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Ash nearly screamed when Ty poured the whiskey on the raw, open cut, but he managed to control himself.
“First gunshot wound?” Ty asked, amused.
“The first this week,” Ash answered as he tried to get his breath.
An hour later, both men were stretched beneath trees, when Ash heard a sound coming from behind Tynan. He looked at Ty but there was warning in Ty’s eyes, telling Ash to be quiet. Pretending to be asleep, Ash watched in fascination as a woman, not quite young, but not old either, came sneaking up behind Ty, making as little noise as a human can make in a forest.
Just as she reached Tynan, who seemed to be asleep, with his hat pulled down over his eyes, Ty reached out, grabbed her and pulled her into his lap.
“Let me go!” she yelled at him.
“Come on, Belle, you’re not still mad at me, are you?”
“I’d take a knife to you if I could.”
Tynan held her easily in his arms, struggling only with her hands, with which she meant to claw him. “You know I never meant to hurt you, but that girl was only thirteen years old. I couldn’t let you sell her to that old man.”
“You didn’t have to shoot up my place to save her. I lost everything in that. I had to go back on the streets to get enough money to pay for what you did.”
Tynan began nuzzling her neck. “I’ll bet you made a fortune.”
“I did not!” she yelled at him, then began to relax. “Well, maybe I did make some at that. What are you doing here? And askin’ about Dysan! You must wanta stop livin’.”
“I just want to find him. You know anything about him?”
“Not enough that I want to lose my life by tellin’ you. What’s he done to you?”
“Taken Chris Mathison,” Asher said. “Allow me to introduce myself. Asher Prescott at your service, ma’am,” Ash said, removing his hat.
The woman tried to free her hands from Tynan’s grip but he still held her. “All right, what do you want from me?” she said with a sigh. “Tynan, one of these days, you’re gonna ask for one too many favors.”
“What I like about women is that they always know how to give.”
Suddenly, the woman stiffened in Ty’s lap. “Chris? Is that a woman? Tynan, if you got me out here to help you find another woman, so help me I’ll—”
Ty kissed her to keep her quiet. “It’s strictly business. I’ve been hired by her father to take her to him and Dysan has her.”
“Then you’d be better off leaving her where she is. She won’t be worth much when Dysan finishes with her.”
Tynan frowned. “Are you speaking from first-hand knowledge?”
“I saw a girl after he got through with her. He doesn’t like women; he doesn’t like anybody for that matter. He has a place not far from here, but I don’t think he stays there much, I think he goes back East pretty often, and, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why he even comes to this godforsaken hole. He has money enough that he can live anywhere he wants to.”
Tynan released her hands but she still stayed in his lap. “I heard he has business around here.”
“There are rumors that he’s involved in whatever evil trick has been pulled lately, but no one’s been able to prove anything yet. The law’s terrified of him.”
Tynan was quiet for a moment. “You said this place of his was guarded. How well guarded?”
“An army post could learn from him. He has men patrolling his big house night and day—and they have dogs on leashes at night. Anybody even gets close and the dogs are let loose. They say those dogs can really take you apart.”
“Hasanyoneever made it inside?” Asher asked.
“Why would anybody be stupid enough to want to try?” the woman asked, looking from one man to the other.
“Belle, you know anybody who’s been in the place? Somebody we could ask questions?”
Belle looked down at her hands. “To tell you the truth, I was in there last year. I went with some other girls and…. Tynan, I don’t like to think about what happened that night.”
