Mary Connealy - [Kincaid Brides 03]

by Over the Edge

  But she knew who it was. Someone she’d seen on a Wanted poster.

  Jasper Henry. Come to retrieve his diamonds.

  A gasp behind the gag and her startled reaction drew his attention. He bent over her, tugged the blindfold down, and caught a handful of her hair painfully to tip her head back.

  “I see you recognize me, Mrs. Kincaid. Too bad. I’d hoped to end this without you being harmed. You’ve got what’s mine, and I aim to get it back. For now, the less you see, the better off you’ll be.” With painful jerks he tugged her hands together in front of her and pulled a leather strip off his belt. Her hands were secured until she couldn’t move a finger. He pulled the blindfold back in place.

  Shaking her head, she grunted at him through the gag, wanting to tell him this wasn’t necessary. She’d let him have the stupid diamonds if he’d just take them and go. But the guttural noises didn’t get her message across.

  She felt a strangling tug on the rope at her waist, and then Jasper left her there. She fought with the leather strip to get enough movement to reach her boot. She hadn’t gotten anywhere before the rope began dragging her up the gully. And she knew where they were going next. That stupid, dark, deadly cavern.

  When or if she got out of here, she was going to make those idiot Kincaids find a home with the sense to lie flat. And they’d make sure there weren’t any holes in it.

  They all needed to move this ranch to a sensible state. Like Texas.

  Chapter

  28

  “Where’s Callie?” Seth checked Connor on Heath’s back, and the little tyke chortled at him and waved his arms.

  He’d’ve liked to spend more time playing with his son, but caution made him watch the trail where his wife had oughta be bringing up the rear. The last of the cattle has passed. Callie should have been along by now.

  “She was right behind me.” Heath took a long swig on his canteen. “She probably just needed a few minutes of privacy.”

  “How long has it been since you’ve seen her?”

  Heath shrugged. “A long time, I reckon.”

  Seth thought of whoever had been in his cabin two nights ago and felt twitchy. “Ride up and tell ’em to rest the herd until we catch up. I don’t like getting strung out this far.”

  Seth whirled his horse and headed down the trail at a sharp clip.

  “Callie!” He knew he’d come too far about the time he rode past the turn to the new line shack.

  “Callie!” If she’d stepped off the trail for personal reasons, he would’ve seen her horse by now. No reason to hide a horse on a cattle drive.

  “Where are you?” He tried to tell himself he was fretting for no reason, but this was a hard land. There were plenty of ways to get swallowed up in the Rockies.

  Seth studied the tracks and almost turned and rode back to the herd to get Ethan. His brother was the best tracker Seth knew. But surely Callie was just up at the cabin for some reason—though it went against what he knew of Callie. She wasn’t a woman to turn aside from work. Seth had picked out Callie’s horse, knowing she’d come along last, so the tracks weren’t that hard to make out on the churned-up ground. There were more tracks overtop of the ones left by Callie. It looked like three horses had turned up the trail toward the line shack.

  Seth pulled his gun and fired three times into the air. His horse tossed its head and wheeled as the gun blasted. Seth waited a few seconds, then did it again. That was all the help he had time to ask for.

  He spurred his horse, racing up the trail toward the old Gilliland place.

  The rope around her midsection was so tight that Callie had trouble getting a breath. The gag in her mouth made it worse. By the time they lowered her down the pit, she was barely conscious.

  Hands crawled over her like insects. She shuddered and tried to fight off the muddled thinking left over from the blow to her head.

  She felt the hands slip and suddenly she fell a long ways. She had a split second to think of Seth and floors that broke like glass before she slammed into the ground.

  “Is she all right? The rope—” A woman’s voice. One of these polecats was a woman.

  “Quiet!” the man said, cutting her off.

  Moaning behind the gag, Callie tried to figure out a way to get them to let her talk. She had no intention of dying rather than give up the secret as to where those diamonds were hidden. But neither did she trust these two to be kindhearted and let her go on her way once they had what they wanted.

