California Romance (42 page)

“Who’s your brother?” the bandit growled.

Dori considered refusing to tell him. A quick look at Sarah changed her mind. She must save Sarah at all costs—which meant the bandit must not find out she was Matt’s wife. Dori raised her head and looked straight into the slits of the kerchief that covered the outlaw’s face. “Matthew Sterling.”

“Hey fellers, we got us a good one.” The bandit leader vaulted off his horse and forced Dori to mount. “Move, and one of my boys will put a bullet in you.”

With a cry of rage, Seth lunged toward them. A second bandit spurred his horse and smashed the butt of his gun onto Seth’s head. Seth dropped senseless to the ground. Sarah and Abby screamed. Dori could only pray that Seth was still alive.

“Driver, get word to the Diamond S to expect a ransom note,” the leader said. “Tell Sterling if he wants to see this mouthy sister of his again, he’d better pay.” He grabbed for the reins of Dori’s horse. The horse reared. The bandit dropped the reins and tried to get out of the way, to no avail. The horse’s shoulder sent him sprawling. His gun went off, then flew out of his hand.

The trouble the other two bandits were having with their horses showed Dori that the shot had spooked the animals. If only she could reach the gun. She flung herself out of the saddle, but her foot caught in the stirrup of her frightened horse. Dori fell, striking her head and shoulder. Pain ripped through her, but she jerked her foot free and crawled toward the gun.

Before she reached it, Dori saw Red Fallon jump from the driver’s seat and leap toward her. He swung onto the horse and snatched Dori up by the back of her blouse. He threw her across the saddle and sent the horse into a full gallop. Dori’s last thought before surrendering to pain was,
So Red was lying after all
. Then, merciful blackness.

S
eth Anderson groaned. Where was he? Why was water splashing on his face? Was he back in the river trying to save Dori? A strong hand gripped his shoulder and shook him. “Wake up, young feller.”

“Charley?” Seth’s head throbbed with the granddaddy of all headaches but he managed to open his eyes. Sarah and Abby bent over him, their tears dripping onto his face. He brushed them away. “What are you doing? Trying to drown me?”

“Thank God, you’re alive.” Sarah buried her face on his shoulder. Seth saw relief in Abby’s frightened face, but he couldn’t collect his thoughts enough to figure out what was happening. He gently put Sarah aside and struggled to sit up.

The movement left him dizzy. He shook his head to clear it. Big mistake. His brain pounded like hammers on an anvil.

“Lemme have a look-see at yore noggin,” Charley said. “That jasper gave you a mighty sharp rap.”

“I’m all right.” Seth jerked away when Charley touched the back of his head. “Ow!”

Charley grunted. “Not so you’d notice. You got a lump the size of a duck egg back there. Not much blood though.” He handed Seth a canteen. “Drink. Then we’ll get you in the coach. We gotta go back to Fresno Flats and get the law after the bandits and Fallon. Good thing it ain’t far.”

Seth’s memory kicked in: Red Fallon; the bandits; the holdup; the ruffian throwing Dori on a horse—

Alarm attacked with the venom of a rattlesnake. “Where’s Dori?” Seth peered up the dusty road that stretched empty and menacing ahead of them.

Sarah burst into tears. “Gone.”

Seth felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. “The bandits took her?”

Charley shook his head. “Naw. A gun went off, an’ their horses spooked. Yore friend Fallon got away with the girl. ’Pears to me that in spite of all his fancy talkin’ ’bout gettin’ religion, he wuz in on the holdup. Or mebbe he decided to pick up a ransom for himself.”

Seth’s world turned black. Red’s story had almost convinced him of the wild cowhand’s change of heart.
Lies, all lies
.

“Get in the coach, Seth,” Sarah pleaded.

The horror in her eyes showed she was reliving the ordeal of being kidnapped by Red. Seth stood, but tottered and almost fell. “We can’t wait for the sheriff. I’m going after Dori right now.”

“No, you ain’t,” Charley barked. “You cain’t ride one of my team—it takes two horses to haul us back to town.”

Seth clenched his hands into fists and fought a fresh wave of dizziness. “I’ll walk.”

“No!” Sarah protested. “You’re hurt worse than you think. What good will you be to Dori if you take off after her and end up passing out by the road?”

“Yore sister’s right,” Charley chimed in. “Shut up and get back in the coach, or I’ll put another lump on yore head and throw you in.”

