“Excuse me! Do you know who I am?”
Davy flushed but took a step closer and spoke politely. “Yes, Ma’am, I do. You are the woman Gabe wants in her room tonight.”
Ana moved toward the door, refusing to show him her rage.
Striking a conciliatory note, the young man pasted a pained smile on his face. “Ma’am, I will arrange to have your dinner brought to your room. Gabe said he wants you to eat—”
“Don’t bother.” Ana’s voice was tight, barely controlled. She moved through the doorway and wound up to close the door in his face. Davy put his foot in the doorway, stopping her. He handed her a note.
“Gabe also asked me to give you this.”
Ana snatched it from his hand and kicked his foot out of the way. With her head held high, she marched into her chambers locking the door behind her.
She opened the note and stared at all three lines of it.
Sorry you are upset, Ana. These last two days have been a trial for you.
Get some rest. We will talk in the morning.
Ana was enraged. Davy was correct. Gabe really did intend to send her to her room. While he and the men were out looking for the scum who attacked her father, even taking her brother with them, she was supposed to go to bed like a good little girl.
She made her decision. The hallways were filled with his men. Even though Gabe had taken many of them with him, the courtyard was sprinkled with dark dangerous men. Ana consoled herself. It wasn’t as though she had never snuck out of the house. She did it at least one a month. She tossed her dress and fancy shoes into a heap. Crawling naked into her closet she found her stable boy’s clothes. Pulling them on she twisted her hair into a tight braid and tucked it under her cowboy hat, and yanked on her worn boots. A quick glance in the mirror confirmed that she looked like a fifteen-year-old boy, not a young woman set on solving the crime that had torn her family apart and caused irreparable havoc in her life, and in her heart.
She stuffed pillows and a quilt under the coverlet, creating a passable form of a sleeping body. Squaring her shoulders, she moved quickly shoving aside any second thoughts and opened the door to her balcony. The moon, a mere sliver of light in the dark cloudy sky, was her helpmate. Taking a deep breath, she hooked her leg over the railing and found the chink in the brick that had been her toehold for years. Within seconds she’d slithered to the ground, a small dark figure hugging the wall. The most dangerous stretch was the distance between the house and the barn. The fifty-yard expanse called for stealth and the brazen knowledge that no one could stop her. Ana had both.
Chapter 27
Gabe stood outside Chao’s door relieved and frustrated. He was relieved to see his friend sleeping peacefully, an alert Chinese healer sitting in the chair beside his bed. But he desperately needed to talk with Chao. Chao was the only one who could fill in the blanks of a picture that was becoming clearer. He and his men had questioned no fewer than fifty potential witnesses today. They included everyone from the local sheriff to the feed store owner to the brothel madams in every hangout between here and San Francisco. Anyone who had even a passing familiarity with the six men they were targeting had been questioned. Three men popped to the top of the list. Sadly all six suspects were open in their hatred of Chinese and of Chao Li in particular. The three suspects topping the list were frequent visitors at Dominic’s Lucky Lady. The bankers they consulted confirmed the amount of money the three lost to Chao Li in the last year alone was staggering. While Gabe had always known that Chao was a shrewd businessman, the depth of his cunning and insights surprised even Gabe.
Gunnar and Eagle humored him and kept Peter Harcourt on the short list. But even Gabe had to agree that Peter didn’t exhibit the incriminating behavior that the others did. No one remembered him speaking ill of the Chinese. Most telling, there was no evidence of financial loss to Chao. Peter wasn’t on Chao’s list. All Gabe had was his anger at Peter’s smarmy attentions to Ana and his own itchy neck.
Accepting the fact that he wasn’t going to speak with Chao tonight, Gabe headed down the quiet hallway to Ana’s room. Though it was after midnight and he was sure she was sleeping, Gabe hoped that she might be awake. He wanted to talk to her. Hell, he thought with a groan what he really wanted was to crawl in bed beside her and hold her, feel that luscious body hard up against his. His arousal flared at the image and he shook his head in disgust at his errant prick. Remembering her fury at what he had to admit was his high-handed behavior, he knew it was unlikely Ana would open her door to him, much less her arms.
Davy and Emil jumped to their feet, greeting him in low tones.
“She’s sleeping?” Gabe asked, nodding to the closed door, and motioning them away from the doorway.
Davy shrugged. “I expect so. We haven’t heard anything in at least four or five hours, have we, Emil?”
