Of course, this was all conjecture. The clerk at the general store Leo had passed a few towns back had heard it from his cousin who was a clerk in the general store in Bethany Ridge. Again, thin information to go on, but at this point, Leo was willing to try anything. And he needed to talk to the sisters anyways. Leo always was one for efficiency.
Though it seemed as though he wouldn’t need their help to contact the bandit since the bastard had decided to rob the coach he’d been driving. Oh yeah, and clock him over the head after his female companion had taken a shot at him. So much for the stories about Blood Blade never harming his victims.
Leo had taken the job as a means to get him to Bethany Ridge. All he had needed was a ride and had considered it a stroke of good luck when the rotund couple and their obnoxious daughter had shown up asking around for a driver. The job provided him with the ride he needed and he would make money for the journey instead of having to pay it out. Win/win, he’d thought. He’d had a good feeling about the trip…right until Blood Blade’s gun had smashed into his skull. Now he wasn’t sure what to think.
Leo froze at the sound of doors creaking open. Boots clomped across the hard-packed dirt floor toward him. Murmuring voices filtered in. He sat up. Looked like he was about to meet his captor.
…
Cilla reached down and gave the rope around the driver’s hands one more firm tug before she stood up and dusted the straw from her knees. She hadn’t tried to wrestle his arms behind him, settling for tying his hands together in front of him, and she’d left his feet untied. He wouldn’t be going anywhere with her gun trained on him. But she made a mental note to keep her distance, just in case. His garbled curses through the bandana in his mouth made her sorry for what she was about to do.
A mud-covered Lucy had finally returned from town, her triumphant grin letting Cilla know she’d accomplished her task. Brynne left her post at the barn doors as Lucy shut them behind her. She took up Brynne’s position, keeping a lookout through a crack in the doors. The rain had stopped, allowing the moon to peek out from behind the clouds. Frank wasn’t known for keeping his word, and Cilla wasn’t taking any chances that he’d stay away until morning.
The horses and saddles had been brushed and cleaned, their sodden clothes properly hidden in the laundry pile. The only loose end knelt at her feet, his chest heaving with understandable fury.
Cilla held out her hand to Brynne, who hesitated only a second before giving her the loaded pistol. Leveling the gun at their prisoner, Cilla took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.
“I’m gonna remove your blindfold and gag now. We need to have a little talk. I’m armed and I’ll shoot if you try anything stupid. All I ask is that you hear me out.”
A rush of muffled words and angry hand gestures followed. Cilla sighed and stepped forward. She placed the pistol against his head and cocked the hammer. The man froze.
“I really don’t have time to repeat myself, mister. If you will please cooperate, this nasty little affair could be over and done with. Will you hear me out?”
After a moment’s hesitation, the man nodded once. Cilla stepped back and uncocked the pistol. Brynne removed his blindfold. He blinked, turning his head away from the lantern light spilling onto his face.
Cilla studied their captive. When his eyes had adjusted, he turned to face her. Even from his bound position on the barn floor, the fury in his face had her planting her feet to keep from running and hiding. She raised the pistol, refusing to follow the impulse to step back when he worked his way to his feet. Using his shoulder, he jerked the gag from his mouth and glared at her. His bound hands pressed against the side of his head for a moment, coming away smeared with blood. Angry brown eyes burned into hers from beneath a mop of slightly curly black hair. He looked a little familiar, but Cilla dismissed it. All men looked alike to her.
“Sorry if I got a little too rough with you there,” Cilla said.
His rage turned to confusion as he looked around. He took in Cilla with her gun, Brynne, standing warily to the side, and Lucy, who sat on a bale of hay near the door, holding a rifle on her lap. He turned back to Cilla.
“You did this? Three women?” His words were gravelly, his voice hoarse. He cleared his throat. “Where are your men? Why was I brought here? Wait—are you…are you the Richardson sisters?”
