by David Archer
He went back to the kitchen. “Those are some nice pieces,” he said. “If you can point me in the right direction, maybe I can get you a couple of those turkeys this afternoon.”
“That would be great,” Gabriella said with a big smile. “I would love to roast one this weekend. There’s just something about wild turkey, I love it.”
The range beeped, signaling that the oven was ready, and Chance slid the pizzas inside. He set the timer the way the instructions had told him, then poured himself another cup of coffee and sat at the table.
Chance and Gabriella made small talk while they waited for the timer to go off, and then the pizzas were done. Gabriella got up and limped to the counter to get the pizzas, then called the boys and the two old ladies to come and get their plates. Pizza was one of those things that could be eaten in the living room, and the boys were ecstatic because they were in the middle of a movie they didn’t want to stop watching.
Chance and Gabriella ate at the table, and the conversation turned to dreams of the future. Gabriella hoped to keep the ranch running until the boys were old enough to start doing the work, but she worried about being able to keep it up all by herself. “It’s a lot of work,” she said. “And I can’t always find somebody to help. You are a godsend, if you want to ask me. I think God sent you my direction.”
Chance barely managed to keep a grin on his face, but there was a battle going on inside him. He couldn’t figure out why, but the thought of killing her was becoming more and more difficult to entertain.
“Well,” he said. “I don’t know about all that, but let me see what I can do about getting you some turkey.” He got up and walked into the living room, then removed the shotgun and a box of shells from the gun cabinet. Little Tommy looked up at him and smiled as he turned around and walked out of the room, but the TV was obviously more important.
“Before I go,” Chance said, “where do you think I might find some of these birds? Is there somewhere close by, or do I need you to drive me?”
“You’ll probably find quite a few of them about a half mile up the draw. I might’ve accidentally spilled a few bags of corn up that way, so they tend to hang out there fairly often.”
Chance grinned. “Accidentally, huh? The game wardens say anything about baiting?”
“Not yet,” she said. “To be honest, the only one we got around here seems to think that letting me get away with a few things might improve his chances of talking me into going out to dinner with him. I suppose I’m going to have to give in at some point, but he really isn’t my type.” She chuckled. “Good luck, and try to be back by six. That’s when I like to make dinner.”
“No problem,” he said. “6 o’clock it is.”
Chance stepped out the back door and made a quick stop in his room off the porch. He dug down in his duffel bag and found his cell phone, slipped it into his pocket and headed out, walking past the barn to go up to the draw as she had indicated.
He hadn’t gone far before he was grateful for the boots. While it wasn’t a terribly long walk, it would have been a lot rougher had it not been for the thick soles that protected his feet. It was already after one o’clock, but he still took his time strolling toward the sparsely wooded area, trying his best not to make any noise.
Ten minutes later, he found a spot that seemed safely isolated. He stopped and took out his cell phone, then was pleased to see that it had three bars when he powered it on. He dialed Oscar’s number and put the phone to his ear.
“Hello,” Oscar said as he answered. “Señor Reddick?”
“Yeah, it’s me, Oscar,” Chance said. “I wanted to let you know that I found her, and I’m working on the problem. Anything new on your end?”
“No. Why would there be anything new?” Oscar asked.
Chance hesitated for a moment, then decided to take a risk. “Oscar, you said you knew Benito, right? Is there any possibility he didn’t steal that money?”
There was silence on the end of the line for several seconds, and then Oscar began to speak. “Señor Reddick, do not believe what Gabriella may tell you. Benito stole the money, and he killed two men while he did it. He never admitted to stealing it, and he never told anyone where it was hidden, so it is possible she does not know. However, she has gone to the trouble of changing her name and hiding, so that means she must know something about it.”
Listen, Oscar,” Chance said, “she actually brought this whole thing up to me. According to her, someone from the Zetas used to come out here and talk to Benito about the money. She said he always insisted he didn’t know anything about it, and that if she could only find it, she would give it back.”
“What else would you expect her to say?” Oscar asked. “Does she know that you were sent by Señor Baldizon?”
“Not as far as I can tell,” Chance replied. “She thinks I’m just a stranger she picked up hitchhiking, and she brought it up just to make conversation. Oscar, who was it that used to come out here and talk to Benito?”
The line was silent again for a few more seconds. “Señor Reddick,” Oscar said at last, “if you do not believe she can lead you to the money, then there is no reason for you to remain. Do what you were sent to do, and then come back. Señor Baldizon will be most grateful, and that is how you want him to be.”
Chance laughed. “Yeah, I can read the veiled threat between the lines. You’re trying to tell me that if I don’t kill her, then Mr. Baldizon is not going to be happy with me at all, right? Don’t worry, I figured that out all on my own. I’ll do what I have to do, I just wanted to try to make some sense out of all of this. I’ll give you a call tomorrow, and let you know what’s going on.”
“Call me tomorrow, yes,” Oscar said. “But call me to tell me that it is done.” The line went dead, and Chance put his phone back into his pocket.
