Page 51 of Setup In Montana

Max wasn’t used to his prisoners telling him what to do, but he placed the call. When Myrna came on the line, Sarah said, “Put her on speaker.”

“Myrna, it’s Sarah. I was trying to reach Vernon. What’s been going on there?”

“Sarah! You know everyone is looking for you, including this really cute cowboy. Well, he was looking for Clancy. Is she all right?”

“I hope so. I heard Vernon left.”

“He did. Seemed to be in a real rush too.”

“And the cowboy?”

“He left right after.” Myrna lowered her voice. “I overheard Diana giving him directions out to your cabin.”

She met Max’s gaze in the mirror. “Is there any chance Vernon might have heard those directions?”

* * *

CLANCY HEARD THE creak of the porch steps as the conversation sounded like it was coming to an end. Any moment Vernon would walk off the porch down to his car, get in and leave. She couldn’t keep wishing that Dub would come save her. Or even Max. He was probably trying to find Sarah before she killed someone else. He wouldn’t even know that she had been abducted.

It felt as if time was running out. Sarah could come back soon and then—

“Help! Help me!” she cried out as loudly as she could, shooting up out of the chair and rushing for the door. The sound of a gunshot made her freeze before she could grab the doorknob and turn it.

Had Luther shot her? She didn’t know if she’d been hit or if she just hadn’t felt it yet, before Luther grabbed her and jerked her back away from the door as another loud blast seemed to rattle the cabin.

Luther had one strong arm locked around her neck and was holding her back from the door. She felt dizzy and confused. She wasn’t wounded and bleeding. The gunshots had come from outside.

Her ears filled with the pounding of her pulse and her rapid breathing. Had Abel shot and killed Vernon? Everything fell silent both inside and outside the cabin. Abel must have had a gun along with the knife in his boot. She felt sick. She’d gotten the manager killed while he was trying to help her.

The sound of Vernon’s voice startled her. “If you don’t want your brother to die, you need to open the door,” she heard him say in the same tone he used at the rest home. If any of us are going to get some work done today you need to get out of my office and quit complaining. If you just stay out of your rooms and let Sarah and Clancy do their job, you’ll get back in them a lot sooner.

Vernon was alive! Wait. Abel was the one who’d been shot?

Clancy could feel Luther making up his mind. Of course he would hand her over to save his brother. This was almost over, she thought as Luther tightened his hold on her.

“If that’s what you want, your brother bleeding to death out here, fine, but I’m not leaving here without Clancy,” Vernon said.

She’d been right. The rest home manager had come here for her. Yet, she couldn’t imagine the man she’d known coming to her rescue, far from shooting anyone, maybe especially a man like Abel twice. Vernon wasn’t what she considered hero material. She would have never guessed that he even owned a gun, let alone knew how to shoot it. Even harder to believe was that he’d come all the way out here by himself to save her.

Now Abel was out there on the porch bleeding to death—all because of her.

“You should let me go and see to your brother,” Clancy said, hoping Luther would see the wisdom in it. She could see that the thought of losing his twin brother was killing him. “Luther, let me—”

He dragged her toward the door. He was going to release her. But when he reached the door, he quickly turned the dead bolt before dragging her back to the chair. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse, filled with pain and anger. “Sit down. I promised Sarah I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.” He looked as if he regretted that promise and would have gladly turned her over to anyone to save his brother. “If anything happened to you…” He didn’t finish as he quickly moved to the back door, locking it as well—all the time keeping her in his sights.

“Luther,” she said, trying to make him understand. “Vernon came out here to rescue me. He wouldn’t—”

“He just shot my brother!”

“Abel must have pulled that knife on him.” Luther didn’t seem to hear as he stepped cautiously to the window before leaping away from it as a bullet shattered the glass.

“I can keep shooting,” Vernon called. “Or you can give me Clancy. If not, I’ll light this cabin on fire and let all three of you burn.”

Clancy frowned at his words. Let all three of you burn? Luther shot her a look that said, “Still want to go with him?” Something was wrong. “I don’t understand.”

“Sarah told me not to trust anyone who showed up out here looking for you,” he said, the words coming out like bullets, hard and fast. “Unless it was the sheriff, she said anyone looking for you had come out here to kill you. I promised to keep you alive.” She was shocked. That was the most she’d heard the man say.

She blinked, trying to understand. “But why would Vernon want to kill me?”