Chasing the Tumbleweed Read Online Free Page B

broken out windows. 
    The sleeve on his upper left arm was torn and an ugly, bloody gash peeked through the hole.
    “You’re bleeding,” she said.
    He glanced down. “Only a scratch.” He cautiously raised himself from a crouch and peered around a splintered doorframe.
    A roaring shot sent him back to her side.  “He must be in the old mine building.”
    “Now what?” Her stomach growled again. It appeared not even danger could stop her hunger. She glanced around the small space.
    Was that what she thought it was?
    Keeping down, she crawled to the far corner of the building and grabbed the candy bar someone had left in the corner. She tossed the bar to him and crept back.
    “Still sealed,” he said. “Nice find.” He handed it to her.
    “You have to be hungry, too.” She broke it in two and then held up both sides to allow him to make his choice.
    He took the slightly smaller half with a smile. “To answer your question, I’m not sure what to do yet.  He has us pinned down here.”
    “What happened to your backup? Why don’t you have a cell phone?”
    “Cell phone was in the Jeep, charging. And I don’t know where the backup is. Something must have delayed them.”
    “Give me the girl and you can leave.” Eli’s voice boomed outside.
    Jeff looked at her, but didn’t say anything.
    She opened her mouth to yell, but he put his index finger to his lips and shook his head. Instead, he cocked his pistol and held it ready.
    “I can wait you out,” Eli yelled again. “How long can you last with no food or water?”
    They stayed silent. Laurie strained to hear footsteps outside the building, but they didn’t come.
    “Have it your way.”
    Over the next few hours, Laurie mentally cataloged every stone in the small house. The building, in fact the whole ghost town, was exactly what she’d hoped to work on when she’d graduated. Maybe she’d looked in the wrong place for a job.
    Night edged its way into the remote area. She tried to keep her eyes open as the light faded, but lost the struggle and her head collapsed on Jeff’s shoulder. This time she didn’t care if her closeness bothered him.
    Serves him right for being such a grouch about love.
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
    The rifle barrel chilled Jeff’s temple.
    “Get up,” Crenshaw growled.
    Damn.   He must have drifted off after Laurie fell asleep on his shoulder.
    “Now.” Crenshaw nudged the gun.
    “Okay. Okay. Laurie, wake up.”
    “Do I have to?” she whined.
    “’Fraid so.”
    “Yeah, it’s time to leave your lover-boy.” Crenshaw took a step back and Jeff helped Laurie to her feet.
    Her face paled when she saw Crenshaw. She turned to Jeff. “You fell asleep!”
    “Guilty.” There wasn’t much else to say.
    He didn’t see the blow coming, but saw the horror on Laurie’s face right before something crashed into his skull and blackness overran his world.
     
    # # #
     
    Lights and yelling roused him. How much time had passed? Who was making all that racket?
    He pushed himself up to a sitting position and swallowed back the nausea that threatened.
    A familiar voice penetrated the fog in his mind.
    “Over here!” His voice sounded feeble.
    The ranger must have heard him. She stuck her head in the door, scanned the area with her flashlight and then shouted over her shoulder. “He’s in here!”
    The woman came into the small building. “You okay?”
    Jeff gestured toward his head. “Probably not. Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch.”
    The ranger shined her light on his hair and gently ran her fingers over his skull.
    Pain exploded and he yelped.
    She pulled back her fingers. “No broken skin that I can see—got a good goose egg forming, though.” She glanced at his arm. “What happened there?”
    “Bullet grazed me.”
    At that moment, Jeff’s supervisor, Dwight, pushed his way into the building. “Jesus, Jeff, what happened?”
    Jeff willed himself to a standing position,