Sweet Silken Bondage

by Bobbi Smith

"She's worse," she agonized. "I didn't want to come to work and leave my little brother, Jimmy, alone with her tonight, but I knew Mrs. Harvey would fire me if I didn't show up."

  "What about the doctor? Has he seen her? Can't he help?"

  "Mother said I shouldn't call him. We still owe him money from when Jimmy was sick the last time, and she refuses to take charity," Molly confessed miserably. "I keep hoping she'll get better, but she's getting so weak. The fever hasn't let up at all, and I'm starting to get scared..."

  Tears sparkled in her emerald eyes as she feared that her mother might not recover. Dev could no longer resist reaching out to her. He took her hand through the bars and drew her closer.

  "She'll be all right, Molly," he encouraged. He longed to comfort her and reassure her, but realized there was precious little he could say or do that would help. If Clay had been in town, he would have been able to enlist his friend's aid for her, but trapped as he was all alone here in Monterey, he was helpless.

  At Dev's gentle touch, Molly lifted her glistening gaze to his. "I hope you're right. I don't know what I'd do without her."

  "It'll be fine. You'll see."

  "I'd like to believe you..." Molly gave him a tremulous, watery smile as their eyes locked in silent understanding. Her heart lurched as she saw the gentleness and tenderness mirrored in the depths of his blue eyes.

  Dev saw the hope warring with the despair in her gaze and had a sudden idea. He was almost positive that his own days were numbered, and since he was unable to help her himself, he thought maybe his money could do for her what he couldn't. He'd certainly have no use for it where he was going, he thought wryly, and if it could do some good here... now...

  "Sheriff!? Could you come here a second?" he called out.

  Macauley heard his call. Molly moved away from Dev as the sheriff entered the room.

  "What is it?" he asked, wondering what was wrong and why the girl looked so sad.

  "You've got the reward money for Denton, right?"

  "Yes," he answered.

  "Well, half of it's legally mine, and I want you to give my share to Molly."

  "What?"

  "Look, you and I both know I won't be using it any time soon, so just give her my half," Dev directed. "Her mother's ill and needs a doctor. I want to help pay for it."

  "You're sure you want to do this?"

  "Positive." He glanced over at Molly and saw her look of wonder.

  It took Macauley only a minute to get half the money out of the locked drawer in his desk where he'd been holding it for Cordell. He returned to the cell area and handed it over to her in front of Dev.

  "I...I can't take this from you..." Molly was stunned, and she looked from the money in her hand to the man behind the bars. Her heart swelled with emotion at his generosity. She'd never known anyone who was this kind or this wonderful.

  "Of course you can. I just wish I could do more for you" Dev told her in a tone that was gentle, yet brooked no argument.

  At what he'd just witnessed, Macaule's belief in Dev's innocence grew even stronger. Giving the girl the money was not the act of a murdering criminal.

  "Dev...thank you." Her eyes were shining as she gazed up at him.

  There was no time for them to say more as they heard someone come racing into the office, banging the door open and then slamming it forcefully shut.

  "Sheriff Macauley!" the man yelled.

  "What is it?" Macauley heard the very real fear in the man's voice and hurried out front to see what was going on. "Is there trouble somewhere?"

  "There's gonna be trouble, all right, and it's gonna be right here!"

  "What are you talking about?" the sheriff demanded, wanting the facts.

  "I'm talking about vigilantes!"

  "Vigilantes?" He went a little pale at the thought.

  "Yep. They're over at the saloon gettin' all riled up 'cause O'Keefe there ain't been hung yet. They're plannin' on comin' here and doin' it themselves! You gotta do something and fast!"

  "Son of a..." Macauley strode to the gun cabinet to get his rifles. He wished his deputy, Carter, was there, but he'd sent him out of town on business for the next two days. It was going to be just him against the mob. "Here." He held out a rifle toward Wily, but the old man refused, backing nervously away.

  "No, sir. I ain't gonna try to stop 'em. I just did my part. I warned you ahead of time. That's all I want to do with it. What you do from here is your business."

