Wrangled Page 16

Dakota froze where she was on the floor as the woman backed her way to the open doorway.

  “You aren’t going to leave again,” Courtney cried. “Please, Mother.”

  “Don’t call me that. You were just a mistake of nature,” Laura snapped. “My use for you is over. You wanted to get to know your sister? Well, now’s your chance.”

  “Who is the woman the Butte police have in custody?” Emma asked.

  “My cousin. People always thought we were sisters, we’re so much alike. She owed me a favor,” Laura said with a shrug.

  Emma was just thankful that Hoyt was in Butte. By now he would realize he’d been sent on a wild goose chase, but he’d be safe from this woman.

  “You know Hoyt will never remarry,” Laura said.

  “Yes, I know. Is that really all you want, for him to never find happiness with another woman?” Emma asked.

  “You make it sound so simple.” Laura shook her head. “I loved him. I should have been enough, but then suddenly he tells me he’s adopting three infant sons and talking about getting another three who needed homes.”

  “Hoyt loves children,” Emma said.

  “Yes, but I don’t.”

  “Clearly,” Dakota said. “Anyone who could chain up her own daughter and keep her prisoner out here…”

  “Don’t judge me,” Laura snapped, and waved the gun at her.

  “You have what you want,” Emma said quickly. “Let Courtney and Dakota go. By the time they walk back to the house, I’ll be dead and you will be long gone.”

  Laura smiled. “I thought killing you would be enough, but I was wrong. By the time Hoyt gets back to the ranch, you’ll be gone and so will his sons. He will have nothing left. Only then will he finally know how he made me feel.”

  With that, Laura stepped out through the door, slamming and locking the airtight metal door behind her as she plunged them into semidarkness.

  “She’s leaving us to die here,” Courtney cried.

  “No,” Emma said as she quickly moved to Dakota and helped her up. “She’s not. Are you badly hurt?”

  Dakota shook her head as she heard what sounded like the crank of an old metal wheel. “She’s not through with us, is she?”

  Emma shook her head.

  “What?” Courtney cried. “What are you whispering about?”

  Before either could answer they heard the water. It cranked and creaked through the ancient pipes for a few moments before it began to fill the chamber where the three of them were now trapped.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Courtney let out a scream as water began rushing in around her feet. She tried to pull away but she was still hooked to the old pipe that ran along the wall.

  “Stay calm,” Emma ordered as she and Dakota hurried over to Courtney.

  “I think if we both pull on this pipe we might be able to dislodge it,” Dakota said. She met Emma’s gaze as they both grabbed hold of the rusty pipe. They could feel the water surging through it. Once it broke, the chamber might fill even faster.

  But the water was rising quickly and Courtney was manacled close to the floor. She would drown if they couldn’t get her free.

  “On the count of three,” Emma said. “One, two, three!”

  Dakota pulled as hard as she could. She heard Emma straining next to her. The pipe gave only a little.

  Courtney began to scream. Water was lapping around their ankles now. A leak had sprung in the pipe. A spray of rust-red water showered over the three of them, drenching them to the skin.

  “Courtney,” Dakota snapped. “You can help. Grab hold of the chain and pull on the count of three. One, two, three!”

  The pipe came lose and the three of them were sent sprawling in the rising water.

  “Okay, we can’t panic,” Emma said as even more water began to flow into the tanklike room. “I left a message. Someone will find it.”

  But they both knew there was little chance of Hoyt making it back in time. The rest of the Chisholms were fighting the fire. She and Dakota shared a look.

  “Zane will come for me,” Dakota said, praying it was true. Courtney was crying, pushing at the water with her hands as it rose to their thighs.

  “All we have to do is swim when it gets too deep to stand,” Emma said. “Once we reach those small windows up there, the water will rush out. We’ll be able to breathe.”

  Dakota looked up at the four slits in the rock, then at Emma. Neither said anything, but Dakota knew the water wouldn’t be able to rush out fast enough to save them, because the slits were too close to the top of the tank.

