“You bitch,” he cried as she clawed and bit and kicked during the struggle. Then to her dismay, she felt her son join in the battle.
Lionel wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. He’d proved that a few minutes earlier when she’d jumped him the first time and he’d shot at her, but missed, thank God. Now, terror gave added strength to her movements. She would save her son from this monster if it was the last thing she did.
Will beat at Robards’s back. Tess felt the cold steel of the Colt brush her fingers. The Ranger’s grip on the gun was fierce, but a mother’s protective instincts gave her strength she’d never known before.
She got a grip on the barrel. He landed a close-fisted blow to her face and her head snapped back. But she didn’t let go. He hollered when Will kicked his leg out from under him. All three of them went down.
Then the gun went off. All three of them froze.
Tess felt no pain, but something warm seeped through her blouse onto her skin. She smelled the stink of blood. Oh, dear Lord, please. “Will?”
“Mama? Are you hit?”
“No. You, Will, what of you?”
“I’m fine.”
Relief gushed over her like water from a barrel. Tess rolled off the bodies beneath her. Will scooted out from underneath the Ranger.
Lionel Robards didn’t move.
“Aw hell, Mama. We killed him.”
For the first time ever, Tess didn’t correct her son for cursing. Two men dead. She looked away, noticing the sun setting in the west. This day couldn’t end soon enough for her. Glancing down, she saw that blood covered her shirtwaist.
Will stood then helped her to her feet. She wanted to hug him, to pull him into her arms and never let him go, but she refrained from doing so. She wouldn’t soil her son with the blood of Lionel Robards.
Getting away from the body, they walked to the edge of the bluff and stood looking down at the Rio Grande that flowed black and fast below them. “Lots of water in the river,” Will observed, breaking the strained silence. “Must be all that rain we’ve been having. Look at it chum through the canyon.”
“That’s not the normal Rio,” Tess agreed, glad to think about anything but the experience they’d just survived. “A person’d risk drowning if they tried to swim it now.”
“Nah, not if they paid attention. I could swim it, I bet. I’m getting much better at swimming. I only had one close call all summer long, remember?”
Gabe’s weary voice sounded from behind them. “Please tell me you’re not going to try. I don’t have another year of life span to waste on being scared. I swear that last gunshot took a full decade off me.”
Apparently unconcerned about the blood, Gabe swept both Tess and Will into his arms and held them so tight that Tess could hardly breathe. She didn’t care. It felt so good to be held. Good to be safe.
How long they stood there, she couldn’t say. Not too long; Doc was on all their minds. All she knew was that one minute she was basking in her family’s love, and the next minute the nightmare had returned.
Maniacal laughter floated past them. They whirled around. Lionel Robards was on his knees, one hand holding his bloody abdomen, the other holding his Colt. “Guess what? I ain’t dead yet. Joke’s on you.”
A spasm of pain flitted across his face, but the gun hand didn’t waver.
“Robards,” Gabe said, starting forward. “Let me help you. Put the gun down.”
He laughed again, the wild sound of it sending shivers through Tess. Darkness was falling fast now, and the light in Robards’s eyes glowed like something unholy. Which it probably was. “Don’t take another step, Montana. Not before you make your choice.”
“My choice?”
“I have one bullet left. Who gets it, the boy or the woman?”
“Robards, you can’t…”
“Now, Montana. Who lives and who dies with me?”
“Me,” he said. “Shoot me.”
“No. Dying’s too easy. You have to suffer. Pick now and I’ll kill ‘em quick. Make me choose and I’ll gut shoot ‘em like they did me. What’s it gonna be?”
Horror twisted Gabe’s features. “Dammit man, think of your soul.”
“My soul? I gave it to the devil years ago. Last chance, Montana. I’m shooting on the count of three. One…two…”
One bullet. I can’t bear to lose either one of them. Me, it must be me. Tess chose for her husband by pushing their son off the cliff.
“Mama!” Will cried as he went over the edge.
“He can barely swim, Gabe. Go after him. Save our son!”
“Three!” hollered Robards.
