The Pursuit (Family of Love Series) (A Western Romance Story) Read online

  Luke stood up and approached the bed. He stood over her menacingly. “I’ve made it a point not to trust anyone in my life. I don’t know why I would start now.”

  Molly looked up at him. “But if you don’t trust me, how will you find it? What will you do with me? I don’t know where it is. I’m useless to you.”

  “In that case, maybe I don’t need you and I should just get rid of you now.”

  Molly felt fear pass through her. “You don’t need to do that, Luke. You really don’t. I will help you find it. I won’t even tell anyone. You can get your money and leave town. No one needs to know what you’ve done here.”

  “Once Adam figures this out, he will come find me. I’ve heard plenty of stories about that man’s heroics; I won’t make him a hero in mine. This is my story, that’s my money, and I will find it.”

  “Mark won’t let you just dig up his property. He won’t let either of us do that. But he won’t want a cut of your money. He won’t. I know him.”

  Luke snorted. “You don’t know him any better than you know me and you let me into the house yesterday.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me about it then? We could have looked for it.”

  With a heavy sigh, Luke sat on the edge of the bed and untied the rope from around her ankles and wrists.

  “Thank you, Luke.” Molly was surprised by his actions. Apparently, he didn’t think she would fight him or run away. She looked at him closely.

  “I already told you. I don’t trust anyone. I only came in to look around and see if you had found it.”

  “Do you even know what it looks like?”

  “It’s a metal box.”

  “That’s not much information.”

  “Well, it’s all I’ve got.”

  “So you don’t know what the box looks like or where it’s buried or even if it’s buried. It might be hidden in the house. You don’t have much…”

  “I already told you to shut up. It sounds like you’re still talking.”

  Molly’s shoulders dropped in defeat. There would be no convincing this man. “What can I do to persuade you to let me help you? You wanted my help and now you don’t?”

  “I wanted your help when I thought you knew where the box is,” Luke replied. His voice had lost some of its anger.

  Molly saw a glimmer of hope. His tone of voice had taken a turn toward defeat. She figured he had just realized what he had gotten himself into. She didn’t want to press the matter. He was already upset enough. If he had the guts to hit her on the head and kidnap her, what would stop him from killing her?

  She gathered as much courage as she could and tried not to let out a shaky breath. Steadying her nerves, she stood up slowly. She was only about a foot away from him and she moved closer, looking up at him.

  “I’ll help you look, Luke. I won’t take your money. But you have to…”

  “I don’t have to anything!” Luke yelled. “I don’t have to do anything you tell me to!”

  “But, Luke, listen for just a moment. Please listen to me.”

  He turned away from her, a sullen, angry look on his face.

  “Luke, I can probably talk to Mark and see if he will let me look on the property.”

  “I don’t want him knowing about my box,” Luke replied.

  “He won’t want any of your money.” Molly failed to keep the frustration from her voice.

  “Says you!” Molly’s first thought was how childish Luke sounded. Realization hit her that Luke was not the man he claimed to be. He was a frightened child. She wondered what had happened to make him that way. Her instinct was to mother him and soothe him but she was afraid it would not look that way to him. She didn’t want to commit herself to something she wasn’t going to follow through with.

  She tried to formulate a plan in her mind, a way to get Luke to go back to the little yellow house. If there was anything of value there, she could help him find it.

  “You can’t just keep saying you want the box, Luke,” Molly used the gentlest voice she could. “That’s not going to get you anywhere and you know it. Why don’t you be reasonable and we can just talk to Mark? If you still insist on being sneaky about it, we – you and me – can go back and look for it. I really don’t need any money from it, Luke. You obviously need it more than I do. Please let me help you.”

  “I think I’m gonna go look myself. Mark is at church, I know because he said something about it when he came to my house yesterday.”

  Molly raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Mark went to your house?”

  Luke turned to look at her. His eyes were narrow and his face looked no happier than it had when he turned away. “Yeah. He threatened me. I’m not gonna share my fortune with him after he threatened me like that.”

