Audrey and the Maverick (14 page)

Hadley sat at a table in Sam’s as men gathered for the evening’s meeting. His face was still swollen, his gum sore from the tooth that bastard McCaid had knocked out a couple of days earlier. He licked his lips, anticipating tonight. The room was nearly full when his father arrived with a neighboring rancher. Hadley made a face and nodded at them, standing to greet his father.

“What the hell happened, son?” John Baker asked, shock and anger mixing in his voice.

“McCaid.”

“What do you mean? McCaid did this to you? Why?”

“I tried to stop him, Dad. I tried. I overheard him talking to his foreman that he intends to buy the land adjoining his—twenty thousand acres. He’ll take up all our water sources. I told him what a devastating impact that would have on the rest of the ranchers in the area.”

“What did he say?” the man next to John asked, his temper rising.

“He laughed. That son of a bitch laughed. I told him I was coming to town to warn you.” Hadley pointed to his face. “That’s when he did this—” He smiled, baring his missing tooth.

The man looked at John. “You gonna let that sheeplovin’ bastard treat your family like that, John? You gonna take that?”

John’s brows lowered. The meeting was starting, the sheriff standing by the bar, banging an empty glass down to get everyone’s attention. “No, I’m not.”

Luc stood in the darkened kitchen at Sam’s Saloon, listening. He’d sneaked into the kitchen after Sam’s crew had cleaned up from lunch. Whenever the sheriff held these meetings, Sam’s dinner business was canceled and the staff sent home until later, when the bar reopened.

Luc had been following Malcolm to these meetings since that first night that Audrey was gone. Her brother always stood at the back, arms folded, silently observing the meeting. Luc couldn’t tell if he stood with—or against—the ranchers. The meeting tonight scared Luc. The room was loud. The sheriff had a hard time keeping the men talking in turns. He’d never seen a mob before, but he’d read stories about them in newspapers and sometimes in his dime novels. When a mob moved, it crushed everything before it. One thing was for sure clear.

Audrey was in trouble.

As the meeting came to a close and folks were filing out, the sheriff drew Deputy Fred over near where Luc hid, and what he overheard let him know they were all in trouble.

“Audrey was supposed to keep McCaid out there. But she didn’t. He came in twice. Send a couple men after those two boys of hers. Rough ’em up, kill ’em. I don’t care what you do to them. I want her to know what the price is for not doin’ what she was supposed to do.”

Audrey felt ready to jump out of her skin. She’d made breakfast and gotten the noon meal started. Her bag was packed, but the morning was half over before Julian brought the wagon around to collect them.

“Where are you goin’, missy?” Jenkins asked.

“Home. We’re going home, Jenkins.”

“We’re going to Defiance to collect her household goods. She’ll be back.” Julian clarified her statement. Except that her household consisted of a brother, seven children, and Amy. There was no way he would bring them all back out here.

A rider came down the lane, moving fast. Audrey frowned as a bad feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. It remained even when she saw the rider was Sager. He tied his horse to the corral fence near a trough and sent a look around the camp. Audrey stepped outside the cook tent and waved to him. He nodded and came straight over to her. She didn’t know Sager very well. He’d been gone the entire time she’d grown up with his brother, Logan. But she could tell something was wrong.

“Hello, Sager. How are you?” she greeted him.

He nodded at her, touching the brim of his hat, sparing only the briefest of glances for Julian. “I’ve been better. Do you want to tell me what the hell’s going on, Audrey?” Sager asked, arms folded, legs braced. “Like why you left your children and came out here with McCaid?”

“I had no choice.”

“What children?” Julian asked her. Before she could answer, she saw realization dawn in his face. “The town’s children.”

“You could have come to Rachel and me, Audrey. I know Logan’s gone, but you still have the protection of the Taggerts.”

Audrey put a hand to her face but couldn’t still her body’s shaking. She felt blessed and cursed, in nearly equal parts. “I had no choice—there wasn’t time to get word out to you. Sheriff Kemp threatened the children. Coming out here was the only way I could keep them safe.”

“And you, McCaid! Audrey has the protection of my family. She’s no plaything for you to amuse yourself with. You never even mentioned she was here when you visited us at the Crippled Horse.” Sager cursed.

