True-Blue Texas Cowboy

by Janalyn Knight

  Cody continued. "Here's what I want to know, Burke. I think somebody put you up to this, mainly because if you were stupid enough to do something like this, you'd a done it a long time ago. Then there's all that cash we found on you. Who paid you to kill Lee?"

  Burke sat still, his head down.

  "You're going down, Burke. It's up to you to decide how low you want to go. We've got drugs, tracks, your rifle, shells, bullets, and it's just a matter of time until we find that truck. On top of that, Lee saw you run her off the road—eye witness testimony to attempted murder. You're done. You may as well try and make it easier on yourself."

  "What's on the table?"

  "You remember Jenna, our County Attorney. She looks favorably on helpful perps. I'm sure she'll make you a deal. Now, come on. Tell me who hired you."

  Two things happened at the same time. Burke opened his mouth to talk, and Lee's cell phone rang. While Burke spoke, she answered her call. "Hello?"

  A voice whispered, "Mrs. Granger, this is Rachel. Julie's missing. Julie Trevino. She didn't show up for work in the garden, and I can't find her anywhere. I've been worried sick but I couldn’t get to a phone until now."

  Lee said, "Rachel, tell me what she looks like."

  "She's pretty, Hispanic, with long, dark hair."

  "We'll come tonight. Hang up, and don't let anyone see you."

  After the call, Lee quickly filled Jesse in, and he told her what Burke had said about Kenneth Hale. She tapped on the glass. Cody excused himself and came out the door, frowning. "What is it?"

  "I'm sorry, but I just got a call from my informant. Another girl's gone missing today at the compound. We've got to go out there. Surely with what that bastard just told you about who hired him, we've got enough cause for a search warrant?"

  Cody nodded. "We do." He walked back in and picked up his recorder and file, telling Burke they'd continue in the morning. Rejoining them in the hall, he said, "I'll call the judge."

  Touching Cody's arm, she said, "I'm going with you."

  At the same time, he and Jesse said, "You will not!"

  She fired right back, "Cody, you have what, one deputy and two part-timers? I've got more experience than all of them combined. Jesse's a good shot, probably as experienced as those guys are, and he's licensed to carry. Theron's got his bunch of goons out there. You don't know what you're walking into. It's stupid not to bring help with you."

  Taking a deep breath, she said, "Give me and Jesse a vest. You can't wait while you call in the other counties. We've got to go now. You saw Jessica's body—how many cuts she had. This girl could die any minute—every second we waste could be her last. Cody, you know I'm right."

  He grunted. "Dammit, Lee. Come on, then. I'll call the judge and have Sonny work on the warrant. He can bring it with him. Let's go."

  Her head started to pound as they walked down the hall. She excused herself to the ladies' room and, drinking from the faucet, downed four aspirins. Dammit! Why did this have to happen today?

  She headed to the war room, and Cody issued both her and Jesse vests and gave her a hand gun. Jesse had his in the truck. Cody pulled a lock-picking gun out of the drawer, grabbed some huge bolt cutters off the wall, and picked up his shotgun before they headed out.

  They rode in Cody's car, with the siren silent to within a half mile of the compound entrance. He turned off his headlights and drove nearer the gate. A bend in the road shielded them from view, and he parked well down in the grass.

  Their plan was to cut the fence, go in and disable the guard before he could alert anyone. After that, they'd open the gate and drive in a ways before continuing on foot.

  In the darkness, and with the scrub brush and mesquite trees all around the gate, they didn't have much trouble approaching the guard. The guard house was nearing completion, but he still sat in his truck.

  While Cody walked in front of the truck and engaged the guard's attention, Jesse whipped open the door and dragged him out on the ground, kicking him in the head and knocking him out. Cody used plastic hand cuffs on his wrists, cuffing them behind his back, and on his ankles.

  Jesse took the guard’s keys and phone before grabbing the gate clicker and opening the gate. They jogged back toward the car.

  Once inside the compound, they drove to within two hundred yards of the main hall and parked behind a building. Small oak trees screened them from view.

