“We can’t help her now. We’re outnumbered. If we go in now, we’ll just end up captured ourselves and then who will help her?”
Tears were streaming down Lucy’s face. Leo knew exactly how she felt. Rage and despair warred in him and if he hadn’t had to make sure Lucy stayed safe as well, he would have ridden down into the middle of those men and taken out as many as he could. But Cilla would never forgive him if he put Lucy in danger. Even if it meant leaving her behind.
Leo looked back down the hill at the scene unfolding before him. Cilla was on her knees, her hands behind her head. One man detached himself from the rest of the group and strutted toward her. He reached out and pulled the bandana from her face. Even from a distance, Leo could see the smile splitting his face. He gestured to one of his men, who hurried over to Cilla and tied her hands behind her back. After he’d secured her and removed all the weapons he could find on her, he melted back into the crowd.
Frank took off his glove, reached his hand back, and cuffed Cilla so hard she flew backward. With her hands tied, she had no way to brace herself and her head bounced against the ground.
Only Lucy’s presence by his side kept him from racing down that hill. Only the thought of what would happen to all three of them, and to Brynne and her baby at home if he and Lucy were captured as well, kept him from howling his fury and pain into the night as he watched Frank’s men haul Cilla into the baggage car with them.
A whistle sounded faintly in the distance. The conductor had finally noticed the baggage cars were no longer attached and must be coming back to retrieve them. They needed to go.
“Come on,” he said, his voice so thick with emotion he almost didn’t recognize it.
“We can’t just leave her,” Lucy said again.
“We have to for now. But I promise you, we will get her back.”
“Swear it.” Lucy turned to him with a ferocity that almost frightened him. “Swear to me that we’ll get her back.”
“I swear it on my soul. I will get her back.”
Lucy held his gaze for a moment longer, and then the fight went out of her. Then Leo did the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. Harder than burying his brother. Harder than waiting helpless while Brynne gave birth to his niece. Harder than letting Cilla crawl beneath that train.
He turned his horse, making sure Lucy was at his side, and rode away from the woman he loved.
Chapter Nineteen
Cilla pulled herself up and spat blood out of her mouth. Frank seemed determined to beat information out of her about Blood Blade, whether she knew anything or not. What was truly ironic was that he’d never believe the truth. He’d never in a million years believe that the little sisters he despised were the ones behind the bandit he hated so much.
“I’m going to ask you one more time,” he said, his breath leaving his lungs in huge bursts of pent-up anger. “Who is Blood Blade and where can I find him?”
“You keep saying you’re only going to ask one more time, and then you ask again. It’s getting tiresome.”
Cilla knew she was taking her life into her hands mouthing off to him, but she couldn’t help herself. He was ridiculously easy to needle. And he deserved it. Besides, she’d told him repeatedly who Blood Blade really was. There wasn’t much more she could say.
He slapped her again, but it had lost a bit of its sting. Maybe he was getting tired. She hoped so. She didn’t know how much more abuse her face could take.
Her one comfort was that she had been the only one captured that night. She’d waited, first on the train, then in her cell in town, for Frank to bring the others in. But he never did. They’d gotten away.
There had been a part of her that had looked toward that darkened hill in the distance and hoped that Leo would ride in and save her. She wasn’t crazy. She didn’t want to be Frank’s prisoner. But the logical, realistic part of her knew that Leo had made the right choice, the one she really wanted him to make. He’d kept Lucy from harm. If someone was going to be the scapegoat for all of Blood Blade’s deeds, it might as well be the one who had invented him in the first place.
Frank squatted down so he could look into her eyes. “Someone is going to pay. I know you haven’t been doing this all on your own. Someone is helping you. Someone is calling the shots. All you have to do is tell me who it is, and you’ll be home with your sisters. I won’t hold an impressionable little girl responsible for the actions of an outlaw. But you have to tell me who he is first. If you don’t…” He stood and moved away from her, his hand caressing the gun strapped to his hip. “Like I said, someone is going to pay. Even the town is on my side now. They’ve had enough of Blood Blade ruining their lives.”