  Molly tilted her head to the side, giving him a “Come on now” look. “You never intended to share your fortune with him, Luke. You’ve said it yourself many times, and you wouldn’t have been prowling around the house if you had any intention of talking to Mark about it.”

  Luke looked defeated. “You get back on that bed. I’m gonna have to tie you up again. I can’t have you running off to find Mark and Adam.”

  Molly gave him a dismayed look. “Oh, must you? It’s so uncomfortable.”

  “I wouldn’t but I don’t trust you not to leave. I know you will if you have even the slightest chance.”

  “I won’t.”

  Luke shook his head and pushed her gently toward the bed.

  “Do I have to lie down?”

  “That will be more comfortable than sticking you in the chair. Then I’d have to put all kinds of rope around you and I don’t wanna do that. So just lie down and let me do this. I’m gonna go have a look at the house. I won’t be long. I don’t want them coming back to the house while I’m at church.”

  Molly let him do what he needed to. He didn’t cinch the ropes too tightly, which was nice, but as the door closed behind him, all she could think was that when Mark, Adam, and Alice discovered her missing, they wouldn’t stay at church.

  They would search for her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  FORMING A PLAN

  FORMING A PLAN

  Mark, Adam, and Max rode quickly to the Collin's home to get horses for Adam and his son.

  “Are you sure you want to come along, Max? We can leave you here in case she comes back here, if you’d rather.”

  Max shook his head. “No, Papa. I want to come with you.”

  “You don’t really think she’d come here, do you, Adam? She knows you are all at church.”

  Adam shrugged, looking at his friend as they reached the stable. “I don’t think she would come here, Mark. But if she is in trouble and our house is closer, I have no doubt she would, whether we are here or not. She knows she is welcome to use any of our horses to get to safety. Or to get anywhere for that matter. We have no worries about her taking a horse and not bringing it back.”

  “I’d hope not,” Mark mumbled.

  Adam shook his head. “She is a trustworthy woman. And we’d find her anyway. It’s not like she would ride one horse all the way back to Virginia.”

  “Does she want to go back to Virginia?” Max asked.

  Adam slid from the saddle of the horse he was riding, shaking his head. “No. Not that I know of. Get down, son, and hold the reins to this horse while I go inside and get ours.”

  “Do you want me to do that for you, Papa? You and Mark probably want to talk, don't'cha?” He slid from the saddle, his father giving him a steadying hand when he hit the ground. Max looked up at him with wide eyes. “I don’t mind, Papa.”

  “I know you don’t, son. Go ahead, you go get the horses and bring them out.”

  “Thanks, Papa!” Max dashed to the door of the stable and yanked it open, disappearing into the dark stable. Adam looked up at Mark, who was still sitting atop Journey.

  “There are a lot of places Molly could have gone, in my opinion. But I don’t think she would go anywher
e without telling someone. Especially you. You are the closest to her.”

  “I’m not that close to her. I plan to change that though.”

  Adam smiled. “I meant in distance, Mark. Your house is very close to that little house. She could have run from her house to yours if she was frightened.”

  “Lemme ask you something, Adam,” Mark said, leaning forward a little, placing one hand flat on his upper thigh. “Do you think Luke is the one who’s been stomping around the grounds on my property? He could be the one peeking in her windows at night.”

  Adam thought about it for only a moment before nodding. “I do believe he is capable of that. And he is probably responsible for it. I suppose that’s more evidence that he’s the one who took her.”

  Mark nodded. “I think he’s responsible. I’m gonna let him know what I think of that.”

  “Keep calm, Mark. We don’t know quite what’s going on yet.” Adam was quiet for a moment, contemplating. “I don’t understand it, to be frank with you. He didn’t seem like a violent or vengeful type. I really can’t see him being around those schoolchildren all day and not showing some sign that he’s not a good guy.”

