the lighted window. When he threw open the door, she breathed a sigh of relief and started down the alley after them. The posse was already forming, and she refused to be left standing here alone on the street.
She had forgotten about the side door of the hotel. As she hurried down the alley, the door opened and a dark figure stepped out. Evie screamed in surprise, but it wasn't a loud scream, not more than a squeak after the man's gloved hand closed over her mouth. The torch fell to the ground.
Chapter 25
Daniel and Carmen looked up in surprise as both the front and back doors simultaneously burst open. They were huddled together on the pallet that served as Daniel's couch in the front room, their heads bent over a book. They jumped apart with guilty looks when Ben and Tyler rushed into the room.
Tyler wiped the back of his forehead with his sleeve and regarded the two with amusement. "Lord, when I didn't see anyone in here, I thought we were all in trouble. First thing tomorrow, I'm buying you proper furniture. That way I'll at least be able to see what you're up to from the window."
Daniel grimaced and regarded the pulled guns with interest. "Were you planning on shooting us if we were up to no good?"
Ben laughed and shouldered his rifle while Tyler tucked away his gun. "No, but your sister might. We'd better go round her up."
Tyler started for the door. "Are all the others in their beds?"
Carmen nodded. "Manuel just came in and went straight to bed. The others are asleep."
A cry echoed down the alley, a slight cry, but magnified in Tyler's imagination. He started, and hand on his gun, threw open the door. The torch at the end of the alley was gone.
His curse sent Ben running after him. Daniel grabbed for his walking stick and struggled to his feet with Carmen's assistance. Behind them, Manuel crept into the front room, still fully dressed.
Evie wasn't where he'd left her. Tyler knew she wasn't there. He cursed every word he knew and some he hadn't known he knew as he stumbled over the torch in the alley. He grabbed it and held it like a cudgel as he glanced around.
The darkness was against him, but the light scrap of material that was Evie's hat stood out in the pitch-black of night. He and Ben both saw it at the same time, and Ben grabbed for the door above it. Silently, he swung it open and slipped in, gesturing at Tyler to go around.
If Evie was inside that door, Tyler wanted to be there, and he cursed Ben for taking the part of older brother as usual. The damned man had never known how to be a servant. Still cursing, Tyler ran to the front of the hotel and entered through the lobby.
Phil was at the front desk counting the night's receipts. He glanced up with disinterest at Tyler's entrance, then jumped when Tyler slammed the torch across the desk.
"Who's come through here in the last five minutes?"
Phil stared at him as if he were crazed. Nervously, he shrugged. "Just Hale going up to talk to a client. Tom from the livery was here a bit ago. There's a drummer out of Houston came in drunk as a skunk." Realization suddenly dawned. "If you're looking for those jailbreakers, they didn't come through here. The posse's already tracking them."
The side door apparently went up the back steps. Phil couldn't see it from the lobby. Tyler glanced toward the wide staircase leading to the upper rooms. All evidence of the flood had been carefully polished away but boards that had been too warped to repair had recently been replaced. The new treads were a different color. There was an outline of mud on one of the lighter treads. Mud, in a town as dry as dust. He started for the stairs.
A crash and a thud echoed from overhead, and Tyler took the stairs two at a time, with Phil following close behind.
Ben was already there, ramming the door with his shoulder. Tyler could hear Evie's irate screams as she ranted at someone, but she didn't sound hurt. He almost grinned as the words "you demented son of a female dog" floated from the room. And then the door abruptly opened before Ben could hit it, and he fell through, sprawling at Evie's feet.
Choking on laughter, Tyler stepped over his friend's long form, blocking Evie from