Authors: Stolen Ecstasy
Hannah Howell (31 page)
“Stop thinking about it, Hunter.” Owen briefly clasped his brother’s shoulder in sympathy.
“I’ve tried to stop.”
“It doesn’t do you a damn bit of good.”
“I know that too. Trouble is, I can hear his threats. I can see our mother,” he added in a whisper. “I keep wondering, if we’d moved a little faster . . .”
“We’ve moved as fast as humanly possible. Oh, sure, you can pick out a few slow hours here and there, but maybe they would have been lost anyway because of exhausted horses or exhausted men. You can ride like this for a day here and there, but no one can keep that pace up for long. We couldn’t do it now, except Grant knows where to get fresh horses. Hell, we didn’t even wait to see our own mother buried. Don’t try to find some way to blame yourself. There’s none to find.”
Hunter was not sure he agreed with that, but he nodded. “Nevertheless, he’s been ahead of us all the way.”
“Driven by his madness, probably leaving a trail of dead horses. Try to remember that she’s not alone and that she’s been warned. Watkins will have to climb over Charlie and Jed to get to her. We’re only a few hours behind him. I feel sure Charlie and Jed can hold him back for that long.”
That was his only source of hope. Hunter tried to cling to it, use it to push aside his morbid thoughts as they started on their way again. He also prayed, prayed as he never had before. Knowing how her life hung in the balance made him all too aware of how important Leanne was to him. In that cabin they raced for was his future.
Chapter Seventeen
S
WEARING
, L
EANNE BENT TO PICK UP THE
bullet she had dropped. She was exhausted and increasingly uncomfortable. Since Charlie and Jed had burst into the cabin late last night to tell her Watkins and Martin were free, she had had little sleep. For all she knew, the two men were miles away, but fear had a grip on her that no amount of reasoning could loosen.
WEARING
, L
EANNE BENT TO PICK UP THE
bullet she had dropped. She was exhausted and increasingly uncomfortable. Since Charlie and Jed had burst into the cabin late last night to tell her Watkins and Martin were free, she had had little sleep. For all she knew, the two men were miles away, but fear had a grip on her that no amount of reasoning could loosen.
Looking at the weaponry she had been assigned to clean, load, and organize, she frowned. Charlie and Jed did not act as if Watkins and Martin were distant threats. The way they had worked all night to fortify the cabin left her feeling those two killers could appear at any moment. It suddenly occurred to her that these elaborate preparations were not simply to make her feel less afraid—Charlie and Jed truly felt a need for it all. There was something that they had not told her.
“I have let exhaustion and fear make me stupid,” she muttered and looked at Charlie, who was stacking the firewood Jed had just brought in. “Charles.”
He looked up from his work. “Something wrong?”
“Perhaps. There is something you’re not telling me, isn’t there? Tuckman’s wire told you more than the fact that Martin and Watkins had escaped hanging.” Jed entered as she spoke and the look on his face told her she had guessed right. “Tuckman said something that’s made you expect trouble, not at some indefinite time in the future but soon.”
Glancing at Jed, Charlie nodded. “The man’s already been down Hunter’s way.” Both he and Jed rushed to her side when she went white and he hurried to add, “He didn’t get Hunter, Leanne. Hunter’s all right.”
“You’re not lying to spare me, are you?” She clutched Charlie’s arm as she looked from him to Jed and back again.
“Well, we probably would, but we ain’t lying now.” Feeling she was not going to collapse, Charlie sat down and Jed did the same. “Hunter’s still alive. Mr. Walsh said so when he sent word to Tuckman.”
“It doesn’t make sense. Watkins swore revenge, yet did nothing when he was so close to Hunter?”
“Oh, he left his mark. He must’ve seen how hard it’d be to get at Hunter there. I know Tuckman woulda warned Walsh, so everyone at the ranch was probably waiting for Watkins. Funny that the missus was out,” Charlie muttered, frowning over that oddity.
“Lorraine left the safety of the ranch? Watkins got her, didn’t he? I can see it in your faces.”
“Yeh, he got her,” Jed answered. “Killed her, but not before he got some information.”
Charlie nodded. “He knows you left. He’s coming after you first. He knows Hunter is coming after you, too, so he’ll be out of that fortress of a ranch, easier to get to.”
She massaged her temples as she struggled to understand all they told her. “Why would Hunter come after me?”
Jed shrugged. “ ’Cause he knows Watkins is hunting you. Hunter might not be wanting to wed you, but he ain’t a man to set back and leave you to face that without as much help as he can give.”
