Of course the night of the boxed suppers he’d walked Belle home and gotten in late. Doc had also said he’d ridden out on a call late in the evening. So Ewan had been the only one who might have heard anything. Surely he would have gone in to help her though?
Joe’s eyes fell closed. He hated knowing she’d suffered. And yet it was her choice that had put her in a dangerous situation. He’d been speaking truth when he’d offered to buy out her contract. She could have been long gone from this place.
A muffled sound, something like a groan, came from beyond her door. And then the unmistakable sound of a gun’s hammer ratcheting back.
His pulse spiked. “Liora?” He knocked.
From inside came a soft gasp.
Shucking his gun, he leapt to one side of the door and crouched low. Was someone in there with a gun on her? “It’s Joe, Liora. You all right in there?”
“Go away, Joe.” There was a note of hopelessness in her tone.
“I can’t do that.” He flattened himself against the floor and peered through the crack under her door. He could see all the way to her bed, and there didn’t seem to be another person standing in the room with her. His heart hammered in earnest then. Because if no one was in the room with her, it could only mean one thing. “I’m coming in, you hear me? You decent?”
Her laugh was dry. “Like it matters?”
“Matters to me.”
Down the hall, both Doc’s and Ewan’s doors opened. They both stepped out into the hall, scrutinizing him quizzically.
“Good-bye, Joe.”
“No!” Her door shattered beneath his boot before he’d even realized he was taking action.
She had finally worked up her courage to let go. The decision came with a great deal of relief. She wasn’t sure what had brought Joe to her door at this time of the morning. Hearing his soft tenor voice had almost shaken her resolve, but she pushed past it. It would be one quick flash of pain, and then oblivion.
Quiet.
Peace.
“Good-bye, Joe,” she said. And then she put the pistol beneath her chin.
“No!” The door shattered inward.
She flinched.
And the gun fired.
“Liora!” Joe rushed toward her across the room.
She stared at him wide eyed. And then she felt the warm seep of blood trickling down her forehead. Her ears rang. She gave herself a little shake. The bed was still beneath her. The chipped triangle of mirror still hung above her dresser.
“Liora, no!” Joe was at her side now, knocking the derringer out of her hand and kicking it across the floor. He grabbed her head, tilted it toward the light from the window. “How bad is it? I can’t see! Doc! Get me a light!” He pressed her down against the pillow. “Liora, you stay with me, you hear? You stay!”
So much pain. Her eyes fell closed, but she could hear footsteps slapping across the floorboards. Only a moment later, light flooded the room.
“Move out of the way, Joe. Let me have a look at her.” Doc Griffin’s voice.
From somewhere near the door, Ewan cussed her. “What were you thinking?”
Familiar shame settled around her heart. She swallowed. Trembled. How was she still here?
Doc pressed something to her forehead and then lifted one of her hands to keep it in place. “Hold that there.”
Ewan kept cussing.
“Ewan, shut up!” Joe snapped. She heard a scuffle and then the door shut, blocking some of the sound of Ewan’s disapproval. “Is there anything I can do, Doc?”
She’d never heard that tremor in Joe’s voice before.
“She’s going to be fine, Joe.” Doc’s voice was as calm as you please. She heard him digging through his doctor bag. “She must have pulled back at the last moment. The bullet only grazed her cheek and cut a little deeper across her forehead. I’m going to put in some stitches.”
“No.” Liora tried to shake her head. Tried to push Doc’s hands away.
She didn’t want to be all right. She wanted to be gone!
A sickly sweet scent filled her nostrils. She twisted her head, trying to get away from the smell, but it stayed with her. Doc was still talking, but it seemed like he was getting farther and farther away, and she couldn’t make out his exact words. Her head felt heavy. Her arms and legs felt even heavier.
Maybe the shot had done more damage than Doc thought after all. Maybe this was what death felt like.
Regret gripped her.
And then the world went black.
Liora’s arm flopped out to one side, and Joe’s heart nearly stopped.
Doc looked at him, his lips set in a grim line. “Don’t worry. She’s just asleep. I used some chloroform on her. It often helps to distance patients from a…trauma such as this. Gives them a little better perspective when they wake up.”
