Deep Trouble (27 page)

The brood of Lasley brothers had grown up making a game out of ghosting around in the woods. Abe was always the best at it. Abe’s friend was real good, too, and of course Cutter wasn’t going to make any noise.

With no one at his back, Gabe could handle Randy, but he had to do it quietly. He hurried to close the distance.

It was time to put an end to this.

P
a was here.

Tyra bit back a smile and focused on the couple in front of Buck, leaving Randy to the men. She waited until she heard a dull thud and a groan of pain that was cut off instantly, then glanced back to see Abe falling into line wearing Randy’s Stetson. She looked quickly away before she could smile. Two down, three to go.

Picking up speed, she reached Buck’s side, her eyes sharp on Ginger, Darrel, and Lurene. Lurene was the only one with her gun out. The others had relaxed, leaving Lurene’s threats to hold their prisoners in line.

Swallowing, Tyra brushed her hand against Buck’s. His eyes seemed to burn into Shannon. Which made Tyra a little annoyed. Had seeing his old friend reminded him of why he wanted to marry her? Well, too bad. She was keeping him.

She bumped his hand again and again, but he kept looking straight ahead. So she punched him in the side. That got his attention. He clutched his belly and glared at her. She caught his arm and kept him moving forward. She jerked her head back, and he glanced behind. Tyra looked, too, and saw Abe give him a little salute.

Buck turned forward and, propelled by Tyra, they closed the gap between themselves and the redheaded woman and her boyfriend. The men behind them closed the gap, too.

Something, maybe just the sound of footsteps closer, drew a look from the redhead. Those beady eyes went past Tyra and Buck. She felt more than saw Abe shift a bit, using Tyra’s body to block a clear view of him.

Tyra held her breath, afraid Cinnamon or Ginger or Red Pepper, whoever, would notice they’d changed the makeup of the outlaws, but the woman wasn’t really checking for details. She just bounced a look off the men trailing and went back to eyes forward.

Breathing again, Tyra moved closer, kept a tight grip on Buck—much as she liked him, she really hoped he’d let her pa and Abe handle this—and prayed that a bend in the path they trod would take Lurene out of sight for just a few seconds. Then they’d dispense with Darrel and Nutmeg and turn their attention to Lurene. They’d have to move fast. No one could masquerade as the redhead.

A huge boulder ahead took Lurene off to one side. Tyra held her breath as hands on her shoulders that she was pretty sure were Abe’s guided her to one side. Buck was also eased aside just as Lurene vanished ahead.

The Lasley brothers leaped forward and grappled with the pair. Tyra jumped forward, snatched Ginger’s gun from its holster, and gave her a sound whack on the head with the butt. Her pa silenced the man in the same ruthless fashion. The two were tied up as fast as any new calf at branding time and dragged off the trail in silence. The men all rushed forward as silently as possible but knew they had seconds to finish this—overpower Lurene before she realized all her cohorts had been dispatched.

They rounded the boulder to find Lurene standing with her arm around Shannon’s neck about twenty paces past the big rock. “Stop, all of you, right where you are.” Lurene looked at them, studying Pa and Abe, realizing she was badly outnumbered.

“Give up, Lurene. Your gang’s all been taken care of.”

“No, go get ‘em. Let ‘em loose. Do it now or she dies.”

“They’re dead.” That was pa talking, and Tyra shivered a bit when he said it because it sounded true. Mean and true even though Tyra knew it wasn’t.

“There’s no getting them, Lurene. It’s you out here alone with us.” Gabe stepped forward. “All of us. You can’t kill us all.”

“Yes, I can. I’ve got six bullets, and there are six of you.”

“We’re all armed.” Tyra noticed Gabe had a gun. It was just a little annoying that her pa hadn’t given her one. “We’re not going to stand here while you unload your gun. You’ll die if you start firing. You’ll kill, and then you’ll die. None of that has to happen. Let Shannon go and give up.”

“No!” Lurene’s hand trembled.

Tyra’s breath caught at the thought of that shaky hand on the trigger.

“You’ve got no choice.” Gabe’s voice rang with authority. He took two steps forward.

Lurene took two back. “I won’t go back.” Lurene sounded crazed. Her hand tightened on Shannon’s neck. “And if you killed Cutter and the others, then you’ll kill me.”

Shannon fought against Lurene’s grip. “Please, I can’t—can’t—breathe.”

“Stop fighting me, or I start shooting. I’ll start with your man, too.”

Shannon quit struggling. Tyra saw her fight to take each breath.

“Lurene, what are you going to do if you kill us all?” Gabe asked. “Can you even get out of this canyon by yourself? Can you find the way back to the rim? What good does a city of gold do if you’re trapped down here with it? It’s worthless.”

“I can find my way out.” Lurene’s eyes shifted like those of a cornered rat. “And when I do, that gold will save me.”

Gabe shook his head. “Gold can’t do that.”

Suddenly a look of such rage crossed Lurene’s face that Tyra braced herself for flying lead.

“You have my word we won’t harm you.” Gabe took another step forward, his hands raised. “We’ll even go on to the city. If there’s gold there, we can… can give you a brick or two of it, as much as you want. We can help you get it out of here. You can live the rest of your life on that gold and never go back to your old life.”

