When they stopped, Beau was on top. He pulled back and yanked the rifle away. Zach held on. Beau let go of one end and tried to land a punch. Zach blocked it with the stock of the weapon. Beau yelped with pain as his fist connected with wood. They rolled some more.
As they struggled, Zach could hear a dog barking, coming closer. And not far away, Ladybird snorted and pranced, not liking this one bit more than Zach did.
And then, at last, things started to go Zach’s way. He got a firm hold on both the pistol grip and the barrel. He had himself on top. He rocked back onto his knees, then gained his feet in a crouch.
The rifle tore free of Beau’s grip. Beau grunted and stared at Zach, stunned. For a split second, Zach thought he had things under control.
Then Beau’s eyes shifted, widening, looking beyond Zach’s shoulder. Zach didn’t even have time to turn before something exploded against the side of his head. The world went blindingly bright—and then narrowed down to a point.
And then faded away to nothing at all.
Sometime later, Zach came swimming up to a semblance of consciousness. He didn’t feel so great. His head throbbed and his stomach roiled. His side still burned.
“You tie him up good, boy?” That would probably be J.T., the oldest of the three Tisdale boys.
“I did.” Beau’s voice. “Good and tight. He’s goin’ nowhere till we figure out where we want to take him.”
Zach kept his head down and his body loose. He must have made no sound as he came to, because they talked as if he were still out cold.
“Okay, let’s finish up here.” J.T. again. “He’s dead to the world and goin’ nowhere. You get back up on lookout, Beau.”
Zach heard footsteps turning, loping away.
“Don’t you let us down again!” A third man’s voice—had to be Lyle Tisdale—commanded.
No answer from Beau.
“You hear me, boy?” Lyle shouted again.
After a moment, Beau called back, “I heard!”
“Let’s go,” J.T. said.
Zach heard other boots moving away. A whistle. Cattle lowing, a dog barking. Hoofs pounding a ramp. Somewhere not too far away, a horse snorted and shifted. That would be Ladybird.
Zach identified the object at his back. A tire and wheel. It felt like Beau had tied him to the pickup wheel.
Carefully, making a supreme effort not to show movement, he tested the ropes that held him. He felt a little bit of play.
Maybe Beau was thinking about changing sides in this game.
Damn, his head felt like a split-open watermelon. A wave of dizziness came washing over him....
Riding the gray mare, Tess topped the rise from which the Farley breaks started to show up pretty clear.
She saw what was going on down there—including Ladybird, tied to the front bumper of the pickup, and what had to be Zach, bound to the rear wheel.
She reached for her Colt.
“Hands up, Mrs. Bravo,” said a voice from behind and slightly to her right.
She turned enough to see the owner of the voice—and the rifle he had aimed at her.
She shook her head. “Oh, Beau. What are you up to now?”
“Throw down that pistol, Mrs. Bravo. Real careful-like. And then slide off that mare, slow and easy.”
He must have passed out again, briefly, because Zach found all of a sudden that he was awake again. He heard more shuffling of hoofs, and an endgate being lowered and hooked. He stayed limp, head hanging, though his hands were already working at the knots that bound him.
A man whistled and the cab door of the pickup opened, several feet to his right, on the opposite side. He knew then that he’d been tied to the rear wheel, on the driver’s side.
“Get on in there, Queenie,” J.T. said. The pickup rocked a little as the dog jumped in the cab. The door was slammed shut.
From a few feet away, Lyle let out a shout. “Whooee! Look who Beau’s caught now.”
“Aw hell,” J.T. said. “Just what we need. The little woman.”
Tess staggered down the pasture side of the rise. Beau followed behind her, leading her mare, carrying his rifle over his shoulder and using her own Colt to keep her in line. The closer she got to the pickup and the man tied against the rear wheel, the less she liked what she saw.
She walked faster, wanting to get to him, wanting to prove to herself that he was all right. He had to be all right....
As the ground leveled out a little, she broke into a run, her hat blowing off her head and bouncing against her shoulder blades. Nobody did anything to stop her—probably because she was headed right where they wanted her.
