by Liliana Hart
“And I’m sure he never did it again,” Cole said. “Needless to say, I started paying a lot more attention to you after that day. Believe me, your father was nobody’s fool. I’m sure he noticed my interest. He’d come by the sheriff’s office and just sit in the chair in front of my desk, passing a long, thoughtful silence before he’d utter a word. Then we’d just talk. He was my friend.”
Elizabeth took in a big gulp of air, and she realized she’d been holding her breath. But then it turned into a sob.
“Please don’t go,” she said, dropping her forehead onto his chest. “Miss Adelaide said you would go, and that there was no reason to stay because I didn’t even have a baby in my belly.”
“Miss Adelaide has made a habit of sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Maybe she needs to be given a warning about disorderly conduct.”
She sniffled out a laugh and then relaxed in his arms. It felt good to be held. It felt right. But it didn’t go past her notice that he hadn’t uttered the words she’d needed to hear, though she felt they’d made tremendous strides during their conversation. Perhaps, over time, he’d be able to tell her the words.
“I have an excellent idea,” he said, twining his arms around her. His mouth found the sensitive spot beneath her ear and her heart started pounding.
“Umm…”
“It’s amazing how you can never find your words when I do this,” he said, blowing against her neck.
“Ahh…”
He laughed and bit the lobe of her ear. And then he found her mouth, taking it deep, their tongues melding and passions rising. He walked her into the bedroom, never taking his lips from hers, disrobing her a piece at a time. When he laid her back on the white cloud of the bed, worshipping her body with his mouth and touch, she felt the love he hadn’t spoken.
Chapter Four
“What were those papers on the table?” she asked some time later. “The ones you and the marshal were talking about?”
The lantern next to the bed was turned down low, emitting a soft, yellow glow across the room. They’d managed to make it under the covers at some point, and Elizabeth lay across his naked chest, her fingers stroking his shoulder.
She felt his sigh, and he moved to sit up. She rolled to her back and watched as he flipped back the covers and got out of bed. It was pointless to pretend she wasn’t watching him. His body was fascinating to her. And her inexperience in bed had made her timid when it came to exploring his body. But he’d encouraged her, telling her to touch him how she wanted, and telling her what pleased him.
Now she was more curious than ever. And anxious to do it again. His body was beautiful. He was tall and broad, the muscles in his shoulders a fascination to her. She felt the heat rising in her cheeks as her gaze lowered. He was completely comfortable in his nakedness.
“If you keep looking at me like that we won’t end up having this conversation until much later.”
He searched on the floor for his shirt and found the papers folded in his front pocket.
“Marshal Calhoun came all this way because the Silver Creek Bandits have escalated. They think my expertise in tracking, and my ability with a gun, might help them locate the gang and put an end to them once and for all.”
He handed her the folded papers and she opened them slowly, wondering at the unusual heaviness of the parchment.
“Their last hit was in Denver, and a witness managed to give a likeness rendering before The Silver Creek Bandits killed him and his entire family.”
Elizabeth looked through the images in front of her, and then she froze as she came to the last image. Her blood chilled.
“I don’t understand. Why are you in here?”
“I told you I had a brother,” Cole said. “What I didn’t tell you is that he’s my identical twin.”
“Oh, my God.” It didn’t take her long to see the possibilities. “They’re going to think it’s you.”
“No, no,” he said, coming over to her and sitting down on the bed. “The government knows about Riley. They have a file on him. I told you that we didn’t have a real family growing up. Let’s just say that Riley took after my father more than I did. After our parents’ deaths, we went our own ways. Until the war.”
A look came over Cole’s face that made her realize he’d gone back to those days, remembering whatever horrors he’d lived through.
“The Black Hills War was a nightmare. Right from the start. The government was so determined to take that land from the Sioux. But those of us who were fighting, who saw the atrocities that happened, knew it was wrong. It’s a hell of a thing when right and wrong interfere with duty.
“I guess I’m lucky,” he said, blowing out a breath. “Things could’ve gone much worse for me than they did. I managed to make friends with the Sioux. To keep them protected. So they knew where the ambushes would occur. In return, they taught me how to hunt and track like they did. And when the time came, I approached our government with the idea for a treaty between the US and the Sioux. Luckily, we were able to end the war with a peaceful resolution.”
She reached out and took his hand. “You could have been killed. From either side. That was incredibly brave.”
“Bravery is a lot more appealing when you’re young and have nothing to live for. My brother must have felt the same, but he worked from the other side of things. He sold secrets to whoever paid him the most. Because of him, entire Sioux families were wiped out. Women, children… It didn’t matter to him as long as the gold was real.
“They never caught him. He was always a step ahead. Which is why I’m not surprised he’s had such success as the leader of The Silver Creek Bandits. They think I’ll be able to find him because I know how he thinks and where he’ll go.”
“And where do you think he’ll go?” she asked.
“I think he’ll come looking for me. It’s just another reason that I need to stay here.”
There was a loud pounding at the door and she jerked in surprise. It wasn’t late in the evening yet, about the time they usually ate dinner, but things were quiet because of the storm. She’d felt safe and cocooned inside their temporary lodgings.
