In Too Deep

by Mary Connealy

  “I know where we are.” Ethan pulled Audra to the right, and within a few steps they saw a dim glow that grew and grew. They rounded a curve and saw a circle of sunshine. Ethan emerged into the light and turned to Audra to make sure she was unhurt.

  “I can’t believe you outsmarted them, Audra.” He grabbed her around the waist and hugged until her toes left the ground.

  “And you got there in time to save me from Mitch.” Her arms went around his neck so tightly that Ethan probably should’ve been afraid of being strangled again. But he couldn’t work up one speck of fear.

  She laughed, her face buried against his neck. “We’ve got to go,” she said. As Audra pulled back from him, her smile faded. “You’re bleeding.” Her face turned into a scowl. “I’m going with you when you go back in there. And I’m going to teach those men a lesson they’ll—”

  Ethan kissed his bloodthirsty little wife. “I’d forgotten I even got a conk on the head until now. I’m fine. The blood will wash off. Now let’s go—we need to get back to Seth and the girls.”

  They ran for the horses.

  As they rode hard toward Audra’s cabin, she explained just what the men had done, and Ethan told her about Seth’s broken leg.

  “We’ve got to get to that tunnel opening and get the ladder pulled up before Mitch and Grove get out,” Ethan said. “They probably don’t know there’s another way out. But maybe they’re turned around in the dark enough they can’t find anything.”

  Audra nodded. “Mitch had matches. I threw the torch he was carrying. But he could find it, or light his way with the matches until he finds another one.”

  They urged the horses faster.

  Soon they rode up to the cabin, and Ethan heard Lily crying to beat all.

  Audra jumped off her horse. Ethan caught its reins and said, “I’ll corral the horses, then go draw up that ladder and come back to help you. We’ll need to bind up Seth’s leg and get him home somehow.”

  “Rafe and Julia were going to meet us where the trail split toward Rawhide. If we don’t show up, they’ll come to meet us.”

  Ethan glanced at the sky. “That’s right. It’s well past noon. They’ll’ve had time to search in town and be headed home. They could come riding up here any minute, unless something delayed them.”

  Audra rushed for the house as Ethan made short work of crossing the gorge and getting the ladder up and out of reach. He saw no footprints that indicated the men had beaten him to the ladder.

  Now they were trapped.

  In the dark.

  Would they go mad? Maybe. That place had done so much damage to the Kincaid boys, though back then they were more children than men. Two tough brutish outlaws might stay calm. Find a torch. Remember their way. And if not, maybe they could handle the dark.

  Whatever happened, they wouldn’t be coming out this way.

  Ethan rushed back to the cabin and found Audra shut in the back bedroom.

  “She’s feeding Lily.” Seth looked up from where he sat on the floor. Very still, with Maggie straddling his leg.

  Ethan flinched when Maggie twisted around to grin up at her uncle. “Let me get her.”

  “It’s not so bad. She’s not bouncing on the broken leg.” Seth leaned down so Maggie had to look at him. “Hey, look who’s here.”

  He lifted her and turned her to face Ethan. Maggie squealed and her little legs churned in midair as if she were running to him.

  “I think she likes you, Eth.” Seth set her down, and Maggie toddled to Ethan so fast that she fell over. Ethan snagged her before she hit the floor. He hoisted her and she gabbled at him.

  Ethan was pretty sure she called him Papa. He rested her on one hip. “How’s the leg?”

  “Broken for sure. But I’m getting by.” Seth sounded pretty good, but his face had a grayish tinge that told the truth about how much pain he was in.

  “Audra.” Ethan raised his voice a bit, yet he didn’t have to yell; the walls were thin.

  “What, Ethan?”

  “I’m taking Maggie with me to find a couple of boards or something to use to splint Seth’s leg. We’re not going to get any more treasure hunting done for now.”

  “Did you get the ladder pulled up? Are you sure those awful men didn’t get there first and climb out?”

