Protecting Dallas

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s already dead.”

Things were going bad, and very quickly too. Kane’s eyes were murderous. They told me that if Maddox didn’t let go of the rifle soon, he was going to snap his fingers off the barrel one by one.

“What about her?” Maddox pleaded.

Kane froze for a moment, then his gaze shifted reluctantly toward me.

“We can’t do this now,” said Maddox. “Not with her here, and not without Austin.”

“There are only five of them,” growled Kane. “I’m pretty sure can get them all.”

“Six,” said Maddox. “One more just got out of that SUV.” Slowly he took his hand from the weapon’s barrel. “And yeah, maybe you can get them all. Or maybe you can’t. Maybe one of those vehicles gets away.” He shrugged. “Even if you drill them all dead, we learn absolutely nothing.”

Something in the back of Kane’s eyes shifted. I could see it reflected in the moonlight.

“We’ll get Dietz,” Maddox assured him, “just not right now. It’s too big a risk.”

I let out a long, relieved breath as the tension went out of Kane’s shoulders. He slid the bolt backward. Popped the round out.

By the time he’d the folded the rifle away, the business in the canyon had finished. The vehicles drove off in different directions, the rumble of tires on gravel fading slowly away.

“It was the right call,” said Maddox, patting his shoulder. “We’ll get a better opportunity.”

But Kane didn’t seem all that convinced.

“I wonder if Connor waited too long,” the big man said ominously. “Hoping for a better opportunity himself.”

Fifty-Four

DALLAS

We waited five minutes after the last sign of their taillights. Ten minutes after that, we’d made our way down the hill and were standing beneath the rocky outcropping.

“This is the spot,” pointed Maddox.

The tire-tracks were faint; so much so that you had to know they were there to even see them. The ground all around the entire area was packed hard, like cement.

“Look around,” I said. “Maybe they left something behind.”

“Probably not,” said Kane.

“Why?”

“That was a simple exchange,” he said. “They met out here for anonymity, so they wouldn’t be seen.”

“Then why were they unloading stuff?”

Kane looked back at me and shrugged. “Product for money?” he guessed. “They buyer had to count it. Had to see what they were getting.”

“Yeah, but their truck had a bed,” I said. “And a tailgate.”

“So?”

“So why would they unload everything onto the ground?”

We all looked down at the same time. That part was weird, I could tell by the fact neither of them had an actual answer.

“And that first truck,” I said. “We saw its reverse lights. It actually backed up to something.”