“They have?”
He nodded. “Sandy told me last night. After the fire, he met with Stacy. Ellie can’t afford to have her boarding house go up in flames. It’s done, Jess. It’s all over. Stacy can have his millions and his victory.”
“And his power to do this to anybody else again when it suits him?” Her voice was rising with disgust. “We can’t let him win, Val. I won’t let him bully you into giving up your livelihood.”
He was shocked by the about-face in her. Just one day ago, she was defeated and believed Stacy impossible to overtake.
“I don’t care about the mine, Jess. I can make money in other ways. It’s not as important as human lives, your life!”
“But I have a feeling I know what he’s up to. I’ve been thinking about it a lot in the past weeks. I think he’s using the other men’s money to finance his transcontinental railroad and not the Sierra Railroad Company.”
“I believe that, too,” Val said, surprised they had both reached the same conclusion. “But it still doesn’t matter. You said it yourself. We can’t fight him. He’s impossible to beat. He is a giant among giants. We are ants compared to his power and pull.”
A honeyed eyebrow spiked. “So, we don’t fight him.”
Val flinched, nonplussed.
“We don’t fight the giants,” she explained. “We get the giants to fight each other. And with enough information on Stacy’s backdoor dealings we will have the ammunition to get all the bonanza kings firing at the conniving snake.”
Val chewed on the inside of his cheek. She made valid points, and he had believed it possible the day before, but he still wasn’t comfortable with the amount of risk. “Why, Jess? Why do you want to keep fighting him?”
Her lips pinched together and she took a deep breath. “I won’t give him that power. I won’t let Emily live the life I lived, and I won’t let you sacrifice more for me. Leonard Stacy doesn’t have the right to dole out grim fates to the people I care about. We have the right to choose how we live, and I choose not to live in fear anymore. Life has become beautiful again, and fear is an ugly thing whose stain I’ll not allow. I just can’t.”
She was in full glory, her naked body glowing from their lovemaking, her golden hair shimmering in candlelight, her eyes bright with purpose and determination. It was like watching a wilted flower return to full bloom. Alluring. Beautiful. Affecting. He pulled her to him for a passionate kiss.
“No more talking,” he declared against her lips, and it was the only time she ever did what she was told.
Hours later, dawn broke, igniting a chorus of crowing from Morgan’s pent up roosters. The lovers lay on their sides, Jess’s back to Val’s front as he ran his fingertips up and down her arm. Her breathing had relaxed enough that he’d believed she slept until her tired voice broke the early morning stillness.
“I have no expectations, Val, and I hold you to nothing.”
His hand ceased its endless caress along her arm, and he stiffened, feeling a swift descent of spirit he couldn’t comprehend. Those should be words any man longed to hear. His swallow was thick before he spoke. “Jess, I won’t make any demands, but…what if you end up with child?”
She snorted, a soft, whispery sound. “You needn’t worry about that. It’s impossible.”
“What do you mean?”
Her face turned so she could peer up into his eyes. “Three years of Grant trying to make sons and not one single pregnancy.” She rested back on her bent elbow as she studied the ground beneath them and shrugged. “His beatings were brutal at times. I wouldn’t be surprised if he took the ability from me.”
Val held his breath until he could control his anger. His arms tightened about her and he pulled her closer. She chuckled at his fierce embrace, not realizing it was the only way he could keep from going mad with protectiveness. He needed to feel her body against his, needed to know she was safe in the circle of his arms. The desperation he felt was foreign and invading. He needed to know that, no matter what the future brought, the woman molding to his body belonged to him.
Chapter 29
A week later, Val still felt the painful clench of his gut from Jess’s parting words to him the morning after their long night of lovemaking. I have no expectations, Val, and I hold you to nothing. She was true to her word and kept her distance the following day. After that, he couldn’t stay at Morgan’s, couldn’t be near her and put up a convincing pretense of indifference. So, he’d said his goodbyes and ridden back to Gold Hill for Ellie’s. The very next day, he’d signed over the deed to his silver mine to Leonard Stacy, turning down the railroad job but accepting the thirty thousand dollar bank draft from the Westin Bank.
