“We’ll rest here.” His voice echoed in a way that told her they’d stepped out of the tunnel into a room. “You’re right. There’s no hurry.”
“I . . . I need to sit.” She let her legs give out; her knees were shaking violently. Her collapsing tore his hand free of the rope.
The echo of her voice told her they were in a good-sized cave, but she couldn’t see a thing. She heard her captor panting and gasping.
Suddenly it occurred to her that if she couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see her.
She felt at the stones around her, behind her, and realized she was within reaching distance of a stalagmite. And she also sat hard on a rather sharp stone. She tugged it out from underneath her and considered how easily Tracker moved in this cave and how used to blindness he was. That meant he could hear her breathing. Hear every footstep. When she made her break, whatever else she did, she had to be silent. He’d never find her.
“I think it’s time we talked about your pa and where he might’ve hidden my money.” Tracker grasped a handful of hair at the nape of her neck, and his hot fetid breath blew against her face. “And you’re right. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
His hand tightened and he laughed, and the laughter echoed as if a thousand madmen had her in their clutches.
Just when she needed to be calm, her breathing even and shallow, she felt a terrified need to gasp for air.
Just when she needed to be utterly silent, she wanted to scream.
He’d followed Seth for so long now he wanted to scream. The next instant, that need was gone.
“Look at that.” Rafe pointed to the cave wall. At a thin black line. Julia had marked her trail.
“What is it? I’ve never marked anything down here.”
“It’s Julia.” Rafe smiled to think of how smart their children were going to be. “She’s left us a trail.”
“And I know exactly where Tracker would take her down here. He’s got a room he’s real fond of, and this mark is taking us in the right direction.” Seth was leading and he sped up.
Rafe was one pace behind. They moved fast now that they knew the way forward and the way back.
Yep, he was marrying a right smart woman. Now all he had to do was find her, convince her that he hadn’t meant all that nonsense about giving her up for Seth, and get her married up and moved in a cabin he planned to build just as soon as he ridded this cavern of one troublemaking “friend.”
And then they’d see about those smart babies.
Julia wondered if she should ask for forgiveness for what she was about to do.
Maybe later.
She smashed Tracker over the head with the rock.
He fell backward, and rather than run—which she’d planned to do—she dove after him, swinging the jagged stone, hitting him wherever she could reach. The jolt in her arm told her that she landed some really good blows.
In her panic it took her a moment to realize he wasn’t fighting back.
He lay unmoving, unconscious. Maybe dead.
Forgiveness definitely, because for right now she didn’t even believe she’d committed a sin—and that must be the greatest sin of all.
“Julia!” The sound turned her, and she saw light. And Rafe.
And the love that shone in his eyes.
She cried out and jumped up just as he got to her side. She threw herself into his arms.
His arms held her so tight she couldn’t breathe. He whispered, “Julia, thank God you’re—ow!”
“Thank God I’m ow?” Julia pulled back. “What’s the matter?”
“Did you just hit me with a . . .”
Julia lifted her arm, which had wrapped around Rafe’s neck.
“ . . . rock?” Rafe rubbed the back of his head.
She still had the stone. Now coated with Tracker’s blood. “Sorry. It was for him.” She gestured with the stone over her shoulder.
Rafe looked past her to see Tracker in a heap on the cave floor. “Nice work.”
“I couldn’t see him when I attacked. I sort of whacked at him everywhere hoping to hit something that’d put him down and keep him down so I could run.”
“Looks like you did it right.”
Tracker’s face was coated in blood.
Julia said, “He was an ugly man to begin with, and the blood does him no favors.”
“It’s just another reason why I love you.” Rafe pulled her close again, maybe a bit more gingerly this time.
“You love me?” Julia’s heart, so thoroughly broken earlier, healed in that instant.
“I do. And I’m not giving you up for anything.”
“Not even for—”
Seth appeared beside them, grinning like a locoweed. “You got him good, Julia.” Then he saw Tracker, and his grin widened. “I always wanted a sister, and I got me a tough one.”
Her body began to shake as all she’d gone through hit her as hard as any stone.
Rafe cradled her, supporting her through the reaction. “Not even for my brother.”
“I thought you were dead.” Julia kissed him. “I thought he’d brought a mountain down on your head. Rafe Kincaid, I love you and I’m not giving you up for anything or anyone.”
The kiss ended when Seth cleared his throat loudly.
Rafe turned to look at Tracker, and that turned Julia around, too.
She said, “I really hope he’s not dead.”
“Me, too.” Rafe held her closer. “I wouldn’t want you to have to carry that on your conscience for the rest of your life.”
“No . . . Well, yes, that’s a good reason, too . . . I guess.”
“You guess?” Rafe arched one brow at her.
“I want him alive so he can be locked up for the rest of his miserable life in the most gruesome prison this territory has to offer. That’s why I hope he’s not dead.” Julia shrugged sheepishly. Faintly she added, “I guess that’s not a very good reason, is it?”
Tracker groaned, clearly not dead. Julia decided she could live with her conscience with no problem. Then she remembered something else. “I saw you get shot, Seth. You’re bleeding.”
