Carol Finch (20 page)

Quinn winced. He was almost relieved that he hadn’t witnessed Piper’s reckless daring. Damn it, she had taken a few lessons in survival and now she thought she was invincible.

“Where are the women now?” Butler demanded.

“The bandits said they’d be waiting at Phantom Springs with their hostages,” the corporal replied.

Quinn’s jaw clenched and he went perfectly still.

“You know the place, Cal?” Butler asked grimly.

“Exceptionally well,” he muttered.

It was the place where he and his father had built their ranch house and watched it burn to the ground the day the Kiowas swooped down on them. It was the place where his life had changed forever and his hated enemies had become his adopted people. He had avoided that lush oasis in the valley for years. He had refused to face the long but never forgotten memories that had turned a terrified child of twelve into a bitter, mistrusting cynic.

“Perfect death trap, I presume,” Butler grumbled. “Hell and damnation. Those bastards found a way to outsmart us. They hold the upper hand now and they know it.”

Quinn tried to think past the upheaval boiling inside him. If Piper died on the very site that had once been his family’s ranch he would swear his life had been doubly cursed.

“Cal?” Butler prompted.

Quinn shook himself loose from the paralyzing emotions that haunted him.
Think, damn it,
he ordered himself. It took a moment to get his mind back on track.

He glanced up at the two soldiers. “How long will it take to ride to the fort and retrieve every spare mount you have?”

The sergeant frowned, bemused. “You want army horses?” When Quinn nodded grimly, he said, “Almost two hours down and two back. We’ll be lucky if we can have the herd here by dusk.”

Quinn smiled faintly. “Perfect. Meet me at the mouth of Phantom Springs Canyon as soon as you can.”

When Quinn cut the soldiers loose, they wheeled around and thundered off. He swore the next four hours were going to be the longest of his life. Every worst-case scenario of Piper’s captivity kept buzzing in his head. He had seen too many unfortunate victims during his service with the Rangers. The prospect of adding Piper’s name to the list of the departed made his blood run cold.

“Swear to God,” Quinn muttered resolutely, “if those cutthroats leave even one mark on Piper I won’t rest until all of them are standing at the door to the jail. Or at the gate to the cemetery. Whichever. I promised Taylor Briggs vengeance and the same goes double for Piper and her sister.”

“Would you mind filling me in on what you have in mind?” Butler requested. “What are you going to do with a herd of army horses?”

“Old Comanche trick, and I need two Comanches to help me pull this off,” Quinn said before he wheeled around and stalked away.

“I know from experience that Comanches have more than one trick,” Butler called after him. “Be more specific.”

Quinn didn’t respond. His concern for Piper was eating him alive. The possibility that he might lose her forever was driving him half-crazy. He had every intention of giving her up for her own good, but he couldn’t imagine a world without Piper in it somewhere.

Piper regained consciousness to find her hands secured to the pommel of the saddle and her feet lashed to the stirrups. Serenaded by the buzzing in her ears and the agonizing throb in the back of her skull she opened her eyes without changing position on the horse. She glanced discreetly at her sister, being careful not to alert the bandits to the fact that she was awake.

Penny’s wrists and ankles were also tied to the saddle. The procession was moving along a narrow trail that led into a steep-walled canyon.

Her mutinous gaze landed on Roy’s back and she cursed the bandit for allowing his revenge against her to spill over to Penny. She wasn’t sure
she
was going to escape from this nightmare alive, but she would be damned if Penny had to suffer also.

Resting her cheek against the horse’s neck, she surveyed the rugged terrain. Considering the armed bandits that bookended her, she didn’t think she could thunder off and expect to get very far before being apprehended again. She asked herself what Quinn would do in this situation, but she didn’t have a clue. Plus, analytical thought was difficult when her senses were groggy from the splitting headache and nausea.

“The whole lot of you must be suicidal,” Penny declared brazenly. “Whatever beef you have with the
Rangers will only be half of your worries when my husband learns I have been taken captive.”

