Half a Cowboy Read online

  Ben closed his eyes and did his best to describe the men in Dallas’s orbit and gave names whenever possible.

  “What sort of things did Dallas do? What is he into?”

  Ben sighed. “Vices. He’s into whatever will get other men in trouble. He runs some clubs, but they’re probably just fronts. I’ve seen pills and things at the house, and possibly other kinds of drugs. I’m not sure.” He tried to think.

  “You’re doing well,” Ashton told him softly.

  “Were there times when you came to his office and Dallas wasn’t expecting you?” Sheriff Holmes asked, and Ben nodded. “Did you see anything? Even him trying to remove something from your sight?”

  Ben shook his head. “He didn’t keep stuff at the house. I heard him say to the guys that the house had to be clean, no matter what. I thought at the time that he was talking about the maids doing their jobs.” He chuckled. “I was so stupid then.” He felt like a complete fool.

  “Then where did he keep things?” Sheriff Holmes asked. “Did he ever take you anyplace out of the ordinary or make a stop somewhere while you were with him?”

  “Maybe. I’m not sure.” Ben took Ashton’s hand. “Wait…. Maybe six months ago, I guess. We were on the way home from the club, and it was late. I was half asleep in the back seat of the car with Dallas, and he was pretty horny. I wasn’t interested in him at all by that point, so while I was tired, I made more of it than there was.” He caught Ashton’s gaze. The stupid things he had done because he thought Dallas loved him, and then the things he had done just to keep him happy so he could figure out how to get the hell away from him. “The thought of Dallas touching me made my skin crawl, and he had these….” He swallowed hard. “Dallas loved it when I was afraid, and I never knew what he would do or how much I’d hurt afterward.” Ben shivered. Sometimes he’d wondered just how far Dallas would go and if he’d come out on the other side alive. “Anyway, he stopped at a building on the north side of Houston and got out. He told the driver to stay in the car and keep an eye on me. If that was one of his business locations, I didn’t get much of a look at it. I was pretending to be asleep, and I certainly didn’t want the driver to know I was playing possum.”

  “Houston is huge,” Ashton said. “Can you tell us anything else?” The back door slammed closed, and Reg came in a minute later.

  “I heard planes taking off and landing, so I think it must have been close to the airport.” Ben tried to think of anything else he could. “It was dark, and all I wanted was to get the hell out of that car and away from him.” He quivered as he thought about it. “Dallas used to stroke me like I was a cat or something. I hated that so damned much. It made me feel like I was his fucking pet.”

  “Can you remember anything else about the building? The more we can pass on, the more law enforcement there might be able to help us,” Sheriff Holmes said.

  “How?” Ben asked. “Oh wait….” He smiled. “I think I get it.”

  “The more trouble he has close to home, the less likely he is to have the energy and resources to come after you here,” Sheriff Holmes said gently. “I need you to really think. Anything you can come up with might help the authorities there find this place and bring some trouble to his doorstep.”

  “I know a few people in the Texas Rangers,” Reg offered. “I could tip them off.”

  “Excellent.” The sheriff returned his attention to Ben.

  “I don’t know what to tell you. There were plane engine noises, and we drove around for a while. But that could be because we came from downtown and had to get to the airport.”

  “Ben,” Ashton said gently, “just go over things one step at a time. You were downtown and it was late.” Ben nodded. “You were in Dallas’s car in the back seat with him.”

  “Yeah. And I could tell he was going to get handsy because that was what he did, so I lay back and let my eyes drift closed, and as the car went over a slightly bumpy road, I let my body lean against the door. Dallas spoke softly to the driver a few times, but he seemed to know where they were going.”

  “Okay. Who was the driver?” Ashton asked.

  “His name was Gerome, at least that was what Dallas called him. I heard some of the other guys call him Juano. He looked Latino.” Ben snapped his head up. “Juan Gerardo. I heard one of the guys use his last name. I didn’t have a lot of contact with Dallas’s business associates. Not really. I saw people come and go sometimes, but it wasn’t like I was ever formally introduced.” He wished now that he had made notes or something on everyone and everything he’d seen.

