Wild Winds

by Janelle Taylor

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Excerpt

  Other Books By

  Title Page

  Dedication

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  Author’s note

  Copyright

  WILD HOPES, WILD DREAMS

  Maggie gasped as Hawk took her hand, closed the door, and pressed her body against the wall as his mouth met hers. The kiss was long, deep and full of yearning. “You’re special, Maggie Malone, real special to me.” His hands cupped her face as he gazed into her eyes and smiled. “Good night, Maggie. I’ll see you in the morning.” He kissed her, then left before he changed his mind about departing.

  She danced across the floor, whirling until she was dizzy. And fell on the bed, her heart beating with elation. She was in love with Hawk Reynolds, and he so much as confessed he was in love with her! Surely a glorious future awaited them.

  Then she bolted upright in a panic. What she had done in Tucson could spoil everything. She should never have broken the law for any reason, but it was too late to change what she’d done.

  Please, God, help me to do the right thing… and please don’t let anything turn Hawk against me. I love him and need him so much …

  Also by Janelle Taylor:

  ANYTHING FOR LOVE

  BY CANDLELIGHT

  CHASE THE WIND

  DESTINY MINE

  DESTINYS TEMPTRESS

  FIRST LOVE, WILD LOVE

  FOLLOW THE WIND

  FORTUNE’S FLAMES

  GOLDEN TORMENT

  KISS OF THE NIGHT WIND

  THE LAST VIKING QUEEN

  LOVE ME WITH FURY

  MIDNIGHT SECRETS

  PASSIONS WILD AND FREE

  PROMISE ME FOREVER

  SWEET, SAVAGE HEART

  TAKING CHANCES

  WHISPERED KISSES

  WILD IS MY LOVE

  The Moondust and Madness Series:

  MOONDUST AND MADNESS

  STARDUST AND SHADOWS

  STARLIGHT AND SPLENDOR

  MOONBEAMS AND MAGIC

  The Savage Ecstasy Series:

  SAVAGE ECSTASY

  DEFIANT ECSTASY

  FORBIDDEN ECSTASY

  BRAZEN ECSTASY

  TENDER ECSTASY

  STOLEN ECSTASY

  BITTERSWEET ECSTASY

  FOREVER ECSTASY

  SAVAGE CONQUEST

  Wild Winds

  Janelle Taylor

  Michael and Melanie Taylor, thanks for the excellent and time-saving research help!

  Richard Megginson, who, during the writing of this novel, rescued me three times when my old computer “died” and my new system crashed twice; thanks!

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO:

  Karen Roberts at the Yuma County Historical Society

  The marvelous staff at the Yuma Territorial Prison State Park

  The Yuma Daily Sun for many helpful articles

  The staff at the Yuma Visitor’s Bureau

  Early Yuma by Sidney Brinckerhoff and Rosalie Crowe, © 1976 by the Yuma County Historical Society

  Prison Centennial 1876-1976 by Cliff Trafzer and Steve George, © 1980 by the Yuma County Historical Society, Rio Colorado Press.

  The Tombstone Tourism Association

  and

  many kind people at Chambers of Commerce, Tourist Bureaus, museums, libraries, and historical sites in Tucson, Prescott, and New Mexico who aided my research.

  Chapter

  One

  Wilcox, Arizona Territory

  Friday, April 13, 1883

  Margaret Anne Malone gaped at her stepfather in disbelief. “Did I understand you correctly, sir: you want me to help your son escape from the Yuma Territorial Prison?”

  “That’s right, Maggie,” answered Newl Carver, his expression solemn. “You’re the only one who can save his life and prove his innocence. Having you come to visit us at this frightful time is nothing short of a miracle, a godsend, the answer to our prayers.”

