Part 38 (2/2)

The devil arched an eyebrow. ”One of the ranchers.”

”That's me. One of the Border Volunteers, too. Aaron just killed Lester Keegan. Vickers and Boyd are here, too. Ca.s.saday didn't lose anyone back in October, but we can speak for him.”

Aguilar glanced at his men and then at Aaron before turning back to Zeke.

”All right, Ezekiel. Speak.”

”We never wanted to come here,” Zeke said, heart pounding, trying to hide his hatred of this man and his comrades. ”We knew it was crazy-suicide-but we had no choice.”

”Your friend Aaron told us all about it,” Aguilar said, waving Aaron's gun around. ”We knew you were coming, ese. Knew about the guns you were buying.”

”Which is why the first couple of bullets in every magazine are dummies,” the scarred gunman said, grinning. ”Click click. Nada.”

Aguilar laughed softly. ”Yeah, that was Guillermo's idea. Pretty funny, actually.And it helped get you all the way out here.”

Zeke felt like throwing up.

”The school bus was a nice touch, though,” Aguilar said appreciatively.

”Please, just let us go,” Linda Trevino begged.

Aguilar shot her a hard look, so Zeke s.h.i.+fted to block his view of the woman.

”Hold on, here's my offer,” Zeke said. ”Full access to all four ranches. We'll cover for you with the Border Patrol, make it a h.e.l.l of a lot easier for you to get whatever you want across the river. Guns. Drugs. People. Anything.”

”Really . . . ?” Aguilar said, eyes widening, impressed. ”And what about the rest of your people? They're all going to go along with this?”

Zeke glanced around at the others, waiting for an argument, but n.o.body dared to say a word.

”They are,” he said firmly.

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