Convinced more by the way his head spun than by Charley’s threat, Seth obeyed. The short ride back to town would steady him. Charley turned the team and goaded them into a dead run. Seth leaned back against the seat and gritted his teeth at every jar of the stagecoach. The rough ride did, however, help restore his senses.

“Sarah, Abby, I’ll leave you at the flats and ride with the sheriff and his posse.” Seth took his sister’s hands in his. “We’re going to get them. All of them. When we do, God have mercy on their souls. The law won’t—and neither will I.”

Sarah gave a broken cry. “If only Matt were here. What will he say when he learns we’ve lost his sister?”

Seth cringed. His brain told him he could have done nothing to prevent Dori’s kidnapping, but his promise to Matt to take care of her flayed him. When Dori had needed him most, he’d been sprawled senseless in the road—and Red Fallon had ridden away with the girl Seth loved. If the law didn’t punish Red, he would.

Seth slumped in the seat and lashed himself with regrets.
Why did I refuse to tell Dori how I feel, even after she recommitted her life to You, Lord, and the barrier between us was shattered? Now I may never have the chance. What will happen if the bandits catch up with her and Red?
Seth bit his lip until blood came. Even if Matt paid a ransom and Dori’s captors released her, would she come home unharmed?

“Trust Me.”

“A lot easier to say than to do,” Seth mumbled, but he clung to the words every inch of the way back to Fresno Flats. Charley drove like a madman, yet it felt like a lifetime before they reached town and found the sheriff.

The lawman hastily scared up a posse as rugged looking as he was, including the two ranchers who had been in the Madera-Big Tree Station stage.

“Don’t worry,” one said. “We’ll get that pretty little gal back.” The other nodded.

Seth felt warmed by their concern. “Thanks. I’m going to marry her if she’ll have me.” He felt himself redden when they guffawed, but the sheriff interrupted.

“You gonna be able to keep up, what with that bump on your head?” His keen gaze bored into Seth. “If not, stay here with the women and let us do the trailin’.”

Fire ran through Seth’s veins. “I can keep up. Besides, a couple of their nags are carrying double.”

“That will slow them down some. Mount up, men, and let’s ride. We’ve got fresh horses, and they don’t.”

It didn’t take long to ride back to the scene of the holdup. Seth seethed with impatience when the sheriff insisted on stopping to examine the site. Every minute Dori was in the hands of the bandits, Red, or both, felt like a year.

“Nothing here to show what happened ’cept for some roiled up ground and a few drops of blood,” the sheriff announced.

“That’s where I fell,” Seth told him. “Begging your pardon, Sheriff, but can we get going?”

“Shore.” He swung into the saddle and led the dozen grim-faced men who formed the posse back on their pursuit. The riders remained silent for the most part, but Seth occasionally heard mutters of “catchin’ the low-down thieves an’ makin’ short work of them,” and “holdups are bad enough; abductin’ innocent gals sticks in my craw.”

Seth silently agreed, straining his eyes for a glimpse of the hunted men.

Time limped by. The posse didn’t catch up with either the bandits or Red and Dori. Seth’s hopes dwindled to a mere flicker. Despair left him feeling sick. A splitting headache made it hard to trust God. Never in his life had Seth found it so difficult, not even when Red kidnapped Sarah. Seth had been laid up at the ranch and spared from knowing she was missing until after Matt rescued her. Now fear returned with a hundred armed companions. What if they didn’t find Dori before darkness fell?
Lord, how can I live through a night, wondering what may be happening to her?

A comforting thought came to mind. “I trained Dori well,” he murmured. “If she has an opportunity to escape, she can survive.” He slitted his eyes, trying to recall every detail of what had happened before he’d been struck. The bandits had flourished pistols. Had there been rifles and lariats on the horses’ saddles?

“Seems like I saw both,” Seth mumbled, “but I’m so used to seeing fully outfitted horses, I didn’t pay any attention.” His pulse quickened. “I probably would have noticed if they hadn’t been there. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but it seems like outlaws would be well equipped.” Seth felt his lips curl into a smile, the first since the holdup. “If Dori gets her hands on a lasso or a rifle, she can sure use it.” The thought helped lift his mood.

By the time the posse reached a fork in the road, the sun sat high in the sky. A careful examination of horse tracks in the dust showed that two horses had continued on the main road; one had veered off to the left. “Looks like the bandits haven’t come up with Fallon and Miss Sterling,” the sheriff said. “Here’s where we split up. Half of you go after the bandits.” He eyed Seth. “Anderson, you and the rest come with me.”

