Chris looked at the dark woman for a long moment. “Free us so we can identify Dysan as a kidnapper? So we can go to a federal marshal and tell who held us captive? No, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Dysan may get the ransom, but he can’t risk freeing us to tell anyone who took us.” She paused a moment, her eyes locked with Pilar’s. “I think he’ll kill us as soon as he receives the money from my father. He has to keep us alive until then in case my father demands proof that I’m alive.”
Pilar went back to sit on the bed. “So how long do you think we have?”
“My father will move heaven and earth to get however much money Dysan demands and…” She paused a moment since tears were coming to her eyes. Maybe she’d never see her father again, maybe she’d never see anything again except the inside of this room. “He’ll get the money here as fast as horse and rider can travel. If Dysan sent a ransom note south while we were being taken north, I figure we have about two days before the money’s here.”
“Two days?” Pilar gasped then her head came up. “So that means that Tynan could be here tonight.”
“We can’t risk it,” Chris said, putting her hand on Pilar’s. “Do you want to go with me or wait here and hope I make it back with help?”
“I want us both to remain here,” Pilar said, then sighed. “All right, I’ll stay here. Maybe I can hide the fact that you’re gone for a while.”
“If Dysan finds out that I’m gone, tell him that you’re Christiana Mathison, then he’ll want to keep you safe until my father gets the money to him. Now, will you help me get these sheets torn and tied?”
“If I must,” Pilar said and found, to her consternation, that her hands were shaking. “I’ll help if I must.”
• • •
Tynan put his hand up to halt Asher as they entered the little town of Sequona. “I want you to go in first. Go to that big saloon there, about halfway down the street, and take a corner table. Do nothing but order a beer and wait for me. Don’t talk to a single person, you understand?”
“Don’t you worry about me, I can handle myself.”
“Take your gun out, put it under your hat and wait. I want you ready when the shooting starts.”
“Shooting?” Asher whispered. “How can you be sure there’ll be any shooting?”
“How can you be as old as you are and not be sure? You ready?”
Asher just nodded as he reined his horse forward, down the long, dusty street and stopped in front of the saloon. As he entered, a body came flying out, barely missing him and landing in the street.
“And stay out!” said a man wearing an apron, his big arms flexed, the muscles outstanding.
Asher waited until the entrance was clear, then went inside. He had to stand at the bar for a moment until the back table had cleared of a group of men playing poker, then he took his beer and sat down. As inconspicuously as he could, he removed his gun from his holster and placed it on the table, hidden under his hat.
He was leaning back in his chair, his eyes half closed when Tynan walked in—and immediately he could feel several eyes turn toward the man. So, Ash thought, Ty was right and there were people waiting for them.
Tynan ordered a double whiskey, and, as he was drinking it, a woman sidled up to him, putting her arm about his waist and running her hand over his back.
“How about buyin’ a lady a drink?” she said.
Asher straightened his chair, trying to look as if he were interested in his beer, but he was actually trying to watch the men around him. There was one fat, dirty cowboy to his right whose hand was inching toward his gun belt. Get out of the way, lady, he thought with all of his might.
Tynan moved away from the woman just a bit. “Honey, I’d like to share more than a drink with you. You think that could be arranged?”
The woman’s smile made her eyes disappear.
“Why don’t you go on upstairs and wait for me? I need to wet my throat a little bit and I’ll be right up.”
The woman, in her dirty red-and-black dress, gave a look of triumph to the few other women in the saloon then started up the stairs. When she was halfway up, Ty turned to the bartender and said loudly, “What I really want is some information. You know the whereabouts of Beynard Dysan?”
There was a split second pause before the first gun was fired. Tynan, obviously watching the room in the mirror over the bar, spun on his heel, crouched low and fired into the belly of the fat cowboy across from Asher. Jumping up, Ash brought his gun up and shot another man on the balcony overlooking the main room of the saloon. As a bullet whizzed inches past his ear, Ash fell to the floor, knocked the round table over and got behind it.
As he was firing, he tried to see where Tynan was so he could protect him. Ty was backing toward an outside door, dodging bullets as he went.
Just as Ty was about to reach the door, Asher saw a man’s head in a window to Ty’s left. Standing, Asher bellowed, “Tynan!”
Ty turned and fired, the man at the window fell back, and Ty left the saloon just as Asher felt a searing pain in his leg before he could again reach the safety of the table.
Now Asher was alone in the saloon, all guns blazing at him, pinned down behind a little round table, the front door several feet away. He sat down to reload, watching the blood seep from his wounded leg, when he heard the softer more deadly sound of rifle fire in the saloon.
Looking around the table, he saw Tynan standing in the doorway, a rifle at his shoulder. “The next one that moves gets it. Get over here, Prescott,” he commanded.
As Asher moved from the table, Tynan shot at a man in the corner and a gun dropped from his hand.
“I’m looking for Beynard Dysan and I want to know where he is. Watch my back,” he said under his breath to Asher.
There were only four men left in the saloon now—and five bodies. The others who had been there had either run when the shooting started or were dead now.
