"No, you won't."
"Why the hell not?"
"Because you'll let this go. The same as Zach did."
He laughed. "Yeah? Well, apparently that's where my little brother and I part ways."
She grabbed his arm and her reddened eyes met his. "Jesse, I couldn't prove anything against Mitch then and I still can't."
"He's still after you."
"He didn't touch me today," she said.
"He didn't have to," Jesse pointed out with a feral look in his eye. "Look at you! Does he have to rape you before you try to stop him?"
Andi's fingers dug into his arm. "You won't kill him because he's not worth a hangman's noose."
"Then I'll see he's thrown in jail."
"Anything legal would be... futile. And"—she looked at her hands—"damaging. It's my word against his. That's all I have. Mitch Lodray comes from one of the best families in town. My father was a drunk. Whose word do you think they'd believe, his or mine?" She let that question hang there for a moment, then said, "If there's a shred of compassion in you, Jesse, if you still care about me, even a little, you'll just let this go."
"It's because I care about you a hell of a lot more than a little that I can't do that."
"Damn you! Don't you see? I have to live here. What do you think people would think of me if something like this came out? Even if he were convicted, which is highly unlikely, do you think I'd be able to look any of my neighbors in the eye? Do you think I'd have the chance for any sort of decent marriage? Either way I'd lose."
Jesse ground his teeth together and sat down on the step, suspecting she was absolutely right. Attempted rape was not a subject for polite conversation, but it would make her the object of malicious gossip in Elkgrove for years to come.
"Promise me, Jesse," Andi begged him. "Promise you won't do anything to make things harder for me."
Than you already have, he finished for her silently. Her plea cut into his heart with the precision of a surgeon's blade. Guilt gathered in his throat, cutting off his air. It was his fault. All of it. If he'd been man enough to stay and work out his problems with his father... or to have taken Andi with him when he went, none of this would have happened. And now, his conniving to find her a husband had opened the door for Mitch Lodray. God, what an idiot he'd been!
"Promise me, Jesse," she repeated.
He looked up at her reddened nose and tear-streaked face. His chest tightened with an emotion he'd not put a name to before—love. It hit him hard and low and with a clarity he'd only just acquired.
"Marry me, Andi," he said. "I won't let him hurt you again. I swear to God, he won't." He reached up and touched her cheek. "I love you."
Tears trembled on her lashes and she laughed ironically as she pulled away from his touch. "You know, that's a good one. This morning, I might have even believed that."
Jesse clenched his fingers into a fist. Hurt burrowed deep inside him. "Whether you want to believe it or not, it's true."
"I'll find my own man, Jesse. Don't bother yourself trying to live up to your brother," she said. "I may have married him for protection, but in the end we had something far more precious than you and I will ever have. Trust." She got to her feet and looked down at him. "If it takes finding a husband to get you out of my life once and for all, then that's just what I intend to do. Because I... I wouldn't marry you now if you were the last man on earth."
She turned and fled into the house, slamming the door. He heard little Zach cry again and in a few minutes, heard him stop.
How long Jesse sat staring at the corn, he didn't know. A hollowness spread through him, stealing the strength from his legs. His mother's voice echoed in his mind. "Jesse, if you get burnt, you've gotta sit on the blister." Well, he'd cooked himself good this time. He'd dug himself so deep he supposed there was no way out. Not for him, at least.
That sure as hell didn't mean he had to let this thing lie. He tightened his fingers into a fist. He'd abandoned her once. He wasn't about to leave her to the mercy of an S.O.B. like Mitch Lodray again.
Her words came back to him. Promise me you'll let this go. He hadn't promised, and he'd be damned if he'd let that bastard run roughshod over her life the way Zach had. She may have trusted his brother, but where did that leave her when Zach went off to war?
Silas's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Hey, boss, back from town so soon?"
Jesse's glare swept to the colored man, who approached from the field carrying the shotgun Jesse had left with him. Jesse rose slowly. "Yeah. And where the hell have you been?"
"Huh?"
"I told you to watch the place," Jesse snapped. "Where the hell were you?"
