Wyoming Tough - Diana Palmer [72]
“Dozens,” he promised grimly. “I wish I’d known who you were at the start. I’d never have let you go riding fence in the first place.”
“If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have gotten to know Joe Bascomb and I wouldn’t have a prayer of convincing him to release Mallory. Things work the way they’re supposed to. There’s a plan, and a purpose, to everything,” she said, shocking herself because she remembered saying that to Joe.
She mounted up gracefully and turned the gelding. Rain was peppering down over her slicker and wide-brimmed hat. It was getting dark, too, but she wouldn’t let that deter her. She had a flashlight in her pack. “Try not to worry. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.” She had a cell phone in the pocket of her slicker. She patted it.
“If we don’t hear from you in an hour, we’re coming in,” Tank said quietly.
She nodded. “Fair enough.”
She turned the horse again and galloped off toward the line cabin. All she had was hope. But hope was the very last thing anyone ever lost.
MORIE PULLED UP AT THE line cabin and dismounted. She took the biscuits and thermos and money out of her saddlebag, along with her flashlight.
She noticed movement at the curtain. She’d guessed right. Joe was in that cabin. She wondered if he had Mallory there, and prayed that he did. If he’d already killed Mallory, her life would be worth nothing.
She went up the steps and opened the door. She looked down the barrel of a loaded shotgun.
“What are you doing here?” Joe Bascomb demanded hotly.
She felt sick at her stomach, and she was scared to death. But she didn’t dare show it. She only smiled. “Brought you something.”
He blinked. The gun wavered. “Brought me something?”
She nodded.
He hesitated. She glanced around the single room. Mallory wasn’t there. Her heart sank. What if he was already dead?
The shotgun barrel lowered. “What did you bring?” he asked.
“Is Mallory Kirk alive?” she asked.
He drew in a long, worried breath. He stared at her.
“Is he alive?” she asked again, more unsteadily.
He put on the safety and laid the shotgun across the long, rough wooden table. “Yes,” he said after an eternity of seconds.
She let out the breath she’d been holding. “Where is he?”
“Tied up against a tree, some distance from here,” he said curtly. “Where he won’t be found. He’s roughed up—he fought me when I tried to take him from here. But he ain’t dead. Yet,” he added menacingly. “Why are you here? How did you know where to find me?”
“I didn’t,” she replied. “I was hoping you might come back here. It’s where we met, remember?”
He blinked. “Yeah.”
She put the leather pouch and the bags on the table. She opened the bag and produced two freshly buttered biscuits with strawberry preserves on them, along with a thermos of hot coffee. She presented them to him.
“Mavie’s biscuits.” His voice almost broke. He took one and bit into it and groaned with pleasure. He sipped coffee with the same expression. “Living in the wild, you miss some things so bad!” he exclaimed. He looked at her and winced. “Dangerous, you coming out here! Why did they let you?”
“They couldn’t stop me,” she said simply. She looked him in the eye. “I love Mallory Kirk.”
That made him uncomfortable. He averted his eyes. “He ain’t nothing to look at.”
“It’s what’s inside him that makes him the man he is,” she replied. “He’s honest and hardworking and he never lies.”
He laughed coldly. “That Bruner woman said she loved me,” he said coldly. “I met her after my wife died. She wanted me to make her some keys. She said that man I killed owed her a ton of money and it was in his house in a box. She told him lies about his girlfriend to make him hit her. She knew the woman would call me for help, because I was close by.”
“Good heavens,” Morie exclaimed.
“So I got her out of the room and tried to make him tell me about the money in the box, but he fought me and I had to kill him. Gelly said it was all right…she had a way to make even more money,” he said in a faraway tone. “She told me about the jeweled egg, but I already knew because Tank had showed it to me