by Ivy McAdams
“Sorry about your Pa.” His low voice dropped further, nearly a whisper.
She swallowed hard as he turned back in his seat. Then they were moving. She reached out to grab at the edges of his coat to steady herself, but she refused to touch him further.
Her hips rocked with the horse’s ambling gait, and she did her best to keep her mind off the events of the evening. They were too hard to swallow. Who would ever expect to get snatched off a moving train and flee from gunmen on horseback? Not to mention being kidnapped by outlaws and losing her father.
As the evening air grew cooler, the anger inside her subsided, and a darkness replaced it. She rested her forehead against Clay’s shoulder and wept silently into the bandana on her face.
The pain of losing Papa sliced into her like a knife through butter. The carelessness of it dragged her down into a prickly pit in her chest. As she let the pain seep from her eyes, a new fear replaced it.
Tom had let her father die without a blink of his sharp black eyes. What was he going to do with her?
She sat back, wanting to escape the hard wall of Clay’s body. The vile taste in her mouth that had flooded in when she’d heard of Papa’s fate returned, and she grimaced.
“Doing okay back there, Sadie?” Clay’s voice was low and casual.
It stopped her breath as a new anger boiled within her. “It’s Miss Tanner. And I’m not dead yet, so I suppose I’m making do.”
She felt him straighten in his seat. “Yeah. I’m real sorry about that, Miss Tanner. I know Tom didn’t mean to hurt your Pa. Really, it screwed up his plans.” He chuckled but quickly covered it by clearing his throat. “Look, Tom ain’t a bad guy, really. He’s just got a plan up his sleeves, and then he’ll let you go.”
“I don’t believe that for a second. I saw him shoot that man on the train.”
“He does get a little paranoid, but I don’t think―”
“Why do you take orders from such a horrible man, anyway?”
“Now, look here, Miss Tanner.” His voice had grown hard, and he twisted around. He must have been staring right at her. She clenched her jaw and faced him without a flinch. “Tom might lack the class you got, but he’s a good man. He takes care of his family and lays his life on the line for them every day.”
“He seems like a bossy hothead to me. Why do you let him just order you around like that?”
Clay settled back in the saddle without a word. After a few breaths, she considered prodding him again, but his voice drifted back in the cool breeze.
“I always have. He’s my brother.”
Any retort she had absolved on her tongue, and she fell silent. But the calm was brief.
“We’re here,” Clay said.
The insect buzzing and first chirps of evening crickets faded into the sounds of civilization. People talking and moving about. The crackling of a fire. Horses greeting one another. A few random chords on a guitar.
At first, her heart leapt. She would be saved! But when Clay removed her blindfold, she found herself in a campsite in the middle of a clearing in the forest. Lines of tents curled around a big central fire where a few people sat, one toying with a guitar. Horses grazed beyond the edge of the tents. Other people were scattered about the campsite.
Hovering at the edge of one of the larger tents, Tom stood with his hands shoved in his pockets. He watched them like a hawk, unmoving, and Sadie’s nerves stirred.
“Come on down. It’s okay.”
Clay had dismounted and was standing beneath her, offering a hand to help her down. She stared at him for a moment, eyes narrowing a fraction, then slid off the other side of the horse. She teetered for a heartbeat and swung her arms wide to steady herself. By the time Clay came around to face her, she stood with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Now what?” she spat. There was no way she was going to make this easy for them.
“Now I have to go have a word with Tom.” He took her by the elbow and herded her toward the center of camp. She resisted, but his fingers were strong on her arm. “I want you to take a seat by the fire and warm up.”
She eyed the people gathered around the fire pit. A man held a guitar. The other two were women. Nerves clenched in her stomach. There were other captors already? She pulled against Clay’s grasp. “I don’t know those people. You can’t leave me with them,” she hissed.
Clay looked down at her as he pulled her along. “You don’t know me either. Might as well make a new friend.”
“I don’t want a new friend. I want―” She shut her mouth as she breached the fire-sitters’ circle. They looked up at her in surprise.
