by Linda Broday
When they stopped to rest and cool off with water, Jack laid a hand on Tait’s shoulder. “Are you all right, brother?”
“I’m fine. Why are you asking?”
“Don’t want to pry, but I have eyes. Something happened between you and Melanie the night of the dance. And the next thing I knew, you’d dragged that railroad loot into town.”
“You might as well know. I’m giving it back.” He kept his voice low and told Jack about Melanie’s confession and her explanations. “I have to get her sister out. Prison is no place for a woman. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t?”
Jack released a low whistle. “No wonder you looked all hollowed-out inside. Damn, Tait. I think helping her sister is right. I’d do the same thing if I were in your shoes. And who knows, maybe returning the money will get you a pardon to boot. It certainly can’t hurt.”
Tait stared at his hands, thinking of how many times they’d curled around his gun and the lives he’d taken. “I just want to get out from under this darkness that eats and eats and eats at me.”
“I can vouch that nothing can compare to the feeling of freedom.” Jack poured a dipper of water over his head. “Back to your marriage—you’re a good man to give Melanie another chance. She didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Yeah.” Tait took off his hat and wiped his forehead. “She said she loves me.”
“There you go. Marriages tend to start off rocky in the getting-acquainted stage. Mine and Nora’s was the same way, but we kept working at it, and now our relationship is solid.”
Tait was considering Jack’s words when four shots rang out and the guard at the entrance toppled to the ground. “Come on, Jack!” Tait pulled his weapon and ran.
Bullet and Scout barked madly and raced toward the danger.
Others beat him to the downed man, so Tait kept going through the entrance, pausing at the opening in the canyon. His heart pounded as he glanced out, gripping his Smith & Wesson.
The dogs didn’t stop. They kept running even as the shooter tried to kill them too. He only missed them both by some miracle.
Jack and Clay pressed to the other side of the entrance, peeking around their cover to get a sense of the situation.
Nothing moved in Tait’s line of vision except the dogs. Bullet and Scout dove into the dense brush, still raising hell. One of them gave a loud yelp. Tait picked up a rock and threw it in the opposite direction, away from the dogs. A burst of rifle fire erupted. Using his hands, Tait signaled to Jack and Clay to ask if they could see anything. Both shook their heads.
Tait motioned for them to cover him. As shots burst from his friends’ position, he rushed out and dove into some tall bushes. He kept a close eye out to see where the return fire came from. There! The shooter ducked down in a clump of mesquites.
Wishing he had a rifle instead, Tait raised his gun, took aim, and squeezed the trigger.
The gunman yelled profanities, letting Tait know that his shot had hit the mark. Jack and Clay ran from their cover, creating a wall of fire as they went. Tait rose and joined them, and they reached the wounded man at the same time. Bullet and Scout were sniffing him over and snarling.
Tait grabbed the attacker’s rifle, tossed it aside, then checked for other weapons, finding none.
Clay stuck the barrel of his gun against the gunman’s forehead. “Who are you?” Blood oozed from between the man’s fingers as he clutched his chest and dribbled from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were glazing over as they watched, and Tait knew he wouldn’t be telling them one blessed thing. A second later he went limp, life leaving his body.
Tait scanned the landscape for any other movement—any sign that he’d come with friends. Nothing moved.
The dead man looked to be older than Tait. “Do either of you recognize him?”
Both said no. Jack closed the man’s open eyes. “I’d put his age at about thirty-five or so.”
Tait put his gun away. “Could be another of Kern’s sons. I never saw very many of his boys, only the old man.”
“We’ll see if Earl recognizes him.” Jack slid his gun into his holster.
“I’m betting he’s a brother or cousin.” Tait hoisted the dead man up and over his shoulder while Clay kept a lookout.
They were almost to safety when a rider burst around some boulders, thundering toward them and shooting as he rode. He galloped past, raising a dust cloud.
Clay returned fire rapidly, emptying his gun at the fleeing figure. “Hurry inside before he doubles back.”
Tait and Jack wasted no time. They moved quickly back into town, and men were waiting to roll wagons across the opening behind them. Melanie ran to them, her eyes large in her ashen face. She stopped five feet away as though afraid to come closer.
Tait laid the dead man into the back of a wagon and straightened. “I’m fine, Melanie.”
“I was afraid.” A strangled sob rose, and she twisted her hands.
“It’s okay.” He covered the space between them and pulled her close.
Tait held her for a long moment, glad she cared for his sorry hide. A rock in the wall between them fell, leaving a small chink for sunlight to come through.
Twenty-five
The next two days passed in nervous whispers, which kept Melanie on edge. The guard who’d been shot was recovering in the small hospital, thank goodness. Barricading the entrance had cut them off from the two men guarding the herd, however, and the town didn’t know their fate.
With snipers outside taking potshots at anyone who dared to try to leave, they had to assume the worst for the men.
She’d stood by with the other women while the men kept trying to sneak out under cover of darkness only to be driven back. Finally, Tait and the men had hatched a plan to see how many shooters there were. Tait climbed to the top of the bluff by rope, and when Clay showed himself at the opening, drawing fire, Tait was able to see what they’d feared.
