Too Far Down

by Mary Connealy

  The man lowered the knife, his eyes shifting as he looked for an escape route.

  “Drop it! Right now.” She lowered the gun slightly. “I don’t want to kill anyone, but I’d put a bullet through both your knees without a moment’s hesitation. You’ll spend the rest of your life in prison with both legs amputated. You and your cronies almost cost my husband his leg, and I’d do the same to you without losing any sleep.”

  Somehow that rang so true that the man dropped the knife.

  Finn rushed over and scooped up the knife, then got well back. Meanwhile, Ronnie’s aim never wavered.

  The doctor moaned as he stirred on the floor.

  “Run for the sheriff, Finn.” Chance grabbed a long cloth that was draped over a table and used it to tie the outlaw’s hands together. By then the doctor was on his feet, looking dazed but otherwise all right.

  The doc pushed a chair around, and Chance sat the man down. Then, with help from his intrepid little wife, he found some rope in the kitchen, meant for hanging clothes out to dry, and bound the man tight to the chair.

  Chance turned to Ronnie, who meant more to him than his own life, and took two steps to close the gap between them. “You saved me, Ronnie, all those years ago when you agreed to become my wife. You gave my life meaning. You gave me and Cole the family we so desperately needed. You saved me then, and now you saved me again.” He dragged her into his arms and kissed her with all the love and passion in his heart.

  “You heard what he said, Chance. ‘You’re finished, you and your wife and family.’ What did he mean by that?”

  Chance heard it but hadn’t had a second to wonder what it might mean. “We have to warn them.”

  But Finn was gone. Were there more men out there, waiting to crash into this house?

  “I’ll send a wire.” Chance took one stride toward the door when his leg gave a sickening throb and he fell over, landing hard on the floor. He looked up at Ronnie. “The time for coddling this leg is over. We’ve got to get home, and I’ll crawl to the train station if I have to.”

  Ronnie’s eyes flashed with fire. “You won’t have to, Chance.”

  25

  “We’ve got to get them out.” Mel as good as threw herself at the pile of rocks that blocked the entrance to the mine where Cole and Uncle Walt were trapped.

  A firm hand on Mel’s shoulder whirled her around. She looked right into the eyes of Gully, the man in charge of the Boden mines.

  “Cole’s told me all that’s been going on with the Bodens, Mel. He also told me about the Suddlers and their running off this morning.”

  “We’ve no time to talk,” Mel said. “We need to start digging.”

  “Stop!” Gully reached over and shook her until her teeth rattled. “Listen to me, Mel. I said Cole told me everything.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “He told me about the attacks on the Boden family, that there’s someone out there trying to kill every single one of ’em.”

  What he was saying jolted something in her head that almost made her sensible again. Even so, she wanted to tear his arm away and get to digging. “Fine, he told you. Now let’s get to work.”

  The old man shook her again. “Miss Melanie, you’re not thinking this through.”

  “Of course I am. Please get out of my way.”

  “If this mine was rigged to collapse, then there’s a good chance Cole is dead.”

  “No!” It felt like her heart was ripped in half just hearing the words.

  “What’s more, Justin Boden and Heath Kincaid were in there. They may be dead, too.”

  Mel almost dropped to her knees as she realized every Boden man living at the ranch had just been trapped in a cave-in. “Why are we wasting time talking? I know they’re in terrible danger. I know they might be dead.”

  “I’m not wasting time. I’m telling you that if someone’s out to kill the Bodens, they’ll never have a better chance to do it than right now. All that’s left is to clean up a few defenseless women. We need to dig, and they need the muscles of every man on this place.”

  Mel nodded, knowing the men were already digging—the ones down here now, with others coming from all parts of the mountain. “Ride to the Boden Ranch and alert all the hands that an attack could be coming at any time. We’ve got to make sure Sadie and Angie Boden live through this day or those filthy outlaws will win. Hurry!”

  “I saw the mine cave in with my own eyes,” Bull Suddler said.