Emil nodded in agreement. A sneaky smile crept over his usually stern face. “Given how angry she was, I gotta tell you, Gabe, I expected to hear the sound of breaking glass or splintering wood. Wouldn’t have been surprised to see some broken furniture and a smashed lamp or two.” He grinned appreciatively. “That is one spitfire of a woman, Gabe.”
Davy chortled in agreement. “Yeah, you may have bit off more than you can chew with that one, Gabe. That little girl was madder than a wet hen. I never seen a woman that small puff up like an adder. Phew, I wasn’t sure Emil and I was going to make it out alive when I told her you wanted her to stay in her room. I’m glad she didn’t have a lethal weapon on her although the daggers she was throwing could’ve taken us down if we wasn’t expecting them.”
Gabe smiled at their apt descriptions, knowing only too well the temperamental behavior they described. Hell, he’d barely known her for two weeks, but had been astonished at the range of emotions that spewed forth from one imposing young woman who at first glance was a sheltered, shy recluse.
“I’m glad the two of you were able to contain a woman half your size, fellows,” Gabe said with an ironic grin. He added, not suppressing a worried frown: “She ate, right?”
“Hell, no,” Davy exclaimed with a barely contained laugh. “I think that was the final straw, Gabe. After I told her you wanted her in her room and that you wanted her to eat her dinner, she woulda slammed the door in my face if I hadn’t wedged my foot in it.”
Emil sniggered. “Admit it Davy, a second later she took you by surprise and did slam the door in both our faces.”
Gabe couldn’t hide his concern. “That means she hasn’t had anything to eat today. That’s not good, fellows. She’s been under a lot of strain. She can’t weigh a hundred pounds as it is. You did give her my note, right?”
Davy huffed. “Yeah I did. But, I’d be surprised if she did more than burn it, Gabe. I’m telling you that is one angry woman. And, something else. She looked determined. Like nobody including the likes of Emil and me were going to stop her doing exactly what she wanted to.”
Gabe gave an appreciative snort. “Yeah. That’s a look I know well.”
Trying to sort out whether his need to see her was to make sure she was all right, or just wanting to hold her, Gabe knew he wouldn’t rest until he checked on her. Shaking off his caution, he rapped on her door and called her name. Not surprisingly there was no answer. Even though he knew Davy and Emil were teasing him, it bothered him that they hadn’t heard anything from her for hours. That wasn’t like Ana. He knew her well enough now to know that after an hour or so she would have marshaled her forces and taken them on again. If nothing else, to go check on her father. He turned to his men, who seemed surprised at his concern.
“She’s been in there what, four or five hours? And never came out to go see her father?”
When they both shook their heads, Gabe muttered. “That does it. That’s not like Ana. She’s been at Chao’s bedside for two days now. Even if you told her to stay in her room, she would insist on seeing him before she went to sleep. I don’t like this. I need to make sure she’s okay.”
He rapped loudly on the door and called out. “Ana, it’s me, Gabe. I want to see you, Princess. Open the door, please.” Remembering that hours before, she’d refused to admit him, his anger flared. Even if she had been sleeping, she couldn’t fail to hear him. Fatigue and concern drove him forward. “Ana, I’m serious. Open the damn door. Now!”
An eerie silence was his answer.
He stepped back and then threw the weight of his body against the heavy oak panel. It gave way like a straw in the wind.
Stepping inside the dark room, he moved toward the silent figure on the bed that didn’t move when he called her name. His gut clenched. Whispering her name, terrified at what he might see, he yanked the covers off the bed. Seeing the pillows and blankets cunningly arranged in a human like form, he struggled to breathe. The blood rushing through his ears forced him to take a breath. In the following instant, that lasted a lifetime, his rational brain told him that no marauder would leave a pretend woman on the bed. The breeze from the open balcony door confirmed the unthinkable truth. Somehow, for some unfathomable reason, Ana was gone. Left under her own power. Filled with an almost incapacitating fear, Gabe rushed from the room, his men charging behind him.
Dashing past the library where Gunner and Eagle and several of his men were enjoying their whisky and cigars, he shouted to them. Gunnar and Eagle leapt to their feet at his one word. “Ana!”
They ate up the distance between the house and the barn in a matter of seconds. A glance at the empty stall where Ana’s roan always stood, confirmed the awful truth. Racing from the silent barn and now with seven or eight of his men pounding behind, Gabe broke through the door to Clem’s log house nestled next to the barn. Yanking the sleeping man from his bed, he shoved him against the wall.
