Stepbrother Cowboy: A Western Romance (12 page)

I waited a few moments before I realized I had no data out here. I could make a phone call, barely by the one bar, but there wasn’t any way my pictures were going to go through. I cursed and put the phone in my front pocket, hoping it would buzz or chirp when it finally sent the message. That’s when a distant rumble caught my attention and left me scrambling for cover. Coming down the two track dirt road at break neck speed was a jacked up red 4x4 pickup with everything a country boy would want… Big tires, roll bars, KC lights and chrome everywhere. The one thing I wasn’t excited to see were the two guys standing in the bed of the truck, rifles aimed forward, a woman driving, her dark hair flying about the cab.

I got out of sight, and started moving down the dry wash as fast as I could, looking for more than the tall grass to try to fade out of sight. I wondered if the guy on the horse had alerted them somehow, and was now wishing I hadn’t opted for stealth over speed… But I had no way of knowing what was going to happen. The truck had barely swung to a stop some two hundred yards behind me when I heard doors open and close and hoarse shouts.

“Find him.”

“Fuck that guy up.”

“..Has no idea who...”

I stayed low, but made sure my AR was ready and the safety was in place. I knew as long as they moved slowly that I could slip through them, but if they started moving faster, I could be in real trouble.

“There are tracks over here. He’s gotta be following the riverbed still,” a familiar voice shouted and I ducked as gunfire started randomly hitting the banks up and down where I was sneaking through.

I slid over the wall of the embankment and crawled on my stomach, hoping not to make a disturbance in the tall grass that would give me away and got my first good look at my pursuers and cursed in my head for being such a stupid fool.

James was carrying a deer gun in one hand, I barely recognized him but inspiration struck me when I noticed the missing hat and that hat head of his. The second and third figures I recognized right off, and it made my blood run cold. Dade was decked out in all black, right down to his hat and a rifle that could have been the twin of mine. He didn’t have a pistol that I could see, but the lady sure did. Karen had a pistol in each hand, and it would have been something that most people would find ridiculous, but I knew her family, used to date her.

One of the things that always had been attractive about Karen was the fact that she was a rowdy cowgirl growing up, and it wasn’t enough to be a pretty face. She was a quick draw shooter who was learning to ride horses the way most folks learned to walk. She somewhat grew out of that phase in high school when guys, hormones and beer took over, but she had two guns, and both were already out. Whatever I did, I had three serious folks coming after me, and judging by what I’d overheard, they knew it was me.

“Don’t walk too close, spread out about twenty paces. We’ll flush him out. James, we aren’t here to just rough him up.”

“I know I know. No witnesses,” James stammered, but he didn’t sound happy about it.

“If you fuck this up for us James-” Karen’s voice was colder than I’d ever remembered.

“The Council members said-”

“Shut up Karen,” Dade said quietly, but his voice didn’t sound as deadly as the man holding the gun.             

“We were almost done. In two weeks this wouldn’t have mattered,” Karen hissed and I got a fix on where they were.

“The fuck were you thinking?” Dade asked.

“I had to see. If they had the water finished, we could let the blame fall on Tim and the plan would have gone through.”

“We can’t fuck this up. I can’t believe how badly Cameron has fucked this deal up,” Dade didn’t sound happy either.

“No witnesses,” Karen hissed again.

“You going to kill him?” James asked.

“If I have to.”

Their words floated to me. I could just make out their shapes as they walked in a line, shoulder to shoulder, almost twenty feet apart from each other. It was just like a drive, a deer drive. The problem was, I was the one to be driven. All of them had their guns out and ready. Whatever I’d stumbled upon, was enough for them to go to war with me. I silently took stock of my situation… I probably had seventy rounds for the rifle, three dozen for the Gold Cup and about a canteen of water left. Night time was coming, and although it wasn’t winter yet, it gets awful cold out here.

