SPY IN THE SADDLE (14 page)

But other than her being fitted tightly against him, he didn’t mind the backseat. It left his hands free for his gun, in case they ran into trouble.

Which, of course, they did.

Chapter Eleven

They’d only ridden maybe a mile from the ranch when they ran into a heavily armed posse.

Lilly’s best guess was that the two pickups full of men had been sent to find out what had happened to the truck that hadn’t arrived on time. She and Shep were armed with handguns, while the others carried semiautomatics.

She stopped the horse as they were surrounded within seconds, all guns aimed at them. Then she raised her hands. Defeat was a foregone conclusion.

Shep swore behind her.

“Live to fight another day,” she whispered as she let her weapon drop to the ground. The two of them dying in the middle of the desert would serve no purpose.

She would have dearly liked to kick Shep, maybe, but she didn’t want him dead. All this time, he’d been telling her that she could trust him. So she’d trusted him enough to tell him about her job. Did he appreciate it? Hell, no. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason to him.

Even now, was he doing the sensible thing and surrendering? Of course not.

He held on to his gun as one of the men, probably the leader, yelled at him. If he squeezed off a single shot, the next second they’d both be riddled with bullets.

“Think of the upside,” she said under her breath. “I think we’re about to meet the illustrious Coyote.”

If these men wanted them dead, they would have shot as soon as they’d gotten within range. That they hadn’t could only mean that they’d been ordered to bring Shep and Lilly in.

Shep swore again, but tossed his weapon onto the parched ground at last. “I really hope we’re not going to regret this.”

She had to wonder when the next second the men ran forward and pulled them from the horse, tied them up and shoved them into one of the pickups. They drove back in the direction they’d come from, their captives lying on the truck bed while the men sat on the wooden planks that rimmed the back.

Her bruised back didn’t enjoy the ride. At least she wasn’t gagged this time, a small mercy she was grateful for. And the men shaded them somewhat so they weren’t lying in full sun, either.

Shep asked in Spanish where they were going, but they ignored him, until he insisted on an answer too loudly and one of the men kicked him in the mouth, splitting his lip.

“Quit it,” she whispered. If they were to survive, they had to stick together. “This isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

He glared at her, probably still upset with her because she was doing her job. So unfair.

She turned her head from him and tried to see out but couldn’t as she was ringed by scruffy, sweaty men. Some looked bored, staring ahead at the road. Two leered at her openly.

They didn’t go far. Less than half an hour passed before they entered some kind of a factory complex and the pickup pulled into a loading bay. The first thing she saw when they dragged her out of the back of the pickup were giant reams of paper.

An impeccably dressed man stood by the sliding metal doors that led inside. He was Asian, middle-aged.

She exchanged a look with Shep.

The man’s identity wasn’t difficult to guess, although she hadn’t met him before. But there was only one Chinese bigwig who had a paper factory on this side of the border this close to Pebble Creek: Yo Tee.

The men dragged their prisoners over to him for inspection.

“Who do you work for?” he asked with a slight accent as he looked them over.

Neither of them said a word.

“You work for border patrol, no? How much you know?”

Of course, he’d want to know that to see if his plans had been compromised.

Again, they remained silent. Lilly was scanning the place from the corner of her eye, noting avenues of escape and making an inventory of how many people they would have to deal with. She was pretty sure Shep was doing the same.

An annoyed frown flashed across Yo Tee’s face. “Not answering questions very impolite.” He tsked. “Take them in the back, Carlos.” He turned away. “Bring them to me when they ready to talk. Sooner better than later.”

By the time the men shoved them up the steps, Yo Tee had disappeared. A wide hallway lined with forklifts greeted them inside. A storage area sprawled straight ahead, but they didn’t go there. They headed down a narrow hallway on their right, boots slapping on the cement floor.

Several doors lined the hallway, all of them closed. They were taken to the last one. One of the men unlocked the door and shoved them in, then the door banged shut behind them. The key turned in the lock.

