Broken Wings (10 page)

He’d always been so sure that this
particular event was never going to happen. Even now, after his
niece had appeared on the scene, he was still trying to convince
himself that this sort of thing couldn’t happen. No matter what he
tried to convince himself of, the fact remained that here she was
in the flesh. Every logical fiber of his being told him that Rio
was not Maggie, but his denial gave him little comfort since Rio
appeared to be an exact replica of his great
great-grandmother.

* * *

Inside the Tajan living room Bill
listened to Billy and Rio’s dilemma. Once they’d laid out the facts
as they knew them, he paused in silence for the longest
time.

Bill cleared his throat and folded his
arms over his chest. “Well…” He gave them both a quick look. “The
first thing you’ve got to do is stop thinking like Billy and
Rio.”

“
Excuse me?” Rio’s brow
crinkled.

“
For starters…you need to
start thinking like Tajan and Maggie. Especially Maggie,” he said.
“If you were her…where would you bury it?”

“
I’d bury it out in the
hills,” Billy said.

“
Well that sure narrows it
down,” Rio’s voice was considerate but sarcastic. “Now doesn’t
it?”

Bill planted his hands on the arms of
his easy chair and pushed himself up. Heading toward the dining
room, he motioned them to follow.

They waited by the table while Bill
retrieved a topo map from a cabinet. He spread it out over the
table, and Rio shivered, feeling like the portraits of Maggie and
Tajan were watching their every move.

Father and son huddled over the map and
a rather timid Rio finally joined them.

“
Now this is V.C.” Bill
pointed out the location out on the map. “And here’s Six Mile
Canyon.” He paused long enough to look at Rio, “The Comstock Lode
was discovered there. And this is the route they used—” He traced
his finger along the map without looking at it. “—to take the gold
and silver out of Virginia City.” He looked back to the map and
pointed to the area between Virginia City and Silver City referred
to as Devil’s Gate. “This is where holdups usually happened.” He
waited a moment, giving her time to process the information, and
then addressed them both. “So…say you conducted one of these
holdups—” He fanned his hand out over the map. “—where would you
take your loot and bury it?”

“
I don’t know.” Rio
shrugged. “Close my eyes and throw a dart?”

* * *

Billy and Rio left his parents’ house
by the front door and strolled across the front yard. He unlatched
the gate and held it open for her, then relatched it and followed
her to his Jeep parked alongside the fence.

“
Hey, you want to get a
pizza for dinner?” He climbed into the driver’s side of the
vehicle.

“
Sure.” She flashed him a
piss-poor smile before turning to look outside the
window.

The girl was shouldering a burden; one
that was much too heavy for her delicate shoulders. Billy didn’t
know how to help her. He wasn’t sure he could.

“
So…” he said, suspecting
that she wasn’t there with him. Not mentally. “You like your pizza
with some anchovies and maybe a little molded cheese thrown in?” he
asked, just to prove to himself that he was right—she wasn’t
listening.

“
Yeah. Sure. That’s fine.”
Her words were vague and methodical as she continued to stare out
the window.

“
Rio…” He gave her a gentle,
backhanded smack on the arm.

“
What?” She looked at him,
rubbing her arm. A fine actress, that one was.

“
You agreed to pizza with
anchovies and molded cheese. What gives?”

“
Got to admit,” she said.
“This new family…the whole history thing with Maggie and Tajan.”
She shook her head slowly. “It’s a little overwhelming.”

“
Maggie and Tajan were
nothing but a recipe for disaster.”

“
How could her own
grandfather take her away from him?” Rio didn’t understand why it’d
had to be that way. And she didn’t like it.

But that story had played out decades
ago. No amount of wishing or wanting was going to make it so that
things could’ve turned out differently for Maggie and
Tajan.

“
Bradford Fuller was trying
to keep Tajan alive,” Billy said, without much sympathy, as he
guided the Jeep into the parking lot of the pizza place.

He and Rio got out and headed
inside.

Moments later, they emerged; Billy with
the pizza and Rio their sodas.

Approaching the Jeep, Rio surveyed the
city around her. She stalled so she could come up with an argument
on Maggie and Tajan’s behalf, if for no one other than herself.
Instead, she found the two guys who’d been tailing them for days
now. She scanned right on by them and got into the Jeep.

As Billy climbed in and closed his
door, she leaned toward him. It was time. “We’re being followed,”
she whispered, as if someone might hear her.

“
I know,” he said with a
slight nod. “For a few days now.” He hesitated, choosing his words
wisely. “Any idea who it is?”

“
Nobody I know,” she said,
rolling her eyes. That much was true.

After they arrived back at Billy’s
house, she opened the Jeep’s door and looked at him. She knew what
she had to do. “Hey listen,” she said, digging for the keys inside
her purse. “I’m going to go over to that Wal-Mart I saw at the end
of town. I need to pick up a few things.”

“
Okay.” He removed a key
from his key ring. “Here.” He offered it to her. “A house key for
you.”

She took the key and stuck one leg
outside the vehicle and planted her foot on the ground.

“
But listen…why don’t you
come inside and eat first?” he suggested. “Wal-Mart is open all
night.”

She hesitated before saying, “Okay.”
Besides, that’d give her time to cool off.

Boy, she needed that. She was pretty
pissed right now. She’d told Turner not to put the tail on them,
but he’d gone and done it anyway. The unwanted company wasn’t
helping.

Rio took the time to eat but it didn’t
do much for her need to calm down. By the time she arrived at
Wal-Mart she’d worked herself up pretty good.

She headed for the pre-paid cell phones
and snatched up one that came with less than thirty minutes. She
wouldn’t need a quarter of that time to get her point across. She
paid for the cell phone, asked the clerk to open it up and he
obliged her further by assembling the device as a
courtesy.

