Over the Edge (30 page)

They laid out a plan Jasper liked real well and headed back up the ladder. They were a while getting everything in place. Then they set out to find one of the Kincaids and make him talk.

They went down the same trail they’d taken up there until they came to the place it divided. One direction headed back toward the cabin where Jasper and Bea had spent the night before. The other direction might lead them to Rafe Kincaid’s spread.

Jasper hadn’t yet decided which way to go when he heard approaching hooves. He jerked his head toward the woods and quickly dismounted. Bea followed suit.

They led their horses off the trail, then slipped back to where they could watch. Seconds later a longhorn came up the trail, then another and another. Jasper crouched in the trees and watched silently as a herd of cattle moved slowly through, pushed along by Seth Kincaid, a couple of cowhands, and a half-grown boy with a baby strapped on his back. A woman trailed along riding drag.

When the woman passed, Jasper rose to study the direction they were headed.

Bea came to his side. “What are you thinking?”

“Did you see how the woman brought up the rear?”

“What about it?”

“Let’s grab her.”

Bea’s expression looked doubtful. “You heard the parson talk about what happened to that one Kincaid woman. He mentioned dark hair and that she had a baby. I’ll bet that’s her. She held off a band of outlaws single-handedly when they tried to rob the stage. Sounds to me like she’s mighty tough, Jasper.”

“What it sounded like to me was she was cut to ribbons and almost died before help got there. The parson was impressed all right, but he’s from back East. She’d be easy to kidnap. Maybe she can tell us where the diamonds are, and if she can’t, we’ll have our ace in the hole to make the Kincaids talk.”

He pulled out the one diamond and looked at it, then took a step toward his horse. Bea grabbed his arm.

“What?”

“You’ve got to promise me you won’t hurt anyone, Jasper. Swear it. I’ll stick with you while you hunt down your gems, but we come away from this with what’s yours and no harm done.”

“I swear it.” Jasper wondered whether she was fool enough to believe a word he said. He looked at Bea for a long time. “I’m going to cover my face, but how’ll we disguise you?”

“If she can identify us, we’ll have to leave Colorado City.”

Jasper heard in her voice how much she hated giving up her little home. “Let me get hold of her, gag and blindfold her. You stay back until I’ve got her, then don’t talk. She doesn’t even have to know a woman is along.”

Bea hesitated.

Jasper watched her as she mulled over what he’d said. Up to now they hadn’t done a thing wrong. No crime had been committed. That was about to end when they laid hands on that woman.

“I’m going,” he said. “If you want to ride away, I’ll understand.” He was careful about it, but he lifted the diamond just a bit higher, rolled it between his fingers to catch the light.

Jasper waited for her to trust him—or want the diamonds bad enough to accept his lies without question. When she broke eye contact and stared at the diamond, he knew he had her.

She beat him to the horses.

Usually drag was a dirty job, but on these barely broken forest trails, more rock than dirt, there hadn’t been much dust kicked up.

Callie knew the way to Rafe and Julia’s, and the cattle were docile after walking miles this morning. So all she had to do was shout a little encouragement when one of the critters started dogging it. It gave her plenty of time to think with pleasure that her husband hadn’t abandoned her.

Things really were going to be just fine.

A hand clamped over her mouth. An arm wrapped like an iron band around her midsection. Thrashing, she yelled as she was dragged off her horse. But no sound escaped her lips. She clawed for her gun yet couldn’t reach it.

Her head was pulled against a hard chest.

“Get her gun.” A voice hissed in her ear as the last straggler cow curved around the trail and vanished. Leaving her alone with her assailant. Then her eyes were covered and she couldn’t see anything.

A second set of hands tightened the blindfold and then slipped her gun from its holster. Increasing her efforts, Callie elbowed whoever had her. There was a grunt of pain, but his grip didn’t loosen.

“Get her tied up. Fast. We need to get off this trail.” A rope lashed around her, securing her arms to her sides. Screaming behind the hand, still no sound escaped. She tried to bite the man, and his grip tightened, holding her jaw closed.

“Don’t fight me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

She had no reason to trust such words. The kerchief over her eyes was so tight it hurt. The ropes cut into her arms and stomach until it was hard to breathe.

“Bring her horse.” The man issued terse orders under his breath.

As she drew in a breath to scream again, suddenly a wad of cloth was shoved into her mouth.

Choking, fighting to breathe, she was thrown on a horse. Her hands weren’t tied and she grabbed for the reins, but couldn’t find them. The man lashed her wrists to the pommel.

Breathing was a battle. It took all her attention to draw in each bit of air, and before she could think how to fight back next, her horse began walking, then trotting fast.

Think! She had to think. Why would anyone bother her?

Those outlaws she’d fought when they’d robbed the stagecoach. Had they broken jail? Were they out for revenge?

“You hide the horses where we planned. And leave the note. I’ll get her across the stream. Bring the map.”

