“He went down in the first volley of gunfire, Sadie. I’m so sorry. He was like that by the time I got to the window.”
“I didn’t see him from upstairs. That watering trough blocked my view. We’ve got to get out there.” Sadie’s voice rose in a mix of determination and panic. She straightened away from the wall.
“No.” Mel grabbed her wrist so hard it would leave a bruise. “You know we can’t. If he’s alive, we have to stay alive to help him. And if he’s dead, it would break his heart to think his last act led to you exposing yourself and dying. No, you’re not going out there.”
Sadie closed her eyes and leaned back. “You’re right. I wouldn’t even get across the yard alive. You’re right. You’re right.” She said it several times quietly as if trying to convince herself.
“I fooled that blackhearted betrayer Bautista and his whole family, his whole country for all these years. They treated me as a countess, and well I earned it for putting up with them. I savored each moment they treated me like royalty, all while I sneered at their foolishness. Dantalion and I, along with the Suddlers and others, we all fooled them. Yes, others you foolish Bodens know nothing about even yet.”
“Who else?” Sadie asked Mel. “We have more people set to betray us?”
“We were part of an acting troupe. We made a decent living. We came into Santa Fe one day long ago to find the Don lording it over everyone, pouring out his gold coins as if they were water. Before he saw us we hatched our plan.”
“So Hattie June became Countess Lauressa, the long-lost third cousin of the royal family from Spain!” Mel shouted her guess. “That’s really talented acting, Hattie June. And you managed to play this role all those years?”
Though it pained Mel to admit it, it honestly was good acting. Hattie was mighty gifted for a murderous liar.
“Yes. I was young then, even though I’d already been with the troupe for a couple of years. We spied on Bautista and saw that he favored very young women, so I shaved a few years off my age. Dantalion and I had everything we needed. We had costumes. They weren’t fine like a countess should wear, but then I was down on my luck so it suited the role I was playing. We knew how to speak Spanish. I even had an accent for a peasant and another one for an aristocrat learned for the parts we played. I threw myself on the old Don’s mercy. We were married before we’d known each other a month. Shortly after that my husband got the land grant. He’d been angling for it for years, but the governor would never agree to it. I think he liked keeping Bautista dangling.”
“You got the land grant because you happened to be riding with my grandfather Chastain,” Sadie snapped, “and Grandfather saved a life while you and your cowardly husband stayed safely away. Then your husband used his influence through lies and deceit to act as if he’d been part of the rescue and that gained him part of the reward given to my grandfather.”
Mel shook her head. “Don’t make her any madder than she is already.”
A shriek of laughter sounded from outside. “Ah, the cowardly old Don. I do wish he was alive to hear a slip of a girl say such a thing. How often I said it in my thoughts. You’re right. Ramone grew up to be a coward in his father’s image. And Ramone’s son Alonzo was as bad as the both of them. Bautista covered up his cowardice by being cruel to those under his power.”
“Including you, Hattie June?” Mel felt little compassion for the woman. Whatever fires had forged her, she was now evil. Through her scheming, men had died. But just how cruel was Bautista to her? It might explain her erratic behavior. Had cruelty at the hands of the Don driven her mad?
“Of course including me. All men raise a fist to their women. My father to my mother. My husband to me. My daughters’ husbands are the same.”
Mel looked at Sadie. Both frowned.
“Blast it,” Sadie whispered. “I almost feel sorry for her. No wonder she’s so twisted up with greed and vengeance.”
Mel jerked one shoulder in a shrug. “She may have a really good reason why she’s twisted up, but that doesn’t make her straight. Fact is she’s a dangerous woman, and I doubt our sympathy will make her cheer up and go back home.”
“True.”
A shot rang out.
“It’s from upstairs. Angie.”
“You killed my husband. You deserve to die.”
Mel and Sadie peeked out the window to see Lauressa-Hattie holding her arm, lying flat on the ground. Another shot rang out. Hattie rolled and scrambled, dodging the bullet. Blood shone between her fingers as she threw herself sideways behind the barn door.