She walked away from the phone center,
pushing her cart with one hand and holding the phone in the other.
She headed for the health and beauty isle, knowing that’s what all
men expected girls to buy when they went to a store like Wal-Mart.
That and clothes.

After passing a few racks of dresses,
she paused long enough to dial Turner’s number and then proceeded
through the store at a snail’s pace, waiting for him to answer her
call.

When she finally heard his voice,
infuriation pushed out her words. “It’s Rio. Back them off
now.”

“
Rio…surely you can
understand that I’m protecting my investment.” Turner’s voice was
condescending. That pissed her off even more.

“
And surely you can
understand that I work alone.”

“
They’re there. For the
duration.”

“
Well, you just make sure
they don’t approach us claiming to know me.” She let her anger bite
her tone. “Cause if they do…I’m out and Billy Tajan learns the
truth.”

Rio moved the phone away from her head
and looked at it. Turner’s boisterous voice echoed from the device
but she only laughed and disconnected the call.

The Las Vegas mobster was under the
mistaken impression that he was still in charge. But that’d changed
the minute she realized she was the key to this plan’s
success.

She went about her business, loading
her cart with enough items to make it look good, and headed for the
check-out. After all, she couldn’t return to Billy’s house
empty-handed.

Detail. That’s one of the things that
made Rio so good at what she did.

~~~~

CHAPTER 20

Billy lived in a quiet neighborhood.
His house was clearly a man’s home, furnished with only the
essentials. If Billy didn’t need it, he didn’t have it. His décor
wasn’t exceptional, but it was efficient. It just lacked a “woman’s
touch”.

He grabbed a couple of cold beers from
the fridge and headed into the living room where Rio was waiting.
They needed to figure out how to read the map. But more than that,
Billy wanted to know who was following them. And better yet, how
they knew to follow them in the first place.

On the other hand, while Rio didn’t
know who the guys were, she did know why they were there. She just
couldn’t tell Billy.

This thing had to play itself out and
she would try her best not to let the Tajans get too caught up in
it.

“
The first thing we’ve got
to do is figure out how to deal with our guests.” Billy handed her
a beer. “They seem to be showing up everywhere we go.” He sat down
in the chair kitty-cornered from the couch, twisted the cap off his
beer and tossed it on the table.

“
Either someone knows what
we’re up to,” she said. “Or they want something from us. Either
way, I got nothing I’m willing to part with.”

“
Ever been on a snipe
hunt?”

“
Once…when I was a kid.” The
thought of it burned a whole in her ego. “But I wasn’t in on the
joke.”

Rio tried to push the memory aside but
it filled her mind anyway. The counselors at summer camp, back when
she was about eleven or twelve, had everyone excited about the
notion of a snipe hunt. She’d never even heard of a snipe much less
gone hunting for one. She had no idea what the damned thing was but
she wanted to fit in so she mustered up some enthusiasm for the
sport just as everyone else had done—only to learn much later on
that the joke was on her.

“
Well…” Billy’s voice broke
into her thoughts, “this time you’re in on the joke.” He laughed
triumphantly. “We’re going to lead them on the biggest wild goose
chase ever. By the time it’s over...they won’t know if they’re
coming or going.”

Rio gave him an agreeable nod. “I do
like the way you think.”

* * *

The wild goose chase began in a place
called Clear Creek Canyon. Billy stopped the Jeep on the side of
the road. He and Rio exited the vehicle and she followed him across
the road.

Massive cliffs protruding from the
mountain above loomed over them. The sound of rushing water rumbled
nearby, an indication that the creek was running strong.

They paused on the side of the road.
Rio peered down into the ravine. The thunderous roar of an
aggressive waterfall echoed, giving away its hiding place behind a
mass of thick brush and trees.

That strange chill hit Rio again. At
first thought she wanted to run, but she was able to quickly cast
aside the bizarre sensation.

Billy grabbed her hand and coaxed her
down the side of the embankment. There it was again, that cool,
brisk frost rushing through her. Almost instantly, the chill turned
into nerve-racking apprehension. Rio’s attention fell over the
landscape, studying it intently. She was drawn to the gigantic
cliffs above them.

For a reason that she couldn’t explain,
fear washed over her. Desperation urged her to leave the ravine.
“I’ve got to get out of here.” She used her hands, trying to climb
out. “Please...?” A pleading quality entered her tone as she began
sliding back down. “Help me get out of here.” Her voice
shook.

“
It’s okay.” Billy reached
for her. “What’s wrong?”

Rio jerked away, dropped to her knees
and crawled up to the road. “I can’t stay here,” she said, reaching
the top of the embankment. “I don’t know why…but I can’t be
here.”

Billy scaled the embankment easily.
“Hey, Rio. You okay?”

She didn’t stop. She didn’t look at
him. She kept moving forward, determined to get across the road and
back to the Jeep.

“
Rio...!” Billy called after
her, more forceful this time.

“
Please, take me away from
here...” She didn’t bother to look at him; she got in the Jeep and
stared straight ahead. And no way she was going to look back across
the road. Something about that place creeped her out.

Billy climbed into the driver’s seat
and looked at Rio. “You know where you are,” he asked, “don’t
you?”

“
I have no idea where I am,”
she said, short-tempered. “But what I do know is, I cannot stay
here. I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m going to die
here.”

“
Rio, calm down.” He laid a
gentle hand on her forearm. “You’re not going to die here. This is
where Maggie and Tajan died.”

Rio’s lungs tightened. She gasped for
air, grabbing at her chest. She didn’t want to but she couldn’t
help herself; she looked back across the road. Two eagles flew up
out of the ravine. Watching them soar away, her breathing
eased.