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Tuesday, May 31
Red House Ranch
After Rusty ran out of the kitchen, Pilar tilted her chin to peer at the man at the top of the stairs. Her shocked gaze absorbed Baez’s appalling appearance in a single glance. She’d seen better looking beggars on the dusty streets of her village.
The smooth, handsome, persuasively patient lover Pilar had known as a child was unrecognizable. Baez stood awkwardly as if every inch of his body was in agony.
She hoped he was. He deserved eternal agony. She prayed he’d get it.
Baez had been severely beaten. His face and head were bruised and his body battered. One eye was purple and swollen shut. Two front teeth were missing.
His expensive suit hung in filthy rags, as if he’d been tumbling in the dirt. One of his shoes was gone. His left arm hung awkwardly below the elbow inside his sleeve.
Pilar’s initial shock lasted only an instant, rapidly replaced by the fury that had propelled her here. She wanted to shriek her outrage while running up the stairs to claw out his remaining eye.
Instead, she clenched her fists at her sides and firmly planted her feet on the floor.
She cleared her throat of all emotion, retrieved the gun from her pocket, pointed it in his direction, and simply replied, “Baez.”
Before Pilar could say more, a tiny Asian woman stepped through the screen door and into the kitchen. Pilar hid the gun behind her.
“Who the hell are you?” Bobby Greer turned toward the woman and scowled.
Whoever she was, the woman’s entrance provided the distraction Carmen had been waiting for.
She screamed and lifted both booted feet and kicked Bobby Greer’s groin with all the power a fiercely protective mother could muster.
Bobby yelled and doubled over, holding his crotch.
Pilar almost cheered again.
Carmen took advantage of Bobby’s momentary weakness to jump out of the chair and escape past his looming body.
She dashed toward the Asian woman standing just inside the doorway and shoved her aside.
The Asian woman momentarily lost her footing and stumbled, thumping her head solidly against the open door. She looked stunned.
“Rusty! Leave my kids alone!” Carmen screamed as she ran through the doorway, across the porch, and into the driving rain.
Bobby’s rage fueled him past his pain. He limped past the Asian woman, outside, across the porch, and down the steps in hot pursuit.
When he reached the driveway, he pulled a gun from his waistband and fired in Carmen’s general direction.
The gunshot startled her, and she slipped on the wet, muddy gravel and fell.
Briefly, Pilar considered shooting Bobby in the back. The moment’s hesitation stole her chance. He was already out of range.
Bobby fired again and continued to chase Carmen.
The Asian woman had regained her balance. Quickly, she glanced toward Bobby and Carmen through the doorway and then scanned the room.
“I’m just the maid,” Pilar said, trying to look frightened and worried.
“Does Carmen have a weapon?” she asked.
Pilar shrugged.
The Asian woman turned and followed Bobby Greer into the storm.
At least two Greers out there with loaded firearms. Maybe they’d screw up and kill each other. A quick smile stole onto Pilar’s face. Talk about justice.
The Greers were not her problem. Baez was.
Pilar swiveled her head back to stare at the empty spot at the top of the stairs where Baez had stood before. He was gone.
“Mierda!”
She’d come too far to find him. She wouldn’t let him escape now.
Pilar pulled the gun from her pocket, dashed to the stairs and ran up, two at a time.
She recalled the general layout of the house. The staircase dead ended at a hallway that ran to bedrooms on the second floor. Each bedroom had its own bathroom.
When she reached the top, she counted four rooms on the right and four more on the left. She squinted in the darkness. There were no windows in the hallway but using the weak ambient light reflecting up the stairway from the kitchen, she confirmed that all the doors were closed.
Which one had Baez chosen?
Pilar started with the closest door on the right.
She turned the handle silently, pushed the door open, and ducked in.
Pilar glanced outside through the large bedroom window. The sky was as black as tarmac.
Rain deluged in thick torrents, limiting visibility to inches in all directions faster than the thirsty ground could absorb it. Large puddles formed in a few seconds as Pilar watched.
Lightning flashed rapidly, cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-ground, cloud-to-sky. Mother Nature’s fireworks.
Followed instantly by the kind of thunder that sounded like bombs were landing in the yard, not fifty feet away.
Baez would be hiding here in the house somewhere. Only a fool would go outside in this weather.
Whatever else Baez was, he was no fool.
Pilar waited for the next lightning flashes to scan the room. The first bedroom and its adjacent bathroom were both unoccupied. She flipped on the light switch for a more thorough look to confirm.
Seven rooms left to check. She turned the lights off in the first room and moved into the hallway again, leaving the door open.
Pilar covered each room methodically, one after another.
Even with the window shades open, the bedrooms were too dark to search thoroughly. She followed the same procedure as the first room. She stood motionless until continuous lightning strikes brightened each interior, scanned, then turned on the lights to ensure that Baez wasn’t hiding there.
She continued to leave the doors open as she moved down the hallway, silently stalking Baez under cover of the deafening storm.
Pilar confirmed the four rooms on one side were unoccupied. With the doors open, lightning flashed brightness into the black hallway like an unpredictable strobe.
She completed the first four rooms and moved across the hallway to room number five. Baez was within her reach.
She could almost smell his fear.