Deep Trouble (28 page)

“I don’t know.” Lucas Morgan’s eyes were sharp, savvy. Gabe remembered him. Abe’s father-in-law. Lucas Morgan had knowing eyes. He’d been in this rugged country longer than any of them. “The ground can look smooth and hide a lot. There are cuts in the side of that thing, maybe caves in it. We’re just guessing that Lurene’ll take Shannon to the top.”

“I don’t think she’s sane enough to wait.” Bucky stared up that steep hill. “That woman can only see the gold.”

“Should we go up there and wait?” Tyra asked. “That’s where they’re heading, even if they picked a route we don’t see. Let’s go up and lie in wait for them.”

“No, they have to be in these woods.” Gabe shook his head. “We can’t just climb up there and sit around resting and hope Lurene brings Shannon up unharmed.”

“I think we should scout our trail.” Abe looked at the woods.

Lucas scowled. “We need to walk along the base of this butte. If we’re sure they’re headed this way, we can lie in wait and catch Lurene when she’s busy hanging on to Shannon while she climbs that butte.”

They all stared at each other.

“Well, we can’t just stand here talking.” Bucky swung his arms wide in exasperation. “Since everybody’s got an idea, let’s split up.”

Gabe didn’t like it. “I’d like to face her with all of us.”

“We had her outnumbered before and it didn’t stop her,” Bucky snarled. He looked ready to explode.

Gabe knew how he felt. No answer was the best. Lurene wasn’t rational, and under those circumstances, she could do anything. No possible way Lurene had climbed up here. Gabe had set a slow but steady pace, searching for tracks, but they’d come straight here. Finally, Gabe looked between Lucas and Gabe. Then Gabe jerked his chin, deciding for all of them to… do what Bucky suggested. “Abe, you’re the best tracker. You go back to where we lost her and find out what happened.”

Abe didn’t even pause for one second to taunt Gabe about giving orders to a big brother. He nodded and rushed toward the trees.

“Scout the base of this hill, Lucas. See if there’s a place they could have gone up that would give them cover.”

Lucas rushed toward the bluff and was gone before Gabe thought to tell him to take Bucky or Tyra or both. So, since he didn’t want to leave Tyra alone, though she seemed savvy, and leaving Bucky was like staking a baby out on a hill of fire ants, he decided they’d come with him.

“Bucky, you and Tyra…”

“The name’s Buck, all right?”

Gabe really wanted to shut Bucky’s mouth with a fist, but that might not be all that fair. For one thing, Gabe was about halfway to a raving lunatic with worry about Shannon. And for another, a man had a right to name himself. “Fine,
Buck
, you and Tyra come with me. I’m going to the top of that bluff.” He jabbed his finger straight at the place where all this would either turn into a discovery the likes of which the world had never seen—a lost city of gold—or end in blazing gunfire, blood, and death.

The worst part was it might end with both.

Buck strode straight for the steep sides of the butte.

“But we’re not going up right here.”

Buck stopped and turned, glaring. “Why not?”

“Because, greenhorn, I want to get to the far side and come up from that direction so we don’t pop up there right in the line of Lurene’s gun.”

“Are you done giving orders? Can we go?” The tense corners of Buck’s curled-down mouth told Gabe he needed to move.

“Yes, let’s go.”

They set a fast pace around the butte, though Shannon had to be afraid. But it was the best way to get up there without dying and getting Shannon killed in the process.

Gabe led, but Buck kept up. As they moved along, Buck drew even and the two of them eyed each other.

“So, you and Shannon seem close.” Buck glared.

Gabe didn’t blame him. Then Tyra came up so that Buck was between them. Looking past the city boy, he said, “I remember meeting you before. You were still a kid.”

Tyra managed a smile, but she was just as worried as any of them.

“You’ve sure turned into a pretty woman, Tyra. What happened that you got stuck coming along with your pa and Abe?”

The smile softened, and Tyra met his eyes for a long second. Then her tanned cheeks pinked up and her eyes went shy and dropped to her toes, even as she kept walking. An embarrassed little shrug was her only answer.

