His chin rested against his chest, and at the sound of her voice, he tried to raise his head. “Go away,” he mumbled. “Get away. No good for you.”
“Come with me,” she repeated, tugging on his arm. “You must come with me. Now.”
He shook his head, tried to stand, fell to one knee. Then, with her helping, he finally stood. He was so muddled that he let her lead him. Slowly, stumbling under his weight, Briana guided Colt along until they reached the hotel. He said not a word as she led him through the lobby, up the stairs, and into her room.
Reaching the side of the bed, she pushed him onto it as gently as she could. Through the mist of tears that seemed a permanent part of her vision those miserable days, Briana maneuvered him out of his clothes.
Finally he was naked beside her, as he had been a week ago.
She lay all night with her head on his shoulder, arm across his strong chest, feeling that she was, somehow, offering him comfort for what she was about to do to him. The comfort she gave to him comforted her, and no one else would ever, know she had done it. She lay there listening to his breathing, apologizing to him silently with every breath of her own.
At dawn, the sound of the doorknob turning caused her to go rigid. Eyes wide, she stared toward the door, pulling the sheet tightly around them both.
The door opened slowly. Gavin appeared, eyes sweeping over the- scene before him. A slow grin spread across his face, and Briana squeezed her eyes shut.
“Oh, no, I can’t believe it!”
Briana’s eyes flashed open at the sound of Gavin’s sudden, horrified scream. He slammed the door behind him and came into the room.
“Dani,” he screeched, “tell me this isn’t what it seems! Oh, Dani, how could you?”
Briana realized, shocked, that Gavin was actually sobbing. His fists were striking the air as he continued to scream, “No…no…”
Colt stirred, struggling to awaken. Who was screaming?
Suddenly Gavin leaped at him, slapping him, screaming, “Animal! Your own sister!”
His shrieks were silenced as Colt came alive and struck him, knocking him to the floor. Then Colt struggled to stand, shaking his head to fling away the sick fog surrounding him.
When he saw Briana, Colt covered his face and turned away, moaning, “No! I couldn’t have!”
“I ought to kill you!” Gavin struggled to his feet. Facing Briana, he commanded harshly, “Get out of here, Dani. Go to my room and wait for me there. Now.”
There was nothing she could do except obey. She dressed hastily, wishing Gavin weren’t watching, and then moved toward the door.
The room suddenly went deathly quiet, neither man saying anything. Colt was in shock, and Gavin was letting it sink in. Just as she reached for the doorknob, Briana looked from Gavin to Colt. How could she leave Colt this way? Why, he looked like a broken, beaten old man.
Gavin sensed what was happening. “Dani, go!” he thundered, pointing to the door. Now!”
Wretchedly Briana gazed at Colt for what she knew would be the last time. Her heart cried out silently, You will never forgive me, but I pray one day you will understand that I had no choice ,no choice. And I love you so…
She ran from the room.
Gavin faced Colt. “When the people of this town learn what you have done, Coltrane, they’ll tar and feather you. You cost the Bowden girl her life, and now you’ve ruined your sister’s life. Maybe they’ll go ahead and hang you, Coltrane. Who would blame them?”
And your father murdered mine, Gavin thought savagely. You deserve this.
Colt could not speak. There was no defense and nothing to be said.
“Oh, let me out of here!” Gavin cried, moving to the door. “I can’t stand the sight of you!”
When he left, slamming the door behind him, Colt was alone. He would, from that moment on, always be alone. He was a pariah, and only he would be able to bear his company.
Chapter Twenty
Colt’s head ached so badly that he began to feel it through the numbness. How could it have happened? He remembered drinking heavily in the saloon, wanting to get drunk, needing to get drunk. He needed to forget about Dani, and what he’d done.
But instead of forgetting, he’d let it happen a second time! How?
Things were terribly fuzzy. He remembered a swarm of girls coming in. They were all over his men, who were delighted. He hadn’t cared for company, so he’d retreated to a table in a far, dark corner. Someone kept bringing him drinks. He kept tossing them down.