  “Both Boden sons were in there,” Snake went on, “besides the man who married the Boden daughter. We wiped out most of the family today, Hattie.”

  A cold chill of victory rushed up Hattie’s spine. She’d ordered the trip wire as soon as she’d heard the Bodens had men working her mines. She’d hated the owners of the Cimarron from the day she’d met old man Chastain. Then she’d followed the rest of the family through the years after the old Don had gone back to Mexico with his tail between his legs and dragged her with him.

  The Bodens had given a job to the son her worthless husband had left behind—a slap in her face. Now they were dead. She couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

  “And the parents are in Denver still.” She’d known Veronica Boden, Veronica Chastain back then. Young and slender. Carefree and pampered, with her whole life ahead of her. Not trapped in a loveless marriage to a vile old codger with a wandering eye. Veronica had grown into a young beauty while Hattie had one baby after another and still couldn’t keep her lecherous husband at home. “That leaves the daughter and daughter-in-law alone at the ranch. We must move quickly.” Hattie was savoring the next step in her plan.

  “Hattie, we’re rich. Too bad old Web didn’t live to see it. Windy and Arizona gone, too. Locked up. I don’t mind not splitting the gold so many ways, though. We’re rich, old girl,” Snake gloated.

  Snake enjoyed not treating her with respect. He’d been with her a long time and remembered the devious and talented Tennessee mountain girl she’d once been. It was hard to put on airs with Snake and Bull. But she despised men in general, and most certainly despised a man taking charge of her life in any way.

  The hatred it kindled in her made her itch to shoot Snake down where he stood.

  How she wished it was Web, or rather Dantalion . . . that’s the character Web had become. Planned since the first sight of Bautista, Hattie had turned herself into an exiled Spanish countess. And Web became the polished, ruthless Dantalion. It was the role Web was born to play.

  “Have you gathered the others?” Hattie asked. She thought of her old acting troupe. In many ways that troupe had been her family and now so many were gone.

  She’d given Bautista children, but they were as arrogant as he was. Her sons had married women they were unfaithful to. Her daughters all married to adulterers.

  Though she’d never expected the boys could be saved with a father such as theirs, she hoped the girls would learn strength from her. Instead they’d grown up to be fine ladies who let themselves be hurt and neglected.

  Hattie should have taught them at her knee how a woman could be strong. But the truth was she’d found motherhood unpleasant and was glad to turn them over to nursemaids and governesses. She’d rarely seen them, and when she had, it’d only been noise that irritated her.

  With a mental shrug she cast her children’s lives aside. They were a poor legacy and she took no pride in any of them. A woman had to take care of herself and that was what she would do now.

  Tohu came in. She looked at him. The man didn’t know he was Dantalion’s son, born to one of Hattie’s maids. She’d cast the maid out and kept the boy and had taken some delight in this one child. As he’d grown she saw him develop the cunning of his father. And now he was one of their company but with no idea why.

  This would be the legacy of her life. Her power. Her position. Her wealth. She would rule as many as she could and never let a man command her again.

  “They’re gathered. Those that are here smelle
d the trace of gold I waved under their noses and they’re itchin’ to go.”

  “As am I, Snake. As am I.” Two defenseless women . . . as soon as word reached them about the men’s deaths, they had to know they were next. A genuine smile bloomed as Hattie imagined them frightened, twisting in the wind while they waited for the end. “It’s time.” She headed out of the room with Snake at her heels.

  Mel galloped into the Boden ranch yard, yelling for John Hightree.

  “What’s going on?” John charged out of the barn. Three men came from the corral and the bunkhouse. She saw no one else. Three men against how many?

  “John, get the men armed. Trouble’s coming. I need to warn Sadie.” Mel pulled her horse to a halt just inches from the back door of the ranch house. The sudden stop had the horse rearing up until Mel feared it might go over backward. She quickly jumped to the ground and settled the animal before yanking her rifle from the scabbard on her saddle and racing for the door.

  John shouted orders behind her. Mel heard him send someone to fetch the men who’d ridden out to tend cattle.

