Texas Outlaw (Rory Yates #2)(78)

She realizes that another, easier solution is available. She has the .223 M4 with her. She could probably kill both men before they knew what hit them.

She dismisses the idea. That isn’t the way a police officer conducts herself. They might deserve it. They might do it to her if the roles were reversed. But she can’t bring herself to shoot them in cold blood.

She is about to sneak back to the Land Cruiser when she sees one of the men get a call on his walkie-talkie. They’re close to the edge of the highway and must be able to get a radio signal. Ariana checks her phone and sees that in this canyon she has no bars.

“Damn it,” she mutters, cursing her luck.

Who could she call anyway? She is a wanted fugitive.

But her luck takes a turn for the better.

“Come on,” the one who answered the walkie-talkie says to the other, waking him up. “McCormack called. We’ve got a job to do.”

The mercenary sits up, alert in an instant.

“We’re supposed to go search for the Delgado woman. McCormack says she might be dead out there.”

The men grab guns and supplies and mount the ATV. They fly off, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.

Ariana gets ready to hurry back to the Land Cruiser, then has a thought. Did they leave the keys in the truck?

She refused to kill the men in cold blood, but she doesn’t have any problem with stealing their truck. It would be a lot faster. When she runs over to their camp, she finds that her luck continues: the key is in the ignition.

Ariana fires up the truck and kicks up dust when she stomps on the gas. She races in the opposite direction from where the men went. When she hits blacktop, she floors the accelerator. It doesn’t take long to arrive in town. The sun is just breaking the surface of the horizon. The town is quiet, the streets empty.

Ariana turns down the street that she and the Aarons live on. She pulls into the Aarons’ driveway and immediately spots Jessica kneeling in the garden, no doubt getting an early start on her work before the heat of the day makes gardening unbearable.

“Is Tom here?” Ariana shouts.

“He’s at the paper,” Jessica says, rising from a crouch.

Ariana can’t believe he’d be at work this early. As if she can read Ariana’s confusion, Jessica says, “Today is deadline day. He always goes in early to get a jump on things.”

Ariana says thanks and backs the truck out of the driveway, leaving Jessica with a confused look on her face. She races over to the paper. She wonders for a moment if she should park behind the building. There’s no parking lot back there, just a sagebrush-filled area. The truck would be better hidden but not completely out of sight. She opts for the parking lot in plain sight. McCormack has a dozen of these trucks. She hopes it won’t raise any suspicions.

She goes to the front door and finds it locked. There’s no receptionist in the lobby. It’s too early.

She pounds on the door as hard as she can, trying to make enough noise that Tom might hear it from his office. Twenty seconds later, he comes out from the newsroom. His expression changes from irritation to alarm when he sees Ariana.

“Ariana,” he says, swinging the door open. “What the hell happened? Are you okay?”

Ariana smiles and says, “Are you ready to win the Pulitzer Prize?”





Chapter 97



THE ENTIRE NEWSROOM is empty, but Tom closes the door to his office anyway. He has a few employees who show up early on deadline days, and he wants to ensure that his and Ariana’s conversation remains private.

“Tell me everything,” he says. “Start from the beginning.”

She does. It’s an elaborate story, and it’s taking longer to tell than she’d like, but she wants Tom to understand each detail. He needs to be able to convince the Rangers in Waco of everything that’s happened, convince them not to trust the Rio Lobo police chief. Plus, Tom needs to keep her name out of it, because if the Rangers think this info came from Ariana Delgado, wanted fugitive, they’ll discount it all and simply come after her. The more solid information Tom can convey, including about Lieutenant Hendricks’s death, the more likely it is the Texas Rangers as well as the federal agencies will rush into Rio Lobo. Even if Rory doesn’t survive—which she doesn’t want to think about—the drug ring will be exposed.

“Okay, I think I got it all,” Tom says as he looks over his notes.

Then he and Ariana hear something.

Footsteps.

They look through the window of the office door and see Chief Harris standing outside the window, gun drawn. One of his patrol officers, Hank Humphreys, is with him.

Ariana rises in a protective stance, but she has no weapon. She left the rifle in the truck. She didn’t want to make Tom feel uneasy.

Speaking of the truck, she curses her stupidity for not parking it out back. Rory wouldn’t be so eager to invite her into the Texas Rangers if he saw her now, she thinks.

Harris could easily open the door—it’s not locked—but he opts for a more dramatic entrance. He slams the butt of his gun against the glass, exploding shards into the office. Then he steps back and kicks the door at its handle. The wood around the latch splinters, and the door bangs open, knocking more glass down onto the carpet.

Tom Aaron tries to get in front of Ariana, but she holds him back with her arm so they stand side by side.