by Texas Rain
Travis turned to look at her. “They brought him in to question. He said he planned to hold Seth at gunpoint and get the reward, but when he saw them all at once he chickened out. All the money he got was the double eagle they offered him for calling the slave over.”
He looked past her toward the door. “You’d better get dressed. The extra horse could be nothing, but it’s a clue. We probably need to tell Dillon. If there was someone with them, who knows what extremes he’ll go to keep quiet.”
She looked down, realizing she wore only her undergarments. Travis wasn’t even looking at her. She had a feeling if she stripped down to her skin, he’d probably jump out the window to get away from her.
She stood, walking right into his range of vision.
He looked back toward the window.
“How long until we need to be at the judge’s?” she asked.
“It’s another hour until dark. The judge likes to dine late in southern style. We’ve probably got a few hours if you want to go by the station first.”
Rainey studied his profile. Her man of oak. How could he have held her so tenderly last night and not look at her now? She guessed it would be a waste of time to ask him what was wrong. He’d never tell her.
She touched his shoulder. When he turned to see what she wanted, she moved between his knees and wrapped her arms around his neck. If he was no longer attracted to her, he was about to have to prove it.
For a moment he didn’t move.
She leaned into him, letting her body make contact with his as her cheek pressed against his hair.
When he looked up at her, she held his face in her hands. She could think of nothing funny or smart to say. She voiced the only thing on her mind. “Don’t you want me anymore?”
He snapped. His arms circled her waist and he crushed her to him. He buried his face against her throat and breathed deeply. “Want you,” he finally said in an angry rumble. “I haven’t been able to breathe with the need for you all day.”
Twisting, he lay her on the tiny bed and pressed her to the mattress. When they came face-to-face, he kissed her hard with a hunger that shocked her.
She shook with the sudden flood of feelings volting through her body.
Travis pulled an inch away, breathing heavy against her ear. “I didn’t mean to frighten you, Rainey. I think I’ve answered your question; now answer mine. Do you welcome my advance?”
Trying her best to stop shaking, she whispered, “Yes.”
He kissed her gently then, as he had the first time. Slowly he lowered his body over her, allowing her time to welcome him.
She lay her hands back on the pillow above her head and invited his advance. When he finished kissing her lips, he moved to her throat as if he were dying of thirst and she was his only drink. She could feel his breathing as his chest pressed against her breasts, and his warm breath tickled the flesh he’d left damp with kisses. Any doubt that he wanted her was erased as his hands moved over the cotton of her underthings, feeling, exploring.
“You feel so good,” he whispered. “So soft. I’ve been starving for the need to touch you since the minute you left my bed last night. If I could have, I would have climbed the stairs to you.”
She let out a small cry of pleasure when he covered the camisole over her breast with his hand.
“And this,” he added against her ear, “feels better than anything I’ve ever held in my hand.”
She turned her head away, trying to remember to breathe. When she looked back, she saw only worry in his dark eyes. “Are you all right? I didn’t hurt you?” His hand still lay on her breast, but he was no longer branding her with his touch.
She smiled. “No, you didn’t hurt me.” She wanted to ask him why he’d been so cold all day. Why he hadn’t touched her or even kissed her when they were alone. But his actions now told her all she needed to know.
She tugged his hand away. He watched in silence as she untied her camisole and let the cotton fall open. Then, she put his hand back on her breast with no material between them.
“Continue,” she whispered against his ear.
He laughed. “I always follow orders.”
A few moments later she cried again in pleasure as his kisses moved down her throat and found the breast he’d already warmed with his hand.
She rocked gently in paradise as he explored her body, kissing and tasting. The gentle warrior she’d seen before returned as he touched her in places no man had ever seen. It crossed her mind, as his fingers molded into the flesh at the back of her leg, that maybe she should be shy, or even hesitant, but Rainey could never pull off such a lie.
