by James, Terry
‘Good morning.’
Jake finished fastening his pants as he bent over and kissed her on the lips. ‘Good morning, sweetheart.’
Sighing deeply, she rubbed the last of the sleep from her eyes. ‘I hardly recognize you without the whiskers.’
He rubbed a palm across his naked cheek and grinned, deepening the dimples at the corners of his mouth. ‘Does it stir any memories?’
She pulled him down to sit beside her, her fingers tracing the outline of his jaw as her gaze scrutinized every feature of his face. ‘Still nothing. Sorry.’ She stretched, then curled up under the blankets. ‘It doesn’t matter though. Last night was the first time, the last time and every time in between. I know what I feel.’
‘Is that so?’
‘Yes. I also know what I want do about the L, Matt and Emmett.’
Her announcement caught him off guard and he couldn’t help thinking she’d make an excellent lawman the way she switched seamlessly from one issue to another.
‘I’m listening,’ he said.
‘After what you told me, I know this trouble with Emmett is not about the L any longer. Agreed?’
He nodded, wondering what was coming.
‘Whatever happens, Emmett wants us dead. Right?’
‘That’s a given. Are you going somewhere with this?’
She dallied a while longer. ‘I came back here because Matt placed an advertisement, calling me back, and I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to be here, didn’t have a stake. My father told me never to come back. If I hadn’t been afraid for myself, hadn’t felt something good in you, I would have left that first night.’ She clasped his hand. ‘That’s not why I’m staying anymore. You’ve brought out a side in me I’d chosen to forget. Don’t make me spell it out.’ The wretched look in her eyes implored him. ‘I want Matt and Ava and their unborn child to have a long life together. I don’t want him to die because of something I did … or we did, you and me. Do you understand?’
The feeling of anticipation that had come over him the night he confronted Swain in the Crystal Slipper, engulfed him again. Only now, he was starting to like the prospect of trouble. It blew away the cobwebs that had gathered on his comfortable life, made the blood pump faster through his veins. More than that, it identified his purpose, his reason for being who he was – gunfighter, lawman.
‘I think so,’ he said. ‘But before we leave this room, I think there’s something we need to get straight.’
‘What?’ she asked, a slight stammer betraying the real depth of her anxiety.
He kissed her, lingering as he spoke. ‘I want you and me to have a life together when this is over, maybe even have what Matt and Ava have.’
Her eyes widened, telling him more than anything she might say. Despite their differences, her missing memory and the direness of their current situation, the feelings and dreams they’d shared before were still alive.
‘You mean family?’
He fought to keep his composure as the word exploded a deep-rooted yearning in his belly. ‘If we’re going to do this crazy thing, it’s got to be worth fighting for. Agreed?’
She curled her fingers in his hair, holding him close. ‘Agreed. Thank you, Jake. Thank you for everything. Let’s go and tell Matt, get this over with. I need to start the rest of my life as soon as I can.’
‘Tom? Matt?’ Ros called as they entered the doc’s house.
Nothing seemed out of place but a feeling that something wasn’t right made Ros and Jake draw their guns at the same time. They looked at each other, then spread out along the hallway, Jake checking the rooms to the right while Ros peered into the kitchen and up the stairs.
She gasped when she turned and glimpsed Tom unconscious on the floor. Jake ran past him and, as she followed him into Jimmy’s room, Ros saw Ava bound to the head of the bed by her wrists. Jimmy clung to her skirt, his cheek buried against her leg where she knelt beside him. Behind a thick rag tied around her mouth, Ava’s pale skin glistened and her red eyes flooded with tears. When Jake untied her, she collapsed against him, releasing a tirade of sobs she seemed unable to stop despite the gasps of air she sucked in.
Ros knelt and examined the back of Tom’s head where blood matted his hair. He groaned, shoving her hand away as she turned him over and helped him to sit. His eyes were cloudy, confusion and pain adding to the certainty that he’d received a heavy blow.
‘What happened? Where’s Matt?’ she asked, as he reeled between her and the wall.
‘Radley and Carson took him. There was nothing we could do. They rushed in from the back, had us dead to rights before we knew what was happening. I couldn’t take any chances with Ava and the baby and the boy.’