“No one gives gold away, and why settle for a brick of it when I can have a whole city full?” Lurene suddenly released her hold on Shannon’s neck and grabbed her hair. She pulled backward, glancing to see where she was headed, but only for an instant each time, bringing her attention back to the onlookers too quickly to give anyone an opening to stop her.

“Lurene, wait!” Gabe took a step toward her, now past the edge of the boulder that would provide shelter if Lurene opened fire. Tyra wanted to yell at him to come back, but she knew Gabe wouldn’t have listened.

“Stay back or I’ll kill her.” Lurene sounded near panic, crazy enough to kill for sure.

Gabe froze in place. Tyra had heard so much about what a kid Gabe was. The baby of the family. A whiner. She didn’t see a bit of that in him. He’d been in the cavalry and had been promoted to officer over the years. A leader of men. Someone who made hard decisions fast. He took charge here as naturally as if he’d been doing it all his life.

She remembered that she’d intended to marry him and knew he’d be a better choice for her than Buck. No, it was
Bucky
. What a name. A city man. Not a good match for her at all. What had she been thinking to let herself get so wrapped up in a man who was so wrong for her? It pinched to admit it, but Bucky belonged with Shannon, and neither of them belonged out here.

“Maybe it’d be too long a chance to kill six armed people with six bullets, but I can sure as certain kill one.” Lurene pulled Shannon back slowly, steadily, with an occasional look behind her. A cautious woman, but terrified and sick with gold fever.

Lurene passed a clump of underbrush then rounded a tree. She took two more steps and disappeared from view.

Gabe surged forward, everyone else right behind him running to keep Lurene in sight.

When they got around that tree, Lurene was gone.

Lurene dragged Shannon behind a clump of aspen trees. A chasm opened in front of them. They went over the edge.

Lurene’s arm stayed clamped to Shannon’s neck, cutting off any sound. The slope was rocky but slanted enough that they didn’t fall so much as slide. They quit sliding in time for Shannon to look up and hear running footsteps rush by twenty feet overhead.

Shannon tried to scream. Lurene’s arm tightened on her neck until Shannon’s vision began to go dark.

Lurene pulled the sling off Shannon’s arm with rough jerks. It hurt, but the arm was healing. Shannon needed her arm to be free anyway.

Lurene used Hozho’s old shawl to gag Shannon before she could gather her wits together sufficiently to call for help. The footsteps of her rescuers faded, racing past.

“You haven’t forgotten I promised to kill a few of those folks, have you?” Lurene hissed in Shannon’s ear. “You leave that gag in place or I’ll tie your arms. We’ll follow along the bottom of this cut. It leads in the right direction.”

Lurene stood, her gun aimed with trembling hands, and Shannon got to her feet.

Nearly sagging with despair, Shannon stumbled forward. She had no idea where Gabe and the others had gone.

What in the world was Bucky doing down here? It was too strange to consider, so Shannon turned her thoughts from it. She worked her arm carefully, stretching the elbow that hadn’t moved much in days. It hurt, but Shannon could use it.

Goaded by the gun, Shannon picked up speed. There were heavy trees at the top of the cut and a lot of underbrush down here. An occasional thin spot in the trees showed the butte they headed for. Shannon tried to remember if there’d been open space between the trees and the butte. Surely they’d have to get out in the open to climb the steep hillside. Shannon and Lurene would reveal themselves, and Gabe would come for her.

The crevasse shallowed as they moved. A trickle of water gushed out of a crack and formed a small stream. They rushed along beside the flowing water, Lurene never missing a chance to shove. She hit Shannon’s sore shoulder, and Shannon was soon nearly running to keep Lurene from inflicting more pain.

The gentle water was joined by another spring, then another. The rivulet became a fast-moving creek. Shannon listened frantically for a sign of Gabe or any one of the crowd of strangers Bucky had brought along. With a disgruntled huff, Shannon thought of how all of them had managed to get themselves free while leaving her in Lurene’s clutches.

The little ditch they moved along was soon only shoulder high. Though the trees still lined it, Shannon took frequent glances through the underbrush to try and catch sight of her rescuers. They’d vanished. Finally, the twisting ditch revealed the butte right in front of them. Shannon reached the base, and as they came up from what was left of the crevasse, Shannon nearly fell into a gaping black hole in the ground down which the stream cascaded.

She skidded. Lurene shoved her forward. Shannon’s feet slipped on rock made slick by the running water. She slid straight for the pit yawning at her feet.

“Where did they go?” Gabe slammed the side of his fist into a tree trunk and whirled around to look at the five people who were fanned out behind him.

Bucky might not have a brain in his head, but the rest of them shaped up to be tough. And they’d all been fooled.

“We have to go back.” Tyra turned to look in the direction they’d come. “We moved too fast and missed where they veered off.”

Gabe had figured out who she was. Tyra was only a child when he’d been visiting before, but she’d grown into a beautiful woman. The business of her being married to Bucky was all a lie.

They’d nearly reached the base of the bluff. Gabe, along with the rest of them—except Bucky—searched for a trail. “They couldn’t have just vanished.”

“Lurene couldn’t have gotten to the top yet.” Abe studied the broad scope of what lay before them. The trees stopped at the base of the butte, all except a few, slender, gnarled pines that clung to the sides of the sheer slope. The land seemed wide open. “And we’d see them if they were climbing.”