One handed, Mason flipped the shotgun around and offered the butt of it to Billy. “You going to tell me how you got out of that jail cell?”
“You’re giving me your gun?” Billy was so surprised at the offer of the shotgun that he kept his grip on the girl’s wrist.
“One minute you’re smart and the next you’re stupid. I’m not aiming at myself. ’Course I’m giving it to you…now take it. Watch the girl while I take the reins.”
“What about Sheriff Carney?” Billy asked as he accepted the weight of the gun.
“He’s in the livery,” Mason said. “Now you going to tell me how you got out of jail?”
Mason took the horse’s reins.
What had the doctor called the big ox? Billy. So how had Billy the simpleton escaped the jail cell?
This bothered Mason more than he would let on, as he prided himself on taking care of details. All of them. After locking Billy in the cell, Mason had gone through the sheriff’s office and removed all the firing pins from the weapons. Small as the chance was, with what Mason had in mind, there might come the day that Sheriff Carney had a gun on Mason. It wouldn’t hurt knowing the weapon was useless.
Mason would find out how the simpleton escaped the cell, but more important was getting the girl secured, like Carney and Evans. After using the pitchfork handle to knock the men out, bale twine to tie securely both unconscious men, and Evans’s bandanna to gag them, Mason dragged them into a feed room. He came out of the livery to look for the girl, whom he had seen leading the horse out through the gate. He’d intended to follow her first to learn what he could about her escape plans. Instead, Billy had sprung up out of nowhere.
Instead of seeing Billy’s arrival as a complication, Mason decided that Billy could be of considerable use once they reached the inside of the livery. So before calling out, he’d emptied the shotgun. It hadn’t been easy, cracking it open and dropping the shells into his motionless open hand at the end of the cast. Nor had it been easy keeping the shotgun tucked under his good arm so his other hand could transfer the shells into his pockets—one in each so the shells wouldn’t clink as he walked.
But after the men were tied and the gun was emptied, the rest of Mason’s plans would be easy. They would end with a fire killing Carney and Evans and framing Billy. Mason would be long gone with the canister before anyone figured out what had happened. Long gone, as in free. Outside.
The girl on the horse was silent as Mason turned them both around. She wouldn’t be silent for long, he thought, grinning in the dark. Some pleasures would arrive sooner than others.
With Billy behind him, Mason walked the horse toward the large, open doors of the livery. As he neared the building, he lifted his face into the security lights, making sure the surveillance camera had a good view. According to his plan, the footage would show the girl on the horse’s back and the deputy pointing a shotgun at both of them.
Face toward the camera, Mason clearly mouthed a silent word. Help.
NINETEEN
The livery was built with open rafters, wide beams of wood where rats scurried with impunity, heard but unseen in the deep shadows. The fluorescent lighting that hung from the beams illuminated a corridor of clean concrete running between stalls. Billy felt more at home here than with his adoptive parents and certainly more comfortable than in the sheriff’s office. He felt a twinge of sadness at the memory of being plucked away from the livery and forced into the deputy position.
He looked at the clean floor with nostalgia and smelled the hay and straw with approval. The horses were still well cared for.
He glanced at the stalls, and some of the horses looked back with various degrees of curiosity. Billy knew many of the horses better than he knew any people.
Here in the light, Billy finally got a better look at the fugitive. She showed no emotion from her perch on the saddled horse. She stared calmly at Mason Lee’s back. She was wearing a cloak, with only her hands visible. And, of course, her face.
Billy blinked, hoping he didn’t show how his stomach suddenly felt dizzy. At least that’s how he would have explained it if he’d ever risked telling anyone what had happened when her eyes met his. Something about her calmness. Mostly her face, drawing him in so that he could hardly breathe.
He forced himself to look away, searching for Sheriff Carney.
“First tell me how you escaped the jail cell, then I’ll tell you where to find the sheriff.” Billy didn’t understand how Mason could have so easily anticipated Billy’s next question.
“I had a key,” Billy said.
“You had a key.”
