By Atonia and Jo

Jo writing Maximus, Caroline, Bud, Marie, Sid, Hope, Cort, Daisy, Lachlan, Ben

Atonia writing Terry, Dee, Alex, Linda, Jack, Tarwyn, John, Bethany, Dino, Max

PART 19:

Terry pulled into Linda’s drive. “This is a five mile driveway. Kind of gives you an idea of the scope of this place.”

“What does she have here?” Jack asked.

“Horses and cattle.”

Jack rubbed his chin. He might talk with her about horses. Once this business was finished. He looked grimly ahead. He had about his person a knife and a handgun. Terry had cautioned them about the handguns. They were to be used only as a last resort. He only had one with a silencer and he’d given that one to Ben.

Maximus, who ordinarily would have been interested in the ranch, was interested now in nothing but getting to Hawkins.  “Just get there, Terry, so we may get in place,” he almost growled.

Ben looked over at him.  This was the Maximus from the arena, not the man he’d come to know in Texas.  He didn’t blame him at all, though.  The loss of a woman like Caroline, well, that would do such a thing to a man.  He hadn’t been around them all that long, but in the last day three of his brothers had almost been killed and a really special woman loved by one of them had been taken and was inevitably dead by now.  He’d never seen quite the look of mingled grief and rage that sparked in Maximus’ eyes. 

Ben had two guns with him.  He wasn’t about to leave the Hand of God behind even when Terry gave him the new-fangled one.  He’d never heard of a silencer before, but it seemed like a right fine idea, especially when there was someone you intended to kill and you didn’t want to alert the populace.  “We’ll be takin’ the man down, Gen’rul.  I promise you that.  He ain’t never goin’ to see another mornin’.”

As Terry neared the house he slowed. The drive forked off to the left and that’s where he’d driven when he and Deidre came out. It went along a fence line and ended up at the stables and barns. The other took you to the front of the house where it circled around and came back on itself at the fork.

“All right, if we go left we end up at the barn. If we go right we’ll be at the front of the house. I’m going to drive around there now so you can see how it goes.”

“A lot of trees, old trees by the size of them,” Jack observed. In the circle in front of the house was a fountain surrounded by blooming shrubbery and underplanted with flowers.

“I’m thinking anybody driving in here will park about here. She says there’s a car in front and one behind him. That’s the way he rolls around. Somewhere along here we’ve got to find some cover.” Terry stopped the car and got out.

Linda came out the front door. “I’ve been watching for you.”

“We stopped by my house first. Are you still on for this, Linda?”

“On for it? I’m primed and ready.” She walked over. They were all out of the car now. “I hate

to ask this but I’d like to have one of you inside with me. I intend to  talk with him in my ranch office. I don’t think he’d hurt me physically but after what I’ve seen lately…”

“I would prefer to accompany you, Linda…if you have no objections, Terry,” Maximus said.

“I’d love to have you, Maximus.”

“Guess that answers that,” Terry replied. “We’re trying to figure out where would be best to conceal ourselves out here.”

“He always parks right in front of the door. There’ll be a car about where the drive starts to curve ahead of him and one about twenty feet behind him. They always keep their motors running and usually there are a couple of men in each vehicle.”

“Will the doors be locked or do you know?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know. I won’t turn on all the lights but there will be lights around the door. I have to make it look normal. I just…I want you all to know how very much I love each of you. This is something that has to be done for the good of all of us. I’m one of you now and I won’t let you down tonight. I’m fully prepared for Hawk.”

Maximus went inside with Linda.  Something in him wished to sift a handful of soil.  He was going into battle and it had been a while since he’d had the familiar feelings that were washing over him. 

There was a swinging door at the far end of the big living room, leading into a room beyond, and he went through it, holding it slightly ajar with the toe of his boot.  The lights were off in the room he was in, but Linda had several on in the living room.  He pulled out Caroline’s gun, looking down at it, thinking how appropriate it was that it was her gun.

Tarwyn, Beth and Dee had been talking quietly and crying a little and mostly grieving for Caroline. Tarwyn stood up. “I think we all need some chocolate. You know? When I’m down or stressed it’s my go-to.”

