Cowboy Undercover (5 page)

* * *

I
T
TOOK
HIM
six hours to hitchhike the two hundred miles home and that was because he was eventually lucky enough to catch a ride with a guy who lived in Falls Bluff. Once in town, he walked to the feed store where he knew Patty Reed, the pigtailed girl who worked behind the counter, would lend him her truck so he could drive himself home.

However, she did more than that. She actually insisted on getting someone to cover for her and driving him herself. Chance knew this had little to do with his own charisma; Patty was hot for Chance’s younger brother, Pike. However, a ride was a ride.

They arrived at the ranch house to find his father and his new stepmother, Grace, still off in Oregon. Gerard and Pike were unloading bales of hay into the feed barn using a combination of brute strength and a forklift to get the job done. Kinsey had not yet returned from New Orleans, though Gerard had pinned many of her rough sketches to the walls in the barn because he liked looking at them. Horses peered over a fence; a looming tree sat alone on a hilltop. A herd of deer grazed in a field at twilight. There was even one of the ghost town that existed on ranch property, and though it had been the site of tragedy for Gerard, it was situated front and center. Maybe it was his way of domesticating the pain, of reclaiming good memories as well as bad.

Gerard told Chance that Kinsey had made this switch from portraiture to scenery and still life because she’d finally found a real family to belong to: theirs, and a real home in which to plant roots. Seeing as she and Gerard were going to be married next summer, it made perfect sense.

Gerard, busy driving the forklift, looked up as Chance walked into the barn followed by Patty who immediately veered over toward Pike and leaned fetchingly nearby. Chance supposed his scholarly-looking brother made an attractive picture to a kid barely out of high school. Lots of girls thought glasses made a guy look smart. It didn’t hurt that in Pike’s case, he could back up the advertising with an agile brain.

“You leave with one girl and come back with another,” Gerard said as he turned off the noisy machine.

“I just caught a ride with Patty. She’s here to ogle Pike.”

They both looked over at the truck. Pike seemed to be ignoring the girl.

“He’s preoccupied right now,” Gerard said. “His mom in LA called this morning. There’s some issue with his stepsister.”

“You know,” Chance said, “every once in a while, I kind of wish we all had the same mother instead of different ones, but then I think she might have been like Pike’s and I’m okay with things the way they are.”

“No kidding,” Gerard said. “Where’s Lily? What happened? She’s not really in jail, is she?”

“Not yet,” Chance said and gave Gerard an abbreviated explanation of the past twenty-four hours.

“Charlie is missing? Again? Lily must be worried sick. Even that louse of a husband has to be concerned.”

“I don’t know. He seems to know more than he’s telling. Lily said he acted as though he knew exactly who had the boy. The word
white
was mentioned in the note. We thought it was a name at first but it’s also a survivalist camp or something up in the panhandle. It might be that someone from there took Charlie or it could be a complete red herring.”

“You let her go off alone to a survivalist’s enclave?”

“Enclave?”

“Yeah. White Cliff isn’t just a camp, it’s an unincorporated community. There are lots of places like it across the country. This one is dominated by a guy named Robert Brighton. He and the others call themselves true patriots, devoted to knowing how to defend and take care of themselves in the event of a military or natural catastrophe.”

“I’d never heard of it before yesterday. How do you know so much?”

Gerard shrugged. “Remember Gary Stills from high school?”

“Sure.”

“He got disgusted with rising taxes and government involvement in their ranch a few years back and took his wife and kid and moved up that way. I heard from him a year or so ago. He ranted on about getting ready for Armageddon so I read up on it.”

“Hell, it’s hard to imagine Lily in that kind of situation,” Chance said, wondering how in the world she expected to uncover anything on her own. “And it’s hard to believe those people would kidnap a little boy and subject themselves to police involvement. They don’t sound like the type.”

“As long as you don’t cross them. Anyway, you said Lily’s husband refuses to involve the police so they have little to worry about.”

“Yeah, and how exactly did they know he’d react that way? It seems totally out of character for him. If all he’s interested in is free press and sympathetic votes, why doesn’t he jump on this chance to get his son’s plight on every news channel in the country?”

“All good questions,” Gerard said. “When are you joining Lily?”

Chance took off his hat and pulled it on again. “I’m not.”

