HT02 - Sing: A Novel of Colorado (44 page)

Nic considered him for a moment. “How is it, Manuel, that a philosopher became a coal boss? Did you lose your way at some point?”

“I have lost my way on occasion, yes. But God always leads me home.”

“Why did you not give your life to Him then? Become a priest?”

Manuel grinned. “I loved my wife too much to ask for an annulment.”

“You are married?”

“Yes, yes. Twenty years or more, now.”

“She does not mind that you go to sea?”

Manuel shrugged. “It makes my homecoming all the more sweet.” He studied Nic a moment and said. “Listen, I do not wish to bother you. I will not say another word to you about this after today unless you ask. But, Dominic, when God sets His sights on someone, it always goes better if that someone learns to accept Him and appreciate Him. Like our captain there.” Both men glanced to the man at the helm. “You can follow him the easy way and enjoy the voyage. Or you can ignore his orders and suffer the consequences. But one way or another, you will do as he says.” Manuel stared Nic in the eye. “You think you were put here on this earth by happenstance? That God has no particular interest in you?”

“I don’t know,” Nic said. “I’ve never really thought about it.”

“Think about it. God has a particular interest in every person on this ship.”

“Even Alejandro?” Nic said.

“Even Alejandro.”

Chapter 27

Reid handed Odessa a mug, filled with strong coffee, from the scent of it. She took it from him without comment and sipped at it, knowing she needed to keep up her strength if she was to make it through the battle ahead. The man sat next to her on the log, and Odessa fought the urge to move away, reviled by his proximity. Instead, she stared at the fire, wondering what was happening at the Circle M. Who was injured? How were they all faring? Who was caring for Samuel, who would feed him? Her breasts seemed to ache in response.

“I take it you know where the gold is,” Reid said, leaning down to rest his forearms on his thighs and look back at her.

She scoffed. “You think if we knew where it was, we wouldn’t have come up here to get it?”

His mouth settled in a grim line. “So you
think
you know where it is.”

“I have an idea, yes.”

“And how have you come to that idea?”

Odessa stared at him. Did he think she’d give it up? Give him their future, their hope? Even if she did know how to find it?

“Odessa, we’re an hour’s ride from your house.” He looked up at the men, lingering nearby, listening in. “I’ll send my men back. Daniel will be no match for them. They’ll kill him, and they can do what they please with Moira and your kitchen girl. And your baby … your baby, why, I think I’d have them bring him back to me.”

She stared at him, hard. Clearly, they’d been watching the ranch for a while. Knew far too much about what happened there.

Bryce, you and I have no future if either of us dies. Forgive me …
“Remember Louise O’Toole’s cabin?” she finally said.

He gave her a wry look. “I have a fair recollection of it, yes.”

“Inside the old Bible, in Genesis, there are markings in the center. Comparing it to our Bible in English, we think they’re markings near every reference of ‘gold.’”

“All right …” he said, in a warning tone, as in,
You better have more than this
.

“The first time gold is mentioned in Genesis, the description includes plants of bdellium and onyx stone—a true black rock—and a land called Havilah.”

“Go on.”

“There’s a valley where they take the horses in high summer, and several small canyons. One is called Avilla Canyon.”

“Havilah, Avilla. You’re assuming they’re one and the same.”

“But Tabito and Bryce already went up there, looked around for days, searched a hundred caves. And found nothing. There were other clues—onyx, a black rock, and bdellium, a gumlike plant. They found a black stripe in the rock, but nothing more.”

He stared at her a moment, his face eerily shadowed by the flickering light of the fire. “That’s it. That’s all you have. A valley name similar to what you found in the Bible, and the thought that there is supposed to be black rock about.”

She stared back at him. “That’s all I have.”

He studied her a moment and then moved so suddenly, she didn’t have time to react. His hand was on her throat, pinching in hard. “You better pray, Odessa,” he hissed, “that when we reach that canyon, we find the right cave, or your baby will end up an orphan.”

He released her then, tossed his cup aside and rose, striding away. The men looked from their boss to Odessa with curiosity and concern, but none moved. Odessa struggled, gagging still to catch her breath. She went down to her hands and knees, praying, calling to God for help.

But He was silent.

Moira sat next to Daniel on the front parlor settee, watching the door, as the day, and the gunfire, faded. She leaned her good cheek against Daniel’s uninjured shoulder and willed the knob to turn. Cassie was pacing with Moira’s nephew, sweet little Samuel. Cassie kept going upstairs to look for approaching riders. Where was Bryce? Why had he not returned? Moira wanted to fight her weariness. Honor her sister by staying up the whole night, thinking about her. Praying for her. It had been a long time since she had considered praying.
I don’t remember, God. How to pray. The right words. Do You even hear us, in the midst of all this madness?

I hear you. I am here.

Moira remembered then, a prayer her mother had taught her
. Father God, keep in Your tender hands … Odessa and Bryce and all the others. Grant them Your tender mercies. Cover them with Your tender care. Be tender with us all, Lord God. For we are Yours.

