Chapter 8

"I told y'all to not move and ta wait for me!" Robert barked.

"I wasn't gonna just sit back and wait until it was too late," Sully yelled in response.

"I told y'all he was crazy! Wouldn't think nothin' of killin' ya. He knows that he's protected under the law. He legally married her so he can do whatever he likes. If y'all step on his property, he can shoot ya and no one would ask him why."

The three men stood around Robert's table at his homestead. Matthew threw another log onto the fire that was in front of them.

"He didn't marry her," Sully stated through clenched teeth.

"According to the townsfolk, he did."

"She would never agree to marry him," Sully replied.

"In this town, no one much cares, Mr. Sully. He coulda poisoned her like he poisoned you, dragged her into the mayor's house in the middle of the night and married her without her even bein' awake. You see, Samuel's ma was well respected in this town. Real good lady with a good head on her shoulders. She was the town's midwife. Delivered almost all the people in the town. When she died, it tore the town up and they all vowed to help Samuel in any way they could even after he went crazy."

"Even help him marry a woman while she's sleepin'?" Sully inquired.

"Even that. 'Fraid the folks 'round here don't think of women as more than just objects. He probably told 'em she was just sick. The mayor would've married 'em anyway, I'm 'fraid."

Sully sighed, just thinking about Michaela being forced into marrying a man she didn't know while she was unconscious. He could not help but wonder if Michaela and the man had been together as married couples were. Had he forced her to be with him? Just thinking about it made Sully want to vomit. As he thought about what could have happened, he immediately thought back to the conversation that he and Michaela had in the woods before the storm started. She questioned if he would still love her if the dog soldiers hurt her in the same way that Warren possibly was. Faced with the same, horrible scenario again, Sully knew that in his heart, he would always love her. No matter what happened to her, no matter what anyone did to her, he would still love her. Even if she changed or needed more time before they got married, he would always love her.

"How can a town be so…sick?" Matthew asked.

"Samuel's lived here is whole life…grew up with the folks in the town," Robert answered. "Town's gotta stick together. Gotta protect their own."

"Marryin' a woman who's sleepin' isn't protectin'," Matthew stated.

As Matthew and Robert talked, Sully barely listened. He tried to shake his thoughts from his mind, knowing that they were doing nothing to help him get Michaela back.

"Warren…Samuel, whatever his name is, he never moved?" Sully questioned. Never lived in Wyomin' or Nebraska?"

"Warren ain't never left Kansas City 'cept for these past few days. When the town realized that he was gone, they all thought he was just lockin' himself in his homestead for a little while. He tends to do that from time to time."

"Why would he lie to you 'bout that, Sully?" Matthew wondered.

"Just tryin' to cover his tracks, I guess," Sully answered. "Probably figured if he lied 'bout everythin', wouldn't be no way I could find him."

"Then why'd he tell ya that he livin' in Kansas City?"

Sully shook his head. "Don't know."

"Maybe he's playin' a game," Robert suggested.

"A game?" Matthew questioned.

"Always loved playin' tricks on folks when he was a kid. Always askin' us all riddles. He liked playin' games. Maybe he told ya 'bout Kansas City 'cause he wanted ya to come lookin' for her. Maybe it's all part of a sick game," Robert explained.

"Well, if he is playin' a game then he ain't just crazy," Matthew stated. "He's pure evil."

"And no one in town cares that he's crazy?" Sully asked.

"I told ya, his ma was a good lady. The townsfolk would rather look the other way then admit that somethin's wrong with that man. They figure it's the least they can do for all the good that his ma did."

"Why didn't you do somethin' after he killed your sister," Matthew questioned.

"I told ya, I went to the town but they wouldn't hear it. Wasn't nothin' more that I could do."

"Coulda gotten a marshal from another town, one that didn't know his ma," Matthew suggested.

"And the town woulda stuck up for him. Just likes I said, the town sticks together. 'Sides, my sister wasn't exactly the best of characters. Folks didn't miss her much once she was gone."

"What do you mean by that?" Matthew asked.

Robert sighed. "She used ta be a saloon girl so most folks, 'cept for some of the gentlemen folk, weren't too broken up when Samuel said she died."

Sully sat at the table and held his head in his hands. He didn't know what to make of Warren or Samuel or whatever his name was. He didn't know what kind of game he was playing or even if he was playing a game at all. Had he really meant to tell Sully about Kansas City to lure him there or had he just said it by accident? Would he really kill Michaela or was he just using her as bait? All Sully knew was that he seemed to enjoy seeing other people in pain.

"We gotta go back," Sully announced, looking up at Matthew and Robert.

"He nearly shot ya both!" Robert exclaimed.

"He's hurtin' her!" Sully yelled back.

"But he won't kill her," Robert explained.

"How do ya know?" Sully questioned, angrily.

"'Cause he don't kill women. He may beat 'em and starve 'em to death but he wouldn't ever kill 'em."

"You sayin' that beatin' 'em and starvin' 'em ain't killin'?" Sully replied.

"I'm sayin' that he won't shoot her."

"He threatened to kill her when we was there," Sully cried.

"Only 'cause we was all there. He wouldn't just shoot her."

"How is it that ya know this man so well?"

Robert sighed. "When my sister first married him, I spent a lot of time thinkin' 'bout him and askin' folk about him. I knew that somethin' was wrong when he said that his other wives died of disease and things, I just couldn't figure out what it was. Trust me, he won't kill her, which gives us time."

"Time for what?" Matthew asked.