‘Where have they taken him? Why?’ She almost shook him.
‘They were looking for you and the marshal. We didn’t know where you were.’
Ros glanced guiltily at Jake as he left Ava nursing a glass of water and came to lend a hand with Tom. He squeezed her shoulder briefly, then hauled the doc to his feet and circled his waist supportively before sitting him on the end of the bed.
‘Did they say anything else?’ he asked calmly.
Tom nodded and groaned as the pain hit him. Ava pushed in between them. She sniffled as she examined his wound.
‘They want you two,’ she murmured. ‘Said they couldn’t be sure that you wouldn’t just leave town. Took Matt as an in … in … cen …’ She fought hard not to start crying again but the words couldn’t break through. ‘Would you? Would you just leave us … would you?’
The utter devastation in Ava’s voice broke through Ros’s anger. ‘No. We’d never do that. We’ve been …’ Ros drew breath on the details. ‘We came to tell you and Matt that we were going to take care of everything – Emmett – that you didn’t need to worry. We’ve got a plan. I didn’t want you and Matt getting caught up in all this. Please, Ava, believe me, I didn’t.’
Ava nodded, her whole body rocking with the movement. ‘But surely you’re the one being caught up. If Matt hadn’t placed that advertisement.…’
Ros’s liking for the girl deepened. Even with Matt in danger she was defending Ros.
‘Don’t feel any sympathy for me, Ava. I don’t know what Matt told you, but me and Emmett go back a long way. What’s happening now, it isn’t about ownership of the L. You said they came for me and the marshal …’ She glanced in his direction. ‘Jake,’ she corrected. ‘The truth is, we’ve been in this situation with Emmett before. Only difference this time is Matt got caught up in something he shouldn’t.’
Tom wrapped his arm around Ava as a fresh flood of tears gushed down her cheeks. ‘I didn’t know you had it in you, Ros,’ he said. ‘The marshal’s obviously good for you. You said you’ve got a plan. Whatever it is, I’m in.’
‘Me, too. You fools want to tell me what the hell’s been happening around here?’ The sheriff leaned breathlessly against the wall. Over his usual mismatch of clothes and patches he wore a sheepskin coat with the collar pulled up. It didn’t hide the torn shirt beneath or the blood oozing from a nick under his earlobe. ‘I just got my ass kicked out of the Crystal Slipper. Saw Matt while I was there.’
‘Is he all right,’ Ava and Ros asked in unison.
‘Tied to a chair, a few cuts and bruises that I could see. Swain sent a message for you two.’ He looked between Jake and Ros. ‘Says you’ve got twenty minutes to show your faces otherwise he’ll start using Matt for target practice.’
The room stilled to an eerie quiet.
‘You got plenty of ammo, Ros,’ Jake asked without looking up from checking the tie on his holster.
She nodded solemnly as she loaded her gun from bullets in her coat pocket. ‘More than enough now.’
CHAPTER 19
‘Aren’t you going to ask me if we’re doing the right thing?’ Jake asked, as he and Ros strode along Main Street, their pace slow but steady as they came in sight of the Crystal Slipper.
She kept her focu
s on the road ahead and the loafer leaning too casually against the hitch rail outside the saloon. He hardly seemed to notice their approach, but she had no doubt he knew exactly where they were, stride for stride.
‘Are we?’ she asked, her eyes narrowing as the idler flicked his unsmoked cigarette into the street.
‘If we can get Radley and Swain out in the open, leave Clay Carson for Riley to pick off – assuming he and the doc make it through the back door – and hope that bartender doesn’t have the balls to use that rifle he keeps under the bar …’ He took a breath. ‘Hell, yes.’
Ros couldn’t help smiling at the inevitability in his answer. In reality the plan was flimsy at best. The back entrance to the saloon would probably be guarded. Matt could get caught in the cross-fire. Radley might be faster than Jake. Then again, even if Radley did get Jake, she’d put a bullet through him before she went down.
The loafer straightened up and stretched, glancing in their direction, then not so casually shouted, ‘They’re here, boss.’
