He started to go after her, but just as he was about to reach the mouth of the alley, he heard the telltale squeak of the saloon's back door, and he quickly moved into the shadows behind a stack of crates.
Someone in that crowd had terrified her, and he was determined to find out who and why. He wasn't concerned that Genevieve would get away from him, because even if she did leave town, she would be easy to track in the moonlight.
His patience was quickly rewarded. Three of the homeliest and meanest-looking men he'd ever laid eyes on came strutting past. Two of them were big and bulky, and it soon became apparent that they took their orders from the shorter, heavier man dressed like a statesman at a funeral who trailed behind them.
Adam guessed the thugs were in the dandy's employ. When the man stopped at the entrance of the alley to strike a match to a cigar, the other two also stopped to wait for him.
"Do you want me to chase her down for you, Reverend?" the tallest of the three asked.
"No need to rush," the reverend answered in an accent that was as thick as southern maple syrup.
"The bitch won't be getting away from me this time," he crooned. "I've got her now, praise the Lord. I told you, Herman, that God would show me the way. Didn't I?"
"Yes, Reverend, you told me," Herman agreed.
He moved into the moonlight, and Adam got a good look at Herman's face. His forehead bulged out over his brows, his nose was crooked, no doubt from being broken a time or two, and there were scars on his cheeks that Adam thought were the result of a few knife fights. He looked exactly like what he was, a thug, and so did his companion.
"What do you want Lewis and me to do if she refuses to go back with you?" Herman asked.
Before the reverend could answer the question, Lewis stepped forward. "Will you want us to hurt her?" he asked eagerly.
"I expect so," the reverend crooned.
He motioned for his two companions to get out of his way and then walked into the street. "Come along, boys. God helps those who help themselves."
Adam had heard enough. He quietly followed the three men past the saloon and the hotel, but then he turned and took a shortcut between the buildings and shortened the distance to the livery stable by more than half.
He slipped inside without making a sound and bolted the doors behind him. He heard Genevieve before he saw her. She was whimpering low in her throat as she tried to swing the saddle up on her mare.
"Going somewhere?" he drawled out.
She jumped a foot and let out a loud yelp. She whirled around and found him standing right behind her inside the stall.
She felt as if her heart were going to explode. "You scared me."
"You were already scared."
He gently pushed her out of his way and took over the task of saddling her mare. He worked quickly and quietly. She picked up her bedroll and cradled it in her arms while she waited for him to demand an explanation.
He didn't say a word. He turned to her when he was finished, saw the bedroll, and suggested she leave it behind.
"Good God, no," she cried out.
He didn't have time to get into an argument with her. "Then tie it up behind the saddle."
He went into the adjacent stall and quickly saddled his stallion. She followed him and stood by his side, with her bedroll still in her arms.
"You can't go with me," she told him in no uncertain terms.
"Sure I can," he replied. There was a hard edge in his voice, indicating to her that he planned to be stubborn about it.
"Please listen to me. You can't go with me now. You could get hurt."
"What about you?"
"I don't want you to come with me."
"Too bad."
"Adam, please. I'm begging you. Walk away now."
"No," he snapped. "We're staying together. I'm kind of anxious to get going. I just can't wait to get you alone for a few minutes so you can tell me again how you don't have any problems at all. Isn't that what you told me, Genevieve?"
She bowed her head. "I know you're angry with me."
"No, I'm not angry," he replied. "I've gone way past anger."
She started to say something more to him, but he put his hand up in a signal to be silent. Someone was pushing hard on the outer doors. Genevieve was turning toward the sound when Adam reached out and grabbed her. He wasn't gentle as he shoved her behind him and pushed her into the corner of the stall. He grabbed his rifle, cocked it, and then waited.
The doors crashed open, and Herman came running into the stable. Lewis was right behind him. The two men spread out to the opposite sides of the barn and squinted into the shadows.
Ezekiel Jones sauntered inside.
"My, my, it's dark in here. Where are you hiding, girl? I know you're in here. Maybe I ought to light the lantern and have a little look-see. I always liked to play hide-and-seek when I was a lad."
Adam could feel Genevieve trembling. She was also trying to get around him, but he made it impossible by squeezing her further into the corner. He was determined to protect her, even if she didn't want him to, and when she begged him in a whisper to save himself, he shook his head. He didn't dare turn to her, for it was imperative that he keep track of Ezekiel's two companions, who were slowly and methodically checking each stall as they made their way down the aisle.
They were getting closer. Ezekiel waited near the door. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," he called out in a singsong voice.
"Are you scared, girl? You ought to be scared. No one crosses Ezekiel Jones without suffering God's wrath."
"We need some light in here," Lewis called.
Ezekiel struck a match. The sizzling powder sounded like an explosion in the sudden silence. He lit a lantern and left it swaying back and forth on its hook, and then turned and shut the barn doors behind him.
"I wouldn't want any company coming inside to bother us," he drawled out. "And I wouldn't want you to get past me again, Miss Genevieve. There aren't any windows here to climb out, are there?"