Joe sank to his haunches. Ran his hands back through his hair. Willed himself to breathe.
Doc gave him a sympathetic look. “What made you get up to check on her?”
Joe shook his head. “I don’t know. I thought I heard someone call her name. But…”
Doc bent and set to stitching her up. “Providence, likely.”
Joe considered that. He’d be the last one to proclaim God had spoken to him, but maybe He had. It didn’t matter. He was just glad he’d come. If he hadn’t busted in when he had… Well, he didn’t want to ponder on that. He pushed himself to his feet. “If you don’t need me, I have some things to discuss with Ewan.”
Doc nodded. “You do that. And while you’re at it, you remind him that you and I are both rent-paying customers who can find elsewhere to live and who can encourage our friends to find elsewhere to eat and drink.”
Joe appreciated knowing he wasn’t alone in his sentiments. He stopped by his room first to grab the bag of cash he kept stashed beneath his floorboards, and then he banged on Ewan’s door.
He didn’t care what time of morning it was or if the man had already crawled back into bed. They were going to have this out now.
Monday morning, Zoe Kastain bent and gave Jinx’s head a pat. “It’s gonna seem like a long time to ya probably, but I promise I’ll only be gone for a few hours. Aidan’s too young for school, so he will come bring ya some scraps after lunch. And when I get home we’ll go for a walk, and you can chase squirrels. But Pa says ya cain’t come to school.”
Jinx yipped and lunged at the end of his rope, looking none too happy to be tied to the clothesline.
Zoe felt guilty leaving him there, but no matter the wheedling she had tried over breakfast, Pa clung to his insistence that dogs did not belong in school. Truth be told, she hadn’t wheedled too hard. Pa still hadn’t regained his color. And he still had to be helped in and out of bed. Doc kept saying healing would just take time. But sometimes she laid awake at night wondering what might happen to them all if Pa didn’t recover. If only she’d stayed to help Pa that day. Maybe she could have kept that outlaw from shooting him.
“Zoe! Come on! We don’t want to be late on our first day!”
Zoe rolled her eyes when Belle turned to snap a similar order at the twins, who were just coming out of the house. Likely Belle just wanted to have time to say hello to the sheriff when they arrived. Because they weren’t in any danger of being late.
And sure enough, as soon as they made their way across the bridge into town, Belle headed for the sheriff’s office.
Zoe nudged the twins toward Dixie’s. Despite her worries over Pa, she could hardly wait to experience her first day of school! She was so glad that Miss Brindle had changed her mind about going back to Boston. For a while Zoe had feared that her dreams of getting to attend school would never come true. But thanks be, Miss Brindle had decided to stay. Another thrill rippled through her.
“Let’s go inside.”
Shiloh did a little dance. “I need to use the necessary first.”
Zoe wrinkled her nose. Her excitement over seeing her first classroom ever could wait a few more min
utes, she supposed. “Fine. I’ll take ya ’round back. Come on. Sharon, you oughta go too, so’s ya don’t have to ask to be excused before break time.” Zoe shooed the girls toward the outhouse. “Go on. I’ll be waiting right here for y’all.”
Shiloh and Sharon had just disappeared behind the hedge that hid the privy from sight when Zoe felt a hand clamp over her mouth! Zoe rolled her eyes. Washington Nolan! She threw her elbow into her assailant’s ribs, stomped her foot against the top of his boot, and twisted hard to break free. But the arms she’d been so certain of escaping only tightened around her.
“Be still, and no one has to get hurt!” Her attacker shook her.
Not Washington’s voice! A jolt of fear sent tremors of weakness through Zoe’s legs.
“Now come on. We are going inside to see your sweet posy of a teacher.”
Eyes widening, Zoe did her best to scream, but the sound was clamped off by the meaty hand. Behind the boardinghouse as they were, no one would likely hear her scuffling.
A low chuckle escaped the man who held her. “Don’t worry. It ain’t you I’m after.” The man dragged her through the back door of Dixie’s, which led straight into the dining room, where they were to have school.