Her gaze flew to the half-naked man on the floor in the far corner, all bloodied. Cuts covered his body, not a good sign for the newcomers.

He didn’t look Mexican. He had fair skin and blondish hair, matted with blood.

Shep went to crouch next to him. “Hey, are you all right?”

The man moaned in response. He looked as if Yo Tee’s men pulled any punches.

Shep glanced back at her and she shot him a helpless look. There was absolutely nothing they could have done to help the poor guy.

Shep must have come to the same conclusion, because he turned from the man to scan the rest of the space. “We don’t have much time. They’ll be coming in a minute.”

“Where did they go?”

“To get their tools, probably.”

She so didn’t want to think about what those tools might be. Judging from the man on the ground, they would be sharp. She’d just as soon not see them up close and personal. “We need to get out.”

Shep was already sitting and untying the rope from his ankles. She did the same, then helped him untie his hands and he helped with hers like before, as if this was their usual routine.

The door was locked. She tried it anyway, grabbed the knob and shook it hard. Nothing gave.

Shep nodded toward a small window high up on the wall. “How about that?”

The narrow opening had two metal bars crossing each other but no glass, probably to let some air in. It didn’t look too promising as an avenue of escape. For one, the window was too high up the wall. And the bars had been built directly into the brick.

But since she had no other suggestions, she moved that way. “Let me see.”

Shep stood by the wall, cupped his hands and gave her a boost. Once she was standing on his wide shoulders, she could reach the opening. Unfortunately, it seemed as narrow up close as it had looked from below.

“You’re not going to fit,” she said, giving him the bad news first as she rattled the bars. “But I will.”

“Then you must go,” he said without hesitation.

“I’ll climb out through here, then come around and set you free.” She rattled the bars again. They were old and no longer tight in the brick, but she couldn’t rip them out bare-handed. “I need something sharp and hard.”

He swayed under her for a few seconds then passed up his belt. “Use the buckle.”

She attacked the mortar between the bricks with the sharp square of brass, and it did work, the dried-out material crumbling. The only question was, could she get it all done before the men came back?

She went at the task with all her strength, knowing they had minutes at best. The bottom end of the perpendicular bar came out, the rest wobbled. To free them one by one would be too much work, she realized. They weren’t going to make it doing things that way.

“Loop the belt around the bar,” Shep called up, apparently having come to the same realization.

She did, catching on at once what he wanted. She looped the belt then jumped to the ground from his shoulders.

They grabbed the end of the belt together and yanked hard. The bar flew out of the wall on the third try, Shep catching it with the reflexes of a superhero before it could have clattered to the ground and given them away.

Then she was on his shoulders again, pulling herself up and looking out.

She was in some kind of a ventilation shaft surrounded by four brick walls. The shaft had no exit on the bottom, but was open to the sky above.

She glanced back at Shep. “I’m going up. Try not to get into any trouble until I get back.”

He looked up from weighing the iron bars, probably testing them to use as a weapon. “Be careful. Don’t take unnecessary chances. Getting a call through to Ryder at the office is more important than coming back for me.”

“I’m planning on doing both.” And she got started right away.

She had to play with the angle to fit her shoulders through the opening. She felt his hands grabbing her feet, giving her support and pushing, helping her up and out. Then she was up all the way, outside, standing in the opening.

The drop to the ground was about fifteen feet, not a big deal, but she’d be trapped down there. The way up was a lot more difficult, at least thirty feet, and with nothing to hang on to but minuscule grooves between bricks that could crumble at any moment beneath her shoes and fingers.

And she had to rush. If the men came back, they could easily figure out where she’d gone. Them shooting up through the window would be like shooting fish in a barrel with her stuck in a tight, boxed-in space with nowhere to hide.

She brought her right foot up, wedged the sole of her shoe into the gap between two bricks and tested it, putting her weight on it little by little. It held, but she didn’t shift her full weight forward; she kept some on her hands. Then came the other foot, then moving hands, never letting just one limb carry her full weight, but always two and preferably three. Up she went step by step, reach by reach.

