Whispers In The Dark

“About that,” Richard braved a step closer. “A couple of us could ride along for the first two days. Make it easier going on you for that time, then back off at the last.”

“We’ve been through that time and again.” She kept her voice low, but the impatient emphasis was there. “I ride alone, I work alone. Even if I didn’t normally, this time I would. I must. You just see to it the men who are there now, surrounding the base of the peak, are ready to move in on a minute’s notice. That’s all they may have, a minute.”

“Val...”

“No, Richard,” she said firmly. “We can’t risk any chance that there might be spotters in the vicinity who would connect me with Search and Rescue. If I’m seen, they have to think I’m just a rancher, or a dude, out for a ride. Someone they needn’t be concerned about.”

“When you’re on foot? What then?”

“When I go to ground, no one will see me. I guarantee it.” Curbing her irritation, she tried to speak moderately, when she wanted to shout and be done with this. “Richard, no one else can go.”

“I know that’s the way we said we’d do it.”

“And that’s the way we’ll keep it.” Black Jack danced away again. This time not in fright, but in eagerness to run. Drawing him to a stand, Valentina leaned down, offering her hand to the commander. “Wish me luck.”

Richard Trent took her hand in his. His face was grim with worry as he looked up at her. He’d known her less than twenty-four hours. In those hours he’d learned to like her as a friend, as someone he’d like to know better. He respected her and trusted her judgment.

She was right. The reasonable part of him knew it. But this was his country, these were his people, his charges. Protecting them was his job. It did not set well with him to let her go into jeopardy while he stayed. “Val...”

Taking her hand from his, she cut him short. “Time’s wasting. The temperature’s rising.”

“Dammit! I’d pull rank if I could.”

“But you can’t. You have no authority over special agents. Certainly none over me.” Softly, she said again, “Wish me luck, Richard. I need it, you know.”

Lips pursed, a hard held breath released, he nodded grimly. “Luck.”

“Thanks.” She laughed and tossed her braid from her shoulders. “I’ll see you in three days. No,” she corrected. “We’ll see you in three days. Courtney and I.”

Touching spurs to Black Jack’s glistening flank, she set him into an easy canter. At the entrance of the natural basin, she drew the stallion to a halt. Turning in the saddle she scanned the camp and the crew. But no eyes blazing green fire looked back at her.

“Strange,” she murmured. “I thought...” Shrugging aside the thought she couldn’t complete, she lifted a hand only an instant before she turned the stallion in a whirl. Then, giving him his head, she let him run.

“Three days,” Richard Trent said as she disappeared from view. “Both of you. Child and woman, God willing.”

As if sensing the need in her, the stallion ran as he hadn’t in a long while. Black mane streaking behind him, tail high, his hooves pounded the hard-packed ground, taking the rough with the smooth as if there were no difference. Crouching low in the saddle, offering no resistance, Valentina urged him on.

There would be tune for caution later. But, for now, it suited her purpose to be seen, as if she were someone just passing through in a hurry. Leaning even lower and dropping the reins, she caught Black Jack’s mane, letting him run as he would. Her body rocked smoothly, gracefully, in concert with the horse, as if they were one. “That’s us, boy, just passing through.”

Needing no urging, Black Jack skidded down a wash and back up the other side with hardly a break in stride. Gaining level ground, racing his own shadow, he sped across the desert. Once more, with no change in his pace, he responded to the tug at his mane. Veering from the flat land, he made the turn that would begin the climb toward the cabin.

Dust stirred by the stallion had scarcely begun to settle as a second horse and rider burst through a clump of stunted trees at the wash. El Mirlo slid to a halt, dancing in his impatience as he obeyed the saw of the reins. Soothing him with a touch of his hand, Rafe stared after the figures fading rapidly into the distance.

“Irish,” he muttered angrily as he held his mount in check, “before you get where you’re going, you’ll break your reckless neck and the stallion’s.” As he glared after them they climbed higher. Small dots on the face of a hillside that would only grow steeper. “Your neck, for sure. And maybe mine.”

El Mirlo snorted and reared, backing futilely away from the inescapable control of the reins. Rafe rode easy in the saddle, his anger giving way to intemperance.

“What the hell.”

