Promises Reveal (31 page)

“Does she know who you are?” Casey asked around the unlit cigar in his mouth. The gun in his hand wasn’t a surprise. Neither were the new lines etched across his forehead and around his eyes. The outlaw life wasn’t conducive to longevity.

“I didn’t see any need to tell her.”

“Just planned on leaving everything in the past?”

Brad flicked the ash off the end of his cigarette. “Pretty much.”

“Even your friends.”

“I think we already covered that. We’re not friends.”

“Well, I’m still feeling a bit of camaraderie.” The hammer clicked back on the gun. “Especially when I consider you’ve got my wife and daughter.”

Shit. Casey always was good at lucky guesses. “I have them?”

“It has to be you. You’re the only one she’d run to.”

Only after the son of a bitch threatened his own daughter. Although Brenda was terrified of leaving Casey’s dubious protection, she loved her daughter more. Fear for Brenna was the only thing that had made Brenda go out in the world again. “Well, you must have missed someone else, because I don’t have her.”

“She took the train to Cheyenne.”

Brad shrugged, covertly studying the ridgeline for signs of Cougar. Had he followed Casey? “Maybe she kept on going.”

“Not hardly.” The muzzle centered on his chest. “I want my family back.”

“I don’t blame you.”

Casey smiled around the unlit cigar. “Good, then you’ll understand why you’re going to get them for me.”

Belle shifted and snorted, uneasy with the tension in the air. Brad patted her neck. “I’m not a bounty hunter.”

“But you do have something to hide.”

“I’ve got to be straight with you, Casey. If Brenda did find the courage to run, I’m not particularly moved to fetch her back.”

“Then I might not be too inspired to keep your identity a secret.”

Brad eased his hand down the reins. “Well, in that case, I’ll just have to put aside nostalgia and put you out of my misery.”

Casey grinned, his teeth surprisingly white for a man of his bad habits. “I’m the one with the gun.”

“And I’m the one with Gut’m McKinnely covering his ass.”

Casey’s smile disappeared. Brad’s grew. When all else failed, bluff.

“You look disappointed.”

“Not at all.”

Because he hadn’t intended to kill him today, Brad realized. The same way Brad hadn’t intended to kill Casey. Not yet at least. Not until he knew what Casey knew and who he’d told about Brad’s “rebirth.”

“So tell me, how’d you know I was here?”

“Word gets around.”

Years of playing poker with a man came in handy. It familiarized the opponent with the other’s tells. When Casey flipped that cigar to the other side of his mouth, it was a sure sign that he was lying. At least the fact that Shadow Svensen was alive and living as the Reverend Brad Swanson wasn’t common knowledge.

“I’ve heard a few things about you, too.”

“Such as?”

“You’ve moved up from stagecoaches to trains.”

“Can’t hold a man’s ambition against him.”

“A woman was killed in that last robbery.”

“You always were squeamish about women.”

“So you’ve told me a time or two. What happened?”

Casey shrugged. The gun didn’t drop. “She got in the way after Bill shot her husband when he objected to donating to our cause.”

“It never pays to play the hero.”

“No,” Casey agreed, “it doesn’t, so why don’t you toss me that peashooter you’ve got tucked up your sleeve?”

“I’m a minister. I don’t carry weapons.”

“Those fools in town might buy your game. I don’t. Hand it over.”

Turning slowly, Brad raised his hands and shucked his cuffs. There was no holster. No gun. With Cougar as backup, who the hell needed them?

“Well, son of a bitch, you’ve become a preacher just like your daddy.”

He hated being compared to his father. Casey knew it. “Keep pushing me, Casey, and you’ll find that I haven’t forgotten everything.”

“Neither have I.”

Shit. Brad knew that look. He dropped back, grabbing the rifle as he fell, rolling under Belle’s belly. Two bullets peppered the ground beyond. Leaping to his feet, he whipped the rifle up. Belle squealed and pranced, but Asa MacIntyre had trained her and she held her ground through her terror, providing him with a shield. This close, Casey couldn’t get off a shot, but Brad knew Casey wouldn’t hesitate to kill the horse. Belle tossed her head, the whites of her eyes showing, looking to him for guidance. Ah hell.

Taking a chance on Cougar being on the ridge, he ducked to the right, away from Belle, bringing up the rifle as he did. Cougar’s shot didn’t come, but Casey’s did. There was a bright flash and a bullet slammed into his side. Brad gritted his teeth, holding his stand through sheer determination. The rifle fired. Once, twice. Repeaters were a wonderful invention, allowing a lot of shots in a short amount of time. Enough to send Casey riding for cover. Enough to buy him time.

Brad whistled in two short blasts. Belle came over immediately, sidestepping and tossing her head, her tail swishing nervously, but she came. There was no pain, but Brad knew from his tight respirations that it was just a matter of time. Pressing his hand to his side, he reached for the horse. Belle snorted at the smell of fresh blood and shied away. “Easy girl.”

He could hear Casey riding away. He didn’t hear Cougar approaching. Which only meant one thing. Cougar hadn’t found Casey before he’d moved the meet, and while he was likely tracking the shots right now, until he arrived Brad was on his own.

“C’mere, Belle. We need to get home.”

Back to Evie and a whole host of explanations that would require more lies than he could likely spin about the shape he’d be in when he got there. He looked at his hand, covered in blood. Especially if he kept bleeding like this.

The pain hit just as he was swinging up into the saddle, exploding through him with the same power of the shot. Then came the dizziness, and black spots filled his vision, blocking the green of the grass and the blue of the sky. He blinked. Blue sky? Shit, he was slipping.

Closing his eyes, he forced himself up and over, his midsection slamming into the saddle. Blinding pain clawed at his gut. Nausea hit just as hard as the next wave of agony. He retched, hoping like hell he missed the saddle. Gut shot. The horror of it was almost enough to have him letting go right there.

