Chapter 31
Abby felt as if she shed her white skin as she strode along in the early dawn. She had days to walk to return to her high valley, but she’d learned to walk tirelessly with her nomadic tribe. And time mattered nothing to her.
No one waited. She simply needed to care for herself, only herself. The very thought was like a huge weight lifting off her shoulders. She could breathe again.
The summer day promised heat, but the early-morning air had a bite to it.
She loved the breeze that cooled her muscles, and she rushed along, her long legs swinging under her doeskin dress.
The pretty beads she’d sewn around the neck reminded her of the quiet time spent with her tribal family, learning at her mother’s side.
She was at peace.
Except for Wade.
She missed him.
At the same time, she was glad to be rid of him. She never should have allowed him to lure her with his confusing kindness and tempting kisses.
She remembered the path they’d taken from her high valley.
Her dead reckoning told her she might cut the distance by striking out straight north.
But the mountains she had to pass in that direction were daunting.
Better to veer west a bit and take the trail past the Griffin place, through the gap into the Harden ranch and out the other end of that.
If she was careful—and Abby knew how to be very careful—no one would see her as she walked home.
If she set a fast pace, the Griffin house would be an easy point to reach by dark.
From the west, a storm was possible. The sky was gray and overcast, but no rain was falling so far.
Rain didn’t scare her. She could move along soaking wet as well as dry.
If the house was empty and the night was stormy, she might set aside her contempt for the foolish house and wait out the storm.
Increasing her speed to a ground-eating lope, she smiled as her muscles stretched and became fluid. At one with nature like any other wild thing running free.
As the hours passed, the overcast sky grew heavier. Rain streaked to the ground in the distance. She could run tirelessly for hours, and she picked up her pace from the comfortable lope, knowing she’d never get to the Griffin place in time but feeling pushed to hurry, anyway.
At last, as the wind grew cool, and the midafternoon turned dark as dusk, the white of the house showed through the stand of trees.
With the first sprinkles of rain on the trees overhead, she made a dash for shelter.
She raced under the drooping porch roof with a laugh of triumph and fell against the front door, gasping for air, turning to watch the rain.
She’d beaten it. A rare victory against nature.
Suddenly, the door behind her opened, and she fell backward.
Hard hands grabbed her around the waist, and she looked up into the evil eyes of the man who had destroyed her village.
His face was nearly healed, but the cut she’d given him had formed an ugly scar.
Good thing. She’d enjoy adding to his marks.
She reached for her knife, but a viselike grip on her wrist stopped her. She lashed out with her feet. A blow to the back of her head stunned her. The world wavered. She shook her head to clear it and only faintly felt the shock of another blow.
The man let go of her, and she sank to the floor. She was fumbling for her knife, but her fingers were stupid and clumsy. Her vision seemed to narrow as if she were looking through a tunnel. The man loomed over her, scarred and victorious, holding his gun so the butt end was handy to use as a club.
As the light faded, he smiled in evil pleasure to have her in his power.
Wade threw his covers off an hour before dawn.
He’d had to give up the search when darkness fell.
He’d hunted the trail to Divide and asked about Abby there, then ridden back to the ranch and tried to pick up a trail.
Not wanting to sleep in Pa’s house, he’d headed in the waning light for the Griffin place and made a cold camp in the woods, knowing he had to stop.
He could ride right past her in the dark.
Precious little sleep came his way for worrying and praying.
He circled, trying to pick up a trail, but none was there. Abby was too light on her feet, too woods savvy to leave a single footprint.
Chafing at the delay, he slept a short night, then set out for the place that kept coming into his head. The place she thought of as home. That high mountain valley. It was so far away that if he was wrong, Wade would be wasting days in the search.
Lord, let me find her.
Darkness was catching him as he drew near the Griffin place, planning to spend the night there.
A storm seemed bent on crashing down on his head when he heard someone coming along the trail.
