Whirlwind Groom

by Debra Cowan

  “It didn’t.”

  She flinched. “I know you’re hurt and angry. Yes, I should’ve told you why I came to Whirlwind. Ian murdered my family—”

  “You don’t have to tell me now. I already know.”

  “I’m telling you anyway.” The past crashed over her, heavy and dark. The words spilled out; she hoped they made sense. “He killed my parents and William, who was there for dinner, and he would’ve killed me, but I wasn’t home yet. But then I came home.”

  “Ian acted alone in this?” Davis Lee gave her a look that said she might as well try to convince him that roosters laid eggs. “The McDougals never did anything by themselves.”

  “Well, Ian did! My father was considered one of the most knowledgeable doctors in Texas about tuberculosis. I think that’s why Ian came to see him that night. There were posters about the McDougals in Sheriff Locke’s office, all over town. The whole state knew about those outlaws and what they’d done. I think Papa recognized Ian and either tried to get rid of him so he could contact the law or tried to send my mother or William for Sheriff Locke. That’s when Ian killed them.

  “I saw him, I saw his face. He ran out of my house and full-bore into me. We both fell. His gun flew out of his hand, but it was dark and he couldn’t find it. I screamed and screamed until he ran away. When I got into the house, I found them. Mama, Papa, William. All dead. Blood everywhere.” She wiped angrily at the tears coursing down her cheeks. “I identified Ian and he was arrested. The sheriff put him in jail. I thought he’d pay for what he did, but there was this judge—I told you about him—Judge Horn. He had a grudge because my mother rejected him more than twenty years ago. And out of pure spite, he let Ian go, let him walk away.”

  She pressed a hand to her trembling mouth, trying to stop from crying. Why couldn’t he understand?

  “It’s not that I don’t think he needs killin’.”

  “Then why are you so angry?”

  “You know why,” he said flatly. “The only thing you’ve cared about since you got here is Ian McDougal. You wanted information. You wanted to keep a close eye on him. I understand that. What I don’t understand is how you could use me to get what you wanted. How you could go to my bed last night and believe keeping that from me was all right.”

  “I didn’t think it was all right. It was wrong. I was wrong.” She didn’t know how to convince him or even if she could. “At first, I kept it from you because I didn’t want you to talk me out of it.”

  “Or arrest you,” he muttered.

  She moved closer. He backed away and she felt it like a blow. Fisting both hands in the sheet, she wrapped her arms tight around her middle. “Then I kept quiet because I didn’t want it to look like you were involved. And then I wasn’t sure that I was going to kill him. I thought if I could figure out who else might want him dead, I wouldn’t have to do it. I went to the newspaper and read back as far as I could, trying to learn everyone the McDougals had hurt, trying to find a way to make Ian pay without killing him myself. But there is no one else. This is what I was going to tell you last night. I tried. Remember? I said I wanted you to know about my family, about William. And then—”

  “Ah, yes, you cut yourself. Did you do that on purpose? So you could play on my sympathy?”

  “No.”

  “And sleeping with me before you told me the truth was what? An accident?” His lips twisted. “Oh, let me guess. You slept with me because you couldn’t resist me.”

  “I couldn’t,” she acceded sadly. “Things happened so fast between us. I was wrong not to say something, but that doesn’t mean that I…did that with you for any reason other than wanting to be with you. The night I was attacked, I was out walking so late because I was thinking about you, about us. I was trying to figure out a way not to kill Ian. I thought about telling you then.”

  “But that wasn’t a good time either, was it?” he scoffed.

  “I didn’t tell you because I was afraid you wouldn’t understand.”

  “You didn’t tell me because it would’ve eliminated your access to him. The only reason you got close to me is so you could get information about McDougal.” He cursed. “Did you think one night with you would make me let down my guard? Did you come here last night to seduce me, Josie? You did a damn fine job of it. I was so crazy for you I couldn’t see straight.”

  “Don’t believe that, Davis Lee. Please,” she whispered hoarsely. She didn’t remember moving, but she stood inches from him. One hand curved over his forearm. “You know it wasn’t like that.”

