John and Alonzo led the rush to meet them when it became clear the group was headed for the barn.
They all dismounted.
“Take care of the horses, but leave them saddled,” Sadie ordered with the authority of an owner.
Rosita swung down and strode for the house without a word to anyone.
Justin added, “I want the watch doubled tonight. There could be trouble.”
“Pay special attention to the east,” Sadie said.
That surprised Heath, as the mesa was to the west. He thought any trouble would come from that direction.
“No, we need to ride out again. The horses stay saddled or get us fresh ones. And leave a man to watch the house.” Sadie plunked her hands on her hips. “The sentries should plan on taking shifts. It’ll be a long night.”
A long night? What was Sadie talking about?
“No,” Justin snapped. No one forgot he was the real boss of this outfit. “Unsaddle these horses and then get on with guard duty. Anyone free should get some rest.”
Sadie spun on him. “We have to go. Right now!”
“Inside, Sadie.” Justin looked at John. “Get a guard posted. You men, strip this leather and rub down the horses.”
Sadie’s mouth closed hard. Her jaw looked to be clamped shut to keep the words in her mouth.
It reminded Heath that they weren’t sure who they could trust among the hands. Suddenly she left, storming toward the house.
The rest of the group rushed to keep up.
Once inside, they found Rosita with the lanterns lit. She was busy preparing food.
Sadie turned to the others in the kitchen. She wasn’t waiting until they could settle in at the table or find a comfortable chair in Chance’s office.
Justin tore his hat off his head and tossed it at a hook on the wall. “If you want to go galloping off in the cold and dark, when we’re all exhausted and half starved, you’re gonna have to convince me of it.”
“I rushed back here because I feared an attack, and soon. I thought we might get here and find everything in flames. Justin, we have to go.”
“Sadie,” Cole barked, “start talking.”
With a jerk of her head that spoke volumes about her impatience, she nodded and swallowed hard.
Rosita moved to get her a cup of water.
“Ramone is back.”
Rosita gasped. “Ramone, the old Don’s son?”
“Yes. I found out at the orphanage. Maria knows where he is.”
“Maria? From Safe Haven?” Justin’s brow furrowed.
“Ramone is her brother. She said he returned to the area not that long ago.”
“I never heard of Ramone having any more family.” Justin, impatient and unable to be still, began helping Rosita put food on the table. “When Grandfather was shot, and Ramone took off, he headed straight for Mexico. He was protected by his father there. Why leave his sister behind?”
Sadie took a long drink of water. “His sister and mother, you mean. He abandoned them both. It only makes sense that he ran because he was guilty.”
“Did Ramone come back before Pa was hurt?” Cole asked, furious.
“Yes, but Maria doesn’t believe he’s behind the attack.”
“What sister would?” Justin brought a plateful of biscuits that Rosita had made into ham sandwiches to the table. He set it down with a hard clatter. Everyone helped themselves.
Heath had barely eaten today. He gulped down the food without taking his eyes off Sadie.
Only Sadie put off taking a bite. “I don’t know if she’s right, but she was adamant that he isn’t a man to harm anyone. What she’s afraid of is, if someone knows he’s back, the same someone who shot Grandfather, hurt Pa, and shot at us will attack and pin the blame on Ramone. Then kill him to silence him. I think Ramone may have witnessed Grandfather Chastain’s murder.”
“Maria told you all this?” Heath asked between bites. He barely knew the quiet older lady from the orphanage. Had she kept these secrets out of malice toward the family?
Rosita set a pitcher of milk on the table, along with a bunch of tin cups.
“We need to get to him and find out what he knows. If Maria is wrong, then Ramone is behind Grandfather’s murder, Pa’s accident, and the shooting. If she’s right, his life may be in danger, and the men who attacked us will be tired of sneak attacks and may descend on us at any time. Killing Ramone will be the final part of their plan. If he dies, the truth of Grandfather’s murder dies with him. And the men who tried to kill Pa will be free.”