Then came the dream. He was outside somewhere—where? Dani was there, and he told her to go away. It was just like all the other dreams about Dani that had come to him every night since the time of that singular nightmare that haunted him with each beat of his heart.
But in the other dreams, Dani had gone away when he begged her to. This time, she hadn’t gone away. And this dream wasn’t a dream.
Finding his horse in the stable where he’d left him, Colt mounted and rode out of town. He made his way to a rocky knoll overlooking a creek where he was sure to be alone.
Colt knew, that Gavin Mason wouldn’t waste any time spreading the filthy story about the Coltrane boy. It would be Gavin’s way. Gavin wouldn’t care that it might also destroy Dani. He wouldn’t care that it might destroy the entire Coltrane family. Colt was deeply grateful that his parents were away. Sooner or later, they would find out, but they’d be spared the worst of the gossip.
How could he face them? How could he face anyone ever again? It would just be so much easier to take his gun from the holster and put it to his head.
Coward!
Colt was washed with self-loathing and revulsion, but he heard the cry of his tormented heart. He was not a coward. He would not take his life.
He would simply walk away from it, that was what he’d do.
The sun was hot and the air was sweet with the fragrance of wildflowers. Colt left his sanctuary and rode straight back into town, to Carleton Bowden’s bank. As he dismounted and looped his horse’s reins around the hitching post in front of the bank, he dared to glance at people passing by. Anyone who saw him nodded and smiled, or even spoke to him. Well, he supposed, word hadn’t: spread after all. He might have time to do what he had to do, then get out of town without having to face everyone’s loathing.
He looked toward the hotel where he’d last seen Dani. Had she been preparing to leave town after all? Yes, that was it, but she’d run into him staggering around drunk, tried to help him…and look what had happened.
Why? Why had she allowed it?
She cared for him, he knew. He had seen it in her eyes, had felt it when she touched him. Why, if they weren’t kin…
But they were.
He stepped from the street onto the boardwalk and went into the Bowden Bank.
The employees all stared at him, and he heard the rustle of whispering, like dry leaves.
Once Bowden was told that Colt wished to see him, there wasn’t a long wait.
Carleton Bowden sat behind his large desk, hands folded tightly on the highly polished surface. Everything about him was neat, orderly, for he was an efficient man.
His hands gave him away. He seemed to be clenching them, and he looked at Colt with rage.
“Make your business brief, Coltrane,” he said.
There being nothing else he could do, Colt said, “I wish I could undo what was done, Mr. Bowden. No one is sorrier than I am.”
Bowden’s face remained frozen. “That’s not why you’re here, is it?”
“No,” Colt admitted, “it isn’t. But, you know, if you could look at the situation objectively, you’d see that—”
Bowden stood up very slowly. “You think that because you killed the robbers and got our money back you are vindicated? Is that it?”
Colt shook his head slowly, and Bowden went on. “My only child lies in her grave and you suggest I be objective?”
Taking a deep breath, Colt said, “I know your bank has al
ways handled the family business, Mr. Bowden. Can we talk about that?”
Carleton Bowden was as relieved to change the subject as Colt was. “If you have business, state it. Otherwise, get out of my bank and out of my sight.”
Colt took a deep breath. “I want to sign over all my interest in the ranch, the mine, and all the other family holdings to my sister, Dani. Now.”
Bowden was taken aback. “Did I hear you right?” he demanded.
“You did. How soon can you transfer everything?”
“Why, why, very soon,” Bowden sputtered. “An hour. Are you sure?”
When Colt had convinced Carleton Bowden of his certainty, the latter said, “The bank will have everything ready in an hour. Then you’ll go over to Tom Kirk’s office, and he’ll be sure the legal aspects are in order.”
Still glaring at Colt, Bowden ventured, “Does this mean you’re leaving town, Coltrane?”
Colt nodded, offering no explanation, and Bowden said, “Thank God. I can’t stand the sight of you.”
