Someone Like You (Night Riders) by Greenwood Leigh

Author:Greenwood, Leigh [Greenwood, Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781428506091
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing
Published: 2009-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Rafe’s brain was working its way through all the possible reasons for Luis’s cry while berating himself for paying more attention to Maria than to Luis’s whereabouts. Just then he heard another cry. It sounded like Luis was just beyond the cornfield rather than in it. Spurring his horse forward, Rafe rounded the edge of the field to see Luis struggling with a man trying to pull him from the saddle.

The man looked up when he heard Rafe approach, but he made no move to run away, just kept trying to pry Luis’s hands loose from the pommel. It was a simple matter for Rafe to throw himself from the saddle and land a punishing blow to the man’s jaw.

The man fell to the ground and lay there in an unmoving lump.

Rafe turned back to Luis. “Are you all right?”

Luis nodded, wide-eyed.

“Did he hurt you?”

Luis shook his head. “He said he didn’t want to hurt me, that he just wanted to take me to my mother.”

Rafe looked down at the man, who hadn’t moved. “Get up.”

The man lay still.

“I’m not going to hit you again unless you try to escape.”

The man continued to lie still.

Rafe would have pulled the man to his feet, but just then Broc rounded the corner of the cornfield, closely followed by Maria. “Who is that?” he asked.

“I don’t know who he is, but he told Luis he didn’t want to hurt him, that he just wanted to take him to his mother.”

Maria looked puzzled. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“A son should be with his mother,” the man mumbled.

The smell of strong spirits caused Broc to look at the man more closely. “Did you knock the sense out of his head, or is he just drunk?”

“I only hit him once.”

“Got to help a beautiful lady,” the man mumbled again.

Rafe directed his gaze to the man. “Who are you?”

The man made an attempt to sit up, then nearly fell back before managing to get upright. “My name’s Billy Cassius.” His words were slurred but understandable. “Beautiful lady was crying that she couldn’t see her son. That’s not right. Offered to get him for her.”

Maria’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Are you saying my sister asked you to kidnap Luis for her?”

“Don’t know your sister,” Billy said. “Does she need a boy kidnapped, too?”

Rafe would have liked to take his anger at Dolores out on this guy by pounding him, but the man was drunk. It was frightening to think Dolores had this kind of power over men.

“My sister’s name is Dolores Jerry,” Maria told Billy.

Billy frowned, shook his head slightly. “Can’t be. My Dolores Jerry lives in Cíbola. Has a room at the hotel. Can’t be two Dolores Jerrys.”

Maria blushed at what that confession could possibly mean.

“I’m going to take him to the sheriff. Maybe he’ll be sobered up by the time we get there.”

“I’m coming with you,” Maria said.

“Me, too,” Broc added.

“Can I come?” Luis asked.

The boy had regained his color, but Rafe could tell he was still upset.

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