Swept Away (19 page)

C
HAPTER 12

Dare slammed the side of his fist against the kitchen table so hard the table slid and hit Luke in the gut. “I’m giving this one more day.” Luke didn’t need to be reminded that Dare was losing his mind worrying about Glynna Greer. “You don’t know how she looked!”

“Now, Dare,” Luke began, “we’ve got Dodger watching—”

“I know it.” Dare surged away from the table. “But if Greer turns his fists on her again, even if Janet signals for help, Glynna might not survive another beating. I know we need Bullard out of the picture and the sheriff out of town.”

“A few more men left Greer’s ranch.” Luke wanted to go in as badly as Dare.

“We’re more concerned with not taking a risk than we are with protecting that woman.” Dare slashed a hand like he was wielding a saber.

“There’ll be no protecting her if we get ourselves killed, Dare.” Big John rarely moved when he could avoid it, but he was a man Luke wanted in a fight. Big John never quit. He wasn’t as ruthless as Vince. He wasn’t as fast with a gun as Luke, and in all modesty, Luke figured he, Dare, and Vince were all smarter than Big John.

But John was solid, brave, and as strong as an ox. He had no quit in him. He never panicked. Even in the midst of madness, John never lost sight of right and wrong. He made a perfect Texas Ranger.

“We’re cowards.” Dare was trying to goad them into action now even if it meant he took a fist in the face.

They let him have his say, because Luke understood how he felt.

Jonas might’ve had some words of wisdom, a handy quote from the Bible that would have calmed Dare down, except Jonas had been called away again. Being a parson appeared to be a more demanding job than being a doctor, lawyer, Ranger, or rancher.

“We’re waiting to get all the advantages we can so we can win.” Big John lifted the coffee Rosie had made for them all and took a deep drink.

“Yes, and our waiting may get her killed.” Dare wasn’t a man to sit around on the best of days, and today was by no means the best. He stormed out of the kitchen.

Luke heard him stride toward the front door as if he could force Lana Bullard to show up just by wanting it so bad.

Dare came back, fuming. “Why did that lunatic decide to be reasonable about having her baby now of all times? Since I came to town, she hasn’t gone a week without begging me to save her. Sometimes I think she just wants to come and visit me. I don’t like the way she looks at me and hangs on every word out of my mouth.”

“When is her baby due anyway?” Rosie asked.

Trust a woman to ask a question that didn’t matter. “She says she’s around six months gone with the baby.” Dare ran his hands deep into his hair. “Three more months
I’ve got to put up with her. And then I’ll hand her baby over and feel like I’m consigning the poor little one to a nightmare. Its father’ll be locked up, maybe hung. Its mother will be a foam-at-the-mouth madwoman. Oh yes, that’s going to make delivering my second baby ever a real pleasure.”

“You’ve only delivered one baby before?” Rosie looked shocked. “When was the other one?”

Luke remembered it all too well. As shocking an experience as he’d ever had.

Dare stopped pacing. And he never stopped pacing. “Can we focus on what’s important here?”

“Let’s talk about going in.” Luke clenched both hands into one big fist on the table in front of him.

Dare jerked his chin down in agreement. “Tomorrow. We’ll just have to tackle this mess with Bullard and the sheriff involved.”

“No. We wait,” Big John said.

“What if we get the word he’s going after his wife?” Luke asked. “His lookouts will mow us down if we go in on the main trail, but I can get us past them.”

“You’re sure?” Vince straightened from the doorway, his eyes narrow.

Big John leaned forward, listening close.

“I’d want to get there about dawn, and I’d figure it’s about two hours on a bad game trail, some climbing. But we can do it. So we’ll make an early start. We’ll leave Rosie to stand guard and hike the rest of the way in. If those sentries realize what’s going on, she can come a-runnin’.”

Dare started moving again. “With a back way in, we could go and arrest Greer tonight.”

“Getting to the ranch, we’ll have to face maybe ten men,”
Luke said. “There are four of us. Five if Jonas goes and he’s saying he’s in.”

