“Looks like you were right.”
Abby made a little sound in her throat. “I didn’t want the man dead. I just wanted him to leave me alone.”
“If he’s the guy who attacked you, his greed made him dead. You didn’t have a damned thing to do with it.”
“How did they find you?” Kyle asked.
“Don’t know for sure,” Gage said.
“My cousin, Jude, is a gamer. He can get just about anything off the internet. He could have tracked my credit card. Or Gage’s.”
“Those two guys who checked in at the ranch the night before we left,” Gage said. “We never saw their faces. Could be Boyd McGrath was one of them.”
“His body’s too mangled for me to recognize him,” Kyle said. “Let me see the picture on his driver’s license.”
Gage flipped open the wallet. Kyle studied the photo and shook his head. “I don’t know. I wasn’t paying much attention. I was busy making sure we were ready to leave the next morning. If he was one of them, could be they were watching us when we left.”
Gage nodded. “We lost valuable time yesterday. Without all the gear, they’d be able to travel a whole lot faster. Could have been right behind us by the time the rain started.”
Mateo looked at Kyle. “If they ran into Smiley on his way out, he could have given them the location of our last campsite.”
Abby’s gaze jerked to Gage. “You don’t think they would have hurt him?”
“I need to call my dad,” Kyle said. “He and Smiley are due back at the ranch today. They may be in cell range by now.”
Abby’s heart pounded as she waited for Kyle’s call to go through. His body relaxed a little when Walt picked up the phone.
“Dad. I was hoping you’d have cell service by now. We’ve run into some trouble. Are you and Smiley okay?”
She could only hear part of the conversation, but from the grim look that settled over Kyle’s features, it wasn’t good news. He told his father what had happened. Walt said something she couldn’t hear. Kyle ended the call and handed the phone back to Gage.
“Dad’s okay. They’re about a mile from the horse trailer. Smiley’s in pretty rough shape. Just got three bars or they would have called.”
Worry darkened Gage’s features. “What happened?”
“Dad says three men waylaid Smiley on his way to the rendezvous point. They beat him up, threatened to shoot him if he didn’t tell them which way we went. Smiley gave them our last location, figured you and Mateo were savvy enough to handle them if they managed to find you. Figured they probably wouldn’t—even though they’d talked to old Spitting Crow about which way you were going.”
Mateo spoke up. “He is the Apache who told me about the wagon road.”
“They must have someone with them who knows the mountains,” Gage said. “Any idea who it could be?”
Kyle nodded. “Guy named Ray Peters would be my guess. Ray’s in his forties, lived here all his life. He’s the kind of guy who’s always got an angle. You don’t want to turn your back on him, but he knows the Superstitions almost as well as my dad.”
“Wouldn’t Smiley have recognized him?”
“Maybe he stayed out of sight. If it’s Ray, he’d have at least one of his cronies with him. Doesn’t go anywhere without backup.”
Gage stared off toward the stark, cactus-covered mountains in the distance. “Smiley needs to call the police.”
Kyle shook his head. “Not his way. My dad, either. Dad wants me to bring you out. I told him there was no way you’d quit when we were so close.”
Gage’s blue eyes zeroed in on Abby. “Walt’s right. Be smarter to head back to the ranch.”
Abby felt the words like a punch in the stomach. “You can’t be serious. You said yourself greed killed Boyd. He got greedy and paid the price.”
“Abby—”
She turned to Kyle. “There’s a hundred percent bonus if you’ll keep going. We should be there by late tomorrow, the next morning at the latest. What do you say?”
