The young man stood there a moment longer, looking as if he wanted to say something, and Zack wondered what. Advice on how to be a gunslinger?
He hoped not. More than one youth had been rudely disappointed when brave enough to ask Zack Banning how to get as fast as he was. Zack took no pleasure or pride in recommending it as a career.
He returned the youth’s stare coolly, and sipped his beer. If he knew Carpenter, the sheriff would be there to arrest him very shortly.
He was right.
Sheriff Carpenter shook his head and took Zack’s pistol before he took him into custody, saying grimly, “I warned you to leave town, Banning.”
“Yeah. I got delayed.”
“You just might end up getting delayed for a long time, in case you’ve forgotten that men get hung for murder.”
“Maybe murder, but not self-defense.” Carpenter snorted. “Too bad I don’t buy that. You and Albright been at each other’s throats before, the way I hear it. If he dies, you’ll swing.”
The young man who’d been with Albright cleared his throat. “Excuse me, sheriff. Frank Albright drew first. If you ask around, you’ll find that out.”
“Dammit, boy, ain’t you his partner?” The youth’s chin tilted. “We worked together. That’s all.”
“Well, you go tell Diamond that I got one of his men dying over at the doc’s office. And tell him I said stay out of town and let the law handle it. If Albright dies, there will be a fair trial. A jury can decide if it was self-defense or not.
“A fair trial in this town, sheriff?” Zack mocked when Carpenter shoved him into an empty cell and slammed shut the barred door. “You’re dreaming.”
“Probably.” Carpenter stared at him, then shook his head. “I told you to leave, dammit. Why didn’t you listen to me?” Zack pressed his face against the cold bars and grinned at him. “I’m listening now.”
“It’s too late, my friend.” When Carpenter walked back into his front office, Zack had the sinking feeling that he was right. It was too late. It was always too late.
Chapter 27
“You whoring bitch.”
Deborah sat stiffly in the parlor chair, trying not to let Dexter see how frightened she was. She heard Judith’s quick protest through the fear pounding in her ears.
“Dexter, please! It wasn’t like that.”
“This is between me and her, Judy,” he growled. “Keep out of it.”
“I can’t.” Judith took a step toward him, hand held up as if pleading.
“Deborah would never be dishonorable, but it was forced on her. At first, she was so terrified, and then he was so persuasive, so gentle—I guess she did what any woman in those circumstances would do. She began to love the only comfort she had.” Judith broke off in a small sob. “If I had been shown the same kindness,” she said a moment later, “I would have grabbed at it, too.” Diamond glanced at her. “I know. You told me. I’m sorry about what happened to both of you, but gawddammit, at least you didn’t fall in love with the friggin’ Injun who raped you!” Deborah winced. Judith had discussed it with Dexter, but not with her.
She wondered why. Why would her cousin feel more comfortable talking about such things with a man like Dexter Diamond?
Raking a hand through his hair, Dexter paced the floor furiously, pausing to glare at Deborah every few moments. He looked trapped between fury and disgust, and Deborah sat in stiff silence and waited.
When he paused in front of her, she kept her gaze riveted on the far wall, willing herself not to react to anything he might say.
“I’m not gonna divorce you,” he said after a moment. “I won’t have everyone sayin’ you prefer that gawdammed ’breed to me. But I’ll be damned if you’re gonna keep his brat. I mean it. I won’t bash its head against the wall like I want to, but it’s leavin’ as soon as it’s born. The only choice you’ve got, is how. If you fight me on this, I swear I’ll kill it, you hear me, Deborah?”
Despite her vow of silence, Deborah tilted back her head, her eyes blazing. “Is that what this is about, Dexter? Pride?” He shot her a look of loathing. “No. Not just pride. There’s a lot more at stake here, and you know it.” She stood up. “What? The Velazquez lands that you want so badly you’re willing to murder for them? Let me assure you that you can have them.
I don’t want them.”
