Stand Your Ground by William W. Johnstone Read Free Book Online

square-jawed, girl-next-door good looks to get plenty of airtime on the cable TV news networks as they began seeking her out to appear as a consultant on their broadcasts. Eventually she had left the firm and established her own practice, smaller but more visible, and it wasn’t long before most of the country knew her as a beautiful, tireless crusader for liberal causes.
    Those prisoners who had just been transferred to Hell’s Gate were tailor-made for her.
    Alexis had been campaigning for years to have Guantanamo and the other military prisons closed down and the so-called terrorists moved to civilian facilities where they belonged. The military had too much power and couldn’t be trusted.
    Of course, a previous president had promised to do that very thing, but that was just one more broken promise in the tsunami of broken promises that had swamped his administration. Healthcare reform disaster? What healthcare reform disaster? Nothing to see here, move along, move along. This wasn’t the healthcare reform you were looking for.
    And so Gitmo and the political prisoners being held there illegally—as far as Alexis was concerned—had been all but forgotten as just one more scandal among many.
    Or they would have been if not for Alexis and a few others continuing to beat the drums. Writing magazine articles, appearing on TV, organizing fund-raisers complete with Hollywood stars. Until finally somebody got around to doing something about the things Alexis and the others had been demanding.
    It hadn’t taken her long to realize what a terrible development that was for her.
    She had lost the main thing that kept getting her on TV.
    But it also hadn’t taken her long to figure out a way to salvage the situation. Now she could use her standing as one of the nation’s top celebrity lawyers to make sure that the prisoners were being treated properly and that their rights weren’t being violated. That ought to be worth some airtime, and a producer at one of the news networks agreed. He had promised Alexis that a field reporter and a camera crew would be in Fuego to document her unannounced and unexpected visit to Hell’s Gate.
    Now, she thought as she sped across the flat West Texas landscape, if only she could discover that the guards were mistreating the prisoners. Mistreating them physically and disrespecting their religion.
    That would be a wonderful example of just how bigoted and intolerant those awful Christians were.
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    A lot of what was on TV these days bored Stark, unless he happened across a channel that showed old movies, so he always traveled with several books stuck in his suitcase. His favorites were Western novels.
    He read one of them Saturday afternoon. The motel seemed to be busy, with lots of people coming and going, although he didn’t really pay much attention to it. When he left to go to dinner, he frowned slightly as he saw that the parking lot was full.
    More than full, really. A number of vehicles were parked on the vacant lot next to the motel, and the No Vacancy sign was lit up. It appeared the Patels were doing a booming business. Nobody was moving around the complex, though. Stark couldn’t help but wonder where they had put all those people.
    It was none of his affair, he decided, so he walked on to the café and enjoyed a good chicken-fried steak for dinner.
    He was lingering over a cup of coffee and a piece of apple pie when a good-looking woman came into the café and asked the cashier behind the counter, “Is there another motel in town besides the one right over there?”
    â€œNo, ma’am, I’m afraid not,” the cashier replied.
    The stranger blew out an exasperated breath, shook her head, and said, “Great. Where am I supposed to stay? Who would’ve dreamed that every room would be booked in a place like this?”
    â€œI’m sorry, ma’am,” the cashier said with the sort of genuine sympathy