Between Hell and Texas (11 page)

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Authors: Dusty Richards

BOOK: Between Hell and Texas
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J.D. found some prints. “I think they went south.”
“We need to split up here,” Chet said. “I'll leave signs for you on my way. You go find Trent and you two follow my tracks. I don't want them hurting her. And also find someone to take that team and buckboard back to the ranch.”
With a concerned frown written on his face, J.D. said, “They may plan to ambush you. This all might be a trick.”
Chet vaulted into the saddle. “I know that, too, but these men are killers and I don't want anything to happen to your mother.”
“Me, either. I'll bring Trent and get someone to drive the buckboard back home.”
“Good.” He booted Fudge through the cedars, seeing more horse prints and trying to imagine who had taken her. He thought the biggest share of troublemakers in the Reynolds outfit were either dead, in jail, or on the run. What family branch were these from?
One thing for certain: Louise wasn't taking being kidnapped sitting down. He'd bet good money they were getting her verbal abuse unless they'd gagged her.
Mid-afternoon, the riders had switched to back trails that ran southerly. He figured that was so no one would recognize her. Where would they come out, going this way? They'd soon be somewhere on the stage road to San Antonio. He crossed the well-used east-west route, nothing in sight, and found their tracks again—heading south in the brush.
Chet had not ridden this far south much, but knew that somewhere the Perdanales River ran east to west, south of the stage road. He turned and looked back—
Kathren, forgive me
.
Darling, I hate leaving you there alone.
Where were the others? Had J.D. found Trent?
An hour later, he descended into the river bottoms of the stream lined with towering, gnarled cottonwoods. The kidnappers had made a lot of distance, and he wasn't certain of much except the smell of smoke in the air, and he still could see their tracks. Unsure if they had halted to cook something or what, he decided to hitch Fudge and to scout ahead on foot. With care, he slid his rifle out of the leather scabbard. He levered a cartridge into the chamber and started forward as quiet as he could.
First he heard Louise's voice chewing them out and he made a small grin. Thank God, she was still alive. Then he spotted three men fighting to pin someone naked on the sandy ground. The exposed white flesh under them had to be Louise's. They had stripped her naked. The sight made him sick and he cocked the rifle in his hands.
His first shot sprayed sand all over them. “Stay put or I'm killing you.”
“Who the hell?” One of them standing went for his side arm. Chet clinched his teeth, spun around, aimed from the hip and squeezed the trigger. The hot lead struck him in the chest and spilled him backwards. Of the wide-eyed other two, one raised his hands and the other struggled to pull up his britches and stand.
“Don't shoot,” he shouted.
Chet came in close, his rifle ready for them to make a move, and jerked the handgun out of the younger one's holster. Not looking aside at her, he said, “Get dressed, Louise. It's over. Sorry I got here so late.”
“I'm not. Why, your voice sounded to me like God talking to these devils.”
He could hear her trembling, saying the words and gasping for her breath. He asked the bigger one, “Who are you?”
“My name's Curty—Curty McCurty. I'm sure my paw would pay you a big reward for me if'n you'd take me home.” His hands trembled as he held them high.
“Alright, your name?” he asked the other.
“Josie Knight.”
“Your daddy got a lot of money he'd pay me, too?”
“Naw. He ain't got shit, mister.”
“Who's on the ground beside you?”
“Lithe Combs.”
“His daddy rich, too?”
“No, sir. His daddy's dead.”
“Who hired you to do this?”
“No one—”
“Come on boys, you could have bought all the flesh you wanted in Mexico or even closer. Why in hell would you kidnap and rape a woman like Louise?”
McCurty shrugged. “She was handy.”
“No. How much did they pay you to kidnap her?” He fired a rifle shot at their feet that sent sand all over them. In swift action, he reloaded the rifle's lever action. “Next shot will be in your foot.”
“A-a guy named Bent. We don't know his last name, I swear,” McCurty said.
“That right, Knight?”
Josie Knight bobbed his head and swallowed hard. “He pointed her out to us coming in the buckboard and said here's two hundred dollars. You boys have all the fun you—ah, want with her. But be damn sure that she don't come back. Sell her in Mexico or bury her.”
Chet frowned. “Did you see him, Louise?”
“Yes,” she said from behind his back.
“Who was he?”
“Cleb Cleator.”
“How did he meet you boys?”
“In a bar in Fredericksburg two nights ago. He said his name was—”
“Hell, he promised us a better-looking one than her. Lots younger, too.” Knight wrinkled his nose and both of them laughed. Not a free laugh, but the kind someone under great pressure let out.
That “younger one” meant one thing to Chet: that Cleator had meant to show them—Susie. His finger tightened on the trigger. The two of them needed to be sent to hell on an express train. Cleator wasn't even kin to the Reynoldses. How did they get him involved?
“Set your asses on the ground,” he ordered. “You can't outrun this rifle and I'm just itching to use it on either one of you.”
He stepped back to where Louise was trying to brush the sand out of her hair. In a low voice he asked, “You sure it was him?”
“I'd know him anywhere. Don't you recall when your sister sent him packing two years ago?”
“Not really. You think he wanted revenge against her?”
“I think he wanted revenge against her and them Reynoldses gave him the money to do it.”
“Where's the two hundred dollars?” Chet asked them.
Knight said McCurty had it.
