Deep Trouble (26 page)

Randy’s eyes went cold. “I’m not staying behind while you find gold and maybe never come back for me.”

It wasn’t so bad Bucky was here. Convenient even. As soon as Gabe bested these outlaws, with his brother’s help, he could have Shannon break things off with Bucky, and Gabe could hunt up Parson Ford and have him marry them then take her straight for Wyoming. After he had a nice visit with Abe of course. Shannon could write her snooty mother a letter explaining the situation.

Lurene jabbed a finger at the canyon they’d just threaded through. “That’s the only way in and out. Where are we going to go except right past you?”

“How do I know that’s the only way out?” Randy sounded cool.

Gabe would have preferred a hothead. He hoped his brother didn’t underestimate any of these outlaws.

The woman Bucky had called his wife caught Gabe’s attention when she pulled her hat off and slapped it on her leg. The movement was casual, something anyone might do. But it struck Gabe as deliberate. Who was she anyway? Abe was here. He’d have gotten Gabe’s telegraph and come hunting to help. Maybe Abe had met Bucky and the girl on the trail somehow and dragged them along.

Bucky was clearly a greenhorn. The woman, however, looked comfortable in her western clothes in a way Shannon didn’t. So maybe she was with Abe. But she was way too young for Abe’s wife; Gabe had met her years ago. And too old to be one of Abe’s children, not to mention his brother had only sons. Gabe shook off all these secondary matters as he mulled his choices.

Lurene turned on Randy. “You think I know my way
around
down here? I don’t know of any other way back to the top of this pit but right out the canyon we came in through.”

“But if you found another way out and had your hands on the gold, you’d risk it.” Randy wasn’t pleading or whining. He was telling the straight truth as he saw it, and it was a shame, because Gabe didn’t blame Randy one bit for not agreeing to stay behind.

“With a city of gold,” Lurene sneered. “What pocket am I going to stuff that into?”

If they left Randy and Gabe behind alone, he’d take care of Randy, team up with Abe, and be after Shannon and the rest in a couple of minutes.

“You’d go off in a second if you thought it would give you a bigger share of the gold.”

And that, Gabe knew, was the bare truth. Lurene had a hunger in her eyes for gold that she couldn’t hide. He suspected she intended to thin everyone out she could when it came time to split up any money and gold.

A few tense seconds passed.

“Who stays?” Lurene asked.

“I’m going,” Darrel said. “I trust my brother to look after my share of anything you find, but I don’t trust my brother alone with any of you. I’m going along to watch his back.”

Honor among thieves. Gabe had never particularly believed that old saw, and nothing there was changing his mind.

Gabe really hoped it was Ginger. He thought she looked like the weakest link, and he could relieve her of her weapon hopefully without shooting. He’d been in a few battles in the cavalry, and he’d done some killing. He could do it again. But he was sorry he had the memory to live with. And he’d never so much as been in a fight that involved a woman. He didn’t want any new memories to haunt him.

“We’re all going,” the older man said. “I don’t trust none of you enough to leave you behind because I’d have to turn my back on you. The horses are worn thin, so leave ‘em behind and go afoot.”

“We’re gonna hike this whole basin, Cutter?” Darrel asked.

Cutter. Gabe had all their names now. As far as he could tell, these weren’t known desperados. Shannon had brought them west with her. But at least Cutter seemed comfortable in the West. He might have changed his name ten times.

“No, we’re not gonna hike the whole basin. If I were setting up a city in this place”—Cutter jabbed his finger at a bluff a mile or so away—”I’d put it right there.”

It was a likely spot. Had a good overlook to the canyon entrance for defensive purposes. Water flowed near to hand. It was a bluff with steep walls, hard for anyone to launch a sneak attack. Raised land to keep them above a flood. Woodland nearby that would make for good hunting. Yes, a likely place.

“Unless you’ve got more on those maps of yours.” Lurene aimed her gun straight at Shannon’s chest. It always came back to Shannon.

“No, my father’s maps led me to this canyon. That’s where he stopped. This is where he said he’d found his treasure.”

Gabe looked at the bluff with the flat crown. He couldn’t see what lay on top of it. He wondered whether they really were on the verge of discovering an ancient city of gold.

