“Can you still see her trail?”
Ezra clenched his jaw at Opal’s question. It was a valid concern, and he hated the only answer he could give. So he held his tongue. Yet Opal’s gaze seemed to kindle a fire on the back of his neck, even through his coat.
He scanned the ground again, then up at the mountains surrounding them. Several inches of snow covered the area, while more fell in a steady curtain. It concealed any tracks that might have been left by Tori and whomever she’d been riding with.
He had to answer, but he kept his gaze scanning the landscape. “Snow’s covered the tracks. If I knew who she was with, it might help me figure out where they went.” For that matter, he didn’t know for sure she’d even gone this route. Maybe her tracks had been those traveling toward Mountain Bluff. If she’d ridden one of the other directions and needed him—right now—he could have made a life-threatening mistake coming up to this mountain wilderness.
God, where is she?
“Do you think she went with them willingly?” Opal’s measured voice called him back from the agony swirling in his mind.
He turned to look at her. “Do you?”
She shook her head. “She doesn’t trust men. Unless it was a woman in need, she wouldn’t have gone willingly with anyone.”
He studied Opal. Her jaw seemed clamped tight, more resolute than usual. More like Tori.
She doesn’t trust men. He wanted so desperately to dig into that statement. He knew Tori had experienced things in her past that left scars she still hadn’t overcome. But he didn’t know exactly what. Now wasn’t the time to probe. And it wasn’t Opal’s story to tell. At least, he didn’t think so.
Regardless, he had to focus on where Tori had gone and who she might be with. He scanned the land again, his gaze catching on what looked to be a trail around the base of the mountains to their right.
“If Tori did meet a woman in need of help, is there a colony or settlement up here where she might live?”
Ezra shook his head. “No settlements. Only the occasional trapper’s cabin, but sometimes those are hard to spot until you almost pass them.”
She looked around the area. “I suppose we should keep going.”
He nodded and strode forward, aiming toward what would hopefully be the same trail Tori had traveled a few hours before. Had it only been a few hours? Or days? Maybe he was already too late. If she’d been accosted by some lecherous criminal hiding out in the mountains, some man whose morals were completely overshadowed by the lusts of a base nature…
His stomach roiled at the images flashing through his mind, and he marched faster, almost breaking into a run as the ground sloped downward.
“Ezra, wait.” Opal’s words paused him midstride, but it was the tone that made his blood run cold.
“What?”
“There. Look beside that rock. What is that?” She slid off the horse and started toward the cluster of stones where she pointed.
He made it there first, his gaze homing in on the square of white cloth he’d completely missed before. He dropped to his haunches, reached for the fabric, and unfurled it with his gloved fingers.
It appeared to be a man’s handkerchief, edged in green thread. Initials had been embroidered in one corner using the same color.
A gasp from behind tensed his muscles, and he swiveled to see what danger had startled Opal. Her pale blue eyes had grown large, focused intently on the handkerchief in his hands. Her face had faded as pale as the snow, and she took a tiny step back.
He rose. “What is it? Do you know who this belonged to?” He wanted to examine the initials to see if they rang familiar, but he was afraid to take his eyes off the pale woman in front of him. She looked like she might swoon any second.
“It’s his.” Her gaze swung from the cloth to Ezra’s face, and she gripped his wrist with enough strength to still the blood flow. “We have to find her, Ezra. That’s Jackson’s. He must have her.” She spun and charged toward the horse.
Jackson? His mind struggled to place the name, but it came up empty. Was he the man who’d taken advantage of Tori? A burning heat surged through his veins, making him lightheaded for a second as his body seemed to struggle with his reaction.
In two strides, he was by Opal’s side as she mounted the mare. “Who. Is. Jackson?” The voice that came from his mouth was low, menacing. Nothing like his own.
She sank into the saddle with an expression so laced with despair, it made his knees threaten to give way. “My father called him his steward. We called him Lucifer.”
Lucifer. Satan himself? His body flushed cold, then hot. “He’s the one who hurt Tori.”
She didn’t give an actual response, but the desolation in her eyes confirmed his worst fears.
The cad. The blackguard. The lowlife, villainous, despoiler of innocence.
He forced himself to breathe, taking in slow drafts lest he actually explode from the tempest of emotions churning inside. He’d never felt such…rage. The word seemed insufficient to describe the tumult.