  He ran quickly from the office and disappeared into the night, leaving Macauley all alone to face the raging mob.

  Macauley hesitated only an instant, then quickly pulled down the shades and locked the door. He knew he would have little chance of stopping a vigilante mob should they storm the office, yet he knew he couldn't let them have O'Keefe. He had to do something to protect him. His conviction about his innocence urging him on, he grabbed up the keys and ran back to the cells.

  "Molly, I'm going to need your help," he said solemnly, his expression grave as he started to unlock Dev's cell door.

  "What's happening?" she asked. The sudden change in his manner made her nervous. Something had to be wrong.

  "It looks like some of the hotheads down at the saloon are thinking about taking the law into their own hands."

  "You mean...?"

  "A lynch mob," he stated flatly, "and according to my informant, they're on the way here now."

  "No!" she gasped, looking over at Dev, her eyes wide with fright. She'd heard about these kind of things and the violence that resulted. She couldn't bear to think of him facing such a fate.

  Dev had been holding onto the bars as he listened, and his grip tightened so much at the sher iff s news that his knuckles showed white. He'd expected the end to come one of these days, but he hadn't thought it would be tonight.

  "Listen, Molly, I want you to sneak out the back and take O'Keefe with you. Hide him out somewhere safe until I come for him."

  "Macauley, I don't want her involved in this," Dev protested. "It's too damned dangerous. She might -"

  "Shut up, O'Keefe. You're in my charge, and your safety is my concern," the sheriff cut him off sharply, then turned back to the girl. "Molly, if you don't take him, I can't guarantee he'll be alive in the morning."

  "It's that serious?" she asked.

  "It's that serious. Will you do it? Can I trust you?" Macauley studied her face, trying to read her expression.

  Molly glanced at Dev where he stood caged like a wild animal. She knew he would stand no chance of survival should the mob get past the sheriff. She wondered if she could trust him, and she needed no more than a fraction of a second to make up her mind. Dev needed her help. Could she do less than her best for him after he'd done so much for her?

  "Yes, I'll do it. What exactly do you want me to do?"

  "Go out through the alley with him and keep him hidden until everything settles down. Can you handle that?"

  "I can do it," she declared determinedly.

  The sheriff turned his piercing gaze on his prisoner as he finished unlocking the door. "What about you, O'Keefe? Can I trust you or will you run first time you get the chance?"

  "I'm not going to run," Dev answered, looking him straight in the eye.

  Macauley gave a terse nod and waited no longer in throwing the door wide, freeing him. In the distance, they could hear the discontented rumble of the oncoming mob of drunks, and suddenly there was a loud pounding on the front door.

  "Get out of here, quick, before they come around back!"

  Molly looked up at Dev, seeing him for the first time without the barrier of the bars between them. He happened to meet her gaze, and they stared at each other for a moment in silent understanding before she held out her hand to him. He enfolded her soft, small hand in his big hard, calloused one.

  The sheriff went ahead of them and opened the back door. "Molly, girl, you be careful!"

  "You, too, Sheriff!" she whispered as she drew Dev out of the jail and into the dark al
leyway. She was still clutching the money he'd given her in her free hand.

  "Thanks, Macauley," Dev told him.

  Macauley watched them slip away into the protective shadows of the night, then closed and barred the door. Extinguishing all the lights inside, he prepared to face the angry crowd of drunks bent on their own brand of justice.

  The passageway was pitch black as Molly and Dev ran, hand in hand, from the jail. She was familiar with the area and made certain that they headed in the opposite direction of the oncoming mob. Dev kept close behind her. The sound of the crowd faded a bit as they neared a cross street, but neither of them were ready to relax just yet. Molly slowed her pace and moved forward cautiously to peek down the street.

  "Oh, no!" she gasped.

  "What is it?" Dev stiffened, fearing a confrontation when he had no weapon with which to defend themselves.

  "There's someone coming," Molly said in a hushed agonized tone.

  "Damn!" he whispered, thinking they were about to be caught and wanting her to get away safely. "Molly, you go on. Get out of here. I can find a way out by myself."

