Out of Control

by Mary Connealy

  “That’s why you found the cave?” Rafe brought up the rear.

  “I’m used to being by myself wherever we lived. Wandering, exploring.” Julia was right on his heels as Ethan rounded the duck rock. “Father always left me on my own. I wonder if he had a false name in all those towns.”

  “Audra had to know the right name.” Ethan glanced over his shoulder as they reached level ground. “She married him.”

  Julia’s brow beetled. “You know, now that you say that . . . The first time I met her was when Father brought her home after the wedding.”

  “Your pa didn’t tell you he was getting married?” Ethan shook his head. “Surprise, huh?”

  “Big surprise. I was within a few months of moving out. I’d told him I was going to find a job, be a schoolteacher, maybe. I hadn’t been to school much, but I read a lot and thought I could do the job.” Julia caught up to Ethan as the path widened at the top of the gully. “I wasn’t sure how to make it all work, but I was more or less on my own anyway. I thought I’d just as well get on with being an adult.”

  Ethan saw the four Kincaid horses grazing where he and Steele had picketed them.

  Rafe caught up. “And right after you told him you were leaving, he brought home a new wife?”

  Julia’s jaw went all tight, and she nodded with one quick jerk of her head. “Anyway, Audra said something about being Mrs. Wendell. I corrected her. ‘You mean Mrs. Wendell Gilliland.’ She acted embarrassed and laughed about getting her own name mixed up.”

  “You think your pa was calling himself by the last name of Wendell in Houston?” Rafe walked straight for that pit, and Ethan could go along or be left behind.

  “Maybe. And when Audra was told he was Mr. Wendell, then found out that was wrong, it would be natural to just think she misunderstood it. I’ve never thought about it before.” Julia looked up at Rafe with a start. “If Father used a false name, is their marriage legal?”

  “I wouldn’t worry about the details at this point.”

  Julia grimaced and neared the cavern entrance.

  “Stay back!” Ethan snapped. He flinched at his tone. A man didn’t need to shout to the whole world that he was a coward, now did he? And anyway, he didn’t care. Not at all. Speaking more calmly, he added, “You’re going to mess up any tracks that’re left.”

  Julia and Rafe stopped, and it occurred to Ethan he could toss an order around, too.

  Ethan felt a flush of embarrassment as he studied the black hole and saw that rope lying coiled beside it. Rafe’s chain ladder was still out, too. He always packed it back away, or he had when they were kids. Rafe took good care of all his things. Always organized. Always in control of everything and everyone.

  Ethan looked at Rafe, knowing his brother could read him too well; it was all a man could do to keep the carefree smile on his face. “We both know I’m a better tracker’n you, right?”

  “You couldn’t out track me on your best day.” Rafe’s temper flashed.

  Which gave Ethan a stab of satisfaction to get under Rafe’s skin, so the smile came easier. It reminded him to stop taking everything so seriously. Of course it was mighty easy to get serious with a man dying a slow painful death, a woman left stranded in a pit, and another woman threatening to have a baby before her time. But Ethan was tough. He could manage it.

  “Stay back. No sense adding your footprints and Julia’s.” Goading Rafe by telling him not to be careless suited Ethan. His homecoming so far seemed to just fall back on the old ways. Rafe giving orders. Ethan going along. When Rafe had hugged him, it had felt so good that at first Ethan couldn’t manage much beyond being glad to be home. But it was time Rafe knew that Ethan had done all right on his own and he wasn’t going to fall in line and take orders anymore.

  “I should be able to separate them out. We didn’t go close last night, so the only tracks should be yours and hers from when you brought her up”—from that dark, deadly hole—“and whoever left her. Just pat the pretty little lady’s hand and let me do the work.”

  Julia looked at him and rolled her eyes. At least she’d be a pretty little thing if she ran a comb through her hair and took a nice bath and quit giving orders with every breath.

  Ethan approached the hole, glad to leave Rafe behind. This way his big brother couldn’t see the smile shrink off Ethan’s face.

