Sorrows and Lace

by Bonnie R. Paulson

  Almost dying at Sonny’s hands had opened her eyes. She loved Ronan and would, of course, marry him. She’d make him love her – somehow.

  She’d never tell him that, though.

  At the same time, why should she wait for him to protect her?

  No one had ever tried saving her from Sonny. Even her family had been afraid of the Caracus gang and its reach – and rightly so. But she’d be damned before she’d wait around any longer for someone who may or may not show up that day to kill her or her loved ones. And one thing she’d learned from Sonny? She had nothing to fear but dying like a damn coward.

  She hugged the trunk with one arm while clutching the grip of the gun with her free hand. Her nerves tingled. If Devlyn or any of the other men just glanced up for about two seconds, they’d see her. She was a good shot, but not if bullets zinged around her.

  Their raucous laughter and gaudy singing grated on her sensitive ears.

  Her jaw dropped when one of the men – she couldn’t see which one from the angle – sauntered directly beneath her tree and pissed on the large semi-exposed roots. Oh, was she tempted to spit on his dirty hat.

  But she held firm, watching and waiting. For what, she didn’t know. But she was certainly safer up in that tree than down in Ronan’s house.

  At least until Devlyn was dead.

  Shoot him, Kelsey. Just shoot him. The wind seemed to whisper in her ear as it rustled the leaves around her. Maybe her ancestors were right and the spirits of the dead would haunt the living until their death was avenged. Maybe Red pushed for her to shoot Devlyn, claim the bastard’s life in exchange for her brother’s.

  Or maybe her looming freedom waited, wishing, hoping, that if she were free of the Caracus gang and all the danger they carried with them she’d be free to accept Ronan’s offer and even take the challenge to make him love her again.

  But if Caracus was dead, would she need the offer?

  She certainly didn’t need a divorce anymore.

  In the distance, three distinct riders dotted the gold and green prairie. Even from the extreme distance, in her high position, she recognized the silhouettes of Ronan, Robbie, and Slate. But three on five wasn’t exactly the fairest ratio.

  To hear better, she tucked the gun back into her pocket and carefully and quietly shimmied down to the next branch, then the next. She needed to be able to make out exact words. She picked a spot but then couldn’t see anything through the needles, so she moved again.

  By the time she’d settled and could hear as well as see, her guys had shown up and conversation was well underway.

  Ronan took the leader position. He’d always assumed it so naturally. He pulled his hat off and turned it around in his hands. Lifting a straight gaze to Devlyn, he said. “I can hear you threatening me and I have to say, that’s not the best way to start the negotiation process.”

  Kelsey almost lost her grip. Since when did Ronan start off mocking anyone? Devlyn wasn’t one to be treated like an idiot.

  Devlyn spit into the ground again. “Well, now, I could tell you what a bunch of pussies you have working for you. It was so easy to let your man see Sonny following his little bitch. After you chased after the blonde when Jack had his hands on her, it didn’t take an idiot to figure out what you’d do, if you thought we were in the area again chasing after women.” He stepped forward again, his hat tilting forward and then up. “So, how’d you get the drop on Smith? He was your man.”

  Ronan shrugged, snugging his thumb into the top pocket of his pants. “I didn’t even suspect Smith until Kelsey pistol whipped him unconscious.”

  “What? That mousey thing? Sonny’s little bitch doesn’t have any fight in her. If she had, I would’ve taken her myself.” He crossed his arms. “So what are you doing here, rich boy?”

  Ronan lifted his chin, settling his hat low on his forehead. Frustration held him tightly controlled. “I already told you. I’m here because my interests are being threatened and I don’t take kindly to threats.” He glanced at Robbie and Slate before turning his attention back to Devlyn and his men. “What do you want?”

  Devlyn threw back his head and laughed, the sound eerie as it ricocheted off the branches and other trees around her. He finally stopped and, still grinning, pointed at Robbie. “I want my money.” He pointed at Ronan. “I want the bitch.” And then he pointed at the ground. “And I want whoever killed my brother. You give me that, and I’m gone. For now.”