“So you want us to get to Ramone.” Justin took a bite of his biscuit with barely controlled violence, his every word and motion revealing impatience and anger. “How do we do that, Sadie?”
“I know where he is.”
That brought everyone to frozen stillness.
Then they all started talking at once.
Sadie silenced them with her reply. “He’s staying in Don de Val’s house.”
“He went to his father’s house. Of course,” Cole said.
“The Don’s hacienda is in ruins,” Justin said. “It’s been abandoned for thirty years. Every bit of wood and many of the adobe bricks have been carted off to use in other places. Some homesteaders have tried living in it through the years, but they never lasted. Last time I saw it, the roof and most of the walls had caved in. It’s little more than rubble.”
“According to Maria, the back of the house, what was once the servants’ quarters, is mostly standing, although the roof has fallen in. He’s living in those rooms.”
“He sounds like a madman,” Cole said.
“He may be exactly that,” Heath agreed. “Keep it in mind when we try to catch him.”
“Let’s go.” Sadie grabbed a couple of biscuits and shoved them in her pocket. She finished her milk with two big gulps.
“No, not yet,” Heath said.
“But we have to. We need to capture him and hold him before someone kills him. We have to question him, find out the truth after all these years. We can ride in quietly and grab him while he’s sleeping. If we scare him into running and he slips away, it may be thirty more years before we can get the answers to our questions.”
“Two good reasons why we wait.” Heath had finished his sandwich and reached for another. The plate was emptying fast.
Sadie hesitated. “And those are . . . ?”
“First of all, if you want to take a man unawares, you go in later, just before dawn. If he stays up at night, standing guard—”
“He’s only one man, so how can he stand guard? He has to sleep.”
“Yes, but he’s more likely to be alert now. If he’s alone—and we know one other man was involved in the rockslide that hurt your pa—but if he’s alone, more than likely he’ll be sleeping or at least have lost his sharpest attention in the hours just before daybreak.”
Sadie crossed her arms and tapped her foot, but she was listening, and Heath appreciated that. “You said there were two reasons. What’s the other one?”
Heath gave a little shrug. “Your men are alert, too. Are you sure you want them to know we’re going? Can you trust them all?” He knew the answer to that, even if the others didn’t.
“No, we can’t,” Cole said and looked behind him as if he could see through the door.
Justin said, “Everyone get some sleep. In four hours we ride out and take this coyote prisoner. Then we get some answers.”
Heath started heading for the back door. It’d been a brutally long day and a few hours of sleep would keep him sharp.
“No, Heath, you stay here.” Cole moved to block the door in a way that struck Heath as odd.
“You . . .” Heath almost couldn’t get the words out as he realized what Cole was implying. “You don’t trust me.” His voice went flat. It wasn’t a question; it was a statement of fact. “You think I’m going to go out there and warn whoever’s behind this trouble.”
“We trust you!” Sadie’s voice was first and loudes
t.
“For Pete’s sake, of course we trust you.” Justin turned, his fist clenched, and looked like he wanted to take a swing at Cole. And knowing these two, he just might.
Heath made a mental note of where the lanterns were just in case the two numskulls started fighting and got too close to one of them again.
“I trust you, Heath,” Cole said. “I do. What I’m worried about is you going to the bunkhouse and—”
“And saying the wrong thing to the wrong person,” Heath said, cutting him off. “So you don’t think I conspired to kill your father—you just think I’m stupid.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“It sounded like it to me,” Sadie snapped. “He saved Pa. He took a bullet for me. He—”
“That’s not it.” Cole raised both hands as if in surrender. “Yes, maybe I was afraid you might say something, but what I really think is, if you go out there, the men are going to have questions.”
Heath glared without responding. It still sounded like Cole didn’t trust him.
