Fired Up

by Mary Connealy

  “How come you’re the law in Broken Wheel?”

  “A Texas Ranger swore me in as his deputy.”

  “That low-down Ranger who shot two decent men? Simon Bullard and Flint Greer?”

  “Bullard and Greer, decent? And Lana Bullard, you defend. But I don’t remember you being overly concerned with a woman’s safety when it was Glynna Greer who came to you for help.”

  Vince had heard the story of Glynna running off from her brute of a husband and coming, children in tow, to Broken Wheel. Porter had held her until Greer got to town.

  “You put up with Glynna being abused without a second thought. How come all of a sudden you’re so concerned with a woman getting proper treatment?”

  “I trusted Greer. He struck me as an honest man, and I took Glynna for a liar.”

  “A liar?” Vince was almost sputtering. “She came to town all black and blue.”

  “No, she didn’t. You weren’t in town when that happened. There wasn’t a mark on her. All I saw was a fussy city gal throwing a fit at her husband.”

  “Dare went out to doctor her twice.” Vince took a step toward Porter. “Greer was brutal to her. She turned to you for protection and you threw her back into purgatory. This whole town bears the shame for leaving a polecat like you as sheriff after that.”

  “A man ain’t got no pride if his woman runs off. That woman dishonored a good man in front of the whole town.”

  “A woman is a rare and fine thing.” Except maybe for Lana Bullard, Vince thought. “No man can call himself a man if he sees a woman in need of protection and turns his back, leaving her to an ugly fate.”

  “A man’s got a right to keep his woman in line. All I saw was a woman running out on her husband with horses she stole. I refused to help her.”

  “You’re a coward.” Vince took the last two steps toward Porter and clenched his fist. “A coward and a liar and a sidewinder.”

  “Vince, stop.” Jonas cut into the fight just when Vince was beginning to taste the satisfaction he’d get by slugging Porter in the mouth. “We won’t solve this now. We need to find Lana.”

  Vince, seething at Porter’s cowardice, reined in his temper with a Texas-sized effort.

  They got back to town and locked Porter away in the badly damaged cell. Greer had used blasting powder to break his hired gun Bullard out of jail, and there was no money to fix the dreary little building. But they’d managed to bolt the bars back together and cover the hole blown in the floor and the back wall.

  “I’m keeping the key,” Vince said, dangling it so Porter could see it. “I think Lana is working with you, and I don’t trust her not to come in here to try and set you free.”

  Jonas headed for the door. “Now let’s get back to Dare. If Lana stabbed him once, she might come after him again.”

  Vince was right on Jonas’s heels.

  Chapter 22

  “Dare, we can’t get—”

  Dare cut her off by kissing her. He ignored the pain in his shoulder and dragged her into his arms. He was steadier and stronger with her there. He tilted his head and deepened the kiss.

  She didn’t resist for a second, and he knew this was his answer, not her weak “Dare, we can’t.”

  He raised his head and looked down into those golden eyes. Everything about her was golden. She moved to be closer to him, and every shift of her body increased his longing for her to be his. “You have to marry me, Glynna.”

  She raised her hands to rest on his cheeks. Her golden eyes shifted back and forth between his. “I do. I have to marry you. I can’t want you like this and not marry you. But what will we do about Paul?”

  “That’s the question, isn’t it?” Dare was suddenly aware of the door behind them and that anyone could walk in. Paul, Vince, Lana . . .

  “We should have locked the door after Tina. Go. We can’t have this talk if we don’t have privacy.”

  Parson Jonas was walking around town right now. They could have this wedding immediately. As Dare glanced at the door, he made a wrong move and his back seemed to stab him all over again. Might be best to get married in a few days’ time, he decided, when he could do justice to the honeymoon. At the moment he was more patient than protector. And they needed to tell Paul, let the boy adjust to the idea of the marriage.

  Glynna stood. Her hair looked for all the world like someone had run their hands deeply into it. He didn’t want Paul to see her like this, although it was almost morning and her hair being messy could be laid down to a lot of things.