Herman had steadily crept forward into the stall next to them and suddenly popped up. He was eye to eye with Genevieve. She didn't have time to shout a warning, but one wasn't necessary. Adam saw him at the same instant she did. He proved to be much quicker than the other man too. He used the butt of his rifle and struck him hard on the side of his head. Herman looked stupefied, and then his eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped down hard to the floor.
The noise brought Lewis running. He stopped short as soon as he saw the rifle pointed at him.
Ezekiel took his time strolling down the aisle to stand beside his hired gunman. His expression hardened when he spotted Adam, but just as quickly as his scowl appeared, it was replaced by a smile.
"Who are you, mister?"
"No one you need to know," Adam answered.
"I've got business with the woman you've got behind your back, but I don't have any quarrel with you. If you'll hand her over to me, you can leave, and no harm will come to you."
"I'm not going anywhere, and you're not getting near her."
"I'll make it worth your while."
"No."
There was pure hatred in Ezekiel's gaze as he stared at Adam. His voice lost its gentlemanly tone when he next spoke. "You're harboring a criminal and a sinner. She pulled you into her web of deceit, didn't she?"
Genevieve edged her way to Adam's side. "You're the criminal, not me," she cried out.
He pointed a finger at her. "Jezebel," he shouted.
"Just who the hell are you?" Adam demanded. "And what do you want with Genevieve?"
Ezekiel puffed up like a rooster. He held the lapel of his jacket with one hand and stood poised as though he were having his portrait done.
"I am the Reverend Ezekiel Jones," he announced importantly. "And she has something that belongs to me."
"I don't have anything that belongs to you."
"God will smite you for lying, girl."
"How dare you call yourself a pre
acher. You're nothing but a petty thief."
"My dear, there isn't anything remotely petty about me."
He looked at Adam again, feigned an expression of remorse, and said, "Like the sainted Paul, I too was a sinner before I was shown the light. I want my money back," he added in a snarl.
"I don't have your money," she cried out.
Lewis took a step forward. Adam fired into the ground in front of him. Dust flew up into his face, and he jumped back and very nearly knocked Ezekiel off his feet.
The reverend shoved him aside. "She took over four thousand dollars from me."
"No," she insisted. "I didn't take any of your money."
"She's lying," Ezekiel roared.
"Adam, you believe me, don't you?"
"You heard the lady. If she says she didn't take it, then she didn't. Now get out of here before I lose my patience and put a bullet in your pompous backside."
Ezekiel stood his ground. "Can't you see how she's blinded you to the truth? She's a jezebel, I tell you, and she'll take you to hell with her if you don't listen to me."
"Why don't we bring in the law and let the sheriff decide who's telling the truth," Adam suggested.
"No," Ezekiel blurted out. "There isn't any need to involve the law."
"Is that so?" Adam said.
"My checkered past still haunts me," Ezekiel confessed. He was trying hard to look contrite and failing miserably. "Otherwise, I'd run to get the sheriff. As God is my witness, I would."
"Get out of here," Adam ordered.
Ezekiel turned away. "This isn't over," he hissed.
Lewis tried to go to his friend, who was still unconscious on the floor in the next stall, but Adam wouldn't let him.
"Leave him be and get out," he ordered.
Ezekiel opened the barn door. "I'll get you, girl," he bellowed. "I know where you're headed, and I'm telling you now, you're never going to get there. Judgment Day is at hand."
And then he disappeared into the darkness. Lewis chased after him,
Genevieve fell back against the wall in exhaustion and relief.
Adam wouldn't let her relax. "We have to get out of here before they figure out how easy it would be to ambush us. Hurry, Genevieve. Ah, hell, now what are you doing?"
She had thrown herself into his arms and burst into tears. "Thank you for believing me."
He allowed himself a moment to hold her. He squeezed her tight, bent down, and kissed her forehead. Then he pulled away.
"Let's go, sweetheart."
She wiped the tears away from her face with the back of her hands and stood there smiling up at him with a dazed look in her eyes.
"Now what?" he asked gruffly.
"You called me sweetheart."
"Yes, I did," he said. "Now move it."
He tried to lift her up into the saddle. She backed away. "My bedroll," she explained.
She turned around and picked it up from the corner of the stall where she'd dropped it, but Adam was quicker. He grabbed one end and swung the bedroll up behind the saddle.
Then he froze and watched in disbelief as a hundred-dollar bill slowly floated down from the bedroll to the floor. It landed between his feet.
He stared at it for several seconds and then bent down to pick it up. He didn't say a word to her, and his expression showed only mild curiosity as he turned to look at the bedroll again. Before she realized what he was going to do, he untied the rope holding the bedroll secure and then flipped it open in front of him.
Hundreds of bills poured down like rain on his feet until he was standing in a pyramid of money. He was pretty certain he knew how much was there, but he decided to find out the exact amount anyway.
His gaze slowly moved to hers. "Four thousand?" he asked quietly.
She shook her head. "Close to five," she said. "Four thousand seven hundred and three dollars, to be exact."
"Ezekiel's money, I assume." His voice blazed with anger.
He was so furious with her he could barely speak, yet he couldn't help but notice she didn't look the least bit guilty or contrite. She didn't appear to be at all worried either.