  Their only hope was being found before they drowned.

  * * *

  LUKE HAD INSISTED on driving. “You’ll be more comfortable in the passenger seat,” he’d said, and McCall knew he’d been watching her. Nor was she feeling well enough to argue the point. She tried to get comfortable, but it was impossible with the baby being so active.

  Time was of the essence if Hoyt was right and his housekeeper was Laura Chisholm. As far as Hoyt had known, the two were alone in the house, she told Luke.

  “Hasn’t this woman been working for them for several months?” Luke asked as he drove toward Whitehorse. She and Luke lived south of town on Luke’s folks’ old place. He’d built them a beautiful home, which he’d made her wedding present.

  “So why would Emma have something to fear now, is that what you’re asking?” McCall said. She’d been thinking the same thing. “I wonder if it doesn’t have something to do with Zane.” She had told him about Courtney Hughes aka Courtney Baxter. “Laura’s her mother.”

  Luke shook his head. “If this Mrs. Crowley is Laura Chisholm, then where is Courtney?”

  That was the question, and had been since she’d disappeared the night after her “date” with Zane. He was out on bail and if Courtney didn’t turn up, or worse, turned up dead…

  “Have you thought any more about what you want to do after the baby is born?” Luke asked.

  McCall had her hand on her abdomen. She loved the feel of their child inside her. Safe. But once the baby was born… She flinched as she felt not a cramp, but what could only be a contraction.

  “Honey?” Luke said, glancing over at her. “McCall?” He sounded alarmed.

  “It’s nothing. Just a twinge.” That was all it had been, right? The baby moving so much must have caused it.

  Suddenly she was scared. She would have gladly faced killers every day than to think about being the mother to this baby.

  “Talk to me, McCall. I know something’s going on with you.”

  “It was just a twinge,” she said, hoping it was true. She needed to carry this baby to term. It was a month too early.

  “I’m talking about right now. I’m talking about the last eight months,” Luke said. “I know you’re worried about the baby because we lost the first one, but—”

  “I’m scared.” The words were out before she could call them back. She hated to admit to Luke how she was feeling. “I’m not sure what kind of mother I’ll be. Look at my mother. Ruby was…well, Ruby.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Luke said. “Is that all that’s been bothering you? You’re nothing like Ruby, thank heaven.” He looked over at her and said, “McCall?”

  She had another contraction, this one much stronger than the first one. “I think I’m in labor. It just came on so suddenly.” She remembered losing the other baby. It had started much like this.

  “I’m taking you to the hospital.”

  She nodded as she heard Luke on the patrol SUV radio calling the sheriff’s office. “Halley Robinson is the closest to the Chisholm place. Have them send her,” McCall said.

  Luke passed on the message as he raced toward the hospital.

  McCall prayed her baby would be all right. She was almost to term. But what would she do once the baby was born? She was terrified she might become like her mother.

  * * *

  AFTER THE CALL FROM HIS father, Zane raced back downstairs to the kitc
hen. Hoyt had already figured out somehow that Mrs. Crowley was Laura.

  “You have to stop her,” his father had pleaded. “Whatever you have to do.”

  Zane knew what he was saying. But first he had to find them. If Emma was right and Mrs. Crowley had been going somewhere on the ranch at night…

  In the kitchen he noticed the partially opened pantry door—and the hem of Emma’s apron sticking out. He quickly moved to it, heart in his throat as he prayed he wouldn’t find her—

  The pantry was empty. He breathed a sigh of relief, then saw the note on the chalkboard.

  Well house. Laura/Crowley. Hurry.

  The well house was an old cistern system that hadn’t been used in years. Water had been diverted from the creek for storage for low precipitation years back when the ranch was started.

  Zane placed a call to his brothers as he ran to his pickup. He told them everything, including what his father had said as he drove toward the well house. “Marshall has taken the third prisoner escapee into jail.”

  “We have a section of fire we’re fighting near the house,” Dawson said.