  The warrant was taking longer than expected. Considering the imminent danger to the missing girl, they couldn't wait for it. Cody quietly called Sonny and told him that they were going ahead to the garage before his arrival.

  Cody looked at her, then at Jesse. "You two stay behind me. I'm point. Lee, you're next—I trust your judgement. And, let's not get in each other's line of fire. Any questions?" They shook their heads.

  Perimeter guards patrolled the grounds at night, and others may be up and around as well.

  They headed for the garage. Cody moved from one source of cover to the next, while she and Jesse followed.

  They approached the building from the back and sunk into the cover of wild persimmon bushes. No vehicles were parked at the garage, but that was expected. Cody motioned for them to stay put and eased his way to the wide garage doors at the front. There was a street door between the automatic doors.

  After a couple of minutes, he peered around the corner and waved them over. The smaller door was open and, Cody first, they entered the building.

  Cody had his flashlight on, and they stood still, adjusting their vision. Moonlight came in through four small windows.

  Motioning for them to stay behind, Cody walked slowly around the cluttered space. He was looking for a subterranean entrance or another door leading down to a basement.

  At the back wall, what appeared to be a large closet and also a second door, showed in the beam of the flashlight. This door must be the way down below. Cody clicked the lock gun. It sounded loud in the stillness. He tried to turn the knob with each snap.

  He looked over his shoulder, nodding. Pointing to her, then Jesse, he eased the door open. A light shone from the basement, and voices and classical music rose up from below. They'd found them.

  The steep wooden stairs led straight down, with only about three feet of room between the last step and the concrete wall.

  Cody descended three steps, bent way down and looked to his right. He pointed in that direction and continued down three more steps and looked again. Lee came right behind him.

  Cody reached the bottom floor and she stopped just above him.

  She pressed her lips together to stifle a gasp as she looked to her right. Julie Trevino hung from her wrists on a hook and pulley system in the ceiling, naked, gagged, and bleeding from a multitude of wounds. Her eyes were closed, and Lee couldn't tell if she was breathing.

  Rubek and Hale had their backs to them and were studying Julie like she was some kind of science project. They both held knives and were wet with Julie's blood. Rubek's knife hand rested on his hip. Hale's arms were crossed.

  It was all Lee could do to stop her hand from reaching for her gun and plugging those two bastards in the back of the head.

  Cody nodded and stepped forward. At the same time, Rubek jabbed Julie with his finger deep inside a huge stomach wound. She recoiled and screamed through her gag, throwing her head back in excruciating pain. Hale laughed, and Rubek prepared to make another cut.

  Cody shouted, "Drop it! Hands up, and back away!"

  Hale screamed, dropped his knife, and ran backward, slamming into a table with more knives and other terrible implements, knocking it over and falling in a heap.

  Rubek swung Julie around, holding her in front of him and sliding his knife, point up, under her chin. "No, you drop it, Sheriff, and get out of here. You don't want this pretty little thing to die. Leave, now, or I'll ram this blade through her eyeballs."

  Lee glanced behind her. In the ruckus, Jesse had gone back upstairs. She couldn't imagine why. Then, out of the corner of
her eye, his arm appeared. He had a handful of something. She figured he was going to give her a distraction.

  She'd only have a second. Lining a bead on Rubek, she nodded.

  Jesse's hand flashed and steel ball bearings scattered across the floor.

  Rubek jerked his gaze away, and she slammed a bullet into his temple. The knife fell with him.

  Hale screamed and scrambled around on the floor.

  Cody was on him and cuffing him as she strode over to the girl hanging from the ceiling.

  Jesse joined her.

  She avoided looking at Rubek and his blown apart head and spent her energy consoling Julie, who was weak and hysterical.

  Jesse released the pulley and lowered the girl into Lee's waiting arms. They gently laid her on the floor, away from the shower pan the bastards had used to contain the blood she'd lost.

  Cody had already called an ambulance and dragged that asshole Hale up the steps. Sonny was finally heading their way with the warrant. It was going to take a while for the EMTs to arrive.

  In the meantime, though a little nauseous by the smell of gunpowder and fresh blood, she took her shirt off and tore it in two. Jesse helped hold half of it pressed tightly over the top of the big wound in Julie's abdomen. Lee tied the other half over a heavily bleeding wound in Julie’s thigh.