“Get me home, Belle.”

She started walking. He looped the reins around the saddle horn. Blood soaked his pants. His skin felt cold and clammy and sweat burned his eyes. Even if he hadn’t seen Casey leave the meeting place, Cougar would have heard the shot. He’d be here soon. Unless Casey or one of his cohorts had gotten the drop on him. Hard to believe: Cougar was good. Casey wasn’t exactly a slackard, however, and a few of the men who rode with him were rats in disguise. The thought gnawed at him. He couldn’t go back to town without knowing. A man owed his friend better. Brad turned Belle up the ridge. “Let’s go find Cougar, darling.”

There wasn’t an answer. Then again, he wasn’t expecting one. It was just him and Belle and a whole lot of wilderness to cover. Perfect.

 
FIVE MINUTES LATER he was barely conscious, and he couldn’t find any evidence of Cougar, or even that he’d been in the vicinity. Brad turned Belle down toward the valley. With every step he was thrown forward. Pain, so familiar as to be almost family, ground on his awareness, becoming the sum of his existence. Leaning back would have eased the motion. Leaning back would upset the tenuous grip he had on the saddle. Leaning back wasn’t an option.

Brad unwound the rope from the side of the saddle. He wasn’t going to make it back under his own power, and he wanted to make it. Not only to get revenge on Casey, but also to see Evie one more time. She was the only responsibility he’d ever had. And truth was, he wasn’t ready to be shed of her yet.

He tied himself to the saddle. Come hell or high water he would make it home. Casey might have planned for him to die out here, but he wasn’t in a mood to oblige. Patting Belle on the shoulder, no longer fighting the pain and weakness, just letting it roll over him, Brad closed his eyes. “Get us home, Belle.”

He didn’t know how long he rode like that. One minute slowed to the next as hot liquid filled his boot and drained his strength. He built a picture of Evie in his mind, eyes flashing, mouth set, temper flaring, and held on to it. As a talisman, he couldn’t find better. Evie had the tenacity of a badger.

“Rev!”

The shout didn’t register at first. After the third shout, he lifted his head, able to make out the shadowy form of a rider coming hard. He titled his rifle and hooked his finger on the trigger.

The weapon was yanked out of his hand.

“Son of a bitch.”

Cougar. “You’re a little late to the party,” he rasped.

“It would’ve helped if you hadn’t moved the damn thing.” Steel flashed in his field of vision. The rope binding his hands around the horn snapped. “How bad is it?”

“Think I’m gut shot.”

“Only think?” Cougar’s deep drawl was deceptively calm.

“I wasn’t going to strip down in the middle of battle to check.”

There was the sound of material parting under a metal blade. Air streamed into the wound like acid.

“Goddamn!” He found his breath. “How’s it look?”

Very carefully the material settled back over the wound. “Like we need to get you to Doc.”

Brad grunted as his horse changed direction and speed. As soon as he found the rhythm, he glanced over at Cougar.

“Do me a favor and save your funeral voice for when I actually have one.”

Not a muscle twitched in the other man’s expression. “Done.”

Shit. That was no comfort.

“HE WAS DEPENDING on you, wasn’t he?” Evie asked Cougar.

Cougar didn’t move, just stood there in the foyer, head up, shoulders back. “Yes.”

She wished he’d prevaricated, hedged, defended himself, provided her with an outlet for the cauldron of emotion boiling inside her. Brad was upstairs in bed, unconscious, feverish from his wound and there wasn’t anything she could do but wait and see if he woke up. She clutched the pile of dirty sheets to her chest. “You were supposed to protect him.”

“I know.”

“He could die.”

“Doc said he should be fine.”

“If he doesn’t get an infection.” It was a very big if, much bigger than the innocuous-looking hole in his stomach that had caused so much trouble.

“The Rev’s a tough man. No bullet’s going to take him down.” It scared her witless that she didn’t know if Brad was tough enough to survive this, but she did want to know who had hurt him. Her nails bit into her arms, the stinging pain centering her control. “Who was the coward? Who shot him?”

Cougar shifted his hat in his hand. His mouth flattened to a thin line. “I didn’t get there in time to see.”

“Get to where?”

“To where they had moved the meeting.”

“A meeting implies that he knew who he was meeting.”

“He did.”

“But you didn’t.”

Cougar didn’t look away, just kept her gaze with that impassive expression that gave her nothing to play off. “Pretty much.”

Her nails cut deeper. “How could you agree to that?”

He spun his hat in a half circle. The first break in his calm that she’d seen since he’d walked in the door fifteen minutes before. “Your husband has a mind of his own.”

Cougar wasn’t a man to go into anything blind. Only one thing could make him do something so unorthodox. “He called in a favor, didn’t he?”

Cougar didn’t answer. Evie didn’t press. Mainly because it wouldn’t do any good. Cougar’s sense of honor went bone deep. He wouldn’t betray Brad’s confidence. Period.

“So until he regains consciousness, we won’t even know who did this to him?”

Cougar settled his black hat back on his head, angling the brim down over his eyes. And that fast, civilization seemed to leave him.

“We’ll know.”

“How?”

After a quick knock, the front door opened. Clint stepped halfway into the room. “You about ready, Cougar?”

“Just about.” Cougar reached out. The breadth of his palm took up the entirety of her peripheral vision. The tips of his fingers touched her temple before grazing down her cheek. Inside, the wall she’d built against the fear that Brad would die groaned beneath the understanding contained in his touch. “You stay strong.”

Swallowing hard, she ducked his gaze. Not breaking down to a blubbering mess of emotion was taking the little bit of her strength left over from caring for Brad. “I will.”