Wild Passion

by Dawn Luedecke

  “Oy, Thomas,” he called. “What are you doing here?”

  Like the louse he was, he popped out from his hidden position. “Aunt June sent me up here to fetch Carrie. There’s been some talk down there. We’re a bit worried she came up here alone with you and never returned.” He slid a telling glance to the cabin door. “And now I see our fears were for real-play.”

  “You’ve no idea what you’re talking about, and don’t go spoutin’ off scuttlebutt down there or I’ll beat you until your mother doesn’t even recognize who you are.” Simon shoved the young logger’s concerns away, but deep inside he cursed himself for not taking better care with Carrie’s reputation. It seemed every moment they were alone, his time ended with regret. Never for what he did with the woman he’d desired all his life, but for what strife he might cause her in the future. Next time he would make certain she was protected from everything. And there would be a next time. He couldn’t imagine a life where he never touched her again. She was his.

  “Carrie is a lady, and nothing untoward happened up here, do you understand me?” He took a menacing step toward the mudsill lowlife. “If I hear otherwise, I’ll knock your galley west.”

  “Threatening me won’t get you nowhere. I know you’ve been in the cabin alone with a single woman for quite some time. And you with the most reprehensible reputation in town. You’ve ruined her.” Thomas’s nostrils flared. “She was a decent woman, but now she’s nothing more than a dime whore.”

  Simon ground his teeth. Heat flashed over his body. Even if Carrie had given herself to him, there was no woman on earth as flawless and deserving as she. “She is still a decent woman.”

  Thomas’s eyes bulged from his head. “If she’s loose enough to sneak away with a cut-up swine like you, then she should have no problem hitchin’ herself to me. I’ll look past the fact I didn’t get her first. As long as she pleases me good enough when I’m on top of her.”

  Simon flexed his jaw, clenched his fists tight, and growled. The man had no idea how close he was to a broken rib or two. “Stay away from her.”

  “That’s up to her.” Thomas gave a malicious chuckle. “And she ain’t gonna choose a deadbeat like you over me. Hell, at least I won’t scare her every time I bed her.”

  Unable to hold back his demons any longer, Simon slammed his fist into the man’s stomach, sending him sprawling to the ground. Simon panted as he stepped over Thomas, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles had surely turned white. “I’ll say this only one more time: stay away from her.”

  Thomas answered with a laugh as he rolled to the side, clutching his stomach.

  “Test me again and I will kill you.”

  Thomas struggled to his feet and ran toward the trailhead.

  Simon flexed his neck to ease the tension at the base of his skull, and opened the door but stood shielding Carrie from the outside. He gave her a quick perusal from head to toe. “It’s Thomas. The rain’s let up, but it’ll be back. Best get down the hill before we’re all stuck in this little cabin for the night.”

  “What?” Carrie tucked Nots beneath her wool shawl and curled the other end around her arm. She stood on her tiptoes to peer past him at Thomas and then back at him. She narrowed her eyes. “Why would Aunt June send Thomas?”

  The blasted woman! If she’d stopped this whole mess from spiraling out of control in the first place they’d be left alone. Instead she’d placated the persistent logger. And let Aunt June run roughshod over the whole situation. “If you had told him to shin out already, she wouldn’t have sent him up. Tell him now so she can’t play any more games.”

  Carrie pursed her plump lips. “Why don’t you do it for me?”

  Simon glowered. He’d tried, for God’s sake, and all that did was encourage the man to try harder. No. “You and Aunt June dug this hole, you have to fill it in yourselves. Any decision you make is going to have to come from you, and you will have to take action. For the first time in your life, you’re going to have to choose, and act on your choice.”

  Simon shielded the emotion he couldn’t keep from flashing in his eye by lowering his gaze to the floor. If she cared for him at all, she would toss the deadbeat timber beast down the chute. Whatever choice she made next would determine the fate of not only her life, but his.

