An Encounter of Courageous Hearts: A Historical Western Romance Book

by Lorelei Brogan

  “A snitch, huh?” The man who had been waiting for David eyed her coldly.

  Lana didn’t know how she could be considered a snitch since any person in her shoes would have done the same. It wasn’t as if she had any debt to the gang to keep their activities a secret like they might have made it seem.

  “Yes, thought that she could stop the robbery. She had someone with her too.”

  “What did you do about them? Could be that’s why the rest haven't gotten back yet?”

  Lana hoped in her heart that was the case. Maybe Nick and Derek had been able to do something despite the sheriff not showing up.

  It was doubtful but it did give her a little hope in her bleak situation, and she chose to cling to it. Even if she was in a terrible predicament, as long as Nick and Derek were safe that was okay.

  It would be even better if they had caught Jake. Then she would feel that her current circumstances were even worth it.

  “I doubt he had anything to do with it. Even if he tried to stop them, he wouldn’t have the sheriff or any of us deputies to back him up.”

  When David said the word deputies, Lana’s stomach twisted in disgust. It almost sounded like he was making fun of the rest of their town’s law enforcement. Those other deputies were admirable. While they had allowed someone to infiltrate them, Lana knew from what she’d heard around town that any one of them would risk their lives for everyone in town.

  She couldn't say the same for the traitor that sat in front of her.

  “Don’t give me that judgmental look,” David snarled at her. “You think that the deputies in town are so much better than me. I bet you think you’re better than me. You’re not.”

  Lana wanted to say so many things, but she couldn’t so instead she just glared at him, focusing on injecting every bit of anger and frustration into that stare.

  David threw his head back and laughed. “You know, it was because of people like you that I became a criminal. You judge everyone. You know the way you treat people and look at people helps them become who they are.”

  The man sitting by the fire didn’t seem to be intrigued in the least by David’s words. He seemed more worried about what had happened in town. Lana wondered why he hadn’t been included in on the job. Surely the gang could have used another hand in town.

  “So, what did you do with the other deputies and the sheriff?” The man poked a stick into the fire and sent a spray of delicate orange sparks flying into the sky.

  “The deputies went on a wild goose chase this morning. I believe they will have run into plenty of trouble out there. It will likely take them some time to get back to town with no horses or shoes.”

  Lana’s stomach twisted at the amusement in his voice. He liked putting people in danger. She had been wrong earlier. This man couldn't be a real deputy. He could have never fit into their town. He was just plain evil.

  “The sheriff is taking a nap in his house. I’m sure that he has no idea what is happening. Maybe he never will.”

  Lana gasped through her nose. Had David killed the sheriff? She had to wonder.

  “I wish I could have come. Jake said I was needed here, but that was obviously not true. All I did was make sure the fire was burning.” The man leaned back and kicked a log near him, sending more sparks into the dark sky.

  A strand of Lana’s hair had worked itself free and was tickling her cheek.

  She shook her head a little, trying to remove it, with no luck. Her hands were tied and kept her from fixing it. It felt like slow torture.

  “So what are you going to do with her? Don’t you think someone will come looking for her?”

  “You’re always the worrier, aren’t you, Mark?” David seemed bothered that Mark was skeptical of him bringing her here.

  Lana hoped that maybe he would have some sway over David’s decisions. Maybe he could convince David to let her go.

  At this point, Lana would settle for being back home and having everyone be alive and well and let Jake get away with the money and his crimes.

  In the end, what mattered was that no one was hurt. It was, of course, too late for Daniel, but she was fairly certain that Daniel wouldn’t have wanted any of them to die trying to avenge his murder.

  “I don’t know if anyone will come. If they did, they probably won’t find us. I mean, this camp is pretty hard to find, and it has closure on all sides. You can’t see a trace of the fire from the town or on the road out there.”

  “Well, I guess we’ll see what Jake has to say when he gets here.” Mark had a smug look on his face and Lana wondered if there was disagreement about who was in charge of the gang. David didn’t seem very happy anyway to be reminded that Jake would have the last word.

  Lana only hoped that some of the goodness that Jake showed while working in the general store would carry over here. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as Nick thought he was. Maybe, underneath it all, he was a good person.

  As much as Lana hoped, she was doubtful. It wasn’t just anyone who risked the lives of women and children to merely pay someone back for not settling a gambling debt.

