by Nancy Bush
“I just decided I need another woman,” he said in a friendly voice, as if she’d asked another question. “And you, Miracle Jones, are that woman.”
¤ ¤ ¤
“Where’s Miracle?” Harrison demanded, scowling at the spot where he’d left her. Her horse was gone, too.
Lexie, who had been running salve into the burns several of the cattle had suffered, glanced at her brother. He was towering over her, black with smoke and rage. She was amazed. Harrison had always been her most good-natured brother, but he looked ready to kill with his bare hands.
“I never saw Miracle. Was she here?”
“Right over there. And I told her to stay there.”
“Well, from what I know of Miracle, I guess that was the wrong thing to say. You can’t order her around. I’m surprised you even tried.”
Harrison considered setting Lexie straight about Miracle and her murdering brother, but he was too annoyed and distracted. Where was she? He couldn’t believe she’d dared to leave when he’d given her strict instructions otherwise.
A sense of uneasiness had him searching the area where she’d been. Why was he worried? he asked himself. The little savage could take care of herself, as well he knew. And she wasn’t known for listening to his advice, either. Still, he thought she’d been so racked with remorse that she wouldn’t just take off without telling him.
“I’ll be back later,” he ground out, striding toward Triumph.
“Where are you going?” Lexie demanded.
“To find Miracle.”
Her trail was difficult to pick up, considering the amount of horseflesh that had recently pounded up Garrett Lane and the heavy layer of smoke, which made everything hazy. He assumed she’d headed for Rock Springs, as the other direction was Danner property and Miracle was also not known for running to safety. Still, he would have lost her entirely if he hadn’t heard the jingle of a bridle in the underbrush to the north. He pulled Triumph up short, peering through the dark.
Miracle’s gray plodder was standing just off the road beneath the fan of a thick cedar bough.
“What the hell…?”
Triumph wouldn’t go near the other horse, so Harrison lashed him to a fir tree. The gray gelding didn’t even flick an ear at Harrison’s approach. He merely stood with the patience of age and waited while Harrison examined him.
The saddle was slightly askew, as if it had been pulled. Harrison patted the gray’s neck and glanced at the ground. Grass was trampled. He ground his teeth together, wishing for a lantern. He opened his mouth to call Miracle’s name when he noticed some broken grass headed into the woods. He’d been around animals enough to know a horse had broken through there, not a human. So that meant there had been two horses, Miracle’s and someone else’s.
She’s with Blue. The thought struck him cold, and yet he knew it as surely as if someone had told him.
He stood in utter silence for several moments, listening to the night sounds, trying to quell the panic rising in his chest. Had she met him here? No. Miracle had been sick with guilt and remorse when she told him about Blue. He hadn’t imagined that. She wouldn’t have gone with him. At least not willingly. He glanced around sharply at the gelding. Leaving her horse was proof of that.
Brother or no, Blue was a dangerous man. The fear Harrison felt was totally unreasonable, he told himself as he untied Triumph and leaped onto the horse’s back. Miracle was damn good at taking care of herself.
He refused to think about the other women Blue had murdered. Miracle was Blue’s sister. He wouldn’t kill his sister. Or would he? The man was mad – sick. And vengeful. Harrison’s heart pounded with growing dread. If he’d hurt her…
“Get a move on,” he growled to the skittish stallion.
Thankful for the scattered moonbeams that cut through the trees to guide his way, Harrison turned Triumph in the direction Miracle and Blue had taken, his fear escalating to out-and-out horror as he realized his little savage was in serious danger this time.
¤ ¤ ¤
She was going to die. She knew it. If not Gil, then the sharp shoulder blades of the horse would surely end her life. She could scarcely breathe. The gag was bad enough, but every time the dreadful beast lurched forward its bones caught her in the stomach.
It was a hellishly uncomfortable position. She had no balance whatsoever with her hands tied behind her back. The only way she stayed on the animal at all was because Gil held her firmly with one hand.
Not that she hadn’t tried to slip off. If she could just get on the ground she might have a chance of kicking him. Her feet were still free. But Gil wasn’t about to release her. All she’d managed to do was wriggle out of her boots and leave them as signals for anyone caring to follow.
