In the middle of all that, although appreciative of the attention and care, Burnett did not fail to miss the obvious absence of Millie. When he raised the question, Lucinda answered him.
Luke and Russell stepped in closer to hear what she had to say. The rest of the women also gathered tighter around, their emotions in check and very somber as they cared for the marshal.
Even as his wound continued to be treated and redressed and his ribs tightly wrapped with strips of blanket material, the women—all of them—participated in relating how things had gone since they were abducted during the raid on the town. It concluded with what they’d seen and heard of the previous day’s frantic happenings, ending with the flight of Kelson and Craddock, the only two Legion men left . . . and the taking of Millie as their hostage.
When the talking was done, a heavy silence filled the cave. Burnett was a doubly wounded man, his bullet hole and resulting broken ribs, as well as the far more painful revelation that his daughter remained at the mercy of a pair of ruthless men. The women, though themselves at last in safe hands, shared a measure of his pain.
Lucinda put it into words. “None of us can feel truly rescued as long as Millie is still out there being led like a dog by the leather strap around her throat. Someone has to go after her!”
“I never figured it any other way,” Luke told her and the rest of them in a low, steady voice. His eyes cut to Burnett. “Though the marshal here will argue against it, you can all see he’s in no shape to continue on. He needs to get back to where Doc Whitney can take care of that wound. And you women have endured enough. You need to get home as well.” His gaze shifted to Russell. “That falls to you. You need to lead them. I’ll go after Kelson and Craddock and the girl.”
“No!” Russell’s response was so quick and sharp it was like the snap of a whip. “I said from the outset I would never turn back from going after Millie as long as I had breath left in me. Well, I’m still breathing and my vow stands as strong as ever.”
“Don’t be a stubborn fool,” Luke said. “You’re not turning back in any sense of giving up. You’re being asked to make a change for the greater good—for the marshal, for the women. They need one of us to see they make it back okay. I’m the experienced tracker and man hunter, I have the best odds for running down Craddock and Kelson.”
“But those odds are still two to one,” Russell insisted, “and they’re stacked against you by a pair of cold-blooded killers. I can even things up and improve the chances for bringing back Millie.”
“But what about the marshal? The other women?” Luke pressed. “They deserve a fair chance, too.”
Russell seemed uncertain for just a moment. Then said, “They can make it on their own. The marshal is hurting, but he’s still alert, lucid. And the women are strong and resilient. Haven’t they proven that by holding up through everything already thrown at them? With plenty of horses and supplies and the marshal to guide them, there’s no reason they can’t make it back to town without me. My place is to go with you after Millie . . . and you’re going to have to shoot me to stop me.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Luke said.
Lucinda stepped forward. “Russell is right,” she said, chin thrust out defiantly and eyes flashing. “We gals are sturdy pioneer stock. A few hardships on the trail or wherever are nothing new to us. Especially compared to what we were faced with up until only a few hours ago. Tom is strong enough and alert enough to guide us, and if need be, we can find our own way. We’ll make it back to Arapaho Springs just fine. Russell should go with you. You need all the help and all the guns you can get to go against those two killers. And Millie needs every chance you can give her.”
“But that passage needs to be cleared before you’ll have any hope of even getting these horses out of here. And that’s just for starters.”
“We’ll handle whatever we have to,” Lucinda said confidently. “If it takes another day or so to be on our way, there are plenty of supplies and reasonable comforts here to see us through. Unless Tom’s wound takes a drastic turn for the worse, there’s no terrible urgency for us now that the outlaws are gone. But you and Russell do have urgent business.”
Luke had often said he’d rather face a pack of ornery gun wolves than a strong-willed woman with fire in her eyes. Especially a pretty redhead, he now amended.
As if he weren’t already wavering enough, Burnett put a cap on it by saying, “Seems like I have a knack for surrounding myself with headstrong, outspoken gals, Jensen. And you for getting caught in the cross fire. In this case, though, I have to side with Russell and Lucinda. Much as I hate to admit it, I’m in no shape to continue chasing after the likes of those two bastards who have Millie. But I am fit enough to guide these other ladies back to town. I can assure you of that.” He winced through a spasm of pain and then continued. “So take Russell with you. Go. Quit wasting valuable time. Find that back door out of here and use it to go after them.”
“You’re right about having no time to waste,” Luke allowed.
Burnett’s eyes took on a kind of hard-edged warmth. “One more thing I want you to hear. Both of you. It galls me more than I can put into words how much I regret being unable to go on with you. But know this. There aren’t two other men on the face of this earth I’d put more faith in to bring my daughter back to me.”
Chapter 49
“You sneaky, conniving bitch!”
The sound of a fist striking thinly padded flesh and bone was greatly amplified in the small, stone-walled cavity. On the receiving end of the blow, Millie Burnett was keenly aware of its impact against the side of her face. All else, including the harsh words behind the fist, came to her only through a stunned haze as she was knocked to the hard ground.