The transaction had been bittersweet. When Val deposited his bank draft, Emmanuel Boon had left Val alone in his office for a few moments, during which Val had seen the ledger of the Sierra Railroad Company. Unable to staunch his curiosity, he opened it, finding the company in serious financial hardship. He didn’t know much about accounts but he was certain more negative numbers than positive was a sure sign of trouble. What’s more? The principals of the Sierra Railroad Company were listed as Mason, Kant and Brandenburg. No Leonard Stacy. Val had all the evidence he needed to bury Stacy and keep his mine, but he would abandon it. The risk to Jessica was too great.
As he lay in his quiet bedroom, thinking of soft pale skin, long blond hair and passion-glazed violet eyes, his body ached and he finally stomped from the building, heading for Juliet’s. It was Caroline who greeted him at the door and welcomed him up to her room for a drink. After passing the charred remains of Jess’s shop, he needed one. Hell, he needed more than one.
Caroline refilled his glass for the third time and pulled him to the bed. He sat on the edge and she clambered up behind him so she could knead his tense shoulder muscles with her strong hands. Her efforts created the opposite effect. He found his body tensing even more against her touch until he finally shrugged her off and stood to pace the floor.
“I’m guessing what you really want to do is talk,” Caroline said as she stretched, cat-like, atop the mattress. “Go on then. It’s your dime for my time. I don’t really care what you do with it. So, spill it. What’s eatin’ you? Although I could take a pretty fair guess it’s Collette.”
Val glanced up and scowled. “What are you talking about?”
She laughed. “Oh, Val. You’re as smitten as any man’s ever been. Let me see if I get it right. You love her and are heartbroken because she’s run off and disappeared on you.”
He swallowed his drink and grabbed the bottle. “Shows what you know. She hasn’t disappeared on me, though I wish she would. She’s staying with my brother down in the valley.”
“Oooh. She ran off with your brother?”
“Of course not,” he snapped with a frown. “Morgan is very happily married.”
“Well, then, what’s the problem?”
He kicked a pillow across the room. “The problem is I’m here with a beautiful, willing woman and I can’t get that she-cat out of my head.” He took a long swig. “And I’ll be seeing her again tomorrow, for she’s hell-bent on confronting Leonard Stacy.”
Caroline’s eyes brightened with interest. “Leonard Stacy? Confronting him about what?”
“It’s a long story,” he said, feeling his mind starting to fog. “Let’s just say he’s the one who burned down her shop because he was after my silver mine. I finally gave it to him. Only now, she’s gotten it into her thick head to confront the man and there’s nothing I can do to stop her.”
“What does she think it will accomplish?”
“She thinks she’ll be able to blackmail him.” He sat on the bed and shook his head, feeling the same incoherent, empty sensation he had the last time he joined Caroline in her room for drinks. His words were starting to drawl, and even as he said them, he knew he was saying too much. “But she doesn’t need to go to him. The evidence she needs is at the Westin Bank. She needs to go there first and then to
Mason.”
“Evidence of what?” Caroline asked as she eased his fading body back onto the pillows.
“Railroad…scam…trans…continen…tal,” Val mumbled before everything faded to black.
Ellie greeted Jessica happily at the door, grabbing the valise out of her hands and ordering Sadie to secure Achilles in the stables behind the boarding house. Jess was happy to see the woman again, but the visit bore the painful reminder of Ellie’s lost wedding gown, and she had to fight the tears springing afresh.
“Stop it,” Ellie said, chucking Jess beneath the chin. “Stop frettin’ about the dress. I’ve already made modifications to my best one, and I’ll be just as happy wearin’ it in a week when I become a wife.”
Jess nodded. “I’m starved, Ellie. Do I smell some meat pies cooking?”
Ellie squeezed Jess’s hands. “Not cookin’, darlin.’ Cooked. And ready for consumption. Go on and sit at the dining table and I’ll fix us a plate.”