  “I’ve left them down there for a fact, honey. They could get out into Rafe’s valley if they figure out how to find that exit. But even if they do get out, we’ll know who to be watching for now. We’ll get them.”

  Ethan started to leave when he noticed a pile of something that looked like trash or maybe a rat’s nest behind the small pile of kindling by the unlit fireplace.

  With a frown he went and shoved the logs aside, wishing he’d find treasure. Instead he found . . . “Audra, why do you have cigars?”

  Audra laughed. “They aren’t mine. Wendell was a cigar smoker. You must’ve found the last of his cigar stash. After he died, I started throwing them on the fire. They burn pretty well, though they stink.”

  Ethan looked at the cigars, mostly crushed and dried out. He extended the pile of rubbish toward Seth. “Want a cigar, little brother?”

  Seth grimaced. “Of all the crazy stuff I’ve done, I’ve never picked up the habit of tobacco. I don’t think I’ll be starting on a cigar as ugly as those.”

  Audra came out of the bedroom with Lily against her shoulder, gently patting the little one’s back.

  Ethan recapped the adventure with Audra while he bound up Seth’s leg.

  “How’d you like being down in that cavern again, Eth?” Seth asked as he went about ripping up his shirt to help tie the splint in place.

  “I managed.” Ethan really thought about it for the first time. Up until now he’d just gone forward, doing what he had to do. “God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.” He turned to Audra and smiled.

  She smiled back.

  “Well, that sounds good.” Seth worked on his shirt without even looking up. “You oughta be about perfect then.”

  Ethan would have slugged him if Seth didn’t have a broken leg.

  “What happened down there went about as perfectly as we dared hope, didn’t it?” he asked Audra.

  “Me getting the best of those two men. You coming for me right when I needed you most.”

  “After you’d done everything yourself is more like it.”

  Audra laid a finger on his lips. “I like knowing I fought back. I think I finally believe I’m a strong woman.”

  “I’ve believed it for a long time.”

  “And you faced that cavern. I know you hate it down there, but you faced it despite that.”

  “I did.”

  “God took our weakness and made things come out perfectly.”

  “I don’t think I’d have a broken leg if things were completely perfect,” Seth added.

  Ethan looked at Seth and smiled. He knew, even if Seth didn’t, that he never would have gone into the cavern if Seth had been able to. Yes, a broken leg seemed like a hard result for poor old Seth, but he’d heal. And now Ethan’s fear was broken while Audra had a new confidence. Their lives together would be better now.

  Ethan knew it was still a hard land, but without outlaws on their trail, things were going to calm down.

  Finally, life would be good.

  “This town suits you then, Jasper?” Trixie sounded exhausted.

  Jasper didn’t blame her. She’d wanted to stop now for hundreds of miles. Jasper had dragged her along until they’d reached Colorado City. This was close enough.

  “Yes, and the man at the station said he knows of a house or two for sale. The bank is the place to ask.”

  “Let’s go to the hotel and worry about a house tomorrow.” Trixie moved slowly down the board sidewalks. Jasper knew his joints were creaky; it looked like hers were, too. “I can’t face making a decision this important without a good night’s sleep.”

  “If you’ll trust me with this, you can go lie down for a while and I’l
l scout out the houses. It’s a good-sized town. I’ll make sure there’s a yard for chickens and a garden and a barn for a milk cow or two.” It sounded like Jasper’s very own vision of death.

  The drudgery of the life she wanted to live made him want to growl like a mangy wolf.

  “There’s the bank, and the hotel isn’t in sight.” Trixie pointed to a sign, swinging over the bank’s front door just ahead of them. “I’ll go with you. I want to hear about the houses and help pick out the one we buy.”

  Biting back his impatience, Jasper smiled. He’d hoped to get to the post office and see if there was a letter for him. Maybe Mitch would have left word with details about Jasper’s money.

  He didn’t want to even ask for that letter with Trixie watching.

  The bank had exactly two houses for sale. Trixie picked the bigger one, which ended up being real little.

  “We can be happy here.” Trixie leaned against Jasper as they stopped and looked at the house.

