She had prepared a chair with cinch straps to secure Rose in a comfortable seating position in the room. Once Rainhorse had her secured, he turned to Lindsay.
“How is Neha?”
“She is in her room, laying down,” Lindsay said. “She is calming down some.”
Rainhorse failed to anticipate an emotional outburst from Neha, though he fully understood it. The frustration and anger had been building in her. Her outward appearance of self-control had disappeared the moment she saw Rose.
“What time is it?” he asked.
“It’s one twenty-two in the morning, why?” responded Lindsay.
“Because in the envelope I left behind, I left instructions for Hank Rattling Thunder to call me at one-thirty. You watch Rose. I’m going to grab the phone and put the battery in place and wait for the call outside.”
“Take this,” Lindsay said, handing Rainhorse a handwritten piece of paper.
“What is this?” he asked.
“It’s a plan for tomorrow,” she said. “Neha and I have it all mapped out. You’ll need it when you talk to HRT.”
He looked at it and smiled at Lindsay, “Thank you. Be careful with Rose. She’s a real rattlesnake.”
“Don’t worry,” Lindsay said. “We’ll get along just fine. If she gives me any shit, I’ll turn her over to Neha.”
Rainhorse chuckled, “That would do the job. I’ll be back.”
Rainhorse walked out the front door, taking deep breaths, preparing himself for the call he knew would come. At one-twenty-nine, he placed the battery in the cell phone and turned it on. Less than thirty seconds later, the phone rang. The display read, CALLER UNKNOWN.
“This is Rattling Thunder, I presume,” Rainhorse began.
“You filthy Cheyenne sack of shit!” HRT screamed. “If you touch a hair on her head, I will light your balls on fire.”
He continued to wail obscenities and threats at the top of his lungs, demanding the immediate release of his daughter and threatening Rainhorse with all manner of torture. He used every obscenity and racial slur imaginable. The former Ranger listened for thirty seconds before interrupting.
“I’m hanging up,” he said, calmly. "You can call me back in ten minutes, if and only if, you are prepared to listen.”
“What?” HRT bellowed. “Don’t you even think about hanging up, you . . .”
Rainhorse hit the end button, and removed the battery again, knowing he was taking a calculated risk. The move could backfire and only make HRT angrier, but he needed to establish himself as the man in control. It would be he, not HRT, that set the tone of the conversation.
Exactly ten minutes later, Rainhorse placed the battery back in the phone and turned it on. It rang almost immediately.
“Don’t you dare touch a hair on her head,” he snapped in a controlled voice.
Rainhorse smiled at the concerned father’s attempt at restraint, “She has not been harmed and will not be, provided you play nice.”
“What do you want?” Hank Rattling Thunder said angrily.
“Listen very carefully,” Rainhorse ordered. “This call will not last long. You will not have time to triangulate the signal. I have Rose and I am prepared to kill her. You have already seen what I am capable of doing. You have Lona and I know you will kill her, too. I do not have a desire to hurt Rose. I just want Lona and the rest of the girls released—that’s it.”
“Bullshit!” HRT bellowed.
“Shut up and listen. Tomorrow at three o’clock in the afternoon, you will bring Lona, Ska and the other four girls you are holding to Wolf Point. Travel west on Blaine Street toward Town Pump Food Store.”
“That is where the farmer’s market is,” he interrupted. “There will be five hundred people there . . .”
“A thousand, I have read.”
“You’re crazy. I’m not doing that.”
“Yes, you are,” Rainhorse said, firmly. “Take west Blaine only. I will be watching. Across the street from Town Pump Food Store is a hardware store. Park in their parking lot and call this number. If you deviate from this instruction, Rose will be killed. That is all.”
“Please, do not hurt her,” HRT said, in an unexpected, vulnerable tone.
“You release Lona, Ska and the other girls unharmed, and I will hand over your daughter to you . . . also unharmed,” Rainhorse replied. “This I swear.”
