Hozho sniffed. “About time.”
She exchanged an arched look with Parson Ford who said, “Long past time.”
Gabe sincerely hoped he didn’t have to lead her horse all the way to Salt Lake City with her thrown over the saddle.
“You said you’d go, Gabe.”
And how did I know she was going to say that?
Thirteen
Yes, I said I’d go, but that’s before I knew we had killers on our trail. Emmy led those folks who were following us astray. But her tricks will only work for a while. If they found you after they left you stranded so far behind, then they’re good trackers. They’ll realize the false trail ends and be back.”
“Once we get to that secret trail and get down in the canyon, we’ll be safe.”
“We’ll never be safe as long as we’re in the area.”
“They won’t find us. Doba, you said your home was close and a safe place, but we don’t want to bring those folks to your family.” Gabe saw Doba hesitate.
“You want to ride all the way to Wyoming to get away from a band of cutthroats.” Shannon jerked on her reins and gave Gabe a dark look when he wouldn’t let go. “But you know the canyon is the closest protection with the exception of Doba’s settlement.”
“It is a wild land,” Doba interrupted.
“The river isn’t for passage,” Hozho said. “No boats. Few trails. Stretches where water is scarce. Very steep ride down that edge. Nothing in the canyon is safe or easy.”
“Once down there, we’ll find that city of gold.” Shannon smiled at Hozho, who wasn’t a woman who inspired smiling, so it was all fake.
“There is a village down there, but those people, they keep to themselves.” Hozho shook her head. “They would not have spoken to your father.”
“He said there was a city.”
“No one could live down there, Shannon. Not from what I’ve heard.”
“There is at least one village. One part of Father’s notes mentions two. But I couldn’t tell if they were just various camps set up by the same tribe or several different tribes. Are they Navajo?”
Gabe looked at Hozho. “Is that true? There are Navajo Indians living down there?”
“Not Navajo. They are not of the Dineh,” Doba said.
“Dineh?” Gabe furrowed his brow and wished everyone spoke English only.
“Yes, Dineh, the People,” Doba went on. “The true name of my people. Navajo is a white word.”
“Pai, some call them Supai.” Hozho nodded. “I am from the Yavapai. My people live in many small villages scattered around. This land with its scarce food and water does not support large groups.”
“Those people will protect us.” Shannon reached out and snagged Gabe’s arm.
It annoyed him how much he liked her touching him. And how much it made him want her happy. And how much it made him hate Bucky, who didn’t deserve to be hated one bit. Gabe arched a brow at Hozho.
She shrugged. “The Supai are not warriors.”
“My father’s writings were a little vague. He talked more about the village than the people. But he found his way. They must have been helpful to him. I think they’ll treat us well.”
“You think?” Gabe wondered if she ever listened to herself talk. “You don’t know?”
“No, I don’t know.”
“Well, finally, we’ve found something Miss Shannon Dysart doesn’t know.”
Shannon sniffed and turned up her little nose as if Gabe smelled bad. “I am going to find that trail with or without you. I’ll just go on with whoever does want to go.” She turned to Hozho. “Will you take me?”
Gabe tugged on his arm, and since Shannon was still hanging on to him, it drew her attention. “I agreed to go before I knew killers wanted a map from you that will lead them to a city of gold.”
A smile broke over Shannon’s face, and her hand tightened on his arm. “So you finally believe me? You agree that the map leads to a treasure? That’s so sweet. I’m so delighted. You’re wonderful, Gabe.”
“No, I don’t believe you.”
Her smile vanished and her brows slammed down. “You’re nothing but a stubborn old goat.”
“I don’t believe it.” Gabe lifted his eyes to heaven and prayed for patience. “But those people chasing after you clearly do. And that’s why we have to get out of here.”
“We have to stay.” She tugged on his sleeve.
Gabe twisted his arm loose and caught her by the wrist. “We’re going north.”
“If you won’t go west with me, I’ll go on alone.” Shannon tilted her snooty nose even higher.