  It took about ten seconds to spot a set of man’s footprints that weren’t Rafe’s. Ethan crouched down and studied them. “He’s got a pair of boots that are barely hanging on his feet.”

  Ethan looked at his own battered boots. A worn-out pair of boots wasn’t hard to find in the West. He tried to keep his eyes on the footprints, but they kept straying to that black hole. It was like a gaped open mouth. It might as well have called out to him. Taunted him, sneered at him for never going back.

  Fighting to ignore it, the tension threatened to choke him. A soft whistle of breeze seemed to flow down into the maw, laughing at him, calling him a coward.

  He needed to go closer, but his feet wouldn’t move. He decided he could see enough. Crouching near a well-shaped print that was neither Rafe’s nor Julia’s, he studied it, then, pivoting on his toes, he stayed low to follow the line the tracks made.

  “His boots are about my size and the stride is long, which means long-legged because I can tell he isn’t running. The impression isn’t deep, so he’s not a heavy man.”

  “Tall and skinny,” Rafe said. As if Ethan hadn’t just said that.

  On the rocky ground, a clear trail wasn’t visible, but there was enough to tell him where Rafe had tied his horse last night. Right next to their picketed horses brought over yesterday and the one Steele had added today.

  Rafe had walked that way, obviously carrying Julia because she made no tracks. The skinny man had walked straight into the forest from that pit.

  “Nothing fresh here. He climbed out of the cavern, pulled up the rope, and walked that way.” Ethan pointed in the direction opposite Julia’s cabin. Toward the Kincaid Ranch. “But he doesn’t stay on the trail; he went into the woods.”

  Ethan stood, opening his senses wide. There was more to tracking than finding footprints. Ethan listened for any sound out of the ordinary. He smelled, knowing man could leave his own scent. He looked for twigs freshly broken or grass and weeds snapped over.

  “Let’s go.” The cavern was at his back now, and he felt chased until his jaw was too tense to crack a smile, even though Rafe could see him. So he moved out to get in the lead again, hunting the low-down coyote who had left Julia to die. Ethan went braced for trouble.

  Rafe and Julia were gaining on him again. Ethan ducked into the thick woods and stopped so suddenly that Rafe bumped into him.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Watch it.” A reaction he couldn’t control made Ethan turn and shove Rafe back.

  “Get out of the way and let me take the lead.” Rafe’s fist clenched.

  Ethan could see Rafe was in a hurry to track down the man who’d done Julia wrong, which explained most of his temper. That black hole accounted for Ethan’s.

  It would have felt almost good if Rafe took a swing. Let Rafe start it and Ethan might just finish it. They’d cleared the air with their fists many times as boys.

  “I’m not your little brother anymore, Rafe.” The terse words were like letting steam out of a boiling pot. It helped a little.

  “You’ll always be my little brother, Eth.” Rafe’s reasonable sounding words were really an insult, if Rafe would just think about what he was saying.

  “No. I’m your brother, nothing little about me anymore. You ran me for years until you ran me off the ranch. Now you’re doing it again.”

  “I never wanted you to leave. You know that.”

  “I know your word was law. I know we did things your way. It was your ranch. It still is. I’m an adult man who’s not interested in taking orders every day for the rest of my life. There’s no place for me on Rafe Kincaid’s ranch.”
r />   “It belongs to all of us. Pa left it to his sons.”

  “You built that ranch more than Pa. You built the herd while he went fur trading.”

  “You worked right beside me. So did Seth when he wasn’t haring off.”

  “You sold beef to the gold hunters so you could buy more acres while Pa was trying to chisel money out of stone.”

  “Everything was in Pa’s name. When he died, it was divided three ways between me and you and Seth.”

  “It was in Pa’s name but he didn’t even care about it. And I’ve been gone for five years. You’re the one who stayed. You’ve earned it. It’s not my home anymore.” It felt like home, though. Ethan had been so lonely for so long. And now he was back and all he could do is fear that cavern and resent Rafe’s orders and remember why he’d left.

  “I want you here. I want my family back.”

