LaceysWay

by Madeline Baker

  “I’m not!” She tried to keep her voice even, but it rose shrilly, laced with guilt.

  J.J. stood up, his face composing itself into passive lines. “The sheriff has searched every inch of this town, every store, every house,” he explained patiently. “He’s looked in every abandoned building and well and even under the jailhouse porch. I talked to Pitman. He told me Drago was hurt. This is the only place the sheriff hasn’t searched yet. Now, where is he?”

  “In the basement,” Susanne confessed in a small voice. “Please don’t hurt him, J.J.”

  Tucker looked at his sister with something akin to scorn. “You care for him, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” J.J. murmured, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “J.J.?” Susanne’s voice reached out to him, pulling him back to the problem at hand.

  “The sheriff’s on his way over,” J.J. said. “I think you’d better go upstairs.”

  “The sheriff?” Susanne said weakly. “Coming here?”

  J.J. nodded, and all of Susanne’s daydreams vanished in that instant. She had imagined that somehow she might make Matt Drago love her, if only for a little while. She had entertained visions of the two of them sitting side by side in the dark, exchanging a kiss, a caress. He belonged to Lacey—she knew that, but she had hoped he could be hers for just a little while, until his arm healed and he was able to defend himself again.

  “Susanne?”

  “Oh, J.J., how could you?” she sobbed, and turning on her heel, she gathered her skirts and ran up the stairs to her room.

  Matt was half asleep when he heard the basement door swing open. He sat up, a feeling of helplessness washing over him as he heard the sheriff’s voice. And then J.J. Tucker and Bill Henderson were standing on either side of him. The Sheriff had a gun in his hand.

  “Get up,” the lawman growled, and Matt was certain he had never seen such hatred in anyone’s eyes in all his life.

  Awkwardly Matt gained his feet. His eyes met J.J.’s, and he nodded slowly. So, he thought sourly, that’s the way it’s going to be. Tucker wanted Lacey, wanted her bad enough to turn Matt over to the sheriff to get him out of the way.

  Tucker met Drago’s glance and shrugged, his mouth turning down in a mocking smile.

  “Let’s go,” Henderson said, and gave Matt a shove toward the stairs.

  The walk to the jail seemed longer than usual. Matt glanced up at his hotel room as they passed by, wondering if Lacey was still awake.

  “Don’t worry,” Tucker said, lighting a cigar and placing it in the corner of his mouth. “I’ll lake good care of her.”

  “You can try,” Matt retorted. But deep inside he wondered how long Lacey would be able to keep Tucker at bay. J.J. was a smooth talker, and Lacey would be confused and lonely, vulnerable.

  Inside the jail, Matt hesitated before stepping into the cell. It was the same one he had occupied before, he thought bitterly, and shivered as Henderson shut the cell door with a bang and turned the key in the lock.

  “Beat it,” the sheriff told J.J., and Tucker obligingly left the jailhouse, whistling softly.

  Matt faced the lawman. “I didn’t kill your boy,” he said evenly.

  The sheriff made a low growl of disgust deep in his throat. “I’ve got witnesses,” he said with a sneer. “Three of Salt Creek’s finest citizens. They all identified you as Billy’s killer.” Henderson stepped closer to the bars, his face a mask of hate, his eyes burning like the fires of hell. “It’s lucky for you that I’m a law-abiding man. If I wasn’t, you’d be dead now. My wife begged me to kill you when she learned you were back in town. Got down on her knees and begged me to kill you. And her a God-fearing woman. I was tempted, mighty tempted, but I’ve been a lawman for twenty years and as much as I’d like to shoot you here and now, I can’t do it. So you’re going to prison, and this time I’m gonna see to it personally.”

  Matt was speechless in the face of such hatred. What could he say to convince the man he was innocent? The sheriff would never believe that Toby Pitman was the guilty party. Pitman was foreman of the biggest ranch in the territory. He was respected, a citizen of the town. Matt was a stranger, a drifter, a gambler. The perfect fall guy.

  “Sheriff,” Matt called out to Henderson as the lawman turned to leave the cellblock.

  “What?”

  “Would you send a message to my wife and let her know I’m here?”

