Fresh air overwhelmed him as he climbed out of the dark, stinky building and blinked in the sudden sunlight. For a moment, he stood still, his ears picking up the sound of voices.
Dora and Leo.
He could hear the two arguing from the front of the house. The blast of a gunshot echoed through the late afternoon, sending the birds in the trees fluttering into the sky.
Fear spiraled through him and he ran as fast as his tired, sore legs would run. Dora needed him.
If something happened to her... His heart pounded in his chest and he pushed himself harder.
Chapter 11
Dora stepped out of the bushes directly into the path Leo walked. He stopped and stared at her, a grimace on his face.
"Do you have a death wish?" he asked her. "I've already warned you once not to follow me."
She flicked the strap on her guns, her eyes never leaving his. "You're supposed to be dead."
"If you hadn't found me, I could still be dead," he said.
"The sheriff of Zenith saw you in Fort Worth selling your miracle cure," she responded, her feet moving to her shooting stance, ready to end his life now. All Leo had to do was try to stop her and her guns would come out flying.
All the years they were married flashed before her eyes. From the time they said I do to the moment she received the telegram. The ups and downs, the fights, even the good times. All those years wasted on a man who didn't love her.
"I hoped he hadn't seen me that day."
"So, did you marry Ida before or after your death?" Why she asked, she didn't know. She wanted to understand why he would leave her destitute.
"Now, Dora, honey," he said, walking toward her, using the voice he used to kiss and make up. Like hell.
"Stop," she commanded. "I'm not your honey, so don't pretend that I don't know what you're doing. Today, you bought a ring and you're here to propose to Spinster Ethel. Eventually you would do the same thing to her. How many women have you married, stolen their money, and then left? How many? For some reason, I don't think I'm the first."
A laugh resounded from him. "Honey, you make me sound bad. After I figured out we would never have children, I decided it was time to find someone who could give me some kids. Your inheritance was the down payment on a new life with Ida. And she gave me a daughter and a son."
Like a knife his words twisted in her heart, hitting her in the most vulnerable place.
With a gasp, she staggered a little at his admission. In the flash, he moved toward her and she pulled out her gun, the urge to kill him like an explosion inside her. "One more move and you're a dead man. Then, I'll sell the land."
With a sigh, he stopped. "So, you would sell the land meant for my babies and force them out of their home. My motherless children with only their uncle to care for them. You're as much a monster as I am. At least, I just con women. You harm children. No wonder you're barren."
Appalled, hate filled her and she raised her pistol, determined she would end this misery now. Like a poison, rage surged through her and she screamed. "It's time for you to die."
Bending over with laughter, he said, "You won't shoot me. I'm your husband and you believe in marriage."
Her determination faltered. "No, but I can arrest you."
"For what? Taking what became mine? For marrying someone who is now dead? What are you going to arrest me for?"
Her hand began to tremble and tears clogged her throat. The man was right. Though she hated him, a ring and those damn vows - for better or worse - got in the way. Plus, the law didn't seem to care he had done her dirty. They didn't care three people were dead because of him, but they would hang her for shooting him.
"Honey, we're married for better or worse, until death do we part," he said.
With a scream of outrage, she shoved her gun back in the holster and whirled around, so disappointed in herself. With her back to Leo, she heard the click of a gun. As she glanced up, she saw Ethel standing in the door facing her, holding her shotgun, and knew she was done.
Everything she'd fought for was for nothing, and in this moment, she would not live to see another day.
Ethel's gun fired and the slug whizzed by her ear and she thought the woman missed. A scream of pain and agony had her whirling around. Leo lay on the ground writhing, a gun not far from his hand. Ethel came down the steps carrying her shotgun and kicked the gun away from him.
"You lying, cheating, scoundrel. Her money is the last you'll ever steal. Rest in hell," she said, spitting on him.
Stunned, Dora stood staring as her husband lay dying until Jesse came running around the corner, screaming her name. "Dora."
Once he reached her side, he grabbed her. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," she said, leaning into his side before she stepped away.
"I'm so angry at you. When the gunshot sounded, I feared you were hurt or worse, dying," he said, his face red, his brown eyes flashing with anger.
The man she loved had every right to be furious with her. What he didn't know was that Leo pointed a gun at her back and intended to kill her. If not for Ethel, she would be dead.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Ethel shot Leo," she said as she watched the woman standing over Leo her gun pointed at him.
"Honest, Ethel, I was coming today to ask for your hand in marriage," Leo gasped.
"But you're married, and I don't take anybody's seconds," she said, her voice cold, her hand steady. "When we met, I told you that was my condition."
Turning, she gazed at Jesse and Dora. "Sheriff's on his way. My maid went to fetch him. I owe you an apology. After you visited me, I did some checking. I didn't know he was married."
Maybe the woman was a bitch, but she was a strong one who didn't take men and their crap, and Dora realized Ethel had saved her life.
"It's all right," Dora said, thinking she didn't want this woman mad at her. "How many other women did he deceive? If he had killed me, he would be free to marry you."
The woman made a growling noise. "No, I didn't want a scoundrel like Leo."
