Saving Grace (#1 in the Red Valley Series)

Prologue

Prologue

The cold hand of fear gripped his insides and twisted viciously as he put his head down, and kicked his black gelding into a full out run. The pounding of the horses' hooves matched the pounding of his own heart as he raced along the path dodging tree limbs and jumping fallen logs. Beads of perspiration formed on his brow and sweat trickled down his back in the early spring air. His tan Stetson was ripped off his head letting his shoulder length raven hair whip in the wind.

He should have been filled with relief as the simple log house came into view. Instead he felt a sickening dread seep through his body, like a cold winter wind. Sharp ice blue eyes sought out every detail of his surroundings, looking for anything out of place but there was only a still silence. Pulling hard on the reins, he jumped to the ground and ran to the porch before his horse had come to a skidding stop.

He drew his gun, threw open the door and ran inside. The front room was in shambles, the coppery sent of blood was heavy in the air filling his senses. Books were strewn across the floor, the book cases and chairs had been turned over. It was obvious that whoever had done this had been looking for something. He quickly ran through to the kitchen and found his beloved children on the floor covered in blood. Slowly his feet took him nearer to their tiny bodies.

He knelt down and reached out with a shaking hand praying that he would find a pulse, but there was nothing. Rage filled him as he looked at his sweet Cassie, who only that morning had been laughing and playing, now lay dead on the floor with her throat slit. He blinked back the tears that clouded his vision when he realized that she had crawled several feet to lay a comforting arm around her dying baby brother.

Those bastards had even cut his four month old son's throat! He took off his jacket and laid it over their still warm bodies, then continued his search for his wife. He found her with her wrists tied to the headboard of their bed. Her dress had been ripped off of her and her body was covered in bloody cuts and bruises. The way she lay there it was obvious she had been brutally raped.  

A small sound in the deafening silence caught his attention as he cut her hands free. He looked down at her bruised and battered face as her eyes fluttered slowly open. Instantly he pulled her into his lap wrapping his arms around her.

"Rebecca! Oh God, Rebecca. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me for not being here to protect you." He chanted as he rocked her back and forth like you would a child. "Who did this to you?" He managed to finally ask. He put his ear next to her lips, and a fury like he'd never felt before filled him as she spoke her last words to him then died in his arms. Still he held her, praying this was just a nightmare and he would wake up.

Gently he laid her back on their bed and covered her with the quilt, then went back into the kitchen and brought both of his children to lay with their mother. In a fog he dug three graves then one by one laid his beloved family to rest. After the last shovel of dirt, he walked over to the bushes and vomited. He was dead inside, there was nothing left of him. Slowly he felt the spot that had once been the home of his heart fill with ice and seep through his body.

People that were supposed to be his friends had done this to him, had taken everything, his children, his wife, his entire life! Why? What had he ever done to them? He'd find out and he was going to make those bastards pay, even if it meant that he would spend the rest of his life in jail. They were going to pay.

He went back inside the house and got several changes of clothes, some food, and the little bit of money that had been hidden in the stone fireplace. Then he grabbed the cooking grease and poured it on the floor in the kitchen and his bedroom, and lit a match. Within minutes the house was engulfed in bright orange and yellow flames. Black plumes of smoke filled the air as he sat by the graves of his family and watched the house slowly turn to nothing but charred smoldering embers.

As the gray light of a new day began, the only thing that remained of his old life was the stone fireplace they had once sat around as a family. He packed his saddle bags and rode to his mother and father in laws house to give them the gruesome news of their only child and their grandchildren, then he left for town

He told the sheriff everything that had happened, who Rebecca had said did it, and what he was going to do to those men that had called themselves his friends his entire life. The sheriff, another lifelong friend not only to him but also his father, gave him a badge to make everything legal. It didn't take him long to track them down, and one by one they all begged for death. He'd made sure that each one of them suffered just as they had made his Rebecca suffer.