Hannah tossed a look over her shoulder. “Can we come in?”
“Certainly.” Rachel stepped back out of the way, gesturing them inside.
Hannah didn’t waste any time. She pushed the door shut and said, “We needs to speak to Sean, please.”
Rachel fidgeted. “He’s not here. He and Sky stayed after the funeral to help finish the burying and then planned to ride out to the Bennett place to check on Cade. Smith rode out of town as soon as the service finished.”
Hannah pushed Damera into Rachel’s arms. “Can Victoria and the girls stay here with you a while?”
Rachel blinked and took the little girl purely by instinct. “Of course.”
Victoria was already shaking her head before Hannah even turned around. She willed strength into her weak knees and stood her ground. “I’m not staying here. Not when Rocky might be in danger! And certainly not when you haven’t even told me what this is all about!”
“Rocky’s in danger?” Rachel gasped.
Hannah gave Rachel a quick side-arm hug of assurance then stepped up in front of Victoria and framed her face with her large palms. “Chil’, I promised your Mama, the one what give birth to you, thet I’d take care o’ you. And I’ done my bes’. But I cain’t do that with this man around. He after you. You gots to stay safe!”
Victoria felt the shock wash over her, even as she searched Hannah’s face trying to reassure herself of what she’d just heard. “You knew my mother? My real mother?”
Hannah’s dark eyes softened as she nodded. “I did. And I’m gonna tell you all about her, just as soon as ever I can. But right now, I need you to stay here.” She stepped back and gave Victoria the look that meant she would brook no nonsense, the same look she’d used on Victoria countless times when she was a little girl.
But this time there were bigger stakes on the line. “Jimmy and Rocky are—” Victoria threw her hands up in the air, “who knows where! I can’t stand by while Jimmy and the man I love most in the world are in danger!” Realizing what she’d just said, her face flamed and she peered over at Rachel.
Rachel only adjusted Damera in her arms and gave her a gentle smile. “I know just how you feel, dear. But I really think it’s better that we let the men handle these things. Let Hannah go find Sean and Sky, and you stay here with me.” Without waiting for Victoria’s reply she turned to ChristyAnne. “Would you like to help me lay Damera down and then we can make dinner?”
ChristyAnne nodded but no one moved.
Defeat washed over Victoria, yet she couldn’t help but admire Rachel’s calm demeanor. How could she remain so self-assured when her husband would be headed off into a dangerous situation? She studied the woman for a moment and Rachel seemed to read her mind.
“I learned a long time ago, honey, to put Sean, and the boys, in God’s hands. His Word says He loves them even more than I ever could and I have to trust that God knows what He’s doing. I’d hate to walk through this life without Sean. But if God asked me to, I know He’d give me the strength to make it through.”
With that she walked down the hall, head held serenely, ChristyAnne trailing after her. Realizing that Hannah was headed down the steps, Victoria scrambled out the door and trotted after her.
“Hannah, please, let me come with you. I just want to know Rocky is safe.”
“Listen now,” Hannah spun towards her and held out one finger. “You stay here and do what your mother-in-law says. Jus’ pray and put thet boy and thet man o’ yours in the Lawd’s hands. I promise to let you know what’s happening just as soon as I find out. Meantime, you’ll be much safer here with Rachel and the girls. I’m going straight to get Sean and Sky. They some of the best trackers this side o’ the Mississippi and they gonna find Rocky. Jimmy, too.”
Shoulders slumped, Victoria stood at the bottom of the steps for a long time, watching until Hannah’s buggy disappeared at the far end of town.
Finally, she tilted her face toward the sky and allowed the sun to warm her face. Lord, everyone keeps telling me just to put this in Your hands. Rocky said I should look at what you’ve done for me, and not what you’ve done to me, but I have to confess, I’m having a hard time doing that. At the same time, I keep realizing, I have no one else to turn to. Who else is there to help me? Only You can do that. Help me to see that table you’ve prepared before me in this instance.
