Weathered Too Young (45 page)



“He knows you can track
’
em,” Tom said,
checking
his
saddle cinch.

“Oh, I’m sure he’s countin’ on it,” Slater mumbled.
He shoved a foot in th
e stirrup and mounted Smokey.
Slater rode out of the barn, reined Smokey in
,
and studied the
tracks in the dirt
on the ground.

“That fool boy,” Tom said as
he
rode
from
the barn, reining in beside Slater
.

“All boys ar
e fools…in one way or the other.
Men too,
” Slater growled.
He shook his head as he recognized the horseshoe prints
belonging to
Chet Leigh’s horse.
“But I’m still gonna wring his neck
when I get my hands on him.”

Slater
spurred
Smokey to a slow walk,
carefully studying
the foot
prints and hoofprints on the ground.

“Yep.
Looks like Johnny crawled out the window here,” he said
,
pointing to the ground beneath the window of the room where Johnny and Charlie slept.
“Then he run off over this way…to the side of the house
,
here,” he continued, following the tracks, “and here’s where Chet got him.”
Slater followed the hoofprints as the
y
led east, away from the house.
He studied
the manner
i
n which the hoofprints then made a deeper impression in
the soil.
“
Johnny’s on Chet’s horse…and
Chet took him by hisself,” he told Tom.
“Samson Kane wasn’t with him.”

“Maybe Kane don’t have nothin’ to do with this,” Tom offered hopefully.

“And maybe you didn’t know Lark
would end up twistin’ me around her finger
when ya hired her,” Slater said.

Tom chuckled
,
and Slater spurred Smokey into a trot.

They had to find Johnny
. T
hey had to find him alive
,
and he had to stay that way.
Slater
silently cussed the boy up one side and down the other for being so headstrong.
He’d told Johnny just the night before that he couldn’t ride out with Eldon and the others
, and he’d told him why
.
Oh, he remembered well enough how it felt to be twelve years old and feeling your oats
,
so he’d told him that his mama and little sister and brother would fret too hard if Slater let him ride out
—instead of telling him that
a boy of twelve
wasn’t ready to face outlaws
.
He
’d
reminded
Johnny
that his mama had just lost her lover and husband and that the little ones still weren’t feeling safe without their daddy nearby.
He’d
told
the boy
that his family needed him—that Tom and the cowboys could help protect the outside of the house but that his mother, brother, sister
,
and even Lark needed a man to protect them inside it.
Slater had assumed the boy had settled his determination to ride off in search of heroism.
He sighed, shaking his head at his own ignorant assumption
s
.
He should’ve tied the boy to the bedpost—because he knew how Johnny thought.
Slater had thought the same way when he’d been
Johnny’s
age.
He should’ve known the boy would disobey him and ride out
in search of adventure—
for
in his heart, Slater kn
ew
he would’ve done the same.

As he tracked Chet Leigh’s horse, Slater struggled to keep his thoughts on being wary of an ambush.
Visions of Lark kept sweeping through his mind—visions of her smile, her alluring form
,
and
her
tempting lips.
His mouth watered at the thought of her kiss, his arms
longed
to
hold her, and
his body
ached
to know the
sense of hers pressed against his once more
.
He hadn’t wanted to leave her.
In truth, he’d secretly paused a moment before going after Johnny.
For just a moment, he’d considered sending the others out after his
reckless
nephew.

Still, it was
Slater
that
Samson Kane wanted
. H
e was the reason everyone else was in danger—including young Johnny.
Slater w
ouldn’t let the people he loved suffer any longer
because of
the past that still haunted him.
He wanted nothing more than Lark—nothing.
Yet he couldn’t live with him
self if anything happened to Johnny.
Experience and a weathering past had proven to Slater that if he wanted to own Lark—wholly own her
heart, mind, body
,
and soul—then he had to be the man he was born to be
,
the man who fought against evil no matter what.
He couldn’t live with himself otherwise, and he was sure
Lark
couldn’t
either
.

He’d
have her—he would!
He’d beat down Samson Kane and Chet Leigh—hang them if he had to—but he’d have Lark.
In that moment, Slater was tired of pussyfooting around.
He loved Lark.
Oh, he’d tried to fight it, sure enough—but he couldn’t
,
and he loved her.
He loved her
,
and he was suddenly tired of holding back.
His past was his past.
Nothing could change it.
In fact, his past might just be what made he and Lark so well suited for one another.

Enough!
Slater growled low in his throat.
He’d take care of Samson Kane and Chet Leigh
,
and then—then he’d
marry Lark
. H
e’d tie her up and drag her to the preacher’s house if he had to.
Time was too precious to be wasted—and he’d wasted plenty.