The proprietress left the room in a hurry while Jess wandered to the table. The dark oak was polished to a shine, and she ran her fingertips along its edge as she sank into a chair. Val sat at that table twice a day and she wondered which seat he favored, wondered if she occupied the same chair his body had only hours earlier.
She had hoped to find him there, but knew the chances were slim. It was midday and he was likely hard at work in the mines, especially as he was now without a partner. Still, her ears perked at every noise, each creak and snap or softest sign of movement throughout the house, hoping to see him enter the room and fix a smile on her.
The past days and nights had seemed lonely and empty without him; his lively good humor in the day; his intoxicating talents at night. He’d said very little before riding off, and she hoped to God he hadn’t maintained his decision to turn his mine over to Stacy. Even if he had, she was resolved to end Stacy’s reign.
“Where’s Marlena?” Ellie asked.
“I asked Morgan and Lila to look after her for a while. Lila will need the help the more her belly grows and I can rest easy, knowing Marlena is safe until I see Leonard Stacy behind bars. I’m going out to his house this afternoon, and I’m hoping he’ll take me in until I finish his daughter’s wardrobe.”
Ellie’s fork drifted slowly back down to her plate as her brow knotted. Before she could speak her protest, Jess carried on.
“Emily Stacy is a wonderful and lonely woman and I intend to remain her friend, regardless of the nature of her father. I know you have objections but I ask you not to voice them. I’m going regardless. I just wanted to inform you so you didn’t trouble yourself to ready a room for me.” Ellie sighed but said nothing. “I also wondered if you’d mind allowing Achilles to remain here for the day while I’m out. I want to allow him rest after riding up from the ranch. I’ll come back for him before nightfall.”
“How are you getting to Stacy’s?”
“I’ll walk into Virginia City and hire a coach for the rest of the day.”
Disappointment tugged at Ellie’s frame, but she nodded and made the rest of their meal pleasant with conversation. When silence lingered, Jess cleared her throat and asked the question she could not hold inside any longer.
“Is Val around here today?”
“I haven’t seen Val since yesterday,” Ellie answered. “But that’s not worrisome. He keeps his own hours.”
Jess nibbled on the pie, letting the juice of beef and vegetables soak into her bottom lip until she sucked it clean. “How has he been?” she asked hesitantly. “Has he been well?”
Ellie studied Jess’s face so intently that Jess dropped her eyes to her plate. “I haven’t noticed one way or another, darlin’, truth be told. I’ve been so busy myself. Why? Is there something I should be on the watch for?”
“No,” Jess said, forcing a weak smile. The man had gotten all he’d been after. She’d given herself to him willingly and afterwards, set him free. “I can think of nothing that would dull his spirits.”
Ellie nodded and returned to her plate.
An hour later, she watched from across the road as Bank of California crewmen carried away the charred remains of her shop, clearing the space for new groundbreaking. As wheelbarrows carted away burned bolts of fabric, she missed the approach of Caroline until the woman was standing beside her.
“I’m so sorry about your shop,” she said and Jess blinked back the tears.
“Me, too.”
“Val told me you’d be coming to town today. I was starting to wonder if you’d ever return. I think your sewing the finest I’ve ever seen and was hoping to help you get back on your feet with a new order. If you’ll walk with me over to the general store I’ll show you the fabric I’ve in mind.”
Jess felt the sudden squeeze of her insides. “You’ve spoken to Val? Recently?”
Caroline blushed as her eyes flitted to the ground. “Last night.”
Jess’s fingers curled until the nails bit into her palms and she worked her teeth back and forth in a grinding motion. She knew she had no right to feel jealous. She had told him he was free to do as he pleased, but she wasn’t ruled by reason just then.
“Perhaps some other time, Caroline,” she snapped. “I’ve some place I need to be right now.”
She stormed away, puffing steam as she went.
“That bastard,” she hissed under her breath. “That lowdown, conniving, undeserving rat bastard.”
