by Carol Finch
Nate wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled, but if he touched her he predicted he’d become sidetracked again. Damnation, this woman set off so many contradicting feelings inside him that he didn’t know which one to deal with first.
“Rachel, I’m trying to protect you. I can help if you tell me—”
“Protect me?” she scoffed sarcastically. “You couldn’t defend yourself against the three men who robbed you and beat you. But I’ve managed to elude them for a month without suffering so much as a scratch.”
Nate went completely still as he watched her shrink away from him and curse her runaway tongue. Something very dark and dangerous was going on here. Rachel, he presumed, was right smack-dab in the middle of it.
“Rother, Hanes and Lamont are chasing you?” he prodded.
She bobbed her head and looked the other way. Clearly, she was upset with herself for blurting out facts that she preferred to keep from him.
“Why are they chasing you?” he demanded.
She didn’t answer the question, just bursted out with, “Now do you see why I have been tormented to no end?” Her voice wobbled as she dragged in a fortifying breath. “You wouldn’t have been hurt if those scalawags hadn’t been combing the area looking for me. I feel guilty about that because I’m indirectly responsible for the assault. Plus, I kept silent when those bastards showed up in Possum Grove. I knew that if they saw me I would be as much at risk as you were, so I detained you by seducing you, and now you’re operating under the absurd notion that you are obligated to me, just because you’re the first man I’ve known intimately. I refuse to be responsible for altering the course of your life because you feel responsible for me!”
They would debate that issue later. Right now, Nate needed facts. All of them. He vowed to be relentless in prying the truth from her.
“What do those men want with you, Rachel?” he demanded sharply.
“If I tell you, I’m not sure you’ll believe me,” she muttered sourly. “Adolph Turner will have his own version of our confrontation…if he’s still alive.”
Nate wasn’t sure what he expected her to say but that wasn’t it. “You’ve been traveling with Doc’s medicine show because you’re wanted for murder?” he croaked in disbelief.
She half collapsed on the seat, as if a heavy load had been lifted from her shoulders. Then she inhaled a bracing breath and shrugged noncommittally. “Maybe. I don’t know for sure. I left town before I was certain if I killed him.”
“We are still talking about the same Turner who manages the Dodge City Freight Company?” he asked, his mind spinning like a windmill.
She nodded jerkily. “Yes, the bastard.”
He didn’t think this was a good time to tell her that he was here to investigate the drop in profits at the freight company for Edgar Havern and his father-in-law, Julian St. Raimes. This placed Nate in a bit of a predicament. If he sided with Rachel about whatever had happened with Turner, then he’d be inclined to instantly suspect Turner of swindling his investors without gathering necessary evidence. Turner might accuse him of being influenced by the wiles of the very same woman who had injured him.
Unless Turner was dead already and had nothing whatsoever to say in the matter.
Hell and damnation! Nate huffed out his breath and wondered if he’d have to bend the law and pull a few strings to untangle Rachel from the treacherous web surrounding her.
“You better start at the beginning,” he requested, frustrated. “Don’t leave out a single detail. I need all the facts.”
She glanced fretfully at him. Her hands were clenched tightly in front of her and her spine was ramrod stiff. “You can be sure my version won’t coincide with Adolph’s.”
“So you’ve said. Now spit it out and quit beating around bushes,” he ordered. “I’m quickly losing patience.”
She didn’t speak for a long moment and her gaze skittered away again. He wondered if she was going to bolt and run since they were half a mile from town.
“Rachel,” he said coaxingly. “I really need to know what happened so I can help you. I want to help you.”
She expelled an audible sigh. “I worked for Grantham Boutique. Adolph began pursuing me aggressively after his mistress went flying out the second-story window of one of the hotels.”
“Was she shoved or did she take her own life?”
“According to Adolph and his three henchmen, who backed up his story, she was despondent because he called off their affair and withdrew his financial support. She supposedly jumped, but I’m not the only one in town who had a difficult time believing his version.