  “No.” Leaving the cellblock, the sheriff slammed the door, plunging the cellblock into darkness. It was over, Matt thought bleakly. All over.

  Lacey sat up in bed, awakened by the sound of someone knocking on her door. Frowning, she slipped out of bed and drew on her robe, and then she felt a sudden flicker of hope. Perhaps it was Matt.

  She flew across the room and flung open the door, her smile of welcome fading when she saw Susanne Tucker standing in the dark hall.

  “Susanne! What are you doing here in the middle of the night?”

  “Matt’s in jail,” Susanne said. She had not meant to blurt out the news like that, had meant to prepare Lacey for the shock, but the words poured out of her mouth in a rush. “He’s been hurt. Not bad. His arm’s broken, and he’s in jail.”

  Lacey’s mind was in a whirl. Matt was hurt and in jail. How did Susanne know? “Come in, won’t you?”

  Susanne stepped into the room, and Lacey closed the door behind her.

  “Tell me,” Lacey said. “Tell me everything.”

  It was well after midnight when Susanne finished her story. She told Lacey everything from the time she hit Pitman with the shovel to the time the sheriff took Matt away. Everything but her feelings for Lacey’s husband.

  “Thank you, Susanne,” Lacey said gratefully. “Thank you for everything, especially for helping Matt.”

  “You’d have done the same for me,” Susanne replied.

  The two women embraced, and then Susanne went home. Alone, Lacey sat on the edge of the bed, staring out the window into the darkness beyond. Matt was hurt and in jail. The thing she had dreaded had come to pass. In a day or two Matt would be sent to Yuma and he’d be lost to her.

  Agitated, she stood up and began to pace the floor. What was the matter with her? She was a big girl now, not a child to sit weeping in the dark. A stagecoach would be leaving for Yuma the first of next week, and she would be on it. Yuma was a thriving town. There were undoubtedly saloons there. If necessary, she would get a job in one of them to support herself. She would be near Matt, as she had once planned to be near her father.

  Needing to be busy, she dragged her suitcase out from under the bed and began packing. She didn’t know if the visiting hours at the Yuma prison were once a week, once a month, or once a year, but it didn’t matter. She would see Matt as often as possible. He would need to know she was nearby, waiting for him, praying for him. He would need to know that he wasn’t alone.

  She felt better after packing her bag. Tomorrow she would go to the jail and see Matt. The argument they had had was no longer important.

  Crawling under the covers, she closed her eyes, willing herself to go to sleep so the morrow would come quicker.

  Tomorrow she would see Matt.

  Lacey stared at the sheriff, her eyes bright with anger and disappointment. “What do you mean, I can’t see him?” she demanded. “He’s my husband.”

  “And he’s my prisoner,” Henderson replied coldly. “He can’t have any visitors. Now, get the hell outta my jail and don’t come back.”

  Lacey choked down the angry words that rose in her throat. There was no point in arguing with the man, no point in making him angry.

  Wrapping her dignity around her like a cloak, Lacey turned on her heel and marched out of Henderson’s office. Outside, she leaned against one of the porch uprights, fighting the urge to cry. She had to see Matt.

  Squaring her shoulders, she went to the Black Horse Saloon and knocked on the door to J.J.’s office. She had no one else to t
urn to.

  “Lacey,” Tucker exclaimed, surprised. “What brings you here so early in the day?”

  “The sheriff won’t let me see Matt,” she answered, and broke into tears as her resolve to be strong melted.

  J.J. Tucker grunted softly as he drew Lacey into his office and closed the door. His kindness and understanding were beginning to pay off, he mused. Soon she would be his. It was only a matter of time.

  “Don’t cry, honey,” he murmured, patting her back. “J.J. will make it right.”

  With a sniff, Lacey lifted her head, her eyes searching his, her heart hardly daring to hope. “Can you help Matt?”

  “Of course I can,” he replied. And then his voice was suddenly hard and implacable, his eyes as sharp as shards of broken glass. “I have a proposition to discuss with you.”

  Lacey blinked back her tears, repelled by J.J.’s predatory gaze. “A proposition? I don’t understand.”