  “I can handle this. I just needed you to know. Dad is flying in. He’s going to be heading straight for the ranch the minute his plane touches down.”

  “Find them,” Dawson said.

  “I will.” Zane snapped the phone shut and drove as fast as he could up the road toward the foothills.

  * * *

  LAURA COULD SEE DUST in the distance. She’d told Rex to pick off one after another of the Chisholm brothers.

  Now she had a bad feeling he hadn’t done as he was told. She should have killed him instead of his mouthy cellmate Lloyd. Lloyd would have gotten the job done.

  As she started to climb into the ranch pickup, she saw the flat tire. For a moment she just stood looking at it.

  A flat? It seemed inconceivable that something so ordinary could foil her plans. For years she’d gotten away with murder, literally, because she’d planned every detail meticulously.

  Laura glanced toward the road down in the valley again. Dust boiled up behind a rig headed this way fast.

  She looked around for a place to hide, telling herself fate was playing right into her hand. She needed a vehicle and someone was bringing her one.

  All she had to do was pull the trigger when the time came and then get out of here.

  She could hear the water filling the tank and imagined the three women inside panicking. Especially Courtney.

  For just an instant, Laura felt badly that Clay Lansing’s daughters were part of the collateral damage.

  But there was no way Laura could leave the girls alive. Courtney especially was like a loose thread. One little tug and everything would come unraveled.

  As the vehicle coming up the road grew near, Laura looked around for a good spot to hide in wait to ambush whoever it was. She needed their vehicle and, one way or another, she planned to get it.

  * * *

  THEY WOULD HAVE TO SWIM soon. The water was rising faster now. Emma realized Laura must have closed off the main cistern tank. With the floodgates open, this tank was filling fast.

  Creek water lapped at her waist. The three of them had moved to the edge of the tank closest to the door. They had tried to break down the door but to no avail. Now they were just saving their energy for when they would have to swim.

  “I’m so sorry,” Courtney said, not for the first time. “When she contacted me I was just so glad to finally meet my birth mother.”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Dakota said.

  “We’re going to die, aren’t we?”

  “No, we’re not,” Emma snapped. She wished Dakota’s sister had her strength and courage. The young woman seemed to have been pampered much of her life. A little hardship and struggle seemed to hone a person for times like this. Courtney hadn’t been tested and now, facing the biggest test of her life, was ill prepared.

  “Do you hear something?” Courtney asked suddenly.

  Over the sound of the water filling the tank, Emma listened. A vehicle.

  Courtney brightened. “Someone is coming to save us, just like you said.” She was all smiles now.

  Emma shared a look with Dakota, who seemed to share her own worry. She hadn’t heard Laura leave and now feared that whoever was coming was about to walk right into a trap.

  * * *

  ZANE SLOWED AS HE SAW the ranch pickup parked next to the well house. He’d pulled his shotgun down from the rack behind the pickup seat and had it and his pistol within reach.

  Slowly, he pulled up behind the pickup and saw the flat tire. He killed the engine, listening through his open side window.

  Where were they? More to the point, where was Laura Chisholm?

  That’s when he heard the water sloshing around in the old cistern tank. What the hell?

  And in that instant, he knew. Jumping out of the truck, he ran to the door.

  “Dakota? Emma?” he yelled. He could hear water running in from the creek and the faint sound of voices on the other side.

  He tried the door, but it opened inward so the water in the tank would make it impossible to open.

  There was only one option. He had to close the headgates on the creek, divert the water back into the creek and drain the tank as quickly as possible.

  He rushed around the side to the headgates. Someone had jammed a crowbar into them, locking the gates open. He was struggling to free the crowbar when he heard the first shot.

  A bullet whizzed past his ear. The second shot splintered the wood next to him.

  Diving for cover, he used the momentum and his weight to dislodge the crowbar. But the gate was still open, water still filling the tank, just not as quickly.

  He peered out, trying to assess where the shots had come from. He didn’t need to ask who had just tried to kill him.

