Blood Blade Sisters Series (Entangled Scandalous)

by Michelle McLean

  “Goodnight, Priscilla.”

  He felt her eyes on him the whole way up the stairs.

  Chapter Six

  Cilla watched anxiously as Brynne read the letter that had just come in the post. The hopefulness with which Brynne had opened the letter faded to despair within seconds.

  “They haven’t seen him or heard from him,” Brynne said, crumpling the letter.

  Cilla hugged her. “We’ll find him, Brynne. I promise.”

  Brynne shook her head. “Not here, we won’t. He’s not here. He didn’t go back to San Francisco, and no one they’ve contacted has seen him.” She threw the letter to the floor. “No one in or near town has seen or heard from him. And you’ve gone to every town within a couple of days’ rides. We need to go farther. With Leo’s daguerreotype, we actually have something to show people. Even if they didn’t speak to him, someone might have seen him.”

  Cilla doubted it. It just didn’t make sense. If Jake had abandoned his new family, there would have been no reason to stay in the area and every reason to get as far away as possible. They hadn’t heard back from Jake’s family in Boston, but Leo’s appearance on their doorstep answered the question of whether Jake had gone home. Their next best bet had been Jake’s contacts in San Francisco. If they didn’t know where he was, as it appeared they didn’t, then Cilla was very much afraid something horrible had happened to him. And she thought that Brynne felt that too, deep down.

  But if Brynne wasn’t willing to admit it, Cilla certainly didn’t have the heart to say it. Yet she didn’t want to go riding off on a senseless search and leave the ranch and her sisters unprotected either.

  “Brynne, I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave you alone here.”

  “I’m having a baby, Cilla, I’m not dying. I will be perfectly fine here without you for a few weeks. I am the eldest, remember? I’m the one who is supposed to take care of you, not the other way around.”

  Cilla looked away, not wanting to meet her sister’s eyes. Yes, that was the way it should have been. And the way it had been for much of their lives, in some ways. Brynne was the mother figure, the one who had cuddled and nurtured and chased the monsters away in the dark of night. But Cilla had always been braver; the one who’d chased the spiders and snakes from the house, who’d fight kids in town who’d taunted them as children. Who’d put a bandana over her face and taken to the darkened forest trails to take back some of what had been stolen from them and others. Brynne was strong, but she might hesitate at the wrong moment.

  Cilla wouldn’t.

  “Frank has gone to Sacramento for several weeks. Everything here is running smoothly for the moment. There won’t be a better time to go. Besides,” Brynne continued, “I won’t be alone. It’s really insulting that you think we’ll all fall apart without you here to run things.”

  “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

  “That’s what it sounds like.” Brynne rubbed her hands over her ever-expanding belly in what had become a soothing gesture.

  Leo took off his hat as he entered the room, looking from one sister to the other. His gaze locked with Cilla’s for a moment before he turned to Brynne.

  “Lucy said a letter had come from San Francisco?”

  His face lost its hopeful expression the moment the words left his mouth. The sadness on Brynne’s face seemed to answer his question. “They know nothing,” he guessed.

  Brynne shook her head. “He’s not there. They haven’t seen him.” Her face hardened into determined lines and Cilla’s stomach sank. She knew that look. Her sister could be just as stubborn as Cilla when the mood took her. She wasn’t going to back down.

  “We’ve done everything we can from here, Cilla. If we are ever going to find Jake, we need to go farther afield. Take the portrait Leo has, show it to people. Someone, somewhere must know something.”

  Cilla sighed, her desire to find Jake buried in the fear she had for her sisters. What if something happened to them when she wasn’t here to help? But Brynne wasn’t going to let this go. And Cilla wouldn’t have either if the tables were turned, if someone she loved had been missing.

  Her gaze strayed to Leo again. He was staring back at her, the intensity in his eyes piercing Cilla straight through the heart.

  “All right, Brynne,” Cilla said, tearing her gaze away. “I’ll leave in the morning.”

