by Zoe Matthews
Chapter 14
Golin smiled to himself as he watched the activity around the Callaghan Ranch. He just arrived an hour before and he wanted to walk right up to Patrick and demand the keys, but instinct told him to bide his time.
He congratulated himself on acquiring a gun. Just a few hours before, he decided to order some beer at a saloon in Denver before using his key to get to the ranch. As he sat in a corner of the small, dark building watching the people around him, he saw an older man who had passed out with his head on a table. He wondered who would be stupid enough to drink so much that he’d pass out, conveniently forgetting that he often did the exact same thing in his own time. Then he noticed the gun in the holster on the man’s side.
During his travels through different time periods, he had seen guns being used, but he had never had an opportunity to get his hands on one. He looked around and was pleased to see the room was almost empty, so he quickly and carefully slid the gun out of the holster. He had no idea what kind of gun it was or even how to use it, but he figured it would come in handy in order to get the other two keys. He didn’t want to kill anyone, but he would if he had to.
He slipped the gun into his pocket and ran out the door. He quickly walked down the street, hoping no one had seen him take the gun. Ducking behind a store with a false front, he pulled out his key and transported himself to the ranch.
Now that he was at the ranch, he made sure to stay hidden behind a group of pine trees. At first, he didn’t see anyone, so he assumed they were all in the large cabin possibly eating dinner. For quite some time, he just watched and waited, letting his thoughts drift. He planned to have the two keys in his hands by the time the sun set. The second the keys were in his possession he would travel back to a few years before his own time to force Nellie, the woman he loved, to marry him. She had gone along with her father’s choice of husband for her despite Golin’s proposal. He was going to go back in time and rectify that. Once the ceremony was performed, he would use the keys and transport them both to a place where she wouldn’t be able to escape. She would finally be his.
Golin didn’t care that Nellie was happily married with a young son in his time. Once he went back in time and forced her to marry him, she wouldn’t know any other life. Then, with Nellie by his side, he would start his life’s work, changing history. He would do what he could to stop all the wars that had ever been fought, using the power of the three keys, to become ruler over one country at a time. He hoped that eventually, he would be a king over all of Europe, and maybe eventually be the ruler of the entire world. He figured with the three keys in his possession, he might as well think big.
The door to the large cabin opened and Golin saw Patrick, Shaun, and a man he didn’t recognize walk to take care of some horses in a field that was located on the far side of the ranch. He watched as Kimberly, along with Victoria and a woman he didn’t know, carried two young children into a smaller cabin. Bridget started to weed in the large garden, along with a young boy and girl.
When Golin saw the children, he watched them very carefully. The young girl laughed as the boy threw a clod of dirt at her and she retaliated. Golin instantly knew that one of the children would be the ticket to get the keys. Children were important to everyone in all time periods. If he could kidnap one of them, he knew the adults would agree to give up the keys for the safe return of the child. He just had to figure out how to grab one of them.
A few minutes later, he saw his chance. The girl left the group working in the garden and ran towards the outhouse. Golin carefully moved in that direction, making sure to stay behind the trees. When he was as close as he could get to the outhouse, he waited until the girl left the small building, and then he ran towards her and scooped her up, covering her mouth with his large hand.
“Don’t make a sound,” he growled to her.
She whimpered, her eyes wide with fear, but she obeyed Golin’s harsh command. Golin half-dragged and half-carried her back to the pine trees behind which he had been hiding.
“What’s your name, girl?” he demanded.
The girl looked at him defiantly and pinched her lips closed. Golin shook her roughly.
“Answer me!” Golin growled again.
“Colleen,” she finally answered. “Let me go!” She struggled to get free and kicked him in the shins.
“Ouch!” Golin shook her hard. “Don’t you dare do that again or you’re going to regret it,” he threatened. “You’ll be free soon enough. Just tell me where the time travel keys are.”
Colleen’s eyes widened in confusion. “I don’t know where the keys are.”
“But you know about them?”
“Yes. Uncle Patrick hid them.”
“You wouldn’t be lying to me, would you? The last time I saw them, they were in a wood box in your cabin. Are you sure they aren’t still there?” Golin asked as he shook her again.
“No. They aren’t there. I promise,” Colleen said quickly, tears starting to form in her eyes. She started to struggle out of his grasp and he held on tighter.
“Colleen!”
Golin heard someone yell the girl’s name and he looked around the tree. He saw the young boy running towards the outhouse.
“Colleen! Where are you?” the boy yelled. “Grandma wants to talk to you about the beans. Colleen?”
The girl struggled in earnest, doing her best to get away. Golin saw her open her mouth to yell and he clamped his hand over her face to keep her quiet.
