"Well, we've got to confront him. He's out hunting the dogs right now, for the reward. He's killed people just to get the reward raised, and my dad's put up the money."
"Yes – why?"
The older girl felt her composure cracking as her mind touched on why her father had put such a high bounty on the dogpack. Of course DesirЋe knew why. It was she that had arranged Priscilla's own rape and degradation by the dogs! But she brought herself back to the matter at hand; the other girl mustn't know that she knew. "He had his reasons, so never mind. We've got our own problems, like bringing Clete into line."
"I wonder if he'll ever be punished for what he's done, to you and me and that boy."
"Let's get started on it then. We'll go meet him right now. Talk to him face to face. He's up in the hills by your farm now. It's a good place to talk where no one will hear what's being said."
"Is he alone? Rodney likes to go with him."
"If he is, we'll ask him for some privacy, but I just saw Rodney in town at the cafЋ."
DesirЋe nodded. "That's better. Should we go now?"
"Right now, kid, while the time is right."
DesirЋe went and put on some jeans and a T-shirt.
Ten minutes later they were driving down Main Street. Priscilla hurried their passage, for she couldn't afford to have anyone see DesirЋe in her company today. She didn't want anyone asking her questions after the little blonde bitch disappeared.
"That's Clete's car there," DesirЋe said as they passed the police station. "He's in his office."
The older girl thought fast. "No, he goes on foot, leaves the car for the deputy."
"Oh."
Inside the station, Clete glanced out the window as he saw a car speeding by at twenty-five miles over the speed limit. Seeing it was Priscilla's vehicle, he almost forgot it, until he saw that DesirЋe, his sweet fucking DesirЋe, was riding on the passenger side. In an instant he was on his feet. "What the hell!" He ran for the door, automatically grabbing a shotgun as he went.
Rodney followed, with Tanya close behind, and as he took the wheel of his car, they jumped in with him, Tanya in back and her husband in front. Now what the hell was DesirЋe doing with that auburn-haired bitch of Pickford's Meadows? Knowing how evil Priscilla could be, he felt immediate concern for the innocent, big-eyed blonde.
"You're not going without me," Rodney vowed.
"This has nothing to do with the dogs."
"Like hell it doesn't."
Clete had no time to expel the pair. He didn't want to risk losing the trail, and Priscilla's car was too far down the road now for him to waste time with any delay.
The two young men in the cafЋ saw Clete go, and though the sheriff was not alone, Billy was not deterred from his purpose. While Sam protested, he fired up his car and followed at speed, though at a discreet distance.
Mark was on the road into town when he saw Priscilla Devereaux driving past him, and he thought he caught a glimpse of DesirЋe's river of honey-blonde hair beside her. Was it? Yes, he thought it was. And while he was still pondering the possibilities of their being together, all of them distressing, he saw Clete's four-wheel drive, off-road Blazer go by at speed.
What was going on?
After a little more thought, Mark spun his car into a U-turn and followed.
"This is my father's property," DesirЋe remarked, somewhat surprised.
"The dogs have been sighted up here, and this is where Clete's been tracking them."
DesirЋe shivered. The disgusting animals were on her father's own property. "What if we run into them? The dogs, I mean?"
"Well, from what Clete told me, you know just how to handle them."
DesirЋe was taken aback. "What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, come on, DesirЋe, I know about you and Lobo."
"Me… and Lobo?"
Priscilla stopped herself. Let the little bitch try to act innocent. In just a little while, it won't matter one little bit. The car reached the end of the indistinct trail it had been following and Priscilla braked and turned off the car.
"Here we are."
Priscilla got out, and DesirЋe followed suit.
"What did you mean by that remark about me and Lobo?"
"Never mind, darling, let's get down to business with Clete. Forget Lobo."
"Yes," DesirЋe said meekly, then remembered her vow to get even with the men who had used her. She had tried with Buchanan, and would try again. Now, Clete. And, someday, she would do more than just scare him. For what he had done to her, he would have to suffer somehow, and perhaps her strange friend Priscilla had started the ball rolling right now.
Her strong legs carried her athletically on up through the forest behind the older girl, bravely going to face the man who had been her lover, her tormentor, and her enemy, never thinking that the woman who guided her was the worst enemy she would ever have and was leading her to her grave.
They walked for a good fifteen minutes, and DesirЋe in her building rage, managed to pull ahead so that Priscilla had to lead from behind, directing her by voice. They had gone over a mile when they suddenly burst into a large clearing.
And DesirЋe froze. Perhaps she had been expecting to find Clete there in some classic hunter's pose, his hand shielding his eyes from the sun with his rifle cocked on his hip, but it had never crossed her mind that she would find the entire dog pack, galvanized to alertness and ranged around her like hyenas, their hackles rising and their teeth bared. Priscilla, no less shocked, was still the first to act, and went straight up the nearest tree with an agility that surprised every living thing there.
DesirЋe clutched her hands to her soft breasts in a panic, then followed Priscilla up the same tree, but by then, the older girl was safely established on a branch and pushed DesirЋe back down to the ground. The blonde tumbled back onto her bottom, legs splayed and feet in the air, and looked up uncomprehendingly into the bore of the.38. Though it wasn't necessary for firing, Priscilla theatrically thumbed by the hammer.
"A surprise for me same as you," she said. "But it just couldn't be better, now could it?" This was perfect! The dogs would eat DesirЋe and she herself could be ever after in the clear. But what if…? "Time for a taste of your own treachery, bitch!"
"What? Priscilla?" DesirЋe gasped. "What do you mean?"
The older girl's face was a snarl, bared teeth beneath flared nostrils. "What I mean, slut, is that you strip. You've got thirty seconds to get your rags off or I'm going to punch you a second navel."
For the second time in a week, DesirЋe found herself looking into the bore of a gun, and had she been standing, she would have collapsed. "Priscilla, please…"
"Fuck that, bitch, no pleading with me. I'm going to watch you suffer the way I suffered with these beasts. Now get those clothes off!" And to show she meant business, she loosed a shot into the dirt beside the blonde girl's hand.
DesirЋe felt herself shuddering violently. She looked around at the dogs, which had been startled by the shot. Perhaps the dogs wouldn't kill her, but Priscilla would if she didn't comply. Struggling to control her trembling and the jelly weakness in her knees, she got up and braced her back against the trees, fumbling with her clothes.
"Did you hear that?" Rodney asked Clete. "That sounded like a gunshot."
"No kidding," Clete responded sarcastically, his ear trying to place the location of the report. Sounds in the forest were always hard to place, and he was not sure which way to head.
"Can you tell where it came from?"
"Over there, I think," Clete answered, his brow wrinkled with concentration. "Maybe."
"Well, it sounded like it came from that way to me," Rodney volunteered.