  “It’s a nice house, all right.” Jasper lost the impatient feeling that rode him most of the time. It was a nice house. Two stories. Board instead of log. Glass windows and a solid-looking porch with a row of spindles along the front. The house was on the edge of town with a wooded lot behind it that came with the place, and mountains and forest stretching away forever beyond their property line.

  Jasper’s hunger to get his money faded as he gazed at the house. “It’s almost familiar,” he said under his breath.

  “What?”

  Jasper tore his eyes away from the house and turned to Trixie, smiling. “It feels like home already.”

  “Let’s go inside.” She handed him the key the banker had given them once the papers were signed and the money handed over.

  They reached the front door, and Jasper used considerable flourish to unlock it. He swung the door open and turned to look at Trixie. Jasper’s house in Houston was a mansion. Of course he’d borrowed heavily against it when he’d converted his holdings to something far easier to carry. This whole house would fit in one corner of his Houston place.

  “We’re home.” How strange that it almost sounded good. Jasper was nearly fifty, but he suddenly felt as awkward as a teenager.

  With a smile he swept Trixie into his arms. With a little squeak of surprise, she grabbed his shoulders. Their eyes met and she laughed and hugged him tight. Jasper carried her in. He kicked the door shut and set her on her feet, then leaned down to kiss her.

  She pressed her palms flat on his chest to stop him. “Jasper, I want to say something now that we’re really in our own home.”

  A twist of frustration tightened his jaw, but he straightened away from her and said with an easy smile, “Say it, wife.”

  Her expression grew somber as she studied him. Finally, when Jasper began to think maybe she wasn’t going to speak at all, she said, “I know you, Jasper Duff, better I think than you know yourself.”

  Jasper sincerely hoped not.

  “I know you came along with me, even married me, mainly because I had money and bullets were flying.”

  Jasper did his best to control a flinch. She did know him. “Now, Trixie, that’s not—”

  “Let me finish.”

  With a mocking sweep of his hand, Jasper said, “Fine, go on.”

  “I know you’re still crazy to get back what was stolen from you. And I know that your mind is twisted with ideas of revenge, of regaining power, of continuing on with the dishonesty that’s been part and parcel of who you’ve been your whole life.”

  Not his whole life. Just the last forty years.

  “So here’s the thing.” Trixie crossed her arms.

  Jasper braced himself.

  “I’m going to hide the money I have left. I’ll hide it just as carefully as I hid it before.”

  “Do you think I’d steal your money?”

  “I think you’ve got a rare knack of justifying anything you want to do.”

  Which was no more than the plain truth. “It’s your money—do with it whatever you want.”

  “I will.” Trixie’s expression was firm, but there was real kindness behind it. She really did love him. “I want you to give up on all the madness of finding your money. We’ve got enough. We need to live quietly. If suddenly we’re rich, if we live in a big house in a big city, we’ll be found out. You know the Hardeseys have arms that reach a long, long way, especially in a city. They’ll find us and they’ll kill you. And I’ll probably take a bullet because I’m standing next to you.”

  Jasper felt a pang of regret for the truth in that statement.

  “So I’m home now. I’m staying here.” She looked around the modest entry area of the little house and seemed to plant herself solidly and deeply right there in the front entrance.

  It reminded Jasper a bit of the house he’d grown up in. It reminded him that he’d loved his mother. His father, too. He wondered for the first time if his father had ever regretted turning all his fury on Jasper. Had his father, possibly, in the depths of his grief, gone a bit mad? Had he struck out at his son only to regret it later, when it was too late?

  Jasper had been too hurt, too twisted up with his own grief and anger and guilt to ever go back to see.

  “I’m not stupid, Jasper. I know you picked this place for a reason. So I’m guessing you’re thinking to search for your money from here. If you go, if you set out on this madness to find money that will almost certainly destroy you, then don’t come back. Don’t come in here with the wealth you’re so hungry for and expect me to be excited and leave with you to some mansion that will get us killed.”

