“Don’t go making any sudden movements. Them boys ain’t goin’ nowheres. Matter of fact, they’s gonna stay put right thar, ain’t ya boys?”
Billy and Elias both nodded. Elias’s gaze never moved from the stairwell. Mia could only assume there was another man there, but from where she stood, she couldn’t see anyone.
The back door slammed shut and loud footsteps thudded through the house. “No one else is here, boss!”
“Johnny!” Billy hollered, folding his legs underneath him as he tried to stand up, but the large boy shoved him back down, ignoring him as he strode past. Billy scrambled up again. “Why’d you do that? I thought we were friends?” The young boy said, his voice filled with hurt.
Johnny glared at him. “I ain’t yer friend. Yer just an annoyance I put up with for information.” He turned his gaze to the man holding Mia, not noticing or caring how his words affected the seven-year-old. “The man must have left this morning just like you said he would. Now we’ve got his family for lev—lev—”
“Leverage, boy. Leverage. You’re sure he’s gone?”
“I said he was, didn’t I?”
The big man holding Mia backhanded Johnny across the mouth, splitting his lip open. “Don’t sass me! If’n I know that Bass, he’ll pull around where we killed that family and foller our trail. Might take him a while through the woods, but eventually he’ll get here. I aim to be at our meetin’ shack by then.” He motioned with several swings of his pistol to the two younger boys. “I want you to tie ’em up and take ’em out back.”
Johnny walked to the door and reached into a bag Mia hadn’t noticed before, pulling out a coiled rope. He moved closer to Billy and Elias, but before he could tie them up, Billy raised his fist and slammed it into Johnny’s nose. The older boy flew back into the table, the chairs falling outward.
Elias jumped up and stood in front of Johnny and screamed at Billy. “Go, Billy! Run! Run!” He then turned and dropped down on top of the larger boy, tussling and fighting him with his scrawny arms, giving Billy time to run through the house and out the back door.
“Run, Billy! Run!” Mia screamed as loud as she could, all her hopes and prayers resting on the fact that Summer would hear her and know something was wrong and would stay away, and that Billy would make it. That he would get away. She didn’t know how many man were outside, but she knew Billy was smart and knew where to hide.
She kicked at the man holding her, his meaty fingers digging painfully into her upper arms. “Let me go,” she yelled, trying to loosen his grip, but she only succeeded in making him angrier as he grabbed her by the nape of her neck and squeezed. Her vision blurred and little black dots danced in front of her eyes.
Against Johnny’s size and heavier weight, Elias didn’t stand a chance, and the larger boy had him trussed up with his hands behind his back and a dirty rag in his mouth to keep him from hollering. Mia stared down at Elias, willing him to look at her. Finally, his green gaze met hers. His eyes were bright and alive with excitement, and he gave her a slow wink. She bit back a smile. This young boy was truly amazing and gave her the jolt of faith she needed instead of the other way around.
“Don’t try nothin’ like that again, do you hear me? Or you’ll regret it,” the man's gravelly voice whispered next to her ear. “Now,” he said, jerking her through the door and down the porch. “We’re gonna give that husband of yours and Bass Reeves a little message—to let them know you and your wastes are joinin’ us for a while.”
“Those children are not waste, you cretin!” Mia struggled and jerked one arm back as if she were trying to slap him, getting her first good glance of her attacker.
He was a mountain of a man, almost as wide as he was tall. His face had turned a brilliant shade of red, which almost matched the color of his unkempt hair. He slapped her face, which felt like she’d been thrown into a brick wall. “Don’ you be callin’ me names, you harlot!”
Muttering to himself, he jerked her toward the bag Johnny had spilled on the table and grabbed another piece of rope and tied her hands behind her back. Within a few seconds, her fingers began tingling, but she didn’t have time to complain because he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder and carried her outside, dropping her onto the ground in a heap beside Elias.
“What’re they gonna do, Miss Mia?” he whispered, his words garbled, but understandable, as he talked around the cloth stuck between his teeth. She watched, fascinated as he continued to grab at it with his teeth and tug, each pull loosening the knot until he was able to slip it out of his mouth completely.
“I’m afraid it’s not going to be good, whatever it is.”
A loud crash sounded inside the house, then several more. The red-haired man and Johnny hurried out through the kitchen door as the sound of glass shattering upstairs broke the unusual silence hovering over them. Mia watched, horrified, as the red-orange flames of a fire consumed the curtains in the two upstairs bedrooms. Movement downstairs caught her eye, and she knew the men had set the downstairs on fire as well.
Their message for Josiah and Bass was burning down their home.
Chapter 10
The Seminole farm held a disturbing silence that didn’t sit well with Josiah. The family’s bodies had been buried, but he still felt a troubling presence.
Bass rode up beside him, his dark gaze never resting as it moved from building to building. “You feel it, too?”
Josiah nodded.
“It’s why I do this job. I feel the souls crying out for justice.” With a slight tug on the reins, Bass’s horse turned back to the road. “We need to keep pushin’ on, lest they get too far ahead of us.”
Josiah wondered if Bass ever got tired. The man seemed to have a bottomless pit of energy. He dressed better than most men Josiah knew, his clothes always fashionable and his black boots polished to a bright shine. One other unusual thing was how Bass wore the two Colts strapped on each hip—butt forward for a faster draw. And the few times he’d witnessed Bass draw, he was lightning quick.
Josiah patted his horse’s neck and followed the posse, bringing up the rear and staying to the outside so he could pick up any unnoticed tracks. His father taught him to track from the time he could walk, and he was good at it. But, he was, after all, Indian.
They heard the Canadian River before they saw it, the sound of rushing water flowing over rocks. The road turned and dead ended. The five men sat on their horses, staring at the dense brush separating them from the river.
Bass scrubbed his face with his hand, pushing his hat high on his forehead. He stared thoughtfully at the rushing water. “Let’s search for tracks systematically. That’s gonna be the only way we find them. We know they came this way, so we’ll just have to discover which way they went from here.” He pointed to the two men on his right. “I want the two of you to spread out from that hill yonder and cover the next couple of miles west.”