“Well, whattaya know, ‘pears that savage trained you real good.” His eyes shot her with cold contempt as he gripped her by the upper arm, forcing her into motion. She gave a startled little cry, her throat closing up with fear. “Now,” he mocked her, “why don’t you just mount up so we can see what kind of moves you learned for us.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Bastards want us trailing ‘em,” Cutter hissed through his teeth. Barely tempering his fury, he swiped at the beads of sweat that dotted his forehead, his mouth set grimly.
Riding silently beside Cutter, Elias glanced up from the rifle he was examining. “How do you know?” he asked, scanning the area ahead before returning his scrutiny to Cutter.
Cutter’s s gaze was fixed on the horizon, his jaw taut with a rage that had been growing since the moment he’d discovered Elizabeth and Katie missing. He’d checked every last railcar and then had hurled himself off the train and run like hell back into Fulton City to find Elias waiting on him, already set to ride.
Elias had already stabled Cocoa in the nearest livery, and for a few extra dimes, the man in charge had leashed Shiftless to a post outside, promising to feed the mutt until they returned. In the meantime, Cutter had picked up Magnus’ trail with a little preliminary backtracking, and they’d been following close on his heels ever since. As of yet, Sulzberger didn’t seem to realize it.
“Because we should be tracking a blind trail,” Cutter replied finally, “and we’re not.” He turned to consider Elias, worry deepening the shadows in his eyes. He wasn’t certain the old man was up to the trouble they were courtin’—he looked almost as bad as Cutter felt—but there was no choice. Because Sulzberger was a dirty player, Cutter knew he would need all the help he could get.
Aside from that, he wasn’t feeling quite right—wasn’t exactly sure what it was that was wrong, but knew it had everything to do with his foot. The last man he’d known to snag an infection had had his leg carved off, and he sure as hell wasn’t willing to live like that, so it had been easier to let it go, tell himself it would pass.
But it wasn’t going to.
The fact that his eyes were burning a hole in his face told him as much. Still, he couldn’t risk the time it would take to see to it now. Besides, he’d never known a sawbones to be anything other’n saw-happy, and he fancied himself rather attached to his leg—didn’t particularly care to part with it.
“Sulzberger’s ridden alongside me enough to know how to trash a trail if he wanted. He’s not even trying.” He pointed out the wet tracks in the soil as they passed them. “He started out at a dead run, but since late afternoon he’s been moving at a snail’s pace. Now that we’re out in the bush, with no witnesses for what he’s planning, he’s no longer in a hurry.”
He glanced again at Elias, then heavenward, to scrutinize the skyline, recalling with a twist of his gut the way Magnus had ogled Elizabeth. He vowed to himself in that moment that the misbegotten bastard would pay with his life if he so much as lifted a finger to Elizabeth’s body—or, for that matter, Katie’s. He wouldn’t put anything past the man.
“Aside from that,” he added, “they seem to go out of their way to dip their heels into water—tracks stay wet for a long time afterward... more easily identified that way.” He hauled on the reins abruptly, something catching his gaze in the distance.
In the next instant, he’d unsheathed his Spencer carbine and was holding it before him in his lap, inspecting it to be sure it was loaded. When Cutter had completed his inspection, he looked up again, studying the sky in the distance. “Unless I miss my guess,” he said, “that’s them ahead.” Lifting the barrel of his carbine, he pointed out a column of smoke that coiled upward like a wicked serpent into the graying sky.
Elias shook his head. “Don’t make sense,” he muttered in puzzlement. “Why would they chance a fire? Seems if they’re gonna shanghai someone, they’d make real sure not to get caught.”
Cutter gave him a swift glance, his black eyes gleaming savagely. “Makes all the sense in the world,” he countered. “They didn’t count on you riding with me, Elias. There are three of ‘em, aren’t there? Should have been only one of us. Namely, me.” His mouth set in a grim line. “Reckon they figure even I’m no match against three—not alone... and not in an ambush.”
“Think they know we’re here?”
Cutter shook his head. “Not yet... too busy gloating, I suspect. Don’t think they expected us to sniff them out so easily. Judging by the signs they’ve left for us to follow, they think they’re baiting an idiot.” He inclined his head toward a small grove of trees that grew to the right of them—a procession of them that marched halfway up the hillock from where the smoke unfurled behind. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to climb, would ya?”
Elias nodded, though his expression turned baffled.
“Good. ‘Cause I sure as hell don’t aim to give those sons a bitches what they’re after tonight.” A chill black silence surrounded them in that moment, and then he added, “Not till I know what it is.”
“Now, McKenzie, hold on.” Elias shook his head adamantly, coughing discreetly into his hand. “You can’t mean to leave Katie and Elizabeth in their camp all night—ain’t no telling what they could do to ‘em!”
Cutter gave Elias a look of lethal assurance, beginning to wonder if he should make Elias turn back. The old man had taken great care to keep his fatigue to himself, but it was becoming apparent he wasn’t up to snuff. Helluva pair they made. “That’s what they’re counting on us thinking,” he answered finally. “But like I said... I don’t aim to oblige.” He pointed his carbine casually at the hillock in question. “If that were me on the other side, I’d have set up camp so that I could see everything coming over for miles, knowing they wouldn’t be able to spot me until they’ve cleared the hill. Way I see it, you can be damned certain they’ll have their barrels trained on us the moment we charge over.” He pointed the carbine in turn to the thicket of trees at their right. “Instead, we’ll ride up through those, climb the bastards, and then spend the night watching every move they make.” He gave Elias a cold, calculating look. “Maybe they’ll make a mistake, maybe they won’t—but I don’t aim to risk either Elizabeth or Katie by getting my eyebrows blown off.”
Cutter’s glance returned to the hillock, but his expression was unreadable, as though he were searching beyond it. “No, we’ll play our own game,” he said abruptly. “And if they lay a hand on either of ‘em... I’ll make each and every damned one of them regret they ever took their first breaths.”
Sensing Cutter meant every word in the most violent way, Elias shuddered at the grim promise he saw in Cutter’s black expression. In spite of the deep, revealing shadows under Cutter’s eyes, and the sweat that rolled from his temples, marking his fatigue, Elias could sense the iron will and determination in him.
As well as the danger.
As he’d decided when he’d first laid eyes upon Cutter McKenzie, half-breed or not, he was one man Elias wanted on his side, not otherwise. He gave a conciliatory nod, not that he felt he’d had much choice in the decision. The tone of Cutter’s voice didn’t invite question. “All right, McKenzie... reckon you know best.” Once again, he took in the flush of Cutter’s face, a flush that had persisted despite the fact that the sun had long since begun to set and the air had long cooled, and he worried. “You all right?” he asked guardedly, watching Cutter’s expression. Something wasn’t right about the man. Something he couldn’t put his finger on. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the man was ailing. But Cutter hadn’t said a single word to indicate it was so.
Tipping his head, Cutter swiped the back of the arm that held his carbine against his forehead, soaking up the sweat with his sleeve. “Fine,” he replied brusquely, shrugging off the question. He grimaced at the pain that shot through his foot as he removed it from the stirrup to hang free. “You sure you’re up to this, old man?”
“Much as you are,” Elias countered. “That is my granddaughter out there,” he reminded Cutter.
Cutter nodded, knowing they were at an impasse. “All right,” he said, “let’s just get our butts into that thicket before someone spots us.”
* * *
