They arrived at a tall gate flanked by a heavy-duty chain-link fence with a crowning line of spiraled razor wire. The fence ran so far off into the distance to both the right and the left that she couldn’t see where it turned or ended. Beside the gate, there was a very serious-looking NO TRESPASSING sign with an additional notice below that read ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK; OWNERS ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INJURIES OR HARM THAT MAY RESULT FROM TRESPASSING.
“Subtle,” she said.
“It gets the job done,” Kevin responded. He pulled a key fob from his pocket and clicked a button. The gate swung open, and Daniel drove through.
She should have expected that his safe house would be so obvious.
After a few more miles, the house came into view like a mirage, its dull gray second story hovering on a light haze over the dry yellow grass. Here and there, a few dark, scrubby trees studded the grassland with some texture. Over it all, the washed-out blue sky stretched to infinity.
She’d never been totally comfortable with the Great Plains. She’d been a city girl for too long. This felt so exposed, so… unanchored. Like a strong wind could just erase everything in sight. Which probably did happen around these parts, biannually. She really hoped it wasn’t tornado season.
The rest of the house was revealed as they topped a low rise in the mostly flat road. It was large but dilapidated, two stories high with a rickety porch wrapped around half the ground floor. The coarse, dead grass ended about twenty yards from the house, replaced by sand-colored gravel that covered the dirt up to the cracked lattice that attempted to camouflage the foundation. The only breaks in the monotone vegetation were the house, the stunted trees, the reddish scar of the dirt lane, and then several indistinct shapes that were in motion, roving along the edges of the road. She’d seen a lot of cows on the way in, but these animals looked too small to be cows. They did seem to be furry, ranging in color from black to brown to white to a combination of all three.
The shapes started to converge on the car, moving a lot faster than cows.
Einstein’s tail began wagging so ferociously that it sounded like a small helicopter in the backseat.
“What is this place, Kev?”
“My retirement plan.”
The animals reached the car – half a dozen dogs of various sizes. Fantastic, Alex thought. One could have been Einstein’s twin. Another was gargantuan, looking like it was more closely related to equines than canines. She recognized a Doberman, two Rottweilers, and a traditionally colored German shepherd.
On the approach, the dogs had been totally silent and aggressive in their posture, but as soon as they saw Einstein, all the tails started wagging and they shared in a raucous chorus of barks.
“I train dogs for placement as guard dogs – commercial and private ownership. I also sell a few to families who just want a really well-behaved animal.”
“How do you keep this under the radar?” she wanted to know.
“You can drive, Danny, they’ll get out of the way,” Kevin instructed.
Daniel had come to a stop when the dogs surrounded the car. Now he eased carefully forward and, as promised, the dogs moved to flank them and follow them in. Kevin then addressed Alex. “Nothing is in my name. No one ever sees my face. I have a partner for that.”
As he spoke, she saw a figure walk out onto the porch – a large man wearing a cowboy hat. She couldn’t make out any other details from this distance.
“Everybody knows the dog ranch is out here. Nobody bothers with us. It has no connection to my past life,” Kevin was saying, but she wasn’t paying much attention. Her eyes were riveted on the man waiting at the top of the porch stairs.
Kevin noticed her preoccupation. “What, Arnie? He’s good people. I trust him with my life.”
She frowned at that expression. Daniel was looking at her, too. He started to slow.
“Is there a problem, Alex?” he asked in a low voice.
She heard Kevin’s teeth grind behind her. It was obvious how much he hated the way Daniel turned to her for guidance.
“It’s just…” She frowned, then gestured to Daniel and his brother. “This is already a lot for me. The two of you. I don’t know how to trust even you, let alone another person. Who only this one vouches for.” She pointed at Kevin and he scowled.
“Well, that’s just tough, shorty,” Kevin answered. “Because this is your best option, and the guy I vouch for is part of the deal. If you want to execute this plan of yours, you’ll have to suck it up.”
“It will be okay,” Daniel reassured her. He put his right hand lightly over her left.
Stupid how something like that could make you feel better. It wasn’t like Daniel comprehended even the most basic elements of the danger they were in. But still, her heartbeat decelerated a tiny bit, and her right hand – unconsciously clenched around the door handle – relaxed.
Daniel drove slowly; the dogs kept up with them pretty easily until they stopped on the gravel. She was able to get a better look at the man waiting for them.
Arnie was a tall, heavyset man, part Latino, maybe part Native American. He could have been forty-five, but he could have been ten years older, too. His face was lined, but it looked like the kind of leathering that was due to wind and sun rather than age. His hair, which hung several inches below the hat, was salt-and-pepper gray. He stared at them without any emotion as they stopped, though there was no way he could have expected a third passenger, even if Kevin had told him about Daniel.
Einstein exploded out of the car as soon as Kevin cracked the door open and immediately set to sniffing and being sniffed. Daniel and Kevin climbed out almost as quickly, eager to stretch their long legs. Alex was more hesitant. There were a lot of dogs, and the brown-spotted horse-dog looked to be taller on all fours than she was standing. They seemed to be occupied with one another at the moment, but who knew how they would react to her?
“Don’t be such a coward, Oleander,” Kevin called.
Most of the dogs had converged on him now, nearly forcing him to the ground with the combined weight of their greeting.
Daniel came around the car and opened the door for her, then offered his hand. She sighed, irritated, and got out on her own. Her shoes crunched on the gravel, but the dogs didn’t seem to notice her.
“Arnie,” Kevin called over the sound of the happy dogs. “This is my brother, Danny. He’ll be staying here. And, um, a temporary… guest, I suppose. Don’t know what else to call her. But guest seems kind of over-positive, if you know what I mean.”
“Your hospitality takes my breath away,” Alex murmured.
Daniel laughed, then climbed the stairs in two quick steps. He offered his hand to the stone-faced man, who didn’t look as tall standing next to Daniel, and they shook.
“Nice to meet you, Arnie. My brother’s told me nothing at all about you, so I look forward to getting to know you better.”
“Ditto, Danny,” Arnie said. His voice was a rumbly baritone that sounded as if it wasn’t used often enough to keep it running smoothly.
“And that’s Alex. Don’t listen to my brother; she’s staying as long as she wants.”
Arnie looked at her, focusing now. She waited for a reaction to the mess of her face, but he just regarded her coolly.
“A pleasure,” she said.
He nodded.
“You can move your stuff inside,” Kevin told them. He tried to walk toward the stairs, but the dogs were weaving around his legs at high speed. “Hey, boneheads! Attention!”
Like a small platoon of soldiers, the dogs immediately backed off a few paces, formed an actual line, and froze with their ears up.
“That’s better. At ease.”
The dogs sat down in unison, tongues lolling out in sharp-fanged smiles.