Relentless by Bobbi Smith Page B

back to him. It was Miss Gertrude. He could hear the heartbreak in her voice and wondered what had happened. He immediately went to her side.
    “Miss Gertrude—Is something wrong?” he asked, seeing the tears in her eyes as she looked up at him.
    “Oh, Grant—I didn’t know you were still in town. Somehow, you always do manage to show up at the right time—” she said in a choked voice.
    He couldn’t help himself. He put a protective arm around her shoulders as he looked at the two other women standing there with her. “What happened?”
    “The stage was robbed and Charley Martin and the man riding shotgun were both killed—” Alice began.
    Grant tensed at the news.
    “The telegram came in just a short while ago—” Betty added.
    Miss Gertrude touched his arm as she explained the rest. “And they’ve kidnapped Dusty—”
    “Dusty?” Grant frowned, not recognizing the name.
    “She didn’t tell you?” Miss Gertrude realized that Dusty must have kept her other life hidden from him the night of the dance. “Justine’s nickname is Dusty.”
    Grant’s expression hardened. “She was on the stagecoach?”
    Miss Gertrude quickly explained the truth of Dusty’s life to him. “It’s been hard for her since her mother died, riding shotgun on the stage with her father, but she did it and he was proud of her. And now—”
    He couldn’t imagine the beauty he’d danced with in the hands of an outlaw gang. “Where did the holdup take place?”
    “At the pass,” Betty said. “From what the boy was telling us, they think it was that notorious Jackson gang.”
    Grant grew furious. While he’d been waiting for the outlaws to show up in town, they’d managed to pull off a deadly robbery and take the girl with them.
    “We have to let Fred know,” Alice put in, knowing her boss and his family needed to know what had happened.
    “This is going to break Francie’s little heart.” Miss Gertrude looked even more miserable at the news.
    Betty went on, “Supposedly, the sheriff’s going to get a posse together, but the outlaws already have a full day’s head start on them—”
    “Sheriff Perkins is useless,” Miss Gertrude declared. “He’ll never be able to find Dusty, not after all this time. Why, he couldn’t find his own way home if he didn’t have directions. He’ll never be able to track them down—”
    “Now, Miss Gertrude,” Alice scolded.
    “Don’t ‘Now, Miss Gertrude’ me,” she countered angrily. “I can’t tell you how many times he’s gone after some troublemaker and come back emptyhanded.”
    “If you ladies will excuse me,” Grant said, leaving abruptly.
    Miss Gertrude watched him stride purposefully from the store.
    “I wonder why he left like that,” Alice said.
    “I don’t know, but I intend to find out,” Miss Gertrude told her as she hurried after him.
    Betty looked at Alice. “Poor Dusty.”
    “I hope they can find her and bring her back.”
    “I do, too.”
    “One of us should go tell Francie and her family what’s happened.”
    “I’ll go,” Betty offered, knowing it was going to be a difficult conversation.
    Grant was headed straight back to the hotel. He wasn’t going to bother with talking to the local lawman. From what Miss Gertrude had said, it would be a waste of his time, and he’d already done enough of that.
    “Grant—Wait—” Miss Gertrude called out. She’d thought he might be going over to help the sheriff, but it looked as if he was going to the hotel.
    He stopped at her call and waited respectfully for her to catch up with him.
    “Where are you going? The sheriff’s office is the other way,” she pointed out. She’d always sensed that this man was something more than just a drifter passing through town, and she had a feeling she was about to find out his real purpose in coming to Canyon Springs.
    “If the sheriff’s as bad at tracking as you say he is, I’m not waiting for him.” Grant reached in his pocket and took out his