Whirlwind Cowboy

by Debra Cowan

  “Or you either?” Sobering, Davis Lee eyed Bram consideringly.

  “That’s right.”

  “How can that be?”

  “Evidently I’m not all that memorable,” Bram muttered. Which blistered him up good.

  “How does someone lose their memory?”

  “I have no notion.”

  “Have you talked to Annalise?”

  “Not yet.” Bram planned to visit the doctor before he left town. Annalise Fine was a lifelong friend who had recently returned from back East. She and Matt Baldwin had reunited after seven years apart.

  Bram bet Annalise would never forget the man she claimed to love.

  He turned back to the sheriff, bracing one shoulder against the wall beside the window. “Deborah’s hurt, too. She has a cut on her temple, and her face and back are bruised.”

  Davis Lee’s jaw firmed. “Did Cosgrove rough her up?”

  “Could be. She was with him.”

  “Doesn’t sound like it was willingly.”

  Bram wanted to believe it wasn’t. He shrugged. “Who knows?”

  The lawman arched a brow. “I’d think you might know, seeing as how close you two are.”

  “Were.” He didn’t know anything. “How close we were.”

  “I thought the pair of you—”

  “No.” Bram cut him off.

  His friend studied him for a moment. “Cosgrove could’ve made her write the note to her family to keep anyone from knowing she was with him. And to keep anyone from coming after them.”

  Three weeks ago Bram had been so furious upon reading her words that it hadn’t even entered his mind to wonder if things weren’t the way they seemed. Had he missed a clue because he was angry that she’d left? He didn’t think so, but he wanted to see the note again.

  He glanced at Davis Lee. “Deborah also could’ve written the note of her own free will, too. For the same reasons.”

  “True, but I don’t think she would go anywhere with Cosgrove willingly. Do you? I mean, do you really think so?”

  Yes. But Bram didn’t want to get into an argument over this with the sheriff. “I’m keeping my mind open to the possibility until I get some proof one way or another.”

  “She’s sweet on you. Why would she run off with that bastard?”

  She’d been so sweet on him that she’d refused to marry him.

  “She’s not all that sweet on me.” Done with talking about Deborah, he said, “I assume Jericho isn’t back from New York City or Mrs. Blue would’ve told me.”

  “That’s right.”

  Deborah’s sisters had overwhelmed her enough. Bram had no idea how she would’ve reacted to her older brother. Though quiet, the former Ranger was big and had an intimidating presence until you got to know him.

  Davis Lee stroked his chin. “Do you think we should send a wire letting him know what’s happened?”

  He thought a moment. “There’s no point in it. Mrs. Blue said she wrote him that Deborah had gone to Abilene to see the board about her teaching position. Jericho never knew his sister might have been in danger. All we could tell him is that she was possibly abducted and now she’s home safe. There’s nothing he can do about it.”

  “You’re right. You can just tell him when he returns from New York.”

  Bram nodded.

  The other man’s gaze went to the saddlebags on the floor. “You planning to turn in this money? Want me to wire the Monaco Bank and let them know it’s been recovered?”

  “No.”

  Davis Lee studied him. “Cosgrove will come for that money.”

  “I’m counting on it.” Bram’s voice hardened.

  The lawman stood. “That will put Deborah in danger.”

  “That’s why I’m sticking to her like a burr to a saddle blanket.”

  “And when Cosgrove shows up, you’ll trap him.”

  “Right.” Hate for the man bubbled up inside him.

  “I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on the man,” Davis Lee said.

  “First come, first served.”

  “I don’t like the idea of the bank not knowing their cash has been recovered.”

  “If I return the money, Cosgrove might not show unless he has another reason to.”

  “You mean, if Deborah has or knows something he doesn’t want her to,” the other man finished.

  “And until or unless she remembers what happened, we won’t know if that’s the case. The only way to make sure Cosgrove comes back to Whirlwind is to keep the money. Or let him think we have.”

  Davis Lee’s eye glinted. “What if I return the cash, but the bank doesn’t announce it? Cosgrove would still believe the cash is with Deborah.”

  “Do you think the bank would go along with it?”

  “You’re offering them their money as well as the murdering son of a bitch who stole it and killed one of their people. I think the banker could be convinced, but he isn’t the only one you’d have to persuade.”

  “The law, too.” Bram realized what he meant.

  Davis Lee nodded. “I know the sheriff in Monaco. He’s a good man. I bet he’d be happy to get their bank robber just dropped in his lap. I could go with you. Might be good for Deborah to go, too, and see if she remembers anything.”

  It was a good idea, but Bram shook his head.

  “Why not?” Davis Lee asked.

  “That trip, right now, would be too hard on her.” Bram could still feel her tight grip on his shirt when she had seen her family for the first time. She had been overwhelmed. “And not just physically.”

  “She’s pretty beat up, huh?”

  Bram nodded. Davis Lee hadn’t seen the stark terror in her eyes, the marks on her. How overcome she’d been just seeing her mother and sisters. She wasn’t ready.