Cilla hid her surprise that he knew who they were. Though they were fairly well known around these parts—three sisters living on their own and running a ranch was not something you stumbled across every day—but a stranger? She didn’t answer him. She was the one asking the questions.
She brushed her free hand against her thighs and rolled her eyes as the man took in her clothing. Her father’s remade breeches were snug and left little to the imagination, but she’d figured out long ago that skirts and petticoats were unfit for ranch work. Breeches were more efficient.
Cilla cleared her throat to bring the man’s attention back to her. He drew himself up to his full and considerable height and Cilla had to look up to keep her eyes locked on his. But she wanted his full attention. There could be no mistaking what she was about to ask him.
His eyes narrowed and she licked her suddenly dry lips before she continued. “We had to bring you here, but I never meant you any harm.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You meant me no harm?” His gravelly voice coated every word with anger. Recognition finally sunk in as he stared at Cilla and Lucy. “You,” he said. “You and her over there. You robbed the coach. You’re not…you can’t be Blood Blade!”
The incredulous amusement in his voice did not endear him to Cilla. “We’ll ask the questions,” she said. “You’re new in these parts. What are you doing here?”
“Didn’t know it was a crime to be new. Surely you get lots of new faces coming in and out of here.”
“Not since the gold dried up. Prospectors generally head north of here. There’s nothing left for newcomers in this town, which brings me back to my original question. Why are you here?”
He shook his head with a disbelieving laugh. “I came looking for Blood Blade.”
“Why?”
“Why does anyone want him? I want to hire him to find something for me. I can pay. I was told the Richardson sisters could contact him for me. Never dreamed I’d find a bunch of women dressed up like bandits and robbing coaches.”
“Yes, and that presents a problem for us.”
“I won’t spill your secret. I told you, I need your help. Female or not, your reputation proves you can get the job done.”
“That’s very un-male of you.”
“No point in arguing otherwise. I call it as I see it. Always have.”
Cilla glanced at her sisters. “What do you want us to retrieve?”
“I’m looking for my brother. He sent a letter from this town three months ago and no one has heard from or seen him since.”
Brynne gasped and Cilla knew the realization of who this man was must have hit her at the same moment it had occurred to Cilla. Cilla flicked her sister a warning glance and turned her attention back to the man.
“Sorry. We don’t do missing persons.”
The man clenched his jaw. Asking for help was clearly not something he was used to doing.
“You are the Richardson sisters, aren’t you? Which one is Brynne?” he looked between Brynne and Cilla, having obviously dismissed Lucy as being too young.
“Look, mister, we don’t know anything about you. And we don’t know what happened to your brother, either.”
“Then let me go and I’ll be on my way.”
“Well,” Cilla said, training her gun at him once again, “here’s where we run into that little problem I mentioned.”
His eyes narrowed as he glared at her, but Cilla held her position. “See, you know who we are now. We can’t have you out there telling the world.”
The man stared at her, the silence between them hanging so heavily Cilla could almost taste it.
“I guess yo
u won’t take my word for it that I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“No,” Cilla said with a slight smile.
“Well, then. What’s it to be? Gunshot to the head?”
“Effective, but messy, I’d think,” Cilla answered.
“Are one of you pretty ladies going to try and strangle me into silence?”
Cilla smiled again. “It’s getting late, Mister…?”
“You know my name.”
Cilla continued to stare at him, waiting for an answer. She wasn’t going to confirm anything just yet.
Finally he answered, biting each syllable out. “Forrester. Leo Forrester.”
Well, that removed any lingering doubt. Cilla fought to keep from glancing over at Brynne.
“Mr. Forrester, I might have a proposition for you that could help us both out.”
He glared at her and waited.
Cilla swallowed. “We won’t kill you. We’ll even help you find your brother.”
“And in return?”
“You marry my sister.” She nodded at Brynne.
