“Luke?”
“Shut up, Domini. This is between me and my brother. That’s how it’s always been. Let her go, Matt. You don’t need her. She’s not in your way to having it all. I am. Just me, Matt.”
“Damn you!” Matt’s scream of rage as he shoved Domini at Luke echoed down the mountain. Gripping the gun in two hands, he brought the barrel around aimed at Luke. His mouth thinned as he saw that Luke had pushed her behind him.
“That’s not gonna stop me. One bullet will finish off the two of you.”
“No, Matt. You’re not going to kill your brother.” Toma inched forward the barrel of the rifle he held. “I want you to set your gun down, Matt. Don’t make me shoot you.”
“He’s always been your favorite. Bastard, hellraiser, troublemaker. You always took his side.”
“Put the gun down, Matt. Then we’ll talk. But you’re wrong.”
Matt’s response brought the click of the hammer being pulled back. “It won’t matter if you shoot me, ’cause he’s gonna die, too.”
“You can’t kill your brother!”
“Watch me, Toma. Watch me kill the only thing you’ve ever loved besides your damn gold and power.”
“I’ll give it to you. I’ll give it all to you. We’ll go back to the house right now and I’ll sign over everything. You’ll be the Colfax in charge, Matt. Everyone’ll have to answer to you. You won’t even have to stay around here. You could travel. You always wanted to travel, didn’t you? Now you can. All you need to do is set the gun down. Luke won’t try to take anything from you. Right, Luke?”
“Yeah. Right.” Luke’s gaze remained locked on his brother’s eyes. He didn’t know if Toma’s shaken voice and the promises he was making even reached Matt. All emotion had disappeared from his brother’s eyes. Behind him, he felt the uncontrollable shaking of Domini’s body pressed against his back.
And he felt the sharp edge of the rock she was forcing into his hand. The brush of her fingers, the small squeeze she gave his hand, lent him the added courage to risk it all. He couldn’t let her die. He only wished he could warn her what he was going to do. Matt’s eyes were clouded with rage again. He’d be making his move…
Luke yanked Domini to the side with one hand, and the momentary distraction of her fall drew Matt’s attention. Before he could squeeze off a shot, Luke threw himself at his brother, grabbing the barrel of the gun with his hand and smashing it against his upthrust thigh. He heard bones crack with the forceful blow of the rock landing on Matt’s fingers. With an unholy scream Matt released the gun, spinning quickly as he tried to lash out, and the edge of rock beneath his feet gave away.
Both Toma and Luke tried to grab hold of him. The ledge crumbled beneath their weight, and Matt was gone.
Chapter 24
Domini drew Luke back from the edge. His shaking hands covered her ears to hide the sounds of the death cry that was still a moment later. He closed his eyes against the pain that tore through him.
“I almost lost you,” he whispered against her lips. His thumbs brushed the tears from her cheeks, only more fell, faster, until he cradled her head against his shoulder and held her tight. He didn’t know how much he loved her. He had never loved anyone this much. And all he could do was rock her against him, holding her as if he would never let go. Soft enough to ease a man’s pain. He remembered the thought, remembered his rejection of needing a woman’s softness … a woman’s love.
And he’d almost lost her before he ever found out.
And he needed … God, how he needed her.
Luke wasn’t sure how long he stood there holding Domini before he became aware that Toma was talking to him.
He met his Father’s bleak expression.
“I was afraid that I had lost you, too. I blame myself for his death, Luke. Matt was insane.” Toma cleared his throat, feeling the moisture in his eyes. He turned away from Luke, brushing aside tears. They were a weakness. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d cried. Couldn’t remember when he cared enough over the loss of anything to cry.
“Go to him, Luke,” Domini said, lifting her head from Luke’s shoulder. “He’s hurting. Just as you are.”
Her tear-filled gaze was steady and direct in meeting his.
“Domini, I love you. But don’t, oh, God, please don’t ask that of me.”
Her joy at hearing what she most wanted from his lips was doubly clouded with tragedy. First Matt’s death and now Luke’s refusal to make peace with his father. And she couldn’t add her plea to Toma’s for forgiveness. When Luke was ready, if he ever was, the forgiveness for what he had been made to suffer had to come from him. Freely given as he had given her the treasured gift of his love.
If that love could heal…
“I can’t blame you for not wanting to have anything to do with me—”
“Toma! Give him time.” Domini looked at the broken old man as the hand that reached out to touch his son fell back to his side. A fierce protective urge made her want to scream at him that it was too late, but pity for Toma’s pain at losing Matt stilled her tongue. Her love for Luke refused to allow anyone to rush him now.