  “That’s really good. It gives us a name to follow up on.”

  Ben nodded. “Also Kyle Moran. He was another of Dallas’s men, though I hadn’t seen him around much lately. But he’s also involved with him.”

  Sheriff Holmes made notes, and so did Reg.

  “Back to the night you took the drive. You said you were in the back seat, pretending to be asleep, and the car pulled to a stop and Dallas got out. Did you look out the window, stretch, shift positions, anything to look outside?”

  Ben thought. “I was mostly concerned with how I was going to keep Dallas away from me.” He snorted. “My stomach was upset and I had gas. I remember that because I held it until he got back, if that helps. Anything so he would leave me alone.”

  All three of them chuckled. “That’s ingenious.”

  “Anyway, I was waiting, and the driver turned on the radio…. Wait. I remember a bang and I jerked upward. Juano got out of the car. I remember now.” Ben was suddenly so excited, he could barely sit still. “I couldn’t see much, but there was a sign on the side of a building. Estes Aeronautics. It had a plane on it doing tricks and loops. At the time I thought it funny because it was sort of cartoony. When nothing more happened, I settled low in the seat and waited for the others to come back.”

  “Did Dallas go into that building?” Sheriff Holmes asked.

  Ben shrugged.

  “Wait.” Reg hurried out of the room and returned with a laptop a few minutes later. He typed and then turned the screen. “Is that what you saw?”

  “Exactly,” Ben said.

  “Great. The company is out of business, but the old information is linked through the pictures.” Reg continued working and turned the screen once again. “Here is where the building is located. Just outside Bush Intercontinental grounds, which would explain the planes.” He brought up a map and zoomed out a little. “Thank goodness for Google Earth. That has to be where the car was parked, right there. Which means Dallas went into one of those three buildings.” Reg sat back, smiling.

  “Yeah. That could be what we needed,” Ashton explained. “Reg, make some calls and pass on what we know. Sheriff, if you do the same, that would be great. Maybe we can keep Dallas busy doing more important things—like saving his own ass.”

  Ben felt better knowing that he could contribute something to the efforts. He hated feeling helpless.

  “Can I use your phone?” Sheriff Holmes asked. “I need to get a new cell—the battery keeps dying.”

  “Sure.” Ashton got to his feet. “We’ll go in the living room to give you some privacy.” He shuffled out of the room and sat on the sofa. Ben got him situated with his leg propped on a pillow before gently massaging his thigh and calf through his pants.

  “Oh, that’s good.” Ashton closed his eyes and lay back.

  Ben worked the muscles until they loosened up, trying not to eavesdrop on the sheriff’s phone call. Not that he could really hear very much. The sheriff had his job to do, and he had his, right here with Ashton.

  A low rumble reached his ears, and Ben stopped, his hands stilling on Ashton’s legs. “What the hell was that?”

  “I’m checking the cameras,” Reg called. “The far barn is okay, and so are the other quarters.”

  “The barn nearby seems fine,” Guy reported.

  “It’s a tractor trailer. It ran off the road,” Sheriff Holmes said as he raced across the room. He was on his
radio, calling for all emergency units to respond, his voice cutting off as soon as he closed the door behind him.

  “I need to get out there. I can probably help,” Reg said as he came in. “I can see part of it on the farthest camera, and it looks bad.”

  Ashton got up from the sofa. “Then we need to offer what assistance we can. Get someone up so they can watch things while we’re gone and let’s go.” He hobbled to his bedroom with Ben right behind him. They changed into heavier clothes and got into their winter gear before climbing into Ashton’s truck and heading down the road a few miles to the nearest intersection.

  The truck loomed on its side on top of the snow like a wounded beast, slightly curled in on itself, with cattle crying in the back while others wandered along the side of the road.

  “What can we do to help?” Ashton asked the sheriff. Ben stood off to the side, taking in the scene, worrying about the driver and the poor animals.