Turning away from Opal, he clenched his eyes shut, then squeezed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He had to get a handle on himself or he wouldn’t do Tori any good.
With slow, deliberate movements, he lowered his hand from his face, then turned back to Opal. It was hard to meet the fear in her eyes, but he wanted to know everything. Had to read in her face what she might be afraid to say.
“Why would he have come thousands of miles to find her? What does he want?” It had to be more than the man’s base lust. No matter how tempting Tori might be. The thought of any man with her made the bile churn into a funnel in his gut. He forced his mind back from that brink, focusing on Opal’s response to his questions.
Uncertainty touched her expression. “I…don’t know. Maybe my father sent him?”
He followed that line of thought. “Did your father not want you to leave?” Any man in his right mind wouldn’t allow his daughter and niece to head off into the Wyoming Territory unchaperoned, but he needed to understand more about the man.
Her eyes widened and she shook her head, pulling back a few inches as though she needed to put space between her and the question. “He didn’t know we were leaving.”
There were so many gaps in the story, so many glaring questions, his mind spun as he struggled to find where to start. He forced himself to keep a steady tone. “Opal, I need you to tell me why you left, so I can understand what’s happening here.” And be quick about it. Every minute matters for Tori. He clamped his mouth shut to keep that last part from slipping out. She looked like she might bolt if he pressed too hard.
“Jackson has always paid us more attention than we wanted, but Tori…” Her words died off and she looked away. Her throat worked, and she turned back to him, red rimming her eyes. “He liked Tori best. But then she came of age and left Riverdale, and he started noticing me again. I mentioned it to her when I went to visit, and she decided we…had to leave.” Opal’s voice had grown stronger, but it seemed to crack on those last few words. She swallowed again, then jutted her chin forward, her blue eyes flashing like Tori’s did sometimes.
“So we did. We left that night, and came to see you.”
Such a powerful flood of relief surged through his chest, his eyes sank closed again as he thought of it. If they’d gone anywhere else, what might have happened to them? But it didn’t bear thinking. They’d come to him, and it had to be God’s leading. Now he had to get Tori away from this man once and for all. Lord, don’t let me be too late. Wrap her in Your protective hand until I get there.
After inhaling a long, cleansing breath, he opened his eyes again. “Would your father have sent Jackson to find the two of you? Or is there any other reason the rake came all this way?”
She nibbled her lower lip. “I don’t know of another reason. I’m sure Papa wasn’t happy we left.”
He nodded. “I wouldn’t expect him to be alone. Especially not up in these mountains. There are two sets of hoofprints as far as I can tell.” Although he didn’t have the tracking experience his brother Zeche did. Give him a ledger and he could make sense of it in less than a minute, but not faint hoof scrapes on mountain rocks.
He turned to scan the area again, trying to see it through the eyes of a man who’d just kidnapped a woman. If he’d stumbled on Tori’s campsite, he would still want to find Opal. Maybe the man wouldn’t touch her if he needed information Tori could provide, although he couldn’t rely on that. He had to get to her soon.
The weight of responsibility sank heavier on his shoulders, but he forced the thought away. Focus, Reid.
This Jackson must be with someone who knew this area. Maybe someone who knew of a cabin up in these mountains. A place they would keep Tori until they’d accomplished the rest of their mission. Especially if they were trying to get details from Tori about Opal’s location.
She’d never tell. He knew with a certainty that went all the way to his core. She’d endure any form of torture—even death—before she gave up her cousin to that man’s vile ways.
A burn crept up the back of his throat. It was that stubborn determination—that devoted, unquenchable love—that made her so special. And now the same spirit put her in such danger.
If Jackson were the monster he suspected, the man wouldn’t be satisfied with a little misconduct. Now that Tori had slipped from his lair and taken his latest victim with her, the man would demand retribution.
The icy thought drove him forward.
Tori forced her back to hold its stiffness as Jackson approached, even though her stomach churned so much she wanted to vomit. If the bile actually did rise up her throat, maybe she’d cast up her accounts on him.
He stopped close enough that only a few inches parted them, despite the fact that she had pressed her back against the rough log mantle over the hearth. The young flames of the fire leapt inside, but she could barely feel the heat through the chill in her body. He’d untied her hands, and she gripped the folds of her skirt to keep them still.