“No, he isn’t,” she murmured. “He’ll feel obligated, since he was the one after Watkins from the start.”
Worse and worse, she thought. Knowing Watkins and Martin were out there looking for her was chilling. She could all too easily recall those threats Watkins had thrown at their heads on the journey from Mexico to Little Creek. The man was sick in his mind. Her pregnancy would not save her. Watkins would probably savor the thought of sacrificing such an innocent to sate his twisted need for revenge.
And then there was Hunter, she thought with an inner groan. She wished he had stayed at his ranch where he would have been relatively safe. Instead he was riding around trying to find her, making himself an easier target for Watkins. So, too, was he coming out of obligation, riding to help her while filled with the very last thing she wanted him to feel towards her. She could almost hope he was already married to Patricia, but that would only add more complications. It seemed she had solved nothing by leaving that day.
“No wonder you didn’t tell me everything,” she muttered. “What a mess. I don’t suppose running is an option.”
“Nope. It ain’t only you being—well, like you are. If we gotta face Watkins, I’d rather do it here, behind thick walls, than out in the open,” Charles said as he rose and moved to look out the window. “Sun’s rising. We better start keeping a steady watch.”
“You said Tuckman was in Clayville to watch Charity. You didn’t hear from her?”
Leanne almost wished they had not gone there, yet it had seemed a good idea at the time. Sending a message to Charity from St. Anne would have been added insurance against Hunter locating her. Charity had to have been told something about all that had happened, and she would have known how to get in touch with Tuckman. There was also the chance of getting some news about O’Malley. Instead they had heard from Tuckman himself and spent a harried time exchanging telegraph messages.
Discovering Watkins and Martin had cheated justice, Charlie and Jed had nearly killed their horses racing the long miles back to warn her. Shaking her head, she told herself not to be so silly. Ignorance could be bliss at times, but in this matter it was far better to have some warning.
“Nope. Seems she got married,” Jed answered. “Was off on a honeymoon or something like that.”
“Charity got married? Good God, to Clovis?” She found herself wondering if Charity had blackmailed him into it.
“Yeh, that was the name. Hey, wasn’t he the one that grabbed you that night? The reason she tossed you out?”
“He was, that lump of dog spit. Well, if two people ever deserved each other, it’s those two.” She sighed, her spate of animosity slipping away. “It’s good she was away. Watkins must know about her since Martin does. They’d try to find me through her and she knows, sort of, where this place is. And if they’d kill Lorraine Walsh, they’d kill Charity.”
“No question about it. Fact is, I got the feeling that man Watkins purely enjoys killing.” Jed’s eyes widened as he realized the tactlessness of such an observation at that moment. “Well, mebbe I was wrong ’bout that.”
“And maybe you weren’t.” Leanne shivered. “Just think of the things he said when we were taking him to the law in Little Creek. The man is not right in the head. I hope to God no one got in his way, but I suppose that would be too much of a miracle to hope for.”
“Naw, couldn’t do that. Then you and Hunter’d still be outlaws. Me and Charlie too.”
“Of course.” She gave a start and looked at Jed with a smile. “We’re not any longer?”
Jed lightly slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Clean forgot about that. Tuckman says you’re cleared, and me and Charlie got our pardons. I expect Hunter’s got the papers. It feels good knowing the law don’t want us anymore. Just wish Watkins didn’t.”
“Amen.” She reached across the table and patted his hand. “He’ll need an army to get us out of here. O’Malley said everything he built he made strong enough to resist the fiercest Indian or bandit attack. He’d lost a number of friends to Indians, you see. Then too, Tuckman might stop Watkins and Martin in Clayville. That’s why he’s there. And we have Hunter racing to find us. Probably Sebastian too. They’d be sure to keep in touch with Tuckman and he with them.”
“Yeah, you’re right. He ain’t even here yet, anyways.”
“He is.”
They both stared at Charlie in horror and Leanne croaked, “You’re sure?”
“Someone’s tiptoeing around in them rocks. Slipping up closer to take a peek, I reckon.”
“They couldn’t have found us by sheer chance. They got to poor Charity. She must have arrived shortly after you left town, so Tuckman couldn’t reach you. And Tuckman! He wouldn’t let them slip by if he was able to stop it.”
“Now you don’t know anything for certain, Leanne,” Jed said as he collected his rifle and moved to take up a position by a window. “You’re just guessing. ’Sides, even if you’ve guessed right, nothing to do about it now. We have our own selves to watch out for.”
