On Deadly Ground (Dan & Chloe Book 2) (12 page)

Dan flipped the man’s wallet open and looked at the driver’s licence. The picture matched the man in front of him.

‘Dallas Boyd; that your real name?’

‘Fuck you man, I need medical assistance.’

Dan nodded his head and patted the man’s jacket, he found what he was looking for and pulled out the man’s cell phone. Dan slipped it in to his own shirt pocket, the man’s wallet he pushed in to the left rear pocket of his jeans.

‘Who sent you?’

‘Fuck you,’ Dallas croaked.

Dan smiled, ‘I admire your courage Dallas, really I do, but see, with me, you chose the wrong guy to pick a fight with, now who sent you?’

Dallas managed a pained chuckle.

‘I ain’t telling you shit mister. May as well just pull the goddamn trigger.’

‘Must be someone bad, here you are, broken back from a gut shot, and in all kinds of pain and you’re still fighting, good for you, real good, but you see, you have a problem.’

‘Apart from being fucked up, what’s that?’

Dan was surprised to see a glimmer of humour in Dallas’ brown eyes.

‘You have balls Dallas, I’ll give you that, but see, you being a city boy and all you’re not familiar with life in the wilds.’

Dan took off his hat and wiped the back of his arm across his forehead, he turned his face up to the sun high overhead, the heat was unbearable and he could only imagine how Dallas was feeling.

‘What do you think will get you first, the sun or the coyotes? Maybe even a wolf, hell I’ve seen them out here on occasion. Now contrary to what Hollywood would lead you to believe wolves don’t normally attack humans, but you’re not exactly in a position to offer up much resistance if one happened along. I’m sure you’d be fine dining to any number of wild animals out here.’

For the first time Dan saw a glimmer of fear in Dallas’ eyes, the thought of being eaten alive had stirred something primitive in Dallas.

Dan pushed himself up from his knee and stood up, he slipped his hat back on and adjusted the brim.

‘Please...’

‘You’re not going to live to see another day Dallas, but you tell me what I need to know and I give you my word I’ll end it for you, painless release.’

‘His uncle,’ Dallas said through a coughing fit.

Dan crouched down.

‘Who’s uncle?’

‘Berg’s. You cut him in half with a shotgun, his uncle wants revenge.’

‘Actually Dallas it was my wife that blew him in half with a shotgun but that’s just semantics. What’s his name, the uncle?’

‘Baxter, Ray Baxter.’ Dallas coughed again and he saw the look of recognition on Dan’s face.

Dallas laughed, it was painful to do but he laughed nonetheless, ‘I see you’ve heard of my employer.’

‘Anyone who has ever read a paper knows who he is, is he here? Is Baxter here in Montana?’

‘Fuck you, are you gonna shoot me or not?

Dan pushed three fingers in to Dallas’ gaping wound and Dallas screamed.

‘Is he?’ Dan waited a second and then pushed his fingers deeper in to the bloody mess. He felt what he was feeling for and hooked his fingers beneath the coil of intestine.

Dan started to slowly pull the intestine out through the hole in Dallas’ gut.

Dallas screamed again and Dan released the intestine letting the length of exposed innards drop in to Dallas’s lap.

Dan feared that Dallas would pass out from the pain or shock but Dallas was a tough son-of-a-bitch and he held on to consciousness. Dan felt a grudging respect for the man; the pain must have been off the scale.

‘No, no, he’s on his way though,’ Dallas cried once he was able to. ‘He’ll kill you both, he’ll torture you and him and his men will rape your wife and...’

Dan grabbed hold of the exposed intestines and pulled more from Dallas’ wound. The man’s screams went up an octave and continued as Dan began to pile the man’s guts on to Dallas’ lap.

‘How many men is he bringing?’

‘Jesus Christ man, stop it, stop it, Jesus!’

‘How many?’

‘More than you can imagine, he’ll bring an army with him. Berg was the last of his kin, his sister’s son, some say he was the father but I don’t know man.’

Dallas spewed forth all the information he could, he couldn’t stop, he just wanted the pain to be over.

‘Okay, okay Dallas, we’re done,’ Dan said once he had heard enough. Dan wiped his bloody hand on Dallas’ pant leg and pushed himself to his feet once again.