“Wait!” screamed HRT, but Rainhorse had already disconnected the call. The phone began to ring again, almost immediately, but instead of answering it, he pulled the battery out.
“How did it go?” Neha said.
“How long have you been standing behind me?”
“Long enough,” she said. “Rainy, that was a dangerous game you were playing with my daughter’s life. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Rainhorse looked at Neha. Her expression was crestfallen. He literally felt much of the trust she had in him beginning to fade.
“This is a dangerous business,” he said. “I need you to trust me.”
Neha nodded, her expression still one of fear and disappointment, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“I understand,” he said. “I wish I could offer you assurances.”
She nodded, “I need to be alone tonight. I hope you do not mind.”
“Of course. I will move an extra chair into the room where Rose is. I will sleep there so I can keep an eye on her.”
“Thank you. I’m so tired, Rainy. I’m going to bed.”
He nodded. She turned and walked back into the house.
Rainhorse followed her to the door. He walked into the bedroom where Rose was. She was tied to the chair, still wearing the bag. Rainhorse checked the integrity of the cinches. Satisfied, he stood, and unzipped the bag and pulled it off.
She immediately spat at him again.
“Things are in motion,” he said, wiping saliva from his arm.
“You’ll never get away with this,” Rose snarled.
Rainhorse ignored her and dug into his back pocket and pulled out the leather-bound notebook he had taken from Rose’s purse earlier. His eyes widened as he began thumbing through it.
“I want to go back to an earlier discussion,” Rainhorse said. “What is this?”
Rose gasped and then tried to recover, “That’s . . . nothing. It’s personal. Just random notes I have made to . . .”
“Save it, Rose,” Rainhorse said. “I know exactly what this is. The question is, why does it exist? And why would you keep it with you?”
“You have no idea what that is . . .” she insisted.
“My guess is . . . it is insurance—leverage, perhaps?” Rainhorse said, ignoring her remark. “Not leverage against your father, though. It is leverage against . . . Apollo, right?”
Rose fell quiet. She flashed him a look, a combination of contempt, and something else, an emotion he couldn’t quite identify.
“Creating it was smart,” Rainhorse continued. “If the relationship between Apollo and your father ever goes sour, it would be great leverage for you. Or perhaps if your father unexpectedly turned up dead, the journal would have been your tool to stay in the game. I get why you did it.”
“Keep your friends close . . .” she said.
“And your enemies closer,” the Cheyenne finished. “I understand.”
“What do you intend to do with it?” she asked.
“You’ll see.”
“I see you know the concept of keeping your enemies close,” she said. “Does that mean, you intend to . . . keep me close?”
“You are as close as you will come,” he said.
He stood, slipping the notebook in his back pocket, and left the room. Lindsay was waiting on him.
“What was going on in there?” she asked, inquisitively.
“Just a little more . . . interrogation,” he responded.
“Neha is upset,” Lindsay said. “She is worried sick that this will not work.”
“I would be, too,” Rainhors
e responded. “Make no mistake about this Lindsay, this could end badly.”
“I know you won’t let that happen. I have faith in you. I’m going to bed.”
“Lindsay,” he said, causing her to pause, “I’ve read through your plan. It is amazing. If we are somehow able to pull this off, it will be because of you.”
“Neha and I worked on it togeth. . .”
“I know who did the work on this, Lindsay,” he interrupted. “Your fingerprints are all over this, metaphorically speaking. Thank you.”
She nodded, “Good night.”
Rainhorse walked outside to the front porch where he knew he would not be overheard. There was only one thing left to do before morning. He dialed Vernon Gill, who answered on the first ring.
“Do you have Rose?” he asked. “Are we on?”
“We are,” Rainhorse said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
______________________
“Holy crap!” cried out Ellie Limberhand into the cell phone.
“What is it?” Rainhorse replied, checking his watch. It was ten minutes before three o’clock.
