Brazen

by Patricia Rosemoor

  FROM THE SHADOWS OF THE barn, Clay heard it all. He’d tried calling Siobhan, but without her having a cell phone, getting her in person had been impossible. So he’d come back to the ranch to update her in person, to tell her about Buck’s murder and Vargas being in a jail cell. About his conclusion that they’d let go of Early Farnum as a suspect too soon. But then, having parked near the house, he’d entered the barn unnoticed and had heard Jacy’s confession about her relationship with her supposed brother.

  She was still on the attack. “Jeff actually believed you were going to have his children, Siobhan. That’s how he justified cheating me of this place.”

  Clay looked around at the horses. Animals had a sense about people, and all three of them were staying as far away from Jacy as they could. Chief had turned his back on her. Garnet was watching her warily. But Warrior…even from a distance, Clay sensed his enmity.

  “Blame your stepfather, then,” Siobhan was saying. “He left the spread to Jeff, and it was only natural that Jeff would leave it to his own family.”

  “What a joke. You hate this place, the ranch that has always been my home!” Jacy snapped. “You had no right to steal it from me! You had no right to steal Jeff from me!”

  And it suddenly became clear to Clay. “Is that why you killed Jeff?” he asked, stepping out of the shadows. “You killed him out of spite?”

  He linked gazes and more with Siobhan to make certain she was all right. She was vulnerable, but she was strong. He could feel the river of fury flowing beneath her controlled exterior.

  “Jeff interfered with my plans,” Jacy said. “He had Siobhan and the ranch, and I wanted something of my own.”

  “Uranium?” Clay guessed.

  “That would have given me the money I needed to start over.”

  “Alone? Or with Buck Hale?” Clay asked. “Where did Buck fit in before you killed him, too?”

  “Buck’s dead?” Siobhan gasped.

  Clay nodded. “I found him. Killed with his own kitchen knife.”

  Jacy reached into her shoulder bag. “I have something more effective for you.” She pulled out a gun which she aimed at Clay.

  “Jacy!” Siobhan cried. “Don’t!”

  Concentrating, Clay opened his mind to Siobhan. Take it easy. Keep her talking.

  Siobhan’s eyes widened, so apparently she “heard” him.

  What are you going to do?

  Jacy was saying, “I did what I had to do, just as I’ve always been forced to!”

  Warrior snorted and Clay tuned in to the horse. The raised voices were upsetting him. Jacy in particular was upsetting him.

  “Buck told me there might be uranium deposits on the land,” Jacy continued. “I tried to get Jeff interested, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He stopped listening to me when he married you.”

  “So you did it all?” Siobhan asked. “Everything that went wrong on the ranch was due to you?”

  Clay edged closer as Jacy kept talking.

  “Starting with the bank note being called in. I thought that would convince Jeff we needed to mine the uranium,” Jacy said. “But he wouldn’t hear of it, so I had to go looking on my own. Well, not exactly on my own. But when I was out there with Buck, trying to find a sample, Jeff stumbled onto us. He was furious, wanted nothing to do with something that would poison the earth, poison good people. He had to be stopped.” She shrugged. “Then Buck got out of hand and had to be stopped. Now you two have to be stopped.”

  Keep her talking, Clay urged Siobhan as he continued to inch toward the murderess. Then he connected with Warrior, and through thoughts and images urged him to make a ruckus.

  “You already tried to kill us,” Siobhan said. “That was you shooting at us, not Buck.”

  “Buck was…indisposed. So I borrowed that old truck of his and came after you.”

  Warrior squealed and broke to his right, catching Jacy’s attention long enough for Clay to act. He lunged at her and got his hands around the gun. She was a big woman and stronger than he’d expected, no doubt from working the ranch. She clung to the gun, so he twisted her arm. Then suddenly there was a blast, and heat searing his side stopped him cold. Flying back, he heard Siobhan scream as he collapsed.

  In the distance, Warrior squealed again, louder this time.

