Indiana Wild (Spirit Pass Book 1) (16 page)

“
No!” She cried out, turning to swing her fists up at the man trying to stop her from escaping. “No!” She whimpered as he pushed her face down into the dirt road.

She looked up at the way they had come, searching the darkness for a familiar face. She gasped at the prick of the needle as it was pushed into her thigh. She fought against the drug as long as she could, wishing desperately that she could see Jonathan’s face.

“Jonathan,” she whispered before her head sunk down and darkness overcame her.

Jonathan looked around as they slowly made their way through the narrow cut in the rocks. The moment they passed the entrance, the temperature appeared to drop twenty degrees. Even the horses were tossing their heads and looking around. Chester and Tweed trotted next to them. Both dogs heads were bent and their tails tucked under them as if they were trying to appear as small as possible. Jacob looked over his shoulder and nodded silently. He felt the change as well. Something was definitely unusual about the Pass they were riding through. Small rocks rained down periodically, echoing loudly. He looked up toward the top of the rocks and shuddered. Thick swirls of mist covered the opening above them with only an occasional glimpse of the sky peeking through.

“
How much further?” He called out quietly to Billy who was in the lead.

Billy turned in his seat and grinned.
“Not much. It’s spooky, isn’t it?” He asked. “I nearly shit my pants the first time my father brought me up here when I was a boy. I was supposed to go through to the other side and bring back a hawk’s feather,” he said turning back around.

Jacob waited impatiently
. “Well, what happened? Did you get it?” He asked, kicking his horse so he could get a little closer.

“
Nah, I found one a couple weeks before and stuffed it down my pants. I only made it far enough inside the Pass that my dad couldn’t see me. I hung out for about an hour and then ran out waving my feather,” Billy responded lightly. “He knew, of course. The only reason he didn’t say anything was because he had done the same thing.”

Jacob stared at Billy while Jonathan just grunted. He couldn’t blame Billy. He wanted to get the hell out of there as well. The place had goosebumps rising all over his body. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the mist surrounding them getting thinner. He ignored the hard, cold lump in his throat and stomach at what might lie on the other side. The only thing he cared about was finding Indy. If he had to travel to the depths of hell and back to find her he would.

They burst through the narrow cut one at a time, each pulling in a deep breath of relief. Jonathan turned to look at the entrance and was amazed to see it was almost invisible to the eye. He turned back in his saddle to look at Billy who was grinning at both of them.

“
No one would ever find it unless they had been shown. The elders don’t talk much about it except to scare the young braves who are going through the right of passage to become a warrior,” he commented with a small shake of his head. “Not that there is much need for warriors anymore. Just trying to support a family is hard enough. I’d hate to have to go through what my ancestors went through. I probably wouldn’t have lasted a day.”

Jonathan nudged Midnight closer to Billy.
“Where to now?” He asked.

This was taking longer than he anticipated. He had thought they would have caught up with the men who had taken Indy by now. They had ridden hard yesterday, pushing the horses, dogs and themselves before having to make camp for the night when they could no longer see in front of them. The horses and dogs needed to rest. Instead, they had not found any trace of a fire where the men would have camped. Billy said the men had some type of thing they placed over their eyes so they could see at night. He called them ‘night vision goggles’. Neither Jonathan or Jacob could conceive such a thing but Billy had sworn that it was true. He said that must have been how they were able to continue in the dark. They had left their camp at dawn, foregoing anything to eat except the hardtack of biscuits and jerky that they carried.

“We head downhill toward the south. There is an old logging trail where I parked my truck and the horse trailer. If we are lucky, it will still be there. If not, we are on the backside of Sam Whitewater’s ranch. We’ll head to his place on horseback. It will take about another three hours to reach it that way, less than an hour if the truck is still there,” Billy explained, turning the horse he was riding slightly to the right and heading off in a southernly direction.

Jacob pulled back until he was even with Jonathan.
“Did you understand half of what he just said?” He asked quietly.