  “Dare, I know how it was when I told you about Reggie. I could see your anger at him for being such a traitor. And you blamed me, too.” Glynna gave a short, humorless laugh. “Reggie blamed me for my father’s money running out, even though it was him who spent it all. He blamed me when we ended up living on that pathetic farm. And Flint blamed me for being a poor cook and a disappointment at . . . at meeting his husbandly needs. And then here you were blaming me for the actions of my first husband. When we first met, you even blamed me for being hurt.”

  “Don’t compare me to those yellow-bellied coyotes you were married to.” Dare knew he’d felt those things, but not anymore. What little niggling he felt wasn’t stronger than his need to claim Glynna as his wife. They’d work out any confused feelings on Dare’s part later.

  “How long before you start scowling and complaining? How long, Dare?”

  The woman had a point. They’d put the wedding off a while until they’d settled all of that. Then he imagined Vince walking in on him kissing Glynna. His friend would needle him about that forever. They really needed to lock that door. But more than that, he had to get Glynna to forget how he’d reacted to her traitorous scum of a first husband. Risking being caught, Dare reached for her to kiss her to distraction.

  “Stop!” She laid both hands flat on his chest. “What if there was nothing wrong with either of my husbands, nor my son? Maybe it’s me. Maybe, even if you’re the most honorable of men, you’ll turn bad because I bring that out in a man.”

  “That’s ridiculous, Glynna. Your other husbands were bad from the first. And your son will be just fine. He needs a strong, honorable man for a pa, is all.”

  “And that’s you, right? The ridiculous little woman can’t handle her own son, but the big strong Regulator war hero doctor can? Right . . . ?”

  “Stop putting words in my mouth.” Dare had a feeling that growling at a woman while you proposed to her was all wrong. He tried his best to stop. “Glynna, I’m not marrying you to save your son. I’m marrying you because I can’t be near you and not want to be married to you in every way you can imagine.”

  At last her hands on his chest relaxed. Her beautiful golden eyes opened wide as she stopped struggling. There was a long moment as they sat together, then she nodded. “I feel the same, Dare. I do.”

  “We don’t have to get married right away.” Although Dare wanted to badly. He wanted her pledged to him before God and man. But Paul was going to be a hard one to handle, and they all needed a bit more time to work things out. “Go lock the door. We’re getting married. We can decide when later, but for right now, I want that door locked.”

  Glynna, with flattering reluctance, eased away from him and stood. She hurried to the front door, plucked the skeleton key off the nail by the doorjamb, and locked it.

  “I’m pretty sure I locked the back door,” Dare said, “but can you check it?” Just then another wave of dizziness swept over him and he felt the need to lie down and sleep for a while, but he had to resist it and stay alert. “You know, it’s been way too long since Jonas and Vince left. I don’t like it that they haven’t come back saying they found Lana.”

  “Is there a key hanging up by the back door, too?”

  “No, I use the same key on both doors.”

  Glynna looked down at the key in her hand. Then, with her eyes blazing like the rising sun, she said, “This key would probably work in the diner’s door. That means someone besides my own family
could’ve gotten in.”

  “Most keys work all too well in doors they weren’t made for.”

  “Which means someone had access to my knives besides Paul.”

  “And Lana knew that kitchen and your knives better than anyone.” Dare wasn’t thinking like a patient now, nor a doctor. He was thinking like a soldier who’d faced danger and judged risks and used logic to find answers. His head cleared as one more piece in this puzzle slipped into place.

  “I’ll get the back door locked, then we’ll wait for your friends. You should lie down.” Glynna rushed toward the kitchen. Dare wobbled a bit but somehow stayed upright. He wasn’t going to rest, so he’d take this time to finish settling things with Glynna.

  Still, he looked sideways at the bed. It was inviting. And his back hurt like blue blazes. Maybe he could—

  “Dare?”

  The tone in Glynna’s voice brought his head around hard. She stood, ashen-faced, in the hallway to the back door. Dare rose unsteadily to his feet.