Piper bit back a grin while she pretended to still be unconscious. Penny was in her usual form and she kowtowed to no one. She, of course, had learned the tactic after years of watching Roarke operate, just as Piper had.

“Shut your mouth,” Roy snarled at Penny.

“This stunt of yours will bring the wrath of the army down on your heads,” Penny prophesied, ignoring Roy’s terse demand. “You won’t be able to run far enough or fast enough to find refuge. My husband will do whatever it takes to hunt you down. On that you can depend.”

“Just shut up!” Sam snarled. “Don’t know why you should concern that blond head of yours with events you won’t be around to watch unfold.”

“That hardly matters,” Penny said boldly. “The point is that you and your brother will hang from the tallest tree in Texas or face a firing squad. I vote for
both.
”

“You have a mouth as big as your sister’s,” Roy muttered. “Why don’t you give it a rest before we decide to rest it for you.” He gestured his greasy head toward Piper. “Far as I’m concerned, you can both ride slumped over the saddle. It’s a hell of a lot quieter and more pleasant for the rest of us.”

Piper felt herself tense in anticipation as the procession dropped in single file to pass through a bottleneck ravine. This was her chance to escape. There was only one rider ahead of Penny, who was directly in front of Piper. Using the element of surprise, Piper might be able to jam the narrow passage long enough for her sister to plow against Roy and perhaps unseat him on her way by.

Plus, there were enough scrub bushes and junipers lining the path to provide protection while Penny scrambled uphill to take cover behind the gigantic slabs of rock and oversize boulders.

Waiting until her horse was halfway through the shadowy tunnel of stone, Piper bolted upright to claw at the reins and force her mount backward. The horse behind her slammed against a jutting rock. Whirling wildly the horse rammed into the one behind it. Hooves clattered on the path. Horses panicked when they found themselves jammed up in confined spaces. Bandits cursed as they collided with the jagged rocks in the tunnel and hurriedly tried to regain control of their frantic mounts before being unseated and trampled.

Nudging her horse forward Piper rammed into Penny’s mount, sending it lunging into Roy’s horse. Yelping in surprise, Roy half turned in the saddle. Piper was pleased to note that Penny uplifted her elbow and caught the stubble-face cretin in the jaw on her way by. His head snapped back against the stone wall, then he dropped to the ground and lay there motionless.

“Shoot the horses out from under them!” Sam roared.

Piper gouged her horse, sending it into a gallop. She held her position to protect Penny’s back until the path widened so they could ride abreast.

“We have to split up,” Piper called out. “I’ll lead the bandits west while you take cover on the hillside. But whatever you do, don’t risk injury.”

Amid whistling bullets that scattered the pebbles beneath the horses’ hooves and zinged off the perpendic
ular wall of rock, Piper veered off the trail and headed straight into the lush valley.

Penny scrabbled uphill and disappeared from sight, thank goodness.

Whatever else happened Piper intended to provide a time-consuming distraction for her sister. For the first time in more than a week Piper was
grateful
to be an annoying inconvenience and the cause of a delay. She knew the Rangers were out there somewhere and she refused to become the bait that endangered their lives.

Penny was right when she said these desperadoes were inviting a full-fledged war with the army, Piper thought as she raced headlong through the panoramic canyon. There would be revenge for kidnapping Penny, she assured herself. Matt wouldn’t rest until he had Penny back and made certain those responsible paid in full.

Piper might become the sacrifice made to ensure justice was served, but these bandits would not escape unscathed. Quinn and Matt would see to it.

Quinn didn’t love her, but he
would
avenge her. She thundered toward the stream that glowed like mercury in the sunlight. All that mattered now was leading the bandits on a wild-goose chase so Penny would survive and have the chance to raise her child.

She glanced over her shoulder as she wrested her hands free from the leather strap. The bandits were closing in on her. There was no way out of this box canyon. The outlaws would overtake her and her luck was about to run out.

Piper wished that she had found the courage to tell Quinn that she had fallen in love with him when she’d had the chance. Now it was probably too late.