“Unfortunately, Adolph has enough wealth, influence and leverage with people who owe him money so he can buy loyalty,” she added bitterly. “He thinks his power and connections place him above the law.”
Now Nate understood why she resented men with money.
“I had been dodging Adolph’s advances for a month, but he lured me into the office, claiming Jennifer Grantham had ordered a birthday gift for her ten-year-old daughter, Sophie. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but he entered his dark storeroom and pretended to stumble over boxes of merchandise.”
Nate swore foully. He couldn’t wait to meet Adolph Turner. The bastard was going to pay for tormenting Rachel and forcing her to leave her home and her job and live in constant fear.
“Like a fool I dashed in to see if he needed help. That’s when he grabbed me.”
He saw her fists clench again, saw her body go rigid.
“He ripped my gown during the attack and I slugged him with my purse.”
His brows elevated dubiously. “Your purse?”
“I keep a heavy metal weight from a cuckoo clock inside it for just such emergencies. No one expects to be ‘clocked’ by a purse. I should have had it with me last night when those drifters harassed me, but I was distracted by the events of the day.”
“Then what happened?” he prompted, growing madder by the minute. Adolph Turner was going to answer for assaulting Rachel, he promised himself resolutely. Somehow or another, despite corroboration from his hired goons, Turner would pay severely for tormenting Rachel.
“Adolph threatened to harm Jennifer and her daughter if I didn’t agree to be his mistress. He told me that I wasn’t a proper lady so I didn’t have to be courted, only claimed.”
Nate gnashed his teeth until he practically ground off the enamel. Every time he thought of the torment Rachel had endured he wanted to take Turner apart with his bare hands, then string him up by his neck. If the man wasn’t dead already he sure as hell needed to be!
“Adolph grabbed me a second time and I reacted instinctively. I hit him and shoved him backward. He hit his head on the sharp corner of the shelf, then he collapsed. He was bleeding profusely, like Doc, and several heavy items from the shelves fell on him. I didn’t try to treat his wound and I didn’t hang around to find out if I’d killed him. Not when I knew his thugs were lurking nearby. They had stopped by the office a few minutes earlier.”
Nate could understand her unease and uncertainty. The thought of Rachel wanted for murder tormented him to no end.
“I knew I couldn’t remain in town, whether Adolph lived or died, because he’d want revenge and his ruthless ruffians would follow his orders. They delight in bullying everyone who gets in their way. So I stole men’s clothing to disguise myself.”
“The clothes I borrowed from you after I was attacked?”
“Yes. I also took money from his wallet to pay for the gown he ripped. Then I confiscated a horse to make my getaway.”
Nate grimaced. For years, he had followed the laws and rules strictly. Now he was contemplating the thought of giving them a twist to suit his purposes. Even better if he could wave his arms and make all charges against her magically disappear.
“If nothing else, you’ll be wanted for thievery,” he speculated.
Rachel nodded grimly. “I didn’t see myself as having much choice at the time. Adolph had
threatened to use Jennifer and Sophie as bargaining power against me so I couldn’t go to them for help or protection. The less they knew the better for them.”
She twisted on the seat to stare intently at him. “I need to leave here,” she insisted. “You have an investigation to conduct and I don’t want you to end up in the middle of my problems. I shouldn’t have confided in you. Like the Granthams, you would have been better off if you didn’t know what happened and had no connection to me.”
“Don’t even think about leaving. I’ll help you.”
“I can find a way to resolve my problems,” she said resolutely. “I don’t expect you to be the answer.”
“Damn it, Rachel—”
She pressed her index finger to his lips to shush him. “I know you’ll check on Doc. I’ll contact you by telegram so I can keep updated on his condition.”
He removed her hand from his lips. “No. I want you here so I can protect you.”
When she twisted around to launch herself off the wagon, he lunged at her. She squirmed for release but he hauled her against him—and refused to let go.
