Stars & Stripes (41 page)

“Molotov cocktails,” Zane said. “They’re going to set fire to the house.”

“I called the sheriff back. They were already halfway to Austin.”

“They’ll never get here in time.” He shoved at his dad. “Go get the others, we have to fight back or we’ll be dead. I have to get Ty.”

“Where is he?”

“Stuck under the truck.”

Zane took the steps two at a time and darted around the truck to dive to the gravel at Ty’s side.

“Truck’s on fire, Zane,” Ty said, sounding urgent but calm.

“I see that, Ty,” Zane said through gritted teeth. He handed Ty the knife.

“Watch your six,” Ty said, then disappeared further under the truck. When Zane turned and looked up, a 4x4 was thundering toward them. He raised the shotgun in his hands, knowing the birdshot would do nothing to slow down the truck but hoping to hit the driver. The truck skidded to a stop and Joe barreled out of the cab.

Zane lowered the shotgun.

“I saw the fire,” Joe stuttered when he realized Zane had almost shot him.

“Got bigger problems than that.” Zane knelt back down to peer under the truck.

A bullet hit the door, striking inches from his ear. He hit the dirt. “Jesus!”

Another bullet impacted where his head had been.

“Zane, go!” Ty yelled. “He’s in the corral, get inside!”

Zane and Joe scurried around the truck to the other side, putting it between them and the sniper in the corral. Zane looked under the truck to see Ty lying flat, sawing at the jagged piece of his cast that had caught on the undercarriage.

“Come on, Ty.”

“It’s not exactly easy under here. How close is the fire to the gas tank?”

“Too close. Come on, baby.”

Ty yanked at his arm, but his elbow just hit the ground. He couldn’t find any leverage to get free, and the knife was small and dull.

“It’s not coming free.”

“Come on, Ty!”

A shot pinged off the top of the truck.

“Where’s Cody?” Ty asked through gritted teeth.

“I don’t know.”

“We were heading out to look for the cavern under the pump house when the gunfire started. They either shot him or he shot me.”

“What?” Joe shouted as he flattened to look under the truck as well.

“Jesus Christ!”

“What cavern?” Joe demanded, his voice going higher.

“Mark’s inside, it’s not him,” Zane told Ty.

“Then it’s got to be Cody!” Ty shouted. He yanked at his hand in frustration, to no avail.

Zane reached under the truck to see if he could help, but Ty was too far away. His fingers just barely grazed Ty’s shoulder, and no matter how much he stretched, Zane couldn’t grasp him. It was his worst fear come to life, watching helplessly as his lover struggled to get free.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Joe demanded.

“Someone’s been moving drugs on the ranch,” Zane said through gritted teeth.

“And you thought it was Mark?”

“It’s not. But whoever it is has Sadie.”

“I told you we should have cut this fucking thing off, Zane!” Ty yelled, his voice cracking with frustration.

“I’m sorry!”

There was a scream from inside.

“Go, Zane,” Ty urged as he continued sawing at the cast.

Zane was torn between staying there to cover Ty, and going inside to protect his family. He hesitated.

Ty turned his head, his eyes shadowed. “Go, Zane! Go!”

Zane stared at him for a frozen moment, then pushed off the ground and ran for the front door, Joe on his heels. Shots chased them up the steps. Pain seared through his thigh and he stumbled, pitching forward through the door. He rolled across the marble, a streak of blood following him. He grasped at the back of his leg and his hand came away bloody.

Joe kicked the door shut, then knelt with him and began yanking off his belt to staunch the flow of blood.

“Dad!” Zane called out.

“We’re okay!” Harrison shouted back from somewhere in the recesses of the house. Several rooms in the middle of the house had no windows. They’d be safe unless the house caught on fire.

Harrison and Mark hurried out of Harrison’s study, both carrying a shotgun and a rifle, and Harrison knelt next to Zane as Joe pulled the belt tight around Zane’s thigh. Zane shouted in pain, but Joe paid him no mind as he fastened it.

Harrison put his hand on Zane’s shoulder. “Where you hit?”

“Leg. I don’t know if it’s a bullet or a ricochet.”

“Where’s Grady?” Mark asked as they helped Zane off the floor.

“Stuck under the truck. There’s a sniper firing from the corral.”

Harrison’s grip tightened on Zane’s arm. “Where’s Cody?”