  After giving Lee his shirt, Jesse went upstairs to help with Hale while Cody organized his approaching team.

  With Julie in her lap, Lee held pressure on the girl’s wound and carried on a sing song message in her ear. "Hang in there, baby, you'll be okay. Rachel told me where you were. She missed you today. Rachel cares about you and so do I, so you've got to stay with me, baby. Stay with me. The ambulance will be here in just a minute. They'll fix you up, and you'll be right as rain. Don't you worry about a thing."

  She continued talking to Julie, keeping her awake as the seconds and minutes ticked by. Jesse came back down. It felt like hours, but she knew it hadn't been, when the ambulance wailed outside.

  Lee couldn't help but think how strange it was that no one, absolutely no one, had come to see what was happening. They were on the other side of the compound from the housing area, but really, they hadn't been quiet. Had Theron told his goons to stay away from the garage? It made her realize the power he wielded here.

  Her t-shirt remnants were saturated and unrecognizable when the medics arrived. They looked a little green when they saw the amount of blood in the tray.

  Because the turn was so steep at the bottom of the stairs, Jesse helped the EMTs carry Julie up to the garage without the gurney. The medic was already starting her IV when they shut the back door on the ambulance.

  "Come on, baby," Lee prayed, "be strong. Hang in there a little while longer."

  Rather than have Lee and Jesse wait for all the hoopla to be over, Cody asked one of the deputies to take them home. They could get Jesse’s truck tomorrow. But, first, Lee needed to speak to Cody.

  She headed over and shook his hand. "Thanks for coming in without waiting for the warrant tonight, Cody. You're one hell of a sheriff. I'll come by and help you fill out the reports in the morning sometime. I'll call you first, okay?" They had both shot Rubek. Cody had hit him in the shoulder.

  Cody pulled her into a hug, nodding. "You get some rest, Lee. Don't forget I'm still sheriff. I can run you in and make you sleep in a cell if I have to."

  She grinned. "Duly noted, Sheriff."

  On the ride home, she dozed in the car, feeling every ache and pain in her body. Her head throbbed again, too.

  When they got home, Jesse started her bath then put on the same shorts he'd worn the previous night. He led her back to the bedroom and undressed her, just like before.

  Sighing, she said, "Hey, this is getting to be a habit, cowboy."

  "Yeah? Well, it's one I happen to like, just not the circumstances that precede it. Let me take your boots off. I'll wash your hair tonight again, too, if it's okay."

  "Please do. I'm sure I stink like hell."

  He kissed her. "You smell like roses."

  She smiled. "Liar. I smell like blood and guns. But thanks for that, anyway."

  Jesse helped her into the bathroom, and she slipped into the bath before it was even half full and let it run. Closing her eyes, she reran the events at the compound through her head, starting at the vision of Rubek holding the knife to Julie's chin. Why didn't she regret shooting him? Killing him?

  She'd discharged her weapon in the line of duty before, but this was the first time she'd killed someone. She always thought that when it happened, she'd feel sorrow at snuffing out a life. What she felt now was intense satisfaction.

  Was she a bad person? Maybe her fight with God had changed her into someone who didn't value life.

  She bit her lip. There was something very wrong with her. It was ugly. And mean. Exhaling, she shut off the water. Lying back down in the tub and closing her eyes, she spread the hot, wet cloth over her breasts.

  She recalled the black, bloody hole in Theron's temple, thinking that this would make her feel remorse. She examined his brains spilling on the floor from the blown-out side of his head. Still, she had no regret.

  Breathing deeply, she covered her face with the wash cloth. She was hopeless—a bloodthirsty woman with no sense of right and wrong.

  Jesse walked in while she had her face covered. He knelt beside her.

  She didn't want to uncover herself. Surely this callousness, this uncaring woman would be there on her face.

  He slowly pulled the washcloth from her fingers.

  Her hands still covered her face.

  "Baby? What's going on?"

  He sounded worried. Damn, she was an idiot. Putting on a smile, she dropped her hands. "Nothing, I'm just tired."