  Maggie suppressed a smile at Newl’s choice of words. As the owner and manager of the Paradise Club in Tucson, an establishment that dealt in “sins of the flesh"—drinking, gambling, and prostitution—he was not a man she could easily imagine praying. Yet, how could this man be a bad person when he had swept her mother off her feet in less than a month and enticed Catherine to his home in Tucson where they, according to her mother’s letters, had been blissfully happy for the last two years? She forced her mind back to the matter at hand. “I work helping to put men behind bars, sir, so why would you ask me of all people to break one out of prison, even though he’s your son? Besides, I doubt it’s possible for a single person—or even a gang of men—to carry out such a … scheme.”

  “Thank you for not saying it’s crazy. I have no choice but to try. He’s my only child, Maggie. I’m desperate. If the man he’s convicted of wounding dies, Ben will be hanged for murder the next morning. I swear to you: Ben didn’t shoot or rob anybody. He’s been incarcerated for four weeks and his chances for survival grow slimmer every day, every hour—even if that bank teller recovers. Yuma Prison isn’t called the Hellhole of the West without good reason. He’s forced to work like a slave under the desert sun, from the time it rises until it sets. Those cells have iron gates for doors, so they’re infested with all kinds of creatures and bugs; and there’s nothing solid to keep out the bad weather. He has to sleep on an iron bunk stacked three high. He’s cramped in with five brutal men at night and is around hundreds of them during the day.”

  Newl took a breath. “Shortly after he got there, he was attacked and beaten and, to make matters worse, those malicious guards punished him for the trouble by tossing him into that notorious Dark Cell for three days. I’ve heard about that place. It’s nothing more than a cave chiseled out of a rock hill with one tiny hole in the top. Ben was chained inside a cage that’s only five feet high, so standing was impossible; and he was given just bread and water once a day. It lacks any kind of sanitation and it’s only cleaned out every four months, so you can imagine the stench and filth. It’s said some inmates have gone mad or gotten deathly ill while locked in there. Ben told me a few of the guards think it’s funny to drop snakes and scorpions down the air hole to terrorize and punish the unlucky captive. One way or another, my son won’t survive such perils and hardships long enough to serve his sentence or earn a pardon. You have to get him out so he can hide in safety while you prove his innocence.”

  Maggie had never met her stepbrother but she felt sorry he had to endure such torments. Still, he shouldn’t have broken the law. She tried to sound sympathetic, “Since Ben was tried and convicted, sir, the authorities must be certain he’s guilty, which I’m sure is difficult for you to believe.”

  “He was convicted because the two witnesses at his trial were either mistaken or outright lied about him. I know he isn’t guilty.”

  “Pardon me for asking, sir, but how can you be sure he’s innocent?”

  “Because Ben was with me on a hunting trip, not robbing a bank in Prescott. I swore to that in court with my hand on a Bible, but the judge and jury didn’t believe me because I’m his father and because nobody saw us tog
ether to corroborate my testimony. If he had been tried in Tucson where everybody knows the two of us, this travesty of justice wouldn’t have occurred. People there know I’m an honest and honorable man.”

  “If the witnesses were wrong or lying, sir, how do you expect me to expose that? I wouldn’t be able to convince them they’re mistaken; and they surely wouldn’t admit they lied intentionally, if that’s the case.”

  “You’re a detective. You can rescue Ben and obtain the truth. You’re highly skilled at what you do according to what Catherine has told me.”

  Maggie glanced at her mother who looked younger than her forty-two years and was elegantly dressed in the latest fashion from back East. But the blue gaze which matched the color of her own eyes revealed tension and fear. She noted how her mother allowed Newl to do the talking, never concurring or disagreeing with his shocking request. Even so, she knew that Catherine Malone Carver was a strong, courageous, and intelligent woman; she’d had to be to sell the family’s Texas ranch after Jed Malone’s death, move to St. Louis alone, buy a new home, and open a dress shop which she turned into a profitable enterprise. Yet, to prevent Maggie from quitting school in her final year and returning home to comfort and help her, Catherine had kept her father’s death a secret for months. Maggie had found the action angering and deceitful at first, but she had come to understand her mother’s motive and had forgiven her. Was her mother part of a deception now? A deception based on the good intention to help the man she loved? Maggie sighed.