Matthew couldn't help but think their best chance was to ride into town and explain the whole situation to the sheriff. He wanted to wire Colorado Springs and get the posse together and bring them down there. He knew that Warren was dangerous but one gun couldn't match twenty.

"Time to come up with a plan," Robert replied. "The man thinks he's smarter than us. We just gotta be smarter than him."

"And how do we do that?" Matthew inquired.

Robert paused. "You really a cattleman, boy?"

Matthew nodded. "Why?"

"Well, you're the only one of us he ain't seen yet."

"What do you have in mind?" Sully asked.

Brian walked into Grace's café, his books, tied with a rope, banging into his knees as he walked. He had spent another night without his ma, in the clinic and he wasn't very happy about it. Grace noticed him walk in. She quickly served one of her customers breakfast and walked over to the boy.

"Hey Brian," she said, sweetly.

"Hi Grace," he replied.

"Say, would ya like to help me make another pie after school today?" Grace asked.

"No thanks, Grace."

"Oh, and why not?"

"Don't much feel like it," Brian answered, having no better reason than that.

Grace sighed, trying to think of something to cheer the boy up. "Colleen head off ta school yet?"

Brian shook his head. "Someone in Hank's saloon got cut up so Colleen's stichin' him."

"Your sister certainly is turnin' into a little doctor, ain't she?"

"Guess so."

"You wanna tell me what's troublin' you?" She asked, even though she knew the answer.

"Just miss ma and Matthew and Sully is all," he answered.

"You worried about 'em?" Brian nodded. "Don't you worry, Brian, Sully and Matthew'll find her soon."

Brian looked up at her and Grace brought her hand to her mouth, forgetting the lie that her and Robert E had told the children so that they wouldn't worry. Truth was, she was so worried about them that she couldn't stop thinking about them.

"Why they gotta find her? I thought she was helpin' a sick family," Brian said.

"Well…she is, Brian. I just got mixed up is all," Grace replied, trying to fix her mistake. She knew that even the young boy was too smart to believe it. Seeing his face in anguish made her wish that they had never lied to the children in the first place. After all, it was their ma. Didn't they have a right to know what was going on?

"Where's ma?" He demanded to know. Some of the customers looked at him as he yelled.

"I told ya, Brian…"

"Where's ma?" He yelled. Grace put her hands on his shoulder, trying to calm him. "Where is she?"

"Now, Brian…"

Brian pulled away from her and ran through the café, causing quite a stir among the customers. Grace chased after him, not caring as one of her male customers shouted after her that he'd like another cup of coffee. Colleen was standing on the front steps of the clinic, telling the young man, who had been cut in the saloon, how to clean his wound to keep it from infection. She saw Brian dashing by. Colleen handed the man the ointment and chased after her brother, Grace not far behind.

"Brian!" Colleen shouted, having no idea what was going on or where her younger brother was headed.

Brian ran straight to Robert E's livery and did not stop until he ran straight into Robert E.

"Brian?" Robert E said, startled. He quickly put the horseshoe he was making in a bucket of water so as to cool it.

"Where's ma?" Brian shouted.

"What?"

"Where's ma and Sully and Matthew!" He repeated.

"Brian, ya know that ma and Sully are…" Colleen began.

Robert E looked at his wife as she approached. Tears were in her eyes. Robert E tried to think of something he could tell the young boy to make the news easier but he knew that there was nothing he could say. Robert E suddenly realized that they should never have lied to the children in the first place, even if they had their best interest in their minds.

"Where are they?" Brian yelled again, his fists clenched at his sides.

Robert E sighed, hating to see Brian in such pain and fury. "Your ma's missin', Brian," Robert E finally explained.

"Missin'?" Colleen cried. "What do ya mean, missin'?"

"She was kidnapped," Robert E continued. "When Sully woke up in the mornin' after seekin' shelter from the storm, Dr. Mike was gone."

"How come Sully didn't stop 'em?" Colleen asked.

Robert E shook his head, not sure how to explain the answer, knowing that he didn't exactly understand it himself.

"He'd been given some kinda…poison that made him sleepy," Robert E said. "He didn't wake up 'til Matthew and I went lookin' for 'em."

"Poison?" Colleen exclaimed.

"Where are they?" Brian demanded to know, interrupting his sister.

"Don't know exactly," Robert E replied. "They was headin' to Kansas City. That's where they thought he had taken your ma."

"He who?" Brian asked.

"Don't know that neither, Brian," Robert E responded.

"But we do know that Sully and Matthew are doin' everythin' they can to find your ma," Grace added in, trying to bring some hope to the fallen faces of the children.

"Why'd you tell us that they were with a sick family?" Colleen cried.

"Didn't think there was no reason to make worry ya," Robert E answered.

"All this time, I been askin' about ma and everyone's been tellin' me not to worry but she's gone. Someone's got her and we don't know who and we don't know where they are or what they're doin' to her. And now we don't even know where Sully and Matthew are. They could be hurt or…or kidnapped like Dr. Mike and we wouldn't know!" Brian shouted.

"Why didn't they come back for help?" Colleen asked.

"Sully didn't think it would be a good idea," Robert E explained.

"Sully'll find your ma," Grace assured them. "He's found her before. You just gotta keep hopin'."

"Hope what? Hope that your tellin' us the truth this time? Dr. Mike could be dead for all we know and you just ain't tellin' us!" Colleen shouted.

"Now Colleen…" Grace began. As she spoke, Brian began to run, tears running down his face. As he ran, Brian looked to the sky, praying to his real ma that he wouldn't once again be left an orphan.