  Ethan felt some of the rage fade. “I should have never come home. Maybe I’ll go hunt for Seth.”

  “How’re you going to find him when you don’t know where to even start looking?”

  “He fought in the war. There’ll be a record of where he served.”

  “You’re not going anywhere.” Rafe rested his hand on Ethan’s shoulder, and Ethan knew he should just take that order. Just agree. Make peace. Smile big. He tried. He really did to just go along, get along. Obey Rafe.

  Ethan clenched a fist instead. “More orders, big brother? Well, I’m not taking them anymore. I go where I please, when I please.” Rafe always did things his way. Always down in that cavern. Always leaving Ethan behind to feel like a coward. “You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.”

  “I just ran things to hold them together for us. Someone had to do it. Pa wasn’t here and you sure weren’t going to take charge. And someone had to chase after Seth and protect him. You were too busy laughing off every reckless stunt he pulled to be any help.”

  “I wasn’t going to risk my neck following him into danger. Just because he was stupid didn’t mean I had to be. You didn’t have to be, either.”

  “You’d have let Seth die,” Rafe said, jabbing him in the chest, “because you were too yellow to go down into that cavern.”

  Those words cut right to the bone. All he could think of was making Rafe eat them. Ethan itched to plant a fist in his face.

  “And you’d have let him kill you both because you wouldn’t stay out of there.” He rammed his hand flat against Rafe’s shoulder, and Rafe staggered back, then came up with a cocked fist and surged forward.

  Ethan hauled back his fist.

  “Stop it!” A soft hand slapped flat against Ethan’s face. “Stop it right now.”

  A startled Ethan didn’t take a swing. Having a woman standing in front of his fist averted that.

  Julia shoved Rafe back the same way and forced her way in between them. “We don’t have time for this now. And if you can’t settle your differences without fists, then both of you get out of here. Go back to your ranch and leave me to tend to Audra and my little sister alone. I’ve got enough to worry about without two muleheaded men making life more difficult.”

  Ethan clenched his jaw against the hot words he wanted to say.

  With visible effort, Rafe gained control of himself. “We started this because I ran into you. Why’d you stop?”

  It took Ethan a few seconds to remember. Then he pointed to the clearly visible prints. “I didn’t want to mess up the ground before I could study those.”

  “The ground here is softer, even I see these tracks.” Julia quit standing between them, and Ethan’s eyes met Rafe’s for too long. Nothing much was settled between them, but Ethan could always leave tomorrow. He had things to do today.

  Julia must have figured she’d given her orders for the two naughty boys to behave and no further effort on her part was needed. She was intent on the dark stony soil of the forest floor. “It’s as if he walks right up to that tree and . . . and . . .”

  Ethan followed her pointing finger and saw it, too. “Vanishes?” Ethan swallowed hard.

  “Climbs the tree?” Julia suggested.

  They all three looked up together.

  “He could have. There are branches enough.” Rafe looked back at the ground. “But why?”

  “He’s not there now.” Julia turned, looking overhead in all directions.

  “He had to come down somewhere.” Ethan approached the tree and looked around the sides of it.

  “I suppose he could have climbed along in the treetops.” Julia began looking around on the ground.

  “Must’ve, but why not just keep walking?” Ethan weighed the possibilities. “These tracks are at least a day old and it’s not like we were hot on his trail. We need to split up. I’ll go toward the stream. You two go north.”

  “No.” Rafe was telling Ethan how it was going to be, as always. “I want us together. It’s safer.”

  “We need to cover some ground, Rafe.” Ethan glared at Rafe, daring him to override his decision.

  “We shouldn’t leave Audra alone too long,” Julia said.

  Finally, Rafe nodded. “It’ll save time, for a fact.”

  Ethan didn’t imagine Rafe had made that decision out of respect for his little brother; rather he’d let Julia sway him.

  “I’ll go to the east.” Julia took a step forward.

  “No, not you.” Rafe’s voice stopped her. She arched a brow at him. “You stay with me.”

  Ethan decided to let the two tyrants work that out on their own. “I’ll go toward the stream.”