Two hours later, Colt rode out of Silver Butte. He had only his stallion, Pedro, his rifle and pistol, the clothes on his back, and a few hundred dollars crammed down in his saddlebag. He no longer owned anything.
He headed west. As he rode, heading into the butter-gold afternoon, a soft breeze touching his warm face, he dared think things through one more time.
How could he have let something so despicable happen?
Goddamn, weakening-of-the-flesh-and-mind whiskey hadn’t helped. Still, that didn’t explain it.
He cared for Dani; that was the truth. Yes, he cared. The feeling went beyond anything he’d ever felt for a woman. What was weird, too, and frightening, was that he could not remember making love to Dani. Try though he did, he couldn’t recall a thing about it, either time it had happened.
Shoulders hunched, head lowered, the very picture of a man whose spirit was broken, Colt rode away from Silver Butte to whatever Destiny had in store for him.
Gavin read the message from Carleton Bowden to Daniella Coltrane four times before he allowed himself to believe that it had worked. He had won! The entire Coltrane fortune was his!
Now it was over, except for the transfer of property into gold.
The Coltrane holdings would be sold so that Gavin could take his fortune to France in gold bullion. That’s where Dirk Hollister and the five men Hollister had hired for Gavin would come in. They would be the guards he would need for so much money. True, he was going to have to pay them a large salary and pay their passage to France, but Gavin was now a rich man.
It warmed him to think how Coltrane would react when, one day, he learned that “Dani” had sold everything they owned, everything the Coltranes owned! Oh, he would be crazed with fury. And even more delicious, Gavin mused, would be the reaction of Travis Coltrane. All he’d acquired after killing Stewart Mason had been wiped out by Stewart’s son.
Delia came in then, and Gavin stared at her in deep contemplation. Delia was not as beautiful as many women, was a bit older than he liked, and her body was on the plump side. But she was the first woman he had ever bedded who agreed to do anything Gavin wanted, no matter how bizarre, or painful, and he appreciated that. Through the years he’d become bored with having to cajole in order to get the kind of satisfaction he craved. Even Alaina, who had once been so hot-blooded, had never thrilled him as Delia thrilled him. So, despite her flaws, he knew he would keep her with him for some time.
He smiled. “It’s over, dearest. Coltrane gave everything to his sister. Now we can make plans to leave.”
Delia’s eyes shone. “You’re really taking me with you, Gavin darling? I’m going to France?”
Gavin made her wait for a suspense-filled moment, then nodded slowly. She screamed and ran to throw her arms around him. “Oh, you make me so happy, Gavin, so happy…” A lusty gleam entered her eyes as she looked up at him. “Let me show you how happy, my darling. Now.”
Her voice was husky with desire, but Gavin shook his head regretfully. “Not now, my sweet. Dani and I have business at the bank.”
Delia made a face. “Is Briana—Dani—going with us?” she asked. When Gavin nodded, she said, “She’s going to stay with us always, isn’t she?”
Gavin nodded again. “I can’t let her go,” he said. “She could cause me a great deal of trouble if she said the wrong things to certain people.” Delia nodded eagerly, and he admonished, “You will say nothing to her about this, Delia. If you do, she’ll be too hard to handle.”
Gavin smoothed his coat, took his hat from the table, and headed for the door. “Now I have to run along. When I return, we’ll play, all right?”
Delia gave him a coquettish smile. He left.
As the door closed, Delia stuck out her tongue. Slimy bastard, she thought. How she loathed his touch. How she despised yielding to his perversions and having to pretend she loved it. One day, she would no longer have to put up with him…one day when she got her hands on some of that money he had so easily tricked out of the Coltranes.
She locked the door behind Gavin and went back into the sitting room. There was a large box of chocolates on a table by the divan, and she sat down and began to stuff them into her mouth, one after another. Gavin Mason was an insufferable pig. As she wolfed down the candy, she recalled the night she had first met him, in a Silver Butte saloon. She had known he was peculiar, but that made no never mind. Peculiar men, she’d learned in San Francisco, are always willing to pay more than straight johns, and if the price was right, she would perform any trick a man wanted, no matter how painful. Money was a great healer.
