Chapter 9: A Move and a Surprise

Angie awoke the next morning looking into Scott's piercing blue eyes. A sigh escaped her lips as she felt the warmth of his embrace. She felt safe in his arms; she wasn't sure why, she just did. They lay there holding each other for a few minutes till Scott leaned towards her and kissed her gently on the lips and said, "I need to go to the little cowboy room."

Angie giggled, "You are not a little cowboy." She let him out of her embrace and listened as he took care of his morning chores. "Scott, do you think we should load up the horses and take them with us or go into town and take care of our business and come back for them?"

"Well, does that trailer have a water tank where we could water them after a while?" Scott asked.

"Yes, it does. It's probably empty but it's easy enough to fill."

"Then let's just take them with us and we won't have to drive back out here. Did that deputy talk you about keeping her horse out here?" Scott was a little uneasy about leaving this house without having someone staying in it.

"Scott, do you think she would be interested in staying out here? I hate to think about what could happen to this place with no one around except the hired hand."

Scott laughed out loud, "What are you doing reading my mind?" Scott walked out of the bathroom and over to the bed. Angie gave him a quick kiss and scampered off to the bathroom.

When she returned they lay in bed discussing all of the things they wanted to get done before heading back to Sanderson. Angie called the sheriff's office and talked to Darcy Middleton. She had been living with her parents until she found a place of her own. So Darcy was going to house sit for Angie and Angie was going to furnish Darcy a place to keep her horse. Everyone was tickled pink.

While Angie was talking to Darcy about the house, Scott had hooked up Angie's Dad's new pickup to the custom horse trailer and filled up the water tank on the trailer. Scott was very impressed with the trailer. It was thirty four feet long but there was just room for two horses and their tack in the back with the rest of the trailer set up as living space. The living area was made even larger by having two sections that pulled out. One was formed when the hide-a-bed couch was pulled out and the other when the dining table area was pulled out. Angie and her Dad had enjoyed trail rides and team roping and they had spent many summers travelling together and had been looking forward to another summer together when he was murdered.

Scott went into the house to see how Angie was doing, "Angie the truck has less than a quarter of a tank of gas. We'll have to fill it in town."

Angie walked into the kitchen carrying a box full of books, "Take it down by the big shop building. There's a diesel tank there we can fill it out of."

Scott frowned, "Sweetie, your Dad's pickup isn't a diesel."

Angie had a sheepish grin come on her face, "You hooked up the wrong truck." She smiled a mischievous smile, grabbed his hand and dragged him to the big metal building on the north side of the house. Angie opened the door and walked over and hit the switch to start the overhead doors opening. With the extra light streaming in now, they could see a fire engine red C5500 GMC Top Kick crew cab sitting inside. Scott stood and stared at the truck; it was as customized as the trailer, it even had a matching paint scheme. Scott turned to Angie and grinned, "Wow!"

"Yea, you should have heard the fit Sue threw the day he brought this home." Angie thought back to last summer and the fun her Dad and she had had going up to Yellowstone. Angie sighed, "Oh well, the bitch is over it now." Angie walked over and opened the passenger side door, "Come on, let's start this thing up and go swap out that pickup."

Scott climbed into the driver's seat and found it to sit like no other vehicle seat he had ever sat in. He looked at Angie raising his eyebrows, "Custom seats?"

"The best made," Angie grinned, "Dad spared absolutely nothing on this rig. That's why even the paint job matches."

Scott turned the key and waited assuming it had a glo-plug to ease starting. A light on the dash soon came on and he started the big red truck up and looked around while he waited for the engine to warm up. As Scott poked at the dozens of buttons and knobs Angie started to smile, "Dad loved gadgets and he had every one he could think of put in this thing." She leaned forward and turned on a screen and a map popped up, taking a keyboard she entered in the addresses of the places they needed to go. When she had finished another screen showed the route they would need to take.

Scott got that impish grin on his face, "What? Do you think I won't stop and ask directions?"

"Oh you!" Angie reached over and grabbed Scott by the collar and pulled him towards her stopping just long enough to stare into his eyes. The seconds passed as each of them sank into the others eyes. Angie ran her hands up Scott's cheek and into his hair, "I love you so much, you have made me whole."

Scott could see her eyes misting up, "I love you too, you have made me believe again. I was ready to give up on ever finding love." The kiss they shared was slow and tender starting out but soon it progressed to a barn burner. Scott was thinking of checking out the sleeper that the custom truck had when someone started knocking on Angie's window. They broke the kiss to see a red faced Darcy Middleton standing on the running board.

Angie hit the switch and rolled down her window, "Hey, Darcy, is it that time already? Hop in we'll give you a ride back to the house and I can show you the place. I just need to help Scott swap out vehicles."

"Sure," Darcy got in the back seat and Scott drove out of the big building. "Angie you don't know how much I appreciate you letting me live out here."

Angie turned in her seat to face Darcy, "Hey this helps us out, too. We didn't want to leave the house sitting empty, too many accidents happen that way. By the way, I hired Jesse Gomez and his wife back. They'll be moving into the house he lived in before that bitch fired him." Angie saw Darcy's face change expression, "Darcy, don't feel bad about shooting her, she was going to kill both of you if you hadn't killed her. She was a murderer plain and simple. She killed my Dad, tried to kill me, and was going to kill that state trooper. You had to shoot her."

Darcy nodded her head, "I know. I just thought when I left Iraq that I had left killing behind. I am the only deputy that has killed someone in the line of duty in this county in fifty years."

Scott stopped beside the trailer, "Finish your talk girls, I am going to unhook this trailer." Scott got out of the truck, unhooked the latch on the gooseneck and jacked the trailer up. He was about to get in and move the pickup when he heard Angie and Darcy get out of the truck.