I kept crawling slowly, trying not to disturb the grass too much and rejecting about every plan I could think of. I didn’t want to play cat and mouse out here with these guys. If Dade was as good as Jackson had told me he was, he would find me for sure. Karen was a dead shot, so if they flushed me, I would be under fire from her for sure, which left me with James. I knew nothing about him, except he was a friend of Tim’s. If I had to pick out a weak link, it’d be him just because he seemed the youngest and I didn’t have any other reason to suspect he had any skills other than the usual 18-19 year old cowboy. I decided he’d be my way to break through the line and started angling towards his side.

My plan was one out of sheer desperation. I found a good hollow spot in the tall grass where I judged I’d be right in James path. I hated that I couldn’t have found something like this in the middle of the group, but couldn’t chance being seen by the more experienced shooters. I was going to wait until he was almost walking right over me, then take him down and use him as my shield to get to the truck. Then I’d make my getaway. Simple, easy and I’d be a dead man if I screwed this up. Setting up the plan and putting it into place took seconds, but every heartbeat felt like an hour’s time…

“Do you think he knows about us?” Karen’s voice floated to me, they were getting closer.

“I saw him come around the corner at the hospital,” James’s voice said, “Did he see you?”

“Oh, I suppose he did. I got word that the old man was in town poking around...” Dade’s voice was closer.

“Do you think they know about?” James again, the grass I was hiding me from him also prevented me from seeing just how close he was getting.

“The Council Voted. After next week, it won’t matter. As long as they don’t find out about the river before that…” Karen said, I could just make out her dark hair flying around her face.

“As soon as the deal is signed…”

A boot came down, almost on my face and I wrapped my arm around the leg, twisting and pulling. James’s rifle went off as he fell and for a few moments, I tried pulling him on the ground and wrapping him up. I caught an elbow to the temple as his body weight came down, a nonstop chorus of curses and screams. I gave him a good smack to the head with the butt stock of the rifle and rolled as Karen’s pistols opened up and an almost quiet smack thud sounds as rounds hit all around the both of us. I struggled to hold on and finally got James calm when I gave up on using my rifle and pulled my .45 out, burying it into the hollow spot behind his jaw and ear.

“No,” James pleaded.

“Stop shooting,” I called out, and slowly rose, pulling James upright with me.

“Hold up, he’s got James,” Dade said holding a fist up, wrist towards me, but his carbine in his other hand.

I slowly pulled myself to my feet, using James like a shield, as much as I could and kicked his rifle further behind me.

“Guys, I don’t think you realize this, but we’re on reservation land. I’m not trespassing here,” I told them calmly, quietly.

“Oh, it’s nothing to do with that. Dade, shoot him,” Karen said.

“He’s got your cousin wrapped up tight.”

“Don’t fuck with me, I don’t want to kill the kid, I just want to get out of here,” I told them all, the day quiet now that James had been silenced by his fear.  I don’t blame him.  I was scared as well, and worried I’d never see Alison again.

“Oh, by all means, kill the kid,” Karen told Dade who blinked, his eyes raised.

Oh shit!

I pulled a wad of keys out of the kids pocket and held onto them tightly, ready to push him into the other two who were closing the distance, making a clean getaway difficult. James barely fought back as the last few words left Karen’s mouth and he almost started stepping back against me, maybe to get away from Karen? His cousin?

“No, no, don’t fucking kill the kid,” James shouted back, his body trembling.

“Listen to him. We’re just going to go to the truck, nice and easy.”

“You can’t walk away from this,” Dade told me, his voice quiet.

“I don’t feel like dying today.”

“Nobody does, when it’s their time.”

“And you’re going to shoot me to kill him?” James blubbered.

“If I have to. We have one more week and then the tribal council can’t go back on the deal.”

“But… but…”

“Don’t feel bad James, It’s your fault we have to do this,” Karen said softly, both pistols raised.

“You don’t have to kill us,” I said, holding James closer to me. “I don’t even know what’s going on…”

“No, you both have to die. Dade?”