  He shook her off. “If you weren’t using me, then why not tell me everything about your family? What did you hope to accomplish by crawling into my bed? Freer access to McDougal? Maybe you thought I’d kill him for you. Or that I’d fall so hard for you that I’d escort you to the jail and watch you put a bullet in him.”

  “Last night, I came to tell you the truth.” Anger slid into her blood and spread. She said evenly, “I should have done it, and I’m sorry I didn’t. I’m sorry I hurt you, but I didn’t plan on falling into bed with you. You have to believe that.”

  “No. I don’t.” His eyes were bleak and hard, unyielding. “Sounds like you didn’t plan on a lot of things.”

  “I didn’t plan on you at all.” I certainly didn’t plan on you being the first man since William’s death to make me feel something besides regret or pain. Her voice shook, but she forced herself to continue, to keep her gaze on his. “I was going to come here and make sure Ian McDougal paid for at least three of the murders he’s committed, but I met you. When I was bitten by that snake, you took care of me. And you were patient when you taught me to shoot. Then the other night, in the alley, I know you saved my life. I didn’t plan on your kindness or your compassion or liking you so much.”

  “And now you’re going to say you have feelings for me?”

  “I do!” She inched closer, desperate to make him understand. “Do you think it was easy for me to accept that I was growing to care for you? I owe my family what the law wouldn’t give them.” Temper spiking, her voice rose. “Getting involved with you made me question what I’d come to do. Question my loyalty to the people who loved me. How do you think it made me feel to know I was willing to turn my back on them in order to have something with you? Would you have handled things so much better?”

  “We’re not talkin’ about me.” The words cracked the air like gunshots. His eyes were vicious with anger and hurt. “Put on your clothes and go.”

  He wasn’t going to budge. Hope drained out of her. “I deeply regret not getting all of this out in the open last night, but I’m not sorry about what we shared.”

  “All right, I’ll be the one to go.” He stalked past her and into his bedroom.

  Her chest tight with pain, she followed.

  He snatched his boots from in front of the wardrobe, yanked open its door and pulled out a shirt, dropping it over his head. Stone-faced, he pushed by her and went back into the front room where he grabbed a pair of the freshly darned socks she’d brought then sat down hard in the nearest dining chair. Quick as lightning, he had on his socks and boots, then rose, skirted the broken glass still on the floor and strode toward the door.

  Alarmed, she took a step toward him. “Are you really leaving?”

  The look he threw over his shoulder was brutal enough to buckle her knees. His gaze raked her. “It would be best if you were gone when I get back.”

  He walked out, leaving her standing in his front room wrapped in a sheet.

  “Do I have rocks in my head?” Davis Lee asked his brother an hour later at the jail. Just thinking about Josie made him mad enough to bite a bullet plumb in two.

  With a vicious flick of his wrist, he skinned his blade down the bark of the sixth stick of pine he’d whittled since leaving his house. “Am I as dumb as a bucket of dirt? I knew she was hiding something. I knew it, but I got involved with her anyway. You’d think I didn’t have the sense to spit downwind.”


  Riley had settled into the chair behind Davis Lee’s desk and put his feet up on the edge. “Seems there’s a fine line here, brother. I mean, you really can’t know for sure that she’s lying about wanting to tell you the truth and when she planned to do it.”

  “Oh, I know it, all right.”

  “You must care a lot about her if you’re this het up.”

  Davis Lee pointed his knife at his brother. “You sound like an old maid. What I care about is that the woman lied to me.”

  “All I know is when I got this mad at a woman, it meant I had feelings for her.”

  From his perch on the corner of his desk, Davis Lee stared him down. Riley held up a hand in mock surrender. “Hey, I’m just makin’ an observation. Should I remind you of how you got in my face when Susannah and I had a fallin’-out?”

  “That was different. You were married. You knew you loved her.”

  His brother eyed him shrewdly. “I didn’t, but it took me nearly losin’ her to figure that out. Don’t be as chuckle-headed as I was.”

