The Guardian (The Wolfe Series) (11 page)

             
“Sundress, big ugly hat,” Enrique sneered into the frightened girl’s face.  “Ring any bells?”

             
“Oh, you mean Laurie,” Jenny said, valiantly trying to control the tremors that were racking her body.  “I did what she asked but she was gone when I got back.  Are you her fiancé?”

             
“Hell no!” Enrique roared in rage and towered threateningly over the girl.  “When did she leave and which way did she go?”

             
“I . . don’t know,” Jenny stammered.  “She told me to pretend I was her so her fiancé could test some new bodyguards or something.  She was gone when I got back.” 

             
“The bitch!” Enrique railed as he stalked out of the boutique, slamming the front door shut with such force that the glass splintered into a million pieces. 

“You’re fired, every damn one of you,” he shouted when all four bodyguards came running.  “She got away, damn you!  I should kill you all and would if I had the time.  Y
ou’d all best disappear because if I ever see you again I will kill you!”

             
He didn’t have to tell the four men a second time as he watched them climb into the Escalade.  The driver quickly slammed the SUV into gear and turned the vehicle back toward the boarder, the truck’s wide tires squealing in protest as it rounded the corner on only two wheels. 

             
Enrique promised himself that he would find Laurie Kincaid, that he would hunt her down no matter how long it took him.  He would then enjoy taking his time with her, killing her slowly, inflicting as much painful torture on her velvety-smooth body as possible. 

The psychopath in him smiled at the thought.

             
“Julie, it’s me, Laurie,” Laurie said breathlessly as she deposited additional coins into the pay phone next to the used car lot where she’d just purchased a vehicle.  “Listen, I haven’t much time . . .”

             
“Oh, Laurie, I’ve been so worried about you,” Julie cried, unable to stop herself from interrupting.

             
“I’m fine, Julie, scared to death but fine.  I’ve gotten away from Luzaro so you’ve got to listen to me.  Your life is in danger, they’ll be coming for you and they’ll try to use you to get to me.  So get out of town and don’t tell anyone where you’re going.  Not even me, do you understand?”

             
“I understand,” Julie sniffed miserably.  “Isn’t there anything we can do?  These bastards shouldn’t be able to dictate to us like this.”

             
“Enrique is a psychopath, Julie, do you hear me?  A psychopath!  I saw him kill a DEA agent in cold blood so there’s no way in hell he’s going to let me live now that I’ve left Luzaro’s protection.  He’ll kill you too, Julie, just to spite me.  He’s that kind of man!”

             
“I’m packing as we speak,” Julie said, resolution now evident in her voice.  “How will I find you or know when it’s safe to come back home?”

             
Laurie thought hard for a moment or two then said, “You know that little newspaper with all the personal ads and that you’re always complaining about it littering your doorstep?  I’ll send you a message when it’s safe through that newspaper.  Look in the “personals” section.  You’ll know my ad when you see it.”

             
“Okay, Laurie, whatever you say.”  Laurie could hear Julie’s front door slam shut as Julie continued, “You be careful, you hear me, and stay in touch?”

             
“I will, Julie,” Laurie said with a catch in her throat.  “I’ll be in touch as soon as I can get settled somewhere and think of what to do.”

             
“We could call the FBI . . .”

             
Laurie didn’t hear the rest of what Julie was saying.  Her heart started beating a frantic tattoo in her chest when she saw a black Escalade turn the corner and head down the street toward where she stood in the phone booth.  She hastily slammed the receiver back in its cradle and crouched as low as she could get in the restricted confines of the phone booth, and she prayed.

Please God, please don’t let it be them!
  Please!
 

Laurie breathed a sigh of relief, her prayers answered when
the Escalade drove slowly past the phone booth, a cell phone plastered to the left ear of a woman with flaming red hair.  Tears of reaction trickled down Laurie’s cheeks and she rested her head against the glass walls of the phone booth for a moment before squaring her shoulders and pulling open the phone booth door.  She had to get out of Nogales as quickly as possible and resolved to call the FBI as soon as she got to Tucson where she would be able to purchase a prepaid cell phone.  Luzaro had confiscated her phone as soon as they’d boarded his plane in New York.  There would be no more phone booths for her. They were too exposed as the experience with the woman driving the Escalade had taught her.

Laurie
walked resolutely toward the used car lot where she could see the car she’d purchased was ready and waiting for her.  It wasn’t much of a car but it would have to do.  The money Luzaro had given her was running dangerously low after paying for the car and having given Jenny several hundred dollars.

The man who had sold her the car stood beside the
aging Sentra dangling the car keys in his right hand and smiling ear to ear as she walked up.

“It’s all ready for you, little lady.” 
Ben Johnson reluctantly handed her the keys when he noticed the tears that were staining her cheeks.  “Are you okay, Miss?”  He’d been hoping to take her to dinner that night but he could tell by the look on her face there wasn’t going to be a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.

“I’ll be okay.  I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anyone that you’ve seen me,” Laurie attempted a soggy half-smile.  “My boyfriend has hit me one time too many
.  I’m sure you can understand.”

“
He’s not much of a man if he’ll hit a woman,” Ben said indignantly.  “I’ll not tell him anything, Miss, you can count on me.”

“Thank you, I’ll be able to make good my escape if I can count on you
not to say anything.”  She knew the man would be shaking in his boots if he ever found out that her “boyfriend” was actually the notorious drug kingpin, Luzaro Rivera.