I should have shot them from a distance, but I couldn’t. Doing that without knowing who they were or what they wanted would have made it outright murder. I was done with the killing game, as much as I could be, but this hesitation cost me. Dade hesitated a moment too long for Karen’s taste, so she opened up with her pistols. The first round took James in the stomach and His body relaxed into mine as he started to slump, his body going into shock almost immediately. The second round punched my shoulder high, pain exploding. That round broke my grip with James and as I was falling a third round took me over my left eye. Just before the world went dark, I thought of Alison. Would she mourn me?

The world came back to me slowly and painfully. Jackson’s voice and one other’s urging somebody to hurry, to hurry the fuck up. One side of my head was a mass of pain, and opening my right eye was almost enough to make me want to puke. Shot, I’d been shot, but somehow I was still alive. My shoulder and head were hot spikes of pain and I could hear heavy breathing next to me. I couldn’t see anything through the blood and swelling. A change in my breathing must have alerted them and they came, rough hands touching my throat, feeling for my pulse.

“He’s alive, holy shit.”

“Move over Owen,” Another rough set of hands and a light slap on the cheek. “Cameron? Can you hear me?”

I tried to talk, but could only open my lips, my mouth was dry and my tongue felt like it was sticking to the edges of my mouth. I managed to make some sort of sound, but everything hurt. I could hear the crunch of tires and feel the wind passing as some sort of vehicle raced away.

“I sent Owen to show the ambulance where to turn in. It took me forever to find you guys, you two need to hold on just a little bit longer…”

Everything faded out again, and even the pain was gone.

+++++++++++++++++++++

I tried to sit up, but couldn’t. I was too weak and was tucked in too tight. I could sort of see light around the edges of something covering my eyes. My arms weren’t restrained as far as I could tell, but my left side was still sore as I could stand it and not cry, a hot throbbing of pain there. The pain in my forehead was gone, as well as the nausea I had expected I would have.

“Hey there,” a feminine voice greeted me. “You’re awake finally, huh?”

“Where am I?” I managed to croak.

“The hospital. Here, let me get you something to sip,” she said, a straw poking at my lips. I sucked at it greedily but she pulled it back.

“Not so fast, you should know better.”

“Alison, Jackson?” I asked, not knowing.

“I’m right here,” his deep voice moved closer until I could hear his breathing next to the bed.

“Alison?”

“She’s sleeping, right here next to you. Want me to wake her?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. I could hear her ask if something was the matter, panic in her voice. “No, I just wanted to say hi.  I never thought I’d see her again.”

“Oh thank god,” she took my hand in hers and squeezed.

I knew it was hers because of how small, but roughened it was.

“Did they get them?”

“Who?” Jackson asked me.

“Dade and Karen.”

“Yeah, they found Karen all right.”

“Dead?”

“Dead? No, hiding out at Tyler’s. He’s in some hot water himself. He let her get away.”

“You guys know what happened?”

“Yeah, James took a round to the stomach. He almost bit the dust, but he made it. Tough kid, almost as tough as you,” Jackson told me.

“He’s going to make it?”

“Why do you care? He was going to shoot you, just like the others were,” Jackson asked, but it was Alison’s hands that were soothing. She was rubbing the side of my face, the unhurt side, her hand slowly kneading the muscles in my neck.

“Things went to shit. I didn’t have a lot of choices and he might have died because of mine.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t kill all of them and walked away,” Alison stated. Part of me hoped I heard that wrong.

“No, I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. I don’t even know why they were all there. Why they were coming after me.”

“Maybe you should hold off on talking for now. The doc is going to cut the bandages free in a moment and then I’ve got some folks who want to talk to you,” the harsh voice was familiar, but when I got the whiff of cigarette smoke a spark of memory triggered finally.

“Sheila?” I asked.

“Twice as ugly and four times as mean,” Jackson said and I could hear a slap and a mock protest, Ali giggled.

“Yeah. We are in a world of shit here. A WORLD OF SHIT,” her voice was animated, and I could tell she was pissed.

