Free The Gunslinger’s Untamed Bride by Stacey Kayne Page B

man who assaulted Miss Palmer.”
    Lily could hardly believe his audacity, to make such assumptions. They would all be facing charges!
    “Oh, my gracious.” Mrs. Donnelly’s wide gaze landed on Lily’s skirt. The state of her attire left little doubt that she had indeed been assaulted. Her initial attacker stood beside her, posing as a sheriff.
    “Are you all right?” the woman asked.
    “Quite well,” Lily assured her. “Thank you. As Sheriff Barns has said, we need to recover the stolen funds.”
    “They just want what was owed to them.”
    “And we have every intention of distributing the wages, which are now missing.”
    “This whole town is waiting on their pay, Emma,” said Juniper. “Everyone will get their wages. But it has to be done properly. We have to get that money back.”
    Tears spilled across Emma’s cheeks, twisting the ache in Juniper’s heart. He hated having to press her for information. This family had been through so much heartache in the past few months.
    “Did they say where they were headed?”
    She nodded, sniffing back more tears.
    Juniper knew how much it cost her to implicate her brother.
    “A man was with him,” she said. “Calvin called him Chandler.”
    “You didn’t recognize him?”
    “No. He wasn’t a pleasant fellow. He kept shouting at Calvin and scaring the children.”
    Two men by the name of Chandler had been working in Calvin’s crew. Cousins, if he recalled correctly. He hadn’t had any skirmishes with the two men, yet the name now pricked at his mind in a way that told him he should know more about them.
    “They must have known you weren’t far behind,” she said.
    “They knew,” he said. “I was told they took off in two directions.”
    “I’m not surprised. Chandler and another man were arguing something awful outside the house. Some of the men wanted to divide the money and ride back up to camp, so as not to draw attention by missing work. Others sided with Chandler, wanting to lie low, refusing to divvy up the wages until they reached a place called Flat Ridge.”
    Chandler. The name clicked into place. Juniper was well acquainted with the land where boulders and flat-topped ridges dominated the terrain. He’d also known a Chandler family, their homestead not but a few miles from grazing lands owned by the Double D Ranch. Jed and Ben had suspected them of stealing cattle on more than one occasion, and if memory served, one of their boys had been killed a few years back during an attempted stage robbery.
    Adrenaline rushed through his veins as he began visualizing every known route across the sixty miles between The Grove and the Double D Ranch. He’d have a safe place to stash Lily while he went after her money, and his family would welcome the visit.
    “Which party did Calvin ride off with?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t know. They were still arguing when they left the yard, after some of them raided all that was ripe in my vegetable garden,” she added bitterly.
    “Did you see the other men?”
    Again she shook her head. “I kept the children in the bedroom until they left. Cal wasn’t in the house longer than it took for him to unload some parcels and Chandler to drag him back out. He said he’d be back when he could.”
    Calvin was young and likely believed the money would eventually get into the hands of the folks who needed it, but Juniper had a hunch the Chandler boys had other plans in mind. He glanced at the meager food supplies Cal had brought his sister. Potatoes, a few paper parcels of dried goods, none of which would last a family of six a full week. His gut burned as he looked back at his friend’s wife. He’d eaten at their supper table more times than he could count. But none of that changed the job he was sworn to do.
    “Emma, the money Cal gave you, I have to take it back.”
    “I made sure it was no more than what John was owed.”
    “Once it goes through the proper channels, you’ll get it back. But right now