  Ronan’s own grin eased the tension in Kelsey’s stomach. He only smiled like that when he had something the other person never even guessed at.

  Her gambling experience had taught her a lot about facial expressions.

  Ronan pointed at his chest, one hand resting at his side with his gun. He tilted his head back, jaw up. “Sounds like you want me.” He drawled nice and easy. Tucking his gun into the holster, he held his hands up, away from his weapons and stared Devlyn down. “I took on Robbie’s debt a couple days ago. That bitch is mine. And… I killed your brother.” His grin widened. “I suggest you drop your guns and ditch the overdone jacket and we can fight it out.”

  Devlyn growled. “I only fight to the death, boy.” He slowly drew his coat down his arms and tossed it at one of the men.

  “Well, this shit just gets more and more interesting.” Ronan tossed his hat to Slate and pulled his shoulder holster from his back.

  Kelsey covered her mouth. No, no, Ronan couldn’t fight Devlyn. She’d never seen a dirtier fighter. Sonny had been afraid of him. She was deathly afraid of what he could do.

  What the hell was Ronan doing?

  She leaned forward, placing her hands on the limb in front of her, didn’t check the thickness. She’d made it almost down to the ground, maybe only ten feet to the roots.

  She rested more weight on the branch.

  It snapped.

  And oh crap, as if suspended in the air and being whipped, Kelsey fell through numerous branches, struggling to gain a hold until she smacked onto the slightly cushioned forest floor. Damn, she struggled to breathe with the wind knocked out of her.

  She closed her eyes and prayed that she didn’t die right then.

  Until she opened her eyes to find all four of Devlyn’s men staring down at her.

  One grabbed her hands and yanked her to her feet. Not even halfway recovered from the fall, she clutched at her chest and tried to breathe normally. Roughly, they pushed and prodded her until she dropped again at the feet of Devlyn’s horse.

  None of them checked her for a gun – thankfully.

  Ronan clenched his jaw and watched her approach. She offered him a grimace that she hoped passed as a reassuring smile. She wanted her expression to say, “Look, I was here to help you, aren’t you glad?” When she feared it said, “Oh crap, I didn’t mean to get caught. Hi.”

  Walking around Kelsey, Devlyn inspected her, reaching down and rubbing a chunk of hair between his fingers. He leaned in and breathed sour air into her face. “I’m going to make you beg for Sonny. You’ll be my present to his memory.” He leaned in further and licked her face, drawing his tongue up from her jawline to her cheekbone.

  Kelsey gagged as the wet leathery texture slimed her skin. She struggled to pull away. Hands holding her in place wouldn’t let her budge. She clenched her teeth and talked as if she might bite him. “Why’d you kill my brother?”

  “Because you killed mine. Eye for an eye, girly.” He flicked her earlobe and stared at her. “You know, I don’t blame you. You’re just a stupid injun bitch who wasn’t trained right. But when we get out of here…” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m going to cut you so much and then I’m going to give you to my men. If that doesn’t kill you, I’ll take you down south and sell you across the border. They like a girl with fight.” He snapped his teeth at her as if biting the air.

  Devlyn jokingly shivered and then cackled. He raised his voice to his gang, like the joke needed more of an audience to appreciate it. “I’m getting hard just thinking of it
.” His guys laughed with him.

  But he sobered and returned to standing inches from Kelsey.

  As if offhandedly, Devlyn rubbed at the patchy stubble on his face, as he stayed beside her, touching her in random places like her arm, then her stomach, and her neck – never taking his eyes off her. “Tell you what, rich boy, you fight me… and win… and you get the girl and no more debt. We’ll be square—”

  “You’ll be dead.” Robbie interrupted, the creak of his saddle as he lunged to his feet in his stirrups the only other sound.

  Kelsey’s gaze flew past Devlyn to Ronan. Molten fury darkened his eyes and pressed his lips together. He stood with his hands clenched as he watched Devlyn manhandling her.

  Fear corroded Kelsey’s thought process. Wait a minute. Ronan wasn’t serious about fighting to the death, was he? A sudden surge of emotions flooded her, making her wince. The strongest was how much she still cared for him. And damn him for bringing the raw emotional tide that they’d had together back in her life.

