“They thought you were in cahoots with the robbers,” she finished for him.
Luke’s eyes widened. “Yes. They thought we were scouts for the thieves. They laughed at me when I said we had saved the whole Jordan family from death and that, actually, we’d saved the whole damned town. They said—”
“Sssssh,” she said. “You don’t have to talk anymore. Just rest.”
“No,” he said, “I have to go back. They were going to lynch us, but Tarik fought them all, and he held them off long enough for me to get back through the door. But they were shooting.”
Kady would not allow herself to actually comprehend what he was saying. Right now she needed to keep her wits about her. “So you don’t know if he is alive or not?”
“No,” Luke said as he fell back on the bed. “I have to go to him.”
“Yes, of course you do. But right now I want you to rest while I pack some food for you to take back with you. And I want you to take a couple of aspirin. Will you do that for me?”
His eyes closed, he smiled and Kady could tell what he was thinking, that she was a silly female who only thought of food even in times of crisis.
But Kady had her own plans. Fifteen minutes later she had given Luke a couple of sleeping pills she had found in a kitchen cupboard, and now that he was sleeping soundly, she was ready to return to the old Legend. Wearing the clothes she’d returned in from her time with Cole, she left the room.
But even as she was going down the stairs, she felt helpless. How was she going to rescue Tarik from a hanging? None of the people of Legend would know her, so she’d have no influence over them. She couldn’t very well ride a horse up to the jail, pull out a gun, and make them hand Tarik over to her. Could she?
Standing outside was Wendell, rigged out in black leather that fit as though it had been painted on her, and the words “fast transportation” rang thro
ugh Kady’s head.
“Can that thing climb mountains?” Kady asked, heading toward Wendell.
Wendell looked as though something distasteful had just been put under her nose. “Depends on who’s driving it,” she said smugly. “I guess you’d understand it as a stove being able to cook all by itself.”
Kady resisted a sarcastic remark. “Then why do you think Tarik said you just thought you could ride a motorcycle, but actually you didn’t even know how to shift gears properly?”
It took a moment for the tall redhead to recover herself enough to speak. “Where is he?”
Kady smiled sweetly. “I was just going to see him.”
“Get on,” Wendell said, throwing a leg over the bike and kick-starting it. She roared off toward the Hanging Tree before Kady got her feet onto the rests.
Chapter 28
IT WASN’T UNTIL LATER THAT KADY REALIZED THAT WENDELL was on a different motorcycle than the big Harley-Davidson. This one had tires with two-inch deep rubber teeth that clawed their way up the mountain as soon as Kady said, “Petroglyphs,” and it was all she could do to hang on to the back of the bike as they went up.
In the turmoil of flying gravel she didn’t have much time to think, but when she did, all that went through her head was, What if the door isn’t open?
But when they reached the huge sheer wall of rock, there it was, open before them, and through it she could see the cemetery, with much fewer stones than the one in Ruth’s time had. And she could see that it was already past sunset. Luke had said that Tarik was to be hanged at dawn. Was that dawn tomorrow or the dawn of this day? Was he already dead?
“Thanks a lot,” she said to Wendell as she got off the bike. “I appreciate it. I’ll, ah, cook something nice for you when I get back.” She practically ran through the opening and was instantly in Legend.
Then, to her horror, she realized that Wendell was behind her, walking that big motorbike of hers and following Kady as she hurried toward the town. Stopping, she put her hands on her hips. “You cannot go with me! You must return to Legend.”
“Looks to me like this is Legend,” Wendell said, looking around her. “A little bit changed, but that’s the graveyard. I’ve seen it all my life.”
“I don’t need this now,” Kady said with her fists clenched at her sides as Wendell moved ahead of her. “I have something very important to do, and I don’t need any interference.”
With a raised eyebrow, Wendell looked back at Kady. “So what’s going on with you, my brother, and my sexy cousin? And if you tell me that lie about you two being married, I’ll do whatever I can to cause trouble. And trust me on this, I can cause a lot of trouble.”
“Look, I really don’t have time for this. You and I can have a cat fight later. I have to see that Tarik is alive and—” From the look of interest on Wendell’s face she knew that was the wrong tack. “You must return. Just go back up that path and—”
“The only way I’m leaving is if someone carries me. Think you’re big enough?”
“Not with two pack elephants,” Kady said with her sweetest smile, then turned away and started walking quickly toward town while Wendell rolled her bike along beside her.