Who that would be she didn’t ask herself. Not Harrison. He’d been too angry. When he found her gone, he’d be even angrier.
There was no hope of rescue, but she refused to give up. She was still alive, wasn’t she? She’d gotten out of tougher scrapes before.
Thoughts of revenge and escape were all that kept her from falling apart. The truth was she was scared to death. She’d falsely believed she was immune to Gil’s cruelty. She’d thought he was her brother. But he wasn’t, and that filled her with both curiosity and total, visceral fear.
Now his hand was moving gently down her back and over her derrière. Miracle tensed. She knew he was going to rape her and kill her. But before he did he was going to have a fight on his hands he wouldn’t likely forget!
“From the first moment I saw you, I knew I’d have you,” he said into the night stillness. “God, but you’re beautiful.”
Miracle couldn’t answer. She was gagged, and anyway she was concentrating too hard on his hand, which now rested lightly on her side. Her skin shrank from his touch. If she could, she would kill him. But if he discovered her knife, her last hope was lost.
She kicked out, striking her toe into the horse’s ribs. It jumped, nearly unseating Gil. That was all Miracle needed. She jerked backward, falling to the ground the moment Gil released her. It was a fool’s error. He leaped off the horse after her, swearing hard, yanking on her hair until she was certain he’d pulled tufts of it out by the roots. Tears of pain filled her eyes, but she blinked them away.
“Bitch!” he swore, shaking her. “We don’t have to wait then. We’ll do it right here.”
They weren’t that far from Garrett property, Miracle calculated. If he would just untie her gag she could scream, and maybe someone would hear her.
But he wasn’t interested in her gag. He was pulling on her shirtwaist. Miracle felt sick. She moaned in terror.
“You like that?” Gil glanced at her face in surprise.
If the situation hadn’t been so desperate, Miracle would have laughed. He was unbelievable. Thinking she could want him simply because he wanted her.
Still, he’d given her an idea. Swallowing her revulsion, she closed her eyes and moaned again. Let him think she wanted him. By God, if she ever got her knife free she was going to plunge it into his heart!
Gil’s deadly gaze narrowed on her face. Miracle had opened her eyes to faint slits and could see him clearly. “I’ll take off the gag,” he said, “but if you scream, I’ll choke you.”
As soon as the gag was gone Miracle tried to scream anyway, but her mouth was too dry and woolly. Then Gil’s lips mashed down on hers, and she had to fight back nausea and pretend to enjoy it.
Lord, Miracle prayed, belatedly turning to the solace of her one-sided conversations with God. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Too many to count. But if You could grant me the chance to escape, I will never, never make another. (At least, not consciously.) And I will make certain Gil receives the punishment he deserves. One way or another…
She reflected it probably wasn’t smart to allude to the Almighty that she would willingly kill Gil, but she wasn’t thinking clearly. If she could just get him to release her hands.
“My wrists,” she pleaded hoars
ely. “Can’t you untie them?”
“No.” He was half lying on her, the filthy bastard.
Drawing a deep breath, she said, “I can’t touch you unless you release me.”
“I don’t believe you want to touch me. You’re as cold and hard as stone.” He laughed softly.
So he knew her game. “Untie my hands and I’ll prove you wrong. Even when I thought you were my brother I had wicked thoughts.” Lying had never come easier. “From the moment I saw you,” she added for good measure.
He hesitated, his own eyes narrowing as he tried to read her.
“How do you know Blue’s dead?” she asked, hoping to distract him.
“’Cause I was with him when he died.” His smile was cruel. “Blue and I knew each other pretty well for a lot of years. He told me all about growing up a breed, though he knew who his father was. Some feller out of Portland. Blue killed him. That’s how we met.”
Lord, was he telling the truth? “You’re not Chinook, are you?” Miracle realized. He was too tall, too angular.
“I’m a little of everything.”
“How did he die?”
“We had a fight and I killed him.”
He said it so matter-of-factly that Miracle almost missed the meaning. Blue, her brother, was dead. At the hands of this man. She was suddenly so filled with rage she could hardly speak.
“I found out Blue was holding out on me. He had a little extra money he didn’t want me to know about. Thought I wouldn’t mind being cut out. But I did mind,” he said through a smile. “And one day, while he was riding ahead of me, I shot him dead. Threw his body in the river.”
