Til Death Do Us Part

by Beverly Barton

  He helped her dismount and retrieve her supplies, then spread a blanket down for her to sit on. “I’m going to walk around awhile. I won’t go far and I’ll keep you in sight every minute.”

  “I know this must be boring for you,” she said.

  Leaning over, he took her face in his hands, drew her to him and kissed her soundly. “I’m never bored when I’m with you. But if I stay too close, I might distract you.”

  Smiling, she rubbed his nose with hers. “You just might.” He released her. “Go on off and explore.”

  J.T. climbed higher up the canyon, feeling as if when he reached the summit, he’d be able to touch the sky. He glanced down at Joanna, who was busy sketching.

  “Help! Somebody, please help us!” J.T. heard the loud cry. His heart raced. He recognized that voice. Eddie. Eddie Whitehorn.

  “Eddie?”

  “Help! Help!”

  “Where are you, Eddie?”

  “Down here!”

  “Where?”

  “J.T., is that you?”

  “Yes, Eddie, just keep talking and I’ll find you.”

  Within minutes, J.T. had located his young cousin. The boy sat at the bottom of a ravine, wedged between two steep sandstone formations. Eddie held a lamb in his arms.

  “Good God, boy, how did you get down there?” J.T. guessed the boy was a good eighteen to twenty feet down.

  “I came looking for a couple of the little lambs that got lost yesterday,” Eddie said. “Don’t tell Mama I got in trouble. She told me I couldn’t come out here by myself looking for them.”

  “How’d you get down there?” J.T. asked.

  “I climbed down here when I saw the lamb, but now, I can’t climb back up and carry the lamb with me. And…and I think…well, I hurt my leg. I think I sort of sprained it.”

  “Stay put,” J.T. said. “I’ve got to go tell Joanna. She can call your mother. I’m sure Kate is worried sick about you.”

  “No, J.T., don’t tell Mama.”

  J.T. called out to Joanna, who turned sharply and stared up at him. He waved at her, motioning for her to come to him. She laid down her sketch pad and pen, then stood and climbed up the hill.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  “Eddie’s down in that ravine over there,” J.T. told her. “He came out looking for a couple of lost lambs and found one, but he’s hurt his leg and can’t climb back up.”

  “Oh, my goodness. Kate will be terribly worried.”

  “Here.” J.T. pulled his cellular phone from his pocket and handed it to Joanna. “Give Kate a call and let her know Eddie’s all right and we’ll bring him home in a little while.” J.T. grasped Joanna’s wrist. “I’ve got to climb down the ravine and get him and the lamb. After you call Kate, go get my rifle and keep it with you until I come back up.”

  “Go get your… Surely you don’t think anything could happen to me in the few minutes it’ll take you to rescue Eddie.” Joanna caressed his cheek. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere, and Lenny Plott has no idea we’re on the Navajo reservation.”

  “I don’t believe in taking chances. Get the rifle. Pacify me, honey.”

  “Okay. I’ll call Kate and then I’ll get your rifle.”

  DANE CARMICHAEL FINISHED off the last bite of his ham-and-cheese sandwich, then washed it down with the strong coffee they served at the Trinidad Café. He wished to hell they could wrap up this case. He hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in over a week. Sooner or later Lenny Plott was going to come back to Trinidad, and Dane’s guess was it would be very soon. Since his attempt to kidnap Libby Felton had failed, and it would take him time to track down Claire Andrews again, his next likely target was Joanna Beaumont.

  Between his agents and the local and state authorities, they pretty much had Trinidad sealed off. He doubted a fly could sneak by without being caught in their trap.

  Just as Dane reached for his bill, one of his agents, Jim Travis, slipped into the booth across from him. “I need to talk to you, and I’d like what I tell you to be off the record, at least temporarily.”

  “What’s wrong?” Dane asked.

  “It’s about Eugene Willis.”

  “Yeah, what about Willis?”

  “He met a girl the first day we got in town and he’s been messing around with her. You know Willis. He’s a ladies’ man. He can’t leave ’em alone and they can’t leave him alone.”

  “The damned fool!” Dane wadded his bill in his fist. “Look, I don’t know why Willis hasn’t been dismissed before now, but if he messes up while under my command, he won’t get a second chance.”