The men behind the overturned coach opened fire at the upstairs window.
Angie quit shooting and yelled, “I’m fine. They missed.” Her voice sounded grief-stricken as she added, “So did I.”
A scream of rage from the barn nearly cut Mel’s ears. The men stopped firing.
“You’ll die for that!” Hattie shrieked. “Every single person in that house will die.”
Mel snorted. “As if she wasn’t planning on that anyway.”
28
“Stay out!” Murray cocked his gun.
“Cole, who’s there?” Justin shouted.
“Don’t come in, Justin! Murray has a gun on me.”
“Murray?” Justin’s voice dropped, yet Cole heard muttering between him, Heath, and Walt.
“Stay out or your brother dies.” Murray’s eyes were sharp as he stared at Cole. “Get your hands where I can see ’em.”
Cole raised his arms slowly. “Murray, what’s going on?” Speaking slowly, with Cole’s mind taking in the shocking scene playing out right before his eyes, a few pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
“What’s going on?” Murray repeated. “That’s a question about as stupid as you are, Boden.”
Murray had a lantern burning. He must’ve lit it just as Cole came through the opening, because this space was in pure darkness when they’d gotten the little door open.
“You’re behind the killing?”
“Finally figuring that out, are you? Well, aren’t you just the genius college boy. They said you were smart, which is why you got to come home and run me out of my job.” Murray’s gun barrel started to tremble.
Considering all the planning it had taken to set those explosions and cover up the deaths of the miners, Cole figured Murray to be very smart. But the shaking hand showed a man not used to face-to-face violence, which meant Murray hadn’t done the dirty work himself—he’d ordered it done. It was the work of the Suddlers.
“You did all of this because I took your job?” Cole heard rustling from behind him. Down low. Justin would be getting in place to launch himself through the narrow opening, but first he’d wait and listen and pick the right moment.
It was up to Cole to create a diversion that would give Justin a chance to make his move. And Cole planned to make it a big enough diversion that if the gun went off, it’d be aimed at him and no one else.
Murray said, “Another stupid question, Boden. I had all of this done before you even got home. I found a nice strike of gold and I didn’t see a single reason to share ten percent of it with a rich family who’d done none of the mining. So I started bringing men in. Men I’ve known a long time and was sure I could trust. Instead of paying, we kept it all. Hid it down here and moved it out in small amounts no one would notice. Besides, it was a sizable strike and I didn’t want another gold rush. It makes mining too dangerous when men mad with gold fever come rushing in. They’re followed by riffraff, the scum of the earth.”
“You mean they’re followed by thieves? Like you?” Cole hoped to goad Murray into losing his temper and letting his aim waver.
“Nope.” Murray smiled proudly. “Thieves who’re about half as smart as me.”
“I pay you good wages, Murray. Very good wages. Why isn’t that enough?”
“Because my loyalty lies elsewhere.” Murray’s voice rang with something theatrical.
It struck Cole as feigned, as if being used for dramat
ic effect. Every word he said had been delivered with stylish flair.
“Where does your loyalty lie? You’ve been here for years. You have no family. You rarely, if ever, travel or take a day off. This mine is your whole life.”
Murray’s smile turned to a sneer. “My loyalty lies with my brother.”
Cole shook his head. “Then why isn’t he here, or you there?”
“Because my brother Web is dead. Web Dunham Elliot. You knew him as Dantalion.”
A sharp inhale of breath came out as a gasp. Cole remembered the wanted poster for Web Dunham, Dantalion’s identity while he committed his crimes along the Natchez Trace. He looked into Murray’s eyes and knew it was the truth. “I never saw your brother. Maybe once from a distance, and I reckon I know what he looked like from seeing the wanted poster. But I can see the grief. You know we didn’t kill him. We tried to bring him in, but he was killed in a fall while trying to escape.”
“He’s dead, Boden, and I lay that right at your feet.”
“He shot me.” Cole made a fist and was tempted to lunge at this coyote. “What’s more, I never shot back, and we tried to bring him in alive. I doubt you or your brother would’ve been so decent.”
