Twin of Ice (Montgomery/Taggert 6)

“The heels on those boots of yours hurt, so don’t waste my time askin’ damn fool questions.”

Houston looked into the dark cell and saw Kane sprawled across the little mattress, parts of him hanging over the side. She tossed a pebble into the cell.

He didn’t even move and it took six stones, one of them glancing sharply off his chest, before he woke.

“Kane!” she said as loudly as she dared.

“What?” he asked, sitting up. “Is that you, Houston? What’re you doin’ here in the middle of the night?”

She motioned for him to come to the window. “I don’t have time to explain now but Ian and I are getting you out of jail. We’re going to dynamite this wall away, so I want you to get into the farthest corner and put that mattress around as much of you as you can cover.”

“You’re what?” Kane gasped. “Dynamite! Listen, Houston, there’s somethin’ I have to tell you.”

“Houston!” Ian said from below her. “Them little heels are killin’ me. Are you gonna stay up there all night?”

“I have to go,” she said. “Just get in the corner, and when the wall is gone, I have horses ready. I love you.” With that, she bent and got off Ian’s shoulders.

Kane stood by the window of the cell for several long moments. She hadn’t run off to get the money, but instead, she’d set up a plan to blow the side of the jail out and rescue him. He put his hands in his pockets and started to whistle a little tune, smiling at the thought of Houston being so concerned about him.

It was while he was whistling that he heard an odd sound, like something on fire.

“Dynamite!” he gasped, grabbed the mattress and leaped into the corner of the room. Nothing could have prepared him for the noise of the explosion. It was as if the top of his head had been taken off—and the noise went on and on.

Houston, Ian and Zach hid behind a boulder as the wall to the jail came tumbling down. The dynamite removed the foundation to the two-story wall and the stones above it fell rather gracefully, leaving a clear view of the interior of the jail. Kane was huddled in a corner and, when the dust began to settle, he made no attempt to move.

“We’ve killed him,” Houston cried and started running, Ian behind her.

“Probably just deafened him. Kane,” Ian shouted above the sound of the rock that was still falling, and when Kane made no response, Ian scrambled up the rock and into the three-walled cell.

Ian pulled the mattress off but Kane couldn’t understand a word he said, so Ian had to use gestures. For some reason, Kane seemed to have been made stupid by the explosion, since he kept shaking his head at Houston, and Ian had to nearly push him onto the rock pile so he could get to the ground.

Houston waited on a horse and, as Kane got close to her, she saw that he kept putting his hands to his head as if he were in great pain. He seemed to want to say something, but Houston wouldn’t give him time as Ian and Zach started pushing him onto the other horse.

“Go home, both of you,” she ordered as she saw that people were rushing down the street toward them after hearing the explosion.

“Let’s go,” she shouted to Kane and he followed her down the south road of town and out into the dessert.

Houston rode as fast and as hard as she could spur her horse, looking back occasionally to Kane who followed her with a blank, odd look on his face.

The sun came up, and still they rode, slowing just enough to allow the horses to breathe. At noon, they stopped at a stage station, a desolate place in the middle of the barrenness between Colorado and New Mexico, and Houston paid an outrageous price for two fresh horses.

“He all right?” the station manager asked, nodding toward Kane as he leaned against the building and hit his head with his hand.

Houston handed the old man a twenty dollar bill. “You haven’t seen us.”

He took the money. “I mind my own business.”

Houston tried to talk to Kane, but he just dumbly stared at her moving mouth and followed her only after she motioned him to do so.

What they ate during the day, they ate while on their horses, never stopping even after the sun set. Only once did Kane try to speak, but when he couldn’t seem to hear himself, he made gestures that Houston finally realized meant that he wanted to know where they were going.

“Mexico,” Houston shouted four times before he seemed to understand.

Kane shook his head, but Houston urged her horse on faster and ignored him. No doubt, he didn’t want her to get into trouble with him, but she wasn’t going to let him talk her into returning. If he was to live his life in exile, she was going to live with him.

Kane caught her horse’s reins and pulled until she had to slow down.

“STOP!” he bellowed. “WE’LL STAY HERE FOR THE NIGHT.”