W
hen the overloaded coach finally reached Catoosa Gulch Roarke stepped down to work the kinks from his neck and shoulders. He elbowed his way through the congregation of men who were asking directions to the nearest saloon. He frowned disconcertedly at the backward community that offered none of the luxuries he was accustomed to. The only appealing feature was the town square where a small spring gurgled into a rock-rimmed pool then trickled southward.

Roarke breathed a relieved sigh when he noticed the café that sat across the dirt street. At least his evening meal might offer something besides the mushy beans and stale hoecakes he’d eaten at the last stop.

Thank God for small favors, he thought as he hiked across the street.

According to the driver, the stage would make a two-hour layover to repair a broken spring on the undercarriage of the coach. Just what he didn’t need, another infuriating delay.

Restless and irritable, he breezed into the restaurant and parked himself in a chair. It was then that he remembered he didn’t have any money to pay for his meal. The thought didn’t set well with him. Roarke had begun his life back East as a poor farmer’s son. He had sworn thirty years ago that he would never again be without the funds that could provide the luxuries and influence that his own father had spent his entire life trying to achieve.

Now here Roarke was, right back where he had started. And that didn’t set well with him.

“You missed all the excitement,
señor,
” the young Mexican waitress remarked as she ambled over to his table.

“I’ve had more than enough excitement this week already,” he muttered. “The stage holdup left me penniless.”

The woman smiled, then appraised his clothing. “I’m sure my papa will agree to trade your fine jacket for a meal. Money is not always the medium of exchange in these parts, you know.”

Scowling at the fact that he had to give the coat off his back to get a meal, Roarke shrugged out of the expensive tailor-made garment and thrust it at the waitress. “Bring me whatever this will buy,” he said deflatedly.

When the waitress returned with a glass of wine Roarke decided things were looking up. He could enjoy wine rather than the rotgut whiskey the other passengers were probably gulping down at the moment.

“At least your trek to the fort should be free of trouble by the time you are back on the road,” the waitress said conversationally. “There is a Ranger battalion in the area and they are hot on the heels of the bandoleros that kidnapped two white women this morning.”

His arm stalled in midair, his glass a few inches from his lips. “Two women?” he chirped. Damnation, the waitress couldn’t possibly be referring to his daughters, could she? That’s all he needed on top of everything else! “Two
blond
women?”

The waitress nodded her dark head. “
Sí,
one is the wife of an army captain. The other is her sister. They were taken hostage this morning. The ransom demanded that the Rangers release part of the gang that was locked in jail.”

Roarke’s arm jerked uncontrollably, splattering wine down the front of his shirt.

The waitress spun on her heels. “I’ll fetch a rag to blot your shirt,
señor.
”

Roarke’s hand shook as he set down his glass. He was overjoyed to discover that Piper had somehow survived and had reunited with Penny. But stark fear and concern tormented him to no end. He didn’t want to contemplate the horrors his daughters might endure at the hands of ruthless outlaws.

This was the last straw, Roarke vowed stormily. He wanted his daughters back alive—and he damn well better get them back alive or those outlaws would find their footsteps dogged by every private investigator, gunslinger, bounty hunter and law official in this state! He would make examples of every last one of those cutthroats. The bounty on their heads would be so astronomical that the thieves would turn on each other like a pack of wolves to collect the rewards.

And curse those daredevil daughters of his for thrusting themselves into harm’s way by tramping around
this lawless country. Neither of them should be here in the first place. They were
Sullivans
and a better life awaited them in East Texas. And by damn, Roarke was going to take them home where they belonged. This was one decree that his contrary daughters were
not
going to defy!

Now, all he had to do was pray that the Rangers could rescue Piper and Penny from disaster. Then Roarke was going to stuff them in a stagecoach and head back to Galveston, whether they opposed the idea or not!

Piper shrieked in frustration when the loop of a lariat settled around her throat. The tug of the rope burned against her neck and jerked her sideways. If her feet hadn’t been tied to the stirrups she would have cartwheeled to the ground to be dragged and trampled by the circling horses.