  Lana Bullard, her hair gone wild and her eyes gone mad, was right behind Glynna with an arm around her neck and a knife only inches from her throat.

  “My boardinghouse key works in pretty near every door in town,” Lana said. “Your old house. The diner. Your new house.”

  Dare took a half step forward. “Lana, stop!”

  “You killed my son, Doc. Now I’m gonna kill someone precious to you.”

  Vince led Jonas down the steps toward the main street. “Sun’s finally comin’ up.”

  “Glad to get shut of this night.” Jonas sounded exhausted, but Vince knew this wasn’t going to be a day to catch up on sleep.

  “One of us needs to ride out to get Luke.”

  Jonas and Vince strode side by side toward the row of buildings where the diner stood shoulder to shoulder with the general store and the saloon. The door to the diner swung open and Vince went for his gun by reflex. Paul stepped into the doorway, glaring at them, of course. Vince’s hand trembled on his gun and only then did he realize how on edge he was.

  Jonas muttered, “Didn’t we tell him to stay with Dare and the women?”

  “I want to see how Dare’s doing. We’ll deal with the kid later.”

  But Paul wasn’t waiting until later. He stormed down the steps of the diner and strode straight for them. Vince and Jonas could walk over the grouchy youngster or they could stop. They stopped but, for Vince at least, it wasn’t that easy a choice.

  Paul started complaining before he stopped walking. “I’m sick of your friend—”

  Vince cut him off. “Why aren’t you with Dare?”

  Paul’s fists clenched. “My ma wanted me to go back to the diner so Janny wouldn’t wake up alone, but that’s not why—”

  Jonas cut him off. “Then what are you doing out here?”

  “Tina is with her. Stop interrupt—”

  “So you left a sleeping child and my sister alone after Dare got stabbed?” Jonas sounded too angry for a preacher. “I’m going to make sure they’re all right.” Jonas took off for the diner, which stood with its front door wide open where Paul had come out.

  Vince turned on the kid. “You know there’s danger. You saw Dare had been attacked. But you’re too stubborn to help out by watching over them?” His voice grew deeper, louder. “Instead you came out here to complain about your ma and our good friend and think we’ll take your side? Listen, you little pup, we got you out of a bad situation with Flint Greer. We saved your ma’s life in an avalanche. Dare was right there risking his life.”

  Paul’s chin came up in defiance. “You only did that to get Luke Stone’s ranch back.”

  “No.” Vince slashed a hand. “From the minute Dare realized Greer was responsible for your ma being hurt, Luke’s land wasn’t the most important thing anymore. Not to any of us. We pushed as hard as we could to get you out of there. That’s because we’re men. And men don’t stand by while a woman or child is being hurt. Dare would never hurt your ma, nor any of your family. I don’t blame you for remembering the hard lessons you’ve been taught, but use some common sense. Dare Riker is a good man and you’re close enough to an adult to see that.”

  “I am an adult, and my ma don’t need another husband.”

  Vince swerved around Paul, then stopped. Mad as he was at the boy, he couldn’t leave him out here alone. “Jonas is with Janny and Tina now, so you come along with me back to Dare’s house. I’m not going to stay out here yappin’ when there’s a would-be killer loose in town.”

  “I thought you just came from the jail. I figured you locked someone up.”

  “You figured wrong, kid. And not for the first time. Let’s go make sure your ma’s all right.” Vince didn’t leave the boy, despite the urgent need to check on Dare. Paul wanted to be back by his mother, so it didn’t take long for him to come along. Vince prayed that they didn’t walk in on Dare and Glynna smooching, but instead walk in and find nothing the least bit interesting. He’d had a bellyful of the young’un complaining, and walking in on his mother in another man’s arms would most likely keep the racket going all the way till the noon hour.

  Dare had a gun inches from his hand. Lana was a little taller than Glynna, and in the normal run of things, Dare figured he could hit what he aimed at.

  But that razor-sharp knife was too close to Glynna’s neck, and Dare’s hand too shaky. Glynna being in danger made the stakes so high that Dare couldn’t risk it, even though he wanted to reach Lana Bullard and rip her apart with his bare hands.

