“Will be fine.” He’d make sure of it.
“But they have her.”
“And I’ll be discussing that with them shortly.”
“I’m coming with you when you do,” Kevin growled, his hands balled into fists. He hadn’t cried.
“No. You aren’t.”
Kevin just set his jaw. Mimi came forward and quietly put her arm around his shoulders. There was an unnatural quiet about her. The kind some soldiers got after battle.
“How will you find them?” Tony asked.
Jackson cut a glance at Mimi. She was staring out into the night, as if Melinda Sue might appear any moment. “I have a feeling I’m not going to have to.”
“But—”
“Kevin,” Jackson interrupted, “go help Tony take care of Lady. Be sure to rub her down and give her an extra portion of oats. She put in some miles today. And give that new mule some oats, too.”
Kevin didn’t move.
Mimi blinked and then put her hand on his back. “Do as you’re told, Kevin.”
Instead of moving, he glanced over his shoulder at her.
Giving him a little push, she added, “I’ll be fine.”
After another hesitation, he joined Tony.
As the two boys led the tired mare toward the barn, Jackson dropped all pretense. Taking Mimi’s arm, he escorted her up the stairs. “You and I need to talk.”
Thirteen
Jackson released Mimi as soon as they got in the kitchen. With a kick of his foot, he closed the door. The moist air of the evening faded to the homey smell of stew and beeswax. She didn’t turn around. As he stood there debating his options, she said quietly, “I’m not going to fight you.”
He wanted someone to fight. He wanted to win. Melinda Sue was out there somewhere, facing he didn’t know what. Grabbing his hat off his head, he tossed it on the chair. It landed on the right spindle, neat as a pin. Tonight, it gave him no satisfaction. Running his hand through his hair, he snapped, “You picked a hell of a time to become cooperative.”
“I’m sorry.”
He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Did you recognize any of them?”
“The leader, Rob. He was someone who ran errands for Mac’s foreman. No one important.”
She stood there, back to him, shoulders bent and arms hugging her waist, passively prepared to accept whatever punishment he decided to hand out. He wanted to punch something. Not because she wouldn’t give him a fight but because she just looked so . . . damned defeated.
“Come here.”
She didn’t move.
And suddenly he had something to do. It was only a step to take her in his arms. But it was a big step, because he couldn’t remember a time in his life when he’d felt somebody’s pain so keenly that it cut the legs out from under every other emotion. His frustration, his anger, his resentment . . . And his hurt, he realized, because somewhere along the line, he’d thought he’d had her trust.
Mimi stood stiffly in his arms, not resisting. Not encouraging. Just standing there. Probably because she didn’t know what he planned, and honestly, if she’d asked him what he intended to do, he wouldn’t have had an answer. But once she was in his arms, it was the most natural thing in the world to turn her, to tuck her into his chest, and to just . . . hold her.
Resting his chin on the top of her head, he sighed. “I’ll get her back.”
The hitch to her shoulders could have been either a sob or a shrug. He didn’t know which. It really didn’t matter.
“I know you’ll try.”
He tipped her face up with the side of his hand. Gently brushing her bruised cheek with his thumb, he asked, “What did I say?”
Tears filled her eyes, hovered on her lashes. “Will you bring her home the same as she was before?”
She was asking him to tell her they wouldn’t harm Melinda Sue. He wanted to lie, but all he had was the grim truth. “I can’t promise that.”
That one was a sob. A deep, wrenching spasm that convulsed her shoulders.
The tears spilled over, staining her cheeks before pooling between his thumb and her chin, spreading out, sealing their connection. “Honey. I’m not playing hero. Before coming home, I stopped by Rivers Bend and telegraphed for help. You can believe me. I’ll get her back.”
Stepping back, she shook her head. Whether negating the reality or negating her ability to handle it, he didn’t know.
“Please.” Waving her hands, as if she had a prayer of warding him off, she choked out, “Please, don’t.”
Don’t what? Don’t tell the truth? Don’t hold her? Don’t comfort her? Don’t care? He was long past all those don’ts.
He pulled her close. “Too late. I’m already doing.”
Pressing her face into his chest, she whispered, “I failed her, Jackson.” Her fingers clenched into a fist against his chest. “She’s got to be so scared.”
“She’s a tough little thing.”
Mimi shook her head. “You don’t understand. She’s so fragile.”
Wrapping her braid around his hand, Jackson tugged her head back. She still wouldn’t look him in the eyes. Shame did not become her. “Are we talking about the same child?”
“I know you look at her now, but she’s just beginning to find her feet and I’m so scared that this time she won’t be able to come back.”
“This time?”
“She sees herself as bad.”
“How is that even possible? She’s four years old.”
Tears dripped from the corners of her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed and blotchy, her eyes red and swollen. The bruise was starting to turn. She did not cry prettily. He didn’t care.
“They’re here because of her. Because of what she did. But she’s just a child and she was just being a child.”
“Anyone would know that.” Jackson wiped a tear away with the pad of his thumb.
