I'll Remember You (Hell Yeah!) (11 page)

***

Los Banos Ranch

“You have gone too far, Martina.” Tomas consoled one daughter while he confronted the other. “Your obsession with power and money has stolen your humanity.”

Martina stood her ground. She was regal in her bearing, but not untouched by the tears of her sister. Yet, logic should prevail. “Not long ago you were concerned with all of the deaths and bloodshed, Padre. Now, I offer a solution and you reject it? Because of emotion? This has been the way of powerful families since time immemorial.”

“If you want someone to marry Joaquin Rios, marry him yourself!” Alessandra yelled at her older sibling.

“I agree.” Their father chimed in. Your involvement in this lifestyle makes me sick, but letting Alessandra marry into it also would kill me. It would be like throwing her into a pool filled with blood-thirsty piranha with a paper-cut on her finger. They would devour her!”

“But, I cannot marry Rios, I am going to marry…” Martina stopped, her thoughts turning somersaults in her brain. “So, you love this vaquero?”

“I do, so much.” Alessandra pleaded with her sister, standing before her with her hands outstretched. “Help me, Martina. Don’t make me run away from you. I can’t live without him.” 

Oh, she could rectify this situation. Brock could go missing with a snap of her fingers, but then her baby sister would hate her. God! She was going soft. The head of a drug cartel did not go soft and survive. Martina hung her head, wondering what to do.

***

Rosa’s Cantina – near Los Banos Ranch – Sonora, Mexico

Austin was surprised by Rosa’s. He had been expecting mariachi music and he got country western. In fact, the interior of the bar looked so familiar; he knew he’d frequented one similar to it somewhere else. “All right. Spill.” He drained his first long-neck and motioned for another.

“Do you know who Martina Delgado is?”

“I don’t know.” Aron smirked. “Could she be the sister of the woman you’re in love with?”

Brock didn’t look that shocked. “You are one perceptive cowpoke.”

“No, not really. I just heard Alessandra screaming her love for you at the top of her lungs back at the house.”

“What? Why?” Brock looked concerned, upset and scared for Alessandra, he presumed. 

“Her sister, my beloved,” he said wryly, “just informed Alessandra that she has been chosen to marry the most eligible bachelor in Mexico, Joaquin Rios.”

As Austin watched, Brock’s face blanched white. “Over my dead body. Do you know who Rios is?”

“No. Hell, I don’t know who I am, much less a Mexican lothario.” He assumed it was not a mere rival for the señorita’s affections.

Brock looked around the bar, carefully.

“Who are you searching for?”

“Snitches. They’re everywhere.”

Austin was feeling like he was playing a bit part in an old movie. “What are you talking about?”

Philips leaned over and whispered. “Rios is the son of the second most dangerous drug lord in Mexico.”

“What?” To say Austin was shocked was putting it mildly. “Why would Martina even suggest such a thing? Why would she even consider marrying her innocent younger sister to a kingpin?”

Brock didn’t answer straightaway. He just stared at Austin Wade. Then, he asked, “If Rios is second, do you know who is considered the most lethal drug lord in Mexico?”

“No, I can’t say I do.” Austin had no idea where the conversation was going.

Brock smirked. “Diosa de la Guerra, Queenpin of the El Duro Cartel.” Austin felt sicker with every word Philips spoke. “Martina Delgado. Your fiancé.”

***

Tebow Ranch 

“Jacob!”

Jessie’s voice yelling his name made Jacob levitate out of the bed. “What? What’s wrong?” He hadn’t been asleep too long, he didn’t think. “Are you sick, Sweetheart?”

“No. We’ve gotta go.”

“Go where?” He sat up in the bed.

“To the hospital. My water broke.”

“Oh, Lord.” Jacob got up and grabbed his pants, heading for the door.

“How about me?” Jessie was trying to get out of the bed. Her stomach seemed to be in the way of everything.

“Oh, yea, I guess we need you.” Jacob smiled sheepishly. “Not much use of me to go without you.” He helped his wife up, kissing her face every few seconds. “Do you feel okay?”

“Yes, I’m not cramping. There’s no labor pains to speak of…” Her voice sort of trailed off.” She watched her husband throwing things out of the closet, over his shoulder, one thing after another. “What are you doing?”

“Hunting the suitcase, we packed a suitcase. Didn’t we?”

“You already loaded it in the car. Remember?”

“Oh, yeah.” He turned to her. “Are you ready to go?”

