The Forgotten Bride (Brides 0f Brimstone Book 2)

by Laura Fletcher

  Too many men guarded the south and west sides of the house. She didn’t go back there. She headed for the east side where she discovered the kitchen yard behind the house. While she watched, a female servant appeared. She pumped a bucket of water from the well before disappearing inside again. She left the door open to the air.

  Cici didn’t think twice. Maybe she should have thought, but she didn’t. Kelvin was in that house, and she had to find him. She darted out of the bushes and through the open door.

  The kitchen opened to one side off a long hall. Banging noises floated out of a large pantry at the far end. The woman must be in there, and Kelvin wouldn’t be. Cici scooted down the hall. She opened every door she passed, gave every broom closet and laundry room a quick once-over, and moved on.

  She got halfway down the hall when she heard male voices calling out farther away. She yanked open the nearest linen closet and hid just in time before seven gunmen thumped into the hall toward her.

  10

  The gunmen passed outside the linen closet door. Cici crouched among sheets and towels hardly daring to breathe until they clumped into the kitchen farther away. She could only pry the door open a crack to peek out to check if it was safe before she made a run for it.

  She couldn’t go back the way she came. The men would see her pass the kitchen door. She was trapped in this house. Doctor Kearney would give her a good scolding when he saw her next, but she just had to cope with the situation as she found it.

  She poked her head out. No one shot at her, so she darted into the hall. She ran on tiptoe as far as the stairs. Muffled voices drifted from a room to one side. Merrill and Sheriff Rupert must still be talking about Kelvin and the treasure.

  That left the stairs as her only avenue of escape. She ran up them and got lost in a maze of bedrooms and hallways. She floundered from one hall to another with no particular. She went around a corner without checking first and almost stumbled right into two men guarding a room door.

  She retreated around the corner before they saw her and waited there until her heart stopped pounding into her throat. The two guards both held shotguns at the ready. Kelvin must be in that room.

  She swallowed hard. She’d come this far, against all Doctor Kearney’s warnings and her own good sense. She had no way to get out of the house, so she might as well go the whole hog and try to free Kelvin herself.

  She had to get into the room, and she sure wasn’t getting through the door. She retraced her steps. She navigated back through the many halls until she worked her way around to the other side of the room.

  The hall ended right in front of the room next door. The door stood open to invite her into a grand bedroom. If she could get into the room next door, she might find a way through into the room itself. It was a long shot. Then again, marrying Kelvin at all was a long shot. What else in the world did she have to do but save a man’s life from these rascals?

  Just then, the cook came upstairs with a tray loaded with food for the guards. The men set their guns aside and flanked her. They laughed and chatted long enough to give Cici courage. She wouldn’t get another chance like this. The men stood with their backs to her with their attention on the cook. Even the cook faced a different direction.

  Cici streaked forward and darted into the room. She eased the door closed to muffle the latch clicking. She ripped open closets and random doors. She searched the whole room and found a closet communicating with the room next door.

  Her heart pounded against her ribs until her stomach ached. If this didn’t work, she would end up in much worse trouble than Kelvin. If it did work, though…. What? If it worked, what would she do when she finally found Kelvin Kirk bound and gagged on Merrill Fox’s floor? She couldn’t free him alone.

  She hesitated in the closet to catch her breath. Coats and dresses and suits hung from the rail and concealed her. She was safe for the moment. Did she really want to sacrifice that on the outside chance she might find Kelvin on the other side of that door?

  Her soul screamed, Yes! In that moment, all her protests against marrying Kelvin fell away. She wanted above all else to be with him, to give her heart to him. Everything she’d done since she arrived in Brimstone led to this moment.

  Her heart had been telling her this all along, and she wouldn’t listen. Now she knew. She never wanted anything but to be with Kelvin. She didn’t need the cottage, although it sure would have been nice. She didn’t care if they had to drag themselves halfway across the frontier before they found another place to settle.