  She smiled at the realization that he would worry about her before himself. It made it clear to her that she had made the right decision. Her judgment reaffirmed, it was still up to her to save him now.

  Molly did some fast thinking, and she surprised Dev completely when she grabbed him with a strength she didn't know she was capable of and threw her arms around his neck. Before he could say a word, she kissed him passionately. In that moment a couple walked by the alleyway's opening. Molly had seen the women of the night plying their trade this way on numerous occasions and hoped that the passersby would believe her act.

  The man and woman were not part of the vigilantes, but merely a lady and gentleman out for an evening stroll. They caught sight of the two of them, saw the money clutched in her hand and gasped in dismay as they hurried on about their own business.

  The kiss had been meant to be a deterrent to their being discovered. Molly figured no one would ever suspect that Devlin O'Keefe was the man out back kissing a girl. She thought it would be the perfect ruse just in case the oncomers had been part of the vigilante group.

  Molly had never kissed a man this way before, and she certainly didn't expect it to mean anything. It was a total shock to her then, when the touch of Dev's mouth on hers sent her senses soaring. The danger of the moment, coupled with the pure, unadulterated hunger of his kiss stole her breath and left her weak and pliant in his arms.

  Dev was caught completely by surprise by Molly's shrewd move, and he meant to tell her that it was a brilliant ploy on her part. He would have too, Accept that he was stunned by the ferocity of the embrace. It was supposed to be fake. It was supposed to fool those around them into thinking that they were making illicit love in a back alley. But there was nothing scurrilous about the emotions that were surging through him.

  This was what he'd been dreaming about during the past days. Yet, even in his tender imaginings, he had never come close to the glorious reality of having Molly in his arms. Her kiss was the most wonderful thing he'd ever experienced. Dev knew without a shadow of a doubt as their lips met again and again in tender exploration, that she was the one woman in the world for him. He knew this at the same time he knew he could not take advantage of her gentle honesty. He had nothing to offer her, no future to promise her. He had nothing.. .not even his freedom.

  Dev vowed there in the darkness of that alley, that somehow he would prove his innocence and be vindicated. He had to prove to Molly that he couldn't be guilty of such a terrible thing. He wanted her complete trust.

  When the couple had moved on, Dev and Molly broke apart, staring at each other in wonder in the deeply shadowed night. It was Molly who came to her senses first as the roar of the mob echoed strangely through the passageway. The realization of the danger Dev was in, plus the fact that his very life hung in the balance, jarred her into action.

  "Come on! We've got to hurry!" Tearing her gaze from his, she grabbed his hand again and led him out into the open.

  They moved off quietly down the now-deserted street making sure to keep their pace normal and unrushed so they would draw no attention to themselves. They were tense and on edge as they crossed the street the jail was on, and both were horrified when they looked down the block and saw a crowd of about twenty-five drunken rowdies milling angrily around in front of the jailhouse. They couldn't see Sheriff Macauley anywhere, but they knew he was there somewhere, holding the line, giving them the precious time they needed to get away.

  As slowly as they were walking, it took Molly and Dev some time to get to her home. When they finally arrived, she rushed him immediately inside and locked the door behind them. Her face was pale and her hands shaking as she stared at Dev across the main room.

  "We made it," he said in a low voice. "Molly, you risked your life for me. I'm grateful."

  "You risked your life for me...or have you forgotten?" she said clearly, her eyes sparkling with the pride she felt at having been able to help him. She had so little else in her life that she needed that sense of pride.

  "No, I hadn't forgotten," Dev told her. "But you didn't have to do this. You could have left me there. You didn't have to endanger yourself."

  "I couldn't have left you to the mercy of that mob! They might have killed you!"

  Dev's eyes met and held hers. "It might have been better for you, Molly, if you hadn't gotten involved."

  "No," she whispered, "I don't believe that." She gazed up at him, wishing things could have been different, easier, but she knew this was no fairy tale. She was no princess, and Dev was no prince here to rescue her on his white charger. This was Dev, an accused murderer, whose safety depended on her ability to keep him hidden in her house until the sheriff could come for him. He had come to mean too much to her. She loved him. Despite the fact that everyone else thought him guilty, she knew in her heart that he was no cold-blooded killer.

