“Now hold it right there,” Gabe snapped back.
Hearing the temper in her husband’s tone, Tess decided to interrupt before the situation got out of hand. So she let out a little groan and gained both her husband’s and her son’s full attention. “Mama?” Will said. He dropped back onto his knees beside her.
“Tess?” Hovering over her, Gabe gently laid his hand against her cheek. “Tess, are you finally waking up?”
Bright sunlight stabbed like a cactus thorn when she fully opened her eyes so she shut them again almost immediately. “Oh, my head” she moaned, not needing to exaggerate her condition at all. She tried to sit up but both the pain in her head and the males in her life forced her to lie back down. A moment later, she again gathered her wits enough to ask, “What about Twinkle and the colonel?”
“They’re all right,” Will assured her. “Banged up a bit, but nothing too serious. The colonel’s ankle hurts and Twinkle is seeing to that.”
Relieved she asked about the accident, and Gabe described the broken wagon axle and how the coach had rolled. “You were out a good five minutes. You probably have a concussion.”
“Well, what are you, a doctor, too?” Will grumbled.
Gabe sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. The epitome of patience, he said, “You’ve a cut on your head—that’s where all the blood came from. That’s all I could tell. Do you hurt anywhere else, darlin’?”
Will’s chin went up and out. His eyes narrowed pugnaciously. “Don’t call her that. Her name is Tess. She is not your darlin’.”
“Yes, she is.”
The boy’s nostrils flared and his brow dipped into a fearsome scowl. “You are no hero, Whip Montana. You’re a sorry sonofagun.”
“Will, please.” Tess struggled to sit up, ignoring Gabe’s insistence that she stay put. Her head thrumming from the effort, she added, “Don’t be like this.”
“Like what?” He glowered at Gabe.
Then, the words flowing naturally, if ill-advisedly, from her tongue, she said, “Don’t sass your father.”
For the span of a heartbeat, Will froze. Then he shot her a look brimming with betrayal, and turned his head away. Rejecting her.
Tears welled up inside of Tess and despite her efforts to contain them, spilled from her eyes. Her whimper must have escaped, too, because Will darted a glance her way, then flinched guiltily. For just a moment she thought he might melt, but then the flame of anger rekindled in his eyes. “I’ve gotta go check on Rosie.”
With that, he rolled to his feet and darted away.
The boy is so much like his father. Tess grimaced and looked to Gabe for something—support or comfort. She wasn’t sure what.
What her husband offered wasn’t it. “That bump on the head scrambled your brains even harder than I thought. Do you realize what you just said?”
“Yes.” She sighed heavily and allowed him to wipe away her tears with his handkerchief. “But he said it first.”
“You were awake?” The handkerchief slipped from his grasp. “You woke up and didn’t tell us? Why, Tess that was downright cruel.”
She stared at the white square of cloth lying in her lap and said, “The damage had already been done by the time I realized what was happening. He’s devastated. This is just what I was afraid would happen if he wasn’t properly prepared. Oh, Gabe, I’m afraid this accident broke more than an axle.”
“What is it?” Worry colored his tone. “Your arm? An ankle?”
“It broke Will’s heart.”
“Ah, darlin’.” Gabe sat behind her, pulled her back against him and wrapped his arms around her.
This was what Tess had wanted, him holding her. “Everything has happened so fast. I intended to tell him myself, to answer all his questions before he had the chance to stew on them. He likes you, Gabe. I watched the two of you together. If we could have done this right, he wouldn’t have been so…”
“Mad as hell with the hide off,” her husband’s drawl rumbled in her ears.
Tess’s head hurt, her muscles hurt, and her heart hurt as she recalled the last fuming glare Will sent her way before running off. “I don’t know what to do now.”
“We let him cool off,” Gabe replied matter-of-factly. “We give him time to work the anger off.”
“Are you sure?”
“Believe me, I’m an expert on the subject of being filled with fury toward your father.”