“We think he’s in the corral,” Zane said, voice tight.

“What?” Harrison and Mark both cried.

“Hold on, if Ty was with the tiger, and then Cody was with Ty, who has Sadie?” Joe asked. He looked so distraught that his best friend might be behind this that even his mustache seemed to be drooping. His mind was still sharp though, and Zane could see anger and the embers of revenge starting to burn in his normally placid eyes.

Zane shook his head. He had no answer.

The fire in the barn was gaining power, roaring and crackling, and there were men outside shouting over the noise. It was impossible to make out what they were saying.

Zane pulled away from his dad and limped toward a window. He used the barrel of his rifle to push the lace curtain away and peered out. The truck was still on fire, the flames licking ever closer to the gas tank. Whether Ty was still under it or not was anyone’s guess. Three men stood in the yard, shouting at the house. Why wasn’t Ty firing from under the truck? He had the perfect vantage point.

As the fire grew stronger, it illuminated them. They all wore bandanas and hats to hide their faces, like old-time outlaws robbing a bank. One of them held Sadie in his arms. She had her head buried in his shoulder, grasping his neck for dear life.

Anger flooded Zane so fast and hot that his vision went white. Now he understood why Ty hadn’t fired from his position under the truck.

“My baby,” Mark whispered. The desperation in his voice tore at Zane’s heart.

“Garrett!” Blue Bandana yelled over the sound of the fires burning.

“You recognize them?” Zane asked his father.

Harrison shook his head. “Hard to say.”

Zane looked from Sadie to the truck, his heart hammering away. He tried to decide how much time they had before the fire reached the gas tank and it blew, or before it reached the undercarriage and Ty.

“We just want to talk, Harrison!” Red Bandana called out.

“That’s what the telephone is for, you bastards!” Harrison shouted through the glass.

Zane grabbed him and yanked him away from the window, but the men outside didn’t fire. Zane and the others pressed against the wall, waiting. There was movement outside, scuffling and talking and cursing. Every second they waited was a second Ty didn’t have. And then there was Sadie.

A gunshot cracked, then another. Zane jumped with each one. When he glanced out the window, one of the men was at the truck. They’d found Ty. Zane lurched toward the door, but Joe grabbed his shoulder to keep him from going out there. Another shot came from the truck, and then Blue Bandana stood and began pulling on one end of a lasso.

He dragged Ty out from under the truck. He may as well have grabbed a crab by the wrong end, though, because as soon as Ty was free of the undercarriage and sliding across the gravel on his back, he was fighting. He was also yelling at Sadie as the other two Bandanas fought to flatten him. Sadie lifted her head.

“Run!” Ty yelled. He made a gesture with his hand, jabbing at the air with two fingers before he disappeared under the other two men.

Sadie began to squirm, and the man in the black bandana struggled to hold her. She threw herself back like all children were apt to do when they were pitching a fit, going limp and trying to slither out of his arms. When she couldn’t get loose, she mimicked the motion Ty had made, poking her little fingers into the pressure point at the man’s neck, just as Ty had taught her. Black Bandana let her go and she dropped to the ground.

“Run!” Ty yelled, his voice muffled.

“Come on, baby doll,” Mark shouted. “Run, baby!”

Sadie crawled a few yards, then pushed to her feet and darted toward the house.

Mark dropped his gun and ran for the front door, yanking it open and leaping down the front steps in a single bound. In the driveway, Ty lurched to his feet and threw himself into the man with the shotgun, sending the shot wild and forfeiting his chance to get away in favor of covering Sadie’s flight.

Mark grabbed her at the front of the burning truck and turned with her, shielding her from the gunfire and whisking her inside. Joe slammed the door behind them. A hail of bullets followed and they all took cover. Mark ducked out of the way with Sadie in his arms. There was more shouting from outside, and Zane knew without having to look that Ty was suffering for the little girl’s escape.

Sadie was sobbing. Relief washed over Zane as father and daughter clung to each other. Annie ran from the study and took Sadie out of Mark’s arms. They retreated to the relative safety of a windowless room to huddle with Beverly and the stragglers from the party, and Mark crawled back to the window to pick up his gun. They weren’t safe yet.

“Hey, Zane!” one of the Bandanas called. “Zane, we got your little boyfriend out here! Get your daddy to come talk or we take it out on his pretty face!”

