Frontier Highlander Vow of Love (American Wilderness Series Romance Book 4) (32 page)

Yes, Miller was definitely far more cunning than she’d given him credit for being. He was as conniving as a weasel.

He showed her where he’d torn off a piece of his shirt. “That and my fire should ensure that I lured that man of yours into my trap. From here, inside the cave and from this vantage point, I can shoot him with my long rifle from a fair distance as they approach. He’ll never know what hit him. And if that sheriff comes along, I got a piece of hot lead waiting for him too.” Miller’s mouth twitched with amusement.

“Ye have a rifle here?” she asked warily.

“No, I got
four
long rifles, and plenty of powder and lead too. Miller went further into the cave, reached up to a hidden spot just above his head, and pulled down a long package covered in oiled cloth. He sat it down and unwrapped it. “One of these belonged to my brother. The other two were our partners. We kept an extra set of weapons here. We used this cave as a hideout in between our gold gatherings and other robberies.”

For the first time since he took her, Miller put his pistol back in its sheath on his belt. As Artis watched, he proceeded to load all four long rifles. Would one of those balls kill Bear? Or William? The thought made her want to scream.

When Miller finished, he leaned all of them against the wall by the cave entrance. “I’ll probably only need two of these. I’m an excellent shot,” he bragged.

Good God. From the cave’s elevated vantage point, Bear and William would be as vulnerable as two deer in the forest if they didn’t know Miller waited in the cave and was heavily armed. She would have to find a way to warn them.

Or kill Miller. Could she do it?

“I think I’ll to use my brother’s rifle to kill your man. I think he would have liked that.”

Yes, she could kill him, she decided. She would have to.

Bear’s heart leapt when he spotted what appeared to be a piece of fabric stuck on the sharp edge of a crevice in the limestone along the riverbank.

He urged Camel to the spot and jumped off. Grabbing it, he examined the cloth. It was part of a man’s faded blue shirt. It did not look weathered so it could not have been there long. “I found somethin’! I think they left through this openin’ in the boulders,” he called over to William.

“What did you find?” his brother asked, riding up on Smoke.

He showed William the cloth and then handed him Camel’s reins.

“I’m goin’ to proceed on foot until I pick up their trail again on the other side of these boulders. Follow, but na too close in case I miss a track and need to double back.”

It took him but a few minutes to find the tracks again. The two horse’s had left clear prints in the damp leaves. He remounted and wove Camel through the thick woods as swiftly as he could without losing the trail.

They were getting close. He could sense it. Maybe it was his heart sensing her heart. He just knew somehow that she wasn’t far away.

Then the worst possible thing happened. It started to rain.

“We’ve got to hurry,” he yelled to William. “We need to find them before this rain washes away their tracks.”

Bear urged Camel to trot faster but continued to study the ground whirling past him. The rapid pace combined with looking down constantly became dizzying, but he forced himself to continue.

The rain steadily increased and soon became a deluge. He heart felt like it was drowning.

His chest tightened with dread. Right before his eyes, the tracks melted into the ground, disappearing forever.

“No!” he shouted into the storm.

Miller used his flint and firesteel to start kindling to flaming. Then he added wood from a pile stacked next to the cave wall. When he had a fire going, he made coffee.

It didn’t surprise her that he built a fire. Miller wanted Bear and William to find them. He’d set his trap and was just waiting to spring it.

Artis bit her lip, trying to quell her old fears about caves and her new distress for Bear and William. She needed to act soon. They might not be far behind.

When the coffee finished brewing, Miller poured himself a cup and to her surprise offered one to her as well. Chilled and thirsty, she took a sip. It was so bad it could quality as coffin varnish—the expression the locals used for bad coffee.

Miller made his way to the cave opening and hunched down. He sat there calmly drinking his coffee, waiting, watching.

For Bear. For her husband.

For William. Kelly’s husband.

And little Nicole’s father.

She had to do something!

She sat the cup down, walked over, and stood behind him. “Mister Miller, ye can na shoot them in cold blood. At least be a man and stand up to them. Fight them face to face.” Perhaps if she appealed to his male pride, she could get him to abandon his plan to ambush Bear and William.

“I’ll let the lead from these here rifles stand up to them. Far more effective.”

“Please, what can I say to make ye change yer mind?”

“Not a thing. Not a damn thing.”

She would make one last effort. “Ye do na want to go to hell do ye?”

“I imagine the devil, if there is one, is holding a hot seat for me there already. Nothing I do matters to anyone anymore.”

It mattered to her
. She knelt and reached down for her dirk. She had to do this. For Bear. For their unborn children. For Kelly and Nicole. She raised the blade, her hand quivering.

She let out the tiniest cry just as she plunged the blade toward his back.

It was enough to warn him. He spun away just in time, pushed her aside, and fell on his knees.

She collapsed on her back, still clutching her dirk.

Miller scampered to his feet and drew his pistol.

She jumped up, whirled around, and sprang forward.

As he took aim, she ran into the cave’s darkness.

Chapter 40

B
ear’s stomach clenched at the echoing sound. He turned toward William. “Did ye hear that?”

“Yes!” William hollered back.

Bear took Camel to an all-out run toward the sound of the gunshot. It came from a ravine.
Oh God, had Artis been shot again?
The thought made his heart race and feel like it would explode with fear.