“He’s ridin’ fast,” Slater said to Tom.
“He ain’t far ahead though.
I think he’s headed for the canyon ridge.
I don’t want him gettin’ that far.
Come on, Tom.
Let’s get that boy and bring him home.”

“
We’re most lik
ely ridin’ straight for a shoot
out,” Tom said.

“Yep,” Slater
mumbled
.

Tom smiled.
“I ain’t never had the pleasure yet, big brother,” he chuckled.
“Oughta be mighty
interestin’.”

Slater smiled.
“
Oh
,
by the way…I’m deputizin’ you, little brother. It’s only temporary, of course.”

“Of course,” Tom said, smiling.

“Get on, Smoke!” Slater shouted then.

As Smokey broke into a gallop, Slater
leaned forward in the saddle, keeping low in case Chet Leigh had already set up to fire on h
im
and Tom.
He
felt his eyes narrow—felt his attention
finally begin to focus on bringing
Johnny home
.

A
s
Slater
rode
toward certain danger—rode with his
reins in one hand,
his
rifle in the other
, and his brother at his side
—
he
knew he’d do whatever he had to do to get back to the house—
to get back to the woman he loved—to get back to Lark.



Lark wadded up her apron
,
pressing it to the wound at Ralston’s leg.
The wound was bleeding more profusely than the wound at his shoulder.
She pressed harder, wincing as Ralston moaned.

“Do you think it would be safe to fetch some water for him?” Lark asked, looking over her shoulder to Katherine.

Katherine shook her head, however.
“I don’t know.
Just…just keep your head low maybe,” she answered.

“I think the bullet went through his shoulder…but I’m not sure about his leg,” Lark said.
“I think it’s still in there.”

“Well, we certainly can’t dig it out now,” Katherine said.
“Not until
—”

Lark cried out
,
and the children screamed as
the front door burst open.
Samson Kane stepped into the house
, wielding
a large bloodstained knife in one hand and a pistol in the other.
He smiled—the same heinous, malevolent smile Lark had seen in her waking nightmare beyond the east pasture.

A low chuckle resonated in his throat as he
studied
Lark, Katherine
,
and the children.

“Well, lookie here,” he said, slowly striding toward them
,
wiping the blood from his knife on his pant leg.
“Is this where Marshal Evans keeps his women
,
under the table in the kitchen
?
I knew that self-righteous lawman wasn’t
the lily-white angel he makes hisself out to be.”
The outlaw hunkered down
and
pushed his hat bac
k on his head, glaring at them
.
“So he’s got hisself a coupl
e
a babies too, is it?”
He chuckled again.
“Well, ain’t he been the busy bee?”

For a moment, Lark couldn’t speak.
Terror had numbed her tongue.
She could only stare at Samson Kane—unable to believe he was in the house with them.
She wondered where Slater was.
Had Samson Kane killed him?
Was he lying dead somewhere?
Was it Slater’s blood staining Samson Kane’
s knife?
No!
No!
She wouldn’t believe it.
Slater and
Tom hadn’t been gone long enough for
Samson Kane
to have
murdered
them
,
whether or not Chet Leigh was helping him.
No.
Slater and Tom had ridden out after Johnny—and Lark understood then.
Samson Kane hadn’t lured Slater out of the house to ambush him in the open
. H
e’d lured him out of the house in order to ambush him when he returned!
It made perfect sense
,
from an outlaw’s point of view—especially one who was outnumbered.
With Slater and Tom gone, and Ralston wounded and unconscious, Samson Kane had only two men to take down before he could gain entrance to the house—instead of five.

Lark’s eyes filled with tears as she wondered what the fates of Eldon and Grady had been.
Were they dead?
Her gaze lingered on the blade of Samson Kane’s large knife as she remembered what Johnny had told her—that his father had told him Samson Kane often gutted his victims like fish.
Horrible images flashed through her mind as she thought of Grady and Eldon—as she thought that Ralston was no doubt the luckiest of the three.

The true danger
Katherine and the children were in
began to sink into Lark’s consciousness.
Then, as Samson Kane’s attention
began to linger
on her—as a smile of both anger and triumph spread across his ugly face—Lark realized the danger she was in as well.

She was panicked, yes
.
Yet even as panic and ultimate fear washed over her, hope gave her courage—hope that Slater was still alive
,
that he was unharmed
,
that he would still vanquish Samson Kane and survive.

“Marshal Evans isn’t here,” Lark said as her senses began to return.

Samson Kane nodded.
His eyes narrowed as he growled, “Ain’t you learned yet that lyin’ is a sin, woman?”
He studied her for a moment.
“You lied to me the other day…even though you knew I’d find out, didn’t ya?
That was brave
—
ignorant
,
but brave
.
I’ll give ya that.
Are you
still
tryin’ to pro
tect that filthy Slater Evans?”