Every muscle in Ros’s body tensed. She wanted to look at Jake, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with her towards an uncertain outcome. But why? What if she read the same uncertainty in his expression that she felt in her belly?
‘Are you sure you can handle Emmett?’ Jake asked, slowing his pace and lowering his voice to no more than a whisper. ‘It’s not easy shooting a man.’
Ros’s chest tightened when Radley wandered out and stood by the hitch rail. Emmett followed, standing apart from his paid gunman; out of any direct line of fire. Freshly barbered, wearing a dark suit and with his injured arm visibly supported in a decadent silk sling, his smile only added to Ros’s disdain.
She sneered. ‘He pushed me under a stagecoach, put a bullet in my back, then left me to die out in the middle of nowhere, or paid the man who did.’ She sucked in a ragged breath. ‘If it’s you or him, I’ve got you covered this time.’
Jake chuckled, low down in his throat. ‘You’re gonna be a hell of a good wife.’
The sentiment warmed her. A woman could probably do just about anything for the love of a good man. She didn’t have time to react with anything more than a feeling of lightness that swooped up from her feet and sailed through her to land in a twitchy smile on her stiff lips.
‘I see you got my message,’ Emmett shouted as they stopped within twenty feet. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d come.’
‘Is Matt all right?’ Ros asked.
Emmett pointed towards the saloon. ‘See for yourself.’
The creaky old doors swung open as if on cue, enough to see some of what lay beyond. Matt slumped over, gagged and bound to a chair in the centre of the room – directly in the line of any fire. For one heart-stopping moment, Ros thought he was already dead, until Carson dragged him up by his hair and he groaned.
‘Got anything to say to your sister?’ the redhead asked, counting a second off before he punched Matt in the face, spraying blood across the floor as he laughed.
The doors swung shut, banging until their momentum died.
‘I hate you, Emmett,’ Ros said.
‘Not yet you don’t.’ He glanced sideways at Radley, his grin widening as he took a step closer. ‘But you will.’
‘Don’t let him rile you,’ Jake said for her ears only. ‘Keep a cool head, he won’t be expecting that.’
The sound of Jake’s voice, calm and collected, infused her with a measure of confidence. She gritted her teeth and nodded almost imperceptibly.
‘I see you’re still wearing your badge, Marshal,’ Emmett shouted. ‘I thought somehow it might have disappeared along with your whiskers. By the way, it’s nice to see you again, Jay.’
‘I’m an optimist. I’m hoping we can settle this the right way.’
‘Right for who? You?’ Emmett snorted. ‘Are you going to arrest yourself for murder?’
Ros’s gaze flickered to the gunman who was methodically rolling a cigarette. He stared insolently at Jake, the mention of murder hardly registering behind the coolness of his ice-blue eyes. Emmett laughed, the overtly loud sound taunting as he leaned closer to Radley and whispered something. The blond’s face stiffened, his fingers crushing the cigarette before it reached his lips. He started forward, but Emmett held him back.
‘So, are you lawman or gunman today?’ Emmett asked Jake.
‘Will it make any difference?’
Radley’s eyes narrowed. ‘Not to me, you son-of-a-bitch.’
Jake unpinned his badge and tossed it. ‘Stay away from me, Ros. I don’t want you taking a stray bullet.’
Ros’s knees wobbled as the strength seemed to drain out of her. She almost reached for the support of Jake’s arm, but he sidestepped neatly away. When her eyes found his face, the cold killer she’d only glimpsed before had found his way to the surface. No more was he mild-mannered Jake Rudd, US Marshal. With his legs braced apart, back straight, eyes focused on the man moving out to meet him, he was one-hundred per cent Jay Langerud, gunfighter. She hardly recognized the drone of his voice.
‘So, Radley, I’m guessing he just told you how I gunned down your pa. Told you how I shot him in the back and left him for the vultures? About now, you’re probably thinking I’m not that fast.’
Radley stood straight, relaxed, his hand poised for the drop and sweep that would bring his gun up in a lightning quick movement. ‘Maybe, if that’s how it happened.’
