With painstaking care they got four more unconscious men out. Cole swiped at the sweat on his brow and pulled his arm away to see a bright smear of blood. It startled him into jumping, and the move made his stomach dive and his head throb.
He steadied himself and went back to work. As the sun dipped behind Mount Kebbel, the shadows lengthened and seemed to reach for them like shrouded hands of death.
Two more men climbed out, conscious, bleeding, and unsteady, but standing upright on their own. More of the diggers supported them on the way to the makeshift hospital.
“Let’s open it up more for the rest of us,” Gully ordered, sounding more cheerful. “The rest of us ain’t so skinny.”
Cole had lost diggers now because he’d sent them to help Murray. Those of them left tore at the opening with all their strength, though Cole had to admit his strength was waning. He was more aware with every shovelful of rocks that he had his own host of cuts and bruises. His knees ached and bled. His arms were coated with blood from falling before and cutting himself to bits digging and moving stones.
He vaguely remembered falling while he raced toward that first burning fuse and dashing his face on a rock.
Nothing that needed doctoring, though, not like these other poor souls.
He was surrounded by miners, both outside the cave and inside, so the rocks and dirt moved fast. Finally they had a gap with some height, so a larger man could crawl out.
“Enough. We’re coming.” Gully knew what he needed and Cole didn’t, so he let the foreman give the orders. One by one, five big men emerged from the collapsed mine entrance.
Gully was the last. He was bleeding, his head and neck crimson, cutting through the thick dirt that coated him.
“Are there more, Gully?”
“Nope.”
“Are you sure? I can go in and do another check.”
“Every man in there is alive and accounted for.” Gully caught him by the arm. “No one goes in there until I clear it. That’s why I wanted all the men out who could get through that little hole. I saw some big cracks in the cave roof and it looks like the ceiling could come down at any moment.”
Grimly, Cole nodded. “Get over there and let Murray take care of you.”
Gully looked him in the eye, hard, studying him. “You need a doctor more than I do, boss. You look like you’ve got more blood on the outside than the inside.” Gully took his arm in a tight grip. Almost like he thought Cole couldn’t stand on his own, which was flat-out foolish because there he stood.
Cole decided he would go along if it made the man happy. He’d even lean on Gully, maybe agree to lie down a while just to put everyone’s mind at ease.
Before he could move an inch, hooves pounded coming from the east, and Cole realized he’d been waiting for that sound for what seemed like an eternity, although he admitted to being mighty confused. He saw Justin in the lead.
He felt a wave of pure relief at the sight. His brother—who he never stopped fighting with—was here. Justin would take charge for a while, and maybe Cole would just sit until his head stopped throbbing.
Justin’s wife, Angie, rode at his side—rode pretty well too, for a woman new to horses. Justin had been working with her.
Heath came next, riding alongside Cole’s little sister Sadie. The two of them were married now. Riding even with them to make four in a row was Jack Blake and his daughter, Melanie. For some reason Cole’s eyes settled on Mel—who’d kill him if he ever called her Melanie—and his vision shifted to strange and dark around the edges, as if he were looking through a tunnel. It narrowed more until she was all he could see, the only light in a black world. Her long caramel-brown braid blew back as she galloped. Her skin was tanned, even in winter. He couldn’t see her eyes from here, but he knew they were light brown and that her coloring altogether was a single golden-brown glow.
She was beautiful. He’d never thought about her looks before. Well, maybe once or twice. But they’d grown up together, so you’d’ve thought he’d’ve noticed just how beautiful she really was.
Then he heard shouting, plenty of that today, but for some reason this shouting was aimed at him. Then the rocky ground punched him in the face—as if he hadn’t taken enough of a beating today. And the tunnel he’d been looking through closed shut as the world went pitch-black.
2
Mel cried out in shock when Cole collapsed. She wasn’t the only one.
But she wasn’t a screamer by nature. She flung herself off her horse and rushed toward him. He’d fallen hard, and his head looked like it had bounced off a boulder. He was soaked with blood all down his shirt and arms, and covered with dirt.