Lifting her skirts, she turned to mount the steps. That’s when she heard the distinct cock of a pistol.
25
Victoria stiffened and turned to see Baxter Cane leaning against the corner of the house at the end of the porch, his gun trained on her and one finger pressed over his lips. She couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped as her heart jolted into a rapid rhythm.
He grinned and whispered, “Hello there darlin’! Why don’t you join me over this way.” The gun never wavered as he gestured her toward him.
Victoria darted a glance toward the open door into the house. Rachel had taken Damera to the back to lay her down and ChristyAnne had followed her, but surely they would be back at any moment. If she could stall him for a bit, maybe they would see her out here and notice something amiss. Then again, if that happened someone was likely to get hurt. Without another thought she lifted her skirts and stepped toward him.
His clerical suit had been replaced with denim pants and a greasy flannel shirt that buttoned over his bulging middle. Thick black suspenders cut a wide swath across each shoulder. And his hair, which had before been so carefully combed, now stood in wild disarray around his head.
The distance between them was only a few paces, and the moment she got close, he grabbed her arm and thrust the point of the gun into her ribs.
“Not a word now. I’ll shoot the first person that comes out after us!”
He hustled her down the side of the house and within a few steps they were behind the chicken coop and hidden from view of the house. A long bushy hedge fenced the yard from the back of the chicken coop keeping them hidden, and as they came out at the corner, she saw the missing wagon. Giving her a rough shove, Baxter forced her toward the wagon bed. “Get in.”
She scrabbled over the wheel well, fighting her skirts and trembling legs until she finally made it up into the bed. A canvas tarp covered two odd lumps, one large and one smaller, on the wagon floor. She gasped, eyes widening in fear as she immediately realized it must be Rocky and Jimmy, and started to turn. But Baxter clamped a damp rag over her mouth and nose and pinned her roughly to his chest.
A sickly sweet stench filled her nostrils. She struggled, clutching at his smothering hand, his arm, trying to throw her elbow into his ribs, but to no avail.
Beneath them the wagon shifted as the horses, agitated by the kafuffle, shied and snorted.
As he lost his balance Baxter cursed and they both fell. Victoria’s head smashed into the wagon seat, but, oddly, she felt nothing.
“Lie still you little—”
She made one more effort to push the man away, but her limbs would not respond. They were weighted – heavy and sluggish. The heaviness grew, until the leaden leaching even pulled at her vision and all went black.
Rocky came to with a groan. He rolled his head from side to side assessing the pain that pulsed in his temples.
He’d had worse, he decided. Where was he?
Slitting his eyes, he winced at the invasion of light, closed them for a moment, then tried again. His vision blurred, but he blinked hard and forced himself to focus. His head was hanging and the plank floor beneath his boots was the first thing he saw.
In a house.
Pain rippled through him. He tried to move his legs, but realized they were tied to the chair legs, likewise his wrists to the armrests, and his chest to the backrest. A rope, wrapped around his head, bit into the corners of his mouth and effectively gagged him.
Jimmy lay in a heap on the floor to his right, hands and feet bound and a similar gag between his teeth. But his chest rose and fell rhythmically and he appea
red otherwise unhurt.
Slowly, Rocky lifted his head, every muscle in his neck and back protesting at the movement. He must have sat there unconscious for quite some time. He scanned the room and realized he was in a small cabin of some sort. The room was dim, its only light filtering through a dirty windowpane just above him and to his right.
Baxter Cane sat across from him, tilted back against the wall, the front two legs of his chair a good six inches off the ground. His Colt lay across his lap and a smirk flattened his lips. “Not so tough now, are you?” He blew a ring of smoke toward the ceiling and crushed the butt on the arm of the chair tossing it onto the floor by Jimmy’s head.
Rocky tilted his head and looked away, trying to push back a throbbing headache and remember what had happened.
Town.
Baxter taking him at gunpoint.
Jimmy trying to rescue him with a stick wielded as a club.
The wagon behind the livery.
The drive out behind Ma and Dad’s house.