Seth looked down at his chest. Then he pulled his shirt aside. An ugly gash about three inches long, halfway between his neck and shoulder, was bleeding freely.
“That looks like a bullet furrow.” Rafe let one arm loose from around Julia, but she noticed he still held her with the other. He tugged a kerchief out of his back pocket and handed it to Seth. “You were heading straight for him. How come it cut up?”
Seth fumbled in the breast pocket of his shirt and pulled out the thick packet of papers with a leather wrapper around them. “This must have deflected the bullet.”
“It’s a worse scratch than my father died from. We need to get you out of here and treat that wound.” Julia smiled. “Hey, you know what I just realized?”
Seth looked up from his life-saving Scripture. Rafe turned to her. They both said, “What?”
“I’ve always wanted a brother, too.”
Seth smiled. Rafe’s arm tightened around Julia’s waist.
The smelly oaf on the cave floor groaned again.
“Let’s get him up and get out of here.”
“Can we get out?” Julia froze as she remembered the collapsing tunnel that had been their way in. “Is there another way? How’d you get down here? How’d you survive the cave-in?”
“I’ll tell you everything while we’re walking out.” Rafe smiled and looked at Seth. “There is a way out, isn’t there?”
“I can get us out.” Seth pulled the rope off his waist and used it to tie Tracker’s hands behind his back. He shook the man until he was alert enough to stand. The flickering lantern light made his bloody head glisten and dance as if his face were on fire.
Seth pushed Tracker ahead of him, and Rafe and Julia followed behind, walking side by side when possible. As they climbed, Julia realized what she was walking out of. “God found us even down here in this pit.”
&
nbsp; “Sure He did,” Rafe said. But his light tone didn’t match his serious face. He still didn’t like being deep underground.
“I’ve spent so many years searching for truth, science, learning. But once I found those fossils down here, I really thought I’d found God.”
Rafe looked down at her and took her hand. “Had you lost Him?”
She shook her head. “No. No, I hadn’t. I’ve been a believer for a long time. My mother was a woman of faith, and she raised me with God in my life. But I have always wanted to do something wonderful. Something special.” She gave a tiny shrug. “Maybe something special enough to earn my father’s love. What could possibly be more special than proving there is a God. Evidence carved in stone as surely as the Ten Commandments.”
“God’s truth is in your heart, Julia. No fossil trapped in stone will make a difference.”
“You’re right. I know that.”
Seth called over his shoulder, “Does that mean you don’t want to see all the fish fossils I’ve found down here? We should go right now. We’re not that far.”
“Well, it might be nice to—”
“Not today.” Rafe started growling. “For right now, we’re going home.”
“Where is home, Rafe?” Seth walked slower and turned from Tracker to Rafe and Julia. “Why is my friend bleeding?”
“I whacked him in the head with a rock.” Julia saw Seth flinch and give her a frightened look. Maybe she should have softened that answer a little.
“I’m lost.” Seth sounded weak, confused.
“You can’t get lost yet, Seth. You’ve got to get us out of here.” Rafe slapped Seth on the shoulder. He didn’t even sound worried.
Which Julia found exceedingly worrisome.
“And your friend hurt Julia. That’s why he’s bleeding. We’re taking him to the sheriff.”
“Oh. Okay. Let’s go.” Seth’s beetled brow smoothed out and he picked up speed.
Julia exchanged a glance with Rafe. He shrugged, smiled at her, stole a kiss, and followed his brother.
Rafe was pretty sure his brother wasn’t seriously crazy.
He could tell Julia wasn’t so sure.
When they got to the cabin, Ethan was waiting with a slender young man with wire-rimmed glasses and a parson’s collar.
The circuit rider had arrived.
“Who’s he?” Ethan looked at Tracker, horrified.
“I’ve almost never seen Ethan without a stupid grin on his face,” Julia said to Tracker. “You look really terrible.”
Tracker had blood dried on most of his face. Add in the eye patch and the awful scars, and yep, Rafe decided, Julia had it exactly right.
“He’s my friend,” Seth said, smiling like a dolt.
“No, Seth. He is not your friend. He shot you, remember? Then he kidnapped Julia.”
“What? He shot you?” Ethan looked at the blood on Seth’s shirt, right over his heart. “We need to get you to a doctor.”
Seth shrugged. “It’s just a scratch.”
“A scratch killed my husband.” Audra emerged from the cabin, empty-handed.
“Where are the children?” Julia asked.
“Asleep. Both at the same time.” Audra smiled. “This isn’t going to be so hard.”
“You shot me?” Seth yelped at Tracker.
A loud cry sounded from inside the house.
Everyone, even Tracker and the circuit rider, glared at Seth and said, “Shhhh!”
Audra rushed in and came back out with a sleepy, grumpy-looking Maggie in her arms.
Maggie reached for Ethan, who took her.
“Julia and I are getting married,” Rafe announced.
Julia smiled. “Right now, if you please.”
“Don’t you want to clean up first, Julia?” Audra asked.
“No, I want to remember exactly how this day went. Considering a mountain fell on us today, I think getting married in this filthy condition—with Seth bleeding, this awful man tied up, Rafe coated with dirt—is perfect. It’s just exactly how our wedding should be, don’t you think?”
