Tomorrow's Shining Dream

by Naomi Rawlings

  “What a wonderful idea.” Anna Mae clapped her hands. “We don’t have nearly enough birthday parties around here. Do you need me to bring anything?”

  Wes plopped himself down behind the empty deputy desk. “I assume Charlotte is invited.”

  “Of course,” Sam answered.

  “We’ll be there then.”

  “I’ll try to get away, but Mr. Cunningham is getting tired of doing patrols. If I can’t find another volunteer to replace him, I might have to work.” Daniel looked at Wes. “What brought you in this afternoon?” His rancher friend wouldn’t have ridden into town just to invite him to Martin’s shindig.

  “I had a couple of telegrams to send. Ran into Sam outside the general store, and he dragged me in here to talk to both of us at once.”

  “Was one of the telegrams to El Paso?” Daniel rasped.

  Wes frowned. “Since when are you so interested in what telegrams I send?”

  He gave his head a small shake. He was going to get himself into trouble if he didn’t do a better job of keeping his mouth shut. “Sorry.”

  “El Paso. I’d almost forgot. Any word when the Mortimers will return?” A grin as long as the Rio Grande split Anna Mae’s face.

  “Soon, I think. They left El Paso earlier than expected.” Wes shrugged.

  Just how soon was Wes talking about? Before Martin’s party? What happened if he couldn’t talk Charlotte out of marrying Mortimer before he returned to Twin Rivers?

  “Pa has another party planned out at our place in a few more weeks,” Wes continued. “Says it’s for Charlie’s birthday, but I think it’s more to impress the Mortimers. The whole town is invited, and no, there won’t be a bunch of fancy folk from Austin and San Antonio this time around.”

  “Really?” Anna Mae scratched the side of her head, a slight frown turning her lips downward. “She never said anything to me. Reckon I should ride back out and see her again this afternoon if we have a party to plan.”

  “Give this to her when you go. I’m headed out to Sam’s next, so you’ll probably get to the A Bar W before me.” Wes pulled a letter from his pocket and handed it to Anna Mae.

  “Another letter from Andrew!” Anna Mae clutched Wes’s arm, a little squeal escaping from her lips. “This is so romantic. He really seems to like her, don’t you think?”

  Daniel choked.

  “Um… I suppose.” Wes pried Anna Mae’s hand from his arm. “He probably likes her well enough, in the way that any man would like a woman with a bank account that doubles his own.”

  “Don’t be such a clodhopper. Don’t you want your sister to be happy? I hope the two of them fall wildly, madly in love. Like Romeo and Juliet.”

  “Not that I’m much of an expert on love and romance…” Sam drawled. “Or Shakespeare, for that matter. But didn’t both Romeo and Juliet end up dead?”

  Anna Mae rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  Daniel made for the door. He suddenly couldn’t breathe. Because it was the middle of summer and his office was hot and stuffy. Not because he couldn’t stand to hear another word about Charlotte’s future with a man he didn’t want her to marry. Not because it hurt to see his sister so happy about Charlotte falling in love with a man who wasn’t him.

  A cloud of dust rose from the road into town. Rustlers? Daniel readjusted his hat to better shield his eyes from the glare of the sun, then settled his hand on the butt of his pistol.

  Horse hooves beat against the ground, the thunderous sound growing louder by the second. The door opened behind him, likely Sam and Wes stepping out onto the porch, pistols at the ready. Men filed out of the courthouse across the street and stood on the covered porch, nearly every one of them resting a hand on their sidearm.

  Surely rustlers wouldn’t ride straight into town in the middle of the day.

  He narrowed his gaze at the rider in front. Something long and golden flew out from beneath the cowboy hat.

  Hair. Golden hair. It had to be Cain. Daniel dropped his hand from his gun and clomped down the steps and into the street.

  Cain brought his horse to a stop amid a cloud of choking dust. The rest of the rangers slowed behind him.

