Then, he saw the Mexican man enter the house.
Now, he knew Elise would not go with him willingly since she knew he’d stolen their horses and the kid. Why, then, did he want a woman who probably hated him? Probably because he’d been obsessed with her since the day they'd met. Even if he only got to have her in the marital way for a day or two, it might satisfy him. He’d dump her off and be on his way. To him, it was like an itch that had to be scratched.
He knew that if she saw him, she’d scream, so he had to think hard. He watched her slap the horse’s rump lightly and lead her into the stable. Now was his chance. With the two men in the house, she was alone in the stables.
T.J. climbed the wooden fence and crept quietly into the stables, which, by then, were dark since the sun was on its way down. He hid behind a post and watched her secure the horse into a stall, hang up the saddle, and turn to walk out of the stable. As she passed the pole, he reached out and covered her mouth. She gave him one dandy of a fight, but she was so tiny, she was easy to carry off.
He had her lying across his saddle with a handkerchief stuffed into her mouth, and her hands tied behind her back. T.J. faltered. He hadn’t planned ahead. He had no place to take her, and he couldn’t go back to the ranch. His only thought was to go to the town’s hotel. No one knew him there. He’d get a room, have a few days of fun with her, and dump her back at the corral. He couldn’t carry her into the hotel while she kicked and tried to scream, so as much as he hated to do it, he punched her in the head as hard as he could to knock her unconscious.
.
Harlan, the sheriff, and the posse parted ways when they reached town, and Harlan headed for home on one of the stolen horses, pulling the stallion. It was dark by the time he approached his home, and he wondered why everyone was out on the porch with lanterns. Had something happened? He kicked his horse into a faster pace.
Clay ran out to meet him. “Elise is gone!”
Harlan’s head spun, and he was stunned for several moments. He tried to piece together what Clay was telling him. “She packed up and left us?”
“No, we think someone took her by force.”
“What?”
“Pedro and I locked up and went into the house. Pedro called to her to wind it up and come in. He saw her moving her horse into the stables, and we waited to hear her come into the house, but she never did. We checked the stables, and a saddle was on the ground. It looked like there may have been a scuffle since the dirt floor was pretty messed up.”
“Dear God, no,” Harlan cried. “This just happened?”
“Not more than thirty minutes ago,” Clay said. “Millie is crying her eyes out.”
“Clay, take the horses and put them in stalIs. Then, I want you and Pedro to saddle up, and I’ll need a fresh horse. I think I know where he may have taken her.”
As they trotted up to the main road, Harlan said, “T.J. has her, I know it. He can’t go back to the ranch, so he has nowhere else to take her this late at night except somewhere in town.”
Once they were in town, Harlan was at a loss as to where to look first. As they rode passed the saloon, a drunken old man walked in front of their horses, causing them to stop suddenly.
“Are you all right?” Harlan asked.
“Other than seeing things, I’m all right… I think.”
“You’d better stay off the road,” Clay said. “We nearly ran you over.”
“I was following that man,” the old guy said. “The one who was asking about our sheriff. I told him to get a room at the hotel, but I didn’t think he’d find himself a woman so soon.”
“Well, go ahead and cross the street, then,” Harlan said.
They watched as the old man staggered across the street. Harlan shook his head and proceeded down the narrow road. He didn’t know where to look. They checked out the house where Swanson had lived, but it was empty. Then, what the old man had said hit him like a ton of bricks. He turned his horse around and said to Clay and Pedro, “That man the drunk was talking about—could that have been T.J. with Elise?”
“I wondered about the hotel—where else would a man from out of town go?” Clay said.
They tied their horses at the hitching post, and all three of them stormed into the hotel. They approached the clerk, who said, “Sorry, all our rooms are taken.”
“Did you happen to see a man come in here with a woman, maybe twenty or thirty minutes ago?”
“Yes. They took our last room.”
“What’s the name and the room number?” Harlan asked.
“I can’t give that out,” the clerk said.
Harlan turned to Pedro. “Get the sheriff.”
Chapter Sixteen
Once in a room, T.J. tossed Elise onto the bed. She was still unconscious. He sat in a chair and kicked off his boots. He wondered how long she’d be out cold. He could begin to undress her, but it would be so much more pleasurable if she
