Paradise Ranch (Jack and Ashley detective series Book 2) Read online

  “Do you care to explain what that was?” Jack asked while trying to spit out the debris that filled his mouth.

  Ashley beat the sand from her long, dark hair as she watched the wall of dust disappear over the horizon.

  “Sand storm,” she replied through a cough. “Some of the drier regions … they get them once in a while … kind of like the old dust bowl.”

  Ashley’s wheezing intensified as she tried to explain. “There was probably ... a thunderstorm somewhere … that pushed the sand ahead of it.”

  What began as a slight hack had become a full-on coughing fit, Ashley’s chest heaving as she struggled to take in air.

  “Are you alright, Ashley?” Jack asked with concern as he saw her eyes widen in panic.

  She didn’t answer. She couldn’t breathe. The sand had triggered an asthma attack.

  “Ashley!” Jack screamed as he saw her face blow up into bright red before turning a ghastly pale. “Ashley!”

  With her attempts to pull in fresh air in vain, she plunged her hand into her pocket, seeking out her res-cue inhaler. In the meantime, Jack was beginning to come apart as he watched his now bug-eyed partner gasp for air.

  “Come on Ashley, breathe!” Jack screamed as he seized her by her arms and shook her.

  Ashley found her inhaler and pulled it from her pocket. She was about to use it when it happened – a sharp smack across her face rifled by her partner.

  “Come on, Ashley! Breathe!” he screamed.

  Ashley pulled away from Jack, giving him a look of disdain and took a deep breath from her inhaler. Jack was still in panic mode, not understanding what was going on. She held up a finger as she took in the medicine, urging him to wait a moment.

  “What’s wrong?” Jack asked.

  Ashley stayed at arm’s length as she waited for the medication to work. She had suffered through many asthma attacks, having been diagnosed with the disease when she was a little girl.

  The attack began to ease within a few moments. The inhaler did its job. She was finally able to draw a full breath and fill her lungs with air.

  “Are you okay?” Jack asked as he watched her chest rise and fall.

  Instead of answering, Ashley stepped toward Jack and cracked him across the face with a smack.

  “What was that for?” Jack asked as he rubbed his reddening left cheek, hearing a ringing in his ears.

  “What did you think you were doing?” Ashley asked. “I was having an asthma attack. You aren’t helping by shaking and smacking someone in the midst of an attack.”

  “I didn’t know what to do,” Jack sheepishly replied. “I thought you were dying.”

  “If you ever smack me like that again, you’ll be the one dying, Jack,” Ashley pledged, giving him a sincere look.

  The pair stood staring each other down for a moment before Jack broke the silence.

  “Speaking of dying,” Jack began. “It’s going to be dark in a few minutes and we’re in the middle of no-where. Maybe we should consider trying to get out of here. I ain’t keen on camping out in the middle of the desert along with the scorpions and rattle snakes.”

  Both reached for their cellphones at the same moment. They shared a sigh of disappointment as neither had reception. They were in the middle of nowhere.

  “The radio!” Ashley snapped, hoping it had survived the crash.

  Ashley crawled back through the open window only to have her hopes dashed. The cord had ripped out of the radio during the roll over. She must have gripped it too tightly as they crashed, ripping the cord in half.

  “So much for the radio,” Ashley said as she held the broken microphone out of the window to show Jack.

  “Maybe we can turn the truck over and drive it out of here,” Jack suggested as he surveyed the wreckage.

  “And how do you suggest we accomplish that?” Ashley asked as she crawled out of the window and pushed to her feet. “Are you on steroids or something?”

  “I mean, if we rock it we might be able to roll it back into its wheels,” Jack said as he placed his hands on the bottom of the door facing.

  “You’ve got to be crazy,” Ashley protested.

  “Come on. Let’s give it a try,” Jack urged as he began rocking the upside down SUV back and forth.

  “Here goes nothing,” Ashley sighed as she joined Jack in rocking the vehicle.

  “Okay, on three,” Jack directed as they slowly rocked it. “One … two … three!”

