Nora Duke gripped the binoculars as the winter drizzle beaded her baseball cap. Lying facedown on a small perch of rock, she scoured the gritty path below them, pressed in by boulders on one side and plunging to the riverbank on the other. The December chill numbing her fingers was familiar, as if the desert climate patterns would be forever baked into her cells no matter how far she ran from Furnace Falls in Death Valley. Creepy thought.
She’d worn a dark hat, insulated jacket and sturdy boots. Still, her hands stiffened with cold as the time ticked away, taking her patience with it. There was barely another hour before sunset to accomplish the mission. She held the binoculars tighter. “Come on, come on. Where are you?” she whispered.
An unexpected noise behind made her flinch. The snap of a twig? Her friend Felicia returning from their truck? Probably just a creature prowling by the water. The Amargosa River bubbled its way to the surface in a few areas, like nearby Beatty and the Amargosa Canyon where she now found herself...and where they’d expected to find their quarry. But the sneaky feral donkey had traversed an access road toward the nearby Sandy Ranch Date Farm. The wily critter had escaped the earlier efforts of the Big Valley Horse and Donkey Rescue dispatched from Colorado where she and Felicia worked. They were the “cleanup hitters” so to speak, because the rest of the team was now back in Ouray tending the herd of fifteen successfully captured donkeys.
“The buck stops here,” Nora muttered. “Gonna capture you for your own good, baby.”
The adorable non-native donkeys would quickly reproduce to the point of starvation if they weren’t captured and rehomed. Made sense that the rogue female would head for the date farm. There was a small corral there where the owner, Zane Freeman, kept a few horses. That meant a nice, deep, water trough, plenty of hay and shelter from the rain. Donkeys were not fans of getting wet.
Heedless of the drizzle, Felicia tiptoed next to her and sat down cross-legged on a rock. Nora heard the crinkling of a wrapper.
“Can’t you wait until we catch her?” Nora said. “She might hear you. Sound travels in the desert, you know.”
Felicia huffed out an unconcerned breath and spoke around a bite of candy. “I know, I grew up here too, remember? That donkey has her mind on other things besides my snack, and I haven’t eaten since we left the diner this morning. Besides, who knows how long this could take?” She wiggled a candy bar in front of the binocular lenses. “Want one? It’s got nougat and nuts and loads of sugar and calories. Perfection.”
Nora smiled. Felicia’s sweet tooth was legendary. “No thanks. We’re gonna wrap this up quick. Seth will give us a location as soon as he gets his drone in the air.”
Felicia pulled the hood down low over her puff of rain-frizzed hair. “Seth’s a sweetheart. So nice of him to call us when he spotted the donkey in the first place. Handsome too. His scar makes him look rugged, don’t you think?”
Nora heard the calculation in the tone. Yes, Seth Castillo was handsome, and he’d come across as a good guy in their numerous phone calls and Zoom meetings, but Nora wasn’t interested in anyone in this town. She could only hope Seth hadn’t lived in the area long enough to know about her past. Her heart tripped, imagining what he might think of her. He’s a stranger, she reminded herself. Odd the way it felt as if she’d known him for much longer than the weeks they’d spent chatting via their computer.
She realized her friend was waiting for an answer.
“Don’t get your matchmaking gears in motion. I’m out of Furnace Falls the moment we capture this jenny and the vet gives her the all clear.” Nora paused. “You too?” She held her breath.
Felicia sighed. “I told Mom I’d stay for a few days after I help you capture the jenny. Maybe through Christmas. Things are better with her, and it’d be so amazing if we could finally put the past behind us this time,” she said. “We have some good memories from Furnace Falls too, remember. It wasn’t all a catastrophe. There are nice people here.”
One in particular for Felicia, namely her high school crush Zane Freeman. Maybe Felicia would restart her life here, without Nora. The thought formed like a hard lump in her throat.
Felicia swallowed a bite of candy. “When we talked on the phone last week, Zane said he was happy to hear from me, couldn’t wait to connect again while I was in town chasing donkeys and visiting Mom.” She paused. “Those were his exact words. I can’t wait.” Her soft smile was almost lost in growing shadows from the towering pile of rock that sheltered them.
Nora’s phone buzzed. She shielded it with her hand and answered.
“This is like looking for a donkey in a haystack,” Seth joked.