Leo stood in silence for half a heartbeat, then took a breath as though he was going to speak. Instead, his laughter rang out, a deep, gut-wrenching laugh that would have been hard to resist had she not been so deadly serious. He sat down on the stool that was in the stall and put his head on his bound hands. Rubbing his face, he took a deep breath and looked back at Cilla.
She hadn’t expected a good reaction—well, she hadn’t been sure what to expect. But his laughter had taken her by surprise.
“I’m glad I can amuse you.” Her hand twitched on the gun. She’d like nothing more than to clock him over the head with it again.
He raised his hands a little, glancing down at the rope. “You have a funny way of expressing affection,” he said, looking around at each of them, coming to rest once again on Cilla.
“None of this appeals much to us either. But since we’re in sort of a rough situation, you are going to have to do.”
“Your tenderness astounds me.” He looked at her again, appreciation for what he saw flickering across his face. “Why your sister? Why not you?” he asked, his eyes burning into hers.
Cilla sucked in a breath, momentarily struck speechless. His lips twitched and Cilla glared. “Because she is the eldest and because she needs…” Her words trailed off as she glanced at her sister.
Leo followed her gaze, his eyes lingering on Brynne’s hands, which were resting on her slightly rounded belly. “She needs a name for her child.”
If there had been one ounce of derision in his voice, Cilla would have reintroduced him to the butt of her gun. But it was said matter of factly, even sympathetically.
“My child has a name,” Brynne snapped. “My hus—”
“Brynne!” Cilla glared at her sister. She understood how hard this was for her, but Brynne had agreed and there was no time to argue through it again.
Brynne folded her arms across her belly, her lips pinched tight.
“Wait! She’s Brynne? She’s the one my brother loved?” He took a step toward Cilla, his face darkening. “Does that mean my brother is dead? What happened to him?”
Cilla looked toward the barn doors. “Lucy?” Her sister glanced over and shook her head before turning her gaze back out the doors. Coast was still clear.
Sighing, Cilla tucked the gun into the waistband of her pants. “Look. We have no idea what happened to your brother. If he were here, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now, so believe me, no one wants to find him more than we do. But since he isn’t here, we don’t have a whole lot of options. So this is real simple. You marry my sister, parade around as her husband for a couple weeks until a few…annoyances of ours go away. Then the marriage is annulled and you can go on your way.”
Well, they wouldn’t be able to annul the marriage for a while, but Cilla didn’t see the need to point out specifics. Brynne wouldn’t be twenty-one for another six months. So unless Jake reappeared, which after four months seemed less and less likely, they were going to need Leo to remain Brynne’s husband until then. But that didn’t necessarily mean Leo needed to stick around. They needed his signature on the register and his ring on Brynne’s finger, not his presence on their ranch. Not for too long anyway, Cilla hoped.
“And my brother?”
“We’ll do our best to help you find him. Like I said, we want him more than you do.”
“And what if I am already married?”
“You aren’t.”
They’d checked through his belongings. No ring, no letters from a loving wife, nothing to indicate he was anything other than a lone man. Traveling with an obscene amount of money.
Cilla tilted her head. “On your way back from the mines, are you? Or just back from exchanging some gold for cash? Rob someone? You were carrying an awful lot of money for a simple carriage driver.”
All amusement drained from his face and his eyes bored into hers. “You took my money?”
“I thought you were offering it up as payment.”
“Not all of it.”
The quiet statement sent shivers up her spine and almost made her regret goading him. She gripped the handle of the gun. “You’ll get it back, just as soon as our arrangement is concluded.”
His lips tightened into a nearly invisible line. She tried not to let him intimidate her as he took a step closer. Yet a streak of fear flooded through her anyway. She swallowed, forcing her breathing to remain slow and steady. She figured he would be angry, but being faced with the towering hulk of a man was much worse than she had imagined.
“Your money is safe. It will be returned to you, all of it. Like I said, we don’t want your money.”
“No. Just my hand in marriage.” He snorted. “And if I refuse?”
