Chapter 7

Matthew and Sully rode through the main street of the town, trying to ignore the staring faces of the people surrounding them. Wolf trotted beside them, never venturing far from Sully. Matthew couldn't believe how much the small town they were riding through resembled Colorado Springs. Sure, there were different people and some different stores, but many of the attributes were the same.

"What do ya wanna do?" Matthew asked Sully quietly so as not to have everyone overhear.

"Let's stop at the saloon. Always people gossipin' in there. Maybe they've seen Michaela. Don't wanna be too conspicuous, though. Can't let 'em know that we're lookin' for her."

Matthew nodded. They neared the saloon and dismounted their horses. Sully instructed wolf to say. They walked to the entrance and pushed the doors open.

The saloon was relatively empty but all of the faces immediately turned to Matthew and Sully. The bartender, whom Sully thought was probably the owner, whispered to one of the saloon girls beside him and she walked over to them.

"You boys new in town?" She asked them.

"Just passin' through," Sully answered.

"Looks like y'all could use a drink," she placed her arm on Sully's shoulder, "or a good time."

"No thank you, ma'am. Just lookin' for a place to sit down for a while."

The woman moved over to Matthew. "How 'bout you, fella?"

Matthew shook his head and shrugged the woman off. They both made their way made their way to an empty table and sat. The bartender immediately sat beside them.

"Where ya from?"

"California," Sully answered.

"California? Where ya headed?"

"Out East," Sully replied.

The bartender pointed to Matthew. "He talk?"

"Only if there's somethin' worth talkin' about," Matthew responded.

The bartender smiled. "Always respected a man who's careful with his words," he commented. "What are y'all gonna do in the East?"

"Got family there. Gonna surprise 'em," Sully lied.

"Y'all brothers?"

"Cousins," Sully answered, hastily, realizing that he and Matthew looked nothing like each other to pass as brothers and that Matthew was too old for people to believe that he was Sully's son.

"What do y'all do?" The bartender probed.

"I'm a cattle rancher," Matthew answered.

Sully suddenly came up with an idea, realizing that Matthew's background in cattle ranching might come in more handy than he had realized.

"Ya know of any cattle ranchers 'round here who are lookin' for a hand?" Sully asked.

"Y'all lookin' for a job?"

"Might be," Sully answered. "Depends on who's offerin' it an how much they're payin'."

"Thought ya'll were just passin' through."

"Pretty tough to make it all the way to the East without no money, ain't it?" Sully retorted.

"I know someone who's got a ranch lookin' for some help," a man from across the saloon said. Both Matthew and Sully looked to the man. He wore his hat low, covering his eyes. Sully noticed that the man didn't have a drink in front of him.

"Would ya take us to him?" Sully questioned.

"Let's go," the man said.

Sully stood and began following the man. Matthew followed them reluctantly, wondering what Sully was doing. He knew that they really weren't looking for a job and that they might be able to find out more information if they stayed at the saloon. The man hopped onto his horse and silence. Matthew and Sully did the same. They followed him, without quite knowing where they were going. As soon as they had made it out of town, the man stopped in the middle of the trail.

"You ain't here to take a job ranchin' cattle," the man said.

"We ain't lookin' for no trouble, mister," Sully warned the man, hoping that he was not wrong about his instincts.

"No, but you are here lookin' for somethin' else. A woman perhaps? With long, brown hair?"

"Michaela," Sully whispered.

"You seen her?" Matthew asked.

"I seen her," the man replied.

"Where is she?" Sully questioned, nearly yelling. "Was she hurt? Is she with that man, Warren Clark? Did you…"

"Woah…slow down," the man said. "Don't know no man by the name of Warren Clark. I think ya must be talkin' about Samuel Warren."

"He told me his name was Warren Clark," Sully responded.

"What do ya know about him?" Matthew inquired.

"Know he takes women ta be his wives and ta work on his farm."

"His wife?" Matthew asked.

"How do ya know this?" Sully wondered.

"Happened to my sister," the man answered. "After Warren's ma died, he went crazy. Didn't have no one to help him on the farm and he almost lost everythin'. Couldn't afford to hire no one so he figured the best thing to do would be ta get married and have his wife help 'em. Problem is, the wife he chose was a real sick lady…Rebecca was her name. Didn't last too long, the poor thing. He got real mad after that and married some other poor lady who came ta town. Within weeks, she was dead, too. Everyone thought it was just 'cause she got some disease or somethin'. No one much cared for the lady…she just happened to be passin' through so no one asked any questions. Then, Warren met my sister and, even though I forbid her to marry him, she did. She died just last week. He done buried her out there on his property 'fore anyone knew."