“I’d actually kind of like a bath,” Rafe said.
“Forget it. Say the vows, Parson. Before he tries to escape again.”
Rafe smiled, then laughed. At the moment the last cold remnants inside him warmed fully. He realized then that what had been frozen inside him wasn’t terror. It wasn’t the fear that he was weak, a coward, a failure.
It was love.
He’d frozen away everything that was beautiful. He’d cared for his brothers, but he hadn’t risked truly loving them for fear of how terrible it would be to lose them. He’d never been as kind to his mother as he should have been because his love was locked away. He’d worked beside his father and shown him respect but never love.
It was all there now. Full and alive and warm, all the way to his heart and soul.
He turned his eyes from one member of his family to the other. Ethan, who never risked feeling anything deeply. Seth, who risked his life searching for his soul. Audra, frail and beautiful.
Then he turned to Julia. She was a mess. Her hair was standing out in every direction. She was coated in grit and dust. Her face needed to be washed, as did her dress. The little woman even had another man’s blood on her hands.
He decided then and there they’d say their vows now, and then he’d take her to the icy stream in the caldera where they could bathe together and wash their clothes and be alone in the late afternoon sunlight and through the night.
Julia must have seen something in his eyes, because her smile warmed and her green eyes glowed with happiness.
“Yes, say the vows, Parson. I’m not going anywhere.”
Julia grabbed his arms and they turned to face the parson, who looked extremely skeptical. But the vows were said in good order.
“Ethan, you and Seth are going to have to help me build a cabin in that caldera.”
Julia gasped and gave him a vivid smile.
“I really need to get back to the Kincaid Ranch and run things, Rafe,” Ethan said. “Steele has been in charge of the place so long, he’s likely to claim it as his own.”
“You can ride over there with Seth tomorrow; then the next day bring some of the men back to help us build.”
“I get to go home?” Seth asked.
Ethan nodded. “Sure, little brother. I’ll take you home.”
“Good,” Rafe said, then turned to the circuit rider. “Parson, see our prisoner into Rawhide and get him locked up tight. He shot Seth and kidnapped my wife. We’ll see his hands are well bound. You’ll be fine.”
The circuit rider pulled his coat back to reveal a holster containing a well-polished revolver. “I can ride hard and get him to town before full dark. I don’t think he’ll give me much trouble.”
“Ethan, throw Tracker over one of our horses. We’ll be coming into town for supplies in a few days, Parson. Put the horse up at the livery and tell the hostler I’ll pay the bill when I get to town.
“Seth and Ethan, help get the parson on his way. Audra, take Maggie, and go on back in and get her down to sleep, and then you rest.”
“I don’t need to rest, Rafe.” Audra took Maggie, though. Seth, Ethan, and the parson walked away, Tracker being pushed along with a bit of unnecessary roughness.
“I’m not telling you to rest because I think you’re fragile.”
“Oh, yes you are.” She looked at him suspiciously.
“No, you’re going to need the rest because Julia won’t be around to help you for the rest of the day.”
“She won’t?”
“I won’t?” Julia asked.
“Or night.”
“Oh,” Audra and Julia said at the same moment.
“And Audra?”
“Yes?”
“Tell my brothers to stay away from the caldera.”
With a nod, Audra turned and hurried into the house. Rafe thought he heard her snickering.
“Julia, honey.” Rafe slid his a
rm around her back and pulled her toward their still-saddled horses. “Remember earlier when I said you might want a bath?”
Julia arched a brow. “I don’t see any sense pretending I’m lily white and clean at this point.”
“Can I have a few minutes of your time?”
“For what?”
“Our children are going to be really smart.” Rafe smiled at the little innocent as he rested his hand on her lower back and urged her forward.
“What makes you think of such a thing right now, Rafe?” She came along so willingly.
“Not one reason in the world, little darlin’.”
“Where are we going?”
Rafe didn’t really care to explain, so he turned her into his arms and kissed her.
When he pulled away, her eyes blinked open as if her lids were almost too heavy to hold up. “You really shouldn’t kiss me like that, Rafe. I swear when you do it, I can’t seem to think clearly.”
“Why don’t you just relax and let me do the thinking for the both of us for a while?”
As the evening passed and their married life began, Rafe discovered that in the arms of the woman he loved, it was safe, once in a while, to be completely out of control.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary Connealy is a Carol Award winner and a RITA Award finalist. An author, journalist, and teacher, she lives on a ranch in eastern Nebraska with her husband, Ivan, and has four grown daughters—Josie, married to Matt; Wendy; Shelly, married to Aaron; and Katy—and two spectacular grandchildren, Elle and Isaac. Readers can learn more about Mary and her upcoming books at:
maryconnealy.com
mconnealy.blogspot.com
seekerville.blogspot.com
petticoatsandpistols.com
Books by Mary Connealy
From Bethany House Publishers
THE KINCAID BRIDES
Out of Control
In Too Deep
Also by Mary Connealy
SOPHIE’S DAUGHTERS
Doctor in Petticoats
Wrangler in Petticoats
Out of Control Page 28