  She burst into the ranch house. Standing at the stove, Angie squeaked in surprise. The ladle in her hand flew up in the air, splattering hot soup in an arc.

  Sadie rushed into the kitchen. “Mel, what’s wrong?”

  The words were frozen in her throat. How could she say it? Heath, Justin, Cole, Uncle Walt . . . who knew how many others? She didn’t have time to cry. Finally she found her voice again. “Two men just up and left the mine, rode away in the early morning. We now know they were in on the explosions. I’m here . . .”

  Dear God, how do I tell them? Please give me the words to say that their husbands might be dead.

  She decided to veer away from speaking it. “We’re afraid whoever’s after the Bodens will know you’re home alone”—because they think they killed Cole, Justin, and Heath—“and head for the ranch. I’m here to warn you and get us ready. We think they’re aiming to come here to attack defenseless women.”

  She still hadn’t told them. Maybe now was not the time. Where were the men? Why weren’t they coming? She braced herself, looking for someone to ask.

  Then Rosita stepped into the kitchen carrying a rifle. She had a bandolier slung over her shoulder and across her chest. It was filled with bullets. “I will watch from my room. I can see all the way to the woods toward the south and east from there.” Her black eyes landed on Sadie. “The rifle over the front door is loaded. There are boxes of cartridges in—”

  “I know—I can see in three directions from the upstairs bedroom.” Sadie ran for the stairs.

  Angie pulled a pistol from the kitchen cupboard and checked the load, even though Mel knew she’d most likely checked it already. Only a fool didn’t take care with her gun. Angie headed for the back door, peered out cautiously, then stuck her gun in her apron pocket and lifted the rifle off the hooks over the door. She stepped to the side of the window to get out of the path of a bullet.

  “What defenseless women?” Mel muttered.

  A gun fired.

  It came from the back, outside the door where Angie stood, where John was supposed to be. Mel charged across the room to the back wall, pressing her back against it. She braced herself to look out. The window beside her shattered, the bullet tearing into the wall across from it.

  More bullets assaulted the house, the gunfire coming more frequently, closing in on them.

  From upstairs, Sadie opened fire.

  Mel used Sadie’s shots as cover to get herself a look outside. The first thing she saw was two men on the ground, one she recognized as John. He was facedown in the dirt, blood on his head, a few paces from the barn. His rifle was still in his hand. The other man was farther back and lay as still as death.

  Mel had known John from the cradle. She turned her grief—already wild because of what happened to the Boden men—to fury.

  Four men on horseback, bent low to use their horses to protect them, shot at the house as they galloped at full speed toward the back door.

  Cole sucked in his stomach in order to squeeze through the collapsed opening between the mine and the tunnel.

  “It’s standing.” Cole looked back. Walt was shorter than Cole but stouter. He’d made it through the narrow passageway. “I was afraid the whole tunnel would be swallowed up. Let’s hope that’s the worst of it.”

  Mel had gotten to the top of the ladder, Cole was almost sure of it. She hadn’t fallen down on top of him. Yet the top of the pit was in a cave . . . had it fallen on her? Was she buried up there? Cole felt his gut twist up until he wanted to start punching the walls.

  They came to another cave-in. This one blocked the tunnel beyond any hope of progress.

  Cole stopped, stuffed the fear deep down, and turned to Walt. “We can’t go back. That pit was filled with rock and we’re too far down to dig our way out.”

  Walt looked at the rocks and, disgusted, shook his head. “Well, I’m not gonna sit down and cry. If we can’t go back, then we gotta go forward. I think this is close to the next pit where we could maybe climb out. And if that trip wire set off a series of rockslides somehow, this might be a way out—if the whole pit didn’t close up on us.”

  Reaching for a rock, Walt glanced at Cole. “You pay attention to this head lamp. If the flame looks like it’s dying, tell me quick and I’ll put it out. Until then, let’s keep it burning.”

  Cole felt the weight of the mountain pressing down on him. The thought of trying to dig their way out in the pitch-dark made him wonder if he’d be able to breathe. “I’ll let you know.”

