Texas Outlaw (Rory Yates #2) - James Patterson Page 0,77
the day in the bank. Somehow I need to get through to him. I could go over his head, call Company E in El Paso. But they’d be wondering why I was going outside the chain of command. The first thing they would do is check with Kyle before sending anyone. Then he would tell Harris, and Harris would tell McCormack.
And then it would be over—his men would descend on us and we’d fall in a hail of bloody gunfire, like a reenactment of The Wild Bunch.
I need to get Kyle to come out here without tipping off McCormack.
The best way to do that, I figure, is to lie to him. He wouldn’t believe me if I told him there was an oil tanker full of cocaine. But there is one thing he might believe.
“Yates,” he says when he picks up, “you better be calling me from Fort Stockton by now.”
“I’ve got a proposition for you,” I say, cutting to the chase. “A way for us both to walk away from Rio Lobo looking pretty good.”
If Kyle’s anything, he’s opportunistic. If I can convince him that I want to play ball, work out some kind of deal with him, then he might agree to what I’m asking.
He takes a breath and says, “I’m listening.”
“I know where Ariana Delgado is,” I say.
“Then you better tell me where,” he says. “Right now.”
“Hear me out first.”
I tell him that I don’t trust Chief Harris, so I want the Texas Rangers to handle the arrest without the help of local law enforcement.
“You and me,” I say. “We’re going to bring her in together. That way we know she gets a fair shake.”
The other end of the line is quiet as he’s thinking.
“I could just bring her in myself,” I say. “Take all the credit. But I’m trying to show you that I’m a team player. I want to patch things up and move on.”
“All right,” he says finally.
“I don’t want Harris involved,” I say. “He can’t know.”
When he agrees to this condition, I give him the GPS coordinates and tell him to meet me there at first light. It makes me nervous to wait until then, but if Dale is right, then the entrance used to access the open space is going to be guarded by McCormack’s men. If Kyle drives in at night, they’ll be awfully suspicious. If he drives in during the day, that would be more understandable, maybe even expected.
I tell him that if he sees any of McCormack’s men at the entrance of the open space, he should tell them that he’s just going out there to poke around and look for the missing fugitive.
“You sound paranoid, Rory.”
“I don’t trust the folks around here,” I say, “but I’m trying to do the right thing. You convinced me that bringing her in is the best course of action.”
“How do I know I ain’t walking into a trap?” Kyle says.
“I don’t trust you, and you don’t trust me,” I say. “But I know you’re no criminal, and I hope you know the same about me. We’re Texas Rangers. We’re going to have to put our differences aside and trust each other on this one.”
“That’s gonna be hard after what you said to me,” he says, “about not being fit to wear this star on my chest.”
“You said pretty much the same thing to me,” I say. “Let’s prove to each other we’re fit to wear these badges.”
Chapter 82
WHEN DALE AND I return to the tanker truck, we find Ariana digging into the box of cold pizza.
“Sorry,” she says. “I was starving. I saved a couple of slices for y’all.”
I suddenly realize how ravenous I am, so I finish what’s left. The bag of food Jessica Aaron gave me is still sitting in the cab, but I figure we ought to save that for breakfast. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.
The three of us don’t want to risk building a campfire, but we sit around the pizza box as if it’s a fire ring. Out here without light pollution, the sky is filled with stars. The Milky Way is visible, the stars so dense and copious that it makes me feel tiny in the grandness of the universe.
Ariana’s clothes are now mostly dry, and under the glow of the moon and stars, she looks more relaxed than I’ve seen her in days. I think she can finally see a safe way out of this mess. I hope I can give