Cilla shook her head, trying to keep back the hundreds of arguments she wanted to throw in his face. It wouldn’t do any good to point out that Frank was the one who was ruining the townspeople’s lives. And it would likely just get her hit again. She might be strong and brave, but she was tired of being hit.
“I’ve already told you, Frank. I am Blood Blade. I am the one who has been riding the raids. I’m the one who’s been calling the shots. I’m the one you caught trying to steal your shipment of gold. There is no one else to blame.”
Frank shook his head and strode to the cell door. “If that’s the way you want to play it, fine. Your choice.” He hollered for his deputy to let him out and then turned back to Cilla. “You’re gonna hang, you know? Blood Blade has been robbing and stealing for years, and now, not only has he been out killing decent folks, but he’s destroyed the well-being of the town I’ve worked so hard to save. He sent you out to steal from the very hand that was trying to feed you. And killed another innocent bystander to boot.”
“What are you talking about, Frank?”
But Frank just smiled and walked away. The deputy slammed the door in her face before Cilla could get too far. She gripped the bars and pressed her face against them, trying to keep Frank in her sights.
“Frank! What are you talking about? Who’s been killed?”
Only his laugh answered her.
Her trial was the worst kind of joke. Frank hauled her into the middle of the town and proclaimed that since she’d confessed, and since her crimes had been committed against the people of the town, the people of the town had the right to judge her. And he made sure they judged her harshly.
He stood her up on the walkway in front of the sheriff’s office, her hands bound with rope because the standard handcuffs Frank had were too large for her slender wrists. Cilla looked out over the crowd, her heart dropping at the angry and accusing eyes staring back at her. A few were sympathetic. But not many.
But it was one particular set of eyes that held her attention. Eyes the color of warm chocolate. Eyes that darkened as they focused on her split lip, swollen eyes, and what she was sure were numerous bruises coloring her skin. Eyes that stared back into hers with an intensity that made her head swim. Part of her was happy Leo was there. The part of her that always felt better, safer, complete, when he was near. The other part, the logical part, wanted him as far from her as possible. Being associated with her could only bring him harm.
“Go,” she mouthed to him, her eyes pleading with him to get away to safety.
His lips twitched in a humorless smile. He shook his head.
Frank stepped in front of her, cutting off her view of Leo.
“People of Bethany Ridge! It pains me to have to inform you that the notorious bandit Blood Blade is none other than my very own sister, Priscilla Richardson.”
There were gasps and murmurs through the crowd. Exclamations of disbelief.
“She’s confessed! She admits she is the bandit! Though her confession was hardly needed since we caught her red-handed, attempting to steal a shipment of gold that I was bringing into town. Gold that was meant to be used to create jobs and better this town.”
More murmurs, more surprise and disbelief. And more anger.
“I know things have been hard. And I k
now many have questioned the necessity of the protection squads and the fees I’ve been forced to levy against you. But it was all for a purpose. That gold was going to be used for building supplies and payroll—to pay whoever wanted a job to build a new schoolhouse for the town.”
This time the murmurs were stronger, outbursts of surprise, hope.
“I’d even hired a bona fide teacher! One that had a fancy degree from one of them colleges back east!” He raised his hand to quiet the crowd and pressed on. “I’m very sorry to inform you that not only has the gold disappeared, but this despicable bandit, someone we knew and loved as our own, took the innocent life of Miss Angela Boxler, the woman who had traveled all the way from Baltimore to educate our children.”
There was a collective gasp and then silence. Dead silence.
Cilla’s heart dropped into her gut as she looked from face to face. A few seemed unsure. But far too few. Many—most—fairly seethed with anger. When the murmurs began again, it was obvious the tide had turned against her. And then came a voice from the back. Cilla didn’t know who it was; didn’t want to know, really. Soon enough, others took up his call.