  “Yeah, well, I tried to tell him that you weren’t anybody to mess around with, but… Hell, the guy went out to get us some breakfast this morning and he hasn’t come back. I figure he’s off somewhere with that girl, since he had—”

  “What time this morning?”

  “Around six-thirty.”

  Dane glanced at his wristwatch. “It’s twelve-thirty.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been trying to track him down, hoping I could find him before—”

  “I don’t want any explanations. You’re off this case, and so is Willis. As a matter of fact, both of you are history in the agency as far as I’m concerned.”

  JOANNA CLOSED J.T.’S cellular phone and slipped it into her shirt pocket, then walked over and removed J.T.’s Remington from its scabbard on Washington’s saddle. Although she was a fairly good shot with a handgun, she wasn’t accustomed to the feel of a rifle.

  She climbed back up the side of the canyon, looked down into the ravine and saw J.T. slowly, cautiously making his way toward Eddie.

  “I called Kate. She was half out of her mind with worry,” Joanna told J.T. “She’d already called several family members to have them search for Eddie.”

  “Did you get my rifle?” J.T. asked.

  She held up the Remington so he could see it. “I told Kate we’d bring Eddie right home.”

  J.T. chose his steps carefully, knowing how dangerous these steep ravines could be. Eddie was damned lucky that he hadn’t slipped and injured himself badly. A sprained ankle would mend soon enough.

  J.T. heard a distinct rattling. His heartbeat accelerated. Without moving or saying a word, he visually searched all around him, looking for the poisonous snake whose bite could prove deadly. And then he saw the rattler slithering across the tip of Eddie’s boot. The boy saw the snake, too; his face paled.

  “J.T.?”

  “Hush,” he warned. “Don’t talk. Don’t move.” J.T. slid his hand into his pocket, feeling around for his knife. Slipping the knife out of his pocket, he continued watching the snake as it curled around Eddie’s leg.

  Eddie swallowed. “J.T.!”

  “Shh.” He opened the knife.

  The lamb in Eddie’s arms nuzzled his nose against the boy’s side. Overhead an eagle soared. The snake crawled up Eddie’s leg and onto his arm.

  “What’s wrong?” Joanna called out as she hovered near the edge of the steep embankment. “What’s taking so long?”

  Tears welled up in Eddie’s brown eyes. J.T. gauged the distance. He was an expert shot, but his skills with a knife were rusty. If he missed, he could wind up stabbing Eddie.

  The rattler coiled to strike. Eddie cried out. J.T. hurled the knife through the air. The blade sliced through the snake. Eddie dropped the lamb and clutched his arm. J.T. ran over, lifted the snake by the knife handle and flung its limp body against the canyon wall.

  “Did it bite you?” J.T. jerked Eddie’s hand away from his arm. “Damn!”

  “Am I going to die?” Eddie’s bottom lip quivered. Tears trickled down his dusty cheeks.

  “No, you aren’t going to die,” J.T. said. “But we’ll have to move fast and get you a shot to counteract the snake’s venom. We’ll have to leave the lamb down here, but I’ll get someone to come back and get him.”

  “You promise.”

  J.T. nodded. “Come on, Eddie—” J.T. squatted “—
crawl on my back.”

  Eddie obeyed J.T.’s command.

  “Joanna!” J.T. called out to her. “What’s wrong?”

  “A rattlesnake bit Eddie. Get on the phone and call Kate, tell her to contact the clinic and have them send out some antivenom for a rattlesnake bite, then go get our horses ready!”

  Joanna stuck the rifle under her arm, the barrel pointed to the ground. She pulled the cellular phone from her pocket. Her hands trembled so badly when she tried to dial the phone that she dropped it on the ground. When she bent over to pick it up, she heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. Standing, she gazed off into the distance and saw a cloud of red dust rising in the air, then clearing as a gray sedan came to a screeching halt a few yards away from where they’d tethered the horses. Playtime whinnied. When a tall dark-haired man in a suit got out of the car, Washington rose on his hind legs, then lowered his front hooves and pawed the ground.