“No court will let me keep them if you leave. You’re staying here.” Deborah took a step closer, and her voice was soft. “I do not intend to give up my child, Dexter Diamond. If you so much as act like you’re going to harm it, I’ll kill you. Do I make myself perfectly clear?” He looked astounded. His eyes opened wider, and his jaw sagged with shock. “Have you gone crazy?” he finally sputtered.
“No. I think, that for the first time in months, I am finally quite rational. I married you, Dexter, and if you insist that I stay with you, I will. But so help me, God, if you try to harm my child, there will be no place on earth that you can go to escape. I’ll see to it.”
“And how do you think you’ll manage that?” Diamond demanded angrily, some of his shock fading.
“I’ll help her,” Judith spoke up quietly, and Diamond pivoted on his heel to stare at her. “She’s been through enough. Don’t threaten her anymore, Dexter. Please.”
His face darkened. “So you’re turnin’ against me, too. I thought you understood me, Judy.”
Her mouth trembled with emotion, but she said stubbornly, “I do, but I can’t let you hurt her. I love her. She’s my cousin. Don’t make me choose between you, please.”
Clenching and unclenching his big hands, Diamond finally growled, “I don’t make any promises. If I have to look at Zack Banning’s bastard every day of my life, I’ll feel like killin’ somethin’ all the time.” He spun around and stomped out of the parlor, slamming the door behind him so hard that Deborah jumped. Her leap seemed to startle her unborn child, and for the first time, she felt it move within her. Deborah stood still, her hands moving to the swell of her stomach. A wave of protectiveness washed through her, and a strange sense of peace.
This was her child, hers and Zack’s, and she thought suddenly of his face when he’d told her how he’d had to live with hate. It had driven him from his home, driven him from his mother, and she knew that she couldn’t do that to her child. She did not want it to learn to live with hatred. And she did not want to wake up one day as Zack’s mother had done, and see her child vanish from her life.
She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes until she opened them and saw Judith gazing at her curiously.
“I can’t do it, Judith,” she said, and Judith nodded.
“I meant it. I’ll help you. I just don’t know what to do.” Deborah’s smile was wry. “Neither do I.” Judith moved to her and put her arms around her. “We’ll think ofsomething,” she whispered, and Deborah nodded.
“Yes. We’ll think of something.”
Sunlight streaming through the bars overhead made a striped pattern on the floor of Zack’s cell. He’d never been locked up in jail before. At first the walls had seemed to close in around him, and he’d spent his time pacing. And waiting for Frank Albright to die.
Now, he’d grown resigned. He wished the bastard would either die or survive, but do one or the other. Even a rope and a short drop would be better than this.
So he lay drowsing in the warmth, arms folded behind his head. His lean body was relaxed, and he deliberately cleared his mind of any worries. He imagined blue skies and the wind in his face, and a strong horse beneath him.
If he let himself, he could almost hear Deborah’s soft, clipped tones, and see her dark fiery hair gleaming in the sunlight.
God, he could make himself crazy thinking about her. He tried not to. It was torture to remember her, to recall her soft skin and gold-flecked hazel eyes, the sweet taste of her mouth and her cool grace and poise. An almost physical pain made his stomach twist, and he sat up abruptly.
“Banning,” he heard Carpenter say, and
turned his head. “You got a visitor.”
Surprised, Zack just stared at him. No one would visit him. He had no friends, no family to care.
Carpenter was beckoning to someone, grumbling, “You got just five minutes, young feller.”
Zack rose slowly, his curiosity pricking him. When the young man came down the narrow hallway and stood in front of his cell, he felt another wave of surprise. It was the youth who had been with Albright in the saloon. He waited silently for him to say why he’d come.
“Mr. Banning,” the young man said, stepping forward to press his face against the bars. “My name’s Lonny King. I hope you don’t mind me coming here.”
Zack shrugged. “I’m not too busy right now.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” He paused, then said softly, “I know you’re wondering why I came. I’ve got a message from someone for you.” Zack’s eyes narrowed warily. “A message?” Nodding, Lonny said, “Yeah. She said you’d know what it meant.” Not moving, Zack watched as Lonny King unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt and tugged at something knotted around his neck. When he freed it, Zack stiffened. Even before King held it out to him, he knew what it was.
