Authors: Sarah McCarty
Caden nodded. That was true. As more troops were pulled East in
preparation for the conflict there, the Indians were getting bolder. He knew
exactly the spot that Ace was talking about. There were three ways to go off
that peak. To the left toward San Antonio, down into the wilderness, and to the
right toward the Culbart ranch and here. It was a good day’s ride from both.
“Has anybody gone to San Antonio looking for her?”
“Sam.”
“And?” As unreasonable as it was, Caden couldn’t kill the hope
Sam had found something.
“He’s not back yet.”
“It’s possible she went to San Antonio. She wasn’t happy with
me leaving.”
Ace looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Maybe.”
“There’s more.”
“Of course there is.” Caden sighed. “What?”
“It’s more the nature of what Bella talked to her about what
goes on between you that has Tucker convinced she followed you.”
“What did Bella tell her?” With Bella there was no telling.
“Bella told her to follow her heart, and we’re all pretty sure
she’s infatuated with you.”
She was, and it was a measure of what a selfish bastard he was
that he’d never discouraged that infatuation. Being loved by Maddie
was...incredibly sweet. Hot and tender at the same time, and when she looked at
him as if he was wrapped in icing... Fuck! He wasn’t a total bastard. He’d never
encouraged her but...his cock throbbed. He’d thought about it once or twice.
Shit. Caden walked over to the grassy patch where Jester was
tethered. “You say she left the night I did?”
Ace stood. “Yeah.”
He grabbed his gear. “And you think she got lost and ran into
trouble.”
“Pretty much.”
Which made it his fault. He tossed the saddle and blanket onto
Jester’s back, giving it a tug back to settle it. He’d promised to say goodbye
and he hadn’t. Maddie was fragile. He should have had more care. Something like
that would have thrown her. “How long has the dog been back?”
“About a week and a half.”
Which meant she’d run into trouble immediately.
Ace took Caden’s saddlebag and started stuffing essentials into
the pockets. “You going after her?”
Caden looked up. “Hell, yeah.”
Ace nodded and kicked dirt over the fire to put it out.
“What are you doing?” Caden asked.
“Keeping you company.” He slung the saddlebags over his
shoulder. His hand dropped to the butt of his revolver. “I’ve got a bad feeling
about this, Caden. I have since the minute we discovered she was gone.”
“What kind of bad feeling?”
Caden didn’t want to hear Ace thought she was dead.
“I don’t know.” He handed Caden the saddlebags and bedroll.
“But it’s not good.”
“Well, it’s not going to be more than we can handle.” Caden
tied the bedroll and bags to the saddle, grabbed his rifle and slid it into the
scabbard tied to the left side. “Maddie’s been hurt enough.”
“Agreed.”
Caden swung up onto Jester. “So let’s go get her back.”
He refused to believe she was dead.
“And if we find she’s been hurt?” Ace asked.
“We bring her home.” Caden smiled as rage poured through his
gut in an icy torrent at the thought of anyone touching his Maddie. Thunder
rumbled in the distance. “And then we bury the bastards who hurt her.”
Ace tipped his hat and backed his horse around in a tight
circle. “I’m good with that.”
* * *
B
ECAUSE
THEY
LEFT
late
in the morning, it took them a day and a half to get to the spot where Maddie
had met up with
someone.
There were still remnants
of hoofprints on the hard-packed earth thanks to the ground being soft when the
confrontation had occurred. It had dried up since then, leaving plenty of signs
there’d been others, but no path that led anywhere because of the rocky nature
of the surrounding area.
“Nothing.” Caden squatted beside the footprints, tracing them
with his finger, looking for any identifying mark, anything that would give him
a clue.
“That’s what Tucker said,” Ace drawled from farther out, where
he circled looking for signs.
There was no better tracker than Tucker. No better scent hound
than Boone. Caden knew Tucker had searched the area thoroughly, and if Tucker
couldn’t track from here then Caden couldn’t, either. But he had to look. He had
to try. Maddie was gone. He couldn’t grasp the thought. Couldn’t stand the
possibility that it was real.