  Please, God, let her choose me.

  * * * *

  Carrie mimicked Simon’s scowl, snatched up the basket of huckleberries, and followed as he left the little building, shutting the door behind. Of course he wasn’t going to help her out with Thomas. He’d already gotten what he wanted from her. Punished her for deceiving him—although what they did in there had little to do with punishment. Unless you take into account that she could never marry now—not that she wanted to anyway—and she would have to hide her indiscretion from her parents, which was the difficult part of this whole situation. She was the worst liar this side of the continental divide—although she did have a cousin over in California who was by far the worst liar in America. Her particular shortcoming was the one reason she’d never learned to play poker with Beth and Simon on the many occasions they’d tried to get her to learn. Her parents would see right through her to the truth.

  Why should Simon care about her future if he’d already claimed his prize? She couldn’t fault him for not wanting to get involved with her decision to let Thomas down. Still, she didn’t like his answer. It would be much easier if he would do it for her.

  Thomas paced back and forth, halfway to the path leading down the mountain. One arm crossed over his chest like a half hug, while he tapped on his teeth with the index finger of his free hand. Carrie frowned. Whatever grated on his mind deeply affected his mood. As soon as she drew near enough to join him down the mountain, he stopped. A deep frown followed his perusal of her—one long enough to make her shuffle her feet and tug her wrap tighter.

  Did he know what had happened in the cabin?

  There was no way he could. Was there? She surveyed her clothes to make certain her skirts were on straight when she noticed a button missing from her blouse. She yanked her wrap around her chest and lifted her head as Thomas moved toward the trail.

  Simon motioned for her to follow the angry logger and—much to her relief—stayed beside her on the trek off the mountain. All the while, Simon glared at Thomas’s back while the latter made no attempt at conversation.

  The whole experience was tense enough that even Nots hid in the folds of her wrap and didn’t dare peek her head out. Why couldn’t men feign friendship the way women did? At least then they wouldn’t have to hike off the mountain in uncomfortable silence.

  Carrie let the silence take them all the way to camp, which seemed to take a lot longer than when she and Simon had climbed to the cabin. Odd since they were descending the mountain instead of climbing.

  They reached the Grove as a long whistle sounded through the trees. Simon clutched her arm and stopped. Carrie stilled as Thomas searched the trees around them. Throughout last year she’d heard the noise on a few occasions, and the outcome was never good. Something had happened.

  Men bounded through the trees from their posts, appearing as suddenly as if they were ghosts from a graveyard on All Hallows’ Eve.

  In the first positive moment Carrie had ever seen the two men before her give, Simon exchanged a worrisome glance with Thomas. Simon inclined his head. “Listen, it may be one of my men. They’ve been working this way for the last few weeks. Can you go down and tell Aunt June to prep her cabin?”

  Thomas nodded and left, his mood altered from mere moments ago when he’d glared over his shoulder.

  “Let’s go.” Simon grabbed Carrie’s hand and towed her behind him through the trees.

  Carrie clutched Nots tight enough to keep her safe through the flight as she leapt over trees and waded through vegetation, all while keeping an eye on the widowmakers above.

  Si
mon emerged onto a trail and gently eased her to walk next to him as he moved toward the sound of the whistle, now blasting for a third time.

  “What’s happened?” she asked as loud as her breathless voice would allow.

  “Most likely an accident.” Simon stopped before a large downed tree across the path and lifted her over the obstacle as if she weighed no more than Nots. “When we get there, you stay back. Do not look at what we find. I don’t want you seeing those images in your head for the rest of your life.”

  A few minutes later she saw the crowd of men. Simon turned to her as she approached him. “Stay here.”

  Carrie gagged at the smell permeating the air.

  She nodded numbly and clutched Nots to her chest as Simon waded into the group of loggers. She covered her nose and mouth with her shawl to stave off the stench surrounding the group. Simon’s height let her see his progress through the crowd, and it wasn’t until he stopped and ducked down that she lost sight of him.