  “Well,” Davis Lee said, “you and I can go.”

  Bram would have preferred to take the money and talk to the banker himself, but it was more important that he stay close to Deborah. “What would you think about taking the money and talking to the banker yourself?”

  “You don’t want to leave Deborah?”

  Not liking his friend’s phrasing, Bram said tightly, “More like I don’t want to chance Cosgrove showing up while I’m gone.”

  “All right. I’ll leave early tomorrow morning and let you know as soon as I can if Monaco’s sheriff and banker are agreeable to the plan.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Will you tell Deborah or Aunt Jess?”

  “No reason to. It doesn’t change anything. And the fewer people who know about this, the better chance the plan will work.”

  “True.”

  The two men shook hands and Bram left, headed for Annalise’s clinic. As he angled across Main Street toward her clinic at the other end of town, he recalled how lost Deborah had looked, how alone the last time he’d been with her.

  How was she doing? Was she settling in?

  He’d know soon enough when he showed up tonight for his turn at watch. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about her? There were plenty of other things and people who needed his attention.

  Maybe Jake would have Ike and Georgia back at the Circle R by the time Bram arrived. He hoped so. He wanted to see with his own eyes that his uncle and cousin were all right. And he wanted to talk to his brother about this craziness with Deborah.

  The woman didn’t even remember him and she had him turned inside out, but he had no intention of letting her know.

  For once, since the shoot-out at the Eight of Hearts ranch, Bram had the upper hand. He intended to keep it. And when this was over, he would walk away from Deborah. Just as she had walked away from him.

  * * *

  The relief Deborah had expected to feel at being awa
y from Bram hadn’t come. Instead, she had wanted him to stay.

  Several hours after he had gone, she had learned a few things about her life. Not because she had remembered, but because her family had told her.

  They had shown her the note she had written. Despite having no recollection of doing it, she knew the handwriting was hers.

  She also knew now why she had insisted on taking the teaching position before she would marry Bram. What she didn’t know was why that had caused him to force her to choose between him and the job.

  Something he had said in the cabin nagged at her, something relevant, but she couldn’t recall it. Though she kept busy, a restless energy moved through her and she seemed unable to keep from listening for Bram’s return.

  After supper, her mother and Michal had settled in the front room to work on Michal’s new dress for the Fourth of July celebration.

  She glanced at Jordan, who stood beside her in the kitchen washing dishes while Deborah dried and Marah put things in their place.

  “The night Bram and I fought, did I explain that I wanted the job so desperately because I had given one up before for another man?”

  Her sisters had informed her that she had been engaged before their family moved to Whirlwind. “Did I tell Bram that my former fiancé said he wanted to start a family right after we married so he didn’t want me to teach?”

  “I’m not sure,” Jordan said. “Or even if you told him that when you and Sean fought about your taking the job, he called off the engagement.”

  Was she a demanding and unreasonable person? “Do I fight with every man who shows interest in me?”

  “No. You aren’t like that,” Marah insisted.

  Jordan nodded. “You had been offered a teaching job and gave it up for Sean. You said you wouldn’t do that again.”

  Had she explained her reasons for turning down Bram’s proposal? Deborah wondered. If so, why hadn’t he understood? She intended to ask him.

  Jordan poked her head around the kitchen door, then asked in a low voice, “How were things between you and Bram during the storm?”

  “They were...tense.”

  “I bet there was only one bed,” she said matter-of-factly.

  Deborah understood now why her sister hadn’t wanted their mother to overhear.

  Marah’s eyes widened. “Did y’all sleep in the same room?”

  “No.” Although he had seen her half-naked. Her face heated. “There was only one bed, but he let me have it.”

  “He’s a gentleman,” Marah said dreamily.

  The way he had looked at Deborah, right through her undergarments, hadn’t been gentlemanly in the least, but she would keep that to herself.

  “He gave me the bed so he could keep an eye on me. At the time, he believed I’d been with Cosgrove of my own free will.”

  “He thought you were lying about losing your memory?” Jordan looked at Deborah in surprise. “I can’t believe he doubted you.”

  “Neither can I,” Marah agreed.

  “He was still very angry about the proposal and about my leaving.” She glanced at both of her sisters. “Thank you for being so understanding and believing me. I appreciate y’all trying to help me recollect things.”

  Marah gestured toward the cool dimity dress Deborah had changed into after bathing and washing her hair. “Did you remember that’s one of Bram’s favorite dresses?”

  “No.”

  Her sister’s face fell.

  Deborah looked down at the white fabric sprinkled with tiny purple flowers. From the wardrobe she shared with her sister, she had automatically reached for the dress with the square neck edged in lace. Would Bram notice, think she had done it on purpose? If she had known it was one of his favorites, she wasn’t sure she would’ve chosen it.

  Michal had helped her sweep her hair up to keep it off her neck. Though the screen door allowed in the

  occasional breeze, heat from the cookstove still lingered in the room, curling little wisps of her hair around her face.

