Ride The Wind (Vincente 3) (4 page)

"Yes. I am sure. Does it mean anything to
you?

"Yeah. I've heard he's a bit crazed and that
everyone fears him and stays clear of him." He
shifted his weight and tried to remember everything he'd heard about Graham Felton. His gaze
went back to Winna Mae. "Anything else you
think I should know?"

"I heard one of the men brag that after the
kidnapping, people would have more respect for
the Miller brothers."

Reese's broad brow furrowed. "How many
were there?"

"I saw only two. But I had a feeling that there
was another waiting below with the horses." She
looked into his eyes as if seeking the truth. "Do
you know who the Miller brothers are, Mr. Starrett?"

Reese nodded, and he felt a knot tightening in
his stomach. "I have a hunch it's Earl and Eugene Miller. They have a younger brother they
could have brought him in on this. He could be
the third one."

Reese listened while Winna Mae talked. She
had a keen memory for details. The sheriff had
been a damned fool for not listening to her.

He stood up and walked to the door. "I'll do
what I can, Winna Mae. Take care of those ribs."

"Which way do you ride?" she asked, her dark
eyes staring into his.

He placed his hat on his head and gave her a
grim smile. "I ride east to see if I can locate Graham Felton, and then north to find your lady."

There was respect in Winna Mae's gaze. This
man was no one's fool. If anyone could find Saber, it was him. "Saber is not easily frightened,
but she will be afraid of those men. Find her
quickly."

Reese gave her a slight smile. "I'll do my best." As Reese rode out of town, he tried to fit all the
pieces together. He knew Graham Felton only by
reputation, and it was all bad. He'd once heard
that the man owned a saloon, but Reese didn't
know where. He did know that the two of them
were about to meet. Destiny would throw them
together, and he intended to come out the winner. He had heard of the Miller brothers they
were little more than thieves and saddle tramps.
They were not the danger that concerned him
the danger would come from Graham Felton.

Saber awoke slowly, groaned, and rolled her
head from side to side. A dull ache started at the
back of her skull and ran all the way to her forehead. When she tried to raise her head, the ache
became a sharp pain, making her feel sick to her
stomach. The room was spinning and wouldn't
come into focus, so she closed her eyes again,
hoping it would right itself.

Puzzled, she blinked her eyes and studied her
surroundings. This wasn't her hotel room. It did
resemble a hotel lobby, but it was dusty, the few
furnishings were shabby, and there were cobwebs in every corner.

Where was she?

Slowly the events of her kidnapping came
back to her, and she sat up quickly, but blackness threatened to engulf her, and she eased her
head back down. The only furniture was a stove
that gave off little warmth, a cot, two benches,
and a rickety table. There were steps leading up
to the second floor, but they were rotted and
splintered, and she wouldn't want to attempt to
climb them.

A deep voice spoke up beside her. "We was
'fraid you'd never wake up, Miss Vincente. We
feared Earl'd hit you too hard."

Saber closed her eyes as sickness churned in
her stomach. She turned her head to see who
was speaking, but it was so dark in the room that
the man was just a blur. She licked her dry lips.
"Everything is spinning."

"You'll have to stay put for a while until the
dizziness passes," the man told her.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?"

"It don't matter who I am. Just see that you
don't try to get up. I don't want a sick woman on
my hands. And don't think of escaping you'd
never get past the door."

Saber wondered if she had a concussion. The
inside of her mouth felt like cotton, and every
time she moved her head the pain was unbearable. A horrible thought came to her, and she
suppressed a sob: What if the men had violated her body while she was unconscious?

She shivered in revulsion and thought of Matthew. He would never want her now. Not if what
she suspected was true.

She opened her eyes when she heard the man
bend down to her. The look in his eyes terrified
her. She cried out when he boldly put his hand
on her breast, kneading and pinching until she
shoved his hand away.

"What have you done to me?" she asked
weakly.

He leaned closer and whispered in her ear, his
foul breath making her gag. "What do you think
of Eugene's done to you, sweet thing?"

"You wouldn't.. .you haven't..."

"Honey, you're a delicate flower that makes a
man lose his head. You go ahead and picture
anything you want, because it just might be
true."

With considerable effort, she turned her head
to the wall and rolled into a ball. She was ruined.
"Why didn't you just kill me?" she whispered. "It
would have been kinder."

His hand tangled in her hair, and he jerked
her head around. "Killing you is the last thing
on my mind, sweet thing."

"Leave her alone, Eugene," a hard voice commanded.

That was the last thing Saber heard. She was once more submerged in darkness where there
was no fear.

It wasn't until two days later that Saber felt well
enough to sit up. She looked around at the dusty
room, wondering where she was. As she carefully eased herself to a standing position, her
head throbbed, and her stomach still felt unsettled, but she managed to stay erect.

She moved toward one of the windows, walking awkwardly because her ankles had been
hobbled like a horse so she could take only small
steps. Her hands were tied at the wrists, and the
rope cut into her tender flesh.

Rubbing her palm against the dusty window,
she stared despondently out upon the deserted,
weed-covered streets. The wind caught dirt and
debris and whipped it aimlessly through the forsaken town. She remembered the gentle winds
that blew off the Brazos River in spring, and
how they had sounded almost musical; but this
wind whipped around corners and through broken windowpanes, sounding like the howling of
a hundred banshees.