The low rumble accompanied a lash of the reins as he spurred his frenzied mount on. Scrambling up the side of the wash and over the top, grim rider in tow, the gelding that gleamed as darkly in the sun as Black Jack, galloped furiously into a dusty wake.

Four

“Fool woman.”

As he began the climb himself, and even as the words erupted from his lips, Rafe knew he was wrong. What Valentina O’Hara was doing was simply natural, a part of her skill, a very significant part of her mission. If there were observers to report to the Apostles, even the most astute would see only a rider passing through. Never a dude, as she’d suggested, but an accomplished horsewoman riding for the sake of riding, feeling her oats.

No one would connect her with the camp, or Search and Rescue, for she’d left the basin by a difficult trail most would call impassable. Then, ranging widely on trailless terrain even more difficult, she’d come full circle miles from camp to begin the ride for Courtney McCallum’s life.

Rafe’s ride had been as circumventive. With Joe Collins’s help he’d made his rendezvous with Tyree, and with El Mirlo had begun the race to intersect Valentina O’Hara’s path. Tyree, who knew the country like an Indian scout, had reckoned correctly. The timing had been perfect. For now Rafe would hold back, keeping her barely in sight as she began the serious climb, weaving, dodging, picking a natural trail among red rocks.

If there were posted observers, they would see only a second rider, not as skilled, not as well mounted. A friend hoping to join her. Or better, lovers riding apart to a clandestine high desert tryst.

“Takes all kinds.” His lip curled in distaste. In another environment he might have been tempted, but not in this. This was Courtney’s life, and perhaps Jordana’s. Both held in the balance by the expertise of a cold and calculating woman.

Rate knew the type. There had been many such women in his life. Compassionless professionals to whom success was god. Who played hard and ruthlessly, as heartlessly as they worked. Users seeking success for the sake of power; and sex for the sake of gratification without the ritual of romance or entangling emotion. He’d finished with that breed, Valentina O’Hara’s sisterhood, long ago.

“But I’ll use you,” he promised as he watched her take the horse through an impossible path and disappear behind an outcropping of stone. “Whatever it takes for Courtney, I’ll do.”

Urging El Mirlo from camouflaging scrub, he guided the gelding over the path Black Jack had taken. There was no time to think, or project, or even for distaste as a difficult ride deteriorated. Together, they slipped and slid, in constant danger of falling. Climbing ever upward.

The trail was a winding channel through and over stone. A converging animal crossing, from den or burrow to watering hole and stream. Gradually, as it became as much maze as animal track, he lost sight of her. But for one who had hunted bayous and swamps, tracking the only shod quadruped to pass through a dry and dusty land in ages was not difficult. The stallion’s scramble was marked by trodden plants, dislodged pebbles and scarred stone. Rafe had only to find them.

Intent, concentration riveted, eyes and mind attuned to the discovery of the next mark of passage, Rafe drew to a startled halt as Black Jack and his rider stepped into his own path, blocking his way.

“That’s far enough, Mr. Courtenay.” Reins looped over the fingers of one hand, a forearm resting on her thigh, Valentina stared down the incline at him. “I’d be obliged if you’d be accommodating and go back now.”

“Sorry.” The empty apology tripped off his tongue out of habit. “I can’t oblige or accommodate in this. I wouldn’t if I could.”

“You can,” Valentina insisted. “We have a short window of time, every minute counts. You’ll slow me down, waste precious seconds. You have already.”

His mount stamped and snorted restlessly, eager to move again. Rafe calmed him with a touch. “It’s you who wastes time. Give it up, O’Hara, nothing will persuade me to turn back.”

Valentina’s eyes were cold beneath the brim of her Stetson. “I can do this, Mr. Courtenay. I’m going to do it. And I’ll do it better alone.”

“I expect you can, lady. I expect you will,” Rafe snapped, tiring of the debate. “But not alone. It’s my goddaughter Brown is holding hostage, and I’ll be there when you do what you must to free her.”

Valentina cut her losses. She had no time and even less desire to debate than he. “You refuse to be rational, don’t you?”

“Your idea of rationality, not mine.”

“If you can’t keep up, I won’t wait for you.” With a man the caliber of Rafe Courtenay, her threat would fall on deaf ears. But she had to try. “If you get into trouble, I’ll leave you behind without a backward glance.”

