Texas Rose TH2 (48 page)

"They're family, Miss Howell. The Hardings stick by family. Now lets hurry."

"Daniel still isn't back. I'm afraid something has happened to the boys. Let us take a quick look first. I can't leave without telling them why." Evie hurried toward the door.

Hale grabbed the valise that Carmen was carrying and hurried after her. He caught Evie's arm as she started down the alley toward town. "You can't go that way, Miss Howell. Someone will see you."

"Well, they'll have to see me. I need to see Daniel." She kept going despite Hale's hampering grip. Spying a movement in the shadows, she shook off his hand and almost ran down the alley.

"Daniel!" She knew his movements anywhere. The shadow stepped forward, and she could see the jerk of his crutch.

"Evie, what's going on? I just saw the sheriff with Tyler. Is something wrong?" Daniel gave Hale a quick look, but his attention was focused on Evie.

"Dorset is in town. He's swearing out warrants for Tyler's arrest and mine. Mr. Hale is taking me out to the Harding ranch where they can't find me. Have you found the boys?"

"Ben's helping me look. Don't you worry. We'll take care of them. Is there anything we can do?"

"Just tell the boys something unexciting. Tell them I've gone to see an old friend or something. Mr. Harding can tell the school board that I've been called away. Tomorrow was the last day of the term anyway. The children were expecting a party. Maybe you could see that they got one."

"Miss Howell, we must hurry. The sheriff could be back any minute." Hale tugged on her arm.

Daniel stared at this use of Evie's real name, but before he could comment, Evie hurried off. Daniel turned back toward the livery at a whistle from inside. He'd thought he was supposed to be the one to whistle. What was he supposed to do now?

Chapter 37

With a gun at his back, Tyler could do little more than offer his enemy a sardonic grin. "Well, well, Dorset, did you miss me so much you had to come find me?"

Dorset's face was a little more lined than when he had seen him last, and the glitter in his eyes wasn't amusement. Tyler thought the other man looked like he'd been rode hard and put up wet. As a gambling man, he knew when his opponent had reached the point of desperation. He'd say Dorset had reached it and gone past.

"I don't know what you do with card cheats and thieves in this town, Sheriff, but I want the book thrown at him." Dorset signed the remaining paper on the desk with a flourish. "He's probably still carrying that watch he stole from me in his pocket. Pretty little thing, it is, with a picture of my mama in a fancy pink gown inside. I'd like it back, Sheriff."

Powell pulled the watch from Tyler's vest pocket and snapped it open. The picture was just as the man had said. He prodded Tyler with a gun. "And I bet you told your poor wife this was your mother, didn't you? Damn, but you almost had me believing you. Get in there." He shoved him toward the cell.

"It is my mother, Powell." Tyler didn't budge. His younger self would have been sweating with desperation about now, ready to unleash the beast that crawled in his guts, but he was cooler and calmer than he'd ever been in his life. He wouldn't let Evie be branded a thief or the wife of one. He wouldn't bring shame to the small family under his protection. He was damned well going to do something right for once in his life.

Without warning, he turned and snatched the gun from the sheriff's hand. Powell tended to be a little slow on the uptake.

Emptying the bullets from the gun, Tyler gave it back to the furious man behind the badge. "Telegraph the sheriff in Natchez. Make inquiries about both of us. See which one of us has the longer record. Dorset there is one of those Yankee carpetbaggers who came down to nab every ripe plum on the market. He swiped my family's plantation and everything in it, including that watch. There's plenty back in Natchez who will tell you the story."

Dorset stood up and rested his fists against the desk. "I bought that plantation fair and square. You're the cheat who stole the money I needed to run it." He turned to the sheriff. "You ever tried to plant cotton or run a plantation without cash, Sheriff? Those damned niggers don't work for nothin' no more. I want Monteigne and his shill locked up until they're old and gray. And I want my money back."

Powell gave both men a look of disgust, but he reserved his worst epithets for the stranger. "I'm from Texas, mister. If I'd known what you were when you walked in here, I would have bounced you out before I listened to your sorry tale. I've seen enough of your kind to last me a lifetime and then some. You come whining when you get treated the same way you treated us."

The sheriff gave Tyler a shrewd look as he reloaded his gun. "Tom over at the saloon's been complainin' about you, too. Maybe we ought to settle this the Texas way. I'll send those telegrams right enough, but I think we all ought to mosey over to the Red Eye. A good game of cards ought to answer the question without having to call in any judge."

Dorset fumed, but Tyler accepted the decision with a curt nod. He just hoped Daniel and Ben had found the boys and got them home to Evie so she wouldn't be worrying. There was no reason she ought to hear about any of this until it was all over.

* * *

Daniel and Ben had their hands tied and weren't going to be telling Evie anything any time soon.

Ben looked disgusted as he struggled with the rope wrapped around his wrists and ankles and tied in between. The bastards had done a thorough job for a change. There wasn't a chance in hell of getting out of this one.

"There might be a knife or something sharp farther down the tunnel." Daniel rolled into a sitting position and tried to see beyond the circle of light from the lantern beside them.

"Well, you'd better look quick. They had so much fun making a birthday present out of me, they're bound to come back to finish the job on you." Ben threw the two silent boys at the edge of the light a quick look. Bound as tightly as he, they looked terrified, but they hadn't said a word since he and Daniel had been thrown down to join them.