Zack moved slowly to the barred door and held out his hand for the bone and eagle feather amulet. It nested there, the leather thong spilling from his palm to sway gently in the air.
Splinters of memory came back to him, flashing through his mind in disjointed fragments. He saw Deborah, the full moon shining in her hair like moonfire, her eyes fastened on him with a mixture of pain and bewilderment.
Behind him, the restless murmur of armed, painted warriors cut across the soft sweep of wind over the Texas plains. Below, lay Fort Richardson and the end of his hopes. And he could hear his own voice, sounding cool and indifferent even though it cost him pain with every word.
“This was my father’s. He left it with my mother should she ever wish to find him.
When I was old enough, I searched for him with it. You may do the same if you should ever need me.”
He looked up at Lonny King. “You said this was a message?”
“Yes. Mrs. Diamond said you would understand.” Zack’s hand closed around the amulet. “Yes. I do.”
A brisk wind blew the curtains back from the bedroom window, and Judith crossed to shut it. “It’s gotten cold.” Deborah roused from her reverie, and looked away from the cheery fire.
“As cold as it gets here, I suppose.”
“It gets cold,” Judith said when she returned to her chair by the fire.
“Just not like at home.”
“Yes. Not like at home. Natchez can have the wettest, most bone-deep chills I’ve seen.”
A log in the fire popped and broke, sending up showers of sparks, and Deborah stared at it as if mesmerized. She tried to think about Natchez, and days when she’d been happy and innocent, but it all seemed so long ago. So long ago.
Sometimes, when she closed her eyes, she could see Zack as she’d first met him. He’d been terrifying then, with his bronzed face and cold blue eyes, the long sweep of raven hair brushing against his broad shoulders. How had he become less frightening and more comforting in such a short time? It didn’t seem as if it should be possible, but it was.
Her hands moved, as they often did now, to the swell of her belly. The child moved frequently. It was active, and she reveled in each energetic kick and prod of the tiny life inside her. Zack’s child. Hawk’s child. God, how closely the two were entwined.
She hoped . . . she hoped, she hoped, for miracles. For the sweet promise that had once been, but was now denied. And she hoped for the liberation of the man she loved. He deserved more than life had given him.
“Do you think he’ll come?” Judith asked, startling her.
Deborah looked at her. “He’ll come.”
“He’s in jail, Deborah. For shooting Frank Albright.” Judith made a frustrated gesture. “Even if Albright lives—which I doubt, since he has lead poisoning—they might find a reason to hang Zack. After all, he’s not exactly popular. People are afraid of him.”
“He’ll come.”
Judith put a hand on her arm and said softly, “I hope so. And I hope you made the right decision.”
“I think I have. Dexter will never accept Zack’s child, especially now that he knows that Zack was the man who kept me in the Comanche camp.
I’m not quite certain why it made such a difference, but it did.”
“I think,” Judith said slowly, “it was because he felt you had made a fool of him. Remember the day I sprained my ankle, and he took me back to Don Francisco’s?”
“Yes.”
“He talked about how fine you were, how honest and good and all the things he thought he wanted. “Then, when it took you so long to get back, he worried that Banning had somehow tarnished you.”
“And I told him I was insulted by his suggestions,” Deborah said quietly. “Yes, I can understand why he would feel betrayed and foolish.”
“He has a lot of pride.” Deborah thought of Zack, of how arrogant and proud he could be, and now he’d ignored that pride to come to Dexter Diamond’s house and ask to see his new wife. She closed her eyes. So many mistakes. So much pain.
The fire popped again, and snapped with the collapse of a log. Deborah opened her eyes. The heat warmed her face and feet, but her back felt chilled by a brisk breeze. She turned and frowned at the open window.
“Judith, did you—?”
“I opened it,” came a husky, familiar voice, and Deborah rose to her feet with a soft cry.