“Fucking hell.” Nothing. Grabbing a handful of dirt, he threw
it and stood. Why hadn’t Maddie stayed where she was safe? “Which way did Tucker
say they went?”
Ace pointed down.
“Into the wilderness?” That didn’t make sense. There was
nothing that way except emptiness and hostiles.
Ace shrugged. “He said Boone lost the trail about a mile down
that way.”
It didn’t make sense, unless they were just pulling off to rape
her. The icy knot in Caden’s stomach swelled, choking off his voice as he
imagined Maddie being held down and abused. Maddie, who was kindness and hope.
Who’d already endured so much. He swung back up on his horse. Ace followed, the
way he always did, a silent, deadly companion. It was hard to get to know Ace.
He kept so much of himself inside, but if there was a battle, he was there, and
if there was trouble—like now—he was ready.
The path was rough. Rough enough even Rage, Ace’s horse,
protested. Negotiating the terrain would have been hard for Maddie’s little
horse, Flower, who had never traveled along anything more difficult than a
meadow.
As if reading his mind, Ace asked, “Would that mare of hers be
able to make this?”
“She might not have had a choice.”
“True enough.”
* * *
F
EAR
TANGLED
WITH
RAGE
as Caden broke through a copse of trees and
emerged in a clearing. The clearing was a small oasis in the middle of the
darker woods. Cool and inviting and, most important, hidden. It would be simple
to rape a woman here in peace. Gritting his teeth against the images in his
head, Caden swung down.
Hold on, Maddie.
It was easier to see the disturbance in the soil here caused by
many hooves. Harder to sort them out as one smeared into another.
“Is this where Tucker lost them?”
Ace looked around. “Looks like what he described.”
Caden crisscrossed the clearing, step by step. Tucker had
already decoded what was in the dirt, but what he needed was a clue, something
to give him an idea of who had Maddie.
He was on his third pass over the small clearing when Ace
called his name.
“Caden?”
“What?”
“If there was anything to find, we’d have found it by now.”
Caden shook his head. “Keep looking.”
“For what?”
“Anything.” There had to be something here, something to show
where Maddie was, but if there wasn’t, he’d simply search house by house, town
by town, until he found her or someone who knew where she was. And then there’d
be hell to pay.
He pictured her face with her big eyes, rosebud mouth and that
smattering of freckles across her cheeks. Kisses of the fairy folk, he’d say. He
looked around the little glen, the sunlight filtering through the leaves in
small rays, giving it almost a magical feel, and whispered, “If she is one of
you, give me a goddamn sign as to who has her.”
He waited in vain for a clap of thunder, a whisper in his mind,
a touch on his shoulder. His da always said the wee folk were particular, but
then, as he turned, out of the corner of his eye he saw a gleam of metal. It
took him four steps to get there. Four steps in which he thought he must be
losing his mind, but when he got to that spot, the shine didn’t go away. It grew
stronger until he was standing on top of it, and then he couldn’t see it
anymore, covered as it was by a low-growing fern. He squatted.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know yet.” He moved the fern aside, and there,
camouflaged against the rock, was a button. He picked it up. He felt more than
heard Ace arrive at his side. The man was as light as a cat on its feet. He held
the button up.
“Hard to see as it was against the rock.”
Ace nodded.
The button had a unique design. Almost a cross but not
quite.
“A button,” Ace said, his disappointment as strong as Caden’s
should have been.
“Yeah.” Caden whispered a thank-you to the fate, God or
whomever had brought him to that button.
Caden stood. Ace cocked his head and observed his face.
“Except you recognize it, don’t you?”
“It’s got a distinct pattern.”
He closed his fingers around it, his mind consumed with all the
reasons a man’s button would pop off his shirt. None of them were good.
He ran his thumb over the raised design. “It’s the Culbart
brand, a lopsided cross.”
“Culbart has her?”
“So it would seem.” Culbart was a bear of a man. Rough around
the edges. Not known for his soft ways with anything, let alone women. His crew
was rougher still. And he had Maddie.
“That button could have fallen off for a wide variety of
reasons,” Ace pointed out with an utter lack of conviction.
That was true, but in his gut Caden knew what that button
meant.
