Page 30 of Austin (The K9 Files #29)

As soon as Rox was out of sight, Austin pulled both Charlie and Cowboy back a little bit. Cowboy whined several times, but Austin whispered, “It’s okay, buddy. I know, not quite the way you want to see this happen. You want to go see Jake,” he murmured, “but I need you here for a bit.”

He looked over at Charlie, grazing off to the side, completely unconcerned.

Animals could be stressed during certain events, causing a high adrenaline rush.

However, as soon as it was over, as the danger passed, they calmed down and went back to normalcy.

Something that people could learn a lot from by observing the animal world.

With the animals tucked back a little bit farther out of the way, Austin could still keep an eye on not only what was in front of him but the world off to the side.

He waited, hoping that law enforcement would show up first, knowing it would still be at least ten to twenty minutes and quite possibly longer than that.

It’s not that he didn’t have a whole lot of faith in the local law, it’s just that he had a bit more faith in the criminal element.

He pulled out his phone and quickly sent off several texts to Badger, updating him on what was currently breaking. When his phone vibrated, Austin answered the call and wasn’t surprised to hear Badger say, “Do you need anything?”

“Some backup would be nice,” he whispered. “Jake took a bullet to the shoulder, and I’m waiting for law enforcement now. I’ve contacted the oversight team that was here yesterday, and they’re on their way too.”

“Good. Any idea what size cache is still there?”

“I haven’t seen it. I just know that our gunman mentioned caches , plural. So I guess it would be at least the same size if not bigger than yesterday’s, and more than one are still out here.”

“So, what the hell are they up to?”

“I think it’s pretty obvious. I suspect these are local runners, connected to the big-time runners.

These guys have been using Jake’s place as a holding facility for a while because it’s a relatively undisturbed area of the ranch.

I think these local runners have somebody on the inside or at least had somebody at one time, somebody keeping track of Jake’s place. ”

“You’re thinking it’s the ranch hands?”

“No, I’m not thinking it’s them. Although I don’t know the two current ranch hands.

They’re not the same guys who were here when I was here years ago.

Yet I guess maybe one could be, though I never saw much of him as he was out riding the range most of the time,” he shared.

“As for our gunmen, there are at least three of them, one of which I’ve got here. ”

“Do you think there are any bad feelings among anybody in the immediate family?”

“If you think about it, nobody is on good terms all the time, but, from what I’ve seen, everybody appears to be decent, other than Chris, but what the hell do I know?”

At that, Badger snorted. “You know a hell of a lot, so don’t ever doubt yourself in that corner.”

“Oh, I might, but when you trust somebody once and get burned, you don’t trust anybody ever again. You know, that kind of a deal.”

“Is that how you feel about your wife?”

“No, not at all,” he said, ending the call.

It didn’t take long before he heard something in the bushes behind him. Cowboy growled softly. Austin gently eased his hand along the dog’s back.

Cowboy went silent and nuzzled a little closer to him. Austin smiled at that, how Cowboy had become a combination of a pet and a working dog. He knew Cowboy was supposed to protect, and, in this case, he was also dealing with whatever had happened to him while he had been held captive.

Austin still didn’t quite understand why they had done that, but suspected the reason was something simple.

Sad, like so many things in life. Motivations ran hot when it came to these things.

Unsure of what he heard, Austin waited and watched carefully, and, sure enough, it wasn’t long before a man slipped through the trees, heading toward a section of the woods that Austin had yet to go into.

It was pretty hard to follow silently with both the horse and the dog, but it would be a good idea to know exactly what this guy was up to.

Pulling out his phone, Austin videoed the man walking through the trees.

The stranger then headed over toward one section of ground, a good one hundred yards away.

Austin got as close as he could without getting close enough to be caught, then watched and waited.

The stranger bent down and quickly unburied what appeared to be a piece of plywood.

He lifted it like a lid and looked inside, where Austin assumed would be another cache of weapons.

He quickly put the plywood back down and covered it back up again.

Then he went over to another area and went through the same motions, presumably checking on another cache of weapons.

Interesting, just checking to ensure the goods were all still there.

The fact that he was even checking was also interesting because he must have been worried about losing more of their goods.