“Ever since I locked myself in, I kept a key tied to my shoelace. I didn’t want to give Sheriff Carney a reason to yell at me if I locked myself in again.”
“Blind pig finding an acorn.” Mason shook his head in disgust. Billy couldn’t tell if Mason was disgusted with Billy or himself.
“Where’s Sheriff Carney?” Billy asked.
“It won’t matter to you.” Mason reached his good arm behind him and pulled out a pistol he’d tucked into his belt at his lower back. “Might as well drop the shotgun. No shells in it.”
Billy felt his mouth drop open. No shells. He wanted to open the gun and look but was afraid that Mason would shoot him or the girl.
Mason pointed the pistol at the midsection of the girl on the horse. “Toss the shotgun in the hay. You don’t want her to be belly-shot. Trust me.”
Billy threw it onto the nearby hay.
“Good boy,” Mason said, as if speaking to a dog. “Go down to the far end and open the other set of doors. As you work your way back, open each stall and let the horses out. I want them all out in the yard. Then open the yard gate.”
“The horses might run loose,” Billy said, recoiling from the instructions. This was the worst thing that could happen. Except for a fire.
“Do it,” Mason snapped. “If you don’t come back, you’ll be leaving the girl to die. Understand?”
Billy thought about it long enough to make sure he understood before nodding his head. He wished Sheriff Carney were nearby.
“Go,” Mason said.
Billy returned to Mason in less than five minutes. The horses knew his smell and were accustomed to him moving them out in the yard to clean the stalls. Billy couldn’t stand it, thinking that some of the horses might have already escaped through the open gate and were wandering into the hills.
“Now fetch some twine,” Mason said.
Billy pulled twine loose from a hay bale, seeing no choice but to obey, and he dropped it in front of Mason.
“Help her down,” Mason said, standing well clear of Billy. Still, Billy could smell the man’s sweat, like that of a boar.
“I’m sorry,” Billy said to her softly, reaching up. “He’s Mason Lee. The bounty hunter. I didn’t know things would happen like this.”
She surprised him with a small, compassionate smile. She didn’t struggle. She was light, bracing on both his arms, and her cloak was soft on his face as he set her on her feet. It seemed to Billy that she didn’t weigh anything at all, even accustomed as he was to moving things with little effort.
Mason kept his pistol trained on both of them. “Tie her hands. Behind her back.”
As he did, Billy saw that her fingers were long, almost like claws. He didn’t find it frightening.
“Tie her ankles,” Mason said. “Then set her on her back in that hay.”
Billy was as gentle as he could be. “I’m sorry,” he whispered again.
When he straightened, he noticed for the first time a strange metal canister near the pile of hay. He’d never seen it in the livery before.
“Sit on the floor, raise your knees, and tie your ankles,” Mason directed Billy, now pointing the pistol at his midsection.
Billy lowered himself. He cinched the twine until Mason grunted with approval.
“Roll over.”
“You can shoot me this way,” Billy said. “I’d just as soon see
it coming.”
Mason walked to him and kicked him in the side of the head. It rocked Billy but didn’t turn him over.
“You are an ox,” Mason said, half in admiration. “That’d put any other man down. Now roll over before I shoot the girl.”
Billy turned onto his stomach. Mason pounced on his lower back and sat heavy.
“I’ve got this pistol tucked under my bad arm,” Mason said. “But don’t think I’d be slow to pull it on you. Both hands behind your back where I can tie them myself.”
Billy thought it would be better to die fighting, but the thought of the girl held him back, as he had no doubt Mason would shoot her. Maybe if Billy obeyed, she’d be okay. He knew now that she was the fugitive and worth bounty money. Billy lifted his hands from the concrete and put them on his back. Mason wrapped his wrists with the remaining twine, then stood.
“Not going to shoot you,” Mason said to Billy. “That would spoil my fun.”
He knelt beside Billy and showed him the long bowie knife he’d pulled from the sheath on his back. He nicked Billy’s cheek. The blood felt like tears.