  She would stand by him, no matter what. She would brave any danger to make him hers and to make her his. She took hold of the closet doorknob. She turned it ever so slowly so it made no noise. The door eased back, and she sneaked one eye around the doorframe.

  The room contained a big bed, washstand, a dresser with a large mirror over it, and nothing else. Her heart sank. He wasn’t here after all. Her throat constricted with sobs when she caught a flash of movement in the mirror.

  She rocketed into the room and fell on her knees next to Kelvin’s bound form. He lay on the floor next the bed. She couldn’t see him from the closet. She wouldn’t have seen him at all if she hadn’t caught sight of him in the mirror.

  Her hands flew all over him at once. “Oh, my goodness! Are you all right? I’ve been going out of my mind with worry. Oh, thank heaven you’re all right. Did they hurt you?”

  Of course he couldn’t answer. She searched all over him and found his wrists tied to the bedpost. She attacked the gag in his mouth and got it untied. He spat it out. “Get out of here, Cici,” he exclaimed. “It’s too dangerous. Do you know what they’ll do if they catch you?”

  “I couldn’t leave you here alone,” she breathed. “The doctor went to get Jed Wilcox. They’ll get us out of here.”

  “You shouldn’t have come,” he replied. “I hate to think of you in danger. Thinking you were safe back in town was the one thing that kept me going.”

  She froze. “You don’t want me here?”

  He broke into a brilliant grin. “I was never so happy to see anybody in my life. I hated to think I might never see you again, and now you’re here.”

  “We have to get you out of here,” Cici told him. “Merrill plans to kill you.”

  “I know. He wants me out of the way so he has access to the ranch.”

  “Well, I’m not leaving you here.” She set to work untying him. She got his ankles free and the rope unwound from his legs when she stopped dead. “Did you hear that?”

  They both held their breath to listen. Footsteps approached down the hall outside.

  “Hide, Cici,” Kelvin whispered. “Quick!”

  She glanced around for a hiding place. The footsteps paced down the hall, closer and closer. She didn’t have time to hide anywhere, not even behind the door itself. She reacted in an instant. She snatched up the fireplace poker and lunged for the door.

  She catapulted across the room just as the door swiveled open. She clenched the poker in both hands and swung with all her might. She caught one glimpse of Sheriff Rupert’s lanky frame rising tall and terrible before her when the poker cracked him in the head.

  He folded in half at her feet. He crumpled in a heap at her feet, and his body echoed through the floorboards. Cici and Kelvin stared at him. The poker hung heavy in her hand, but she couldn’t command her fingers to uncurl to drop it.

  Did she really just pulverize this man in the head with a fireplace poker? What was she turning into in this horrible place?

  She never had time to let go of her weapon when one of the guards appeared in the doorway. His eyes boggled when he saw Cici standing over the inert Sheriff. He lunged into the room with both hands gripped around his shotgun.

  Cici watched herself from a distance. Her poker whistled through the air, and it vibrated striking the man in the head. The head gave a dull pop when it shattered. It reminded Cici of a hard-boiled eggshell cracking when you tapped it on the table.

 
; The man collapsed on top of the Sheriff. The poker fell next to him. Cici’s hands weighed a ton. She didn’t think she could move them, but the next instant, she heard another set of footsteps coming close to the door.

  These didn’t trip with a steady pounding rhythm like a man striding resolutely where he wanted to go. These hurried in a mad rush to catch her, to take her prisoner and kill her.

  In a flash, she caught up the fallen guard’s shotgun and swung it up to her shoulder. The instant the second guard showed his face in the doorway, she pulled the trigger. A deafening boom rattled the whole house, and the guard sailed back into the hall and slammed into the wall.

  “Cici!” Kelvin gasped.

  She spun around to see him staring up at her in amazement. Her stunned surprise evaporated and left cold, hard determination in its place. She killed one man and knocked out two more, and she wouldn’t stop there. Nobody better stand in her way of getting herself and Kelvin out of this house. She would kill anybody who tried.

