* * *
KATIE WAS WATCHING her speed as she drove into the mountains on the highway leading to Idaho Falls. She’d just crossed into the state of Idaho after driving over the pass, leaving Wyoming behind. The van felt very heavy and she wished she had cruise control. The clipboard lay on the passenger seat. Wearing a set of dark glasses to ward off the bright sun over the mountains, Katie hummed to herself. She wished she had her iPod and could play her music, but Janet had forbidden anything other than paying attention to her driving. The road was two-lane, twisting and turning through the ups and downs of the green-cloaked mountains.
She noticed at ten-thirty that there was little traffic on the asphalt road. The berms were wide and tall metal poles were spaced about every quarter of a mile. Snowplows used these guides to stay on snow-filled highways and safely plow through the white stuff so vehicles could get through. It was as if she were alone and Katie enjoyed the feeling. She could still hear her mother intoning, “You drive with both hands on that wheel all the time, Katie. Don’t screw around and think you can drive with one hand.”
Smiling softly, she felt her heart expand with joy. Janet was slowly changing for the better. Why, she could even see some worry in her mother’s eyes this morning before she left. Her mind wandered to Joe. Katie knew he was falling in love with her. That was the source of his worry. Her mother, however, must be rediscovering her love for her. Was that possible? Oh, how Katie wanted it to be true! If one person worries about another, doesn’t that mean they care? Katie could swear she’d seen care, anxiety and worry all at once in her mother’s heavily made-up face. Surely, she loved her just a teeny bit.
As Katie was driving the van down a long, curved part of the highway, she saw a big, black SUV with heavy chrome and darkly tinted windows on the right side of the road, parked by a marked hiking trail. She noticed several other parked cars there as well, but the big SUV looked absolutely aggressive. Must be her wild Pisces imagination that they could be waiting for her. Katie shook her head, driving the van at sixty-five miles an hour.
To her surprise, the SUV spun and skidded, clouds of yellow dust shooting into the air as it leaped onto the highway behind her. She looked into her rearview mirror, thinking it was a crazy teenage driver. The black SUV raced up toward her at frightening speed. Automatically, Katie’s fingers gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. They were on a long, slow downward curve. She saw no oncoming traffic for a mile. There was a double yellow line in the center of the highway, a warning not to pass.
Yet, glancing nervously into the mirror again, she saw the SUV charging down at her like a runaway steam engine. Katie automatically began to slow, taking her foot off the accelerator. The guy who was driving was erratic and dangerous. Slowing the truck, Katie moved it to the right edge of the highway, near the berm. Was this dude drunk? The SUV swerved after coming within inches of the van’s bumper.
The SUV leaped into the other lane and roared up beside her. She grabbed at the wheel as the vehicle slammed into the side of the van. The crash and crunch of metal, of glass breaking, roared through Katie. She cried out as she felt the van tip.
Katie screamed as the van took flight. Everything slowed. She heard the squeal of tires, smelled burning rubber, heard the van’s engine suddenly racing. Her driver’s-side window had shattered inward, the glass spraying around her in shards, like sparkling diamonds.
Katie shut her eyes, gripping the wheel as the van sailed drunkenly through the air, trying to prepare herself for the crash. Her neck snapped back and forth. The safety belt cut deeply into her chest and shoulder. The vehicle struck the berm. Loud scraping sounds echoed through the van, the gravel tearing at the metal. The screeching sounds hurt Katie’s ears, just as she felt the deployment of several airbags all at once. One airbag struck her in the face as the van slammed onto its side. Katie felt the van sliding down the berm and heading into a deep ditch. She saw a thick pine-tree trunk that had fallen from the hill above right in the path of her careening van. She had no time to think, only to react. Her brakes were useless. The smell of metal burning against the rocks filled the vehicle.
