TWENTY

I did it! I did it!”

Theo dropped from the rafter above Caitlyn into the hay beside her. Wisps of it clung to his hair.

She was breathing heavily in amazement as she watched him hopping around. She wanted to cry. Anything to release the tension. Before the rock knocked against Mason’s skull, he’d already turned the knife sideways and used the tip to pull upward on the fabric of her cloak, toying with her. She’d had no doubt he intended to slice through her skin and stomach muscles, gutting her like a deer as he’d promised. What she didn’t understand was why.

“I did it!” Theo said. “I did it! I was so scared, crawling on rafters, and I couldn’t see anything. I had to aim for the sound of his voice. And I did it.”

Caitlyn couldn’t cry. She wouldn’t allow it. She forced the numbness to return so she could react without emotion and do what needed to be done.

“Get his knife,” Caitlyn said. Mason lay beside her, blood pouring from a gash in the top of his head. What if he opened his eyes? Theo wouldn’t have a chance against the man. As much as she wanted to stay numb, terror threatened to seep past her defenses. With it would come paralysis.

“The knife!” Theo said. “He was going to cut you open, wasn’t he? I heard everything he said. I had that rock and climbed along the rafters, and I was afraid I might miss him because everything was a blur and—”

“The knife!” she snapped. “Now!”

Theo blinked as if she’d slapped him, but she’d have to apologize later. Didn’t the boy have any clue about the urgency of their circumstances? She wanted to shake him.

Theo dropped to his knees and felt around. “Where? Where?”

“To your right,” Caitlyn said. Less stridently. “We need to go.”

“Yes!” Theo said. “Got it!”

His fingers could barely fit around the handle.

“Hold the blade toward you,” Caitlyn held her hands in front of her, lifting them away from her body.

Theo moved the knife in place.

“You hold the knife still,” Caitlyn said. “I’ll do the sawing.”

She pulled her arms toward herself, until the twine between her wrists was tight against the blade. She moved her arms up and down, feeling the strands fall apart.

“How did you know I was here?” she asked.

“I was crouched by the gate,” Theo said, speaking in a rush of excitement. “I heard everything when the guy with the shotgun got there. I followed into the yard. Then Billy caught me when he was letting the horses out.”

“He caught you!” Caitlyn said.

They both looked at the big man—Theo called him Billy—who was silent. On the floor, on his belly.

“He found a rock for me,” Theo said. “He told me about the rafters and how to get up there. He told me what I needed to do.”

“True?” Caitlyn asked Billy.

He nodded. “He was wandering around out there like he was blind. I stopped him from walking into a wall. I had to show him where to climb the rafters, but he promised he’d save you.”

Caitlyn reached down and cut the twine around her ankles. She had so many questions. But this wasn’t the time to think or ask.

“I did great, didn’t I?” Theo said. “Up on the rafters, I was afraid. But I made myself do it. I’m brave, right? If I hadn’t—”

“Theo…later.” Terror tugged her from one direction. Numbness another.

“Right. Later.” He grinned, unoffended. “But wasn’t it great, dropping the rock?”

Caitlyn spoke to Billy. “The bounty hunter will kill you if he finds you tied up after we’re gone. You’re a witness.”

Billy nodded. “He doesn’t like me.”

He was like a boy in a man’s body, trusting, not begging to be cut loose. She might as well kill him herself if she left him trussed. And she understood the horror that he had spared her by sending Theo into the rafters.

“How do we know you won’t arrest us if we cut you loose?” Caitlyn asked.

“Hey!” Theo interrupted, before Billy could answer. “I can’t go back to the factory. I just can’t!”

“Theo, I can’t let him get killed.”

“I won’t chase you,” Billy said.

“What if he’s just saying that?” Theo blurted. “Don’t trust him.”

Caitlyn knelt beside Billy with the knife in her hand.

“Maybe we should hit him on the head with the rock,” Theo said. “Just a little. To slow him down.”