Gabe, aided by a shove from his wife, sailed off the bluff and jumped into the roaring Rio Grande.
Tess couldn’t see them in the deepening darkness, but she kept her gaze on the water, her back to Lionel Robards just the same. Waiting for the bullet, she prayed for her husband and her son to survive the fell and the flooded river.
“You are something else, Tess,” Robards said. ‘“I always did admire a woman with courage. The game is yours.”
The gun fired. She expected pain, but it never came. The bullet never hit.
Tess finally turned around. This time, Lionel Robards was well and truly dead.
A man stood at the entrance of the cave, smoke still rising from the gun in his hand. He looked vaguely familiar, but in her present state, Tess couldn’t put it all together. “What…who…?”
“Reckon it’s past time we’re introduced, ma’am.” He tipped his hat. “Your husband and I are partners. My name is Mack Hunter.”
GABE COULDN’T see.
Cold water foamed and thundered around him, sweeping him downriver. With the high rock walls blocking what light remained in the sky, it might as well have been midnight as sundown. “Will!” he called out. “Will, can you hear me?”
The river bubbled and gushed. Perched on the canyon wall, a bird trilled and whistled.
Then, finally, above the rush of the river came the beautiful answering cry. “Help! Please. Help me!”
Sound echoed off the damn canyon walls, distorting the direction. I need to see him, dammit. Dear God, help me see him. “Will! Will! Where are you!”
“Here! He—” A gurgle cut off the word and chilled Gabe all the way to the bone.
The water slowed and Gabe realized they’d been swept beyond the canyon. But by now, full darkness had fallen and he still couldn’t see. He can’t swim. Tess said he can’t swim.
Gabe shut his mind to thoughts of her. He couldn’t deal with that now. He had to think of the boy. He had to save the boy. Their son.
Love for the boy warmed him, gave him strength to fight the water. He kicked his feet, boosting his shoulders out of the water, staring hard into the blackness.
But then it wasn’t so black any longer. Light from the sky bounced off the water, lit it, and revealed his son’s head right before it dipped beneath the inky surface. Strong strokes propelled him forward toward the spot where Will had disappeared. Gabe reached, searched the water. Found nothing but a rock to bang his hand against.
Now the water speed picked up as the Rio narrowed to flow into another canyon. But the light didn’t die. The canyon walls stayed visible, the water surface visible.
There. Five feet ahead and off to the right, his son clung to a floating branch. Smart boy. Gabe reached, brushed his shirt. Grabbed and found. He spit out a mouthful of water and said, “Will?”
“Daddy, I knew you’d come. I just knew it.”
Gabe thought his heart might just explode right there in the big middle of the Rio Grande. “I’ve got you, son. Now, let go of the branch and I’m going to turn you on your back. Don’t be afraid, and don’t fight me. I won’t let you go. I won’t ever let you go. All right?”
The boy nodded and let go the lifesaving cotton- wood branch. Gabe hooked his arm around Will and, supporting his head, struck out toward the bank. It was only then that he happened to glance up into the sky and
spied the light that had guided him. Well, twirl my spurs.
The Kissing Stars.
It was the Kissing Stars that had appeared and hovered over the river, allowing him to find his son. The Kissing Stars. Thank heavens he’d been able to see them. Thank Tess.
Tess. Up there alone with Robards. Oh, God.
His feet dragged the sand and he stood. “Here, Will. Dry land.” Helping his son find his feet, Gabe never saw the big log that hit him in the head and knocked him flat.
HE CAME to lying on his back in the sand. Something was lapping at his face. The events of the day came rushing back into his brain. Must be the river. I never got out of the Rio Grande.
It lapped again and this time he realized the wetness was rough. And it stank. This river smelled like a pigsty. It smelled like a…
Gabe lifted his head. “Rosie?”
The pig stuck her snout square in his face and licked him right on the mouth. “Bleah!” he said, rearing up on all fours.
The laughter started then, sounding sweet as sugarcane syrup. And Gabe became fully aware of his surroundings.