  “Lieutenant Pierce and Ives, you’re with me,” Cain shouted. “Lieutenant Sims, take the rest of the men back to camp, and assign someone to care for our horses. We’ll walk back when we finish with the sheriff.”

  Cain swung off his saddle, as did two of the men behind him.

  Daniel ran his eyes over the group, dusty from what looked to be several days of hard travel. Weariness radiated from their slumped backs and drooping shoulders, and shadows haunted the skin beneath their eyes.

  But that wasn’t the biggest problem. Every single man in the group looked to be a ranger.

  “Where are the rustlers?” He spoke quietly enough that only Cain and the two rangers he’d told to stay could hear. “Did you kill them all?”

  Cain’s jaw hardened. “Only two.”

  “Then where—?”

  “Don’t know. I was too busy burying five of my own men to give chase for a fourth time.”

  Daniel sucked in a breath. He’d struggled with the notion of Cain getting all the credit for bringing down the rustlers, but he’d always assumed Cain would be successful. Just how big and well organized was this rustling ring if thirty trained lawmen couldn’t capture them?

  “You ever traveled through those mountains?” Cain jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the Sierra Madres.

  “Once or twice.”

  “There’s a trail that leads through a canyon about twenty miles south of here. Perfect place for an ambush.”

  Daniel swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

  “Not as sorry as I am.” Cain strode toward the office, leaving Daniel and the two other rangers in the middle of the street.

  “You’re safe!” Anna Mae’s voice echoed from the porch. She flew down the steps and threw her arms around Cain. “I was so worried. You said you’d be back two weeks ago, and after so much time passed…”

  Daniel expected Cain to shove her aside and tromp up the steps, but instead he heaved in a breath, his shoulders sagging as he let the air back out of his lungs.

  Then Cain’s arms came up. Around Anna Mae.

  Daniel would have cleared his throat, maybe even taken a step closer and told the womanizer to get his hands off his sister. But something about the sloped set of Cain’s shoulders and pained way he pressed his eyes shut caused Daniel to close his mouth.

  There was nothing romantic about the embrace, just one old friend offering comfort to another friend who had lost five men.

  Not that Cain had ever showed such things bothered him before.

  “Um, boss?” One of the rangers—Pierce, maybe—said. “Do you want to go inside?”

  “Inside. Right.” Cain released Anna Mae, who turned and scampered up the steps in front of him.

  Wes and Sam had already disappeared inside, and when Daniel entered his office behind the rangers, Anna Mae was at the table pouring glasses of water.

  “Where were they camped?” Wes blurted.

  “Did you recover any more cattle?” Sam asked.

  Wes frowned at the open door, then glanced at the two other rangers hanging their hats beside the door. “Where are the rustlers?”

  “Out. Everyone who isn’t a lawman,” Cain snapped. “Out now.”

  Sam scowled. “But what about—?”

  “You heard him.” Daniel clamped a hand on Sam’s shoulder and turned him toward the door. “We need to discuss some things before we go blabbing what happened in Mexico to the entire town.”

  “Not all of my stolen cattle have been recovered. I have a right to know what’s going on.” This from Wes.

  “If you want the rest of your cattle back, give us a chance to do our jobs.” Daniel grabbed Wes’s hat from the peg and held it out to him.

  “Fine.” Wes swiped the hat from his hand and settled it on his head. “But I want a full re
port later.”

  “After I finish here, I’ll ride out to your place and let you know what I can.”

  “Come on, Wes.” Sam settled his own hat atop his head.

  Daniel closed the door behind them, then turned to find Anna Mae still inside the office, handing a glass of water to Cain.

  “You a lawman now?” Cain asked before downing half the glass.

  “Maybe. I can shoot better than most of them.”

  A smile quirked the lips that Cain had kept pressed into a stern line since he’d ridden into town. “You best get out of here anyway.”

  Anna Mae muttered something under her breath about poor men and hungry bellies, but she tromped toward the rear door.

  “You didn’t need to send the woman away, Captain.” Pierce took a gulp of water, then wiped his brow with his bandana.