  Carrie took a lungful of breath-heated air from within her shawl. What had happened? And who? Dear Lord, don’t let it be Beth or Garrett. She froze at the thought. She wasn’t like Beth. Her friend was adventurous and afraid of nothing, but Carrie had no desire to see the mangled body of another logger. And what if it was her best friend? She’d never get over the image. The one time she’d seen a dead man on the path was enough to haunt her dreams for the remainder of her days. If she was forced to look upon her dearest friend’s lifeless body, she might spiral down into a darkness right next to Simon.

  Nots squirmed and barked as Carrie struggled to keep ahold of the only comfort she had at the moment. If Beth wasn’t the injured logger, she’d go down right now and beg her to never venture out of camp again. This whole experience up here was a lot more dangerous than she’d ever imagined. More than she’d experienced the year before.

  Simon appeared before her as he tucked something into the inside breast pocket of his jacket. The muscles in his jaw flexed and eased several times.

  Tears formed in her eyes at his silence. Why would he remain speechless if it wasn’t someone they held dear? “Who is it?”

  Simon’s chest rose with a deep breath. “Jake. Looks like he’s been there a while, judging by the way his body looks.”

  The fear twisting her heart into knots eased, but a hole dug in the deepest pit of her stomach. He’d been missing ever since she had told Simon he’d assaulted her. She didn’t respond, but stared at Simon, her eyes going dry from the forest air.

  He lifted a single eyebrow and widened his stance. “I had nothing to do with this. The boy was gone when I got to the berry patch.”

  She took a step toward him. She should believe him. Trust in him, but he was possibly the last one to see him alive. She glanced around to ensure no one overheard her and whispered, “You said you were going to kill him.”

  “A figure of speech,” he hissed. “I could never kill someone out of cold blood. Honestly, I thought you’d have a better opinion of me by now.”

  “Then what happened?”

  Simon surveyed the crowd, then directed Carrie to start down the path toward camp. He pulled something out of his inside pocket and held it out for her to see. “I found this.”

  Carrie leaned over his cupped palm and wrinkled her forehead. “A smoke?”

  “Hand rolled using printed paper to hold in the tobacco.”

  “What does it mean?”

  Simon replaced the evidence in his pocket, then dropped his hand to his side and led the way down the hill. “Don’t know yet. Jake clutched the smoke, but the end was burned into his palm. I don’t think it was his. I think he grabbed it from whoever beat him. Keep this between you and me. Do not tell anyone.” He caught her eye, his shining with desperation. “Do you hear me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good girl.” He tugged her by the hand, forcing her to walk closer to him.

  She looked over her shoulder, but the group of men were too far away to see. They were alone once more. She pulled her hand free, which garnered a long, pained look from Simon.

  “I don’t want others talking,” she stuttered. “Thomas no doubt already knows something happened in the cabin. I don’t want to risk others knowing.”

  Simon’s cheek twitched below his scar, and he faced forward. He paused, and then responded, “Just make certain you take care while I’m gone.”

  “I can hold my own in camp,” she promised.

  “You’ll be alone.” He rolled his shoulders back as if to work out a kink in his muscles. “You won’t even have Aunt June. She may be a horrid gossip, and meddler, but she is damned good at protecting you.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Maybe I should see if we can make room for you in the bateau,” he said. Although she suspected he spoke more to himself than to her.

  “No. I’m needed here.” She stopped walking to try to prove her point, but when he continued down the trail, she followed. “I can do this job as well as Aunt June.”

  “No doubt you can, but you’re still a target to at least one person who will be left behind.”

  “You’re talking about Thomas?”

  “Of course I am.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  The trail before them opened up at the bottom of the hill to the Railroad Grove. Simon gave her a sideways glance. “Can you honestly say you trust Thomas with your life?”