  Jacy laughed, and the sound was maniacal. “I’ll make it seem like Clay murdered Jeff so he could win back the woman he loved. When he couldn’t do it, he decided the only way out was a murder-suicide.”

  Fighting losing consciousness, Clay picked up on Siobhan’s thoughts.

  I won’t let this happen! Hang on, Clay, and I won’t let the legacy win this time!

  COLD ANGER FILLED SIOBHAN. While Jacy was smirking at Clay on the ground, Siobhan attacked, leading with her shoulder to knock Jacy off balance. When the other woman swung her gun hand around, Siobhan kneed her in the stomach as hard as she could. Jacy doubled over, and Siobhan flew into her again. This time, the gun went spinning out of Jacy’s hand, right through the fence boards, landing outside the corral, and Siobhan was on her.

  Literally.

  They fell to the ground, Siobhan on top, hitting Jacy over and over. Jacy was bigger and stronger and easily flipped her onto her back. She slid her hands around Siobhan’s neck and started squeezing.

  Warrior was screaming now and Siobhan got a glimpse of him lurching back and forth, as if he was working himself into a fury. Fury aimed at Jacy. Even with the breath being choked out of her, Siobhan was aware of images the horse saw and was buying into, images that could only be coming from Clay.

  Unable to take a breath, seeing pinpoints of light behind her eyes, Siobhan picked up on those images and doubled the effort, urging the horse to do something to stop Jacy.

  Warrior screamed again and his hooves exploded over the ground as he charged.

  Jacy’s hands loosened on Siobhan’s neck and she glanced back toward the thundering horse. Panicking, she flew up to her feet and tried to run to the gate, but she couldn’t outrun a horse. He hit her hard and she went flying, headfirst, into the top fence board.

  She collapsed without uttering a sound.

  Warrior made one sweep of the pasture and as he passed Jacy’s crumpled body, he bucked and kicked her with both hooves as if for good measure.

  Gasping for breath, Siobhan crawled to Clay, who was trying to sit up and not doing a very good job of it. Calmer now, Warrior stopped near them and stood over them protectively as Siobhan gathered Clay in her shaking arms. The front of his T-shirt was wet with his blood. She was grateful she couldn’t see red against the black cloth, or she might throw up.

  “You’re going to live, you hear me!” she ordered Clay. “You can’t die. You have to fight until help comes.” And then she had to ask, “Where’s your cell phone?”

  JACY WAS DEAD, HER NECK broken from the fall, her leg broken from where Warrior kicked her. She was already out of sight, camouflaged by a body bag. Siobhan didn’t miss the irony of Jacy’s fate. She’d somehow made sure that Jeff’s neck had been broken. And then his horse’s leg. Clay hadn’t put that thought into Warrior’s mind and neither had she…but there it was.

  “It’s not his fault,” Siobhan told Sheriff Tannen as the medics got Clay’s stretcher into the ambulance. “Jacy was crazed. Warrior’s still not well from the poisoning,” she added, “and he got real upset with all the yelling and the gun going off and Jacy trying to strangle me. He didn’t mean to kill her.”

  Having heard the story from start to finish while waiting for the EMT to arrive, Tannen gave her a puzzled look. “No reason for me to think your horse purposely killed anyone, not even someone as black-hearted as that witch. In my book, Jacy Atkinson caused her own death. I’m sure the district attorney will agree and won’t be pressing charges against Warrior there.”

  Jacy glanced back at the corral. Warrior’s head hung over the top rung as he watched her. She sensed no regret in the horse. He seemed peaceful as he nickered softly then moved aw
ay to join Garnet and Chief on the other side of the corral.

  Tannen patted her shoulder comfortingly. “Maybe you better get up in that ambulance before they take your man away without you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

  She still could hardly believe that her sister-in-law was a murderess, that she’d killed the man who everyone thought was her brother. And Buck Hale, of course. Plus, all the other things that Jacy had done to destroy the ranch…it was simply inconceivable. Had she really thought she would get away with it? Maybe Jacy would have, if not for Clay.

