Ruthless Heart. Emma Lang

Josiah’s words were sharp, scathing.

      “I know that now, old friend. She was raised without a godly mother, and the devil has obviously inhabited her soul. I suspect it might be too late to save Eliza, too.”

      What? Save her from the devil? Oh, for pity’s sake, she was a scientist not a devil-loving heathen.

      “What is his name?”

      “Wolfe. Grady Wolfe.”

      The name struck a chord deep in Eliza’s soul; it resonated through her, raising goose bumps in its wake.

      Grady Wolfe.

      He sounded like a predator, a man sent to track human beings. She didn’t like him already.

      “Don’t worry, Josiah, we’ll find them. Angeline will know God’s wrath for her misdeeds.” Silas spoke of his daughter as if he hated her, as if she was a scourge on his family name.

      Eliza wanted to punch him.

      “When will he begin his quest to find them?”

      “Tomorrow. He will wait for the money at the saloon at dinnertime.”

      “Then I will sleep better tomorrow in knowing the Wolfe is chasing the runaway bitches.” Josiah coughed or perhaps laughed, she couldn’t tell which, but footsteps sounded and she realized her father was coming into the kitchen.

      She ran to the stove and stirred the stew, realizing too late the glass was still in her hand. She slid it into the folds of her skirt as her father came near.

      “When will supper be ready, Daughter?”

      “Shortly, Father. I only need to take the biscuits from the oven and set the table.” She kept her voice steady while her body nearly shook with anger and fear for Angeline.

      “Set a place for our guest. He will eat with us.” Without another word, her father left the room.

      Eliza slumped and let out a huge breath she’d been holding. They were sending a man after Angeline, which meant she’d be dragged back here for her punishment. Eliza couldn’t let that happen. She’d have to find her sister before the bounty hunter could.

      How, she had no earthly clue, but her books could help her. After supper, she vowed to find a way to help Angeline. Eliza hadn’t been able stop the wedding, but she’d die before she failed her little sister again.

      Eliza breathed slowly through her mouth to avoid the stench in the alley. She never imagined anything could smell worse than an outhouse, but apparently she’d been wrong. The darkened stretch between the two buildings was the ideal place to wait for the man she was following. However, she was loath to admit, even to herself, her courage was beginning to wane. It was dark, obviously smelly, and there were numerous noises around her she couldn’t attribute to anything human. Her heart thumped madly as the reality of the world around her assaulted her senses with each passing minute.

      She nearly gave herself away when something dropped on her head, yet she held in the screech with effort, managing to squash the offending insect with only one long shudder as she wiped her hands on the grass beneath her. The man had been in the saloon for at least an hour. All she had to do was stay put until he left, then follow him. It was a simple plan.

      Eliza felt anything but reassured by the simpleness of it. What she had decided to do, what she was currently doing, she’d never even dreamed of, and that was saying a lot. Eliza had spent too much time dreaming of so many things, she’d forgotten to step outside that world.

      Now she was completely out of her element and scared. She had no experience in tracking or hunting. Realistically, she’d never been more than ten miles of where she’d been born nearly twenty-one years earlier.

      Yet here she was in the town she’d been forbidden to be in, alone, with a borrowed horse and as much courage as she’d ever been able to muster. All she had to do was remember her sister Angeline, and Eliza’s fear seemed petty and unimportant. She pushed her glasses up on her nose and shifted her feet to relieve the cramping in her legs. All she could do was hope the man she was waiting for would appear before her entire lower half went numb.

      Just as she began to wonder if the stranger would ever leave the saloon, aptly named the Drinking Hole, a man emerged through the batwing doors. The light behind him silhouetted him, making him into a dark unknown. However, she recognized him from earlier when she’d watched her father pay him. Mr. Wolfe was tall and rangy with a loose-hipped walk that made him stand out in the small Utah town. His clothing was as black as the night around him, along with his hat and likely his heart and soul as well.

      Eliza chided herself for jumping to conclusions about the man. There was no reason to judge him just because he’d been hired to hunt her sister. Or maybe there was a reason, but it wasn’t Eliza’s business. She really didn’t care about why he accepted the money, just how she could use him to find Angeline. Eliza had to be smart enough to follow him without his noticing her. Definitely easier said than done.

      He lit a cheroot, a flash of orange and red in the velvety blackness around him temporarily lighting his features. He looked like a creature of the night, a predator. It sent a shiver down her spine. What was she doing? Eliza lived her life in books, never venturing farther than she could walk, and there she was about to jump off a proverbial cliff. She had no experience in being on the trail, couldn’t hunt or fish, and the only knowledge she had came from books and her own experiments.

      Panic clawed at her belly as the stranger stepped toward his horse. She either followed him now or she lost the trail to find Angeline. This was the moment she decided if her sister’s life mattered more than hers, if comfort and familiarity, even if it included unhappiness, was better than the unknown danger awaiting her.

      Tears stung Eliza’s eyes as she thought of Angeline, the sweet blond girl who had trusted her father to keep her safe, to always make sure she was out of harm’s way. He’d failed at his job, failed Angeline completely, and left her to her own devices, as limited as they were. Now it was up to Eliza to help Angeline, and she’d never been so frightened in her life.

      His boots scraped on the dried mud on the wood-planked sidewalk, loud in the quiet surrounding them. Fear coated her tongue, but Eliza rose, keeping her eye on him as she held on to the reins of the horse behind her. Melba was mostly a plow horse, but her father had ridden the gelding for the past ten years. Another reason he’d be furious with her, but at that moment Eliza didn’t give a fig for what her father would say. He lost his rights as a parent as far as she was concerned.

      Silas Hunter wouldn’t have recognized his elder daughter, not that he’d ever really seen her clearly. She had not only found her way to town, she’d also found the man called Grady Wolfe. The stranger scratched his bay behind the ears, earning a wuffle and a nudge from the horse’s big snout. The stranger murmured something Eliza couldn’t hear, then un-hitched the horse and mounted quickly with an agility that surprised her. He obviously hadn’t had too much liquor or he would’ve been a lot less graceful. Or perhaps he was always that athletically gifted.

      Just because he was thin didn’t mean he wasn’t muscular or agile, that much was obvious. As a scientist, Eliza admired his skills. Then she reminded herself he was now trotting away as she stood there like a bespectacled fool wondering which muscles he’d used to get on the horse. She’d remind herself later to look it up in the anatomy book tucked in her bag.

      Eliza threw herself up on Melba, with significantly less agility than the stranger, and started after her prey. Although not a regular rider, Eliza always had a good seat and rode astride whenever Papa wasn’t around. She’d even made one of her skirts into a split riding skirt a few years earlier, which came in handy when she’d been readying for a life on the run. And now here she was riding into the night alone, following a man hired to find Angeline.

      It was frightening and exhilarating. For at least the first fifteen minutes. Then the lights from town faded from view and the cloak of darkness settled around her. She recognized the sounds of the birds, frogs, and insects, as well as the constellations in the sky. Much