Out of Control (30 page)

Julia felt it, too, but hers was for a different reason. She looked at Seth.

“It feels fine to me.” Seth turned away, but Julia thought he did so too quickly. Like he didn't want to see his big brother show any weakness. “Let's go. I want you to see this.”

Julia waited. If Rafe really wanted out, she'd go.

Rafe drew in a deep breath and, without meeting Julia's eyes, went after Seth. She followed, wondering what all this was costing the man she loved. She knew what it was costing her.

Seth kept moving. Rafe kept moving. It was easy for Julia to keep moving, marking as she went. Seth bent low to enter the next tunnel. Rafe was an inch or two taller than Seth and much broader in the shoulders. He had to bend even further. Julia stood upright, but there wasn't much headroom. The only light in this narrow cave was their lanterns. No torches, but why bother? There was nothing here except passage to the place Seth was so excited about. They stepped into a larger cave. Julia looked around.

“It's farther on,” Seth said. “There are a string of caves before we get to the one I want you to see.”

Julia marked the cave wall with an arrow pointing into the tunnel they'd just walked through. Her black arrows would be useless if something happened to the lanterns. They'd be trapped so far below the ground . . .

Suddenly, just like Rafe, she could feel the cave overhead pressing. How far had they gone down? Had the cave floor sloped? And they were surrounded by mountains. They could be climbing up as well as down, but it didn't seem like it. It seemed like they were headed into the belly of the earth. Into the very gateway to hell.

They were being drawn in so deep, they would never get out. He would pick a spot and rob them of light. This would end. Soon.

Fighting down the laughter, he corrected himself. It wouldn't end, it would just begin. Before he was done, Rafe would be dead. His friend would be dead, too. He was tired of sharing this cavern with anyone.

Except the red-haired woman—she had secrets she could tell him about the money.

He bided his time as they went deeper and deeper. Gullible fools. They were coming along as if he were a master and they were mules moving beneath his whip.

He rubbed his hands on his pants, the excitement making him sweat. Soon it would be time to make his move, and he knew exactly where that would be. He knew the tunnel he wanted them near. So he could grab the woman and vanish. He'd leave the others alive for now. But only to enjoy their terror.

When that got old, he'd finish them and find his treasure.

In the dark.

Julia watched Seth wipe his hands on his pant legs as if he was nervous. He seemed so comfortable down here. And it was chilly and they were setting a slow pace. Why would he sweat?

It only added to her tension. Disgusted with herself, Julia fought off the fear. She'd climbed around in dozens of caves. And they had never bothered her. Much.

Of course, that had been before the day she'd been trapped down here. And she'd never been in one so deep, with such a labyrinth of tunnels.

Rafe's breathing sped up. She could almost feel the tension vibrating off of him. He didn't like it down here. But he had such iron control that he faced his fear and moved deeper into the cavern.

She wondered if he'd reach his limit. Then she wondered if they'd reach hers. How long it would be before they needed to leave?

Seth passed through a small cave and then entered another tunnel, smaller than any they'd passed through before. She saw him again wipe first one hand, then the other on his pants. It had to be nerves. Why would so bold a man as Seth be nervous?

She turned her thoughts from Seth. He was close enough to being a lunatic that maybe he was both fearless and terrified at the same time. A broken mind living in two halves inside one head. It only made her more determined to carefully mark her path. As she reached for the wall with her chunk of charcoal, she noticed her hand trembling. Thanks to Rafe putting the idea in her head, the weight of the mountain pressed on her.

Then they got to a much larger cavern full of massive stalactites and stalagmites. Their bright lanterns were feeble in a room so large, and they cast deep shadows everywhere. Seth lit torches wedged into cracks in the wall.

“Isn't this pretty?” Seth said. “But it's not what I want you to see.” He headed for another tunnel.

“Wait!” Julia needed a few minutes to get her nerves calmed down and to give Rafe a chance to get used to the depths. “This room is spectacular. I want to see more of it.”

As the flames from Seth's torches grew, she did see more of it. There were openings on all sides. Small, large, some might just be shadowed crevasses, while others might lead downward forever.

“No, we're almost there.” Seth headed straight for the smallest opening yet, pulling Rafe and an increasingly reluctant Julia along with him. Their footsteps echoed in the room until it almost sounded like someone was following them.

Seth dropped to his knees. “We'll need to crawl through this one.”

“What was
that
?” Rafe stopped, pulling the rope taut so Seth couldn't move.

Julia came up to Rafe. “I didn't hear anything.” Or had she? She wasn't wild about entering that tiny hole.

“Wait a minute.” Julia saw Seth reach for the rope around his waist, clearly determined to go on with or without them. “Seth, don't!”

Still on his knees, he turned to face them. “But this is the best part. This is what you wanted to see, Julia. I'm going in.”

“I don't like this.” Julia surprised herself by saying it. She wanted to see what Seth had seen. She wanted to find the wonders deep in the earth. She might not get another chance.

Then a footstep echoed.

None of them had moved.

“Hey,” Seth said, looking past Julia. He lit up with his wild smile. “Great. Now you can meet my friend.”

The sharp
crack
of a gun cocking sounded just as an arm wrapped around Julia's neck.

“Get back!” A voice rough as gravel scraped her ear.

Rafe whirled around and froze.