“You shot him in the back?” Miracle choked out.
“Nobody cheats me. Nobody.”
Miracle had no love for her brother she’d never met, but the cold-blooded way Gil had killed him made her want to scratch out his eyes and avenge Blue’s death.
“Blue always wanted to find you,” Gil said softly, his gaze following the swell of her breast. “He said you had a lot of money, a gift from your father. I think he wanted his share.”
“So you reached Rock Springs before I did and decided to loot and murder and rape women.” She couldn’t keep the contempt out of her voice.
“Yes,” he answered, his smile widening.
“Untie my hands. Give me a fair chance.”
Gil’s eyes blazed with the challenge. Miracle watched him steadily. He was a thrill-seeker, she realized. A thrill-seeker without a conscience. He pulled a knife from his back pocket, cutting through her bonds.
Her hands were numb. She tried to rub them together, but he pinned them over her head. “No more talking,” he told her, and he kissed her again, grinding his lips on hers until she tasted blood.
With thoughts of kicking and fighting, Miracle heaved herself upward, but he was far too strong. She had to get her knife! Vaguely she heard hoof beats, and suddenly Gil was off her, running for his horse and the rifle in the scabbard.
He was going to shoot whoever was coming.
Miracle scrambled from the ground. Gil was aiming. She screamed, and the rifle blasted. A horse shrilled, then plunged into the clearing. It was Triumph, and he was riderless.
“Got him,” said Gil with satisfaction.
Fury blinded Miracle. She ripped her knife from its sheath. Gil saw her and aimed the rifle at her head. Miracle didn’t care. She rushed forward as Gil sighted down the rifle. Then a dark shadow leaped on him just as the rifle blasted into the night stillness.
Miracle recognized she was unhurt the same moment she realized Harrison was pounding his fists into Gil with rhythmic precision. She stood still a moment, her knife hand still raised.
Harrison didn’t care if he killed Miracle’s brother. The man deserved to die. But Blue was tough and strong. He twisted like a wild thing, throwing a few punches of his own. His fingers reached for the rifle, but, growling in fury, Harrison hit him with a hard left fist.
“Let me have him! Let me have him!” Miracle shrieked somewhere behind him. He caught a glimpse of her, arm raised high, her knife clutched tightly in her fist. Hell, if he didn’t move, she’d probably stab him again!
Then another knife suddenly glinted in Blue’s palm. Miracle saw it first. It was the one he’d used to cut through her bonds.
She leapt forward. Harrison saw the knife, too. He grabbed Blue’s right wrist with his left hand, squeezing it as hard as he could. He would have crushed the bones of a smaller man, but Blue was nearly as tall as he was and as strong.
I’m going to have to kill him, Miracle, he thought with regret. She might understand the reasons, but she wouldn’t forgive him for killing her brother.
She was on her knees, her knife at Blue’s throat. “Drop it,” she ordered softly. “Now.” He hesitated, and she growled, “I will slit your throat. Don’t think I won’t.”
The knife slipped from his fingers.
Harrison stared into the man’s face. Blue had been given a reprieve by Miracle though he didn’t doubt her seriousness in threatening his life. Harrison yanked on the man’s shirt, hauling him to his feet. Both men were covered with dirt and breathing hard.
“What were you going to do to her?” Harrison demanded in a voice cold with rage, shaking him. “Murder her, like the others? Your own sister?”
“He’s not my brother,” Miracle announced. “His name’s Gil. He killed my brother.”
Harrison glanced at Miracle in surprise. “You said he was Blue.”
“He said he was Blue, but he told me the truth tonight. He’s a bounty hunter. He and my brother were friends until he shot him in the back!” she said through her teeth. Then she noticed the darkness against Harrison’s shirt. “Your right arm’s bleeding,” she added in a tremulous voice. “You’ve reopened your wound.”
“I’ll be all right.” He stared hard at Gil. “You’re going to have to face Raynor and the fact that you murdered not only three women but the people who died in the barn fire. Lucky for you no one died at the Garretts’, otherwise Jace wouldn’t wait for them to hang you!”
Gil spit in his face.
