Forever and Always (34 page)

“I've removed the bullets from Colby. One caused a loss of blood, but it wasn't serious. The other bullet, however, entered his lung. I was able to remove it and close the lung, but I don't know if it will be enough. Naomi will stay with him through the night. I'll sit with her. If he lives through the night, he's got a chance. Everybody should go home and pray.”

Peter started to cry. “I want to stay.”

“You need to sleep,” Logan told him.

He rubbed his eyes. “I'm not sleepy.”

“Well, I am. I want to be up early to see your father when he wakes up.”

Peter looked toward the doctor's office. “Why can't I stay with Papa?”

“Your mother and grandfather are taking good care of your father. Maybe you can sit with him tomorrow while they take a nap.”

That didn't make Peter any happier, but he was so sleepy he could hardly keep his head up.

“Let me take you home.”

“I want to go with you,” Peter said.

“I'm sure your Aunt Laurie has your bed all ready.”

“I want to go with you,” Peter repeated.

Logan had no idea how he'd come to be a substitute for Peter's parents, but apparently he had. “Come on, then. We'll check on Trusty then go to bed.”

Sibyl was still up when Logan and Peter reached the house. “Is there any news about Colby?”

“No. The best news is that he's still alive.”

“What's Peter doing here? Why isn't he in bed? Laurie must be worried about him.”

“He insisted on coming with me,” Logan explained. “I stopped by his house on the way and told Jared he was with me. I'll put him in the room next to me. How is Trusty doing?”

“He's fine. You'd never guess he was poisoned just hours ago. He wasn't happy when I wouldn't let him out to find you, so I closed him in your room.”

“Go to bed. There's nothing more any of us can do tonight.”

Sibyl gave Logan a quick kiss. “I hope you intend to take your own advice as soon as I put Peter to bed.”

“I can put myself to bed,” Peter announced. “I'm not a baby like Jonathan.”

“Of course you aren't,” Sibyl assured him. “You're the man of the family until your father gets well.”

Peter teared up. “Why did that man shoot Papa? Mama said everybody likes him.”

“Wat Pfefferkorn isn't a nice man,” Sibyl said. “Now go to bed. You'll want to see your father in the morning.”

Logan barely got Peter undressed before the boy had fallen asleep. In complete repose, he looked younger than his nine years, more like an angel than the terror of the neighborhood. Logan could see a young version of Colby in his son. The restless energy, the complete confidence in himself, the willingness to tackle any challenge without hesitation, the passion with which he faced life were so much like his father. Logan wished he could have known Colby when he was growing up. From what Sibyl had told him, Colby hadn't had an easy time. Logan hoped Colby would have many decades ahead of him to make up for that rough beginning.

* * *

Dawn had yet to break when Logan stepped out of the house. He'd taken great care not to wake anyone except Trusty. They had a job to do. Apparently he hadn't been as quiet as he thought because Sibyl came into the kitchen just as he was trying to ease the back door open.

“I knew you'd try to go after Bridgette and Wat by yourself,” she said. “Why can't you wait? There're at least a half-dozen men in town who'd be willing to go with you.”

“All this trouble is because of me. Trusty wouldn't have been poisoned and Bridgette wouldn't have teamed up with Wat if it hadn't been for me. Colby wouldn't be fighting for his life if he hadn't pushed me out of the line of fire. I can't be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. I
have
to do this by myself.”

“I understand, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or agree with it. They've gone away so maybe that means she's given up and won't come back.”

“Bridgette persuaded my doctor to poison me. When that didn't work, she tried to poison me herself. When
that
didn't work, she hired a dangerous killer to steal my will so she could forge a new one after I was dead. Does that sound like she's giving up?”

Sibyl leaned against Logan and wrapped her arms around him. “You could give her the money. I have enough for both of us.”

“I think it's too late for that. She's gone too far to stop now.”

“Is there anything I can say to change your mind?”

“There are a lot of things you could say, but I hope you won't say any of them. This is something I have to do.”

“I was sure you'd say that, but I had to try. You will be careful, won't you?”