No matter what the reason, anything that caused these gun-runners to be pissed off was a good thing.

Austin watched and waited as the stranger quickly checked on three other caches, videoing him as he went. It would be a lot easier to find the weapons when this guy was gone. Just when Austin thought he was well hidden, a man called out.

“Did you catch that asshole?” The one guy checking the caches looked up and around. “I didn’t see him.”

“He’s been watching you the whole fucking time, you idiot.”

The other man froze. “No way, I would have seen him.”

Sure enough, a man stepped around a tree, and he pointed out exactly where Austin was hiding. “He’s in there. Go get him.”

“I’m not going in there to get him,” said the man checking on the caches. “You’re the one who saw him. You go get him.”

The other man glared at him. “Stop being such a fucking baby. We’ve got to get these weapons and get out of here.”

“Not this trip. We didn’t bring anything to haul them in, remember? We just came to check on them, and, so far, everything is here.”

“Which just means you’ve shown this asshole where everything is. Now we can’t give him the chance to tell anybody.”

At that, the other man’s lips pinched together, and he shook his head. “I’m not up for murder, and you know that.”

“I don’t give a shit what you’re up for, but, with that attitude, you’re destined to do some jail time.”

“No need for that,” he argued. “Just pay him off, as you do everybody else.”

“I don’t think this asshole is the paying-off type. He’s the one who’s been poking around in our business since he got back. Remember when we saw him that one time?”

“How do you know it’s him? Are you telling me you saw him clear enough to identify him, but you didn’t even let me know or go after him?” he asked in astonishment, as he stared at his buddy.

“Hey, this isn’t my deal. Remember?”

“It sure as hell is your deal. You’re the one who’ll go to jail if we get caught,” he declared, pointing a finger at him. “Now, go roust him out of there.”

Austin listened with half a smile as the men continued to argue with each other. They probably knew he had a weapon and yet weren’t telling the other one, each trying to get the other guy to go in after Austin.

Finally, when the two guys were just close enough together, Austin stepped forward, his rifle lifted, and announced, “Neither one of you have to check shit because I’m right here, and the two of you are just full of shit.”

“We’re not full of anything,” the second man yelled.

Austin nodded. Sure enough it was the two he had braced earlier. “Friends of Chris, huh ? So, who the hell is the other guy?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” muttered the one man with the stubby nose. “We ain’t done nothing wrong.”

“One, you’re trespassing, and, two, you’re checking on caches of guns and probably drugs—on private property too. God only knows what else you’re involved in.”

“We aren’t involved in anything,” argued the younger, skinny guy.

Todd, but Austin preferred Stubby—nodded his head. “Yeah, we aren’t involved in anything.”

“Right, that’s why you were just calling for him to come over and shoot me, huh ?”

“I didn’t say that,” he stated in feigned innocence.

“No, no, of course not, and maybe my hearing is completely gone too. Don’t worry though. I got it all recorded. I can check it later.”

When the younger skinny man walked toward him, Austin lifted the rifle in his direction and muttered, “No you don’t.”

“You’re not really going to shoot me out here, are you?” he asked in astonishment. “What the hell ever happened to this world that you’d just up and shoot people?”

“Yeah? Whatever happened to this world that you hide guns on a stranger’s property?”

“He ain’t no stranger,” Skinny said.

“I don’t get that. I really don’t. I’m sure you guys think I should, but I don’t understand why you’re using Jake’s place.”

“Because it works,” Stubby replied in astonishment. “How can it not make sense to you? Nobody’s here, only a few cows, and we’re not bothering anybody. Just miles and miles of range out here. Why not out there?”

Austin added, “At least here you have somebody who can keep an eye on it once in a while.”

“I didn’t say that,” Skinny muttered.

Stubby glared at him. “There you go, opening your fucking mouth again.”

“I didn’t say nothing,” Skinny snapped, looking at his buddy.

Austin snorted. “Doesn’t matter. This area is so close to the highway, anybody could be keeping track of what’s going on here, and the fact that you say somebody is keeping track of it makes me wonder if you know that somebody.”

At that, the two men looked confused.

Austin sighed. “Right, I guess I didn’t explain myself very well.”