How would they ever know the depths of Leo's cheating? But at least now, his days of being a man who conned women and sold a poisonous concoction were over. Never again would Leo hurt her and yet, so many dangling threads to sort through. Threads Leo created and she couldn't walk away from.
Gazing at Jesse, a sadness came over her. Soon their time together would be over. And she missed him already.
Jesse's heart had been in his throat when he ran around the side of the house and saw Leo on the ground. Dora stood over Leo's body in shock with Ethel at her side holding a shotgun. He breathed a sigh of relief.
And yet, he was so angry at her for locking him in the outhouse. It had taken his rapidly beating heart a few minutes to slow down. Even then, he needed to walk away to control the tears that filled him at the thought of her being hurt.
Saddened, he realized their time together would soon come to a close and he didn't want it to end.
The sheriff arrived and took them one by one away to ask questions about what happened. The man was doing his job, and after today, this would be over. But what came next? Could he let Dora go? Could he ride away from her with the children?
And the kids...now he would tell them, not only had they lost their mother, but also their father.
With a sigh, he turned away and gazed down on the sidewalk at his hated brother-in-law. "You have my pledge with God as my witness, I'm going to raise my sister's children," he said. "Your babies will have a happy home."
Dead, the man didn't respond.
The lawman motioned him over. As he passed Dora, she whispered, "The sheriff thinks there's a love triangle."
Her message struck Jesse wrong and he started laughing. "He's going to be disappointed when he learns the truth."
She grinned and kept walking.
As he walked up to the man with the badge, he sighed. "You can't seem to stay out of trouble."
"What?" he asked, shocked at the man
's statement.
He sent his deputies scrambling to find chairs and set them under the shade of a large oak tree. The lawman took his hat off and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Take a seat."
Jesse sat across from the man. "What kind of trouble are you referring to?"
"Yesterday you and Mrs. Tennyson sat in my office warning me about his poisonous miracle cure. Where is the poison?"
Stunned, Jesse leaned back. "It's not in his wagon?"
"Completely empty," the sheriff said. "Our community doesn't need a bunch of people dying from this tainted snake oil."
Did he believe they were going to sell the stuff?
"We need to locate that miracle cure," Jesse said, gazing at him. "Quickly or someone is going to die."
"Whoever he sold it to paid him enough cash he purchased the engagement ring for Spinster Green. So sometime between yesterday and today, he sold what remained of the miracle cure." The man sighed. "I'm going to let you and Mrs. Tennyson go on one condition."
"What's that?"
"Were you having an affair with Mrs. Tennyson?"
A smile crept across his face.
"Oh, Sheriff, I wish I could tell you yes. I'd be the happiest man alive if she would agree. Though Leo had multiple wives and didn't think a thing in the world about breaking his vows, Dora takes her vows very seriously. I won't lie and say I haven't tried, but she's told me no, she's a married woman."
Maybe he said too much. The man was frowning at him like he just made himself accessible to murder. If the man had been told the truth, he would know he'd been locked in the outhouse when Leo was shot.
The sheriff smiled. "Not anymore, she's not. Good thing the spinster confessed."
Still there was the poison. And it would give him that much longer with Dora.
"True, but now we've got to find that tainted water before whoever bought it dies."
The lawman spit out some chewing tobacco and sighed. "All of your stories match. You're free to go but find me the drink. You two would have a better idea on who he could have sold the miracle cure too. Locate the poison and destroy the drink."
The man sighed as he gazed at Jesse. "Get going. Before you leave, send out the spinster. I'm going to let her go, but I've got to at least warn her. Women can't go around shooting men, even if he was about to kill Dora."
Jesse froze. "What did you say?"
"According to Ethel, Mrs. Tennyson turned her back on Leo and was walking away. Leo would have shot her in the back if not for the spinster pulling the trigger. Appears she'd done some inquiries and learned what Dora told her the other day was the truth. Leo was married and had children."
Anger roiled through Jesse's veins. Yes, he took chances, but you never turned your back on a man with a gun. Never. Today, he almost lost Dora and the fact she locked him in the outhouse infuriated him.
"Let's go," Jesse called, his manner brusque.
Dora gazed at him and then glanced at the sheriff. What had the man said that riled him so? Because she knew the man well enough to recognize when he was thoroughly ticked off.
"Ethel, if the law gives you a hard time, we're staying at the Palmer Hotel downtown," Dora said, swinging her leg up and over her horse. Sitting in the saddle, the realization the hunt was over rattled her. Nothing held her here in Austin any longer. At any time, she could leave and begin her journey as a bounty hunter.
The idea didn't thrill her like she thought it would. In fact, she no longer wanted to chase bad guys. Leo had been enough and now she wanted nothing more than to return to her previous life.
"I'm not worried," the woman said. "If I hadn't killed him, he would have shot you," she said, and Dora wished she would’ve kept that little tidbit of information to herself. A look at Jesse and she could see the tightness around his lips.
"So long, Ethel," he called and spurred his horse.