“If we skirt the basin, we can get out of the heat.” Gabe tried to look wobbly. Between that and the brutal power of the afternoon sun, maybe he could lead them into the woods. The woods where his brother even now lay in wait.

Lurene gave a jerk of her head that meant she was hot enough to go along with Gabe’s request. “You first, Miss Dysart.” Lurene had her gun aimed straight at Shannon.

They headed for the woods. Getting that sun off of Gabe’s head really did help. His brain started working as they threaded through the trees. Shannon was in the lead with Lurene. Ginger walked along with Darrel next to her. The two seemed connected, a twosome within the gang. Then Buck followed with Tyra at his side.

Randy was next, then Gabe, with Cutter at his back. Gabe would rather have had anyone else. But if Abe started picking people off from the back of this line, having Cutter go down first would be for the best.

Gabe saw Tyra whisper a few words to Buck, and the sudden tension in Buck’s shoulders told Gabe the citified man now knew rescue was at hand. He clearly was not married to Tyra. They’d never have ridden down here alone together if they weren’t married, but it made sense that the man with Abe was some kin of Tyra’s to make things proper. But why’d they bring a woman along on this trip in the first place? To cook maybe?

The woods were thicker than Gabe had dared to hope. They walked into a grove that lined the basin all the way to the bluff. The very place Gabe had seen Abe. Gabe moved slower and slower, putting space between him and Randy. Cutter didn’t shove at his shoulders, which told Gabe the man was tired and had relaxed his usual razor-sharp vigil. But the shade was helping them all revive.

It must have helped Lurene, because she stopped and grabbed Shannon’s arm, turning her to face everyone. “Get up here. Stay close.” A wide spot in the trail let them all walk to where she waited for them.

With a sinking stomach, Gabe knew his brother couldn’t attack them when they were bunched together. Yes, he and the other prisoners would help, and they had a fair chance of winning this fight, but blood would be shed. Not all of it outlaw blood. And Lurene was strung tight as piano wire, and she had the look of someone who had a hunger to kill. Gabe was sorely afraid Shannon would die first.

As they walked up, Lurene held her ground until they were a tight knot. “We’ve got five guns on four prisoners,” Lurene said. “I want to make dead sure you’re all aware of that. If there’s any trouble, I unload my gun into Miss Dysart here first.”

Lurene seemed to enjoy the snide way she called Shannon Miss Dysart. A reminder, Gabe imagined, that Shannon had originally hired her, and now Lurene was the one in charge.

But if there was no gold on top of that bluff, which Gabe suspected there wasn’t, he wondered if the woman would ever realize that she’d have been a lot better off just doing honest work, taking the pay Shannon had offered her, and then going on to another honest job.

“Darrel, you’re for Bucky here.”

Darrel nodded.

“Call me Buck.”

Gabe mentally rolled his eyes, though he had to admit Buck was a better name.

“I’ll take the girl.” Ginger looked at Tyra with cold eyes.

“I’ll keep my eye on Gabe here,” Cutter offered.

Lurene jerked her chin in cold satisfaction. “Randy, we’ve got a spare. You just keep your eyes open and help whoever might need it.”

“Done.” Randy smirked, clearly knowing he’d been assigned the job of nothing.

Lurene turned to Shannon. “A city of gold, dead ahead, right?”

Shannon’s lips trembled. “My father was searching for a city of gold, Lurene, but when he talked of what he found, he used the word
treasure
. You saw those ruins in the cliffs. Father called that a treasure, too, and had it marked on the map. I hope that this second location is the real city of gold. I’ve been hoping that those cliff dwellings were the place the priests first settled with their gold, then they moved on and found a place where they could hide their city better, down here. But we have to prepare ourselves for a different kind of treasure.”

Shannon’s gaze lifted to Gabe’s. He saw in her eyes that she’d finally figured it out. She’d realized that this dream of hers was a tale of heaven. Streets paved with gold. But she hadn’t been able to give up on such a place existing here on earth.

Her jaw firmed as she looked directly into his eyes. “I dragged you, Gabe.” Then her eyes took in the rest, all of them, even the outlaws. “I dragged all of you off the edge of the world, into this beautiful valley, and we’ve found nothing. And I finally understand.”

Gabe would love one minute alone with her. To hold her and tell her he was glad he’d come, all but this last part. “I wasn’t searching for gold, Shannon, but I’m glad I came.” A smile quirked his lips. “All except for the guns of course.”