He dropped the button in his pocket and swung up into the
saddle. He spun Jester in a circle and kneed him back up the trail.
“But there’s only one that matters to me.”
CHAPTER FIVE
L
YING
LOW
ON
a hill
above the Culbart spread, Caden surveyed the goings-on below. He’d liked to have
seen chaos, but for the day and a half he’d been observing, Caden hadn’t seen
anything that he wouldn’t have seen at Hell’s Eight. Animals were tended on
schedule, guards were rotated through shifts and buildings were maintained. What
he hadn’t seen were any signs of Maddie, but Caden knew Culbart had her. Had had
her for two weeks doing Lord knew what to her.
Caden tried to remember what Fei had said her cousin Lin had
endured when her father had sold her to Culbart to pay a debt. He couldn’t
remember much. Fei had been sketchy on those details. Not surprisingly. There
were things a good woman didn’t want revealed. Besides, whatever had happened to
Fei’s cousin wasn’t particularly relevant because a man approached a woman of
good family differently than he did a known whore. Whether the woman had been
sold or not, virginity had value. Hell, women had value in general, but if
Culbart and his crew saw Maddie as a whore...
Caden closed his fist around the spyglass and ground his teeth.
If they treated her like that, he’d gut them and skin them and leave them out as
buzzard bait. Maddie might not have had a good beginning, but she was better
than anyone down deep where it mattered, and he’d made her a promise when she
came to Hell’s Eight. He promised her she’d never have to serve a man again
unless she lay down by her choice. He remembered the disturbance of footprints
in the dirt, the isolation of her location. The popped button. The blood in the
dirt from the dog. Fuck. Nothing about her being with Culbart was her
choice.
Putting the spyglass back to his eye, Caden surveyed the Fallen
C. He had to give Culbart credit. He might be a son of a bitch with some
questionable morals when it came to women, but he ran his ranch with an iron
hand. The evidence was in the well-kept buildings, the tidy outhouses, the
numerous corrals and the condition of his animals. Probably the only thing that
kept him from giving Hell’s Eight a run for its money when it came to stocking
the cavalry was the fact that the Fallen C was smack-dab in the middle of Indian
country. The man didn’t just have to battle wolves and drought. A tribe could
decide anytime that he was trespassing on their land, and with the unrest in the
East over separation, fewer and fewer cavalry were being sent to protect the
West. In the coming years, Culbart would be lucky if he got out of this with his
scalp intact. Of course, that was always supposing Caden left anything for the
Indians to scalp. Caden popped his elbows on the ground and continued his
surveillance. He needed to know the routine to get Maddie out of there.
It was early morning and the men of the Fallen C were going
about their usual business. Men were going in and out of the bunkhouse, heading
up to the cookhouse for breakfast. For the day and a half that Caden had been
surveying the place, he hadn’t seen any sign of Maddie, but her little horse,
Flower, was in the corral and not looking too happy with that stallion next
door. Caden sighed again. Obviously from the stallion’s behavior, the mare was
coming into heat, which complicated things because another promise Caden had
made Maddie was that Flower would also not have to lay down with any man unless
she wanted to, and from the looks of things, that stallion was about to take
that corral fence down.
“That’s a mighty big sigh,” Ace said.
“Looks like we’re going to have a romance to break up,
too.”
“You see Maddie with one of the cowmen?”
“Nah. I haven’t seen her yet, though I imagine they’d be
keeping her under lock and key.”
“Maybe. So what romance are we breaking up?”
“That stallion and Flower.”
To his credit, Ace didn’t bat an eyelash. One of the things
that Caden enjoyed about Ace was that the man was unflappable.
He took the spyglass from Caden and trained it on the
corrals.
“Nice-looking stud. Might be worth letting it happen.”
“I promised Maddie her mare would be safe.”
Ace lowered the glass and raised a brow at him. “You promised a
woman her horse wouldn’t be...deflowered?”
Caden grabbed the glass. “Maddie’s sensitive on the
subject.”
“Uh-huh.”
It was a ludicrous request and he’d been stupid to make the
promise. Knowing it didn’t mean Caden wanted it shoved in his face. “Shut up,
Ace.”
