Hannah's Gold

by Hannah's Gold (lit)

  “It comes with the territory,” she said. “Some men are rougher than others. It isn’t unusual to find an overzealous and violent punter from time to time.”

  “Bastard,” Jed replied angrily. “Tell me who did it and he won’t do it again. No woman deserves to be treated like that.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she replied with a little shake of her head. “You won’t get away with it a second time.”

  Jed’s brow pulled together in a frown. His gray-blue eyes darkened at her words.

  “Second time? You mean one of McCabe’s men did it?”

  She hesitated for a moment and then shook her head again.

  “No, it was Mr. McCabe himself.”

  “Bastard,” he spat again. He reached out and gently touched her face once more. He tenderly stroked her swollen lip with his thumb but she winced and pulled away.

  “Sorry,” he apologized. He hadn’t intended to hurt her. “Tell me where he is and we’ll see if he’s as tough using his fists on a man.”

  ”Are you crazy?” she exclaimed, giving him a hard stare of disbelief. “His men would kill you before you got anywhere near him. He already has you and your brother in his sights after what you did earlier. That’s why he took me and Lydia up to his ranch. He knew we’d been entertaining you and he wanted to know all about you both. It irritated him that we didn’t actually know a thing.” She paused briefly. For the first time, a little smile slipped to her pretty mouth, curling it almost grotesquely as it battled with the swelling. “Except that you were a damn good fuck.” But her smile faded almost as quickly. Jed watched her blink back the tears and fix her jaw, grinding her teeth as she attempted to take control of her emotions. “So, instead, he decided to amuse himself with us while we were there. And Mr. McCabe likes giving pain. Lots of it.”

  A muscle twitched in Jed’s jaw as he worked it hard, fighting the growing anger clawing at his chest and belly.

  “And where’s Lydia now?” His concern now stretched to the other girl with whom he’d spent such a pleasant afternoon. But speaking the girl’s name also filled him with guilt that he’d never taken the time to ask their names earlier. He’d given them ridiculous nicknames like “Irish” and “Beauty.” He’d been too concerned with his own bodily needs to respect them fully. “I’m sorry. I don’t know your name.”

  “Maggie,” she half-smiled. “And she’s still there.” Her smile quickly faded again. “But she isn’t the first and won’t be the last.”

  “Fuck,” Jed spat. He kept his voice deliberately low. “And it’s my fault.”

  “No,” she reassured him. “He’s taken all of us up there from time to time. There’s nothing he likes better than to degrade and humiliate women.”

  “So he’s done this to you before?”

  “And to others.”

  “But he chose you this time because me and Luke saw off his men?”

  Maggie didn’t reply immediately. She just sort of shrugged. Her big round eyes gave him all the answer he needed. He ran a hand over his face.

  Dammit. He wanted to go and give the bastard a taste of his own medicine. But the girl was right. If he rode over there now, his men would probably put a bullet through his head before he even got face to face with the fucker. Nevertheless, he had to do something. It only reiterated what Hannah had told them about the evil bastard. He needed dealing with permanently before Hannah was subjected to this kind of treatment, too.

  “You’re staying with Miss Hannah, aren’t you? That’s where your brother went. And where you went after you left us, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” he answered. It felt as though she’d just read his thoughts.

  Maggie put her tiny hand on his forearm. “You’ve got to help her,” she implored. “It’s all a big game to him. She’s a decent woman. She shouldn’t have to put up with his violent, pervert ways.”

  “Neither should you,” he said softly. He folded her hand gently into his big one and covered it with his other. “Did he force you into all of this too? Being a whore and all? After all, that’s what McCabe’s planned for Hannah, once he’s done with her, isn’t it?”

  Maggie gave a short laugh.