“I think there’s some hot chocolate mix in the kitchen.”

“It’s gonna take more than hot chocolate for me, Beth. John, can I go down to the gift shop before it closes and load up on chocolate?”

John looked up at her. “I heard the Captain tell you to stay put.”

“I know but if you’d come with me then it would be all right, wouldn’t it?”

“I don’t want to leave the floor. Bud can’t move around.”

“I’ll go with her. It’s just off the elevators. A quick in and out and we’ll be back.” Max walked over to John. “Will you allow it?”

John hesitated a minute. “Okay, but you stay right with her and keep a look out.”

“I want a Snickers bar,” Dee requested.

Linda came into the living room. “Maximus?”

“I am in here, Linda.  I will wait until…until.”

“I’m thinking I’ll show him in here and I’m going to position myself behind the desk so he’ll have to sit here in this chair.” She moved it a little and went behind her desk and opened the drawer. Her gun was loaded and ready.

“You need to be concealed when he comes in. Now I’ve got some things to say to him before…I think over here behind the curtain. I’ll move this tall pant a little to help hide you. Maximus, I know we aren’t well acquainted but I want you to know that I take full responsibility for what’s happened to our loved ones. It’s my fault and nothing I can do is going to make it right…I’m going to kill him.”

“If you prefer I conceal myself there,” he said, coming out from behind the swinging door, “then that is fine…but…I will kill him, Linda. You do not need…”  He stopped because headlights were coming up the drive.

“Thanks for coming with me, Max. I’m just about to jump out of my skin sitting around up there knowing Jack and the rest of them are out at Linda's.”

“Not a problem, Tarwyn. Let’s make this quick.” Max held onto her as they walked into the gift shop. The cashier was attaching a card to a vase of flowers someone was buying. One other person was putting bottles of water in a stand-up cooler near a partially open door.

“Ah, chocolate!” Tarwyn went down the aisle picking up candy. “You want some?”

“No, thank you. You’ll never eat all that, Tarwyn.”

“It’s not all for me. I forgot my purse.”

“Typical woman…the man always pays,” Max smiled and pulled out his wallet.

The vase of flowers was gone along with the customer and the cashier began ringing up the candy. Max looked to see if he had any cash.

“Oh, I forgot Dee’s Snickers!” Tarwyn stepped back to the candy aisle and grabbed a Snickers bar. The man at the cooler bumped her and then grabbed her around the mouth and waist pulling her back into the store room and closing the door. It happened so quickly the shock stunned her for a moment.

He had a tight grip around her mouth and she could only make 'M' sounds. He was trying to pull her toward another door. Tarwyn kicked at him with her high heels and twisted and turned until she came out of his arm. He hit her and knocked her against a pile of boxes. Tarwyn came up and went for his groin, getting a knee in before he slammed her against an empty display rack. She screamed.

Max turned around, waiting for her to bring the candy bar and didn’t see her. “Tarwyn?...Tarwyn!!”

He heard the scream  and came through the door to the store room. A man was tripping over fallen boxes and trying to get out the door. Max tackled him to the floor and banged his head on the concrete. Then he turned to Tarwyn.

“Oh, God!” Blood was flowing down the front of her blouse. “Tarwyn!”

“I…I…I can’t move.”

One of the long metal hooks was sticking though her shoulder.

Terry checked his watch. “He’s early.”

Jack and Terry were flattened against the house in the shadows. Ben was on the other side of the drive squatting down between two bushes. None of them moved until the cars were stopped. Just as Linda said, the one in back was in the dark with its headlights still on. The men got out and went up to the middle car and stood there while Hawk got out.

“Won’t be long boys,” Hawk said and reached for Linda’s front door. After a couple of minutes the ‘boys’ returned to their vehicles.

It made sense to Ben to go after the car back in the dark, get it taken care of first because it could be done with the least notice.  He was wearing black and the shadow of one of the large bushes merged with the general darkness beyond the range of the house lights, so he backed into that and began to make his way toward the third of the three cars.  He had Terry’s gun with the silencer in his right hand and the Hand of God in his left.  When he was opposite the car he noticed the barely discernable shapes of Terry and Jack across from him.

