Swept Away (28 page)

Vince thinking in military terms.

Dare knew how to take charge, too. “We leave Bullard locked up. If we take the key, it’ll slow them down getting him out. It’d be better to tie him up, drag him out of town, and hide him, but we don’t have time.”

Jangling the keys, Vince said, “I got ’em.” Vince was a natural leader, so Luke wasn’t surprised when a few orders got tossed right back. “We need to get Jonas, then split those men up to even the odds. Six men. We can’t just shoot an unconscious man, so we’re going to have to hope Bullard stays unconscious while we fight the rest of ’em. Otherwise it’s seven men, and Bullard is the toughest of them all. If he wakes up and they find a way to free him . . .”

“For what he did to Big John, we could justify dead or alive.” Luke’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Bullard.

“We maybe could to the law, if we lied,” Vince said. “But we can’t to ourselves or to God Almighty.” Vince went on with his orders. “Luke, you take Greer. Dare, you—”

“No,” Dare said, cutting him off. “I get Greer. I saw what he did to his wife. I owe him for that. I owe her justice.”

“He stole my pa’s land,” Luke said with quiet rage. “He either killed Pa or had him killed. I owe him for that.”

“If he hired him killed, who do you think did it?” Vince asked.

They all three looked at Bullard, lying motionless in the locked cell.

The riders began to slow and looked to be coming straight for the jail.

“Both of you capture Greer.” Vince shoved Luke and Dare toward the back of the jail. “I’ll take care of the other five myself. Quit arguing and let’s get out of here.”

Luke shoved the door open and almost smacked Jonas in the face. Vince came out last and closed and locked the sheriff’s office.

“I’m gonna say this because it needs to be said.” Jonas’s eyes connected, one by one with each of them. “There may be killing done here today. But each of you are believers. I
know, Luke, that you’ve got a burning need to avenge your father. Dare, I can see you almost breathing fire when you talk about Glynna Greer. Vince, you’re ready for trouble at the drop of a hat and you don’t mind dropping the hat yourself. But if you want God on your side, you’d better be on His. We take these men prisoner if possible and let the law handle them. If it’s not possible and you take a life, well, we’ve all been through war and we’ve all killed. We know the burden of it. This day is about justice, not vengeance. Remember that.”

Jonas casually clicked his revolver open, spun the wheel to make sure there wasn’t an empty chamber, and snapped it shut. “Vince, we’ll let these two get Greer together. We’ll split the other five. I’ll take two, you take three.”

“Why don’t you take three and I take two?” Vince asked in mock outrage.

“Cuz I’m a preacher. I try and keep my shooting to a minimum.” Jonas shoved his gun into his holster with such ease it told its own story about how Jonas had lived before he became a parson. “And you’d best know that I intend to take all of mine prisoner. I’m not killing anyone.” Jonas paused, then shrugged one shoulder. “Well, I might wing ’em. But I’m not shooting anyone dead.”

“Let’s go. We’ll divide and conquer.” Vince flashed a smile, and Luke knew his friend loved walking wild.

Wheeling away, Vince headed for his office, which would get him to the south side of town.

“I’ll stay in that clump of cottonwoods.” Dare jabbed his index finger at the woods right near the jail. There was about twenty feet of open space stretched between the back door of the jail and the trees on the edge of town. “I’ll see who I can pick off.”

“Let’s slide around to the north and east, boy. Surround the town.” Jonas clapped Luke on the shoulder. Jonas didn’t smile. Not like Vince.

It cost Jonas to buy into the fight. He’d do it and figure it was right, but Jonas told the absolute truth that killing a man didn’t sit easy on a conscience. Truth be told, as furious as he was, Luke wasn’t happy about it. He’d left killing behind after the war and never wanted to have anything to do with it again. And now here he was. But it was justice for his pa and safety for a battered woman. Luke could do nothing but fight.

They reached the trees. Dare hunkered down. Luke and Jonas, using red boulders and scrub brush to conceal themselves, ran to the north, away from Vince’s side of town.

They could get Greer and his men in a crossfire or get them spread out and take them one by one. Luke wished for Big John to help, but mostly he prayed his Ranger friend was still alive.

“Glynna Greer, you get out here!” Greer shouted it from on horseback. His anger, because of his wife, was a strange echo of Bullard’s. Luke looked back and caught Dare’s eye.

Low and quiet, Luke’s voice still carried. “Ruthy’s getting Glynna out right now. Our plan is working.”

Dare jerked his chin in agreement and moved, dodging trees and boulders. He was soon out of sight.

The plan is working?
Luke frowned.

Yep, things were going great.

Six against four. Seven if Bullard came around.

Women and children hiding in the wilderness, their lives hanging in the balance because Ruthy, even plucky as she was, couldn’t get away to the next town with her little band.

Big John missing and maybe dead.

Oh, it was working great. They were one measly life-and-death gun battle away from things settling right down.

The door to the kitchen opened, and the look on Dodger’s face made Ruthy wonder for one heart-pounding moment if she’d trusted the wrong man.

“Let’s go. Let’s get you all out of here.”

Ruthy started to breathe again. “With Greer gone, can you give us horses so we just ride straight for town?”

He shook his head. “Sorry, ma’am. I want you up that highland trail right now. Greer could turn around and come back. There’s a long, narrow neck on that road and you can’t get off it easy. I don’t have enough men to protect you if we went that route. I don’t know what’ll happen in town, but if things go wrong for Luke, I want Greer to believe his wife snuck away and done a good job of it. I’ll stay here and cover your tracks.” Dodger paused and added, “Maybe I should come.”