  “Watch yourself, Eth. Remember he might be overhead.” Rafe caught Ethan’s eye, and they both nodded. That pit might bedevil them, but they’d grown up in a harsh land with little adult protection. Rafe might not want Ethan to be in charge, but he trusted him to be competent.

  Rafe and Julia went north, bickering, and Ethan headed west, searching for the spot where a tree-climbing man might come back to earth. Looking back through the trees, he could still see that gaping cave mouth opened wide to swallow a man whole.

  A shudder racked Ethan’s body as he thought of Seth and what Ethan had done to him that day. After that day, Ethan had never been able to say he really cared about much of anything again. Or maybe it was more fair to say he didn’t deserve to care. And he didn’t deserve to have anyone care about him.

  He shook off the memories and fixed a smile on his face, then turned back to his tracking. Walking deeper into the woods, he concentrated on the dense forest, his senses on full alert.

  Then he heard a twig snap. His gun was drawn and aimed before he made a conscious decision to move.

  Julia led the way, though Rafe had to tell her which way. They’d moved about a hundred feet and Rafe had seen no sign of the man they trailed.

  Suddenly Julia stopped and gasped.

  Rafe had his gun drawn and aimed before he made a conscious decision to move. He grabbed for her to push her behind him, but she dropped to her knees and his hand closed on empty space.

  “Look at that!”

  “What is it?” Looking in all directions—including overhead—he couldn’t see anyone coming at them.

  “It’s a fossil.” Julia reached her hand for the rock. She was kneeling before it with a reverence Rafe thought she oughta save for prayer time.

  He squinted to see what in the world she was looking at. “It a rock. A big old chunk of mountain that tumbled down here.”

  “No, don’t look at the whole rock.” Her finger traced along an uneven line. “This, right here. It’s ancient. I need to get back here and make a rubbing of it and write about—”

  She squeaked when Rafe grabbed her wrist and dragged her to her feet. “We don’t have time to look at rocks right now.”

  “Fossils, Rafe. That leaf—”

  “Fossils, then. Julia, there’s a man out here that tried to kill you.” He didn’t even get her attention. She was looking wistfully at that dumb rock. “Don’t you have a lick of sense?”

  “I to
ld you I was interested in geology.”

  “Geology?” Rafe held her captive with one hand and checked his gun with the other. He swung the cylinder out with a practiced flick and lifted it to eye level to make sure it was fully loaded. “You said that word before. What is that?”

  “It’s the science of soil and rock. Rivers and forests.”

  “Sounds like ranching.” He’d known it was fully loaded, but a man learned to check and double-check. An empty cylinder could mean the difference between life and death. He snapped his gun shut. “Should’ve called it Ranchology.”

  Julia’s chin came up and her eyes shone. “You might be able to help me. You have practical knowledge I lack.”

  “You lack at being practical—that’s for sure.” Rafe reholstered his gun.

  That comment didn’t even slow her down. “You could help a lot when I write my paper about the cavern. And it would be something really different. They’d be sure to publish a paper about a find this important. I’ve done quite a bit of studying. But in all I’ve seen in my life, nothing has fascinated me like that cavern. It’s a treasure.”

  “It’s dangerous.”

  “I have to study it, and I will write about it, Rafe. You can’t come up with a single reason important enough to stop me.”

  “How about staying alive?” There, she couldn’t avoid admitting that.

  “I disagree.”

  Unless she was really stubborn.

  “You’re right in the short term.”

  “Short term? What’s that mean? If you die in that cave, well, death is real long term.”

  “In the geological sense that cave is more important than my life.”

  Rafe didn’t bother containing a grunt of disagreement. Since she was ignoring him anyway, he might as well make any rude noise he wanted.

  “I’ll give you a bit of time to find the scoundrel who trapped me, but I’ve got to go back down. I need to make rubbings of the fossils. I think I can chisel a few of them out without harming them, but mostly I want to describe what’s down there.” Julia frowned. “I’d make sketches, but that’s never been my gift. Shame. Can you draw a picture?”