It wasn’t just one sniper out there—there were a dozen or more. Probably every single member of Kern’s gang.
Earl Berringer identified the dead man as an older brother and delivered a dire prediction. “My old man will ride in here any day and kill every stinking one of you. This town will run thick with blood. Just wait and see.”
The men set to work on trying to clear enough debris from the back entrance that they’d sealed with dynamite several years previously. But snipers there also made that impossible.
They were totally surrounded. Melanie tried to remain calm, but growing panic rippled just under the surface.
She worried about Tait and what he’d try next. Except for that one embrace, he hadn’t come near her again. After Earl’s identification of the dead man, Tait had become a man obsessed. He didn’t sleep and rarely ate. Melanie didn’t know how long he could continue like this, but she kept quiet. A nagging wife was the last thing he needed.
She sometimes saw him talking with the men but didn’t approach. It was best to keep her distance. The strain on their tenuous relationship frayed her nerves, and she shifted her entire focus to the children. Keeping them calm, however, was no easy task.
“They’re gonna sneak in here and kill us,” Jesse predicted, edging closer to Melanie on the sofa.
“Stop thinking that way,” Melanie scolded. “We have plenty of men and guns to keep that from happening, and they have no way inside. Don’t frighten your sister.”
Becky put her hands over her eyes. “Me scared.”
“See there?” Melanie said, picking up the girl. “Honey, we’re all going to be just fine. Your uncle will shoot anyone who tries to get inside. He’s not afraid of killers.”
“No, he ain’t.” Jesse seemed positive of that at least. “Uncle Tait will stop ’em.”
Since the siege, the stagecoach had ceased to run. And if they made it by the snipers outside, no one got past th
e barricade inside without proving their identities and stating their business. Melanie knew the men worried about the two guards with the cattle, and she feared they were probably dead. Earl had loudly proclaimed as much.
Melanie was pulling Becky along the road in a little wagon when the evening sun shone on a man carrying a bag at the entrance to town. Why would anyone brave the danger to visit a town under siege that had to be kept locked down?
Maybe he was delivering a letter or something from Sam about her sister.
The dogs ran toward him, barking their lungs out. The man wore a jaunty bowler and a two-dollar pinstripe suit. When he got closer, her mouth dried.
Mac Dunbar.
Melanie stared, neither moving nor speaking. Why had he come now, except to start trouble?
Mac opened his arms. “Come here, girl. Give your old papa a hug.”
“What are you doing here?” She didn’t try to hide the ice in her words, her stiff lips, or the hard glint in her eyes. “Leave. Disappear from our lives. You’re good at that, and we don’t want you.”
“Don’t be that way, Melanie.” When she didn’t make a move toward him, he let his arms fall to his sides. “I’ve had hell finding you and come all this way from St. Louis. I had to walk a mile from where a freighter I hitched a ride with let me off, and I’m tired and dirty. I don’t appreciate this reception.”
Everything was still all about him. He hadn’t even asked how she was, what she was doing in Hope’s Crossing, or anything at all about Ava.
“You know what? I don’t care how far you’ve traveled.” She felt a large presence move in behind her and heard Tait’s voice.
“You heard her. You’re not welcome here. You’re a self-centered cheat and a scoundrel, and I have half a mind to shoot you on the spot.”
Mac scowled. “Who are you? This is a private conversation.”
“I’m Melanie’s husband. Name’s Tait Trinity.”
Shock rippled across Mac’s face, and the color drained from his cheeks. “I see. Well, sir, perhaps you’re right about some things, but you can’t separate me from my daughter. Melanie, I’ve been worried sick about you and Ava. You’re my girls. Don’t treat me this way.” Mac spoke the words with false feeling behind them, just like an actor saying his lines. “I remembered your name. Doesn’t that count for something?”
She snorted. “You only know because Ava sits in jail all alone.”
Mac glanced down and dug at a tuft of grass with the toe of his boot. “I had to pay Judge McIlroy a tidy sum to tell me where you were.”
Revulsion swept over her that her father would have dealings with the judge who was trying to put her and Ava in prison. Hot anger surged. “Did you offer to pay a tidy sum to get her released?”
When he didn’t reply, she asked again through clenched teeth. “Did you offer to pay to get your daughter out?”
“No. How much money do you think I have?” His eyes blazed.
“I don’t know, Mac. It depends on which day of the week it is,” she snapped. “I’m guessing you have to be pretty close to broke to look me up.” She took a calming breath. “Did the judge tell you Ava is very sick?” She found his white face immensely satisfying.
He appeared even more shaken—or was she imagining it? “No.”
“Did you visit her? Did you do that much?”
Mac’s nostrils flared, and a vein pulsed in his neck. “I asked to see her, and McIlroy refused. I do have a heart.”
“That’s debatable,” Tait replied dryly. “From what I hear, you don’t have a caring bone in your body for anyone other than yourself.”
Melanie glared at the man who’d fathered her and raised her chin a notch. “I’d be in jail with her if not for a deal I made with McIlroy. If you’d cared about us a single iota, you’d have stuck around when they arrested us for your crime.”