Dropping to her knees, she saw Justin reaching for him on the other side.
A stout man, coated head to toe in dust, with trails of blackened blood being the only thing that kept him from being stone gray, said, “Pick him up and bring him along to the office. We’re putting the wounded in there.”
Justin lifted Cole in his arms. Mel knew Cole and Justin were the same size, similar in so many ways, tall with dark hair and dark blue eyes. So the feat of lifting Cole was an act of enormous strength. It was strength almost certainly fueled by fear.
Mel reached out from her side to help bear the weight, but Heath Kincaid pushed Mel gently but firmly aside and caught Cole across from Justin.
Normally, Mel didn’t like backing up for a man, but in this case she admitted Heath was better able to help carry Cole.
“Let’s get him inside.” Justin nodded at the building with a hole in its roof.
They headed for the battered structure. Sadie rushed ahead with Angie and a few others. There was more doctoring needed than just Cole, Mel reckoned.
When they reached the building, which looked near to falling in on itself, Mel felt everything in her tamp down until she was fiercely calm. Inside, wounded men lay everywhere. Bleeding, some moaning, some stoically quiet. Some unconscious . . . at least she hoped they were unconscious and not dead.
She saw half the Boden family surrounding Cole, so Mel decided to see where else help was needed. One man was wearing a filthy suit, the only man in a suit besides Cole. The man pointed and shouted an order to someone. Mel decided he was the doctor in the crowd.
She picked her way around the wounded and went to the doctor’s side. “Tell me what you need.”
The man looked up at her very suddenly, his eyes wide with shock, maybe because of hearing a woman’s voice, or maybe because the man looked battered himself. She wasn’t sure if he was splattered with his own blood or someone else’s. “Come with me,” he said.
Following him, they moved to a victim lying on his back. His leg was bandaged and resting on a rolled-up blanket.
“I need you to wash the cuts on his head and neck. He’ll need stitches, and the wounds need to be absolutely clean. Once you’re done, call me.”
“I can set stitches, Doc.”
“It’s Murray. I’m not a doctor.”
“Today you’re a doctor.”
“Sew him up if you’ve got a notion. I’ve found only one needle, so we’ll have to take turns.”
As the doctor rushed off, Mel wondered what in the world had gotten into her that she would offer to sew. She didn’t really know how to set stitches on someone, but she’d seen her ma do it a couple of times. Once on Pa’s thumb, and once on a young colt that’d cut itself on a sharp splinter of wood.
Shaking her head, she figured it couldn’t be that much different from sewing up a torn shirt. She knew enough, then, and help was sorely needed.
She grabbed a bucket of clean water, knelt by her patient, and went to work. She saw Pa across the room. It looked like he was getting the same instructions she had. In fact, just about every cowhand from the Bodens’ Cimarron Ranch had come, and they all went to work. Pa and Mel had been visiting the CR, so they came along and sent word to the Blake Ranch for more help.
There were now too many helping hands, to the point it was hard to
move. Heath took charge and ordered those who’d been here since the explosions to go to their cabins, clean up, eat, and rest for a bit.
He also said something to Justin and Sadie that Mel couldn’t quite make out.
Justin abandoned Cole, as did Sadie. Only Heath hovered at Cole’s side, tending him, looking so busy that Mel started working faster.
She shifted her full attention to her patient as the light faded and lanterns were turned up. Once he was sewn up, she went on to the next one. She lost track of time as she plunged into the chaos and pain.
It was long after dark when she heard someone say, “Would you like some help?”
The strong hand and familiar voice caused her to whip her head around. She leapt to her feet, and her knees buckled. She’d been kneeling by patients for hours so every joint rebelled.
Cole grabbed her and steadied her.
She realized who had her and smiled. “You’re awake and moving around.” They’d been friends since childhood, and she’d been horrified to see him collapse.