“Two white vans just passed me, heading west on Blaine Street,” she said.
“Are the vans large enough to hold six girls?” Rainhorse asked.
“Yes, definitely, but that’s not the problem,” Ellie replied. “There are four full-sized pick-up trucks following the two white vans. Each of the pickups has four to five men each in it.”
“That is more than I expected,” Rainhorse relayed.
“Many of those men in the pickups are white men,” she replied.
“Apollo’s men,” Rainhorse affirmed. “Do you see Apollo?”
“Wait a minute,” she replied, scanning the vehicles with her binoculars. “Yes, I see Apollo. He is with Hank Rattling Thunder and Joey Takoda, driving the first truck following the vans.”
“I was expecting that. Perfect,” Rainhorse said.
“Perfect?” Ellie boomed. “Are you out of your mind.”
“This means that both Apollo and HRT have brought their entire force with them,” he observed. “They have thrown everything they have into this operation.”
“Why you think that is good news is beyond me,” Ellie said. “I hope to hell you know what you’re doing. You’re one crazy Indian.”
“And this surprises you . . . how?”
“Oh crap,” she said. “More bad news. Two of the four rear pickups broke off in different directions. One of them turned south and one has turned north.”
“What about the one with Apollo, HRT and Takoda?”
“It’s still following the two vans,” she concluded.
“Good,” Rainhorse replied. “I expected this as well. They are going to take positions to block all possible exits for us. That is a good sign.”
“Enlighten me,” Ellie said. “How is that a good sign?”
“It means that they intend to make the exchange,” Rainhorse said. “They want Rose back, safely. They intend to recapture the women as we try to get away.”
“And this is what you were hoping for?” she asked.
“Correct.”
"We did not plan for this Rainhorse," she explained.
"I did," he replied. “This means Apollo will have no more than eight to ten men actually with him at the exchange.”
"That still doesn’t explain why you think this is good news. How do you plan on getting us all away?"
"Trust me," he said.
Ellie sighed, “They will be in your line of sight in about three minutes. Do you have the binoculars I got for you?”
“I do.”
“Then good luck my friend.”
“It has never been about luck, Ellie. You know that.”
“All the same.”
Rainhorse hung up and turned to Rose, “We are near to the moment of truth,” he said. He pulled the bag completely off her head. She let out a war hoop and bit at him as he did so. She narrowly missed his little finger.
He raised his fist and glared at her. She took one look at the formidable size of his clenched hand and froze.
She looked at her surroundings. She appeared to be in an abandoned building. The floors were concrete; the ceiling and walls unfinished. There was lumber and building materials stacked about.
“Where are we?” Rose demanded to know.
Lindsay had identified the building as the best place to observe the arrival of Apollo and HRT. It was the third floor of an abandoned building near the farmer’s market, but he was not about to tell her where.
“We are in a secure place,” he said. “Your father and his scumbag friends will be pulling into the hardware store parking lot right about now. I will have a great view from here.”
“Where are your chicken shit bitches, Neha and the young girl?” she asked.
“In a very safe place,” he promised.
“My father will kill you,” she said.
“He may. It will not matter,” Rainhorse admitted. “My only concern at this point is getting Lona and the other girls back to their mothers.”
“You’re an idiot, Cheyenne,” she said. “Even if you make the exchange, they will have men all over town. You can’t get away.”
“I am guessing you are right,” he said.
“Then why . . . ?”
He pulled a bandanna and gagged her with it, before she could finish.
Rainhorse went to the window and used his binoculars to follow the course of the two vans and the truck following them into the hardware store parking lot. The business was closed, as it always was on Sundays. Since the store was close to the farmer’s market and the hardware store’s enormous parking lot was empty, many vendors parked their supply vehicles there. The vans pulled into the lot, past a forty-foot truck trailer, marked Ft. Peck Produce. It was quite common for vendors to ship in food for the farmer’s market. Another produce trailer was parked across from the first. He was worried the second produce trailer might obstruct his view of HRT’s truck or the vans. He let out a slight sigh of relief when it did not.