He took his time showing her that he thought she was beautiful, and with each touch, each kiss, she wanted more.
As the room darkened into shadows, her underthings fell one by one to the floor of her tiny room and she was wrapped in his warmth. He took great care in moving his hands from her hair down along the center of her back to her hips, then he’d turn her to face him and kiss her until she felt she was floating. While she drifted, he explored, gently pulling her legs apart until she felt a fire of need build deep in her belly.
When she stretched like a cat across him, he whispered, “I want you, Rainey. I want to watch the graceful way you move all day and hold you like this every night. I want to move inside you so deep that we won’t even know where I end and you begin. Marry me.”
“No,” she answered, no longer angry at him because he asked. “I can’t.”
He pulled her close. “And I have to have you.” He spread his hand wide across the inside of her thigh and gripped her flesh. Covering her mouth with his, he caught her sigh of pleasure and tasted deeply as she pressed her body gently against him in wave after wave of sensations.
She wanted to feel his flesh against hers, but when she began unbuttoning his shirt, he stopped her.
“I have about one ounce of self-control left, my fairy, so don’t push this further. I have to think of your safety and be ready to act without having to look for my clothes first.”
She laughed. “But it’s not fair. I have nothing on.”
He kissed her hand. “I agree it’s not fair, and believe me I’m fully aware you have nothing on.” He ran his hand along the curves of her side stopping to grip one hip.
Fisting his other hand into the curls of her hair, he pulled her head back. “You have no idea how perfect you are.” He kissed his way down to her breasts. “I’ll never again look at you clothed without seeing you like this.”
Rainey hardly noticed the room slip into darkness as she drifted on wave after wave of pleasure. She knew there was more to lovemaking, much more, but she felt she might go mad if he went further. She’d simply float off the edge of passion and shatter into a million tiny drops of paradise.
They lay together for a long while. His hands slowly circled over her body, exploring, getting to know every curve, learning how she liked to be touched. She wanted to tell him that he could have her if he wanted. Hadn’t she already made it plain that she wanted him? But she didn’t talk, for she knew if they did, they’d only argue. For now maybe it was enough for both of them to hold each other. She’d start believing in marriage when he started believing in love.
The opening of a door sounded from floors below.
Travis brushed his fingers across her mouth and pointed at her clothes. She stood, fumbling in the shadows, and dressed. He shifted and lit a candle without making a sound. She could still see passion in his eyes, and when his gaze moved down her dress, she knew what he was thinking.
Silently she packed her few things and followed him down the stairs.
Mrs. Vivian sat on the last step of the stairs in the foyer when they reached the bottom. Rainey expected the woman to yell at her for having a man upstairs, but she stared at them with glazed eyes.
Travis touched her shoulder. “Are you all right, ma’am?”
She looked up. “I’m finished. I’m bankrupt. No one will ever rent from me a
gain.”
“Folks have short memories,” Travis said. “They’ll forget in time.”
Rainey wasn’t so sure. They were still talking about the French girl from years ago. “The women will come back.” She tried to sound hopeful. “You can cover the outlaw’s bloodstain with a rug and his death will become part of the legend of this place.”
Mrs. Vivian shook her heard. “I tried to keep it going. I tried everything. But now I’m finished. When my husband comes back, he’ll blame me for not keeping the house.”
Travis shrugged at Rainey, but tried again. “Rainey’s right, a rug would cover it up.”
Mrs. Vivian looked at them with vacant eyes. “And who will cover the woman’s body on my back porch,” she asked as if they had the answer. “Who will wash up her blood?”
CHAPTER 31
TRAVIS HELPED RAINEY GET MRS. VIVIAN INTO HER room. The scarecrow of a woman seemed nervous that they were in her private quarters. Travis figured it was because she had enough furniture for five rooms crammed into the space. She’d even suspended drapes in places where there were no windows to give the look of tiny rooms within the area. He felt like if he breathed he’d knock something over. He stopped about three feet inside and watched the landlord crumble into a chair by the window.