"How'd she die?" Matthew asked.

The man shook his head. "Don't' know. Never even visited her grave. Man won't let no one on his property. He'll shoot ya if ya take one step on his land. That man's crazy, 'cept when it comes to cattle. But I know my sister. She didn't have a weak heart like his first wife. He done killed her."

"You think he murdered her?" Matthew questioned.

"He didn't shoot her or nothing like that but he beat her and he starved her. I saw the markin's on her body once when I paid 'em a visit. I only saw her from a distance and she was so thin and frail but he ran me off with that rifle of his."

"Why don't the town do somethin' about him?" Matthew inquired.

"Town figures that once a man gets married to a woman, it's up to him to take care of her. Town won't interfere with no one who's married. I've done begged 'em and begged 'em but they won't do nothin'."

"He took Michaela?" Sully questioned, his mind and his heart churning. He couldn't imagine Michaela with that man, especially married to him. She wondered if she had eaten anything since their picnic or if he had beat her. Just thinking about it brought tears to his eyes.

"Suppose when he ran outta women in this town to marry, he went off lookin' for others. Never figured he'd go this crazy. Your woman…was she wearin' a blue dress?" Sully nodded. "That was her, then. She your wife?"

"My fiancé," Sully answered. Sully could feel his heart breaking. "Where's his property?" Anger began to build inside of him.

"I told ya, ya can't just go onto that man's property."

"I don't care. I gotta find her," Sully remarked, desperately. "If ya say she's helpin' him in the fields then she's gotta be outside and I'll just go find her and bring her back."

"He'll keep her close to the house, under his eye. Ya can't underestimate this man. He may be crazy but he's smart."

"Where does he live?" Sully demanded.

"It ain't that easy…"

"Where does he live?" Sully asked again, raising his voice.

"Wait a minute, Sully," Matthew interjected. "This Warren guy is awfully smart. He gave you that poison or…or whatever it was. He ain't playin' around, Sully. And we gotta think about Brian and Colleen at home. If somethin' happens to us…"

Sully knew that Matthew was right but he couldn't help feeling that, if Michaela were so close, he had to find her.

"What are we gonna do, then?" Sully asked.

"We gotta spy on 'em. Figure out the best time to go in an' get her. If we just waltz in there, he'll kill us on the spot for sure. We gotta hide the horses and go in on foot or he'll catch us. We'll take 'em to my place. Don't look like you fellas got guns, neither. Gotta get us some of those."

"I don't carry a gun," Sully told him.

"Then maybe it's time you started." The man kicked his heels and headed down the trail once more.

"Wait!" Sully yelled. The man stopped. "We don't even know your name."

"Robert," the man answered. "And you?"

"Sully," Sully replied.

"Matthew," Matthew said.

"Well, Sully, Matthew, hope this won't be the last time we get to share each other's company," Robert said before kicking off and racing down the road.

Michaela stood up, massaging her lower back. She never knew that working in the fields could be so tiring or painful. She wiped the sweat from her brow, surprised that she was sweating at all since the warm streak had turned into typical February weather. The back of her hand smeared dirt across her forehead. She hadn't bathed or had the chance to even wash her hands since she arrived. Warren had entered her room before the sun had come up and yanked her to her feet by her hair. He gave her a cup of water and a piece of bread, which did almost nothing to quiet her hungry stomach, and then threw her outside. He had chained her right leg to a chain that ran for nearly twenty yards. It was long enough for her to do work but nowhere near long enough for her to get some kind of help.

"Ain't no stoppin'! Warren yelled as he saw Michaela standing among the tall grass. She immediately bent over before he had the chance to strike her and began weeding the area as she had been instructed. Warren had told her that eventually she would be helping him with the cattle but before he could trust her with that, she had to start weeding the grass near the house so that he could start the farming that had been neglected since his mother had passed.