“You!” Ty said to a tall man with a scar over his eye. “You’ll be the first. I’ll take a few inches off your left foot in about two seconds if you don’t tell me what I want to know. Where is Dysan’s place?”
Tynan put the rifle deeper into his shoulder.
“He has a big place ten miles due north of here,” the man said. “But it’s guarded and no man that he don’t want in there can get in.”
“That’s my problem.” Ty began to back up, Asher in front of him watching the crowd that was gathering in the street. Their saddled horses were waiting.
“Ride like you never rode before,” Tynan called to Asher as they made their way north out of town.
Asher followed Ty as they thundered down the road and headed for the forest. For a while, Asher thought Ty knew where he was going but as they left the road and went into the trees he saw Ty stop several times and look around him. “You don’t know this country, do you?” Ash asked.
“If I did, I’d have known where Dysan lived. Get down, I think this is it.”
“What’s it? Where are we?”
“Someone’s to meet us here.”
“Who?” Ash asked but received no answer as Ty dismounted, removing his saddle bags from his horse. Wincing with pain, Asher dismounted also.
“Let me look at that leg,” Ty said as Ash lowered himself to the ground. After a rough, but thorough examination, Ty took a bottle of whiskey from his saddle bag. “This’ll sting but it’ll kill any lead poisoning. It’s not a bad place, more a burn than a real bullet wound. You’ll be fine in no time, even if you are a little sore.”
Ash nearly screamed when Ty poured the whiskey on the raw, open cut, but he managed to control himself.
“First gunshot wound?” Ty asked, amused.
“The first this week,” Ash answered as he tried to get his breath.
An hour later, both men were stretched beneath trees, when Ash heard a sound coming from behind Tynan. He looked at Ty but there was warning in Ty’s eyes, telling Ash to be quiet. Pretending to be asleep, Ash watche
d in fascination as a woman, not quite young, but not old either, came sneaking up behind Ty, making as little noise as a human can make in a forest.
Just as she reached Tynan, who seemed to be asleep, with his hat pulled down over his eyes, Ty reached out, grabbed her and pulled her into his lap.
“Let me go!” she yelled at him.
“Come on, Belle, you’re not still mad at me, are you?”
“I’d take a knife to you if I could.”
Tynan held her easily in his arms, struggling only with her hands, with which she meant to claw him. “You know I never meant to hurt you, but that girl was only thirteen years old. I couldn’t let you sell her to that old man.”
“You didn’t have to shoot up my place to save her. I lost everything in that. I had to go back on the streets to get enough money to pay for what you did.”
Tynan began nuzzling her neck. “I’ll bet you made a fortune.”
“I did not!” she yelled at him, then began to relax. “Well, maybe I did make some at that. What are you doing here? And askin’ about Dysan! You must wanta stop livin’.”
“I just want to find him. You know anything about him?”
“Not enough that I want to lose my life by tellin’ you. What’s he done to you?”
“Taken Chris Mathison,” Asher said. “Allow me to introduce myself. Asher Prescott at your service, ma’am,” Ash said, removing his hat.
The woman tried to free her hands from Tynan’s grip but he still held her. “All right, what do you want from me?” she said with a sigh. “Tynan, one of these days, you’re gonna ask for one too many favors.”
“What I like about women is that they always know how to give.”
Suddenly, the woman stiffened in Ty’s lap. “Chris? Is that a woman? Tynan, if you got me out here to help you find another woman, so help me I’ll—”
Ty kissed her to keep her quiet. “It’s strictly business. I’ve been hired by her father to take her to him and Dysan has her.”
“Then you’d be better off leaving her where she is. She won’t be worth much when Dysan finishes with her.”
Tynan frowned. “Are you speaking from first-hand knowledge?”
“I saw a girl after he got through with her. He doesn’t like women; he doesn’t like anybody for that matter. He has a place not far from here, but I don’t think he stays there much, I think he goes back East pretty often, and, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why he even comes to this godforsaken hole. He has money enough that he can live anywhere he wants to.”
Tynan released her hands but she still stayed in his lap. “I heard he has business around here.”
“There are rumors that he’s involved in whatever evil trick has been pulled lately, but no one’s been able to prove anything yet. The law’s terrified of him.”
Tynan was quiet for a moment. “You said this place of his was guarded. How well guarded?”
“An army post could learn from him. He has men patrolling his big house night and day—and they have dogs on leashes at night. Anybody even gets close and the dogs are let loose. They say those dogs can really take you apart.”
“Has anyone ever made it inside?” Asher asked.
“Why would anybody be stupid enough to want to try?” the woman asked, looking from one man to the other.
“Belle, you know anybody who’s been in the place? Somebody we could ask questions?”
Belle looked down at her hands. “To tell you the truth, I was in there last year. I went with some other girls and…. Tynan, I don’t like to think about what happened that night.”
Tynan pulled the woman to him, hiding her face in his shoulder. “Dysan has a young woman now and he’s holding her captive. Prescott and I plan to get her out so I need all the help I can get. If you could tell me anything that you remember about the place, a way in, the floor plan of the house, whatever you can remember, I’d sure appreciate it.”