Ahway and Emmy were clearly taking mental notes to tell stories of Gabe’s humiliation. It was all too much.
Gabe lost his temper. “You are going to mind me, woman!”
Shannon froze, fear on her face, her hand white-knuckled on his sleeve.
He hated to do it, but a man had to set his foot down.
Her eyes went bright, and he thought she was going to explode, yell at him, unleash pure rage. One tear spilled, cutting down to wash a clean track in her dirty face.
With a gasp, all the men jerked back from her.
Hozho, on the ground, reached up and patted Shannon’s leg and glared at Gabe.
“I’ll go with you.” Emmy dismounted and strode to Shannon’s side, her arms crossed, her brow lowered for battle. “I’m better on a trail than Gabe is anyway.”
“What are you doing?” Gabe asked Shannon in horror. He’d never been around women much. In fact, except for his ma, almost none. Oh, he’d been around Annette some, and Elijah Walker’s mother. But on serious thought, he’d have to stick with almost none. He’d never seen Ma cry. She was the best kind of woman there was, so if his ma didn’t do it, then no woman should do it.
“I’m—I’m trying to convince you to help me.” Another tear ran down, then a third.
“Stop crying!” Gabe shouted then regretted it immediately when she cried harder.
“I think it is best if I and my children return to my family. And I have to take Emmy back. Parson Crenshaw wouldn’t allow her to go so far without her family.”
“I’d be fine, Mr. Kinlichee.” Emmy gave him that bright smile.
“I am more than sure you would, Emmy. It is a fact that you would be a great help. But no. You must go back with me.”
“But Gabe”—Doba turned to Gabe and caved like a snow-laden mountain overhang in an avalanche—”it wouldn’t hurt for you to ride down in the canyon a little ways.”
The traitor.
“No, please, Mr. Kinlichee, let me go.”
“No, and don’t try crying either.”
Emmy sniffled.
“Your mama and papa would kill me if I let you go alone, and my Kai will kill me if I don’t come back with her sons. Do you want me dead, Emmy? Answer me that.”
Emmy rolled her eyes but quit asking to go. Gabe thought she quit crying a little too easily, too.
Unlike Shannon.
Gabe studied on Doba’s words and demeanor. Emmy seemed to be going to obey him. But maybe that was only because he was her father’s friend and was acting as if he were her father. And of course it might also mean that Emmy believed her mother and father might be terribly worried. So Doba was getting his way, but he wasn’t exactly in charge of his life either.
Gabe realized at that very moment that he had no idea how to handle women… well, not women. Woman. Just one. It wasn’t his job to make Emmy mind, and he doubted he’d ever be around many others. In fact, he seriously considered taking a vow about just that right there on the spot. And considering Shannon had a man waiting for her, he probably wouldn’t be around her much longer either. So why bother trying to learn anything?
“We will go with you, Shannon. Let your friend abandon you. We’ll be fine.” Hozho proved there was another woman he couldn’t handle, and he didn’t see Hosteen arguing with his wife.
He braced himself for Parson Ford and Ahway and Marcu
s to start getting after him. And maybe the parson’s horse would give Gabe a swift kick while he was down.
“Okay, we’ll go.” He couldn’t remember right at that moment why they shouldn’t go. No one would follow them. Probably.
The weather was nice.
He’d sold his cattle to Elijah Walker, planning to start up a new herd when he returned to his ranch. Which could be as long from now as necessary. He hadn’t homesteaded—he’d bought the ranch outright—so he didn’t have to live there to prove up.
The trip in the canyon would be fine. In fact, it’d be fun.
Shannon swiped the tears, her lower lip quivering. “You’re just saying that to stop me from crying.”
“Uh… yep, why else would I agree to do such a blamed, fool thing?”
Doba slapped him on the arm hard enough to leave a bruise.
The tears started right up again. “But I want you to come because you want to come, not because I cried.“ Shannon buried her face in both hands, her shoulders shuddering under the tears.
Doba hit him harder just as Gabe opened his mouth.
