Outlawed! Read online

“Why don’t you ask him when you see him?” Angel suggested. “Come on. Let’s get moving. We don’t want to keep Buck waiting.”

  COOPER GRABBED the sheriff’s pistol and turned it on him. “Blink, Jared, and I’ll shoot you.”

  “They’re going to put you back in jail for this little stunt, McLeod,” Jared warned, but had the good sense to look concerned about Cooper and the gun he was holding.

  “Maybe,” Cooper agreed, as he checked his horse. Crazy Jack was still standing, but Jared’s wild shot had left a notch in the horse’s left ear. “At least I won’t be in jail for murder the way you planned.” He narrowed his gaze at Jared. “That is, unless you don’t do exactly what I say. Slide those handcuffs over here, then let’s go out on the porch real slowlike.”

  “You won’t get away with this,” the sheriff grumbled but did as he was told.

  “Tell me something, Jared,” Cooper said as he had Jared sit in Delaney’s oak rocker and put his hands behind his back. “Did you go to Rattlesnake Range or did they come to you?”

  “What are you talking about?” Jared asked.

  “Rattlesnake Range. There is no way you could have found out how they work, about the small accidents they use to get ranch owners to sell. Not unless you hired them or worked for them. Which is it?”

  Jared looked down at the floor. His jaw tensed. And Cooper had to laugh. How could he have been such a fool not to realize it before? The sheriff. No wonder Rattlesnake Range hired Jared. He was perfect for the job.

  “What was the deal? Your ranch and Delaney’s? And Rattlesnake Range hired you to bring in the Rockin’ L. Sweet deal, except you underestimated Delaney. And now you’re going to get blamed for not only the accidents, but the murder attempts on Delaney’s life.”

  “But I didn’t do it!” Jared cried. “Yes, I made a deal with Burton Mining. I needed Delaney’s property or Burton Mining wouldn’t buy mine. It was Rattlesnake Range who asked me to help things along. But I didn’t hurt anyone.”

  Cooper smiled. “Right. Been there. Done it. Jail time. Only I was innocent.” He looped the cuffs through the porch railing beside the chair, then snapped one cuff on each of Jared’s wrists.

  “I never would hurt Del,” he said angrily as Cooper took his keys. “Selling the ranch was the best thing for her. But I knew how stubborn she was—”

  “So you cut her fences, drugged her horses, took a potshot at her, ransacked her office, burned down her barn—and almost got caught—and put a snake in Delaney’s bed—”

  “I didn’t put any snake in her bed or drug her horses,” Jared contended. “I looked through her office, trying to find something to help me figure out who was after her. But I didn’t have anything to do with cutting the brake line on her stock truck or that rock slide. At first, when I found that barred-shoe print up at the rock slide and near the lake, I thought it had to be Buck. Then when I found out you worked for Rattlesnake Range, I figured you were doing those things. I swear to God I don’t know who’s behind it.”

  Cooper looked toward the mountains. “Unfortunately, I think I do. And if I’m right, Delaney could be in a world of hurt right now. I need to find the Golden Dream, the mine Gus Halbrook died in. If you have any idea where it is—”

  Jared shook his head. “Only Digger would know. And he’s run off with that blamed mule of his, probably searching for the mother lode or Gus Halbrook’s ghost—”

  “What?” Cooper glanced toward the barn, then back at Jared. “How do you know Digger’s got his mule with him?”

  “I saw the mule tracks.”

  “Where?” Cooper demanded.

  “Down by Buck’s place.”

  DELANEY CLIMBED up the hillside above Johnson Gulch Lake, weaving her way through the tall ponderosas and the rocks, knowing all along that Angel had a pistol trained at her back.

  “There never was a mother lode,” Delaney said, desperately trying to find some way to reach Angel. She’d looked into those pale-green eyes and glimpsed the insanity there. Gus had left Angel more than a legacy of pale green eyes. “Gus died in a worthless mine, digging for something that doesn’t exist.”

  “Lies,” Angel said behind her. “That’s just what Del Henry told people.”

  Delaney knew her only chance was to reason with the woman. “Then what happened to the gold?” she demanded, turning to look behind her.

