Captive Heart (Cartwright Gals: A Romancing the Ponderosa Spinoff Book 2)

Chapter 4

"Hey, Candy," I glance up and find Joe about a quarter of a mile on the road ahead of me, "I think I found something."

I push my horse into a gallop and I'm at his side in a second. I look at the place he's pointing at and find three sets of tracks veering off the road across the open terrain towards the west. Jumping out of our saddles, we bend down to inspect them. I compare the tracks to each other and discover that one pair is slightly deeper than the others, like someone was carrying something heavy or riding double.

"What'd you think?" Joe asks from where he looks at the tracks a little further out.

"I think there's a very large possibility that these will lead to her," I stand up, "but she could be home by now wondering where we are."

"Candy, if she was walking home, one of us would've passed her on the way to town." Joe reminds me. "I'll ride home and get Pa and the others. You follow those tracks for a while, we'll catch up to you."

"We've only got about three hours of daylight left." I swing myself back into the saddle as he does the same.

"I know, we'll bring bedrolls and supplies with us." He turns in the direction of the Ponderosa as he calls over his shoulder, "Don't worry we'll find her."

With a final wave, we both take off in different directions; him towards home and me on what is beginning to feel like a wild goose chase. I keep my horse at a walk so I don't miss anything like I did the first time and scan the ground, watching the three sets of tracks as I follow them along.

After riding for about two hours, I find a spot where it looks like they stopped for a break. By the spaces between the tracks I can tell they were galloping the whole way so I figure they needed to rest the horses. I unmount and begin to inspect the area. There's four different sets of footprints, which means that one of the horses is carrying double. Three sets of the footprints are large and shaped like my own boot but the fourth one is a lot smaller and dainty like a lady's boot. Like the boots that Brie was wearing when she left this morning.

I decide that this spot is as good as any to camp for the night, so I quickly tether my horse and I look around some more before the little bit of daylight left is gone. As I move away from my horse, something in the dirt catches my eye. Stepping over to it, I squat down to get a better look. The ground is smoothed and the shape of a person, like someone had fallen and left an imprint in the loose dirt. Not only is the imprint shaped like a skirt, there's two handprints where the person caught themself. Being careful not to leave my own handprint in the dirt or mess up any of the imprints, I compare them to my own hands. They're just the size of Brie's hands.

I get slowly to my feet and look around for anything else that might show Brie's been here, but not seeing anything, I begin to gather some firewood. The others will be here soon and we'll all want to eat, plus the night's beginning to get chilly.

I get the fire going as the sun begins to slip out of the sky. Sitting in front of it, I watch the flames eat away at the dry wood, while my mind wanders to Brie. I knew I should've gone to town with her this morning even after she insisted that she'd be perfectly fine going by herself. Wanting to kick myself, I wish I could somehow go back in time as I listen to the fire crackle and pop. Over my loud thoughts, I suddenly hear voices and horses in the distance. I quickly leap to my feet and put my hand on my gun, ready to draw.

"Candy, it's just us," Joe's voice calls out of the dark, "don't start shooting."

"Sorry," I let go of my gun as they ride into the light of the fire, "I couldn't see who it was."

"It's alright." As he swings himself out of the saddle, I glance passed him and see he brought all the men of the family. Ben, Hoss, Adam, and Kevin slide out of their saddles and begin to unpack their bedrolls and the food they brought. Getting my attention again, Joe tosses me my bedroll from off the back of his horse. Before I know it, the smell of beans and bacon is in the air and all of us are laying on our bedrolls as we wait for them to finish cooking.

"Did you find anything, Candy?" Ben asks after Joe and Hoss quit arguing about the other's spot being better than his own.

"Yeah, it looks like this spot is where they stopped to take a break." I sit up and wrap my arms around my knees. "I found four different sets of footprints. Three of them are man sized while the fourth one was small and girl sized."

"Brie must be with them then." Adam says from where he lays stretched out on Ben's other side.

"That's not all I found," I point behind me, "there's an imprint in the dirt over there like someone fell. It's shaped like the person was wearing a skirt and the handprints in front of it were about the same size as Brie's."

"But why would anyone wanna kidnap Brie for?" Hoss asks. "She ain't done nothin'."

"The three men must be some sort of outlaws." Kevin puts in, the firelight making his face glow in the darkness. "They probably took her with them because she saw them and then could identify 'em for the law."

"Hey, I just remembered," Joe shoots up to a sitting position, "Roy told me that three men tried to rob the bank in Carson City but came out empty handed and that the sheriff said they were headed in this direction."

"What were their names?" Ben asks before I get the chance.

"I think Roy said, Shane Wesley, Ryder McKenzie, and then the other one was a Carlito something, I can't remember his last name, it was a strange Spanish sounding name."

"Shane Wesley, Ryder McKenzie, and Carlito Vincinte." I groan, rubbing my hand down my face.

"You know them?"

"Yeah, I know them." I look over at Joe. "I stopped them from robbing the bank in Reno about five years ago and they were put in jail for four years. Shane told me that when he got out he would come find and kill me."

"What type of man is this Shane Wesley?" Ben asks, his voice laced slightly with dread.

"Vile, mean, and hard hearted," I sigh, "and now he's got Brie."