The skidding van struck the thick trunk of the pine tree with a powerful thud. The hood crumpled and groaned. Steam shot skyward from the broken radiator. Wheels on the driver’s side spun and screamed as they whirled around. Katie lay semiconscious, the white airbags covering most of her. Hearing voices, yelling orders in Spanish, she tried to lift her head. Blood dripped down into her left eye. Weakly, she tried to raise her hand, but she couldn’t. Pain began to drift up her legs. Trapped. She was trapped! The rear doors were jerked open. The whole vehicle shuddered as suddenly there was movement and scraping. Katie fought to become conscious. Blood was now running freely out of her nose. She felt faint. The voices came and went. The scraping sounds of the wooden boxes being moved began. The van jostled and moved violently.
The squeal of tires, the roar of a car engine filled the van. And then, silence.
Katie heard the steam hissing loudly from the radiator. Why had she been attacked like this? Fumbling, her consciousness slowly returning, she realized she was in shock. Her thoughts were disjointed. She felt the warmth of the blood from above her eye and made several attempts to lift her left hand. It had been pinned between her and the caved-in door of the van. Help. She had to get help.
For the next five minutes, Katie moved in and out of consciousness. She finally got her left hand free. She tried to locate her seat belt. Her fingers shook badly as she found the latch. The safety belt released—she was suddenly dropped to the right. Falling into a heap against the passenger door, Katie struggled and kicked at the airbags hampering her efforts to sit up. The windshield was heavily cracked. Katie slowly pushed shards of glass out of her tangled hair.
Help. She had to get help. Few people used this road during the weekdays. Usually, on weekends there was plenty of traffic on it, people from Jackson Hole going to Idaho Falls to do serious shopping. She tasted blood in the left corner of her mouth. Her head began to ache. Lifting her fingers, Katie touched her brow. She felt the cut above her eyebrow. It was as if her brain was disconnected from her body. Fumbling around, she managed to push with her boots and force her whole body into a sitting position, back resting against the passenger door.
Kate was breathing raggedly, then realized she had a cell phone on the left side of her belt. She only needed to make one phone call. She could do that. Feeling drugged, she moved with excruciating slowness because her body refused to work fully with her. It took Katie another five minutes to retrieve the phone from its case. When she tried to focus on the small screen, dizziness struck her. She felt nauseous as she turned on the iPhone. It took precious minutes for her to remember what to do next. A security box with numbers came up and she just stared at it, uncomprehending. Then Katie recalled her four-digit password and slowly pushed each box with her bloodied index finger. The phone came on. She saw the green phone icon and pressed it. Katie called Joe.
* * *
JOE WAS FINISHING SWEEPING the aisle when his cell rang. He put the broom aside and answered it. “Hello?”
“Joe?”
Scowling, Joe heard Katie’s voice. She sounded drugged. “Katie? Katie, what’s wrong? You don’t sound well.”
“I—um...I got run off the road by an SUV. I crashed, Joe. The van flipped and I’m on the side of the highway....”
His heart rate tripled. “What?” The word exploded out of him. “Are you okay?”
“Y-yes, I think I am. Just some cuts and bruises. Joe, I need help...I know you have an iPhone. You can find me on the GPS locater. Can you send help?”
Terror sizzled through Joe. “Yes, hold on, I’ll locate you right now.” He thanked God his iPhone was hooked to Katie’s, and that he had the app that would show a caller’s position. Instantly, it popped up on his screen. Memorizing it, he switched to Katie. “I
got your position, Katie. Just hang on. I’m going to call the nearest fire department and police department. And I’m coming to get you right now.”
“Joe, I’m okay...can you...can you call my mom? I—I’m really dizzy. I can’t think...straight. Whoever did this took everything out of the back of my van. I heard Spanish. They deliberately ran me off the road. She has to know...please, Joe?”
Anger wove through him. Joe knew what had really happened. The thing he feared the most had happened. “Yeah,” he rasped, “I’ll call her. Help’s on the way, Katie. Is the SUV still there?”
“N-no, it took off...my mind isn’t working well, Joe... I can’t keep track of time....”
“It’s gone, though? You don’t see it around you?” More terror ate at Joe. He knew that when cartels mixed it up, they almost always shot the enemy cartel members.
“Y-yes, gone...”
“And no guns were fired?”