  “That woman is my sister, so if I catch you behaving in anything other than a gentlemanly manner toward her, I’ll kick you clear out of Twin Rivers County, Texas Ranger or not.” Daniel sat down behind his desk. He would have reached for his own glass of water, but somehow Anna Mae had forgotten to pour one for her dear, sweet brother. “When did the ambush happen?”

  “Yesterday.” Cain shoved a wayward strand of hair away from his face.

  “How many rustlers did you kill?”

  “Two. One a couple days in, and one more about a week back. We didn’t get anyone during the ambush. We were sitting ducks.” He took another gulp of water, then eyed Daniel. “Have your men returned from Huntsville? Maybe the rustlers said something on the trip to prison that will prove useful.”

  “No, and I don’t expect them back for another week at the earliest, probably two.” Daniel stood and walked to the table to get that cup of water. “Did you find where the rustlers are based?”

  Cain shook his head, causing that strand of hair to fall back over his face. “Somewhere deep, much farther in than you said. They led us on a merry chase.”

  “We thought we were closing in on them a couple days into our trip, when we shot the first of them, but everything after that went sour.” Ives kicked at the floor with his boot. “It was like the entire countryside was protecting them.”

  “Lied to us at every turn.” Pierce scowled at his cup. “Even when we bribed them, it turned out they kept right on lying.”

  “I told the captain here not to trust the word of a Mexican wh—”

  “Quiet!” Cain’s voice cut through the room. “She was the only person willing to talk to us. You can’t blame me for listening.”

  “Yeah, but seems now like the only reason she talked to us was because the rustlers paid her to give us wrong information.”

  Cain’s gaze turned sharp enough to slice through Ives’s shirt. “What matters is what we learned in Mexico, and what we’re going to do to catch them next time.”

  Ives scrubbed a hand over his face, the faint lines around his mouth and eyes grooved with sadness. “I vote we shoot on sight. Billy was only twenty-one. Barely old enough to be a man, and now we gotta go back to Austin and tell his ma—”

  “Billy knew what he was signing on to,” Cain muttered. “No one ever said rangers have easy lives.”

  Silence permeated with the heavy sense of loss filled the room. Daniel took a gulp of water. His pa may have lost his leg because of some rustlers and Cain’s negligence, but at least he was still alive.

  He reached down to where his maps sat rolled in a large clay pot behind his desk, grabbed the one of Mexico, and spread it out. “If the rustlers aren’t based where I thought, then where are they?”

  Cain stood and came to the map. “Either they’re hiding in the mountains, or they’re deep into Mexico. We checked any logical place they might be near the border. Before we go back, we need a better idea of where they are so we can make a quick trip over the border and then back before anyone realizes we’re there. Part of our problem was that we were in Mexico for so long the rustlers were able to figure out our future movements.”

  Which must have led to the ambush. Daniel hung a thumb on his gun belt and studied the map. “Maybe…”

  The back door opened, and Anna Mae bustled inside carrying a basket, the scent of their mother’s burritos wafting around her. “Thought y’all might be hungry. If you’re done discussing your lawmen business, that is.”

  Daniel scowled. “Actually, we’re still—”

  “We’re starved.” Ives watched Anna Mae as she set the basket on the table, then removed a platter of burritos and a stack of plates. “The captain here only let us eat jerky for supper last night and again for breakfast this morning. Didn’t want to be making any fires after the ambush.”

  “Anna Mae…” Daniel gritted. He wasn’t going to complain about her bringing food, but she didn’t have to stay and serve it.

  She tossed him a glance over her shoulder. “Oh, stow it. It’s not like you ate any of your lunch.”

  She whirled, somehow balancing three plates between her two hands, and handed them to the rangers. “You figure out what to do next?”

  “Not hardly.” Cain spoke around a mouth full of food.

  “You should take a few men and ride out to Closed Canyon.” Daniel leaned against the front of his desk, crossing his feet in front of him. “Something didn’t feel right when I was there last week. Everything looked fine on the ride out, but I had a strange sense as I was leaving the canyon.”