Gerard stared at him, his brilliant blue eyes thoughtful.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Chance protested. “She left me high and dry. I don’t even know for sure she went to White Cliff. She might have found another lead after I went to bed.”

“Why did she go alone?”

“She said something about not wanting to involve me. If that’s the way she wants it, then fine.”

“I guess it’s out of your hands,” Gerard said. “It’s her son, right? Well,” he added as he turned the forklift back on, “I’d better get back to work. Pike is waiting on me.”

Chance took a deep breath. “I’ll go help him. After a day with Lily, picking up bales of hay will be child’s play.”

By nightfall, he’d worked until his muscles ached. Unfortunately, they weren’t the only parts of him that hurt. He went outside the main ranch house where he’d decided to spend the night. If that was the phone number Charlie knew, then it was best there be somebody here to answer it. He sat on the bench, breathing in the cold autumn air. Forty-eight hours before, Lily had driven back into his life.

A vehicle pulled into the parking area and he stood abruptly. Had she had second thoughts? Seconds later, the headlights dimmed, the door opened. And then he recognized Pike’s lean frame walk toward him as the interior light peeking through the open door sparkled against his glasses. As usual, the dogs provided an escort.

Swallowing disappointment, he sat back down on the bench. “How’s it going?” Pike asked as he leaned against the railing.

“Okay. Gerard said you heard from Mona. She all right?”

“My mother is never all right, you know that,” Pike said. “The woman isn’t alive unless she’s neck deep in drama. Her boyfriend seems to have cheated on her.”

“Gerard also mentioned Tess.”

“Yeah. Apparently when she heard about what her father had done, she stormed off. She’s only eighteen, you know, and LA can be a rough place when you’re alone.”

“I met her the summer before last when you flew her here for a visit. She’s a smart kid.”

“I guess,” Pike said.

“Yeah. Well, I know you’re worried about her,”. Even in the half-light, he could see the strain on Pike’s face.

“Yeah.” He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “But you know how I feel. Maybe you’re inexperienced when it comes to worrying about a little sister, but you’re positively preoccupied with Lily.”

“No, I’m not,” Chance said.

Pike’s eyebrows inched up his forehead.

“No, really,” Chance insisted. “She’s made it clear she thinks I’m a bumbling oaf. I could save that woman’s life once a day from now until hell froze over, and she’d still second-guess everything I did or said.”

“That doesn’t sound like you,” Pike said.

“What do you mean?”

“Since when do you let anyone scare you away?”

“You know Lily. She’s a lot easier to look at than to deal with.”

“Maybe. I just keep thinking about Charlie.”

As if on cue, the phone rang. Chance hurried inside and picked up on the second ring. “Yes,” he said, tense with anticipation.

But the call was from one of his father’s friends. Chance disconnected and went back outside where the sound of the nearby river rushing over rocks mimicked his hammering heart. Why was he so disappointed that the call hadn’t been from someone in trouble? Was he a ghoul?

No, he decided. But sitting here on the ranch waiting to hear if Charlie was okay, not knowing what was going on...it was eating him up inside.

“I’m going to bed,” he announced.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Pike said, and getting to his feet, ambled back to the truck. Chance locked the door and climbed the stairs.

After four hours of lying on his back and staring at the moonlit ceiling, he swore under his breath. He sat up and walked downstairs, stared at the silent phone, then grabbed his tablet computer and went back on the internet where he eventually found a reference to White Cliff that called the proposed community a fortress. Sounded formidable. It couldn’t be that hard to find, could it?

Well, it was wild country and a lot bigger than it appeared on a map. You could drive down endless unpaved forest roads if you didn’t know which to take...

There was only one person Chance could think of who might be able to help. But why would Jeremy Block offer any information? He wouldn’t. Chance needed a bargaining tool. Did they have anything in common? No, nothing, except maybe Lily.

Lily. It always came back to her.

He put down the tablet and walked outside. For a minute, he let his mind wander the ranch. The fields, the big old hanging tree, the ghost town, the generations of people who had lived and worked, ranched and mined, fished the rivers and hunted for food, built homes, given birth and gasped their last breath right on this land. Sounds of the river filled the night. A horse whinnied nearby. The ponderous full moon stared down at him. Wind rustled the boughs overhead. The ranch was peaceful on this autumn night, demanding nothing. Come first light, another busy day of ranching would commence. The list of things to do stretched on for eternity. This was his life, his home.