“Well… Give me some time and I’ll talk to whomever you want Sheila, but I want to…”

“You can’t. Literally. Anything you tell them can get them subpoenaed. This is a huge case and the State’s Attorney General is looking into things… and now I have a federal prosecutor from the Department of Justice calling me for updates every fifteen minutes for the last week and do you know just how much trouble you’ve been?”

“I was out for a week?” I asked, dizzy from both the news and the pain that was starting to work its way in my temples.

“Yeah. You and uh, you and Tim shared a room for a day or so until I pulled a bitch fit and…” Sheila’s voice broke off and I felt the bed side lower and a soft weight sit down next to me. I could smell strawberries and vanilla. Alison.

“You scared me. I thought you’d run away, ran out on us. Then Jackson took the guys out the next day and found you and James.”

“How did you find me?” I asked the room aloud.

“That’s safe. Go ahead,” Sheila was really starting to piss me off.

“We took the truck from the back corner of the riverbed where you called me from and I headed towards that jut of rocks we talked about. I saw the quad covered and figured you went out on foot. When I saw bodies on the ground in the distance I had to go back and call the GPS coordinates in to Owen. When I saw you, I knew you were gone.” His voice wavered a moment but he squeezed my wrist.

“But I wasn’t?” I asked, not sure how I lived.

“Everybody, excuse me please,” another voice came into the room bringing a flurry of sound with him.

Sheila herded everyone back to the bench on the far side of the room while the doctor and nurse checked my vitals, and basics. I felt the bandage around my head gently being tugged, and then the sharp cold of a pair of surgical scissors wedging themselves between my skin and the wrapping around my head and gently cutting it away. It came off quick after that, but the gauze padding over my eyes almost made me scream. I was panicking because I still couldn’t see when the doctors explained the swelling had also affected my eyes, and sunlight had been bothering me. It was too bright through the thin layers, but I would live with that, if I could see. I bit my lip as the doctor took his time, slowly checking each eye as he uncovered it.

“Ok, you look like your pupils are normal now. You have quite the crowd waiting to talk to you. If you aren’t feeling up to it, let me know and I’ll send them away. How is your pain?”

“Like I was shot. How am I still alive anyway?”

“You were hit with a small caliber pistol round. A .22 is what we pulled out of your shoulder. Not sure what got you in the head. Probably the same, but we didn’t recover it. The bullet skipped off your skull and was lost out there somewhere.”

“It what?”

“Son, you were shot in the head. Not straight on. The bullet ricocheted off your thick skull,” Jackson said from across the room.

“God, I thought I was going to be blind.”

“You almost were. The swelling in your head gave us all kinds of fits. That’s why we kept you out for a few days, we turned the drip off a couple days ago and we were waiting for you to wake up.”

“So I’ll be fine?” I asked, hopeful, the bright lights not blinding me anymore and I could make out the grainy shapes of my family.

“As long as you don’t mind that scar over your eye, I have a friend who does plastic surgery.”

“No. Not now. Thanks.”

“Oh, and those visitors, they are quite insistent. Hit the call button if you need me. I’ll run them all out. I’d really rather they waited, but it’s the FBI.” His voice was reverent.

“Thanks doc.” I said smiling, meeting Alison’s gaze, her radiant smile filling my whole world with joy. “Hey Jackson, Ali, do Mom and Dad…?”

“Yeah, they’re here too. They just headed down to the cafeteria. Want me to go get them?” Jackson asked, standing.

“That’d be a great idea. How about you join them?” Sheila asked Alison. I’d had enough of Sheila’s mouth and I was about to tell her so, when Ali nodded and gave me a little wave and smiled.

“Good. Now, I’ve got investigators for both the state and government here. Do not answer their questions unless I tell you to; If you are tired, worn out or want me to tell them to fuck off until you are better I will. Do you understand me?”

“I do. Why is this…?”