  They both grunted as they combined their strength and gave the vehicle a hard heave. Much to Ashley’s surprise, the SUV rolled from its roof and its momentum brought it tantalizing close to flipping back up onto its wheels. However, the top heavy SUV refused to completely roll over as it came rolling back onto its side, sending the pair scurrying away so they didn’t get collected by the vehicle.

  Jack stood with his hands on his hips looking at the SUV that sat on its side, the blue lights lying shattered next to it.

  “Almost,” Jack lamented.

  “Yes, but almost doesn’t get us out of here,” Ashley noted as the last amber rays of the sun slipped over the horizon.

  Jack looked around for a minute, realizing they were several miles away from civilization.

  “Well, boss? What are we going to do?” Ashley asked.

  “We’ve got two options and neither of them is good,” Jack answered. “We can try walking out of here in the pitch dark or we can hunker down for the night and hope that either someone finds us or we can find a road tomorrow.”

  “And, there’s always our new friends out there,” Ashley noted, referring to their earlier ambush.

  “I’m not worried about them,” Jack shot back. “They were just sending a message. If they wanted to kill us, we’d be dead, sand storm or not.”

  “Why do you say that?” Ashley questioned.

  “Did you see the fire power they had?” Jack said. “They never even fired a shot. They could have made easy work of us if they had come to kill us. A little sand storm wouldn’t have deterred them. No, they were here to send a message.”

  “Which is?” Ashley asked.

  “To leave,” Jack replied. “Our presence has made someone very nervous, honey.”

  “Elijah?” Ashley asked.

  “Most likely. The timing would suggest he had something to do with it,” Jack agreed. “Anyway, like I said, I’m more worried about getting through the night than I am about them. I say we hunker down where we are, stay with the vehicle and start out on foot at first light.”

  “That’s fine with me but if we’re going to stay out here all night, we’d better get a fire going because it gets cold once the sun is down,” Ashley noted.

  “We could cuddle up,” Jack quipped, mockingly licking his lips. “Shared. Bodily. Warmth.”

  “I’d rather freeze,” Ashley crossed her arms. “Seriously, what are we going to do about a fire?”

  Jack laughed at Ashley’s worried tone. “I was born and raised in Tennessee,” Jack laughed. “I was practically raised in the woods, hunting and camping all the time.”

  “Um, in case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t the woods,” Ashley pointed out. “This is practically a full-fledged desert. You can’t just crawl into a hollow log.”

  “Honey, I could start a fire by rubbing two sticks together,” Jack bragged. “But, why do that when you have … a lighter.”

  Jack pulled a lighter out of his pocket and proudly displayed it. “Good thing I like smoking a cigar from time to time. Who says smoking is bad for you? It may have saved our lives tonight.”

  “That’s great, you’ve got a lighter,” Ashley said. “Now, we have to get something to burn.”

  “There’s scrub brush all around here,” Jack noted. “It’s dry as a bone. It should burn easy.”

  “Then I guess we should start collecting it,” Ashley said, sunlight now almost gone.

  “We?” Jack asked. “I brought the lighter. I’m starting the fire. Do you expect me to do everyth
ing?”

  “You’re suggesting I collect the firewood?” Ashley asked.

  “It’s called delegating, sweetheart,” Jack shot back.

  “I’m the agent-in-charge so it’s my job to assign various jobs to my employees.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ashley squinted at Jack. “This isn’t federal agent work; it’s grunt work. If you think I’m going collect firewood all on my own, you’re crazy.”

  “Watch out for rattlers,” Jack said dismissively.

  “I don’t think you heard what I said,” Ashley came back. “I said I’m NOT going to collect the firewood by myself!”

  The two sat around the blazing fire as night set in. Ashley eyed Jack as he warmed his hands in front of the orange flame. She had carried all the firewood to their campsite next to the wrecked patrol unit.

  “You know, back in the good ol’ days, the women would carry the water and firewood all the time and not complain about it because they knew it was their place,” Jack declared.

  Ashley shot Jack a look that could kill across the fire. She was in no mood for his chauvinistic attitude or his crude sense of humor.