Somebody had to make the first move. The guy in the passenger seat obliged them by stepping out of the vehicle and walking back into the dark a few paces to take a piss. At this point they couldn’t risk a noise, anything that might bring attention. Terry took him out silently and Jack pulled the body into the shadows. Now the driver.

Linda met her father at the door and led him to her office. “I thought we’d talk in here.”

“Good, 'cause I wanna know what is so important I had to fly down here tonight.”

She took her seat behind the desk. There was a moment of nervousness when her father walked toward the window and looked out before sitting down in the only chair in the room other than hers. She wondered if he could sense Maximus behind the drapes.

“Like I said, we need to talk face to face. Hawk.”
 

“When did you start calling me Hawk?” Only his ‘associates’ called him that.

“When you stopped being my Daddy and started trying to kill Alex and my friends one by one.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I will admit that I didn’t care for the boy.”

“Mission accomplished…only it wasn’t. You had him beaten and left for dead. Why is it you want to kill what I love?”

“In the first place, little girl, I don’t know what you’re talking about and in the second place, it’s time you started listening to me. You go tearin’ around pickin’ up these no account cowboys when you had a perfectly good man in Jake…”

“Don’t start that again. It’s over between us. I’m not your daughter anymore, if I ever was and it’s for damn sure you aren’t my father. I don’t like you, Hawk. I don’t like what you’ve done with your hired killers. Three of my friends are lying in the hospital right now because of you and one is missing. You have to pay for that and no amount of money is going to erase that debt.”

Maximus tensed behind the drapes, his finger slightly tightening on the trigger of Caroline’s gun.  He would know when the moment was right.  Let Linda say first what she needed to to her father. 

Ben took aim at the man in the driver’s seat.  He’d rolled his window down and was sitting there smoking.  It was the first time he’d fired a gun with a silencer and he was amazed at the little phftt of noise his shot made.  The man crumpled forward against the wheel.  That one’s for Bud, he thought grimly.

“I don’t know where you’re getting your information or what kind of so-called friends you think you have…”

“You know what kind of friends I have because you’ve seen a video taken at the hospital. You can thank Carpenter for that…can’t you? I’m not blind, Hawk. I know who you really are. I know what you are.”

“You little bitch!” Hawk stood up. “I mighta known ‘cause your mama wasn’t much more than a whore I picked up…”

Maximus stepped out from behind the drapes, his gun leveled at Hawk’s head. “That is enough!” he snapped.

“Who the hell are you?”

 

“My name is not important,” Maximus said, his voice low and deep with anger.  “You are going to tell me what you have done with my lady, whom you took from the hospital elevator this afternoon.  She was in the midst of a medical crisis and yet your men took her.  You will tell me…now…what has become of her.”

“I don’t know nothin’ about your lady.” He looked around at Linda and saw the gun in her hand. “You…you set me up!” He laughed a little. “What is it you think is gonna happen here? You don’t have it in you, girl. Call off your dog over here and let’s talk this out.”

“I am no one’s dog.”  The voice was deadly. 

Hawkins recognized the tone and began to turn, reaching inside his jacket for a gun.  “Gino!” he hollered, trying to attract the attention of his driver, but two shots echoed in the room, one from near the desk, another from by the window, and Hawkins crumpled to the carpet, dead before he hit the floor.

Terry signaled to Ben. The only way to eliminate the driver of Hawk’s car was for Ben to take him out. He was sitting in the car but the car was spotlighted from the door. Jack was already on the move, crossing the drive and coming up near where Ben had taken cover.

Max stood back while the medical team carefully removed Tarwyn from the display rack. She fainted and he stepped forward. The man on the floor was moaning but by now the security people were in there. He had to explain the man on the floor.

“I’m not sure what the motive was. I would assume attempted rape,” Max went on. “I heard her scream and came through the door. You see how she was found.”