Jonathan nodded.
“Indy showed me images of some of the things he mentioned. I don’t understand how one can make the time shorter but right now I don’t care. All I want is Indy back at my side and to get back through that damn Pass in one piece,” he muttered moving ahead of Jacob.

Jacob frowned at his
brother’s retreating back. Damn if he wasn’t going to have to ask Indy to show him some of those images. He would like to at least understand what he was getting into before he got wherever in the hell they were going. He fingered the gun at his waist, finding comfort in the familiar grip. He had to agree with his brother though, he just wanted to get Indy back so they could go home.

*.*.*

Two hours later, Billy was cussing up a storm as he stomped back and forth along the long, narrow road they had come out on. Jonathan could see the unusual tracks in the dirt. He had no idea what could create them. They looked similar to what a wagon would do but were much wider and had strange wiggly lines in them. Jonathan called out at the same time as the ground beneath them began to rumble.

“
Earthquake?” Jacob asked looking around nervously and trying to hold his horse under control.

Jonathan’s horse danced around Billy who was trying to calm him down while Midnight just shifted from one foot to the other. He looked down the road and saw a huge, black beast slowly approaching them. He jerked back on the reins hard in alarm causing Midnight to raise his head and whinny. His hand went for the
gun on his hip and he drew it, aiming at the creature as it approached.

He would have fired on it if not for the fact Billy was waving his hands up in the air. The huge creature lumbered to a slow, growling stop about twenty-five feet from them. Jacob pulled back on the reins of his horse until he was even with Jonathan as a huge puff of smoke b
elched from a long, narrow silver pipe sticking out of its head before it went silent. A moment later, the side of the beast opened and a skinny man in his twenties jumped out of its stomach.

“
Hey Billy, watcha’ doing up here?” Ansel called out pulling his bright red baseball cap around to shade his eyes from the sun. “I thought I saw your truck in town earlier.”

“
Hey Ansel,” Billy said walking up and gripping his arm in greeting. “You happen to have a cellphone on you? Mine’s dead. I need to call Sam and see if he can come pick us up,” Billy asked in relief.

“
Hell, I can do better than that. I just heard Aleaha and Allie were headed this way. They have Allie’s pickup and horse trailer. Cole called in to say the beauties were on their way back. You know he’s had a crush on Allie since the second grade. They were passing mile marker 125 about ten minutes ago. If you ride down to the cutoff at the highway you’ll probably get there about the same time as they do. I’ll radio Allie and let her know to stop and pick you up,” Ansel said with a grin as he turned back toward the cab of the truck.

Billy called out his thanks and told Ansel he would see him at the bar tomorrow night for a game of pool and an ice cold beer. Ansel waved his hand at Jonathan and Jacob before he climbed back into the stomach of the beast and closed the door. They could see him talking into a small black box. After a few minutes he leaned his head out the window and grinned down at Billy.

“Allie says to get your ass down there. She’s tired and pissed. She said if you don’t hurry your ass is going to be eating her dust. Aleaha says to tell you hi and wants to talk to you about how Rosalie and the kids are doing,” Ansel chuckled out.

Billy slid his foot into the stirrup and pulled himself into the saddle with a groan.
“Right now my ass is sore from riding. I’m looking forward to sitting it on a nice plush seat. I just hope Allie doesn’t make me ride in the back like she did the last time she picked me up,” Billy groaned, shifting as he tried to find a place that wasn’t hurting.

Ansel waved as he started up the huge truck again. He waited until Billy, Jonathan and Jacob rode by before he put the huge diesel into gear and headed up the logging road. Jonathan watched nervously as he rode by, reaching out to touch it with the tips of his fingers. They were about ten feet behind it when the ‘truck’ as Indy called it pulled away. Jonathan grinned when Jacob almost landed in his lap when the huge metal beast made a loud roar.

Jacob slid back into his saddle with a shake of his head. “What in the hell is that thing?” He whispered. “Where the hell are we?”

Jonathan grinned at his brother and shook his head.
“That is what Indy called a ‘truck’. In the images she showed me they didn’t look as big. This is the world Indy came from,” he said as the grin faded. “I hope she doesn’t miss it,” he muttered looking back over his shoulder at the cloud of dust left by the huge truck.

