The Temptress Read online

  Chris looked at the dark woman for a long moment. “Free us so we can identify Dysan as a kidnapper? So we can go to a federal marshal and tell who held us captive? No, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Dysan may get the ransom, but he can’t risk freeing us to tell anyone who took us.” She paused a moment, her eyes locked with Pilar’s. “I think he’ll kill us as soon as he receives the money from my father. He has to keep us alive until then in case my father demands proof that I’m alive.”

  Pilar went back to sit on the bed. “So how long do you think we have?”

  “My father will move heaven and earth to get however much money Dysan demands and…” She paused a moment since tears were coming to her eyes. Maybe she’d never see her father again, maybe she’d never see anything again except the inside of this room. “He’ll get the money here as fast as horse and rider can travel. If Dysan sent a ransom note south while we were being taken north, I figure we have about two days before the money’s here.”

  “Two days?” Pilar gasped then her head came up. “So that means that Tynan could be here tonight.”

  “We can’t risk it,” Chris said, putting her hand on Pilar’s. “Do you want to go with me or wait here and hope I make it back with help?”

  “I want us both to remain here,” Pilar said, then sighed. “All right, I’ll stay here. Maybe I can hide the fact that you’re gone for a while.”

  “If Dysan finds out that I’m gone, tell him that you’re Christiana Mathison, then he’ll want to keep you safe until my father gets the money to him. Now, will you help me get these sheets torn and tied?”

  “If I must,” Pilar said and found, to her consternation, that her hands were shaking. “I’ll help if I must.”

  • • •

  Tynan put his hand up to halt Asher as they entered the little town of Sequona. “I want you to go in first. Go to that big saloon there, about halfway down the street, and take a corner table. Do nothing but order a beer and wait for me. Don’t talk to a single person, you understand?”

  “Don’t you worry about me, I can handle myself.”

  “Take your gun out, put it under your hat and wait. I want you ready when the shooting starts.”

  “Shooting?” Asher whispered. “How can you be sure there’ll be any shooting?”

  “How can you be as old as you are and not be sure? You ready?”

  Asher just nodded as he reined his horse forward, down the long, dusty street and stopped in front of the saloon. As he entered, a body came flying out, barely missing him and landing in the street.

  “And stay out!” said a man wearing an apron, his big arms flexed, the muscles outstanding.

  Asher waited until the entrance was clear, then went inside. He had to stand at the bar for a moment until the back table had cleared of a group of men playing poker, then he took his beer and sat down. As inconspicuously as he could, he removed his gun from his holster and placed it on the table, hidden under his hat.

  He was leaning back in his chair, his eyes half closed when Tynan walked in—and immediately he could feel several eyes turn toward the man. So, Ash thought, Ty was right and there were people waiting for them.

  Tynan ordered a double whiskey, and, as he was drinking it, a woman sidled up to him, putting her arm about his waist and running her hand over his back.

  “How about buyin’ a lady a drink?” she said.

  Asher straightened his chair, trying to look as if he were interested in his beer, but he was actually trying to watch the men around him. There was one fat, dirty cowboy to his right whose hand was inching toward his gun belt. Get out of the way, lady, he thought with all of his might.

  Tynan moved away from the woman just a bit. “Honey, I’d like to share more than a drink with you. You think that could be arranged?”

  The woman’s smile made her eyes disappear.

  “Why don’t you go on upstairs and wait for me? I need to wet my throat a little bit and I’ll be right up.”

  The woman, in her dirty red-and-black dress, gave a look of triumph to the few other women in the saloon then started up the stairs. When she was halfway up, Ty turned to the bartender and said loudly, “What I really want is some information. You know the whereabouts of Beynard Dysan?”

  There was a split second pause before the first gun was fired. Tynan, obviously watching the room in the mirror over the bar, spun on his heel, crouched low and fired into the belly of the fat cowboy across from Asher. Jumping up, Ash brought his gun up and shot another man on the balcony overlooking the main room of the saloon. As a bullet whizzed inches past his ear, Ash fell to the floor, knocked the round table over and got behind it.

  As he was firing, he tried to see where Tynan was so he could protect him. Ty was backing toward an outside door, dodging bullets as he went.

  Just as Ty was about to reach the door, Asher saw a man’s head in a window to Ty’s left. Standing, Asher bellowed, “Tynan!”

  Ty turned and fired, the man at the window fell back, and Ty left the saloon just as Asher felt a searing pain in his leg before he could again reach the safety of the table.

  Now Asher was alone in the saloon, all guns blazing at him, pinned down behind a little round table, the front door several feet away. He sat down to reload, watching the blood seep from his wounded leg, when he heard the softer more deadly sound of rifle fire in the saloon.

  Looking around the table, he saw Tynan standing in the doorway, a rifle at his shoulder. “The next one that moves gets it. Get over here, Prescott,” he commanded.

  As Asher moved from the table, Tynan shot at a man in the corner and a gun dropped from his hand.

  “I’m looking for Beynard Dysan and I want to know where he is. Watch my back,” he said under his breath to Asher.

  There were only four men left in the saloon now—and five bodies. The others who had been there had either run when the shooting started or were dead now.

  “You!” Ty said to a tall man with a scar over his eye. “You’ll be the first. I’ll take a few inches off your left foot in about two seconds if you don’t tell me what I want to know. Where is Dysan’s place?”

  Tynan put the rifle deeper into his shoulder.

  “He has a big place ten miles due north of here,” the man said. “But it’s guarded and no man that he don’t want in there can get in.”

  “That’s my problem.” Ty began to back up, Asher in front of him watching the crowd that was gathering in the street. Their saddled horses were waiting.

  “Ride like you never rode before,” Tynan called to Asher as they made their way north out of town.

  Asher followed Ty as they thundered down the road and headed for the forest. For a while, Asher thought Ty knew where he was going but as they left the road and went into the trees he saw Ty stop several times and look around him. “You don’t know this country, do you?” Ash asked.

  “If I did, I’d have known where Dysan lived. Get down, I think this is it.”

  “What’s it? Where are we?”

  “Someone’s to meet us here.”

  “Who?” Ash asked but received no answer as Ty dismounted, removing his saddle bags from his horse. Wincing with pain, Asher dismounted also.

  “Let me look at that leg,” Ty said as Ash lowered himself to the ground. After a rough, but thorough examination, Ty took a bottle of whiskey from his saddle bag. “This’ll sting but it’ll kill any lead poisoning. It’s not a bad place, more a burn than a real bullet wound. You’ll be fine in no time, even if you are a little sore.”

  Ash nearly screamed when Ty poured the whiskey on the raw, open cut, but he managed to control himself.

  “First gunshot wound?” Ty asked, amused.

  “The first this week,” Ash answered as he tried to get his breath.

  An hour later, both men were stretched beneath trees, when Ash heard a sound coming from behind Tynan. He looked at Ty but there was warning in Ty’s eyes, telling Ash to be quiet. Pretending to be asleep, Ash watche