Ben was now in position just in the shadows not far from the middle of the three cars.  The driver’s window was only rolled about a third of the way down, but it was enough for Ben to take the shot without breaking the glass and alerting the men in the first vehicle.  Another

phftt and this driver slumped sideways.

Gunfire – it was all over now. They rushed the third car just as the men were coming out the doors with their weapons drawn.

“Hi, Peaches, it’s Daddy.”

“Oh…Daddy! Oh…I…I’m just so glad to hear your voice!”

“Are you all right, little darlin’? Somethin’ sounds…”

“No, Daddy, I’m fine, just fine.”

“Is Lachlan with you?”

Hope looked over to the bed where Lachlan was asleep, hooked up to many monitors.  “Yes, Daddy, Lachlan’s right here in the room with me.”

“I’m glad.  I’m so pleased he’s with you, little darlin’.”

“Are you coming home, Daddy?”

“I’m on my way.  Spendin’ the night in Las Cruces.  I’ve got somethin’ to tell you, Peaches, but I want to do it in person.  I…I’m happy.  I know you haven’t seen me that way since you’ve been grown up, but things are goin’ to be different when I get home, sweetheart.”

“You’re happy, Daddy?  Really happy?”

“I am.  I haven’t been this happy in so long.  You know how I’ve been lookin’ for somethin’ an’ how it always just hurt down inside.  Well, sweetheart, I found what I was lookin’ for an’ I found more’n that, more’n I ever thought I’d find.  I can hardly wait to share it with you, Baby Girl.”

“I’m not a baby.”  She couldn’t help herself.  She smiled, though, as she said it.

Cort laughed.  “No, you certainly aren’t!”  He paused a minute.  “What about your uncles?  Sid hasn’t been up to anything, has he?”

“No, Daddy.  Sid hasn’t been around at all.”

“Good.  I’m glad to hear it.  I was worried he might cause trouble while I was gone.”

“No, no trouble from Sid at all, Daddy.  When do you think you’ll be here?”

“Oh, not for two, maybe three more days.  I’m, um, kinda takin’ my time drivin’ home.  Is that all right with you?”

“It’s fine, Daddy.  It means so much to hear happiness in your voice.  I just…I just…”

“What, Little Darlin’?”

“I want to hug you really bad.”

“I want to hug you, too.  Soon.  It’ll be really soon.”

When she folded her phone she went out to the hall and spoke to Bud and John.  “Daddy just called.”

“He ok?” Bud asked.

“Uncle Bud, he sounded so…different.”

“How?”

“He…he was happy.  I barely remember the sound of that in his voice.”  She looked from one of her uncles to the other.  “I didn’t tell him.  I couldn’t…not with the way he sounded.  It just wasn’t right to tell him…not yet.”

“That’s good to hear. Cort deserves some happiness after all he’s been through. No, no need to put a damper on that. He’ll find out soon enough what’s going on here.” John looked at his watch and then at Bud. “Max and Tarwyn have been gone long enough to start worrying me.” He pulled out his phone and called Max.

“Excuse me.” Max looked down at his phone and walked away from the security guards.

“John, I haven’t even had time to call you. Someone attacked Tarwyn. I was paying for the candy and she ran back to get one more thing. I turned around and called her and she wasn’t there. A minute later I heard her screaming in the store room of the gift shop. She’s…she has a nasty injury to her shoulder. They just took her out of here to emergency.”

“Oh, fuck, Max!”

“Exactly. The perpetrator is in custody now. I suggested attempted rape, though I don’t know what will happen to him.”

“They caught him?”

“Well, yes. I more or less finished what Tarwyn started with him. I think this fellow is through with me though the police have been called in. I may have to give some sort of statement to them. Right now I’m going back to emergency and stay until I find out about Tarwyn’s condition. I’ll call you later.”

John lay his phone down on the coffee table. “They got Tarwyn this time.”

Bud covered his eyes with a hand. “Fuck!” he whispered, barely audibly.

Jack wrestled the man to the ground who'd been coming out of the driver’s seat. They rolled a few times and Jack was able to wrench his gun away from him. He then turned it on the man and fired with the gun pressed to the man’s stomach, which somewhat muffled the sound.

