29. Stolen
Stolen
Pearl surfaced to consciousness in a strange room. The floor was hard beneath her, the interior of the simple log shack dim in what she guessed was afternoon sun. She lay on her side with her hands tied behind her back and a raging headache pounding in her skull.
She pushed up but didn’t make it far before she fell back, her body too heavy.
“Ah, our princess is awake.”
Pearl cut a glare into the corner, where the voice had come from. Several figures moved in the shadows. She tried to speak, but a cough and the gag choked her. She hacked, struggling to breathe. At least her false teeth weren’t around to get in the way.
“Get her a drink. I want her alive and awake for this.”
More hands grabbed her. The gag was ripped from her mouth and water carelessly splashed into it. She choked again but swallowed what she could.
“Who’re you?” she rasped, her sluggish jaw struggling to form words.
The speaker moved into the light, and Pearl recognized Mayor Brooks of Faltsprings, and behind him, Sheriff Langly.
“Where am I?” Pearl demanded, looking at the plain walls again as if they might give up their secrets.
“Don’t trouble yourself with that.”
“My mother will find me.”
“I’m counting on it. She should be here soon, since we told her exactly where you are.
If she knows what’s good, she’ll be reasonable.
And something tells me she won’t.” He smiled, his tone light and affable as the cool barrel of a revolver pressed to Pearl’s temple.
“It’d be a shame if anything happened to you. ”
Faint hooves drummed outside, and Mayor Brooks glanced at the holder of the revolver. “Put her away for now.”
She was hauled backward, into a second, smaller room. Before the gag could be shoved roughly back into her mouth, she opened it and let out a single screech. The hunting cry her mother had taught her, signaling danger. She didn’t know who might be out there to hear. Was it her mother?
The blow across her face sent her unsteady body onto the floor. She cursed the hands that silenced her, shoving her down on her stomach, a knee in her back, pressing her into the hard wood. “Quiet,” the unseen person said, the revolver painful against her skin.
Movement caught her eye. This room wasn’t empty. In the corner, a woman huddled, her eyes wide with terror as she stared at Pearl and the man above her. Cecilia.
In the other room, the front door opened.
“Welcome, Commissioner,” Mayor Brooks said. “Thank you for meeting me on such short notice.”
“What’s this all about? I’m a busy man, Brooks.”
At the sound of the new voice, Cecilia let out a whimper of distress, shifting, until a second revolver was drawn and pointed at her. “You too,” their captor hissed, and she stilled.
“I was hoping to discuss the company’s planned new station and route,” Mayor Brooks said.
“And I’ve already told you, that decision is still being made.”
“Is it? Because I heard you had settled on one. A bad one. But I do believe I have some things to share with you that will help expedite a change in plan. I’m expecting another guest shortly. How’s your lovely wife? Cecilia, right?”
“She is very well,” the commissioner said stiffly, and Pearl glanced at the young lady.
“May I offer you a drink?”
The minutes that passed dragged, made of a thousand breaths until the pounding drum of more hooves shook the ground.
“Ah, that’ll be—” Mayor Brooks’ announcement was interrupted by the bang of a door rattling off its hinges.
“Where is she?” Sheriff Oak snarled.
The child in Pearl sighed in relief. Her mother was here. And the rational adult in her tensed with terror.
The final words Pearl spoke to her couldn’t be those ones of anger.
She looked at the terrified Cecilia tied in the corner, and the weapon still trained on her. If Pearl moved and fought, it wasn’t only herself she would be risking.
“Sheriff Oak,” the commissioner said, sounding startled. “Lower your weapon at once.”
“When I get my daughter back. Where is she, Brooks? She one of the three hiding in that room?”
“Thanks so much for joining us. I see you received my note.”
“I’ve got this place surrounded. Hand her over and I might let you live.”
“So dramatic. Don’t worry. Your Princess Pea is unharmed.”
“Prove it. You have to the count of three. One. Two.”
“Very well.” Mayor Brooks was still entirely calm. “Geoff, bring our guests out, please. Both of them.”
The man finally removed his bony knee from Pearl’s back and stood, the weapon remaining aimed at her. “Up,” he bit out. “And you.” He gestured at Cecilia.
Pearl struggled to get her bare feet under her, swaying dangerously into the wall. The next time she kidnapped anyone from their bed, she’d remember to grab their teeth and their boots.
The door swung open, and Pearl’s gaze skipped over the middle-aged commissioner and locked with her mother’s, whose rifle shifted to Geoff. Her eyes glittered, a smudge of blight at her lip.
“Cecilia!” the commissioner yelped, taking a step forward, but Sheriff Langly stopped him. “What’s the meaning of this?”
“A bit of insurance,” Sheriff Langly said easily. “I’m sure you understand.”
“You’re supposed to uphold the law!”
“We are the law out here, Commissioner. Best you learn that.”
“Tensions are high,” Mayor Brooks commented lightly. “Let’s discuss the reason for our meeting.” He withdrew a piece of paper. “I have an agreement between the company and Faltsprings, where the railway station will be. Salt Bluff also declines to build one.”
“That is extortion,” the commissioner stated, his eyes wide, flicking between his wife and Mayor Brooks.
“Yes, it is,” Mayor Brooks agreed. “But you’ll sign it, won’t you? Your pretty wife is innocent in all this. She should be able to go home, shouldn’t she?”
The commissioner spluttered.
“Sign the damned paper,” Sheriff Oak snapped at him, her rifle still on Geoff. Her aim was steady, but a tremor shook her jaw and her leg.
“You can’t mean to give in to these thugs?” the suited man blustered. “We’ll be complicit!”
“Like I give a fuck. Take or destroy all the sundering railroad. They won’t spare your wife. Now sign it.”
“Fine,” the commissioner said, his face beet red, and reached for the paper.
A roar split the air, sending a shiver down Pearl’s spine.
Sheriff Oak’s face paled, but her eyes narrowed in determination.
In the moment of distraction as Geoff and the others jumped in confusion, she fired.
She struck Geoff in the throat, and Pearl ducked, lunging awkwardly back for the revolver in his grip.
She twisted, her hands still tied, and snagged the weapon as he fell.
Sheriff Langly also fired.
Her mother’s body recoiled from the close-range shot.
Horror and hot fury blinded Pearl. She buried her own bullet in Sheriff Langly with barely a glance, lunging toward her slumping mother as the front wall collapsed and the world exploded.