"Care to explain, Genevieve?"
She folded her arms across her waist. "I didn't steal Ezekiel's money."
He glanced down at the pile and back up at her. The evidence was damning.
"Adam?"
"What?"
"You will believe me."
Chapter Ten
From the moment he'd met her, she'd done nothing but lie-or so it seemed-and there was absolutely no reason to believe she was telling the truth now. And yet he did believe her. He was either the most gullible man in the world or just plumb crazy. Regardless, he trusted her.
She wasn't a thief. Therefore, there had to be a logical explanation for why she just happened to have all that money with her, and just as soon as possible, he was going to sit her down and demand that she tell him everything.
He didn't speak to her again until they made camp about twelve miles south of Gramby. He asked her to get a fire started while he backtracked to find out if they were being followed. By the time he returned to the campsite, she had the bedrolls laid out and a pot of coffee brewing over the flames.
She waited until after he had taken care of the horses and had eaten his supper to bring up the topic she was sure would give him indigestion.
"I don't think it's a good idea to keep the money in my satchel, because that's the first place Ezekiel will look for it."
"Hopefully he won't get close enough to look."
He glanced around the campsite. He remembered dropping the satchel next to the bedrolls, but it wasn't there now.
"What'd you do with the money?"
She pointed to a jagged boulder about twenty feet away from where she was seated. "I hid the satchel behind that rock under some bushes."
He dropped down beside her and added some twigs to the fire. She offered him an apple, and when he shook his head, she put it back in her lap.
"Could you tell if Ezekiel was following us or not?"
"No," he replied. "The clouds were already moving in. If he is, he's going to have a hell of a time seeing our tracks."
"Won't he see the smoke from our fire?"
"With all this mist? No, he won't see it."
"Why is it so damp here?"
"We're close to Juniper Falls," he replied. "Genevieve, what could you have been thinking, carrying all that money? My God, you left it in the stable with the horses."
"No one ever steals an old bedroll," she said. "It was safer there than in the saloon."
He was trying to keep his temper under control. "I think you'd better start explaining. If you didn't steal the money from Ezekiel, then where did you get it?"
"Oh, I stole the money from him all right."
His mouth dropped open. "You what?"
She put her hand on his knee in an attempt to calm him. "Don't get mad until you've heard everything. I did take the money from Ezekiel, but it never belonged to him. I guess you could say I stole from a thief. Yes, that's exactly what I did," she added with a nod.
"Start at the beginning and try to make sense."
"I just hate it when you snap orders at me like that."
"Start talking, Genevieve."
His impatience irritated her. She put the apple back in the burlap sack and folded her hands in her lap.
"I was duped, just like everyone else. I remember telling you that I attended the same church your mother had joined and that I sang in the choir," she said. "Once a year, on Palm Sunday, an assembly of preachers would join the congregation and one would be chosen by our preacher to give the sermon. On one such occasion, the Reverend Thomas Kerriman spoke. He was begging for our help and told us that he was going to lead a large group of families to Kansas to join a settlement there. The families were in a hard way, Adam. They didn't have money or clothes or food, but what they did have was a will to start over again and build a new life. Reverend Kerriman was their Moses."
"And was he like Ezekiel Jones?"
"Oh, no, he's the complete opposite. I knew Thomas before he became a preacher. We grew up together in the same parish, and I know for a fact that he's a good and decent man. He would never dupe anyone."
"So what happened?"
"Ezekiel was also in the congregation that day. He stepped forward and promised Kerriman that he had a sure way to help him. He pointed to the choir and said that if the members agreed, he would take us from town to town to sing, and all the donations would go to Kerriman's cause. He singled me out and said that my voice alone would guarantee large donations." She sounded ashamed.
"You have a beautiful voice, Genevieve," Adam remarked.
"Thank you," she replied. "My father used to tell me that God gives each one of us a special talent and it's up to us to decide if we will use that talent for good or evil. I didn't understand at the time what he meant. I do now."
"Because of Ezekiel?"
"No, because of me. I let him turn my head with all his compliments. I liked being singled out, Adam, and I started dreaming about fame and fortune. He easily drew me into his scheme. I was very full of myself back then, and Ezekiel fed my pride. I'm very ashamed of the person I became. I acted like a spoiled child," she added. "Fame went to my head, and before long the only friend I had left in the choir was Lottie."
"The woman who sent you the wire."
"Yes," she replied.
"So you went from town to town singing and collecting money."
"Yes," she said. "Ezekiel became more and more demanding. I was never allowed to go anywhere by myself or with my friend. He hired men to watch over me…"
"Lewis and Herman?"
She nodded. "Ezekiel told me they were there to protect me, but I was more afraid of them than the men they were protecting me from. I still stubbornly clung to my dream of being famous, and then something happened and I saw how shallow and empty my life was becoming."
"What happened?"
"My mother died and I didn't even know about it until two weeks after her funeral. We were singing in Birmingham, and one of her friends come all that way to tell me. I found out later that she had sent a wire to Ezekiel when my mother became ill, but he hid it from me. I will never forgive myself or him."