“They go easier on women, or so I thought. How was I to know they’d throw you in jail?”
She wouldn’t dignify that with a response. Another thought hit. She narrowed her eyes. “Why did the snipers let you by? Did you pay them too? Or was it because you’ve had dealings with the Berringers before?”
The remaining color left Mac’s face, and he swallowed hard, unable to find a reply.
“I have my answer.” Melanie picked Becky up and turned to Tait. “Let’s go. There’s nothing here of interest.”
“Dunbar, find your way back to where that freighter let you off or you and me will have problems.” Tait put an arm around her and drew her away, leaving Mac Dunbar standing alone in the middle of the town.
“You’re shaking,” Tait said quietly once they were out of earshot.
“I’m so furious. I finally see him as he really is. I mean, I knew, but I had blinders on. Well, no more. Thank you for backing me up.”
“I didn’t know who he was at first, but from the cold way you treated him, I thought it must be your father. If he doesn’t leave, I’ll hurry him on his way. Go ahead and get Becky into the hotel.”
“Will you please take a meal with us tonight? The children need to see you.” And so did she. To sit across from him, the flickering light catching the streaks of blond between chunks of warm caramel hair, his eyes full of desire the way he used to look at her—that would be worth a small fortune.
The dark hat shaded his face, but even bathed in shadows she could sense no anger in his expression—only terrible weariness.
“I know I haven’t been doing right by the kids these days. Tell them I’ll take supper with them tonight.” He stopped and held her face between his hands. “And you. We’ll be a family.”
Something about the word family sent warmth through the layer of ice around her heart. “Tait, I’m sorry for the extra annoyance Mac added. Now you know what I was talking about.”
“I’ve seen plenty of men like him. I can manage Dunbar just fine. I’ll make sure he doesn’t bother you.”
“Thank you. How long is this siege going to last? I wish Berringer would give himself up.”
“Not going to happen. I know him. He’s out to make me pay for crippling him, and nothing but death will stop him.”
“Everyone is jittery. We can’t keep this up. The town will run out of food.”
“It’ll end soon. I’ll make sure of it one way or another.” He released his hold and stalked toward the blockade that stretched across the town’s entrance.
“My wuncle,” Becky said.
“Yes, he is, honey. And he loves you very much.” Maybe one day after his memory of all this started to fade, he’d be able to have feelings for her again too.
She had a mountain to climb, but climb it she would because a big reward awaited her at the top.
* * *
She didn’t see Mac the rest of the evening but found out from the desk clerk that he’d checked into the hotel. At six o’clock she took the children to the café. There was no sign of Tait at first, but just as they got seated at a table near the back, he walked in. Removing his hat, he wound his way over to them.
All three children started talking at once. Tait raised a hand. “One at a time.”
“We start school tomorrow,” Joe said glumly. “I don’t know why we hafta go to school when we can’t even open the town.”
“Because you need something to do to take your mind off the danger.” Tait straightened Joe’s shirt, his buttons in the wrong holes. “Tell me, what would you do if you didn’t have school?”
“Well, Jesse and me would play with the other kids.”
“I like school,” Jesse announced, stunning everyone. “I get to help Violet with her books and things. She smells real good.”
Tait’s laugh lifted some of the heaviness from his face. His gaze met Melanie’s, and she grew warm. “It only gets better from here, son. I think you’re growing up.”
Mel
anie grew warm under his attention. Was he starting to thaw?
Jesse propped his head on his arm. “Well, it’s not like we’re going to get married or anything. I’m scared of Mr. Colby. He don’t like me much.”
“Why do you think that?” Melanie asked.
“’Cause he growls at me and looks all serious.”
“I’m not ever liking girls. They’re too bossy,” Joe declared. “I’m just gonna live by myself.”
“I can’t wait to see this.” Tait stopped a waiter. “I think we’re ready to order.”
After the waiter left their table, Tait leaned back in the chair. “I don’t have much time. I’m on guard tonight.”
The thought of the danger that waited in the darkness stilled Melanie’s blood. She prayed for his safety. Kern Berringer wanted Tait dead and meant to see it happen.
A memory floated into Melanie’s mind. She had been ten years old and had gone to play with another little girl. The girl’s father, killed by a robber, had been laid out on the table. The mother had gathered water and cloths to bathe the body. She’d shooed them out and locked the door, and Melanie had later learned that it was the custom to ready someone for burial.
If Berringer’s bullet found Tait, it would be her duty to bathe him. She’d lovingly wash every inch of his body even as her heart broke.
She shook herself. Don’t think of such things.
Becky stole Tait’s attention, patting and loving on him. “I go with you.”
“Hey, you’re talking in a sentence, peanut.” Tait beamed like a proud parent. “But you’ll have to stay with Aunt Mellie. It’s too dangerous where I’ll be.”
“A bad ghost will come and get you.” Joe snarled and raised his curled arms at her.
“No!” Becky tried to climb into Tait’s lap to get away.
“Stop that, Joe. Don’t scare her that way,” Tait scolded. “Honey, stay in your chair. I won’t let anything get you.”