Page 87 of Tempting Fate
“What happens if they hear Clay buzzing around, spook, and do something rash?” Rhys didn’t have to say what he meant by “rash.” Gabe knew.
“Look, because of Raylene, my stepdaughter’s safe and sound. I can’t sit around doing nothing.”
Lucky nodded. “I was thinking a couple of us could go out on horseback, search the hard-to-get-to places in the backcountry. Flynn’s already getting the trailer ready.”
“This isn’t a lost hiker,” Rhys said. “These are dangerous people.”
“We can handle ourselves.” Lucky pushed off the door. “Knowing Raylene, she’s mouthed off enough that they can’t wait to get rid of her.”
Gabe got in Lucky’s face. He needed to punch something, and Lucky had just made himself the perfect target. “You think that’s helpful, asshole?”
Lucky held up his hands. “I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s my way of dealing with a stressful situation. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t care what happened to her. She tried to make amends by selling me her property for a song and I told her to go to hell. This anger I have…I’m letting it go.” He let out a breath. “Let’s find her.”
Gabe didn’t know what Lucky was talking about, and frankly he didn’t care. They were wasting time in Rhys’ office. “I’m out of here.”
“Where you going, Gabe?” Rhys tried to block him. “You’re just planning to aimlessly search for her?”
“Better than sitting around here with my thumb up my ass. What about the backcountry where you first spotted them—we’re all on the same page that it’s the same people, right?”
Rhys and Jake nodded. “I’ve got Wyatt out there and Sloane on the other side of Sierra Heights,” Rhys said.
“Sounds like a good enough spot to start.” He headed out and Clay caught up with him.
“We can cover more ground in my plane.”
“Works for me. Is it at your ranch?”
“Nervino. Want to follow me?”
“Let me swing by L&G first and grab some equipment.” A chute, because he wasn’t waiting for Clay to land if and when they spotted Raylene’s truck.
Twenty minutes later he was at the airport, boarding Clay’s Piper Cub. Clay used the antique plane to scan the mountains for his cattle. It was a sweet aircraft, and under normal circumstances Gabe would’ve liked to spend more time checking it out.
Unlike most planes, the Cub’s seats were tandem instead of next to each other. The captain piloted the aircraft from the back seat, another idiosyncrasy.
Clay started the engine outside from the prop, pulled blocks away from the front tires, and wedged himself inside the cockpit before taking off. Gabe presumed Clay had worked out a flight plan before Gabe got there with his gear.
From the front, he had a bird’s-eye view of the mountains and valleys. But, like the cliché went, spotting Raylene’s truck would be like finding a needle in a haystack. There were a lot of pickups in these parts.
“Any ideas where we should start?” Gabe asked. Clay was the local; presumably, he’d know the best hiding places.
“I say we work from Sierra Heights, south. It’s a lot of territory to cover, but that’s where I’d go if I needed to lay low.”
“Roger that.”
They flew low, about two thousand feet above ground. That was the beauty of a Cub, and probably why Clay had chosen it for ranch work.
“Thanks for doing this,” Gabe said. Clay wasn’t a member of Raylene’s fan club either, but he was a standup guy.
“We take care of our own here. And according to Harper, Raylene took on all three of those bozos so my stepdaughter could get away. Emily and Drew…well, you can imagine.”
“I’m glad she got away. How’s she doing otherwise?” Gabe would imagine Harper was pretty traumatized.
“Better than you would expect. She’s mostly worried about Raylene. To hear it from Harper, Raylene was like a mama grizzly, putting herself between Harper and those men. To tell you the truth, it surprised me. The Raylene I used to know looked out for herself. Period.”
All the bad-mouthing had started to irritate Gabe. As far as he was concerned, if anyone really knew Raylene they would’ve seen an abused young woman.
You can’t go around telling people how to rear their kids. Owen’s words rang in his ears. Maybe not, but Raylene had become a product of her surroundings. And had turned herself around without anyone’s help. She was something. People around here didn’t know it, but Gabe did.