Terry grabbed the passenger from behind and had him in a grip around his shoulders and arms. The man couldn’t bring his gun up to fire and Ben took the gun away from him without too much trouble.

“Let him live, Ben. Somebody needs to carry the news.”

Linda dropped her gun. On the floor Hawk was lying in a pool of his own blood. It sickened her. She turned away from it and staggered against the wall.

Maximus crossed quickly to her, putting his arms around her.  “It is over, Linda. He will never hurt you or anybody else ever again.  It is over.”  But the man hadn’t said a thing about Caroline, had even acted like he didn’t know about what happened to her.  The man was a consummate liar, but it left Maximus with no knowledge of what had happened to her.  It would have taken more than the ten minutes Canfield had given her to live, taken more than that just to get her out of the hospital.  There was no way she would still be alive.  He stared over Linda’s shoulder at the man on the floor then closed his eyes.  Caroline was gone.  More than likely they had simply dumped her somewhere when she died.  A shudder went through him at the thought.

Linda sagged against Maximus, needing his support. She’d never shot a living thing in her life. Shock was setting in now and she began shaking.

“Linda! Maximus!” Terry was inside the house, calling for them. He’d left Ben and Jack trussing up the one survivor. The house was quiet and he walked with his gun drawn toward a lighted room ahead. There was no way he could know what those shots he heard meant.

Maximus held onto Linda.  He was devastated himself, not from the death of the man but because Caroline was so utterly gone.  When he heard Terry call, it took him a moment to respond.  “In here, Terry.  Hawkins is dead.”  He still held Linda as Terry came into the room, fearing that if he let go of her, she’d simply crumple.

Terry lowered his gun and looked at Hawk lying on the floor. He squatted down and felt for a pulse. There was none.

“Are both of you okay?”

“I am…fine,” Maximus said slowly.  He wasn’t.  “Linda, however, is in shock.”

With the man tied and tossed in the back seat of one of the cars, Jack went along turning off the motors and the lights. He joined Ben as he was about to go inside.

“We have a pile of bodies to dispose of. Too bad we are not at sea for it would be a simple matter of feeding the sharks.”

“I like the way you think, Cap’n,” Ben grinned.  Inside, they located the others. Ben crouched beside Hawkins.  There were two bullet holes in the man.  He looked up at Maximus with a question on his face, but the expression in the General’s eyes halted any verbalization of it.

Terry went behind the desk and relieved Maximus of Linda. “Why not sit down, Maximus?”

Terry stared into Linda’s eyes. She looked a little vacant. “We need to get you back to the hospital.”

Slowly she came to herself and looked back at Terry. “I…I want to be with Alex.”

“We’ll get you there. Let’s get you out of this room for now.” He walked her through the door to the living room. “Jack, will you sit with Linda?”

“Of course I will.”

Back in the bloody office, Terry looked down at the man who’d caused so much pain and heartache. “He doesn’t look like much, does he? We have to decide what to do with the remains. He needs to be found somewhere away from here.”

Maximus sat down in the desk chair, not taking his eyes off Hawkins.  Putting his head on a pike for the vultures to pick would be more than the man deserved. He no longer wished to be in his presence even if he were dead, so he scooted the chair roughly back and strode to the front door, then out past the cars into the grassy area beyond where it was dark. 

“Caroline,” he whispered, “oh, gods, Caroline…how can you be gone?”

He barely noticed the vehicle pulling up with a horse trailer behind it.  The man behind the wheel called out to him.  “Lights are on in the main house. Linda home?” Maximus did not reply.  He had no words for anyone, not right now.

Dennis had been with Linda since the day she first owned the ranch. He’d been there looking after her when she was married to Jake Calhoun. He stopped his truck and took in the three cars in the drive. He didn’t know the man he’d spoken to and was suspicious of him because he didn’t answer. As he walked up to the house and saw a couple of dead bodies he ran to the door.

“Linda?...Linda?...You all right?”