Silas swallowed and took a step back. "I didn't hear nothin'. I's only in the field, boss, checkin' the fencin' like you axed me to."
"Like I—" Jesse stopped himself, knowing, indeed, he had mentioned something about those bloody fences. "Your first job is to watch Andi and the boy!" he boomed. "Is that clear? The hell with the fences and anything else that has to do with the farm. When I'm gone, you're here watching over her with the gun. Nobody gets near her. Got it?"
Silas' expression flattened with Jesse's harsh words. "Yassuh. I's sorry, boss. Won't happen again. Miss Andi... she all right?"
Jesse exhaled sharply. "She will be. As soon as I take care of a little matter. Unhitch the team, Silas, and give them a good drink. I'm going to town. I'll be back directly."
"Yassuh."
"Don't tell Andi where I've gone."
"No suh."
"And don't let her out of your sight." Jesse hesitated beside Silas, and clapped him on the shoulder in apology. Then, he headed to the barn for Rabble.
* * *
Mitch Lodray fitted his hat on his head at a rakish angle and left his parent's shop feeling better than he had in years. Deciding to leave his cane behind, he stood outside on the walkway and breathed deeply before starting off for the Sunset Cafe. Things were working out quite well, all in all, he thought. He'd seen Andrea alone at last, and felt confident she'd come around.
She hadn't really meant the things she'd said to him today, he decided on the ride home. She was playing coy, toying with him. Of course, she had to act as if she hated him. All women played that game. He supposed he could deal with that until she finally admitted her true feelings for him.
He started down the boardwalk with a limp, nodding at several ladies who fluttered their fans at him. Mitch smiled when they glanced sympathetically at his injury. Even the bullet he'd fired into his own foot had healed well. It had been worth the price he'd paid, for it had brought him home to Andrea at last. He considered the healing a sign from God that he'd been right all along. After all, he might have lost the foot to one of those green field surgeons. But he'd considered the risk justifiable.
Not that he'd wanted to come home to his parents. His mother nearly drove him mad with her constant nagging and criticizing. After three years at Harvard and two in the war, he still didn't meet her standards. Well, that was all about to change. He even thought she'd approve of his choice in women, once he could get Andrea to come around.
All the years he'd been away from Andrea, he'd done nothing but fantasize about her. In every woman's face, he saw hers. Every woman's body he'd taken had been hers. Andrea Carson Winslow had been the standard of perfection by which all others were judged... and discarded. The apogee of womanhood. And she would be his. Then she'd forget all about Jesse Winslow.
Nothing would stop him from attaining the things he needed to convince her. She'd realize the lengths he'd gone to prove himself worthy and then she'd have to love him. Yes, things were going quite well indeed.
Passing Lawler Feed and Grain, he limped down the step at the end of the walkway and started across the dusty street. He glanced at his boots, considering whether to have them shined by the boy who sat outside the Elkgrove Hotel before his meeting this afternoon with—
A hand snaked out from the alleyway beside the shop and cinc
hed around his arm. Taken off guard, Mitch's fragile balance failed him as he was dragged into the shadows. Helpless to stop his own momentum, he gasped in the second before he was flung against the wall with a painful smack.
Lights flashed in his head and with a groan, he slid to the ground. A metallic taste filled his mouth. His assailant bent over him in the shadows. Mitch blinked what must have been blood from his eyes, and put up his hands in self-defense, but the man grabbed his shirtfront and hauled him up behind a foul-smelling pile of refuse and empty crates stacked in the alley, out of the view of the street.
"Winslow!"
"Hello, Mitch," Jesse said just before his fist connected with Mitch's unprotected gut.
Pain exploded in his belly and he stumbled back, gasping for air. Winslow hauled him back toward him again. Mitch managed to grab Winslow's arm to steady himself.
"What the hell... do you think... you're doing?" Mitch demanded.
"Too bad you cut your face, Mitch. Damn clumsy of you." Jesse's fist connected with Mitch's solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs.
