Courage Under Fire (Silver Creek #2) - Lindsay McKenna Page 0,60

the time on her iPhone. “It feels like time is passing so slowly,” she murmured.

“Adrenaline crash. It feels like time is slowing down, but Dan has been gone twenty minutes already. I’m sure they’ve totally staked out the restaurant and are just waiting for the two perps to leave.”

“I hope they leave the state,” Cari muttered, scowling. When would Chase call her? She knew one couldn’t drive forty, fifty, or sixty miles an hour on those dirt roads on the ranch, for fear of crashing. Everything was going to take time. How badly she wanted to see Chase! But even a phone call from him right now would be like heaven to her. Cari felt as if she’d been dropped into Hell. Literally. Chase was her guardian angel. If he hadn’t schooled her on black-ops sniper skills, she’d never have gotten out of that situation in the restaurant alive. She’d have screamed, panicked, and tried to run. That would have put everyone in that restaurant in danger, too. No, Chase had taught her some fundamental operating procedures and today? They’d paid off. At least she hadn’t gotten a lot of innocent people dead, including herself.

Chapter Nine

June 15

Chase was down on his hands and knees along with two of his other wranglers, beginning to remove a huge boulder that was standing in the way of the new pipeline fence. He saw a rooster cloud of dust coming their way on the dirt road. He was on the farthest part of the ranch and had come out to look at the efforts of his construction group of women and men, who were tackling an area of mid-sized boulders.

There were two bucket-type machines taking the boulders to a nearby dump truck. This was a huge undertaking, something he’d been avoiding since becoming the owner of the ranch. Yet, ten thousand acres were sitting empty simply because of the medium to large rocks in the soil. It would be one thing to get a couple of bulldozers with a hook in the rear to pull them up and out, but it still took a lot of sweat, human muscle, and due diligence to then take them to the dump trucks waiting in line to deposit them in one specific area so the soil could be tilled and utilized.

“Hey,” Jake called, standing up. “Someone’s comin’ our way at high speed.” He pointed behind Chase.

“We’re out of cell phone range,” Chase said, frowning, wiping the sweat off his brow and standing. Squinting against the sun, he pulled his Stetson down to shade his eyes. “I’ll go to my truck and use our radio to call Tracy and ask what’s going on.”

“Good idea,” Jake agreed.

Chase couldn’t tell whose vehicle it was, the dust high and heavy and disappearing down a slope. It would take another mile for it to come up and out of the dust, and by that time, he might be able to identify it. The truck was half a mile away and he saw Jake jogging toward it.

Another of his hands, Merry, came up beside him. “Looks like someone has a fire lit under him. Must be important?” She looked up at Chase, a question in her expression.

“Yeah. Hope it isn’t bad news.”

“Maybe we should think about a different radio system when we’re out this far,” she said, her hands on her hips, her elk-skin gloves dusty.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Chase said, “You’re probably right, Merry. When we finish up here I’ll talk to Tracy and get something in motion on this. It’s worried me for a long time when we’re out at the edges of the ranch and there’s no cell coverage. Merry, you take over the rock removal project. I’m going to my truck to find out what’s happening. Keep me updated by truck radio or talk to Tracy if you need anything.”

“If we break a leg out here, boss? Unless we can get to a truck radio, we’re stuck.”

She was right. “I hear you,” he said. He trotted toward the truck. About the time that Jake reached his vehicle, he recognized the sheriff ’s black-and-white SUV. His gut tightened. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Muttering a curse, he turned.

The deputy sheriff climbed out of the SUV upon spotting Chase standing by his truck. Chase recognized Ginger Harris, a blond-haired woman of forty, coming his way, a serious look on her face. What was going on? He looked toward the main area of the ranch, although he couldn’t see