  “I’ll make it perfectly clear. I want you, and I intend to have you, one way or another.”

  Appalled, Lacey backed away, but Tucker’s hand closed over her arm in a grip of iron.

  “Listen to me,” he said harshly. “You have two choices. You can refuse me, in which case Drago will go to prison for the rest of his life, or you can agree to be my mistress, in which case I’ll tell Henderson who killed his son and Drago will go free.”

  Mistress. The very word burned her ears and made her stomach knot with revulsion. Mistress…

  Lacey’s head jerked up. “You know who killed Billy Henderson?”

  “Of course I know. It happened in my saloon, didn’t it? I know everything that goes on in there.”

  Lacey stared at Tucker as if seeing him for the first time. He wasn’t kind at all. He was hard and cruel and selfish. He had known all along who killed Billy Henderson, yet he had let an innocent man take the blame, was willing to let Matt spend the rest of his life behind bars for a crime he hadn’t committed.

  “I’m waiting for your answer,” Tucker reminded her impatiently.

  “But I love Matt.”

  “Then you’d better accept my offer.”

  Lacey stared at J.J. helplessly. How could she agree to be his mistress? It went against everything she had been taught. Matt, oh Matt, she thought in anguish.

  J.J. examined his fingernails. “Have you ever been to Yuma?” he asked.

  “Of course not,” Lacey answered warily.

  “I have.” His cold green eyes bored into her. “Believe me when I tell you it isn’t a pleasant place. Lice-infested blankets. Scummy water and rotten food. Men locked up like animals. Whipped. Starved. And no one cares. Most of them just give up and die after awhile.”

  “J.J., don’t…” Lacey shook her head, not wanting to hear more.

  “It’ll be hard on a man like Drago,” Tucker went on. “He’s a proud man, stubborn. They’ll try to break his spirit, and it’ll be hard on him. Damn hard.”

  “Please…” Lacey choked back a sob as she imagined Matt in such a terrible place, being whipped, starved, his body bruised, his spirit crushed.

  “You can spare him all that,” J.J. remarked. “It’s up to you.”

  Lacey stared at J.J. in despair. Fleetingly she thought of pleading with him, begging him to reconsider, but she knew it would be a waste of time. J.J. was a selfish man, not caring about anyone but himself and what he wanted. And he wanted her.

  “I’m pregnant.” She blurted out the news in a last desperate effort to make him change his mind.

  “I like kids,” Tucker said with a shrug, and Lacey’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

  “Very well,” she said heavily. “I’ll be your…mistress. But not until my baby is born.”

  Tucker shook his head. “You will be my mistress starting now, this minute.”

  “Now?” Lacey squeaked.

  “Now.”

  “I won’t sleep with you!” Lacey said defiantly. “Not until my baby is born.”

  J.J. regarded her through narrowed eyes for a long moment, and then he nodded. A gambler by nature, he knew when to call and when to fold, and now was the time to fold. If he pushed Lacey too hard, he might lose the game. And he wanted Lacey in his bed more than he wanted Drago behind bars.

  “Very well,” J.J. agreed. “But you will move into my house today. You will do whatever else I ask, willingly, and with a smile. Agreed?”

  Lacey nodded.

  “Furthermore, you will divorce Drago as soon as possible.”

  Lacey almost laughed out loud. Divorce Matt? In all probability, they weren’t even legally married, but she saw no reason to mention that to J.J. “Anything else?” she asked bitterly.

  “Just one thing. If you should get pregnant in the future, we will be married. There will be no bastards in my house.”

  “Except for you.”

  Tucker’s eyes narrowed as he backhanded her across the face, hard. “Never say that again.”

  Lacey nodded. Her cheek hurt fiercely, but she resisted the urge to rub it.

  “Once I’ve talked to Henderson, there can be no changing your mind,” J.J. warned, his voice as hard and cold as ice. “I expect you to live up to your end of the bargain. If you tell Drago I blackmailed you into this arrangement, or try to run away with him, I’ll see him dead, and your child with him.”

  Lacey stared at Tucker and it was like looking into the face of doom. He meant what he said. She did not doubt it for an instant. “I believe you,” she whispered.