Well, he hadn’t learned anything new. As he had suspected, failing to kill Gabriella would probably put his own head on the chopping block. From what he knew about the Zetas, they did not accept failure. He stood where he was for a moment, just thinking about whether he had any other options, and then started walking again.
He heard the turkeys long before he saw them, and was surprised when he came around the bend and found seven of them pecking away at a small pile of corn. A couple of them glanced his way, but showed absolutely no sign of fear. He raised the shotgun to his shoulder and took aim, squeezed the trigger and watched the first bird flop over.
He worked in the action quickly, chambering another shell and leveling the gun to aim at a second bird. A couple of them had actually taken flight, but the rest were simply standing there, looking at their flopping comrade. He fired again, and pure luck caused a third turkey to step just behind the second at the exact moment when he fired. The blast took the heads off both of them, and there were three birds waiting to be gathered.
Plucking and cleaning them didn’t take very long. His grandfather had taught him years before that the best way to clean a game bird was to simply skin it. Almost all of the feathers would come off with the skin, and the process got rid of a lot of the fat, as well. Once that was done, he gutted and cleaned them.
He picked them up by their feet, and then kicked himself for not bringing along some twine. He could’ve tied their feet together and slung them around his neck, but now he was forced to simply carry them by hand. He walked slowly back toward the ranch house, pleased that he’d gotten three of them, but with his mind still wrestling with questions after his conversation with Oscar.
TWENTY-TWO
Back at the house, he took all three of the birds into the kitchen to wash them out. Gabriella, still sitting at the table, looked up in surprise as he entered.
“My goodness,” she said, “you got three of them?”
“Yep,” he replied. “Silly things just stood there while I shot them. I get the impression they don’t see a lot of hunters.”
“Well, not since Benny died,” Gabriella said. “I put the corn out a few days
ago, and I was planning to try to shoot one, but I’ve never actually used the shotgun before. See? This is just another case of you being here at the right time.”
Her smile could’ve lit up a dark room, and Chance had to turn away from it. Every time he looked at her, now, he thought about having to kill her, and that thought was becoming harder and harder to bear.
“What are you doing?” she asked, as he started washing out the birds.
“I’m just cleaning them out. I figured on freezing them, but it’s actually early enough that we could pop one in the oven if you wanted. Would you like that?”
“Yes, definitely,” she said. “The roasting pan is down where you got the pizza pans. If you get it out, I’ll get started on some stuffing.”
“That sounds like a plan,” he said. He got out the roasting pan while she hobbled to the counter and sat on a stool.
“Would you mind,” she asked, “getting me the bread, and the celery out of the refrigerator?”
Chance grabbed what she asked for and brought it to her while she reached up into a cabinet and pulled down a number of spices. She took a large bowl out of the dish strainer and started mashing up the bread in it, then began chopping up the celery stalks.
“Anything I can do to help?” Chance asked.
“Set the oven to four hundred,” Gabriella said, “and look in the pantry for the aluminum foil. You can wrap up two of the turkeys and put them in the freezer, these are big enough that one should be plenty.”
“No problem,” he said. He found the foil and wrapped up two of the birds, carried them out and spent a couple of minutes rearranging the freezer to make them fit inside. When he came back, she was shoving stuffing inside the one that was about to become dinner.
Chance helped out where he could in preparing the meal and setting the table. It would still be several hours before it was ready, so he decided to go out to the barn and look at some of the necessary repairs. If nothing else, he figured, it would give him a little more time to think about what he had gotten himself into.
Thinking didn’t solve his problems, though. He worked until Gabriella sent Tommy out to tell him that the turkey was done, and dinner was about to be served.
“That smells absolutely fantastic,” he said as he entered the kitchen.
“Thank you,” Gabriella said. “We wouldn’t have it if it weren’t for you. And speaking of smells, you probably need to go clean up. I think you might’ve stepped in something out there in the barn.”
Chance chuckled, then turned and went back to his room. A quick shower and a change of clothes later, and he came back to the kitchen.
Carmelita and Juanita were gone, and the boys were sitting at the table, where the turkey was holding center stage. Chance took the same chair he’d used the night before, just to the right of Gabriella, and sat quietly while she and the boys said their blessing. Afterward, Gabriella asked him to do the honors and carve the turkey, and he had a brief moment when he felt like his grandfather. It had always been Grandpa who had carved the turkey on Thanksgiving, and Chance had always wondered what it would be like to be the Man In Charge of such a meal.
An hour later, all of them stuffed to the gills, Gabriella covered the turkey and shoved it into the refrigerator. It barely fit, but she managed, and then she invited Chance to join them in the living room.
The quiet evening in front of the TV was quite a change from what he had been doing recently, and he meant to enjoy every minute of it he could before he was forced to face reality again. At eight o’clock the boys got up, said good night and went off to bed without any coaxing whatsoever. That brought back memories of his own peaceful childhood when his parents almost always had to chase him and his little sister to bed.
Unfortunately, those memories brought back more recent ones. He thought back to the grief that still welled up whenever he thought of Robin.