  As she watched Jordan put away the clean dishes, Marah asked Deborah more questions. Did she remember how old she’d been when she taught her first school? Did she recall helping Marah nurse Felix back to health after the mouse had nearly been killed by a cat? Did she recall sharing a bedroom with Jordan?

  No, no and no. Every question made Deborah feel as if she were letting down her family. She hated it.

  She caught Jordan shaking her head at their sister and was relieved when the younger woman began to tell her things rather than ask about them.

  “You’ll be so proud of me,” Marah said. “I finally know all of the Great Lakes states.”

  “You had trouble with that?”

  “An awful lot.” Marah rinsed the skillet and passed it to Deborah. “Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Michigan.”

  “And?” Deborah prodded.

  “There’s one more?” her sister asked dejectedly.

  Deborah nodded.

  “I always forget— Oh! It’s Ohio.”

  “Very good.”

  “Hey, you knew I’d left out one of the states. You remembered something!”

  She didn’t want to dampen her sister’s enthusiasm, but she hadn’t remembered. “It’s just something I knew.”

  “Because you’re a teacher.” Marah nodded.

  Jordan smiled. “It seems you haven’t forgotten everything.”

  “Do you think I’ll remember other things, like what happened to me in Monaco?”

  “I don’t know why not,” Jordan said. “You didn’t expect to remember what you just did.”

  “I hope you’re right. I especially want to recall everything that happened with Bram.”

  “We only know what you told us the night the two of you fought. You were so mad you didn’t want to talk much.”

  “And you said he was angry, too,” Marah added, hoisting herself up to sit on the cupboard beside the sink.

  “You’d better get down from there. You know Mother doesn’t like it,” Deborah said.

  Marah and Jordan both grinned. After a second, Deborah did, too. “I remembered something else.”

  As dusk settled outside, Jordan lit the fat-bellied lamp. Smoky amber light filled the kitchen.

  Marah crossed her ankles, leaning toward Deborah. “Bram must not still be mad at you or he wouldn’t be so bent on protecting you.”

  “He’s only staying close because he thinks this Cosgrove fellow will show up for that money. Bram plans to capture him for stealing it.”

  “And for shooting his uncle and cousin,” Jordan said.

  “And for what that polecat did to you,” Marah added. “I bet that made Bram really mad.”

  Deborah wasn’t so sure about that.

  “What did?” Bram’s deep voice coming from just outside the screen door startled all three females and they jumped.

  “Nothing,” Deborah said at the same time Jordan answered, “That Cosgrove hurt Deborah.”

  The door squeaked as he stepped inside and swept off his hat. His shadow fell across the room. “Ladies.”

  Jordan and Marah both greeted him with big smiles. His smile faded as he met Deborah’s gaze. At the banked heat in his eyes, her stomach dipped and she couldn’t find her voice for a moment.

  He had cleaned up, too, and my, my, he looked fine. His black hair was damp, curling against his strong nape. She couldn’t stop her gaze from tracking over the wide shoulders molded by a clean white shirt, the tuft of dark hair at the top of his unbuttoned shirt placket, over his flat belly and down long legs to dusty black boots.

  A shiver worked through her.

  Marah hopped down from the cupboard and gave her a quick hug. “Deborah remembered somethin
g!”

  “That right?” Bram’s eyes narrowed on her.

  “Not really. Not what you’re hoping for anyway.” Now that she had gotten past the surprise of her reaction to him, the seething energy inside her calmed. As if she’d been waiting for him.

  She told herself it was because he was currently the one familiar face in her world. “It’s not really a memory.”

  “You knew to correct me when I messed up my

  geography,” her sister pointed out. “You used to do that all the time.”

  “And you recalled that Mother doesn’t like Marah on top of the cupboard,” Jordan said.

  Deborah gave an apologetic smile. “But it doesn’t tell me anything new.”

  “Any little bit has to help,” Jordan put in.

  “I agree.” Bram studied Deborah, his gaze piercing in the flickering lamplight.

  Jordan glanced at Marah, then nudged her toward the door. “We have some sewing to do.”

  “We do?” Frowning, Deborah’s youngest sister looked from Jordan to Deborah, then realization dawned on her elfin face. “Oh! Yes, we do.”

  “That reminds me,” Bram said. “None of you should go anywhere without me or one of my men.”

  “All right.” Jordan hurried Marah out of the room.

  Deborah inwardly rolled her eyes at their obvious ploy to leave her alone with Bram. They would be disappointed when he left right behind them.

  But when she turned back, he stepped closer. She caught a glimpse of unguarded hunger in his eyes that burned right through her. Then he shuttered his gaze. It didn’t matter. She was keenly aware of herself—the rub of her chemise against her breasts, the tickle of her hair against her neck.

  Deborah was topsy-turvy and it had nothing to do with her memory loss. It had to do with the big man standing close enough for her to feel his body heat, to draw in the clean outdoorsy scent of him. It made her go soft inside.

  “Um, have you seen your uncle and cousin? How are they?”

  He gave her a curious look.

  She glanced down to see if she had something on her dress. She didn’t. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “You don’t even remember Ike and Georgia.”