A muscle jerked in his cheek, his eyes narrowed. Deep in the brush a creature moved stealthily, eager that they move on. “I’ll keep up, O’Hara.” The guttural promise was short and grim. “And out of trouble.”

“If you’re counting on the horse to do the work for you, don’t. The Blackbird is an extraordinary animal.” She chose the English translation over Spanish. “So extraordinary Patrick McCallum should be held accountable for gelding him. Just remember, when the trail gets really rough, he’ll only be as good as his rider.”

Rafe nodded curtly. “Where you take Black Jack, I’ll take El Mirlo. That’s a promise.”

“Fine!” Valentina’s check on her temper slipped. “Do as

Wheeling Black Jack around in a tight turn, she leaned low as he responded to a touch of her heels, scrambling like a mountain goat up the ever steeper incline. She didn’t look back, and wouldn’t have in any case, but there was no need. The clash of El Mirlo’s hooves over stone sounded with the knell of a bell at her back.

Rafe Courtenay could ride, and the Spanish gelding was truly as extraordinary as the reputation he’d established. But there was much worse to come. Eventually, if the interloper kept up, out of necessity and the need for secrecy they would go to ground, covering the remainder of the route on foot.

But, though a difficult trail grew more demanding, that time had not come, and she put the fortunes of Rafe Courtenay from her mind. The terrain and Black Jack required all her thoughts, her complete concentration. Hunching lower over his great bowed neck, she clung to his mane, urging him on. The same quiet chant that calmed him in the corral, the same gentle touch that enticed him, guided him now. With his great heart he responded.

Where Valentina led, Rafe followed, and the remainder of the day’s ride was silent. Only the scrape and clatter of hooves and the creak of leather marked their passage.

Like a great ball of fire the sun burned in the sky, and the day grew hotter. Higher elevations brought no respite as dust churned and prickly brush clawed and clung. Sweat plastered her shut to shoulders and breasts, and trickled into her eyes. Valentina tugged her hat lower, blinked away the sting of salt, and rode harder.

A little girl waited.

Sparing a glance from his own tribulations, Rafe saw her hardship and her dismissal. “One tough lady,” he reminded himself when no reminder was needed. “With a heart as tough.”

The comment was the last he would make in the hours to come. All his energies were expended in keeping his mount on the hillside and himself in the saddle. Engrossed in his battle, he was hardly aware when they topped a rise and the land flattened into a plateau. As suddenly, they were surrounded by a lush stand of pine. Tall sentinels in thick, scattered ranks, keeping an eternal watch.

Through a winding avenue encompassed by uncanny silence, weary riders and wearier mounts trod over shorn grass. A fragrant carpet, grazing for deer and range cattle. Beyond the stand, one beginning as abruptly as the other ended, lay a small tract of land within a walled enclosure. A sheltered, picturesque expanse, as welcoming as the land before was inhospitable. As cloistered as it had been naked. As temperate as the trail was brutal.

Clustered along a stream meandering lazily through this sky-high canyon were small groves of oak and maple, followed by mahogany and aspen. Each offering a welcome shield from the thrust of the sun. Where the stream was quietest and the shade deepest, Valentina dismounted. Kneeling on a stone, shoulder to shoulder with Black Jack, she drank the clear, sparkling water.

Dismounting with the stiffness of grueling hours in the saddle, Rafe followed suit, grateful for the respite.

As she led her reluctant mount from the stream, Valentina was pleased when he did the same. Taking care, as she had, that his horse not not drink too much, too quickly.

“We’ll camp here for the night.” With the speed of long habit, she unbuckled the cinch, lifting saddle and blanket from Black Jack.

“There’s daylight left. Plenty of it,” Rafe interjected. “We could make a number of miles before dark.”

“There is, and we could.” The saddle lay at the base of a stone. She flung the blanket over another to dry. “But this is it for the day.”

Rafe’s first inclination was to dispute the decision. But like her or not, he’d begun to respect Valentina O’Hara. The trail was a great leveler, a great teacher, and following in her path he’d learned every move had purpose. Every decision had been a judgment call. And each a sound one.

As she gathered grass to scrub the sweat from the stallion’s back, he nodded abruptly. “All right.”