He remembered pulling the wagon to a stop, but nothing after that.
Cane must have knocked him out and tied him to this chair.
What did the man want with him?
Cane’s chair thumped to the floor and he stood. “Bet you’re wondering why you’re here. You didn’t believe me the other day, but your wife really is my daughter. And she’s got something I need. So…,” Cane grinned at him, “now we wait for her to regain consciousness and tell me what I need to know.” He flipped a gesture just to Rocky’s left and he glanced over.
His stomach pitched.
Victoria, tied to a chair in much the same manner he was except for the gag, sat with her head canted off to one side her mouth hanging open slightly and a trickle of blood oozing down her cheek from a nasty gaping gash above one eye. Her mass of curls had come loose from their pins and cascaded around her in tangled disarray.
Realizing how vulnerable she was, Rocky’s pulse spiked. His jaw clenched and he strained against his bonds.
Cane chuckled at his helplessness and lit another cigarette. “Oh, she’ll be fine. She’ll come around in a few minutes. And if she gives me what I want, I might even walk away and let you all live. Course, you’ll only live if someone shows up to find you.” He winked and pulled in a long drag, the tip of his cigarette glowing red. “From what I can tell this old place has been abandoned for quite some time.”
They must be in the old Chauvers’ place a few miles out of town. Chauvers had given up after only one winter and gone back east. Coming here was a mistake on Cane’s part. Old abandoned buildings would be some of the first places Pa, Sky, and Cade would look for them. Still, he had to keep them all alive until then.
Rocky bit down hard on the rope and gripped the arms of the chair, fury trembling through him as he watched the man pace the room. Taking a calming breath, he tried to assess his options. Earlier, with Cane on the alert and his gun pointed at him, he hadn’t had a chance at escape. But now that he was tied up, Cane would let down his guard. He just needed to put himself in the position to take advantage of the inattention when it came.
So help him, if the man so much as laid one hand on Victoria! He jolted, thumping the chair on the floor in frustration.
“Hey!” Cane leveled the revolver at him. “Sit still!”
Victoria moaned and her eyes fluttered open. For a moment she held his gaze without recognition. Then she blinked and jerked her head upright. Her eyes widened before she gasped and snapped them shut against apparent pain.
Helplessness washed over Rocky. God, get us through this!
“Well! See there? I told you she’d come around.” Baxter lifted her chin and slapped her cheeks. “Come on. Wake up.”
Victoria winced, trying to pull away from the man to no avail and Rocky growled, straining at his bonds, once more.
Baxter chuckled and tisked, shaking a finger at Rocky. “Don’t get yourself too worked up, now. The fun’s just about to begin.”
Hannah found Sky and Sean out at the Bennett place helping Cade do his evening chores and as soon as she told them that Rocky and Jimmy were missing all three men quickly accompanied her back to town. On the way she told them about Simon Saunders and what he’d done to her mistress years ago. They looked grim at that news.
Cade was the one to find Rocky’s footprints in the alley first. And when they followed the trail to the back of the livery and realized Jimmy had apparently confronted them and also been taken, a chill raced down Hannah’s spine.
They followed the trail toward the edge of town, but it wasn’t until they saw Rachel running toward them down the road that Hannah felt her skin prickle with a dreaded premonition.
She leapt from the wagon and raced to meet her.
“Victoria’s gone!” Rachel pushed her palm to her forehead. “I took the girls upstairs to lay Damera down and when I got back the front door was open and Victoria was nowhere to be found!”
“Oh, Lawd Jesus!” Hannah’s arms trembled even as she pulled Rachel into an embrace. “Oh, Lawd. Oh, Lawd.”
The men all looked at each other.
“He had to have been at the house,” Sky said.
The other two nodded.
Sean turned to the women. “You two go back to the house and be with the girls. We’ll look around the yard and see what we can find.”
Victoria had never felt so terrified in all her life. She watched as Baxter Cane sauntered toward a table that held an array of knives, set his gun down, and selected one with a six inch blade. Scraping his thumb across the sharp edge, he eyed her.