“True.” After a moment’s pause she added, “I hope he doesn’t take as long as you to get over a grudge. Aren’t you worried that the old tenet ‘Like father, like son’ might come into play here?”
“No,” he snapped. The muscles in his arms went hard. “I’m not. I didn’t kill anyone Will loves.”
Tess melted back against him. She felt just bad enough not to pick and choose her words, but spoke straight from her heart. “No, but in your son’s eyes, you weren’t there when he needed you. I never said a word against you, Gabe. Actually, I seldom talked about you much at all. It hurt too much. I answered what questions Will asked, but he undoubtedly had plenty more running through his mind that he didn’t voice. He came up with his own answers, and now that he has figured out who you are before being told the why of everything, it’s those perceptions we will have to overcome.”
“You’re saying Will hates me like I hate Monty Cameron?”
“I’m saying your son is almost as confused as you are where his father is concerned. You don’t hate Monty, Gabe. You’re angry at him and you’ve nursed that anger for years and years. It is my most fervent hope that once you meet with Doc and rant and rave until you’ve said everything you’ve wanted to say all this time, you’ll be able to listen to what Doc has to say and forgive him.”
“Forgive him?” Gabe gave a harsh laugh and moved away from Tess. He gently laid her back on the quilt, then stood and began to pace back and forth along the creek bed. He grumbled beneath his breath for a number of minutes. Then abruptly, he stopped “Darlin’, aren’t you forgetting something? The man you want me to forgive more than likely broke a murderer out of prison, set up his own kidnapping, and allowed our son to travel across forty miles of desert all by himself to deliver a lie that led directly to the cut on your head and the spills Twinkle and Jasper suffered. Tell me, is that something you want me to forgive? Honestly, now?”
“We don’t know that Doc is guilty. We don’t know he’s the one who wants you to deliver the gold.”
“Yeah, well, we don’t know for certain it won’t snow in the Chihuahuan today, but it’s a damn good guess.”
Tess didn’t argue any further. She blamed her reticence on her husband but in all honesty, her own niggling doubts had something to do with it, too.
“Listen, Tess,” Gabe said. “None of that matters right now. Doc is not our immediate concern, Will is.”
Tess prodded gingerly at the gash on her head. “I think you’re right about how to deal with him. The best thing to do is to do nothing for now. Until we settle the situation with Doc, ask our questions and get our answers, we can’t settle our problems with one another. The way I see it, everything hinges on Doc.”
Gabe knelt beside her and cleansed the cut once more, then braided the hair around it tightly in the old Indian way for pulling the scalp together. Then, he stood once more, his legs spread wide and his hands braced firmly on his hips. “Everything hinges on Doc, you say?” he repeated. “Then, by God, let’s go find the sonofabitch.”
THEY SPENT an hour salvaging supplies from the coach and setting up camp. Colonel Wilhoit appeared to have broken a rib and one knee was swollen to twice its normal size. In his condition he could sit neither horse nor camel, so Gabe decided to leave him and Tess here in camp with Twinkle to care for them. He and the boy would ride ahead toting the gold and keeping a sharp lookout for Jimmy Wayne Bodine and Doc.
While Tess attempted to sleep off her headache, Gabe gave Twinkle instructions for what to tell Captain Robards if Gabe and his son someho
w missed the Rangers along the trail toward the rendezvous spot Bodine had specified. “We need one of the lawmen to ride back to Eagle Gulch and secure another coach and horses for the injured folks’ trip home,” he told the older woman. “I’m not chasing our runaway; he’s long gone at this point. Robards and his other man can catch up with us. If we’re lucky, Andrew will have fetched my friend Mack by now and they’ll ride this direction. You can fill them in on the developments.”
Twinkle agreed to the plan and Will voiced no objections. Of course, since Will wasn’t speaking to Gabe that came as no surprise.
Knowing Tess as well as he did, Gabe chose to leave camp while she was sleeping. Despite her best efforts, not even Tess was hardheaded enough to overcome her injuries well enough to keep up. The accident had cost them time, and they’d need to ride hard to reach Dagger Mesa by Bodine’s deadline.