“She is in here,” Jack answered for her and stood up to face the man in the plaid shirt. “Who are you?”

“It’s Dennis.” Linda didn’t even look up.

“What’s goin’ on here, Linda?”

“I am afraid the lady is in no condition to speak with you at present.”

Terry heard him and came into the living room. He recognized the man who’d gone after Ben’s horse, Ribbon. “Mr. Allen, would you come in here for a minute?”

“Terry Thorne…okay, what’s up around here?” He tipped his hat back and followed Terry. “Oh…oh…I’ll be gol darned. That’s her old man.”

“Yes.” Terry watched him.

“Well, I can’t say I’m sorry to see him like that. He was a mean ‘un.”

“No one else is sorry, either.”

“I saw some more like that out in the drive.” Dennis looked at Terry.

“His minions.”

“You got that right. He was the devil all right.”

“Somehow, Mr. Allen, we have to clean this up.”

“I gotcha. Don’t none of this need to rest on this ranch. It don’t need to touch Linda at all.”

“That’s right. That’s what we were thinking.”

“You know, I got that horse out here that you sent me after, that movie horse from Yuma.”

Terry closed his eyes and grimaced. There was Ben standing beside him. Oh, well, at least something good had arrived. He glanced at Ben to see if he’d caught it.

“Yuma?”  Ben looked from Dennis to Terry.  “What’s he meanin’, Terry, he got the horse from Yuma?”

Terry turned away from the dead man on the floor and took a few steps. “Do you remember the night, well, probably you don’t, at least not all of it…the night I found you at the Blue Note and brought you home? You said something about a good horse.” Terry took a breath, “So, I set out to see if it was possible for you to have a good horse. It took a little wrangling and you can credit Linda with some of that. Ben, Ribbon is out there in a horse trailer. We located him on a set in Abilene and Dennis has brought him…home to you. He’s yours.”

Ben’s lips were parted and his jaw was moving slightly from side to side as he tried to comprehend what Terry was saying.  “My horse?”  He had to clear his throat before he could continue.  “You sayin’ you done got my black outta Yuma? How…why…you…you an’ Linda, you done that for me?”  He was astounded.  Nothing in his life had ever quite astounded him like he felt right now.  He didn’t even know how to fully grasp the thought of it. 

“I thought…well, a man’s got to have something. You were so lost. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Ah, Linda said you can keep him out here until you find a place of your own. I believe the truck and the trailer are to be yours as well.”

“That’s right. It ain’t like we’re hurtin’ for trucks and trailers around here,” Dennis added. “We got plenty of room for him to run around in the paddocks and a good place for him to spend his nights. You’d be welcome out here any time you take a notion to go ridin’.”

Ben turned his back and walked to the window, not wanting the men to see him blinking back a couple of tears.  His heart hurt and he wasn’t sure just what to do to make it stop.  Without turning, he asked,  “He out there in that trailer thing right now, you say?”

“Yep, you wanna come out and say hello? You might haveta side step a few dead bodies but…he’s out there.” Dennis took his hat off and ran a hand through his short gray hair before settling it back in the groove around his head.

“Go on, Ben. Go say hello to Ribbon.” Terry turned back to him.

Jack was standing just outside the door and motioned for Terry. He moved past Dennis and into the living room.

“Terry, if it’s all right, I’d like to take Linda back to the hospital. I can return and help you here.”

Terry sighed, “Go ahead, she needs to be with Alex. I believe with Dennis’s help we can get this cleared away. Have you seen Maximus?”

“He went outside, there through the front doorway. He’s much torn.”

“I know, it’s Caroline.” Terry sat down by Linda. “I hate to ask you this but have you an idea of where we can leave the body?”

“How about where Bud was injured. Where they ran him off the road. Take them all out there and leave them. I’m so sorry you have to be involved in this.”

“Linda, we’re all in it together.” He stood up. There were three vehicles that had to be driven out to the crash site. As much as he hated it, he was going to have to ask Maximus to drive one of them.

John was now pacing about. “How damn long does it take to kill a snake?”