Cilla raised her weapon again. “We can’t have you running around knowing our secret, Mr. Forrester. Your choices are simple. A brief, sham marriage, and help in finding your brother. Or a cold, lonely grave in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, we really don’t have the time to wait for you to think about it. We need an answer.” She cocked the gun. “Now.”
Leo said nothing for a moment. “Why don’t you marry someone in town? I’m sure women are in as short of supply here as everywhere else in California. Surely there is someone who would be willing.”
Cilla nodded. “Yes, there are men in town who would be willing, but—”
“I have a husband,” Brynne interrupted. “I don’t need another one.”
“You married Jake?” Leo asked, his gaze softening as he looked at Brynne.
Brynne answered “Yes,” just as Cilla said, “In a manner of speaking.”
Leo looked back and forth between them. “I’m confused. Are you my brother’s wife or not?”
Cilla sighed but Brynne ignored her. “Jake asked me to marry him, but the town’s parson was on an extended trip. We didn’t want to wait, so we were married by a friend of Jake’s.”
Leo’s gaze flicked to Cilla. “Then I don’t understand the problem.”
“They were married by a friend of Jake’s from the Mojave tribe,” Cilla answered.
Leo’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “I thought the Mojave tribe was further south.”
Cilla shot him an impatient look. “It is. This friend is…complicated.”
Leo waited for an explanation and Cilla decided to get it all out quickly so they could move on. They were wasting time. “He’s actually an Irishman who lived with the tribe long enough to become one of their leaders. But he had to leave. The ceremony he performed for Brynne and Jake was a handfasting ceremony mixed with the Mojave ceremony. They consider it binding,” she said, nodding at Brynne, “but…”
“But it’s not technically legal,” Leo finished for her.
Brynne squared her shoulders. “Jake is my husband. I won’t marry some other man who will expect a true wife. And we won’t give our inheritance away just to keep Frank from it. We’ve worked too hard to keep this land, to keep t
his ranch running. It’s ours, no matter what the stupid law says about our being under age. Besides, any man who would be kind and treat me fairly deserves more than I can give him. When my husband comes home, we’ll have all the manpower we need around here. We don’t need or want anyone else.”
Cilla sighed again. “If you are who you say you are, you’re family. That child my sister is carrying is your niece or nephew. And the situation we are in at the moment is in large part due to your brother up and disappearing. We aren’t asking for much. A few extra days to help us out of this mess, and then you can be on your way and leave us in peace.”
“Priscilla!” Lucy was running toward them as the sound of hoofbeats filled the yard outside the barn. Brynne grabbed the rifle from Lucy and shoved her into the stall behind them.
“Damn,” Cilla muttered as she yanked a knife from its sheath at her waist. “Why’s he back here so soon?” She went to Leo, flicking the knife through the ropes at his wrists as quickly as she could. “You’re about to see why we need you, Mr. Forrester.” She spun back to the doors just as they crashed open.
Leo had made no movement. Cilla prayed that he would go along with their plan.
If he didn’t…
“Well, what have we here?” Frank strolled through the barn toward them, Jed and Jackson flanking his sides as usual. “My sweet little sisters, alone at night in the barn with a strange man. Tsk tsk. Now that just won’t do. Good thing I returned.”
Cilla tried to calm the pounding of her heart. “You get outta here, Frank. You’re not welcome.”
Frank looked at his friends in exaggerated surprise before turning back to her. “Not welcome in my own home? Now that just ain’t right.” He stepped closer to her, his badge gleaming in the lamplight. She wanted to turn and run, but Lucy’s wide, frightened eyes stiffened her resolve.
“I said leave, now.”
“You need to learn some respect, you good-for-nothin’ bitch.” Frank raised his hand and Cilla tensed, waiting for the right moment to drive her blade into his arm. Instead, she found herself thrust behind Leo, who was holding the sheriff’s arm in a grip so tight, Frank cried out.
Blood Blade Sisters Series (Entangled Scandalous) Page 3