One of the two men by the truck made a few rude, whooping sounds. Tess ignored him. She ran straight for the limp figure tied against the wheel.
“Zach, oh Zach...” She dropped down beside him, wrapped her arms around him. “What did they do to you? Oh, Zach. You wake up, now. Please, open your eyes. I mean it, Zach Bravo. Open your eyes right this instant!”
She felt so warm. Her neck was moist with sweat. She held him so tight, smashing his nose against the leather thong that held her hat on. It was so fierce and hungry, the way her arms clutched him. Her voice trembled in fear at the same time as she commanded, “Open your eyes right this instant!”
She sounded so frantic. She sounded like she might just go crazy if she lost him. She sounded like...
A woman in love.
Like a light going on inside his head, brighter than the sun, brighter than a thousand suns, the truth came to him: Tess loved him.
Dammit.
She loved him.
He had what he wanted from her. He had everything. He had it all.
But not for long, if he didn’t get them out of this.
She stroked his head, letting out a small cry of dismay when she felt the hard lump where he’d been hit, pulling his face so close into the crook of her neck that he dared to whisper, “Be ready.”
She stiffened, just a little. But she was a crackerjack in a crisis. He would swear the Tisdale boys didn’t have a clue what she’d heard.
She started in on those Tisdales. “What is the matter with you? He needs a doctor, can’t you see that? You untie him this instant. You get us straight into town.”
J.T. started laughing. “A doctor? You think we’ll take him to a doctor? That’s a hundred-dollar hoot.”
Lyle started cackling away, too. Only Beau was silent.
Then J.T. got serious. “All right. Listen up. We gotta get the hell out of here. What do we do with them?”
“Er, shoot ’em?” Lyle suggested helpfully.
Zach worked at the rope. It wouldn’t be long now....
Tess held Zach’s head lightly. She had heard and understood his message. She tried to look like nothing more than a distraught wife, while she used her body to shield his movements as he worked at his bonds.
“Do murder?” Even with his face all battered, Tess could see Beau grow pale. “Not that. Come on, J.T. Not that.”
J.T. scratched his bearded chin with the pistol he carried. “Well, now. We can’t just let ’em go. They’ve seen us.”
“We got no choice, the way I see it,” said the third man. “We gotta get rid of them for good and all.”
“Lyle, no,” said Beau. “Not murder. Murder’s no good.”
“Don’t talk back to your elders,” Lyle snarled.
Tess felt the slightest brush of Zach’s hand against her back. He had done it! Somehow, he had worked his hands free. The moment to act would be coming up fast.
Hope and fear making her heart beat so loud it seemed as if she could hear nothing else, Tess glanced at their captors, one by one, assessing the possibilities for overpowering them. Beau had-both her Colt and the rifle he’d drawn on her, one in either hand. At the moment, both of those weapons were pointed at the ground. J.T. had that pistol. The third man, Lyle, wasn’t armed.
Tess knew that Zach always carried a rifle when he rode out alone, one sim
ilar to Beau’s. But she didn’t see it anywhere close.
“I know,” J.T. said. “There’s that old homesteader’s cabin, out near the breaks. We’ll take the two of them there, tie them up inside, and set fire to the place.”
“Good idea,” said Lyle.
“We’ll start a damn grass fire,” Beau argued.
J.T. shrugged. “A big fire wouldn’t be half-bad. Wipe out any evidence good and proper.”
“What about the horses?” Beau sounded desperate.
J.T. looked at him as if he had no brains at all. “We’ll turn ’em loose. They’ll wander home. So what?”
“Someone will find our tracks here. And with two people dead, they’ll put a lot more effort into figuring out what the hell’s happened than they have been so far.”
“We’ll be long gone, boy. Over the state line. The cattle will be hanging in a meat locker. And we’ll take the pickup and trailer apart for junk.” J.T. gestured with his pistol. “So come on.” He gave the gray mare a slap on the flank that sent her galloping off. “Give Lyle all the hardware and tie up the woman. We gotta get gone.”