  The magnetism between them was nearly overpowering and just as they would have moved together, Jimmy came out of her mother's bedroom.

  "Molly?" he said her name questioningly as he glanced from his sister to the strange man standing in the middle of the room. "What are you doing home?"

  "Jimmy..." she said his name almost as if she was surprised to see him there. Then she regained control. "This is a friend of mine who's coming to stay with us for a while. Dev, this is my brother, Jimmy."

  "Hello, Jimmy. Do you mind if I bunk here a day or so?" Dev was aware of the boy's intense scrutiny, and he smiled. It pleased him to find that the boy was protective of his sister.

  Jimmy blinked. It was the first time anyone had ever addressed him as if he were the man of the house. His self-esteem rose a notch, and he returned Dev's smile tentatively. "No...It's all right, if Molly wants you to." He was puzzled by his presence, but trusted his sister's judgment. It wasn't like her to bring just anybody home. "Molly, Mother-"

  Molly's whole focus changed immediately. Secure that Dev was relatively safe now, she turned her thoughts to her mother again. "How is she?"

  "I don't know."

  "Dev, wait out here. I've got to see how she is," Molly said as she disappeared into the bedroom with Jimmy following her.

  Left alone, Dev looked around. There were a table and three chairs in the small kitchen area and only a few pieces of threadbare furniture in what was considered the sitting room. Two other bedrooms, besides the mother's, opened off that main room, and they were both just as spartanly furnished, too. Though the family had few belongings, what they had they took care of, and they kept the house impeccably clean. Dev was impressed.

  Meanwhile, Molly and Jimmy moved to stand beside their mother's bed.

  "How's she been?" she asked him nervously as she knelt down beside the bed and touched her mother's forehead to find she was burning up.

  "She's been real quiet," he said worriedly. He struggled manfully not to cry. "I'm scared."

 
"Don't worry, everything's gonna be fine. I want you to run out and get the doctor."

  "The doctor? How are we gonna pay for it?" Jimmy asked, surprised by her command. "You know what Mother said. She said we owed him too much already."

  "I know, but Dev's helping us. He's going to pay for the doctor."

  "He is?" That elevated Dev to a new plane in his thinking. No one had ever helped them out before, except the doctor, and his mother was too proud to let them take any more charity from him.

  "He is, but, Jimmy, there's something you have to do for us...for me."

  "What?"

  "We can't tell anyone that Dev's staying here."

  Her brother frowned. He wasn't used to being secretive about things. "How come?"

  "Can you just trust me for now, and I promise I'll explain everything to you later?"

  "Sure," he said seriously, "we've always been able to trust each other, haven't we?"

  "You've grown up a lot," she said quietly. "Our father would be proud of you."

  Jimmy was uncomfortable with an emotion he didn't understand. "If nobody's supposed to know, where's he gonna be when I come back with the doctor?"

  "Well think of something. Just remember, no one, absolutely no one, can know he's here. Promise?"

  "All right, I promise"

  Molly gave him a quick hug. "Now, run get the doctor. I'll be waiting right here for you."

  "What about work? Don't you have to go back?"

  "I will, but I'll go after the doctor leaves. Right now, mother's more important."

  Jimmy was relieved to turn the burden of concern over to Molly again, and he rushed off to get the physician.

  After the boy had left the house, Dev waited for Molly to come back out. When she didn't appear right away, he went to stand in the bedroom doorway where the door was slightly ajar. He could see her bending over her mother's inert form as she bathed her face with a damp cloth.

  "Molly?" he said her name softly, not wanting to risk disturbing the ill woman. "Can I help you?"

  "No, I was just trying to make her more comfortable," Molly answered, dampening the cloth once more and then wringing it out before she placed it on her mother's forehead. That done, she got slowly to her feet and went to join Dev. "We've got to find you a place to hide before the doctor gets here."