Iron Cowboy (15 page)

Cash chuckled. “So you're in?”

“Seems so. I expect them to double-cross me the instant they see Jared in their sights, of course.”

Cash thought for a minute. “We'll have Sara call a bail bondsman for you. We'll pay him without letting anyone else know. When you and the three outlaws get out, we'll have you wired and a homing device placed in their van. As soon as they grab Jared, we'll have them for attempted kidnapping and give them to the feds.”

“Not a bad plan.”

“You really think so? Thanks,” Cash said with enthusiasm. “I don't actually know any feds, you understand, but I can look them up in the phone book.”

Tony was laughing. “And they give you real bullets, do they?”

“I haven't shot anybody in a year, at least,” Cash said with mock dismay.

“Just don't shoot me, when you show up to get those other guys. I weigh five pounds more than I should because of bullets they can't take out.”

“I have a couple of my own that never left,” Cash replied. “Okay. I'll go. I'll talk to Jared and have a couple of my officers standing by. Don't do anything until they actually have Jared in their van,” he added cautiously. “We have to have charges that will stick.”

“You keep an eye on Sara as well,” Tony told him. “These guys don't act like they're hitting on all six cylinders. There's no telling what they may try next.”

“I noticed. You know,” he added seriously, “you look pretty good in orange.”

Tony's eyes narrowed. “No fair picking on innocent victims of crime.”

“Oh, that's rich, coming from you,” Cash chuckled. “I'm leaving.”

“Tell Sara not to worry about me.”

“I can tell her, but it won't do any good. She likes you.”

He shrugged. “I like her, too.”

“We'll find a way to separate you from the kidnappers at the bail hearing so we can get you wired. I've already done their van.”

“They may look for a homing device,” Tony pointed out.

“They can look all they like,” he replied. “They'll never find this one. See you.”

“Yeah. You, too.”

It was a very good plan. Tony was wired just before he left with the three men, now dressed again in their civilian clothing as Tony was. They seemed to trust him.

But once they were in the van, the driver spoke in an Arab dialect on his cell phone, blissfully unaware that Tony spoke that particular dialect.

The leader of the kidnappers told his contact that they were on their way to get the woman Jared loved. Somehow they'd found out that Jared was staying with Sara. They were going to hold her long enough to make him give himself up to them, then they were going to kill her. They would kill Tony, too, because he could become a liability once the girl was dead. They would kill Jared eventually, the minute they had the ransom in their hands. They already had airplane tickets. It would be a matter of hours. The contact could meet them at the airport in Belize where they usually hooked up.

Tony cursed the change of plans. He couldn't warn anybody. If he repeated what the kidnapper had said, they'd know he spoke Arabic and he'd be dead. If he didn't, Sara would be in terrible danger. Jared was with her. It would be an easy matter to take both of them.

He had to pretend that he hadn't understood a word and act nonchalant. “Don't you guys kill Cameron,” he cautioned belligerently. “He's all mine!”

“Be assured, we have no plans to kill him. We only wish for the ransom he will bring.” He told the driver to slow down as they approached Sara's house.

“Hey,” Tony murmured, looking out the windshield. “That ain't Cameron's house!”

“He isn't in his house,” the leader of the three men replied. “Cameron is with your girlfriend.”

“Don't you hurt her,” Tony warned.

“Relax, my friend!” the other man laughed. “We intend only to take Cameron hostage. Then you and the girl will be free. I give you my word.”

Which was as good as his sense of fashion, Tony thought sarcastically, but he only nodded and pretended to believe the man. While he was nodding, he was considering his options. He was not only wearing a wire, he had a hidden gun in an ankle holster and a commando knife in a sheath inside his slacks. He had a watch with a pull-out garrote. All that, combined with advanced martial arts training, should stand him in good stead if he had the opportunity to act.

“You taking Cameron out of the country after you nab him?” Tony asked.

The three men were intent on the sparse lighting of the small house just ahead. “Yes, yes,” the leader said, distracted. “We have a base in Peru, where we can hold him until the ransom is paid.”

Tony doubted that Jared Cameron would be alive after the ransom was in their hands.

“Stop!” the leader told the driver. “You stay and wait for our signal,” he added. “We will take the bodyguard with us. Be vigilant.”

“Of course,” the driver replied.

The leader slid open the side panel of the van and motioned the shorter man and Tony out behind him.

“You will go first,” he told Tony. “Knock on the door and pretend that you have come to check on the woman.”

“Not a bad plan,” Tony said, grinning, because this plan would give him room to act. “You guys are smart.”

“You must not harm Cameron,” the leader told him firmly. “We need the ransom very badly. Later, we will give him to you, once we have the funds.”

Tony pretended to mull over the suggestion. “Okay. But you better give me a crack at him.”

“We will. Of course we will,” the leader said. He was now holding an automatic weapon. So was his companion.

It was going to be tricky, Tony mused, but he'd been in tighter spots. “You guys better get out of sight,” Tony told them, hoping Cash Grier was listening closely to what he said to the hidden microphone.

“We will be just around this corner,” the leader said. His face went hard. “We will have you in our sights, also. For insurance.”

“In other words, I get shot if I try anything funny,” Tony replied. “Hell, I want the guy as much as you do!”

The leader seemed to relax, a little. “Very well.” He motioned to the second man and they went, light on their feet, around the corner of the porch.

