the time he ran into Crenshaw. Jeff filled his supervisor in on the events of the past twenty-four hours.
“And now he’s got her again?” Dwight asked.
“And my Jeep. I’ve got to go after her.”
Dwight barked a laugh. “Not a chance. You need to get to town and get yourself checked out.”
Jeff shook his head and immediately wished he hadn’t. “I’m going after her. It’s my fault he got her again.”
“I’ll send someone el—”
“No,” Jeff raised his voice slightly. “I’m going. Now who’s going to lend me a Jeep?”
“You have no idea where they’ve gone.”
“Actually, I might. He was headed north from that loop by Richmond Hill. There are rumors of an old hunting cabin up there. I bet he’s following Twenty-four to approach it from the north.” Jeff reached for his pistol before he realized it was gone.
Crenshaw.
Dwight held out his gun. “It’s not like you to go off like this, Dawson, so I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. That girl must have gotten under your skin.” He turned to a young man, new on the force, and said, “Go with him, Majors. Use your Jeep.”
“I don’t....” Jeff started.
“You will.” Dwight stared him down.
Jeff nodded his head reluctantly. “Let’s go, Majors. I’ll drive.”
After he turned the Jeep onto the forest road that led northeast from Grantsville, Jeff was rewarded by tracks leading into the interior of the preserve. The time on his watch told him he was only an hour behind Crenshaw.
Although he concentrated on the road ahead of him, looking for signs of a vehicle turning off the road, he was aware of the nervous energy of the man beside him. He hoped Majors had enough training to be useful in a shootout, because he had no doubt that’s what it was going to take to get Crenshaw.
He hoped Laurie wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire.
Dwight thought she’d gotten under his skin.
Maybe.
But it didn’t matter. She’d already made her views of small town living clear and he couldn’t live anywhere else.
“There.” Majors pointed to tire tracks that crested the ridge of the road and disappeared into the forest.
Jeff slammed on the brakes, turned off the ignition and leapt from the vehicle.
“Why can’t we take the Jeep?” Majors asked.
“Too much noise. He can’t go far in it anyway. This area drops off sharply in about a mile.”
Crenshaw hadn’t gone far at all. They’d only traveled a short distance before they saw Jeff’s Jeep. It had been left where Crenshaw had plowed it into a pine tree.
Damn idiot.
Jeff saw how Crenshaw had tried to back the vehicle out a few times, but had slid back into the tree before giving up.
He yanked open the passenger side door of his wounded Jeep and grabbed his cell phone from the glove box.
Still charged.
He slipped the phone into his breast pocket.
“I’ll call it in.” Majors switched on his walkie-talkie.
“No!” Jeff hissed. “We don’t know how close he is.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Jeff scanned the area to see if he could pick up signs of Crenshaw and Laurie’s travel. A flitting white square snagged on a branch caught his eye. When he saw what it was, he grinned. “They went this way.”
He gestured for Majors to follow him.
They walked silently for a half hour until the terrain became rougher and steeper. Several times they knocked off rocks, making a racket that gave Jeff the chills. Hopefully, Crenshaw would think they were critters in the woods.
When they got to the bottom of the slope, it took Jeff a while to find the tracks, but eventually he saw another white square.
Good girl.
After half hour’s walk up a short rise, he saw a cabin nestled in a hollow.
He motioned for Majors to stop and examined his options. Calling for backup made sense, but he worried about Laurie’s safety. At this point, Crenshaw was probably getting impatient.
No. He had to go in now.
“Stay here,” he whispered to Majors. “Keep an eye on the door. If he comes out, shoot him.”
“I’ve never shot anyone before.” Majors’ voice trembled.
Great.
“Pretend it’s a target.”
Jeff drew his pistol and crept toward the far side of the cabin, trying to keep rocks and brush between him and the window. He was a few feet from the cabin wall when a walkie-talkie squawk caused him to look back at where Majors hid.
The cabin door flew open and he saw Majors stand up and aim his gun.
Two shots rang out. One felled Majors.
The other hit Jeff in the shoulder, causing his gun to go skittering off into the brush.
I’m damned tired of getting shot.
A second later Crenshaw stood over him, his rifle pointed at Jeff’s head. “I should have killed you earlier. You’re a pain in the butt.” He slid the bolt on the rifle and took aim.
Chapter Five
Laurie stepped from the cabin, the pistol Eli had taken from Jeff in her hand. Getting into the stance her father’s stuntmen had taught her, she took aim at Crenshaw’s back and fired.
He spun around and gaped at her. “I’ll gut you for that, you bitch.” He raised the rifle.
No way, you bastard.
She fired again.
He took a step back, stumbled over Jeff’s body, but then regained his footing.
Die, you lunatic!