  Angel’s smile was more frightening than the pistol she clutched in her hand. “The gold’s still there. Del Henry only dynamited the entrance to keep anyone from getting it.” She motioned with the gun for Delaney to keep moving.

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “He thought he could keep the gold a secret, but it’s coming out in Johnson Gulch Lake,” Angel argued. “And now it’s my inheritance instead of yours.”

  Delaney looked over at the creek, running down through the rocks and trees as it dropped to the lake. Could it be true? Delaney wondered. Gold often washed down from rich veins upstream. That’s how the original miners had first discovered the larger deposits.

  “Just because there’s a little gold dust in the creek bed—”

  “Don’t lie anymore,” Angel said, suddenly right behind her. “I know you were planning to sell the ranch to a mining company and cash in on the gold. But what you don’t know is that Del Henry promised my grandfather one-third of anything he and Digger found in the Golden Dream. And I’m here to collect.”

  “Who told you I was going to sell the Rockin’ L?” Delaney asked. “I’d never sell the ranch.”

  “It doesn’t matter now.”

  They’d reached a flat spot beside the creek. The boulders were large. Pines towered over them. “I’m tired,” Delaney said, stalling for time as she looked around for a possible weapon. A tree limb. Small rock. “How much farther is it? I have to rest for a while.”

  “Nice try,” Angel said, prodding Delaney with the cold steel of the pistol. “You wanted to see Buck, didn’t you? Well, he’s waiting. Right through there.”

  Delaney gazed past a massive boulder to see a gnarled old ponderosa. Beyond it lay the shadow of a small opening in the rocks. Her heart quickened. The Golden Dream mine.

  ON CRAZY JACK, Cooper followed the mule tracks in to the mountains, trailing Digger and Tess as they headed for the Golden Dream. Cooper had known the moment Jared told him about the old prospector taking his mule that Digger had left the hospital to find Gus. He’d be headed for the mine. But where was Delaney? She’d tied up her horse and saddle at Buck’s. All Cooper could figure is that someone had picked her up. He just hoped it hadn’t been Angel.

  As Cooper and Crazy Jack climbed, the sun climbed Montana’s big sky with him. All Cooper’s fears escalated when he saw Angel’s rented van parked near Johnson Gulch Lake.

  Cooper looked up the mountainside, hoping to catch a glimpse of Delaney, wondering how much of a head start Angel had, hoping it wouldn’t matter. He tried to rein in his apprehension. He knew running scared wouldn’t help Delaney. But just the thought of Delaney with Angel—

  He urged Crazy Jack up the mountainside, praying he would find Delaney and the mine in time.

  “WELL, BUCK, we made it,” Angel said deep in the cool, damp darkness of the mine. “Your precious Delaney was a real pain in the neck, though.”

  Delaney stood where Angel had left her, in the middle of the pitch black mine tunnel, wiping cobwebs from her face. The mine smelled moldy, as if it had been closed up for years. Angel had forced her through the small opening, then down a series of tunnels, with only the faint beam of Angel’s flashlight to guide them.

  Delaney rubbed the elbow she’d scraped on the rocks in the darkness and tried to get her bearings. She considered making a run for it, but even if she could see, she didn’t know which way to run and realized she wouldn’t get far in the dark, not with Angel and Buck after her.

  She heard Angel strike a match. It glowed brightly for a moment before she touched it to an old lantern. Slowly the light r
adiated out from the lantern to fill a small section of the mine.

  “Buck doesn’t seem all that happy to see you,” Angel noted, motioning for Delaney to come a little farther into the mine.

  Delaney did, aware that she could reason with Buck. At least the Buck she used to know before Angel came into his life.

  Delaney hadn’t gone far, when she saw Buck sitting in the shadowy darkness. She felt her heart break as she looked at him. Buck sat against the rock wall, his head back, his feet and hands bound. He lifted his gaze to Delaney’s.

  “I’m sorry.” The words came out in a choked whisper.

  Delaney went to him, kneeling next to him. The side of his head was soaked in something dark that plastered his hair to his head. “Are you all right?”

  He nodded, then grimaced as if the simple movement caused him a great deal of pain.

  “He needs to get to a doctor,” Delaney said over her shoulder to Angel.

  “He’ll live. Maybe.”