Tony knocked on the door. He heard footsteps coming. They weren't Jared's footsteps. He would have known them anywhere. He had to hide a grin.

The door opened. Tony dived through it as Cash Grier slammed the door. Outside there was gunfire.

“Quick reflexes,” Cash remarked to Tony.

“I've, uh, had a little practice over the years. How about Jared and Sara?”

“When we heard your plan over the wire,” Cash replied, “we got them out of the house. They're at Jared's. Nobody here but old Morris the cat, and we put him in a closet, just in case.”

The shooting ended.

“All clear!” a voice called.

Cash and Tony went out onto the porch, where four Jacobsville police officers and a man in a suit were leading the two would-be kidnappers toward the front door. In the yard, the wheel man was standing in front of his van, handcuffed, with two other men in suits holding guns on him.

“Nice operation,” Cash told his men. “I knew that extra training in hostage negotiation would come in handy.”

“Hostage negotiation?” Tony exclaimed. “They've all got guns!”

Cash looked sheepish. “Well, you negotiate your way and I'll negotiate my way.”

The officers chuckled. So did Tony.

They had tape of the kidnappers confessing. Federal marshals were escorting them to Dallas, where they'd face federal charges. Their kidnapping days were over.

Tony was back at the ranch the next day, but Jared was sending him on to Oklahoma to make sure the house was ready for occupants. And also to make sure no more would-be kidnappers were lurking around.

“You take care, Sara,” Tony told her gently, and bent to kiss her on the cheek. “I expect we'll see each other again.”

“I hope so.” She hugged the big man and kissed his lean cheek. “Thanks for everything.”

“No problem.”

He shook hands with Jared. “I'll put Fred and Mabel to work getting the house set to rights. I assume you're not coming home alone,” he added with a grin.

“You assume right,” Jared said with a tender, possessive look toward Sara, who was just going back inside the house to make sure old Morris was all right. Tony had brought him over after all the excitement was past.

Tony stuck his hands in his pockets. “I've got to go back to my day job,” he said. “I'm tempted to give it up, but it's comfortable.”

“You're too young to want to be comfortable,” Jared replied. “Besides, you have to keep those reflexes honed.” He smiled mischievously. “You might be the next target for kidnappers looking for ransom.” He looked past Tony at the sleek Jaguar sports car that had been lodging in the huge garage with Jared's classic automobiles. “That car could get you some unwelcome attention.”

“You're just saying that because you don't want me to take it away,” Tony shot back.

“You could always get a newer one,” Jared suggested.

“I don't like the newer ones. I like that one.”

“Damn!”

“Listen, we signed papers,” Tony reminded him. “It isn't as if I stole it.”

Jared pursed his lips. “There's a thought,” he began.

Tony wagged a finger at him. “You report this car stolen, and you'll never make it home to Oklahoma without being arrested for possession of at least one Schedule I substance. I swear!”

“All right, all right,” Jared muttered. “You did see it first at the auto show.”

“Damned straight, I did.” He hesitated. “You take care of yourself. And if there is a baby,” he added, “I get to be the godfather.”

Jared opened his mouth to speak.

“I know at least one shaman who can do nasty spells back home in North Carolina,” he interrupted.

“You're from Georgia,” he shot back.

“My foster parents are from Georgia. I was born in Cherokee, North Carolina.”

“Yes, but your real father wasn't.”

Tony gave him a glare. “We don't talk about him.”

“You need to,” Jared said solemnly. “You have to deal with it one day.”

“I'm going to Oklahoma.” Tony put his sunglasses on. “Right now.”

“Nice shades.”

“That's what my boss said.”

“You didn't! You wouldn't swipe his sunglasses…?”

“Of course I didn't swipe them. I won them.”

“How?”

“He had a full house, I had four aces,” he said smugly. “He threw the deck at me and walked out.”

“Serves him right for getting suckered into playing poker with you,” Jared said. He held out a hand. “Be safe.”

Tony shook it. “You, too. I'll be in touch.”

Sara came back with Morris in her arms, just in time to watch him drive away in a classic red sports car which, Jared told her, belonged to Tony.

“If Tony's leaving, why am I still here?” she asked Jared worriedly. “The bad guys are in Dallas by now, and I'm very fit.”

He drew her to him, quiet and somber. “You're still here because we have things to talk about.”

“Such as?”

He was oddly hesitant. “Come here.”

He picked her up, Morris and all, and carried her into the living room, dropping down onto the sofa with her. Morris, uncomfortable, jumped down and went in search of food.

“We haven't known each other for a long time,” Jared began quietly. “But I think we're basically the same sort of people. You're no doormat, and you're smart. You'd fit right in back in Oklahoma. Most of my friends are working people, just as I used to be. I don't travel in high social circles. In the past I spent a lot of time on airplanes, but that's going to stop. Whether or not you're pregnant doesn't matter right now. I'm going to delegate authority and start living my life for something other than making money.”

“That sounds serious,” she said, and her heart was hammering away in her chest. His eyes held a warmth she hadn't seen there before.

“It's very serious. I'm a good deal older than you,” he began, “and I've had, and lost, a family. You could stay here and marry someone younger. Harley Fowler, maybe.”

“I don't love Harley,” she said softly, searching his eyes. “He's my friend. As for our ages,” she added, “I'm more mature than a lot of women, because of what I've gone through.”

He traced her mouth with a long forefinger. “Yes, you are,” he agreed quietly. “Which leads to the next question.”