William’s horse thundered behind him and then drew up alongside Camel. The rain stopped abruptly but they had to avoid several treacherous spots where water had pooled, hiding what lay beneath.

“There,” William called and pointed to the canyon wall.

The slightest trail of smoke and a dim light could be seen coming from within what looked like a cave.

“Watch out,” Bear shouted. “A rifle is pointin’ our way.”

Both men grabbed their rifles, jumped from their horses, and crouched behind a massive boulder, just as a bullet struck the same rock. With an experienced warrior’s eye, Bear assessed their surroundings and the situation.

“It must be Miller,” William said. “Where did he get a rifle?”

Bear didn’t wait to answer the question. He was already moving forward, wanting to get closer before the man reloaded. But without delay, another lead ball followed the first. The shot missed him by a hair’s breadth and made his heart race even harder as he crouched behind a brush covered limestone rise.

This time William dashed toward Bear and another shot nearly hit him.

“Damn. How many loaded rifles does that man have?” William swore.

“At least three too many,” Bear answered, his muscles still quivering from William’s near brush with death. “It’s time we gave him a taste of his own medicine.”

Like William, Bear kept his rifle under an oiled cloth on his horse, but that was no guarantee it would work after the downpour. Hoping his powder was still dry, he lined up his sights. But he could not get a fix on Miller. “I can na see him, he must be reloadin’.”

“Shoot anyway, then leave your rifle. I’ll fire mine, while you move further forward,” William said. “Then I’ll reload and fire both rifles when you’re ready to charge into the cave.”

“Okay, but I have to get closer first.”

Bear targeted the spot where he’d seen the smoke from the flintlock and fired. Leaving his rifle, he dashed forward while William shot his own rifle.

Bear raced right up to the base of the canyon wall.
I’m coming Artis
.

Another shot rained limestone down around William.

Bear put fresh powder in both his flintlock pistols. He inched forward, hugging the canyon wall with his body. If Miller leaned out and fired, Bear knew he would make a big target. He’d have to move with lightning speed to avoid being shot.

He motioned for William to shoot again. When his brother fired, Bear raced up to a large rock outcrop situated just outside of the cave entrance. It was just big enough to hide him. He pulled both pistols. He glanced down
at William and waited for his brother to reload both rifles. William nodded when he finished.

Bear readied himself. He gave William the signal to fire. A split second after first one rifle shot and then another exploded into the cave’s mouth, Bear rushed in.

Instantaneously, Miller raised his own pistol but Bear fired first. He heard the distinct thump of both shots as they ripped through Miller’s chest.

The murderer was dead. Was Artis alive?

Frantically, his eyes searched the cave. Where was she? When he didn’t see her, worry filled him so completely he had difficulty breathing. He turned back to the opening and motioned William to come up. “Hurry,” he yelled.

William arrived a moment later. “Artis?”

“She’s na here,” he said, wanting to weep. “Did he kill her?”

“Bear, calm yourself. We followed two tracks here. Her horse is tied outside. Maybe she ran to hide when the firing started.”

He prayed William was right. “Artis!” he yelled.

“I’ll make a couple of torches out of these logs and the bedding,” William said.

“Make haste. I’ll keep callin’ her name.”

While William quickly assembled the torches, Bear hiked into the darkness yelling her name into the cave, over and over. Every time he did so, his heart cracked a little more. Soon it would shatter.

William caught up to him, they each took a torch, and with Bear bending over slightly, they made their way into the darkness. The cave was damp and smelled of ancient decay.

Bear kept calling Artis’ name, again and again. Each time, the only response was the echo of his own voice. His hope dwindled and the ache in the back of his throat grew into a bigger lump. He swallowed his despair
once more. She had to be in here. There had been no sign of her outside the cave. But was she lying dead somewhere in the darkness ahead?

Then he heard her scream. Screaming at the top of her lungs. She sounded desperate.

“Help!”

It was her voice. It was Artis. He rushed toward the sound so fast his torch nearly went out. William trailed right behind.

“Artis!”

“Look, there’s her dirk,” William said.

“Here. I’m here. Help me. Help me,” she shrieked.

In a few seconds, they found her hanging from the edge of an abyss so deep they could not see the bottom of the void. His heart almost stopped.

He dropped the torch and grabbed her arms, wrapping his hands securely around each. In another second, he had her in his own arms and they were both crying, but she was nearly hysterical. Her face looked frenzied and panic-stricken. Her eyes were over-bright. She continued to sob and wail.

“Let’s get her out of here,” he called to William, who was retrieving the torch Bear dropped and her dirk.

“Aye, aye, out, out” she cried.

She clung to him desperately, grabbing fistfuls of his clothing, as they made their way back.

“Yer all right Artis. We’ll get ye out of here.”

“Miller, he, he…” she pointed a shaking hand toward the cave opening.

“He’s dead Artis,” Bear said, “he canna hurt any of us now.”

She closed her eyes and big tears fell from beneath her long lashes.

“Take my torch,” he told William.

Bear swept Artis up into his arms and he carried her until they reached
the fire at the cave entrance.

“I’ll take Miller’s body down to the bottom of the ravine and take care of the four horses,” William said. “It’s too late to go back tonight. Maybe I can find us a rabbit or two before full dark for dinner.”