Miracle gasped, but Harrison actually grinned. “Now, that’s what a woman would do.”
Gil suddenly flung himself backward out of Harrison’s grip. The rifle was too far away, so he lunged for the knife. Harrison kicked him, but Gil jumped to his feet again and charged him, so swift he nearly plunged the blade through Harrison’s neck.
Harrison twisted, jabbing Gil in the chest with his elbow so hard Gil grunted in pain. A second later Gil doubled over and fell to the ground. Miracle held her own knife, waiting for him to move as Harrison grabbed the rifle, aiming it at Gil, his expression deadly. They stood, shoulder-to-shoulder for Gil’s next attack, but it never came. When Gil remained crumpled in a heap, Harrison nudged him with the rifle, turning him onto his back. Gil’s own knife was buried in his chest up to the hilt.
Miracle gazed down at him. He was dead…?
“Dead,” Harrison said, as if hearing her thoughts.
The energy drained out of her, and the knife slipped from her fingers. She started to shake. She turned to Harrison and saw the dark scowl on his face. He hadn’t forgiven her for lying to him.
“He would have killed you,” he said in a strained voice.
She nodded, unable to speak.
“I followed your boots.” He ached to take her in his arms. He loved her. It didn’t matter that she’d lied. And he couldn’t say he wouldn’t have done the same for his own brothers or sister if they’d committed terrible crimes. Christ, he’d defended Jesse every time he was in trouble, and to this day bristled when anyone made a comment about him.
“Miracle…” He broke off, astounded by the glimmer of tears in her eyes. He’d never seen her cry, hadn’t believed it was possible.
“I’m sorry,” she said brokenly, and then wept as if her heart were torn in two.
“I love you, Miracle.” He didn’t wait. He pulled her to him and l
et her cry against his chest. “I love you.”
“How can you? All I’ve done is cause you trouble. Look at your arm! It’s bleeding because of me. And I –”
“Shut up,” he said, kissing her.
“I’m a half-breed. No one will accept me. I can’t be your mistress, yet I can’t live without you. I’m not a lady, but I’ve got my pride.”
“You are a lady. My lady.”
She shook her head. Too many times in the past she’d let herself believe the impossible. Just because Gil was dead didn’t change anything between her and Harrison. “No white man would ever marry a half-breed, and I can’t settle for anything else.”
“Well, I want to marry you. I asked you to marry me once.”
Miracle’s eyes rounded. It was a trick. She didn’t believe it. “You only proposed because you felt guilty.”
“Is that what you thought?” He was amazed. “I proposed because I’ve wanted you from the moment I first saw you. You turned me down.”
“Because I’m half-Indian, and no white man –”
He stopped her with a kiss, his lips curving in laughter against hers. Pulling back, he said, “It’s never mattered to me that you’re half-Indian. Why should I care?” At her incredulous look, he added, “It’s the half-Garrett part that worries me. In case you haven’t noticed, Danners and Garretts don’t get along.”
“Are you really serious about marrying me?” she demanded.
“Lady, the way you wield the knife, I’d be crazy to propose and not follow through. Yes, I’m serious. And I want to marry you right away and move into the house I’m building for us. Now, can you stand to be married to a white man?”
Joy unwound slowly inside her. “Give me a minute to think about it,” she said, then laughed when he kissed her thoroughly again.
Epilogue
One month later, on a cold, bright December morning, everybody who was anybody in Rock Springs showed up at the church to offer congratulations and best wishes to the bride and groom. The mayor, a personal friend of the Garretts, wore his same black suit with its same black and gray striped waistcoat. Sheriff Raynor, a personal friend of the Danners, smiled at the assemblage, his string tie pulled away from his throat so he could be more comfortable. The ladies of the Ladies Aid Society wore taffeta, satin, even silk, and stood, as ever, in an uncompromising line on the church steps. But their sour faces and gossipy tongues had turned from Miracle, who was marrying a Danner, to Kelsey Garrett, who had run off without a word to anyone, the little renegade! And Isabella, that tart, had taken up with some lumberjack and left her baby to her mother’s care. And Lexington Danner was with child again though she was nearing thirty year’s old. No, the scandal surrounding Miracle Jones was nothing compared to the choices of those other women.