  Angel didn’t sound as if it made a difference to her one way or another, Delaney realized.

  Buck’s eyes filled with tears. “I’ve been such a fool.”

  Delaney hushed him. “We all have, Buck.” She thought of Buck’s plans to marry Angel and wanted to scratch the woman’s eyes out. She brushed angrily at her own tears and stood to face Angel. “And to think I was worried about you breaking his heart.”

  Angel shook her head in disgust. “At first he was so easy to control. Totally malleable, like so many men.”

  Delaney thought of Cooper. The opposite of malleable. Hardheaded. Impossibly determined. Totally inflexible. Her heart stopped with a jolt, then kicked back into high speed. Cooper. Had he done what she’d told him? Had he packed up this morning and left? Or had he done just the opposite and stayed? A faint glimmer of hope shone through the darkness of the mine, through the madness of the situation she found herself in. Cooper. He’d never done anything she’d told him. She just prayed he hadn’t this time.

  “You didn’t have to hurt Buck,” she said to Angel.

  “He didn’t give me a choice. He started snooping around in business that didn’t concern him.”

  “I found the horseshoe tracks at the rock slide and at the spot where the sheriff said someone had taken a potshot at you, Delaney,” Buck said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I knew it couldn’t be Angel, though.” He leaned his head back, as if the effort of talking had been exhausting.

  Denver stared at the woman, confused. “Buck said you didn’t know how to ride a horse—”

  Angel made a face. “Or shoot a gun? Or tie my own shoes? What do you think, boss lady?”

  Delaney looked down at Buck. “Then you didn’t know what she was up to when you bought her the horse?”

  Buck shook his head.

  “He bought me the quarter horse because I insisted it was the one I wanted. The old fool thought if I learned to ride, I might marry him and stay down on the ranch.”

  “What a fool, huh, Angel?” Buck said, glaring up at her.

  Delaney stared at the woman. “Why would you insist on such a horse? Unless—You knew we’d be able to track the barred shoe. Who were you setting up? Jared or Buck?”

  Angel laughed. “Just clouding the water a little. I didn’t want you to figure out who was after you too quickly.”

  “She’s sick,” Buck said, sounding as if he almost felt sorry for her.

  Delaney had to agree. “I can’t believe you’d go to all this trouble for—”

  “Revenge?” Angel asked, her eyes bright in the lantern light. “I think of it as justice. Your grandfather killed mine. Now I will take your ranch, your life and your gold. That is justice.”

  “Killing me won’t get you my ranch or this mine,” Delaney said, but noticed Angel wasn’t paying any attention. Instead the woman had glanced at her watch, then back down the mine tunnel. “Who are you waiting for?” Delaney asked, suddenly more frightened than ever.

  Angel raised one perfect brow. “Think about it, boss lady. The perfect revenge. Who’s missing?”

  Delaney felt her legs turn to water beneath her and fought to keep her feet. “Digger.”

  “You got it on the first guess.” She shot Delaney a thumbs-up sign. “I stopped by to see him last night at the hospital and told him I had his precious Winnie, as he calls you, at the mine.” She glanced down the tunnel again, then back at Delaney. “Don’t worry. He’ll come, and then it will all be over.”

  Delaney tried to think of something to do as she looked over at Buck, and bit her lip to hold back the tears. And her growing terror. She was with a madwoman in a mine tunnel, a mine Digger believed cursed. And Buck was hurting and needing immediate medical attention. Her heart went out to him now. He’d fallen in love, proving just how blind it could be.

  A thought whizzed past. Delaney blinked, remembering the lathered horse she and Cooper had found in the corral that day after the rock slide. If Buck hadn’t been the one, and Angel was on the barred-shoe horse, then who had ridden it?

  And—Delaney stared at Buck’s body propped against the wall of the mine, then at the dirt on the mine floor. No drag tracks. Who had helped Angel get Buck’s body up here to the mine? There was no way Buck could have gotten here by himself. Someone else was involved.

  Suddenly Delaney remembered what Angel had said about having no choice but to stop Buck because of his snooping into her business. “Buck caught you and your accomplice dredging Johnson Gulch Lake last night,” Delaney said, the pieces starting to fit.