Gabe remembered more about the little girl. She had a sassy mouth and was always underfoot. She’d given him a few dreamy looks that had made him real nervous. By the end of his visit, he’d started keeping solid space between him and his brother’s pretty little sister-in-law. And Gabe knew why she’d come. And he also knew she was a lot better fit for him than Shannon Dysart.

A grunt of disgust that didn’t even pretend to be polite escaped from Buck’s throat. What in the world did that mean? Why would Buck come halfway across the country hunting for Shannon and now care if Gabe had any ideas about Tyra?

The city boy seemed to think he could stake a claim on all the women in this whole canyon.

Clawing at the ground, Shannon lost her footing and landed hard on her back. She grabbed at a bush as she went over the ledge of the black hole.

For one sickening moment she dangled. One of her feet kicked the side of the chasm, and the noise echoed and echoed forever. The water poured over her hands. Her grip was precarious. Her shoulder protested. Then one foot caught on a ledge of rock no wider than her thumb. But it was solid. She shifted her grip then boosted herself up and rolled onto the ground, safe.

From flat on her back, she looked up at Lurene and saw the woman smirk. She hadn’t jumped in to help. She’d never lowered her gun.

Shannon hadn’t made a sound thanks to the gag Lurene had knotted over her mouth. Now she wanted to launch herself straight at her captor, but her shoulder hurt badly enough she didn’t. She wondered if her knees would give out if she did attack.

Looking back at the cave, Shannon saw it spread wider. A crack on the ground that reached for twenty feet along the foundation of the butte. Shannon listened to the water rain down into that crack. She couldn’t hear it land below, as if the hole reached all the way into the heart of the earth. She halfway expected steam heat to come pouring back out when the water hit the blazing hot core where the devil made his home.

Lurene dragged Shannon to her feet and gave her a little shove toward the black hole.

“Deep,” Lurene whispered into Shannon’s ear. “A bottomless pit.” A rough laugh sent a chill of fear crawling up Shannon’s spine.

“Maybe I’ll just throw you into it. You say that city of gold is up there?” Lurene pointed with her gun. “Why do I need you anymore?”

Gagged, Shannon could only listen and pray Lurene would decide she might still need Shannon’s help.

“I’ll save it for later, huh?” Lurene pulled Shannon roughly away from the hole. “Let’s climb.”

They moved on past the pit until Shannon saw the place she knew they’d climb. She was in trouble. The cut they’d been walking along went all the way up the butte. It was steep and it’d be a scramble to get to the top, but they’d be able to do it in this narrow slit without anyone seeing them. And when they got to the top, there’d be no city of gold. Shannon had admitted that to herself now.

Bishops. Ships full of gold. Quivera. Cibola. The bottom of the Grand Canyon.

It was all outlandish. All a myth. And she’d given it two years of her life. Worse yet, her father had given it all of his. Even more devastating, she’d brought deadly danger to her friends—all for a myth.

“We’re here,” Lurene spoke into Shannon’s ear. “We go up this hill and we find my gold or you die.”

Shannon thought Lurene’s voice sounded barely sane. If the woman would remember there was another chance at wealth—ransom—maybe she wouldn’t just reach the summit and, when no gold was there, start shooting.

Lurene shoved Shannon hard enough to knock her to her hands and knees. “Start climbing and keep quiet.”

The rocks scraped Shannon’s knees and the palms of her hands. Her shoulder was aching until Shannon didn’t know when it might simply give out. The smell of her sweat seasoned with terror swamped her senses. The gag threatened to suffocate her if she didn’t carefully draw breaths in through her nose.

Shannon went up about ten feet, glad she was crawling. The steep bank wouldn’t allow for anything else. Another ten feet, and she took a quick glance back. Surely Lurene had to holster her gun. But that peek wasn’t enough to see Lurene’s hands. Shannon would throw herself backward. They’d fall. Shannon could fight for Lurene’s gun. The climb up was steep but not too high, maybe a hundred feet. But a hundred feet was enough to kill. If Shannon waited much longer, the fall would be too much. Neither of them would live through it. Bracing herself to turn and dive at Lurene, a sudden blow to the head stopped her.