  “No,” she said. She appeared amused by his concern. “I’ve always been a whore. It was the only way to earn a living back home in Ireland. I did entertain an idea at one time, when I made the journey to America, that I might take up a trade or even get myself a hard-working husband. But there still wasn’t enough work, even over here. With the docks full of brothels, I found it easier to lie on my back and open my legs than work my fingers to the bone, scrubbing floors and being at the beck and call of some snobby woman who thinks me and my kind no better than the dirt on the bottom of her shoes. I put a bit of money to one side and I keep myself clean so maybe one day I might find a kind man, who doesn’t care what I once did for a living.”

  Her voice trailed away. The sound of futility in it told Jed that, for now, it was just a distant dream. She paused for a second but, then, continued hurriedly, “Miss Hannah, though, she’s a lady. Although she doesn’t look down on us like other women do. She treats everyone with respect and she shouldn’t be forced into our kind of life against her will. That’s what he’s going to do to her, mind, once he’s broken her spirit. And believe me, she’s going to have one hell of a baptism up there on that ranch of his where no one will ever hear her cries for help.”

  Jed watched Maggie’s eyes dim, clouded by the wretchedness of her own painful memories. “I’m sorry,” he whispered guiltily.

  “What for?”

  “Well, that men like me only contribute to your misery.”

  She laughed. It tinkled girlishly in her throat. It made her sound younger than she looked. “Don’t be silly. It’s not your fault some men are bastards. Some women get themselves hitched to men like that and there’s not a damn thing they can do about it. At least we don’t have that problem. We can try to turn them down.” The teasing look, he remembered from earlier, twinkled in her eyes and she gave him a little push. “Anyway, we also have our favorite customers who can satisfy our needs too. And sometimes we’re even lucky enough to find a really good man who can make us forget, if only for a while, what we are and why we do it.”

  She withdrew her hand still nestling in his protective grip and grasped both of his with hers.

  “Come upstairs with me now,” she urged. “I won’t charge.”

  But Jed would pay, and more. It was the least he could do. She seemed suddenly anxious as if she needed to put memories of McCabe out of her mind. He’d take her in his arms and nurse her aching limbs, while he tenderly worked his magic on her tired body. He stood and followed her to the staircase.

  The other cowboys had gone, taking two of the girls with them. The last remaining one sashayed over.

  “Mind if I join you?” she brazenly asked. “I seem to recall you and your brother stood up to a certain Mr. McCabe and his men earlier. I wouldn’t mind a taste of you, too, after what Maggie and Lydia told me.”

  Maggie hesitated. Jed slipped his arm round her shoulders and drew her close to him. He tenderly kissed the top of her head. Although he knew that a night with him wouldn’t end all her woes, he wanted her to himself for a while. She obviously agreed as she said, “Jed and I have some business first. Give us an hour and then you can join us.”

  However, an hour later, Jed rode the trail again. Only this time he headed straight out of town.

  He left Maggie with strict instructions.

  She was to tell his brother, and no one else, exactly what she had told him next. But Luke wasn’t to come after him. He had to stay behind and protect Hannah until he got back.

  He also had to do whatever it took to stop McCabe.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Luke strode across to the mail office. His boots kicked up clouds of dust as each footstep hit the ground. Fear and anger gripped his heart in fingers of cold steel. How dare his brother ride off and put himself in such dange
r without a word to him? He’d always looked out for his little brother, getting him out of scrapes when it would have been easier to leave him to it. The man must be mad.

  Even worse, the news that Maggie had just given him wasn’t at all what he wanted to hear. She’d just told him Jacob was still alive and kicking and would be back in a couple of days, along with Hannah’s errant brother.

  When he’d woken that morning, curled around Hannah’s soft, naked flesh, his erection had grown increasingly harder under the warm blankets as it pressed against her curvaceous bottom and thighs. He even let himself dream for a while of how wonderful it would be to wake like this every morning. They’d made love twice during the night before they finally drifted off to sleep. And although, the first time, he’d withdrawn from her delicious, wet cunny before he came, she’d wrapped her legs around his waist the second time and squeezed him into her. She’d sucked every last fraction of his bone-hard cock into her slick passage. She’d bucked and moaned beneath him and wouldn’t let him go. Her legs were like a vise from which he couldn’t escape. Nor did he want to.

