Chapter 26

26

Maeve had no time for caution.

As they climbed, the rocks became packed in tighter, the trees closing in. Soon these men would pick a spot, kill Dakota and Maeve, and very possibly shoot anyone who was coming to rescue them.

They rounded a curve in the trail, and Maeve saw a boulder-studded cliff to her left ... well, off in the direction of her dangling feet.

Dear Lord God, protect me. And if these are my last moments on earth, gather me to yourself in heaven. Because I trust in you, Lord. I believe in you...

She drew a long, slow breath as they reached the steepest part of the slope, then threw herself off the horse feetfirst and fell over the cliff. She screamed to cause a distraction and to make sure Dakota knew what she'd just done.

"Hey!" shouted the man who'd been riding with her.

Maeve plunged backward, skidded down the slope, twisting so her head wouldn't slam into anything hard she slid by.

But everything was hard. She shrieked as she skidded, tumbled, bounced, and rolled. She'd had one quick look at the fall before she jumped. It hadn't been a sheer drop, but it was steep enough. At one point she hit a boulder so hard, her scream cut off. She kept rolling with only the least bit of control—grabbing at the scrub, yanking small trees from the gravel and dirt. A firm grip on one of these nearly wrenched her arms loose from her shoulders and pivoted her so she was falling feetfirst again. The tiny tree she'd latched on to ripped through her hands, scraping and cutting her palms.

On and on she fell. A bullet whizzed past her. That horrible man was shooting at her! She heard shouting from overhead. She heard Dakota and more gunfire. Then a boulder the size of a man loomed ahead. She slid into it with her feet and came to a lurching stop—in position for the gunman shooting at her. She leapt to her feet, stumbled and fell face-first, but managed to crawl behind the huge rocks where she could take cover as bullets ricocheted around her. She gasped for breath, the wind knocked out of her, and inhaled the dust she'd kicked up. But there was no time to recover. Dakota might even now have guns leveled on him.

She hiked up her skirt, drew the gun from her ankle holster, got to her knees and peered between a crevice in the rocks. The man who'd been riding with her was coming fast. He'd jumped off his horse and pursued her, sitting and sliding down the slope, gun in hand. The rocks rattled beneath his boots.

He was almost even with her and in a more controlled fall. He would catch up to her within a few paces. As he slid his way closer, she pulled back the hammer on the derringer, aimed, and fired.

The man's eyes went wide, and he let out a groan. He stood up straight, as the impact of the bullet had stopped him in his tracks. Stumbling forward a few steps, he spotted the crevice she'd used to fire at him. Though wounded, he raised his gun to shoot at her through the space in the rocks.

But Maeve beat him to it. She shot him again.

"Hey!"

Dakota's head came around. He heard Maeve's voice. She was screaming! He heard rocks sliding, falling, some of them large.

Raul turned toward Ezra.

Ezra had jumped off his horse and run off, skidding over the edge of the trail.

Dakota kicked his horse, and in two fast leaps he left the Darnells behind. Once he was out of the line of fire, he dismounted, grabbed his gun out of his boot, and circled back around a twist in the trail.

Dodging the boulder that made the trail curve, he saw Ezra shooting at Maeve. He was distracted, but not Raul.

Raul had seen Dakota take off and was coming at a full gallop, his gun drawn.

Then a gun fired, but it wasn't Raul's or Ezra's. A split second later, Dakota heard the old man crying out in pain.

Raul wheeled his horse around and charged back toward his grandfather. He halted, leapt off his horse, and went sliding down the same cliff Maeve had gone over, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Dakota charged for the spot where Ezra and Raul had disappeared. He saw Ezra jerk back and stand up from his plunging slide, even as Raul began plummeting toward him.

Ezra brought his gun around to aim it at a pile of boulders.

Another shot rang out, coming from the boulders. Ezra's gun fell from his hand, and he pitched forward, then slid down the steep slope face-first and out of sight. Raul, skidding and fighting to slow his descent, clawed at rocks and shrubs as he made his way toward his fallen grandfather.

"Maeve, are you all right?" Dakota started down the slope—going too fast, but he had to get to her.

"Dakota? You're alive!" Maeve's voice quavered like an aspen in the wind.

"Yes, I'm fine. Maeve, did you get hit? Did the fall injure you?" Dakota picked up speed and was out of control by the time he reached the pile of boulders where Maeve was hiding.

She rose from her shelter and stepped out just as Dakota slammed into her. They both tumbled to the ground. A well-placed boulder stopped them or they might've slid all the way back to Cheyenne.

Dakota flopped onto his back. Maeve bounced, then sprawled beside him. Before Dakota could catch his breath, he heard a loud cry.

"Help!" Raul was out of sight below Dakota and Maeve—except for his hands, which clung to a brittle-looking pine tree. "Help me, please. Someone!"