She found herself staring at two dozen angry men. But at least all of them had taken after
her
and given up looking for Penny.

Or perhaps the threat of inviting the outrage of the army had persuaded the outlaws to settle for one hostage. Whatever the case, all the bandits were accounted for and Penny had the chance to ride to safety.

“You are trying my patience, bitch,” Roy growled as he trotted up beside her. “If we didn’t need a live hostage to lure in the Rangers I would shoot you where you sit.”

Piper was led toward a lone cottonwood tree that stood beside the creek that bisected the lush green valley. Craggy stone ridges rose two hundred feet high on all three sides of the canyon. Momentarily distracted,
she stared at the shiny slabs of stone that shimmered in the waning sunlight. It looked as if the creek was fed by an underground spring that trickled down the hillside.

Her thoughts scattered abruptly when Roy slashed the ropes that bound her feet, then jerked her off the horse. Smirking in fiendish glee he tethered her to the tree.

“When this showdown is over you will be our spoils of victory,” he said menacingly. “After the men and I use you for our pleasure I will take personal satisfaction in hearing you beg me to kill you.”

If he was trying to terrorize her it wasn’t going to work, Piper promised herself. She raised her chin in defiance. “Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. I will be cursing you for the beast you are with my dying breath.”

“You will be singing a different tune by morning,” Sam smirked. “Torture is everything it’s cracked up to be.”

“I suspect
you’ll
be dead by then,” Piper dared to say. “The Rangers will have sent you to hell where you belong.”

Snarling, Sam backhanded her across the face. Her head slammed against the tree trunk, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of crying out in pain. She enjoyed a small measure of vindication by spitting the blood from her split lip at him.

Swearing profusely, he bounded onto his horse and reined away, signaling for the brigands to follow him.

Piper watched in dismay as the bandits took strategic positions behind the boulders on all three sides of the canyon. Within a few minutes it was difficult to tell where the snipers were waiting. She couldn’t imagine
how Quinn and a dozen Rangers were going to overcome these odds. The valley itself was as much a fortress as Dead Man’s Canyon.

A curse tumbled from her swollen lips when she saw five riders enter the mouth of the canyon an hour later. She recognized the horses, sombreros and serapes and realized that the Rangers had been forced to release the Mexicans from jail. Muttering, she watched the Mexicans scatter to take their positions on the rugged hillsides for the impending ambush.

The odds against the Rangers had just increased, Piper thought. She would never forgive herself if Quinn and his battalion came to harm because of her.

Two hours later Piper heard a strange rumble in the distance. She glanced toward the storm clouds that had piled up on the northwestern horizon, but the ominous sound didn’t seem to be coming from that direction.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw a herd of at least a hundred horses thundering into the valley in a fog of dust. Gunfire erupted from behind the massive slabs of stones and boulders that surrounded her.

Piper smiled triumphantly when she realized Quinn had cleverly outsmarted the desperadoes. The Rangers hadn’t come charging into the valley of death to risk being picked off like ducks on a pond by the bushwhackers. This had to be Quinn’s ingenious idea, she guessed. He had devised a way to counter the odds.

While bullets zinged around her, ricocheting off pebbles and splattering the water in the stream, Piper stared at the approaching herd. Her jaw dropped open when
she noticed three men hanging off the sides of their saddleless horses. Their clothing matched the color of the buckskin horses they were holding on to. Quinn and the Comanche warriors were plastered so closely to their galloping steeds that it was impossible for the desperadoes to get a clear shot while the rest of the herd raced beside them, stirring up a cloud of dust.

The wild-eyed herd circled the tree and splashed through the creek. Thoroughly impressed by the tactic, Piper smiled when Quinn dropped to the ground beside her, his dagger clamped in his teeth. In less than a minute he had cut her loose, while Red Hawk and Spotted Deer kept the moving barricade churning around them.

“Who hit you?” Quinn growled when he noticed her bloody lip. His forefinger brushed lightly against the rope burns on her throat and he gnashed his teeth. “Who did this to you, Piper?”