She heaved herself from the divan and went to the corner bar where Gavin had left an open bottle of wine. She filled a glass and began sipping, reminiscing about meeting Gavin. During those first moments in bed with Gavin she realized that he was absolutely the strangest nut she had ever met. She decided not to see him again. But then he’d mentioned being from France, and when he talked about going back there, teasing that he might take her with him because she was so marvelous in bed, well, that had gotten her attention. She’d been with him ever since—and didn’t intend to let him go. She knew what he’d been doing to the Coltranes but didn’t figure she was implicated.
She finished the wine, reflecting on how smart she was to hook a man like Gavin Mason. Devouring the candy, she lay down on the divan and fell asleep.
The next thing she knew, someone was shaking her. She opened her eyes to see Dani—she had to remember to call her that—standing over her.
“Have you seen Gavin? I need to—”
The women heard Gavin’s key in the lock at the same time. Gavin dismissed Delia, who grumbled but left. Then he gave Briana a huge smile. Studying her, he prepared to break the good news.
He knew there was only so much leverage he could get out of her brother. Blackmailing her through Charles had kept her in the role of Dani, but once they were home in France, it would take force to keep her in line. Until then, he was forced to pacify her as much as possible to keep her from becoming hysterical and confessing everything to the authorities. Guilt over Colt might make her do that, he knew.
Keeping a happy look on his face, Gavin said, “We will be leaving soon for California, my dear. We’ll buy gold bars, and then we’ll take the first available ship to England, then go on to France.”
She stared at him, waiting for clarification.
“Coltrane signed over his share of everything to you, Dani,” he said slowly, proudly. “You see, it was the least he could do after committing the unforgivable sin of incest.”
Briana started, then stepped back in horror. He was lying, he had to be. Her whisper was barely audible. “No. Tell me Colt didn’t give up everything he had…”
Gavin reached into his pocket and brought out Carleton Bowden’s letter—addressed, of course, to Daniella Coltrane, not to Gavin, who had no legal claim on Dani and was not her guardian. If Briana had really been Dani, she thought for the hundredth
time, she would have been furious. But she was thoroughly numbed by the realization of how much they had hurt Colt, and she spared little thought for Gavin’s effrontery in intercepting the letter.
After scanning it just enough to be sure Gavin wasn’t making this up, Briana threw the letter at him and went to sit down, burying her head in her hands.
“He did,” she whispered. “He gave up everything, and gave it all to me.”
Gavin was jubilant. “He did indeed. I planned it this way, you silly girl. And I’ve more wonderful news. Mr. Bowden has already found a buyer for the ranch! So, Dani will sign the papers tomorrow morning, and we’ll leave with a fortune in gold as soon as Bowden can arrange for the purchase of so much bullion.” He took a deep breath. “Go put on your prettiest dress and prepare to celebrate with me tonight. We are going home…and we’re going home rich!”
Briana closed her eyes. If only she could shut out the horror of what she had done.
Chapter Twenty-One
Seth Parrish sat unsmiling behind his massive oak desk, hands folded across his stomach. He wanted to hear what John Travis Coltrane had to say to him. He’d had an uneasy feeling ever since Carleton Bowden had contacted him about the sale of the Coltrane property. Yes, he’d been eager to buy it, and yes, he’d also had a lot of questions as to why it was for sale.
Seth had known Travis Coltrane since Travis had first come to Nevada. He respected the man immensely. He liked his son, too. Seth knew nothing about the daughter. He’d heard the girl’s mother was a woman Travis was never legally married to, and that the girl had gone away with her aunt some years ago. Other than that, folks knew nothing about Dani. Seth was the kind of man who kept his business to himself and respected other people’s right to do the same.
Colt sat in a high-backed leather chair. He ignored the splendid view through the wide glass window that ran the length of one whole wall. The plains stretched toward Coltrane land, and Colt didn’t need any reminders of why he was there.
Love and Fury: The Coltrane Saga, Book 4 Page 22