“Terry said he’d call, John. Give him time,” Dee said, but she was worried too.

The elevator opened, giving them all a start, but it was Max.

“They’re bringing Tarwyn up.” He looked like he’d been through hell, and he had.

“How is she?” Beth asked. “I wanted to go down but John wouldn’t let me.”

“The doctor said she would be sore for awhile and may need a little therapy for her shoulder. The, um, hook penetrated her shoulder. It was sticking out just below her collarbone. She was very lucky that it missed her lung. There may be a little nerve damage…he said.”

“Jack is gonna shit,” John remarked.

“He’s going to kill me for letting it happen.” Max ran a hand through his hair.

“This is no more your fault, Max,” Bud said, “than any of the others are anybody’s fault…except for Hawkins.  It all goes directly to that man’s doorstep.”  He sighed heavily then looked at John.  “Call Terry, would ya?  I’m going to go fuckin’ outta my head if we don’t get word soon.”

John looked at his phone and hated to call because he didn’t know what was going on out at the ranch. He had his finger poised over the speed dial number for Terry when his phone trilled.

“John, I guess you could say mission accomplished. It’s done. We’ve got four bodies to dispose of and Hawk. We’re all okay here...physically. Jack is going to drive Linda back to the hospital in a couple of minutes.”

“Who did it?”

“I haven’t looked closely enough to say. Two shots were fired. Linda and Maximus. John, Maximus is not doing too well. I’ve got to call on him to drive one of the vehicles out to the

crash site. That’s where we’re going to leave them.”

“I don’t imagine he is doing well. We’re all thinking about Caroline. Oh, probably you don’t want to say anything about this before Jack leaves, but Tarwyn is the latest victim of Hawk.

She was attacked down in the gift shop storeroom. She’s going to be okay but she’s had a little surgery and they’re bringing her up now. In fact the elevator just opened with her.”

“I’m sorry to hear that and, no, I won’t say anything. I left Bethany’s phone there somewhere.

If you can find it, how about sending Carpenter a text…just tell him ‘mission accomplished’ and tell him to check out highway 45.”

“Okay, I’ll wait a bit, though, and give you time to, um, dispose of the trash.”

“Thanks, John.”

Terry was standing out in the driveway. Dennis came out with Ben, heading for the horse trailer. Terry walked over to one of the vehicles, picked up the body and threw it in the back seat and closed the door. He looked down toward the fountain and saw Maximus’ outline.

“Maximus, can you give me a hand here?”

Maximus turned slowly and looked at Terry almost blankly.  “Hand? Oh? Yes.” He came up closer.  “What is it you have need of?”

“We aren’t finished here yet. We need to load up these bodies in the cars. I think we’ll leave the vehicles out on highway 45 where Bud’s car went off the road. Dennis can follow us in my car and bring us back here. Then we’re done.”

Maximus was in danger of falling away and Terry wanted to give him something to do.  With Jack gone and Ben looking at his horse it was up to him and Maximus. He needed him.

“Done? Yes, I should like to be done.  I am…yes.”  He leaned down and lifted another of the dead men.  “You lead, Terry.  I am not precisely sure where this location may be.”

“I’ll lead, Maximus.”

Dennis lowered the gate of the trailer and Ben went up the ramp, wiping a hand across his mouth.  It was his black…his horse…his.  He didn’t know why they were calling Ranger Ribbon, but it didn’t matter.  It was his horse and the animal recognized him, responded instantly to his touch, his voice.  Something indescribable went through Ben, a connection, a sense of…he didn’t have words.  What he was feeling was a falling away of aloneness, that here was a living thing that had been where he had been, who knew him and whom he knew from times and places where he had always believed he belonged. 

“Ranger,” he murmured and pressed his face into the neck of the horse.

Jack pulled Linda’s car into the parking garage at the hospital. She hadn’t said a word since they left the house.

“Linda?”

She opened the car door and looked at Jack. “Thank you, thank you for just letting me…be...

for awhile. I’ll be okay, I just need to see Alex.”

“Then let us go to him.” Jack opened his door and waited for her.

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