  She ran over to Kelvin. Her hands didn’t even shake while she finished untying him. She knew what she had to do. That shotgun told her everything she needed to know.

  Kelvin jumped to his feet and grabbed the other shotgun from the man in the hall. “They’re on their way up. Get ready to fight your way out of this house if you want to see another sunrise.”

  He set to work on the other guard and the Sheriff. He unbuckled the Sheriff’s gun belt and buckled it around his own waist. He handed Cici the first guard’s gun belt, and she draped it over her shoulder. He filled her pockets with shotgun shells. Everything made sense, now that she had Kelvin at her side where he belonged.

  11

  Kelvin and Cici flanked the bedroom door and listened. Dozens of booted feet thundered up the stairs toward them. Cici knew this would happen, but at least she would face it with a weapon in her hand and Kelvin at her side.

  Kelvin held two pistols at the ready. He carried another gun belt over his shoulder. Cici checked her guns to make sure they were fully loaded. The footstep sounds changed when they hit the hallway. Kelvin gave Cici a curt nod, and they both jumped out at the same moment.

  Cici didn’t bother to aim. She blasted both pistols toward the stairs, and Kelvin did the same. Bullets showered down the hall. Shouts and screams rang through the house, and the gunmen dove for shelter down the staircase.

  Kelvin and Cici retreated into the bedroom. “Did we get any of them?” she whispered.

  “It doesn’t matter if we did,” he hissed back. “We’re never getting out of this house. You realize that, don’t you?”

  “There must be a way,” she returned. “If we can hit enough of them, we could blast our way through.”

  “We don’t have enough ammo. We’ll run out, and we won’t get anymore. They can send in crates of the stuff and just wait until we run out.”

  “So you just want to give up?” she asked.

  “Of course not. I’m saying we’re not getting out that way. We have to find another way.”

  “What about the chimney?” she asked.

  He snorted with laughter. “Now I know you’re crazy. You wouldn’t fit up the chimney, and I couldn’t even get my shoulders into it.”

  “What, then?”

  He cast a glance around the room. Then he jerked his head toward the door. “Hold them off as long as you can.”

  He strode to the window and checked the casement. He peered down at the ground. “Jed and the doctor are out there.”

  “Did they bring a ladder?” Cici asked.

  Kelvin didn’t answer. He inspected the wooden frame around the glass panes and opened the window as wide as it would go. “Come here.”

  She stole a peek through the door, but none of the gunmen showed their faces. She crossed the room. “Give me your guns,” Kelvin told her.

  She hesitated. She didn’t want to let go of her guns, now that she had them. He held out his hand and waited. “It’s okay. I’ll give them back when you get down to the ground.”

  She handed them over.

  “Now jump down. I’m right behind you.”

  “You promise you won’t try anything funny?” she asked.

  “Are you joking?” he asked. “This whole thing would be hilarious if we weren’t about to get our heads shot off. Now get up there and jump.”

  She swung her leg over the windowsill, followed by the other one. She perched on the windowsill when Kelvin grabbed her arm. “Cici?”

  She turned back. “Yeah?”

  His bright green eyes hovered inches from her face. One black curl bounced in his eyes. “Marry me, Cici. I’m in love with you, and I can’t live without you. Marry me. We’ll work out all the other details later.”

  Cici burst out laughing in pure joy. “Yes!” she cried. “Yes, I’ll marry you!”

  He seized her behind the head and planted a rough kiss on her mouth. “Get out of here. Hurry!”

  She took a deep breath and jumped. She landed hard on the ground outside Merrill’s house. She scanned the terrain on the south side of the house, but she didn’t see any of the armed guards. They must have gone inside to help with the assault.

  In an instant, Kelvin landed next to her. Before they moved a step, he pushed her weapons back into her hands. She rearmed, Kelvin took her hand, and they made a dash for the bushes.