“Luke needs time. We all need it.” Shivers racked her and Luke tightened his embrace, his murmuring voice bringing calm when she felt herself about to splinter apart in the aftermath of violence.
She watched Toma as he stood and stared at them for a few minutes, then nodded, picked up his rifle, and started down the mountain.
“It’s all right, love,” she crooned, her hold every bit as hard and protective as his. “He’s gone.”
“I know.” He released a shuddering breath. “Just let me hold you, then I’ll take you back down. I need to know that you’re all right. That I haven’t lost you. I couldn’t stand losing you now, Domini. I couldn’t live with that loss.”
Too, she finished silently, hurting for this man she loved.
His fingers slid deeper into her hair until he cupped the back of her head and tilted her face up. Within his eyes was a plea for understanding. Love shone in her green eyes, and yet he struggled to put his feelings into words.
“I need you, Domini. Need you to teach me how to love. I said the words but—”
“Oh, Luke—”
“No. Let me finish. I’m not sure I know what love is. But I want to learn. I need you in my life. I never knew how empty it was.” His voice broke and he closed his eyes briefly. “Domini, I can’t really explain. I’ve never felt like this for anyone. When I heard you cry out and knew he was hurting you, I thought I’d die if something happened to you. I know,” he whispered hotly, “that I would have killed him for touching you.”
“But you didn’t kill Matt.” Her hands lightly shaped his face. She rose on tiptoe to kiss the cut on his temple. “You didn’t do it. His own crazy greed caused his death. Love, please don’t blame yourself.”
She brushed her lips against his, wishing with all her heart that she could take the pain from him. All she could do was pray that her love would be enough.
Looking into his black eyes, she saw that the shadows had receded. They might never be gone, but although Luke didn’t believe he knew how to love, Domini could not mistake the blaze of light that shone in his eyes.
“I love you. I will always love you, Luke,” she whispered.
Trust, hope, and love, most of all love, gleamed in her eyes. He scattered kisses across her cheek. “When you whisper my name like that I’d go through hell itself for you.”
“No more hell, Luke. My love is waiting. I’m waiting. All you need to do is reach out and I’m yours.”
His mouth opened on hers, hot and hungry. But in moments he gentled the kiss, sipping at her lips as if she were pure, sweet water and he needed the life-giving taste of it. He had known need with this woman, but none like this. Each tremor of her body rippled over his, and she was all giving softness as he slowly rocked her against him. Fear and shame rose along with anger. H
e should have protected her. Rage that he hadn’t ate through him as his lips gave nothing away of his inner turmoil and offered her cherishing kisses.
He broke the kiss, pressing her face against him.
“Let’s go down the mountain, Domini. I want you away from here. I want to be away from this place.”
She took a few steps at his side, and he saw that she was limping. “Matt do that to you?”
“No.” She squeezed his hand. “I tripped and twisted my ankle.”
“Same thing. If he hadn’t been chasing you—”
“Leave it be. It’s over.”
And because her gaze pleaded and she so desperately needed to believe that, he nodded. “Yeah. It’s over.” He scooped her into his arms, wanting to hold her, needing her touch to make him believe, too. Slowly he made his way down the mountain with his precious burden.
Toma waited by the cabin. Luke brushed past him and set Domini down on the bed.
Being ignored by Luke was not a new role for Toma. But he didn’t shout to demand his son’s attention. He didn’t even talk to him at all as he went out and returned with a basin of water from the barrel. He looked at Domini, found her direct gaze disconcerting.
Clearing his throat, Toma stepped closer to the bed. “I’ve a few things that need to be said to you.”
“Not now you don’t,” Luke warned.
Domini touched his hand, stilling his move to wash her face. “It won’t hurt us to listen. Listening doesn’t mean you have to act. All of us are hurting now. Please.”
He opened his mouth and shut it. He couldn’t deny her. Shooting a look at his father, Luke let his warning show in his hard expression. “Go ahead. Talk.”
“I wanted you both to know that while I had my doubts that Matt had told the truth about Luke killing your father, I let the matter be. It was easier not to question. A bad habit I had fallen into when it came to Luke. I know my wife thought she was in love with James. But Amanda never really loved anyone but herself.
“The night he died, James had packed to go back to you and your mother. Amanda didn’t believe me when I told her. We had a terrible fight. She told me she was leaving me, and I couldn’t let her go. She claimed that your father was taking her with him.”
He stared out at the twilight that blanketed the trees beyond the window, remembering the shouts and the accusations that had flown back and forth that night.
“Toma?” Domini gently prodded.