Angie called out, "I'll drive that one back up and put it in the shop where we got this one and Darcy can use it if she needs it."

Angie and Darcy drove her Dad's pickup off while Scott hooked up the trailer. He had just finished when he heard the two girls giggling and looked up to see them walking towards him. They didn't look all that different size and shape wise, but Darcy's bright red shoulder length hair made her stand out from Angie. Scott called to the girls, "Get in, we are going to be all day if we don't get a move on."

Angie stuck her tongue out at Scott, then ran and grabbed him for a kiss. Darcy just smiled as she watched them and wondered if she would ever find someone like Angie had.

Scott pulled the truck and trailer up in the driveway in front of the house and began to load the boxes Angie had set out. Angie and Darcy went in the house so Angie could show Darcy where everything was and give her instructions on what to do about her Dad's and stepmother's clothes. After loading up all the boxes Scott drove back down to the barn and loaded up Angie's saddle and another one she wanted to bring to the ranch. Looking at his pocket watch, Scott decided it might be a good idea to get some feed for the horses. It wouldn't take many more delays and they would be spending the night on the road somewhere. The feed in the small tack compartment on the trailer looked old so after dumping it and cleaning out the container he refilled it with fresh feed and loaded a bale of hay. He hoped that he had everything that Angie wanted; he'd ask her in a minute. He loaded up the two horses and drove back to the house.

Darcy was driving down the road headed for the highway as Scott pulled back into the driveway. Angie was standing there waiting on him; she walked around and got in the truck with Scott. He looked at her, "Ready?" Angie nodded her head silently then turned to look out the window. Scott put the truck in gear and started down the road to the highway. Angie sat looking out the window not saying a word. Scott thought he knew what she was going through and he searched his mind and heart for something to say. The problem was he remembered how he had felt after his parents had been killed by that drunk driver and he knew that the right words just didn't exist. So finally he said the only thing he could think of that might help, "I love you Angie. I'm here for you if you need me."

Angie turned to face Scott, tears streaming down her face. She wanted to hold him but the damn seatbelt was in the way. They were just coming into town and Scott saw a gas station and pulled in the first bay and stopped. Angie had already released her seat belt and now climbed into Scott's lap and began to cry in earnest. They sat there for over half an hour, him holding her, gently caressing her hair and whispering his love for her. How long they would have sat there is unknown because they were interrupted once again by Darcy knocking on the window of the truck. This time she was on Scott's side so he rolled his window down and Darcy asked, "Everything all right?"

Scott shook his head negatively, "The events of the last few months are hitting home," he told Darcy.

"Well," Darcy started, "it may be about to get worse. Jack Rimes called right after I got back to the office. Tatum has decided that with Sue Bell dead there's no good reason to talk."

Scott muttered a curse under his breath, "So what's Jack going to do?"

"He said if push comes to shove he'd just extradite him to Mexico. Do you know what he's talking about?"

Scott searched his memory and could find nothing that fit, but he also knew Jack. Four years at college and hanging out with him and Stan; and the years since then, spending time hunting every year, he knew that Jack was always gathering information. What information he had now Scott was uncertain of but he was sure Jack knew something and knowing that, Scott was sure Tatum would never be free to terrify Angie ever again. Darcy's radio going off pulled Scott from his thoughts, "It will be all right, Jack will see to that."

Angie's grief had been interrupted by Tatum's name being spoken. Hearing Scott say that everything would be all right put her at ease. She trusted him implicitly and completely, he held her heart. She looked into those steel blue eyes. "I love you." He would always hold her heart, he would always protect her. She thought that the first time she saw him and now she knew it was true.

J. D. Tatum was very pleased with himself. When he heard that Sue was dead he decided that his need to cooperate had ended, but he had forgotten something.

Jack Rimes looked relaxed on the outside but inside he was fuming. Tatum's decision to stop talking meant that it would be very hard to convict him for the murder of Dan Bell just the attempted murder of Angie. Jack decided to remind Tatum why he needed to plead guilty.

"So," Jack started, "you think if you keep your mouth shut and listen to your lawyer you'll get out of this with a minimum time in jail?"

Tatum grinned at Jack, "That's how I see it."

"So you're sure you don't want to plead guilty and go to prison for the rest of your life?" Jack's mind was just about made up this man was a cold blooded murderer with no remorse. He'd give him one more chance; if he didn't come around he'd make the call. "Well this is your last chance, plead guilty and go to jail in Texas or Mr. Rios finds out you're here."

Tatum's smirk vanished and his face lost all colour, "You wouldn't would you?"

Jack just stared at him, "Why not? You tried to kill my best friend's girl. Besides it's not like I'll be doing anything to you myself. All I'm going to do is make a phone call then take the sheriff and the deputy out to supper. You'll stay here."

Tatum knew he was stuck, "You know that this isn't right don't you?"

"Right!" Jack shouted, "Right! You murdered a man to get his ranch. You tried to murder his daughter, and you beat a teenage boy to the point of making him a vegetable for the rest of his life. Which one of those acts is right?"

Tatum sat silent. All his life he had been a bully, preying on the weak for everything he wanted or needed. Now it seemed the time had come to pay for his crimes, now he was being bullied. Try as he might he could not find a way out of the mess he was in, he looked up at Jack. "What do you want?"

Jack was glad to see Tatum come around, he really had no intention of making that phone call but at the same time he wanted to make sure Tatum never bothered Scott or Angie again. For the next half hour he made that point clear to Tatum. When he agreed he turned him over to the Motley county sheriff so that he could answer for the murder of Dan Bell.