“Shut up and let’s get moving.” Lurene jabbed her revolver into Shannon’s side.

Flinching from the pain, Shannon said, “Yes, we’ll go, but I just want all of you to know I finally understand. I’ve given up years of my life to find this fabled city, and now that we’re close to the last place it could be, I realize I don’t even want it.”

“Well, I do.” Lurene licked her lips as if she could taste the gold.

“God was wise to promise paradise after death as a blessing for faith during this life. What good will a city of gold do any of us?”

“It will let me live as I choose.”

“What life do you hate so much that you’re driven to kill to escape it?” Shannon asked the woman.

“A life like none you’ve ever known.” Lurene cocked her gun and lifted it to press against Shannon’s temple. “And I am willing to risk death to escape. The only reason you’re still alive, now that we’re here, is because of the chance of ransom.” Then that ugly gun swung from Shannon and stopped, aimed at Tyra, then moved on to Bucky, then on until it was dead centered on Gabe’s heart. “And the only reason they’re still alive is because you’re cooperating. As soon as you try something I don’t like, one of them dies.”

Lurene’s smile made a shiver of fear crawl up Gabe’s back, and he wondered for the first time if Lurene wasn’t completely sane. She was crazy for gold, but could she be just plain crazy? Her smile told him yes.

“I’m going to cooperate,” Shannon said quickly. “But if there’s no gold up there, my friends here will not be harmed. You’ll need me to write notes or something to prove to my mother you’ve kidnapped me. You can’t force me to write a thing, and I won’t if any of them get hurt.”

Lurene’s smile faded. “As for that, we’ll just see, won’t we? If I kill one of them, will you really get stubborn and let them all die? Or will you do anything to save the last two of them?”

“I don’t need money,” Shannon said.

“Lucky you.”

“And I’m not interested in fame like my father was.”

Lurene shrugged.

“My father cared about that, but now that he’s dead, restoring his reputation wouldn’t touch him in any way.”

“My father’s dead, too, and good riddance.”

Gabe heard only pain and hate in Lurene’s voice.

“My mother, well, arrogance and superiority have been bred into her very bones, and that has only been nourished by her overindulged life. She may well give you money to save me, but I can’t do anything to make her care about me.”

“My mother started selling me to men when I was still a child.” Lurene’s cold voice didn’t conceal the pain. “Tell me again how bad your mother is?”

“I turned my back on Bucky, in St. Louis, then Gabe here in Arizona Territory.”

Gabe looked at Bucky and Bucky looked back, his brows arched in surprise.

“And all for gold I neither need nor want.” Shannon’s expression was so serene it lifted Gabe’s heart regardless of their circumstances.

“It’s very possible,” she went on, “I’ll be walking those streets of gold in heaven before I’m done with all of this madness.” Looking squarely at Gabe, she said, “I believe you called this a fool’s errand.” “I did.”

“Well, you were right, and Bucky”—she turned to him—”you used similar words a few times. I just want to tell you that, whether we find it or not, I’m sorry. I’ve finally realized that, but much too late.” She turned to face the butte ahead. “Let’s go see what’s up there.” Her quiet talk, the peace in her voice, had taken the edge off all of them.

With a single tug on Shannon’s arm, Lurene took the lead. Ginger and Darrel walked behind Lurene. The rest of them stretched out. Buck and Tyra walked in single file followed by Randy, Gabe, and Cutter. There wasn’t a real trail here in the forest, but the trees were close together, and though Lurene kept right to Shannon’s side, the rest of them walked one by one. It was easier.

Gabe realized Tyra was lagging, just as he was, stringing out their little parade.

The trail curved ahead, and a clump of heavy underbrush blocked Gabe’s sight of Shannon and Lurene. His nerves itched having her out of view. Then Ginger and Darrel vanished, then Buck rounded the trail, next Tyra, then Randy.

A dull thud from right behind Gabe told him his brother had arrived. He glanced back and smiled.

“You take the one in front of you,” Abe whispered so quietly it was barely more than a soft hiss in the breeze.

Abe and an older man dragged the big man off the trail. Within seconds the older man reappeared wearing Cutter’s shirt and vest. The old man wasn’t as broad as Cutter but the same height, and with his hat pulled low, someone would have to look close to notice the switch. Abe vanished.