  Maybe they would, but she’d heard the cruelty in the man’s voice. And anyway, it wasn’t going to be possible to bargain with a gag in her mouth.

  They hauled her to her feet. “Bring the lantern but don’t light it. For now, I think darkness is a good idea. No risk she’ll see my face.”

  Which she already had. Which the man knew very well. Which meant the man didn’t want the woman to know that. Why? He marched her forward. Even with the blindfold in place, she could tell they’d stepped into complete darkness.

  “We want those diamonds.” The man shoved her along in front of him. Callie thought of the hole Seth had fallen in and wondered where else there were deep holes in this place.

  “We’ll keep you down here until your family brings them to us.”

  “How . . . ?” She tried to talk, but it was so garbled it was impossible.

  “You’ll get your chance to talk once we’re away from this entrance. And if you tell me where the diamonds are, all nice and polite, we’ll let you go. If you don’t, we’ll wait until someone in your family reads the note we left in the shack. They’ll miss you soon enough and get around to checking there. Then we wait for someone to bring the diamonds and trade them for you.”

  Callie growled at the man to the best of her ability as he forced her ahead of him. She had no idea how far they’d come when finally they stopped.

  “I’m going to take the gag off now.”

  As soon as it jerked free, Callie yelled.

  The man shoved her backward and she stumbled into a wall. “Yell all you want. No one’s gonna hear you, Mrs. Kincaid.”

  She shouted again. He laughed.

  Giving up on the futile effort, Callie opened her mouth to tell the idiot she’d be glad to lead him to the diamonds. But the words died unspoken. She had no idea where she was, so how could she guide them to the diamonds? She’d never come to this part of the cave with Seth and Julia.

  Her shoulders slumped when she realized that unless she came up with a real good idea, she was going to have to do exactly what Jasper and his lady friend wanted. Wait for a Kincaid to come and rescue her.

  “Ethan, Seth wants you to stop and rest the herd. Wait for him and Callie to catch up.” Heath’s shout turned Ethan around.

  Ethan headed back toward Heath to see what the holdup was. Before he reached the youngster, three shots fired. He spun his horse in the direction of the sound. Three more shots.

  “Steele!” The gunfire assured everyone was listening. “There’s trouble. I’m going back.”

  “Seth’s hunting for Callie!” Heath shouted.

  With a jerk of his chin Ethan saw more of the Kincaid hands coming after him. “Steele, send the men to tell Rafe something’s wrong. You and Heath come with me.”

  Steele barked out orders, then he, Ethan, and Heath took off riding in the direction they’d just come.

  Seth pushed his horse hard up the narrow trail leading to the line shack. Iron-shod hooves clattered along the stony path. He crested the hill in front of the cabin and saw no horses in the corral. “Callie!”

  No spitfire of a wife could be seen anywhere.

  “Callie!” He was just yelling now. Scared to death. She’d have already answered him if she could.

  He swung down off his horse and tied him to the hitching post in front of the shack. Pushing the door open, he saw immediately that the fireplace had been used. In one day? Who’d had time to find the place and build a fire?

  He went back outside and studie
d the ground. It was heavily trodden from their days of building. The only place he could think of around here was the cavern.

  But if someone had taken his wife down there, then they’d picked the wrong hiding place. No one knew that cavern better than Seth. No one could hide from him for long, not down there. With a flash of sense he thought to leave a message for Rafe or Ethan or one of the hired hands. But no paper, no pencil. He prayed desperately for inspiration and thought of Julia marking the cavern wall. He dashed back into the cabin, and as he went to get a piece of charred wood he saw the paper lying on the mantel. A note demanding that the diamonds be handed over. Threatening Callie if he didn’t get them.

  Jasper Henry.

  Seth reread it, then grabbed charcoal out of the cold fireplace. He went back out, and on the clean-split wood of the front door he wrote Callie Kidnapped Cavern.

  His brothers would know he needed help, but how long would it take for them to come?

  He sure as certain wasn’t going to wait for them.

