Lone Star Lover
Page 19
A long breath left him as her words sunk in. She didn’t want to go back with him? She’d said she loved him. It didn’t make sense.
“I’m sorry. If you only knew how much I wish I could go. I—I—” Her voice broke on a sob. “Leaving and not knowing would haunt me forever.”
His entire body tightened. How could he leave without Rebecca? He couldn’t. There was no way. Did she not understand what it meant for him to leave while she stayed?
He looked deep into her earnest eyes and found his answer.
“I understand,” he said, a second later. She was doing the right thing by the only family she had left. She was doing what he should have done from the beginning. Taken care of his family. Watched over his loved ones before they drifted away. Before there was nothing left of him but a silver star. “I do understand,” he repeated. “And tell you what. We’ll take care of business in Austin, then make sure Kitty’s all right. And then we’ll go find Bird Song. Both of us. Together.”
A tear slipped from her eye. “You would do this? For me?”
He smiled, and brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers. He wasn’t sure which was colder, but it didn’t matter. “I think there’s been enough of men making the decisions in your life. They sure as hell haven’t done a very good job. So this time, we’ll do it your way. After that,” he said, winking, “it’s up for negotiation.”
It took a minute for the smile to lift her lips. But when she threw herself back into his arms, he had no doubt at all that this was right. Whether it was the eighteen hundreds or the twenty-first century, they belonged together. They belonged to each other.
Seven days later
THEY FOUND KITTY hiding in Otis’s barn. She looked scared, but unhurt. Downright amazed that they’d come back. While Jake looked around the place, Rebecca helped pull hay from her mussed hair, and filled her in on their trip to Austin.
“It’s gonna be crazy around here real soon,” Rebecca told her. “Jake believes the law is serious about trying to clean up the Rangers, and they want to make an example of Wade’s bunch.” Rebecca squeezed her friend’s arm. “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too.” Kitty shrugged, her eyes moist. “But Wade made his own bed. You two plan on sticking around?”
“We can’t.”
“I figured.”
“You can’t, either.”
Kitty smiled. “There’s food in the house. I ran over there after dark. I could fix you something before you go.”
Rebecca linked an arm through hers as they headed out of the barn. She knew it wouldn’t be easy to talk Kitty into going with them, but she wouldn’t give up.
Jake was untying their horses from the front post. He’d found a third one. “Kitty, get your stuff. We gotta go.”
The women ran to meet him, Rebecca’s heart pounding in her chest. “What’s happened?”
“I saw riders. We have to leave. Now.”
Kitty’s shoulders dropped. “You two, go on. I’ll go back to the barn.”
“No, you can’t.” Rebecca took her hands. “You have to come. Kitty, they’ll kill you if they think you’ve had anything to do with us. What if they know what’s coming?”
“It doesn’t make a difference. I’m not running. I’m tired and I’m cold, and one place is as good as another.”
Rebecca turned to Jake, begging him silently to do something. To make her understand.
He handed the reins to Rebecca. “Climb on up, sweetheart.” He turned to Kitty. “There is a place that’s different. Where you’ll find a whole new way of life. Things you never dreamed of. All you have to do is find Slow Jim. You get to him, and you tell him I sent you. You tell him to take you to the rock. He’ll know what to do.”
Kitty frowned. “Hell, you are crazy.”
“No,” he said. “I’m saving your life. All you have to do is trust me. Can you do that?”
Rebecca went to Kitty. “You’re the one who told me I could trust him. You were right. He’ll save you. I promise.”
Kitty looked at Rebecca, then back at Jake, the crazy man from who knows where. She’d have to be a damn fool to think there was a way out of this mess of a life. But then, she kinda liked fools. “What the hell,” she said, wondering how she was gonna get on that horse. “It can’t be worse than Diablo Flats.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4979-4
LONE STAR LOVER
Copyright © 2010 by Debbi Quattrone.
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