His words were threatening growl.
“Where is she?”
In an instant, Clem went from a soundly sleeping man to one shaking with terror.
He whispered, “Ana?” Then coming full awake, his eyes widened with horror. “They took Ana? She’s gone?”
Even in Gabe’s fury, he saw Clem was as shocked as he was. Tossing him onto a chair, he spit out. “Tell me, tell me everything you know. When did you see her last? “
Clem was shaking, his words barely coherent. Stammering, he visibly tried to gather his wits. “Jesus, McKenna. I ain’t seen her all day. She… she’s been in the house. Didn’t so much as come see Spirit… her roan.” He gave a disconsolate sob and buried his head in his hands, whispering over and over, “No, no, please God, no.”
Gabe turned to Gunnar who charged to the door before Gabe finished speaking. “Drag every goddamn hand on this ranch out of bed and have them here now!”
“Fuck!” Gunnar almost bowled over the tiny man quivering in the doorway.
“Wait, please, sir, wait. I… I saw her.” Quitin’s soft words shattered the room.
The men parted as Quitin stumbled forward, stopping in front of Gabe. He looked up at him, his eyes imploring him to understand. “She… the young miss, she—”
Gabe cut him off. “Where is she?”
Quitin strangled on his words then whispered, “She threatened… she said she would fire me, send me away….”
Clem rose out of his chair, his face black with rage. He grabbed the little man and threw him against the wall, his hands around his throat. “Goddamn you, you worthless piece of human shit. Tell us where she is or so help me—”
Gabe held up his hand. Gunnar nodded and pulled the enraged man off. “Easy, Clem. He’s the only resource we have.”
Eagle nodded in agreement and picked up the cowering man bodily and plunked him in a chair in front of Gabe.
Gabe’s voice was threatening, more so because it was barely audible. “Tell me, Quitin. Tell me everything.”
Between sobs, Quitin managed to speak. “She… Miss Ana… she said she had to go to help her father. When I told her she couldn’t, she say, I must. Said she would send me back to China if I told anyone. Me and my wife. Jing… Jing… my Jing she take care of Miss Ana since she was a tiny baby.” His frail body shook with sobs. “It… it would kill Jing if she—”
Gabe clapped a firm hand on his shoulder. “Where
is
she, Quitin? Where did she go?”
Quitin gazed up at him, his face contorted with fear and grief. “Where she always goes, late at night. To… Mr. Shorty’s….”
“Shorty’s?!” Gabe sputtered, staring at the terrified man in disbelief. Then his anger boiled over, blotting out his fear.
He roared, “Jesus God! Shorty’s? What the hell? Why?”
Quitin lifted his tear-streaked face and whispered, “To… play poker.”
Chapter 28
Shorty unwound his enormous frame from his stool behind the bar, his huge face lighting up with surprised delight.
“Well, fuck me. If this ain’t my lucky night or what? Hell, Angel, wish I’d known you was coming. Sure hope you’re comin’ to play. We got regulars here, but they’re about as good as we got around here. Christ, with you and the Queen Bee—”
Gabe raised his hand cutting him off. “Where is she?”
Shorty frowned as if seeing Gabe’s expression and those of the men behind him for the first time.
“Uh… where we always hold our private games. What’s up, Angel? Damn, man, you know you’re welcome. Hell, Angel. They’re about the best competition you’re gonna see in these parts, hell in any parts. But goddamn, Angel, I wish I’d known you was coming. I woulda set up an audience….”
Gabe leaned over the bar, his face next to Shorty’s, his words individual bullets from a gun at close range. “Where. Is. She?”
Shorty reared back in surprise. “Damn, Angel. I’m sorry. I… I… they’re upstairs. Round the corner to the—”
He was still directing them when Gabe, Gunnar and Eagle reached the top of the stairs. Shorty turned to the other men waiting at the bottom. “What the fuck?”
No one answered.
~~~
At the sound of the door opening, Ana glanced up from her cards and nearly dropped them. Her heart jumped in her chest and she fought to breathe. In the short time she had known Gabe, she had seen a dozen expressions on his handsome face. Ranging from arrogance to open lust. But she had never seen pure, unadulterated rage. Rage that was all the more frightening accompanied by the slight smile twisting his lips. The smile contradicted the stone cold fury burning in his eyes. She glanced at Gunnar and then Eagle hoping for some respite, but their expressions were shuttered, a chilling backdrop to that of their partner’s.