“Lock the door when I leave,” Travis whispered to Rainey. “Will you be all right in here?”
“I’ll be fine.” Rainey didn’t look too sure.
He turned at the door and took one last glance at the woman he knew very well by touch. Rainey looked so beautiful when she was trying to be brave, he thought.
“I’ll not open the door until I hear your voice on the other side,” she whispered, and he fought the urge to return for just one last kiss before the world stepped between them.
Travis looked over at Mrs. Vivian and decided he had the easier job of going to look for a body. Rainey had to deal with her.
He stepped to the front porch and yelled at the first rider passing to go to the Ranger station and tell anyone there that McMurray needed assistance at Askew House. The young kid of about fifteen galloped away, excited to help.
Then, Travis walked through the kitchen to the back door forcing his mind to not allow his body to react to whatever he might find. Something had frightened Mrs. Vivian into hysteria and she didn’t seem the type to rattle easily.
The kitchen was a mess with laundry and dishes piled around.
He stood in the shadows by the back door for a few minutes waiting to see if anyone or anything moved in the alley. But all was still. He lit one of the kitchen lamps and placed it in the window so that he could see the porch more clearly. Mrs. Vivian had been correct. Looking like a rag doll, the body of a woman sat in the corner of the porch, her eyes staring sightlessly at him. Her arms were at her sides, a knife in one. Deep cuts ran across her wrists. Blood pooled around her.
It took him only a moment to recognize the woman who’d ended her own life. Rainey had called her Whiny, the thin barmaid. The one the Rangers thought was sweet on Seth Norman.
“McMurray!” a man yelled from inside the house. “Travis, it’s Dumont and Price. What’s the problem?”
“Ask the boy who delivered the message to wait on the front porch!” Travis yelled back. “I have something important I need him to do.” The last thing Travis wanted was for the young man to witness this suicide. It wasn’t one that would wash out of anyone’s mind easily.
Two Rangers had followed his voice and stood at the kitchen door.
“Oh, my God,” Roy whispered as he lowered his gun. “What happened?”
“Looks like she killed herself,” Travis answered. “Bring the other lantern and we’ll have a closer look.” Travis was glad Roy Dumont had answered the call.
As Roy lit the lantern, Travis heard him say to the other, younger, Ranger, “Stand guard at the front, Philip. We don’t want anyone showing up just to sightsee.”
The Ranger seemed happy to accept the new assignment. Travis had no doubt he could smell the blood from the kitchen and probably see the outline of the body through the kitchen window.
Reluctantly Roy joined him on the porch. He’d pulled a sheet from the laundry piled by the door and covered the dead woman almost tenderly. Blood soaked through immediately.
Roy squatted and took his time looking at details. The man was hard as they come at being a Ranger, but he had a soft spot for women.
“I was directly upstairs.” Travis also began to study the area. “I didn’t hear a sound. How could a woman slit her wrist without making a sound?”
Roy tugged at the rope holding one of the dead woman’s hands. “She must have really wanted to die.”
Travis nodded and lifted the sheet. “She’s got bruises all over her. My guess is life finally got to be too much for her.”
Roy moved the lantern. “She works at the saloon across the alley.”
Travis took a closer look. “She looks younger here than she did the other night when I talked to her.” He headed back inside ordering, “Stay with the body.”
Roy nodded.
Travis stopped long enough to tell the kid at the door to find Judge Gates’s home on Eight Street and tell a man named Dillon to come fast.
“There’s been another murder?” the kid asked.
Travis shook his head. “Suicide.” He offered the kid a coin.
The boy waved his hand. “I’m happy to help. One of these days I’m going to be a Ranger.”
Travis watched the youth run for his horse. Then he crossed to Mrs. Vivian’s room one door down from the drawing room. When he knocked, Rainey answered too fast to have been anywhere but beside the door waiting.
