Page 40 of Bernadette
Lucas did as instructed and stayed there with his gun at the ready. When he heard a whistle, he cocked his head to the side and heard it again. He returned it, then looked up in relief when Carl appeared out of the darkness with a man cradling his arm next to his body. From the light of their headlights, Lucas saw his arm was bleeding. He couldn’t have been happier.
“Sit there,” Carl said, and when the man tried to run, Lucas stuck out his size sixteen boot and tripped the guy. He screamed like a little girl seeing a snake, and it took everything Lucas had not to slap him. Instead, he looked at Carl with a grin.
“What are you doing?” Carl asked when Lucas told him to hold the man down.
“Getting him to shut up. Aunt Morgan told me she’d do this on a mission or two.” He grinned at the other man as he removed the crying man’s shoe, took off his sock, and stuffed it in his mouth. He then took the laces from the shoe he’d removed and tied the hands together at his sides. Who cared that it took the laces from both shoes, at least he couldn’t reach up and remove the sock.
“Where’s your buddies?” Lucas said coldly to the man, and Carl raised his brows at the younger man.
“In case you didn’t know, this is Randy, Randy Weis he was a ranch hand on the Flying E, and I say was, because I’m the only Erwin here and you’re fired.” Lucas’ calm impressed Carl, then he made a quick decision. He called Lucas over and whispered to him. By the time Carl was done spelling out his plan to Lucas, the younger man was completely on board with it. When they returned to where Chuck and Randy were, Carl checked out the damage the accident had done to Chuck, and after inspecting the ATV, he was able to withdraw not one, but two bullets from where the tire had been blown out. He put them in a baggie he had in a bag on the back of his own machine, and turned to Lucas with an evil grin. He was about to introduce Lucas Erwin to the art of interrogation. They had at least two hours to waste, so might as well make the time for it.
Carl walked up to the other man, squatted down and looked him directly in the eye. “Are you Randy Weis?” When the other man looked at him defiantly, and glared at Carl, he removed the sock from his mouth. “Are you or are you not Randy Weis?”
“I am, what’s it to you?”
“Well, Mr. Weis,” Carl drawled and lifted the hand where he had palmed his badge. “I’m Agent Miller with BCI, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of a federal agent. You have the right to remain silent…” Carl began, and didn’t stop until he had read the entire Miranda rights to the other man. “Let’s talk,” Carl said, and looked over at Lucas. He nodded when he waited for Weis to ask for a lawyer. When he didn’t, Carl nodded again and settled down to begin.
“Our mutual friend, Mr. Lucas Erwin will be recording this little interview on his phone while we wait for the other authorities to arrive.”
CHAPTER16
“What the hell?”Morgan looked up in the sky and saw not one, but two helicopters getting ready to land. She had been by Wyatt’s side the entire time Bernie and the others had been interrogating the three men her operatives had captured. As much as she wanted to shoot each of them, she knew she couldn’t do it, but the thoughts of their slow deaths helped her get through the past few hours. It felt like it had been days since she and Wyatt had left their honeymoon cabin, but it had only been eighteen hours. She looked up when someone appeared on the other side of Wyatt and when she started to slap their hands away, she saw Tom along with the men in a flight suit. He took her a few feet away from where they began working on Wyatt.
“Talk to me, Morgan,” Tom said, and looked at Wyatt, then back at her, keeping all his attention on her and not his cousin.
“We left the cabin at ten this morning. We knew it would be a six-hour ride on horseback to get to the ranch house. You’ll have to ask Lucas the exact location we were at.”
“I have it, please continue.”
“I looked at my watch about ten minutes after it happened, and it was around three o’clock in the afternoon, we figured we’d be home by five at the latest. See, I told Lucas if we weren’t back by six to send out a search party. You understand, right, with everything that’s going on?”
“I do. We can talk about that later. What happened?”
“We were trotting the horses, talking, laughing, at one point we reached out to hold each other’s hand when all of a sudden Wyatt’s horse stumbles, and he’s flying over his head and he landed on his back, I can’t remember. I do know that I checked for a pulse, and it was strong, but I saw the bruise on his forehead, and his arm was at that angle.” She pointed to Wyatt still out cold.
“Did you move him at all?” The EMT asked.
“I did,” Morgan admitted and held up her hands. “Someone was shooting at us, and the bullets were landing at our feet, literally. I had to get him out of the range of fire. I tried to support his head as much as I could, but it took me almost an hour and a half to get him here.”
“Did any bullets reach this area?” Tom asked.
“No, it was like they were playing with us. True to his promise, Lucas brought the women, and my brothers for backup. I don’t know where he is.”
Tom looked around and shook his head. He had better tell them or they would skin him alive if he didn’t. “They called me. I got your location, but then not five minutes after they hung up, Lucas called back.”
“Why?” Bernie demanded as she stood at Wyatt’s feet and watched the EMTs put a collar on his neck, and roll him up to strap him on a backboard. She nodded when DJ helped Morgan to her feet.
“Someone shot at the three of them. Took out Chuck’s back tire and he flew through the air and landed on his back, the ATV landed on top of him. All I know is I rerouted the first chopper to him, and sent the second one here. Lucas went in the chopper with Chuck.” Tom looked over at Dillon. “Lucas isn’t hurt, Carl was with them, and he was able to wing their shooter, then went after him. He’s waiting for the police cars to come to take his prisoner away.”
“He’s fine, though, right?” Dillon asked.
“Yes, not a scratch on him.” They all stepped back as they lifted Wyatt and the EMTs looked around. “We have room for one person.”
“I’m going,” Morgan said. “I’m his wife, we were married this past Saturday.”
“Wait, is this Wyatt Erwin, famous for his kickass BBQs?” One of the EMTs asked. “I was at the wedding reception. I didn’t realize this was his ranch.”
“It is, it takes up three counties,” Dillon said. “I’m his brother. Take care of him, we’ll ride back to the house and come to the hospital.”