Belle moved away from his shoulder. “You don’t deserve my help, not after the way you tore up my place, but I’ll do what I can.” She looked at him in a seductive way. “I’ll do it in memory of that time down in San Antonio. You remember that?”
“Every day of my life,” Ty said, smiling. “I use it to judge everything else by. Prescott, you got any paper? Belle’s going to draw us a plan.”
Ty pushed her off his lap while Asher managed to move his stiffening leg so he could get to his horse. Minutes later, the three of them were hunched over a map Belle was making, and an hour later, the two men were mounting their horses again.
Belle looked up at Tynan. “By the way, Ty, there was some guy through town yesterday lookin’ for you.”
“What’d he look like?”
“Tall, skinny, long red hair. His arm was in a sling and he walked with a limp. Seemed real anxious to see you.”
Tynan leaned down from the horse and kissed her lingeringly. “You tell him you saw me about forty miles south of here.”
She smiled at him. “Maybe. I might consider it if you come back through here and make it up to me about what you did to my saloon.”
“I might do that.” Ty smiled at her, then was off, heading north toward Dysan’s house.
Chapter Nineteen
Pilar was sitting on the floor, leaning against the foot of the bed, and, in spite of her good intentions, she was asleep and didn’t hear anyone in the room until a hand covered her mouth, startling her awake.
“Tynan?” she asked in disbelief. “Is that you?”
“Where’s Chris?” he asked at once.
Pilar sat up straighter. “I don’t know. She’s been gone for hours and I heard the dogs and men yelling but I didn’t hear anything from her. Ty, I’m worried about her.”
Tynan’s face showed what he thought of Chris leaving the room. “How did she get out?”
Pilar started to stand. “We tore the bed sheets into strips and she went down through the window. Ty! You’re injured. Here, sit down.”
“I don’t have time. I have to find her and soon. Leave that alone, it’s not bad, just a couple of dog bites. Why in the hell did you let her go? I don’t expect her to have any sense, but you, Pilar, I expected more from you. I told you to watch her.”
“How was I supposed to stop her? Dysan said that he’d sent out over a hundred men to stop anyone from finding us. You could have been dead for all we knew and then Chris said Dysan wasn’t going to release us since we could identify him.”
“Has he contacted Mathison yet?”
“That’s what’s strange, Ty, I’m not sure Dysan knows who Chris is. He talked about her father committing suicide and about her husband being an embezzler. If he doesn’t know that Chris is wealthy, then why has he taken us?”
“I’ll worry about what’s on the man’s mind later. Right now, I’m more concerned about his guns. Did you see what Chris did when she reached the ground? Did she try leaving the grounds or did she go back into the house? She just loves snooping in people’s private papers.”
“I didn’t see because I was pulling the rope up, but I think she probably had to go into the house because the dogs came around minutes after she touched the ground. She wrapped her shoes in pieces of sheet and rubbed them with some meat fat. She was planning to throw the cloth away when she reached the edge of the forest.”
“Well, it doesn’t look like it worked because she’s nowhere to be seen outside. Now, I want you to listen to me and do exactly what I say. Prescott, the man from Hamilton’s place, will be here in a minute and I want you to let him help you get out of here. He’ll take you over the roof.”
“And where will you be?”
“Searching for Chris.” With that statement, he went to the window and proceeded to climb up a rope toward the roof. Pilar could hear him walking softly overhead and then all was silent.
Tynan gave a signal to Asher who crouched behind a dormer on the tall house, then tied his rope about a far chimney and started down. Thanks to Belle, he knew most of t
he layout of the house and he was heading now toward Dysan’s office. This would be the room that Chris most likely would want to explore.
The room was dark and there wasn’t a sign of any activity in it—no papers, only a few books, no ledgers with their revealing account numbers, no pretty little blonde snooping through things.
Cautiously, Tynan made his way out the door and into the dark hallway. Listening carefully, he heard voices downstairs, but they didn’t seem particularly upset about anything, as they might be if they’d just found Chris haunting the rooms. With his back to the wall, he began to ease his way down the stairs, stopping constantly to listen to whatever he could hear.
According to Belle, the house was a big one and Ty wasn’t sure where he should begin searching, but the library seemed like a good bet—not because he thought Dysan might have something there but because Chris would want to search a place like that.
He stopped twice at the foot of the stairs to listen but he heard nothing, so he went across the empty dining room to the closed door that he knew led to the hallway. Still listening and, as quietly as a cat, he made his way through the door and into the hall. The first door on the right was the library.
Once inside the library, he paused, pressed his back against the door and waited. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something was wrong. He stood so still that he became part of the shadows, fading into his surroundings so that he disappeared.
The sound of a match being struck made him turn his head—and he saw Beynard Dysan sitting in a chair before him, bringing the lit match up to his cigar tip.
“Bravo,” Dysan said. “You were almost silent.” He bent forward to touch the match to a lantern on the table before him.
In the light, Tynan could see Chris in a chair beside Dysan, her hands and feet tied, her mouth gagged. Her eyes were wild and she looked as if she’d seen something awful.
“I wouldn’t try it,” Dysan said as Ty took a step forward. “I have a gun on her and I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot her.”
Tynan stood where he was, not moving a muscle but trying to look about the room.
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