  “J.T.!” Joanna cried. “Somebody’s here. A man with a black mustache, driving a gray car.”

  “Keep the rifle on him until I get up there,” J.T. told her.

  The man waved at Joanna. She slipped the phone back in her pocket and pointed the rifle at him.

  “Don’t shoot, ma’am, I’m an FBI agent. My name’s Eugene Willis.” He kept walking toward Joanna. “If you’ll let me, I can show you my identification.”

  “Who sent you?” Joanna asked.

  “Dane Carmichael. You are Joanna Beaumont, aren’t you?”

  “I might be.”

  “Well, if you are, I’ve got some good news for you.”

  “Don’t come any closer. Just get out your ID, and do it very slowly.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Willis very cautiously pulled out his ID and held it up for Joanna to see, then took several more steps in her direction.

  The sun glinted off the agent’s ID. Joanna blinked. “What sort of news do you have?”

  “We’ve apprehended Lenny Plott. He was taken into custody earlier today and Carmichael sent me out here personally to tell you.”

  Joanna let out a deep breath. “Thank God. Look Mr.—”

  “Willis, ma’am. Eugene Willis.”

  “Mr. Willis, we have a young boy down in a ravine over there. He’s been bitten by a rattlesnake.”

  “I’ll do what I can to help. We can use my car.”

  “Thank you.” She turned sideways and called out to J.T. “The FBI have captured Lenny Plott. This man’s an agent named Eugene Willis. He can drive us back to Kate’s.” Joanna lowered the rifle, resting it against her hip, as she pulled the phone out of her shirt pocket and began dialing Kate’s number with her thumb.

  Willis jerked the rifle away from Joanna, whirled her around and slid the barrel under her neck as he dragged her back up against his chest.

  “Drop the phone,” he told her, “or I’ll break your neck.”

  DANE CARMICHAEL STORMED into the Trinidad police station. “What’s so damned urgent it couldn’t wait?”

  “A city worker found a body in one of the Dumpster trash containers about an hour ago,” Police Chief McMillian said.

  “Don’t keep me in suspense,” Dane said. “I take it the identity of this body will have some significance to me.”

  “Yeah, if he’s who we think he is. He didn’t have any type of identification on him. His wallet was missing. But we did find a motel key.”

  “A motel key?”

  “Yeah. And since Trinidad only has two motels, it wasn’t hard to trace the key. Seems the key is from the Tumbleweed and the room was registered to one of your agents.”

  “Let me guess. Eugene Willis?”

  “Yep.”

  “You need me to identify the body?” Dane asked.

  “Yep.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “TELL BLACKWOOD THAT you’re all right.” The man pressed the rifle harder against her throat. “If you don’t, I’ll shoot him and the boy the minute they’re in sight.”

  He brought the rifle outward, a half inch from her neck. Joanna gasped for air. Her throat ached. She licked her lips. Dammit! How could she have been so stupid?

  “Joanna!” J.T. bellowed from below. “What the hell’s going on?”

  “Don’t do anything you’ll regret,” her captor warned. “I really don’t want to hurt any innocent people. I came for you, not your protector or that child.”

  “Nothing’s wrong.” Joanna’s voice quivered. “I’m just overcome with…with the news about Plott.”

  “Good girl,” the man whispered in her ear. “Now, you and I are going to leave and take a ride. If we hurry, we won’t have to involve Blackwood and the little boy.”

  Joanna nodded agreement, not resisting, not putting up a fight of any kind. When J.T. surfaced with Eddie, he would be unarmed. He and Eddie would be sitting ducks.

  Lenny Plott, disguised as an FBI agent! And she hadn’t recognized him. Not with black hair, a thick mustache and sunglasses shading his eyes. Not when she hadn’t been expecting him. She’d thought she was safe, hidden away on the reservation. How how Plott found them? Who had given away their location?

  The cellular phone Joanna clutched in her hand rang. Plott braced the rifle under his arm, grabbed the phone away from her, then clasped her wrist, jerking her up against him. The two of them stared at the ringing telephone.

  Plott flipped open the telephone. “Yeah?” He placed it to Joanna’s ear.