  Davis Lee shaved off another curl of wood with a particularly vicious downstroke of his knife. “This is nowhere near the same. I don’t love Josie. And Susannah didn’t lie to you, didn’t…use you to get something.”

  Davis Lee had told Riley that Josie had used him to get information about McDougal, but not that she had slept with him for the same reason. Though he could tell by the steadiness in his brother’s blue eyes that Riley knew. “You know what really burns me? I gave her more than one chance to come clean. I even told her about Rock River.”

  “What?” Riley’s boots hit the floor with a sharp thud and he sat straight up. “That means something even if you don’t want to admit it.”

  “It means I’m an idiot.” Davis Lee sliced the blade in a furious slide down the stick that was dwindling into a toothpick with each pass.

  “Listen, I know you’re mad as a hornet. I would be, too, but if you don’t come to some kind of terms with her, I think you’ll regret it. You look like you’re ready to burn some powder.”

  “Don’t worry, I don’t plan to shoot her, but even finding out about how Betsy hornswoggled me didn’t get me this lathered up. If I don’t see Josie Webster till the Judgment Day, it’ll be too soon.”

  “From what you’ve said, it doesn’t sound like she came here to deliberately hurt anyone except that piece of human garbage back there in that cell.”

  “No, I just happened to be lucky enough to be useful to her.” He was a fool. He’d thought he was being so smart, so careful, but she’d gotten to him anyway, burrowed someplace deep inside that Betsy had never even touched.

  “Can’t say I blame her for wanting to kill Ian McDougal.” Riley’s face hardened. “I’d like to hurt him myself just for the way he and his brothers endangered Susannah and Catherine, not to mention killing Ollie.”

  Davis Lee nodded. “I don’t take issue with why Josie came. The bastard killed her folks, the man she was going to marry. It does bother me that she used me to get information about him. That she kept things from me when we…were past that. Or I thought we were.”

  He actually did believe she cared about him. Her feelings had been plain in her eyes when he’d taken her last night. Maybe it was his vanity, but he didn’t think she could’ve faked that. Still, just because she felt something for him didn’t mean she hadn’t used him.

  Riley studied him soberly. “What are you going to do?”

  “Stay the hell away from her and watch my back.”

  He thought back over how often she’d come around, her constant post at the hotel window, how she always seemed to be watching, waiting for someone besides him. How she’d slept with him while there was a secret between them. Just the idea that he thought he might have loved her twisted his gut into a vicious knot.

  He’d seen the hurt in her eyes, hurt that had nothing to do with what Ian McDougal had done to her and everything to do with Davis Lee’s words to her. He thought of the times he’d seen pain in her eyes and wondered if he had caused it, when all the time it had nothing to do with him. Had her feelings ever had anything to do with him?

  What if she really had thought that sleeping with him would lower his guard so much that he’d tell her he understood why she’d come and would do whatever she wanted regarding McDougal? He wouldn’t say that out loud; it sounded ridiculous. Paranoid. But it didn’t stop him wondering if maybe Josie was hoping Davis Lee would take her right to the outlaw then look the other way while she finished him.

  He had started to believe that whatever her secret, it didn’t affect him—them. Plain and simple, he’d let his guard down. Just like with Betsy, he’d been overcome by lust. Last night, the need to have Josie under him had burned away every ounce of common sense.

  If she really had feelings for him, she would’ve told him the whole story sometime back. Wouldn’t she?

  Thinking about the way she’d looked at him while he was deep inside her, how devastated she’d seemed when he confronted her this morning, dimmed the anger inside him. He didn’t want to feel anything except anger. If he did, he would never be able to stay away from her.

  Oh, yeah, he’d come close to going under, but he knew where things stood now. Those deep green eyes and sweet little body weren’t going to snare him again.

  Josie purposely stayed away from her hotel window. She hadn’t seen him in four days. Four days of anger and hurt and frustration that had her doing sloppy work and ripping out stitches right and left. He hadn’t believed her. It didn’t appear he ever would. He needed time to cool off; Josie had thought maybe after a couple of days she could go to him. But just one look at his face, even from two stories up, had her keeping her distance.

