Page 18 of Rocky Ride

Mason waved his arm in a circular motion and Beau and Tiny veered off to take the other two shacks.

The shack Mason looked in first smelled of weed, spilled beer and dead fuckin fish. A pail of live crawfish sat in the corner of the kitchen.

Two double beds were crammed into the one bedroom—not a room—just partitioned off with a sheet of chipboard.

Four guys were asleep in that room. One girl between two of them. Mason looked closer and decided she was too old and well-worn to be Tammy.

He tip-toed out of that shack without disturbing the residents and saw Beau waving to him. Mason ran across the dry dirt to the shack where Beau stood and Beau whispered, “She’s in here.”

“Tied up?”

“Nope. Sleeping on the floor next to a dog.”

Mason pulled a shotgun out of the sling across his chest and entered the shack ahead of Beau. He poked Tammy with the barrel of the shotgun and said in a low voice, “You’re coming with me.”

Seeming keen to go, Tammy jumped up off the floor and ran out the door of the shack.

The outlaws living in that shack woke up when they heard Tammy’s footsteps. They saw strangers in their house and figured them for cops. That set off an instant round of shooting and Mason had no choice but to gun down all four of the fuckers with double-ought shot.

Shooting the outlaws took a couple of minutes and he didn’t want to lose Tammy. He hurried outside to catch up with the girl and saw her untying a boat at the dock.

Mason ran down the hill towards the river, “Stop, Tammy. I’m going to take you home to your mother. I’m not going to hurt you.”

She gave a couple of hard pulls on the Johnson, and she was gone.

“Fuck that,” hollered Mason. “Let’s go, boys.”

Turned out leaving wasn’t as easy as arriving. All the outlaws were wide awake and ready to defend their camp and their pieceof the swamp. Mason, Beau and Tiny had to shoot their way back to the boat.

Beau took a shot to the shoulder and Mason got himself grazed on the neck right behind his ear. It stung like hell and put him in a foul mood.

They jumped into the boat and Tiny took the tiller while Mason shot every fuckin outlaw who tried to step on the dock. The noise of the shotgun was fuckin deafening and cleared a congregation of alligators off the opposite bank of the river.

Tiny turned the boat around and powered back down the weedy channel to the main river. “That cleared them outlaws out a bit, Swifty. Those fuckers haven’t been culled in a good while. Way past time.”

“The gators will clean them up,” mumbled Mason.

Beau wasn’t saying much. Holding onto his shoulder and hoping he didn’t bleed out before he got back home and got fixed up.

Mason dropped the boys off at their own little settlement and didn’t hang around long. He was in a big hurry to catch up with Tammy before she disappeared on him again.

Paying attention to which way she headed when she left the outlaw camp, Mason figured he could catch her easy enough. He knew the swamp and was familiar with more than a few shortcuts.

Black Wolf Pass. Montana.

It was daylight when Travis opened his eyes and he felt he missed a day somewhere. Didn’t remember going to sleep and it was morning already.

With a quilt pulled up over her clothes, Sunday lay on the bed next to him, watching him.

As soon as he opened his eyes, she hopped off the bed and went to the kitchen. Moments later, she returned with coffee and a bowl of porridge.

“Before I get you sitting up to eat, do you need the bathroom, buddy?”

“Yeah, I guess. I don’t remember going to sleep.”

“You were right out of your head most of the night. Delirious for hours. Talking about bikers looking to kill your ass.”

“Uh huh. I don’t remember talking at all.”

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