“Not Mac. Mac will never understand.” She shook her head vehemently. Scrubbing at her cheeks, she swore, “I had to take them with me. Mac would’ve killed them. Just out of spite.”
Mac was a real charmer. “How long ago was that?”
“A year.”
She’d been on the run for a year with three children?
“Most men would have given up by now.”
“Mac is a possessive man.”
“And he thinks he owns you.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.” She glanced away. “He’s crazy that way.”
That he found easy to believe. Any man that had Mimi and threw her away was a fool.
“So you saved the children from him.”
She nodded. “But I don’t know what I’m doing. I thought it would be different. I thought I could be different.” She wiped at her cheeks, scrubbing away the tears, before whispering, “I thought I would be different.”
“How?”
“I thought we’d work together. The four of us against the world. I didn’t realize there’d be so many decisions I’d have to make alone or that they’d have so many needs.”
“They’re children.”
She nodded and bit her lips. “It was easier in Boston. Things were more . . . organized.”
She looked at him, her shattered heart in her eyes. “A mother wouldn’t have let them take her, Jackson.”
“A mother would do exactly what you did. She would survive so she could fight another day.”
She was shaking her head before he finished. “I should have stopped them.”
“If I couldn’t stop them with a rifle full of bullets, what could you have done?”
She just looked at him, lips quivering, tears dripping, shaking her head helplessly. “I told you, I don’t know how to do this, and now those men have Melinda Sue and she’s never going to be the same.”
She took a step back. He let her, but just until she ran into the barrier of his linked hands. She folded her palms together in a position of prayer and pressed the tips of her fingers against her lips. Her eyes closed slowly.
“I love her, too, you know,” he informed her when she opened her eyes.
“You don’t even know her.”
“I know she’s a lot like you. Full of light and smiles.”
She blinked and straightened, her lips parting in shock. “You can’t possibly think that she’s . . . that I’m . . . ? I mean, we look nothing alike.”
He dismissed that nonsense with a wave of his hand. “I know she’s not yours, but I would like to know why she thinks she’s bad.”
“Mac had a lot of women friends and he liked to loan them jewelry to wear. The happier he was with them, the shinier the jewelry.”
“Not the loyal type, huh?”
Her mouth twisted. “No. Not at all.”
She reached behind her for a chair. “I need to sit down.”
She was looking pale. He helped her into the seat.
“Tell me what happened, Mimi, that day you took the box and decided to run.”
“That day, I’m not sure how, Melinda Sue got into the safe. I don’t know how or when she figured out the combination—probably from spying on Mac—but she opened it.”
He could see Melinda Sue doing that. The cherubic charm masked the mind of a master thief. “She is an intelligent little thing.”
Mimi’s nod was distracted, her focus clearly on that night. “She wanted to try on the necklace.” She cut him a glance. “She liked to play princess, you see.”
He nodded, and she continued.
“However, once she got the safe open, she told me she heard something in the next room.” Pushing her hair off her face, Mimi explained. “It was Mac. He was furious.” Horror ghosted her voice along with the memory. “We heard her screams, but then they stopped.”
His fists clenched. If Mac didn’t come looking for Mimi, Jackson was going to go looking for him. The bastard had hurt Mimi. Melinda Sue. The boys. He wouldn’t leave him out there as a threat. “And?”
“When we got to the room, we could see why. Mac was choking and cursing her, shaking her like a rag doll. I tried to pull her free, but he was too strong. But then Kevin grabbed a big vase and hit him on the head.” Licking her lips, her gaze met his again. “He fell and didn’t get up.”
“Good.”
“I knew we only had a little time, but we needed money, so I grabbed the box from the safe and”—she shrugged—“we ran.”
“Just like that.”
She nodded. “Just like that.”
“Shit.” A vulnerable young woman and three kids alone in the West? It was a wonder she hadn’t been raped and killed. “You were lucky.”
“Not any longer.” Gripping the table, she whispered, “As soon as Mac gets the book, he’s going to kill us.”
“Where is it?”
She let go of the table. “What makes you think I have it here?”
Jackson held out his hand. She placed hers in his. Her skin was pale and delicate against his suntanned flesh. Smooth where his was scarred and calloused. He helped her to her feet. “You wouldn’t trust anything that important too far from your side.”
“You know me too well.”
She didn’t seem too happy about it. “That bother you?” he asked as she headed to the back left corner of the cabin.
Without looking at him she said, “I haven’t decided yet.”
She hadn’t decided . . . “Well, let me know when you do.”
With a shake of her head, she knelt. He expected her to pull up the floorboard. Instead, she slid one of the wallboards sideways, hesitated, and then reached under the floor and pulled something out. Turning around, she brushed off something square wrapped in brown oilcloth. “Before the snakes and the well, I wouldn’t have hesitated to reach in there.”
“Sometimes, there’s a lot to be said for ignorance.”
“Yes. I miss it.”
“Well, lucky for you, I never had it to miss.” He held out his hand. She gave him the box but didn’t release it.