“
You aren’t the only one,” Jacob cursed as he kicked his heels into the side of his horse so he could catch up with Billy. Jonathan whistled for Chester, and Tweed, who had finished sniffing the nearby trees, to follow them.

The journey down the road proved to be the
easiest so far. The ground was compacted from the huge truck and was wide enough that they could trot. They came out along a long hard black surface road the likes Jonathan and Jacob had never seen. It went as far as they could see in both directions. A moment later, a large silver truck, similar to the one in the images Indy had shown him, came into view. It slowed down before a light began blinking on and off and it pulled up just past them onto the gravel.

Jonathan nodded to Jacob and they dismounted, holding the leads tightly in their fists as they watched the doors open. Jonathan glanced
at Jacob when he heard him draw in a sharp breath. He turned his head to see what had startled his brother and watched as a small, dark haired woman wearing the dark blue trousers that Indy liked so much walked toward them. The difference was she was wearing a top that clung to her slim figure and left her arms and midriff bare. Her hair was short and fanned out around her face, highlighting her startling blue eyes.

“
Hey Allie, thanks for the lift,” Billy called out as he walked toward her.

“
Who the hell did you get into a fight with? You look like shit,” Allie said walking around to the back of the empty horse trailer. “You’re lucky I had the trailer with me. Boseman is on my shitlist. The asshole was supposed to have the horses we requested ready but he didn’t. I’ve wasted my whole day driving to St. Mary’s and back,” she added, dropping the ramp down so they could load the horses. “I have two mares expecting anytime.”

“
Hi Billy,” Aleaha said coming from around the passenger side of the trailer to help load the horses. “Oh my, what happened to your face?” She asked in concern coming to take a closer look.

Billy glanced over to where Jonathan and Jacob were standing. Aleaha’s eyes narrowed as she took in the two cowboys standing side by side. She turned her attention back to look at Billy who was trying to skirt around her.

“Ah Aleaha, it’s nothing. Just walked into a wall is all,” he muttered, turning red as she jerked his chin around so she could examine it.

“
More like a fist,” she snapped glaring at the two men standing silently while Allie loaded Billy’s horse. Her eyes widened as she took in the horse Jonathan was holding. “Allie,” she whispered slowly taking a step back from Billy, suddenly nervous.

“
What?” Allie snapped looking over to where Aleaha was staring in horror. “Son of a bitch, where did you get Indy’s horse!” She snarled taking a step toward Jonathan and Jacob with her fist clenched. “So help me, if you’ve harmed one hair on her head I’ll kill you!” She jerked to a halt when Chester and Tweed suddenly came running out of the woods up to her whining for attention.

The two dogs had been waiting on the edge of the woods for Jonathan’s signal to come. He wanted to make sure of their situation before he had the dogs come out into the open just in case Billy tried anything. He felt fairly confident that the Lakota Indian was being upfront with them but he was in a strange world and didn’t want to take any chances.

“Allie, Aleaha,” Billy began. “It’s not what you think. They need your dad’s help. Indy’s in trouble.”

“
Why does he have her horse?” Allie asked suspiciously, kneeling and putting her arm around both excited dogs. “She would never leave Midnight, Chester, and Tweed. What have you done to her?”

“
We haven’t done anything to her,” Jonathan stated coolly, staring into Allie’s furious eyes. “We are looking for her.”

“
Why are you looking for her?” Aleaha asked huskily keeping her eyes on both men. “Can’t you guys just leave her alone! She hasn’t done anything to you.”

Jonathan took a step closer to Aleaha. Allie stood up and
moved a step closer to her sister only to find her path suddenly blocked by the silent cowboy who had been standing next to him. Jacob jerked his head at Billy who nodded and took the reins to both of their horses and started loading them.

“
Move or be moved, cowboy,” Allie growled out in a low voice.

“
Listen to him. We don’t want to hurt Indy,” Jacob said in an equally low voice. “She’s in danger.”