  “We’ll leave in the morning,” Leo said.

  Cilla turned on him. “Excuse me?”

  “There is no way you are going off to search for my brother without me. I’m going with you.”

  “I don’t need you coming along to babysit me.”

  Leo’s brow knit together and Cilla had the distinct impression he was trying not to shout at her. She folded her arms and glared at him. He could get as riled up as he wanted. He wasn’t coming.

  “I have no intention of babysitting you, Priscilla. But you are going out to look for my brother and, no offense, but there is no way on God’s green earth that I am letting you do that without me.”

  “Offense taken!”

  “Take it however you’d like, but you still aren’t going without me!”

  Brynne tried to step in between them, but neither paid her any attention. Leo simply stepped around her and continued.

  “The reason I’m here is to find my brother and if there is going to be a search for him, I’m going to be part of it.”

  “I need you here to protect my sisters! I am perfectly capable of looking for him without you dogging my steps!”

  “Your capability isn’t the issue.”

  “Then what is? You don’t trust me?”

  Leo pinched his lips together but then stepped closer to Cilla, seemingly unable to keep his mouth shut. “Why in the world should I trust you? The only thing I know about you is that you ride around at night robbing people, you kidnap and force people to do what you want, and you were one of the last people to see my brother alive. So you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t want to leave a search for him up to you. He is my brother and if anyone is going to search for him, it’s damn well going to be me!”

  Cilla’s mouth dropped open. Rage and shock jostled around with each other, leaving her completely speechless. Temporarily.

  “How dare you? You gutless son of a—”

  “That’s enough!” Brynne pushed her way between them. “You,” she said, pointing at Leo, “none of us had anything to do with Jake’s disappearance and if I ever hear anything of the like from you again he won’t be the only one people are searching for. Understood?”

  Leo took several deep breaths, his hands on his hips as he glared at Cilla. But finally he looked back at Brynne and nodded. “My apologies,” he mumbled.

  Cilla’s burst of satisfaction at his upbraiding was short-lived as her sister turned on her.

  “And you.”

  Cilla cringed when Brynne’s gaze fixed on her.

  “Leo will go with you. You can’t do everything on your own and he has every right to go.”

  Cilla opened her mouth to argue, but Brynne didn’t let her get a word in.

  “Lucy and I are perfectly safe here. Frank is out of town and Carmen and Miguel are here if we need help. Even if they weren’t, we are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves. And like it or not, searching will go easier for you with Leo by your side. A lone woman riding about, dressed as you insist on dressing, is going to raise eyebrows. You’ll draw less attention and hopefully get more answers if you are traveling with a man.”

  Cilla crossed her arms and fumed. But she couldn’t argue. Brynne was right. Damn it all.

  The room fell silent. Leo and Brynne looked at Cilla and waited. Finally, she threw up her arms. “Fine,” she said, pinning Leo with one last glare. “He can go.”

  Brynne grabbed Cilla and crushed her in a smothering bear-hug. “Thank you, Cilla.”

  She pulled away. “But if anything happens to any of you while I’m gone, I swear I’ll kill you both!”
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br />   Brynne laughed. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

  The next morning, Cilla rose early and gathered her things. She peeked in at each of her sisters, watching them for a moment as they slept. She grabbed the cross around her neck and offered up a quick prayer to keep them safe. When she looked up, she found Carmen watching her, a faint smile on her lips.

  Cilla felt the heat rush to her cheeks. She’d never been one to pray, even with Carmen hounding her every day to give thanks to her Maker. She shrugged. “Not sure He’ll listen to someone like me, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.”

  Carmen softly laughed. “He knows your heart, mija. You’re a better person than you think.”

  “I’ll just have to take your word for that.” Cilla gave the older woman a hug, grabbed her satchel and bedroll, and headed out to the stable.

  Maynard knickered a soft greeting and Cilla went to her horse, rubbing the white patch between his eyes. He nuzzled her and Cilla laughed and pulled a small apple from her pocket.

