the tape,” she said. “But first, we need you to understand something.” She got closer. “You have to remain quiet and calm. Nod if you can do that.”
He nodded, glared, struggled with his ties.
Bettye grinned, the shotgun in her capable hands.
“We didn’t mean to hurt you,” Sophia said, hoping he’d believe her. “We live close by and we watch out for each other. We have a few other neighbors but we’re not used to strangers showing up. Usually we just get long-lost relatives or a few lost tourists, but not during the worst winter storm of the season. Do you understand?”
“You shook us up,” Bettye said, bobbing her head. “She was over visiting me and saw you snooping around her cabin.”
He grunted and gave Sophia a stare down.
Ignoring those tiger eyes, she continued. “Good. So if I take off the tape and untie your hands, you aren’t going to haul us in or report us for assault with a deadly weapon or an attempt to shoot an officer of the law, are you?”
Bettye patted the shotgun, still grinning.
He grunted and shook his head, his golden-green eyes sending a different message from the docile grunt. He was probably bluffing, but she couldn’t keep the man tied up inside her cabin. Her very small cabin.
Sophia looked at Bettye. Bettye nodded and leaned over the man. “Just for good measure, I’ll shoot you if you try anything.”
“Do you understand that?” Sophia asked, hoping they had properly handled this situation. “We need you to understand we’re just trying to protect ourselves.”
She didn’t intend to let Bettye shoot the Ranger, but she wanted him to know this was serious. “Okay?”
He nodded, tugged at his restraints.
Sophia placed one hand on his face and felt the brittle caress of his five-o’clock shadow. Her fingertips tingled with an awareness that skidded right up her arm. In an attempt to ignore the unusual, long-dormant feeling, she smiled and gave him a reassuring glance. “This might hurt a bit.”
Then she pulled the duct tape off his mouth.
* * *
ADAN GRITTED HIS teeth but to save face, he refused to scream. As soon as the tape was off, he let out a string of colorful words.
“No need for profanity,” the old woman said, her smile as serene as a nun’s.
Adan glanced from her to the woman now untying the ropes from around his wrists. “Don’t you think y’all took this just a little too far? I mean, giving me a possible concussion, then taping my mouth shut and tying me up. What is wrong with you people?”
“We don’t trust nobody,” the old woman replied, still smiling.
He could hear that theme song, the one where the mountain people murdered the newcomer and buried him in an old well. His weapon had been removed and his cell phone had been confiscated. He hadn’t reported in all day, so hopefully someone would realize he’d gone missing. Or there was the other possibility—because he was known for going off on his own to do his job and he always turned back up eventually, he might not even be missed until it was too late.
Nor found until the spring thaw. He’d either be frozen solid under a snowdrift or chewed into pieces by some hungry mountain varmint. Not exactly a noble death.
Too late to worry about that now. He’d have to find a way around these two overly zealous defenders of the universe so he could get back to finding his fugitive. Obviously, if the criminal Adan was searching for had been here, they’d helped him escape while Adan was out cold. Or maybe thrown him into an old well, too. He couldn’t be sure, though. They didn’t seem all that cagey now. More like worried that he’d haul them in.
“I’m sorry,” the pretty one said as she stepped back to look at him. “About the...shotgun and about Bettye hitting you with her cast-iron skillet. She thought you were an intruder, so she was just trying to protect me.”
“We’re tight, me and Sophia,” the older one replied, her thumb hooking toward the pretty one, her eyes squinting inside the crow’s-feet stretching out around her face.
The older lady wore so many layers, it was hard to tell where the coats and scarves ended and her actual skin began. Her gray-streaked braid of hair was woven around her head to match the old gray scarf woven around her neck.
Adan let out another grunt. “You think? Tight like Thelma and Louise. Do you always greet strangers with a gun and a skillet?”
“Only the tall, good-looking ones,” the lady called Bettye said on a chuckle. “Just our way of saying welcome to the neighborhood.”
Adan wondered again if he’d stumbled into an alternative world. But this was Ozark country in Arkansas. Anything could happen. “Well, thanks for the welcome. Don’t I get cookies and coffee, too?”
“Yes,” the one called Sophia replied. She put her hand on his arm. “Can you sit up?”
“I’m fine,” he replied, testy because two spry women had gotten the best of him. “I can sit up and I can stand up.” He tried to do both and saw double.
And he really didn’t need two of either of them.
“Lie back down,” Sophia said. “Rest and I’ll make some dinner. Bettye, you will stay and have dinner with us, right?”
Adan saw something quiet and secretive pass between the women. Were they still aiding and abetting a fugitive?
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Bettye replied. “I’ll keep our guest company while you get dinner going.” Then she turned to Adan and hooted with laughter. “We’ve had ourselves a very exciting night, don’t you think, Mr. Texas Ranger?”
Adan glared at her and willed his eyes to quit showing him two of her. “I couldn’t agree more.”
But once his head quit spinning, he’d be up and out of this bed and then he’d decide what to do with these two enchanting and entertaining petty criminals.
Thinking he could persuade the older one, he said, “I’m just here trying to do my job. And I did try to show you my credentials.”
Bettye gave him a sharp glare. “Just remember, you were the one trespassing.”
“DINNER’S READY. DO YOU feel better now?”
Adan glanced up at Sophia and studied her for signs of betrayal and deceit. But the woman only appeared concerned and certainly worried. She was making nice now that he’d lived.
“I feel fine,” he said, his mood anything but fine and dandy. He was dirty, hungry and frustrated. At this rate, he wouldn’t make it back to Austin in time for New Year’s Eve with his parents and his daughter, Gaylen, let alone Christmas Eve.
How many times had
