“Don’t look so gloomy, darling.” Keith’s voice startled her, and she sat up just a little straighter. “We’re about to be married. It’s supposed to be a happy time.”
Lyla smirked. “No one could be truly happy about marrying you.”
“You were, weren’t you? Before you started all this nonsense of coming west.”
“No, actually, I was never happy Tobe marrying you. I was always dreading it and wishing that there was some other way for me to secure a future, but there wasn’t.”
“I don’t believe you,” Keith growled. But Lyla could see that he had taken her words to heart, if only just a little.
“Every time I went to your house or spent time with you or was around you, I was faking it. I never wanted to marry you, and you know that. I only agreed to it because I didn’t have another choice.”
“You say that now, but one day, you’ll thank me. If you had married the sheriff, he’d eventually realize he didn’t actually love you and he really wanted to just keep your son.” Keith had a cruel glint in his eyes.
Lyla struggled not to believe his words. He would only have power over her if she gave it to him. She couldn’t let him get inside her head.
But even as she tried to fight it, she could feel leaks in her armor where his poisonous words seeped in.
Maybe he was right. Maybe James never truly loved her. After all, they had only known each other for a short time.
“Just because you don’t know what love is, doesn’t mean that James is the same way. He did truly love me, and I will always love him. If you marry me, you will always have to live with that.”
“Do you think I care how you really feel about me? I don’t.”
Lyla narrowed her eyes at him. Keith had to have a weakness, she just needed to find it. She had to put doubt in his mind about whether he was doing the right thing. She remembered what she used to tell him when she wanted to change something about the wedding.
“What will other people think? They’re going to wonder why I have a son, and that will most certainly look bad.”
“No one is going to know you had a son,” Keith growled. Lyla could tell that this touched a nerve.
“How do you know that? I said I’d marry you. I never said I wouldn’t tell people about my son. In fact, I’ve discovered a new freedom in telling people the truth about my past.”
“You wouldn’t, you little witch!” Keith was sitting straighter than he had since they’d left, and Lyla felt a streak of pride. She was finally making some progress. Maybe, if she went far enough, he wouldn’t want to marry her, after all.
“See, I think that lots of women would love to talk about my son and how my sister raised him. They would also be interested to know how I was pregnant out of wedlock at the age of sixteen. It’s intriguing, don’t you think?”
Keith narrowed his eyes. “What do you want?”
“I want to get off this stagecoach and go back to James, where I belong.”
Keith gave a little smile. “That is never going to happen. You see, you’ll soon learn that in our relationship, we can make deals for things we want, but it only goes so far. In the end, I will get what I want.”
“I think you’re overestimating yourself. You can’t exactly keep me from talking, and I do plan to talk. If you keep me locked up, everyone will think something is off, and if you let me roam free, well, that reputation of yours will be a whole lot worse than it would have been if you had just let me walk away.”
“You think that you can destroy my reputation? Most women will hate you because they will be jealous of you, and most men will avoid you because they are afraid of me. You are no one, and you have no power here.”
Even though her insides were trembling with fear, she forced herself to smile and lean back in the stagecoach as if she weren’t worried about a thing. “You’ve picked the wrong person to try to control, Keith. I’m sure you’ll learn that in time.”
She felt triumph as she saw him squirm in his seat. The look on his face was no longer smug, but seemed maybe even a little worried.
Lyla let her eyes travel to the window to take in the scenery. If Keith did let her getaway, she wanted to remember how to get back to James’ ranch.
She let her mind think of the little ranch she’d become used to. The little building she lived in, and Joey playing with the dog. Slowly, her smile turned genuine and she felt just a little bit better.
She had spent the last few weeks creating memories that would stay with her forever. Whenever she felt trapped or sad, she would think of those memories and maybe, one day, she would even be able to go back west and find James and Joey.
It wouldn’t be the same, when she was older and her youth was gone. Maybe, James wouldn’t even tell Joey about her or who she really was, and he would forget about her over the years.
Maybe Keith was right, and this was all a blessing in disguise. Maybe she was that same girl she had been when she was sixteen and had given her baby away to her sister.