A woman dressed in brown trousers with a bushel of long blonde hair put her hands on her hips. She lifted an eyebrow at Clay with a grin. “Bringing them home now, are you?”
He let Sadie’s arm go. “Ain’t bringing no one home. Tom’s wrapping up a deal with this one.”
The blonde’s eyebrows bounced with a wide grin. “A deal, huh? About time he figured himself out.”
Clay shook his head with a hand toss. “No, not like that. A money deal.”
“Oh, they’re all money deals, honey.”
Clay grunted, but this time with a smile. He nodded toward the blonde, a soft hand landing on Sadie’s arm. “That’s Clara. She can get you something to eat. That’s Ginny and Jack.”
Ginny was a petite young woman with long, loose chestnut-colored locks. She grinned at Sadie. “Hey there.”
Next to her Jack adjusted the guitar on his lap to give Sadie a one finger salute. His eyes were hazy, and his mouth turned up in a lopsided greeting. She imagined the bottle of whiskey propped next to the stump he sat on was to thank for his droopy expression.
“I’ll be back,” Clay said as he departed.
Sadie watched his hand on her arm slip away and shivered at the chill its absence left behind.
“Are you cold?” Clara asked, voice laced with an Irish lilt. She beckoned her closer to the fire. “I’ve got an extra plate of food here if you’re hungry.”
Sadie glanced over her shoulder at Clay as he strode away. The last streams of fading light filtering through the tree limbs lit up his broad back and the cowboy hat that sat low on his head. He joined Tom and headed into the large tent. When her gaze returned to the fire, Sadie realized Clara was staring at her.
“Oh, no food. Thank you,” Sadie murmured as she moved closer and sat on a short stool.
With the twists in her stomach that evening, she doubted she’d ever eat again.
“It’s there when you want it. Welcome to camp, by the way.” The woman wiped her hand on her pants and offered it around the fire. “Clara McGowen.”
Sadie stared at the hand a moment. She’d never been offered a handshake by a woman before. Much less a woman in the middle of an outlaw hideout. Neither of the women she’d met seemed to be under duress though. Confusion and questions clouded her brain.
She waited a beat before placing her fingers in the awaiting palm. “Sadie Tanner.”
Clara grinned and grasped what little Sadie offered. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Surely,” Sadie said, glancing at her company again before clearing her throat. “I can’t say I ever imagined what it would be like inside the hideout of a ruthless gang, but I can say I never expected to see any women.”
Clara snorted a laugh out the side of her mouth as she leaned forward toward the fire. “Guess men ain’t the only people who run from the law.”
“You mean you―”
“Some of us have done things we may not be particularly proud of, yes. But we’re still living and surviving like anyone else.”
The thought of living among the ill-reputed and murderers made Sadie’s stomach turn. There was no place for them in society. They deserved to live out in the forest with the animals.
Even if Clara’s smile was warm, and her laughter alluring.
“I love your dress, Sadie.” Ginny’s voice broke through the soft crackle of the fi
re. “I’m going to get me something pretty like that one day.”
“Thank you.”
Ginny wore a threadbare cotton dress that was missing half the lace across the low-dipping neckline. A faded lilac that might have been handsome in its time, it looked like it might fall slap off one day soon.
“I like that dress you wear, Ginny,” the man next to her drawled.
Sadie lifted an eyebrow at the way he grinned at her. She was sure he did like that dress. Any man would.
“I know you do, Jackie.” Ginny smiled at him through her eyelashes and gave him a wink.
He laughed. She rolled up to her feet, bending and gliding through the air like a serpent trying to hypnotize its prey. His droopy eyes were wide open, and Ginny blew him a kiss. He slung his guitar off his lap and lunged for her. She squealed and frolicked away, swaying man in tow.
Sadie blinked in utter confusion. What had just happened?
Clara snickered nearby. “Don’t mind Ginny. She’s as sweet as they come, but she drives them boys crazy.”
Sadie jerked her head around to look at her remaining source of company. “Where’d they go?”