Jessie sighed. This did not bode well. “I need to get dressed. My gown is wet.”

Jacob rubbed his face and took a deep breath. “You’re the one having the baby and I’m falling apart.”

“That’s okay.” Jessie kissed him. “I have it under control. Just help me to the bathroom.”

In a few minutes, Jacob was carrying her downstairs. “Isaac! Noah! Joseph! Nathan!” He yelled at the top of his lungs. “The baby’s coming!” People began pouring out of bedroom doors, shouts and whoops and laughter from the men and concern from the women. All were there but Noah. “Where’s Noah?” They were following him down the stairs. “Lord, look at that rain!”

“I don’t know. I’ll look for him. Maybe he had a date.” Joseph offered.

“Let me get the car for you. Just stand here.” Isaac took off. “I don’t want Jessie getting wet.”

Avery came up to them. “We’re coming with you.”

“Yes, we’re all coming.” Libby had joined them and Cady was hunting umbrellas.

“You don’t have to, I’m sure this is going to take a while.”

“Are you kidding, this is the first McCoy. We wouldn’t miss this for anything.” Nathan was grinning from ear to ear. “I’m going to be an uncle!”

***

Rosa’s Cantina – near Los Banos, Sonora

“Martina Delgado is no damn fiancé of mine,” Austin barked. All right the damn jig was up. “What the hell are we going to do?”

“Get ourselves killed if we’re not careful.” Brock drank a long swig of beer.

Austin held his head in his hands. “Let me get this straight. Martina runs a drug cartel?”

“Yep, a huge operation. She runs drugs from South America all over the United States. Heroin, cocaine, marijuana, meth...hell, I’ve even heard she’s selling women. That’s why this shit doesn’t really surprise me.”

“Tell me the truth.” Austin had to know. “Have you ever seen me before? Did I live with the Delgado’s before my surgery? Were we really engaged?”

Brock waved his beer bottle in Austin’s face and bent over to be sure he could be heard over the music. “I don’t claim to know everything.” He paused for emphasis. “But I’ve been at Los Banos for two years and I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

“Son-of-a-bitch,” Austin muttered. “So, who the hell am I?”

“That I don’t know. Since you’ve been here, they’ve been close-lipped on everything. Martina has commandeered newspapers and magazines. She’s even put the ranch on closed circuit television. We only see the programming she approves of. All I can tell you is this...if your name is Austin Wade, I’ll eat Tomas’ sombrero.”

“We have to do something. I want out of here.”

Brock studied the tabletop, like he was reading a manual. “You can’t just walk off. You don’t know what you’re dealing with. Shit, she’ll have you killed in a heartbeat if she thinks you’re betraying her. That’s one of the reasons that Alessandra and I haven’t eloped. She hopes to negotiate some type of separation from her. My baby thinks her sister loves her enough to let her just walk off with me if she convinces her how much we love each other and how much happier she’ll be just living a normal life.”

“You don’t look convinced.” Austin observed dryly.

“I don’t trust her, but I love Ali to distraction. I’d die for her, man.”

“So, you think Martina will just let you two walk away?”

Brock was silent for a moment. Then, he shook his head. “I don’t think there’s a chance in hell.”

“Then, I think we ought to take down the whole damn operation.”

“I’d think you would want to get out of here and go back to where you came from.”

Austin slammed his beer bottle down. “I don’t know who I am.”

“I bet there’s information at the house, somewhere. Or you could go to one of the newspapers in town. I bet they’d know.”

“Do you think that would work?” Austin looked skeptical.

“I think you’d be dead in an hour.”

“Hell, so do you have a plan?”

“Well, maybe.” Brock pulled his hat down over his eyes. “The thing is, I don’t want Alessandra hurt. I love her. I fully intend to marry her if I get her out of this hornet’s nest.”

“Yea, I don’t relish hurting Tomas, either. We need to think.” Austin sighed. “First, I need to find out my name.” He put a hand to his head. A headache the size of Bevo was tromping through his head. He groaned. “I graduated from the University of Texas.” The memories were coming back. The headaches seemed to bring them. 

“Well, don’t let her know, for God’s sake. Act dumb. You’re more on the inside. Why don’t you play along and start gathering evidence? Find out your name and get lists of suppliers, dealers, lieutenants. Hell, get a hierarchy of the whole hell-hole.”

“To give to whom?” Austin had no knowledge of the political workings of the Mexican government.