  He’d stopped his thrusting and held his breath. He tried to distract his thoughts and focus his mind on other things until she released him. He begged her to let him go. But she wouldn’t. As she slid back from the dizzy heights of her own euphoria, she smiled wantonly at him and told him she wanted to feel him come inside her, just like before. He wasn’t to worry about any consequences. She didn’t care about any consequences. She just wanted to feel him spasm and spurt his juices high into her body.

  She whispered so prettily, yet so crudely, in his ear. Her warm breath filtered along the sensitive passageway of his ear. It tingled along every nerve, and stroked every cell of his flesh until he could no longer control himself. Panting hard, he made one last thrust and shot every last drop of himself into her warm, soft cunt before collapsing on top of her. When he rolled off her, he slipped his arms around her. Lying close to her, he’d held her tightly, reveling in his position as protector. Her tender flesh melted into his and they became as one.

  He waited for her to “deal with things” but she didn’t. He knew it was a risk women took when they gave themselves completely to a man but she didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she seemed truly comforted by it, taking complete and utter pleasure with him before her nightmare began. Instead, she curled up close and fell asleep before he did. Her breathing slowed into a gentle rhythm. He found it wholly satisfying and wonderful to listen to. But her impending fate with McCabe weighed heavily in his heart.

  Fuck the man. He wasn’t going to let it end like that. He and Jed would deal with the bastard one way or another.

  Luke woke first but all he could do was lie there and watch her adorable face as she breathed slowly and rhythmically. She looked a picture of loveliness. He wished it could always be like this. When Hannah woke too, they made love again. As the sun streaked through the window and onto the bed, it lit up her hair with strands of gold, and bathed both of them in its early morning light. It painted a picture so beautiful, he wanted to lie there with her forever.

  When breakfast was ready, he went down to the stable to call Jed and to tell him that they would be staying put until they’d dealt with McCabe, maybe even longer. But Jed’s bed was empty and his horse gone. It didn’t take long to deduce where he’d disappeared to, so after breakfast, he rode into town.

  A saloon girl sat at the bar. She silently beckoned him over to her as soon as he stepped into the saloon. Luke frowned in concern when he saw her cuts and bruises. Even the dim light of the room did little to disguise the vivid array of colors they’d now become, testament to the beating she’d received.

  She slipped her arm flirtatiously through the crook of his and laid her body suggestively against his big frame.

  “Pretend you’re interested in my services,” she said softly against his ear. “I can’t see any of McCabe’s men around but I don’t want to attract unwanted attention. Try to act naturally and treat me as a potential bit of fun. I need you upstairs, alone, to tell you about your brother.”

  Luke’s heart gave a start. Suddenly, he had an ominous feeling. Despite the game she played, the woman, pressing her body into his, seemed unnaturally anxious. And her face, could that be something to do with Jed too? Had McCabe caught them together and given them both a beating? He played her game and followed her up the wooden staircase.

  On the way to her room, she introduced herself as Maggie, whispering softly to him that she’d seen Jed the previous night. Closing the door quickly behind them, she turned the key in the lock and spun round to face him. “I tried to stop him,” she breathed fearfully. “But he wouldn’t hear any of it. He said I had to look out for you and tell you where he’s gone and why.”

  Fearful for his brother’s safety, for a moment Luke forgot himself and grasped her roughly by the shoulders.

  “Stop him?” he asked. “From going where? What’s happened?”

  His anxiety now matched hers but, as fear materialized in Maggie’s eyes at his violent handling of her, he quickly let her go. He could sense that she was frightened for her safety, too.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, as he dropped his hands to his sides. “I didn’t mean to grab you so hard.”

  He gently touched her elbow and guided her to the bed. He indicated that she sit beside him. The room was brighter than in the bar-room, and he could clearly see her injuries now. A rainbow of assorted shades and hues, the woman had taken some beating. He wanted to ask her what had happened but fears for his brother overrode any sympathy he had to spare for her plight.