One of the blonde’s eyebrows peaked. “Off to play, I’d reckon. Don’t rightly want to know. Do you?”
Sadie’s nose wrinkled, and she averted her eyes, staring into the fire. “No, that’s a private matter.”
“Not much privacy around here. Speaking of which, do you know what you’re doing here?”
“Something about money.” Sadie shrugged. “I didn’t get all the details. We were too busy trying not to die.”
Clara grimaced. “Isn’t it always the way? Trying to have a meaningful conversation and something dangerous comes along. I’m guessing Tom’s got something up his sleeve. He’s always got some new plan hatching.”
“He must have plenty of money then.”
"Well, they don't always pan out quite like he wants, but it's expensive to keep this family afloat too. I guess we could all use a bit more money. Well, maybe not you."
Sadie frowned and glanced down at her dress. Her mother’s dress that had hung in the closet for years. She didn’t quite fill it out like her, but it seemed the most appropriate thing to wear to town for Papa’s interview. She’d own a dozen more like them if she could.
“I don’t have a dollar to my name, Miss McGowen.”
“Please, call me Clara. I’m sorry to hear that, but I can sympathize. Although today I am happy to say that I have two.” She whipped two dollar bills from her pocket and waved them in the firelight with a grin.
Sadie’s lips twitched. Clara’s good nature calmed her nerves. She found herself relaxing by the warm fire, enjoying the woman’s company.
Until Tom barked her name.
Chapter 4
Sadie stared at Tom across the campsite. He was rigid, arms crossed over his chest. Clay stood half-inside the tent next to him, backlit by a warm orange light, but she could still make his eyes out in the shadows.
“Need you over here,” Tom called out again.
His tone grated against her fragile nerves. She clenched her fingers as dread balled up in her gut like dead weight.
“I think you’ll be alright,” Clara said in a hushed tone. She’d shifted closer and was watching the men across the campsite as well. “Those boys are rowdy, but Ace keeps them respectful.”
“Ace?”
Clara nodded her head in the direction of the tent. Sadie bit into her lower lip, considering her options.
She could turn tail, run out of the campsite, and hope they had a lousy shot, but that seemed like quite the risky venture surrounded by outlaws. She could swipe a gun and threaten them until they let her go, except there didn't seem to be any weapons close by that weren't strapped to someone's person. Or she could hold her head up high, march over to the waiting men, and pretend not a bit of her kidnapping bothered her.
She really wanted to take Option A and high tail it.
But doing as they wanted was the safest option.
She got to her feet, and Clara followed her, tugging at her elbow.
“I’ll be right out here. If you need help, just shout,” she said.
“Thank you, Clara.”
The women exchanged tight-lipped smiles, and Sadie stepped out of the fire circle and headed across the grass.
A man wearing a white hat stood alongside a parked wagon nearby, watching as she moved. A woman with curly red hair appeared behind him, peeking out at her from behind his elbow. Another man hovered near the edge of the big tent where Tom and Clay waited.
Sadie steeled her nerves. She was surrounded by outlaws. Vermin who would kill her the moment they had the chance.
At least that’s what she had thought before. Except Clara was warm and friendly. Ginny seemed friendly enough. But they were women.
It was the men that were closing in around her.
Her skin itched as she neared Tom. Everything inside her screamed to get out of there. Was it too late for Option A? Because it was definitely sounding like the right one.
“Pick up your feet,” Tom grumbled, giving her an impatient knuckle in the shoulder. “Ace can’t wait to meet you.”
She rolled her shoulder out of his finger with a wince and stomped into the tent flaps. Clay stood waiting without a sound. Those shadowed blue eyes found hers for an instant. They were soft, much unlike his brother’s. It pulled some of the fear and frustration from her body, and she walked into the tent with a lighter step.
Drab white sheets of canvas stretched across the wooden post frames of the box tent. A few photos and newspaper clippings were lit on the walls by an orange lantern sitting on a small nightstand in the corner. A cot draped with furs stood next to it. The man sitting on the edge of the bed stood as she entered.