Logan folded Sibyl into his embrace. “I've fallen in love for the first time in my life. I have a
real
family for the first time in my life. I promise I'm coming back to you and Kitty. I'm a Holstock. We don't go back on our promises.”

Sibyl stood on tiptoes so she could kiss him. “I'll have a lot more of these waiting for you when you get back.”

Logan kissed her back. “And I'll have a lot more of these for you. Now I have to go. It'll be light soon.”

Yet he couldn't resist one last kiss before he left.

The hotel was dark when he arrived, but the front door was unlocked. There was no one to tell him not to go to Bridgette's room. He managed to get up the stairs without stumbling in the dark. The door to Bridgette's room was unlocked so he entered. Trusty growled softly.

“I thought that's how you'd feel about scenting the man who treated you so badly. I'm counting on you to help me find him.”

It was difficult to tell in the dark, but it looked as though Bridgette hadn't taken anything when she left with Wat. Logan wondered whether she'd been forced or had gone willingly. She'd become such a different person he didn't really know what she might do. He had Trusty sniff several of her garments. “You have to find her,” he told the dog. Trusty seemed more distracted by the scent of his former owner, but Logan figured it didn't matter. If he found one, he'd find the other.

Outside again, he mounted up. “Okay, Trusty, find the scent.” Trusty was only part bloodhound, but Logan hoped his nose would be keen enough to follow Bridgette's trail. The dog sniffed round the entrance to the hotel for so long Logan was afraid he wasn't going to be able to find a scent to follow. Without Trusty, he would have to go to Camp Verde and hope someone there had seen Wat and Bridgette. “Hurry up, boy. I want to be gone before people start to wake up.” It wasn't long before Trusty growled and started running toward the west. With a sigh of relief, Logan followed.

Logan had spent many years traveling the Santa Fe Trail, but he'd never really paid attention to the landscape in the morning. He thought he knew what it was like, but sunrise in the Verde River Valley was completely different.

In the dead quiet before dawn, he could hear the murmur of the river as it flowed slowly over rocks or around the roots of the massive cottonwoods that lined its shores. Their thick canopy formed great black blotches against the lightening sky. Three white-tailed deer, a buck and two does, had come down to the river to drink. Apparently hearing his horse's hoofbeats, the buck raised his head, water dripping from his muzzle. He stood silent for a moment before turning and bounding away. The does followed quickly. A moment later a cougar emerged from the trees farther down and came to the river to drink. He paused when he caught sight of Logan. Trusty had been uninterested in the deer, but he took a strong exception to the mountain lion. Barking furiously, he started toward the cat.

“Get back here,” Logan called. “That cat can tear you to pieces.”

Trusty stopped in his tracks, but he kept barking. The cougar bared its teeth before melting back into a thick stand of cottonwoods, sycamore, black walnut, box elder, and willows.

“Keep your mind on your business,” Logan told Trusty.

The sky gradually turned from a deep gray to dusty blue to a pale backdrop for the red-gold sphere of the sun as it rose over the surrounding mountains, turning the river into an ever-changing ribbon of shimmering silver and burnished gold. Morning mist rose from the surface of the water, spiraling upward in crazy patterns affected by the cool air drifting down from the Rim above. Birds awoke, filling the air with their chatter as they fluttered among the bulrushes lining the shore. A lone bald eagle's gaze followed them as they wended their way along the riverbank. In one spot, Logan saw the sharp-edged footprints of javelinas that had come down to the river to drink.

The river truly was the ribbon of life for the valley. Everything in nature revolved around it.

A deep-throated growl from Trusty caught Logan's attention. “What did you find?”

It was a battered hat. Logan didn't know why it lay alongside the trail, but Trusty's actions told him it belonged to Pfefferkorn. Did that mean Bridgette had struggled with Wat? Logan couldn't imagine her going willingly with such a man.

“Let's keep moving,” he said to Trusty. “We're getting close to Camp Verde.”