Warren walked away, leaving her once again, alone. She wondered if there were people out there looking for her, if Sully was out there looking for her. She couldn't help but wonder if her children were scared or if they even know that she had disappeared at all. Michaela wasn't sure how long she would be able to last in such a place without adequate food. Even in just a day, she could feel the fabric around her waste not fitting as tightly as it once did. She stared down at her blistered hands and continued her weeding.

"Ya see anythin'?" Matthew asked. He and Sully were sitting behind two large boulders on the edge of the property that Robert told them belonged to Warren. Robert had left them to go to the other side of the property but he told them to wait for him where they were. Sully did as told but was not happy about it. Knowing that Michaela was just inside the borders of the man's property, possibly hurt or hungry, was killing him inside. The only thing stopping him from entering the man's property was not the fact that he could have been shot but that he would be putting Matthew's life in danger, as well.

"No," Sully answered.

"Ya think she's really in there somewhere?" Sully didn't respond. "I was thinkin'…if this man, Robert's got somethin' against the man who lives here, what's to say he's not just sayin' that Dr. Mike's there so that we'll help him get even? I mean, how do we even know that this is Warren's property?"

"We don't."

"So we're just supposed to trust a man that we don't know? Look what happened last time ya did that."

As soon as Matthew said it, he regretted it. He knew that Dr. Mike always looked for the best in people and trusted most anyone. There was no way that either she or Sully could have known that Warren would have kidnapped Michaela. Matthew knew that Sully knew that, as well, but Matthew also knew that it didn't ease Sully's mind. He blamed himself for what happened. Matthew could only think that if it had been Sully and not him, he would blame himself, too.

"I didn't mean that," Matthew corrected.

"It's alright, Matthew," Sully assured him, knowing that he meant no harm. "I don't know that Michaela's in there but I know that I'm not goin' anywhere until I find out for sure if she's there or not."

"What do you wanna do?" Matthew asked, fingering the gun that he had attached to his hip. Sully didn't know that Matthew had brought the gun on their trip but he had packed it just in case. When they arrived at Robert's homestead to hide the horses, Matthew showed them both that he was not unarmed. Although Matthew knew that Sully disapproved of guns, he also knew that it could come in handy.

"I'm gonna get closer," Sully decided.

"And if Warren sees ya?"

"Then you run as fast as ya can. You go back to Colorado Springs and ya get help."

Matthew nodded. He placed his hand on Sully's shoulder and Sully began to bolt from behind the rock.

"Sully!" Matthew yelled before Sully got too far. Sully heard the shots go off as he raced back towards the rock where Matthew was hiding. "Did you get hit?"

"No," Sully answered, not even knowing where the shots were coming from.

"He must know we're here," Matthew announced.

"Those were just warnin' shots. If he wanted to kill me, he coulda."

"Now what're we gonna do?"

Before Sully could answer, he heard an all too familiar voice.

"Sully!"

Sully was about to stand when Matthew pulled him back next to him.

"That's Michaela!" Sully shouted. "Michaela!"

Matthew held him down.

"You get up and he'll kill ya for sure."

"She's here, Matthew, that's Michaela!"

"Then we know she's alive but you'll get yourself killed if you just try to run out there and save her."

"I told ya not to follow me!" A voice shouted. It was Warren's. "I warned ya but ya didn't listen!"

Sully tried to look over and around the rock but he could not see Warren or Michaela. The tall grass that surrounded them made it impossible for them to see very far. Warren was playing with them and they both knew it.

"What do you want?" Sully shouted back into the open air, unsure of where Warren's voice was coming from.

"I want ya to leave!"

"Not without Michaela!"

"She's mine now!"

"She'll never be yours!"

"Y'all just leave 'fore you get me real angry!"

"We're not leavin'!"

A gun shot ricocheted off the back of the rock. Matthew looked over at Sully, unsure of what to do.

"I told y'all to leave!" Warren shouted, obviously more angry.

"Sully, please go!" Michaela yelled, pleading to him. Her voice made him shudder. She sounded so tired. He hated himself for not being able to rescue her. He heard her scream, sure that Warren had hit her with something.

"I swear to you!" Sully yelled. "You hurt her and I'll kill ya with my bear hands! Don't care what happens to me but I will kill you!"

"Y'all betta get outta here or you I'll shoot her. I swear, I will."

Although it pained him to do so, Matthew grabbed Sully's sleeve and they ran. With each step they took, Sully wanted nothing more than to turn back and run to save her, not caring what happened to him. But he knew that he couldn't.