Page 77 of A Whiskey River Princess

“What the hell are you doing? If she goes over the edge, so does the money!” Clayton reasoned, walking up on the other side. Then he reached over the edge of the cliff, grabbed Gabriella, and pulled her up. She rolled over, collapsing onto her back.

The mare whinnied as she nudged Gabriella’s side, nickering softly.

“Good girl.” Gabriella reached up and petted her muzzle, cringing from the pain in her shoulder and back.

“What the hell is going on?” Blake grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet, leaving a bright red circle on the snow.

Gabriella gasped.

“What the hell?” He pulled his hand back and it was drenched in blood. “Which one of you shot her?”

“He did it.” Clayton pointed to Harley.

“Like hell I did!”

“Shut up, you imbeciles!” Blake yanked her coat away from her shoulder to assess the damage.

“Get off me!” Gabriella demanded, trying to pull the coat back up.

Blake looked down at her shoulder, ignoring her. “It was a clean shot, and it looks like it went straight through her shoulder, but she’s losing a lot of blood.” He bundled up her coat, pushed it to her shoulder, and applied pressure. Then, he took off his own coat and pushed it to the front, trying to stop the bleeding. He looked up at Harley. “We have to get her back to that cabin. If we don’t, she could bleed to death. We have to cauterize the wound.”

Clayton’s eyes opened wide. “We can’t do that to a woman! We have to get her to a doctor!”

She had no idea what cauterize meant, but there was no way she was going to let any of them touch her. “Let me go! Don’t you dare touch me!”

Blake ignored her as he scooped her up and pushed her onto his horse. Then he slid up behind her.

“Get away from me! Let me go!”

He pulled out a gun and pointed it at her head. “Shut up, or I’ll throw you off the cliff myself.”

“Then you won’t get your money for sure,” she calmly replied, squaring her shoulders. “Thatiswhat you want, isn’t it? Money?”

He didn’t answer as he slid his gun back into its holster.

“Yah!” He leaned forward and ran the horse as quickly as he could through the forest.

Involuntarily, she leaned back against Blake’s chest, feeling weak and dizzy. She sat up, willing herself not to lose consciousness, but the slow, methodical rhythm of the horse’s pace was hard to fight. The snow blew hard against her as they walked on. Gabriella was cold, so cold. But the last thing she saw before her eyes closed was the abandoned cabin. She hoped that Dirk would come for her… and God help these men when he found her.

Chapter 17

Dirk

Hooves plodded loudly against the snow as Dirk pushed onward. The tracks were still visible, but barely. He hated himself for pushing the horse as hard as he was, but he had to get to Gabriella before it was too late. No matter what happened between them, one thing was certain: Gabriella needed him… and he was going after her.

Suddenly, the direction of the tracks changed. They were headed toward the bluffs. “Dear God. No! Please don’t let anything happen to her,” he muttered a prayer as he pushed the horse onward. When they neared the edge of the cliff, he pulled back. From the look of the tracks, there were four horses, and one set of tracks looked as if it had skidded to a stop by the cliff.

His horse was panting as Dirk slid off him and walked over to the edge. Dirk looked down as a few pebbles rained down the mountainside. He took a step back, and then something red in the snow caught his eye. Stooping down to take a closer look, he saw that it was a large red spot in the white snow, resembling a bulls-eye. Only one substance splattered like that. Blood. How he’d seen it in the falling snow was beyond him. It must have been fresh. They had to have been only minutes ahead of him. Dirk ran over to his horse and jumped back into the saddle, hoping it wasn’t Gabby’s blood he saw in the snow.

“Yah!” Dirk leaned forward in the saddle, following the tracks through the woods, pushing the horse onward in a dead run, knowing they couldn’t get far with one of them losing so much blood. Soon, he looked up and there was a cabin that looked abandoned up ahead. Even though it was still morning, he hoped that they knew enough to take her there. Surely, they wouldn’t try to make it to Laramie with one of them bleeding.

When Dirk neared the cottage, he pulled his horse to a walk. He didn’t want them to hear him coming. He had the element of surprise, and he wanted to keep it that way, especially since there was only one of him and three of them.

As he drew near, smoke came from the chimney. They had obviously lit a fire. He pulled his collar up and petted the horse lightly on his neck. “Good boy,” he cooed as he slid off. “Stay here. I won’t be long.”

The horse bobbed his head furiously up and down. He walked away, pushed some snow aside on the ground, and started nibbling at the dead grass beneath.

As quietly as he could manage, Dirk snuck up outside the house.

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