About an hour later, Seth’s sharp eyes noticed something odd. He leaned over from the saddle and stared at the tracks in the trail. “Hey Sheriff, come here, will you?”

“What is it?”

“Look.” Seth pointed to the ground. Excitement mounted. “It doesn’t make sense, but the tracks are turning back toward the main road to Fresno Flats.”

The others crowded next to him. “You shore got good eyes, son.” The sheriff scratched his forehead and looked puzzled. “It ain’t what I was expectin’. What’s Fallon up to, anyway?”

“The girl might be hurt from being thrown, worse than Fallon knew when he rode off with her,” someone said. “Maybe he’s taking her back to Fresno Flats to find a doctor. Having a dead girl on your hands is a heap more serious than kidnapping.”

“Shut up, you fool,” the sheriff roared with a quick glance toward Seth. “We ain’t seen no blood, have we?”

Seth felt his own blood turn to ice. The pity in the lawman’s eyes showed that, despite his protest, the unwelcome suggestion might be true.

“I’ll wager Fallon decided to take the girl back and turn himself in,” one of the ranchers put in. “He might reckon the law will go easier on him. Anderson, how do you figure it?”

All Seth could get out of his constricted throat was, “I don’t.”

“Well, we ain’t gonna find out standin’ here flappin’ our gums,” the sheriff growled. “Let’s get going.”

Seth’s bones ached with weariness before the posse rounded a bend and reached the main road back to Fresno Flats. The sheriff reined in his horse.

“What th—”

Seth gave a loud cry. He kicked his horse into a gallop, heart thundering in time with the racing animal’s hoofbeats and the pounding of the posse’s horses behind him. He pulled his mount to a halt beside something that lay under a tree, trussed up like a roped calf: Red
Fallon
.

But where was Dori?

T
he staccato beat of hooves brought Dori back to consciousness. Why was she face down in the saddle of a galloping horse? She struggled to remember, and it all came back. The holdup; the bandits; Seth being felled by a cruel blow; a gunshot; Red Fallon yanking her onto a horse.

Dori twisted her head, gazed up at Red, and opened her mouth to scream. A rough hand silenced her.

“Shhh. The bandits’ll hear you. Promise not to yell if I take my hand away?”

Dori nodded. One bandit at a time was more than enough.

Red removed his hand.

“Don’t you mean the other bandits?” Dori spit out in a low voice.

“I ain’t one of ’em.” He reined in the horse. “Let’s get you in a more comfort’ble position.” He stepped down from the horse and set her upright.

Too confused to attempt an escape, Dori gasped. “You kidnap me, and now you’re concerned about my comfort?”

Back in the saddle with Dori in front of him Red mumbled, “It ain’t that way.”

“Are you going to hold me for ransom?”

Red glanced over his shoulder and sent the horse into a run. “Naw.”

What scheme lay beneath Red’s battered sombrero? “You won’t get away with this.”

“Sit still and keep quiet,” Red ordered. “We’ll be in a heap of trouble if those three galoots catch us. I’m tryin’ to save you.”

If anyone had told Dori that she’d ever choose Red Fallon over a gang of outlaws, she’d have laughed herself silly. What had changed her mind—his so-called repentance? His assurance he was trying to save her? His changed appearance? No. Satan himself could appear as an angel of light. She didn’t know if she believed Red. His actions during the holdup gave lie to his claim.

“Lord, what has calmed me enough to keep from kicking, screaming, and taking my chances with the bandits?” she whispered. The answer came like a lightning bolt. Red had shown her no disrespect. The grasp on her blouse when he heaved her onto the horse had not been unkind. He’d clapped his hand over her mouth only to silence her. He’d shown consideration by changing her position to make riding easier.

When they reached a fork in the road, Red turned into the lesser traveled path. “The bandits should be too busy tryin’ to outrun the law to come after us, but we can’t take chances. Soon as it’s safe, we’ll get back on the main road.” An hour later he cocked his head to one side. “Hear that?”

Dori’s ears perked up. “Rushing water.” Her lagging spirits lifted. A mountain stream meant relief for her parched throat and dust-covered hands and face.

When they reached the brook, Red helped Dori off the horse. Stiff and sore, she threw herself down on the bank and drank water so icy her teeth chattered. She splashed her hot face, shivered, then splashed again.