Mary opened her eyes and groaned at the pain in her head. It took her a moment to realize that her hands were tied behind her back and her legs were bound.

"Mary?" Casey's voice was laden with fear.

Mary turned her head towards Casey's voice as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. "Casey?" Her eyes focused on the occupants of the room and dread settled in her chest. Using the wall next to her as leverage, she maneuvered herself into a sitting position and focused on Nettie and Casey. "Are you two ok?" As she spoke, she tested whatever was holding her hands and found no slack in what felt like rough rope.

"Kicking myself over not shooting the son of a bitch when I had a chance, but otherwise we're ok." Nettie nodded over at the unconscious figures to her right. "Inez and Maddie have been unconscious since the three of you got brought in."

Mary looked at the remaining two women in the room. "Rain?" They were on the other side of the dimly lit room. She wasn't sure who the other woman was but she felt like she had a good idea based on who else was in the room. "How long have you been here?"

"Five days." She nodded to the woman sitting next to her. "She was brought in two days later. I believe she is Josiah's sister." At the sound of Josiah's name, the woman whimpered. Rain leaned over so her shoulder was touching and hummed a little until the woman stopped whimpering.

"Any idea where we are?"

Mary looked over at the sound of the voice. "Maddie? Are you ok?" Maddie had shifted her head when she heard Mary's voice and Mary could see what seemed to be blood on Maddie's temple.

"That depends. I distinctly get the impression that I'm tied up in…". She glanced around the room. "…a root cellar?" She rolled over onto her side and into a sitting position. She nudged Inez gently with her foot and got a moan in response. She glanced over at Mary. "Any idea what's going on?"

Mary shook her head. "Two men came into the newspaper office. Knocked me out with something."

Maddie looked down at Inez and back at Mary. "Rag over your nose and mouth? Take a few minutes?" Getting a nod from Mary, she looked down at Inez who was rolling into a sitting position. "I walked in as they were trying to grab Inez." Maddie twisted her hands, testing the rope to no avail. Letting out a sigh she looked around to figure out who the closest person was. "Rain, if I can get my legs behind you, do you think you can work a knife out of my boot?"

"You carry a knife in your boot?" Casey asked in disbelief.

Maddie shrugged as she worked on scooting towards Rain. "Five years ago I would have had at least one gun as well." She finally maneuvered her legs behind Rain. "While she works on the knife, does anyone know why we're here?"

Mary shook her head, "I didn't recognize either man."

"Whoever it is, it's because of who we are. My guess is someone the boys have tangled with in the past." Nettie shifted to adjust some of the tension on her shoulders. She was too old for this.

"Well, that doesn't really narrow it down." Mary frowned and thought through the dozens of people Chris and the others had faced.

"It seems pretty straight forward that the goal is to make the town a ghost town. So, it narrows it down to the ranchers." Nettie frowned at the prospect.

Maddie shifted her legs a little as she felt Rain's fingers brush against the hilt of the knife. "Blame the head wound but I'm not following. How would taking us turn the town into a ghost town?"

Nettie chuckled. "Those boys, whether they realize it or not, keep each other sane. Mary, if something happened to you, Chris would dive back into a bottle and I'm not sure there's anyone that could pull him out. It's one of the reasons you two do this dance that you do. Never getting too close." She tipped her head towards Casey. "JD already done a pretty good job of growing up too fast. If he felt responsible for something happening to Casey what remains of that innocence would be gone." She looked across the room at Hannah. " Josiah already carries too much guilt because of Hannah. There's only so much more he can carry before it breaks him. And, Rain…Nathan has lost so many people already. I'm not sure he'd let anyone in again if he lost you." She shifted her focus to Maddie. "Maddie, I think you're fully aware of how Ezra would react. What's left of his soul would be burned out. Inez, you may not reciprocate or even want Buck's attention but he'd take responsibility."

Inez rolled her eyes. "Why couldn't this happen when Louisa was in town. I could be back in the saloon worried about all of you instead of tied up in some madman's root cellar."

Mary chuckled before looking over at Nettie. "And Vin?

Nettie sighed. "I remind that boy of his mother. And he treats me as he would her. If he thought he was responsible for something happening to me he'd ride off and never get close to anyone again." She glanced around the room. "You lose any one of them and the rest won't survive. You lose all of them and this town won't survive."

Mary frowned at Nettie's assessment. She knew she wasn't too far off. She glanced over Maddie and Rain when she heard a small cry of triumph.

Rain maneuvered the knife and started working on the rope binding her hands. "Then we should work on getting out of here before something happens."

Chris kept his anger in check as he watched the others. JD was scared. Buck's normal bluster had been replaced by the cold hard man Chris had seen on occasion before. Ezra was the one he was worried about. It had taken him a while to figure out a few things about Ezra, mainly because the man presented two sides in every situation. Ezra was an excellent shot. Probably better than Vin at medium and shorter distances. But, every man he shot had superficial wounds. It took him a while to realize that every shot Ezra made was done with intention. Ezra just wasn't a killer. At least not normally and not if there was another option. The man standing next to him right now, checking and double checking ammunition, had every intention of shooting to kill.

They all glanced up as two men walked into the jail. "Mr. Larabee?"

Chris recognized the two men from the saloon. He thought they had worked for one of the ranchers before but now just did odd jobs. "We're a little busy."

"That's just it." The first one swallowed and looked over at his friend. "We heard about Mrs. Travis…and the others."

Chris crossed the distance to the men in a few strides. "What do you know about it." He fought to keep his tone civil. He wanted whatever information these men thought they had. Usually Ezra was the one who managed to get information out of people but right now he could feel rage coming off of Ezra in waves.

"A couple cowpokes were asking around town for help. Their boss was looking to kidnap some women."

Ezra shoved the man into the wall, pressing his arm against his throat. "Who."

Nathan glanced at Chris to see if he was going intervene. "Ezra, he can't breath much less talk."

Chris looked over at the second man. "We need a name. Now. Before your friend dies."

"Royal." The man looked at Ezra and realized he wasn't letting his friend go. "We thought they were crazy. No one in their right mind would go up against you…not like that."

Ezra dropped the now unconscious man to the floor and pushed past Nathan. He knew where they were going. Tiny should have the hoses saddled by now. He knew the other five men were following but he had no intention of waiting on them. He was already in his saddle and heading out of the livery before Nathan had made it to his horse. Not waiting, he took off in the direction of Royal's ranch.

Chris galloped after Ezra, knowing the other three were following. Catching up with him, he matched his pace. "Ezra…that rage you're feeling…you can use it. But only if you get it under control. If you don't, you're going to get her killed."

Ezra glanced over at Chris. He knew he was speaking from experience. He had never understood how Chris had gotten to the point he had and certainly didn't understand how far he had come since his wife and child had been murdered…until now.