Looking sideways, Gabe shook his head and mouthed silently, “What?”
“I think it’s a good idea to go. I have to go home. I have the children’s safety to consider. But you can go.”
Shannon’s shoulders stopped shaking quite so hard, and she looked up at Gabe, who got the very solid feeling that there was a right way and a wrong way to act, but he’d be switched if he could guess what it was.
Since Doba’s words had ended the tears, Gabe decided to go along with him. “Uh… well… yep, okay… let’s go. And… uh… I have no need to see my brother or head home to Wyoming.”
The sun rose in Shannon’s eyes. “Really?”
Gabe knew he’d guessed right. “Really. I’d decided to go down there, but those folks chasing you, well, I… I…” Gabe felt himself stepping into quicksand, so he trod carefully. “I let my worry for your safety change my mind about what I wanted to do anyway.”
A smile bloomed on Shannon’s face.
Gabe heaved a sigh of relief. “So now I believe it’ll be safe, so let’s go on down.”
“You’re sure you want to?”
Of course he wasn’t sure. Was the woman crazy?
“Yep, I want to go bad.” Gabe was learning.
“Hozho, you know the way down, or does Shannon need to get her map?” His hand darted out for fear she’d reach for her skirt.
“I know one way down, and I can lead you to the village in the canyon. It’s the only village I know of, so it must be the way your father went, too.” Hozho smiled.
“You in or out, Parson?” For some reason Gabe wanted the parson to go along real bad. He felt like it was him against Shannon and Hozho. Hosteen evened it up, but it was still half women and half men. And Hosteen might not be that much help, what with his being partial to his wife and all. Gabe could use another man on this journey.
“I’ll ride along. As I said, the Yavapai are part of the people I serve. I’m overdue to go down in that canyon.” The parson shuddered a bit. “Terrible ride on horseback. Might be best to walk down.”
Gabe had to wonder how rugged that canyon really was. Of course the parson seemed to hate his horse, so Gabe decided not to judge the trip just based on the man’s attitude.
Doba pulled on his reins and turned to head east. “Farewell then. Stop at our settlement when next you pass this way.” Doba and his sons rode off as if they were being chased by wolves. Or maybe by one crying woman.
Emmy looked at them, pure envy almost eating her alive. Then with a frustrated grunt that was way more kid than woman, she turned to follow Doba.
Going down in that canyon with those outlaws on their trail went against Gabe’s common sense, but Shannon was getting her way. He’d have complained, except he was afraid she’d start crying again. And he’d rather be chased by killers and swallowed up by a canyon than let that happen.
He smiled as bright as day. “Let’s go find the canyon.”
“We lost ‘em.” Cutter hunkered down to study the dusty trail.
They’d been going slower and slower until the frustration was driving Lurene mad.
Now Cutter was on foot, leading his horse, crouching to study the trail every few steps.
Lurene had no choice but to inch along. When she got too impatient, she’d silently chant, John Jacob Astor, John Jacob Astor, John Jacob Astor.
After a while she put a tune to it and added the jingling of gold coins—not the ones they’d found in the Dysart woman’s saddlebag, but the ones they’d earn once they had her in their grasp.
Because it was daydream or go mad, she conjured up a saloon. Yes, she’d own a saloon when they got their money. A classy one. Go to San Francisco and open up her own place. First class. Good liquor. A roulette wheel—she’d seen one in St. Louis once, and she’d hire a piano player and dress in red velvet.
She was actually starting to design the dress and pick out costumes for the card sharps she’d hire—and not having that much fun doing it—before Cutter moved again.
“This is the way they had to come.” Cutter rose and looked forward, scowling. “It’s about a five-day trip that goes to the southern rim of the canyon. There are known waterholes. There’s no way across the canyon straight west. You have to go around. To the north is desert. It’s a mean trip, a’course south ain’t no easy stroll through a park. To the west, a dead end. To the east, they’d’ve run into us.
“You’re sure this is their only choice?” Randy had gotten more and more smug and sarcastic as the day wore on.