"I'm a cripple, remember? They won't be worried about me." Daniel's reply was bitter as he scooted carefully toward the darkness. "A cripple, a nigger, and two babes. I'm sure they're just as worried as can be."

"I'm not a babe." Jose was the only one to protest this assessment of their predicament.

"And Daniel's not a cripple. And just because Ben's a different color doesn't mean he's not a man. That's what Evie says. We're better than stupid crooks. We'll get out of here." Manuel spoke for the first time. His eyes were wider than saucers in the darkness, but his small face was set with determination. He began struggling with his brother's ropes from behind.

Ben chuckled. "You boys got spunk but not a whole lot of sense. Why didn't you tell the sheriff about what was going on in here?"

Manuel shrugged and kept working the ropes. "He don't listen to us. We're greasers. That's like being a nigger, isn't it?"

"I think you need to listen to Miss Evie a little closer." Muttering beneath his breath and working at his bonds, Ben kept an eye on Daniel, who was inching farther into the tunnel beneath the stable. They were in a hell of a fix, but he wasn't about to contaminate the boys with that knowledge.

"We were going to catch the thieves ourselves." Manuel said as if Ben hadn't interrupted. "Tom stole the livery from us. That's what Mama said. And he's stealing from people like Logan. And I bet anything, he's the one who's running the gang stealing from the stagecoach."

Considering the looks of the thugs that had caught them and put them down here, Ben wasn't willing to take that wager. He'd seen them coming and going from this hiding place. He'd reported it to Tyler. Tyler would know where they were. He just had to hope that Tyler would notice they were missing before the criminals decided to rid themselves of any witnesses.

"There's crates back here," Daniel called. "I don't know what's in these others, but there's sticks of dynamite in this open one."

"Well, I'm not about to blast ourselves out of these ropes. A crate of knives would be more useful."

Daniel disappeared into the darkness of the interior. Someone in the stable overhead slammed a boot against the trap door in the floor and yelled at them to shut up or they'd shut them up. Ben grimaced but quit talking. He didn't want to do anything that would bring anyone down here just yet.

He was afraid the boy was hurting his leg by moving around like that, but Daniel was the only one with freedom to move. The young ones were tied together, and he was bent backward so he couldn't even sit up. Ben wondered what kind of minds thought up positions like this.

Daniel slid back excitedly, a grin beaming from ear to ear. As he entered the lamplight, he turned around, revealing a sharp piece of metal caught between his bound hands. "Let's get busy. I got an idea on how to get out of here if we can cut these ropes off."

Ben didn't know how anyone could get two kids and a cripple past the passel of ruffians above, but he wasn't one to sit around and mope, either. He took the sharp edge and began to saw at Daniel's ropes.

* * *

Tyler folded his cards and laid them face down on the table, waiting for Dorset to shuffle through his own hand and make the wager. On his right, Tom was nervously sorting through his draw. Tom was half drunk and jittery as a skunk at midnight, and the nagging sense of ill-ease Tyler had had all night multiplied. He'd thought Dorset had been behind the feeling, but something nagged at the back of his mind when he didn't need the distraction. He needed to settle the sheriff's idea of fair play and get back to Evie.

As the other men laid their bets, Tyler glanced up at the crowd around him. Peyton, Harding, and Logan were still here, watching the game with drunken interest. There hadn't been any sign of Daniel or Ben. Maybe they were back at the house. Maybe they weren't. The only two things keeping him here instead of running to see how Evie fared was the gun in the sheriff's hand and Tom sitting at the table with him. If anything was happening at the livery, Tom wouldn't be here.

Tyler threw in a gold coin against Dorset's voucher and Tom's greenback. This wasn't a game he could win. Dorset had only one thing that he wanted, and Tom had nothing. If Tyler won, he won nothing but the sheriff's suspicion. If he lost, he might be free, but he would still have nothing. He didn't like the terms of this game.

He finally caught Jace's eye, and the big man wandered over, a little the worse for drink but more sober than the other two.

"Go see if Evie and the kids are all right. The boys were missing earlier, and she was worried about them."

Jason watched the fancy gambler at the card table, his fingers expertly sorting his cards beneath the frill of his shirtsleeves, his eyes never leaving the other players as he spoke. He gave a snort of contempt. "What do you care?"

The only sign of anger in Tyler's expression was a slight tightening of his jaw. "Just do what I ask, or have Peyton do it. If anything happens to me, he's the one who has to look after them."

Jason gave the sheriff standing close behind Tyler a second look, and enlightenment dawned. Through the haze of liquor, he sensed the tension. He turned wordlessly and went back to the men at the bar.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tyler saw Peyton slip out. Jason remained by the bar, but his expression had gone from complacent to wary. He would be a good man to have on his side. Tyler just hoped that was where the rancher meant to be when the aces fell.

The vouchers in front of Tyler began to grow. Without his cronies to help him cheat, Dorset was at a disadvantage. Tyler was all too aware that he was the only man at the table without a gun. Only the sheriff's presence was holding off the inevitable confrontation. Tyler knew better than to play with desperate men. On his own, he would have walked away long since. With the sheriff at his back, he kept playing.

Peyton returned and whispered to his companions. Tyler wished he could hear what they were saying but Harding's worried expression told him enough. Something was wrong back at the house. Tyler almost missed the card that Tom played.

To hell with what the sheriff thought. He had to bring this game to an end. Spreading out his hand containing three deuces, Tyler snatched Dorset's voucher from the pot and deliberately began adding up the sum owed to him.