“Hang her!”
The call for Cilla’s neck grew stronger and louder. Cilla’s hope and faith in her friends, in those she had risked her life to help and provide for, dissipated with every demand for her life. She was a fighter, always had been. But she didn’t know how to fight against this.
“No!”
Leo pushed his way through the crowd until he stood just in front of the sheriff’s steps. He turned to face the crowd.
“You should be ashamed! All of you! Sheriff Richardson has no proof of any of this. He tells you that this poor young woman is Blood Blade, a notorious bandit who started riding these parts back when she was no more than girl, and you believe him? And even if she was, Blood Blade has helped almost every single person in this town at one time or another. Kept food in your mouths, kept your farms or your shops running, gave you enough to keep the sheriff and his men off your backs!”
“Yes!” Frank stepped up, fury mottling his face a deep purple. “And then Blood Blade killed young Bobby Williams, and the Hudner family, and their own ranch hand. And now the school teacher!”
“No one has ever seen this schoolteacher, Frank. It’s your word against hers. No one saw the gold either! How do we know it even existed? If you caught her red-handed, then that would mean she wasn’t able to get away with it. So where is it?”
There were a few exclamations of agreement that rippled through the crowd. Cilla watched as Frank’s eyes darted around. Then he lifted his hand and motioned someone forward.
“I wanted to keep the worst of this from you. But since you insist on evidence—here you are!”
Two of his men came forward carrying a body wrapped in a sheet. Blood had soaked through where the chest was. They laid the petite form at Frank’s feet.
Cilla closed her eyes, the last of her hope disappearing. Frank had done it again. He’d murdered another innocent person, to get at her, to frame her.
Enough. It was enough.
The crowd went wild, renewed shouts of “hang her!” rang through the town square. Leo looked around frantically, but Cilla knew it was no use. Frank had finally done it. He had put the nail in her coffin with that poor woman’s body. Whatever allies she’d had, she’d just lost. And Frank knew it. He looked at her and smiled and her blood ran like ice through her veins. He wasn’t done yet. Dear God, what else could he do?
“You asked about the gold, Mr. Forrester? Well, you are quite correct. If we caught her red-handed, then where is it? The only possible explanation is that she had an accomplice, someone who got the gold out but wasn’t able to save her. In fact, we know that she has an accomplice! The witnesses and victims of Blood Blade’s raids said there were always two bandits. We have one. But where is the other?”
Frank turned his gaze on Leo, and Cilla’s entire body went numb with horror.
No. Oh no.
“You seem very determined to prove her innocence, Mr. Forrester. Perhaps, it is you who is Blood Blade after all, and my poor sister here is merely your accomplice. That doesn’t absolve her, naturally. It is just that she be punished for her part in Blood Blade’s crimes. But we know she didn’t work alone. You are a relative stranger in these parts. In fact, it wasn’t until after you showed up that people started to die. Perhaps you’ve been here all along, hiding behind a mask as you murdered your innocent victims!”
Frank’s words inflamed the crowd. They started pressing in on Leo, some calling for him to be hanged alongside Cilla.
She was doomed. She knew that. But she’d be damned if she let Frank take Leo down with her. Brynne and her baby needed him. Lucy needed him. And she couldn’t live in a world where he didn’t exist.
“No!” she screamed. “I am Blood Blade! It was me all along. I did it all. Mr. Forrester had no part in it.”
Frank turned to her, a surprised, but not displeased look on his face. “Well, I appreciate the confession, Priscilla, but as we’ve established, there were always two. You might be good, but even you aren’t that good.”
“It was Jake and me.”
“No!” Leo shouted, trying to push his way through the crowd to Cilla. They held him back, kept him from getting to her.
Cilla closed her eyes. She couldn’t bear to see the pain in Leo’s. But there was no way in hell she was going to let Frank get his claws on anyone else. She felt a bit sorry for tarnishing Jake’s reputation, but since no one in town really knew him and he was dead and wouldn’t care anyway, she was going to slander his good name for all it was worth in order to save his noble but stubborn-as-a-mule brother.