Nora could not resist a chuckle. The guy was charming, she had to admit. As the co-owner of the Rocking Horse Ranch, he had the perfect setup to house the wayward donkey until it was cleared by a vet to travel back to Colorado. An animal lover through and through, clearly. He’d bent over backward to assist in the capture too. “If we had a haystack, she’d be chowing down there right now.”
“I should have thought to bring one. You two need anything? I’ve got coffee in my Bronco. I brought extra cups in case this went on for a while.”
He’d brought coffee for them? The gesture kindled a warm feeling that she immediately shook off. “We’re okay,” she said before Felicia could chime in. “Can you see anything?”
“Just getting the drone up. Give me a second.” There was a scuffling noise. “Flying drones is tricky...and expensive if I’m the one at the controls.”
“Crashed a few?”
“How did you know?”
“Wild guess. You said you’re an army veteran. I assume piloting wasn’t your bag.”
“Nope. Combat medic.”
Felicia’s eyes widened and she smiled slyly. Combat medic, she mouthed. How cool.
Nora tried to ignore her as Seth continued.
“While I was learning how to fly drones, I hung one in a tree and spooked a horse with another. Guy who co-owns the ranch with me threatened to shoot down my drone if I continued to practice.”
She stifled a giggle. “Alarming.”
“No worries. I don’t take defeat easily. Ah. Here we go. Drone’s up. Give me a minute to focus.”
Her attention was snagged by a sound behind them. “What was that?” she asked Felicia.
“I didn’t hear anything.” Felicia set about unwrapping the second candy bar.
“You two okay over there?” Seth asked.
“Yes,” Nora said, mildly annoyed. She didn’t need coffee nor coddling. “I thought I heard... Never mind. What do you have on the donkey?”
“Rain is affecting visibility, but... Oh hey, lookie-loo,” he said.
Seth was probably the only man she’d ever heard use that particular phrase. Somehow it suited him.
“Got a view of our missing burro,” he said. “Sure enough, she’s heading right for the corral at the date ranch.”
“Perfect. I’ll have Felicia call Zane and tell him we’ll trap her there and load her into the trailer.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ve got a pen all ready for her at the Rocking Horse, and Doc’s on call to do the exam.”
Nora let out a puff of air. The mission was almost accomplished. Good thing too, since it was now officially dark, except for the glow of the crescent moon that occasionally appeared between the clouds. She shot a look at Felicia, who was silhouetted by silver light. She stood staring not down toward the date farm but away into the wild land behind them. Her hand was stopped halfway to her mouth, holding the partially eaten candy bar.
“What is it?” Nora said.
“So weird,” she said, still staring. “I thought I saw...”
A high buzzing sound carried over the rain. At first Nora’s brain could not identify it. Death Valley, immense and mostly wild, was a place insulated from the constant thrum of metropolitan noise. But this was a sound from her youth, before everything had gone terribly awry. It was an auditory snapshot of her and her brother, side by side, tearing through the sand dunes on his all-terrain vehicle, fifteen years old to her five, hot wind blasting their faces. The memory was lost as her body reacted, reaching for Felicia the moment the oncoming headlights blazed up from the riverbank.
Seth Castillo watched the video feed from the drone, trying to make sense of it. “What’s going on, Nora?” he snapped, but all he heard was a crunch. Her phone falling? He tried to sort out what he was seeing, to fight through the slow processing that sometimes affected him from the head injury he’d received a little more than a year before. Blazing lights jumped in tandem on his drone monitor; headlights where they shouldn’t be.
He dropped the drone controls and leapt into his battered Bronco, cranking it to life. His position at the knoll due north of the date farm was no more than five minutes from Nora and Felicia’s location. But five minutes was more than enough time to change a life forever, he knew. The quick movements aggravated the perpetual throb in his skull where the bullet had plowed through muscle and bone. Urging the Bronco as fast as he dared on the grit-strewn trail, he barreled toward the river.
Who would be in an ATV at this hour? Someone out for a ride, unknowingly endangering the women? Not a chance. His violent injury had incinerated most of his naïveté in a way that even his time in the army hadn’t. This was no accident. Nora and Felicia were targets. Why, he could not spare a moment to ponder.
One hand grappling the wheel, he cranked down the window with the other. At first all he caught was the pattering rain, until a cry cut through the night, high and shrill. A woman’s terrified scream. The sound ricocheted off the riverbank and the rocks beyond, making it impossible to locate the source.