  “Yes,” Tucker drawled. “I think you do. Now, come here.”

  Lacey took a hesitant step forward, her whole being crying out in protest.

  “Willingly and with a smile,” J. J. reminded her.

  Obediently, Lacey pasted a stiff smile on her face. Her lips were cold and unresponsive as she accepted J.J.’s kiss. The touch of his hands on her flesh made her skin crawl.

  “We shall have to work on your kissing, my dear,” Tucker mused as he took her arm. “Come along, it’s time to go tell Drago the good news.”

  Lacey stood beside J.J., her eyes downcast, as Tucker told Sheriff Henderson that Toby Pitman had killed his son.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Henderson demanded, his face red with rage.

  J.J. shrugged. “Let’s just say I came across some new information, shall we? Toby’s your man.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “Still out of town as far as I know. He took his wife to Leadville to visit her mother. Won’t he back until next month sometime.”

  “You’re sure he’s coming back?”

  “Nothing’s sure in this life, Sheriff. You should know that.”

  “What about Tanner and Gonzalez?” Henderson remarked. “They testified that Drago killed my boy.”

  “Yeah. Well, they work for Pitman, you know. They were both covering up for him, I bet they’ve decided it’s time for justice to be done.”

  Henderson snorted. “I don’t suppose anybody else saw anything.”

  “My bartender.”

  “He refused to testify at the trial.”

  “He’ll testify now.” J.J. smiled benignly. “I guess that just about does it. Be seeing you, Sheriff.”

  “Wait a minute,” Lacey said, tugging on J.J.’s arm. “What about Matt?”

  “What about him?” J.J. asked, annoyed.

  “He’s free now, isn’t he?”

  “Sheriff?”

  “Not quite yet, Tucker,” Henderson said. “I’m not doubting your word, you understand, but I need something a little more substantial than that before I can turn Drago loose. He stays where he is until Pitman’s convicted.”

  Lacey glared at J.J. “You swine! You knew this would happen.”

  “It was a possibility,” Tucker admitted. He took Lacey aside. “You’d best behave yourself, my dear,” he warned in a low voice. “Especially if you want Tanner and Gonzalez to testify that Pitman killed Billy.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I
mean Tanner and Gonzalez will say whatever I tell them to say. Without their testimony, it’s Toby’s word against Drago’s. Who do you think a jury will believe? The foreman of a well-established ranch, or a two-bit half-breed drifter?”

  J.J. was right. Toby Pitman was a well-respected member of the community, a family man with a pious wife and two children.

  “It’s not fair,” Lacey said. “I thought Matt would be freed today. He could spend another couple of months in jail.”

  “Better a couple of months than the rest of his life,” Tucker said. “But that’s neither here nor there. We made an agreement. I’ve kept my part, and I expect you to keep yours or suffer the consequences.”

  Lacey nodded. How could she have forgotten, even for a moment, that J.J. had threatened Matt’s life and that of her child?

  “I thought you’d see things my way,” Tucker said smugly. He gave her a little push toward the cellblock. “Go tell Drago you’re leaving him to become my mistress. I want him to chew on that for a while.”

  Lacey’s feet were like lead as she made her way to Matt’s cell. She kept reminding herself that she was doing this for Matt, but it didn’t make it any easier. He would hate her now.

  Matt stood up, his eyes showing surprise and pleasure as he saw Lacey coming toward him. And then he frowned. She looked pale and drawn. Her eyes, usually so full of life, were dull.

  “I just came to tell you that you were right about everything,” she said flatly. “The baby’s J.J.’s. I’m moving in with him today.”

  “Moving in with him?” Matt gripped the bars and glared at her, stunned.

  “He asked me to be his mistress, and I agreed. I just thought you should know,” she said quickly, and turned and fled before he could see her tears.

  Matt’s voice called after her, loud and angry. “Lacey! Dammit, Lacey, come back here!” She ran out of the cellblock and out of the sheriff’s office, running blindly down the street until J.J. caught up with her.

  “Come on,” he said, his voice filled with victory. “I’ll take you home.”

  Chapter Fifteen