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"Softly," Tallgrass cautioned hireat simple cuisine, an old friend, a beautiful woht will bring the closure you seek"

"You? Talking about closure?" Ric teased Tallgrass "Sounds like you’ve been poith rass winked at lass in a toast to Ric "Is her husband involved in the US side of tonight’s action?"

Ric shook his head "Burnside is really and truly retired It’s better that way He never knehy I was enslaved by Torbellino Discoveringabilities--or evendown the Torbellino cartel--would bring out the arret he never really knew you?" I asked Ric

Now that I was starting to wonder who had siredI needed to find that out as badly as Ric needed to stop his lifelong lethal eneht be soht already knowto adret it? My foster dad’s a suck-it-up kind of guy He wouldn’t have wanted any whining"

I exchanged a glance with Tallgrass This man was Ric’s soul-father I could only hope to find one as wise and supportive as he was I again recalled my brushes with the Perry Mason CinSim, and smiled Couldn’t ever be for real, but I could always rely on Perry as paternal backup if les with the law

I realized that Ric’s resting hand arhts with the kiss of contact

"I’ve had way more in the way of parents than you have, Del" His sue could be at tireat, sometimes not so Remember that"

What struck me then, with surprise, was that Quick and I shared that oral healing thing I’d never quite focused on that before Poison dog lips? And ’s blue eyes, blander and paler than ave aze

This tableside love fest was getting sweeter than tooth decay I shook off my mood with Quick’s snout and Ric’s hand

"What do we do next?" I asked

"Shopping," Ric said

I didn’t think he and Tallgrass had silver and so north and dead bodies, Juarez was al weapons purveyor on the south banks of the Rio Grande

"THIS PLACE IS called the Valle de Guadalupe?" I repeated to Tallgrass, stunned

Night had returned to Juarez, eclipsing its sunny side

I was back in Tallgrass’s loaned cae where Quicksilver and I had intercepted hi creosote bushes and tented by s it seeonna ence targeted this place southeast of Juarez as the ainst the nain of Guadalupe on our side"

"We all ht a bit farther north, but this is that sae where Ric is sure Torbellino’s soldiers will hunker down, ready to mon escapees from the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels clash up there"

"And the Mexican-US forces will stay north to capture whoever survives the cartel war too, entirely unaware of this side of the contest farther south?" I wanted to get the coht

"Yup Torbellino will for any rival cartelin the border s to take out Torbellino’s aruys," Tallgrass re as backup"

"Talk about a Lone Ranger Maybe he has sorass chuckled" I suppose you were too busy using your feistical details out of hiht Ric could or would keep sorass shook his head at Ric’s solo act "The gal and dog weren’t in our original plans, but we four did pretty well against Torbellino’s Wichita posse All I know is Ric wanted to wait and take El Deround where he’d once been a helpless child"

"Ric’s personal crusade is the source of his greatest personal danger," I told Tallgrass "He’ll never allow anyone else to be enslaved as he was, and he’s absolutely fierce and fearless in going after the exploiters That’s why I had to follow hiotspree in town It really looks cool with les casually stationed atop lasses 24/7

Then I lowered the goggles to focus first on the heat lightning doing a war dance on the night horizon, then far closer and below, on Ric and Quicksilver Funny, Ric hadn’t been upset about the dog’s presence here, in the heart of battle, I couldn’t help gru pair had reasseht into a thin silver line down in the sand canyon’s crease Together, they were belly-crawling up the next ridge, which was the only cover between here and the Valley of Guadalupe

There the sagebrush stations of hidden weaponry were now shaking with the eangs and hitht was abruptly interrupted by distant auto arenades and shoulder-launchedcartels were fully engaged and clashing like an electric stor each other down to escape a pincer operation of co north of this valley obscured the vibrating chirrs and huitated and silver-arathered until they were poised like the top curl of a gigantic surfing wave about to wash over El De up the rear here and put Torbellino’s ass in a silver sling," Tallgrass hissed in rinned up at the fading northern fireworks in the sky above one last tie behind the one Ric held now and ash, our booted feetfast to catch up to the advance party of two We knew that Ric’s shoith his childhood enslaver had to put him first and foremost in the confrontation and that Quicksilver was the best scout in the party

Soon ere approaching the quivering and broadening silver banda do-or-die border like the Rio Grande The s, feelers and legs, quieted and stopped Like an ice-frozen river, the living shirass and I hastened to reach Ric’s back, Quicksilver sitting beside hier and snapped like a chupacabra twitching its tail Yet we faced a vastly different scene froht

Across the wide valleyand a bone and a hank of hair Row upon row of feral zoots, all white bone and bared red ht Only then did I see the black iron shackles that lea through as left, ready to drop off on living prey

"They’redancing?" I wondered aloud Then I got it