  “Devlyn, let’s just kill them and take the girl.” The voice came from Devlyn’s right. Kelsey couldn’t place who it belonged to. They all sounded like slimy weasels.

  The amount of rifles pointed at her guys shocked her. Four wasn’t many, but when it clearly outnumbered them, her nerves didn’t like the odds.

  Slate pulled out his gun and cocked it, aiming it square at Devlyn. He lifted his eyebrow. “Yeah, Devlyn, just kill us and take the girl.”

  Ronan avoided Kelsey’s gaze. He held up his hand, staring into Devlyn’s eyes. “Tell your men to stay back, and I’ll do the same. You can say when, but let’s do this before you run and hide.”

  Devlyn motioned to his group. “Don’t interfere. Or you won’t get any tail from the girl.”

  He turned to Ronan, reached out and pinched Kelsey’s breast. Hard. She cried out, reaching to cover her chest with her arms.

  Ronan didn’t make a sound. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t move. He just waited.

  Another second passed. The space in time charged with tense electricity as everyone shifted their gazes from one person to the next, waiting to see what was going to happen next. Who would make the first move.

  Devlyn launched himself at Ronan.

  Kelsey bit her lower lip to keep from screaming. She’d been the recipient of flying Caracus fists before. She desperately didn’t want Ronan hurt. The best thing right then would be to grab his hand and run as far away as they could get.

  Unfortunately, Devlyn would find them.

  Maybe she cared more for Ronan than she wanted to admit – and maybe, if he made it out of the fight, she’d have to tell him.

  So what if she’d promised herself she’d never tell him that she still loved him, to never show her vulnerability to him.

  Never had come a lot sooner than she thought possible.

  Chapter 19

  Kelsey fell out of a damn tree.

  Ronan longed to yell at her to get off her ass and run, but he couldn’t break his concentration any more than it’d already been trampled. He watched Devlyn’s dark eyes as they shifted continuously, never focusing on one thing.

  When he was younger, Ronan had had a dog like that. The damn thing had killed eight chickens and a baby hog before Ronan’s dad put him down with the rifle.

  Shifty eyes weren’t normal.

  Rolling up his sleeves, Ronan bent his head to the side, cracking his neck. Fight to the death. What the hell did he think he was doing? Killing one man left him a sudden murderer? He couldn’t focus on the death part or he’d vomit and Devlyn would take advantage of his weakness.

  Devlyn had Kelsey. He didn’t realize he had Ronan’s weakness in his hands.

  When Devlyn had the gall to touch Kelsey, Ronan’s knuckles had popped as he tightened his fists.

  Lifting his hands to chin level and squaring off, Ronan jerked his fingers in a come-hither motion. “I’m ready to kick your ass, Caracus, whenever you’re ready for me to hand it to you.”

  The older man’s jaw ticked beside his ear. He lunged forward, reaching with claws for Ronan’s mid-section. Ronan thrust himself backward, barely avoiding the brown-nicotine stained fingers grasping for him.

  With Devlyn’s face so close, Ronan swung his elbow and cracked the side of Caracus’s jaw.

  Bounding back, Ronan stayed light on his feet. He didn’t have a problem with fighting, loved it actually. But if he lowered his guard for less than a second and relaxed while Caracus recovered from the hit, Ronan would lose the advantage.

  In fact…

  He stepped forward – one, two, three – and threw a solid hook right into the same spot he’d just hit. Caracus stumbled further back, shaking his head.

  Leaning to the side, Devlyn spit out a tooth and then lifted his gaze to Ronan, the anger enough to singe the foliage in the area. “You’re going to regret that.”

  A slight whimper pulled Ronan’s attention. He glanced at Kelsey still kneeling on the ground with her hands on her mouth and her eyes wide. When it came to protecting her, he didn’t regret anything. He snapped his gaze back to Devlyn in time to see a fist heading toward his eye. Ronan dodged but Devlyn had enough momentum to make a connection. His fist glanced off the side of Ronan’s temple.