He pulled his horse to a stop and eased off the path to watch.
The wind was rising, and gray clouds blanketed the setting sun.
Red and Cassie rode into sight, and Wade came forward. Red caught sight of him and instantly put his horse between Cassie and trouble to shield her, reaching for his pistol.
Red’s lightning-fast reflexes reminded Wade that his friend, for all his gentle heart and good nature, was as tough as any rancher around, and that included Pa. This was the kind of strength Wade wanted. Strength used to protect and defend rather than tyrannize and terrorize.
Red visibly relaxed as soon as he recognized Wade in the fading light. “What are you doing out here?”
Cassie leaned around her husband and smiled. “Hi, Wade.”
Susannah was riding in front of Cassie, and the little girl waved and bounced as if she wanted to kick the horse into a gallop.
Michael, carried on Red’s back like a papoose, whacked at his father’s hat, and Red grabbed it before it fell.
He did it so naturally, the child had surely tried that stunt many times before.
Letting go of his screaming tension for just a second, Wade allowed himself to smile at the Dawson family.
Then Wade’s moment of relaxation was over. He pulled up beside Red. “Abby’s run off. She had a fight with Pa last night, and she stormed out. No one’s seen her since.”
“She was out overnight?” Cassie’s fair skin seemed to pale in the sunset.
Nodding, Wade said, “Linscott’s whole crew is out hunting for her. I’m riding back to the valley where we found her, hoping she went there. She’s threatened to take off and live by herself in the mountains. She could go anywhere. So I’m trying to pick up a trail, but there’s nothing.”
Red frowned. “We’re on our way to visit the Tanners.”
“Hardens,” Cassie whispered.
“This late?” Wade looked around. “You’ve got hours of riding yet.”
“We got a late start. Trouble with the cattle, then a couple of other little things.”
“I let Harriet out.” Cassie grimaced.
Red smiled at her. “It was an accident. It could have happened to anyone.”
“Big mean piggy.” Susannah’s eyes were wide as the full moon.
Wade could hardly stand to imagine it. That old mama sow was a killer. “You plan on trying to get through that pass tonight with the little ones? The gap into their ranch is pretty steep. You might have trouble with it in the dark.”
“We almost waited until tomorrow to leave, but we finally decided we’d make it. Now, with the storm brewing, we plan to ride as far as Cassie’s old house tonight and bunk there.”
Nodding, Wade said, “Mind if I ride along and stay? There’s no trail to be found this late.”
“Glad for the company.” Red smiled. “It’s your house, anyway.”
“You’re welcome to the shelter anytime you need it. You know that.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it. And we can pray together for Abby.”
“We’d better move, or we’re going to get wet.” The panic Wade had been riding with all day eased a little now that he wasn’t alone. Maybe he’d go as far as the Hardens’ and take Red and Silas along with him to search for Abby. Their help might make all the difference.
“You wanted her—now you’ve got her.”
Sid glared at Harv. Then his eyes wandered to the still female form in the corner.
She lay with her back against the wall. Her hair had mostly fallen out of its braid and now covered her face in long white curls.
She had her wild woman dress on, the deerskin she’d been wearing when they’d taken her after the massacre.
It even had stains on it from Harv’s blood.
Sid itched for that woman. Seeing her lying there unconscious gave him a feeling of such fierce power that it was all he could do not to pull his six-gun on his gang, drive them out of the house, and have her to himself.
None of them looked eager to give her up as the four of them sat cross-legged in the first room of the big house.
Cool-eyed Boog wasn’t a man Sid could read. So maybe he didn’t care, but that woman was a feisty little thing. They’d watched her attack Harv after the massacre. Subduing her, dominating her, appealed to Sid, and he couldn’t believe it didn’t appeal to every man.
“We don’t have time to fool with the woman.” Nothing about Boog’s voice gave anything away.