“Damn her,” he muttered yet again.

It was too early to make any phone calls, but it wasn’t too early to go home and pack a bag. He left a note on the board for his brothers and took off for his own cabin. A half hour after that, dressed in the clothes he’d worked in all day, he tucked the handgun and a rifle into a locked case behind the seat of the oldest vehicle on the ranch, a thirty-year-old Ford pickup. He wanted to look inconspicuous. He wanted to be able to change his story whenever he needed to, be invisible or all over the map.

The cattle guard rumbled a goodbye as he drove off Hastings land and headed south. It was time to be someone else for a while, time to go undercover.

Chapter Five

Chance had debated how to present himself. Unkempt, drunk, angry? Somehow he doubted any one of those alone would work on Block. But crafty and sneaky wouldn’t work, either. He decided on a mix of characteristics and knew he would depend mostly on luck.

He parked the truck on the other end of the path he and Lily had used to escape and locked his wallet in the box with the guns. He wasn’t sure what he would find at the Block house and he didn’t want any ties to the Hastings name. What he knew was that going off to northern Idaho without knowing what Jeremy Block had already set in motion was too dangerous. Chance didn’t want to get blindsided but even more than that, he didn’t want Charlie caught in the middle of a situation where everyone around was armed to the teeth.

Maybe Block wouldn’t be home. Maybe he’d gone after his kid. That would be good to know, as well, because if Lily got in Block’s way, she was toast.

McCord didn’t show up at the gate so Chance marched up to the front door, punched the doorbell three times fast in a row with his knuckle and banged his fist against the dark wood. No prints in knuckles and fists. This guy was a DA with law enforcement ties and Chance did not want to leave any tangible proof of his identity behind.

The door was opened by the woman Chance had seen come to the kitchen door to tell McCord that Charlie had disappeared.

He took a deep breath. Showtime.

Before she could utter a word, he pushed the door open with his shoulder and barged past her. “Where is she?” he demanded. He strode to the stairs and started to climb them, hollering, “Lily?” at the top of his lungs. Hopefully Jeremy Block was somewhere in the house and would hear him.

A door behind him opened and Chance turned to see the man he’d glimpsed through the window “What in the hell is going on?” he demanded.

“Where is she?” Chance said, coming back down the stairs. “I know she’s here.”

“Where is who?”

“Lily Kirk. She talked about you sometimes. Is she here?”

Block cut him off with a barking laugh. “That woman is poison.”

“Amen.”

“And I should know, I’m married to her.”

Chance allowed his expression to register surprise. He made a big deal of looking around the opulent surroundings and whistling low in his throat. “I knew she’d lived with you and all but she never said a word about being married. Brother, I can’t believe she ran out on all this. I didn’t know she was that stupid.”

Block seemed to suddenly notice that the woman who had opened the door was still standing nearby. “For heaven’s sake, Janet, close the door and get lost,” he commanded. She did as he asked and hurried up the stairs, giving Chance a wide berth.

“Just tell me. Is the bitch here or not?” Chance demanded.

“Come into my office,” Block said. “Let’s have a civilized drink and discuss this.” Chance preceded him into the den. He paused to stare at the closet door he’d splintered two nights before. “What happened?”

“Nothing important,” Block said but his teeth stretched tight over his teeth as though tasting something bitter. “What’s your name?”

“Pete Reed,” Chance said, digging up the moniker of an old school pal. “At least that’s the name I’m using right now. My real name is none of your business.”

“Why are you so angry with Lily?”

“She stole two thousand three hundred bucks from me, money I had to get from a guy who is twice as mean as anybody I ever served with in the army. The dude almost killed me but I got what he owed me, I always do. And then that bitch stole it.”

“You’re really mad,” Block said.

“Hell, yes, I’m mad.”

Block narrowed his eyes as though assessing what he was seeing. “How mad?”

“Mad enough to make her wish she’d never met me.”

“She has that effect on men,” Block said. “Have you ever done any time?”

“Twice. Trumped-up assault charges. I was a little out of sorts after my discharge from the army. I’ve got a temper, I admit it.”

“Where do you work now?”

Chance emphasized an impatient sigh. “I was a bouncer at a strip club until I blew town to find Lily. How is this getting me any closer to that goal and why the third degree?”