Julian stepped in front of Audrey. “Some protection you gave her. She came to me bruised and battered.”

“When were you at the Crippled Horse?” Audrey asked Julian. And then she knew.
Last week.
“Julian! Franklin and Jenkins said you were out checking the fences. God, I was supposed to keep you here! We have to leave now! We have to get to town.”

Julian looked. “I saw the sheriff last week, Audrey. He didn’t act as if anything were unusual. He even offered to buy me out.”

“I just came from Defiance, Audrey. The kids are fine,” Sager assured her. “At least, they were last night. I left before they were up this morning.”

Julian looked at Sager. “Get a fresh horse and catch up to us.”

They parked the wagon in front of Audrey’s house. The street was quiet for a late afternoon. Usually the kids were out playing by now. Perhaps Maddie had kept them inside for extra schoolwork. Audrey went around to the side of Maddie’s house and knocked on the kitchen door. No answer. “Maddie?” she called, as she opened the door and peered into the quiet interior. “Maddie?” she called again, getting no answer.

Maybe Leah knew where the kids were. It was possible she had taken them up to the river for a cooling swim and a bit of fishing. She crossed back over to Leah’s and was just about to knock when Julian called her name.

Malcolm was jogging down the street toward her. For the second time that day, Audrey felt her stomach drop to her feet. She gripped Amy’s hand and hurried to meet her brother. His face was drawn. She looked beyond him. Jim, Sally, and Maddie stood outside the store, looking down the street toward them. “Malcolm—what is it?”

He sent a dark look to Julian and Sager, then lifted Amy and took Audrey’s arm, hurrying them up to the general store. “The kids are gone.”

Audrey stopped walking. “What do you mean ‘gone’? Malcolm, you’re scaring me.”

Julian slipped a strong arm around her waist. He’d been silent and angry the whole ride in. His lending her his support now gave her a jolt of strength while she listened to Malcolm explain.

“I went to work early this morning. They were still dozing. I knew Leah was coming over, so I left them.” Her brother’s eyes were anguished. “They were gone when Leah came over, not an hour later. She thought they already went to Maddie’s. By the time Maddie came looking for them, they’d had a couple hours’ head start. We’ve been looking for them since.”

“It’s happening, Julian.” She turned in his arms, grabbing fistfuls of his vest. “The sheriff’s got them. I know it.”

“It’s all right, Audrey. Sager and I will find them. Let’s get up to the store and see what the others know. Malcolm—take the wagon to the livery and get three horses. You’re coming with us. We better have someone with us those kids know when we catch up to them.”

At the general store, Sally and Maddie each gave her a bolstering hug. “Where’s Leah?” Audrey asked, realizing her friend was missing.

“She went to the river to see if they’d gone that-a-way,” Jim answered her. “But I don’t think they did. Or if they did, they didn’t stay there. They took some things from the store.”

Audrey shut her eyes, washed with shame, knowing she was to blame for this new trend in their behavior. “What did they take?” she asked.

“Three canteens, a satchel, some beef jerky. And a compass.”

Oh God. They were running. Where to? From what? Audrey moved a shaky hand across her brow. It was now late afternoon. Night would be here soon. Her children were in danger.

“That’s good. That’s real good,” Julian said, glancing at Audrey. “It means the sheriff doesn’t have them.” He and Sager exchanged a look, one word unspoken between them.
Yet.

A half hour later, Julian, Sager, and Malcolm rode a path circling the town, starting with the south quadrant. It was the consensus that the kids were heading toward Hell’s Gulch. They wouldn’t have wanted to be seen, so they would have kept well away from the road. Seven young kids, unschooled in the finer points of covering their tracks, were bound to leave clear signs, and Sager was an expert tracker. It was just a matter of picking up the trail, then following it.

A couple of sweeping passes showed exactly where they went south. They moved in a straight line that paralleled the road. Though the kids had several hours on them, they were on foot. The men had a hard ride if they wanted to catch up to them before nightfall. Two hours later, Sager stopped. He dismounted and studied the ground. The grass was knee-high here, excellent grazing land. Here and there it thinned out, giving way to a sandy stretch. It was just such a patch of ground Sager now studied. Julian came closer, still mounted.

