LITMIR.BIZ

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did that several times, entered buildings, weaved around boxes and crates—at least she assumed that was what was on both sides of them, snagging her dress sleeves at times—and exited only to take a few steps before entering another one. Warehouses along the seashore were like that. Long lines of buildings storing the cargo shipped in and out of the bay. She’d explored them during the day in the town she’d first arrived in, but the men she’d encountered along the seashore made her not want to visit the docks again.

      Mad Dog’s men.

      “Was that Ridge’s horse you stole?” she asked.

      “Don’t know,” he answered. “I’d just stepped out the back door when I saw you knock down Bubba.”

      “Bubba?” This building had a sharp, almost sickeningly sweet scent filling it, like molasses, and she glanced around, but might as well have had a burlap bag over her head. She couldn’t make out anything in the darkness.

      “Don’t rightly know if that was his name or not,” Lucky said, “but he was one of Ridge’s men. I saw the other two going after you, so I ran around front and jumped on the first horse I came to.”

      They were still whispering, and it was making her voice burn. At least that had to be why her throat felt so thick. “Why?”

      “Why what?”

      “Why’d you steal the horse?”

      “To rescue you.” He stopped suddenly and she bumped into his back before stilling her steps. “You do know what Alan Ridge does with the girls his men snatch off the streets, don’t you?”

      “I’ve heard.” She refrained from admitting all she knew about the alias Mad Dog had taken on. It seemed the outlaw was now the leader of his own gang and had henchmen in every town lining the coast.

      Lucky—she still thought that was a silly name—opened another door and scanned the area like he’d done at each one before.

      “Don’t worry,” he whispered. “Ridge won’t catch us. Not tonight.”

      Stepping into the wet night air once again, Maddie squinted, hoping to see something this time. Nothing but blackness, yet she could hear water sloshing. “You sound funny,” she said when he opened another door.

      “That’s because I was born and raised down by New Orleans. A bayou boy. That’s what my granny always called me.”

      “What are you doing here?”

      “Shh,” he said. “Listen.”

      She did, until her ears stung from the thundering of her own blood.

      “Must’ve been a rat,” he said, moving forward.

      Maddie quivered. Rats came in all shapes and sizes, and she knew firsthand how some walked on two legs, pretending to be human.

      “Don’t worry, darling, rats don’t like us any more than we like them. It’s not much farther, either.”

      “Maddie, the name’s Maddie.”

      “Yes, ma’am,” he said, as cocky as every other statement he’d made.

      After the last building, he led her along a series of docks. Thick fog had settled in, and so had her nerves. An escape route hadn’t presented itself. Lucky may have rescued her from that alley, but that was not to say he wasn’t as bad as Mad Dog. He could be taking her to a place no better than Mad Dog did the girls he captured. Long ago she’d figured out what happened to those girls before they were sold. She hadn’t let that happen back in Colorado, and wasn’t going to let it happen here, either. Not with Mad Dog or a man who called himself Lucky.

      He stopped and started unlooping a thick rope from one of the posts lining the dock. “Climb down.”

      She peered over the edge. A rowboat bounced in the water. “Into that?”

      “Yes.”

      “Why?”

      “So I can row you out to my uncle’s ship. The Mary Jane. It’s sailing for Seattle posthaste.”

      Her heart skipped several beats. “Seattle?”

      “Yep.”

      That could be far enough away, but traveling cost money—something she didn’t have. The small chunk of gold sewn in the waistband of her petticoat was her seed gold. Smitty had given it to her when she’d left Colorado, along with all the cash he’d had. He’d said he wouldn’t need it where he was going, and Maddie had promised to make him proud. To become a woman he could smile down upon while he was busy filling the world with sunshine even on cloudy days. A smile tugged at her lips, remembering how Smitty had insisted if she ever needed him, all she had to do was look up. He’d brighten the sky for her.

      “Come on,” Lucky said, as he turned around and started climbing down the wooden ladder. “Unless you want to stay here, become one of Ridge’s girls.”

      Something changed, and Maddie glanced up. Strangely there was a momentary part in the clouds. The moon, as big, round and right as she’d ever seen, peeked through and shone down on her. Her heart skipped several more beats as she glanced back toward the rowboat. Still cautious, she asked, “How much will it cost me?”

      “Nothing.”

      It was the first time she got a good look at Lucky’s face. Kind of long, with a square, clean-shaven jaw. It was his eyes that caught her attention. Even in the fog they twinkled as if that was where the stars were, instead of high above the clouds where nobody could see them. She glanced up again. The moon was gone. No stars, either.

      “Come on, Maddie,” Lucky coaxed. “I promise you’re safe with me. You’ll be safe all the way to Seattle.”

      There were no others mingling around, no one to hear if she shouted, unless perhaps Mad Dog or his men—if they had followed. She wanted to believe Lucky, climb down and escape this town and all the dangers it held, yet caution had been her constant companion for years. “How do you know I don’t have family here?” she asked. “Someone looking for me. Right now, even. Who’ll hunt you down, along with Ridge.”

      His smile made those eyes twinkle brighter. “If you had family, you wouldn’t have been fetching water for Hester.”

      A splattering of hope rose inside her. “You know Hester?” The older woman had assisted Maddie in escaping Mad Dog’s clutches once before and had promised a permanent escape would happen soon.

      “That’s why I was at the saloon,” he said.

      The air left her lungs in a gush. “It is?”

      “Yes. I’m the rescue Hester promised.”

      Relief filled Maddie. That explained why Hester had sent her out to fetch water tonight. This was her chance, and she had to take it. “Why didn’t you say so?”

      He made some kind of reply, but already swinging around, Maddie didn’t hear exactly what. She was too busy willing her heart to stay in her chest as she lowered closer to the water. Wet and slippery, the ladder wasn’t easy to navigate. A wave of reprieve rushed over her when a firm hold took her by the waist, lifting her the last few feet.

      The boat rocked as Lucky guided Maddie to sit on one of the wide boards. Then he flipped a blanket over her head and shoulders before he sat down opposite her and grasped the handles of the oars.

      Though already damp, the blanket didn’t offer warmth, but did block the wind, and Maddie repositioned it, grasping both corners beneath her chin. Her thoughts went to the two younger girls that Hester had ushered into the attic late last night. When Lucky started to row, she asked, “What about the others?”

      “I was just sent after you, but don’t worry, if Hester promised them an escape, it’ll happen.” He made several more big circles with both arms at the same time, moving the boat through the water, before asking, “Are they friends?”

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