Ros had been wondering when Riley would make his move, cause the diversion that would give Jake and her time. Now her attention strayed to Radley. He’d said ‘if’: was that doubt or a slip of the tongue?
Her gaze switched to Jake. He didn’t move, didn’t blink as he held Radley’s piercing stare. If it hadn’t been for the whiteness of his breath against the cold, she might not have believed he was alive.
‘That’s one version. Seems to me that’s the one you’ll want to believe.’
‘To be truthful, you don’t strike me as a man who’d shoot a rival in the back. On the other hand, I always wondered two things about Parley Jones. If he was really my pa, and whether he was good with a gun, or just lucky.’
‘He sure wasn’t lucky. The same ma—’
‘Cut the talk, Radley,’ Emmett shouted. ‘It’s time to do what I pay you for. Kill him.’
‘Hold your horses, Mr Swain, it’ll happen. I’m interested to know what the man has to say. Go ahead.’
‘I said, your pa wasn’t lucky. The same man who paid him, put a bullet in his back. You might want to remember that.’
Ros held her breath, tried to match Jake’s cool demeanour but despite the cold, heat flooded her body leaving her flushed and dizzy. It was as though she was standing too close to a fire, mesmerized by the flames but driven back by the heat. And then, all hell broke loose.
It was too fast to say what happened first. Later, Riley would swear he and Tom stole in through the back door after the doc did some kind of stranglehold on the guard. Carson pulled his gun and Riley shot him. Matt threw himself down, taking the chair with him, upending a table and scattering the bystanders who’d come along for the show. The bartender thought about pulling his rifle but Riley’s bullet shattering the mirror behind his head dispelled any real thought of heroics. A couple of others, easy money no-accounts, had surrendered on the spot. Doc Bailey had laid them out with a couple of punches then untied Matt.
All Ros knew for sure was Riley’s first shot had been the surprise it was intended to be. Jake’s Colt cleared leather at the same time as Radley’s. The shots were close enough to sound like one. Ros didn’t have time to worry. Her gun appeared in her hand before she had to time to think about drawing it, just about the same time something hard and sharp hit her in the side of the knee.
Her leg buckled, throwing her off balance as she squeezed off a shot at Emmett. She fell hard and rolled clumsily, saw Emmett flounder as she dropped her gun. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Jake fold at the middle, clutching his waist with both hands. A chill swept thro
ugh her, her attention snapping to Radley as she scrabbled for her Colt.
He stood, rock-still, the iciness behind his eyes melting as he gloated at his handiwork. ‘I guess I’m the lucky one today.’
A movement near his shoulder caught Ros’s attention, fear freezing her limbs as Emmett staggered forward. The gun in his hand flared, but as he fired right at her, Radley careened between them. Emmett’s shot hit him in the back, finishing the job Jake’s bullet had started and affording her precious seconds as she clawed dirt and grabbed her Colt.
‘You’re dead,’ Emmett shouted.
His features twisted in an ugly grin as he struggled to cock his weapon. Maybelle’s bullet slowed him down, but not enough. He brought the muzzle up, levelling it on her as she brought up the Colt. A shot exploded, Ros staggered backwards, only it wasn’t her who fell.
Emmett clutched his back, his eyes staring past her, the grin sliding from his face as his eyes widened with shock. He swivelled on his heel, swaying before he finally crashed to the dirt. Matt watched him fall, then stumbled against the hitch rail, Tom’s shotgun falling from his grasp as he hung his head in his hands.
Ros started forward but an arm circled her waist, dragging her back against a hard body. She turned on a dime, stopping a split second before she would have emptied her pistol into the man holding her in a vice-like grip. Relief overwhelmed her.
‘Jake? I thought.…’
He held up his hand, dripping blood. ‘He was fast, like his pa. I guess bad luck just ran in the family.’
CHAPTER 20
The desk clerk at the hotel seemed pleased to see Ros and Jake when they strolled arm-in-arm into his lobby late that evening. Before Jake could ask for the key to their room, the gaunt faced man rushed round to meet them, his hand extended in a warm welcome.
‘Welcome back, Marshal. It’s good to see you again.’ He glanced at Ros and smiled broadly. ‘You too, Miss West.’