A Billionaire's Redemption(44)

Hah! Uppity bitch. Always so perfect and unattainable. No one was good enough to kiss the bottoms of your shoes. Spurned us all. Nobody in Vengeance good enough for Miss High-and-Mighty.”

What? She was nothing of the sort. She was shy and awkward and uncomfortable in her own skin. “Is that how everyone saw me?” she asked him in surprise.

We called you the ice princess.”

And there I was, hoping it was just that everyone was scared to death of my father,” she replied wryly.

James looked over at her, and she thought she saw...something...in his pale gaze. A hint of sanity. For just an instant. Maybe there was hope for reaching him yet.

The van began to slow and she looked up to see the distinctive shape of an oil derrick interrupting the flat line of the open plain on their left. The Vacarro Field. It stretched across thousands of acres of prime oil land, and this was just the first corner of it. There was an entire airfield tucked in the middle of the property, in fact. No less than twenty massive oil-drilling platforms spread across the property in an east-west line that followed the oil below.

James turned the van onto a dirt road winding into the property. A trail of dust marked their passage. It hadn’t rained out here.

They approached the first towering steel structure. The huge, rotating hammer head of the pump was parked at the four-o’clock position.

How come the well’s not pumping?” James asked.

I have no idea. Maybe it’s down for maintenance.”

The road led them another mile or so to another well, which also was still and silent. “What the hell?” James growled. “You shut the field down to squeeze my family dry, didn’t you? Bitch!” he exclaimed.

The van picked up speed and bumped across the rough track, deeper into the massive isolation of the Texas plains. The road ended at the airfield, which sported a half-dozen large hangars. Willa didn’t remember those from the last time she’d been out here. But then, it had been years since she’d visited the oil field with her father. He’d been on a press junket, as she recalled. Trotting journalists out here to crow about domestic oil production being the future of America.

Heat devils made the air over the long asphalt airstrip waver. Indian summer must be here. It couldn’t be much past 10:00 a.m., and it already felt well over ninety degrees.

James stopped the van, and the pistol came out of its holster to point at her. He walked around front, the weapon trained on her the whole time. He yanked her door open. “Get out. This is where the road ends for you.”

He stepped close and grabbed her by the arm. Oddly, he froze, nostrils flaring. “Pain and suffering, blood and agony,” he crooned to her. “Gonna kill the little Merris girl. Slowly. Hours and hours of screaming.” He groaned in pleasure. She glanced down involuntarily and was appalled to see a telltale bulge in his pants. Shuddering, she stumbled as he yanked at her arm, dragging her forward.

She was done praying for her life. Now she only prayed that her death would be fast.





Chapter 19

Gabe was glad McGrath was at the wheel as they drove the treacherous roads through the pass where Willa had almost died last night. The guy was clearly a trained offensive driver and flung the SUV around the vicious curves like a Formula One racer.

They came out of the worst of the terrain and the big SUV picked up speed, devouring the road like a hungry beast. “Faster,” he urged anyway.

I’m flooring it, Dawson. Just topped one-forty.”

They had to get to her in time. Willa had to be all right. He was going to strangle her when he caught up with her, but she’d damned well better be alive when he did it. Hang on, baby.

The Vacarro Field is just ahead, isn’t it?” McGrath asked.

Yes. On the left. There’s an unmarked turnoff that leads into the field maybe a mile from here. Next road into the field is about five miles ahead. Bastard could’ve taken either road in.”

The SUV slowed. A faint cloud of dust hung over the road in front of them, and McGrath murmured, “Guess that answers that.” He guided the vehicle onto the dirt track and stopped it.

What are you doing?” Gabe demanded.

We’re going into a hostage situation. We can’t just barge in there, guns blazing, without knowing what we’re up against. Not if we want Miss Merris to come out of this alive.”

McGrath hopped out and went around to the tailgate, and Gabe did the same. The guard rummaged in a black nylon bag and passed him a pair of field binoculars. “Can you handle a gun?”

Hell, yes,” Gabe replied.

McGrath passed him a large-gauge shotgun and a box of shells, which he took grimly. He stuffed his pockets with shells and climbed back into the SUV. They continued slowly, with him gazing ahead through the binoculars.

Anything?” the guard asked.

Trail of dust. They’ve passed this way recently.”

What’s up ahead?”

Gabe thought back urgently to his years working as an oil geologist for Merris Oil. It had been over a decade since he’d been out here. “Vacarro Four and Five wells. Then an airstrip. Then the road veers south and into some hillier country. Wells Two, Three and Eight are on this track out that way.”

Any buildings out here?”

There are trailers by each of the operating wells.” He hadn’t been surprised to see Vacarro One shut down behind them. The oil below it was gone. There’d been no trailer parked beside the second well, either, which meant it was probably capped off for good, too.

Any buildings at the airfield?” McGrath asked.

Not the last time I was out here. But that was ten years ago or more.”

We’ll drive by it if we stay on this road, right?”

Correct.”

They proceeded in grim silence, the guard navigating the rough track and him watching ahead for any sign of movement. A cluster of low bumps ahead marred the horizon. “Buildings,” he muttered. “Merris must have built some hangars out here.”

Why would he do that?” McGrath queried. “It’s not like anyone’s going to permanently store an airplane out here. And if the weather’s going to get bad, wouldn’t a pilot just fly the plane out ahead of it?”

You’d think. I have no idea why Merris built hangars out here.”

Describe the buildings to me,” McGrath ordered.

Metal and steel construction. New-looking. Big. Maybe a hundred feet wide. Longer than that. They might be for storing drilling equipment, but no operator in their right mind lets drilling rigs sit around rusting. You lease them out and keep them making you money.” He frowned as something else strange came into focus. “There are cameras mounted on the corners of the buildings. High up.”

Security cameras?”

Exactly.”

McGrath stopped the SUV in a hollow, the airfield and its odd buildings temporarily out of sight. He tried his phone and cursed when he failed to get coverage. “More of my guys will be here shortly. I was hoping to update them, but that’ll have to wait until they get here. You and I don’t have enough fire power to clear such large spaces ourselves, anyway.”

So you expect us to just sit here and wait?” Gabe demanded incredulously.

Yup.”

But what if Willa’s inside one of those right now, being tortured...or worse?”

I know you’re worried, but I can’t recommend charging in there. The object is to get her out alive.”

Gabe’s gut screamed at him to take action now. “How long until your men get here?”

Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes.”

No way could he wait that long. “I’m going in,” he announced. “You can come with me or wait. Whatever you like.”

You could get her killed!”

My gut’s telling me she’ll die if I don’t go in. And I got to where I am today by listening to my gut. It’s never steered me wrong before.”

Are you willing to bet Willa Merris’s life on it?”

He looked at the guard for several long seconds, considering. “Yeah. I am.”

McGrath sighed. “All right. I guess we’re going in. A few ground rules, then...”

He listened carefully as the guard set up a few simple rules for which direction Gabe would and wouldn’t shoot his shotgun, established several hand signals and told Gabe in no uncertain terms to stay behind him and out of the line of fire.

They scrambled through the thick clumps of side-oats and bluestem grass, batting away the swarms of tiny black flies that rose up around them. As they drew close to the airfield, they crouched low and proceeded more slowly. Impatience gnawed at him until he thought he was going to leap up and make a run for the first building.

McGrath circled wide to the left of the first building and they approached it from behind. As they drifted farther left, Gabe jolted. A white van was parked between the first and second hangars.

A female cry made Gabe jump straight up in the air. He took a quick step forward, but a powerful arm grabbed him around the chest from behind as he would have bolted.