  “The driver is stuck. Emergency services are on their way, and we’ll need them to get him out. You can help by rounding up the cattle. There are some in the back that are injured.” He sighed. Ben didn’t need too much imagination to figure out what that was going to mean.

  Ashton got on the phone. “Marcel, I need you up at the corner. Bring the cattle hauler. A truck overturned, and we’re going to need to get the live cattle out of here. We can put them in the small pasture near your place. They’ll be segregated from our herd. The owners can arrange to pick them up later.” He continued talking a second and then hung up. “He’s on his way. We can handle the cattle.”

  “Should we get the back open to let out the rest out?” Ben asked.

  “We can try. The guys can round up the live cattle when they get here,” Ashton said as they went around to the truck doors. One had popped open, but the other hung jaggedly. He peered inside and turned away, shaking his head. “Don’t look.”

  Ben rejoined the sheriff as they all waited for help to arrive. Marcel got there first with the trailer. He and Ashton herded some of the uninjured cattle into the back of the trailer and took the first load away. The cries from inside the trailer grew more desperate, and Ben put his hands over his ears until sirens finally sounded in the distance.

  Fortunately it didn’t take long for Ashton and Marcel to return, and they got the next half-dozen or so head in the trailer while the fire department worked on the cab of the trailer and finally extracted the driver.

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  The driver was conscious. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t going that fast, but then the trailer jackknifed, and that’s pretty much all I remember.” He groaned, and they loaded his stretcher on the ambulance while Ben did his best to calm himself. He wouldn’t have put it past Dallas to cause an accident like this just to create a diversion in order to get them off the ranch. The man really was a heartless bastard.

  Ben took a deep breath, taking in the cold air, and gave himself a little shake. He was getting paranoid. There had been no sign of Dallas, and while he needed to be vigilant, he also needed to relax. He didn’t need to see everything as though Dallas were behind it

  “We’ve got the last of the sound cattle in the trailer,” Ashton said. One of the men nodded and grabbed a rifle, heading toward the back of the cattle truck.

  Ben flinched as shots were fired. He knew the cattle had to be put down, but knowing something was happening and being there to see it were two very different things, he thought, as he climbed into Ashton’s truck and closed the door.

  “YOU REALLY believe the accident might have been caused by Dallas?” Ashton asked as they drove back to the ranch. They had done all they could do.

  Ben shrugged. “It crossed my mind. I mean, it’s the kind of thing I’ve seen him do—create a diversion so he could go right in and get what he wanted.” He sighed as they pulled into the driveway. “I hope the driver is going to be okay.” He didn’t want to think about the eight or so head of cattle that had had to be put down. Ashton had said that it was a lot less than it could have been, but still….

  “I think so. He was talking when I saw him last, and they were asking him questions.” Ashton pulled to a stop, and they met Reg in the yard. “I’m going to check on the horses,” Ashton told him. “Go on inside, and I’ll help with lunch when I get in.” Ashton made his way across the now dirty snow of the yard, and Ben went into the house.

  “Any luck?” Ben asked Reg, who looked up from his computer with a grin.

  “Yup. My friends in the Rangers are thrilled. They are checking into what we gave them and are passing the information to the proper authorities. My contact did say that they are being very careful because they’re afraid that Dallas might have people in the police force.”

  “Did they say what they’ll do?” Ben asked.

  Reg shook his head. “My friend said he would let us know if they find anything. So we’ll just have to wait. What happened with the truck?”

  “The driver is okay. Ashton and Marcel got the uninjured cattle to a back pasture. The others had to be killed.” He swallowed hard. “It’s such a shame.” He was going to hear those gunshots in his sleep for a while. He couldn’t help thinking that what happened to those cows would happen to him, if and when Dallas found him. “Ashton is out in the barn checking on the horses.”

  He left the room and went down to the one he had originally been using, but found it co-opted by the security guys, so he went to Ashton’s room and lay on the bed, pulling the spread over him. He needed to get the images of the dead cattle out of his head.