  “J.T.?” Joseph Ornelas said. “Listen, Plott killed an FBI agent and assumed his identity. Eugene Willis. Plott’s wearing a black wig and mustache and he knows Joanna is on the reservation. Don’t let her out of your sight. Dane Carmichael is taking a helicopter from Trinidad, and I’m on my way.”

  Lenny jerked the phone away from Joanna’s ear, punched the off button and then the power button. “We’d better get going.”

  He dragged her to the car, opened the door and shoved her inside. “Stay put if you want to live just a little longer, and if you don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

  She heard J.T. frantically calling her name. He knew something wasn’t right. By the time he brought Eddie up out of the ravine, J.T. would be half out of his mind with worry. And when he discovered that she and the “FBI agent” were gone, he would know what had happened.

  Plott unlocked the trunk, tossed J.T.’s rifle and phone inside and then removed Eugene Willis’s 9-mm from the shoulder holster. Opening the driver’s-side door, Plott got in the car and started the engine.

  “I didn’t think it would be this easy.” He backed the car up, turned and headed away from Painted Canyon. “I figured I’d have to kill Blackwood to get to you or maybe kill you both from a distance. But that wouldn’t have been any fun for us, would it, baby doll?”

  The sound of the endearment on his lips chilled her. The night Plott had raped her, he’d called her “baby doll” over and over again. Her stomach churned. Salty bile rose in her throat. Holding her hands in her lap, she knotted them into tight fists. She had to go with him. She had to protect J.T. and Eddie. But no matter where he took her or what he tried to do to her, she was not going to let him win. Even if he killed her, she was going to put up the fight of her life.

  And all the while Plott drove her farther and farther away from Painted Canyon, she kept praying that J.T. would save Eddie and then come after her—and find her before it was too late.

  AS J.T. BROUGHT Eddie up from the ravine, fear ate away at his gut. Joanna wasn’t answering him, and he’d heard a car engine roar to life. Cautiously, J.T. peered upward, scanning the area before showing himself. In the distance a cloud of thick dust swirled in the air. He swallowed hard. Whoever had approached Joanna, wasn’t an FBI agent.

  “Where’s Joanna?” Eddie asked. “Did she call my mama?”

  “No, Eddie, I don’t think she got a chance to call Kate.”

  “Where’d she go?”

  “She went with the…the FBI agent.”

  What the hell was he going to do? He ha
d a dying child in his arms. If Eddie didn’t get an antivenom injection soon, he wouldn’t make it. But if J.T. allowed Plott much of a head start, he knew he might not get to Joanna in time to save her.

  J.T. carried Eddie to the horses, mounted Washington, and pulled his young cousin around to sit in front of him. When J.T. motioned the big Appaloosa into a full gallop, Playtime followed. The sun burned hot and bright in the western sky. Dust swirled about the horses’ legs.

  He could not—would not—let himself think about what was happening to Joanna or how she must be feeling. If he thought about it, he’d go crazy. He knew what he had to do—what Joanna would expect him to do.

  While riding as if the demons of hell were on his heels, J.T. bargained with the Almighty. Keep her safe until I can find her, and I’ll do everything I can to be the man she wants and needs. Don’t let anything happen to her. Please. I haven’t even told her that I love her.

  HE WAS LOST! Dammit to hell, this godforsaken country had tricked him. Everything looked the same. Every damn little dirt road. Every mesa. Every canyon. Every stupid shrub and bush.

  Wide-open space. Never-ending sky. And a car with less than a quarter of a tank of gas. He had to take Joanna somewhere undercover and finish her off before finding his way out of this Indian hellhole. If he wasted too much more time trying to find the road he’d come in on, he’d run out of gas and Blackwood would have gathered his forces and come after him.

  Lenny took the road to the left, slowing the car as he turned. Joanna grabbed the door handle and swung open the door. He reached for her, but she jumped out just as he clutched a handful of her shirt. The soft cotton material ripped right off her back.

  Joanna fell onto the ground, knocking off her hat and momentarily stunning her as she rolled over and over. Breathless, she rose to her knees.

  Plott slammed on the brakes. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered. He flung open the car door and stomped around the hood. He lifted the black wig off his head and hurled it to the ground, revealing the thin, matted strands of his silver-blond hair.