“And you’re either going to have to lie to them or stay silent, and either one will put the men on edge. Then they’re going to see you leave early. It’ll be easier to slip away, or at least to let the men see us at the moment we’re leaving, if you sleep in here.” Cole’s dark blue eyes glinted with irritation. “I trust you, Heath, and frankly, all your questions and the way you took offense make me think you don’t trust me.”
It was a pure fact that Heath could handle someone pushing back hard better than someone meekly apologizing or dodging direct answers. Cole was pushing, and Heath liked it that way.
“That’s all right, then. I’ll sleep in here.”
“No one’s in Pa’s bedroom,” Justin offered.
Sadie gasped, and Rosita made a sound not unlike a cranky cougar.
Justin had the sensitivity of a razorback hog.
Heath said, “I’ll sleep in front of the fire. I’d take a blanket if you’ve got a spare.”
He left the room before he could hear any more opinions from the Bodens. And before he started thinking that Sadie oughta give him a good-night kiss.
As soon as this was over, which seemed like it was taking forever, Heath was gonna ask for permission to ride out with Sadie.
Then he thought of Cole and Justin and decided he wasn’t asking—he was telling.
25
Justin had a quiet word with the sentries so they wouldn’t shoot. Beyond that, the Boden brothers didn’t tell a soul where they were going.
Not counting Heath, of course. He got to go.
And Sadie couldn’t be stopped.
But no one else.
Except Rosita, who’d fed them all breakfast.
Confound it, once he started counting, Heath realized they’d pretty much told everyone. These Bodens didn’t know how to sneak worth a lick.
They’d been on the trail just under an hour when Justin said, “We ride real quiet from here on out.”
A short time later, in the starlight, he saw the pretty curve of the Cimarron River running near a crumbling mansion. With the whole place washed blue in the night, the green grass was black, like a moat surrounding the long-neglected hacienda. Years of work were evident in the spreader dams that kept a hundred acres green, even in the winter.
A sharp hiss from Justin had them all dismounting well away from the house. An old, collapsed gate told them this was de Val land. The gate’s base was sturdy enough they could hitch their horses to it.
They headed the rest of the way on foot, Heath staying close to Sadie.
“Let’s try and catch him asleep. I don’t want him shot. We need to talk to him. Fan out,” Justin ordered with a whisper that still carried the weight of his authority.
They approached the run-down house from the west. The remaining servants’ quarters were on the east side. Justin took Sadie and circled to the north. Heath and Cole took the south side.
The wreckage of the house had a ghostly quality to it, as if the past now haunted them all. At least it sounded as if it haunted Ramone.
Heath let Cole lead the way until they reached the corner of the house. Then Heath’s hand shot out and grabbed Cole’s shoulder. He leaned to Cole’s ear and, in a barely audible voice, said, “Wait.”
Cole turned, scowling, but he waited.
Heath slipped past him and rounded the corner, the first to expose himself to someone keeping watch from inside the building. He moved fast enough that Cole had no chance to protest. No sense letting a nervous man with a grudge against the Bodens see one of his main targets step into his line of sight. If Ramone had shot Frank Chastain, he was a man who’d killed before.
Once Heath slipped around the corner, a familiar calm iced his nerves. His hands became steady as stone, his vision and hearing razor sharp. His heart slowed, and each breath was deep and silent.
As a boy, he’d helped keep himself and his ma fed by learning to hunt. Pa was gone all the time, and Ma tended their garden, cooked, and did a little hunting herself. They also kept a few cows and a flock of chickens. Heath took their old rifle into the woods and over time developed the know-how of sneaking around as silent as a ghost. He learned how to distinguish the sounds that were normal and belonged from those that warned of approaching danger. It became second nature for him to move soundlessly, to go still instantly.
Even knowing Justin would see to Sadie’s protection, he prayed that no harm would come to her. There was more, too. Plenty to pray for as he inched forward. He had never killed a man, and he never wanted to. But a man didn’t go armed in this wild land without knowing the moment might come when he had to pull the trigger.