“Preacher man shouldn’t go to a gunfight.” Vince shook his head. “Gotta be hard on a parson to shoot folks, no matter how deserving.”

“It’s hard on anyone.” Luke had done plenty of fighting in the war and he knew the scar it left. It could sneak up on a man, invade his dreams, haunt him until a man believed in ghosts.

“So instead of two apiece, we’ll each take three,” Dare snapped. “And Jonas’ll be able to hold a prayer service for us while we do all the work.”

“Ten men against three.” Luke was ready. They’d put it off too long. “Dodger’ll throw in on our side. I think a couple more Greer hands will too, or at least they won’t fight for Greer. That’ll mainly leave us to face Bullard and Greer and a handful of others—all of them tough, dangerous men.”

“If we pin them in the house, they can threaten Glynna and the children.” Dare looked sick thinking of Glynna, threatened, trapped, her husband killing mad.

“I’ll slip in a window,” Vince said. It was just the kind of thing he was best at.

Dare shook his head. “They don’t know you. If I get inside, they’ll know I’m there to help.”

“I’m a sight better at sneaking around than you,” Vince said.

“I know, but you lose the advantage if you have to waste time with explanations. You might need to convince them you mean no harm, which could cost us crucial seconds.”

“That’s a detail we can figure out later,” Luke said.

“Let’s do it. Let’s go tonight.” Dare rubbed his hands together.

Luke could see he was already mentally running for the trail.

“No.” John spoke with the weight of a mountain. “Not tonight. If we give up on Mrs. Bullard coming back in so we can take Bullard out of the fight, we still need to get the sheriff out of town. That’s one detail we’ve got to get in order. I’ll get the sheriff moving tomorrow. Luke, send word to Mrs. Greer through your friend Dodger that we’re coming. We’ll go in after Greer early the next morning.”

Dare looked hard at each of them. “Are we going in or not?”

“Let’s do it.” Luke crossed his arms, determined.

“I say we wait,” Big John repeated. “We can give it a few more days. Bullard is a ruthless gunman, fast and deadly. And he’s a leader, too. We’ve got a lot better chance of getting everyone through this without a lot of killing if we take Bullard out of the fight.” John had common sense on his side. Right now common sense was irritating.

“I’m tired of waiting,” Vince said. “But I suppose one more day to get the sheriff out of town makes sense, and then we’ll go—”

Squeaking buckboard wheels rolled up to Dare’s front door.

“Doc, help me! It’s time. It’s for sure.” Simon Bullard shouting from outside.

They all shot to their feet. This was it.

“Luke, Ruthy, get upstairs. Big John, you go up too and be ready to grab Bullard when he’s had enough to drink. Vince, stay here and wash up these coffee cups so he can’t see we had a crowd in here.”

Luke was already on his feet. It was a sign of how worked up Dare was that he told them to do what was obvious
to everyone. Go upstairs, keep quiet. Be ready to help. It was insulting.

Dare dashed out and came right back to look square at Vince. “If Bullard offers you a shot of whiskey, for heaven’s sake say no.”

Dare ducked out of the room again, heading for his front door.

Luke grabbed Rosie by the arm, but she was moving so fast she ended up dragging him instead of him dragging her. Like most things with this woman, Luke had to hurry to keep up. She tore up the steps, heading for her bedroom.

Luke turned to Big John, who was hard on his heels. “We need to be in the room at the end of the hall. There’s a lock on the door, and sometimes Bullard wanders while Dare tries to calm his wife down.”

They moved fast and had the upstairs door closed just as Dare swung his front door open with a loud bang.

And the circus began. The shouting—that was Bullard. The tears—Lana’s. The calm laced with sarcasm—Dare.

Big John leaned close to Luke. “I’d like to go down and arrest them just for being this stupid.”

There oughta be a law, no doubt about it.

“Here’s your bottle, Simon.” Dare definitely pitched his voice to be heard on the second floor. “You left it here last time.”

Lana started caterwauling as if Bullard having a drink were a sin against their marriage vows.

Which maybe it was. But the least of Bullard’s sins.