The cell phone rang. Rainhorse answered.
“We are here,” Rattling Thunder said.
“I know. I am watching.”
“Where are you?”
“You will see me soon enough,” Rainhorse said. “Send out Lona and Ska and the other girls. I want to see that they are alive and unharmed.”
“Send out Rose first,” HRT asked.
“Not a chance,” Rainhorse rebuked.
“Let me talk to her,” HRT demanded.
“Fair enough,” the former Ranger replied. “Hold on.”
He put the phone on mute and walked over to Rose, “I want you to speak to your father. Tell him you are unharmed. If you make an attempt to tell him where you are by describing your position I will crack your skull open. Listen to me, Rose. You are very close to escaping this predicament unscathed. If you think about it, the only thing this will cost your father is a one-month supply of girls to sell. Let us make this nice and easy. Do not blow it. Understood?”
Rose nodded. Rainhorse pulled the gag away from her mouth and unmuted the phone, putting on the speakerphone setting so he could hear both ends of the conversation."
“You may talk to her now,” Rainhorse said.
“Baby, are you all right?” HRT asked.
“Yes, I am fine,” Rose replied. “He has not harmed me. “Let’s just get this over with. I want to get out of here.”
“Hang in there, Rose,” HRT said. “It will all be over soon.”
Rainhorse pulled the gag back over her mouth and took the phone off speaker, “Enough talk. Now show me Lona, Ska and the other girls.”
“You do not hurt my little girl,” HRT warned.
“That is up to you,” Rainhorse said. “Show me.”
Rainhorse looked through his binoculars and saw HRT nodding to Takoda. Takoda put his hand on the handle of the side door of the first van. He opened it. Stepping out of the van first was
Ska Red Feather. She looked drugged and even more frail than he remembered but otherwise, ok. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Lona next.
It was the first time he’d ever seen Lona in person. He knew her only from pictures. She appeared thinner than he imagined, but otherwise did not look abused. The remaining girls stepped out of the van, all looking frightened and confused.
“Ok, Cheyenne, you’re calling all the shots,” HRT said. “What now?”
“Tell Lona, Ska and the other girls to all walk toward the farmer’s market at the Town Pump Food Store.”
“Bring me Rose first,” HRT demanded.
“No,” Rainhorse responded. “You let the girls go, and I will bring you Rose, unharmed.”
HRT chuckled, “Why would I believe you?”
“I came here to reunite Lona with her mother and set the other girls free,” the former Ranger said. “I have no other ulterior motive. I see Apollo is there with you. Can he hear me?”
“Yeah, I can hear you,” Apollo said. “We ain’t doin’ that.”
“I will sweeten the deal, then,” Rainhorse said. “This is a one-time offer. You let Lona and the other girls go and I will bring Rose to you unharmed. Plus, I will give you a bonus—I will give you what you really want.”
“A bonus, huh,” Apollo repeated. “What do you think I really want?”
“Me.”
There was a pause . . .
“You?”
“Yes. I will lay down my gun and turn myself over to you.”
“You would give yourself up?” Apollo questioned. "Why?"
"I am the one you really want," Rainhorse said. "I figure if I turn myself over to you, you might leave Neha and Lona alone. I want your word that once you have me, this is over. You will never bother Lona or Neha again."
"Why should I believe you?" Apollo asked.
“I will swear an oath on the spirits of my ancestors,” Rainhorse said. “If you release the young girls, I will bring Rose to you unharmed and I will lay down my weapon and turn myself over to you to do with me what you will. I will not resist.”
Apollo paused, looking at Rattling Thunder. Rainhorse could see him mulling things over. Finally, “I don’t know. I do want your Cheyenne ass, that’s for sure.”
Brotherhood Protectors: RAINHORSE (Kindle Worlds) Page 18