“I’ve been conscious for about two hours and helping for one. I wasn’t hurt bad, just took a whack on the head, then bled too much and worked to the bone—along with everyone else—digging my men out of the cave.”
“Well, good.” She noticed a neat row of stitches on his forehead. He was a mess and very pale, but he looked himself again. “Who sewed you up?”
“Heath did it. Murray, the guy I’ve seen giving you orders all night—”
“Murray’s the one in the suit? He said he wasn’t a doctor, but he sure acts like a doctor.”
“Murray Elliot. He’s my assistant here at the mine. Someone had to take charge before help came. Heath took over and tended me, who’s a better doctor than Murray. Then Doc Garner got here from Skull Gulch and he took charge. Mostly we’ve all been working hard enough that there wasn’t a whole lot of time to judge who was the best doctor.”
Mel looked around the room. Through the hole in the roof she saw the first blush of dawn. A wave of exhaustion swept over her. She took a few steps so she could lean against the oak desk. That’s when she realized the room was much emptier now. There had to have been twenty men stretched out in here before. Now there were five, and they were all moved to the edges of the room. Most of the Boden cowhands were gone, too.
“D-did everyone make it?” She hated asking because she’d worked over many of them and knew a few were in fragile condition.
Cole came to her and leaned beside her on the desk. He’d gone just as long without sleep as she had, and he’d lived through an explosion and hours of hard work digging the cave open. It made her feel like a weakling. “Every man who regained consciousness and could walk went back to their own beds in the bunkhouses. That was most of them. The ones left here either haven’t woken up yet or have got a broken bone Doc hasn’t set yet. Doc heard it was an explosion and feared the worst so he brought a lot of plaster with him, but still he ran out. He sent someone to Skull Gulch for more of it. He’ll finish casting the breaks when they get back.”
“I live out here on the mining site, Miss Blake. Got my own cabin.” Gully, who’d given her the first orders, wiped his face with both hands. “I’ve sent the womenfolk over to my place to sleep. You’ll have to set up a pallet on the floor, but there are spare blankets and you’ll have some privacy.”
Mel had never been to the gold mines on the CR property before. It struck her as strange that she hadn’t.
“I’ll try to get a couple of hours’ sleep and then be back here.” She headed for the door.
Cole was at her side again. “Gully’s cabin is a little ways off. I’ll walk you.”
Mel nodded. “Is everyone else gone?”
“Justin and Heath went to sleep in the cabin I live in when I put in long days. I mean, the cabin I used to live in.”
“Before your pa told you he was giving the Cimarron Ranch, including the mines, to your cousin if you didn’t move back home.”
“I’ve never slept here or at my house in Skull Gulch since.”
Mel saw Cole’s jaw clench. She knew he loved the old ranch house on the CR. He loved his job and his family, but Cole made it more than clear that he didn’t like his pa dictating to him. What man did?
Cole opened the door, and the two walked out of the office into the dim light of early dawn.
Mel glanced back to make sure they were alone, then asked quietly, “How many dead?”
Cole’s shoulders sagged. “We found six bodies. There may be more, though. There’s so much rubble, who knows if we’ve missed anyone? But the men have been counting, checking the mines and cabins to make certain. I hope six is the end of it.”
“And you’re hurt.” She settled her hand on his arm. “I know you’ve been working, but you’re barely over being shot.”
Cole had been shot by a man who’d been hired to kill the Boden family. Cole was up and moving, back at work, but that was a long way from being at full strength after a near-deadly bullet wound.
“Yesterday I took a whack on the head and bled. I blacked out, which I appreciate because I wouldn’t have liked being awake to watch Heath stab me in the face with a needle. When I had enough rest, I woke up. It took a while for my head to clear, but it did, and I’ve been working ever since.”
He was too tough to admit he should have spared himself, and Mel didn’t blame him for carrying on. She’d never been able to sit around with her feet up while men were hurt or dying.