“You a good shot?”

“Give me a gun and a knothole a hundred yards away and I’ll show you.”

Block poured two small glasses of amber liquor out of a crystal decanter he kept on the desk and handed one to Chance. “Cheers,” he said, hoisting his glass to his lips. Chance did the same and downed it in one gulp, trying to get a handle on where Block was coming from. He sure didn’t act like a guy whose kid had been taken.

Block sat behind his desk and motioned for Chance to take a seat opposite him. “If I know Lily, and I do, she’s trying to get our son back.”

“Charlie?”

“You know the boy?”

“Sure, I saw him around now and again. Lily didn’t encourage us to be friendly if you know what I mean.” He grinned and added, “Maybe she thought I’d be a bad influence. Who is she trying to get him back from? You?”

“No. I had him for a day or two but then someone stole him away in the night.”

“So that’s why she left Reno? Because someone took Charlie from her?”

“Yes. Me.”

Chance looked around again. “The kid will be better off here than in that dump in Reno.”

“Of course he will. But a third party decided they wanted to hurt me so they took Charlie.”

Chance shook his head. “I don’t get it. Why isn’t this place swarming with cops? What kind of ransom do they want?”

“No ransom demand has been made and I didn’t call the police. I don’t want them involved. Too dangerous. What I want to do is steal him back.”

“Then go do it. If he were my kid I wouldn’t be sitting here yapping about it.”

Block’s lip curled in anger but he quickly covered it with a self-deprecating smile. “I can’t. If I show up, who knows what they’ll do to the boy. I need someone else to take care of it. Maybe someone like you.”

“Me?” Chance scoffed. “Ha.” He paused as though thinking and added. “If they don’t want money for the kid, then why did they take him?”

“I have no idea,” Block said.
Like hell you don’t,
Chance thought. “The only thing I have to go on is a note they left. That’s why I’m pretty sure where he is.”

“And where’s the note?”

“Lily took it with her when she left,” he said. No trace of the lie he’d just told surfaced in his eyes. “But like I said, she’ll charge in and mess up everything.”

“A specialty of hers,” Chance said. “But I still don’t see how any of this gets me closer to my money.”

“I’m going to be honest with you,” Block said. “I need help. I need someone I can trust—”

Chance shot to his feet and laughed. “Trust? Hell, you don’t even know me.”

“Sit down, Pete, please. I’m an excellent judge of character.”

Chance grabbed his glass and gestured at the decanter. The glass he could break before he left, but he didn’t want his prints on the liquor bottle. Block took the hint and poured him a shot that Chance knocked back as he reclaimed the chair. “You want me to go get him, is that it?”

“Yes.”

Chance stared at Block, who didn’t flinch. After a long pause, he shook his head again. “Excuse me, but looking around it’s hard not to notice you must be loaded. Hell, hire yourself a private detective.”

“Listen to me, Pete, it isn’t that simple. These aren’t ordinary people. It’s going to take someone with finesse and cunning and you strike me as a man with both those qualities.”

“Flattery won’t get you anywhere,” Chance said. “Use one of your own people.”

“I had to fire the only man I would trust with a job like this.”

“Why’d you fire him?”

“He failed to protect my son and I do not tolerate failure. Listen, just come up with a convincing story, fit in for a few days and then when the time is right, do what needs to be done and extract my kid without getting him hurt.”

“Lily will know I’m ready to do whatever I have to in order to get my money back. If she’s there, she’ll turn me in as a liar the moment she sets eyes on me.”

“Not if you take care of her first thing,” Block said softly.

Chance had come here hoping to get a lead on finding Charlie and by default, Lily. But he wasn’t prepared for what he thought he’d just heard. “Are you talking about killing her?” he said.

Block shrugged. “I have a bottle of her barbiturates. Assuming she’s there, all you have to do is get the pills down her throat. It will appear she committed suicide. But if something goes wrong and she does finger you, off you go, no harm, no foul.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t expect you to risk yourself for nothing. I’ll give you what she stole from you and a bonus, too. If she still has your cash on her it might be best to leave it with her so no one gets suspicious. When you bring Charlie back to me, I’ll add another twenty grand.”

Chance whistled. “Murder, though. I haven’t killed anyone since the army.”

“And you did it then because you were fighting a war. This is war, too. The victory is freeing a child. Do you have a gun?”