  Shaking his head, he said, "Nuh, uh. Something's going on here. Spit it out, or this bath will get mighty damn cold before I let you out."

  She exhaled, trying to imagine how to explain this one. Deciding she couldn't, she shook her head. "Really, everything's fine, honey."

  He pursed his lips. "Nope." And waited.

  Dammit. "Oh, all right. I'm a cold-hearted bitch who doesn't give a shit that she's just blown a man's head off and ended his life. I've lived so long without God that I don't know right from wrong anymore. Happy?" She turned her face away, grabbed the bar of soap and started washing her legs.

  Jesse was silent.

  She waited for something stupid to come out of his mouth. Instead, he turned on the hot water and filled up the cup, pouring it over her shoulders.

  She stopped moving and closed her eyes.

  He poured and filled and poured until she was warm again. Then he added bath gel on the wash cloth and slowly washed her back and each arm and hand in turn.

  She kept her eyes closed and her head turned away from him.

  As he washed her face, he let her eyes continue to block him.

  He removed the band holding her hair back, and it swirled around her shoulders. Tilting her chin up, he poured hot water over her head, gently working it into her scalp. He washed her hair as he had last night and rinsed it clean. Pulling her up, he kissed her, and then rinsed her off.

  She stood still, eyes closed, numb.

  Then he washed her clean all over and rinsed her again.

  Drawing her out of the bath, he dried her and wrapped her in the towel. Once in the bedroom, he tucked her naked into bed.

  He returned with the aspirin bottle, a package of crackers, and a soda.

  Taking out two pills, he popped open the soda and handed them to her. Through her lashes, she watched him as she took the medicine. He gave her two crackers, and she ate them in tiny bites. Flat on her back, she didn’t want to think, didn’t want to feel.

  He turned off the lights and climbed in beside her. Turning on his side, head propped on his hand, he looked at her.

  She closed her eyes.

  Pulling the covers down, he ran his finger from the hollow of her throat to her belly button
. Then he did it again.

  She sighed, lost.

  He cupped her cheek and kissed her gently.

  She lay still.

  He kissed her chest, right below her collar bone, and moved down to the soft skin between her breasts, flicking his tongue in and out.

  Didn’t he understand? She didn’t care that she’d taken a life!

  Trailing the tip of his tongue along the curve of her breast, he circled her nipple, several times, then took it in his mouth. He sucked gently and caressed her with his tongue. His mouth traveled to her other breast.

  She sobbed and turned away from him, hiding her head in her arms. Curling into a ball, she pulled as far away from him as the bed would allow.

  Jesse drew her back and turned her facing him, still balled up. He hugged her to him. "Shush, shush, shush, shush," he murmured, over and over.

  She sobbed quietly, uncontrollably.

  He stroked every part of her he could reach, kissing her as he held her close.

  Finally, her crying eased, and she wiped her nose and swept the tears from her face.

  He tilted her chin up, and when she resisted, he firmly pushed it higher, kissing her eyes until she opened them.

  She looked at him quickly, and closed them again.

  Jesse took a deep breath and began, "I won't tell you how to feel, Lee. I can't do that. But I'm going to tell you how I feel. I didn't end a life tonight, but I wish to God I had. Cody put you in that position because he trusts you. He trusts the person you are, and he trusts your instincts. If I'd been where you were, I'd have done exactly what you did. I'd have taken the shot—a kill shot. It was the right thing to do."

  He paused for a moment. "You know that God and I, we have a good relationship. We see eye-to-eye. I'm telling you the truth, honey, when I say that I wouldn't feel bad if I'd killed Rubek. He was rotten to the core—pure evil through and through."

  Running his hand up her arm, he said, "God sets us on Earth to be against evil. If we hadn't put a stop to that bastard, he would have killed that young girl tonight. We both saw it in him. Was his life worth more than hers? I don't think so, and I know you don't either."

  He brushed her hair out of her eyes. "So, you have no remorse for killing him? I say fine. His death means that girl is still alive, and so are a lot of other girls he would have victimized if you hadn't taken action."