“I saw that look, and I know what you’re thinking.” Lurene caught a handful of Shannon’s hair and wrenched her head back so far her neck bowed and Shannon could see Lurene, her eyes blazing with lunacy.

“You think you can fight me and win, rich girl?” Lurene jerked on Shannon’s hair until she felt it ripping from her head. “I’ve been fighting all my life. Every day is a fight. Every man I’ve taken money from was a fight. Some nights just staying alive while they sweated over me was a fight.”

The arch of her neck felt as if it would snap Shannon’s spine. “I killed them all in my head, but never for real. I knew I’d die for it if I killed even the worst of them for real. But I have it in me, building up for years. I’d welcome the chance to kill you with my bare hands. If you attack me, I’ll do it and love it. In case you think different, I’m doing just fine climbing with one hand and holding my gun in the other.” Lurene shoved the muzzle of her gun at Shannon to prove it. “So you just keep climbing if you want to live.”

The only trouble with that was this nightmare wasn’t going to end any way except in death. Fighting Lurene now or after they found a pile of rocks instead of gold. The only difference between now and later was that it was later.

Shannon found she wanted to live. She wanted it enough to keep climbing. Keep hoping. Put off the fight to the death even another hour.

The gag kept Shannon from speaking. A warm trickle down Shannon’s neck was heavier and warmer than sweat. Blood. A cut from that blow of Lurene’s gun.

Shannon nodded, and Lurene shoved her away, releasing her.

Reaching ahead, Shannon began to climb again. Her knees hurt. Shannon felt a nail tear against the rocks she gripped. She felt a well of tears fill her eyes, but they didn’t fall. Maybe it was too much effort.

A stretch in the bluff wall became so steep, Shannon felt as if she was mountain climbing instead of crawling up a slope. A grip overhead barely big enough for her fingertips caved, and Shannon slid backward amid a cloud of dust and falling rocks. Only the gag kept her from screaming.

Lurene blocked her and stopped the fall.

Shannon looked at the woman, exhausted now. Why had she bothered to save Shannon’s life? Maybe her instincts, at their most basic, weren’t murderous.

“Get going. Move.”

Shannon noticed Lurene didn’t have her gun out now, but it no longer mattered. They were too high. A fall now would kill them both.

Shannon doggedly turned and went on up. Her lungs filled with the gritty, dirty air kicked up by her fall, and she thought she might smother. As soon as she was ahead of Lurene, she surreptitiously moved her gag below her bottom lip, not so much to cry for help as simply to breathe. She continued upward until she finally reached the top of the butte, and with a final heave, Shannon rolled over the edge and sprawled on her back, gasping for breath.

Lurene appeared on the rim, eyeing Shannon. As soon as she gained the top of the bluff, she pulled her gun and sat up, panting and wiping sweat from her eyes. Shannon noticed the woman had a canteen.

“Water.” Shannon didn’t even have the energy to beg.

Lurene looked at the canteen and seemed surprised to see it slung over her neck and shoulder. She only had it because she’d been carrying it ever since they’d left camp.

A deep drink for herself first, then Lurene handed the water over. She gathered herself to stand and look across the flat top of the butte. Shannon realized this was the moment, but she put off looking. She finished a long drink, seeing no reason to deny herself the lukewarm liquid at this point. At last she lowered the canteen and turned to see… something.

“There’s nothing.” Lurene’s head dropped until her chin rested on her chest. The total despair Shannon saw in the woman’s eyes was wrenching. Then Lurene raised her gun, and that despair had a different feel to it. The feel of a woman with no hope and nothing to lose and a world of hate in her heart.

Shannon looked back at this place she’d come to, very likely the last thing she’d ever see in this life, and again saw—”No, there’s something here.”Shading her eyes with one hand, Shannon studied the line of rocks straight ahead. “Those weren’t left there by nature. Someone was building up here.”

“Rocks. They built with rocks not gold.” Lurene’s voice echoed her hopelessness.