Monty. His father. He sat beside him on his right, his face wreathed in a smile, his torso wrapped in a bandage. On his left sat Will, looking a little like a drowned puppy, but a happy drowned puppy, with one arm draped around his best friend, Rosie. And at his head…Gabe breathed a sigh of relief…at his head sat the most beautiful, courageous, infuriating woman on earth. Tess. I’m going to make you pay for the stunt you pulled, pushing our boy into the water.
Milling behind Tess he saw Twinkle and the colonel. And, to his surprise, Andrew and Mack. Hell, even Pollux and Castor were in attendance.
And that wasn’t all. Above them, pulsing and glowing and burning in balls of gold and blue and green and purple and red—every damned color in the spectrum—above them shined the Kissing Stars.
Joy filled Gabe and he wanted to laugh and sing and shout out the love he felt for these people. For his family.
Instead, he climbed to his feet and dusted off his pants. Addressing the crowd in general, he said, “So, folks. What do y’all say. Think it’s time we take home the bacon?”
EPILOGUE
Aurora Springs
December 1889
THE STAR PARTY WAS scheduled for six o’clock that evening up on Lookout Peak. The wedding party would begin at two down in the valley.
At quarter to one, Gabe ran a hand over his wife’s naked buttock. “You’re making a mistake. Rosie will steal the show.”
“Well thank you very much.” Tess nipped him on the shoulder. “That is just the sort of thing a bride loves to hear.”
He laughed and when she punched him in the stomach, he laughed some more. He felt so damned good. “Now, Venus, don’t get in a snit. Any woman who chooses to include a porcine princess as a bridesmaid at her wedding must anticipate sharing the limelight.”
Tess giggled and stretched sensuously against him. “The veil is darling on her. Wait ‘til you see it.”
Gabe rose up on one elbow and stared down at his wife. “I’ll only be looking at you, my love. Only at you.”
Her sweet smile beckoned, and he lowered his mouth to hers for one more kiss. One kiss turned into a third bout of lovemaking for the morning that lasted until Twinkle banged on the bedroom door in protest. “Gabe-dear, I know you’re in there even though it’s the big middle of the day and you have a list of chores to do before the wedding.”
With a devilish grin, he called out, “I’m working on the chores, Twinkle. I promise.”
He returned to the business at hand, massaging his wife’s nipples to hard, turgid peaks, until Twinkle interrupted again with a snort of disgust loud enough to impress Rosie. “Ten minutes, young man. That’s all you get before I send Will in to get you. I don’t imagine you want that, so hurry up. Tess needs a little time to prepare for the wedding.”
“Will?” Gabe grimaced. “She wouldn’t do that, would she?”
Tess shrugged.
Gabe focused all his efforts on finishing his “chore” in a timely manner. Eight and a half minutes later, pants and shirt buttoned but feet still bare, he exited their bedroom.
Tess indulged in a few more minutes abed. Deliriously sated, a smug smile of satisfaction stretched across her face, she simply felt too good to move.
Closing her eyes, she basked in these few minutes of pleasurable peace. They were likely to be the last such moments of the day. Invitations to a wedding and a star party had gone out to every person in a three-county area, and the Aurorians expected a crowd.
Tess had protested calling this repetition of their vows a wedding because she and Gabe had already had one of those and she had fine memories of the event—her father’s shotgun notwithstanding. Gabe had overridden her arguments, saying he wanted to marry her again and that was that and she needed to stop whining about it.
She’d figured out part of the reason once Gabe suggested Doc give her away during the ceremony. Gabe obviously appreciated the symbolism.
Fathers and sons. What a complex, complicated relationship that. Gabe and Will seemed to be finding their way just fine. Over the past weeks the two of them had grown close enough to share a button hole. Her husband and his father, on the other hand, weren’t finding it quite so easy. They had come a long way during the past month since the events down in the Big Bend, but their relationship still had a little ways to go before anyone could call it fixed.