Gabe rode out of camp followed by Will riding his sorrel mare and guiding the gold-toting Pollux by a rope lead. Will listened to the instructions Gabe gave him and followed directions, but never once did he reply. Gabe didn’t press the issue. Tess was probably right. Get the Monty situation taken care of first, gather all the facts and separate them from the feelings, and then perhaps the other problems would solve themselves. At the very least, Gabe figured he’d have a better grasp on where he stood with his son once he had a chat with Monty.
What had the old sonofabitch told Will about Gabe? What dreams had the boy entertained about his father all these years? What dreams had today’s ill-timed revelation destroyed?
With those hard questions on his mind and his silent son at his back, Gabe spurred his horse and increased their pace. They rode toward a dark and ominous range of mountains whose sharp red peaks rose into the sky like the jagged, rusted teeth of an extremely large steel trap.
He grimaced at the thought and hoped the image wasn’t a portent of things to come.
They’d been riding an hour when Gabe spied a puff of dust on the trail ahead. Riders, coming fast.
He reined his mount to a halt, then pointed toward a jumble of boulders off to the left. “Will, take cover in those rocks.”
His son spoke his first words in hours. Of course they were words of argument. “But I don’t see why—”
“Now, boy!” Gabe’s voice ricocheted like a bullet off the surrounding rocks, and with a glare, Will did as he was told.
Moments later Gabe identified the approaching riders as Captain Robards and his men, and blessed relief washed over him. He’d known from the beginning he didn’t like having his son along on this adventure, but it wasn’t until this moment that he realized how truly scared he was at the idea of Will meeting up with Jimmy Wayne Bodine. Immediately, he started thinking of ways to protect the boy.
The Rangers reined in their horses beside Gabe. He briefly explained about the accident and Robards immediately sent one of his men off with instructions to check on Tess and the others, then return to Eagle Gulch to obtain transportation for the injured. With that handled, the discussion turned toward Bodine.
“We’ve located the rendezvous spot. Tell you what, Montana, Jimmy Wayne Bodine might be a vicious criminal, but he’s about as sharp as a marble. The place is up a steep, narrow trail. A footpath. Damned near inaccessible. No way are we going to get the gold up there. We’ll have to leave it somewhere before we make contact with Bodine.”
“But that’s against his instructions,” Will protested, having abandoned his cover when the Rangers rode up.
“This could be a trap,” Gabe mused aloud. “The partner is an unknown in this equation. Bodine might pick a stupid spot for the rendezvous, but the person who successfully broke him out of prison is no fool. If that person was Monty and he chose the spot, then we can count on something fishy happening.”
And I don’t want my son anywhere near it.
Turning to the Ranger, he asked, “How close are we to Dagger Mesa?”
“Ten minute ride, tops.”
Gabe nodded, feeling a sense of relief. Robards had handed him a way to protect his son. He’d intended all along to stash the gold before reaching the appointed spot, and a ten minute ride was close enough, but not too close, to his way of thinking. “Any chance anyone followed you back this direction?”
“No.” Robards shook his head. “We’d have seen them. We all kept a sharp eye out, didn’t we Lieutenant Blackwell?”
The remaining Ranger nodded. “Sure did.”
Gabe made a slow study of the land surrounding them, then pointed toward a boulder-strewn area a couple hundred yards off the trail to the east. “There. We can’t hide our tracks but at least the place is defensible. No one will sneak up on our men in the daytime, and I hope to have this mission completed by dark.”
“But we can’t leave the gold behind, I tell you,” Will said. “The letter said to deliver it to Dagger Mesa. He’ll hurt Doc if we don’t.”
“We have no choice, son,” Robards told him. “Bodine will have to understand that.”
It stuck in Gabe’s craw to hear Robards call Will son, especially since the boy listened to the Ranger rather than argued. Ready to get on with the mission, Gabe tugged on his reins to turn his horse toward the rocks when Ranger Blackwell spoke up.