Zane’s breath caught. That meant Ty was still alive.

“At least he’s not under the burning truck anymore, right?” Joe whispered.

Zane closed his eyes. His heart was racing and he had to take a few breaths to calm down.

“I’ll go out there,” Harrison said.

“No. No, I’ll go. If it’s you they want, they’ll need to get through me first,” Zane said. He nodded at Mark and Joe. “Cover my ass.”

Mark nodded and traded the shotgun in his hands for Zane’s rifle. Zane took a deep breath and opened the front door.

The Three Bandanas were in the yard, using the flames from the truck as partial cover. Ty was on his knees in front of Blue Bandana, a shotgun held to the back of his head. His cast was gone, and the side of his face was bloody. In fact, he was bloody almost everywhere. A large stain was spreading at his ribcage where he’d been shot, and more was flowing from his hairline.

Zane had to fight not to rush forward. “What’s this about?” he called out, trying to keep his voice even and calm.

“You know how much money you cost us?”

Zane shook his head, gritting his teeth as he stared at Ty.

“You found our stash, Zane. Ty told me. You were going to go expose us.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zane called.

“Bullshit! We were supposed to have it all moved by now, but with all this attention we couldn’t risk it. We got nothing to show for it! The money and those damn cats were all supposed to be in Mexico tomorrow.”

Zane narrowed his eyes. The voice was familiar. “Cody?” he said with a sinking feeling, realizing he hadn’t truly believed it until now.

Cody reached up and yanked the blue bandana down. The others followed suit. Ronnie, another of Harrison’s ranch hands who’d ridden to the pump house with them, was behind the red bandana. Zane’s knees went weak when his cousin Jamie pulled the black bandana off his face.

“It was you?” he asked, barely able to get the words out. “Why?”

“You said yourself, there were more than four,” Cody said with a sneer.

Zane was breathless with shock and his mind was racing. It had been about drugs all along, but why? Like Ty said days ago, they were too far from the normal routes for it to make sense. Was this the first wave of some sort of cartel expansion? A chess move in a game being played hundreds of miles away? And what the hell did big cats have to do with any of it?

“Guys . . . you’re looking at a hell of lot more time if you go through with this than you would for selling drugs or poaching exotic animals.”

Cody shook his head. “You don’t understand, Zane! We got us a deal down in Laredo. He wants his money, and he wants his goddamned tigers. We don’t deliver, we’re dead men. He’ll think we swindled him.”

“You’ll get life for this. Attempted murder. Hell, kidnapping, assault on a federal agent.”

“He’ll kill us anyway!” Cody shouted, and he worked the action on the shotgun. Ty squeezed his eyes closed at the sound.

The rage and terror bubbled up and Zane snarled. “You hurt him, and
I’ll
kill you.”

“You can try it, Zane.”

“Ty and I can help you get out of this. This isn’t the way. Do you have any idea how many people are in this house?”

Cody’s eyes flickered to the house and he shook his head. “We don’t want no one to come to harm, that’s why we want to talk.”

Zane eyes were drawn back to Ty. All color had drained from his face. He was losing too much blood. The only thing holding him upright was the lasso around his neck, but he raised his head and met Zane’s eyes.

“What do you want?” Zane asked Cody.

“We want the money,” Jamie called out. “What Uncle Harry’s got in that big safe of his. It’s the only way we can get out from under the man we owe. Get Uncle Harry out here or Cody blows Ty’s brains out.”

Zane swallowed hard and met Ty’s eyes once more. It didn’t even take a moment’s thought. He half-turned toward the door, but Harrison stepped out and onto the porch with him.

“Boys,” Harrison called in a deep voice that carried well over the yard. “This ain’t the way to go about this.”

“Your meddling is going to cost us our lives,” Ronnie shouted.

“They’d have gotten away with it too!” Ty said, his words almost slurred and sounding half-delirious. “If it hadn’t been for you meddling kids.”

Cody put his boot on Ty’s back and then jerked on the lasso. Ty arched, reaching up to grasp the rope before it could cut off his air.

“Shut your damn mouth!”

“Give us the money to pay off what we owe,” Jamie told Harrison. “We disappear. Stuart and his boys take the fall for the poaching and the drugs. Nobody gets hurt. If you don’t, we burn it to the ground.”