  “He came back here last night,” she explained. “We talked for a while. He was so angry about this.” She indicated her injuries. “But I told him not to worry himself about me. That it happens.” Like his brother, Luke felt sick that some grown man had treated her that way. “He got even angrier when I told him Mr. McCabe had done it.”

  The sickness coiled even more tightly in Luke’s stomach. It rose into his chest where it knotted hard. It brought fresh anger and fear churning in his gut, knowing that Hannah would be heading for that kind of treatment too.

  “I told him he wasn’t to do anything about it. That McCabe has you and Jed already in his sights and that he’d kill you both as look at you after what happened yesterday.”

  “But he’s still gone after him?” Luke cut in. His anger now diverted toward his brother. How could he be so stupid? Did he think he could take on the man single-handedly?

  “No,” Maggie reassured him. She seemed a little flustered that Luke had interpreted Jed’s disappearance incorrectly. “He’s gone after Miss Hannah’s brother and Jacob.”

  “What?” Maggie’s statement crashed down on him like a ton of bricks. “Where? How?” He couldn’t get his head round it. All of a sudden, too many questions crowded his brain, and none made any sense.

  She laid a comforting hand over his and told him what she’d told Jed. How McCabe had taken her and Lydia up to McCabe’s ranch, and what had happened while he’d kept them there.

  “One of his men brought a telegraph from the post office, she explained. “He’d picked it up after McCabe left town with me and Lydia. I was in the bedroom but I could hear their voices. It seems Jacob had sent Miss Hannah a message on that new telegraph we’ve just got in town. It said he was only a couple of days’ ride away and that he’d got her brother with him. He would be back in time to settle the debt. It seems Mr. McCabe has been picking up Miss Hannah’s mail this past year and keeping her in the dark about Jacob’s progress.”

  “What?” Luke expostulated. “But that’s illegal.”

  Maggie gave him a little look that only confirmed the stupidity of his exclamation. Illegal? Luke decided he ought to now better by now. When would McCabe be worried about doing anything illegal? He expected, like everyone else in town, the postmaster would be shit scared of McCabe, too.

  “So, he’s worried he’ll make it back in time, after all?” Lu
ke said as he still pondered over his brother’s sudden departure.

  Maggie shook her head.

  “No, he’s not worried at all. He’s sent some of his men to kill them before they even get near.”

  Ah! Now he understood.

  “He’s gone after them. To stop them,” he said.

  “Yes,” Maggie nodded.

  “Shit!” he swore. “How many men is he up against?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered. Her voice caught in her throat. “But I’m scared for him. He’s a good man, your brother. And McCabe’s men are mean bastards.”

  Luke sprang to his feet.

  “I’ve got to go after him.”

  “No,” Maggie protested. She laid a hand against him. “He said you weren’t to do that. You have to stay here and protect Miss Hannah.” She met Luke’s eyes anxiously and paused for a moment. “In case he doesn’t make it back in time.” Luke knew she only added the final two words as means of hope.

  He ran a hand over his worried face as he took a deep breath. He blew it out in one long, slow exhalation. It still remained a futile attempt to quell the tangle of emotions raging inside him. His first loyalty had always been to his little brother, ensuring he always remained safe. But now, with Hannah thrown into the equation, fury filled him that McCabe had reduced him to this. Making a choice between his brother and a woman he barely knew.

  Bastard. He wanted to squeeze his bare hands round the fucker’s throat and throttle the life out of him.

  “We have to get the townsfolk on our side,” he said.

  Maggie gave him another of those looks. “I don’t think there’ll be much chance of that,” she said softly. “They’re all too scared.” She looked scared, too. “And please, don’t let anyone know I told you all this.”

  He sat down again and laid a kindly palm against her hurting face. His heart ached to see her suffer so. Not just physically but emotionally, too. He wouldn’t add to it.

  “I won’t,” he promised. “But I’ve got to do something.”