by Linda Broday
“She deserved everything she got.” Nate stuck the ring and brooch into his pocket. “Never wanted to be a wife to me, an’ she turned my son into a namby-pamby. Something I aim to rectify.”
“I’ve wondered how you made Claire so ill. Poison?”
A grin flashed. “I was pretty proud I thought of it. Stole some purple nightshade from an old Chinaman. Just gave her a little at first to make her sick, then kept adding more and more until her poor faithless heart gave out.”
Callie remembered the violent retching, headaches, confusion, and inability to walk. Claire suffered an agonizing death. Hate for this man ate at her like a canker sore. Yet she held her tongue. Maybe by some miracle she could still rescue Mariah. It would do no good to rile him worse.
He motioned her back through the opening, backhanding her to hurry her along. “Get me some rope, Virgil. Gotta tie up this hellcat. She tried to shoot me.”
“You’re losing your touch, brother,” Emmett said, throwing a piece of wood onto the fire. “Never trust a woman.”
Though blood filled Callie’s mouth, her attention was on the young girl who crawled toward her.
Her daughter. Her Mariah.
Tears brimmed in Callie’s eyes. At last she could see the child they’d stolen from her. Silent sobs rose. Before she could touch the girl to make sure she wasn’t a dream, Nate yanked her hands behind her back and tied them with a piece of rope.
“Come say hello to your mama, gal,” Nate hollered, then burst into mad laughter. “Too bad she can’t save your sorry hide.”
Mariah must’ve been a very pretty little girl before Nate got his hands on her. The brown hair curling around her face gave her the appearance of an angel. But it was the luminous dark eyes that drew Callie’s attention. They seemed to peer deep inside her soul, finding the things she’d hidden.
The little girl’s lips were blue from the cold. Mariah’s thin dress, torn and dirty, provided no protection from the elements. Dried blood and grime covered one side of her face.
Mariah’s quiet voice trembled. “Is it true? Are you my mama?”
“Yes, sweetheart.”
“What took you so long? I waited and waited all these years, but you didn’t come.”
The words cut Callie to the quick. She struggled with the ropes binding her hands. If only she could draw Mariah to her and shelter her from all the evil in the world.
“I didn’t know where you were, honey. I searched for you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help. I can see you’re cold. Do you have a coat?”
The girl whimpered and shook her head.
Guilt wracked Callie for the warm coat she wore. She strained at her ropes and got them to loosen a tiny bit. Or maybe she imagined it. Her glance found Nate holding his hands to the fire. Would he untie her so she could get her coat off? It seemed about as unlikely as becoming a bird and flying out of this desolate place.
“I’m scared,” the girl whispered.
“I know, sweetheart. If you’ll get in my lap, you can snuggle into my coat and find some warmth. Can you do that?” It was all Callie could offer at the moment, and she prayed it would be enough.
A second later, her daughter pressed against her and drew the coat around her thin body. For a moment, Callie could pretend that everything was all right.
She closed her eyes, savoring her angel baby’s slight weight, the feel of the small heart beating next to hers.
“I’m going to take care of you now,” she promised as her heart slowly shattered.
* * *
Sometime in the early dawn, Toby shook Rand. “Mama’s gone. Cain’t find her anyplace.”
Rand jolted awake. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he sat up. “Maybe she’s upstairs.”
“Nope. I looked. I think she wrote you a letter.” Toby handed him a scrap of paper.
My dearest Rand,
Please forgive me for running out on you. I have to save my daughter or I can’t live with myself. I know you’ll take care of the children. Thank you for giving me so much happiness. I’ll love you until my heart stops beating. Your name will be the last word on my lips.
Callie
The note slipped from Rand’s fingers, and he sagged against the back of the sofa. Shards of pain sliced through his chest, making it impossible to breathe. He wouldn’t have been in as much agony if someone had reached in and ripped his beating heart out.
This was far worse because it hadn’t killed him.
This was a living death to be endured with no relief. His worst fear was realized. Callie had left him like all the others had.
She was gone and he knew she wouldn’t come back.
His tortured lungs screamed with the need for air. She hadn’t trusted him to get Mariah back and save their family.
She had no faith in him.
All the love, all the times he’d poured out his heart to her, all his promises had meant nothing. She’d left like all the others. Walked out in the dead of night.