  Another bullet whizzed past. Laura had to be in the trees up on the side of the hill. He could still hear the water flowing into the tank. In order to drain the tank, he had to get from where he was across twenty yards without cover.

  She’d fired three shots, but he didn’t doubt she’d come with plenty of ammunition. Nor could he wait her out. The flow into the cistern had slowed almost to a trickle but he had to drain the tank. He didn’t know how long Dakota and Emma could stay afloat in there. If they were even still alive.

  The thought forced him to move. He pulled out his pistol and hoped he was right about Laura being in the trees on the hillside. It was a chance he had to take. Once he got the drain opened…

  He got ready, then, firing as he ran, sprinted toward the cistern. If he could reach it and get on the far side…

  * * *

  DEPUTY HALLEY ROBINSON SAW the smoke and the men putting out the last of the grass fire as she raced down the road toward the Chisholm house.

  She recognized her fiancé, Colton Chisholm, on the fire line but she didn’t stop. Her orders were to get to the house as quickly as possible and arrest the woman she knew only as Mrs. Crowley.

  Halley had to ask the dispatcher to repeat what she’d said.

  “The housekeeper is believed to be Laura Chisholm.”

  Halley still couldn’t believe it. She’d seen the cantankerous Mrs. Crowley on numerous occasions when she’d been out to the ranch house. Everyone gave her a wide berth. Halley wasn’t sure she’d ever looked the woman in the eye or really studied her face.

  Now, as she neared the house, her only thought was of Emma. She’d fallen in love with Colton’s stepmother, everyone had. If this report was right, then Laura Chisholm was a killer hell-bent on killing Hoyt’s fourth wife—as she had his other two.

  Halley parked in front of the house, noticing that the pickup Mrs. Crowley drove wasn’t anywhere around. But there was a ranch pickup out front.

  Climbing out, she unsnapped her holster, her hand on the butt of her weapon as she mounted the stairs, crossed the porch and knocked at the door. No answer.

  She tried the knob. “
Hello?” No answer again.

  She made her way to the kitchen, Emma’s domain. The house had an eerie feel to it that she didn’t like. The moment she saw the cluttered kitchen she knew something was wrong.

  Then she saw the note. Mrs. Crowley had written that they had gone into town. But that was marked out and below it was scrawled “Well house, Laura has Emma and Dakota.” It was signed “Zane.”

  Fortunately Colton had taken Halley up to the old well house once on a horseback ride. She ran for her cruiser, called in her ETA and a request for backup she knew wouldn’t be coming in time as she raced up the road toward the foothills.

  * * *

  MCCALL GLANCED AT THE CLOCK on the wall and felt another hard contraction coming. “Check and see if there has been any word from Halley,” she said, her voice strained.

  She was worried. There’d been no word on what was going on out at the Chisholm ranch. More and more, she suspected that Hoyt had been right. The housekeeper was Laura Chisholm, and everyone knew what that woman was capable of.

  “I checked a few minutes ago,” Luke said. “Honey, there is nothing you can do but have this baby. Halley can handle herself. So can the Chisholm men.”

  McCall nodded and tried to breathe through the contraction. Luke was right. There was nothing she could do for Emma or anyone else. She was about to have their baby. She tried to concentrate on breathing.

  Just think about your baby.

  “Did you call my grandmother?” she asked as the contraction ended.

  Luke laughed. “Of course. She’d made it clear she was to be notified the moment you went into labor, and I’m not about to cross Pepper Winchester. Or your mother. Ruby and Red are on their way. Hunt’s driving your grandmother in from the ranch.”

  She smiled and looked into her husband’s handsome face. She could feel their baby inside her, ready to come out into the world and make them a family. This is your world, right here in this room, she thought.

  Another contraction hit. Dr. Carrey stuck his head in the door. He was wearing his Stetson but he’d changed into scrubs.

  “Pepper called to tell me not to deliver the baby until she got here, but I’ve got a rodeo tonight so let’s get this baby born,” Doc joked as he took off his hat.