  “Here you are, you greedy thing.” She stroked the horse’s neck as he gobbled up his treat.

  Leo hadn’t yet come out and Cilla was grateful for a few moments alone. She took a deep breath, trying to ease her anxiety. Maynard swung his huge head, gently bumping her. She smiled and leaned her forehead against him.

  “I don’t think we are going to find him, Maynard,” she said quietly. She’d never speak those words in front of anyone else. But with Maynard she didn’t have to hold anything back. He knew all her secrets.

  The horse blew a burst of air through his nostrils and Cilla patted his neck. “I think if he were still alive, we’d have found him by now. But no one knows anything. None of his friends or associates have seen or heard from him. No one in the surrounding towns has seen him.”

  A crushing sadness filled her, sorrow for the brother-in-law she’d grown to love, despair for her sister and the baby she carried. “I’m not giving up,” she assured Maynard, who knickered in seeming encouragement. “But I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  The horse bumped his head against her again, nuzzling at her hand. Cilla laughed and pulled another apple out. “Here you go, my love.” She fed the apple to him and then wrapped her arms about his great neck, breathing in deeply, drawing strength from the animal that she sometimes felt was the only one on her side.

  She heard a rustling near the barn doors and Cilla looked up to find Leo watching her. She froze, guilt flowing through her. She hoped he hadn’t heard anything she’d said. He wouldn’t be any happier than Brynne to hear her true thoughts on the matter of his missing brother.

  But he simply stared at her, no condemnation or anger in his eyes.

  Maynard pawed the ground nervously, picking up on Cilla’s unease. She tore her gaze from Leo’s and patted Maynard’s neck before getting him saddled and ready to ride.

  Leo did the same and within minutes they were on their way to find Jake. If he was anywhere to be found.

  Two weeks later, Cilla was more certain than ever that Jake would never be found alive. Leo had grown more and more sullen with each day, seeming to come to the same conclusion, though Cilla never asked him. They’d stopped in every town they’d come across, showed Jake’s portrait to anyone they could make stand still. People had been willing enough to look at the daguerreotype, as most had never seen one before. But no one had recognized Jake.

  Cilla’s last hope had been a small settlement in the mountains north of the ranch they had been referred to, one made up of a ragtag group of people who had been shunned from other communities and had found safety with each other. The group consisted of a few natives from various tribes, a family of runaway slaves who had made it all the way to California, and a trapper who spent most of his time in the mountains but occasionally came down to visit one of the Indian women. Cilla had hoped if Jake had somehow wandered off or been traveling some of the lesser-known paths, one of these people might have seen him.

  But when they got to the settlement, they found it abandoned, the few shelters falling into disrepair. The last shred of hope in Cilla’s heart evaporated as she gazed around the lonely encampment. A shiver ran through her. She wasn’t one to be superstitious, but the abandoned settlement felt blanketed with an ominous atmosphere. Cilla wasn’t sure if something horrible had happened or if the inhabitants had just packed up and moved, but she couldn’t shake the negative energy of the place.

  Maynard shifted uneasily beneath her and she patted his neck and turned to Leo. “It’ll be dark soon. We should make camp, but…”

  Leo nodded and looked around the settlement again. “I don’t want to stay here either. Come on, we can find another spot before it gets too dark.”

  Cilla gave him a grateful smile, though she knew the expression didn’t quite make it to her eyes. She was worried about her sisters back home, worried about what Frank might be up to, and despairing over their lack of progress in the search for Jake.

  They found a small clearing near a creek that was sheltered by a thick copse of trees and stopped to make camp for the night. As they went about setting up their bedrolls and building a fire, Cilla found her gaze returning again and again to Leo.

  The last couple weeks had been difficult in more ways than one. Whenever possible, they’d stayed in the towns they’d visited overnight and had always gotten separate rooms. But there had been nights when they’d slept on the trail, and the hours of traveling had created an uneasy intimacy between them. Cilla felt both more comfortable around Leo and more uncomfortable at the same time.