“You shouldn’t have crossed me in the sheriff’s office,” Mason said. “When I’m finished with her, you’re next. Then I burn the place down, and you’ll take the blame.”
“People here know I don’t like hurting anyone,” Billy said. He heard a sound, like rats, on the rafters. He wanted to keep Mason talking.
“Not after they see the surveillance camera, with you and the shotgun following us into the livery. A person like you would let the horses out before starting a fire, right? That’s on surveillance camera too.”
Billy thought about it and realized it was true.
Mason laughed. “If only you could see your face and that frown.”
Mason stood again and moved to the girl. He pulled the metal canister close and opened the lid and set it beside the girl. White vapor rose from inside.
Mason held the tip of the knife above the girl’s belly. “I’m going to cut you wide open. It’s all right if you scream. Please do.”
He looked back at Billy. “You watching?”
Billy was watching. What he saw was a big rock that fell on Mason’s head.
TWENTY
I did it! I did it!”
Theo dropped from the rafter above Caitlyn into the hay beside her. Wisps of it clung to his hair.
She was breathing heavily in amazement as she watched him hopping around. She wanted to cry. Anything to release the tension. Before the rock knocked against Mason’s skull, he’d already turned the knife sideways and used the tip to pull upward on the fabric of her cloak, toying with her. She’d had no doubt he intended to slice through her skin and stomach muscles, gutting her like a deer as he’d promised. What she didn’t understand was why.
“I did it!” Theo said. “I did it! I was so scared, crawling on rafters, and I couldn’t see anything. I had to aim for the sound of his voice. And I did it.”
Caitlyn couldn’t cry. She wouldn’t allow it. She forced the numbness to return so she could react without emotion and do what needed to be done.
“Get his knife,” Caitlyn said. Mason lay beside her, blood pouring from a gash in the top of his head. What if he opened his eyes? Theo wouldn’t have a chance against the man. As much as she wanted to stay numb, terror threatened to seep past her defenses. With it would come paralysis.
“The knife!” Theo said. “He was going to cut you open, wasn’t he? I heard everything he said. I had that rock and climbed along the rafters, and I was afraid I might miss him because everything was a blur and—”
“The knife!” she snapped. “Now!”
Theo blinked as if she’d slapped him, but she’d have to apologize later. Didn’t the boy have any clue about the urgency of their circumstances? She wanted to shake him.
Theo dropped to his knees and felt around. “Where? Where?”
“To your right,” Caitlyn said. Less stridently. “We need to go.”
“Yes!” Theo said. “Got it!”
His fingers could barely fit around the handle.
“Hold the blade toward you,” Caitlyn held her hands in front of her, lifting them away from her body.
Theo moved the knife in place.
“You hold the knife still,” Caitlyn said. “I’ll do the sawing.”
She pulled her arms toward herself, until the twine between her wrists was tight against the blade. She moved her arms up and down, feeling the strands fall apart.
“How did you know I was here?” she asked.
“I was crouched by the gate,” Theo said, speaking in a rush of excitement. “I heard everything when the guy with the shotgun got there. I followed into the yard. Then Billy caught me when he was letting the horses out.”
“He caught you!” Caitlyn said.
They both looked at the big man—Theo called him Billy—who was silent. On the floor, on his belly.
“He found a rock for me,” Theo said. “He told me about the rafters and how to get up there. He told me what I needed to do.”
“True?” Caitlyn asked Billy.
He nodded. “He was wandering around out there like he was blind. I stopped him from walking into a wall. I had to show him where to climb the rafters, but he promised he’d save you.”
Caitlyn reached down and cut the twine around her ankles. She had so many questions. But this wasn’t the time to think or ask.
“I did great, didn’t I?” Theo said. “Up on the rafters, I was afraid. But I made myself do it. I’m brave, right? If I hadn’t—”
“Theo…later.” Terror tugged her from one direction. Numbness another.
“Right. Later.” He grinned, unoffended. “But wasn’t it great, dropping the rock?”