  “If it wasn’t for you having to come out here, we wouldn’t be in the situation in the first place,” Ashley retorted. “We could have been back in town, eating dinner and in a warm hotel room.”

  “It’s called detective work, sweetheart,” Jack re-plied. “You have to strike while the iron is hot.”

  “I don’t know what you thought we’d find out here so long after the victim’s body was discovered,” Ashley said. “Besides, the sheriff had already investigated the crime scene.”

  “All the more reason to come see for ourselves,” Jack countered.

  “What are you trying to say?” Ashley asked after catching Jack’s tone.

  “Let’s just say that seeing is believing,” Jack said.

  “You don’t trust the sheriff, do you?” Ashley asked.

  “He certainly didn’t seem too happy to see us,” Jack noted.

  “Maybe he’s just protective of his territory,” Ashley suggested.

  “Or maybe he’s crooked,” Jack replied as he looked deeply into the fire. “You know me. I don’t trust any-body.”

  “Yeah, not even your partner, it would seem,” Ash-ley retorted with a glare.

  “Ain’t nothing to tell, honey,” Jack countered. “If you need to know, I’ll tell you.”

  “You know, I’m getting tired of being left …” Ash-ley began, only to be silenced as Jack raised his hand, signaling her to listen.

  “What?” Ashley hissed.

  “Shhh. Listen,” Jack ordered.

  Ashley did as she was told. Then, she heard it.

  “It’s a motor!” Ashley exclaimed, turning her head toward the sound of the approaching engine.

  “And it’s coming this way,” Jack pointed as lights glowed from over the berm.

  “Do you think it’s them coming back?” Ashley’s voice cracked.

  “I’m not waiting to find out,” Jack declared as he stood up, pointing toward the wrecked vehicle. “You take cover behind the truck. I’m going up the hill.”

  Ashley started to push sand onto the fire.

  “No!” Jack yelled. “Leave it going. That might at-tract their attention for a minute.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Ashley asked in a panicked tone as she scampered to a place of cover be-hind the vehicle.

  “You know how to use a gun,” Jack said. “If it hits the fan; start shooting at the bad guys.”

  With that, Jack ran up the hill and disappeared into the dark outside the halo of the fire.

  “Just be careful not to shoot me in the crossfire,” Jack cautioned out of the darkness as a pair of head-lights came into view over the hill.

  Jack felt his way along the scrub brush as he eyed the approaching lights. It was a single vehicle slowly making its way to their location. The lights left Jack night blind, leaving him unable to make out the type of vehicle or how many occupants were inside.

  Jack crouched as the lights drew closer. The vehicle was heading toward their camp site. Jack couldn’t see Ashley from his perch up the hill, the fire light reflecting off the wrecked vehicle behind which she had taken cover.

  The vehicle slowed to a stop just before reaching the camp site. Still night blind due to looking into the head-lights, Jack could make out only the outline of the vehicle. He could see there was one figure inside. He had the element of surprise.

  Stealthily slithering from the darkness, he covered the twenty yards from his hiding place to the vehicle. He wasn’t going to take time to find out if the driver was friend or foe. He was going to exploit his ad-vantage.

  “Make a move and you’re dead,” Jack announced as he pulled back the hammer of his forty caliber, placing it behind the driver’s ear.

  OUT PAST CURFEW

  “Agent Looper,” a voice cracked from behind the wheel. “Tell me that’s you.”

  “Kyle?” Jack asked as he eased the hammer back.

  “Yes sir,” the deputy responded, his voice shaking.

  “You nearly got yourself shot,” Jack declared as he holstered his gun.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Kyle responded. “When you didn’t come back, I came looking for you. Remember? I said I’d come find you if you didn’t make it back.”

  “That you did, Deputy,” Jack chuckled. “You must be part coonhound, though. I mean, we’re in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Not at all,” Kyle laughed as he climbed from his vehicle, Jack’s eyes finally adjusting so he could make out the blue lights on its top. “All of our vehicles have GPS locators on them. I just followed the signal.”

