Chapter 5 - The Night Penny Disappeared
Garrett doubled the guards.
Nobody left Penny alone.
Sarah slept with her daughter beside her.
For three days, nothing happened.
On the fourth morning, Penny vanished.
Her coat was missing.
So were her boots.
The back door stood open.
Tiny footprints crossed the snow.
Sarah screamed her name.
Garrett followed the tracks.
They led toward the stable.
Then disappeared among hoofprints.
A ranch hand found a blue ribbon caught on the fence.
Sarah recognized it immediately.
Penny’s.
Garrett mounted without waiting.
Sarah grabbed his reins.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“And if bullets start flying?”
“I’m coming.”
He saw there would be no argument.
They rode.
The tracks led north.
Hours passed.
Snow began falling.
Near dusk they found an abandoned line shack.
Garrett dismounted.
Sarah followed.
Inside, a man sat tied to a chair.
Amos Vale.
His face was bruised.
Garrett drew his revolver.
“Where is Penny?”
Amos looked genuinely confused.
“The girl?”
Garrett seized him.
“Where?”
“Mercer took her!”
Sarah staggered.
Amos confessed.
Yes, he had stolen.
Yes, Mercer had paid him.
Yes, he had helped alter debts.
But the barn fire had frightened him.
Threatening a child was more than he had agreed to.
He tried leaving.
Mercer caught him.
“Where would he take her?” Garrett demanded.
“Old mining camp east of Red Hollow.”
Garrett released him.
They rode through darkness.
At the abandoned camp, Garrett saw lamplight.
He made Sarah wait outside.
She refused.
Naturally.
Inside one cabin, Penny sat at a table.
Silas Mercer stood beside her.
And Penny was furious.
“You're a bad man.”
Mercer looked exhausted.
Apparently kidnapping Penny Miller was not a peaceful occupation.
“You have told me that seventeen times.”
“Eighteen.”
Mercer heard the door.
Garrett stood there.
His revolver was drawn.
Mercer grabbed Penny.
Sarah’s heart stopped.
“Don't.”
Garrett’s voice was terrifyingly calm.
Mercer placed a gun near Penny.
“You should have stayed out of my business.”
“You made it my business.”
“The ledger.”
“What about it?”
“I want every copy.”
Garrett stared.
Then Penny suddenly bit Mercer’s hand.
He screamed.
She dropped.
Garrett moved.
The gun fired.
Sarah screamed.
Mercer crashed backward.
Garrett remained standing.
The bullet had grazed his shoulder.
Penny ran to him.
He dropped his weapon and caught her.
Sarah reached them.
For several seconds the three clung together.
Then Garrett whispered into Penny’s hair.
“You are never allowed to do that again.”
Penny sniffled.
“Bite bad men?”
“Get kidnapped.”
“Oh.”
She considered it.
“Okay.”
Garrett laughed despite the blood soaking his shirt.
Sarah began crying.
By sunrise, Mercer was in custody.
Amos agreed to testify.
The ledger proved Thomas Miller’s debt had been fraudulently inflated.
Sarah’s land was safe.
It should have been the end.
Instead, it became the beginning of something far more frightening to Garrett.
Because that evening Penny crawled onto his bed while the doctor stitched his shoulder.
She placed the repaired wooden horse beside him.
“You saved me.”
Garrett looked at her.
“Yes.”
“So now you're my friend.”
He smiled.
“I suppose.”
Penny shook her head.
“No.”
“No?”
“You're family.”
The room became silent.
Sarah stood in the doorway.
Garrett looked at her.
Neither knew what to say.
Penny did.
She always did.
“You can marry Mama.”
Sarah nearly fainted.
Garrett coughed so violently the doctor threatened to redo the stitches.
Penny looked pleased with her solution.
But beneath the laughter lay a truth neither adult could avoid much longer.
Garrett Thorne was falling in love with Sarah Miller.
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And Sarah was beginning to fear that she loved him too.
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