Dakota looked at Maeve, knowing the man begging for help wanted to kill him. He swallowed hard. "Did he shoot you, Maeve? Are you hurt bad?"

She shook her head. "Not bad, no. Now go. Get to the top of the cliff and ride out of here. Fast."

Dakota didn't argue with her. Headed downward again. In control finally, but it was a treacherous stretch all the same. He reached Raul just as the pine he was clinging to ripped free from the man's hands. Raul screamed for help, and Dakota grabbed Raul's wrist as stones and dirt sprayed down on him.

The scream cut off. Raul looked up at Dakota, who was holding him by the one wrist. His other arm dangled at his side.

"Quick! Give me your other hand," Dakota said.

"You killed my cousin."

"Raul, please, I can't hang on much longer. Give me both hands."

"My grandpa would want me to die before I'd accept help from the likes of you."

"Your grandpa is dead." Dakota locked eyes with the man who'd come to kill him. "Let this end here. Your cousin was a killer who had to be stopped. I'm not a killer. And neither are you."

Dakota's hand slipped on Raul's wrist.

"Let me save you. Let me save a life and call it payment for your cousin. Please, Raul. Think of the woman you want to marry. Think of God and how you want to meet Him in the next life. Take my hand and end this feud."

Raul's panic faded, along with his hate. Swallowing hard, he reached up with his other hand and took Dakota's offered one. An inch at a time, Dakota dragged the man back over the lip of the cliff. Then the two of them lay side by side, gasping for breath.

Raul rolled onto his belly and looked over the cliff. "I left those Cumberland Mountains looking for something better than a hardscrabble life. A life that shortened my pa's life and then my ma's. Grandpa Ezra had enough hate in his heart to feed him for a lifetime, but I wanted better." He gazed down at his grandfather's body sprawled a hundred feet below. Then he turned to face Dakota. "We're even. More than even because you didn't owe me a thing in the first place. Thank you."

Dakota gave a nod, then said, "Let's get off this cliff."

Exhausted, the two of them began the crawl upward.

"Are you both all right?"

The voice yanked their heads up. Dakota saw Oscar, who'd emerged from the edge of the trail well above them. Maeve stood at his side. Jake appeared next, then Kat, Seb, Brand, and the sheriff.

Sheriff Peters pulled his gun and aimed it at Raul. "The one who went over the cliff is dead. You get up here and then get your hands up, mister."

Two more men joined the others. They'd brought quite a posse to save them. Dakota was relieved that none of them had gotten shot or had to face shooting his fellow man. Only Maeve had to live with that scar on her soul.

"Do you need us to come down there and haul you up?" Jake called out.

"No, don't come down. We can make it. There's no sense in anyone else having to fight his way back up." Dakota got to his hands and knees alongside Raul, then found the grit to rise to his feet. He looked up at Maeve and saw a nasty-looking scrape across her left cheek, and her hands were bleeding from getting slashed.

"I'm sorry she got hurt," Raul said. "I'll confess my part in all this to the sheriff and take whatever's coming to me."

"I'll speak for you, Raul. You turned back to save your grandpa. You never fired your gun at Maeve or me. Let's see if we can get you home to your woman."

The two of them scrambled the rest of the way up to the trail.

Raul put his hands in the air. "I'll come along, Sheriff. I'll confess everything."

"It's a feud, Sheriff Peters," Dakota explained. "Raul here was dragged into it, and now he wants to end it."

The sheriff looked grim. "We'll sort all this out back in town. Kidnapping is a crime whether you were dragged into it or not."

Raul nodded and found his horse, held by one of the strangers.

Dakota hurried over to Maeve. "You're hurt. I'm so sorry. And I'm sorry you had to shoot a man."

Maeve, her face ashen, nodded. "I'm sorry too, but he gave me no choice."

As the two strangers and the sheriff were talking quietly with Raul, Seb said, "I know a way down there to where the body is without going over the cliff."

The sheriff gestured toward the horses. "Come and help us pick up your grandpa, Raul." Moments later, Sheriff Peters, Raul, Seb, Kat, and the two strangers rode off.

"Looks as though everything's under control," said Brand. "I'm heading back to town."

"I'll go with you," Oscar said and mounted up. "You all set off when you're ready." The two men rode away.

Dakota gathered his horse and Ezra's to make the trip back.

Jake offered Maeve a kerchief. "You're bleeding." He studied her, then Dakota. "Neither of you was shot? We sure heard a lot of gunfire."

"Nope. Now let's get back to guarding Ginny." Dakota boosted Maeve into the saddle, though she was strong and agile and didn't need much help.

Dakota mounted up, as did Jake. He watched dust kick up behind Oscar and Brand's horses as they picked up the pace in an effort to get back to town.

As the trio started the journey, riding much slower than Oscar and Brand, Maeve asked the question Dakota had been dreading.

"Who were those men, Dakota?"