Sounds of running feet came to their ears. “I’m sure.”
Ellis showed, as did two others, and Winston, still rubbing his eyes. Ellis said, “You two are slick as teflon, you know that? But now it is over.” He turned to one of the others, “Miguel bring the ride down here.”
Miguel nodded and trotted into the ghost town, disappearing from their view. They heard a motor start somewhere in the distance a short time later, and Miguel returned in a brown Land Cruiser.
Ellis motioned for Hunter and Adan, “Get in.” He held the rear door open for them. When they were inside, Winston got in the front passenger seat and held his pistol on them. RL got in beside Adan, and Ellis slipped behind the steering wheel. He said to the two men still standing outside, “Hunt Raymond Flores down.”
Miguel said, “And the other guy?”
“He’s collateral damage.”
“Seguro, jefe.”
Hunter f
elt a jolt go through her at that, and she started to lunge over the seat, but RL touched her ribs with the barrel of his pistol, “Don’t.”
Ellis smiled at her in the rearview mirror, “He will, too. Won’t even hesitate.”
Adan didn’t want to see Hunter killed in front of his eyes, and whispered to her, “Senor Raymond, he is bravo. Do not worry for him.”
Hunter settled back, and thought about some way, any way, to escape.
Ellis drove from the buildings of La Linda and took a road toward the south. As they passed the last building that was nothing more than a pile of sticks and rubble, everyone heard the long rattle of machine gun fire, then silence.
Hunter silently mouthed Raymond, without realizing she did it, and felt like someone kicked her in the stomach.
Ellis said, “Your buddy should have retired a long time ago. Too bad.”
Winston added, “He was a greaser, not a big loss.”
Hunter looked at him long enough for the man to become uncomfortable under her stare. “There’s a reckoning coming,” she said.
Ellis said over his shoulder, “You won’t be there to see it.”
“It’ll still happen.”
Ellis turned onto a ghost of a road that wound down into a long, shallow valley, then an hour later, came up out of the far end and into terrain of low, brushy hills and draws filled with small boulders, rocks and sand. Ellis turned northwest and continued on the bumpy, ragged path. In the distance were higher hills, and the beginnings of mountains.
Adan thought he recognized the area. He’d come to it before, from a different angle, but this was in the general place where the abandoned mine was located somewhere ahead of them. It was on the slope-sided hill where the first mountain rose dramatically behind it.
Ellis drove across the countryside rather than on any road, and it bounced and shook the passengers until their headaches grew to throbbing tumors of pain. Hunter said, “You trying to shake us to death, driving like this?”
Ellis said, “Shut up, smartass. This way will take two hours off the time to get there.”
“Where is this there you’re talking about?”
Ellis pointed, “Up that rise to the abandoned mine. You know, you’ve been there before.”
Hunter knew because she recognized the familiar topography from the last time, but she felt like a conversation might help them somehow. “What are you going to do with us?”
“Put you somewhere so we can get things done without you interfering.”
Adan asked, “Are you going to kill us?”
“I am not.” Something hidden in his tone made Hunter wonder.
Winston said, “It would be easier if we did, but I told you to handle this your way.”