"That escaped criminal kidnapped him on his own ranch. He says he's going to kill him... Morie!"

Morie didn't hear her. She'd fainted dead away.

CHAPTER TWELVE

IF IT DISTURBED HER FAMILY that Morie fainted at the news that Mallory had been kidnapped, her next move horrified them. She announced plans to fly up to Wyoming.

"What in the world do you think you can do that the law can't?" King demanded hotly.

"I can talk to Joe Bascomb," she said flatly.

"Nobody can talk to him-he's desperate." Her brother tried to reason with her. "He might kidnap you and kill you, too."

"He won't," she said, certain of it. "I talked to him. I shared my lunch with him. He'll listen to me."

Shelby hadn't said anything yet. She was watching, listening, worrying.

"Mom, remember when old man Hughes got drunk?" she asked gently. "Remember who they'd call to come get him out of bars or fights? It was me. He'd always do what I asked, no matter how mad or mean he was."

"Yes, I remember," Shelby said. "You have a way with people."

"Joe Bascomb isn't going to listen to any man," she said quietly. "But he might listen to a woman."

King was grinding his teeth. "I won't let you risk it."

She went close to him. "Yes, you will, Dad," she said gently. "Because it's what you'd do, in my place, and you know it." Her eyes darkened. "I love Mallory Kirk. He may be gullible, and he may be a terror of a man, but I can't let him die and not try to save him."

King drew in a long breath. "I guess you can't."

She pulled off her engagement ring and put it in his hand. "Please give that back to Daryl and tell him I did find somebody better, but only because it's a man I love. He'll understand."

"He will," King agreed. "I'll have them fuel the jet."

"Thanks."

He kissed her forehead. "Don't get killed." He wasn't teasing.

"I won't. I promise." She hugged him and her brother and then her mother.

"I could go with you," Cort volunteered.

"They don't need any more troublemakers than they've already got up there," King mused, shaking his head at his son. "You're too much like me. You'd just put everybody's back up."

Cort shrugged, but he didn't dispute the assessment. He tugged at Morie's long black hair. "Be safe."

She nodded. "I will be. I promise."

SHE PHONED TANK FROM the airport. He and Cane both came to get her. But when she explained what she wanted to do, they were adamantly against it.

"He'd listen to me if he'd listen to anybody," Tank argued. He was gaunt, like Cane. It had been a rough couple of days since Mallory went riding fence out near the old line cabin and didn't return. Joe Bascomb had phoned a few hours later and told them that he had Mallory and he was going to kill him for messing up his financial coup. Tank had pleaded with his friend, but Joe said he had nothing to lose and he wasn't talking to them again. He hung up.

"Mal may already be dead," Tank said heavily. "We have no way of knowing."

"I don't think he is," she said, without explaining why she thought that. She knew inside herself, knew certainly, that Mallory was still alive. She knew it.

"You don't even know how to find Joe, if we were to agree to let you try," Cane argued.

"I do know," she said. "I'll go to the line cabin and wait for him. He'll come. He watches it."

They frowned.

"That's where he took Mal from," Cane recalled. "We saw signs of a struggle."

"Why the cabin?" Tank wondered.

She gave them a droll look. "It's provisioned, isn't it? There's even a bed. And nobody stays out there except when there's a need. Where do you think he's been living all this time, in a cave?"

"You might have voiced that suspicion earlier," Tank muttered.

"I was having a little problem with credibility around here at the time," she said drily.

They looked upset.

"I know you two believed I was innocent," she said. "Thanks."

Cane studied her curiously. "Mallory said you sparkled like a jewel at your family ranch. Kingston Brannt's daughter, riding fence lines." He shook his head. "We could hardly believe it."

"Dad wouldn't let me near the cattle," she said, beaming inside at their description of what Mallory had said about her. "Neither would my brother. And I was being forcefully courted for my father's money. I needed a break."

"Mallory's been kicking himself ever since he got home," Tank told her. "He thinks he's too ugly to appeal to a woman for himself, so all they want is his money."

"He's not ugly. Stupid, yes," she muttered. "Idiotic. Distrustful. Bad-tempered...!"

"We know all that," Cane acknowledged. "But we love him."

She glanced at them sadly. "Yes. So do I. It's why I came. And I won't be discouraged from doing this. I'm right."

"If Joe doesn't kill Mal," Tank said quietly, "and it works out that he lets him go, he'll kill us for letting you take the risk."