She realized that this was a deserted town ---a
ghost town. She glanced at the run-down buildings that gave evidence of a once-thriving community. From across the street, she tried to
make out the faded lettering on a sign that swung back and forth on rusty hinges. The town
had not been large, and there were only six or
seven decayed structures still standing. The
place seemed to have been erected in a haphazard manner, as if the builders had been in a
hurry to construct it. The town must have been
prosperous at one time, because she could see
faint lettering identifying one building as a
bank. She craned her neck and stood on tiptoe.
She could see a cemetery at the edge of town
with faded wooden crosses and crumbling
gravestones.

Heavy sadness enveloped her this had once
been a place where people lived, laughed, raised
families... and died. She read the faded lettering of Gregory's Saddlery on the third building
across from her. She wondered whether Gregory had been buried on the hill, or had survived
to find another town in which to set up his trade.
What had caused the town to be abandoned?
From the number of headstones she could see
in the graveyard, she would not have been surprised if some kind of sickness had made it into
a ghost town. Whatever had happened here, this
town was the final legacy of the former inhabitants, and for many of them it had become their
final resting place. The neglected tombstones
and the weed-choked graves were almost all that
remained.

Her small frame trembled, and she turned
away and hobbled back to the cot. She sat down,
trying not to think about the vermin that lived
in the creases of the lumpy mattress. She had no
hope that anyone would find her here. The only
inhabitants of this town were the men who had
abducted her, unless she counted the rattlesnakes and jackrabbits.

Saber wondered why the men had stolen her
away under cover of night. Although she'd asked
them repeatedly, she received only ominous silence in response. Just by listening to their conversation, she had learned that the three men
were brothers, and their last name was Miller.

Earl Miller appeared to be the eldest. It was
easy to see that he made all the decisions, and
the other two deferred to him most of the time.
She thought he must be in his late thirties. He
had black hair and even blacker eyes. He was
shorter than his two brothers and much more
serious, seldom saying anything that wasn't an
order to the others.

Eugene, the middle brother, had thick arms
and a barrel chest. A wide scar ran the length of
his thick, black beard and along his jawline. Saber was more afraid of him than of the other
two. He seemed to have no redeeming qualities
he was spiteful and mean, and he was always
watching her. Every time he was near her, he would manage to touch her or bump up against
her. She still feared what he might have done to
her while she was unconscious.

Sam was the youngest. He couldn't be much
over sixteen, because he was too young to shave,
and there was an air of innocence about him, as
if he hadn't yet grown callous and mean like his
two brothers. Sam attempted to emulate his
brothers by swaggering around with two guns
on his hips, bragging about how he was going to
spend his share of the money they would get
from someone called Graham Felton.

So far Saber hadn't been mistreated, unless
she counted the lump on the back of her head
or what might have happened to her while she'd
been unconscious.

Sam had offered her one of his shirts and a
pair of his trousers, since she had been abducted
in her nightgown. She'd refused to wear them
until she saw the way Eugene kept leering at her.
Of course, the trousers had been too big for her,
so Sam gave her a length of rope to tie around
the waistband. One day Earl had ridden out, and
when he returned he had a pair of slippers for
her. She didn't even want to know whom they'd
belonged to as she slid her feet into them and
found that they were a comfortable fit.

Later she'd heard Eugene laughing as he told
his brothers how he'd spent the night with a whore at Digger's Saloon, and afterward how
he'd stolen the woman's slippers. Saber swallowed the revulsion that threatened to choke
her. She'd never even met a painted lady, and
now she was wearing shoes that had belonged
to one of them.

Reese rode up to the Miller place and looked
about him cautiously. He didn't really believe
that the brothers would be there, but he had to
be sure. He could see inside the barn, and there
was only a swaybacked plow horse inside.

He saw immediately that this wasn't much of
a spread a squatter's farm with a run-down log
cabin, a small barn with two milk cows, and a
rotting fence around the corral that was falling
down. He noticed the curtains being parted, and
a woman's face appeared at the window.

As Reese dismounted, the woman came outside, her gaunt face creased with worry; her eyes
were wide and watchful. She was a woman in
her later years, probably looking older than her
actual age. He assumed she must be the Miller
brothers' mother.

"What you want, mister?" she asked warily.

He gave her a smile. "I'm looking for your
sons, ma'am."

"You a friend of their'n?"

"No, ma'am. I've never met them."

Sadness lingered in her eyes as she brushed a
wisp of gray hair from her face. "Well, they ain't
here, and I don't know where they are. I don't
know as I'd tell you iffen I did."

He decided it was best to be honest with Mrs.
Miller. "I'm Reese Starrett, ma'am. I believe that
your sons have abducted a woman, and her family wants her back real bad. Your boys are in a
lot of trouble, but the law might go easier on
them if they turn the woman over unharmed."

Fear reflected in the woman's careworn eyes,
and her work-worn hands trembled as she
wiped away a tear that was trailing down her
cheek. "God help them," she said softly. "I never
thought they'd stoop to hurting a woman. Are
you sure of what you're a-saying, mister?"

"Yes, ma'am. Otherwise I wouldn't be here
bothering you now."

There was pride in her stance as she stared
into his eyes. "I've heard tell of you, Mr. Starrett.
The word is you're an honest, decent sort of
man. If what you say is true, I'm deeply ashamed
of my boys."

"It's true, all right. I need to find this woman
before they hurt her, Mrs. Miller. If you can help
me, I'd appreciate it."

"Who is the woman? It could be that she went
with them 'cause she wanted to. Eugene has a
way with women."

"I don't think so. Her name is Saber Vincente.
You may have heard of her brother, Noble Vincente."