Mitch staggered and gagged, trying and failing to suck air into his lungs. He bent over at the waist like a broken stave, clutching his belly, then dropped to his knees. With a choking gasp, he threw up his arm fending off the next blow. He was wholly incapable of defending himself against a low-down sneak attack like this and he cursed Winslow through his bloody teeth. "Fuck, Winslow—"
"The torso's the place to hit a man if you don't want to leave marks," Jesse said, grabbing his shirtfront again and dragging him halfway up to him. "How does it feel to be powerless, Lodray? To be brought to your knees?"
Mitch coughed and croaked, "You have no cause to—"
"Shut up!" He drove a fist into Mitch's kidney, sending him flying backward into the refuse. Mitch landed there with a splintering thud, falling like some damned overturned bug, helpless to get up. With a groan, he slammed his eyes shut, clutching his side.
Jesse took a step closer. "This is a warning, Lodray. You touch her again, you so much as look at her again sideways, I'll kill you. And nobody will be around to see me do it. That's a promise. Is that perfectly clear, you son-of-a-bitch?"
Mitch opened his eyes and glared at him wishing he had a gun. The toe of Jesse's boot connected hard with Mitch's thigh. He couldn't suppress a cry of pain.
"Is your hearing going, Lodray? I said is that clear?"
"I ought... to press charges... against you," Mitch gritted out bravely, grabbing for his thigh.
Jesse laughed. "Go on. I dare you. Not a man in this town would convict me of protecting Andi against a fuck like you who attacks helpless women. Go on. Tell the sheriff," he said with a feral grin. "And I'll see you rot in prison."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Try me."
Mitch shifted on the pile of crates, his whole body aflame with pain. He tried to rise, but fell back, defeated.
"Leave her alone, Lodray, or I'll put a bullet smack between those cowardly eyes of yours." Jesse picked up a broken crate, slapped it against Mitch's chest before turning and disappearing out of the alleyway.
Mitch swore and dropped his head back against the crates with a cough, trying to gather his strength. He shouldn't have let himself be caught off guard like that by that overblown skunk-skin trader. He'd make damn sure it never happened again. And Andrea...
She'd told Winslow about them. His mouth twisted with the irony. He regretted that he'd have to teach her a lesson for that small betrayal. But then, life was seldom fair, he thought, shifting painfully to a sitting position on the pile of stinking crates.
As a matter of fact, life was about to become very unfair for Jesse Winslow. He'd pay for what happened here today, Mitch vowed, getting slowly to his feet. He'd see to that personally.
Chapter 19
Mahkwi's yipping bark brought Andrea to the upstairs bedroom window where she looked out to see Silas holding a large-bore shotgun on a couple who'd just stepped from a hack in her yard. The man, tall with long black hair tied back from his face, wore buckskin pants and a fringed shirt. His fingers were plunged into the fur at Mahkwi's ruff, while her tail swept a happy arc into the dirt. The lovely young woman whose glorious mane of coppery hair cascaded down her shoulders and back, clutched the man's arm.
Disbelief paralyzed Andi for a moment before she could call out, "Silas! What in the world are you doing?"
"I's holdin' a gun on these two folks, ma'am."
"I can see that. Stop that this instant."
Silas darted a look up at the window. "Can't do that, ma'am."
"Why ever not?" she called.
"I is only doin' what the boss say to do, Miss Andi."
The pair glanced up at her window, perplexed, then looked back at the gun pointed at them.
"You're only—" Andrea sighed in exasperation. "I'll be right down."
Checking her face in the hand mirror Jesse had given her, she picked up Zachary and hurried down the stairs and out the kitchen door. No one had moved, but the handsome stranger gave her a curious look as she stopped next to Silas. His turquoise blue eyes went from her to the baby in her arms:
He touched the brim of his hat with his fingers. "I, uh, told him we were friends of Jesse Winslow's, madam," the man said with a trace of an accent, "but I don't think it made an impression."
Andi opened her mouth and closed it again. Friends of Jesse's? She moaned inwardly. If they were indeed acquaintances of his, they couldn't have picked a worse time to show up.
"The boss says to let nobody close to you or the chile," Silas explained hotly, still holding the gun on them.
She edged closer to him and said in a sotto voice, "Silas, this is not what Jesse had in mind, I'm quite certain."
