his head. “If I was guessing, I’d say I’ve been here since about midnight.”
“Did you see anyone pass?”
Lewt shook his head. “Who you looking for?”
“A man traveling with a child almost grown. He’ll be limping, but he’s a dead man if we catch him. He kidnapped the child. One man who thought he saw them ride away said he had two, maybe three men with him.”
Lewt shook his head. “Nobody like that has passed by here.”
Lewt was an expert at reading people, and he could tell the leader didn’t believe him but hadn’t quite found the lie in his story.
“Why don’t you saddle up, Gambler, and ride along with us for a while? We’re headed in the same direction.”
“Thanks for the offer, but . . .”
The leader smiled and added, “I insist.”
Lewt had no choice. If he made too much fuss, it would make the leader even more suspicious. Maybe if he rode along he could draw the group away from the others. So, much as he hated the odds, he saddled up and went along.
If he’d had any sense, he would have been worried or at the very least plotting his escape, but all Lewt could think about was that he wished he’d seen Em one more time before he left. He wanted to see those Texas blue eyes looking at him, and somehow that seemed to matter as much as his life at the moment.
CHAPTER 34
EM WATCHED FROM THE RIDGE AS LEWT JOINED THE band of guards they’d been running from. She wasn’t close enough to hear what was being said, but she could tell by Lewt’s slow movements that he wasn’t happy about going with the outlaws. There were no guns pointed at him, which was a good sign.
When the men surrounded him, she knew he was, at the very least, an unwilling guest of the outlaws.
“What do we do?” she whispered to Duncan a few feet away.
“Nothing,” Duck answered, as he swore under his breath. “It would take all four of us to even have a chance in a fight, and that would mean leaving the cooks and Anna without anyone to protect them. Whatever happens to Lewt, he’s alone from here on out.”
Em didn’t like the plan at all, but she could see Duncan’s point. They crawled down off the ledge they’d been watching from and rode back to the gully, where Sumner and Wyatt waited with the others.
For a few minutes she listened to the men talk, guessing how much trouble Lewt was in, wondering what they could do about it.
Finally, she could stand it no longer. “We have to do something,” she said.
Sumner met her gaze and nodded, but Duncan kept his head low. “I’ve known Lewt Paterson for years. He grew up in saloons. If anyone can handle those men, he can. I’ve seen him, unarmed, talk his way out of being shot. I say we give him a few days. He knows where we’re heading. He’ll catch up with us in Austin.”
All the other men seemed to agree with Duncan, but Em couldn’t see the logic. Lewt had risked his life to save them, and now they weren’t going to do a thing.
“You’re all cowards.” She fought down a scream. “I’m going after him, and I swear I’ll shoot any one of you who tries to stop me.”
To her surprise, Duck smiled, then Sumner, and finally Wyatt.
“Have you three lost your minds?” she asked, feeling sick that they might call her bluff.
“No, Em, we just wanted to see how much this gambler meant to you. Sumner told me, but I didn’t believe you could care for any man as much as you do a horse. It appears I was wrong.”
“Nonsense,” she argued. “I just know he’s your friend.”
“He’s more than that to you,” Duncan answered directly.
“Maybe he is, but don’t tell him. I’d rather he be the last to know.”
Wyatt laughed. “That right there is why I never considered marrying. There is no logic to women. Seems to me if you care for him, Miss Em, you should tell him and ease him out of his misery.”
“That’s not the way it works,” Sumner said. “First a woman keeps a man guessing until he puts a ring on her finger, and then she goes to work at driving him slowly mad. I’ve rarely seen a man married over ten years who wasn’t completely insane. Once a woman gets them mixed up, she just leads them around and points to what she wants