  “I thought I heard he yelled at the little kids when they got in his way.”

  Adam shrugged. “Yelling at kids to get out of the way of construction is a good thing. It scares them into staying away from something that could harm them. At least, that’s what I’ve always thought.”

  Mark scowled. “I guess you’re right.”

  Adam tried not to grin. “I know you want to get as much dirt on this man as you can. I know you don’t want to think there could be a good reason behind anything he does. But I’ve talked to him a few times and I never got the vibe that there was anything wrong with him. I can’t imagine why he’s doing this, if, in fact, he is doing it.”

  “I think he’s got her. I can almost feel it. What I don’t understand is why. I know he… he is probably attracted to her female attributes…”

  “Listen to you, using them big words,” Adam chuckled. “I’m sorry. Not a laughing matter really. And I have to agree, I think he’s taken her somewhere, either to his shack or maybe he’s got her holed up in that little house. But if he is planning on holding her for ransom, he’s not gonna keep her in a place where they will surely be found.”

  “You mentioned that cabin. Don’t you think he would reckon they’d be found there, too?”

  Adam thought about it for a moment. “Not really. Not many people know about it. And in the shape it’s in, I doubt anyone would want to go there and risk being hurt. The roof of the whole place could cave in at any moment. It’s only a matter of time.”

  “He’s a construction man. I’m sure he would know how to fix it so that wouldn’t happen.”

  “I’m sure he does. Doesn’t mean he has though. He’s been working on the schoolhouse expansion and trying to get to Molly. He’s not been here a real long time. I reckon he might have just been saving up money for supplies or something of that nature.”

  Mark didn’t want to think about Luke having any accomplishments or goals. At that moment, Mark’s only goal was to find Molly. If he had a chance to lay hands on Luke, that would just be a bonus.

  He was going to greet that woman with all the love he felt in his heart. In the short time since the last he saw her, he had not stopped thinking about her. Now, with her gone, he was more desperate to let her know how he felt. He didn’t want to pass up any more opportunities. The thought about being away from her made him miss her much more than he expected.

  “You are really stuck on her, aren’t you, Mark?”

  Mark didn’t look at Adam. He was embarrassed and proud at the same time.

  “She’s gonna be mine,” he said quietly. “If she will have me.”

  “Oh, she’ll have you,” Max was the one who piped up with the encouraging words as he led two saddled horses out of the stable. “Here we go, Papa.”

  “Why do you say she’ll have me, Max? Have you… you haven’t talked to her about me, have you?”

  Max laughed. “I don’t think Molly would ever talk to a kid like me about stuff like that, Uncle Mark.”

  Mark hadn’t heard the Collins children refer to him as “Uncle Mark” in some time. He was happy to hear it again. “You’re a good man, Uncle Mark. I think she can see that. I think all the ladies have seen that. You are a gentleman. That’s what Mama always says anyway.”

  “Oh, really?” Mark asked, moving his eyes to Adam. “Your wife speaks highly of me, Adam. You gonna do something about that?” He pretended to lift clenched fists and did air-boxing moves around Adam’s face.

  Adam laughed. “I think you don’t have a snowballs chance in hell of ever getting my wife away from me.”

  Mark gave him a shocked look. “I would never.”

  Adam grinned, nodding. “I know you wouldn’t.”

  “I mean, unless something happened to you, of course.”

  Adam was just about to pull himself up into the saddle when Mark said that. He looked at Mark, sharply before dissolving into a relaxed grin. “You have your own woman now, Mark. Let’s keep that in mind, eh?”

  Mark laughed. “Yeah, Adam. Let’s do that. Don’t worry. You’re my best friend. I know you won’t be hurting me like that.”

  “Best friends aren’t always what they seem,” Max piped up. Both men looked at him.

  “What do you mean, Max?”

  Max paused before speaking. “There’s a kid at the schoolhouse who is kind of rough and mean. Hardly anyone likes him.”

  “Why don’t they like him? They must be very shallow.”