“This is what’s best for you,” she protested as she wiggled for freedom. “Don’t make me hurt you, Nate. I know your ribs are still tender.”
“You’re staying with me, no matter what the consequen—argh!” He yelped in pain when she gouged him in the ribs.
He tried to grab her before she leaped off to dash into the underbrush that lined the dirt road. He’d known she was going to jump ship—or wagon, as the case happened to be.
“You think I won’t come after you?” he growled at the darkness at large. “I will, you know. Is that what you want? For me to abandon Doc while I track you down?” He climbed off the wagon and stalked toward the place where she’d disappeared. “You choose, angel face. You or him.”
He knew she would sacrifice herself for Doc, just as she had refused to contact her friend and employer when Turner threatened her. Sure enough, she appeared from the bushes to glower at him.
“Sometimes I really hate you, Mr. U.S. Marshal,” she muttered angrily.
“Yeah. I hate you, too, angel face.” He gestured toward the back of the wagon. “Now crawl in the back with Doc and don’t poke your head out and risk being recognized, in case worse comes to worst.”
She called him a few names, half under her breath. He didn’t ask her to repeat them as she stamped to the wagon. Nate climbed onto the seat, then snapped the reins over the horses. He headed to town, just as the sun rose on a city divided by a railroad track that separated the ruffians from the respectable citizens.
As soon as the physician had a chance to examine Doc, Nate planned to find out if Rachel had the notorious distinction of having her sketch on a Wanted poster. Then he was going to find out what had become of Turner.
Nate hoped Turner wasn’t dead already because he had a good mind to kill the conniving bastard himself.
Rachel wasn’t sure what sort of reaction she would experience when they drove past the freight company. Anger and resentment bombarded her immediately. Followed by the regret of having had to leave her friends and a job she enjoyed.
She cursed Adolph for ruining her life with his attack and his threats. She cursed him a second time for forcing her to break off contact with her friends. Yet if she hadn’t run for her life to escape Adolph, she might not have become intimately acquainted with Nate.
On the other hand, falling in love with Nate would cause inevitable heartbreak. And damn her runaway tongue for blurting out comments that connected her to Dodge City and aroused Nate’s suspicions.
Rachel suspected her nagging conscience had seized control of her tongue. Maybe she had secretly wanted to confide in Nate so he would understand her need for another hasty departure. But nothing had worked out as she had planned. Plus, Nate had made her choose between running away and ensuring that Doc received immediate medical attention.
The wagon came to a halt, then shifted as Nate climbed down. “I’m going to find Ludy and Dr. Yeager. Sit tight,” he murmured as he strode past her hiding place in the wagon.
Pensively, she studied Doc’s pale features and contemplated how Nate was going to deal with her crimes when he had taken an oath to uphold the law. She cared too much about him to complicate his life and jeopardize his reputation as a lawman.
The honest truth was that she wanted to feel that she could trust and rely on Nate, when she hadn’t allowed herself to trust any other man. She hoped that by placing her faith in Nate he didn’t betray her. If he did eventually, he might as well drive a stake through her heart while he was at it.
A few minutes later she shrank back when Nate opened the canvas cover that prevented dust from rolling into the back of the wagon. “Did you find Ludy?” she asked quietly.
Nate nodded his auburn head. “He’s bringing the stretcher. We’ll put Doc in the infirmary behind the physician’s office. Then Dr. Yeager will have a look at him.” He tossed her satchel to her. “You might want to grab your cap and vest to better conceal your identity until I find out if there are Wanted posters distributed around town.”
Rachel fished into her bag to retrieve the vest and cap, then tucked in her hair. Keeping her head down, she discreetly watched the gray-haired physician approach the wagon.
“What happened?” Dr. Yeager asked as Nate and Ludy carefully loaded Doc on the stretcher.
“He fell down the side of a steep hill, then slammed his head against a few boulders,” Nate reported. “We stitched up the wound and gave him a sedative, but he hasn’t regained consciousness since the accident.”