“Didn’t say a word.”
“Good.”
“If you’re planning on ending a romance, though,” Ace drawled,
“then you’d better get over there soon.”
“Yeah. That’d occurred to me.”
“Got a plan?”
“Besides ride in and take her?”
“How about something better than suicide?”
“Not yet.” The ranch was well guarded with men who wore their
guns in a way that said they knew how to use them. Short of walking up and
knocking on the door, he couldn’t think of anything.
“We’ve been here two days,” Ace pointed out. “We haven’t seen a
sign of her.”
“I know.”
“You think she’s still here?”
“I do.”
“Based on what?”
Caden put the spyglass in his pocket. “Based on my gut and the
fact that Culbart hasn’t come out of that house for more than two minutes in two
days.”
“I had that thought myself.”
Caden nodded and crawled back off the edge. “The only thing
keeping me from charging in is the fact that Culbart doesn’t have the look of a
satisfied man.”
Ace smiled. “You think he’s finding Maddie’s flights of fancy a
bit draining?”
Caden stood, brushing off his pants. “For his sake, I sure as
hell hope so.”
“How are you intending on getting her out of there? Storming
the place isn’t exactly our best bet.”
“Yeah, I’ve come to that conclusion.”
Of course, Ace had to pin him down that first day to keep him
from charging in, but now that he was a little calmer, he could see the
foolishness of that plan.
“So what are you going to do?”
“First, we’re going to break up that romance.”
“Steal the horse?”
“Uh-uh. It’s not stealing if it’s ours to begin with.”
“Gonna be tough to prove to a judge if Culbart put his brand on
Flower.”
“Let him be so stupid as to take me to court.”
“That man has a fierce temper and strong will. Rumors are,
nobody crosses him and gets away with it. Reminds me a lot of Caine.”
“Caine doesn’t hold women prisoner.”
“We don’t know that Culbart is, either,” Ace pointed out with
that reasonable side that grated on Caden’s nerves.
“Maddie’s the second woman he’s taken against her will.” He
shifted his hat on his head.
“To be fair, Lin’s uncle sold her.”
“Doesn’t mean she didn’t say no.”
“True enough, but I got the impression she wasn’t raped.”
“Only because Fei slipped Culbart saltpeter.” Every man who
heard that story cringed on the telling.
Ace chuckled. “She’s a resourceful bit of a thing.”
She was, but Maddie didn’t have Fei looking out for her. She
just had him. “She is that.”
“Not to keep grating on your sense of vengeance without
reason,” Ace drawled, walking that coin over his knuckles the way he did when he
was thinking, “but Maddie’s been here two weeks, and Culbart’s not looking like
the cat that ate the canary. Are you really so sure that he’s forcing her?”
Caden spun around and swung, his fist connecting with Ace’s
jaw. The man stumbled back four steps before he landed on his ass. Instead of
coming up swinging the way Caden wanted, he sat there and rubbed his face.
“You imply she’s a whore again and you won’t get up for a
week,” Caden snarled.
Ace wiped the blood from his hand on his pants. “The only one
who jumped to that conclusion is you. I meant she might be a welcome guest.
Women are scarce out here, and Maddie is pretty enough for Culbart to overlook
her past.”
“Maddie’s beautiful.”
Ace cocked a brow at him. “All the more reason for Culbart to
be thinking marriage. A man building a spread like this will want someone to
pass it on to.”
“Over my dead body.”
“Culbart’ll probably arrange that for her.”
“Like hell.”
Caden held out his hand to Ace. The other man didn’t take
it.
“Feel better now?” Ace asked.
No, he didn’t feel better.
“You get up and take a swing back, and I’ll let you know.”
“I’m not fighting you, Caden. We both know I’d win anyway.”
“Like hell.”
“You’ve had too much coffee, too little sleep and too little
food.”
“Whereas you’ve slept.”
Ace shrugged and took his hand, getting to his feet. “I always
sleep. Best way to be ready for a fight. But yes, I’ve got my head straight on
my shoulders and we’re about even matched in the best of conditions. You,” he
said pointedly, “are not at your best.”
“Anybody ever tell you you’re damn irritating?”