Those last words rang in Moira’s thoughts, like distant echoes of a time long past. What did it mean, to belong to God? To receive His tenderness, rather than His wrath? She drifted off to sleep then, unable to think it through anymore, other than muttering a plea.
Please let Odessa live, Lord. Please. Please …

It felt like seconds later when she heard the baby crying and Cassie calling, “It’s Bryce! Bryce is coming!”

She glanced at the clock. She’d been asleep for an hour.

He burst through as Daniel opened the locked door, Tabito right behind him. Grimly, he looked from one to the other, then set aside his gun to take the screaming baby. He patted Samuel on the back and then reached out to gently embrace Moira. “Welcome home, Moira. I’m glad you’re safe. But Odessa … How long ago did he take her?”

How did he know?

“Not two hours past,” Daniel said. He rose and pointed to the west. “They disappeared across the fields.”

“There were gunmen,” Bryce told them, “to our north. They had us pinned down all this time. One of our men, Holt, the traitor, took off with them. They kept us pinned down until now. And then they disappeared among the rocks.”

“A spy,” Moira said.

Bryce nodded and ran a hand through his hair as he paced. “So we’re down to four men, five, counting Daniel.” He studied the newcomer, a shadow of accusation sliding across his face. Did he think that Daniel, too, was a spy? Sent to infiltrate them? “How was it that Reid got Odessa?”

“She gave herself up,” Moira said, stepping forward, “for me. I’m so sorry, Bryce. I tried to stop her. Daniel did too. But Reid had men with him. We might all have died had she resisted. Dess seemed to guess that sooner than we did.”

“Sounds like Dess,” he said, staring up at the ceiling, still patting his crying child.

Cassie came and took Samuel from Bryce. She glanced shyly up at him and then away. “My family, they’ll come lookin’ for me, now that it’s dark. I never’ve stayed this late.”

Bryce stared at the girl and closed his eyes as he drew in a long, deep breath through his nose. She was right. And if Reid was telling the truth, his men were liable to shoot anyone who came down their lane. He took a step left and then right, then paused, looking upward, his hands over his mouth.
Lord, I need some help here.

“Send me,” Tabito said lowly from where he sat.

Bryce glanced down and studied his foreman.

“I know this place,” Tabito said with a shrug. “I can sneak out and over the hills, tell the girl’s kin what is happening here. They can go for help. Bannock won’t know we’ve raised a flag of alarm.”

Bryce thought his words over. He was desperate to grasp any measure of hope. But to risk Tabito, his friend, his foreman … one of the few men he had left. And yet, he would be endangering Cassie’s family if he did nothing. Had he not just asked God for help? He could not bear it if something terrible happened to his friend.

Tabito reached out a hand and rested it on his arm. “I will go, Bryce. Let me.”

Bryce studied him a moment longer, then he nodded. The men reached for guns, handing them to Tabito, but he shook his head. Bryce knew his belt was laden with knives, knives like those he had taught Bryce to throw … with deadly consequences. On a quiet night, under watch, with so many of Reid’s men in wait, knives would be their best defense. Silent killers, one by one.

“Go with God, friend,” Bryce said, as he watched from the window as the older man padded quietly up the hill, melding with the dark in seconds. “God help us all.” He closed his eyes, aching at the idea that Odessa was once again in Reid’s hands. He couldn’t stand the thought, choking in frustration that he hadn’t been beside her, right when she needed him most.

Daniel joined him at the window. “She would’ve gone, even if you had been here,” he said, seeming to read Bryce’s thoughts.

“I wouldn’t have let her,” Bryce countered. Deep within, he knew Daniel had been powerless to stop it.

Why had Bryce not seen this coming? How could he have fallen into Reid’s trap?

“What does she have that Reid wants?”

Bryce shook his head. “An old legend, nothing of substance,” he moaned. He paced to the far side of the room and told Daniel all he knew about the mysterious O’Toole treasure. “The legend says that several troops got separated from the rest of their regiment. We don’t know what kept them apart—weather, Indians, what. It was hundreds of years ago. They holed up in a cave, and there they died. All that’s left of them is their remains and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold. Gold that apparently Reid Bannock is bent on obtaining.”

Chapter 28

They rode for hours, starting at daybreak, and by midmorning, Odessa’s breasts were aching with the milk intended for her baby. Even the thought of him, close to her, set the milk to flowing, dampening her bodice in two wide spots that grew as they rode.

Reid’s men made lewd comments, which she ignored. But after a while, Reid pulled the train of horses to a halt, turned and rode his horse back to her. He looked her over slowly, waiting until she returned his gaze. “Find me the gold,” he said, “and you return to your son … and husband again.”

They climbed and climbed, until spots of the deepest snow lay in patches around them, the last vestiges of a hard, brutal winter. How deep had the snows been here, when the valley below had been so laden with white? She’d only been up here twice over the years with the men. And it was almost in a dream that she remembered Tabito talking about the Avilla Canyon as they passed. But they’d poured over the maps so long she felt like she had memorized every creek and canyon on their property.