Page 53 of Battle Mountain

“Not that we could find her there,” Jolene said. “We’ve been over there a dozen times in the last two months. We’ve asked people there about her, and we passed out her photo. No one knows her.”

“We’re guessing she called as she passed through Warm Springs on her way to someplace else,” Anthony said. “And since that call, she turned her phone off for good. My buddy says she hasn’t used it in over sixty days, so we can’t track her.”

“She’s with Soledad,” Jolene said as her eyes filled with tears. “I’m worried about her. There’s something creepy about that man.”

Both Geronimo and Nate nodded in agreement.

“Please find her,” Jolene pleaded to them.

“We’ll do what we can,” Geronimo said. “But she’s a grown woman. If she doesn’t want to come back with us, we can’t force her.”

“Sure we can,” Nate said.

—

On their wayback to the state highway, Geronimo whistled and said, “Man, I feel for those people. I really do. And it pisses me off all over again to hear what we did over there.”

“Agreed,” Nate said.

“This has gotten very complicated.”

“It has,” Nate said. “But we don’t need to let that distract us. Our target hasn’t changed. Our mission hasn’t changed.”

“I feel like we’re getting closer,” Geronimo said, thumping the steering wheel with the heel of his hand for emphasis. “We’ve finally got a legitimate lead on Soledad.”

After they’d cleared the trees, the gravel road rose sharply up a hill. As they neared the top, Nate shot his hand out and clamped hard on Geronimo’s arm.

“Stop,” Nate hissed.

“What?”

“Stop. Back up.Now.”

Geronimo did so.

Nate said, “I just got a glimpse of them, but there are two vehicles down below on the flat on either side of the road, pointing in our direction. Two SUVs that weren’t there when we drove in. They look like they’re waiting for us to come down the mountain.”

“An ambush?” Geronimo asked. “How did they know we’d be here?” Then: “Did that lawyer screw us?”

“I don’t think it was her,” Nate said. “I didn’t get that vibe from her at all.”

“The Anthonys?”

“No way.”

“So what are we going to do?” Geronimo asked. “I don’t know how we can get to the highway without driving right by them.”

Nate’s mouth spread in a cruel grin. “As my friend Joe Pickett would say, things are about to get Western.”

—

Five minutes later,Nate returned to the Suburban after crawling to the top of the rise to scope out the situation a half mile below them to the east. As he walked back to the vehicle, he placed the pair of binoculars into their chest harness and zipped his fatigue jacket over it.

“They haven’t moved,” he said to Geronimo while he opened the passenger door. Then he instinctively checked to make sure all five cylinders of his .454 were loaded. “I’m pretty sure they didn’t see us when we drove to the top and backed away. If they had, they would either have retreated to a better position or chased us. No, they’re still waiting for us down there.”

“How many subjects?” Geronimo asked. In Nate’s absence, he had reloaded his combat shotgun with alternating rounds of buckshot and slugs. Buckshot for human targets, slugs for disabling vehicles.

“Two men in the vehicle on the right, one in the SUV on the left.”