“The two of us, along with some other old friends, had plans that were working fine until you came home, Boden. We were making a nice living off the mines. Mostly letting others do the work for us and taking a cut. Just like you do.”
“There’s a little difference—we own this land.”
“Ha, a gift from the Mexican president. This land is yours because of powerful connections. Well, I had some connections, too. It got me this job, and we were content for years.”
“And then I took over.” It made sense to Cole now. “And suddenly it was a lot harder to steal gold from this place.”
“We managed to sneak a nice pile out, but yes, it was a lot harder.”
“So you started hatching your plan because I came home.” Cole’s gut twisted. All that had happened was because he’d returned.
When he thought of how he’d wondered about staying, and now to find out that if he’d just left, Murray would have continued quietly skimming gold from a few mines and nothing more would have happened.
Pa wouldn’t have been hurt. Cole wouldn’t have been shot. Angie wouldn’t have been kidnapped.
Then Cole thought more about it. Pa wouldn’t have sprung that will on them. Sadie wouldn’t have quit at the orphanage. She wouldn’t have noticed Heath, a wandering cowhand. Heath would’ve moved on, and the two wouldn’t be married. Sister Margaret wouldn’t have been shorthanded and sent for her niece.
Justin wouldn’t now have a wife he loved with all his heart.
And Cole wouldn’t have discovered how Melanie Blake welcomed his embrace.
Cole couldn’t regret one moment of being here. He remembered what they’d learned. “You partnered with Dantalion, your brother, and another old friend, Lauressa de Val. More family of yours?”
Murray’s teeth flashed in a broad smile. “Lauressa, ah, what a talented actress she is. Not blood kin, but she’s like a sister to me. Her real name is Hattie June. She’s from Tennessee. She’s got a fine fake Spanish accent. Add that to her dark hair and eyes and she made a perfect long-lost Spanish countess. She used that to snag de Val into marriage. But he turned out to be a miserable husband, a low-down adulterous varmint. It was a lucky twist that put Ramone close to Chastain when Web killed him. We all loved that one of the Don’s by-blows got blamed. It gave Hattie real pleasure to steal money from de Val all these years and send it on to us. Then he died and she found out he was penniless. He’d spent it all—except for the money he’d left to his children. And he was generous to all of them, those born to Hattie and those born on the wrong side of the blankets.
“He left Hattie with the house and a pittance. She was mighty deep in a hole from her spending before she finally admitted she wasn’t going to get her hands on de Val’s money. If she’d gotten it, we might have been content. We could have all lived in de Val’s huge hacienda. With Boden gold coming in steady, we could have made it work. But I lost free run of this place, and Hattie had always wanted to come home. She hated that she was dragged away while you Bodens held on to a ranch as much hers as yours. Back then, Web almost drove the Chastains off by killing old Frank, but Veronica married your pa and hung on.”
“Hattie arranged for Grandfather’s murder from Mexico,” Cole said, “and Dantalion killed him. But was he alone? Ramone said a couple of other men were shot.”
“Yep, the Suddlers were four brothers back then. Chastain killed two of them. They’ve been burning for revenge ever since.”
“Who else was in your crew? Arizona Watts?”
“Yep. Watts was the best cowpoke of any of us.”
“So you went east and worked along the Natchez Trace.”
Murray nodded. “Hattie was good at taking care of herself so we didn’t worry about her. The pickings were good in Mississippi, but after a few years, there were too many wanted posters. We headed west when the war broke out and laid up in San Francisco for a while. I did some gold mining out there too, and we started a smaller version of this. I’d own the mine and learn about the nearby miners, then pass the word along if any of them were riding out with gold in their saddlebags so my friends could rob ’em.
“Then we heard about gold in New Mexico. Right near where Hattie had lived all those years ago. We got here and realized it was on the land she still swore she owned. Web had stayed in touch with Hattie and let her know. I knew mining, so we hatched a plot to work things like we did in San Francisco. Sure enough, I found a little gold, which I snuck out of the mine rather than pay you Bodens. That was when we came up with our plan to get it all back. Before long I worked my way up to managing the mines.”