Dora's mare fell into step with his. As they passed the wagon where Leo's body lay covered, she stared at him realizing for the first time she truly was a free woman. After ten long years, a widow and she felt no remorse.
Something bothered the man she loved.
Kicking the side of his horse, their speed increased.
"What's the big hurry?" she asked.
"The poison," he said. "It's missing."
"Oh no," she cried and eagerly followed him.
"The sheriff doesn't know what he did with the miracle cure," he said.
As they rode, Dora's mind went over the possibilities. Where did Leo find a buyer willing to give him cash for snake oil? Who would want poisoned drink? Not that they had learned the juice was deadly yet, but still.
"What if Leo sold it before he rode into town," she said out loud, her mind churning with possibilities. "Let's talk to the jeweler. Somehow he had the money to buy the ring, maybe he said something about who he sold the shipment to while buying the wedding band."
Jesse didn't know about her following Leo this morning.
Turning in his saddle, he glanced at her a questioning gaze on his face. "How did you know he went to a jeweler today?"
Licking her lips, there was no putting this off. She had to tell him the truth and hope it didn't make him any madder. "Because I saw Leo while you went for the horses this morning. I followed him to the jeweler down the street from the hotel where he bought a wedding ring for Ethel."
They rode along in silence and what she said only seemed to have fueled the blaze already burning within Jesse. The man's taut lip and the tick in his cheekbone clearly showed what she said made him angry.
"And you kept this information from me?"
There was no way to lie. "Well, yes. At the store, I overheard he planned to visit her this afternoon and I wanted to be the one to kill him."
"How did that work out for you?"
In all her training, she had never taken into consideration whether or not she could actually kill someone she knew. Even though she hated Leo and longed for him to be dead, in the end she could not pull the trigger. The reason wasn't lack of skill, rather her conscience stood in the way. Would it always be this way?
"Not well," she said softly. "You should have been there."
A tense silence came over them as they rode into the city.
"We're headed to the jeweler, but you're going to let me do the talking. You're going to let me do any shooting, and by golly, Dora the next time you lock me in an outhouse, you will find yourself across my knee. Do you understand?" He sighed. "The sheriff told me that Leo was going to shoot you in the back. I almost lost you today."
For a second, she sat there contemplating what he said, surprised at the venom in his voice.
He said, "What if Ethel had turned that gun on you instead of Leo?"
"Thank God, she didn't."
The memory of thinking that was exactly what was going to happen reverberated through Dora. "I'm sorry I locked you in the outhouse. Though I hated him, he was still my husband and a symbol of all my dreams.
“A happy marriage, kids, and someone to love me. How do you kill your dreams? At the last second, I couldn't. Right up until that final moment, I intended to shoot him."
His shoulders sagged. "Damn, you have this way of cooling my anger. For thirty minutes, I've been so mad at you for putting yourself in danger. And yet when you tell me why you couldn't kill him, I can't stay angry any longer. But, Dora, I'm warning you, no more outhouses. We do this together or not at all."
What were they doing together? Leo was dead. When they located the poison, they would part ways. Sure, she loved Jesse, but she also came to accept they would never be a couple. She loved him so much, she would walk away.
Besides, now that this was almost over, she would wander for a while. Bounty hunt when she needed money, then ride across the country and do whatever she desired. Knowing it would be an empty, lonely life.
While they were together, she wanted to make memories to carry with her, not dwell on her hollow future.
Riding side by side, she re
ached over and touched him on the arm. "The good news is I'm no longer married."
"Aargh," he growled. "That's what I'm talking about. One moment, I'm so angry with you, and now I want to ride as fast as we can to the hotel. But we can't."
A smile spread across her face. "Just trying to give you something positive to think about."
It was so easy to bedevil men and she loved the way she had Jesse in an uproar. These parting moments—she would enjoy every one of them.
"You're driving me absolutely crazy with want, woman. If you don't behave, I'm going to take you right here on the side of the road."
A giggle escaped. Last night while drinking, she believed his comment was the liquor talking, but he was serious.
"Never driven a man crazy with want. Kind of makes me feel special."
The glare he gave her should have singed her blonde hair, but instead she blew him a kiss. "We better hurry if we're going to reach the jeweler before closing. No time for stopping on the side of the road."
Chapter 12
The woman was exasperating and yet anticipation like a volcano ready to explode built inside him. How long had they waited?
It seemed like forever and he was past being subtle. He wanted Dora something fierce. Thank goodness the children were with his aunt.
As they walked into the jewelry store five minutes before closing, he hurried to the counter.
"Did Leo Tennyson come in here today to purchase an engagement ring," Jesse said.
"Oh yes, he is proposing to the spinster," the owner said. "The man's got a lot of courage to marry that woman."
The woman had bravely shot and killed Leo, but Jesse couldn't help but agree with the jeweler. "Did he mention his miracle cure and who he might have sold the drink too?"
The man thought for a moment. "Said he ran into a friend at the saloon last night who purchased his entire load. Roy..."
"What? He was in jail," Dora said. "How did he get out?"
Lipstick and Lead Series: The Complete Box Set With a Bonus Book Page 115