The words accompanied her off of Main Street and to the fringe of town on her way to Stacy’s, but they didn’t bring her any comfort. Her chest felt hollow, a familiar feeling that was even more debilitating given the recent climb of joy she’d undertaken. Tears gathered behind her eyes, stinging them until her eyelids closed.
“Don’t you cry,” she scolded herself. “No more tears over a man.”
She neared an abandoned mill on the outskirts of town, an earlier, smaller model squatting in the bend of the hairpin curve the road made before ascending to Leonard Stacy’s home. The road was empty, most of the traffic still bustling in the city center. So, when she heard the echo of booted feet behind her and the telltale warning shiver up her spine, she peered over her shoulder. A man followed her, the man who’d been camped across from her shop for weeks; her hired shadow.
When their eyes locked, his pace quickened and she responded in kind. A series of quick glances told her he was gaining ground, so she broke into a run. There was only seconds to pull and cock her pistol as she rounded the north wall of the mill. The beat of her heart was thick and fast. Soon, the man turned the corner and ran right into the barrel of her gun. His feet slid to a stop. She stood before him, aiming at his forehead. His hands flew up in surrender and his eyes fixed on the weapon, but he said nothing.
“Now that I have your attention,” she said with calm and confidence. “Tell me why you’re following me again.”
“’Tis me job, Miss,” the man said. His voice was deep and sure, but his eyes betrayed his fear.
“As you can see, I am on my way to your boss. I don’t need your escort, so run ahead and tell Mr. Stacy to expect me.”
The cold, blue eyes darted from side to side as his forehead scrunched. “Mr. Stacy? You mean Mr. Leonard Stacy?”
“Yes, the man who hired you.”
He shook his head. “I weren’t hired by Mr. Stacy.”
Jess felt her features gather in confusion. “Who hired you?”
“I did,” a familiar female voice said from behind, followed by the metal clink of a cocking gun hammer.
Jess turned around and her eyes grew wide, spying first the gun aimed at her chest and then the face of the woman wielding it. “You?”
“That’s right. Now hand over the gun, Jessica.”
Chapter 30
Jessica’s heart clenched in her chest as she held her breath until her lungs burned. She swallowed and released the breath on a sigh of resignation. “How do you know who I am?”
“I know much more about you than you kno
w about me. I can tell you that much. Now, hand the gun over, and Diggery, tie her hands together before you go fetch the horses.”
Jess uncocked the hammer and handed the pistol to the woman. She felt the slow, challenging climb of her eyebrow. “What makes you think I’d go anywhere with you, Caroline? Or is that even your name?”
“I go by many names. Caroline will suffice. And you will come with me…unless you want to see your sister hang as an accomplice to murder.”
Jess clenched her teeth against the fire of protectiveness surging through her. “My sister is safe far away from here. You’ll never find her.”
“Hardly,” Caroline said with a snort. “My partner is fetching her from Morgan Kelly’s ranch as we speak. If you try to run, or cause any trouble, I’ll make sure she stands trial as an accomplice. However, if you cooperate, she will be granted a full pardon. I have this from the sheriff down in New Mexico himself.”
Like the spark of a match that suddenly snuffs, the fight went out of Jess and her shoulders sagged. Caroline nodded in approval.
“Diggery, go get the horses. Frisk her for others weapons first. She’s a sly one. ”
“Why are you doing this, Caroline?” Jess spat as her wrists were bound. “Some sort of reward money? With as busy as you seem to be in the red building, I would have thought your whore’s wages were more than enough.”
Caroline laughed. “Juliet’s was a cover. I’m no more a whore than you are a French lady. I work for Alan Pinkerton, and I’m here to take you back to New Mexico to stand trial for murdering your husband.”
A dread so intense she nearly fell to the ground raced through Jess’s body. Her lungs seized, yielding no breath or function. Her eyelids refused to blink, her voice refused to emit. The blood in her veins slowed to a crawl.
Diggery stood beside her and stared at his employer. “You sure you want me to leave her alone with you? Should I bind her ankles together so she can’t run?”
Desert Sunrise (Love in the Sierras Book 2) Page 20