Caitlyn spoke to Billy. “The bounty hunter will kill you if he finds you tied up after we’re gone. You’re a witness.”
Billy nodded. “He doesn’t like me.”
He was like a boy in a man’s body, trusting, not begging to be cut loose. She might as well kill him herself if she left him trussed. And she understood the horror that he had spared her by sending Theo into the rafters.
“How do we know you won’t arrest us if we cut you loose?” Caitlyn asked.
“Hey!” Theo interrupted, before Billy could answer. “I can’t go back to the factory. I just can’t!”
“Theo, I can’t let him get killed.”
“I won’t chase you,” Billy said.
“What if he’s just saying that?” Theo blurted. “Don’t trust him.”
Caitlyn knelt beside Billy with the knife in her hand.
“Maybe we should hit him on the head with the rock,” Theo said. “Just a little. To slow him down.”
Caitlyn glanced at Mason Lee, unconscious in the hay. She had to weigh the consequences of leaving Billy helpless against the risk to herself if they cut him loose. Again, she looked at the bounty hunter, and she remembered his knife against her belly. Her mouth tightened with anger, and she cut the twine around Billy’s wrists. Then she threw the knife down the corridor. “You can roll down there and get it yourself and cut your ankles loose.”
That would give them a head start if Billy couldn’t be trusted.
“Thank you.” Billy’s eyes never left her face.
“On the horse,” Caitlyn told Theo. The horse had stamped its feet and quivered during the commotion but hadn’t spooked. That suited her as it meant it was docile enough to trust. “We don’t have much time.”
She helped Theo onto the horse, then lightly swung herself up. With Theo sitting in front of her, she urged the horse out of the livery and into the darkness.
Billy stood at the open doors of the livery, staring out at the night that had just swallowed the fugitives. He held Mason’s bowie knife, hardly aware it was in his fingers.
Once again, he had to make a decision in a hurry. Should he worry about finding Sheriff Carney first? Or should he stop the escape? He was bound by duty to give pursuit bu
t also bound by a promise not to follow them. The longer he took in deciding, the farther away they would get.
The dizzy feeling in his stomach returned, as he remembered the intensity in her eyes. He decided to give her and the boy as long as possible to flee. It would give Sheriff Carney a good reason to take away the deputy badge. Billy wouldn’t have any more of these kinds of troubles.
He felt good about this decision.
The horses were still in the yard. Nothing had happened to spook them. Billy planned to shut the gate and make sure they came to no harm, but first he should tie up Mason’s wrists and ankles.
When Billy turned, he saw that it was too late. His eyes were drawn to flames, already racing through the hay.
Then he saw Mason, who stood a few paces from fire. The side of his head was soaked with blood, and some had spilled over his eyebrows, turning his face into a mask. The pistol was tucked beneath his cast-wrapped arm. In his other hand, he held a lit match above another swatch of hay.
Billy took a step inside.
“Stop there.” Mason dropped the match into the hay. He drew the pistol out from his armpit and pointed it at Billy.
Billy stopped. A new set of flames sprang into life and raced away from Mason. Billy held the big knife, but it wouldn’t do any good against Mason’s pistol.
“You don’t know how bad I want to shoot you,” Mason said.
A loud crack echoed in the rafters over his head. It took Billy a moment to realize that Mason had fired the pistol.
Mason grinned. He lifted the gun chest high and advanced toward Billy. “Your word against mine. Want to stick around and see who they believe? Start running, or I just might wing you a little.”
Billy turned and ran.
Seconds after he made it outside the gate, the horses began to stream through it too, stampeding away from the fire and the smoke.
Mason hurried to the feed shed as the flames started to crackle.
It had taken all his willpower not to spin a slug through Billy’s ribs. Bad as he’d wanted to, however, he wanted to get Outside more. Delayed pleasure. With Billy alive and running, on the surveillance camera fleeing the fire, Carney would be forced to hunt down his deputy, clearing the way for Mason to find the girl.
Broken Angel Page 9
