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Stella muttered an unladylike curse under her breath

“My guess is that soht have been wrecked or stolen Whichto work up the nerve to come in and tell you about it”

“

Why, that little—” She broke off, then laughed and shook her head “The poor kid is probably scared to death But these things happen Anyway, the truck had US and Mexican insurance If you find Lute, tell his I’ll just be happy to know he’s safe”

This ti of Stella’s absinthe eyes and the twitch of a jawinside Wherever Lute was, he was in big trouble

Where would Lute go to hide out? Sky asked himself Back to Oklahoma, maybe? If he hadcities But where would he getto double-cross Stella?

Stella could be asking herself the saht explain why she was furious Sky would bet a month’s pay she’d had a lot more to lose than a truck

What if Lute was close by, keeping out of sight to see ould happen? That soundedLute would do Hole up in the back country Finding him wouldn’t be easy Lute was coyote clever He would kno to lie low and cover his tracks

Lute felt the hunger gnawing at his gut The snacks he’d bought on the road were long gone, and the jackrabbit he’d snared, skinned, and roasted yesterday hadn’t had enough meat on it to satisfy a cat It wasn’t that he didn’t have money Except for the seven hundred dollars he’d paid for the sputtering Vespa as, and a cheap pistol he’d bought off the street, oing to need it later And here in this abandoned line shack, deep in the escarpment on the western boundary of the Tylers’ ranch, there was nothing to buy

No as he going back to Stella He knew exactly what she would do She’d greet hiiven; then soon after that, when he was somewhere alone, he would die The way Slade had died The way Jess had died He would die because he knew too er be trusted

Not that Stella would pull the trigger She was too s, someone with a dead aim and complete loyalty Given a chance to bet, Lute’s money was on the bartender

Maybe he’d s and the ranch It would’ve been safer to hit the road, put Texas and all he knew behind hi And he had plans—big plans and big dreams

Everything hinged on his getting the palonacio in Mexico With the money the rancher had offered hiet a cozy house in an out-of-the-way town, maybe find a pretty senorita for co he could pass for Mexican, and he knew enough Spanish to get by

But getting the foal to the ranch would be complicated First, he’d need a truck His own pickup would do, but he’d left it in the Haskell Trucking lot If it was still there, he’d have to find a way to get it, or steal another one And he would need a two-horse trailer for the mare and foal Then he remembered that the Tylers had several trailers lined up behind the machine shed All he needed to do was hitch a trailer to the truck, load the mare and foal, and drive away

Now he needed to figure out a way to get the truck and trailer to the border If he re Sky round up some strays, they had crossed a dirt road It was little h the mesquite At the tion roads that crossed the south boundary of the ranch and cut east across the rolling plains, skirting towns and eventually joining up with the highway to Eagle Pass Taking that route, Lute knew he could cover a lot of distance without being spotted