by Liliana Hart
The men had circled around him to listen to what was being said. The tracks were no longer visible, and several inches of snow had fallen since they’d set out on their journey. There was a soft glow of light in the center of the circle.
“Pair up in twos,” Cole said. “But only use one lantern. Most of you know the layout of our ranch. If you don’t, get with someone who does. My guess is the barracks are on fire, so stay clear. You don’t want to be detected due to the light from the fire. These men are smart. They’ve evaded the law for more than three years. And don’t let your guard down because there’s only six of them. They’ll be waiting for you. We don’t need any more bloodshed unless it’s theirs.
“Chances are they’ll be split up, a couple in the house and some in the barn. There’s also an outbuilding that holds tools a hundred paces or so west of the barn, but it’s an unlikely hiding place. The storm is on our side. Use it to your advantage. It’ll be hard for them to see you until you’re almost on top of them, and there’s not a lot of places to hide for cover.
“The marshal will take a team to surround the house, and I’ll take another team to the barn. No gunfire unless absolutely necessary. We want to keep our cover as long as possible. Good luck and Godspeed.”
They lined up side by side and rode the remaining mile in silence. The wind and snow was blowing directly at them, and they were all hunkered with their faces down. Cole didn’t see the rider coming toward them until they were almost on top of each other, and he had his gun out and cocked just as the man waved his arms.
Cole’s fingers were stiff and aching from the cold, but he didn’t lower his pistol.
“It’s me,” Lester McCoy yelled.
“Lester,” Elizabeth said, moving her horse forward to embrace him.
Lester had been the foreman for the ranch since before Elizabeth was born, and since her father’s death, he’d taken on a fatherly role. She would’ve been devastated if anything had happened to him.
“What happened?” Cole asked, coming up beside them. He noticed the soot and blood that covered Lester’s face.
“That bastard Wyatt betrayed us. We were busy getting the animals settled and racing against the storm. We had some cattle get loose we had to track down. By the time we got back to the barracks for supper, the storm was already in full swing. Wyatt waited until we’d all sat down with our food and then he barred all the doors.
“When we first smelled the smoke, we thought Cookie was burning something in the kitchen. But then the smoke got stronger and it started filling the room. Everyone hustled for the door but we couldn’t get it open. And then Seamus gave it a good kick with his boot and Wyatt was waiting right there for him with his shotgun. Seamus took the bullet right in the chest.”
Lester shook his head, and there was anger in his eyes. “We had no choice but to go back inside and try to get out another way. Every time one of us would break a window, Wyatt would shoot off a shell right at us. We finally ran back through the kitchen where the fire was worst and took our chances with the flames. The whole thing was coming down at that point. I took a knock on the head,” he said, pointing to where the blood was coming from.
“Wyatt wasn’t alone by the time we got out. There were five others with him, and I swear I thought one of them was you, Sheriff. He was the spittin’ image, but his clothes were fancier. City clothes. All of them were dressed for the city. Had some polish to them.”
“My brother always had a taste for the finer things,” Cole said.
“Brother?” Lester asked. His expression grew thoughtful and his mouth pressed in a straight line. Snow and ice clung to his mustache and brows. “Well,” he finally said. “That’s a hell of a thing. Wouldn’t want to be in your shoes right about now.”
“Blood doesn’t make you family.” Goliath shifted impatiently beneath him. “What happened after you escaped the barracks?”
“They started shooting, but they was shooting blind. I always keep my pistol on me, and it’s the same with a couple of the others, but we were outgunned and we knew it. They had the advantage, but we know the land, so we set off for the hunting cabin and put as much distance between us as possible.”
“Why’d you come back?” Elizabeth asked him. “You’re taking a terrible risk.”
“The only chance we had was if one of us went into town to find you. There’s no telling how long the storm will last, but once the snow stops I figured they might come looking for us. Or worse, the two of you would come home and walk right into an ambush.
“I snuck down from the cabin to see what was what, and went straight to the barn to make sure they hadn’t done anything to the animals or the structure. I crept around the barn to see if I could get a glimpse of them, but they weren’t anywhere to be seen. All our stalls are full because of the storm, so they just left their horses loose downstairs to feed and bed down. I was able to get the barn door open a crack and one of their horses was right there. Managed to get him out without being noticed. But I could hear people talking up in the loft. I got out of there fast as I could. And this is how far I made it. Feel like I’ve been out here for days.”
“You’re still armed?” Cole asked.
“Of course.”
“Fall in line. We could use all the men we can get. You just met The Silver Creek Bandits.”
There was a large tree that Elizabeth’s grandfather had planted in the crook where the road split and the long driveway toward the ranch began. The tree had withstood many storms, and it would withstand this one.
They started up the drive, and about halfway along Cole signaled Calhoun to take his men in the opposite direction. Their time was limited. Their bodies and the horses could only last so long in the elements. If their plan failed, they’d all be holed up in the hunting cabin for the night. And taking the bandits out would be harder and probably cost more lives.