Ace was a tall man, lean and trim beneath a pair of black pants and red suspenders. His dark hair curled around his ears beneath his black hat, and he looked impeccably clean. Face smooth but for the neatly trimmed patch of hair on his chin and a pair of cufflinks at his wrists. He held out a hand and offered her a seat in a small wooden armchair across from his bed.
“Miss Tanner. Welcome to our camp. I hope you have been well taken care of.” She caught the quick dart of his eyes, a twitch in his eyebrow, as he gave Tom a glance.
“I appreciate your welcome, sir, but I―”
“Excuse me. My apologies, my lady. I should have introduced myself. How rude of me.” He swept a hand across his middle as he tipped into a short bow. “I am Ace Van den Berg, and I am the head of this family.”
She’d read about a local gang in the newspapers. They’d been stirring up trouble in Emerald Falls for the last several months. The thought of dangerous outlaws made her squirm in both anxiety and anger over their careless actions toward her town.
Ace continued to smile, oblivious to her discomfort. He motioned toward the front of the tent. “I’m sure you’ve already met the Pearson boys here.”
Tom didn’t move when she looked his way, but Clay tipped the edge of his hat. It covered his eyes for a heartbeat, and they seemed to sparkle a brighter blue upon their return. She stared. The lantern light flickered across his face and the small quirk in the corner of his mouth.
"Most informally, yes," she murmured, then back to Ace, "I was stolen, you know. Robbed right off my train. Then shoved into a gunfight. Where I lost my father." Her throat seized, and she clenched her fist, refusing to cry. Not now. Not in front of these insensitive men that could care less about the death of her father or how lost she felt without him. "Whatever idiotic scheme your boys have cooked up, I can assure you it was not worth all that."
Ace steepled his fingers against his lips and took his seat once more. His brow furrowed as he drew in a long breath. “My apologies, Miss Tanner, and you are right. It wasn’t worth all that trouble. Your father’s death is a horrible tragedy. Hurting you was not intended.”
“Then what is your intention?”
He turned and
slipped a sheet of paper from the drawer of his nightstand and handed it to her. “Are you related to the Tanners over in St. Aspen?”
Sadie stared at Ace, frozen. It wasn’t a question she’d been ready for. She hadn’t seen that part of her family in nearly a decade, despite living so close. No one ever brought them up. Especially Papa.
Ace doing so made her stomach feel queer.
Unsure whether the truth would be safer than not, she went with it. “Yes.”
His stoic and friendly face didn’t change, only moved an inch up and down as he nodded. Though she thought she could discern a slight twinkle in his eye.
“We best let someone know you’re safe then.”
“Aunt Hilda?” Sadie lifted a shoulder with a wrinkle of her nose. “I don’t think she―”
“She most certainly would want to know that you’re in the company of a group living outside the law. She’ll do whatever it takes to get you back. Don’t you think?”
In truth, she wasn’t sure her Aunt Hilda would even remember her name, much less care what company she was keeping. Something about Ace’s words, however, set her teeth on edge. Tricky schemes were afoot.
“I would hope she would, yes,” she said. That part was true, but she wouldn’t hold her breath over it.
Ace nodded. “As would I. As would us all. I think your lovely Aunt Hilda would be willing to part with a little money to keep you safe from harm.”
Realization hit Sadie like a slap on the wrist. How had she not realized earlier?
She glanced over at the men hovering just inside the tent flap. Tom leaned against a wooden crate, a smug look on his face. Clay studied the twill rug. It was one time she was happy not to see those deep blue eyes. She didn’t want to see the truth in them.
“You’re holding me for ransom?” she snapped, popping her eyes back to Ace.
He showed her his palms, leaning back with a crooked grin that made her skin crawl. “We ain’t causing any trouble now, Miss Tanner. From what I hear your aunty has more than enough money to share a bit, especially if it’s to see that you are returned safely. We don’t have to tell her you’re not really in any trouble, do we?” He gave her a wink.