  “I’m not going to lie to you, Trix. I have one place I want to check. I want to see if my men left a letter for me in this town.”

  “You can read your letter, but when you leave to chase after whatever that letter tells you, don’t bother coming back.”

  Jasper wondered if he could do it. He had to read the letter, if it was even there. What if there was enough information to send him off on the hunt? What would he do? Trixie was right about that money being as good as a noose. He’d want to spend it. He’d want a big house and silk shirts. He’d live high. And he’d be found out. And he’d die.

  Jasper was struck by the strange business of being honest with someone. And was impressed with just how smart Trixie was. He wondered for the first time if maybe he really could find happiness in a small house with a chicken coop in the backyard.

  Chapter

  24

  Ethan flinched with sympathy as he lifted Seth astride his horse. Seth’s jaw was tight with pain, but no words of complaint escaped his lips.

  “I’ll ride ahead, Seth. Audra, you bring up the rear and keep an eye out for any sign of those outlaws.” Ethan was pretty sure there weren’t any bad guys, so he took some pleasure in leaving his feisty little wife as the rear guard.

  She smiled so sweetly it was all Ethan could do to not laugh at her wish to be tough. But he didn’t laugh because handling two dangerous hombres was all the proof anyone needed that she was a lot stronger than she looked.

  They rode slowly toward the Kincaid Ranch. Ethan planned to mark the trail when he got to the place Rafe and Julia should intersect with on their way home from Rawhide. When they finally reached the red rock wall, Ethan glanced back and knew they had to take a break before Seth fell off his horse.

  He reined in his mount and swung down. “Let’s rest.”

  “I don’t need rest, Eth.” Seth spoke through clenched teeth. “Don’t stop for me.”

  “There’s a spring near here. We can have a drink of cold water and the jerky and biscuits.”

  “Ethan, stop acting like—”

  Ethan came to his side and dragged him off his horse. Seth tried to stand on his good leg and his knee gave out.

  Catching him before he could fall, Ethan as good as carried him to the wall. When they got close, Seth sank to the ground and twisted to look at a tree that seemed to grow right out of the rock. “Look at that.
”

  “What?” Ethan turned to see what Seth was so interested in.

  “Is that a . . . cave?” The sun was getting low in the sky, and although they were in a nice clearing, it was heavily shaded.

  With a sinking stomach, Ethan looked closer. Then closer still. “Yep. It’s a cave.”

  Ethan had made his peace with that cavern, but he didn’t think he was ever going to really love caves like Seth. He tried to distract Seth from this one. “This looks like the best place for you to build your cabin.” Except for that cave. He nodded at a little spring. “Fresh water, year-round.”

  “I remember this spring from when we were kids.” Seth licked his lips, and it reminded Ethan that they hadn’t eaten or had more than a sip of water yet today. “Can you get my canteen, Eth?”

  While Ethan fetched the canteen, he said, “That spring never runs dry. And we’re about halfway between my place and Rafe’s. So it’s within easy riding distance. You could come and eat with us most of the time.”

  With the canteen filled, he handed it to Seth, who took a long drink. Once his thirst was quenched, he gave the canteen back and began dragging himself along on the ground toward that blasted cave.

  “Seth, leave it for now. I don’t want you bumping that leg around.”

  “I just want to look inside.” Seth poked his head in the cave, and his voice echoed. “I want to see if it’s big or not.” Seth went the rest of the way in.

  Ethan looked at Audra, who rolled her eyes. “Your brother is a very nice man, but he’s a little strange, Ethan.”

  “I think I might just live in here.” Seth’s voice echoed a bit, but he hadn’t gone in too far. Ethan hoped that meant the cave wasn’t a big one. “What are the rules about homesteading? Do you have to build an actual house?”

  The sound of hoofbeats turned Ethan and Audra around. Ethan’s hand went to his gun just as Rafe rounded a bend in the wooded trail.

  Looking away for a second, Ethan said, “Maybe they found the treasure. I’ve only thought that we didn’t get to do any hunting, but if they found it, then it doesn’t matter.”