Dan chambered a round and lowered the rifle to Dallas’ face.

‘He’ll not stop, you can only run,’ Dallas finally whispered.

‘I’ve never been a fan of running.’

Dan pulled the trigger.

                                                        *****

CHAPTER TWELVE.

Dan made his way up
the side of the Mercedes; he found Dallas’ dropped Glock and slipped the loaded weapon in to the back of his jeans. He stopped at the open driver’s door and peered in, other than broken glass the car was spotlessly clean and Dan concluded it was a rental. He found a book of matches on the dash, there was a name of some club or bar written on the front flap: “Bunny’s” with a Boston phone number beneath the cheesy logo.

Dan tore off one of the matches and the head ignited, he put the match to the rest of the book and as the heads all flared to life he tossed the matchbook down in to the churned up soil.

Dan had smelt the diesel fumes for the last few minutes and now he could see it trickling from the rear of the Mercedes. He started up the sloping incline to where he had tied off Weiser.

Dan had almost made it to Weiser when he heard three rifle shots in the distance. The reports had come from the direction of his ranch. He heard two more shots, these sounded different to the first three, then two more shots sounded out.

Dan had one thought and one thought only.

‘Chloe!’

Dan scrambled up the slope and snagged Weiser’s reins from the sapling. He sheathed the rifle and swung himself up in to the saddle.

‘Come on boy,’ Dan said.

He turned Weiser in the direction of home.

Behind him the Mercedes’ fuel tank blew. Dan paid it no attention.

Weiser reached the top of the ridge and Dan turned the horse on the trail. He pulled up on the reins bringing Weiser to a halt and he leaned forwards in his saddle so that his mouth was close to Weiser’s left ear.

‘I’m going to push you fella, I have to, I know you’re one hell of a horse so don’t let me down.’

Dan patted Weiser’s powerful neck and loosened the reins giving Weiser more ‘head’. Dan dug his heels in to the sides of Weiser and made an exaggerated ‘tsk’ noise and Weiser took off.

Dan let Weiser pick his own path, only occasionally tugging on the reins to the left or right when the path Weiser chose was too hard. Dan wasn’t worried about the horse but some of the trails had too many low hanging branches and the last thing he needed was to be knocked from the saddle.

The horse charged along, the thunder of hooves and the snorting of his nostrils the only sounds and Dan rode him hard urging Weiser to greater speeds.

Horse and rider were as one and Dan leaned forwards in the saddle, lowering his head as much as possible to cut down on wind-drag, his hat had long been swept from his head. They came to the apex of a ridge and Dan pulled on Weiser’s reins bringing the horse to a halt.

Weiser shook his head and neck, the animal’s powerful muscles shone beneath a layer of sweat. Dan patted Weiser’s neck and rubbed a hand reassuringly along the side of the animal’s majestic face.

Before him was open grasslands that led down to the fenced paddock and the ranch house. Dan knew he was still four miles from home and he quickly looked for any sign of Chloe or her horse but he couldn’t see either.

‘Easy, let’s see what’s what.’

Dan pulled the rifle free and unsnapped the lens’ covers and raised the scope to his right eye. Dan quickly ranged in on the North gate, through the magnified scope he could tell that Chloe wasn’t at the gate. He scanned from right to left and back again; a sea of tall grass and wild flowers filled the scope. Dan kept sweeping left to right, each time moving the scope’s sight closer to the ranch.

He stopped when the scope picked up a shape, lying dead in the paddock was one of their horses, the scope’s magnification picked up the pool of blood spreading out from the once beautiful animal’s head.

‘Motherfuckers!’ Dan cursed and Weiser began to scrape one hoof at the ground.

Dan then saw a second and a third horse, all down, all dead. Dan felt tears welling up in his eyes, he blinked the tears away and kept looking.

He found a body and his heart leapt in to his mouth until he realised that the body was that of a man, the right side of the man’s face a ragged mess.

‘At-ta girl,’ Dan whispered.