“We got trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“The kids aren’t alone.”

“How many?”

“Two, on horses.”

Julian frowned, and looked out across the rolling hills of wheatgrass. Night was still a few hours away. This time of year, the evenings were long, the light would be good for quite a while tonight. But after that, darkness came fast.

“Are the men with the kids, or following them?”

“Here, they are following. Who knows if they caught up to them.” Sager looked up at Julian.

They moved on. They had to be getting closer. The kids on foot couldn’t walk more than fifteen or twenty miles in a day. Had the riders picked them up? What was their intent with the children?

He looked over at her brother, wondering at his mettle. Having led men into battle, Julian knew what he could expect from them. They were headed for trouble, and Julian’s gut warned Malcolm was a weak link. He should have left him home with the women. Now he would have to protect him and face the mess up ahead.

An hour later, Sager again dismounted. His face was hard when he looked up at Julian. “They caught them.” He stood and walked around. “Still looks like just the two horses. There was a scuffle. Several kids and two men. Had a hard time wrangling them in. I think the kids are still on foot, but the horses are with the kids now.”

The sun had turned orange and hung low in the sky. The breeze that had been at their backs all afternoon became a wind, making it impossible to hear anything up ahead of them. Of course, it also provided them cover. The open rangeland had no trees; there was nothing to hide them other than the coming darkness and the wind’s roar.

The grass was a little lower here, only ankle-high now. He couldn’t see a damned thing in the distance. A few miles ahead was a creek in a thick stand of cottonwoods. They probably stopped there to water the horses and make camp for the night.

Something moved up ahead, dark against the sun-bleached grasses. Probably a coyote starting its evening hunt. No, not a coyote. It moved on two legs—it was one of the kids! It had seen them. It started to run to one side but changed its mind and ran in the other direction. It looked back at them and must have noticed that there was nowhere to run, no shelter to be had. The kid dropped where it stood, huddling in a small ball, hands and feet and head tucked in like an armadillo but without the benefit of armor. Julian galloped toward it. Stopping just ten feet from it, he sprang from his saddle, dropping his horse’s reins over his head. He crouched in the dirt and scooped the kid into his arms.

One. They had found one. The kid shook in his arms, still tucked tightly in a ball. A malodorous warmth wet Julian’s thigh. The kid had leaked. It was a she, he decided, seeing the scruffy dress she wore.

“Honey, we won’t hurt you. Audrey sent us to find you. You’re safe now.” He stood up with the ball in his arms, hoping the leak had ended. She covered her face with her two grubby hands, but at the mention of Audrey, she looked up at him through a small gap between two fingers.

“That’s Dulcie.” Hearing Malcolm’s voice, she pushed away from Julian and reached her arms out to her foster brother. Malcolm looked away. “She pissed herself,” he growled.

Dulcie drew her hands down, and stared vacantly at nothing, limp but not leaning into Julian. Julian glanced at Sager, wondering what the hell he should do.

“Dulcie,” Malcolm ordered as he stared down at them, “where are the others?”

The little girl never blinked, never indicated she knew the answer or even heard him. Julian pulled her up against his chest, feeling a cavity open in his ribs, a hole big enough to put her in. He patted her back, keeping a hand under her wet bottom.

Malcolm cursed and dismounted, coming at them fast. “Damn it, Dulcie! Don’t you go silent on me! Where are the others?” he roared.

Dulcie did make a sound then, a small squeak as she buried her face in Julian’s neck and nearly strangled him with her little arms.

Julian held up a hand, blocking Malcolm. “Easy there, boy. That’s not helping.”

“They can’t be far,” Sager commented. “There’s a creek ahead. If that one got away, others may have as well. We need to split up. Who knows where they might be, if they weren’t able to stay together?”

Julian mounted his horse with little Dulcie clinging to him like a monkey. “Dulcie,” he spoke to the top of her matted hair, “we have some hard riding. You just hold on. I won’t let the bad guys get you, okay?”

She nodded. Sager went round to the east, Malcolm to the southwest, and Julian continued from the north.

About a half mile closer to the creek, when the light had truly begun to fail, Julian spotted another child, running straight toward him. “Dulcie, who’s that boy coming this way?”