  She was in love with him. Thankfully she hadn’t confessed that.

  Sunday after church, she welcomed the distraction of Catherine’s last fitting for her wedding gown. The dark-haired woman stopped by after the service. Josie hadn’t had the courage to go and risk coming face-to-face with Davis Lee.

  The wedding was scheduled for Wednesday, and though Josie had seen no sign of the groom, Catherine didn’t appear anxious in the least. After pinning one final tuck in the bodice, Josie walked her friend downstairs. “Your dress will be ready tomorrow. I’ll bring it by.”

  “Thank you. I’ve never had anything so lovely. You’re very talented.”

  Josie smiled, feeling as if only half of her were there.

  Catherine put a hand on her arm. “I know it’s none of my business, but you look like you could use someone to talk to.”

  Josie did need someone, but Catherine? The woman was a dear friend of Davis Lee’s and Josie didn’t want her to think for a minute that she would try to come between that friendship.

  “It’s about you and Davis Lee, isn’t it?”

  Josie’s eyes widened.

  “We’ve seen you two together. Susannah and I. Cora. It’s obvious there’s something between you.”

  “Not anymore.” Josie folded her arms tight against her middle. “We had words.”

  “I wondered. He’s been like a bear and I’ve never seen him like that. Isn’t there a chance you can work it out?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think he wants to and I can’t say I blame him.”

  Catherine stared at her for a long minute then a slow smile broke over her face. “There was a time when Jericho wanted me to stay away from him.”

  Josie’s jaw dropped. “From what I’ve heard, the man’s head over heels for you.”

  “We had some things to resolve first.” She told Josie how Jericho had arrived at her house, shot and bleeding. How she had nursed him back to health only to learn he had come there to arrest her brother.

  Josie shook her head. “And you forgave him for keeping that from you?”

  “He had good reason, but it took me a while to accept it.”

  The situation sounded like hers and Davis Lee’s in reverse.

  Catherine patted her hand. “Don
’t give up. Go to him.”

  Had he cooled off enough to listen to her? To believe her? And so what if he had? The memory of his harsh words had her spine going to steel. He had accused her of an awful thing. Maybe she wasn’t ready to forgive him. “I’ll think about it.”

  “He’s a good man, Josie. And I think you’re good for him.”

  Behind Catherine, the hotel’s front door opened and Josie’s heart quickened. But it wasn’t Davis Lee. The man who stepped inside sweeping off his hat was taller, the tallest man she’d ever seen. Dressed all in black, with a gun belt slung low on his hips, he looked dangerous. His dark hair was ragged, his rugged features lined with fatigue and dust, but it was his light-colored eyes that caught her attention.

  And the adoring smile that spread across his face, completely transforming him. “Catherine?”

  Josie’s friend let out a cry as she whirled and flew across the floor straight into his arms. He caught her to him, kissing her as he lifted her off the floor, his hat crushed against her back.

  So this was the fiancé, the Ranger. The one who’d told Davis Lee all about her. She didn’t blame Jericho Blue for doing what she should’ve done herself. But she didn’t imagine the Ranger would be too eager to make her acquaintance.

  Watching Catherine with her soon-to-be-husband magnified the hollowness Josie had felt since the awful morning when Davis Lee had gotten so angry at her. Thinking to give the couple some privacy, she quietly started for the stairs.

  “Oh, Josie, don’t go!” Catherine was breathless and flushed as she pulled Jericho forward.

  He had looked rough when he first walked in. Now he looked besotted and handsome. “Catherine,” he murmured. “I smell like horses and dirt.”

  “This is my fiancé.” She glanced up at him, hugged his arm to her. “Jericho, this is Josie Webster. She’s new in town. She’s making my dress for the wedding.”

  “Nice to meet you.” He shook her hand, a mild curiosity in eyes that she could now see were a stunning silver. “I’m glad to hear Catherine is actually having the dress made and not using that money for someone else.”