Chapter 2 #2
“We respect age. To defy her now would only deepen her contempt and anger. And she’s badly hurt, despite her refusal to let me help with the boy. I won’t make things harder for her.”
Wade confirmed that the injured young woman’s shallow breathing had ceased. Glowing Sun drew a blanket over her face.
“We’ve done all we can.” Wade rose and came around the woman to Abby’s side.
“You would leave me?” Abby looked desperately at him.
“No!” Shocked that she’d even think it, Wade rested his hand on her shoulder. “Let’s get some sleep and set out in the morning. It’s too late in the day to leave now.”
“Set out where?”
“The Bitterroot Valley.” Wade would see Abby home, though it hurt to send her so far away.
“Have you nowhere you need to be? Don’t you own a ranch?”
“My father owned a ranch, not me. No, I can go along with you and see you safely home.”
High mountains rose up on the north, and a waterfall cascaded down into the valley, feeding the stream that cut through the center of the village. That stream flowed red with blood. The smoldering ruins of the village made a mockery of the lush grass and newly leafed forest along the valley’s rim.
“There’s nothing left here.” Wade resisted the urge to pull her into his arms and comfort her. “Not for you, not for anyone.”
Sid Garver charged his horse up the last hard mile of the trail into his canyon hideout.
The animal faltered, heaving, exhausted from the hard run as Sid spurred it on, desperate to get under cover after being seen at the Indian village.
As he neared the well-concealed crevice that led into the heart of this mountain, someone shouted from behind.
He reined his horse in, fighting the bit of the mustang he’d been pushing past its limit for two hours.
Hoofbeats behind him stopped. He wheeled his horse to see Harvey wriggling on the ground like a landed trout.
“How ’bout I just shoot him, Sid?” Paddy O’Donnell had a big smile on his face. He swiped his mouth as though the thought of emptying his gun into a friend made him drool with pleasure. “He’s gonna be heavy to haul inside, and he’s slowing us down.”
They hadn’t been slowed down at all. Harvey had stuck in his saddle for this wild ride away from the Flatheads they’d slaughtered.
But Sid wasn’t entirely opposed to Harv dying.
Harv had bought into this fight by grabbing that woman.
They should’ve killed her like the rest. They could have cleaned out that trash, then ridden away and returned in a month.
No one would have tied them to that massacre.
Sid swung down off his horse, nearly kicking the quiver and arrows that hung from his saddle horn. He’d grabbed them on an impulse, stripped them off the body of a big warrior. It had suited him, taking this trophy of their kill. Sid could understand the bloodlust that led a man to take scalps.
Ground-hitching his horse, Sid strode to Harv’s side. It was obvious the man had been bleeding like a stuck pig the whole time they’d been riding. Sid hadn’t looked back or offered to help.
Leaning over Harv’s blood-soaked form, Sid thought about that beautiful critter this dumb ox had grabbed. Young and beautiful and feisty and hair glowing like gold.
Hard to blame Harv when Sid had wanted her himself.
But there was golden hair and there was just plain gold. Sid would have killed the woman without hesitation to clear the way to the gold. But he’d wanted those Flathead cleared out of there more and for the only reason Sid was gonna keep Harv alive.
“Grab him, Paddy.” Sid didn’t bother to ask Boog. The man had a bullet in his shoulder. Sid had been half afraid Boog would fall off his horse before they got home too. But Boog was a hard man to bring down.
Paddy giggled as he swung down. He came up beside Harv. On opposite sides, the two of them hoisted Harv to his feet.
Harv clenched his jaw—his jaw slit by that wild woman’s knife.
She’d cut his face and his arm, and she’d opened up wounds on his chest and neck also.
Harvey had to know he was lucky to be alive.
“She got my mask off, Sid.” Harv grabbed Sid’s shirtfront in a death grip.
“I’m done riding with you if we can’t shut her up. ”
“You mean she can identify you?” Sid hadn’t so much as looked at Harv until they’d crossed the Flathead village and gone over the rim of that valley. Sid assumed Harv had pulled his mask down himself, though none of the rest of them did until they were well clear.
Sid’s fingers itched to put a bullet in Harv right now. But Harv had the whole gang over a barrel and knew it. “Yep, we have to shut her up.” It went against his grain to kill a woman. But if it came down to life and death, Sid could do whatever was necessary.
Boog rode up beside them, his left arm hanging motionless at his side, blood soaking his shirtfront. His face was sheet white, but he still sat tall and steady in the saddle. “The man who shot me and saved the wild woman saw you too.”
Sid’s jaw tensed. “You’re sure? No one’s gonna pay much attention to a half-wild woman been living with the Flatheads. But if a white man saw him…”
“I’m sure.”
“You’ll have to lie low a while, Harv, till we make sure it’s safe.” Unless the cut turned septic and killed him. Save Sid the trouble but lose him a fortune.
Now someone had seen Harv’s face. If the man who’d shot Boog had a sharp eye, he might recognize them even with their faces covered. Western men knew details—boots, guns, saddles, brands. You didn’t always have to see a man’s face to recognize him later.
A gritty sound of pain escaped, but Harvey held his own weight and headed silently for his horse, which Boog had caught and led back. Nursing one arm, Harvey nearly fell as he struggled to remount.
“Just a coupla more miles and we can patch you up.”
Harvey nodded, but he didn’t unclench his jaw to speak.
Sid set a slower pace. There’d been no sign of pursuit, and they’d put hours and mountains between them and that village.
They’d circled around the whole mountain valley because the man coming along had forced them to run for it to the west, but this canyon was on the east side of the Flathead village.
But now they could rest.
And plan.