Soon he scoped in on a second man lying face down in the grass, Dan could see a hole in the back of the man’s head. He kept scanning and his fear increased when through the scope he located Sorbet. The Appaloosa that Chloe had been riding was crumpled in the dirt, its head and neck twisted down beneath the animal’s front two legs. Dan quickly concluded that someone had shot the horse head on and the animal had ploughed forwards in to the dirt.

‘No, no, no.’

Weiser must have caught the acrid scent of the spilled blood, the wind was right for it, and the horse began to chuff and stamp more urgently with his front hooves.

‘Easy boy, settle.’

Weiser settled and Dan swept the scope back to Sorbet. He scanned the area.

Weiser began to tremble beneath Dan, a thunderous roar sounded all around, and it took several seconds for Dan to realise that the noise was coming from him.

Through the scope’s magnification he caught sight of Chloe, her upper body was hidden by another fallen horse but Dan could see her legs and boots. He could clearly see the mass of blood pooling around her thighs, the long grasses around her were awash with blood.

‘No!’ Dan screamed. His voice one loud bellowing roar of pain, of anger and of loss.

Dan caught movement with his left eye and he raised the scope. He spotted another man, the man was clutching his left shoulder, blood dripping between the man’s fingers. He was unarmed and moving at a stagger towards Chloe’s body.

Dan watched as the man raised his blood soaked hand and waved back at the ranch. Dan quickly found one last man climbing the paddock’s fence near the stables. This man was armed, carrying an assault rifle similar to an M-14, and behind this last man was another black Mercedes with all of its doors wide open.

Dan could see that the car was empty and he scanned back to the other man, he hadn’t moved much. Dan located Chloe again and he almost cried out when he saw Chloe’s left leg move an inch or two. He saw her right hand come up from behind the horse.

Dan heard three quick popping sounds and he saw the wounded man collapse to his knees.

Damn, I love that fucking woman.

Dan lowered the rifle so that he could look at the broader picture.

Another shot sounded and Dan saw the kneeling man’s head snap backwards.

Dan spotted the last armed man starting to move through the paddock, he was moving in Chloe’s direction. Dan gauged the man to be a half mile from Chloe’s prone body. Dan raised his rifle and let off six shots in rapid succession, at this distance he knew that nothing would come of them, he’d just wanted to halt the last man, to buy Chloe some time. Dan watched as the final shooter dropped in to the grass and a second later two quick shots came back at him as the gunman returned suppressing fire.

Dan sheathed the rifle and tightened his hold on the reins.

‘Let her buck,’ Dan cried, Weiser was moving before the last word had left Dan’s mouth.

Weiser galloped hard at the ridge’s crest-line. Dan held on and leaned back in his saddle as the mountain horse did what it was born to do.

Dan hadn’t been lying when he had told Chloe that Weiser would have left Sorbet in his dust. The mountain horse’s stock proved hardy and brave as the horse charged down the steep incline. The incline’s seventy five degree angle would have bested most horses but to Weiser it came naturally. He had been born in the wilds of the Australian mountains and though tamed he still had that mountain horse blood flowing through his veins. His muscles were hard and his frame and build were purposely designed for terrain such as this.

Dan clamped his thighs hard to Weiser’s sides as the horse pushed harder down the slope, his hooves churning up the rocky ground beneath them.

Dan concentrated on keeping his seat as Weiser steamed down the hillside in a flurry of hooves and the flat grasslands came up on them faster than Dan had expected.

Weiser pushed on and Dan let the animal have its reach. Dan swept himself forwards in the saddle so that once more he was leaning low in the saddle to cut down on drag.

‘Push it Weiser,’ Dan roared.

The horse proved his worth and Dan felt the magnificent animal’s speed increasing. Dan could hear nothing but the thunder of hooves, the snorting of nostrils and his own heartbeat as Weiser thundered across the open grassland.

Dan saw the one mile marker coming up, the fence the perfect indicator of just how far the horse had travelled in such a short space of time. Weiser needed no encouragement from Dan and the horse cleared the fence in one heart-stopping leap.

Horse and rider cleared the fence and landed in a blurring of hooves. Dan raised his posture and through streaming eyes he looked ahead beyond Weiser’s head.

Dan could see the last gunman was nearing Chloe, he was already raising his rifle to aim at Chloe’s fallen body.