Chapter 3

When the sheriff and the Barkley men arrived at the hotel, they found Jose Cabrillo and his daughter Annamaria nearly frantic. They had been virtual prisoners for hours when they should have been at a joyous wedding. Annamaria, still in the wedding dress her mother had worn when she married her father, burst into tears the moment the door opened and she saw who was there.

"Where are they? Please tell me you found them and they are all right!" Annamaria said right away, charging the door.

Her father took hold of her, asking, "What do you know? What have you found out?"

"Nothing, I'm afraid," the sheriff said. "Nick and Heath Barkley are here to escort you to the Barkley ranch – my deputy Randy will go with you and you should be quite safe. Jarrod Barkley and I are going to continue to talk to people around town."

The Cabrillos' bags were already packed and ready in a corner of the room. When Jose looked that way, Nick started for them, and Heath started back out the door, saying, "I'll get your carriage ready. Is it down at the livery?"

"Yes," Jose said.

"Take Randy with you," Sheriff Harris said, and Heath left.

"I'll help you get the bags downstairs," Jarrod said. "We'll make you comfortable out at the ranch and we'll figure this all out."

"Where is your driver?" the sheriff asked.

"Room 112," Jose said. "But he was to deliver Theresa and Serena and return for us."

"I'll go check on him," Nick said and left, but everyone expected the worst.

Jarrod and Sheriff Harris picked up the bags and started to get them downstairs.

And then Nick came back. "Not there," he said.

Everything stopped. Sheriff Harris asked, "Who is your driver?"

"His name is Pablo Chonez," Jose said.

"How long has he been with you?"

"For three years," Jose said.

"What do you know about him?"

"Very little. He is 25 years old. He comes from a family near the border but he was educated here in California."

"He's always been very kind and courteous to us," Annamaria said. "Very polite. I can't believe he would have anything to do with this."

"I'm afraid he could be another victim, another means of keeping you from getting to the wedding," Jarrod said.

Annamaria started to cry even more.

Jarrod and the sheriff looked at each other. Sheriff Harris said, "We'll be looking for him too."

Nick picked up some bags. "Let's get these people to the ranch and out of harm's way. Steve, do you want me and Heath to come back and help you and Jarrod out?"

The sheriff said, "Stay there for now. All these people need protection, and since we don't know where the women were taken, we can't be sure they weren't taken close to the ranch."

Jarrod said, "I'll stay in town tonight. I'll be fine. Nobody's gonna be after me here and probably nobody's after me at all. And Steve and I have a lot of people to talk to. We'll send somebody out if we need you to come in."

"Please find them," Annamaria said, the last thing she said again after her father helped her into the carriage that Heath was now driving.

"We'll do everything we can," the sheriff said.

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The Barkley men were more than halfway home with the deputy, Jose and Annamaria when riders they knew from the ranch – the blacksmith's assistant Kegel and a stable hand named Karn, came riding up fast. The Barkley men stopped as Kegel and Karn stopped, Kegel saying, "They sent us for the sheriff! The Cabrillos showed up!"

"What?!" Nick blurted.

"They're fine, they're at the house, the mother and the sister and the driver, they're all fine!"

Annamaria burst into tears again, but this time tears of relief. Nick and Heath looked at each other and wondered how this whole thing could get any crazier. "Go on, get the sheriff and our brother in town," Nick said to Kegel and Karn. "Come on, Heath, let's get this family back together."

Kegel and Karn kept on toward town while the Barkleys picked up the speed a bit. It wasn't long they reached the stable yard at the house and everyone felt safer, not to mention happier. The sun was going down fast now. Ciego came to help with the horses and the carriage as Nick, Heath and the deputy unloaded the bags.

Jose and Annamaria rushed into the house, to find the Barkley women, all the Mitchells and Theresa and Serena coming from the living room to greet them. Back in the living room, in a corner just waiting, sat Chonez. There were embraces and cries of relief, the strongest perhaps between Joe Mitchell and Annamaria. They definitely held onto each other the longest.

Jose and Theresa held onto each other for a long time, too. They spoke in Spanish, comforting each other, reassuring each other.

"No one is hurt," Victoria said quickly and tried to guide everyone toward the dining room. "Come, eat something, we'll settle down and be ready to talk to the sheriff when he gets here."

Everyone, including the driver, headed for the dining room, where more food had been prepared and set up. The Cabrillos' servants were helping Silas, and they burst into tears at the sight of Jose and Annamaria. Jose calmed them quickly. Annamaria gave each of the servant women a kiss on the cheek. A lot of Spanish was flying around with the English.

Silas and the Cabrillo servants had set things up buffet style and Victoria presided over seeing that everyone got a plate and a place at the table. Things were calming down. Even Annamaria was finally eating, sitting beside the man who should have been her husband by now.

"Is the priest still here?" Annamaria asked in English.

"No, he was escorted home," Victoria said.

"Oh," Annamaria said. "I was hoping he would be here and we could be married right away."

"No!" Serena suddenly shouted. "No, you cannot get married! You can't do it!"

Serena was about to panic, and Theresa was not far behind, but she reached for her daughter's arm and held onto it. "We were threatened, all of us, for now and forever," Theresa said. "If you marry, ever, we will be killed."

"Who was it?" Nick asked quickly. "Who threatened you? Who took you?"

Victoria was hoping they would not get into the details of this awful day until stomachs were full, but it was tumbling out now. Nothing was going to stop it.

But it definitely paused when Theresa said, "We don't know who it was. There were two men. They wore hoods and we never saw who they were."

Serena quickly said, "But they said they would kill a member of both our families, or even more than one member, if Joe and Annamaria marry. They threatened us all, and we don't know who they were." She looked at her sister, who was full of grief and full of fear, too. "You can't marry. You just can't. Please tell me you won't!"