“Guns? Why...no...what an odd question....”
“Is the van on fire, Katie? Do you see any smoke or smell anything burning around you?”
“J-just steam...the van hit a tree in the ditch...there’s some steam rising but I think it’s a broken radiator, don’t you?”
Barely able to stand still, Joe felt his entire world spinning out of control. “Yes, the radiator was probably punctured, Katie. Any other burning smells?”
“N-no. I’m just lying here on my back with my head against the door. If I move, I get horribly dizzy. I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
“You probably have a concussion,” he rasped, hurrying for the door. “Listen, just lie still, Katie. So long as there is no fire in or around the van, you’re safe. Stay there. I’m calling for help now. Keep your phone on. Keep it handy. I’m leaving the ranch right now....”
“Okay...Joe?”
“Yes?” He ran out the door, jogging for his truck in the parking lot.
“My mother... Oh, God, she’s going to be so angry with me. I lost the packages in the back. I ruined her van.”
He heard the choking sound in her voice. He said, “Katie, she won’t be angry. I promise you.” He jerked open the door of the truck and fumbled for the key and shoved it into the slot. “She’ll understand, Katie. She’s not going to drop you or get rid of you because this happened.” He heard her moan. His heart twisted violently in his chest as he jammed his foot down on the accelerator and spun out of the parking area. Blue smoke rose from the tires.
The phone went dead. Alarmed, Joe quickly called 911 and gave the information. In no time, he knew, the nearest fire department would be sent out as well as the nearest police cruiser. Redialing Katie’s number, he heard only a voice message. Katie wasn’t answering her phone. Had she fainted? Was she bleeding out and didn’t know it? Joe knew what shock did to a person. She’d be incapable of thinking or acting. She’d be like a helpless puppet and shock could also lower blood pressure so much, a person could die. He knew the symptoms because when the IED had exploded along the dirt road in Afghanistan, he’d been traumatized and in deep shock. He couldn’t talk, think straight or even string two coherent words together for hours afterward. He gritted his teeth, driving eighty miles an hour once he turned onto the highway.
The last call he made was to Janet. As he sped toward Jackson Hole, he grimly waited for the woman to answer.
“Mercury Courier, Janet speaking.”
“Janet, you don’t know me but my name is Joe Gannon. I work for Katie at the raptor facility. I just got a phone call from her. She’s had an accident...” He told her everything.
“Oh, my God!” Janet exploded. “Where is she? Where’s Katie? Is she all right?”
Joe was surprised at the raw emotion suddenly appearing in Janet’s voice. Had things changed? Slowing down as he entered Jackson Hole, Joe said, “I’m sure if Katie is in serious condition, Janet, they’ll airlift her here to the Jackson Hole hospital.” He kept the anger out of his tone because he knew just as well as Janet did that Katie had been attacked by Garcia’s cartel.
“B-but will I know? How will I know?” Janet sobbed. “God! I just found her. I can’t lose her!”
Joe said, “Stay where you are, Janet. I’ll be in touch. I’ll call you back as soon as I know about her condition.”
“You promise?”
Mouth tightening, Joe rasped, “Yes, I promise.”
After punching in the sheriff’s phone number, Joe asked for Deputy Cade Garner and got him. He explained everything to him.
“It’s the Garcia cartel,” Cade agreed, his tone grim.
“You bet it is. I have to call my boss in Washington, D.C., right now. You’ll send a cruiser out to the accident?”
“Yes, it’ll be me. She’s in Idaho and their county sheriff’s department will have responsibility for the investigation. But I want to get there in a helluva hurry.”
“Then let me follow you,” Joe demanded.
Cade said, “I’m on my way out the door. Park near the pass. We’ll hook up there.”
“Roger that,” Joe said, quickly shutting off the phone. Once he was outside of town, he pulled onto the berm. Dialing Hager at the FBI office, he got his assistant. He explained the situation, but the assistant said Hager was in a meeting and couldn’t be disturbed. Joe said fine and shut down his cell phone. Looking in his rearview mirror, he saw a black Tahoe police cruiser, its light bar flashing, coming at high speed toward him. Smiling grimly, Joe was grateful that Cade was the one who would swiftly get them to the accident site.