“Hush,” Judith said quickly. She crossed to the window and shut it, then threw Zack a narrow glance. “Are you sure no one saw you?” He didn’t answer for a moment, standing back in the shadows and blending in so well it took Deborah several seconds to see him. She moved across the room toward him, and when he pulled her into his warm embrace, she felt as if she’d been granted the key to paradise.
“You’re here,” she said against his broad chest. “You came for me.”
“Yes. Did you think I wouldn’t?” It was such a typical reply that Deborah laughed, the sound halfway between amusement and a sob, and Zack folded her more tightly in his arms.
Her voice came out in a choked whisper.
“I hoped so. God, how I hoped you would.”
“You sent me my father’s amulet. I could not fail.” Tilting back her head, she looked up at him, and her breath caught at the blaze in his eyes, the blue lights that seared into her soul. She traced the outline of his mouth with a gentle finger.
“How did you get out of jail, Zack?” His arms flexed, and then he set her back from him. “We can talk about that later. All I’ll tell you, is that the sheriff will have a very bad headache when he wakes up.”
“If he hasn’t already,” Judith cut in, her voice curt. “I hate to bring this up, but you two are in trouble if Dexter finds you together. I suggest you leave quickly.”
Deborah turned, still in the circle of Zack’s arms. “You are coming with us, aren’t you?”
After a hesitation, Judith said, “It might be better if I stay here to distract Dexter. I can delay him a little, maybe.”
“No, I don’t want you to suffer because of me,” Deborah protested, but Judith smiled.
“He won’t hurt me. Dexter and I have an understanding.” When Deborah would have protested more, Zack growled, “Listen to her. It will be hard enough just getting you out of here.” He put her back a step and looked down at her face in the shadows. “You do want to come with me?” It was hard to talk around the sudden lump in her throat, but Deborah whispered, “More than I want anything.” A faint smile curled the erotic lines of his mouth, and he gave a satisfied nod. There was an exultant light in his eyes.
“Then we will go. Together. Nahma?ai.”
“Yes,” she whispered, “together.” His head bent, and he gave her a swift, hard kiss that set her pulses racing and made her knees weak. Then he tucked her into the angle of his bo
dy and moved with her to the window.
“We don’t have much time. If anyone finds the guard I left out back, there’ll be hell to pay,” he muttered as he bent and peered out from the side of the window. He turned to Judith. “Blow out that lamp.” The light was extinguished, and as darkness flooded the room, Deborah blinked against it. Slowly, her eyes became adjusted to the absence of lamplight, and she noted the pale silver light that streamed in through the open window. Zack seemed to adjust more quickly, because he was pulling her to the window and stepping through it, reaching back for her.
Without hesitating, she put her hand in his. Then she felt Judith at her back, and turned.
“You love him, don’t you?” Judith stared at her, and Deborah grabbed her hand. “Don’t be timid now, Judith. If you love Dexter, go to him. You’re right. He’ll need you, and God knows, there’s little enough love in this world to deny anyone what they can find.” Tears welled in Judith’s eyes, and she bit her lip as she met Deborah’s loving gaze. “You know?”
“I’d have to be blind not to know. Yes, and I don’t mind. I only wish he was more worthy of you, but I suppose you think the same.” She managed a smile, and felt Zack give her a gentle nudge.
“Go. Be careful,” Judith whispered. “And be happy.” Deborah couldn’t speak for a moment. She felt Zack’s strong tug on her hand, and his impatience, and knew the time was too short.
“I’ll send word.”
“Godspeed.”
Zack lifted her through the window and set her down on the porch, pushing her gently hack against the wall. His breath feathered over her cheek as he whispered, “Wait here while I check things out.” She pressed back against the wall, shivering with cold and fear and anticipation. Zack moved silently across the porch, a dark shadow against the brighter light from a full moon. She saw him go to the far end of the porch and blend into the shadows, then he was back within moments.
“Come on,” he muttered, taking her cold hand in his and pulling her with him. She tried to move as quietly as Zack, but could hear her own footsteps echoing on the wood.
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