“Good. I feel better if we both are thinking the same way.”
“Oh, we are, and we’re pissed, too.”
“Damn straight.”
Ike said, “Then quit worrying about me and get to work, Agent Kincaid.”
Chapter 10
Kelly looked out the side porthole window of the van as they left the ranch and passed the disabled airplane. She hoped to see the woman that Anita called Hunter, who drove the Jeep into the airplane propeller. That terrified and excited her when she watched Hunter do it, like some movie hero.
Her attention was diverted by the sudden lurch of the van as Kit went into the rear and cuffed Kelly. The girl half-dodged the blow, but it hit her hard enough on the neck to drop her to the floor. Kit said, “You little bitch, you caused a lot of trouble these last few days.”
Carl picked up his phone as it rang, then handed it to Kit. “The jefe.”
Kit’s tone changed as she said, “Yes sir.”
His voice sounded angry, stressed, “You get this done, you hear me? We’ve got our backs against the wall and our money’s gone. The Zetas can smell blood in the water, Kit, our blood. We’re hanging on by our fingernails, and if this delivery doesn’t happen, we are done, and probably dead.”
“I understand.”
“We have to use what we have, no new places. We will trick our enemies and go back to the ranch a second time and fly out from there. I have a crew on the way to repair the plane, and Suretta is tracking Hunter Kincaid and Ike. I gave her specific orders for them. The Zetas or anyone else will never expect us to use the same place after we’ve been hit.”
“Yes sir.”
“Use the safe house, and then get this done.” He hung up the phone.
She listened for a few moments to the dead line, and said as she looked at the others, “We will.”
She said to Carl, “Go to the safe house out by Goodfellow Air Force Base. We stay for a bit, give them time to take care of things.”
“Then what?”
“He said that tomorrow, to go back to the barn and the plane. They have people coming, and mechanics. And they’ve spotted that Kincaid woman and her partner. They have people following them right now. One of them is Suretta.”
“And they’ll get them off our asses?”
“He’s sure they won’t know we’re doubling back to the ranch.”
Carl didn’t respond, but Kit picked up that he wasn’t keen on the idea.
“When we get there tomorrow, you get your turn with the troublemaker here. Just remember not to bruise her face.”
Carl smiled, “All right.” He looked in the rearview mirror at Kelly, and his smile was not nice.
Consuela and Anita sat beside her, and Anita clung to her arm.
Carl drove into San Angelo on Highway 277 and turned on North Bell Street, taking it south until the road turned into South Bell Street.
Kelly looked out the small window and tried to memorize landmarks, hoping they might help her if the girls could escape. The van passed an athletic park comprised of baseball fields, and immediately after, crossed the Concho River.
Carl slowed and turned into a neighborhood that was situated across the river from the sports complex on the other river bank.
Kelly watched several streets pass, and then Carl turned into the drive of a large, brown, barnlike house that had no others between it and the brushy river. It was old, she could tell, but looked solid. The driveway circled the house and pulled under a long carport at the rear door.
They ushered the girls into the house without wasting time, and Carl watched Kelly more than the others, not wanting her to get away before he had his fun.
Kit ordered pizzas, and Carl handed out red solo cups so the girls could get water from the faucets. He made it a point to run his hands over Kelly’s shoulders and back, and sometimes her chest, laughing when she squirmed.