  Scrambling down and up the deep gully, Seth’s fears were confirmed when he saw the ladder dropped over the side of the pit. He could see clear enough to know the first room was empty.

  He swung over the edge of the hole and slid more than climbed down the ladder. Every second of the descent he was conscious of how clearly visible he was. He could feel the heat of a rifle trained on his back. He hit the ledge and was down to the cavern floor in a flash. He went straight to the tunnel and stopped. Light or no light?

  The floors had a thin layer of dust in most places, so he might be able to pick up some tracks. But a light was like an open invitation for him to be seen. He knew there was no other direction for a dozen yards, so he went down the tunnel until he felt the first turnoff. Listening with every ounce of concentration he could muster, he did his best not to make a sound as he moved. When he got to the turnoff, he pulled a match from his pocket and crouched down. A light scratch seemed to echo and call to every outlaw in the Colorado Territory that he was there. The match flared to life. Seth used it to study the ground, but it was near impossible to make out any tracks. The light was just too dim.

  Knowing he had to risk it, he grabbed a torch stuck into the wall. He lit it with a whoosh as the fire jumped to life and blinded him for a second.

  It flowed, like a river of fire, straight toward him. Seth felt the fire splatter on his back.

  He could smell the burning. It was his own flesh. He heard the thin cry of terror. He slapped at his burning hair.

  The gunshots had sounded right by the trail to the line shack. Slowing only to make the turn, Ethan charged up to the cabin with Heath right on his heels, and Steele coming hard behind them.

  “Where’d they get to?” Ethan swung his horse around, looking in all directions.

  “He rode back to find Callie. She disappeared.”

  Steele’s gray brows lowered to an angry line. “Well, Seth’s almost loco enough to leave a cattle drive, but Callie’d never do it.”

  “You don’t know her.” Heath scowled at Steele. “You’ve barely met her.”

  “I heard about the stagecoach robbery and what she done. I know the type they breed in Texas. I’m from there myself. She’s solid. She’d’ve never left when there was work to be done. So that means there’s trouble.”

  Then Ethan rode close enough to see the front door of the cabin. In large letters scrawled with charcoal were the words Callie Kidnapped Cavern.

  “Seth went down into that blasted cavern after her.” Steele’s eyes sharpened. Ethan knew his foreman was smart and savvy and could be dangerous if he needed to be.

  Ethan wasn’t ever going to like that cavern, but he’d made his peace with it. He’d go down after his brother if he had to, and it looked like he did.

  “Heath, ride back to the herd and tell—”

  “No, I’m going with you.”

  Ethan nodded. Better to send Steele to handle the cowpokes anyway. “Steele, get to Rafe. Leave the cattle; we can round them up later. Tell Rafe I went to the cave from here to find Seth and Callie. He should come a-runnin’ from the cave entrance at his place. We’ll cover more ground that way.” Ethan didn’t say more, knowing Rafe would give the orders the second the men were within the sound of his voice.

  Steele jerked his chin in agreement.

  “Hey, wait!”

  Both men stopped and turned to Heath, who was taking Connor from off his back. “Steele, you take the baby.”

  Steele arched a brow until it disappeared under his Stetson.

  “Well, we can’t take him to a gunfight.” Heath gently but firmly hooked the carrier holding the baby onto Steele’s back.

  “This is the strangest foreman job I’ve ever had for a fact.” Steele turned and galloped away.

  Ethan looked at Heath. “Let’s go!”

  Chapter

  29

  Callie’s head cleared as she walked. The blindfold had sagged down, and with the lantern she could see where she was going now. But none of it was familiar to her.

  Then they stepped into a good-sized room. Just above eye level she almost yelped with pleasure when she saw a real big fish on the wall. She knew exactly where she was. She’d made a fairly accurate map to this place. She wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she could find her way back to Rafe’s valley from here—even in the pitch-dark. And she knew exactly where she’d hide until these outlaws quit hunting for her.

  Seeing a handy boulder, she stumbled over it and toppled to the stony floor, crying out in pain.

