The Outlaw Stinky Joe (Baer Creighton Book 4), page 22
I get a chill.
Haven’t heard a baying sniffer in an hour, seems.
Dome light goes on…
Cinder!
And other people.
Butt hole puckers. Tighten on the Glock grip and hear chatter—female.
Swallow hard. This won’t be easy but it needs done. Holster Glock.
Walk to the truck.
The door opens.
“Baer?”
“Mae.”
Other doors. Bree, Morgan, and Joseph. Little feller looks startled by the light. They climb out. Mae hugs me. Shit, Ruth is here too. Lotta people in the king cab.
“You find him?” Cinder says.
Turn. Joe’s beside me. I squat and put my arm around him. “He’s been through a grinder.”
“I thought that might be the case.”
“Looks like you been busy.”
“Your family wanted to see you off. I explained everything. You need some space between you and us. And we need the space too. This is the last time you get to call her Mae.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah. I had a friend in L.A. make her some papers.”
“I always wanted to be a Tricia,” Mae says.
“I’m LeeAnne,” Bree says.
“I’m Miley,” Morgan says.
“And who’s that little feller?”
“That’s little Baer.”
Shake my head. Let the eyes soak in water a minute. Too damn much love on the heels of evil. Christ Almighty.
“Thought you might need a way out,” Cinder says, “so we brought another set of wheels.”
He nods and now I see the other vehicle is a Jeep Wrangler with a Warn winch and mudders.
“That’ll do, until I get pulled over.”
“Well, we thought of that too, back when we did all the others. Case you ever came up for air. Here you go.”
He passes an envelope.
“That’s your new driver license, insurance, registration. The whole deal. You’re legit.”
“What’s my name?”
“We had to pick something low key.”
“Aw … hell.”
Mae says, “Your new name is Alden Boone.”
“I knew an Alden. Was an asshole.”
“Baer …”
“Sorry.” I stand. “Lemme get Joe in the Jeep.”
“Hugs,” Mae say. She wraps her arms tight on my shoulders and that baby belly’s hard like she’s due.
“I love you,” Mae says.
“Love y’all.”
Want to squirm, but I let her cling. The kids wrap on my legs. Little Joseph leans on the truck tire, picks his nose.
Ruth lifts him and they join the group hug. Mae cries, so the girls start. Cinder eyeballs me, like these people are my measure.
A blessing I don’t deserve. But take. With enthusiasm.
“You got to go, Baer,” Cinder says. He reaches. I reach. He puts the key in my hand.
“Alden,” Mae says. She pulls back. Eyes shiny. Big smile.
“Got a first aid kit in the Jeep for you. All you need to fix up Joe. And a couple other surprises.”
I pull away. They bunch up like for the family portrait.
Joe follows close.
I stop.
“Mae?”
“Yeah?”
“You know all those stops we made at the bank?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You can have that. I don’t want it.”
“Visit, Alden.”
“I will.”
Maybe.
Chapter 49
Jeep Wrangler’s the long one with four doors. Good thinking. Lots of cargo. Black. Winch up front—never know when you’ll need to tow backwards. Extra lights on top. Big wheels with angry treads. Cinder gave me a toy that goes through the woods.
Open the back. Dome light.
Tat.
Marisol.
Blink.
Grin.
She climbs out.
Joe growls—easy.
“How?”
“We followed you. Hitched. Called Nat.”
“Oh.”
She hugs me. Bang my elbow on her Sig Sauer.
“Okay,” says I. “Okay. We’ll sort this out.”
Chapter 50
The cabbage man was in the front and the older girl beside him. The vehicle vibrated and the noise filled his ears.
Joe slept on the back seat beside younger of the two girls. He woke to her touching his cheek, a slow caress that recalled the touch of the cabbage man. He growled and the girl stopped. But she started again, and Joe sighed.
He was again among his people.
Outlaws.
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ALSO BY CLAYTON LINDEMUTH
Tread
Hunted by the FBI and a recently released death row inmate, secessionist Nat Cinder brings down the governor of Arizona.
Buy Tread
Sometimes Bone
Set in 1917, Grace Hardgrave leaves the streets of New York to face the predator who made her life go wrong, and learns everyone has a secret, an angle, and a reason to kill.
Buy Sometimes Bone or Grab it Free Here!
Nothing Save the Bones Inside Her
Grace Hardgrave’s nephew Angus Hardgrave has grown up, leaving three dead wives buried under the walnut on Devil’s Elbow. The fourth won’t be as easy.
Buy Nothing Save the Bones Inside Her
Strong at the Broken Places
Nick Fister is the winningest ultra-distance runner in history. He runs the last race of his career, the brutal Badwater 135, while fending off a murder investigation and an upstart rival trying to take down the champion.
Buy Strong at the Broken Places or Grab it Free Here!
Solomon Bull
SOLOMON BULL is the son of a rebel who died in the eighties fighting for the American Indian Movement. He trains for an Arizona race called Desert Dog, designed to shred a man, while using monkey wrench tactics to unseat a corrupt senator.
Buy Solomon Bull
Cold Quiet Country
Gale G’Wain is alone and close to dead. He’s holed up in an empty farmhouse, half-dressed and nearly dead after falling through lake ice. Innocent, but unlikely to ever stand trial in a town as corrupt as Bittersmith, he loads his gun and prepares to defend himself against a dead man’s bloodthirsty sons and the Sheriff’s Department.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hello! I appreciate you reading my books—more than you can know. If you’ve read this far, you and I are fellow travelers. I suspect you sense something is not quite right with the world. It’s not as good as it’s supposed to be. We human beings aren’t as good as our ideals. Yet, we prize and want to fight for them.
I do my absolute best to write stories that portray the human situation with brutal transparency, but also I strive to tell stories that are not as bleak as the human condition sometimes seems. There’s no limit to the darkness. Light is rare. But it exists, and I hope when you complete one of my novels, you find your values validated.
I’m grateful you’re out there. Thank you.
Remember, light wins in the end.
Clayton Lindemuth, The Outlaw Stinky Joe (Baer Creighton Book 4)
