Cait gave Julius a forceful shove upward. He summoned hidden reserves and shinnied over the wall.
The pursuer seized her arm with an iron grip and yanked her off the table. She twisted and landed with knees bent, facing her assailant. He drew an arm back and threw a punch at her. She dodged and recovered to slash at his face with scissors.
As the man screamed and clutched his eyes, she leapt onto the table and clambered over the wall. She landed on top of Lita, who buckled onto a prickly pear. “Shit, my leg. Oww.”
By now a second man was looking over the wall and snarling at them. Cait and Lita hurled rocks at his head and forced him to duck.
“Cops are coming, boys.” Lita’s loud shout belied her size. “Hope you like prison.”
Julius was already on his feet, stumbling along the back of the wall toward a neighboring property. Cait and Lita charged after him.
As Cait ran, she looked back to see a dark shape atop the wall. She pushed Lita and Julius behind a large boulder next to the wall.
A series of loud bangs rent the silence. Bullets ricocheted off their rock shelter. Someone heavy dropped down off the wall and pounded after them.
Cait grabbed at Lita and Julius. She turned and fled into the pointed arms of a century plant.
The spines needled her thighs and shins. She jumped away and cussed, adrenalin helping her muscle up a shoulder-high brick wall bordering a neighboring property. On top, she stopped and waited for the other two.
Julius made it over with her help, and tumbled to the ground in a heap. As Lita scrambled up, their pursuer weaved out of the darkness, growling and pointing a gun at them.
Both women straddled the wall, staring at trouble. Cait got a whiff of alcohol fumes rolling off the man.
Lita froze. Cait jumped into the yard and yanked Lita down with her.
A gunshot boomed wild as they hit the ground.
What happened next seemed like a miracle. A faint keening of sirens sent their attacker hustling away. The wailing grew louder.
“I already called 911.” Lita moaned and clutched a foot. “Thanks for pulling me with you. You saved me. But I messed up my ankle.”
“Thank you. We’d be full of bullet holes if you hadn’t called for help.” Cait knelt and circled an arm around Lita’s shoulder.
Julius sat nearby, head on bent knees. They could hear yelling and doors slamming over at the party house. Angry voices cut through the night. A vehicle raced away, the engine sound fading.
“I hope they’re gone before the cops show up. Bad as I want them to be caught, I don’t want to be in the middle of a shootout.” Lita’s cell vibrated. It was an emergency dispatcher, announcing that two units had turned onto the street.
She told the dispatcher the kidnap victim was free. “He’s with us, but he’s injured. And I hurt my foot. I don’t know if anyone is still inside that house. I think the guys with guns drove off. We’re by a house next door.”
Before long, the area was swarming with police. Emergency responders helped Lita and Julius into waiting ambulances, which headed for the Tucson Medical Center.
Cait stood near an older couple whose yard the threesome had escaped to. The neighbors watched the scene with disbelief and peppered Cait with questions. They all held their breath as a SWAT team circled the party house and bulled their way in after firing tear gas canisters into the windows.
As the chemical fog settled, police wearing protective gear and gas masks stormed the residence. As Cait expected, it was empty.
She was shepherded into the back of a police unit, where she waited almost an hour until an investigator questioned her and took her statement. He let on that the kidnappers’ lair was strewn with liquor bottles, food containers, and dirty clothes. The bedroom where Julius had been held was bare, save for a chair, duct tape and zip ties.
Her pack and cell phone, which she had dropped while fleeing with Julius, were considered evidence in a criminal investigation. Cait felt lucky she still had her car keys and wallet in a zippered jacket pocket.
Anxious to tell Jack and his parents that Julius was safe, she had badgered the investigator to let her use his phone. By then it was around midnight.
Jack was wide awake in Albuquerque, drinking coffee and worrying.
“No way, no way.” His voice cracked. “Where is he, how is he? What about you? My God, you could have been killed.”
Finally he let her talk, starting with finding Lita, who had let her to the party house.
“I didn’t think much of her,” Jack said. “I was wrong.”
“Me too. If it hadn’t been for her, Julius might have died. They beat the crap out of him. Those guys are psychopaths.”
“What did he say? His captors are still out there.”
“He was too exhausted to talk much. Maybe he had a concussion. When you get in touch with Tucson PD, ask them to post a guard outside his hospital room,” Cait said.
“If they don’t, I’ll come down and do it myself. Did he say anything at all?”
“He was pretty out of it when I found him. He said he’d been drugged. I only saw two guys in that house. We were darn lucky they were snockered, otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten Julius out of there.”
“I’ll call the hospital later today and see if he can talk.” Jack yawned, fatigue setting in. “I bet that was a rental house. My gut says Sonny Para’s involved. The aim of the ransom calls was to find the old guy who worked in that warehouse. My mistake was assuming that Julius was kidnapped in Albuquerque. Para must have been keeping tabs on him through that gym he trains at. Now I’m concerned someone Julius trusts, like his coach or training partners, works for Para. They could still get at him, either in the hospital or when he gets out.”
“I’m sure Julius didn’t expect problems in Tucson,” Cait said. “He was so excited after his big win, his guard was down. It was easy to waylay him. I’m going to find out who owns that house or who rented it. You get some sleep.”
“You saved his life.” Jack wheezed out a breath. “I miss you. A lot. It’s been tough.”
“I love you.” Cait closed her eyes. Being away from him was a kind of deprivation. “Are you ok?”
“Tired but happy. Up ‘til now, we’ve been getting the little end of the horn. But you did it. You broke our bad streak.”
“I aim to please. Talk to you later.” She ended the call and punched in her brother’s number. The previous afternoon, she’d left Chris a message she would be back late. He must be worried sick, not knowing where she was.
Chris answered quickly despite the late hour. “You ok?”
She apologized for being out of touch, and described Julius’ rescue.
“Couldn’t you have called the cops instead of going in yourself?” Chris was about to lecture her about the risks she’d taken. “I left you a bunch of messages.”
“Sorry, I muted my phone and then I dropped it at that house. When we found him, he was being beaten. I had to try to get him out right then. If the cops showed up, he might have been hit by crossfire. Or killed by his captors. It all worked out, though.”
“Good thing my sister’s a badass.”
“Are you kidding? I was scared out of my mind.” Cait yawned. “Sorry to call so late. I’ll be at your place soon as I drop Lita off.”
“You’re not going to want to hear this. The jaguar in the Rincons. It may have been captured.” Chris summed up what the two artists had seen on Ocotillo Road.
Cait rubbed her eyes. “How do they know it wasn’t a mountain lion or bobcat in that van?”
“El tigre is the only big cat in the Americas that roars.”
“El tigre.” Something niggled in the back of her mind. “Why go to the trouble of catching something so dangerous as a jaguar? It could rip you in two.”
“Some people are thrill seekers,” he said. “The riskier, the better. Someone wanted that cat alive. Put it in a secret zoo or a private hunting reserve.”