And maybe that’s what hurt worse than anything—that she didn’t have the courage to look him in the eye and tell him that she didn’t love him enough to stay.
When Toby crowded next to him and laid his head on his chest, Rand pulled him close, burying his face in the boy’s hair. How could she have left their children who loved her so? How? He’d seen her love for them, at least. She may have hidden her true feeling for him. But not for them. Wren and Toby meant everything to her.
“Don’t cry, Papa. It makes me sad. When is my mama coming home?”
“I don’t know, son.” He hadn’t the heart to tell him the truth.
“Will she go away like my real mama and never come back?”
How could he tell the boy…
I’ll love you until my heart stops beating. Your name will be the last word on my lips.
No. He couldn’t believe it was all a lie.
With hope in his heart, he lifted the note and read it once more. Bit by bit his brain took in the meaning of her words. He suddenly realized he was wrong. She did trust him. She’d made her choice, not because she thought him incapable, but because she felt she didn’t fight hard enough for her baby seven years ago. In her mind, she had to do it now. And in addition to her daughter, she was looking for redemption for herself. His pain eased just a little as pride took over.
She’d known the likelihood that Fleming would kill her was almost guaranteed, and yet she’d faced down her fears and gone anyway.
For Mariah, the child she’d lost.
The depth of a mother’s love knew no bounds.
Rand got to his feet. He had to find Callie. He truly understood the depth of her love, and she was about to understand the depth of his.
He would not let this end this way. Fleming did not get to decide who lived and who died.
It didn’t take long to feed Wren and change her. While he did that, Toby threw some of her things into a bag and got himself a hunk of bread to nibble on.
Then Rand loaded them into the wagon and raced down the road to Cooper’s ranch. He felt sure Delta would watch after the children until this was over.
Hell hath no fury like a man about to lose his one true love. He would find Callie and get her and Mariah back…and then he’d kill Nate Fleming.
Only one question remained: Would he let the buzzards peck out the outlaw’s eyes and feast on his dead body?
* * *
The sun was just coming up on the Long Odds Ranch when Rand kissed Wren and Toby and entrusted their care to Delta. He was outside waiting beside Blue for the others to saddle up and a rider to get back with Brett when Tom Mason galloped toward him and dismounted.
“I know you and I have a bone to pick with each other,” Mason said, “but I really need to find your brother. It’s very important.”
“Don’t have time to dea
l with this right now. I have to save my wife from outlaws.”
“I see. Looks like you can use an extra hand, then. Mind if I ride along?”
Brett galloped up just then in a cloud of dust.
Rand stared at Mason. Might be best to keep the man where they could see him. “Suit yourself, but stay out of my way.”
Fifteen of Cooper’s men with Rand, Cooper, and Brett leading the way rode hell-for-leather toward Limestone Bluff.
Though Rand’s shoulder felt as though someone had placed a hot brand to it, he pushed the pain aside. His wound was not going to prevent him from doing what he needed to. Thoughts whirled in his head. Would he get there in time?
He wouldn’t want to be Fleming if they didn’t. It would end on this day on this piece of Texas land that so many valiant men had fought and died to protect.
At the Alamo during the fight against Santa Anna’s men, Colonel William Travis had drawn a line in the sand. The ones who were with him in the cause stepped across. Rand’s gaze lit on the determination on each of the riders’ faces and knew they all stood with him.
This was his Alamo.
Like Travis and his followers, he’d lay down his life for justice.
He didn’t intend to lose. Not to this murdering desperado.
The rocky cliffs of Limestone Bluff loomed in the early-morning light. A short while later, they reined up and dismounted in the shadows of the butte that he’d watched Fleming and his brothers disappear into the previous day. Rand slid his Colt from the holster. All was quiet. Maybe they’d caught Fleming off guard.
The expected gunshots never rent the air. As shot up as the men were, maybe they still slept, he reasoned. Maybe one or two had died. He had no way of knowing. It took all his self-control to keep from rushing ahead.
At last they reached the narrow opening between the rocks. Still no shots came.
Brett looked the obstacle over. “There’s only one way to see what lies beyond the opening—from above. I’ll scale the side and look. Then we’ll know what we’re dealing with.”
“Be careful, brother,” Rand felt compelled to say, although he knew Brett would.
“I will be silent. They won’t hear me.”