Beau didn’t move.
J.T.’s lips drew back from his yellowed teeth. “Now, boy. Like I said.”
Beau stayed unmoving for a split second more. Then he said one word, “Tess,” and tossed her the Colt.
Everything went crazy. From beside her, Zach erupted into action, pouncing on Lyle. J.T. fired his pistol, catching Beau in the thigh. Beau cried out, but not before he fired the rifle. J.T. went down, and fired again, hitting Beau in the shoulder. Somehow, Beau stayed on his feet. He aimed slow and steady at J.T.
J.T. tossed his pistol away and shouted, “Don’t shoot, you little bastard! Can’t you see I’m hit?”
Through the exchange of gunfire, Zach, his legs still tied, rolled around on the ground with Lyle.
Tess rose slowly. She pointed the Colt at her husband and the other man and commanded, “Zach, get me a clear shot.”
Obediently he rolled beneath his adversary. She stepped up and put the Colt to the back of Lyle’s head.
“Don’t move,” she said gently. “Don’t even breathe.”
Chapter Nineteen
As soon as Zach was on his feet, Beau handed him the rifle. Zach gave it to Tess to hold, along with J.T.’s pistol, which she stuck in her hip holster. She felt like a regular human arsenal.
Next, Zach ordered the Tisdales into the back of the pickup. They had some trouble getting the two injured men in there, but Beau and Zach managed it, with Tess keeping her Colt trained on the whole operation. After that, Zach tied up Lyle and J.T., though J.T. moaned and complained the whole time about how hurt he was.
“We have to take you in, too,” Zach said, when he came to Beau.
“I know it.”
“You need to be tied?”
“No, I do not.”
“You’re dead, boy, when I get my hands on you,” Lyle muttered to Beau.
Zach said, “Shut up.”
Lyle started to say something else, but Zach clipped him a good one on the jaw. Lyle was quiet after that.
Zach turned to Tess. “Keep watch on them. I’ll get the cattle out of the trailer.”
“Fine.”
Tess stood guard as Zach bullied the cows and their calves out into the sunlight. Next, he unhitched the trailer and hobbled the horses. Then Zach jumped in the back of the pickup with the Tisdales.
“You drive. To the sheriffs office in Buffalo,” he said to Tess.
She handed him Beau’s rifle. Then, when she opened the driver’s door, she saw Zach’s rifle in the gun rack.
“Zach. They put your rifle right up here.”
“Trade me,” he said.
She took his rifle down and gave it to him, then put Beau’s rifle in the gun rack. The whole time, the stock dog watched her from the passenger side of the seat, friendly and panting, as if he hadn’t a clue they’d just tied up his masters.
Finally she drove them all to the sheriffs office in Buffalo, with the dog sitting happy as you please on the seat beside her.
Later, after Lyle had been booked and Beau and J.T. had been taken to the hospital under armed guard, Zach and Tess gave their statements and turned the dog and the Tisdales’ weapons over to a deputy. They both made a point to speak kindly of Beau, to explain how he had come over to their side in the end. The arresting officer said Beau’s change of heart would be considered, but there was probably no way he’d avoid doing time.
It was near noon before they were done answering all the questions. They used the phone at the station to call the Rising Sun. Edna answered, and Tess told her an abbreviated version of the morning’s events.
“Oh, my sweet Lord. Are you both all right?”
Tess looked at her husband, who stood right beside her. “Zach’s got a bullet graze, along his ribs. And one heck of knot on the back of his head. But he’s still standing. And still ornery. The doctor patched him up, but I can’t get him to stay in the hospital.”
“That man,” said Edna. Tess knew she was shaking her head. “Well, then. You come on home now.”
“Can’t. Not yet. A deputy’s driving us back to the pasture where it happened.”
“Whatever for?”
“He wants to look over the scene. Plus, we left the horses there. And Zach lost his hat. He wants to look for it. ”
“And then you’ll come home?”
