Aaron, the lead Marshal, stepped forward and knelt down to get a better look at Leigh. “Look fellas, she took a round through the thigh, you see that?” he asked pointing at the entry wound.
The others nodded.
“Now that’s a shot. By the amount of blood, that round cut through her artery and now the bitch is about to expire from blood loss,” he laughed.
“With her, that’s four, that means one got away, their leader,” Ty said.
“And he had someone with him, another woman,” the young Marshal said, excitement in his eyes at the prospect of torturing or even raping Leigh. “Senior Marshal Aaron, can we have some fun with her before she dies?”
Aaron stood, gave the young Marshal a hard look and asked, “Is that the kind of people you think we are?”
“Ah, but I thought…” the young Marshal said. He was new to the Marshals’ service.
“You thought right, go have fun boys, do whatever you want, she’ll be dead soon anyway.”
The men drew close to Leigh.
Another Marshal entered the barn bringing their number to eight total surrounding Leigh. “Senior Marshal, total count for us tonight is six KIA and seven wounded.”
“Fourteen,” Leigh muttered.
Aaron turned around and looked at Leigh, “Move out of the way.” The other stepped aside. “What did you say?” he asked her.
“Fourteen,” she answered, her eyes half open and a crooked smile on her face.
“Fourteen? What the hell does that mean?” Aaron asked.
Leigh exhaled her last breath. Her hands went limp, freeing Sally. The spoon flew off the grenade, it rolled between her legs and detonated.
CHAPTER 9
Mindset. That’s all Kyle had going for him at the moment. Following over a week of fighting, beatings and torture he was now operating on nothing but pure willpower. After losing a couple hours because of the detour he pressed ahead to make up time, only stopping to refuel and urinate. He even ignored the screaming baby, a feat that was probably the toughest.
When he entered the Republic, hope began to rise in him. When he crossed into Salina, his hope turned to a rising confidence. Soon, he’d either find Portia or know where she wasn’t, then move onto the next stop. He had tried to call Jacob several times along the drive, but never reached him. The idea of a phone was great as long as the other person answered.
Now that he was in Salina, he’d be nearing the beginning of the end of his search. He rounded the last turn and up ahead stood the Rusty Nail. He wasn’t sure if this was the spot Jacob referenced in Salina, but it made logical sense.
He pulled the truck into the parking lot of the Rusty Nail and backed into a spot in the back. Across from him Conrad, the old lot guard, sat smoking a pipe. Today, he wasn’t going in to talk, today he was going in fight.
The baby began to stir and cry.
“Hey little guy, I’m sorry I don’t have milk or food, but I’ll have some soon, I promise,” Kyle said tickling the baby’s chubby cheek.
Kyle stepped out of the truck. He press checked two Glock 19s before stuffing them into holsters, one on his tactical vest and one on his hip. A third Glock 19 he kept on the seat of the truck, he’d carry that one in. He checked to make sure he had enough fully loaded magazines for his pistols and rifle, an old Daniel Defense MK18 carbine.
A whistle from across the parking lot jolted in out of his preps. He looked in the direction and saw one of the prostitutes standing near the back door smoking a cigarette. He nodded and went back to prepping. When his firearms were ready, he put Tommy’s Hoback knife on his vest, and attached Tommy’s axe on his left hip. An idea popped in his head, he looked back at the prostitute and waved her over.
She stomped on her marijuana cigarette and rushed over to him. “Look at you cowboy, you look like you mean business,” she said. She cocked her hip out and gave him a seductive look. She wasn’t older than seventeen and was wearing hot pants and a crop top with no bra underneath. Her blonde colored hair with roots hung down to her shoulders and her bangs were cut horizontally across her brow line.
“I do,” he replied reaching inside his backpack and pulling out a wad of Republic dollars. He handed them to her and said, “I need you to sit here with this baby until I return.”
“Baby?” she asked shocked by the request.
“Yeah,” he said nodding towards the child.
She looked in the cab and said, “Oh my, there is a baby, he’s so cute, or is it a girl?”
“Don’t know, haven’t checked. Can you feed and change him or her while I’m gone too?”
“I don’t know much about babies,” she said reluctant to take the proposition.
“Say, did you get some new girls in here a few days ago?” he asked.
“Yeah, ladies from The Collective, real prissy types,” the girl said.
“Any of them named Portia, average height, dark hair, lean build?” he asked.
“Nope, I don’t know any Portia,” she said smacking on gum. “You know, I’m not sure about this babysitting thing.”
“I’ll double the cash when I get back and I’ll toss in a bonus for you.”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?”
“I’ll set you free, you and all the girls,” he said putting his rifle sling over his shoulder.
“Free?”
“Yeah.”
“How ya’ going to do that?” she asked.
He looked her deep into her eyes and said, “Because, I’m going to kill everyone responsible for this place.”
“Jacob, pull over,” Portia urged.
“No, we’re pushing all the way through,” Jacob replied. He was struggling to remain awake.
“Listen to me, you’re exhausted, I’m exhausted, let’s find a place to rest, just for a short bit, please,” she pleaded.
“I can’t, if we hadn’t stopped my team would be alive, Leigh would be alive,” Jacob said.
She put her hand on his and said, “That wasn’t your fault, that was Chef, he betrayed you and your friends.”
“How could he? After all those years together, he just turned us in. It all makes sense when I think about how he had been acting lately. For the past few days, every time we’d camp, we’d discover the Marshals are close behind. That bastard was giving them our coordinates.”
“It’s over now,” Portia said.
“And poor Leigh,” Jacob said fighting back tears.
“I didn’t know you two were together, I’m sorry,” she said.
“We weren’t, I mean we didn’t show the team our affection. I hid it for many years but had only recently opened up to her and now she’s gone.”
“Let’s pull over, please,” she again pleaded.
“Fine,” he said and immediately slowed and took the next dirt road off the old two lane highway. “We’ll park in that grove of trees,” he said pointing ahead some fifty feet.
“Perfect,” she said.
He pulled into the trees and turned the vehicle off. “We’re almost out of fuel.”
“We’ll take care of it later, let’s get some sleep,” she said, her eyes growing heavy.
“I’m really sorry about your husband,” he said.
“And I’m sorry about Leigh. Tell me more about Paradise.”
“What do you want to know?”
“How much further?”
“We’re almost in the Neutral Zone, then we go into Cartel country. If all goes smooth, we’ll be at the dock by tomorrow afternoon, so thirty some hours of driving.”
She yawned.
“You know something. We’re together because of pure fate. A simple call and now we’re sitting here,” he said looking over to see Portia was sleeping. He didn’t want to follow suit but it was becoming impossible. He removed his pistol and sat it on his lap. Leaning back he gazed south, closed his eyes and nodded off.