“A Cluster fuck?” Her breath smelled like the last cigarette she smoked and if I could have backed up a step I would have. “Before we get into that, I want you to ask you a question. Do you know how much a casino is worth?”

“What?”

“Do you know how much money a casino is worth? I hope everything ends here today but none of us knows how bad it is, or how bad it will get. How much do you know about them?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s the reason why the water was diverted, according to James.”

“He’s talking?”

“His own family tried to gun him down. He’ll have a colostomy bag for a while; of course he’s talking, you shit, he cut a deal.”

“Are you always so foul mouthed?” I asked her, smiling at her surprised expression.

“Usually. I’m old. Oh shit, here’s tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber. Shut the fuck up unless I tell you to answer something. Tell me when you want a break or want them to leave. Got it?” She asked me as two suits pushed their way into the room.

“Hi, I’m agent Kline, FBI, this is Agent Black,” the tall thin one introduced them both.

“Cameron,” I held out my hand, noticing how weak I was, but happy that I could move.

“Gentlemen, Cameron has just awoken from a medically induced coma, after he’s had surgery to remove a slug from his shoulder and a bad concussion from a bullet skipping across his skull.”

“Thank you counselor, we’re aware of his injuries. We do have to ask these questions,” agent Black sounded dismissive.

“Make sure you don’t cross the line agents, or I’ll have your asses,” Sheila growled to agent Black.

“Do you know this woman?” Agent Kline held up Karen’s photo. I nodded.

“We used to date years ago. She’s the one who shot me, shot James too.”

“Are you sure it was her?” Agent Black asked.

“Yes. Very sure,” both agents just nodded and pulled up another picture, a picture of Dade.

“How about this gentleman?” Kline asked me.

“Sure, that’s Dade, Carl’s foreman. He was there, but I don’t know if he did anything more than fire off warning shots,” I don’t know why, but suddenly I was feeling defensive of the vet.

“Are you sure of that?”

“No, not when I was struggling to get out of there alive,” I admitted.

“What can you tell us about Sheriff Tyler Bart?”

“That he’s useless as a law man. He wouldn’t arrest his nephew when the evidence was so stacked up against him. I hear there have been other issues as well. He did seem to be a caring uncle.

“Tim is in this hospital, isn’t he?” Kline asked.

“Yeah.”

“How much involvement do you think he had with things?” Black asked me.

“I honestly don’t know. I still don’t understand exactly what happened with Karen, Dade and James. Sheila asked me about casinos, but I just got back from overseas a week ago. Ooops, maybe longer than that,” I amended, remembering that I’d been out.

“Ok, so let’s go over some things again.”

I repeated everything that had happened over the course of the past few days, holding nothing back. Apparently, when my text message finally went through, while I was on my trip to the hospital, Bill recognized and put some of the pieces together, calling the state police who kicked the information up to the local FBI branch. He had no idea at that point what had happened, and it was half a day later when I was stabilized that Jackson and Alison had gotten hold of them. They literally had half a day’s worth of things to wrap up and to get on the airplane. It was still almost two days of flying to get home.

With Tyler refusing to take his wife into custody before she could skip town with Dade had all but gotten him arrested. He was done as the sheriff. As an elected official, there was enough pressure from the state and local authorities to have him step down and leave the city. Carl was crushed. Of everyone in this tragedy, he was only guilty of being an ass, and not getting Tim help sooner. He explained away his son’s increasing instability as too much hormones and being a young man. Still, I secretly hoped that Tim made it.

Overall, the plot had been too simple. There was already enough bad blood between the two ranches that when the water was diverted, which was timed during some development on Carl’s ranch, Bill naturally blamed his long time enemy. Knowing that a legal battle would take a year or more, the plan would have been safe if I hadn’t stumbled upon the reservation property. There was no way that the casino could be built without a parking lot. The only problem was that there was a river in the way. Once the course of the river had changed, the plan could go forward. This was a huge oversimplification, but with Bill and Carl going at each other over water rights and the blame being put on Carl’s development, they might have gotten away with it.