“What the hell?” Cole said, grabbing the blanket from the end of the bed and wrapping it around his waist.
He headed toward the door, and she wasn’t about to be left out. She grabbed the blanket off the rocking chair and her pistol from her gun belt, and then she stood out of the way as Cole went to the door.
“Who’s there?” he asked.
“It’s Calhoun. We’ve got a situation. And it’s not a good one. We need guns. Any you can muster up.”
“I’ll be down in five and you can fill me in,” Cole said, dropping his blanket and moving toward his clothes on the floor.
“I’m going with you,” Elizabeth said. “And before you argue, he said you need all the guns you can get. You know I’m better than anyone else in the area. It’s going to be hard to find people to go out during this storm.”
She dropped her blanket and started putting on her clothes, not waiting for Cole to answer her. Whatever was happening was bad. She couldn’t imagine the marshal would come to them for any other reason.
“I wasn’t going to argue with you,” he said. “I was going to say hurry.”
Her smile was grim, but she was glad he believed in her enough to let her go. She’d lived a life unlike most. She was used to the harsh winters, but she was also used to the harshness of life. She’d dealt with having to put down animals to ease their suffering, but she’d also seen the atrocities of what men could do to one another. She’d dealt with thieves and rustlers. Her father had known the importance of teaching her how to protect what was hers.
Once they were dressed they went downstairs, ignoring Will once more and heading outside, where Marshal Calhoun was waiting for them. The wind and snow blasted them in the face, and icy knives pierced her lungs with every breath she took.
“This is madness, Calhoun,” Cole said loudly. “Nothing can be ba
d enough to venture out in this weather.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said. “The others are meeting us at your office.”
Elizabeth could only see a few feet in front of them, so it wasn’t until they were almost there that she saw the light on at the jail and the smattering of dark figures inside.
“After dinner,” Calhoun continued, “I walked across to the saloon for a drink. After an hour or so a man burst in. Jenkins, I think, was his name. Small, doughy fellow.”
“He’s an attorney. He and his wife settled here from back east.”
“He was white as the snow and shaking so bad it was hard to understand him, but we got some whiskey down him and he was able to get it out. Poor bastard. Said his wife never came home from running errands.”
“Oh, no,” Elizabeth said. “But I saw her at the bank as I was leaving. She was near the back of the line. Do you think she got lost in the blizzard? They’re not from here. It would be easy to get turned around.”
“Unfortunately, no,” Calhoun said. “Jenkins had talked to her just before she left for the bank, so he knew where to trace her steps. When he got to the bank, the door was locked, but all the lights were still on. The shades were pulled on the front windows, so he walked around to the back. That’s when he saw the carnage.”
“Spit it out, Calhoun,” Cole said as they stepped under the protective covering over the sidewalk. “What happened?”
“The Silver Creek Bandits are in Surrender,” he said. “Every last person in that bank was murdered.”
Cole reached down and grabbed her hand, and Elizabeth felt the breath squeeze out of her lungs. Everyone. Murdered.
“That’s impossible,” she said. “I was there. Just as they were about to close.” And then she remembered the man who had walked in as she was leaving. She’d not looked at him because she’d been so angry. But it had to be him.
“Then consider yourself lucky to be alive,” Calhoun said. “Did you see anyone who didn’t belong? Anyone on the street as you were leaving?”
“There was a man who was coming in as I was leaving, but he was by himself. I was so mad from the argument I’d just had with Miss Adelaide that I couldn’t see straight. I didn’t notice anyone on the street, but it was already snowing pretty hard by then. I just wanted to get away from there.”
She closed her eyes as Calhoun’s words sunk in. They were gone. All of them. Leroy Henry and Samuel Peabody. Mrs. Jenkins and Isabelle Pert, who been standing just behind her. Frank Daniels, the barber, and Josiah Newton, the postmaster. And Adelaide Murchison, a woman whose last time on earth was spent hearing hurtful words. From her.
“The tracks are still fresh,” Calhoun said, interrupting her thoughts. “But they’re fading quickly. This is the best shot we have to run them down.”
“Then let’s not waste any time,” Cole said. “Have the men saddle up.”
* * * *
The anticipation of battle had always made Cole more aware of his surroundings. He became focused and able to shut out the noise around him. But this was the first time he’d ever been to battle with Elizabeth at his side. It was the first time he wondered if he’d be able to focus because he’d be worried about her.
This was between him and Riley. He knew it and Calhoun knew it. Hell, Calhoun probably knew The Silver Creek Bandits were in the area. Marshals weren’t stupid and they had a hell of an instinct. Cole had known this day would come. He hadn’t known about Riley and what he’d been doing, but he knew his brother would find him some day. They were two sides of the same coin.
“Get what you need from inside,” he told Elizabeth. “You know where the rifles are. And I’ve got a couple of extra furs you can layer up with. Every second we waste those tracks are disappearing.”