  And Jeff’s part of it all was inconceivable, as well. After Jacy’s confession about their lurid affair, she would never be able to think of her late husband in the same way again.

  “Hey,” Clay said, finding her hand. “What are you thinking about?”

  “That we beat the prophecy,” she said, never happier than when she added, “They say you’re going to live.”

  “You, too.”

  She clasped his hand harder and focused her mind until she connected with him. I know what you did.

  Got shot.

  You showed Warrior what to do. How?

  The Irish aren’t the only ones who know how to manipulate the psychic universe. You could learn a thing or two from my grandfather.

  She felt Clay drift off then, and she figured whatever they gave him for pain was working.

  WHEN CLAY WOKE UP, HE was feeling no pain. Except when he looked at the beautiful mess asleep in the chair next to his hospital bed. Siobhan was dirtier than he’d ever seen her. Her hair was in tangles, though it looked as if she’d finger-combed it. She’d tried to wash up, but her face was streaked rather than clean.

  Or were those streaks on her cheeks caused by tears for him?

  He loved her more than anything, and because he loved her, he would give her what she wanted. So when her eyes fluttered open and met his and he heard her quick intake of breath preceding her radiant smile, he knew what he had to do.

  “I’ll be gone at sunrise,” he told her.

  She swallowed hard and blinked at him. “You’re not going anywhere. In case you don’t remember, you were shot.”

  “I feel fine.”

  She indicated his intravenous line. “Wait till they take away your morphine. You won’t be so cocky then.”

  “Then I’ll leave the next day. Or the one after that.”

  Her expression sobered. “Reconsider.”

  “Why?”

  “I still need you,” she admitted in a small voice.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll help you find someone who can run the spread better than I can.”

  “But he won’t be you.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “That I love you and I just wanted to protect you from the family curse but…if you were willing to chance it, I was wrong to turn you away.”

  “Which time?”

  “It didn’t work the second time.” Now she was sounding testy. “You wouldn’t go. That took a lot of nerve. Something I lacked. But not anymore. We beat the prophecy, Clay. It’s done now. And if it comes back at us, we’ll beat it again.”

  Words he’d waited years to hear. And yet he needed to know more. “You married another man, Siobhan. How do I deal with that? Forget what he was to Jacy, what was he to you?”

  “I married Jeff because I cared about him, and because he accepted my feelings for you. I didn’t know about him and Jacy. I didn’t want to live my life alone like Mom has all these years. I had dreams of a family…” She sighed. “All my planning didn’t stop the prophecy from taking Jeff. For that, I will always regret marrying him. He was a good man, Clay, despite a warped relationship with Jacy or not. I still believe that. He was kind to me, generous with his workers, concerned for the environment. One bad thing doesn’t change who a person is at heart. It makes them human.”

  Clay guessed he could understand Siobhan’s thinking. He would have to. She was finally willing to give them another chance, and he wasn’t about to throw away what was probably his last opportunity to have what he wanted.

  Still…

  “If I do stay, I have conditions.”

  “Which are?”

  “You get rid of the cow-calf operation and follow your dream of breeding and training horses. I’ll help you, but I plan to keep my job at the correctional center.”

  Her smile lit up her dirty face. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “One of us needs to make decent money until we know if this thing will work out.”

  “Besides, you love helping to change lives for the better,” Siobhan said, understanding perfectly. “And I have no doubts we’re going to work out. We’ve never stopped loving each other, no matter the circumstances. That’s never going to change.”

  “And if you agree to marry me, will you change your name for me?”

  Her grin got wider. “Siobhan McKenna-Salazar. I like it.”

  And he loved her. He pulled her against him. “Then kiss me like you mean it.”

  “Gladly,” she whispered, as she leaned in to do just that.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-8507-5

  BRAZEN

  Copyright © 2011 by Patricia Pinianski

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  Table of Contents

  Prologue