AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What’s wrong, Josh? You look like something tragic has happened,” the doctor said, placing a hand on Josh’s shoulder.
“It has. I can’t find Gabi. She asked if she could go outside to play. I got busy working, and when I went to check on her, she was gone. Just gone.” Josh forked a hand through his hair. “I never thought she’d run off. You don’t think someone …” He swallowed hard. “You don’t think anyone would take her, do you?”
“Let’s not jump to any hasty conclusions. You know she loves to play with the Milton boys and my youngsters. Check with Anne while I see if Henley has seen her. I’ll meet you back at your shop.”
“Okay, Doc. Thanks.” Josh ran through town to the Miltons’ home, pounded on the door, and impatiently waited for someone to answer it.
Anne opened it with the baby screaming in one arm and Andy clinging to her skirts, sniffling as tears clung to his eyelashes.
“Josh, what’s wrong?” she asked and backed up as he took a step inside, looking behind her, expecting—hoping—Gabi would appear.
“Gabi. Is she here?”
“No. I haven’t seen her today. She wouldn’t come over here by herself anyway. Is she missing?”
Josh was already on his way back outside. “Yes. I can’t find her anywhere. Doc is checking at his home. Edith searched up and down the street. She’s not in the shop.”
“Would she walk home by herself?” Anne asked, bouncing the baby and patting Andy on the head.
“She never has before, but I’ll check there next. I need to find my little girl.”
“I’ll ask R.C. to help you look.” Anne was already shoving Andy inside the house and shutting the door behind her as she picked up her skirts and raced off in the direction of the livery.
Josh felt like he couldn’t breathe as he sprinted to his house, shoved open the door and called his daughter’s name. “Gabi? Answer me if you’re here!”
He took the stairs three at a time, but Gabi wasn’t in her room or anywhere in the house.
Before he lost any more time, Josh saddled Hawkins, strapped on his gun belt, and rode back to his shop.
After barreling through it again, he stepped out back and noticed Gabi’s scratches in the dirt. With his and Edith’s footprints marring the word, he could just make out that she’d spelled Rena.
Surely, the child wouldn’t think she could walk out to the cabin. It was only a few miles there, but Gabi had never gone alone, and she’d never walked that far before. Could she even find it?
“She’s not at our house, and Henley hasn’t seen her,” the doctor said as he rounded the corner of the building.
“I think I know where she might have headed.” Josh pointed to the letters in the dirt.
“Want me to go with you?” the doctor asked.
“Unless you have a horse saddled and ready to ride, I’m not waiting a minute longer to go find her.”
“Go on. I’ll get my bag and horse, and then head toward Theo’s cabin.”
Josh didn’t respond. He ran down the side of his building, mounted Hawkins, and tore out of town. As he rode like his life depended on his speed, he prayed nothing had happened to his precious daughter.
“Rena?Rena!”Theotuggedon her arm and said something, but Rena couldn’t hear him. The ringing in her ears made it impossible to hear anything else, and her leg ached so badly she was fearful she wouldn’t be able to stand.
One of the other men they worked with had been lured away to a large mining operation in Baker City, so she and Theo were given the arduous task of training a brainless boy to be a powder monkey. The new hire, a cocksure lunkhead named Claude, whom Rena personally referred to as Clod, was going to get them all killed before the day was through.
Harry had spent three days trying to teach the dunce what he needed to know and had finally sent him to observe how she and Theo drilled the holes, set the charges, and checked the fuses. Theo had attempted to explain to Claude for the twentieth time why it was important to give a warning and make sure no one was in the area before detonating explosives. Instead of heeding Theo’s advice, the dunce had set off the blast, catching not only her and Theo by surprise but also several miners who weren’t completely clear of the blast area.
Rena had been closest to the explosion and had been knocked off her feet. Her head throbbed from where she’d hit it on a rock.
Claude, who was Cade’s nephew, stood in the swirling dust and debris, laughing, as though he’d pulled off some hilarious prank rather than nearly killed a dozen people.
Anger surged through her. If she got her hands on that halfwit, he’d rue the day he’d set foot at the Gilded Pine Mine. Rena didn’t care if he was related to the owner, he had no right to act like people’s lives were expendable.
“Rena?” Theo shouted as he helped her to stand.