Twinkle knocked on her door, reminding her of the time. Quickly, Tess bathed and dressed. Sitting at her vanity table pinning her hair, she reflected on how her own relationship with her father-in-law had needed a little doctoring, too. She felt terrible that she’d doubted him, and even though he’d said all the right things when she apologized, she could tell she had hurt him. He hadn’t quite managed to hide his pout. Gabe had done them both a favor when he stepped in and took them through the lies during their trip home from the Big Bend.
“Robards was a player, a strategist,” her husband had said along the trail toward Eagle Gulch. “To win this particular game, he probably had three flags to capture, so to speak. One, he wanted Colonel Wilhoit’s gold. Two, he wanted to own or at least control the Aurora Springs valley. And last but certainly not least, he wanted my wife. So, because he enjoyed the game as much as the victory, he concocted an elaborate strategy that didn’t quite go like he had planned.”
Doc added, “Don’t forget he wanted me to end my pictograph studies. He didn’t want me finding his cache.”
“True. That’s why he set you up to take the fall as the railroad vandal to begin with. Then when I showed up on the scene, he elaborated on the plan.”
“Bodine,” Tess said.
“Yep. Bodine. Robards intended for Bodine to kill me and threaten either you or Will or my father. Then he’d jump in and kill Bodine to protect his secret, but do it in a flashy save-the-day way and look like a hero. He undoubtedly figured you’d fall for him out of gratitude.”
“Idiot.” Tess sniffed with disdain.
“In some ways, yes, but all the evidence he planted against my father was inspired. He must have worn a disguise to look like Doc, and he made certain people saw him both when he set the rail shed fire and when he broke Bodine out of prison. He befriended both Will and my father, going so far as to take Will tracking through the mountains to make the boy think later that his grandfather had the opportunity to travel to Huntsville and back. And I’ll bet if we looked close at that wanted poster he showed us, we’d find that the date of the breakout had been changed.”
“He might not have even worried about the date,” Doc confessed. “Everyone knows I lose track of time when I’m working. I know Will was gone for a two week period, but I couldn’t tell you the dates of those two weeks to save my life.”
“Maybe it did save your life,” Tess observed. “If Lionel thought you paid closer attention to dates, he might have had you meet with an ‘accident.’”
“You have a po
int,” Doc said. “The man certainly tied up all his loose ends. Why, all that evidence might have made me wonder if I was guilty or not myself.”
With that, all had been forgiven and the rest of the trip home had been made in happy company. At least, everyone had been happy until they reached Eagle Gulch and picked up Jack and Amy. Those two hadn’t been at all happy to learn they’d missed out on all the excitement and Amy had demanded they make it up to her by throwing a wedding party the likes of which West Texas had never seen. Tess only vaguely saw the connection between a marriage reception and a life-and-death adventure, but she wasn’t about to argue the point with Amy. Timid little Amy had disappeared. Empowered by her pregnancy, Amy made everyone think twice before saying her nay. Jack had taken to calling her Amazon Amy—in a loving way, of course.
A knock sounded on her door, jerking Tess back to the moment at hand “Honey, are you ready?” Doc asked.
She took one last look in the bedroom mirror, pinched her cheeks and brushed a non-existent piece of lint from the shoulder of the white satin wedding gown imported from Fortune’s Design in Fort Worth, and replied, “Yes, I’m coming.”
She opened her bedroom door to find her parlor filled with Aurorians. Her friends, her family. Each of them holding a gift.
Colonel Wilhoit offered his first. “It’s just a little bag of gold, Tess. I had hopes to hand you diamonds, but the mine is still evading me. Perhaps by the birth of your next child.”
“My next child?” Tess repeated. How did he know? She hadn’t even told Gabe.
He shrugged. “Amy said she could sense it. One mother to another.”
Tess turned a look on Amy and Jack. He grinned sheepishly. Amy shot a look that dared her to deny it. When Tess settled for rolling her eyes, the younger woman smiled and brought a package out from behind her back. “This is Jack’s and my gift. It’s for now, not later.”
The label on the box said Fortune’s Design. “Not another wedding gown, I hope,” she joked.
“No,” Amy replied, her eyes twinkling. “It’s a wedding nightgown.”
The Kissing Stars Page 30