  Cain swallowed another bite of burrito. “Did you see any hoofprints? Anything to indicate rustlers might be using the canyon in some way?”

  “No.”

  “We should ride out to that other trail, too,” Ives said. “The one on the rancher’s property?”

  “We’ll visit both places tomorrow.” Cain shoveled another bite of burrito onto his fork, but even as he chewed, his lips turned down into a scowl.

  Daniel couldn’t blame him. Everyone had expected the rustlers to be caught once the rangers arrived, but instead of solving the problem, it had just gotten a whole lot bigger.

  How many more men would die and cattle would be stolen before either he or Cain figured out how to stop the outlaws?

  12

  Daniel scanned the canyon again, the sandstone walls towering so high above him that the sky was a mere slit of blue. He crouched to study a strange mark on one of the walls, then looked around the next bend. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. No hoofprints or footprints or signs of an old campsite. Nothing.

  Cain was supposed to have sent men out here to search for signs of the rustlers yesterday, but if they’d learned anything, the rangers had kept it to themselves.

  He scratched his head and swept his eyes over the sandy ground.

  Something niggled at the back of his mind. A trader at Fort Ashton said when Estrada found the lost horse, he’d been over in this direction.

  Still, part of him couldn’t explain why he was out here exploring Closed Canyon, especially when he and Rutherford were due in court tomorrow, and he wanted to review his evidence another time or two first. All he could claim was that as he and Charlotte had left the canyon on their picnic, he’d had a growing feeling something wasn’t right, even if all had seemed normal on the way there and he hadn’t noticed any unusual tracks.

  He headed deeper into the narrow space, past the hidden crevice that had seemed so special the day he’d been out here with Charlotte.

  Past the spot where he’d wanted to kiss her.

  Of course, that had been before she started nattering about the horse Mortimer had given her and how she’d finally found a man that understood her.

  But did Mortimer understand her? Really? Or was Charlotte just…

  Wait. Daniel took a step closer to a group of rocks leaning against the wall of the canyon. There was a set of footprints. Just one, all by itself. Odd. Surely the prints had come from somewhere and went somewhere.

  As he studied the ground, he didn’t see any other prints, but there was an odd pattern to the sand, almost like a g
iant brush had stroked over it. Perhaps to wipe away tracks?

  Daniel turned back to the pile of small boulders. A crack divided the rockface above the rocks, not overly large, but he could glimpse a bit of light on the other side. Was the crack some kind of passageway? If so, maybe these rocks had been moved here so no one could find it.

  Daniel rolled the first rock aside, then the next and the next until he cleared all of them from the wall. Light did show through the other side, and not up toward the sky, but straight in front of him. He squeezed through the opening, edging along the warm stone for about ten feet before the rock gave way.

  Open to the sun above, the walls formed a roughly-shaped, jagged circle. He used the edge of his bandana to dab at the sweat trickling down his brow, then scanned the ground which was still sand rather than rock. So many footprints littered the space that it was hard to make sense of what the people who’d been here last had been doing.

  A smile split his face, but he tamped down the urge to let out a whoop, just in case someone else was nearby. The logical part of his brain knew that anyone could be using this hideout.

  But he couldn’t stop himself from thinking he’d just found his first big clue about the rustlers.

  The cluster of ranger tents was easy for Daniel to spot as he slowed Blaze. They were lined up in neat rows, all with the same amount of space between them, and clothes were strung up on lines that ran between tents.

  Two men squatted on the ground fixing what looked to be a broken cinch, but they froze when he rode up, watching him with wary eyes as he swung off Blaze.

  “Where’s Captain Whitelaw’s tent?”

  The men exchanged glances, then the bulkier one pointed. “Over there. Last one on the left, but I think he’s down at the fire pit.”

  “Thanks.” Daniel would have checked the tent first, just to make sure Cain wasn’t there, but feminine laughter floated from the opposite direction—laughter he recognized.