Valentina stopped in mid-stroke, surprise showing through her guarded expression. “All right? You’re agreeing, just like that?”

“Just like that.” Rafe dispatched El Mirlo’s saddle with an expertise rivaling her own. Lifting the horse’s hooves he inspected for lodged pebbles or stone bruises. Then, running his hand from withers to hock, he checked for sprains or scrapes before gathering grass himself.

Val watched him in a mingling of approval and suspicion. “No argument?”

“No.”

“No questions?”

“No questions.” Rafe halted, regarding her thoughtfully before continuing his ministrations to El Mirlo. “I expect you’ll tell me your reasons for stopping,” he murmured almost silently. “In your own good time.”

Valentina had the grace to feel ashamed. Certainly, she didn’t want him here, but his reasons for coming were compelling. And, if she was honest, she had to admit she would have done the same. He was half out of his mind with worry for the little girl and his friends, and she was heckling him.

The urge to apologize nagged at her. But apologies to this man came harder than most, so she simply sidestepped the issue by turning from him. She was still busying herself with the care of the stallion when he walked away.

“Do we risk a fire?” Rafe tossed down an armful of wood gathered as he returned from tethering his mount in the shade of an aspen.

In the waning afternoon the temperature hovered between hot and hot as hell, but nightfall would bring drastic change. At this altitude and season they would be m no danger of freezing, but they would pass an uncomfortable night denied the warmth of fire.

Driving a needle through a length of leather, Valentina finished the minor repair of a bridle before she replied. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t, and every reason we should.”

Succinct, implicit, and he understood. “You still think we’re being watched, and a cold camp would be suspicious?”

“My gut feeling is there’s no one out there. From what we learned of the Apostles, its clear they’re smug and arrogant. The type who believe they’re infallible by divine right and, by that right, destined to strike fear in the influential and the mighty.”

“Paralyzing fear.”

“Exactly. And because it wouldn’t occur to them that Patrick McCallum would dare go against their demands and conditions, we have a certain degree of liberty.”

“For a while, until we’re closer to the cabin,” Rafe interpreted. “If you’re guessing right.”

“If. There’s always one.” Laying the bridle aside, she returned the needle to a small kit and snapped it shut. “In any case, precaution is always sensible. So, to avoid suspicion, we act natural, do as casual wanderers of the desert would.”

“Make camp for the night, build a fire, cook a meal,” he added to the list.

“A quick bath in the stream.” She was rising from the stone that served as her seat. “Before the temperature drops.”

“I’ll gather more wood and start the fire,” Rafe volunteered. “When you’ve finished, I’ll take a dip, as well.”

“Right.” A glance at the sky told Valentina they hadn’t long before the sun slipped behind a mountain and the temperature slide began. Stepping to her saddlebags, she took out a towel and soap and a change of clothes. “I won’t be long.” Hesitating, she added, “Leave the meal to me. If you insist that we travel together, we might as well be fair in the division of chores.”

“Sure.” With his agreement Rafe let the matter drop.

He was gathering wood from a deadfall, keeping a cautious eye for rattlesnakes, when she crossed the clearing to the edge of the stream. There was a startled instant when he wondered if she planned to bathe within view. As she followed the curve of the tumbling stream until she was beyond his sight, he was uncertain if he was pleased or disappointed. Refusing to dwell on this strange reaction to a woman who was everything he found distasteful, he let the quest for fuel take him in an opposite direction.

Fire blazed in a stone lined pit, and coffee steamed over a small iron grill, when she reappeared.

“Better?” With casual nonchalance he fed another broken limb to the flames.

“Much.” Crouching by the fire across from him, she let its heat dry her hair. “There’s a small pool beyond the first bend. Not deep or wide enough for a swim, but perfect for a bath. A cold one.” The warning was a peace offering as she gratefully accepted a cup of coffee. “Much colder than I expected.”

“The stream must come straight out of the mountain, then moves too quickly through the canyon to catch the heat of the day.” Heavy with resin, the last limb he tossed into the pit sent up a shower of sparks as it smoldered and seethed before erupting into flames.

Valentina leaned against a boulder, folding her hands about the cup. A small smile played over her lips. “Having second thoughts?”

“Not about the bath.”

He rose from his place as she regarded him steadily over the rim of the tin cup. “About me, then? About whether or not I can do what Simon and Patrick McCallum want from me?”