  “Very good, boss lady.” Angel smiled. “Too bad you didn’t figure it all out sooner.”

  So why didn’t these pieces feel as though they fit together? “It was you and Jared in the lake last night, right?” Delaney asked. “I mean, how many other poor fools could you have suckered into your deranged plot?”

  Angel turned to look back up the dark mine tunnel at the sound of footfalls on the mine tunnel floor. She smiled. “I believe that’s another poor fool now.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The mule tracks led up the mountainside overlooking Johnson Gulch. Then disappeared. Cooper stood in a clearing of rocks and pines, staring at the ground. Then he looked closer and saw that someone had brushed away the tracks with a limb. Cooper circled the area, knowing he must be close to the mine entrance, but wondering at the same time just what Digger O’Donnel was up to. Maybe he still believed there were space aliens who had brought Gus back from the dead and he was hiding from them.

  Cooper found the boot tracks in the dust about the time he lost Digger’s tracks. Small feet. Two women. Then he noticed it. The weathered old tree. The large boulder. He climbed off Crazy Jack and walked to where he thought the entrance to the mine was from the photograph. Only all he could see were thick brush and rocks. No entrance. Could Del Henry have dynamited both entrances to the mine?

  Cooper shoved aside some of the brush where he estimated the opening should be. What he found made his heart rumble to a halt. Sweat beaded on his forehead instantly. His heart threatened to pound its way out of his chest. He swore as he gaped at the tiny, confining entrance to the Golden Dream. It was little more than a hole, just large enough for a small person to squeeze through. Behind the hole was nothing but darkness. Cooper felt his claustrophobia constrict his heart, squeezing each breath he took the way the opening would squeeze his body. He swore again. Then started moving the brush. Delaney was in there. With Angel. He had no choice.

  DELANEY STARED down the dark tunnel, waiting for a figure to emerge. Ty Drummond appeared in the lantern light, dragging someone with him.

  “Hello, Sis,” Ty said as he gave Digger a shove. The old prospector stumbled and fell at Delaney’s feet. “Look who I found on my way in.”

  Delaney knelt to help Digger to his feet. His eyes were wild; his voice was shrill. “Cursed. Nothin’ but evil in this mine, Winnie. Pure evil.” His eyes darted around the mine tunnel, then settled on Angel. “I told you Gus was back, di
dn’t I?”

  “That’s not Gus, Digger. It’s his granddaughter, Angel.” Not that it seemed to make a lot of difference, she realized. Angel was much more dangerous than any ghost.

  “I heard you found the will,” Ty said.

  “I figured Jared would tell you,” Delaney said.

  Ty nodded. “Yeah, well, it changes my plans.”

  “’Our’ plans, don’t you mean, Ty?” Angel asked.

  Delaney looked from Angel to Ty and back. “So the two of you are in this together?”

  “While I was doing my research, I found out about Ty being Hank Lawson’s son,” Angel said sweetly. “I thought it was just something else I could hurt you with, Delaney.” Bitterness and hatred oozed from her words.

  Delaney caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Someone was sneaking up the tunnel to her left. While she hadn’t gotten more than an impression, she knew in her heart it was Cooper. She’d been right about his hardheadedness. Thank God she’d fallen for a man who didn’t do anything she told him to. Angel still held a pistol trained on her and now Ty was here and probably armed, too. And there was no doubt that they planned to kill her and Digger, and likely leave Buck for dead, as well, and steal the Rockin’ L. If she could just keep them talking and distracted—

  ”And let me guess,” Delaney said. “The snake was your idea, right, Ty?”

  He smiled. “Someone mentioned your fear of snakes.”

  “Jared,” Delaney said with an oath. “And how does he fit into all this?”

  Ty smiled. “Well the sheriff has come in handy.”

  “Why don’t I believe he’s been giving you money out of the goodness of his heart?” Delaney said, seeing things clearer. “Blackmail? What did you have on him?”

  “He’s been working with Rattlesnake Range to take your property away from you, Sis. All those little accidents around the ranch? Jared.”

  “Why?” Delaney asked.

  “Seems he needs to sell his ranch and the only way Burton Mining will buy it is if they can get the Rockin’ L,” Ty explained. “I just happened to catch him in the act of cutting some of your barbed wire.”