“And that plot included killing every Boden?”
“I didn’t want a killing spree. That’s the kind of thing that gets the law’s attention. We thought we might take over by killing your pa only. I figured you’d head east. Your sister is a weakling and would probably go along with you, your ma, too. Justin, well, I always figured he’d stick. But I hoped you’d leave, maybe take the women, and Justin would be standing alone fighting for a ranch that no longer had a family to go with it. That’d make him easy pickins, especially with my men signed on as cowhands and miners right on your property.”
“So Pa’s death looks like an accident and maybe you can arrange the same kind of thing for Justin. But then Sadie got married. Pa was rude enough he refused to die. Then Justin got married. No one was going anywhere, and your list of people to kill grew by the day. No way to murder that many folks and hope to get away with it.”
“Until today. Today is my chance.”
“Three Boden men in one awful mining accident.”
“Yep, and Hattie and her men are riding onto the CR right now. She’s gonna take back what should have been hers in the first place. And leave you buried so deep in this mine, no one’ll dig you out to see the bullet hole in your chest.”
Like an alarm bell ringing in the back of Cole’s head, he realized that despite the gun aimed at his heart, despite his brothers trapped behind him, despite his sister and Angie and Mel facing death . . . despite all of that, finding Murray down here meant one thing, one very important thing.
There was a way out. They were not buried under tons of rock.
Now all Cole had to do was survive long enough to make Murray sorry he’d ever left the stage, then race home and save the womenfolk.
And he had to do it fast. Or those tough, smart frontierswomen would save themselves and ruin Cole’s chance of being a hero.
“We’re gonna run out of bullets, Sadie. We can’t hold ’em off after that.” Mel reduced the stack to reload her pistol, then took more to reload the rifle.
Once ready, she peeked out the window to see what the furiously mad woman attacking them would do next.
“Why is it,” she asked the ceilin
g, “when you really need a man around with some idea about how to rescue a bunch of damsels in distress, they’re nowhere to be seen?”
She figured she, Sadie, Angie, and Rosita would just go ahead and save themselves, but a little help would’ve been nice.
“I got an idea.” A man’s voice turned Mel and Sadie around. Their guns came up. Mel hesitated a split second and fired.
The stranger saw it coming and jumped out of the room before the gun blasted.
“Hey, don’t shoot. I’m here to help.”
The man waited. Mel looked at Sadie.
In the silence, the stranger stepped around the corner. He held his hands up, no gun, and stared at them with the wildest blue eyes she’d ever seen . . . except she had seen eyes like that.
“You’re related to Heath,” Sadie said. “You have to be.”
That was it. Those were Heath’s eyes exactly.
“Yep.” The man stepped farther into the room. “Heath’s been writing me some mighty strange letters. I came down to see for myself if the boy needs his big brother to clear up the mess he’s gotten himself in.”
Sadie smiled. “You’re Seth Kincaid. It’s nice to meet some of Heath’s family.”
Seth tapped the brim of his hat. “That’s me.”
“I’m Sadie. Heath is my husband now.”
Seth’s grin made his eyes flash. “I reckon that makes you my baby sister.”
Mel felt her brows rise nearly to her hairline at the newcomer. A Kincaid. Heath’s family lived between here and Denver. He must’ve decided they weren’t going to shoot him because he lowered his hands and pulled his gun with moves as smooth as oil. Seth checked his revolver and tucked the weapon away.
“Seth, I . . . she, the woman behind all this, said Heath is—”
“I heard all of it, Sadie. I’ve been slippin’ around a while so I could get in the back window. And maybe she’s right and my brother is . . . gone.” Seth sounded bleak when he spoke those words, but then his shoulders squared and his chin came up. “But if ever there was a man on this earth who would keep his head in a cave-in, it’s my little brother. He ain’t as good as me, but he’s mighty close. If there’s any way for him to survive, and to save your brothers, he’ll do it. He practically grew up in a cavern that’s a whole lot more dangerous than the Boden mines.”
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