There were other windows opening to the ventilation shaft, small like the one she’d just exited. All barred so she couldn’t climb in. One she passed opened to a storage room, another to an empty office. At least there was nobody in either room, so nobody spotted her as she climbed.

Still, she barely dared breathe until she reached the roof and pulled herself up. No gunshots or shouting had come from below, so they hadn’t discovered her missing yet, but that could change at any second.

She wasted no time and ran across the roof. She needed a gun, a phone and to get back to Shep before they beat him bloody.

She dashed to the edge of the roof, flattened herself and looked down at the same loading dock they’d come through. There were several trucks waiting for their loads. To grab one and drive away didn’t even occur to her. She was going nowhere without Shep.

Even as she thought that, three guys came from inside and began loading one of the trucks, ending any possibility of her climbing down on this side. She pulled back and hurried to another spot, around the corner.

An abandoned courtyard stretched down below, stacked with rusty equipment. She spotted an open window directly below her. Perfect. Unless, of course, she slipped and got impaled on the machinery on the ground. Best not to think about that right now.

She pushed everything but her next move out of her mind and lowered herself next to the window. She carefully peeked in from the side. But there was nobody in there, thank God. She pulled herself over and in, dropped to the tile floor and stayed in a crouch for a second.

That
had been nerve-racking. She participated in regular training sessions and worked out daily, but didn’t exactly do a lot of rock climbing.

Thinking of Shep, she didn’t pause for long. In a few seconds she was moving again, through the empty office, sticking her head into the hallway. There was one more door to her right, at the end of the hallway, a security door that looked as if it was made of reinforced steel.

On her other side she could see four more regular wooden doors toward the stairs. Those, too, all remained closed. She stepped out and hurried that way, glad that the doors had no glass, so even if there were people inside the offices, she wouldn’t be seen. Unless, of course, they exited. But nobody did, and she made her way to the staircase safely.

But as she looked down the empty staircase, she could hear angry shouting coming from below.

They’d just figured out that she’d escaped. That should gain Shep a few minutes of a break, while the men all ran off looking for her.

She needed a gun, but for that she would have to catch one of the men. Or... She turned to the steel-reinforced door.
A top-floor office with top security.
Yo Tee?

One way to find out.

She stole back down the hallway to that last door and tried the knob. She wasn’t that surprised to find that it gave under the pressure of her hand. Yo Tee wouldn’t expect an attack in his own stronghold.

She shoved the door open and rushed in, counting on the element of surprise, and found herself in a small entryway with another door directly opposite her. A guy with an assault rifle guarded the space.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked in Spanish and lurched forward.

She started with a kick to the man’s middle, ducked when he tried to bash her face in with the butt of the gun. “Where is the Coyote?” She turned and kicked higher, at his arm this time, but he held the weapon tightly and didn’t drop it, dammit.

Instead, he pulled back to aim it at her, but she stepped right in with a hard punch to his solar plexus. Then a quick second punch to his stomach again. He bent forward at that, and she used the advantage to bring her knee up.

His nose broke with a satisfying crunch, spraying blood on her, the least of her concerns. She didn’t even slow down as she grabbed his gun and whacked him in the back of the head, sending him sprawling onto the floor. She did hesitate, but only for a second, before bending and breaking his neck. She didn’t want him reviving and attacking her from behind.

She kept the gun and rushed the inner door. This one was locked. But it wasn’t steel. A good roundhouse kick next to the lock took care of it, and she, carried by momentum, fell through the opening.

She was in a sprawling office this time, Yo Tee coming through yet another door in the back, drying his hands. He’d probably been in his private bathroom. He froze as she pointed the rifle at him.

“Freeze.”

He did. But he didn’t look scared. “You think this over,” he told her. “Whoever you are, I make you rich beyond your dreams. I don’t think you understand who I am and what I do for the people who help me.”