“Don’t say a word, girl,” he whispered harshly. He waited until the boy knocked on the outhouse door and then peeked inside. Seeing that it was empty, he ran back to the garden, yelling to everyone nearby that he couldn’t find Colleen.
Golin swore to himself. He had been hoping that he’d have a little more time to plan his next step, but it looked like he needed to come up with a new plan, and quickly. He glanced at the barn and instantly decided that that was where he needed to hide. Picking up Colleen, he ran to the barn. Once inside, he dropped the child and quickly closed the door. There was a wooden latch on the door that he used to lock it. Colleen started to cry and moved away from him as far as she could. Golin ignored her as he quickly moved various farm equipment in front of the door until he was satisfied no one would be able to get in.
“Stop crying,” Golin demanded. Colleen continued to sob. He pulled a dirty cloth he used as a handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapped it around her mouth. “That should shut you up.”
He found some rope and tied her hands behind her back. After making sure the rope was tight, he pushed her onto a pile of hay. She struggled to sit up, tears streaming down her face, her body shaking. Golin felt a small shred of remorse for needing to treat the child so harshly, but then he told himself she deserved it. Hadn’t she continued to cry despite his instructions to her to be quiet? Where he came from, he had seen children hit across the face for less.
Golin could hear voices calling Colleen’s name and he knew he didn’t have much time before they discovered the barn was locked. He glanced around the large barn and was glad to see that there weren’t any animals inside except a barn cat which hissed at him when he got too close.
“You know all of this could have been avoided if you had just told me where the keys are,” Golin said to her angrily.
Colleen shook her head as if still denying that she knew where they were.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Golin told her. “Who is your Da? Is Patrick your Da?”
Colleen shook her head.
“Shaun then?”
The girl nodded her head.
“Well, I’m sure your Da wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. Once he gives me the keys, I’ll use my own to disappear to my own time.” He pulled his own key out of his pocket to show her, waving it in front of her face. Her eyes widened and he could tell she recognized his key. “I’m sure he’ll be willing to exchange two golden time travel keys for his daughter’s life.”
He could still h
ear the search for Colleen going on. Sitting down on some hay, he pulled out the gun, watching the girl’s eyes widen with fear.
“I wonder how this works,” Golin muttered to himself.
There was a cylinder in the middle of the gun that popped out when he pushed on it. He cursed when several brass objects hit the floor. He muttered angrily as he dug in the hay to find them, frustrated that he was wasting time. Once they were all back in place, he pushed the cylinder back to where it was, swearing to himself to leave it there from now on.
Golin glanced over at Colleen to make sure she wasn’t getting into trouble. She continued to shake with fear, while tears rolled down her cheeks. At least she wasn’t sobbing anymore. He turned back to the gun, looking for more clues as to how to use it. He had seen people holding it before, and placed it in his hand the same way he had seen them do. His finger easily slid onto a rounded piece of metal, so he squeezed it, bracing himself. But nothing happened.
Scowling, he looked at it closely. There was a small hook-shaped part of the gun that seemed to be able to move. He found he was able to move it back, and it clicked and stayed in place. Confident he was getting somewhere, he slid the gun back into his hand, and pulled the trigger again. This time, the gun went off, the bullet ricocheting off the dirt floor and splintered the side wall of the barn.
The sound of the gun going off startled Golin, and he dropped it to the barn floor. However, once he realized that he wasn’t hurt, he grinned. Now he knew how to use it.
Suddenly, someone tried to open the barn door and then rattle it.
“Colleen? Are you in there? Why is this door locked?”
Golin felt his heart pick up pace, knowing now was the time to demand the keys in trade of their daughter.
“I’ve got your girl in here with me,” he yelled. “If you do what I say, she won’t be harmed.”
“Who are you?” the man’s voice yelled back angrily. “Open this door at once!”
Golin turned to Colleen. “Who is out there? Is it Patrick?”
The child nodded.
He smiled. Patrick was the oldest, so he was the one he wanted to deal with.
“I’m Golin. I want the two time travel keys. As soon as you give them to me, I’ll let Colleen go.”
“Golin?” Patrick said, roaring his name in disgust. “We don’t have the keys with us.”
“I have a hard time believing that,” Golin retorted angrily. “I know you have the keys. Give them to me and no one gets hurt.”
“We heard a gun go off. How do we know you haven’t hurt Colleen?”
Golin went over to the girl and yanked the cloth down out of her mouth.
“Tell your uncle you’re okay,” he ordered her.
“I’m… I’m fine,” Colleen called out, her voice shaking, tears still running down her face.
****
Bridget watched helplessly as all the men did their best to get into the barn. She couldn’t believe this was happening. Garrett stood next to Nicky, and she saw him slip her hand into his.