Elizabeth nodded and went inside, and Cole headed with the other men to the side of the building where the horses had been brought around. They were all men who knew the right end of a gun, including the gunsmith, who’d provided many of the weapons they were using on short notice. The blacksmith had also rigged up an iron rod at the back of each saddle, and a lantern hung from the hook at the top. They’d need every bit of help they could get. They were all familiar with the territory, but it would still be easy to get lost in the snow and darkness.
Elizabeth came out with a rifle in each hand and a fur poncho thrown over her coat. A fur-lined cap was pulled down over her ears. She tossed him an extra fur poncho and cap, and then strapped her rifle onto the back of her saddle before tossing him the other rifle so he could do the same.
His horse, Goliath, was the grandsire of the horse he’d ridden in battle. He was pure onyx, with three white marks across his forehead, and his coat was thick and used to Montana winters. Goliath snorted out a breath and stamped his hoof, sensing the excitement in the other horses, as Cole mounted him.
He moved to the head of the group, and there was an eerie quiet as white swirled around them and the horses’ steps were silenced by the snow. It was a short ride to the bank, and Calhoun came up beside him as he motioned for the others to stop. The lights were still on, as Jenkins had said, and Cole could only imagine what waited for them inside. But they couldn’t tend to the dead yet. Not when their killers were still on the loose.
“The tracks start around here,” Calhoun said, motioning his horse forward. “I can see at least three sets of footprints and horses, but could be more if they were following in each other’s paths.”
“There’s five,” Cole said. He stared at the tracks and blocked out everything around him until he could recreate what had taken place there, just as the Sioux had taught him. He had to become one with the prey to find the prey, and that’s exactly what his brother was—prey. Nothing more, nothing less.
They were fortunate in that the snow that had already been on the ground previously had been several inches deep, and a couple of more inches had fallen before his brother had left the bank. The footprints they’d left were deep, and if he had to hazard a guess, Riley had timed the robbery with the storm, hoping that their tracks would be completely covered before the bodies were found.
And they almost had been. In another hour, they’d have been left with nothing. But the storm hadn’t quite made it to its full potential yet.
“Stay armed and vigilant,” Cole called out to the others. “They’ll have found a place for shelter. They can’t have gotten too far. Not with it getting dark and with the snow. We don’t want to lose any more tonight. If something feels off then tell me. If something seems out of place, speak up. We know this area better than these bastards, and they’ve taken the lives of our own. We bring every one of them in. Dead or alive.”
There was a chorus of angry grunts, and they set off, going as quickly as they could without compromising the tracks. Riley was smart. It wasn’t past him to circle back around and let them follow the tracks until they walked into an ambush.
Half an hour later, he got a sickening feeling in his gut. Riley hadn’t circled around to try and outsmart them. He’d had a plan. He knew exactly where he was going.
“Cole,” Elizabeth said, riding up close beside him. “What’s going on? We’re getting too close…”
“I know,” he interrupted. He could see the fear in her eyes. The fear that everything they’d worked for, her legacy, and their children’s legacy would be gone. He was afraid she might be right.
Chapter Five
He smelled the smoke before they reached the ranch, and he had to pull on Elizabeth’s reins to keep her from charging ahead to her death.
Riley had been in the area long enough to know where they lived, to know the workings of the ranch.
“Damn,” Cole said. “You hired that new hand about a month back.”
Her eyes widened as they locked with his. “Wyatt? You think he’s a member of The Silver Creek Bandits? He’s just a baby.”
“Old enough,” Cole said.
“I can’t believe we had him living on our property all this
time.”
“It makes sense. It’s why there were only five sets of tracks back at the bank instead of six, like all the witness reports had given. The sixth man was already here, making sure everything was ready for them to take over when the rest of the gang got here. You and I made plans to get away for a couple of days more than two weeks back. They knew this was the perfect time.”
They were still a good mile from the ranch, and though they couldn’t see where the smoke was coming from, the stench was heavily mixed with the snow. His blood chilled at the thought of more lives being lost.
“What’s on fire?” Calhoun said, coming up beside him and Elizabeth.
“At a guess, either the barracks the hands sleep in or the barn.”
“I take it you know where we are?” Calhoun asked.
Cole’s fingers tightened on the reins. “Yeah, welcome to Cold Creek Ranch. My wife and I would invite you to stay for the night, but it seems we have some uninvited guests.”
“Ahh,” Calhoun said. “He found you.”
“So it seems. Our foreman hired a man a few weeks back, and our best assumption is he’s one of the gang, and planted himself here to feed information to Riley.”
“It follows their pattern. They haven’t gone this long without being caught because they were stupid.”
“There’s always a first for everything,” Cole said. “Now we have to figure out how the hell to get them off our property and behind bars.”
“We can use the storm to our advantage. They’ve got shelter, but they won’t be able to see us approaching. We need to split up and surround the house. It’s twelve against six.”
“You think he’ll make it that easy?” Cole asked. “If that’s the case we can bar the doors and burn the house down.”
“Are you crazy?” Elizabeth interrupted. “That’s our house. Everything we own is inside.”
“That’s my point. They won’t trap themselves inside of a place they can’t get out. Not unless they really think we won’t find them until the storm passes. In that case, we might just get lucky.”