Fear gripped Kayla, but whatever Dalton would have done next would remain
a mystery because just then someone pounded on the cabin’s door.
Dalton swore under his breath. “I’m busy!” he yelled over his shoulder.
“I gotta talk to you, Boss,” a voice said. “It’s important.”
Dalton hesitated, his hand tightening in her hair for a moment before he
released her. “We’ll finish this later,” he told her.
She sat there trembling, watching as he turned on his heel and stormed from the cabin. There was no doubt in her mind that Dalton would have raped her.
If they hadn’t been interrupted...
She had to get loose before he came back, she thought frantically, pulling desperately at the ropes that held her to the chair.
Outside, Dalton was talking to the man that had knocked on the door. “What the hell is so important that you had to drag me out here?” he demanded
angrily, his voice so loud that she had no trouble hearing their words through the partially closed door.
“It’s Cord Holderness,” the other man said. “He ain’t dead.”
Kayla halted her frenzied jerking on the ropes, her brow furrowing. Could she possibly have heard right?
“What the hell are you talking about?” Dalton was saying. “I shot him myself.”
There was a grunt from the other man. “I know, Boss, but I saw him in town, I tell you.”
Kayla felt her heart begin to race. She could hardly believe it! Cord was alive!
Outside, Dalton let out a foul expletive, and she held her breath, waiting for him to barge into the cabin again. But to her surprise, the voices outside receded. She wondered if perhaps Dalton had left, but after listening carefully, she realized that she could still hear his voice among the other mens.
She regarded the ropes around her wrists with renewed purpose. No longer
was making Dalton pay for what he had done important to her. What was
important now was escaping from Dalton so that she could get to Cord. But
she would have to work fast, she realized. Dalton could come back at any
time.
With thoughts of Cord in her mind, she determinedly went to work on freeing herself.
Cord had come to a few hours after he had gotten shot to find himself lying on a bed in the doctor’s office. His head had hurt like hell, and most of what had happened had been a blur at the time, but he’d remembered enough to know
that Dalton Jeffries had attacked the ranch, tried to kill him, and then
kidnapped Kayla.
He would have gone looking for her right then, but when he had tried to get out of bed, his knees had buckled under him, and he probably would have
fallen if Lucas hadn’t been there to grab him. The bullet had just grazed his temple, but he still had a concussion, the doc had told him, which meant that there was no way he was going to be able to get out of bed. The doctor was obviously right, but that hadn’t stopped him from trying anyway. He had
agreed to rest only when Lucas had assured him that he would take several
of the hands and go searching for Kayla, starting at Dalton’s ranch first. He had demanded that Lucas drag that good-for-nothing sheriff out to the
Jeffries’ place with him, but had been dismayed when he learned the sheriff had been one of the men that had been raiding the ranch the night before.
When Cord had asked how Lucas knew that, the foreman told him that the
sheriff’s body had been found among the dead and injured after Cord had
been shot. Regardless, there would be no help from the law.
After his foreman had left, Cord had tried to fight sleep, but gave in to it almost immediately. He didn’t awaken until well after sunrise, and then it was to learn that Lucas hadn’t been able to find Kayla anywhere. Jeffries hadn’t been at his ranch, the foreman had told him, and no one there seemed to
know where he was.
Swearing under his breath, Cord grabbed his hat and lurched to his feet
again. He still saw black spots and he felt like he was going to throw up any minute, but at least he could stand on his own two feet. He waved off the
doctor’s concerned expression and headed for the front door, Lucas following close at his heels.
“What are you planning to do?” the foreman asked as they stepped into the
bright sunlight.
Cord’s mouth tightened. “I’m going to talk to Rachel,” he said, heading across the street. “Hopefully, she might know where her brother is.”
The blond girl hurried over to him the moment he entered the general store, a worried look on her pretty face. “Have you found her, yet?”
Cord shook his head. “Have you any idea where Dalton could have taken
her?”
Rachel shook her head. “I thought he would be at his ranch.”
“Are you sure there’s not somewhere else he might go?” Cord pressed.
“Someplace that few people know about.”
She started to shake her head, but then her brow furrowed. “I might,” she said slowly. “There’s an old cabin on the north end of Dalton’s ranch. It was our father’s, but it’s been deserted for years. It’s the only place I can think of.” She swal owed hard. “You have to find her Cord. There’s no telling what my
brother will do to her.”
Cord wished that she hadn’t said that, even though it was in the same thing he’d been thinking. His mouth tightened as he turned to Lucas. “Get some
men and meet me up there.”
The other man frowned. “Jeffries won’t be alone, Cord. You should wait until we can ride out with you.”
Cord shook his head. “I’ve already waited long enough, dammit,” he said
tersely as he headed for the front door. “Like Rachel said – there’s no telling what Jeffries will do. I may already be too late.”
Cord felt his stomach churn even as he said the words,