Logan wasn't sure whether that was good or bad. If there was to be any shooting—and from what he knew of Wat Pfefferkorn there
would
be shooting—it would be better not to endanger innocent bystanders. On the other hand, it was possible the army would be willing to help find Bridgette. Out here, the abduction of a woman was just about the most serious crime a man could commit. They must be getting close because the hair on Trusty's back was standing so upright he looked like a porcupine.

They had reached the outskirts of town when Trusty drew his attention to a small cabin-like structure standing back in a dense stand of sycamore and black walnut. From the dog's action, Wat was either inside or had been recently.

“You've done your job,” he told the dog. “Now stay here and let me do mine.”

The first thing would be to search the area around the cabin for signs that Wat and Bridgette were inside. Once he knew that, he'd decide what to do next. He dismounted, but hadn't gone more than a dozen feet when he heard the sound of an approaching horse. “Damn!” he muttered. “I'd hoped to get this done before anybody from town caught up with me.”

His annoyance turned to blood-chilling horror when he saw Peter approaching on his father's gigantic Appaloosa. He didn't feel any better when he saw Peter was carrying his father's rifle. Running toward the child, Logan demanded, “What are you doing here?”

“I've come after the man who shot Papa,” Peter explained. “I'm going to shoot him.”

A dozen questions crowded each other in Logan's mind. “Why aren't you still asleep?”

“I heard you get up,” Peter told him. “I knew you were going after the bad man.”

“But the horse? The rifle? How did you get away without anyone seeing you?”

“I was very quiet,” Peter said.

Logan was in a quandary. He had to take Peter home, but he didn't want to lose track of Wat. He would have to go to the fort and report what he was doing to the commander and hope he could capture Pfefferkorn before any of the men from Cactus Corner could arrive and risk their lives.

“I have to take you back,” Logan said to Peter.

“No!” Peter shouted. “I want to shoot the man who shot Papa.”

“I'm sorry, Peter, but you can't—”

Logan didn't get a chance to finish before Peter turned his horse in the direction of the cabin and started toward it. Logan shouted for him to stop as he ran over to his own horse and mounted up. Instead of stopping, Peter whipped the big Appaloosa into a gallop. By the time Logan got into the saddle and got his horse headed toward the cabin, Peter was almost there. Logan experienced fear like he'd never known when Wat Pfefferkorn suddenly burst from the door of the cabin, ran toward Peter, dragged the struggling boy off the horse, and ran back inside the house so fast there was nothing Logan could do to stop it.

The man now had a hostage Logan would have given his life to protect. He had to rescue the boy, but how?

A bullet whistled by Logan's head. Ducking low in the saddle, he turned his horse into the trees and dismounted. He had to get close to the house. That shouldn't be too hard to do because the trees provided good cover, but he didn't know what he could do after that. Being inside the house with two hostages, Wat had the advantage.

Trusty had followed Logan. As they got closer to the cabin, he could hear raised voices. He recognized Bridgette's voice, but he couldn't tell what she was saying. Peter was shouting, too. Logan was petrified of what might happen to the boy, but he had to give the child credit. He wasn't intimidated by Wat Pfefferkorn.

Trusty continued to growl, the hair on his back still standing.

“I wish you could talk and shoot a gun,” Logan said to the dog. “I feel at a disadvantage out here.”

“You out there.”

Pfefferkorn was shouting at him from inside the cabin.

“I don't want to hurt this kid,” he told Logan, “but Bridgette and I have to get away.”

“Don't listen to him,” Bridgette shouted. “I didn't want to come with him.”

Logan heard what sounded like someone being hit.

After a moment, Wat shouted again. “We're coming out, and we're taking the boy with us. If you make any attempt to stop us, the boy dies. Once we're far enough away that I think we're safe, I'll let the boy go.”

Logan didn't trust Wat's word any more than he would trust a cougar not to attack a deer, but his best chance for getting Peter and Bridgette away safely was to get Wat out of the cabin. As long as he was inside, he was basically invulnerable.

“Come on out,” he called to Wat.

“We're not leaving until you come out where I can see you and you throw down your gun.”