  Kyle walked toward the wrecked vehicle, rubbing the back of his neck.

  “Freeze!” Ashley yelled as she jumped from her cover, her gun pointed toward the approaching deputy who stopped short and threw up his hands.

  “Cool your heels, Rambo,” Jack yelled out. “It’s our friendly county deputy, Kyle. He’s come to save us.”

  “The sheriff isn’t going to be happy about this,” Kyle said as he inspected the damage. “We only have four patrol units.”

  “You got three now,” Jack dryly interjected.

  “What happened?” Kyle asked.

  “Seems like somebody organized us a welcoming committee,” Jack quipped.

  “We were ambushed,” Ashley clarified. “Two trucks full of armed men!”

  The deputy’s eyes flashed in the firelight at Ashley’s revelation.

  “Ambushed?” Kyle asked astonished. “Who would ambush FBI agents?”

  “That’s what I aim to find out,” Jack said as he motioned toward the deputy’s vehicle.

  “Do you think it was some of those cultists over at Paradise Ranch?” Kyle asked as they climbed into the deputy’s SUV. Ashley and Jack again shared the front passenger seat given the deputy’s earlier warning of what had transpired in his back seat. “The sheriff says they’re dangerous, that none of us should go around there, even on patrol.”

  “A regular Forbidden City, huh?” questioned Jack.

  “Did you see him – Elijah that is?” the deputy asked as he cranked up his vehicle. “You know, no one has ever seen him in town. We’ve just heard stories.”

  “Yeah, we met with him,” Jack said as they headed through the darkness.

  “He didn’t seem that mysterious or have horns stick-ing out of his head or anything like that. I looked for the 666 on his forehead and didn’t see that either. Actually, he kind of reminded me of one of my old college professors.”

  Kyle looked over at Jack, trying to decide if the agent was joking.

  “Keep your eyes on the road if you don’t mind,” Ashley said, pointing toward the bare frontier before them. “I’ve already been in one wreck tonight and I don’t want to be in another. Plus, you barely look old enough to have your learner’s permit.”

  “Yes ma’am,” the deputy responded. “Anyway, lik
e I said before you left today, the sheriff said those folks out there are crazy and that none of the town folks need to be messing around out there.”

  “The sheriff says a lot of things, don’t he, Deputy?” Jack noted.

  “He’s been here forever,” Kyle responded as the SUV bounced across the rugged landscape. “He knows everything about everything in Liberty County. If he says they’re dangerous, then I take his word for it.”

  “So, if you don’t police things out there, who does?” Ashley wondered aloud.

  “They take care of their own,” Kyle replied. “They don’t want us out there, anyhow, so we just keep the peace on our side of the hill and let them worry about their part.”

  “Their own little country,” Jack said.

  “I guess,” Kyle said as he strained his eyes through the windshield, then nodded at the highway ahead, “There it is.”

  “You really are part coonhound,” Jack smiled at the deputy’s ability to find his way back to civilization through the desolate darkness.

  “I’ve lived here most of my life,” Kyle proudly responded. “There isn’t a lot to do in New Hope except for four-wheeling and hunting, so you get to know the lay of the land.”

  “I told you two NOT to go out there!” Sheriff Tubbs wagged his finger in the direction of both federal agents as they stood in his office following the rescue by the deputy. “And, what about my patrol unit? This isn’t exactly a rich town. They don’t grow on trees. We don’t print our own money like you federal government types.”

  Jack shifted his jaw as he eyed the red-faced sheriff.

  “We’re fine, thanks for asking,” Jack shot back. “As for your patrol car, we’ll take care of it.”

  “That you will,” Tubbs agreed. “If you’d listened to me in the first place, none of this would have happened. But no, you had to go out there and stir things up.”

  “You ought to be thanking us, Sheriff,” Jack spoke up. “We’re trying to solve a murder in your county of one of your residents. Or, do you not protect and serve on that side of Liberty County?”

  Tubbs narrowed his eyes at Jack. “What’s that sup-posed to mean?”