Once a Hero by Raine Cantrell

Author:Raine Cantrell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682309469
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2016-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

She rode only far enough to keep the horses out of Kee’s way. She was looking to leave him behind, and it seemed her prayer was answered. She could ride on. No sooner had the thought formed than she dismissed it.

She could not leave Kee while he was in danger.

Breathlessly waiting for him, and for the shots she was sure would come, Isabel slowly realized that a strange quiet surrounded her. No birds, not even the stir of a breeze touched the canyon’s floor.

Minutes later, just as the waiting became unbearable, Kee rode up. She stared at what he held out to her.

“An arrow? I do not understand, Kee.”

“Someone shot this Apache arrow at me. But the man shooting it wasn’t an Apache.”

“What do you mean? How can you know that?”

Kee glanced back, but there still was no sign of anyone. Not even a shadow remained of the man he had spotted up on the rim.

“I’ll tell you how I know, Isabel. If he was an Apache, he wouldn’t have missed. Let’s ride.”

She was ready to argue with him, but his face appeared as intimidating as a clenched fist. Now, she had lost her chance. But only for now.

“Where are we going, Kee?” She struggled to guide her horse around the boulder-choked canyon floor and keep him in sight.

“There’s an old man I want to see. We should reach his place by nightfall.”

“But I thought you wanted to head to the mine?”

“We’ll get there. I want some supplies. I’m running low on bullets. Besides, no one knows these mountains like Old Man Reavis. He is a cantankerous old coot. Lives like a hermit.”

Isabel rode alongside Kee. She turned back a few more times, but there was no one to see. Yet the feeling they were being watched persisted.

“If the man lives like a hermit, how can you get any supplies from him?”

“That old man makes more money selling vegetables to the miners than they do panning or hard-rocking for gold. Some say he’s got quite a stash buried somewhere on his ranch. I’ve heard that one year he made almost five thousand dollars, and in any man’s language that’s a mother lode strike. But more important to me, Reavis can tell us if anyone else besides those four are prowling these mountains. The Indians leave him alone. They believe he’s crazy and has the protection of the gods. And he, well, I can’t explain more. You’ll have to see for yourself.”

Isabel did not answer him. Kee said there were only four, but that could not be true. She had seen one more. The one man Clarai would not be without, for Vasa was truly all that was evil, a man without conscience, who killed for sport.

Struggling to remain calm, Isabel thought of her terrifying escape from Alf, then finding Kee and the passion that exploded between them. The harrowing trail and Kee’s open wound had chased thoughts of Vasa and his whereabouts from her mind.

She had to tell Kee. Had to ask him where the man was.

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