The thoughts tumbled over each other, one after another, turning the momentary joy she had experienced into guilt, pain, and sadness again.
She imagined seeing Anne at the hotel again. She was fairly certain that Keith would have rules if she was his wife, and her friend had probably been right.
He probably wouldn’t let her hang around the hotel or her old acquaintances, from there on out.
Lyla had lived for years alone with her loneliness, wishing for a real family. She had used that time to make herself strong; even though James had torn down all the walls she had built, she would learn to build them up again.
She was determined never to let Keith destroy her. She would be her own person and she would keep what made her unique, no matter how hard it was.
Chapter 35
Keith watched the glowing flames jump and dance in the dark, recalling Lyla’s words from earlier. Maybe he had made a mistake in insisting on having her.
What if she made up lies about him and slowly destroyed his reputation from the inside? How could he keep her from talking about these things?
He chewed on his lower lip as Jeremy sat down beside him. “Did you get rid of the boy? You came back faster than I expected.”
“I dropped him off at the sheriff’s ranch, just like you said.” Jeremy didn’t look at him but kept his eyes straight ahead, looking into the fire.
“What? Why did you do that? I wanted you to drop him off at the orphanage in the next town.”
Jeremy raised his eyebrows. “I thought you changed your mind. After all, you told me right in front of Lyla that I was supposed to give him back to the sheriff.”
“That was just so she wouldn’t give us any trouble. You are too soft, you know that? Play dumb with me all you want, but I know you knew what you were doing.”
Jeremy shrugged but didn’t deny the accusation. Keith silently fumed. He should have brought more trusted men with him. This is what he got for working with new people.
“How many days will it take us to get back to town?” Keith asked Mark, who had just joined them.
“It will take at least a week, even if we take the fastest route.”
Keith mulled it over. “What if we take a longer route, a more discreet route?”
“It could take twice that long, maybe more.”
Great. Keith didn’t want to take longer to get to Merrill. That put everything at risk. But if they went the most known way, they were more at risk for James to find them, if he was even looking.
Keith didn’t know what Lyla had written in her letter. What if she had told him to come after her? He should have read that blasted paper. He couldn’t stop thinking about it.
He also had never intended for Joey to be returned to James. That man had tried to steal what was his. He didn’t deserve anything, especially to be happy with his wife’s son.
This whole trip had been an expense. He’d put out piles of money and time to get a woman who hated him, but that didn’t
matter. What mattered is that Keith had what he had been promised.
Keith looked up at the dark sky, which was too cloudy for him to see any stars. He wondered if his father would be proud of him. His father had always said that Keith needed to learn to reach out and grab what he wanted.
And Keith had done just that. He hadn’t waited for anything to be handed to him, or for someone to choose him. He’d gone out and taken what he wanted.
He thought back to his life with his parents. They had started out poor, but due to his father’s wit and hard work, they had ended up the richest family in town. Then, they had moved west to Illinois and been one of the wealthiest families in the state.
When his mother died, his father hadn’t slowed down at all. In fact, he’d continued to earn money and run his businesses as though nothing had happened. Keith had always seen his father as his example.
If he could be like his father, things would go right for him and he would never want for anything. Of course, his father had only been able to count on himself, He was a ruthless, unforgiving man. People had hated him, and many had tried to kill him.
Several times in his life, Keith had seen his father get arrested, and the people who’d accused him would go back on their statement and he’d be let free again. It just seemed magical to him.
Money could buy anything. It could even buy people’s words, loyalty, and honesty. Keith remembered a time when his mother had told him that money couldn’t buy real loyalty or real love. But Keith didn’t care.
Fake love and loyalty were good enough for him.
He sighed and stood. “I’m going to turn in early. We should leave at daybreak.”
James and Mark nodded but didn’t say anything. As he walked away from the fire, he heard them talking.
“I’ll never be doing a job for that man again,” Mark was saying. “If I would have known what I was in for, I would have refused.”
“I agree with you there. He’s a cruel man. I feel for the woman. I had to give the boy back the sheriff. Can you imagine just dumping him at an orphanage?” Jeremy said. “It’s not the boy’s fault that all this happened. First, he loses his parents, and then he loses his new parents. It’s just not right to treat people like that.”