Cutter turned on Randy, his temper shorter as the hot, dry day stretched. “You want to take over tracking?”
Fighting to keep a leash on her own temper, Lurene stepped in before a fight broke out. “What do we do? Keep pushing? Hope we find a sign? Just because you don’t see one doesn’t mean they didn’t come this way. Rocky ground. Wind blowing across what few places would show tracks. If they had to go this way, then they must have.”
Lurene looked back at a green area still visible a mile back. They’d filled their canteens and taken a break in the shade for a couple of hours. She hadn’t minded getting out of the worst heat of the day, but there was still plenty of heat left.
“I’m not wrong.” Cutter kicked at the heavy dirt in this sheltered spot. “This trail is narrow. There’s no wind. Anyone heading this way would have to pass in this sandy soil, and they’d’ve left tracks. Even if they tried wiping them out, I could tell. Nope, we lost ‘em. I think we’re gonna need to go back. I saw where they left the trail to turn south. I know they started this direction, but somewhere they turned off. We’ve got to go back.”
Lurene noticed the sun lowering in the sky. Another day wasted.
“Ready to forget all about that city of gold?” Randy sneered.
Cutter looked up. He made no sound, but Lurene felt as if they had a cornered wildcat in their group. He was furious, hot, frustrated, and tired of this. And they were completely dependent on him. Lurene thought of just riding away. Strike out for California. This trail would take them there.
John Jacob Astor, John Jacob Astor, John Jacob Astor. “It’s not about a city of gold anymore, and you know it. It’s about the woman having a stack of gold coins in her pack and plenty more where that came from.”
Randy turned on her. “Maybe, but I don’t know much about kidnapping. The more I think of it, the more I don’t see how it’s gonna work.”
Randy’s smug question got her stubbornness up. “Go on west if you want. You don’t want to stick your neck out to get your hands on a woman who’s wandering around out here defenseless. Kin to one of the richest families in the country. You go if you want to. But that city woman tricked me when she switched those maps. I’m not inclined to forget it.”
“Maybe she didn’t figure she owed you much, what with Cutter threatening to throw her off that cliff and Ginger knocking her down and leaving he
r bleeding.”
“She figured wrong then.” Lurene reined her horse roughly, for one short second hating the heat and the stinking animal.
Then she remembered her life back in St. Louis. Plenty of heat there, and the stinking animals were all the woman-hungry men she’d had to endure. An almost maniacal desperation not to return to that life stiffened her resolve. “I think she owes me plenty, and I mean to make her pay.”
Turning, she headed to the green behind her. “I’m going to keep tracking her then make her look back fondly on the day she was left to die in a sky-high cave.”
Fourteen
Wait a minute!” Shannon pulled her map out of her pocket. “We need to keep heading straight west here.”
“Trail bends south. That’s the way into the canyon.” Hozho pulled her horse up, turned, and rode back even with Hosteen. The two of them seemed part of the land. Their weathered faces, their clothing worn and faded until it was more the color of the stone than whatever it had once been.
“No, I recognize that buttress of rock.” Shannon pointed. “That one right there. My father’s map says to go to the north side of it.”
Gabe came up beside her and looked at her map.
She had to fight the urge not to keep it out where he could see. All her instincts told her to hide it from everyone, even Gabe. But she forced herself to trust him and pointed to the line of numbers and shapes.
“How do you figure that says go north of that rock.”
Shannon looked up. “It’s in code. Here.” She pulled the paper out from underneath the one she studied. Two years of work, but she’d figured it out. “My father substituted numbers and characters for words. It was a version of a game he played with me when I was young. This is far more complicated, but I broke his code.” She pulled the map out and pointed to a shape that, to Gabe, looked like a cross between a star and a dung beetle and a cinnamon roll. “This mark here definitely refers to that oddly shaped red rock.”
Hozho shook her head. “No trail that way into the canyon. My people live two days journey to the southwest. To the northwest you have to go much farther. You said he met Indians. The Pai are the only ones who live down there.”
Deep Trouble Page 14