Sprawled there, the haze threatened to envelop her in complete unconsciousness, then it ebbed back and she was left with a vague awareness of Sam Kelson hovering over her with his fists still balled. Ben Craddock was pressed against him, grabbing Kelson’s arm to prevent him from delivering another blow.
“What the hell’s gotten into you? What was that for?” Craddock demanded.
Thrusting out a wisp of flimsy white cloth clutched in his left fist, Kelson replied, “This! This is why. And what’s gotten into me is the discovery of what this treacherous brat has been trying to do to betray us.”
A puzzled scowl appeared on Craddock’s face. “I don’t understand. What about a scrap of cloth has you so riled and what’s it got to do with the girl?”
Kelson leaned over and flipped up the skirt of Millie’s dress. In her stunned state, Millie was too groggy to do anything to try and stop him. Underneath the skirt, up near the waist line of the soiled petticoat, several of the frilly bands that encircled the garment had been torn away and sections were missing.
“There!” Kelson said, pointing. “I don’t know exactly how, but—“ He paused to pull the skirt back down and examine it. After a moment he found a five-inch vertical rent high in the front of the material. Thrusting his hand through it, he said, “Right here! Don’t you see? As we were making our way here from the other cave last evening, with her hands tied in front, our little miss was sneakily reaching through the tear in her skirt and ripping off pieces of her petticoat to drop and leave behind as trail markers for somebody to follow.”
Craddock still looked confused. “But I still don’t . . . How could . . .”
Kelson made another attempt to push past him, reaching for Millie. “I aim to teach this brat a lesson and show her how her treachery is only going to fix it so things don’t go so good for her.”
Craddock planted a hand in Kelson’s chest and shoved him back. “Now, damn it, back off a minute! What are you gonna do? Kill her? Beat her to a pulp? How is that gonna change or fix anything?”
“It’ll make me feel better and teach her a lesson she won’t ever forget!”
“If she survives the beating maybe. But is that why we brought her along? Do we want her all beaten and bruised to hel
l?”
“If she brings that bounty hunter pack down on our necks, what difference does it make?” Kelson protested. “She may have ruined the whole damn plan!”
Where she lay at the two men’s feet, Millie had regained her full senses by that point. Her bloodied mouth curved into a coldly satisfied smile. From the scrap of petticoat Kelson had somehow found, he’d guessed exactly what she’d done and what she hoped to accomplish. As her despair grew over failing to escape and then hearing her father had been killed, Millie’s spirit had for a time spiraled to near hopelessness.
But that voice calling her name—the voice of her father, impossible as it seemed—had reawakened her will to survive and her fierce determination to keep fighting back against these lowlifes who believed they had her worn down and helpless.
So, on the trek from the larger cavern to the temporary cave, while neither Kelson or Craddock were paying much attention to her due to her seemingly defeated behavior, she’d devised the plan to reach through her torn skirt and tear off pieces of petticoat to leave as a trail for someone to follow. It was a long shot, of course, based solely on that voice calling her name and her subsequent belief it must mean there was something more to Jensen showing up and the dreadful claims he’d made. But it was a beginning, the beginning of her once again resisting and dedicating herself to finding a way to thwart those who held her captive.
“You’re not thinkin’ straight,” Craddock was telling Kelson forcefully. “Sure, you may have caught on to her little trick and that was mighty sharp of you. But the way you’re reactin’ is pullin’ you off the rails. Beatin’ the hell out of the girl might make you feel better, but what else is it gonna gain?”
“What else is there? What are you getting at?” Kelson wanted to know.
“Stop and think. How did you find that scrap of cloth?”
“When I went out to reconnoiter a little bit ago. The wind is starting to pick up some and I noticed it fluttering where it was sticking out of a crack in the ground. I went a little ways farther back the way we came and there was another one. That’s when it hit me—when I figured out what the little bitch was trying to pull.”
Craddock nodded. “Okay. Like I said, that was sharp of you to notice and then figure out. But don’t you see? So far, it doesn’t really matter. It hasn’t had any chance to accomplish what it was meant to.”
Kelson scowled, said nothing.
“Here’s the thing,” Craddock went on. “We got here last evening then holed up for the night. So it’s about midmorning now, right? How long did you figure it would take somebody to dig through that passage the way we left it blocked?”
Kelson’s scowl relaxed a bit. “A day or so. Depending how many men worked on it, what they had in the way of tools.”
“Are you startin’ to see what I’m gettin’ at now?” Craddock said, spreading his hands. “There’s a good chance those bounty hunters ain’t even dug all the way through that pile of rubble yet. Or, if they have, just barely. Either way, I’d say it’s damned unlikely anybody has found their way through that escape tunnel and are tryin’ to follow us yet. That means no matter how many trail markers the girl left, they got no chance to lead anybody anywhere because nobody’s had the chance to find any of ’em yet.”
“You know, you make a good point. Hell, I think you might be exactly right,” Kelson agreed. “There hasn’t been time enough for anybody to start tracking us yet.”
“I don’t see how,” Craddock said.
“Meaning if we go out and remove those damn markers they won’t lead nobody nowhere.”