Leo threw off one of the men holding him. Jackson pulled his rifle back and slammed it into Leo’s gut. He dropped to his knees, gasping for breath.
“Continue, Priscilla.”
Cilla kept her head down. She couldn’t bear to look at Leo. And she knew if she looked at Frank’s smug face, she’d never be able to go through with it. She’d attack the son of a bitch first.
“It was Jake and me. We committed the robberies. Just the two of us.”
“If he was your partner, why did you kill him?”
“He was getting too greedy. He wanted a bigger share. I needed him gone.”
“And Bobby?”
Cilla swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. Every word out of her mouth burned like the flaming lies they were, but she spat them out anyway. “He knew too much.”
Cilla could hear Mrs. Williams sobbing, and she cringed.
“And the Hudner family?”
“All right! All of them! I did it all!” Cilla couldn’t take it anymore. She just wanted it over with.
“Just hang me and get it over with,” she said, her voice cracking.
“Don’t worry, dear sister. Justice will be served.”
Cilla turned and looked at him, let him see every ounce of hatred and derision she felt for him. He actually took a step back under the force of her gaze. “Yes, Frank. No matter what you do to me, someday, justice will be served.”
Frank’s mouth opened and shut a few times as he sputtered. He finally composed himself and drew himself up to his full height.
“Priscilla Richardson, I sentence you to hang for your crimes!”
The crowd roared. Leo’s protestations that Frank didn’t have the authority to sentence someone to death, that this whole sham of a trial was illegal, fell on deaf ears. The people wanted revenge. For their suffering, for the deaths of their loved ones. And Cilla had made very sure they had a scapegoat.
At least she could leave this life knowing she’d saved the man she loved. Hopefully he’d use the brains she knew had to be rattling around in his head and get her sisters and niece the hell out of Bethany Ridge.
It felt like a waste, everything they’d done to save their ranch, save their town. But as long as Brynne, Coraline, Lucy, and Leo were safe somewhere—that was all tha
t mattered.
“Take her away!” Frank shouted.
His deputies grabbed her arms and started to haul her back into the jailhouse. Leo jumped up, knocking off the men who tried to hold him back. It took four of them to wrestle him to the ground.
Cilla’s last sight as she was dragged into the dim interior of the jailhouse was Leo on his knees in the dirt, his face streaked with dirt and tears.
Her heart shattered in a thousand pieces. He loved her.
She repeated it to herself over and over.
He loved her.
If she had to die, it wasn’t a bad thought to take to her grave.
Chapter Twenty
Leo burst through the door, startling Brynne and Lucy, who were sitting with the baby by the fire.
“Where is she?” Brynne asked. Her eyes were large in her too-pale face. She hadn’t slept since the night of the train heist when Leo and Lucy had returned home, without the gold, and without Cilla.
Leo went straight to the hidden box under one of the bunks where they kept their guns. He spoke while he dragged them out and began loading them.
“Frank has her. He’s got the town convinced that she’s Blood Blade. Told them some ridiculous story about the gold being meant to build a school for the town. And he pinned another murder on her.”
“Oh no,” Lucy murmured.
Brynne shook her head. “The town will never believe that. Even if they think she is Blood Blade, they won’t believe she hurt anyone. Blood Blade has never done anything but help those people.”
“They do believe it. There are too many bodies, the coincidences are too much. They were the ones calling for her hanging. They played right into Frank’s hands.”
“I don’t believe it,” Brynne said, slumping back into her chair. “It just doesn’t make sense. If he says he caught her stealing the gold, then how can he say it’s gone?”
“No one is paying any attention to reason. All they are seeing are dead bodies and their own suffering. And Cilla isn’t helping herself any.”
Blood Blade Sisters Series (Entangled Scandalous) Page 18
