Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“Yes. Yes, okay. I hear you. I should come alone. Where do you want me to go, to meet you? Where are you?”
“Chiricahua. You gotta get to the Echo Canyon trailhead. Then start on the trail. I’ll find you there. And remember, Ellie, you come alone. Or I swear, you won’t have a baby to worry about any more.”
And he hung up.
Chapter 21
Jack
We all headed straight to Chiricahua from wherever we were on the road, without passing Go and without collecting two hundred dollars.
I got there about the same time Ellie did—she took my truck, in which I had secured Peter’s infant seat weeks ago to keep her from ever using the deathtrap piece of shit she had been driving. I’d actually been closer to the park than most since I’d been scouring the south side of Tucson and the desert surrounding, and I could maneuver faster on the bike. I wanted to get maps and the lay of the land as soon as fucking possible, to start to formulate a plan for taking this asshole down.
As an MC, it was SOP to have a messaging system that spread word of marching orders to every member in quick time. So my brothers all turned on a dime, and were all arriving en masse, the only stragglers being those who had been on the north side of the city, and those further upstate. But they were on their way, too. All in.
Many of them had stopped along the way to fill up paniers with water bottles and snacks, trail mixes and bars, in preparation for whatever time we would spend in the park. The Arizona sun is a fierce bitch, and we would all need both sustenance and water to function for any amount of time spent there. My boys came ready, and brought enough for Ellie and myself and anyone else who may not have thought to pause in the rush to get there.
When Ellie pulled up and saw us waiting for her in the parking lot, she started crying again. Did she think she was actually going to be alone for this ordeal? Damn. She probably did. The woman didn’t yet know who we were.
It was the old ladies who had been hanging with her at the house who sounded the alarm about the phone call with McAfee. They had been listening to Ellie’s part, and put together easily enough what directions the psycho gave my wife. They called me first, then their men, and we were off. The system did exactly what it was supposed to.
She climbed down from the truck and came straight into my arms.
“Shh, it’s okay, baby. We’re gonna do this. We get Peter back today. Yeah? We got this, Ellie. This ends today.” She nodded, mopped up her eyes on my sweaty tee, and lifted her blotchy face to me.
“I didn’t expect…”
“You gotta trust us, babe. We will have your back. He said Echo Canyon Trail, right? Okay. Look at this. That trail is way over there, on the east side, so we’re not near the trailhead now. I’ll take you there on the bike, we’ll all be heading over there. The guys who aren’t here yet are gonna be coming in from where we are now, so in case he manages to run and tries to get out this way, he’ll run into them. But all the guys here now, we come with you, and then we’ll follow behind you on the trail. Once you meet up with McAfee, and he takes you to his camp, you gotta trust that we are on your tail, we will take that motherfucker out, and we are going to get both you and Peter out. Alive and well. You with me?”
Relief flooded her face, and more tears—but thank Christ, this time, no sobs—and she nodded her head with more determination. She was strong. It did my heart good to see it.
We hooked her up with a CamelBak filled with a double supply of water and a bunch of trail bars and a few small bags of cheese puff snacks—they were the easiest breadcrumb variation to follow. Then we all were back on the bikes and headed around the park to the campsite closest to the trailhead.
We staggered parking along the off-road track in order to hide the roar of the engines should McAfee have had an ear tuned for us.
Once off the bike, I took Ellie’s hand and intertwined our fingers, leading her to the trailhead. There, I turned her to face me, and took her other hand as well. I needed her to listen to me, to concentrate, and get all of my instructions down. She was new to Arizona, and there was a lot she needed to be aware of.
“You getting an idea of this park, Ellie? It’s completely crazy, the whole thing, and it gets worse the further you go in. It’s a confusing madhouse.