Brock smiled. “This I know. We’ll give the information to Cisco Salazar. He’s the newly elected Attorney General of Mexico and I think he’s on the up and up. The war on drugs was his platform. We can gather documentation and help him build a case.”

“This is war.” Austin held out his hand.

“War,” Brock agreed.

A sense of urgency and purpose filled Austin’s heart. Everything within him wanted to get to the bottom of this fiasco and fast. He wanted to go home—wherever the hell that was.

***

On the way to the hospital – between Tebow and Austin

“Skye, huh?” Joseph grinned at his younger brother.

“Skye, yea. You gotta problem with that?” They had just made a run for the truck in the pouring rain. “God, this is some storm.”

“Bad night for a baby to be born.”

“Turn on your brights, Joseph. I can’t see a damn thing.” Noah was still buttoning up his shirt. Joseph had come banging on the door to the hunting cabin to inform him that Jessie was in labor. He had been visiting the beautiful Skye Blue, their foreman Lance’s sister. “How did you find me?”

“Well...” Joseph laughed as he flipped on the lights and illuminated the narrow country lane which connected the hunting cabin road to the main ranch highway. “It wasn’t that hard. You were gone. Your truck was still at the house. Your horse was gone, so you couldn’t have gone far. You’re perpetually horny.”

“Very funny,” Noah grumbled. “Nothing happened.”

“Only because I interrupted you.” Joseph pushed his Stetson back on his head and grinned.

“No, I want to get to know her, take her on a date. Skye’s a lady. I like her.”

“Well, I do, too,” Joseph affirmed. “We’ve all been hoping you’d start seeing Skye. We want you to be happy, Noah.” He said that like he was worried Noah didn’t believe him.

“Joseph. I need to tell you something.”

“What?” He slowed down at the stop sign and turned left onto the main highway toward Kerrville. “Hold on, let me see where the rest of them are.” Joseph called Cady and talked for a few seconds. “They’re almost at the hospital.”

“How’s Jessie?”

“The contractions are pretty far apart. She’s afraid this might be a false alarm.”

“You think so?”

“Hell, I don’t know. They said her water broke.” Joseph shrugged his shoulders. “This is our first baby. We’re all sorta new at this.”

“I guess by the time your babies are born, this will be old hat.”

“Yea, Aron’s will be next.” They grew quite. Joseph cleared his throat. “What did you want to tell to tell me?”

“I dreamed about him tonight,”  Noah confessed. “That’s why I was with Skye.”

“You did?” He slowed the truck down a bit, listening to his brother.

“I woke up in a cold sweat. The dream was his funeral. We were all standing around his casket. I watched them lower him into the ground.”

“God.”

“I couldn’t stay in the house, so I took Shawnee and just rode. When I stopped, I was at the cabin and Skye was running out toward me. Lightning was striking all around us.”

“It was just a dream, Noah. That doesn’t mean it will come true.”

“No, I know that.”

Both sat silent. “This is crazy.” Joseph sighed. “We have such a wonderful family. Jacob’s baby is being born. We’re all finding love. And Aron has to go and get himself damned lost!”

“What do you think happened to him?” Noah asked quietly, as if it were wrong to even say the words out loud.

Joseph hesitated before he answered. “Cady says he’s coming home. Harley says he’s coming home. I believe in magic, brother. So my money’s on Aron McCoy being home for Christmas. What do you say?”

“I say, I hope you’re right.”            

Chapter Six

Los Banos Ranch

On the way from Rosa’s, the two men firmed up their plans, agreeing on the next time they’d talk. They decided to meet at the ranch dump site. Not too many people were eager to go there. It was where all manner of garbage was hauled, including the dead bodies of livestock. “How about in a week, high noon?”

“Agreed.” Austin felt like his head was about to split in two.

After they’d parked, Brock asked him to keep an eye on Alessandra. “If things go to hell, get word to me and I’ll take Ali out of here.”

“You got it.” Austin nodded. “To tell you the truth, I’ve got to come up with a plan. I don’t have a clue how to start this.”

“I’m just glad we’ve decided to do something.” Brock drove off, leaving him standing in front of the ranch house. He stared at it for a moment, sensing another time when he’d looked at this same vista. The home was typical Spanish stucco, with fountains in the circle drive and beautiful arches all across the wide front. He’d come to buy cattle, which made sense. Tomas had known him. Hell, it was all slowly coming back.