  She did her best to make it look and sound natural, not that hard considering how tightly her hands were bound.

  If they wanted her to move another inch, they could just carry her. She was tired of making this easy for them. And if she was going to make a break, this is the place she needed to start from.

  A toe prodded her stomach and she did her best to sob. It didn’t suit her to cry, waste of salt and water to her way of thinking. It came more natural to respond with her fist in this man’s belly.

  But for the purpose of acting helpless and slowing these varmints down, and considering her hands were bound, she just cried like a little orphan calf.

  “Get up.” Jasper’s toe prodded harder, but Callie had been kicked by a mama longhorn a few times and this didn’t even get her attention.

  She did cry louder, though. “I c-can’t. I hurt my . . .” She tried to think of something a weakling might complain about. Honestly she didn’t know any weaklings. The West tended to kill them off or drive them back East. “I hurt my ankle. I think it’s broken.”

  “Untie her.” Bracing herself for the kick to come harder, she didn’t expect the woman to speak. She’d only slipped and spoken once up until now.

  “Quiet,” Jasper said.

  “No, I won’t be quiet.”

  Callie wanted to get a look at the woman for the purpose of identifying her to the nearest lawman, but for now she lay facedown trying to act defeated.

  “Untie her right now. There’s no reason to have her hands bound down here. She can’t find her way out if she runs away from the light. She’s not going anywhere.”

  Much as Callie appreciated the compassion, the woman was dead wrong. The first chance she got, Callie was definitely going somewhere. She’d run off into the dark. Find a place to hide and wait until the coast was clear. Yet she wasn’t about to overload the woman with all that truth.

  “M-m-my hands are numb. I can’t f-feel my fingers. And I can’t w-walk.” The crying was real annoying and a little humiliating. But Callie knew a softhearted criminal when she was in the presence of one—even though, truth be told, she’d never been in the presence of one before, nor believed such a critter existed—so she wept some more.

  “She’s not hurt. She fell against a stone and now she’s acting like—”

  “Untie her or I will.”

  Jasper grumbled as he crouched beside Callie and rolled her over. She felt the cold edge of a blade. With
a couple of tugs her hands were free. He yanked the blindfold away, too. “No sense worrying about her identifying us, I guess.”

  Turned out her hands really were numb. She’d have grabbed the knife out of her boot if her fingers worked.

  Before she could begin to make them obey her, Jasper hauled her to her feet. Her ankle really was sore. Not something that would slow her down much, but the cry of pain was easy enough to come by.

  She collapsed and only his iron grip kept her upright. And that grip hurt, so she cried out again.

  “Jasper, let her down.” The woman was beautiful in a faded way. Kindness and strength shone from her eyes. “Get the lantern over here. I’ll take a look at her ankle.”

  “Thank you.” Callie sniffled as she sank to the floor and offered the ankle that didn’t hurt, since there wasn’t a knife in that boot.

  She pulled her knee up close to her chin. The man stood over her with the lantern. The woman knelt at her feet. Callie tried to think of something that’d distract them and at that instant she remembered something else really important. She knew exactly where the diamonds were.

  She could just hand them over and hope these folks would leave. But Callie wasn’t real trusting of kidnappers. Instead, she moved her hand closer to her knife.

  Rafe loved it when Julia was happy, and right now she was ecstatic. She’d gotten her first contract for an article, and cash money had been included in the letter they’d fetched home from town. Rafe had agreed to ride in with her, knowing he had a few hours before his brothers showed up with the cattle.

  He heard pounding hoofbeats, not what he expected. There was no herd, just one man riding alone.

  Steele came charging down the slope from the entrance to the caldera with reckless speed. The foreman didn’t push his horse like that without trouble on his heels.

  “Seth left a note at the line shack saying Callie’s been kidnapped and taken into the cavern!” shouted Steele as he rode up and swung down off his winded horse. Rafe noticed with shock that the man had Connor strapped on his back. “Ethan went after them, heading into the cavern from there. He wants you to go in through the entrance here.”