Ace smiled, revealing even white teeth and a charm the ladies
appreciated. “Nobody whose opinion mattered.”
“What do you think we’re going to do?”
“Culbart isn’t an idiot.”
“No, he’s not.”
“You’re going to have to do something.”
“I could just walk up to the front door. Say hello.”
“There’s a slight chance he’ll shoot you down before you get
halfway across the yard.”
“Why? He won’t like the set of my hat?”
“He won’t like the fact that you’re Hell’s Eight. Don’t forget
what Fei did to his men.”
“There’s always a chance he doesn’t know that Fei married up
with Shadow.”
“A very faint chance.”
Yeah. News did travel fast. “Well, one way or the other, I’ve
got to get into that house.”
“I could go.”
“Why you?”
“I’m more even-tempered.”
“Somehow I don’t see Culbart appreciating your even
temper.”
“You think he’s going to appreciate you swinging?”
“I think I’m going to want you with that rifle up here on the
hill covering my ass in case I have to break out of there fast.”
“So you’re using the excuse that I’m a better distance
shot.”
“You’re always bragging on the skill. About time you proved
it.”
“This isn’t much of a plan, you know.”
Caden nodded. “We have to know if she’s there.”
“True enough.”
Ace reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a derringer.
Caden looked at him.
“You been chewing on locoweed?”
Ace handed the weapon to him. Caden took it reluctantly. A
derringer was a woman’s gun or, worse, a cardsharp’s.
“They’re gonna search you for weapons, but they aren’t going to
expect you to be hiding something this small.”
“And where would you have me put it?”
Ace looked up. “Under your hat. I don’t know, down your pants.
Stick it wherever the hell you want. Just stick it somewhere you can reach it
quickly in case things go bad. You’re not going to do Maddie any good if you’re
dead.”
That was true enough. Caden took the gun. He debated putting it
under his hat, but really, that wasn’t a secure option. Instead, he slid it up
his sleeve and tied the wristband tighter.
“What time you plan on going over?”
“No time like the present.”
It was early in the day. Everybody was there. There’d be less
suspicion.
“If we waited until later, the hands would be out.”
“If we waited until later, they’d be more gun happy. I want
them to feel safe. For now.”
“I don’t like this plan.”
“I don’t like it, either, but you got another option?”
“I still think I should go in.”
“And I still say no.”
Maddie was his responsibility. And she’d waited long enough for
him.
* * *
C
ADEN
HADN
’
T
EXPECTED
to be able to just walk right up to the door, so he
wasn’t surprised when within a quarter mile of the ranch he was met by two men
on horseback, guns drawn. Culbart wasn’t a fool and these were dangerous
times.
“Stranger,” the older man with the graying beard greeted
him.
Caden nodded back. “Mornin’.”
“What brings you around these parts?”
Caden took the measure of the men, their hard eyes, their dirty
appearance and the way their fingers rested on the triggers of their well-tended
guns. Culbart didn’t hire fools.
“Business.”
“What kind of business could you have way out here?”
Caden smiled. “Nothing I care to talk about with you.”
The other man with him, not a youngster but clearly younger,
maybe even family because he had the same muddy-colored eyes and the same set to
his narrow mouth, spat.
“Well, if you want to get any farther than six feet under right
now, I suggest you be telling us the nature of your business.”
“I came to talk to Culbart about a filly.” He figured it was a
safe gambit. Everyone knew Culbart aimed to beat out Hell’s Eight as a breeder
of horses.
The younger man rode around until he could see the brand on
Jester’s side.
“Since when do Hell’s Eight go searching for fillies?”
“Since we’re always on the lookout for new breeding stock.
Can’t improve the herd without it.”
It was the truth. The older man grunted. “What’s your name,
stranger?”
“Caden Miller.”
Only by a blink of an eye and a tightening of his hand on the
trigger did either man give any indication his name meant anything. Caden made
note of the response. Only hired guns had that instinctive
shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later attitude.
With a motion of the gun barrel, the older man indicated to go
forward.
“I can find my own way. No need to give up your post.”
“You let us worry about the guard here. You just worry about
keeping your hands clear of those guns.”