Divine Phoenix(Divine Creek Ranch 10)(134)

“JT King, roll down the window!” Hank called out over the noise of the storm as he shined his large flashlight at the truck.

Del saw the window begin to descend slowly as King rolled it down.

Hank shouted, “Hands where I can see them!”

JT complied, sticking his large hands through the window. JT yelled something unintelligible as Hank aimed his flashlight into the cab of the truck. He looked back at one of the deputies and shook his head, then gestured to the bed of the truck.

A deputy opened the tailgate and hollered as he pulled back a tarp. “Back here, Hank!”

Simultaneously, Del and Clay bolted away from the deputy when he was distracted by the discovery, and JT slammed open the door of the truck.

The emergency vehicle lights and flashlights glinted off the barrel of JT’s hand gun as he raised it and pulled the trigger. Heart pounding, Del and Clay both ducked down between the vehicles and King’s truck but kept moving toward where Lily must have been restrained in the bed of the vehicle. Several more shots were fired, and Del heard the sounds of a struggle, followed by one final round being discharged.

“Call two ambulances,” Hank hollered as he holstered his weapon and bent down. “All clear!” He stood with a weapon held between two fingers and handed it to another deputy. “Let’s get her out of this storm.”

A deputy squatted by the door of the Toyota and then said, “Make that one ambulance and the medical examiner.”

Del had seen a lot of death over the last eight years, more than he cared to remember. He didn’t take it lightly, but hearing those words was satisfying and there was no way to deny it.

The deputy was pulling the items off the tarp that weighed it down as they both climbed into the bed of the truck and discovered Lily spread eagled, tied down with speaker wire. In the strobing lights of the vehicles combined with the lightning, Del picked at the speaker wire, trying to get her loose. Her hands were discolored like her circulation had been cut off, and seeing that added to his frustration as the wires refused to give. Clay was having similar difficulty with her ankles judging by his sounds of annoyance.

Hank pointed his flashlight into the bed of the truck and reached for a pair of wire cutters that had been discarded by her foot. He handed them over and asked, “She okay?”

As he waited his turn for the wire cutters, Del gently lifted her head and grimaced at the large knot on the back of her head. She was unconscious, but he sent a prayer of thanks heavenward that she was alive and warm. “She’s got lumps on her head and her brow is bleeding pretty badly, besides being soaked.”

“Bring a blanket!” Hank called as he held the tarp to shield her as the chilling rain increased and pounded down on them.

Clay handed him the wire cutters and then crouched over Lily, shielding her with his body as Del carefully cut away the thin but strong plastic-coated speaker wire. He was partially glad she was unconscious because it would have hurt like hell as the blood rushed back into her hands. He stroked them gently as he repositioned her with her arms close to her body and no longer stretched painfully tight.

The fact that Lily was unconscious scared the hell out of him because he didn’t know the extent of her injuries. But he was grateful that she had likely been unconscious for the entire painful experience.

One of the deputies brought something to Hank and said a few words. Hank frowned and turned to Clay as he held up a cell phone. “Hey, Clay. Isn’t this the shop’s phone number?”

Distractedly, Clay glanced at the lit display and said, “Yeah, why?”

Hank scowled and said, “This is King’s phone and the call history shows an incoming call to him from the shop, earlier this week.”

Del looked at it when Hank showed him. “I can guarantee you that Lily didn’t call him, and neither did we.”

“I figured as much, since you let me know you’d filed a restraining order against him.”

“What the hell?” Clay growled as he sat upright and looked back at his vehicle. All but forgotten, Tabitha Lester sat in the passenger seat of Clay’s truck, looking like she was ready to shit peach pits. Clay turned to Del and murmured, “Stay with her?”

“You know I will. Go deal.”

Clay leaped from the truck bed and stalked to his vehicle. Del was gratified that there was enough light so he could see the fear that showed in Tabitha’s eyes. This was taking jealousy and possessiveness too far. He looked forward to Clay getting to the bottom of it as he yanked open his truck door and spoke sharply to Tabitha.

“I have a feeling the high and mighty Miss Lester knows more of this story than she’s let on. Pride goeth before a fall,” Hank muttered as he took out his notepad and walked over to Clay’s truck, speaking into his radio as he went.