Dead Man's Land by Jack Patterson (digital e reader .txt) 📕

have I ever let you down,” Ortega shot back.

Torres shook his head. “Check on Prado, will ya?”

Ortega shuffled back to the Hummer to check on Prado, who remained secured in the back seat. Torres then knifed two of the tires and pulled out the car’s sparkplug.

“There,” Torres said as he stood up and admired his work. “That ought to keep them here for a while.”

Torres climbed into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine.

“Well, well, well, Mr. Prado. I bet you didn’t realize you were buying a round-trip ticket when you signed up with us, did you?”

CHAPTER 17

CAL RUBBED HIS EYES and looked at Kelly. He grabbed her hand and caressed it, though she barely flinched. She kept her eyes on the road, her demeanor stoic. After a few moments of silence, she finally spoke.

“Why did you get out of the bus and run after the player?” she asked. “Can you give me a good reason?”

He turned toward her and let go of her hand. “Oh, Kelly. Don’t be like that, not now. I’m just glad to be back with you.”

“Glad to be alive—that’s what you really mean.”

“Kelly, come on.”

“Look, I understand that your have an insatiable appetite for adventure—so do I. But adventure and danger are two different things. You have to be more careful.”

“I was careful. Nobody got shot.”

“But you could’ve been.”

“But—”

She held up her index finger. “You’ve not only got me to think about, but you’ve also got a little girl who adores you. And I don’t know how either of us would survive if you were gone.”

“I’m not going to do anything that puts my life in jeopardy.”

She glanced at him, her brow furrowed. “Did you know that everything would be fine and dandy when you jumped through the bus window? Did you know it was just going to be cinch to escape from two criminals?”

“How do you know all that?”

“It’s all over the news. I heard one report from an eye witness in Baker City who saw it all happen.”

“But they didn’t help out?”

“You didn’t either. You ran, remember?”

“I was helping the player.” Cal paused. “He’s Cuban. He wouldn’t have made it through the night if I wasn’t with him.”

“And what were you going to do? Wrestle bears that attacked him? Take a bullet for him if the criminals caught him? I’m sure he would’ve done just fine on his own.”

Cal sunk into his seat and threw his hands in the air. “I don’t understand where all this is coming from, honey. You know I love you and care about you.”

“You have a funny way of showing it, dashing into danger when it’s not necessary.”

Cal sighed. “Okay, I’ll concede that perhaps it wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made—but at the end of the day, everything is okay. Prado’s safe with the FBI.”

“The FBI? Why were they involved in this?”

“Beats me. Probably had something to do with the fact that he’s Cuban. I don’t know. But my point is, everyone is fine.”

She shook her head and then looked at him. “Promise me that you’ll think next time before you do something so crazy. I know you have to help people, but can you just maybe help people who aren’t susceptible to getting shot at or kidnapped.”

Cal nodded. “I promise I’ll give it more thought next time.”

“So what really happened out there?”

Cal took a deep breath and picked up her phone. “Why don’t I tell you and Buckman at the same time?” He dialed Buckman’s cell number.

“Buckman.”

“Buckman, it’s me, Cal.”

“Oh, thank God you’re alive! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. It was quite an ordeal.”

“So, what happened exactly?”

Cal explained in painstaking detail how the attackers boarded the Seafarers’ team bus, how he and Prado jumped through a window and ran to safety. He also shared how they almost got caught by a jumpy old man with a gun.

At that point, Kelly backhanded him in the chest. “You didn’t tell me that,” she said under her breath so her comment wouldn’t be heard by Cal’s boss.

Cal threw his hands in the air and mouthed, “What?”

Then he concluded the story by sharing about how two FBI agents arrived on the scene and volunteered to take Prado in order to keep him safe.

“Has the team put out any official announcement yet?” Cal asked.

“I haven’t seen anything,” Buckman said.

“Well, it’s early, but I’m sure they’ll be releasing something very soon.”

“In the meantime, we’ve got you and your first-person account of all that happened.”

Cal took a deep breath. “I don’t know, Buckman.”

“You don’t know what?”

“I don’t know if I like this idea. I like to report the news, not make it.”

“Sometimes you don’t have a choice. Besides, it’s not like you were out there pandering to the crowd or stirring up something on social media just to get your name trending on Twitter. What you did was legitimate—both as a reporter and as a human being. You were trying to help someone.”

“You’re right. I was.” He thought for a moment. “Okay, I guess it’ll be all right for me to do it.”

“Great. Write up what you know now and we’ll fill in all the sordid details later as they come in.”

“I’ll try to get you something later this evening. It might be a while.”

“Take your time,” Buckman said. “And thanks again for all your hard work, Cal. If all my reporters worked half as hard as you—”

Cal grinned and finished Buckman’s thought. “You’d never get a sports section out, would you?”

Buckman snickered. “Feigned modesty will get you nowhere with me. I’ll look for your story later today and keep you posted on what we find out.”

“Later.” Cal hung up and looked at Kelly. She started to chew on her bottom lip.

“You know what? I don’t wanna know. You flirted with death obviously—but I don’t wanna hear about it. It’ll just give me nightmares.”

“We weren’t flirting with death. You make it sound like the guy pointed his gun right at us and was crazy enough