  Her mind wandered to Daniel’s accident. Ginger, Lydia, and Freddy were in so much danger. Any of them could have died. And they were in danger now and had no idea. Maybe not telling her was the wrong choice. Even if it was hard on her she would at least be aware and ready.

  Lana took a slow deep breath through her nose. She had to fight not to become anxious because when she did, she felt like she couldn’t breathe. It was a terrible feeling.

  Even breathing slowly, she felt like she couldn’t quite get enough oxygen.

  “David, maybe you should take the gag off. She looks a little pale.”

  “Seriously? You don’t want to hear her talk. She never stops.”

  “Do you think Jake is going to be happy with you if she dies?”

  For a moment, Lana thought that David would be more likely to leave the gag on and let her die just to spite Jake. But even though the gag was terrible, and she felt light-headed, she was fairly certain it wouldn’t kill her.

  When David reached over and untied it though, she felt a wave of relief. She spent several seconds taking huge deep breaths, trying to replenish the oxygen she had lost.

  “Just let me go, I’ll find my own way back to town. I won’t tell anyone where you are.” Lana tried to make her face look as trustworthy as she could.

  “See? She’s already started,” David grabbed his head as if it hurt.

  “We’re not letting you go - sit there and keep quiet or I’ll put the gag back on no matter how uncomfortable it is or whether you can breathe or not.”

  Lana nodded and bit her lower lip, keeping from saying anything else. She wasn’t about to give them a reason to put the gag back on. They had made it clear they weren’t letting her go, no matter how much she begged. The real person who had any power was Jake and he wasn’t here yet.

  She was going to bide her time, learn what she could and keep her eyes out for an opportunity to escape until Jake got back. Then she would try her luck at negotiating with him.

  She thought of Nick. If he was all right, would he come after her? Or would he stay safe in town? While she really wanted someone to come to rescue her, she didn’t want to put Nick in danger.

  The selfish part of her hoped he would find a way to come for her and risk himself. But the part of her that cared about him wanted him to stay far away and keep himself out of harm’s way.

  Tears filled her eyes; it had taken her until this moment to realize just how important Nick was to her. If she saw him again, she would be sure to tell him.

  Chapter 33

  Nick tapped his horse in the sides to make him go faster. He could tell by the animal’s labored breathing that he was already going at top speed, but he had to try and get there faster.

  He had never been able to understand why the sheriff lived so far out of town and now even less so. They had been riding for over thirty minutes and there was still a ways
to go.

  “You need to slow down, Nick. The horses won’t make it otherwise. They’ve been all over today, they’re exhausted,” Derek said.

  “I know, I know. But I can’t stand this. We have to know what is happening. He wasn’t at the saloon. He has to be home, right?” Now that Nick was thinking about it, he was wondering if they had made the right decision to come to the sheriff's house. What if he wasn’t there? What if they had missed him in town somehow and now were just wasting their time?

  “If the horses are injured or we are stranded, it’s not going to help Lana. We need to keep cool heads.” For once Derek was the level headed one and he was the one who was making sense.

  “Okay, let’s slow down a bit.” Nick pulled back on the reins a bit but they were still making good time at a fast trot.

  In another ten minutes or so, they arrived at the sheriff’s ranch. It was a small place and looked as if it was barely cared for.

  The sheriff lived alone. He had married once, but his wife had died several years ago to a disease. No one knew exactly what had caused her death. Nick had never gotten to know her. He had only heard stories about her.

  Nick barely gave his horse time to stop before leaping off and running to the cabin. He pounded on the door and waited impatiently for someone to answer.

  Derek joined him a few moments later. “Anyone home?”

  “I can’t tell. No one is answering as far as I can see.” Nick motioned to the door. “Come on, we should get back to town. We shouldn’t waste any more time here.”

  “Wait,” Derek called, halting Nick in his tracks. “I heard something in there. It sounded like something fell over. Maybe we should go in. What if the sheriff is in trouble?”

  Nick didn’t need to be told twice. He hurried up to the door and heaved against it. Whatever was blocking it from the other side gave way quite easily.

  Nick searched the first room with his eyes, looking for any sign that something was amiss. Derek hurried through the home towards the kitchen.

  “Nick! Over here!” Derek sounded alarmed.

  Satisfied there was nothing in the parlor, Nick ran toward the kitchen. When he looked in, he lost his breath for a moment.