Caitlyn glanced at Mason Lee, unconscious in the hay. She had to weigh the consequences of leaving Billy helpless against the risk to herself if they cut him loose. Again, she looked at the bounty hunter, and she remembered his knife against her belly. Her mouth tightened with anger, and she cut the twine around Billy’s wrists. Then she threw the knife down the corridor. “You can roll down there and get it yourself and cut your ankles loose.”

That would give them a head start if Billy couldn’t be trusted.

“Thank you.” Billy’s eyes never left her face.

“On the horse,” Caitlyn told Theo. The horse had stamped its feet and quivered during the commotion but hadn’t spooked. That suited her as it meant it was docile enough to trust. “We don’t have much time.”

She helped Theo onto the horse, then lightly swung herself up. With Theo sitting in front of her, she urged the horse out of the livery and into the darkness.

Billy stood at the open doors of the livery, staring out at the night that had just swallowed the fugitives. He held Mason’s bowie knife, hardly aware it was in his fingers.

Once again, he had to make a decision in a hurry. Should he worry about finding Sheriff Carney first? Or should he stop the escape? He was bound by duty to give pursuit but also bound by a promise not to follow them. The longer he took in deciding, the farther away they would get.

The dizzy feeling in his stomach returned, as he remembered the intensity in her eyes. He decided to give her and the boy as long as possible to flee. It would give Sheriff Carney a good reason to take away the deputy badge. Billy wouldn’t have any more of these kinds of troubles.

He felt good about this decision.

The horses were still in the yard. Nothing had happened to spook them. Billy planned to shut the gate and make sure they came to no harm, but first he should tie up Mason’s wrists and ankles.

When Billy turned, he saw that it was too late. His eyes were drawn to flames, already racing through the hay.

Then he saw Mason, who stood a few paces from fire. The side of his head was soaked with blood, and some had spilled over his eyebrows, turning his face into a mask. The pistol was tucked beneath his cast-wrapped arm. In his other hand, he held a lit match above another swatch of hay.

Billy took a step inside.

“Stop there.” Mason dropped the match into the hay. He drew the pistol out from his armpit and pointed it at Billy.

Billy stopped. A new set of flames sprang into life and raced away from Mason. Billy held the big knife, but it wouldn’t do any good against Mason’s pistol.

“You don’t know how bad I want to shoot you,” Mason said.

A loud crack echoed in the rafters over his head. It took Billy a moment to realize that Mason had fired the pistol.

Mason grinned. He lifted the gun chest high and advanced toward Billy. “Your word against mine. Want to stick around and see who they believe? Start running, or I just might wing you a little.”

Billy turned and ran.

Seconds after he made it outside the gate, the horses began to stream through it too, stampeding away from the fire and the smoke.

Mason hurried to the feed shed as the flames started to crackle.

It had taken all his willpower not to spin a slug through Billy’s ribs. Bad as he’d wanted to, however, he wanted to get Outside more. Delayed pleasure. With Billy alive and running, on the surveillance camera fleeing the fire, Carney would be forced to hunt down his deputy, clearing the way for Mason to find the girl.

Perfect.

As perfect as the injury on Mason’s head. Who wouldn’t believe Mason’s version of the events now?

But he needed Carney around to believe those events. Another kill he’d have to put off for the greater pleasure of getting Outside. Because what was far from perfect was the fact that the girl was gone.

Mason popped open the clasp of the door to the feed room.

The big man who managed the stable was conscious again, coughing and struggling against the twine that bound him.

“Fire,” Mason said.

“Cut me loose,” the man said. “I can help you with Carney.”

“Can’t. The boy that set the fire stole my knife.”

Mason had no intention of coming back, but if the man somehow survived, Mason didn’t want a witness to put him in an awkward spot. “I’ll come back for you.”

With his good hand, Mason grabbed Sheriff Carney by the ankle.

Mason dragged him out of the room toward the livery doors. All he needed to do was get Carney to the ground outside, but he wanted to be seen on the surveillance camera, and dragging him the extra fifteen yards took so long that when Mason turned back to the livery, the flames inside were dangerously high.

Good, Mason thought. Now, if it came down to it, nobody could fault him for staying out in the open. In a minute or two, it would be too late for anyone else to rescue the stable man.

Which meant Billy would be wanted for arson. And murder.