“Being fearless got you a snakebite.”
“And a pretty woman.” He gave a little tug. “You can let go of it now.”
She did, still looking nervous. “I don’t know why I’m so reluctant, but the darn thing’s been terrifying me for so long, I feel like I’m giving up a part of me.”
He slid a finger down her cheek, tracing a tear track. “I told you down in that well, Mimi, that I’d keep you safe.”
Clasping her hands in front of her, she leaned into his hand. “I know.”
“Try believing it.”
Her response was a wobbly smile. “I’ll work on it.”
“Succeed.”
She rolled her eyes. Jackson unwrapped the box. It was an innocuous enough–looking thing. Wooden, about nine inches on a side, with black chipped paint. He opened the lid. A long, low whistle escaped him. He lifted the necklace out of the box. The diamonds were of such quality that even in that low light they sprang to life. The center pendant practically defined fire. “It’s easy to see why she took this. It’s a beautiful piece.”
It was. Mimi had often admired it on her husband’s mistresses’ necks. “Yes. Every time Mac gave it to a new mistress, Melinda Sue pouted. She wanted it for when she played princess.”
Jackson dropped it back into the black wooden box with an utter disregard for its value. The little brown leather journal he treated with far more deference.
“It doesn’t look like much, does it?”
“Hmm.” He was fully engrossed. She had to assume from the fact that he read the first few pages and skipped to the middle before quickly heading to the end that he understood what he was looking at. He closed the book with a snap. “Mac must want this very badly.”
“He does.”
He tapped the cover. “The information here would make him a very rich man for a very long time. Give him unlimited power.”
“It’s a blackmail list, isn’t it?”
“Of some very important people, I’m sure. These are some damning secrets.”
Rubbing her forehead, she fought a sob. “And he has Melinda Sue.”
He looked up. “Mac?”
“Yes.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think he does.”
“What?” she gasped. “He has to have her.”
It was inconceivable that Rob had taken Melinda Sue for any other reason than ransom. Knowing Rob needed Melinda Sue alive to make a trade was the only thing keeping Mimi sane.
Jackson held up the book. “Mac wouldn’t risk letting this fall into the hands of an intermediary. His power comes from the fact that he’s the only one who knows what these secrets are, but anyone having possession of this book would have all the leverage that he has.”
“I didn’t think of that.” Rubbing her arms, she whispered, “He’s just always been so powerful. Nobody ever challenges him.”
“A man in his position is always being challenged. Just staying alive is a delicate balance in his particular game.”
“He’s not a very educated man, but he is very, very cunning.” And mean. Horribly, viciously mean.
Jackson nodded. “I know the type.”
The awful emptiness inside threatened to suck her into the abyss. Her hands felt clammy. Her skin oddly cold. “So if Rob didn’t take Melinda Sue to get the book, why did he take her?”
Jackson put the book
back in the box and pulled out the necklace. It glittered in the lamplight. “I’m guessing for this.”
Understanding came slowly. “They don’t know about the book.”
“I don’t think so. Mac wouldn’t advertise the book’s existence. It’s too valuable. But he could safely put out a bounty for whoever could bring him you and the necklace. That would be a reasonable compromise to get what he wants.”
She licked her lips. “Because only Mac and I know the book and the necklace were together.”
“Exactly.”
She perked up. “So we can just give them the necklace in exchange for Melinda Sue.”
“We could do that.”
God darn it. He was always raining on her parade. Folding her arms across her chest, she snapped, angry that this couldn’t go simply. “Why do I hear a ‘but’?”
“Probably because there is one.”
It didn’t take Mimi but a second to figure it out. “He knows Mac and how vindictive he is. He knows he’ll never give up looking for us, but if he succeeds in finding us and we tell him about Rob taking the necklace then he’ll know he was betrayed.” The cold emptiness sank deeper, right along with understanding. She stumbled back a step. Jackson caught her hand, steadying her. His expression was stony as he absorbed her fear. “Rob’s going to kill us no matter what, isn’t he?”
“Who’s going to kill us?” Kevin asked from the doorway. Behind him Tony stood, the only indication he’d overheard was the pallor of his complexion.
Oh, dear God. She stood. “I didn’t mean for you to hear that.”
“You’re always hiding things from us!” Kevin yelled, his green eyes narrowed in anger. “And look what happened.” He made a slashing motion of his hand. “Everything’s a mess, and now Melinda Sue is gone and they’re going to kill us.”
She didn’t have anything to say to that. But she wanted to. She wanted to say so much. She wanted to have the answers so badly. In the end, she did the only thing she could do. She opened her arms. After a few seconds, Tony walked in. On the way he grabbed Kevin’s arm and dragged him along. “Don’t be a jackass.”
She hugged them tightly. She didn’t care that Kevin stood as stiff as a board and that only Tony hugged her back. She tried not to think about the space that was empty where Melinda Sue should be. For now, this was what they had.
Promises Decide Page 20