“Doesn’t matter,” she said as she watched the circling horses. “How are we going to get out of here?”

“It matters to me. Who…hit…you?”

“Sam and his brother, Roy, but how—?”

Her words died abruptly when Quinn grabbed the bullwhip that hung diagonally across his chest. With an effortless snap of his wrist, the whip curled around one of the horses’ necks. He gave a tug and the winded steed skidded to a halt.

“Quinn, there’s something I need to tell you,” Piper hollered over the whine of bullets and thundering hooves.

“Save it until later. We’re getting the hell out of here while the getting is good.”

Hooking his arm around Piper’s waist, he tossed her
on the sidestepping horse. An instant later he was sitting behind her. He shoved her forward until she was draped over the mount like a saddle blanket. Her breath came out in a whoosh when he collapsed upon her and shouted something in Comanche.

Piper held on for dear life as the horse plunged back into the circling herd. With Quinn’s muscular body plastered over hers, protecting her from gunfire, he gouged the steed into its fastest clip. Piper frowned in confusion when she heard unexpected explosions erupting on the hillsides.

“Commander Butler and four other Rangers posed as the released Mexican bandits,” Quinn shouted over the clatter of hooves. “The unit from Van Horn provided the dynamite for the fireworks. The explosions are the signal for my battalion to advance from over the rise of the mountain to bear down on the bushwhackers. Some of the soldiers arrived back at the fort in time to bring up the herd and join forces with us so we wouldn’t be outnumbered.”

Piper craned her neck to see dozens of riders, armed with rifles and explosives, firing down at the bandits who suddenly found themselves trapped on the wrong side of the massive slabs of rock and boulders.

She smiled in satisfaction, then winced when the cut on her lip began to sting. “Remind me never to try to outsmart you, Callahan. If these desperadoes can’t get it done, I doubt I can, either.”

Quinn held on to Piper as the herd picked up speed and surged toward the mouth of the canyon, while explosions and gunfire echoed around them. Now that she
was safe and sound, and huddled protectively beneath him, Quinn heaved an enormous sigh of relief.

Of course, it went without saying that he was furious with her for luring the bandits after her so her sister could escape unscathed. Piper was
not
supposed to scare him half to death by putting her life on the line like that. Plus, he would dearly like to strangle her for whatever defiant remark she had made that had resulted in Sam Morrell’s vicious retaliation.

But at least she was alive and still in one piece. He was grateful for that.

Quinn jerked on the bullwhip that he had looped around the horse’s neck to slow the pace as they rounded the canyon wall. There were several soldiers waiting to bring the herd to a halt. When Red Hawk and Spotted Deer dropped to the ground, Quinn pulled his mount to a stop so he could hand Piper down to them.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he drew his feet beneath him to launch himself onto the saddle horse Captain Duncan had waiting for him.

“Riding back in to settle a score,” he said before he charged off in the direction he had come.

“Wait! I want to tell you—”

Quinn couldn’t hear her over the rumbling explosions and spitting gunfire. Whatever she thought she needed to say would have to wait.

Hearing the clatter of hooves behind him, Quinn twisted in the saddle to see the Comanche warriors mounted on army horses. “What are you doing here? Stay with Piper.”

Red Hawk shook his dark head. “She is in good
hands. This is as much our fight as it is yours. We want the men who trampled Comanche burial ground. We also want revenge against the men who staked out your wife and split her lip.”

Just what was there about Piper that demanded a man’s allegiance? Quinn asked himself as he approached the battlegrounds on the rocky hillside. He didn’t have time to figure it out at the moment, but nonetheless he was driven to avenge her mistreatment and retaliate for Taylor Briggs’s senseless death.

And by damn, when he got through with Sam and Roy Morrell they were going to be dreadfully sorry they had incited his fury.

Piper found herself reunited and immediately enveloped in her brother-in-law’s fierce hug and he didn’t release her for a long moment. When he did, he smiled appreciatively at her. Piper studied his dark eyes, dark hair, bronzed skin and realized she and Penny had a weakness for ruggedly handsome men.