Ben moved and immediately felt a long, rough thorn penetrate deep in his hip. It felt like someone poured burning acid in there. “Haahh!”
“Stop moving. Help is coming in a bit.” The men became like statues, trusting that Hunter meant it.
She led them away from the edge and said to Adan, “Let’s get these flexcuffs off us.”
“How?”
She sat on the ground and proceeded to move her hands under her rear and up behind her legs, then behind her calves and over her feet to leave her hands in front of her body. “Like that.”
She waited until he did the same, then she said, “Do this.”
She raised her bound wrists high, then brought them down with force at the same time she shot her knee up fast and hard between her wrists. The plastic cuffs snapped. “Now you.”
Adan had Hunter take the arrowhead out of his mouth, and he had to try three times before he got it. On the last try they broke with ease.
When they were both free, Hunter attempted to hand him the arrowhead, but he told her to keep it. She pocketed the point and said, “We’ll go to my pickup now, I have a spare key under the fender.”
Adan nodded. He sti
ll had the effects of the adrenaline he’d felt when Hunter took the two men out while cuffed behind her back. How did she do that? Adan was amazed, and feeling a bit of hero worship for her. He asked, “What about them?” He pointed behind him with his thumb.
“When we’re safe, we can call somebody. But not until we are safe.”
They moved at a fast walk, with Hunter checking Adan from the corner of her eye to make sure he was okay. The boy was like this country, she thought. Not lush, like a jungle, but peeled down to the essentials, and made of a rugged vitality many others did not have. He reminded her of the Apaches she read about, the ones from the nineteenth century, who their own legendary leader, Cochise, said of them, “The Apaches hang on to life by their fingernails.”
Adan asked, “Will you send me back to Mexico again?”
“I need to talk to the Deputy Sheriff, and some of my bosses because we might be able to keep you here for a while. No promises, but I will try.”
“Thank you, even if they say you can’t do that.”
She ruffled his dark hair. “First things first, we’ll get something to drink and eat. Then we’ll do the other stuff. Raymond’s coming down today, so he’ll be with us, too.”
“He is a nice man.”
Hunter felt herself smile, “Yes, he is. The best.”
They continued walking, covering ground in quick strides and on a direct path where Hunter left her pickup, even though they couldn’t see it from their place in the many small hills.
Adan said, “Is this the best way?”
“It’s the straightest way.”
“Okay.”
“Why, do you feel like we’re going in the wrong direction?”
“I have a feeling, that’s all.”
“Like what?”
He thought a moment, “Like someone’s watching us.”
She looked around, aware of the many hiding places near their position. “Did you see anybody?”
“Just a feeling.”
Hunter patted his shoulder, “I think we’ll trust your feelings. Which way should we go?”