“You did the right thing. The man is a lunatic. You should have heard him talking to Lyla on the way. I can’t stand scum like that.”
Keith slipped into the darkness and retreated to his tent. He would be lying if he said that their words didn’t reach a small part of him.
Of course, it hurt sometimes to know you were the hated one, the one person no one understood. But it was just because they weren’t ambitious enough to have what he had.
They weren’t hard-working enough and they weren’t smart enough, and that made them jealous. Who knew if their words were even what they really thought?
He could see how men like Mark and Jeremy would be very jealous of his position and wealth.
Keith shuffled around in a small bag he carried with him and pulled out a pistol. He was going to sleep with protection, just in case either of the men by the fire decided to put their words into action.
He had seen his father be attacked unprepared too many times to make the same mistake.
He laid down, resting his hand over the cold metal. He was ready for anything—but most of all, he was ready to get back home and start his new life with Lyla at his side.
Chapter 36
“Over here! I found some tracks.” Merrick’s voice made James’s heart leap just a little. They had been traveling all night and well into the morning without a single sign of the people they pursued.
He turned his horse to where Merrick had called from and laid eyes on a clear set of tracks. They were from a stagecoach or a wagon, but James was hoping it was a coach.
“I’ll go ahead and follow the tracks, and the two of you follow behind, just in case we missed a different set.”
Merrick looked uncertain about the plan but nodded agreeably.
Without waiting any longer, James pushed his horse forward. He knew that the animal was tired, but they needed to keep moving. If they stopped, they would lose their advantage on Keith and Lyla. He knew they probably had stopped to rest during the night.
He decided it was time to switch horses. After dismounting quickly, he moved his saddle from his exhausted horse to the other animal. He tied the worn-out horse to a nearby tree. James would come back for him later.
For some reason, he didn’t think Keith was the kind of person to ride through the night. He had a chance to catch up while they rested.
He made the horse go as fast as he dared while he imagined finding Keith. He wondered if the men he had with him would fight back. From what Joey had said, Keith had two men with him.
That meant that if James did catch up, there would be three men against himself. But if Lyla wasn’t tied up, he was fairly certain that she would help him in any way she could.
A cloud of smoke in the distance made him tense up. He grabbed his pistol and prepared to fire it. He knew that as soon as his deputies and the other teams heard gunshots, they would converge on his position as fast as they could. He would just have to hold out until they arrived.
As he neared the cloud of dust, he realized that he had found them. His whole body filled with both pride and relief.
He hadn’t lost them. Lyla was right in front of them. Now, all he had to do was get her back.
There was the stagecoach, with a single driver and a lone horse rider trailing behind.
It seemed they hadn’t spotted James yet, but he knew it was only a matter of minutes until they did. He needed to signal the others now.
He raised his pistol and shot three shots into the air as fast as he could. The stagecoach pulled to a halt, as if someone invisible force had stopped it.
James rode forward at the fastest speed he could, holding his pistol and keeping an eye on the stagecoach and rider.
When he got within 100 yards, he could see that the single rider had his own pistol trained on James.
“Get off your horse nice and slow,” the man instructed.
James obliged, but kept his weapon aimed at the man. “We’re equal, here. If you shoot me, I’m sure I can shoot you before I die.”
The other man seemed to be thinking about it, but all of a sudden, a loud gunshot rang out and a scream ripped through the air.
An explosion of pain seared across James’s shoulder. “Lyla!” he called out. He knew the voice that had screamed was hers.
Keith stepped out of the stagecoach, and right behind him followed a worried-looking Lyla.
“Don’t shoot him; just leave him here. It will already take him forever to get back to town without a horse,” the man with the horse said.
Keith looked between Lyla and James, a cruel sneer on his face.
“You shouldn’t have followed, Sheriff. Your little lady decided to come with me of her own accord. I told you she was mine.”
“No, she didn’t. She came with you because you threatened her son. It had nothing to do with free will.”
“Those are minor details. What are you going to do with one gun against the three of us?”
A Treasure Brought by Fate: A Historical Western Romance Book Page 26