Heath rested his hand on his Colt revolver. His stomach twisted. There might be shooting trouble. Heath would do everything in his power not to harm Ramone. They needed him alive.
If Ramone started firing, Heath wouldn’t let anyone die under the gun of an embittered, jealous lunatic.
Heath reached the nearest wall and flattened his back against it. What the Bodens called the servants’ quarters were in much better shape than the rest of the house. Even so, it was badly damaged, the windows shattered, the roof mostly collapsed. But the walls still stood, and that had the main part of the hacienda beat.
Cole was right behind, so Heath kept going to stop Cole from taking the lead. As he moved along the side of the structure, Heath came to a window with no glass, no shutters. He eased himself to his knees. No light came from inside, but with the roof gone, Heath hoped the starlight would help him to see. He went on past the window, nearly crawling on his belly to stay low enough that he wouldn’t be silhouetted. He got to the far side and looked back. Cole had stopped at the window, his gun drawn, and pointed upward.
Their eyes met. Heath studied what he could see inside the structure from this angle. Cole did the same.
Slowly, Heath stood and eased forward until he saw all there was to see of the servants’ quarters from where he was positioned. Since the wall across was solid, Heath figured the quarters must be a double row of rooms. Justin and Sadie were no doubt right this minute peeking in the windows on the opposite side of the house.
The room was empty except for the debris from the fallen ceiling, and there wasn’t much of that. This part of the house had been used to a lesser extent for building supplies. Plenty had been stripped away, but the scavengers seemed to draw the line at actually tearing the house down. They’d taken what fell off, but the walls that remained were left alone.
It was just as well that the remnants of a whole collapsed ceiling weren’t lying on the floor. It’d give Ramone too many hiding places.
Heath turned to move on, keeping low. He reached the end of the building and poked his head around. Seeing nothing, he looked again more carefully. He was in time to spot Justin looking around from the north side.
Heath made sure Justin saw him, then straightened and came around the corner. A doorway, its door long gone, stood in the center of this sid
e of the building. Heath approached Justin until they met on either side of the door.
“Nothing,” Justin whispered.
“Let’s see what’s inside.” Heath leaned forward to peer into the room. He resisted the urge to check on Sadie, leaving her in the protection of her brother. He tensed his muscles to spring, knowing he’d make a perfect outline if someone had concealed himself in a shadowy corner and now waited to kill any and all who trespassed.
Drawing in a deep breath, Heath threw himself in, low, rounding the corner to get out of the meager light.
Justin shot through on the next step. Cole was right behind Heath, and without even looking, he knew Sadie came next. She moved like no man he’d ever known.
There was no sign of life.
Where was Ramone? Had Sadie heard wrong? Had Maria been lied to, maybe deliberately so in order to pass on false information?
And then Heath noticed a black square in the floor, near the far side of the room. It was too perfect. It had to be a cellar. They had more places yet to search.
Heath gestured to Justin to get his attention, then pointed at the opening in the floor. Justin nodded.
Heath made a rush for the cellar opening, doing his best to stay quiet, though he stepped on plenty of squeaky floorboards, so his best was mighty poor.
He reached the cellar opening and dropped to his belly just as Justin dropped on the other side. Cole stood a few paces back, gun drawn, ready to do what needed doing. Heath noticed that Cole had Sadie tucked firmly behind him.
No light down there, no sound, not even breathing. Someone could be asleep, but everything Heath knew about tracking told him the cellar was empty. “There’s no one—”
The metallic crack of cocking guns wrenched Heath around.
“Alto!”
Halt. Spoken in Mexican in a heavily accented voice.
“I kill next hombre who moves.” The silhouette of a man standing in the open doorway to the outside was all Heath could see. He had a pistol in each hand, one aimed to the left at Justin, the other to the right at Sadie and Cole.
No Way Up Page 20