  They started digging, staying high toward the ceiling. No sense digging lower while the rocks overhead fell and filled in any holes they opened.

  What about Mel? What about Justin and Heath? What about Sadie and Angie back at home? Soon the sound of rocks getting tossed aside and their heavy breathing caused by so much exertion were too much. Cole needed to think but out loud.

  “Justin and Heath were going to Bill’s mine. They would have gotten out, don’t you think, Walt?” The question sounded like a youngster asking someone to reassure him about something impossible to know.

  “I’m hoping, boy.” And Walt’s answer sounded like a grown-up who wanted it to be true just as much as Cole did. “I’m hoping and praying they watched the cave-in from the surface, and now they’re out there digging like madmen.”

  “Half of the miners digging. The other half would’ve run for home to protect Sadie and Angie.” Cole desperately wanted that to be true. And there were more lives at stake than Sadie’s and Angie’s. Rosita and John and all the other hired hands, as well. Lots of people were standing in the path of a cruel, greedy woman who’d proved she was willing to kill to get what she wanted.

  Cole dug faster, threw stones aside with an almost frantic haste as he thought of his family. His family . . .

  It was as if he’d dropped one of the rocks on his head. Cole suddenly figured it out.

  He figured out what was behind Pa’s will and all the talk of the land being a legacy. He figured out what family meant to him, what he wanted to do with his life, and who he wanted to spend it with.

  He understand what Pa meant by the CR being the Bodens’ birthright.

  And he saw the love of God and the love of an earthly father in a way he never had before.

  He dug faster. He had a few things he needed to say to the people he loved the most, and he prayed that each and every one of them was alive and well when he got to the surface.

  “Cole, my head lamp just flickered.” Walt’s voice echoed in the tunnel like the voice of doom.

  26

  Mel fired and fired again. Sadie rained down a volley of bullets from overhead. Angie had the door open a crack and unloaded her gun at the approaching men. Shots roared from the far end of the house where Rosita was on guard.

  Two men fell from their horses. The charge broke off, and the remaining men whirled and raced away. They took cover behind th
e barn and the bunkhouse. The outlaws were now protected from any shooting coming from the house.

  “We have to hold them back until the men get here,” Angie shouted.

  The shooting stopped. They had a moment to gather their wits.

  The men weren’t coming.

  Mel couldn’t tell Angie the truth right now—there wasn’t time. No help was coming. Not from the mines, and if John hadn’t gotten a man away, then no help could be expected from the other cowpokes.

  Though they had plenty of ammunition, they were trapped and with no help in sight. Eventually their attackers would lay siege to the ranch house. They could come in a charge just as they’d already done once. They’d be sheltered behind their horses and force Mel and her friends to waste their lead.

  Mel needed to tell Sadie to save her bullets. And to do that she’d have to explain that they were on their own, and why. It made Mel sick to think of it. Sadie losing Heath. Angie losing Justin. Mel losing Cole.

  No matter that the man didn’t know his own mind and didn’t have good intentions for Mel, she felt the draw to him. And she’d been telling herself it was just a physical longing. But now, knowing she might never see him again, she admitted to herself it was much more.

  It was love.

  She loved the half-wit, and all he wanted was to go to the city and make a living.

  Well, she decided she wasn’t going to just smile and nod and ask him kindly to make up his mind and decide whether or not he wanted her.

  As she reloaded, she vowed to God she’d save the Boden ranch, then go dig that man straight out of the belly of the earth on her own and haul him home, trussed up over her saddle, and marry him. And if he made any stupid remarks about moving back east, she’d lock him up in the cellar until his thinking came around straight.

  That was if he refused to cooperate. Maybe he’d come along quietly and her lasso wouldn’t be necessary.

  Suddenly a heavy wagon came into sight from behind the barn. It charged straight for the house, the horses running at full speed and pulling what looked like a stagecoach of some kind. The man driving the wagon was hidden, the reins passing through an opening in the coach, and the horses blocked any chance of Mel getting a shot off.