“Yeah.” He raked one hand through his hair, the very same gesture that Luke often made. “I’m not excusing my part in this. When she showed me her packed bags, I went after your father. We fought and I left him barely able to walk. Happened right down at the bottom of that path. I saddled up and rode out for most of the night. When I got back in the morning, he was dead.
“I mourned the loss of my friend. He tried to tell me that if I kept on, I was going to lose Amanda. But I know he never betrayed me. He was a kind man. Too soft, I’d tell him. Maybe that’s what Amanda built her dreams on. Could be he figured that time apart would help the two of us. That’s something I’ll never know.” He looked at Luke.
“I can’t be sorry enough for allowing Matt’s veiled hints that you had something to do with James’s death. I know you loved him. Loved him as you never did love me. But you know I made sure those whispers never went far, Luke. To my face no one denied my story that his death was an accident.
“That guilt will follow me to my grave. If I hadn’t beat him up, Matt wouldn’t have been able to kill him.”
“You finished?” Luke demanded, rising from the bed.
“Guess I—”
“If you’re finished, get out.”
“Luke!”
“No, Domini. Leave my son be. You just remember that your father was coming back to you.”
Luke walked away to stand with his back toward them near the fireplace. Domini sighed and glanced up at Toma.
“Thank you for telling me that. I always wondered.”
“I want you to have his share of the mine,” Toma said in a gruff voice. He wanted to make peace with Luke and didn’t know how.
Helplessly, Domini hoped that Luke would say something, but he remained silent. “Luke, do you want—”
“Nothing of his. Not a damn thing.”
“All right. Toma, I won’t take the money, but if you could, send it to Sister Benedict at the mission. There are so many needy children she can offer food and shelter to if—”
“Consider it done. But you don’t understand how much money is involved.”
“And I don’t want to know. There was a time when I thought the money from my father’s share of the gold mine was important, when my mother was alive. It’s not important now. I found something far richer and more precious to me.”
“You knew we’d found gold? He’d told me he was gonna surprise—”
“Toma, my father couldn’t keep a secret. He wrote to my mother. One more secret I kept from Luke and from you. The letter was faded, and creased, and stained with my mother’s tears.” Her voice broke on the last, and she clasped her hands together in her lap, ignoring the pain of the rock scrapes on her palms.
“When I finally learned to read, Sister Benedict gave me my mother’s book. I found the letter there. My father was worried about you. He thought you’d changed, a man possessed by greed. He felt sorry for you, Toma.”
“Sorry for me?”
“Yes.” Her smile was small and sad, “You see, my father knew how to love, and all he wanted was to bring the gold to my mother so he could hear her joy as she whispered his name.” She studied him in the fading light and realized that he didn’t understand. A small noise made her glace at Luke. He was staring at her, and she waited, hoping, praying, and as his smile came, Domini had her reward.
Luke understood.
Toma shook his head. He saw that their gazes were locked on each other, and he felt shut out of what they shared. He had no choice but to leave them.
The door closing roused Luke. “Did you tell him the truth?”
“Yes.”
“That business about hearing your mother call his name?”
“What he wrote to her was, ‘I hear you whisper my name in my heart, Consuela, but soon you will have me near when you call. All that I promised will be ours.’ ”
He hated the sadness that crept into her voice. Just as he hated the fear that still lurked within his mind. What if he couldn’t learn to love?
“What had he promised her?”
“His love, Luke. It was all my mother ever wanted.”
“I’m not big on making promises. I don’t think—”
“The promises in love are to be there when needed. To hold someone through the night. To be there to wake and share the joy of morning. Love,” she said, rising and waving him back as she limped to his side, “is knowing in your heart that someone cares for you. That you’ll never be alone. Love is what I feel for you.”
She lifted his bruised hand to her cheek and gently rubbed it against her skin. “Love is my pleasure in your touch, and my touching you. It’s knowing how much you hurt and wanting to take the pain away. Or if not away, then to share it. Love is strength, for there is power within its giving. To me, as to my mother, these are the things of love.
“The passion that we share, Luke, is a flame so bright that it dims a fire’s blaze. Love is a healing balm for the soul. A gift that is freely given. No rules. No demands that it be returned. You only have to reach out and take the gift that is offered.”
Leaning closer, she brushed a butterfly-light kiss on his chin, then rose to touch her lips to his. “Love, Luke. Soft and sweet or fierce with need. When you love, you’ll find it brings its own rewards.”
His fingertips shook. He shaped her features as if seeing her for the first time. Luke thought he was. Strength and gentleness. Truth and honor. And love … so much love awaited him.
Her be
lief that all he had to do was reach out and take her gift became his.
And only the rising moon witnessed the whispers that followed as sighs and murmurs became the whispers of each other’s names. Whispers filled with love.
More from Raine Cantrell
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