“There’s a better spot to hide the gold up yonder a short ways. It’s protected on three sides; you’d only need one man to keep watch.”
Gabe sent him a sharp look. Was that an honest suggestion or could Blackwell be part of this conspiracy? “I like this spot just fine.”
He really didn’t, though. He was sitting on the horns of a dilemma long and sharp enough to make a longhorn bull jealous. Which was more dangerous? To take Will with him and risk him around Bodine or to leave him here alone or with a Texas Ranger who was, in effect, a stranger? Why the hell didn’t the boy stay home in Aurora Springs where he belonged?
Because he’s an awful lot like you. You wouldn’t have stayed where it was safe, either.
“Let’s get this gold stashed, shall we?”
They rode to the ring of boulders and started unloading the gold. Gabe eyed the sky and was glad to see it clear. Colonel Wilhoit had told him earlier that rainfall was higher this year than normal, much higher, in fact. The desert was amazingly green in spots with water available in the gullies and washes, a fact he took comfort in for the most part. The draw back was this spot he’d picked to leave his son, while defensible, provided little in the way of shelter. C’mon, Montana. The boy’s not made of sugar. He won’t melt if he gets a little wet.
Still, he couldn’t help but fret a bit. Maybe this was part of what fatherhood was all about, worrying about things he shouldn’t be worrying about.
Tucking that thought away for further consideration at a later time, Gabe removed the last bag of coins from Pollux’s saddle, barely ducked a well-aimed spit, and deposited the money with the other bags. He was searching for just the right words to use to tell Will he’d be staying behind when the boy observed, ‘“I knew this would happen. Ain’t no way she’d stay behind.”
Gabe followed the path of the boy’s stare and felt his stomach sink. How the hell can she stand to ride that hitch-gaited camel with the headache she is bound to be fighting still?
Tess ordered Castor to kneel, then slipped from the dromedary’s saddle. He was glad to see the color returned to her cheeks when she marched up to Gabe and slugged him in the stomach. “How dare you take my son and leave when I’m asleep. You have more nerve than a broken arm, Gabe Cameron, and I’m getting real tired of it.”
“Montana,” he corrected automatically, rubbing his stomach. “How is your head, darlin’?”
“Angry. All of me is angry.”
“I don’t see why. Every hour counts right now, Tess, and you obviously needed rest.”
“Like I’d get any rest after being left behind while you take my son into a potentially dangerous situation? I won’t be left, Gabe. Never again.”
“Our son.” Gabe sighed “I did wh
at I thought was best.”
“And isn’t that what always gets us into trouble?” She punctuated her sentence with a sharp poke in the chest with an index finger. “And I don’t care if we are smack dab in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert” —poke— “or in Aurora Springs”—poke— “or New York City,”—poke—“don’t you ever run off and leave me without discussing it first, do you understand?”
Ranger Blackwell chuckled “I think she means it.”
Will said, “I told him you wouldn’t like it, Mama. He just ignored me.”
Gabe communicated his displeasure at the lie with only a look. He didn’t need to do more because Tess rounded on her son and gave him the sharp edge of her tongue, too. The boy hung his head and took it, apparently no more willing to add to Tess’s upset than was his father.
Finally, Gabe figured she’d had long enough to air out her lungs so he reached out and tugged her around to face him, then shut her mouth with a kiss. He intended simply to interrupt her rant, but right away the kiss turned into something infinitely more complex.
Her mouth was open so he couldn’t help but take advantage of that little detail. He slid his tongue in and immediately lost his train of thought.
“Montana!” The protest in Captain Robards’s voice eventually broke through the sensual haze in Gabe’s mind. “We don’t have time for that. Let the lady go and let’s get on our way.”
Tess broke the kiss before he did. “We shouldn’t do this in front of Will,” she said softly.
His gaze darted toward his scowling son. “I don’t know. Maybe this is exactly what Will needs to see. I wish I had more time to pursue it.”
“What’s our plan?”
The Kissing Stars Page 26