  Black spots split across Ronan’s vision, but he held steady and started swinging. He connected a few times before his sight cleared up. Devlyn tottered to one knee on the ground, waving his finger Ronan’s way like pointing at him. What the hell was he doing? Like Devlyn was telling someone to do something.

  “Ronan, get down.” Slate’s yell penetrated the fighting haze Ronan had wrapped around himself.

  He dropped to the ground and the roar of a shotgun raced overhead. “Shit.” More bullets flew from both sides.

  Ronan rolled to a crouch. Where the hell was Kelsey?

  Her long legs were easy to find as she stood over Devlyn, as if protected from the whizzing bullets surrounding her, and pointed a gun into his face.

  As if in slow motion, Ronan spotted one of the gang members lifting his newly loaded shotgun to his shoulder and aiming at Kelsey. Ronan burst forward, waving his arm and yelling. “No!”

  Kelsey’s gun went off the same time the shotgun did. Ronan wrapped his arms around her and they fell to the ground.

  Excruciating fire flooded up his back and he gasped.

  Oh shit.

  Had he saved Kelsey?

  ~~~

  The acrid scent of burning flesh woke him before anything else. When the pain finally registered, Ronan hissed. “Holy… Stop!”

  Doctor O’Donald leaned into his field of view, grinning. “Yay, you’re awake. That will make a lot of people feel better.” She rolled her stool out of sight and more stinging followed her words.

  Ronan flinched and tried listening as she dabbed something that was both fire and ice on his back.

  “Bear with me. I don’t always use betadine to macerate, I’m sorry that means to help dry the edges of the wounds, but you saw how filthy those Caracus men are. I’m not taking any chances. The solution shouldn’t be too cytotoxic. I reduced its concentration with saline water.” She applied more, ignoring his grunt. “You caught some of the buckshot from a shotgun blast in the back. According to Kelsey, you saved Devlyn’s life.” She leaned back into his vision and scrunched her face. “Really? Devlyn Caracus? Not my first choice, you know, but okay.”

  Devlyn? He hadn’t wanted to save the bastard. All he could think about was getting Kelsey out of the line of that shotgun. Kelsey had to be okay, she’d spoken to the doctor, but had she been hurt at all? Did it make him weak that he was so worried?

  Ronan could breathe nice and slow when she wasn’t burning his flesh. But, oh hell, when she touched him, it hurt, and not in a good way. He swallowed, clenching his hands in the thin table mattress under him. “Is Kelsey okay? Where is she?” He desperately wanted to ask if she had stayed. He also wanted to know what happened. But really, his priority was information about
Kelsey.

  “She’s still talking with the police. We have some State Troopers here now. I guess they called in the Feds because Caracus is wanted in more than just one state. So he warrants special attention.” She laughed, then said. “Okay, this is going to hurt. I’m not kidding, so clench your teeth or something because hurt is a nice word for it.” She jabbed something evil into his back.

  PAIN. He arched and twisted to get away from it. The pain grew and then suddenly stopped. Panting, he asked. “What the hell was that?”

  “Sorry, you need anesthetic but also an antibiotic and I need to keep digging for metal pieces, so I had to give you a shot right in the damaged part.” She was quiet for a moment, the metal clink of tools on trays and other items the only soundtrack in the room.

  Closing his eyes, Ronan sighed. The police questioned Kelsey. Hopefully, his lawyers were close by. While Montana had a more lenient way of looking at gun ownership and land protection, there were still laws to keep in mind and Ronan had to have violated a number of them by not calling in law enforcement when he knew the exact location the gang would be at.

  But the legal process would never have given him the revenge he’d sought.

  Becky tapped his back with a cool blunt object. “Okay, I’m going to try getting more out. If you feel anything, let me know, so I can give you another sh—”

  “Shot? Like I just got? Hell no. No more. I’d rather you just dug around with a meat cleaver. It’ll be faster and less painful, if you just get it done. Do it now.” He turned his face into the mattress, folding his arms around his head.

  Surprisingly, the first prods which he expected to hurt terribly, didn’t and he finally relaxed into the procedure. “Can I see Kelsey?”