When he and those who had followed him reached the split-rail fence, they veered to the right to circle back around the barn. They’d put out all but a couple of their lanterns, and visibility was almost impossible. He used the fence as a guide until they reached the paddock and the barn came into view.
There were no lights, other than the lanterns they used.
“We’ve got to flush them out,” Cole said. “They have the advantage being up high. I need you all to circle around and wait. They’ll try to escape somehow, and they’re likely to come out shooting. Be ready.”
“Wait,” Elizabeth said, grabbing his arm. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going in there,” he said. “If I can sneak in and take them by surprise, there’s a better chance of keeping our boys alive.”
“You’re not going in there by yourself. You’d be outnumbered.”
“This is what I’m good at,” he promised her. “They’ll never know I’m coming.”
“Then I’m coming too. I won’t let you go in there by yourself. You keep saying how smart they are. Don’t you think they’ll have planned for something like this? Especially Riley. Doesn’t he know what you’re good at as well as you do?”
He knew she had a point, but his gut instinct wanted to protect her. Not put her in harm’s way.
“You’ll stay with me,” he agreed. She was shivering beneath the warm layers of her coat and wrap. They couldn’t fight the cold much longer.
“We can’t use the outside ladder,” she said. “They’ll have someone watching the hayloft entry.”
“No, we’ll have to slip in through the barn door, just like Lester did. The wind is howling so fiercely the barn will already be creaking and groaning.”
He moved to dismount Goliath and she put her hand on his arm. “Wait,” she said, biting her lip to keep it from shivering. “What about the old barn?”
He looked at her, confusion on his face. “What about it?”
“I just have a bad feeling about this, trying to outsneak a sneak. He knows you. He’s counting on you coming after him, blizzard or not. This is exactl
y the kind of trap he wants to catch you in.”
“I don’t see another way,” he said. He had trouble keeping the frustration out of his voice. Time was wasting.
“What if chaos is the best way to draw him out?” she asked. “What he wants in the end is to test his skills against yours. You said he’s as good with a gun as you are. He wants a showdown. He wants to prove he’s the best there is.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Our guns are the only weapons we have to defeat him.”
“That’s not true,” she insisted. “They’re trapped. He put them on high ground because he thought he knew what you’d do. He’s waiting for you to come to him, when he needs to come to us. I say we open the barn doors. Make as much noise as we can and get the animals to scatter. And then I say we set the barn on fire and smoke them out. We’ll block the entrances and wait for them.”
His immediate instinct was to ask her if she’d lost her mind, but he closed his mouth before the words could come out. He didn’t know if they had a chance in hell of beating Riley, but he knew the odds were against him if he had to face off against his brother. His fingers were half frozen and his reflexes were sluggish from the cold and fatigue.
“Have I told you how much I love you?” he asked, mesmerized by her. This woman was his wife, and she amazed him on so many levels. He’d never understood what it meant to love a person that much. Yes, he could live without her. He’d been without that kind of love until he met her. But he was so much better with her in his life. She was strong where he was weak, and he complemented her the same way.
She was staring at him as if he’d grown a second head.
“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Now’s when you pick to tell me you love me?”
Her voice was hoarse and sounded as if she’d swallowed shards of glass, and her face was pale, though he wasn’t sure if it was from shock or the cold. Tears pricked her eyes, and he was really starting to get concerned. What had he done wrong?
“Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to say those words?”
Red streaks appeared on each cheekbone and her eyes narrowed. Lord, she was mad. But he couldn’t understand why.
“I’ve told you I love you before,” he said.
“Don’t lie to me! If you do anything, always tell me the truth.”
“I’m not lying,” he said, sitting up a little straighter in his saddle. “I tell you in bed every night before I go to sleep.”
If fire could shoot out of a person’s eyes, he was pretty sure he’d be nothing more than bone dust.
“You…” she started and then tried again. “You…you…”
Before things got out of hand he reached across and plucked her out of her saddle and into his lap. “I’m only going to say this once because we’re about to freeze to death and we’ve got a gang of robbers who’ve taken over our home. But I love you. I whisper it in your ear every night before I fall asleep. And whenever I do you snuggle closer and squeeze my hand. You’re the one who’s never said it to me.”
She stopped squirming in his arms and stared at him in wide-eyed shock. “You must be out of your mind. I’ve never heard you say it.”
“Maybe your ears haven’t, but your body sure has. You know what it’s like to tell someone you love them and have them squeeze your hand in response? It’s not a good feeling. I’ve been waiting for you to say it back for months.”
“I love you too,” she said hotly.
He couldn’t help it. He laughed. What were they doing? They must both be crazy.
“I loved you before your father ever stepped foot in my office. I would’ve asked you to marry me if he hadn’t beaten me to it. I’ve fought in war, and I’ve seen terrible things. Enough to make you lose hope in people. But you’re my heart.”