  How did it come to this? She’d adored him when he’d first come to town. He’d never been comfortable with it, but he realized now that her adoration was as irrational as her hatred.

  “Lana, put down the knife and let’s talk. Let’s talk about that night when you came to my office and you thought a baby died.”

  “It happened! Don’t try and deny it.” Lana’s teeth bared, and her bloodshot eyes flashed. The knife wobbled and Glynna flinched. A line of blood welled and a rivulet flowed down Glynna’s neck. Dare knew he might have to do it. Take the long, ugly chance that he could shoot Lana before Glynna was killed. Another death on his conscience. And if he failed and Glynna died, Dare might well die too, from grief.

  Only now, as he saw that gleaming butcher knife, did Dare realize he was in love with her.

  God, please give me wisdom. Give me the right words. How do I talk to someone who’s crazed with grief for her child?

  It came to him as if God had opened the pages of a book for Dare to read.

  “Do you know what God did when His son, Jesus, died?”

  Shaking her head, Lana seemed to truly be listening.

  “God forgave the men who’d killed Him.” Dare risked a quick glance at Glynna. She was ready to move, to fight, to do whatever needed to be done. But Glynna was listening, too.

  Maybe Glynna needed to be reminded about forgiveness. Then Dare wondered if he didn’t need the reminder just as much.

  Shaking her head, the knife came back up, close again to Glynna’s neck. “No, He didn’t,” Lana said. “No one could forgive that.”

  “Jesus’s last words as He died at the hands of evil men was, ‘God forgive them, for they know not what they do.’”

  “And God did it? Just like that? He let them kill His son? He didn’t even care enough to be killing mad?”

  “The Bible said that there were earthquakes when Jesus died. The sun went dark. A temple, that’s a church, was ripped up inside. Graves opened and dead people were seen walkin’ around. I’d say God was mighty upset.”

  Lana’s eyes seemed to focus for the first time. She glanced at the knife, then at Glynna.

  “Just like you’re upset, Lana. But look at me. You know me. You’d come to see me many times. You know I’m not a man who would harm a child. But whatever you believe, you need to forgive me like God forgave those who killed His son. You need to put down that knife and let Glynna go.”

  Lana’s eyes shifted to the knife. Slowly
, a fraction of an inch at a time, her grip relaxed on Glynna’s neck. Finally her restraining arm fell to her side.

  Glynna stepped away as if afraid a sudden move might stir Lana up again. When Lana didn’t grab for her, Glynna walked the few steps to Dare and turned to face Lana. Dare sank down to sit on the bed while Glynna stood at his side.

  Dare should probably walk over and take that ugly knife from Lana, but he wasn’t sure he could stand.

  “I reckon I can forgive you, Doc. And Glynna’s never been nuthin’ but good to me, so you’re right that I shouldn’t hurt her.” Lana looked at the knife as if she were under a trance. It came up as Lana drew it toward herself. “But all I’m left with is the grief of my child dying and my husband running off. I’m left with nothing, just like I’ve always had nothing.”

  Tears trickled down Lana’s cheeks. The knife turned to point inward, straight at Lana’s heart. “I am so tired of living with nothing.” Her tears fell faster. “I forgive you, Doc.”

  Dare tried to stand, but his knees buckled and he fell back to where he sat. Glynna had started to move toward Lana when Dare grabbed her by the wrist and held her back.

  Lana looked again at the knife and her expression was pure sadness, hopelessness. “Bury me beside my husband and son.”

  A shift of shadow in the hallway behind Lana drew Dare’s attention.

  Vince.

  She pulled back the knife to strike herself.

  With a single motion Vince quickly reached around Lana and knocked the knife from her hand.

  A scream of grief ripped from Lana’s throat. The despair in her eyes shifted to pure madness. She whirled on Vince and attacked.

  Chapter 23

  Vince went down under a clawing madwoman. He kicked aside the knife and caught both of her wrists at the same time she started walloping him with her feet.