She fired a third time and he finally went down, his rifle clattering away from him.
Approaching him slowly, she reached the rifle first and kicked it farther from his hand.
Crenshaw’s eyes were still open when she reached him. His lips were contorted in a crooked grin.
Maybe I should shoot him again.
Jeff stirred and she went to him instead, lowering the pistol to her side. “You okay?”
“Other than being shot—just fine. At least he didn’t damage the phone this time.” He looked up at her. “What happened to you?”
She attempted to close her torn blouse, then shrugged. She had on more clothes than half the women at Salt Lake’s public pools. “Fortunately, nothing.” She grinned. “My hero came to my rescue.”
“I think it’s more you came to my rescue.” He groaned as he reached for his pocket.
“I’ll get it,” she said. She pulled the phone out and looked at the man who’d risked his life for hers.
Please be okay.
“Let me get something to put on that wound.”
“More disinfectant wipes?”
She chuckled and ran back into the cabin where she grabbed her tote and sped back to Jeff, sparing a glance for Eli.
The monster appeared dead. At least, his eyes were closed.
Using the wipes, she cleaned the wound and then put a clean blouse from her tote over it. “Press here,” she said and pulled his good hand to her temporary dressing.
Without thinking, she kissed his forehead and asked, “Who do I call?”
He smiled up at her. “Before you call in the troops, I think you’d better try that again, only this time aim lower.” She took a deep breath and lowered her lips to his.
His mouth tasted of the forest around them, pine and fresh air, easing the misery of the past few days from her heart.
“Much better,” he said and gave her the number of his supervisor.
As soon as she connected, a man named Dwight peppered her with questions. Quickly, she recited what had happened.
“What about Majors?” Dwight asked.
“Who’s Majors?” she asked Jeff.
Jeff groaned. “
Shit.
I forgot about Majors. He’s up on the ridge. Don’t know how he is, better go see.”
Her skin became clammy. Eli dead was fine. She couldn’t bear it if someone else had been killed.
When she got to the crest, she heard a groan. The ranger lay on the ground, a pistol close to his hand. A gash on his head was bleeding, but didn’t look life-threatening.
He opened his eyes when she leaned over him. “You must be an angel. Did I die?”
She laughed with relief. “No angel. And no, you’re not dead. Let me help you up.”
Getting him to a sitting position and then upright was no easy task, but she managed it.
She helped him down to where Jeff lay. Eli still hadn’t stirred.
Hope the bastard is dead.
“How are you doing?” she asked Jeff after she got Majors situated.
“Fine.”
She lifted his hand to see if the bleeding from his shoulder had slowed at all.
“Your boyfriend was wrong,” Jeff said.
“I know.”
His eyes widened. Majors shouted and struggled to get to his feet.
Without thinking, she grabbed the gun, spun and fired, just as she’d practiced as a little girl on the studio lot.
Eli, bloody knife in his hand, was just inches from her.
This time the light went out in his eyes and he tumbled down, the blade narrowly missing her arm.
“Gotcha.” She raised the barrel of the pistol to her lips and blew on it in her best imitation of a movie cowboy.
# # #
Twenty-four hours later they were finally done with rangers, police and hospitals. Laurie breathed a sigh of relief when Majors pulled his Jeep up to Jeff’s front door. The small house was tucked into one of the hills behind Austin, on a dirt road.
She was really beginning to hate dirt roads.
She and Majors followed Jeff into the house.
“You can stay, you know,” Jeff sat on the couch. “I’ve got a guest room. At least until they get your car out.”
“That could be weeks.”
He shrugged, and winced. “I need a nurse.”
“I’m not qualified.”
Jeff patted the couch. “I’ve seen your TLC. I think you’ll do a fine job.”
Majors cleared his throat. “Dwight got you a room up at the Cozy Motel.”
Laurie looked from one man to the other. She should stay at the motel.
Should.
If she’d done what she should have done back at the rest stop—gotten into her car and ignored the ice chest—she wouldn’t have gotten into this mess in the first place.
But then, she’d still believe what Brent had told her was true. She’d proven him wrong.
Except....
She eyed Jeff speculatively.
How bad were his injuries?
“I’ll stay here.”
“Suit yourself.” Majors held out his hand. “Thanks for all you did.”
“Thank you!” She hugged the bony young man.
He turned red, mumbled goodbye and left.
“Well then,” Jeff said.
“Well, then.” She smiled at him.
“We’re alive.”
“Yes, we are.”
He struggled to get to his feet and she made a move to help him. He shook his head. “I’m not a very good invalid. Besides....some things I need to do myself.” He smiled. “Feel like celebrating life?”
She nodded and lifted her face to his.
A few hours later she knew that Brent had been wrong about everything.
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