  Having an independent and adventurous streak, Maggie had helped her mother for a year before she went to work for a St. Louis lawyer. In the two years she worked for the man, she carried out many investigations for him, and one day had been approached and then hired by a detective agency whose owner was impressed by her skills. For the last two years, she had handled cases from St. Louis to Denver, to Kansas City, and recently in Sante Fe. Being so close to Tucson, she had decided to visit her mother and stepfather. She hadn’t visited earlier in order to give the newlyweds privacy to begin their new life together, and because she was so involved with her challenging work. Now, Newl Carver was asking her to not only risk destroying her job and reputation, he was also asking her to risk imprisonment and possibly her life to free his son. She didn’t know Ben Carver, who was four months older than she was, but her mother had written and said only good things about him.

  After those jumbled thoughts raced through her mind, Maggie took a deep breath and said, “I can work on his case for you, sir, but I can’t get him out of prison or I’ll wind up serving time with him.”

  “You have to try something, Maggie, anything. If not, Ben won’t live long enough for you to get him exonerated or pardoned. He can hide out with a close friend of mine in Sante Fe. If you can’t clear his name within two months, Ben will turn himself in and never tell anyone you helped him escape. Do this enormous favor for us, and I’ll pay any price you set.”

  “Money isn’t a consideration. As I said, it’s impossible, especially with Yuma Prison involved. I’ve heard it’s built atop a steep rock bluff, has walls that are eighteen feet high and eight feet thick, and has guard towers on all sides, one manned by a Gatling gun. It’s bound by rivers on two sides and has deserts and mountains in all directions. True?”

  “Yes, but you have an advantage that would help you pull it off.”

  “I don’t understand your meaning, sir. What advantage?”

  “Do you still correspond with your roommate from boarding school, Miss Abigail Mercer?”

  “Yes, but what does Abby have to do with this matter?”

  “Have you heard from her since January?”

  “Probably, but I’ve been away from St. Louis for months, so I haven’t been home to get my mail. Which is also why I didn’t know about Ben’s troubles, as I’m sure Mother wrote to me about them.” As Catherine nodded her head, Maggie repeated, “Why did you ask about Abby?”

  “Her father became a Yuma Prison commissioner in January, so the Mercers are living there now. You could conceal your true reason for going there under the guise of a visit to your best friend. With her father employed by the prison, you can find clever ways to extract needed information and can obtain access to the prison to study those inhuman conditions yourself.”

  “How do you know about me and Abby?” Maggie asked, truly puzzled.

  “Catherine told me she was your best friend after we read an article in the Arizona Sentinel about Mercer’s appointment. I take the Yuma paper so I can keep up with the news there, especially what’s written about the prison.”

  “Knowing the Mercers still doesn’t give me a way to get Ben out.”

  “That’s why I said your timing is a godsend: Ben’s working on road detail outside the prison walls, at least for now.”

  “But he’ll be guarded, maybe even wearing leg irons. Surely you aren’t asking me to disarm the guards in daylight and ride off with him?”

  “Certainly not. For your safety, nobody can be told you have a connection to us. Everybody in Tucson knows I have only one child, Ben. Since we’ve only visited in St. Louis and you’ve never been to Tucson, nobody there knows who you are if the Law comes to question us later. There’s no reason why Miss Margaret Anne Malone of St. Louis—guest of a prison commissioner and best friend to his daughter—should fall under suspicion for planning and carrying out Ben Carver’s escape.”

  “But Abby knows all about me. I wrote and told her two years ago that Mother remarried: I told her your name. As soon as Ben escapes, the Yuma paper will be flooded with facts about him. She would surely realize something is wrong when the son of Newl Carver of Tucson escapes while I’m in town for a surprise visit.”

