Page 80 of Longest Ride

Travis turned off the lights and locked the run.

“Good night, Molly. See you tomorrow.”

Dry Run Roadhouse.

Billy and Travis ordered food at the roadhouse. Since Tammy had been kidnapped, their routine at the ranch had gone down the fuckin toilet.

There had been no time to shop for groceries and even less time for cooking. Even worse with the boys gone. Best they could do was eat greasy food at the roadhouse and wash it down with beer on their way home.

Sadly, they couldn’t eat the fantastic meals at the Inn any longer since Travis screwed that food source up. Travis’s phone rang as he thought about hollering at Tessa for another pitcher of Miller.

“Hey, Annie-girl. Are the boys coming home?”

“They are. I booked them on the early flight out of Austin and they’ll get to you at one-thirty.”

“Thanks. I’ll send you the money for the tickets. The boys are my responsibility.”

“I’ll let you know when I hire the bounty hunter,” said Annie. “Those guys know what they’re doing.”

“I hope so. I’ll pay the guy,” said Travis. “No problem. If he finds Tammy, great, but even if he finds out she’s dead, I want to know.”

“I understand, sugar pop.”

Chapter Sixteen

Friday, October 4th.

Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.

“It’s been a tough week,” said Billy. “Tough on you, but I’m feeling it, too. Those kids are my family.”

“For sure,” said Travis. “We’re getting the boys back today and things will settle down a bit for us.”

“We coming down hard on our suspects today?” asked Billy.

“Yeah. We’ve got to sort them out. Wyatt knows something. Funny how I thought of him as an almost friend and now I look at him and all I see is what a fuckin sneak he is.”

“It surprises me that he could be involved. Whenever we dealt with him before, I thought of him as one of the good guys. You sure he knows something about the murders?”

“I can feel it, but I have no idea what it is that he knows.”

“Go with your gut,” said Billy. “Sometimes it’s the only thing between you and getting fuckin dead.”

“True story.”

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

“Morning, Molly,” hollered Travis as he headed into the break room for a coffee.

“Morning, Sheriff,” Molly called back. “You sound happier this morning.”

Travis walked into the squad room with his coffee mug in his hand. “As happy as I can be with my girl lost in a swamp down near the Gulf with little or no chance of her coming out of therealive, but the boys are coming home today, and they are the only thing keeping me sane.”

“I’ll be thrilled to see the boys when they get here,” said Molly. “I’ve missed them so much.”

“This will be an interrogation day, Molly. I’m going to talk to the suspects together first and then separately. After that, they can make their phone calls.”

“Sounds like a busy day ahead,” said Molly. “I hope we’ll break the case today, Travis.”

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