Ike waved without looking behind, and Hunter hurried out the door, her nerves screaming with the stress of worrying about Kelly and Anita and the others. She thought of Ramona as well, but the children, especially those two, they were her primary worry at the moment.
She moved the tractor to an out of the way space at the far side of the lot, and returned to the lobby to wait until they gave her word on Ike’s condition.
~**~
As Suretta drove into San Angelo after leaving the ranch, she glanced at the woman and children in the vehicle. Kelly sat in the second seat in the Suburban behind Suretta and next to Paco. Ramona sat behind Nadine, holding her daughter as tight as she could. Everyone except Paco wept at the carnage they witnessed at the ranch. Paco sat mute and still, and sweat ran down his salt and pepper sideburns and along his cheek. To Kelly, he appeared terrified.
Suretta seemed grim and angry as she drove. It was as easy to see as heat waves off a hot street. Nadine sat in the passenger side of the front seat, and turned to look at the others in the car. Most of the girls remained huddled together in the last seat, some sitting on the other’s lap so they could all be close. Her eyes came back to Kelly. Nadine said, “This mess is almost over with. You’ll be overseas and safe soon.”
Kelly started to speak, when Ramona said, “Safe? Don’t lie to these children. You know what will happen to them.”
Nadine said, “Better than dying here, isn’t it?”
“I’m not so sure.
Will your life be better if you take one of their places, let those foreign men claw and molest you, trade you around?”
Suretta’s backhand caught Ramona in the face and stunned her. Anita slid from her dazed grasp, and Paco caught the child before she hit the floorboard face first. He lifted her and handed the child to Kelly, “Keep her.”
Kelly calmed her after several busy minutes, and when Ramona came around to take her. “Thank you,” she said to the young girl. “She likes you.”
“I like Anita, too.”
Suretta drove along South Bell to where it crossed the small dam on the Concho River. She turned into the neighborhood where the safe house stood, and soon had them parked under the carport at the rear door. She, Nadine, and Paco ushered the children into the house, along with Ramona, forcing them in the large room with barred windows and quarter-inch hail-screen. The bars had been attached inside the house and over the windows, keeping someone from reaching the window to open it. Ramona knew that design was only to keep people inside. Kelly looked at the bars as she moved to the back of the room. The screws used were old, standard ones with the single notch, and the bars were attached to wood.
Suretta said, “All of you, go in the other rooms and get some blankets and pillows. We’re probably going to be here all night. Ramona, you sleep with us.”
Anita said, “I’m hungry.”
Suretta wasn’t going to slap the most valuable one, so instead she hit one of the other girls, knocking her into the wall. The girl slumped to the floor as blood streamed from her nose.
The others screamed, and Suretta said, “Shut up!”
They did, looking at the angry, powerful woman through scared eyes.
Nadine said, “We’re ordering pizza. It’ll be ready in about twenty minutes. Stay quiet till then, you all hear?”
Paco stayed behind Suretta, hoping not to draw her attention.
Ten Minutes later, Nadine came in and said, “Pizza’s here.”
They all filed in the living room, grabbed a slice of pizza and a bottle of water, then returned to their blankets. Before the night was over, all the children huddled next to Ramona, with Anita and Kelly the closest.
Chapter 16
Hunter parked the tractor at the far end of the lot and went inside the Enterprise Car Rental, where the woman rented Hunter a tan Jeep Grand Cherokee. Hunter drove to the nearest Wal-Mart and went inside, finding the cell phones she wanted at the rear of the store near the electronics. She purchased two burners, one for Ike, one for her, entering each number in the other before returning to the hospital. Sneaking in, she wandered the halls looking for him and found Ike sitting up in bed, looking as antsy as someone who’d slammed three Red Bulls back to back.
She tossed him his phone, “These’ll have to do until we get ours back. I plugged my number in yours so you’ll know when I call.”
“Get me out of here.”
“When the doctors say.”
“They already did. They told me ten minutes ago.”
“Which doctor?”
Ike’s eyes looked everywhere but at Hunter, “Uh, Doctor…Lavator.”