“I wouldn’t have grabbed her if she hadn’t come right to the door,” Harv said. “I didn’t have time to get out. I knew if I didn’t get her under control, she’d run for help and bring a posse down on our heads.”
“She wouldn’t have run for help.” Sid wanted to backhand Harv. “She’d have carved another notch in your face. You hit her because you were scared, not because you were afraid of the law.”
The lump on the back of the wild woman’s head told Sid that Harv hadn’t fought fair. Not even with a woman. He’d come up behind her, knocked her cold, and tied her up while she was unconscious. Harv had a wide coward streak. Sid had been around enough cowards that he knew to watch his back.
They needed to get rid of the woman somehow and then turn to hunting Wade, but no one stepped forward and volunteered to pull the trigger, mainly because she was too beautiful a woman to want dead. “Boog, I want you and Paddy to ride toward the south.”
“Now?” Paddy looked out the window. There was little light left, and the storm kept threatening, though it hadn’t dropped any rain yet.
“Yes, now. This is our chance. Wade headed that way, and we need to finish him.”
“Who’s gonna take care of that wildcat?” Boog jerked his head in their captive’s direction.
“I owe her. I oughta do it.” Harv looked at her and wiped his mouth.
Sid nodded. It suited him to let someone else do it.
Not that he was squeamish, but he’d never killed a woman before.
No sense starting now if Harv would do it.
“If you can catch up to Wade and kill him, and Harv finishes the girl, we only have Mort left. We’ll meet up in the morning and have that ranch in our hands by tomorrow night.
” Thinking about the land grab gave Sid more pleasure than thinking about the woman.
“Bury her deep, whatever you do.” Boog stared at the woman’s still form. “Women are mighty scarce out here. Some folks get mighty riled when someone mistreats one of ’em.”
“I’ll bury her deep.” Harv’s eyes shifted between Sid and the woman. He looked like a rat, making filthy plans.
Boog stood. “Let’s get it done, Paddy.” Something about the tone of his voice told Sid that Boog wanted no part of killing this girl. But as usual, Sid couldn’t be sure.
Grumbling and looking at the woman with no attempt to disguise his unhappiness with the assignment, Paddy stood and left the room with Boog.
Sid relaxed when the hooves of their horses pounded away down the trail.
“You know I don’t want her dead, Sid.” Harv stood.
Sid got to his feet, not wanting Harv towering over him. “You want her dead in the end, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” Harv rubbed his finger over the scar on his chin and stared at the unconscious girl. His eyes flashed as he touched his wound. “But I want her to beg to die.”
Sickened, Sid was tempted almost beyond control to put a bullet in his saddle partner.
But if he did, the woman would still need killing.
If instead, Sid turned his back, walked out into the night, Harv would do his worst, and Sid wouldn’t have to get his hands dirty.
Harv’s knowledge of where that gold was tipped the balance, even if getting to the treasure seemed impossible.
“I’m gonna go looking for a deep hole to dump her body in.
” Sid turned and strode from the room, forcing himself to hurry before he did the foolish things that were rattling around in his head.
He almost ran off the porch, pushing himself to make a clean break from his hunger to hurt Harv, hurt the woman, hurt the whole world.
It was like a thirst for whiskey, and it rode Sid harder all the time.
Leave the woman for Harv.
As Sid walked away from the Griffin place, he rounded the side of the house and looked back.
He could see into the room. The last traces of the setting sun found their way between two trees and the billowing clouds and sent a single shaft of light into that room.
Harv stared at the woman, and Sid stopped.
His heart seemed to beat at half the speed and twice the strength as Harv slowly advanced on her.
Swallowing hard, Sid watched Harv bend down, out of sight, but Sid could picture Harv’s filthy hands reaching toward all those miles of golden hair.
With a grunt of self-contempt, Sid turned away toward the corral to saddle his horse and ride away. Give Harv some time, then come back, and everything would be taken care of. The wild woman who could identify Harv and bury them all would finally be dead.