Growing restless, he got up and made a pot of coffee, which he brought out to the coffee table within easy reach of his employer. They sat there drinking coffee and watching television till eleven.
Gabriella stifled a yawn. “It’s time I went to bed,” she said. “I don’t usually stay up this late.” She put down another yawn and was ready to stand up when Chance came over and once again picked her up in his arms and carried her upstairs.
“You can walk tomorrow if your ankle is better, but for tonight, I’d prefer that you didn’t.” He took her to her room, set her down on the bed and then abruptly turned and left, closing the door behind him.
Standing outside the bedroom for a couple of minutes, he fought to control the jumbled confusion that had been triggered within him. He walked down the stairs and dumped out the leftover coffee, then rinsed out the pot and set it back on the coffee maker. He went back to his room and shut his door, then stripped down and got into bed.
For the next few days, Chance worked harder than he ever had before, usually going back out after supper till late in the evening and then, totally exhausted, he went straight to sleep. Even after Gabriella repeatedly complained that he was working too hard, he kept going. This was the only way he could control the emotions that were trying to twist him into knots.
At last, though, it was Saturday, and Gabriella, Tommy, and Andy would not leave him alone until he agreed to come into town with them on Sunday. He had tried to convince them that he just wanted to loaf around his room, but they insisted that he deserved the day off and begged him to come along. Finally, he agreed to go with them, even though he had planned a special assignment for himself while they were gone.
That night, after the boys had gone to bed, Gabriella and Chance sat on the couch watching television. An uneasy feeling began to grow inside him, and even though he wanted to move from the sofa to the chair, he did not do so for fear that Gabriella might think he was being rude.
“Would you like a drink?” she asked, cutting into his thoughts.
“Sure.” Chance wasn’t much of a drinker, but after the stress that he’d been dealing with, he figured something to cut the edge might not hurt.
“What would you like? We’ve got a fully stocked bar, or there’s beer.”
“I think a bottle of beer would be fine, please,” he said.
He had turned to look at her when he answered, and that had been a mistake. No matter how he tried to deny it, the truth was that Chance found Gabriella extremely attractive, and even worse, he was beginning to think she was one of the most wonderful women he had ever met. He averted his eyes instantly, giving himself a silent reminder that he was going to be forced to kill her before it was over. There was absolutely no hope for any happy endings.
Returning with the drinks, she said, “I had an interesting thought a while ago. Do you realize that we never talked about how much I’m going to pay you?”
“That’s okay,” he cut in, keeping his eyes glued to the tube. “I’m sure whatever you decide to pay me will be fair.”
“Don’t you even want to know how much?” She sat down on the couch, but Chance noticed that she was a lot closer than she had been before the boys went upstairs. Her left hand, holding her drink, was on the back of the couch. It wasn’t more than a few inches from his shoulder.
“Like I said, I’m sure you’ll pay me whatever you think my work is worth. That’s good enough for me.”
“Okay,” she said with a smile, “if that’s the way you want it. I was thinking in the neighborhood of fifty dollars a month.” She looked at him with a smirk, but he kept his eyes averted.
“Fine.”
She scoffed. “Oh, come on now. I was only joking. Do you mean that after only five days here, you can’t even take a joke anymore?”
“No. It’s not that. My mind was just elsewhere. I’m sorry.”
“That’s all right,” she said. “It’s just that you’ve been working such long hours, I thought you could use a few laughs.” She took a sip from her drink and just looked at him.
“Just a lot on my mind,” Chance
said. “I’m sorry if it comes off as being rude.”
Gabriella scooted a little bit closer. “The thing is, Chance, I’ve never met anyone like you before. You’re so kind, polite and helpful. After literally meeting you on the side of the road, those were about the last qualities that I expected. On top of that, not one of the men that have worked here before ever worked as hard or such long hours. It makes it seem like there’s something special about you.”
“Now don’t go putting me on any pedestal,” he said. “I’m only human. I felt like working, so I worked. When I don’t feel like working, I usually don’t, which isn’t often.”
The gruffness in his voice made her back off just a little bit, but she wasn’t ready to give up completely. “Are you going to come to church with us tomorrow morning? I’m certain the boys would love it if you do.”
“No,” he replied flatly. “It’s not that I don’t believe in God, but I just—I really don’t feel like church is a place I need to be, right now.” He took a swig of his beer, then leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “Like I said, I don’t mean to be rude. There are just things about me that you don’t know, things that would make me feel pretty uncomfortable in a church.” Especially sitting next to you, he added mentally.
“Okay, I won’t push,” she said. “Would you like another beer?” she asked, seeing his empty bottle.
Chance thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Please.”
She took the empty and walked into the kitchen, returning a moment later with another bottle. As she handed him the refill, he could feel her eyes looking at him, but he dared not turn his head away from the coffee table in front of him. It was almost as if he had a premonition of what would happen if he did.
“Chance? Is there something wrong? Have I done something to upset you?” she asked.
