Unaffected, Rod watched him writhe. “Don’t worry. You called an ambulance, right?” Bending carefully so that his leg wouldn’t hurt or bleed any more than it already was, he retrieved his gun, which was still too close to James for comfort. Then he picked up James’s phone and checked its call history. “Er, scratch that. Looks like you’ll have to wait a while—4-5-6 doesn’t go to any emergency services that I know.”
“You’d better get me some help, you son of a bitch! I’m dying! Do you hear me? I’m going to die if you don’t get me a doctor!”
“I’ll get us both a doctor. When I’m ready.” Sliding down the wall to ease the terrible ache in his thigh, Rod switched to the other gun—James’s had to be getting low on bullets—and dug his cell phone out of his pocket. The call that’d come in at such an inopportune time was from Sophia, just as he’d hoped.
Thank God. Keeping an eye on James, who was finally beginning to realize that he wasn’t mortally wounded, he called her back.
She answered on the first ring. “Rod, help me!” she whispered. “He’s here.”
Rod had no idea who she was talking about, but he didn’t care. If she was frightened, he wanted to be there for her. “Where?”
“The Boot and Spur.”
“I’m coming,” he said, but he wasn’t sure if she heard him. He didn’t get a response; she’d disconnected.
Afraid he wouldn’t be able to reach her in time, he called the manager of the ranch. The phone rang and rang without being answered, so he called his boss in California, dragging him out of bed, and told him to get Van Dormer or some other federal agents to the Boot and Spur as soon as possible and to have someone come and take care of James. Then he used a length of rope he found in Charlie’s garage to make sure James wouldn’t be going anywhere until Van Dormer arrived.
After tying a dish towel above his gunshot wound to staunch some of the bleeding, he limped out of the house—only to find his tires slashed.
Damn it, he had to go back in and wrangle the keys to Charlie’s pickup out of James. But he was on the road minutes later, pressing his hand to the hole in his leg as he drove.
Rod knew it probably wasn’t smart to keep pushing himself. He was losing too much blood. But he’d finally won the girl he’d always wanted. No way would he risk losing her now.
32
Leaning against the tackle shed, Sophia tried to peer around the corner. Where was her stepfather? She’d paid a price for answering Rod’s call. Gary had been closer to her hiding place than she’d thought. When he’d heard her voice, he’d come after her again. She’d only escaped him in the barn by throwing a bucket at him. He’d tried to bat it away but he’d been running too fast and had tripped over it instead, enabling her to run out of the barn and disappear among the outbuildings before he could recover.
But she’d also lost track of him, didn’t know how close he was. Fortunately, she’d reached Sheriff Cooper, who was on his way. She only had to evade Gary until he or Rod arrived, which shouldn’t take long. But a lot could happen in just a few minutes. And Gary had her gun. If he got hold of her again, it wasn’t as if she’d have an equal chance.
In case she didn’t make it out alive, she sent a text to Officer Fitzer. Evidence of human smuggling by Gary O’Conner and others in Rod’s Hummer. Something happens to me, turn it over to FBI.
A thump near the barn startled Sophia. What was that? Obviously, Gary had caused it. But why? Was he hoping to scare her? To flush her out into the open? Or was there something else going on?
Holding her breath, she peered around the corner again but without the porch lights on the cabins up by the office, she could see very little. And she was beginning to worry because she’d told Rod and the sheriff she was at the Boot and Spur, but they wouldn’t know to come immediately to the outbuildings.
She had to text them, too, but texting took her attention off what was happening around her.
A horse nickered in the barn, soon answered by another horse. They seemed spooked. Did that mean Gary was searching for her in the stalls?
Probably. That gave her a few seconds, didn’t it? Swallowing her fear, she tried to steady her fingers to hit the right keys—but never got the text sent off. Her phone went flying as her stepfather grabbed her from behind and pushed her to the ground.
“It’s over. Do you understand?” he ground out, standing over her with the gun aimed at her head. “You run again, and I’ll shoot you without thinking twice.”
She believed him. He was close enough that she could see him in the light of the moon, and the determination on his face was absolutely convincing.
“Calm down.” Raising one hand in a motion of surrender, she used the other to help her sit up. “You’ll be sorry if you hurt me. You’ll spend the rest of your life in prison. Is that what you want? To lose everything? Don’t you care about Mom?”
“You’ve finally pushed me too far. Why’d you have to do this? You’ve been out to get me from the very beginning.”
Sophia felt as if she had to shout to be heard above the hammering of her heart. “No. You’re wrong about that. I tried to love you. But you wouldn’t let me.”
“That makes no sense,” he said. “I wanted you night and day. I’ve always wanted you.”
“That’s not the same,” she said sadly. “Anyway, killing me won’t save you. I have evidence, evidence other people already know about. It’s too late, Gary.”
Her words didn’t scare him as much as she’d hoped. “You’re bluffing.”
“I’m not. I made copies of what I found in the feed store. I know about Charlie, Patrick’s wife, the mayor. They’re making money by investing in your smuggling enterprise.”
He laughed. “They don’t know that. They think we were importing coffee.”
“We’ll see, won’t we?”
His mouth twisted into a sneer. “You’ve never been afraid of me, have you?”
“You’re wrong. I was afraid of you for years. But now I just see you as pathetic, as someone who’s going to prison. So it won’t do you any good to kill me.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he scoffed.
“You think you can avoid it? That I’m lying about the evidence?”
“The evidence won’t matter, sweetheart. Sheriff Cooper will take care of it. For the right price, of course.”