“My daddy can make that a thousand.” McCurty handed over the roll of bills.
“What are you going to do with them?” Louise asked, rearranging the skirt at her waist.
“Trent's coming. If you can't testify in court about them raping you, then I'm going to shoot them right here and tell God that they died.”
Louise closed her eyes and he saw she still had sand on the fine lashes. “Oh, I can tell my story to a jury and judge.”
“Alright. You have sand on your lashes.”
“Shoot, I have it behind my molars.” He hugged her shoulder with his free hand. “I'm so sorry.”
“I am simply so glad that you found me. I won't ever again complain about your leadership of the ranch.” She began to sob on his shoulder. “You won't ever know how grateful I was just to hear your voice a few minutes ago.”
“We won't get back to the schoolhouse until the middle of the night, maybe later. This body may need to be carried into Fredericksburg.” His gaze locked on the prisoners as he hugged her with his rifle hand as well. “It's all over now.”
She continued to sob. He made her hold the rifle on them and ran to get Fudge. Back again, he tied them up, then secured their horses. The kidnapper he shot had no pulse. By himself, he struggled to get the dead body over the saddle. Once was enough to load him. So the dead one didn't fall off, he tied him up good. He put nooses around the other two's necks. Made plans to make them ride double and have a rope tied on to jerk them off the horse if they tried anything.
He helped Louise into the saddle, and she fought her dress down modestly to better cover her legs. With her settled at last, he gave her the lead on the two prisoners' horses and told her to go ahead. He'd bring the dead man and extra horse behind them. Headed north, she lost her way a few times, but he directed her back to the cow trail they had taken.
Chet felt half sick about abandoning Kathren at the dance. The matter made his empty guts roil. When he finally had things going right—all hell broke loose again. What would she be thinking—
oh, he's off again
. Going across the stage route, he looked west. El Paso was that way. His travels would take him there soon enough.
“See those tracks ahead of you?” he asked Louise, who had stopped on the far side and acted confused. “That's where they brought you off that hill.”
“Yes, I see now,” she said, and booted her horse off the road and onto another cow path.
“Take them two right on,” he said. “Trent and J. D. will be coming to meet us.”
He hoped they hurried. The sun kept dropping lower in the west. Still, there would not be enough daylight for the time they'd require to get back before dark. The four of them might be in nowhere land when the sun went down. What if they'd lost his tracks? Nothing he could do but look for some ranch to head toward before it turned pitch-black, if worse got to be worst.
They crossed a large, wide-open flat and he turned an ear to the sounds of horse hooves coming. He shouted for Louise to rein up. They could be reserves for those three. Pushing his horse up to the lead, he recognized a familiar hat. J.D. was bringing the good sheriff in a hot race.
“We've been saved, Louise.”
She looked on the edge of exhaustion. At the news, she slumped in the saddle. “Good, I can use some relief.”
“I bet you could. Well, your son and the sheriff are coming fast.”
Trent reined in his lathered pony hard, and slid to a stop. “What have we got here?”
“Two alive and one dead kidnapper. They kidnapped Louise and assaulted her down on the Perdanales. I ordered them to surrender and one went for his gun. A fool move with a cocked rifle in my hands. He's dead. These other two can tell you the rest. They have some tall tale to tell how some guy hired them to kidnap a female in the family and take her off. I guess to sell in Mexico after they finished with her.”
Trent frowned. “Who hired them?”
“They said Cleb Cleator.”
“Ain't his daddy a big rancher?” The sheriff frowned in disgust.
“That's the one. But better yet, to start with, I think that Cleator really wanted them to kidnap Susie. He thought she'd be in the buckboard that Louise ended up driving.”
“He any kin to them Reynoldses?” Trent asked, looking sour at the two of them.
Chet shook his head. “I don't know, but I'd bet a dollar to a cow pie that's where he got the idea.”
“You must have made good time to catch them.”
“I did. They thought they were beyond any pursuit when I found them.”
“Sheriff, he did a superb of rescuing me.” Louise said. “He certainly is the hero of the day.”
“Mrs. Byrnes, I agree with you a hundred percent. It's going to be dark in a short while. Should we head back for the schoolhouse?”
“No,” Chet said, shaking his head. “You take them two to the jailhouse, there's folks up there that would lynch them before this night was over.”
“I agree. Can I borrow J.D. to help me get them back to Mason tonight?” the sheriff asked.
“J.D.?”
“Oh, I'd help him.”
“Good, I think Louise and I can make it back to the schoolhouse before the last dance. Or do you want to go with them?” Chet asked her.
“I may look like a hen that's been rustling in the dirt, but I choose the schoolhouse.”
“Trent, the big one is McCurty and the other one is Knight.”
“We can handle this from here. Now, Mrs. Byrnes, you will file charges against these men, won't you?”
“Sheriff, I told Chet I would, or else he intended to hang them down there. But I want to see them get what they have coming. I'll be in your office mid-morning on Monday and give you my full story.”
“J.D., get the prisoners and we'll put them in irons and let these folks go dance.”
“Good.” Chet wheeled his horse around. “Come on, Louise. I know a shortcut.”
Short or not, it was long past ten when they reached the—
tent. Juanita came from the tent and blinked in disbelief at them in the glaring firelight.

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