Wild Rescue by Jerry B. Jenkins, Chris Fabry Page A

trailer close to put the stuff in?” Ashley said. “They’re not going to lug that safe all the way to the road.”
    “Maybe they’re making sure things are clear, and then they’ll pull it up to the house.”
    “Either way, I think we should call the police. It’ll take them a long time to get out here.”
    “The plan was to wait until they—”
    “Plans change,” she said, and I could hear the emotion in her voice. “It’s better if they catch them pulling out with all the stuff than to not catch them at all. What time is it?”
    I hit my watch light again. A half hour had passed, and it seemed like two weeks. “Okay, I’ll call.”
    I hit the Talk button and started dialing. The beeps sounded, but when I held the phone up to my ear there was nothing. I clicked the Talk button off, then turned it on again and listened.
    “No dial tone,” I said. “I’ll use my cell.” I dug it out and punched it on. Nothing.
    “Don’t tell me you left it on!” she hissed.
    “I thought I recharged it.”
    She grabbed it and punched the top button, frantically trying to turn it on. Then she took the other phone and tried again.
    I tried to smile. “Maybe the bear cut the line.”
    “Not funny,” she said. “What now?”
    “Plan B.”

Chapter 81

    I didn’t care what Plan B was. I just wanted to do something.
    Bryce totally caught me off guard. He burst out of our hiding place and turned on every light he could find. “You take upstairs!” he yelled.
    I raced up, keeping a close watch on the patio door and the windows. I turned on all the lights in the bedrooms, and when I came out the radio and TV were blaring. The light coming from the house lit up the yard, and the noise was deafening.
    “What are we doing?” I hollered.
    He bolted into the kitchen and threw open the cabinets. “Letting them know we’re here. They’ll leave when they see what’s going on.”
    “But don’t we want to catch them?”
    “Not tonight,” Bryce said. He pulled out two huge boiling pots and handed me a wooden spoon. “Pretend it’s New Year’s!”
    We beat on those pots like we were in a rock band. I’m not proud of it, but I imagined Liz’s face on my pot and whacked it even harder.
    Bryce moved toward the window, something I wasn’t ready to do. His eyes grew wide, and he dropped his pot and spoon and hurried to the front door.
    “What?” I screamed, but he was already outside.
    I followed him into the yard and toward the barn. Taillights flashed as a trailer bounced down the dusty road.
    “Come on!” Bryce yelled.
    My fear of the robbers left when I saw the barn door open and several alpacas out, humming loudly under the moonlit sky. Bryce flicked on the fluorescent lights inside. We counted the animals and came up five short.
    “Count again,” Bryce said.
    “Wait,” I said, running toward the back of the barn. “Where’s Whitney?”

Chapter 82

    I kicked myself for not figuring it out. Eddie couldn’t have known about the Morrises’ safe anyway. He had gotten the trailer to steal alpacas.
    “Go to Denise’s and call the police,” I said. “I’ll try to follow them.”
    I knew Ashley didn’t want to go back to Denise’s place any more than I wanted to chase alpaca thieves on my own, but I wasn’t about to let them get away without a fight. I ran to my ATV in the underbrush and tried to drive around the trees, but the fence blocked me. I circled back, found a small clearing through the woods, and shot out the other side.
    The moon made driving over unfamiliar territory a little easier as I sped down the hill to the road. The taillights of the trailer glowed in the distance. The road was so bumpy that there was no way they could drive fast, so I thought I had a chance.
    It reminded me of the old joke about a dog chasing a car—what would he do when he caught it? I didn’t know, but I wasn’t about to stop.
    When I got to the road I pushed the thumb accelerator all the way and let the