“I’m losing my patience, Tori. As much as I’d prefer to give you time to settle in to this…quaint little cottage, I need to know where your cousin is. She might be in danger, so I must find her quickly.”
She didn’t flatter the comment with a reaction. Just kept her focus on the bulk of the other man at the far end of the single-room shack. She’d never seen him before they accosted her in the woods, but now she had the outline of his brawny shoulders seared into her mind. He sat facing the small table, his back to them, hunched over something in his hands.
It looked almost like he was whittling something. But what? Surely they would want to eat soon. Would they expect her to cook for them? Maybe she could find something with which to poison the food. The thought almost brought a smile to her lips, but she forced her face to remain void.
“Tori.” Jackson’s tone held steel under that fake suave he liked to flaunt. “Perhaps it would be better if I send the grizzly outside so we can have private time together.”
It took every ounce of her strength not to react. Not to find that distant hiding place as his hand touched her shoulder, sliding over so his thumb brushed her neck, then down her bodice. His hands were always warm, almost clammy. Disgusting.
She bit hard on her tongue, not even willing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her bite her lip. The tang of blood filled her senses, giving her something else to think about besides Jackson’s hand as it traveled slowly southward.
What was Ezra doing now? He should have made it to the Rocky Ridge days before. How long would he stay before gathering Opal and traveling back to Mountain Bluff.
If only she’d never left the place. She might have seen Ezra anytime now. He had been planning to come back to her. Planning to bring Opal. She could have waited.
But this vile impetuous tendency she’d been cursed with had made her chase after him. If she’d been born a different person, perhaps her life would have taken different turns.
Maybe her parents wouldn’t have chosen their profitable schemes instead of her. Maybe her uncle would have been kinder. Maybe this Lucifer would never have looked twice at her. If only she’d been born a boy.
Do you know God loves you, Tori? She almost snorted at the words that flashed through her mind again. Ezra’s words. But if God’s love was anything close to the lust glimmering from the eyes of the beast in front of her, He could keep it far away. She was much better off without an Almighty God.
He wants to be there when you need him. Even more than that, He wants you to be happy.
The words pierced even deeper than they had when he’d spoken them, cracking the icy cage she’d constructed around her emotions. Happy? How dare he think she could be happy. Happiness had teased her in those moments she thought maybe Ezra would forgive her. Would agree to marry her after everything.
But that would never happen now. She’d been hauled off to the middle of a mountain wilderness, bound and practically helpless, by Satan himself, who now had the power to do anything he pleased with her.
Was this God’s way of making her happy? If the Almighty appeared before her, she might spit in his face.
An anguish deeper than anything she’d ever felt wrenched her chest, building into a sob that she contained by clamping her jaw in a vise-like hold.
“Come now, kitten. It’s not as bad as all that. If you prefer we talk about where your cousin is, just say the word.”
She turned her cold, hard fury on him, lashing out with her heel in an attempt to kick him in a sensitive area. But her boot caught in her skirts, and all she managed to land was a muffled blow on his shin.
Like a bear angered by a slingshot, he drew back long enough for his rage to build. Then he charged.
His hands gripped her neck, and the rough bark of the mantle dug into her shoulders. She tried to duck low, to slip out of his hold, but his fingers dug deeper into the soft concave just under her jaw, wrapping her spine and cutting off all air.
Her throat spasmed, and true fear flooded her veins. Nay, terror. Unlike anything she’d felt since the first time he’d accosted her so many years ago.
He was going to kill her. After all the times she’d wanted to die, yet pulled herself back from the edge. Forced herself to move forward, for Opal’s sake, if not for her own. This time, he’d do it. This time, when she’d finally caught a glimpse of what might have been the chance for a better life, maybe even the happiness Ezra said God wanted for her.
God, I don’t want to die. If you’re as real as Ezra says, help me. Please.
She fought back with every part of her body, kicking and grabbing at his hands, at anything she could reach. But his longer arms gave him the advantage, even though the lack of breath gave her a desperation that should have overcome anything.
Minutes passed, or maybe hours. Flashes of black pulsed through her vision. God, help me. I need you now.
Her body screamed for air as her mind shouted the anthem. Take me, Lord. Do with me as You will. I have nothing left.
And then the blackness closed in around her.