Making their way across the rock-strewn ground, Cole led her a ways before she could see the cabin. There was a low light in the window. Someone had turned a kerosene lantern down but not off. Angie and Sadie helping her find her way to bed.
Before they got close enough to be overheard, Mel caught Cole’s hand and drew him to a halt.
He turned, his eyes shadowed in the darkness. “What is it?”
“I just want you to know how sorry I am.” She hugged him, surprising herself, and by the tension in his back, she knew she’d surprised him even more. Well, she wasn’t a hugger, but if a disaster like this wasn’t enough to make her one, then hugs had no place in this world.
“Six men dead. So many hurt, including you. I’m so glad you’re all right. I’ll be here to help for as long as you need me.” She pulled back with a sheepish smile. “Sorry . . . thanks for walking me to the cabin.”
Cole nodded, looking down at her. The sun was starting to rise, and she could finally see his face. Without a bit of warning, Cole dragged her back into his arms and hugged her back.
In a whisper, he said, “You know those explosions were no accident. Someone set them.”
“I heard some talk about that, but I was hoping it wasn’t right.”
He drew back a half step. “The sheriff came out same time as the doctor from Skull Gulch. I wasn’t up to walking him around, but I told him what I saw. Then Gully went out and showed him what happened. The sheriff agrees it was deliberate, yet I knew that from the first. It’s mighty hard to believe this isn’t connected to all the other trouble we’ve had.”
A shiver went down her spine. “I thought you arrested the men behind the attack on your pa and the one who shot you.”
Cole pushed her hair back from her face. She couldn’t imagine what a mess she was after the long, wild ride and the night of helping wounded men. Even now she didn’t much care, not when she thought of how close they’d come to losing Cole.
“I thought we had. But based on this madness, I’d say we must not have gotten them all.” Cole looked up at the sky. Her eyes focused on his mouth. He was tall, but so was she. Because his mouth was right there, it caught her attention somehow and she wasn’t sure why.
He looked down again, his dark blue eyes seeming black in the first blush of dawn. They met her eyes and held.
He stared a moment too long, and for sure she stared right back. Then he tore his eyes away by turning his head and shaking it. “Best get to bed now. We may need a lot of help, but I�
�m afraid it’s the kind of help best done with a noose.”
Mel knew what that meant. Whoever had done this terrible thing was a murderer looking at Judgment Day.
3
“Tell me again how those boxes of dynamite were set.” Justin strode alongside Cole, heading toward the cave where the explosives were stored.
“I’ve told you five times.” Cole was doing his best to keep up with his brother’s long paces. Cole had been shot a month ago. Now he’d nearly been blown up. Normally, Justin couldn’t outwork him, he sure couldn’t outthink him, and he’d never been able to outwalk him.
Cole was mighty tired of getting hurt while his baby brother dodged all the bullets.
Not that he wanted Justin shot, for heaven’s sake. But Cole would be obliged if trouble stopped dropping on his head.
Justin reached a stack of wooden crates full of explosives. “This is the first one I found.” He knelt and picked up the stick of dynamite with the cut fuse. “You had about an inch left when you got here.” Justin looked from the fuse up to Cole. “You’re a reckless fool, big brother.”
Luckily, Cole was too exhausted to start fighting over the insult. “We need to get all of these covered up. The men brought them all up.”
Cole took a few minutes to point out where the boxes had been set, all over the sloping face of the mountain. “They can’t sit out like this, and from now on we’ll have to keep them under lock and key. Thing is, I’ve got no way to lock them up right now, not in this cave anyway.” Cole could lock them inside his cabin, but the miners needed dynamite now and again and he’d always just let them use it when asked. After what happened, though, he needed someone to oversee handing it out. Records had to be kept from now on.
“I’ve never worried overly about the explosives. Now I feel like a careless fool for overlooking something so obvious.”
Justin stopped and turned back to Cole, and they looked straight into each other’s eyes. They were a close match. They might have passed for twins, even though Cole was five years older.
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