“No.” Ruthy was just flat-out honored that a trail-savvy cowpoke like Dodger trusted her with this job. With a wash of fear, she knew that if Greer came back, it would almost certainly mean that Luke was dead. If that happened, Glynna needed to look as if she’d run off on her own.

Dodger looked torn apart with wanting to come along and protect them all. Finally he jerked his chin up and down. “Go on then. You said you had a place to hide the family near Broken Wheel, so get busy hiding them.”

“I didn’t expect to see you, Dodger. I thought you’d be holding any men loyal to Greer at gunpoint until we were gone.”

“That was the plan. But all the bad seed rode off with
Greer.” Dodger’s eyes shifted to Glynna. “There ain’t a man left on the place that will betray you, Mrs. Greer. We’ll do whatever we can to help you all stay safe.” He switched his gaze to Ruthy. “I know the spot you are going to use to hide. If you need help, I’ll know it. Wait for me there and I’ll help you all get to Fort Worth.”

It sickened Ruthy to think what that meant, but she gave Dodger a firm nod. “Thank you.” Ruthy looked back and saw Glynna, her eyes bright with determination. “If this day ends like I think it will—like I hope it will—this house’ll never see Flint Greer or his ruffians again.” Dodger held the door open. “Go. I’ll quick look through the house and make sure you haven’t left any sign of where you’re going.”

Ruthy thought of the trapdoor. She remembered the slap as it went shut. But had they closed the closet door? Had they moved anything that Greer would notice? She thought of the kitchen. Chairs tipped over and broken. The table on its side. A window broken. Pans thrown. Gouges in the walls. Destruction everywhere. She had a spark of anger at knowing this would soon be her home and she was going to have to clean up the mess.

Ruthy dashed out of the house with Glynna, Paul, and Janet on her heels.

She didn’t bother winding around the chicken coop or the buckboard. If Greer or any of his henchmen were returning now, she’d hear hoofbeats. Hurrying was more important than sneaking. So moving quickly, they reached the base of her trail with no sign of Greer.

They started the climb. Ruthy looked back a time or two. The Greer family just kept coming. Paul first, Janet next, with Glynna close behind, favoring her arm but not
slowing them down. A few times the trail got steep enough they were more climbing than walking, but without the sentries to be mindful of, they made good time.

They reached the highland, where Ruthy was supposed to lie in wait. Now she needed to lower two children and a badly shaken mother with a wounded arm and fragile ribs down a cliff.

She looked back at her companions. “This is going to be hard.”

Glynna gave Ruthy a weary smile. “You’ve just described my whole life.”

Ruthy had described her own life, too.

“I’ll search every house in this town until I find you, wife!” Greer was working himself up into a lather. “Any man hiding her dies.”

His shouts got louder, his threats uglier.

The folks in this town had stood by while Greer took Glynna back last time. What kind of men were they? Maybe Luke was up against more than six men. Maybe he was up against the whole town.

Broken Wheel seemed like a ghost town. No one stepped out into the street, curious to see what was going on. The banging from the blacksmith had stopped.

Greer wheeled his horse, his hands rough on the reins. The man sat on his horse like a king, expecting his subjects to obey. But he was a king with a stolen kingdom.

Luke intended to enjoy knocking that ill-gotten crown off Greer’s head. Luke scanned the buildings, planning how to get closer to Greer to get this over with. He’d heard every word Jonas had said. He’d take Greer alive if he could.

Looking at the layout of Broken Wheel, Luke planned his next move. There was the row of businesses, five on each side of the packed-earth street, some of them empty. They had board-walks on each side of the street, and those were the only ones in town.

There were other buildings, maybe two dozen, most of them ramshackle and empty, and some homes scattered around, but no one had taken the time to make Broken Wheel orderly. Dare’s house was near to hand, and Luke could’ve run in there and gotten a lot closer to the action. But he didn’t want Dare’s house shot up, so he thought it best to steer clear of it. The church was sitting off to the east on this end of town. It seemed wrong to hide out in God’s house.

There was the livery that included a blacksmith between the church and the business row. Luke had heard someone pounding iron in there earlier, but there was only silence now.

The only visible activity anywhere was Greer and his five men. No one had come out in response to Greer’s shouted questions about his wife. If the townsfolk were the pack of yellow cowards Luke suspected, they’d all dived under a table with plans to stay there.

Greer dismounted. He strode toward the jail. No doubt he expected to find Sheriff Porter inside and drag the man along to give any search the force of the law. The rest of his men were tying up their horses to a hitching post.

It was a quiet town on its best day and this was nowhere near the best. This was the kind of day where flying lead provided a chance for an innocent man to die.

Greer tried the jail. A new bout of rage came when Greer couldn’t get the door open. Luke had locked it. No sense making a single thing easy.

The shouting drew all his men toward him. Luke moved far enough that the whole group was hidden by the livery. He ran into it from the woods.

Inside, he found the blacksmith sitting on the floor behind a heavy feed trough, his forge red hot and abandoned. The smithy, a man Luke had never met, saw Luke and raised both his hands.

“I’m not here to bother you.” Luke had his gun drawn and figured he looked like all kinds of bother.

“Greer’s a good customer.”

“He killed my pa, and he’s left his wife beaten and bleeding more than once. Is he a man you want to back in a fight?”

“Nope, customer or not, I’ve known Greer is trouble for a long time. I don’t like the scars he puts on his horse. But I’m new in town. I ain’t heard anything about him hurting his wife. And I don’t know you, mister. I’m not likely to take your word on much.”