Stuart narrowed his eyes. Young wouldn’t do something so dangerous as to leave a lamp burning while he went upstairs to eat. Besides, he’d need the light to see to go up the stairs.
Something didn’t feel quite right.
Placing his finger to his lips to let Norah know to remain quiet, he stepped farther into the room. The silence thudded in his ears, louder than a train’s whistle.
Norah pointed to the ceiling and mouthed, “Upstairs?”
It was possible. But first they needed to check on Nate—and Ruthann, if she was down here. He gestured at the door that led to the town’s jail cells, before drawing his father’s pistol just in case trouble waited on the other side.
Norah fell into step behind him, and silently, they crossed the room. Stuart reached out with his free hand for the door. It creaked open to a space lit with another lamp.
And four men standing with guns aiming right at him.
#####
“HAND IT OVER, JOLIET,” Maddox said. He was leaning lazily against a cell that held Nate and Ruthann. The cell next to that one contained Sheriff Young, Mrs. Young, and one of the sheriff’s deputies, Harry Caldwell.
Maddox held out a hand, waiting for Stuart to hand over his pistol. Stuart glanced behind him, hoping Norah had backed out and run away.
But of course she hadn’t. She stood here with her chin tilted upward as if a passel of men with guns pointed at them didn’t unnerve her at all.
Stuart turned back to the men in front of them. Even if he fired and hit Maddox, the others would fire at him right away. If he tried to back out, they’d shoot.
He and Norah were trapped here, just as the sheriff and the others had been. Stuart had played right into Maddox’s hands, and now Maddox had half the people he wished to see dead in one place.
He had no other choice. Stuart drew in a breath before turning the pistol around in his hand and placing it in Maddox’s.
“Thank you,” Maddox said as if Stuart had handed him a slice of pie or a handful of coins. “Miss Parker, would you be so kind as to step into the room?”
Stuart reached for her arm as she stopped beside him. If Maddox attempted to do so much as reach for her hand, no amount of pistols pointed at him would stop Stuart from leaping at Maddox to knock him to the ground.
“Well, isn’t this convenient?” Maddox said, letting his revolver dangle from his hand as if he weren’t the slightest bit worried about Stuart and Norah escaping.
“Let’s get this over with,” Sid Chase said from his place near the wall. His red hair glowed in the lamplight, and he hadn’t lowered his gun even an inch.
Maddox held up a hand. “Not yet. We need Miss Parker.” He narrowed his eyes at Stuart. “And Mrs. Harper.”
Ruthann. Stuart’s heart hammered against his chest. “Why?”
A slow, vicious smile traced its way across Maddox’s face. “I’m assuming you had plenty of time to pay a visit to your family and to Miss Parker’s. The only way we’ll get in quietly is with a little help from the ladies.”
Stuart clenched his free hand into a fist at his side. “They have nothing to do with this. And for that matter, neither does anyone else you’ve got in those cells. Let them go and you can have me.”
Maddox laughed, and Chase joined in. The other two men looked just as amused, and Stuart wished he could take each one of them on.
“You all know too much, and that’s a liability to us,” Maddox said, his mirth disappearing as quick as it had arrived.
“And so your plan is to shoot every of one us?” Sheriff Young scowled at Maddox.
Maddox didn’t answer. It didn’t matter, though, because when Stuart glanced at the sheriff, it was clear he knew the answer too.
They would all die right here, unless he or Norah could come up with something to end this. And with just the two of them up against four armed men, it felt like a hopeless situation.
“Why are you here?” Stuart asked. If he kept Maddox talking, it would create more time for him to think of a plan. “After that robbery went wrong, and you managed to get Jeremy Parker convicted, why would you stay?”
Maddox cast an irritated glance at him.
“Jeremy tricked him,” Norah said, and Stuart could have kissed her right then and there for apparently understanding what he was doing. “He told Mr. Maddox about a false shipment—something valuable he knew Mr. Maddox and these men couldn’t resist. And then he found a way to alert Sheriff Young that something was going to happen that night. Except—”
