Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sterling could hardly believe it when Dotty drove up ten minutes after she had left. Once she cut the engine she called, “The milking crew arrived early. Cool your jets, people. They won’t be done until after seven tonight. Then it’s an all clear.”
Sterling rushed to her side. “How did Ryan react to your showing up?”
She buffed her nails from the driver’s seat as she answered. “The lug can’t wait for our evening alone together. His ex-wife did a number on him, and he’s desperate for positive feminine attention. I told him I felt so badly that our last interaction wasn’t satisfying for him and that the guilt forced me to search him out. He lapped it up like honey. What a patsy.”
“This could work to our advantage,” Sterling said. “We’ll be harder to track at night.”
Paige walked over from the barn with a wheelbarrow full of fresh hay for the back of the truck. “You think Elaine will have us followed?”
“If she knew we were back in town. Remember, she thinks we’re still in Dallas, Texas,” Sterling said.
“Well, it is your hometown.” Dotty got out of her car and leaned against the convertible. “You know that’s why she sent you there, right?”
“She didn’t send me there. I found Earth Tech on my own.” He remembered reading about them in a local paper, but couldn’t recall how he came across it.
Dotty lifted her nose and turned away from him. “You think what you want, and I’ll pretend I never saw that article on the printer in Elaine’s office three weeks before you brought it up.”
The only good part of what he was hearing was that Elaine might not figure out where they were going.
Dotty seemed to be getting bored with the conversation and turned to Paige. “You got a couch and television, goat girl?”
“Yes, Austin’s in the house; he can show you,” Paige said.
“Don’t bother me until quarter to seven.” Dotty headed for the house, and Sterling was relieved she was gone. He wanted to spend some time alone with Paige, to talk about what happened in Dallas, but she spoke first.
“Sterling, do you have any idea where we’re taking the goats? Joe’s got a place on Mt. Hood. I know he’s got the room, and he wouldn’t mind.” She had been spreading hay in the back of the truck and had a stalk of straw in her hair.
He reached up to remove it, but she backed away. “Is something wrong?” he asked. The last he knew they were getting along well.
Paige let out a puff of air. “Let me think. My herd has been stolen beneath my nose, I’m on the verge of committing a felony, and I have no idea where you’re planning to take us. I’d say there’s a lot wrong and not much right. Wouldn’t you?”
Sterling wanted to hold her hand, but they were folded tight in front of her. “I know where we’re going to go, but it’s complicated. How about if I help you prepare the truck then we can talk about it?” He hadn’t shared why he left home all those years ago with anyone and wasn’t looking forward to the prospect.
Austin slammed the front door and marched their direction. “I can’t wait here until seven. Your secretary is verifiably insane.”
“I get that a lot.” Sterling laughed. “Why don’t I take you home to pack some clothes? We’ll be gone for five days.”
“Great.” Austin stretched his neck and rotated his shoulders. “I’ll get some more micro-dots at my apartment, just in case. Do you want to drive?” He fished his keys out of his pocket.
Sterling snatched them up. “Sorry, Paige. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
“Don’t hurry on my account,” she said, returning to hay duty.
He knew he was chickening out of telling her the truth, but he would have lots of time later. He only hoped she wouldn’t think less of him when she found out.
Sterling and Austin returned with no time to spare. The plan wasn’t complicated, in fact just the opposite. A simple grab and go. While Ryan was off flirting with Dotty, Paige and Sterling would load the goats. Meanwhile, Austin would find any paperwork from his original packing extravaganza, so they’d have documentation in case they went to court. If all went well, fifteen minutes, and they would hightail it out of there.
Dotty left first, asking for half an hour alone with Ryan before they arrived. With five minutes to go, Sterling climbed in the U-haul, expecting Paige to sit next to him. Instead, she held the door open, so Austin would sit in the middle. As they crept up the new road at the back of the former emu farm, there was only one car parked beside the red Miata. Sterling backed in near the double doors at the east side of the building. He cut the engine and waited.
Once they were certain they hadn’t been spotted, the trio bolted from the rental. Sterling grabbed a stick off the ground to drive the goats, the way he had with the cows back home. As soon as the goats saw him, they scattered. He was getting nowhere then noticed five goats were already in the truck and seven more were on Paige’s heels, following her up the ramp.
“Are you magic, like the goat piper or something?” he asked.
“No.” She held up a bag of brown wafers. “Goat cookies. Try them.”
She tossed one his direction, and he held it up. Sure enough, the goats almost stampeded toward him.
With the goats safely in the U-haul, Paige got behind the wheel. She’d promised to drive away if there was any trouble while Sterling went back for Austin and Dotty. Both were in the office.
Opening the door, he had a shock. Ryan was hogtied with Dotty’s long riding scarf and lying on the floor. Muffled grunts came from his stuffed mouth.
“I told you to distract him,” Sterling said.
“He is distracted.” Dotty gave an innocent-looking pout. “He’s trying so hard to get out of those knots that he didn’t even notice the goats were gone.”
Meanwhile, Austin shuffled through all the papers on the desk. “They aren’t here.”
“What?” Dotty asked.
Austin’s hands were shaking. “My notes. The list of goats and all the supplies.”
“Oh.” Dotty tapped a finger against her pursed lips.
Sterling knew that look. “Do you know where they are, Dotty?”
She knelt beside Ryan and reached in his mouth with her fingers, withdrawing a wad of scrunched up papers she had used as a gag. Immediately, the bound man began spewing profanities.
Dotty kicked him with her stilettos. “What’s your problem, Ryan? You said I could do anything I wanted to you. Didn’t ya?”
The inner struggle between Austin’s disgust at the spittle-covered pages and his sense of obligation to flatten the documents was amusing, but Sterling knew he couldn’t watch. It was time to go.
He pecked Dotty’s cheek. “What are you going to do about Ryan?”
“Blanche, his ex, was a lot rougher than me.” Dotty waved her hand. “I may play with him a little longer, but there’ll be no permanent damage. He’ll tell everyone it was a dozen ninjas or something. We’ll be fine. What about you? Where are you going?”
“It’s best if you don’t know.” Sterling turned to go.
Dotty’s hand clamped around his arm. “I mean it. Don’t give up everything for her. You’ll hate her if you do.” Her eyes pled with him, but Sterling couldn’t imagine ever hating Paige.
He put his hand over Dotty’s. She had been the closest thing he had to a mother since he lost his own. “Truth is, I’m getting a lot more than I’m giving.”
“You always see the best in people. It’ll hurt you in the end.” Dotty let him go.
Hurrying to the truck, Sterling found Austin and Paige already inside. He leapt into his seat, and they pulled onto the highway. It was only seven thirty, the goats were milked, and Sterling steeled himself for the hardest part of the trip.
***