She moved out into the hallway and silently closed the door. She didn’t say a word, just waited.
He wanted to touch her, to hold her, but now was not the time or place.
“It’s bad.” Travis didn’t have time to break it easy. “The woman you called Whiny took her own life.”
Rainey’s eyes filled with tears, but she stood straight and still. “She kept saying she’d find a way out.”
He caught her as she began to crumple and held her tight. She felt so good against him. He wished he could take the sadness away.
“I should have broken that a little easier, Rainey. I’m sorry.” He kissed the top of her head.
“No, there was no easy way.” She took a deep breath. “I’m fine. I just felt a little light-headed. Mrs. Vivian’s been crying and mumbling about how this has all been her fault. Somehow she blames herself. She keeps saying that no one would have been killed if she’d been here when the kidnappers came.”
Travis brushed her hair away from her face with his hand. “As soon as Dillon arrives, I’m getting you out of here.”
His fairy looked up at him with her huge green eyes. “You still think I’m in danger?”
“I’m not taking any chances. If Eldon is out there, he’ll want both of us dead. And if there was a forth man the day of the kidnapping, he might be helping Eldon find us.”
Rainey shivered as if the hallway had suddenly grown cold. “You have to send someone to check on Snort.”
Travis wanted to tell her he couldn’t worry about every woman in the world. He had his hands full with her. “I’ll tell Roy to check on her.”
“What about Mrs. Vivian?”
Travis didn’t want to talk about the details. He had a feeling Mrs. Vivian was up to her neck in trouble. The fact that she’d been gone when it happened had nagged at the back of his mind for days.
He held Rainey close and asked, “Where’s Mamie? I saw laundry piled up in the kitchen and you told me she did it every night.”
A single tear rolled slowly down her face. “Mrs. Vivian said she’s disappeared. Oh, Travis, you don’t think someone took her?”
He wished he could lie to her, but he only said, “I hope not.” Mamie had seen the Norman brothers in the alley.
The blast of a gun rattled through the hallway. Tra
vis pushed Rainey against the wall and covered her with his body as he pulled his gun.
Before the echo died in the air, he heard Philip running from the porch and Roy stomping through the dining room. Both were shouting his name.
“Stay here,” Travis ordered as he pushed her into the dark corner. “Don’t move unless I call you.”
Rainey nodded.
He joined the other Rangers at Mrs. Vivian’s door. “It came from in here!” he shouted as he tried the knob.
The door was locked.
“Ready?” Travis said as all three men raised their guns. A moment later Travis’s shoulder slammed against the door, shattering the lock.
They all rushed into the cluttered room. Dressers and chests, tables loaded down with keepsakes, chairs stacked on top of other chairs, all made a jungle for them to stumble through.
Roy mumbled an oath as he knocked over a chair. “What a mess.”
By the window sat a small table with one chair. On the rug beside the chair lay a body curled up like an infant asleep.
Roy reached her first. He knelt and grabbed her shoulder. With little effort he rolled the thin woman onto her back. “Mrs. Vivian,” he whispered as they all stared at a gaping hole that now marked the center of her chest. Her eyes were open, but there was no sign of life left. The gun rested a few feet from her.
“She killed herself!” Philip’s voice squeaked with youth. “She had to have killed herself,” he mumbled, trying to make sense of the death he saw. “She was locked in here alone.”
Roy’s gaze met Travis, and Travis knew they were thinking the same thing. Women take pills or cut their wrists; they don’t shoot themselves.
Travis was out the door and back into the hallway. He didn’t breathe until he had Rainey in his arms.
She was shaking as if near frozen. “I saw . . . I saw . . .”
He moved her into the light coming from Mrs. Vivian’s room.
“I thought I saw a shadow move out the door right after the three of you went in,” Rainey whispered. “I’m not even sure it was a person. Just a shadow. It must have been in Vivian’s room.”