Once Upon a Mail Order Bride - Linda Broday Page 0,119

she would die. The wife and equal partner of Ridge Steele.

Thirty-Four

The sun’s first rays glistened on a wagon up ahead, the horses still hitched to it. Gun drawn, Ridge raced into the clearing, his glance collecting the dying fire, a half-empty box of supplies, and a decaying shack that someone had once called a home.

Then his gaze fastened on something else that sent horrifying alarm whirling inside his head. He dismounted hoping, praying that his eyes were playing tricks on him.

A crude cross rested on the ground. Lengths of rope. A clump of golden hair. Blood.

He picked up the hair and tested the satiny texture between his thumb and forefinger, then held it to his lips. Roses. Addie.

A low cry rose in his heart, and Ridge sank to his knees. He was too late. He’d arrived too late to save his beloved Addie.

Slowly, his thoughts settled enough to allow logic. If she was dead, where was her body? There should at least be a grave, even a shallow one. Making sure he hadn’t overlooked loose dirt, he took a long moment to listen to what the land, the birds, were telling him.

Evil, dark and deadly, permeated the air and the soil. But not death itself.

Strange that no one was around. A noise alerted him. Someone or something was scurrying through the brush. From the way they were moving, a person, not an animal. Maybe they had Addie. He wanted to call out to her, but he had to remain silent and it cost him dearly.

His heart hammered in his chest and sweat dotted his forehead.

Gripping his Colt, he kept low and rushed toward the sound as quickly and quietly as he could. He knew this place, a watering hole fed by a stream. He’d been here before.

Loud voices reached him. A woman’s voice—and a man’s. Angry, threatening yells. Curses.

Breathing hard, Ridge burst through a ring of saplings that rimmed one side of the pool, his eyes on a thin woman standing on the bank. She was battered and bruised; her straggly hair and slovenly appearance made her look like a vagabond of some sort.

“Did I give you permission to leave the campfire? Get the hell back to the wagon!” thundered a man in the middle of the water. “You know the rules!”

What was the shouter doing? Ridge strained to look and finally realized he was holding someone under the water. He was drowning someone.

It had to be Addie! Gripping his Colt, he stepped into the water. No one noticed him.

Before he could go deeper, the woman raised a rifle that had been hidden by the fabric of her skirt. “Rules be damned! God knows I’ve suffered long enough and remained silent while you hurt my children. Then that innocent girl and her child…that was the end of you and me.”

Was that Addie’s mother? It seemed so.

Ridge stared, frozen as the woman put the man in her sights. Fear strangled him. She could miss and hit Addie. “No! Wait!” Ridge ran toward her, waving his arms.

“I hate you with every bone in my body, Ezekiel Jancy! Say hello to the devil! If he’ll even have you” With those words, she pulled the trigger.

Ridge watched in horror as Ezekiel’s head exploded. Slinging his Colt aside, Ridge dove into the water and took long, sweeping strokes toward the center of the pond. Addie!

She hadn’t floated to the top. She should have if she was alive.

No! She couldn’t be dead.

He dove deep but the murky water blinded him. Desperate, he felt his way through the muck, searching for any sign of Addie. His lungs hurt with the need to fill them and he finally had to rise to the surface to gulp in more air before going back down. She hadn’t given up on him, and he would never give up on her.

Frantic fear gripped him. She’d been down so long—who knew how long before he’d even arrived on the scene. He’d seen no thrashing or movement of any kind, but Ridge refused to listen to reason.

She might still be alive—if he could only find her.

It seemed like an eternity had passed by the time his fingers brushed fabric on the bottom of the pond. With a firm arm around her, he pulled her up and swam for shore.

“I have her.” Mrs. Jancy helped get Addie onto the bank where Ridge untied her hands. The sight of the deep lacerations around both her wrists sickened him. Her white face terrified him, froth thick around