More yelling from Bullard, mixed up with Lana’s occasional worshipful tone aimed at Dare. A long stretch passed with the same volume coming from both Lana and Simon. Then slowly Bullard got quieter.

Luke whispered, “Bullard is slurring his words.”

“How much of that stuff did you drink, you old fool?” Lana being a sympathetic and supportive wife as always.

“How’s it going in here?” Vince asked.

“Get that man away from me!” Lana screamed as if Vince had charged in bearing a knife.

“Mrs. Bullard, you’re fully clothed. Vince can see nothing. Vince, why don’t you help Simon to the kitchen and get him a cup of coffee?”

“Don’t leave me, Simon!” Lana suddenly broke into wrenching sobs. It would’ve been heartbreaking—if she hadn’t done so before five or six times.

“Has Dare considered pouring some of that whiskey down Mrs. Bullard’s throat?” John whispered.

“He thinks whiskey might be bad for the baby,” Luke replied. “And that was before he laced it with laudanum.”

Big John shook his head. “That’s gonna be the least of the kid’s problems.”

A soft knock on the door at the base of the stairway drew Luke’s attention. “Move quiet.”

“Stop insulting me.” Big John shoved Luke out of the way and moved so quiet, Luke couldn’t believe it of such a big man. Luke looked at Rosie. “Stay here. Please.”

She scowled. “Of course I’ll stay here—stop insulting
me
.”

Luke followed John, conscious of every creak. Good thing Lana was pouring her heart out to Dare, talking to him with a fervor that sounded almost reverent. She broke into loud sobs every few sentences. Honestly, a buffalo herd could probably stampede down the stairs and it wouldn’t shut her up. When Luke got downstairs, Vince had Bullard sitting in a chair in the kitchen. Sleeping like a baby.

Lana screamed. “I think it’s coming, Doc.”

“You’re not even in labor, Mrs. Bullard. Try and calm down.”

“Can I have a drink of whiskey? Get Simon’s bottle!”

“Don’t tempt me, Mrs. Bullard, please don’t tempt me.” Dare groaned.

“Grab a leg,” Vince muttered as he slid his hands under Bullard’s arms. John and Luke both grabbed a leg. They had him outside and around the house as fast as they could move. Once in the woods, John stripped Bullard of his guns and checked him for hideout weapons. There was quite a stack by the time John was done.

“I’ll be right back with the horses.” Vince ran for the stable behind his house at the far end of Main Street, which wasn’t real far away.

“Tie his feet. I’ll get his arms.” John threw Luke a length of rope.

Vince was back only minutes after they’d finished.

“Vince, I planned to stash Bullard somewhere and hand those papers to the sheriff tomorrow before I headed out, but if you’ll talk to Porter, I can get on the road right now. You’re wanting to get this cleared up fast, so if I head out tonight, I’ll be most of the way there before this coyote even wakes up.”

“Good thinking. I can get rid of Porter.” Vince and John draped Bullard over the saddle. Vince added, “You watch this one. Just because he’s loco over his wife doesn’t mean he isn’t dangerous.”

“Believe me, I know just how tough Bullard is. I’ve seen his wanted posters. I’ll be ready for trouble.” John straightened his hat, mounted up, and took the reins of his own horse and the one Vince had fetched. “Listen, both of you.
Dare is half crazy worrying about Greer’s wife. Try your best to get him to wait until I come back. Give me four days. I’ll push as hard as I can and try to cut it shorter, but I want to be here. You need another gun on this raid, and I want it to be mine.”

“Four days.” Luke figured they’d have their hands full with that. “We’ll try and hold him back. I wonder how he’s going to explain to Mrs. Bullard where her husband went.”

“I’m glad he’s the doctor and not me. I heard that woman. Arresting outlaws is a sight easier way to make a living.” With that, John turned and rode away.

Luke and Vince watched until he vanished into the night, then hurried back to the house.

C
HAPTER 13

“How long did you say you’ve been expecting a baby, Mrs. Bullard?” Dare didn’t feel right making a personal exam of a woman’s body. If there was a baby coming, then fine, but there most certainly wasn’t. In fact, Dare had a very strong suspicion about this whole thing.