Map? The only maps Callie knew of around here were in her saddlebag. Except that one she’d lost.

But who would want a map of the cavern?

“Your family will be hunting you soon. I want some space between me and them. So I’m not letting you make a sound.”

Rough hands dragged Callie off her mount. The second her feet hit the ground, she kicked the man hard.

“Ouch!” The man grabbed her by the front of her blouse and shoved her to the ground. “You little wild cat.” Her captor knelt beside her. Something slammed into the side of her head, a fist or maybe a gun butt. He whispered, “I’m sick of you fighting me.”

The stunning blow had knocked the fight out of her. The hoofbeats of three horses faded. Callie was alone with the man who’d grabbed her and bound her with such cold, ruthless skill.

The world upended and she was hanging, head down, over the man’s shoulders.

“You go first with the end of the rope. That gully is steep. We’ll need to pull her up.”

Callie had a thin line of vision, and she tried to see who was coming up behind her. But for all her twisting around, she couldn’t get a good look.

The partner who had taken the horses passed quickly to take the lead. These two worked well together.

Callie felt as if the ground had dropped from beneath her. The trail was so steep, her face scraped against the rock when she tried to lift her head. She glimpsed rushing water and realized what the man had said. If he wanted to raise her up with a rope, he’d have to let her go. She had a knife in her boot. She tested the bonds. Her arms were tight to her sides, but her hands weren’t bound. She wiggled her fingers to see how much reach she had. If the man let go of her, she might have a chance to—

She was dropped to a rocky ledge at the bottom of the gully. Through her blindfold she saw the man, his face covered with a bandana.

But she knew who it was. Someone she’d seen on a Wanted poster.

Jasper Henry. Come to retrieve his diamonds.

A gasp behind the gag and her startled reaction drew his attention. He bent over her, tugged the blindfold down, and caught a handful of her hair painfully to tip her head back.

“I see you recognize me, Mrs. Kincaid. Too bad. I’d hoped to end this without you being harmed. You’ve got what’s mine, and I aim to get it back. For now, the less you see, the better off you’ll be.” With painful jerks he tugged her hands together in front of her and pulled a leather strip off his belt. Her hands were secured until she couldn’t move a finger. He pulled the blindfold back in place.

Shaking her head, she grunted at him through the gag, wanting to tell him this wasn’t necessary. She’d let him have the stupid diamonds if he’d just take them and go. But the guttural noises didn’t get her message across.

She felt a strangling tug on the rope at her waist, and then Jasper left her there. She fought with the leather strip to get enough movement to reach her boot. She hadn’t gotten anywhere before the rope began dragging her up the gully. And she knew where they were going next. That stupid, dark, deadly cavern.

When or if she got out of here, she was going to make those idiot Kincaids find a home with the sense to lie flat. And they’d make sure there weren’t any holes in it.

They all needed to move this ranch to a sensible state. Like Texas.

Chapter
28

“Where’s Callie?” Seth checked Connor on Heath’s back, and the little tyke chortled at him and waved his arms.

He’d’ve liked to spend more time playing with his son, but caution made him watch the trail where his wife had oughta be bringing up the rear. The last of the cattle has passed. Callie should have been along by now.

“She was right behind me.” Heath took a long swig on his canteen. “She probably just needed a few minutes of privacy.”

“How long has it been since you’ve seen her?”

Heath shrugged. “A long time, I reckon.”

Seth thought of whoever had been in his cabin two nights ago and felt twitchy. “Ride up and tell ’em to rest the herd until we catch up. I don’t like getting strung out this far.”

Seth whirled his horse and headed down the trail at a sharp clip.

“Callie!” He knew he’d come too far about the time he rode past the turn to the new line shack.

“Callie!” If she’d stepped off the trail for personal reasons, he would’ve seen her horse by now. No reason to hide a horse on a cattle drive.

“Where are you?” He tried to tell himself he was fretting for no reason, but this was a hard land. There were plenty of ways to get swallowed up in the Rockies.

Seth studied the tracks and almost turned and rode back to the herd to get Ethan. His brother was the best tracker Seth knew. But surely Callie was just up at the cabin for some reason—though it went against what he knew of Callie. She wasn’t a woman to turn aside from work. Seth had picked out Callie’s horse, knowing she’d come along last, so the tracks weren’t that hard to make out on the churned-up ground. There were more tracks overtop of the ones left by Callie. It looked like three horses had turned up the trail toward the line shack.

Seth pulled his gun and fired three times into the air. His horse tossed its head and wheeled as the gun blasted. Seth waited a few seconds, then did it again. That was all the help he had time to ask for.

He spurred his horse, racing up the trail toward the old Gilliland place.

The rope around her midsection was so tight that Callie had trouble getting a breath. The gag in her mouth made it worse. By the time they lowered her down the pit, she was barely conscious.

Hands crawled over her like insects. She shuddered and tried to fight off the muddled thinking left over from the blow to her head.