  The bushes hid them from view, and Jed and the doctor rushed through the undergrowth. “What in the world happened?” Jed asked. “We thought you were both dead when we came back and found Cici gone. What’s going on in that place?”

  “The jig’s up,” Kelvin replied. “They saw us escape. They’ll be out here in a second. We better make tracks.”

  “We don’t have time for that,” the doctor told him.

  “What do you mean?” Kelvin rounded on him, and the others saw the doctor gazing through the leaves toward the house.

  Kelvin and Cici followed the doctor’s eyes, and Cici’s blood ran cold. All the gunmen charged down the steps toward the place where the little party crouched. They all carried guns—far more guns than four people could ever fight against.

  One man pointed to the side. “Get around behind ‘em and cut ‘em off.”

  “The jig’s up, all right,” Jed muttered.

  In a blinding flash, Cici made her decision. She came this far to free Kelvin, and she just promised to marry him. She’d be jiggered if she backed down now. Without a moment’s hesitation, she jammed her shotgun into her shoulder and blasted through the trees.

  Buckshot splattered the men attacking her, and two men whipped off their feet and flew backward. “Cici!” Kelvin yelled out. “What are you doing?”

  She snapped her shotgun open and slotted two more shells into the breach. She shouldered her weapon and fired again, and again. She didn’t hear anything more. The gunmen whirled around and hammered the bushes with gunfire.

  Cici, Kelvin, Jed, and the doctor returned fire. All four fugitives answered the attacker’s fire and drove them back. The gunmen took cover behind garden walls and steps.

  Cici got so engrossed in shooting she didn’t notice anything until someone nudged her arm. Kelvin pointed behind them. More gunmen crept through the bushes to surround the party.

  Cici read the situation in a heartbeat. They confronted the same problem here that she and Kelvin faced upstairs. Merrill’s men possessed all the advantage. They could send for more men and more guns and more ammunition whenever they wanted.

  What did Cici and her friends have beyond a few guns and a few dozen rounds of bullets? Cici and Kelvin already ran out of shotgun shells and used up most of the bullets they stole from the guards upstairs.

  Cici made a snap decision, just like all the other decisions she made that day. Maybe she would look back on some of them and cringe, but right now, her mind didn’t work that way.

  She bolted through the trees. She zipped around the house, back to the open kitchen door. She dashed inside and found the place deserted. All
the men were out front.

  Cici had to act fast. She had no idea what she was doing there or what she was looking for. She only knew she had to seize any advantage over these people, and it wasn’t firepower.

  She ran down the hall to the room where she heard Merrill and Sheriff Rupert talking. These men possessed all the guns and all the power. They only feared one thing, and that was honest people finding out what they were really up to.

  She eased back the door to Merrill’s office where she first met him. When she saw the room empty, she ducked behind the desk.

  Someone else owned the Rocking Horse Ranch. Merrill Fox didn’t want anybody finding that out. He hid copies of the incriminating documents in the cottage, but a man like that would keep copies near him, too. Men like him always did. They clutched their evil machinations close to their hearts in desperate greed lest anyone steal them away.

  Cici pawed through the papers on the desk. Her pulse surged in her head. She had to think. She had to breathe. She skimmed every piece of paper until she spied what she was looking for. Deed of Title.

  Her eye skipped down the page, and she read the description listing the property’s location. This was it. She stuffed it into her bodice and ran for the door. She stopped dead in her tracks halfway across the room. There stood Merrill Fox watching every move she made.

  His mouth smiled, but icy hatred glittered in his eyes. “Miss Cope! How nice of you to join us.”

  Cici staggered a few steps away from him. “Mr. Fox! I didn’t see you there.”

  He strolled around her. He made no move to cut her off from the door. He sat down in his desk chair and leaned back. “Won’t you sit down so we can discuss this in a civilized manner? This frontier country is crude enough as it is without throwing over the rules of propriety. Don’t you agree?”