  “There are few people in the world to whom I would entrust my life.” In all honesty, there were three. Aunt June, Garrett, and Simon. She’d love to trust Beth, but the woman had a bad habit of getting into trouble. “But I’ll not shirk my duty because of a little danger. If I let that dictate my decisions, I never would have come up here in the first place. I’d have let you drown in a cask of whiskey in your parlor.”

  “Then you will talk to Thomas before I leave. And I need proof you’ve done it, otherwise I’ll kidnap you and force you to take a trip you don’t want to make. Then when we’re at the mill I’ll send you on the first train to Missoula.”

  “You wouldn’t do that.” When he didn’t respond to her accusation, she continued. “Fine. Tonight I will let him know I am not interested in his advances any further.”

  “Good girl,” Simon said mere seconds before he tromped into Aunt June’s camp.

  The only reason she gave in was because he’d made sense. Best deal with this mess before she no longer had Aunt June to watch over her every move. In all honesty, she was a bit afraid of what might happen while she was alone at camp. She knew she could handle the chores, but the thought of being left behind to fend for herself amongst a group of loggers was daunting at best. Maybe she’d talk to Beth. Get her to stay with her during the days instead of traipsing around in the dangerous trees. A request that would work in both of their favors.

  Chapter 14

  Carrie paced in the little cabin she shared with Aunt June. Supper was over, and Jake’s body had been brought down and cleaned up for transport to the mill once the train started running again. Against Simon’s advice, she’d seen the body—bruised and battered from a beating, but that’s not what had killed him. No. He’d been killed by a bullet. Simon carried a gun.

  Part of her knew he hadn’t murdered the young logger, but the more logical side of her put the facts together. Simon was beastly. Not in appearance—in that aspect he was perfect. No, he was beastly in temperament. Could he be capable of such atrocity? He had said accidents happen all of the time in the forest and sworn to kill the man. But this was no accident.

  Regardless, Jake’s death was a result of the attack by the berry patch. She was certain. The timing of his death could not be a coincidence. This whole plan was turning out to be one disaster after another.

  Starting with the moment she gave in to temptation with Simon.

  The moment was one she wanted to regret. She n
eeded to cast blame on Simon, or on Thomas for discovering them in a compromising place, but all she could do was blame herself for not being stronger. The problem was, every time Simon drew close, touched her, all she could do was melt in his embrace. She was weak. Too weak to fight him when he spoke to her in low, sensual tones. Years ago she’d been enamored with him, but she thought that had come to an end when he withdrew into himself and all of his selfish desires.

  Apparently not.

  She needed to find Beth. Ask her what to do. Plead for her to stay in the camp with her—at least during the days. But first she needed to talk to Thomas.

  Carrie checked to ensure Nots slept hard on her bed near the fire, then eased the door open to take stock of her surroundings in the dark. Simon sat by the fire and perked up when he saw her but thankfully didn’t move from his seat. She didn’t know what to say to him. Didn’t know how she felt about the whole situation. Were it last year, she’d work to keep him enamored with her. Hope he meant more than a romp in the hay—or in her case cabin. She’d gone into the season hoping to forge a new path for her future. One without a man to run her life.

  Across the meadow, Aunt June’s shadowy form supervised some loggers carrying the last of her supplies to the lake. Before sunrise tomorrow Carrie would be left to man the fire alone. For the first time in her life she’d be the only one dictating her daily activities.

  The crisp night air cooled her heated face as she shut the door behind her and searched the meadow for Thomas. Seeing no one but Simon, she headed toward the railcar. At least she’d find Beth there so she could plead for her company.

  She’d gotten halfway to the train and studied the ground. Wheel tracks where the traveling merchant’s wagon rolled out the day before gave way to a path down the mountain—as if a sign from above. Perhaps she wasn’t meant to be up here muddling up her life even more than she’d already done. She should steal a horse and follow the wagon down. After all, her main reason behind coming up here would float down the river once the sun rose.