Heart slamming against his ribs, he forced himself to brake to a stop. Shoving his head outside into the rain, he strained to hear, praying he would find the women in time. A gleam of light flickered twenty yards to his right, electrifying him. He spun the wheel and plowed the Bronco directly at it. The rear of an ATV came into view yards behind a woman silhouetted in the glare. Nora? Felicia? She was running, stumbling over the irregular ground as the driver closed the gap between them. Seth goosed the gas and the Bronco bucked over dips and gullies. The woman was attempting to get to the thicket of willows and mesquite that flanked the river. A dip thrust the Bronco up until it dropped down with a teeth-cracking jolt, nearly yanking the wheel from his hands.
You can do this, Seth. Just like the old days when you had those lightning-quick reflexes, right?
A hunk of granite loomed on the ground in the glare of his headlights. He jerked the wheel to prevent the rock from ripping through the front axle. When he rejoined the pursuit, the ATV was shooting straight for the thicket but the dark prevented him seeing anything further. Was the woman still there? Had she reached the sheltering branches? Been crushed by the pursuer? The ATV’s rear license plate was smeared with mud, not that he could have given the numbers much attention anyway.
Where are you, Nora? Felicia? There. His heart leapt as he caught a momentary glimpse of a hand thrown up as if to ward off a blow. The woman’s pace had slowed, bogged by the muddy ground or fatigue. Still the ATV dogged her, close enough now that the front tires were only a couple of feet away.
“You’re almost to the trees,” he shouted uselessly. The roaring vehicle was much more mobile than Seth’s Bronco, but even that four-wheeler wouldn’t successfully navigate through the thicket. But the woman was slowing, faltering, and he feared she did not have the stamina to make it to safety.
All right then. We’ll do this the hard way. He pressed the gas and caught up with the ATV, smacking the rear left tire. It shimmied and veered away from the trees. Seth stuck close, trying to connect with the ATV again, but the vehicle was nimble and the driver obviously experienced at off-roading. He zoomed away, rumbling back up to the gravel road and roaring off.
Seth watched him go, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He didn’t trust that the encounter was over. He had to get to Nora and Felicia before the attacker regrouped.
He yanked the Bronco into a tight turn and reversed course to where he’d seen the woman near the thicket. He left the engine idling and got out.
“Nora, Felicia,” he shouted. “It’s Seth.”
There was no answer save his own labored breaths. He called and texted Nora’s phone. No response. Then he called 9-1-1. The dispatcher told him Chief Jude Duke would respond. But would it be too late?
Phone flashlight activated, he shoved his way through the biggest gap in the branches.
“It’s Seth. Where are you?” he shouted into the darkness.
A trembling in the bushes to his left made him spin around. The woman he had only seen on Zoom sitting next to Nora stumbled forward. Felicia. Her face was scratched and bleeding, her light-colored hair tangled. The knee of her jeans was torn, exposing a moist gleam that was probably blood. “Felicia?” He moved for her, grabbing her arm as she threatened to collapse. “I’m Seth Castillo. I don’t know what happened here, but I’m going to get you someplace safe, okay?”
She nodded, her lips pinched together and her breaths coming in panicked puffs through her nostrils. When he gently took her arm, her fingers sunk deeply into his skin. “He...he tried to kill us.”
Seth urged her away from the thicket that had saved her life. “You’re safe now. Where’s Nora?”
“What?”
“Nora, where is she?”
Felicia’s eyes went round with horror. “I thought you found her before me.”
His nerves iced over. Where was Nora? Not able to reply to texts or calls. No answer to his shouts. “I didn’t see her,” he said slowly, trying to keep his tone reassuring as he guided Felicia to the Bronco. “But we’ll find her. She’s probably hiding and afraid to come out.” His stomach muscles balled into knots. Nora didn’t seem to be a woman who would be paralyzed by fear.
Then why hadn’t she responded?
Comforting Felicia as best as he could, he prayed they would find Nora alive.
Nora held the cramp in her side, gasping for breath. Fear teased goose bumps on her skin. She had no idea how she’d managed to outrun the murderous ATV and reach shelter behind a rocky outcropping. She patted her pockets again for her cell phone. It must have fallen out. With no way to contact Felicia or Seth, the best course of action was to get back to her vehicle and find them.
She strained to identify the shadowed landscape around her to orient herself. There, just ahead, she noticed the faint gleam of the gravel road. Carefully, she made her way back to the truck.
She had to find Felicia. One moment, she was gripping her sleeve as they stumbled toward the rocks, and the next, her friend was gone and the ATV had rolled out of view. Giving up the chase? She didn’t think so. Pursuing Felicia? Her mouth went dry.