  Damn it all. He’d never seen himself as squeamish, but he sure felt that way. He kept telling himself that the driver was going to be okay and that there was nothing he could have done. They got the cattle that were unharmed out and safe. That was the best they could do.

  After a while he pushed the image of dead cattle out of his head only to have Dallas replace them. Now when he closed his eyes, he saw Dallas’s face. And frankly he’d rather see dead cows.

  “Ben,” Ashton said, coming in the room. “You all right?”

  “I will be.” He was coming to learn just how debilitating fear could be, and he loathed Dallas for making him feel this way. “I’m just being stupid.” And seeing danger around every corner.

  “I understand.”

  Ben rolled over. “How can you? This is your ranch, but I’m the one Dallas is after. It’s me Dallas is gonna want if he gets here. I can bring this to an end just by walking away now.” Those gunshots were still ringing in his ears.

  Ashton leaned closer. “Ego much?” he asked. “Look. Except for the cows, which was an accident, the rest of this mess is because of Henderson, and that seems to have quieted down. Lucy was shot by one of Henderson’s men. It’s that simple. This has nothing at all to do with you. I really think it might be possible that you got away and that Dallas has moved on to other things.” Ashton raised his eyebrows, and Ben had to admit that he liked thinking that way.

  He put his arms around Ashton’s neck, rested his head on his shoulder, and just stayed that way. He was a complete and total fool sometimes. Hell, maybe most of the time. Ashton pulled away and then kissed him. It started out gentle, but Ben was soon pressed back onto the bedding with Ashton’s weight pushing down on him. For a few seconds Ben felt safe and secure, and he held on to Ashton, taking comfort in his weight and solidity.

  “IS HE dead?” Dallas asked Jake, leaning back in his chair when Jake nodded. “Did he talk before you killed him? It took long enough to find him, and I’d like something for the trouble.” He wished he could have been there to loosen that idiot’s tongue.

  “No. Christopher refused to say a word,” Jake said with a hint of respect. “Maybe you could have gotten something out of him, but he was determined not to say anything.”

  Dallas appreciated the backward compliment but glared at Jake anyway. At least this little demonstration would show everyone the price of crossing him. Too bad the moron had decided
to help Benji escape instead of remembering who he was dealing with. After everything that Dallas had done for Benji, his betrayal stung. Anger welled up inside him, but Dallas held it in check. He needed to think clearly and plan just what he was going to do.

  “Do you have anything else?” He needed to think about his next move.

  “All I know is that Ben is still on the ranch and isn’t showing any signs of moving on.” Jake swallowed, and Dallas reveled in his nervousness for a few seconds. Christopher might have thought he could get one over on Dallas, but no one else was fucking going to.

  He leaned forward. “What… else?” Dallas demanded. He knew that look. Jake was worried about delivering bad news.

  “Well….” Jake swallowed again. “It seems that the rancher Ben is staying with apparently has something in common with you—he’s developed a thing for your twink.” Jake curled his lip upward.

  “I see.” No one touched what was his. Everyone knew that. Dallas took a deep breath to give himself a chance to think. Maybe it was time to make a move. He’d make damned sure that both of them paid and paid dearly. He’d been patient long enough. Now it was time for action… and fear. Plenty of fear. His pants grew tight just thinking about it.

  A RINGING tore through the room, and Ben instantly stiffened in Ashton’s arms.

  “Ashton,” Reg said, his voice filtering through the open bedroom doorway. Ashton sat up as the ringing continued. “I think you better get that, but let me listen in.”

  Ashton nodded and slowly got up and left the room. Ben sighed and sat back up, his lips still tingling as he too got off the bed and followed the awful sound.

  “Yeah,” Ashton snapped after silencing the damn sound.

  Ben entered the room. Ashton held the receiver so Reg could hear as well. “You can fucking go to hell.” Ashton’s cheeks became red, and he shared glances with Reg. “You’re so full of crap. I have everyone here on alert. The police are watching the place, and the state police have been alerted.” Dallas only understood strength.