Joe’s heart wrung, as if a fist were curled around it, tightening it and sending pain radiating throughout his chest. He blamed himself. He’d known in his gut Katie would be attacked. Why, oh, why did he let her go alone? Frustration funneled through him. As Cade’s cruiser shot by, the siren wailing, Joe stomped on the accelerator. The truck leaped onto the highway in hot pursuit of the deputy’s vehicle.
Hurry! Oh, God. Hurry! Let Katie be all right. Please...I’ll do anything if she’s alive and all right....
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
KATIE WAS LYING ON A GURNEY, on her way to the ambulance when she saw Joe and Deputy Cade Garner arrive. She could see the terror in Joe’s eyes as he ran to her side. She extended her hand to him.
“I’m okay, Joe,” she said, gripping his outstretched fingers. She drowned in his eyes, so filled with urgency. He loved her. She could feel it.
Leaning down, Joe looked closely at her. “Katie, are you sure?” There was blood on her face, neck and blouse, an open cut above her eyebrow. His heart pumped violently in his chest. He couldn’t lose Katie! She managed a smile meant to convince him she was all right.
“I’ll live, Joe.” She looked over at the paramedic standing at her side. “Just bumps and bruises. Nothing is broken.”
Relief roared through him. “Katie, I love you.” He clamped down on the rest of what he was going to say. Katie’s hair was disheveled, dried blood on the ebony strands. It was frightening. Joe knew from war experience that smeared blood could make a person look as if they were dying when they were not. Cade went to the other side of the gurney.
“Katie, how are you doing?” he asked.
“The paramedics said I’m okay.”
“Good,” he said, his gaze moving to the van lying on its side.
The paramedic scowled at them. “She’ll be fine, gentlemen. Now, if you’ll let us get Katie up in the ambulance, we need to transport her to Jackson Hole to be examined.”
Both men stepped aside to allow the paramedics to do their job.
Joe kept his gaze on Katie as she was lifted into the ambulance, covered with several blankets. Shock always made a person cold. He lifted his hand and called, “I’ll see you later at the hospital, Katie.”
“Can you call my mom? Let her know what happened? My c
ell phone died.”
Joe nodded. “I’ll call her right now.” The relief on her face was evident.
Cade gripped Joe’s upper arm and guided him to the overturned van. “Call her. I’m going to talk to the two deputies doing the legwork on this scene.”
“Right,” Joe muttered. He turned and walked to the side of the road far enough away so no one would hear his conversation. When he called Mercury Courier, no one answered. He left a message for Janet to call him and shoved the cell phone into his pocket. For a moment, he watched the red-and-white boxlike ambulance turn around and head toward Jackson Hole. His heart was torn. The last thing he wanted to do was stay here and investigate. He studied the van. Steam was still rising from beneath the crumpled hood. As he looked more closely, he saw that the back doors had been pulled open. Cade Garner was taking photos.
“What do you think?” Joe asked, joining Cade
“I think there were guns in the back of this van,” Cade said in a low tone so only Joe could hear. “And I think Garcia’s men rammed the truck, drove it off the road.” He pointed to the skid marks on the highway. “And once it crashed, grabbed the boxes of guns and took off.”
A ragged sigh escaped Joe’s lips. “Don’t warring cartels usually shoot the driver?”
Cade frowned. “Yes, they do. Katie got lucky.”
“They play rough,” Joe said.
“Is this your first drug mission?”
“Yes.” And it was going to be his last. “What does this mean?” he demanded, gesturing to the van.
Cade pulled out his notebook from his shirt pocket. “It’s the first shot fired in a cartel war. Garcia’s cartel knows Los Lobos is in town.” He pointed to the van. “They didn’t shoot Katie because this was a warning. If Los Lobos doesn’t get out of town, the next time there’s going to be bloodshed.”
“Damn...” Joe’s mind whirled with options. “Do we know for sure it’s Garcia’s men?”
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