She swallowed and darted a glance toward Rocky. Real fear tightened his face and that scared her even more.
They had to get away! But how?
She tested the strength of the ropes tying her to the chair, but there was no give. One of the ropes around her ankle was so tight she couldn’t feel her foot.
“Now. Here’s what’s going to happen.”
Victoria was surprised when Baxter stepped over beside Rocky, instead of coming toward her with the knife. But at the look of relief that crossed Rocky’s face, she felt the first stirrings of despair. The man clearly thought she had some information he needed and planned to torture Rocky until she told him what it was. “I’ll tell you whatever you need to know. Just, please, put the knife down.” Her mouth felt thick and dry, like it was packed with cotton. She pleaded with her eyes.
He chuckled. “You are so much like your mother was.”
So her mother was dead? While that felt like a mule kick to the stomach, it did not surprise her. She had assumed as much from what Hannah had said. The next thought that registered was the fact that her own father was torturing them. A man whose blood flowed in her own veins! And yet somehow it didn’t matter anymore. Rocky was right. She was nothing like this man. Just because he was her father didn’t mean she was a bad person. She had her own choices to make. The relief of that realization brought a smile to her face. “That sounds like a compliment. At least I’m not like you.”
He took two swift strides and backhanded her, knocking her over, chair and all. Her head bounced off the floor with a painful thud and the room went black for a moment. From far away she heard Rocky roar and at the same moment she realized one of her ankle ties had slipped over the end of the chair’s leg, and her ankle, while it still had the piece of rope around it, was now free.
Baxter leaned over her, jowls jiggling and eyes wild with rage. Grabbing the rope that wrapped around her chest with one hand, he hauled her upright again and pressed the tip of the blade under her chin as he glowered into her face. “Don’t you ever speak to me that way again.” His breath, hot and fetid, made her want to gag.
She turned her face away and tucked her foot back under her skirts where he wouldn’t be able to see it. She wondered about her mother. What had the woman seen in this man? “What is it you want, exactly?” At least he was near her now and not near Rocky who she could see just past the man’s side. Jim
my had come to and scooted closer to Rocky. His hands were tied in front of him and his feet were bound together but he was blessedly alive.
Baxter stepped back and wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of one hand. “When she gave you away your mother gave you a locket. Hand it here.” He held out a meaty palm.
“It’s around my neck. You’ll have to untie my hands.”
He snorted. “Not likely.” He reached one hand under her hair and to the back of her neck where he found the chain and gave it a jerk.
She felt a sharp pain as the chain snapped and pressed back the threatening tears. She’d worn that locket every day of her life since she could remember. The one thing beautiful about her past.
Baxter turned and paced past Jimmy and Rocky. He didn’t even glance their way. He took the locket to a table against the far wall and laid it out, opening the pendant and examining it carefully.
Jimmy bent his feet up by his side and eased over onto his knees. His gaze fixed on Baxter Cane’s back, he worked his hands around until he could slip the fingers of one into his pocket. A grin lit his face as he pulled free his pocket knife.
Victoria felt her heart rate climb on the wings of hope even as it hammered with fear. If Baxter caught him with that he would kill him. She shook her head at him, but Jimmy ignored her and pulled open the blade.
She turned her attention back to their captor, lest she draw his attention to the boy.
Baxter used the tip of one of his knives to pry the daguerreotype of her mother out of the locket and gave a grunt of satisfaction as a small square of paper fluttered to the floor. He laid aside his knife and unfolded the small square, smoothing the wrinkles with a few swipes against the corner of the table. While it wasn’t very big, both sides of the thin onion skin paper were filled with a flowing scrawl.
Victoria blinked at it. All these years she’d had that in the locket and she’d never even thought to lift the picture and look behind it.
Baxter scanned the words and then slammed it against the table’s surface with his palm. “This tells me nothing!” he ground out. He stormed toward her and bent down until they were at eye level. “Where’s the money!?”
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