Dr. Yeager pried open Doc’s eyelids to have a closer look. “How long has he been out?”
“At least eight hours,” Ludy replied. “He’s a doctor. Not that it’s doing him any good right now.”
Dr. Yeager glanced at the wagon logo that advertised patented medicines, then he scoffed. “Right. That kind of doctor is no doctor at all.”
Rachel wanted to leap to Doc’s defense, but she clamped her mouth shut and let Nate and Ludy deal with the situation.
“Doc Grant is a certified physician,” Nate explained. “He’s been making it his mission to inform patients in small communities of the vices of relying on tonics and elixirs, instead of consulting a doctor. He examines injured and ailing patients in his traveling clinic.”
Dr. Yeager raised his bushy gray brows, then glanced from Doc to Nate. “Truly? Glad to hear someone has taken it upon himself to spread the word.”
“But he can’t help patients in the outlying area until we get him back on his feet,” Nate remarked.
Rachel watched the men carry Doc away. Her stomach growled so she grabbed a few crackers from the tin box. Then she poked her head around the opening—and nearly choked on her cracker when she saw none other than Adolph Turner swagger from Four Queens Hotel to enter a nearby restaurant.
“Well, that answers that question,” she mumbled as the arrogant bastard disappeared from sight. “At least I’m not wanted for murder. That’s a relief.”
Or was it? The fact that Adolph had survived the fracas and had sent his goons in search of her indicated that he craved personal revenge. Rachel cringed. She could well imagine what sort of punishment Adolph had in mind. Lecherous, unscrupulous scoundrel that he was.
She nearly pitched from the back of the wagon when someone—she couldn’t see who, since her view was blocked—led the horses around the corner. Then Ludy appeared.
“I rented rooms at the Four Queens. It’s supposed to be the best accommodations in town.” He retrieved her satchels, as well as his own. “Grab Nate’s knapsack, will you? He’s going to take a stroll through town to check for those men who attacked him before he catches a nap.”
Rachel hoped Nate didn’t meet up with those heartless scalawags. He couldn’t use the power of his position as a federal marshal to jail his assailants if he planned to conduct a discreet investigation. She frowned when she recalled that he hadn’t sai
d which business he was investigating.
Shrugging off the curious thought, she hopped to the ground, then hunched over to ensure that no one recognized her. She glanced down the street to see that Grantham Boutique had yet to open for business. The urge to contact Jennifer tempted her, but she followed in Ludy’s wake to enter the hotel. She nodded gratefully when he handed her a room key.
“We’d like hot water for our baths,” Ludy requested.
The hotel keeper nodded his shiny bald head and smiled when Ludy offered him a generous tip. “Coming right up, sir.”
Only when Rachel locked herself inside her room did she breathe a sigh of relief. She had vowed never to return to Dodge. Yet here she was. In the end, she hadn’t been able to leave Doc behind. In addition, she hadn’t been able to walk away from her fierce attraction to Nate, and she had confided the incident with Adolph, even though it placed Nate in the awkward position of harboring a fugitive.
She jumped, startled, when a loud rap resounded on the door. “Who’s there?” she said in her best masculine voice.
“Water brigade.”
Rachel grabbed her pistol—just in case. Thankfully, only a trio of teenage boys toted water to the brass tub, which stood behind an elegantly decorated dressing screen.
Bath and a nap. Ah, my idea of heaven, she mused as she locked the door, then peeled off her boots and breeches.
Another knock rattled the door hinges. “Now what?”
“It’s Nate. Open up.”
Rachel didn’t bother with breeches, just stood behind the door so no passersby would get an eyeful and realize she wasn’t the young boy she pretended to be.
“Good news, I—” Nate’s voice fizzled out when he noticed her bare legs protruding from the long hem of her shirt. His gaze roamed over her and desire flickered in his blue eyes.
“What’s the good news?” she prompted.
“You aren’t wanted for murder or thievery. Let’s celebrate…”