“One of us goin’ out to remove the markers might run a risk of bein’ spotted, especially back closer to that other cave, in case some of those bounty hunters have started sniffin’ out our trail sooner than we’re figurin’.”
Kelson shook his head. “Don’t matter. It’s a risk worth taking. It’s better than leaving those scraps of frillies in place to lead right to us. Even if some of those bounty hunters are on the prowl, nobody alive knows these badlands better than me. I guarantee I’ll see them before they do me.”
Craddock eyed him. “So you figure you’re the one to go out?”
“That’s right,” Kelson stated firmly. “Like I said, I’m the one with the best chance of not getting spotted in case we’ve already got company roaming around out there.” He returned Craddock’s gaze and put a trace of flint in his. “Besides, if I was to turn you loose, you might get lost and not ever find your way back. And since you’ve now got a full money belt around your waist, that might not bother you very much. But it would pure annoy the hell out of me.”
“Same could be said about you, couldn’t it?”
Kelson gave a slow shake of his head. “Not hardly. This cave is part of my escape plan and I have no intention of abandoning it until I’m ready or am forced to. Also part of my escape plan is for my whole gang—which amounts to me and you, the way it’s turned out—to stick together until I say it’s time to split up. So if you get a notion to take off on me while I’m gone, you’d best remember what I said about how well I know these badlands.”
Chapter 50
Luke and Russell were following the trail of petticoat scraps.
“That is one clever gal,” Luke had muttered after they came across the second torn piece and recognized what it meant. “In this rocky, trackless terrain where picking out sign is damn near impossible, she’s practically drawing us a map.”
“Not many others take the time to notice it,” Russell said earnestly, “but I’ve long been aware that Millie has a brain to match her beauty.”
Luke gave him a sidelong glance. “Uh-huh. And I suppose that’s what first attracted you to her, eh? Her big, beautiful brain?”
Russell blushed. “I never meant to imply . . . That is to say . . .”
“What your tongue is stumbling over,” Luke told him, “is admitting you’re in love with Millie. If you can’t even say it to yourself, how in blazes are you ever going to get around to telling her?”
Russell suddenly looked like a sour taste had filled his mouth. “How could I ever tell her that? Practically the only time I ever work up the courage to talk to her at all is when I run into her on the street or maybe at her father’s office when I’m there on some legal business for Mr. Mycroft . . . or was, I guess I should say. Even those times, I get so . . . well, like you just said, my tongue sort of stumbles all over itself.”
“The thing you’d better get through your thick skull,” Luke said, “is that those days are over.”
“What do you mean?” Russell asked.
Luke showed him a tolerant smile. “What I mean is, when this thing is all done and we get Millie back to Arapaho Springs, you won’t have to tell her anything about how you feel. Unless she’s blind or a whole lot dumber than you make her out to be, she’s going to see what everybody else can—how much you love her and what you’ve put yourself through to prove it.”
Russell’s forehead puckered. “You really think so? But there was also you and all the others who started out with us. Everybody put themselves through a lot. Why would she see something different in me?”
“It shows, kid. Trust me, she’ll see the difference,” Luke assured him. A second later, he suddenly threw himself to the ground and bellied flat behind a hump of weather-smoothed rock.
Russell didn’t hesitate to do the same. And when Luke swept off his hat, Russell also copied that.
After several seconds, Luke cautiously lifted his head and scanned ahead over the barren, rugged landscape, looking for the source of the movement that had caught his eye and caused him to react. Flattening back down again, he turned to Russell. First he held his index finger straight up; then he tipped it and pointed in the direction he’d been looking; then he tipped it downward, extended the finger next to it, and moved them together to simulate a walking motion. Signaling: One man, straight ahead, walking in their direction.
Russell nodded his understanding.
As Luke slowly, carefully moved over and through the badlands moonscape, he puzzled some on why the man he had spotted was moving back toward the big cavern. Assuming it must be either Craddock or Kelson, what could be their purpose? Maybe to sneak back into the cavern and try a surprise ambush on whoever they found there? If so, why only one of them? Maybe they’d had a falling-out. That wouldn’t be especially surprising, considering the temperament of two such ruthless men. But if it had come to that, where did it leave Millie?
As he wrestled with those thoughts, it neither slowed Luke’s progress nor dulled the intensity with which he continued to stalk the man in question. Abruptly, he again caught sight of the man and saw him clearly. It was Kelson. Luke saw what he was up to. He was gathering up the scraps of cloth, trying to erase the trail Millie had laid down.
Luke grimaced. Discovery of what the girl had done couldn’t bode well for her resulting treatment. He reasoned that Craddock was probably hunkered down somewhere with Millie while Kelson undertook this mission to get rid of the markers that would lead to them. Too bad for him that his mission had put him on a “get rid of ” list all his own. The trick, though, was to do it quietly so as not to alert Craddock right away. Then, after he had time to work up a nervous sweat because his partner didn’t make it back, maybe he’d reach a panic point where he’d reveal himself for his own turn to be gotten rid of.
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