Free The Road Sharks by Clint Hollingsworth Page B

ear. What happened next astonished her. One second he was right in front of her facing away, the next he was six feet away, looking towards her, hands in a combat position. She had barely seen him move.
    “Gawd’amighty woman! You about made me jump out of my skin!”
    Laughter poured over the rampart.
    “This the gal you said was waitin’ for ya, Eli?” Horace cackled. “Appears she grow’d tired of it!”
    Eli lowered his voice so that the spectators couldn’t hear. “Ghost Wind, don’t ever sneak up on me like that! I could’ve overreacted and hurt you, which is about the last thing I want to do!”  
    “You tricked me,” she replied, equally quiet. “Somehow you think I can let that stand? You want me to trust you, but I was ready to take off cross-country and you could’ve kissed my fading footprints!”
    “Heweee!” Horace called down, “A couple starts talkin’ all quiet like that, you know there’s a storm on the horizon.”
    “We’re not a couple!” Ghost Wind and Eli replied simultaneously.
    “I’m dang glad to hear it, seein’ as how our little community is three quarters men and one quarter women. Anyone who can look that good and can sneak up on Mr. Sharp Ears there, would be mighty welcome here!”
    “Do you want these weapons, or not?” Eli yelled up.
    “I think you two best come in for a little stew and tea, and we’ll discuss it!”
    “I don’t think—” Eli began.
    “Accepted!” Ghost Wind cut him off. “Thank you for the hospitality!”
    Horace laughed, and the metal gate began to move.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Road Sharks
****
    “Porter,” Axyl said. “Please tell me Eli didn’t do this.”
    Um…” From the hangdog look on the man’s face and the lack of the rest of the battered-looking crew’s ability to raise their gaze from the ground, Axyl knew that was exactly what had happened. Again.
    “Fuck, man, how the hell am I supposed to keep Darwin from just shooting you, Port? This is twice you’ve screwed up a simple recon!” Axyl looked at Porter, shaking his head.
    “Dammit, Axe. You keep sending me out with the stupidest guys in the gang, and they are just not good at being slick or quiet.” The other men looked at Porter with hard stares. “Sure as shit, them farmers heard some of these yahoos talkin’ in the brush, and the next think I know, firefight.”
    “You’d better not have lost Durpee,” he said. “Or I swear to God, I’m gonna beat the boss to the draw in blowing your brains all over this nice wallpaper.”
    “No! No, Axe, Durpee was hid when the shooting started, I had to go back an’ get him! He ain’t got a scratch, man! Wish I could say the same for the rest of us.”
    “Where’s Stanley?”
    “Ol’ Eli dislocated his jaw so bad, I don’t think even the doc could’a helped him. He was hurtin’ something’ terrible, boss, so… I popped him when he weren’t lookin’. It was a mercy, honest!”
    “All right, Porter,” Axle cut in, sighing. “Just tell me what you learned about New Hope so I can have an idea what went down before we tell Darwin.”
    The meeting upstairs with Shell went just about as Axyl expected, badly.
    ****
    “Honest to fuck, boss, it wasn’t our fault!” Porter Dell had a note of hysteria in his voice.  
    “You come back here,” Shell started quietly, volume increasing with each word, “beat to hell, missing men and not bringing me the information I needed! Tell me, Porter, you’re supposed to be one of my lieutenants, but what the HELL good are you?”
    Porter flinched and subconsciously tried to protect the shoulder that Doc Mullins had just put back in the socket. Shell was tempted to punch the man in that shoulder, but knew that getting information from people while they were sobbing was tedious at best.
    “Tell me,” he said, “what exactly happened, Porter.”
    “Boss,” Porter looked at him with a pitiable expression, “It was that goddamned Eli again! He snuck up and jacked us from