Rider on Fire & When You Call My Name. Sharon Sala
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nodded, and then leaned back in the chair as Sonora answered.
“Hello.”
Gerald Mynton breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“Thank God,” he muttered. “You’ve been harder to find than the Loch Ness monster.”
Sonora frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Mynton sighed. There was no easy way to say this. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
Sonora stilled. “How bad?”
“Your friend Buddy Allen is dead. We think Garcia got to him, trying to find you.”
Sonora moaned. She didn’t know it, but her face had gone white as a sheet.
“What happened to him?” she asked.
“It doesn’t matter how. I don’t know what this means, but before he died, Buddy said to tell you that ‘he didn’t tell’.”
Sonora choked on a sob. Buddy the joker, the life of the party who could never shut up, yet he’d wanted her to know that he didn’t tell Garcia anything about how she’d left town.
She took a deep breath and then made herself calm when all she wanted to do was start screaming. She compromised by shouting. “I asked you a question and I need an answer. What did Garcia do to him?”
Startled by her outburst, Franklin started to get up and go to her, but Adam beat him to it. Adam walked up behind her and put an arm around her waist, just to let her know she wasn’t alone. To his surprise, her legs all but gave way.
“Easy, girl,” Adam said softly. “We’re here for you.”
Sonora’s knuckles were white from the grip she had on the phone and she was struggling to keep focused as she repeated herself one last time. “Please, boss. I have to know.”
Mynton was sick to his stomach to have to be the one to tell her. “He beat him, honey…bad. He beat him real bad.”
She bent over and grabbed her stomach, certain that her breakfast was about to come up.
“Oh, God, oh, God. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have—”
“No, damn it. It’s Miguel Garcia’s fault,” Mynton said. “And just so you know, he’s on your trail.”
Sonora straightened up with a jerk and cast a frantic glance at her father, and then at Adam. What evil had she brought to this beautiful place?
“How? How could he know where I am?” Sonora asked. “Nobody knew. Buddy sure as hell didn’t. Even I didn’t know where I was going and I’ll bet my life I didn’t leave a trail.”
“Well, that’s just it. You are betting your life and I don’t like it. I want you to come in. We’ll put you in protective custody and—”
“No. I will not hide from the bastard. Besides, how do you know he’s following me?”
“He was last seen in Flagstaff. Did you go through there?”
Sonora shuddered.
“Yes, but so what? There are four different ways to leave that city.”
“He’s moving east.”
“Shit.”
Mynton heard her muffled curse.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah,” she said, swiping tears from her face even as she pulled herself out of Adam’s arms. “I’m sorry, too, but not nearly as sorry as Garcia is going to be when I find him.”
Mynton nearly dropped the phone. “What the hell do you mean…when you find him?”
“I’m not going to sit here like a Judas goat and let everyone else—”
Adam didn’t know what was happening, but he could tell that it was bad. And he could tell that Sonora was in trouble.
He grabbed her arm and mouthed the words what’s wrong?
She frowned and waved him away.
He grabbed her arm again, and this time, said it out loud.
“What’s wrong?”
Sonora rolled her eyes.
“Boss…hang on just a minute, okay?” Then she turned her pain into anger and lit into Adam. “It’s business, Adam, my business, which means it’s none of yours. I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself.”
“Who’s Buddy?”
Her face crumpled like a used napkin.
“My friend. He is…was…my friend. The man who wants me dead beat him to death, trying to find out where I was.”
Franklin took the phone from Sonora’s hands.
She was so surprised by his actions that she let him do it.
“Excuse me,” Franklin said. “I’m Sonora’s father, and whatever trouble she is in, we will help her deal with it.”
Sonora grabbed the phone away. “Boss! It’s me! Don’t pay any attention to him. I’ll be leaving here as soon as I can pack. I’m not going to have Garcia come looking for me here.”
Mynton was too stunned to follow her conversation.
“I thought you were raised in an orphanage.”
“I was, damn it, but—”
“Then how did you find your father?”
“It’s a long story,” she muttered.
“I don’t know what’s going on there,” Mynton said. “But think a minute. No one knows you have family, so there’s no one to look for. However, if you leave, how are you going to be sure that Garcia doesn’t find them in his quest to look for you?”
“Because I’ll find him first,” she snapped.
“Yeah, well, Buddy Allen might have given you an argument with that thought.”
Sonora reeled as if she’d been slapped.
“That’s not fair,” she mumbled, then swiped a shaky hand across her face. “I can’t think right now. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Promise?” Mynton asked. “Oh. Wait. You’re supposed to call a detective named Broyles with the Phoenix P.D. He’s working Buddy’s case.”
“Yes, all right,” she said, and then hung up.
For a moment, she stood with her head down and her shoulders shaking. Tears were rolling out of her eyes and down her face, but she wasn’t making a sound.
Adam waited silently until he could take no more.
“You’re not alone.”
She put a hand over her eyes and then turned away.
Franklin put a hand on her shoulder.
“You’re not alone,” he said, repeating Adam’s words.
She lifted her head, looking first at her father, then at Adam. Whatever might have been between them was over before it began.
“I can’t be here,” she said softly. “I will bring death to this place if I stay.”
Franklin waved his hand as if he was shooing a fly.
“Death is already here, daughter. It’s been here for months waiting for me to notice. Please, whatever is wrong, you must let us help you.”
“It’s DEA business,” she muttered. “I can’t get civilians involved in—”
Adam interrupted. “I spent twelve years with the army rangers. I