Silas shrugged and muttered, "I don't reckon anybody know what's in the boss's mind these days. I's only doin' my job, ma'am."
"A little too well, I'm afraid," she whispered through her smile. "Where is Jesse now?"
"Uh, he's... uh... well, he gone."
"Gone?" she repeated loudly. "Where?" Her mind raced with possibilities. None of which she cared to consider just now.
Silas fumbled for a reply. "Uh... well, he uh..."
"Oh, never mind." She turned back to the strangers who were watching the exchange with growing discomfiture. "I do beg your pardon, I'm afraid there's been some kind of a dreadful misunderstanding, Mr.—?"
Before he could tell her his name, Jesse trotted into the yard on Rabble. As he neared, his mouth dropped open at the sight of the pair being held at gunpoint. "I don't believe it!"
Silas frowned uncertainly. "I was just doin' what you said, Boss—"
Jesse hardly seemed to hear him as he pulled Rabble up and slid off his horse, striding toward the pair with a broadening smile. "If I didn't see it with my own eyes. Creed! Mariah!"
The stranger, whose smile grew equally broad, withdrew his arm from his wife's shoulder to clasp Jesse's hand. But each pulled the other into a bear hug. Andrea stood watching the camaraderie like the outsider she was.
"Jesse. It's good to see you again, mon ami!"
"You'll never know how good," Jesse agreed and slapped Creed on the back. He moved to draw Mariah into their circle. Silas lowered his gun.
"Hello, Jesse," Mariah said with a laugh. "We simply couldn't come this far East without stopping by to see you on our way to Texas."
"Texas?"
Creed laughed. "It's a long story."
"Very long," Mariah agreed with a tired sigh.
"Listen, I'm sorry about the gun," Jesse said. "This is Silas Mayfield, my right-hand man." Silas grinned sheepishly and shook the hand Creed offered. "Silas isn't usually this inhospitable, but he was just following my orders. I wasn't expecting you two to show up on my doorstep."
Creed frowned. "And who exactly were you expecting?"
"That's a long story, too." Jesse's eyes met Andi's for a brief, tension-filled moment. The words that had passed bet
ween them earlier hung heavily in the air. "Creed and Mariah, I'd like you to meet Andi Winslow, my brother's widow, and her son, Zachary."
Andrea caught the surprised look the two of them exchanged before she forced a smile and stepped forward. "I'm so happy to meet you."
Mariah smiled too, and gave Andrea an impulsive hug. "You're Zach's wife? We were very sorry to hear about your husband. It hit Jesse very hard."
"Thank you," Andrea murmured, avoiding Jesse's eyes. That he hadn't shared anything with her about these friends of his from Montana spoke volumes while they knew everything about her, it seemed.
Mariah went on, "I'm afraid Creed and I are horribly rude to drop in on you this way, but we had no way of getting word to you beforehand. I hope our stopping by won't inconvenience you."
"Of course not. Jesse's friends are always welcome," Andrea reassured her with a smile. "You must be tired if you've come all the way from Montana."
"A little," Mariah admitted.
"And what's this about 'stopping by'?" Jesse asked. "I hope you're planning on staying with us for a good visit."
Creed shook his head. "I'm afraid we can't. We're here for one day, two at the most. I have a job waiting for me in a little town called San Marcos."
"A job?" Jesse repeated, a frown furrowing his brow. "Bounty hunting?"
Creed glanced at Mariah and laughed. "No. A real job. Sheriffing."
Jesse pushed his hat back with his thumb. "I guess we do have a lot to talk about."
"Why don't we do that inside instead of making your friends stand out in the hot sun," Andrea suggested. "I have some fresh lemonade and some iced tea made."
Mariah gasped. "Iced tea! With real ice? I'd absolutely kill for some."
Andrea laughed for the first time in days. "You won't have to go to such extremes, I assure you."
Jesse watched Andi and Mariah walk companionably up the steps together already falling into woman talk about the baby and the fragrant rose arbor sheltering the porch. He turned back to Creed.
"God, it's good to see a friendly face again."
Renegade's Kiss Page 26