  “If you confided in her, would she betray you to the authorities?”

  “No, she wouldn’t betray me, but I can’t make her an accessory to a crime. Abby’s like a sister to me, so it wouldn’t be right to involve her in any way.”

  “When the truth comes out and an innocent man is saved and the guilty are exposed and punished, you two will be heroines.”

  “What we’ll be is hauled off to jail if we’re exposed during or after the escape, whether or not Ben remains silent or turns himself in later.”

  “You’re a brave and clever woman, Maggie, I’m certain you’ll make this plan work.”

  “I fear I lack your confidence in me in this particular matter, sir. I can’t imagine how I could get him away unnoticed and unharmed.”

  “Don’t worry, my dear. I brought along everything you’ll need: a copy of his trial, articles about the crime, maps and sketches of Yuma and the prison, and the inmates’ daily schedule. I also included other items you’ll need to pass along to him: boots, ‘civilian’ clothes, money, a weapon.”

  Maggie glanced at the bulging satchel Newl had placed on the floor. “How did you get all of this together so fast?”

  “I prepared myself in advance for the time I would find the right man to rescue my son. But the right man turns out to be a beautiful and talented young woman, my stepdaughter. Ben’s stepsister.”

  “’Thanks for your faith in me.” This idea is insane, Maggie, so tell him absolutely no and leave before he figures out a way to ensnare you in it! Don’t be deluded by grandiose visions of heroics and righting thwarted justice. It’s stupid and illegal, so don’t get involved! Besides, it’s an impossible task, isn’t it?

  “I’ll confess I already have a detective working on Ben’s case, but he’s accomplished nothing useful in weeks. I doubt he’s doing more than collecting the high salary I’m paying him. You aren’t my second choice, Maggie, I just was reluctant to drag you into this perilous situation.”

  She smiled her gratitude before asking the questions that raced through her mind. “Why would those witnesses lie? What made them think the culprit was Ben? Prescott is a long way from Tucson, so do they know Ben Carver? If so, how?”

  “One of them is an old rival of mine,” Newl explained, “so he woul
d do anything to hurt me. Years ago we butted heads over where the territory capital would be located. It was Prescott from ‘64-67; but Tucson snatched away that honor and kept it until ‘77 when it was moved back to Prescott. I don’t have to tell you how important it is to a town’s survival in this wild territory to be the capital. I was one of the main forces that got it moved and held in Tucson for those ten years. By the same token, he was one of the main forces that helped take it away from us. Needless to say, he knows me and my son well. He claimed one of the five robbers’ masks slipped down during the holdup and they recognized Ben before he could replace it. Hogwash! If Ben was a criminal and knew they could identify him, he would have killed them to protect himself. As for the teller who was wounded, he never saw that alleged mask incident. The other witness married my self-appointed enemy shortly after the trial ended, so that should explain her motive. I swear to you, Maggie: Ben was hunting with me that day, not committing crimes in Prescott. The other men you want to locate and put behind bars are Pete Barber and Slim Jones. Find them and their accomplices, and force the truth out of them. Save my son for me, please, my dear, I’m begging you. If I’m forced to watch my only child hang and for a crime he didn’t commit, it will kill me, Maggie, simply kill me.”

  While in New Mexico, Maggie had heard of Pete Barber and Slim Jones and knew they were trouble, big trouble. As she watched her stepfather dry his misty eyes with a handkerchief as her mother tried to comfort him, she wondered if she should at least pretend to consider his urgent request rather than saying an emphatic no. What if, she reasoned, New! was right? What if Ben Carver was innocent? What if Ben’s life was in jeopardy? What if she could save him, prove his innocence, and bring the guilty parties to justice? Maybe this visit’s timing wasn’t a coincidence; maybe it was a propitious omen; maybe a divine force had guided her there to right a terrible wrong. Watch it, Maggie, you’re getting sucked into this whirlpool and may drown!