Page 36 of Red Boar's Baby

“The Halversons? They’re all right. They aren’t out there much. I think they were developing your folks’ old property as an Airbnb, but ended up running out of money for the renovations and now they only come out for a few weeks in the winter.”

“Oh,” Diana breathed. After a moment, she said, “It’s so strange to think of someone else living there. I don’t know if it’s better or worse that they’re not really doing anything with the place. Having it wildly changed would be even harder than having it abandoned ... I guess.” She gripped the inside door handle as they hit a pothole. The road was generally at its worst in the spring, with washouts and other erosion.

She couldn’t quite bring herself to tell Costa how she had daydreamed of buying the old place back. It never was more than a daydream. Even if she could have afforded it, she couldn’t have lived out here, several hours’ drive from her job. But now, with even the ruts in the road feeling familiar, she ached with nostalgia.

“Here we are,” Costa murmured, braking. The headlights raked across a boulder beside the road with WILD BOAR RANCH painted on it. The road they had been following went on up the canyon, leading to other ranches and small homesteads in the backcountry—the place that had been the Reid spread, now the Halversons’, and other neighbors.

But they turned onto a road that was considerably rougher than the one they had been driving. It was only one lane, although since there wasn’t a lot of vegetation along the road, it would have been possible to pull the vehicle offroad in any relatively flat spot. And they would have to, Diana mused, if another driver came along the other way.

Not that she expected it. They were absolutely alone in the great darkness of the desert. The canyon, or more accurately the network of winding arroyos and wind-sculpted rocks along the sides of the canyon, blocked any view of the neighbors’ lights.

A final twist of the road, and suddenly there were lights twinkling ahead, illuminating the arch of wind- and water-carved driftwood that marked the entrance to the Costa ranch. Ancient, gnarled pieces of pine, rescued from the arroyo and put together into an arch big enough to accommodate a fuel or water tanker, and from the look of it, absolutely unchanged since Diana’s childhood. She peered up at it as they drove through it into the middle of the cluster of buildings that marked the ranch proper.

In daylight, she could have looked across the dry arroyo to the house that her grandparents had built, but tonight it was completely dark over there—abandoned, now, with the new owners absent.

Home.

Or something that had been home, once.

She wondered how true it was that you couldn’t go home again. Apparently, she was about to find out.

CHAPTER12

Costa parkedin front of the main ranch house. Turning, he saw that Diana had her phone out and was starting to power it up. She looked up sharply.

“Bad idea?” she asked. “I just wanted to text Luis and let him know I’m okay.”

“There’s still no cell service out here. The main house has a landline, and there’s a satellite dish, but other than that we’re pretty cut off.”

He was starting to wonder if it had really been a good idea to bring them here. For so long he had thought of the ranch as a place of safety and refuge. Now, with a tactician’s eye, he was far more aware that they were isolated with limited communications and only one road in or out.

But no one knows we’re here, and that’s the main thing.

“Oh. Huh. I remember how isolated it used to be, but I guess you get used to being in touch.” She hadn’t had a chance to power the phone on yet, and she put it away. “I hope none of my coworkers heard the scanner chatter and freaked out. I wish I’d thought of it sooner.”

“You can use the computer in the main house if anyone’s still up.”

No one appeared to be. The lights at the gate and a couple of porch lights were the only relief in a sea of darkness.

Costa got out of the car. The night air was cool and filled with the fragrant smells of the desert springtime. He got the baby out of her car seat. She nestled soft and snug in his arms.

Diana was looking around, rubbing her arms a little.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s just been a really strange night.”

A door slammed from one of the outbuildings behind the main house, and a moment later a figure in a housecoat appeared, hurrying toward him. Costa recognized his aunt Brill.

“I thought I heard someone out here. What are you doing here so late, love?” She reached out to hug him, then discovered what he had in his arms.

“Sorry about the late hour, Auntie. I needed somewhere to bring a couple of guests.”

“Oh,darling.” Brill took the baby in a rapture of maternal delight, then turned the full focus of her attention on Costa. “Cece ...”

Costa winced. The only people who still used his childhood nickname were his aunts. Diana smothered a grin.

“This isn’t my baby,” he said hastily. “We’re borrowing it. Her.”

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