“About whether anyone can do what Simon expects and Patrick needs.” Tossing the last of his coffee onto the fire, Rafe watched it dance and sizzle and rise in steam, as the cup fell from lax fingers. His eyes were dark and shadowed when his gaze met hers. “Can anyone save Courtney?”

Saying no more, he left the fire. While he gathered clothing and supplies for his bath, she saw the weight of the burden he carried. If she failed, he would see it as his failure, as well. If he returned to his friend empty handed, without the child who had been given to him at birth to protect, it could destroy him.

Her concern for his intrusion remained constant, her need to work alone never lessened, but anger vanished. She wanted to save this child. Dear God! She wanted to save them all. As she’d wanted to save the one she’d failed. Blinking back sudden pain, she turned her gaze to the fire, surrendering to damning memories of fateful hesitation and loss.

“Not this time.” She roused and muttered only to herself. “Not again.”

Desperate words drifted away, lost in the crackle of fire. The past became the present, and seconds hours as she sat, held captive by the flames, yet hardly seeing them. She wasn’t sure what drew her from her mesmerized distraction. Perhaps it was a sound, or a thought. Or a need.

“Rafe.”

He stopped at the water’s edge, but didn’t face her.

“If there’s any way, any at all, I’ll give back Jordana and Patrick’s little girl.” But first I’ll give her to you. A promise made, but left unspoken. “I’ll do my best, I give you my word.”

“If!” The word was a snarl, softly savage. “As you said, there’s always the qualification. Every bet hedged. Always the little doubt, the hesitation.”

Valentina’s face crumpled, her eyes grew somber. She’d wanted to give him some small measure of hope, instead she’d intensified his wariness and mistrust. Regret turned her voice distant. “Yes.” Her tone grew colder, more aloof, as she dealt with her failure. “Always.”

Drawn by something in her tone, something beneath the coldness, Rafe turned to look at her, seeking to understand the sound of unresolved pain. But her attention had returned to the fire, her head down, her face half-hidden by the gleaming curtain of her hair. The sky at her back etched the rim of the canyon in vermilion. A color so vivid the flames she found mesmerizing paled and faded, reminding that darkness followed light. Then would come the cold.

The sun rode the rim, sending shafts of light glancing over stone. The stream splashed and burbled, beckoning in a misty rainbow. And Valentina O’Hara stared into the fire.

He watched her, so still, so silent, wondering, as before, how she’d come to be one of Simon’s Marauders. Vowing, once more, that one day he would know, he followed the path that beckoned.

Their meal was finished. Plates and pans had been scrubbed with sand, rinsed in the stream and put away. Only the coffeepot steamed over the fire, a fragrant vapor blending with the lingering scent of bacon and beans. Range fare, the cowboy’s lot. Quick, no-nonsense, plentiful and filling.

The fire burned down, sending little spurts of flame flicking from white-hot embers. Rafe would add more wood later. Large, green logs to smolder, then burn, then smolder again through the night.

Beyond the circle of their camp the canyon was silent. Its stillness broken only now and again by the stealthy scuttle of nocturnal creatures. A summer moon sailed the sky. A perfect golden globe with a great rough face seeming so near one need only lift a hand to touch it. Leaves of the aspen shivered and quaked in the riffling breeze. Their green and gold dress, a harbinger of autumn, made more golden by the light of the moon.

A log crumbled into ash. A display of sparks and flame painted fleeting silhouettes and shadows over the tumble of stones marking the boundary of their camp. In that transient moment, Valentina’s image was sketched in red rock, somber and still. As silent as the night.

Like the night, her silence was brooding, not sullen. Pensive, not reproving. She had accepted him as another of the inescapable burdens of this brief measure of her life. As one who traversed this part of the world must accept the threat of rock slide, or rattlesnake, and cactus spine. And in the pensive brooding lurked the curious air of sadness he’d sensed beneath the arrogant assurance.

With his gloved hand, he lifted the pot from the grill, judging from the heft of it that only one cup remained. One thick, thoroughly boiled, concentrated cup. Holding the pot poised over the fire, he spoke softly. “More?”

Responding vaguely, she looked at him through eyes blinded by her thoughts, not by fire.