Miss Brindle looked up from something she was studying on her desk.
Zoe tried to signal with her eyes for the woman to run.
But Miss Brindle only jumped to her feet, one hand rising to her throat. “Unhand her at once!”
The man who held Zoe laughed softly, and it was not a pleasant sound. “I have a better idea. Let’s make a trade. You come with me right now, and I won’t snap this cute little girl’s neck.”
Little girl?! Zoe gritted her teeth and swung her elbow for all she was worth while at the same time thrusting the heel of her boot in a bid for the man’s shin.
But again her efforts did no more than raise a grunt. “Be still,” the assailant growled.
She would not be still! Zoe thrashed and twisted, but then she felt the cold press of metal against her temple.
She froze, panting hard and finding it difficult to pull in a breath around the man’s hand. But it was the look on Miss Brindle’s face that raised more fear in her than the feel of the gun to her head.
Miss Brindle’s face was almost as white as the lace curtains at the window behind her. “Please. Don’t hurt her.” She stretched out one hand. “I’ll come with you. Just leave the child be.” A sheen of moisture glistened in Miss Brindle’s eyes, and Zoe felt her desperation rise. How could she stop this outlaw from kidnapping Miss Brindle?
“That’s right you will.” The man’s voice was gruff. “Now. You just sit yourself down in that chair right there where I can see you while I tie the girl up.”
Miss Brindle moved to comply. “Why must you tie her up? She can’t hurt you.”
Zoe felt her eyes narrow. She bet she could hurt the man if he weren’t holding a gun to her head!
“Can’t have her running straight to the sheriff.”
The man plunked Zoe into a chair, and before she could even draw a breath to scream, he shoved a bandana into her mouth. It tasted salty and foul.
“Hush up now.” The man had a bandana over the lower half of his face, and his slouch hat curved down to cast deep shadows over his eyes. He set the gun near to hand and kept half an eye on Miss Brindle while he worked. With several quick movements, he had Zoe lashed to the chair good and tight.
Miss Brindle looked around like she hoped Miss Pottinger might come in, or even Miss Pottinger’s mother, but Zoe knew they weren’t coming, because she’d seen them only a bit ago riding out of town in a carriage together.
A moment later the outlaw, with his gun pressed firmly into Miss Brindle’s side, poked his head out the back door to look both ways. And then Zoe watched helplessly as the man dragged Miss Brindle out the door and closed it behind them.
Zoe immediately tried to scream. But it was no use. The bandana tied into her mouth prevented her from making more than the most pitiful of sounds. She yanked on her wrists and attempted to tug her ankles free, but was only rewarded with the tight leather thongs cutting even more firmly into her skin.
She stilled for a moment and tried to think. What would Pa tell her to do? And then it hit her! She needed to break the chair! But how did she go about doing that when her ankles were lashed to the legs? She couldn’t stand… Maybe if she could tip the chair over, something would break.
She rocked hard to the right and then to the left until she felt the chair finally tip over the edge of balance and toward the ground. Her hopes soared! The chair crashed into the floorboards, smashing Zoe’s arm between the armrest and the floor. Pain like she had never experienced before surged through her, bringing with it a wave of blackness and a shriek of agony that would have been loud if not for the gag.
Oh, this had not been her brightest idea! Because now she couldn’t do anything, not even breathe, without sending torturous flames shooting up her arm from her wrist, which was still trapped between the chair and the floor.
Tears pooled and spilled over. Miss Brindle might die, and it would be all her fault because she hadn’t been strong enough to stop that man.
Zoe didn’t know how long she had lain there before she finally heard footsteps. She opened her eyes to see who was coming.
“Zoe Kastain!” Washington Nolan dropped the pail that he’d been holding and leapt to her side. His fingers fumbled with the knot at the back of the gag. “What happened?!”
Washington’s knee bumped into her wrist just as he yanked the gag free, and Zoe felt her humiliation rise when a whimper that bordered on the edge of a shriek slipped from her.
“Sorry! I’m so sorry!” Washington leapt back.