  Max nodded. “They may be shallow but they’re all I have right now.” He yanked on the horn of the saddle, sticking his foot in the stirrup and lifting his other leg over the large animal. “I’m gonna have to grow into a man with them. Some of them might move away. Lots of them talk about moving to the East coast where it isn’t so hot.”

  “What about you? Would you like to move away?” Adam asked, curiously.

  “Oh, heaven’s no!”

  Mark shared a look with Adam around Max as Adam pulled himself into the saddle, still holding on to the reins of the horse he’d borrowed from Sam.

  “Oh? Why not?”

  Max looked at his father with a smile. “I’m not leaving Wickenburg, even when I get older. I have plans here.”

  “You do, do you?” Mark asked. “I’d like to hear those plans. We’ve got time for distractions.”

  “Yeah, son, tell us what your plans are.”

  Max smiled at both of them, turning his horse to go back down the road in the direction from which they had come. “You really want to hear about it?”

  Adam and Mark both nodded as they flanked him.

  “Tell us, son,” Adam prompted him.

  Max was quiet for a moment. Mark could tell he was gathering his thoughts so that when he was ready to say what he wanted to say, he’d have the right words for it.

  “Well, I haven’t told you, Papa, but there’s a girl at the schoolhouse I’ve been sitting next to for about four years now and… well, I think someday I might marry her and have a bunch of kids on our own. So… I’m sticking around for two reasons. Three really. I’m staying for Charlotte, for you, and mom. I don’t want to leave you guys. And I’d really miss Riley.”

  Adam chuckled at the mention of his daughter, Riley. She and Max had always had a good relationship. “I guess she’s one of your reasons too then, eh?” Adam asked.

  Max nodded. “Yeah, she kinda is.”

  “Well, you should take the time to get to know each other, like we used to do when I was young. That way you can make a good decision when you’re a little older.”

  Max nodded. “I’m gonna get to know Charlotte, Papa, don’t worry. I want to talk to her all the time. I think about her all the time. Did you know that people in the old days used to get married when they were fourteen?”

  “You aren’t getting married y
et, Max. Put that thought out of your mind.”

  All three laughed. “Papa, you’re funny,” Max said. “I don’t want to get married yet. I want to stay with you and Alice and Riley and Carrie for a while. I’m not done growing up.”

  “It’s rare to hear a young man your age admit that,” Mark said with a grin. He turned his eyes to Adam. “You’ve got a fine, smart young man on your hands.”

  Adam nodded. “As if you didn’t already know that, Mark. But thank you for the compliment. Max, say thank you for the compliment.”

  Max beamed at the older man. “Thanks!”

  Mark chuckled. “You’re welcome.”

  “We’re gonna drop this horse off with Sam and head over to that cabin. Sound good?”

  “Should we check the schoolhouse?” Max asked. Both men looked at him curiously. He looked back, raising his eyebrows, turning his head from one man to the other. “Well, wouldn’t he maybe take her to one of the parts of the new construction where no one is? Nobody would think to check there, I bet.”

  Adam and Mark looked at each other.

  “What do you think?” Adam asked. Mark shook his head slightly.

  “It’s a really good idea. But I don’t think he took her there. I don’t think he’s smart enough to think of that. If his grandfather has a cabin in the area, I don’t care what kind of condition the building is in, I’d be willing to bet good money that’s where he took her. If they aren’t at his house, I’m willing to bet they are at the cabin.”

  Adam looked at his son. “He’s right. It would be a good idea. But it sounds like an idea someone with high intelligence would think to do. I don’t think Luke fits that. I think he’s going by instinct. I don’t know why he’s doing this or what his plan is but we’re gonna figure it out. It is a good idea, son. But it sounds more like something you might think up. Not Luke.”

  “I thought you said he was stupid.”

  Adam shook his head. “I didn’t say he isn’t stupid. I said he didn’t seem violent, though. And I still don’t see what he could do that would be so violent.”