  There in the middle of the floor, the sheriff was tied and gagged. The stout man’s face looked bright red as if he had been struggling for a while and couldn’t breathe well.

  Derek was leaning over him, trying to untie him.

  Nick joined him and ungagged him.

  As soon as he did, the sheriff took huge gasps of air. “Thank goodness the two of you showed up. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do!”

  “What happened? Who did this to you? We’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “It was my deputy, David.” The sheriff shook his head with a sad disappointed look. “I’m sorry, Nick. He said something about Jake having told him to do this. You were right. I should have listened to you. When I started checking into your story he decided to take me out of the equation.”

  “Don’t worry about it sheriff, what’s done is done. But I need your help. Lana is missing. She went to the sheriff’s office to get you when they were robbing the bank and she never came back. I’m worried they may have taken her.”

  “They robbed the bank?” Now that Derek had managed to untie the last of the ropes the sheriff stood on wobbly legs. “My goodness, what have I done?”

  “You’ve done nothing. This wasn’t your fault.” Nick needed the sheriff to focus on what needed to be done, not on what had gone wrong. Wallowing in self-pity and examining what had happened badly wouldn’t help them.

  “I have done something wrong. I never should have doubted you!” The sheriff shoved his hands through his hair and shook his head. His shoulders shook. “I never suspected David. He only started being a deputy a few months ago. He was sent over from Sherwood. He must have lied.”

  “We were all lied to, by Jake and by David. But now we need to band together and find them. They have Lana, Sheriff. I need your help to get her back.”

  Nick was practically yelling and his passion seemed to get the sheriff’s attention. “You’re right, you’re right. We can still turn this around. How are your horses? They must be tired from their ride over. Let’s switch them with the horses in the barn. We’ll go into town and get the men together. We will get Lana back.”

  It felt good to have someone else in charge. Nick nodded and the three of them hurried outside. They worked together as if they’d rehearsed this moment a million times before. They put the tired horses in the barn, left them some provisions and saddled up the new animals.

  Then they mounted and started the long ride back to town. Every second that they lost felt like an eternity to Nick.

  “What happened sheriff? How did you get tied up in your house?”

  “David said that he’d seen some moonshiners up here on the old Samson ranch. I believed him and we came out together. We searched the ranch and I invited him over for some coffee afterward. When I turned to get the mugs, he attacked me from behind. Next thing I knew I was tied and gagged and he was telling me how Jake needed to make sure I wasn’t in town today. He said I was asking too many questions. I had asked him about the pin you said you gave the deputy. He was the one who volunteered to take you up there to look at the wagon wreck. He said you never gave him anything but after that, he began to act a bit strange. Like he was always wanting to know where I was going.”

  The sheriff’s cheeks burned red, and Nick knew he was probably embarrassed about being taken advantage of like that by his deputy.

  “We should have seen it. We let both Jake and David into our town too easily.” Derek shook his head. “I can’t believe that they’ve only wished ill on our town this entire time.”

  “It is a shame. I trusted David. I never should have let that happen. This is my fault. I should have believed you, Nick. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive. We just need to get Lana back. If they hurt her…”

  “They're not going to hurt her,” the sheriff said. “We’ll make it in time. We’ll get everyone in town together and we’ll go after her. They couldn’t have gotten too far.”

  Nick nodded. He hoped that the sheriff was right. As soon as they got to town, he would have to send someone to talk with Ginger. She was probably sick with worry, not to mention she might be in danger.

  He was going to have to tell her the truth; that Lana was taken by the gang. If he lied to her and then something bad happened he knew she would never forgive him.

  He wanted to believe that they would find Lana safe and sound. But he knew that it was possible that this could go wrong too. Their plan to stop the robbery had seemed as if it was foolproof. They had thought it would be simple and easy, and something had gone terribly wrong.

  There were so many more variables now, it would be even easier for something to go wrong.

  Nick chewed on the inside of his cheek as they went, wishing that the horses could run faster. Even though they were fresh horses, they still couldn’t go any faster than the previous ones.

  When the town finally came into view, Nick felt relief wash over him. “Before I help recruit men to look for her, I have to send a message to Ginger.”

  The sheriff nodded, “Certainly. Meet us in front of the sheriff’s office when you are done.”

  Nick wasn’t sure who he would send at first and then he spotted Todd. He was Gerald’s grandson. “Todd! Come here a second!”