A gun waved right by Julia's ear; she could just see the muzzle. “Get back or I'll kill her.”

The gun pressed to Julia's temple so hard she'd be bruised—if she lived long enough. The arm around her neck was so tight she had to fight to breathe. She grabbed at the arm, but it was solid as iron.

Rafe raised his hands slowly and backed up a single step.

“What're you doing?” Seth stepped forward, and the man lifted the gun from Julia's head and aimed down. The gun roared, deafening in the cave, ricocheting with a series of whining, echoing cracks. The man jerked her back, and when he pulled her far enough, she realized the gunshot had severed the rope that had tied her to Rafe.

“I come for what's mine.” The man pulled her backward.

“What are you doing?” Seth shouted. “Don't hurt her.”

“I won't hurt no one if I get what I want.”

Julia didn't believe him for a second.

“Tell us who you are and what you want.” Rafe's voice was so steady, Julia felt the cold of it stab into her heart. His tone penetrated her terror. He didn't look at her or act like he cared if she lived or died.

“They call me Tracker.” He sounded half mad, and he smelled of rancid filth. “And I reckon I did a mighty good job of tracking you down.”

“What do you mean ‘what's mine'?” Rafe asked, his voice strong but collected, detached, as if he were horse trading. Julia's heart sank. She knew how she'd feel if someone had a gun to Rafe's head. It would be nothing like this.

Rafe didn't love her.

He could never have been this controlled if he did.

“She's got money hidden at her place. Her pa stole it from my boss, and I come for it.”

Julia had to find a way to survive. In the face of Rafe's cool reaction, Julia knew she had to think about Audra and the children.

“My father? Wendell Gilliland?”

“Wendell is the last name of the man my boss is hunting. In town they called him Gill. I've been on his trail since he left Texas. The boss give me the job of tracking him down to get his money back.”

She wondered if he knew Father was dead. “Why come for me?”

“Your pa is beyond asking, isn't he?”

Julia's jaw tightened, not sure what to say next.

“Yes, I know your pa is dead. I been watchin' you mighty close.”

She shuddered at the rough tone of his voice. “But why?”

“In Rawhide, I caught up to your pa. I laid low and bided my time, but there was no chance to grab him and force him to hand over the money. It took me a while to figure out he was sneaking out of town on weekends to come see you. I finally figured it out early one Monday morning when I saw him slipping back into town. So I set out to see where he'd been. I couldn't follow his trail the whole way the first week or the second or the third. And I couldn't spot your pa leaving town. He was a wily man, and he went out of town a different way each time. But finally his back trail led me to your place. I headed for town to catch him out alone but missed him.”

“So are you really Seth's friend?” Julia hated the thought that maybe Seth was in cahoots with this man. Maybe they'd planned all of this together.

“If he's my friend, he oughta put down the gun.” Seth nearly bounced with energy, but Julia thought he showed a lot of restraint not to come running at them. A lot of sanity.

“I met up with Seth headed this way for home. When I realized how well he knew the area, I convinced him to ride along with me. I threw in with him figurin' he'd know everyone who lived around these parts. But Wendell's tracks didn't go toward Seth's home. And Seth's the next thing to loco.”

“Hey!” Seth clenched his fists. But again he stayed in place. Or maybe he just didn't care that much that she had a madman threatening her.

“Now, Seth,” Rafe said, “you gotta admit you've been acting a little crazy, even for you.” He crossed his arms as if he didn't have a care in the world.

Julia caught a little smile on Rafe's lips, as if he was having fun teasing his brother.

“He led me into the tunnel in that mountain valley and showed me how close it was to Wendell's cabin.”

“I didn't know you were looking for Julia.” Seth's eyes flashed wildly in the torchlight. “You said you liked caves.”

“Why didn't you just go on home from the cavern, Seth?” Rafe leaned his left shoulder on a man-sized stalagmite.

“I . . . I meant to.” Seth rubbed both hands through his hair.

“I figured out real quick he knew his way around down here and I wanted him to show me the tunnels.” Tracker's voice was calm as he enjoyed boasting. “It's a mighty good hiding place, easy to slip up close and watch for Wendell. So, when Seth woke up the first night screaming, I gave him some laudanum.”

“You drugged me?” Seth lifted his head, his fidgeting stopped.

“The first time I did it just to shut you up.”

Julia had heard Seth's nightmares. Terrible to listen to.

“I forced you to drink it while you were awake enough to take the medicine but asleep enough to forget I done it. You woke up so confused the next morning, it was easy to keep you here and get you to show me this place.”

“I . . . I don't remember taking anything.” Seth turned to Rafe. “But I've been feeling so wrong, so lost.”

Rafe crossed one leg over the other, nodding. “Makes sense. You'd be an easy one to fool, Seth.”

Julia wanted to despair of Rafe's tone. He didn't seem to care about her or his brother.

“Once we were down here, Seth seemed to forget all about how to get home. He'd say he wanted to go, but he never did, not as long as I kept dosing him with the laudanum.”

Tracker leaned forward, and Julia saw him for the first time. His face was horribly scarred. He smiled and the scars drew his face into a nightmarish mask. He wore an eye patch on his left eye, the one closest to her as he leaned over her right shoulder, using her as a shield. Julia noticed his grip on her neck had loosened as he mocked Seth.