Zoe pushed down the pain and managed to say. “Don’t worry about me! A man kidnapped Miss Brindle!”
Behind Washington, his brother, Jackson, stepped into the room. Washington threw a look over his shoulder. “Get the sheriff! Now!” As his brother darted back out the door, Washington took a moment to assess her situation. “Okay, listen Zo. I’m going to have to lift your chair back to its upright position. It’s probably going to hurt, but it will cause the least discomfort to your arm.”
Zoe didn’t even have the gumption to put him in his place about the shortened version of her name.
“Ready?”
Zoe nodded and gritted her teeth in preparation for the pain.
Washington picked up her chair in one smooth movement, and Zoe could tell he tried to set it down as gently as he could, but the bump of the legs hitting the floor still sent a jolt through her that had her seeing flashes of light.
He must have heard the air that escaped between her teeth, because he winced. “Sorry. Here, let me get you untied.”
“A man took Miss Brindle.”
“You said that. Sheriff’s on his way.” His fingers fumbled with the knots at one ankle, but his worried gaze skittered to her face. “Did the man hurt you any worse than…your arm?”
Zoe sniffed. “Did that to myself. Was trying to break the chair so I could get the sheriff. My arm got in the way.” She tried to twist her lips into the grim smile he’d be expecting from her, but feared the expression was more of a grimace.
“Leave it to you, Zo, to break your own arm.”
This time she didn’t let him get away with it. “ZoEEE.” She stretched out the last syllable of her name.
Sheriff Reagan burst through the door then, with Belle and Deputy Joe on his heels. “Zoe? What happened?”
Washington had finished untying all the knots now, and Zoe forced herself to speak past the throbbing in her arm. “I took the twins out back when we got to town. And while I was waiting for them, a man grabbed me from behind. He brought me in here and told Miss Brindle that if she didn’t come with him, he was gonna snap my neck.” Tears pooled in Zoe’s eyes without her permission. She sniffed. “I tried to stop him, but he was too strong.”
“Did you get a look at him?”
>
Zoe shook her head and felt her aggravation with herself rise. “Only a glimpse when he was tying me up. But he had his hat pulled low and a bandana up over his face.”
The sheriff’s hand settled on his gun. “Did you see which way they went?” His face looked like it had lost several shades of color.
Zoe scrunched up her nose as she shook her head. “Out the back is all I know. I’m real sorry, Sheriff.”
Belle squatted by the chair, her eyes widening as her gaze fastened on Zoe’s wrist. “Zoe needs Doc!”
“I’ll get him.” Washington dashed from the room.
Sheriff Callahan snapped his fingers at his deputy. “Joe, saddle our horses. I’ll see if I can figure out which way they went.” And with that the sheriff hustled out the back door as Joe headed for the livery.
Zoe let her eyes drop closed, not wanting to even breathe too deeply because of the pain, but at Belle’s silence, she cocked one eye open to see what her sister was doing. Belle was swiping tears from her cheeks. “I shouldn’t have left you. You could have been killed.”
Zoe closed her eyes again. “But I weren’t. I’ll be fine.” It was Miss Brindle they all should be worried about.
That and the fact that for the first time in her life, she’d felt relieved to see Washington Nolan. Yes. That was something to be very concerned about as well.
Charlotte’s kidnapper forced her to run down the alley behind the buildings of the town, and then he bound and gagged her and made her climb inside a wooden crate in the back of a wagon parked right behind the jail.
Darkness closed in as he put the lid on, and then Charlotte heard a lot of other scuffling and thumping. Her hands were tied together, and her space was so cramped that she could barely move. Pressing down her panic, she tried to push against the lid, but it didn’t lift even a little.
Her legs were also of no use to her. She’d tried to kick against the end of the crate, but it proved of little value when she could barely budge in the tight confines.
Now as she lay in the dark inside the crate and listened to the creak of the wagon wheels trundling her off to who knew where, she had to admit that the man’s plan had been pretty smart. The last place anyone would be looking was in the vicinity of the sheriff’s office at the moment it was discovered she’d gone missing.
Not a Sparrow Falls (Wyldhaven Book 1) Page 24