Fear pounded hard as she yanked open the truck door and pulled out the rifle she kept in the back seat. She was a good shot, but rain and darkness and fear was a recipe for a shooting disaster. Plus, this was not a wild animal attack. This was a deliberate human assault.
She pulled the truck onto the gravel road, keeping it at a slow creep, headlights off. Not like she had achieved stealth mode. The attached animal trailer creaked and rattled behind the truck. She searched through the rain-soaked darkness, knowing hazards were all around, the plunging slope nearby, the riverbank. What if Felicia was running through the night, heedless of the dangers? What if she’d already been struck by the ATV and was lying wounded and broken? She surged ahead.
Had Seth come to help? Would he be a target too? She pictured his genial smile, wide green eyes and curly hair that framed his scarred forehead.
I don’t take defeat easily.
Was it just talk or a reflection of his character? She didn’t know Seth well enough to judge. Would he have called for help and sat tight or come to assist them? He’ll help. She didn’t know how she knew that about Seth, but she did.
Drizzle spattered her cheeks as she leaned out the window to listen. No noise surfaced save the soft pattering of rain and the breeze churning the long grasses. Where was Felicia?
Think, Nora. You can track animals, you can find Felicia.
She refocused. It was time to put her skills to work.
She stopped the truck and, after snagging a penlight from the glove box, she scurried to the softer earth on the shoulder. She bent down and played the light over the ground. The sandy surface was rutted in places where the soil had become sodden by winter rains and traffic to and from the date farm. A few deep troughs showed evidence that a motorcycle had passed by recently. Looking more closely, she saw something reflect the light. A half-eaten candy bar tucked in a silver wrapper. “All right,” she muttered. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
The candy bar lay on the riverbank side of the road. Felicia must have run for cover into the thicket. Her friend was quick and agile, she’d made it to safety, Nora told herself. She had to. Any other possibilities were intolerable. Felicia was the sister Nora had never had and always longed for. A proper sister, who saw through all Nora’s outbursts and posturing and understood what lay beneath. A sibling who would never cast her out.
Nora flicked off the light when the ATV appeared at the turn in the road, fifty feet behind her, its headlights off.
Scrambling to the truck, she leapt into the driver’s seat and hit the gas, the trailer bucking and rattling in protest as Nora hurtled along. Behind her, the ATV’s engine noise grew louder, and she knew she was losing ground. The truth came home in a sickening rush. There was no way she could outrun the ATV and if it caught her, she wouldn’t get away alive.
Who was it and why were they after Nora and Felicia? They were on public land, innocently trying to capture a needy donkey.
Rage flashed through her body. Nora detested being scared. She’d lost everything—her family, her faith, her friends—but she’d promised herself she would never be beaten by fear. Ever. Her energy turned to steely determination. If she wasn’t going to win the race, she’d figure out how to survive it and get to Felicia.
Mentally she scrolled through the drone footage Seth had supplied to plan the donkey capture. Around the next bend, she recalled there was a small bridge that spanned the meandering creek, a narrow stone structure that could accommodate only one vehicle at a time. The bridge would be a bottleneck, like when they funneled the wild donkeys through pinch points in order to capture them. The plan she came up with was reckless but she had no alternative. Whoever was stalking them was going to answer for it.
At this point, her mother would have dropped to her knees and prayed. No way would Nora waste time with that. Prayers were for people who needed saving. Nora intended to do the saving herself.
“All right, ATV Guy. Let’s see what you got.” She pressed the gas and shot toward the bridge. She remembered that the river deepened at that point, more than twelve feet thanks to the winter rains. She’d make her stand there.
Bits of sand and grit rattled against the undercarriage and finally the bridge came into view. It was small, no more than fifteen feet across. Her nerves tightened, her breath coming fast. If she’d made a mistake, there was no going back.
Rattling onto the bridge, she got to the apex, put the truck in Park and flung open the door. The ATV driver had still not turned on its headlights. Darkness was her friend. Once the ATV was on the bridge with her truck and trailer blocking the way, there was no chance for it to maneuver off, except to back up. And she’d be waiting.
Keeping low under the cover of the stone wall, Nora grabbed the rifle and tossed it down onto the muddy bank under the bridge. With one last look back at the ATV, she crawled onto the edge.
Ambush time, she thought as she pushed off into the darkness.