She was so still in his arms he wasn’t entirely sure she was breathing. But then her gloved hand gently touched the side of his face. “You’re my heart too. And I hate to interrupt this moment. But we need to go burn down our barn.”
“This is going to make a hell of a story someday.”
“No one would believe it,” she said.
Chapter Six
It took little time to inform the others of the change in plans, and there was an anticipation—an eagerness—that hadn’t been there before. There was a hope that they might all come out of this alive.
Two of the men had gone to intercept Calhoun and the others and let them know what was happening. More than likely, once the chaos started anyone holed up in the house would come out to see what was going on. That’s when they’d be taken down. And all without shooting holes in her house. Hopefully.
Elizabeth’s heart was lighter than it had been since before her father’s death. Cole loved her. They could iron out all the other details later.
There were two entrances to the barn, one on each end to get the animals in and out as efficiently as possible, depending on where they were being taken. But order was the last thing they wanted.
They’d divided the men into two groups for each end of the barn. The horses were restless, the anticipation thick in the air as the swirling snow blew around them. She knew what her job was. It was to eliminate as many threats as possible so the men could accomplish their task.
She dismounted from her horse and carried her rifle easily in her right hand. She sank to her knees in the snow, but was long past feeling the cold. Anger was fueling her warmth. This was her life and her property that were being threatened, and it was her husband that Riley MacKenzie was targeting.
Her pistols were within easy reach in her holsters, and she watched as Cole dismounted from Goliath. Both of their horses were smart enough to get out of the way. They could feel the unrest in the air.
Cole looked at her and she nodded, and then he lifted the latch for the barn doors and swung them wide. They swooped in with shouts and gunfire, shooting their pistols in the air to get the animals moving. The doors from the other side were opened and a bitter wind blew through the main corridor, sending bits of hay flying along with the snow.
The animals panicked, braying and bucking against their stalls. The horses Riley and his gang had left loose took off like a shot, and other horses soon followed as their gates were opened. They’d left the lanterns lit, hanging from hooks inside the barn, and the yellowish hue cast shadows over the confusion.
It would’ve been easy to be distracted by the chaos, but she kept her eyes on the ladder up to the loft. It was wide with wooden slats, and it led into a large square hole in the upper floor—large enough to bring hay up or down when needed. It was there, right at the corner, that the light from the lanterns reflected off the barrel of a gun.
Cole was across from her, hidden beneath the rafters, and he wouldn’t see what she could see from his angle. Her father had enjoyed quoting Benjamin Franklin’s saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure, and this seemed as good a time as any to take matters into her own hands.
She cocked the shotgun and took a brief moment to sight before pulling the trigger. Wood exploded at the entrance to the loft and a body tumbled straight down to the base of the ladder. She heard a shout and realized the animals had all been evacuated, then there was more gunfire as one of the men shot at the lantern in the far corner. It exploded into pieces of glass and sparks, and the embers fell into the hay on the ground, causing a small smolder before the embers caught flame.
It wasn’t long before the flames grew, and she felt a small pang at the loss of the barn she’d helped to build with her own two hands, right alongside her father.
“Everyone out,” Cole yelled.
Smoke filled the air and she backed out of the barn with the others, catching her husband’s eye as he exited the opposite end. They closed the barn doors and then moved back out of the way as the flames licked the walls and started burning in earnest. Black smoke curls snuck through the cracks in the doors and wood.
She
heard gunshots from over toward the house, but she ignored them, instead running around the barn to where Cole was. Cole was the target. Wherever he was, Riley would search him out.
It hadn’t taken long for the fire to consume the barn. It was a readymade tinderbox, and the flames lit the sky, even in the midst of the blizzard. As she turned the corner to find Cole, she felt something heavy land behind her, but before she could turn, an arm was around her neck and she was dragged backward.
She fought against her captor, but her heels slid as she tried to dig them in. His arm tightened around her neck, and she struggled to breathe. And then she realized she’d dropped the shotgun somewhere in the snow.
“Elizabeth!” she heard Cole yell.
But her gaze was transfixed on the hayloft door. Black smoke billowed out, but she saw the outline of the man standing in the doorway. And then he was gone as he jumped straight down into the snowdrift below.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
Cole didn’t waste any time taking the extra man out. The danger was Riley, and it would do no good to have a showdown with his brother only to have someone else shoot him in the back. There was no honor among these thieves.
“Let her go, Riley,” Cole called out. “This is between you and me. You want to be the best? Then it’s time to show me what you’ve got.”
“Or I could just kill her and you too.”
His voice was so much like Cole’s, it sent a chill down her spine.
“There’s a dozen guns on you right now,” Cole said. “If you kill Elizabeth you’ll die very quickly. But it won’t be the kind of death you want. You’ll never know if you could beat me. And you and I both know that’s all this is about. It’s always been a game to you, Riley.”
“Of course it’s always been a game,” he mocked. “How many times growing up was I just a little too slow? Or not quite as perfect as you were. I wouldn’t expect you to notice because it wasn’t your face that was feeling his fist every time I failed.”