“Is Colleen going to be okay?” Garrett asked his aunt. “Why does that man have her? Why does he want the keys?”
“I’m sure Colleen will be fine,” Nicky tried to comfort him. “We’ll have to explain who that man is later.”
“This is all my fault,” Victoria muttered to herself. “I wish I never took the keys.”
Collins put his arm around her in comfort. “It isn’t your fault that Golin is this determined to get the keys. He would have figured out a way to get them no matter who owned them.”
“But if I…” Victoria started to protest, but Kimberly interrupted her.
“I agree with Collins. This isn’t your fault.”
Justin ran to where they were standing. “He wants the keys now. He doesn’t believe that we don’t have them on the ranch and that it would take half a day to get them here. He is starting to sound desperate.”
“We need to get Colleen out of there,” Nicky said, as she wrung her hands together. “That man is crazy.”
“How does he propose to give the keys to him if he’s barricaded the barn door?” Bridget asked Justin.
“He wants the keys to be slid under the door. My guess is after he has the keys, he’ll take them and go back to his own time.”
It was starting to get dark and Bridget had an awful feeling that things were not going to end well. She said a prayer that they would all be safe and that this episode would end soon and no one would get hurt. She could tell that Shaun and Patrick were trying to rig something together so that one of them could get to the small window that was in the hayloft. She knew that none of them were small enough to climb through the window, so she wondered what purpose would be served by getting to the window.
“Patrick is hoping he will be able to see them and figure out a way to get Colleen out,” Justin explained, answering Bridget’s unspoken question.
“Hopefully, they can do something without Golin knowing what they are doing,” Nicky said.
Justin walked over to Patrick and started to talk to him, waving his hands in the air as he described his idea, pointing to the woodpile that was located between two of the cabins. Patrick and Justin ran to the woodpile and started to sift through the limbs, and Shaun joined them. Bridget wondered what they were up to.
Within fifteen minutes, they had a makeshift ladder built. Collins stayed at the barn door, trying to convince Golin to let Colleen go, explaining that they didn’t have the keys with them on the ranch. Bridget could hear Golin’s voice getting louder and angrier, and she wondered how much longer Golin was going to wait.
Nicky offered to run as fast as she could to collect the keys, but Patrick waved her offer aside.
“This will all be over before you get back,” he retorted shortly.
Once the ladder was built, Patrick, Shaun, and Justin carefully set it against the barn wall. They sent Keegan up the ladder because he didn’t weigh as much as the men and there was less chance that the ladder could break. Keegan quietly climbed to the small window to peer inside. He spent a few minutes looking through the window and then climbed down.
“The fool lit a lantern and set it near the haystack,” he told everyone after he moved away from the barn.
“I might be able to slide through the window,” Bridget offered. “Maybe I can sneak in and… do something.”
Patrick looked at her, and she could tell he was thinking about her suggestion, but then he shook his head. “We don’t want to put anyone else in danger.”
“How is Colleen?” Nicky asked.
“She’s okay, although he’s got her tied up and she’s gagged.”
“Oh, dear,” Nicky breathed with concern, with tears in her eyes.
Suddenly they heard a large bang and loud cursing come from the barn.
“The barn’s on fire!” Golin yelled. “Where’s some water?”
“Oh, no!” Victoria whispered.
“Let us in,” Patrick demanded. “We’ll put the fire out, then we’ll talk.”
“Do you think I’m going to fall for that?” Golin shouted over the roar of the fire. “I want those keys!”
Justin ran to the woodpile and tried to lift a very large log. Immediately the other men understood what he was going to do and went to help. They all lifted the log and, after making sure they had a good hold on it, ran with all their strength to knock the door down. At the first hit, the door barely budged, but after ramming the log into the door a few times, it started to move, and then finally the log broke through the door.
Patrick dropped his end and ran inside, the other men following. Bridget and the other women, along with Keegan, started to fill buckets of water from the well to throw on the barn, but the fire was soon too large and the water was quickly vaporized by the heat.
Shaun ran out of the barn, holding Colleen in his arms. He thrust his daughter to Nicky and turned to run back inside.
Everyone kept trying to put the fire out, but it was
soon apparent that it was out of control.
The fire was growing, getting louder and hotter by the minute. Over the roar of the flames, everyone heard a man shout in anguish. Everyone froze, looking at each other in horror, hoping against all odds that it wasn’t one of their men making that noise.
“Get out of there!” Collins yelled into the barn, as he stood in the doorway. “The fire is too large. This barn is going to collapse anytime.”
Justin ran to the doorway. “Golin got himself pinned by part of a stall door. We’re trying to get him free.”