C
hapte
r
T
hirteen

            
 
T
he bus station had been the first place he’d looked for her.  Having had no luck at the bus station and glad that it hadn’t been that easy, Enrique had then started making the rounds of the used car lots closest to the boutique where he’d last seen Laurie Kincaid.

             
It hadn’t taken him long to find out where she’d purchased a vehicle or to persuade the wiry little salesman working there to tell him everything he knew about his beautiful female customer.

             
“You had a woman customer this morning?” Enrique had asked, his eyes drilling holes in the little man’s head.

             
“Why no, not that I can recall,” Ben had instantly understood the young woman’s wanting to escape from such a man and was becoming more and more nervous under the other man’s unrelenting gaze.

             
“You don’t recall a beautiful blonde woman coming in here this morning?”  Enrique had been able to smell the man’s fear and had known he was lying.  He’d thought of mentioning a Columbian necktie and other equally vicious forms of torture and had been disappointed when the little man had said, “Are you her fiancé?”

             
“Yes, and it would be in your best interest for you to tell me everything you know about her.”  Enquire had stepped closer, encroaching on the man’s personal space, his eyes narrowed to slits. 

             
Ben had been sure he was facing the devil incarnate as he’d starred into those malevolent, hateful eyes.  He’d found himself becoming lost in their murky depths and had been horrified when he’d heard himself telling the devil everything he knew about the woman.

             
  “She bought a beater that probably won’t make it a hundred miles,” Ben had said in a sing-song voice.  “I tried to talk her into something better but she insisted on paying cash.  I think it took almost all of the cash she had.”

“Tell me about the car she bought,” Enrique
had cajoled, his eyes holding the other man’s in a hypnotic grip.

Ben
had wiped the sweat out of his eyes with the back of his hand and continued, “It was a 1985 beige Sentra, a small compact car.  I also gave her a map of the area but she didn’t tell me which route she intended to take out of here.”

Enrique
had stepped back then, breaking eye contact and watching the little man drop to his knees.

“You
aren’t going to hurt her, are you?”

“Not your business my friend,” Enrique
had said coldly.  “You’d best forget this conversation unless you want me to visit you again.”  He had looked at the man sniveling at his feet and spat in the dirt in disgust before walking toward his car.  He figured there were only a couple of ways the Kincaid woman could be headed and he didn’t think she would take the interstate as she could be easily overtaken.  No, he guessed she’d take the road less traveled which meant she’d head to Patagonia or the Altar Valley.

Enrique smiled grimly as he got into his car and shut the door.  He
enjoyed the hunt almost more than the kill unless the kill could be drawn out over several hours.  His smile grew even wider as he started the car and left the car dealership behind, considering just how that might be accomplished once he caught up with Laurie Kincaid.

              Turning off Interstate 19 at Arivaca Junction just south of Green Valley, Laurie steered the little Sentra toward the village of Arivaca.  According to the Arizona map Ben had provided, this circuitous route would lead her to Highway 286 and up through the Altar Valley.  She had chosen this route because it was a less direct route to Tucson, definitely a road less traveled as she could tell by the very few cars she had met since leaving the interstate. 

Laurie sighed, hoping that it would be a route where Enrique and his henchmen would be less l
ikely to find her, a road where she would be able to collect her thoughts and possibly find a place to hide out for a few days.  She’d learned to defend herself the last few months but her kick-boxing, a mixture of boxing and karate, wasn’t going to stop a bullet, not unless she was somehow able to get the upper hand.  Laurie was proud of the way she’d become so proficient at the sport.  Punches and kicks were only legal above the waist and elbows and knees were forbidden, the use of shins seldom allowed.  Even so, she knew she wouldn’t hesitate to use those additional weapons if she was confronted by Luzaro or one of his henchmen. 

             
Laurie drove through the little hamlet of Arivaca and saw the
Las Guijas Mountains
rising to the northwest and the foothills of the
San Luis Mountains
to the south
.  Little did she guess that the sleepy, unincorporated village had once thrived in the early days with over one-hundred working mines in the Las Guijas Mountains northwest, the San Luis Mountains to the southwest and Cobre Ridge to the southeast of the town.
Gold
,
silver
,
lead
,
copper
and
tungsten
production ha
d been recorded in the area starting in Spanish colonial times and had continued intermittently through the 1950s.

             
As she drew closer to Highway 286 the desert grew more desolate.  The landscape was dry and was sparsely vegetated with mesquite, creosote bush, tumbleweed, and ocotillo.  In the distance Sonoran Pronghorn Antelope raised their heads and watched her passing.  Smaller than a white-tailed deer, the pronghorns stood less than three feet tall at the shoulders.  The upper part of their bodies was a rich tan color while their under-part, rump and two bands across their neck was white.  Laurie could see a short black mane running down the back of their necks, some of them sporting a black mask and black cheek patches as well.

             
Oh, aren’t you beautiful!
  Laurie sighed as she took in the magnificence of her surroundings, forgetting for a moment that she was running for her life.  She breathed deeply, the desert air calming her jangled nerves.  She felt as though she’d come home, something she’d never felt in any of the foster homes she’d been forced to live in growing up.  In tune with the desert surroundings, she felt as though she were coming alive, her senses expanding in ways that she didn’t fully understand.

             
The largest of the pronghorns pricked his ears and tilted his head as though he had heard her mental communication.  The obvious leader by his size and stature, he didn’t alert the others to bolt as the car drew closer as he normally would have, but instead he watched the car intently until it passed, before returning to his grazing like the rest of the herd.