“And you have that babe. So”—Charlie pointed to a three-sided barricade of bales of hay and stuffed bags they had erected in a sheltered corner of the large main room—“get yourself in there. There’ll be a lot of stray lead soon. We don’t want you catching any.”
“I could help,” she protested even as she hurried to put the guns and ammunition in the little shelter.
“Yeah, and you could get shot too. You’ll help by keeping the guns loaded and keeping low so we ain’t worrying on you.”
“Hey, that looks like Pete, don’t it?” Jed pointed out to the man Charlie had seen edging up to the cabin.
Staring out the window, Charlie grunted, then fired a shot that kicked up the dirt around the foot Pete had just set in the clearing as he slowly edged out from behind the last bit of covering before the cabin. “One more step and you’re dead, Pete.”
“That you, Charlie?” Pete yelled after diving back behind cover.
“Ain’t your ma, you pissant. Best you run home to her. You stay here and you’re dead, sure as I can spit.”
“Now, you listen to me, Charlie. I’m here to give you a chance—we being old friends and all.”
“We ain’t friends, Pete. Never have been. I’m a mite choosier about who I call friend. Say your piece, then skedaddle before I shoot you just for practice.” Charlie glanced towards Leanne, who was poking her head out of the shelter. “Get in there, girl.” As soon as she disappeared inside, he looked back out the window. “I’m getting impatient.” He shot at the rock Pete hid behind.
“All right, stop shooting. Watkins wants the girl.”
“What girl?”
“C’mon Charlie, you know what girl. That damn little bitch that tricked Watkins so Hunter could get him alone. He wants her. Now, you hand her over all pleasant-like and we’ll let you and your friend Jed walk outta here. Watkins will forget you had anything to do with his getting caught.”
“Hell’s bells, Pete. Me and Jed ain’t the smartest fellows around, but we ain’t that dumb.”
“You calling me a liar?”
“Yeah,” bellowed Jed, “we’re calling you a liar. Wanna step out from behind that rock and deny it?”
“You ain’t got a chance, y’know. No woman’s worth dying for.” Pete started to scramble away from the cabin. “You’re dead, you stupid sons o’ bitches. We’re gonna cut you to pieces and get that little bitch anyways.”
Charlie took aim at Pete’s retreating backside and fired, smiling when the man’s insults turned into howls of pain. “Think they really thought we’d just hand her over? They’ve forgot we know what Watkins is like.”
Venturing slightly outside of her shelter, Leanne asked, “Are you really sure the deal was just a hoax?”
“Real sure, Leanne,” Jed answered. “He’s offered deals like that before and the poor fools ended up dead. He was just hoping that we were dumb enough to think it’d be different with us or we’d not remember how his word don’t mean squat.”
“Oh.” She suspected they were telling the truth, for such ruthlessness seemed wholy in character for Watkins. “What do you think they’ll do now?”
“Reckon they’ll set there a while and consider how to come at us,” answered Charlie as he stared up into the hills.
Watkins stared down at the cabin. “It seems our old friends are not as stupid as we thought.” He whirled to glare at Pete, who was loudly bemoaning his injury and the treating of it. “If you do not shut up, I will put you out of your misery.” Pete quieted and Watkins returned to staring at the cabin. “That place was built for defense.”
“Yeh.” Martin scowled down at the cabin. “It’ll cost us.”
“Well, we have a fairly large force.”
“Won’t if we throw them away. I remember Charlie. He can see for miles and shoots as good as anyone I know.”
“Then we lay siege. They can have only so many supplies. We wait them out. Draw out their fire now and again to deplete their store of ammunition.” He rubbed his chin as he thought it out.
“How long do you think that’ll take?”
“I have no idea. It appears as if they have been warned. That could mean they are well supplied. It could take a while.”
“We wait too long and we could have someone come after us. You said Hunter’d be after her.”
“I have a watch set for him. That woman Charity said no one knew about this place. You shot Tuckman. All of that considered, it leaves us with few to worry about. Hunter will come, but it’ll take time for him to find this place. Clever building the place flush against the rock like that. We can’t encircle it and they don’t have to watch their backs.
“Send the men down, spread around as far as they can be but staying well covered. Make sure they understand that we want to draw their fire, get them to use up their bullets, but not lose men.”
Martin started to obey, then hesitated. “How about burning them out?”
“Even if anyone could get near enough to set it alight, there’s not much there that’ll burn well. Also, I want that bitch alive. There’s too much chance of her dying if we set the place ablaze. No, no fire.” He waved Martin away, his gaze fixed on the cabin. “Let’s get started.”
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