Zach took the phone from Tess. “Look, Edna. Could you handle things there for a little more. Please.” She must have said she would, because Zach grinned at the phone. “We’ll be home for dinner. That’s a promise.”
Tess grabbed the phone again. “Give the girls our love.”
“Well, certainly. I’ll do that. I think I’ll make Swiss Steak. How does that sound?”
“Delicious. Put those little bits of green pepper in it, like you always do. And not too heavy on the onions.”
“Yes, I did go a little overboard on onions last time. I’ll go lighter with them today.”
Zach took the receiver for the last time. “Edna. We really have to go now.”
Tess could hear her, giving one last bit of unheeded advice, as Zach hung up the phone.
The horses were there, nibbling the grass, pretty much where they’d left them. And they found Zach’s hat, smashed flat, right where he’d lost it, on the far side of the rise. Zach beat it against his thigh to loosen it, then reshaped the creases as best he could.
“Good as new,” he declared.
Tess refrained from comment.
The deputy looked around and took pictures of the scene before he left. As soon as he’d driven off, Tess took two aspirin from the first-aid kit in her saddlebag and passed them to Zach, along with her canteen.
He looked down at the little white pills in his hand, then up at her. “Always ready with whatever I need.” He tossed the pills into his mouth and washed them down with a long drink from the canteen:.
She watched him. “I really don’t like the look of that goose egg you’ve got.”
“Let it be,” he muttered gruffly, settling his battered hat more firmly on his head.
“And I’ll bet your side hurts like the devil. I think I should—”
“Stop fussing.” He capped her canteen and handed it back. She hooked it in place.
They mounted the horses. And then, as one, they turned for that spot under the cottonwoods where Zach had asked her to marry him back at the end of April.
With the trees in full leaf, the spot was shaded now. Cottonwood fluff blew around in the air. The boulder that Tess had found so cold to sit on was warm and dappled with sun. She perched on it again, folding her hands in her lap, feeling almost as nervous as she had on that cold spring day two months before.
Zach cleared his throat. “Tess, I...”
She looked up at him, thinking of all the things she herself had to say, not knowing how to begin.
He said, “I guess I love you.”
&
nbsp; The words didn’t surprise her, but they did fill her with joy. She looked down at her hands, swallowed and looked up at him once more. “And I guess I know that now. Since last night. Since...the way it was. And what you said, about wanting it all.”
He had more to say. “I think I might have loved you almost the first time I saw you, hiding behind the punch bowl, the day Cash married Abby.”
Her heart skipped a beat, and then started pounding faster than before. “You loved me since then?”
He nodded. He had to cough again. “But I didn’t let myself admit it. I saw what a good wife you’d make. And I focused on that. I think I knew all along about your feelings for Cash.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. But I didn’t let myself see it. Not until after I’d asked you to be my wife. By then, I could tell myself it was too late to back out. That you were too perfect for my needs. That since it would be a practical arrangement, it didn’t matter what you felt in your heart.”
She dared to whisper, huskily, “But it did matter.”
He looked off, toward the mountains. “Yeah. It did. I guess that, in the end, what goes on between a man and a woman can never be entirely...convenient.”
“No, Zach. I suppose that it can’t.” She looked down at her folded hands, torn between joy that he truly did love her—and fear that he would never believe she loved him as well.
He confessed, “I rode off by myself today to...get myself straight with all of this. When I came back, I was going to tell you that I would try to live with loving you, even though you didn’t love me. Because you and me together, well, it works so damn well. Don’t you think?”
“Yes, Zach. It does.”
He scooped off his hat and dropped it in the grass. “A hard day seems half the effort it used to be, since you became my wife. You finish what I start, you know what to do before I even have to tell you. And to have you in my house, filling it with your smiles and your laughter, with your caring ways—that’s everything to me. But a man’s heart is a headstrong thing, Tess. And I was having trouble. I couldn’t help wanting you to feel for me what I feel for you.”
Practically Married Page 20