“Not on me, but I can get one. Where do I find Lily and all the rest of these people?”

“An area called White Cliff.”

Bingo
, Chance thought. Confirmation. Lily was right. Hell, she often was which was just another irritating thing about her. “Where’s that?”

“Up in Idaho’s panhandle, almost to the border. It’s one of those commune things. The leader is a guy named Roberts. He’s a fast talker and a hard hitter but I heard he’s not around the place as much as he used to be. There’s a woman up there who runs a small store located outside the walls of the community. She calls herself Maria Eastern. If Charlie is living there, she’ll know about it. You can’t ask her straight out, though, and you can’t mention my name or she’ll put a bullet through your brain.”

“The price just went up ten thousand,” Chance said. Block opened his mouth to speak but closed it without saying anything. “And I’m going to need more cash up front,” Chance added. “I have to buy the gun I told you about and my truck needs a tire. I don’t plan on spending my own money.”

“I’ll add another thousand,” Block said.

“Two thousand,” Chance countered.

Block gritted his teeth. “Be warned that these people are heavily armed and know how to handle themselves.”

“Sure.”

“Wait for me in the entry.”

Chance had already folded the tiny shot glass in his fist and took it with him when he left the office. Block soon appeared and handed over an open envelope stuffed with cash Chance assumed he’d retrieved from a hidden safe inside the office. There was also a slip of paper with a crude map naming roads and estimated distances. In the end he was supposed to look for a red no-trespassing sign.

“There are going to be a million of those,” Chance said without touching the note.

“Look at the spelling.”

Trespassing had been spelled
tresspassing
. “That’s intentional,” Block added. “That’s the sign that points out the right road or so I’m told.”

“Is this place some kind of secret?”

“Not at all. It’s located close to a town called Greenville but the less you show your face or ask directions, the better for you if things go wrong.”

Chance stuffed the envelope of money in his pocket. “You must really love that kid,” he said.

“He is my son. Once I have him back, I won’t lose him again even if I have to send him out of the country to school.”

“Then nobody better get caught,” Chance said, implying, he hoped, that this meant him, too.

“You’d be smart to keep something in mind,” Block said. “I’m an important man in this state. If it comes to whose word will be believed, it will be mine, not yours. If you double-cross me, I’ll find you.”

So much for all that baloney about trust.
On the other hand, Chance didn’t have to pretend to feel the chill in Block’s icy gaze. His fear did not originate from concerns for himself. It was Lily and Charlie he worried about. The fact the tough older guy wasn’t at the house was troublesome, too, as was the quick way Block had bought and enhanced Chance’s original scheme, almost as though he’d read the script beforehand.

Was it possible he knew who Chance really was? Could this be a trap? Was he being played by the guy he was playing?

And where was McCord?

Block opened the front door. At the last second, he caught Chance’s arm and Chance turned. “Don’t forget this,” he said, pressing a prescription bottle into Chance’s hand. “And be sure to give Lily my best.”

Chance took the crystal shot glass out of his pocket where he’d wiped it clean on a bandana. “Thanks for the drinks,” he said and walked away.

* * *

T
HE
DRIVE
WAS
long and lonely and it was dark by the time Chance finally found the misspelled sign along with an arrow pointing down a dark tunnel of unpaved road and huge trees. After a mile or two, he came across a small community of very old houses where only a few looked inhabited. The rest were falling apart with sunken porch roofs and moss-covered fences. There was a small store on the other side of the road that looked downright festive in comparison, seeing as it had a neon soda sign in the window and a big old ice machine out front. It appeared to still be open.

Chance itched to stop there, for perhaps that was Maria Eastern’s store. But first he wanted a glimpse of White Cliff. All the internet had had to offer were artists’ drawings of walls and buildings. He had no idea how much if anything actually existed. If it was in the same state of disrepair as this little settlement, then everyone was barking up the wrong tree.

A half mile farther along the road, he came upon a wide spot backed by a nine-foot-high rock wall. He got out of the truck but left the headlights burning. That old moon he was so fond of shone enough that he could tell a huge area of land had been cleared beyond the wall. Other than that, all he could see was fence. There was no sign announcing that this was White Cliff but what else could it be? Well, the gate in the wall was firmly closed so there was no use standing there staring at it. Tomorrow he’d have to find a way inside.