  It didn’t help that she’d begun to dream of him at night. The often sensual dreams were disconcerting enough, but waking from one of them to find him watching her, the firelight dancing between them, was almost more than she could take. Her response to him irritated her to no end. She’d been around handsome men before, but she’d never been one to moon over them. The fact that she couldn’t get Leo out of her head, even when she slept, gnawed at her like a dog going after a bone. But nothing she did could dislodge him from her mind.

  Cilla watched Leo move around the campsite, trying to ignore the warm rush of butterflies that fluttered through her belly at the way his muscles bunched and strained against his shirt as he broke small branches to feed into the fire. The way the firelight danced across the strong line of his jaw, added red streaks to his dark, wavy hair, illuminated the dark eyes that stared into hers.

  It took a second for Cilla to realize that Leo had stopped what he was doing and was standing frozen, just watching her watch him. She jumped up and grabbed the bow and quiver of arrows that she’d brought with her to hunt small game.

  “I’ll, um…I’ll go see if I can find us some dinner.”

  A small smile touched Leo’s lips. “Don’t wander off too far.”

  Cilla didn’t say anything in return, just turned and hurried off. What in the world had just happened? She was more riled up than a chicken with a fox in the coop. She forced herself to stop for a moment, breathe deeply, and clear her mind. If she didn’t settle down, she’d scare off any game within a two-mile radius, and game was getting scarce as it was with the cold weather blowing in.

  It took her much longer than usual, and she lost two arrows before she finally made a good shot and brought down a fat rabbit. By the time she got back to camp, Cilla had calmed down a bit but still felt jittery as she started dressing the rabbit to cook over the fire that Leo had crackling cheerily.

  They ate in silence, cleaned up, and crawled into their bedrolls without saying a word to each other. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, though. In fact, despite the stolen glances they had both taken throughout their meal, Cilla drifted off to sleep feeling more settled and comfortable in Leo’s presence than she had since he’d appeared at the ranch. Perhaps she was finally getting used to him after all.

  Cilla woke suddenly in the middle of the night and jumped to her feet in a defensive crouch, the knife she kept shoved her in her boot was already
in her hand and ready to do damage. The large shadow that had been looming over her swore.

  “Cilla! It’s just me,” Leo said, holding his hands out.

  Cilla relaxed her stance but didn’t drop the knife just yet. Her body rippled in goosebumps and her jaw was clenched so tightly her joints ached, though it didn’t stop her teeth from chattering.

  “What are you doing?” she managed to get out.

  “Your rattling teeth woke me. I was just trying to warm you up a bit.”

  Cilla tried to snort but the sound didn’t quite make it out. Leo apparently got the gist though.

  “I’m not going to try anything funny. But I’m freezing too. We’ll both be a lot warmer if we huddle up. I’ll be on my best behavior, I promise.”

  Cilla believed him. Somehow it didn’t make her feel as relieved as it should have.

  Another gust of wind blew through the clearing, and Cilla nodded, her teeth clattering. She crawled back inside her bedroll and held her body as stiff as she could while Leo crawled in behind her, tucking their coats and his bedroll around them both. Cilla tried to keep from touching him too much but as soon as his body heat started seeping into her, she pressed back against him with a sigh.

  Leo pulled the blankets over their heads and wrapped himself about her, draping a leg over hers and running his hands up and down her arms, his warm breath heating her neck. And other parts of her.

  “Better?” Leo asked, his breath tickling her ear.

  Cilla nodded, not trusting her voice to remain steady.

  “You’re trembling.”

  Yes, she was. But it had nothing to do with being cold.

  “I’m fine now, thanks,” she said, trying to scoot away from him.

  He wasn’t having any of that. He kept his arms firmly about her. “Good. Let’s keep it that way. You won’t be any good to anyone if you freeze to death in the middle of the night because you were too embarrassed to let me hold you.”