Rand watched him begin the long climb, praying that Brett wouldn’t dislodge a single pebble.
Grim-faced, Cooper stood beside him with a hand on his shoulder. “He knows what he’s doing. We’re going to get Callie back.”
“Fleming doesn’t only have Callie.” Keeping his voice low, Rand told him about her daughter, Mariah, and Fleming’s threat to kill her. “That’s why Callie ended up here. She came to save Mariah.”
“We’ll get both of them back. You know we don’t let evil win. It’s not in us.”
Time dragged while they waited for Brett. It seemed to take forever before he dropped to the ground beside them.
“I saw no one. Not a thing moved on the other side of these rocks.”
Without waiting to hear more, Rand rushed forward, squeezing through the opening. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
The small enclosure was empty.
Everyone was gone.
Callie had vanished.
Thirty-two
Numbness washed over Rand. He was too late. He’d failed.
At least he saw no bodies and that heartened him a little. It had to mean Callie was alive. Didn’t it?
What had Fleming done with her?
Cooper picked up an empty can of beans while Brett knelt to feel the embers of the campfire.
“I’d say we missed them by ten minutes.” Brett stood, then climbed up the white cliff to a ledge and stood staring into the distance. “I see riders. I’d say that’s Fleming. They’re heading north toward Brushy Lake.”
“It has to be them,” Rand said. “Let’s ride.”
He was halfway to his horse by the time the rest seemed to realize it. Rand couldn’t wait. They would have to catch up. He sprang into Blue’s saddle and spurred the roan forward.
“Come on, boy. We’ve got to save our girls,” he muttered into the breeze. He ignored the pain shooting from his shoulder and bent into the wind, focusing solely on his task.
Pounding hooves from behind told him the others had lost no time in catching up. Rand put his head down and rode, willing the horse to eat up the ground.
Cooper pulled alongside and yelled, “We need a plan.”
“Find the no-good varmints and kill ’em,” Rand hollered back. That was the only plan he needed.
“If they make it to the lake, there’ll be hundreds of places for them to hide. Be harder to flush them out.”
“We have plenty of men. We’ll get the job done.”
Cooper nodded and fell back, letting Rand resume the lead.
Rand touched Blue’s right flank and raced toward the ragtag group ahead. Thank goodness they hadn’t seen him and his small army yet. Brush tore at his clothes and whipped his face, at times nearly unseating him. It didn’t matter, though. Nothing did, except for finding and bringing Callie and her daughter home.
With fierce determination pounding in his chest, onward he thundered. When Rand got within a hundred yards of the last rider, the man turned to look back. He yelled something to the others and they spurred their horses.
Callie sat in front of Fleming on his mount. Mariah rode with one of the brothers. Both were probably bound.
Up ahead, sunlight sparkled on Brushy Lake, turning the blue water into thousands of glistening diamonds. If only Rand could sprout wings and fly so he could beat them to the landmark. But he couldn’t. His powers lay in his dogged determination.
By the time he reached the landmark, the men and their captives had dismounted and hidden in the trees. With his Colt in his hand, Rand reined up and leaped from the saddle.
A hail of bullets whizzed around him.
Diving into the thick brush, he looked around at the heavy vegetation. It would take everything they had to flush the outlaws out. This was not going to be an easy or quick fight.
Cooper skittered into the brush with him.
“Tell your men not to fire blindly,” Rand said. “They might hit Callie or the girl.”
“Already have. You just focus on your wife and child.”
“Let’s round up these bastards.”
A shot whistled above Rand’s head and slammed into the bark of a tree behind him, splintering it. He rose for a quick look. Just then, one of the outlaws sprang from his hiding place and raced for the wide girth of the trunk of a cottonwood tree.
Rand took aim and squeezed the trigger. Blood spurted from the man’s chest as he went down. Rand wasted no time in finding another target when a raised head poked from a thicket. Nate Fleming. Rand drew a bead dead center between the man’s eyes.
He missed when the man ducked into the brush.
Damn!
Brett crawled from his cover to join Rand and Cooper. “What do you think?”
“Gotta fan out. Trap ’em in a circle. I’ll tell my men,” Cooper said. “You and Rand keep the heat on the outlaws from here.”
As Cooper crawled toward his men, Rand watched as one by one they slowly moved in a wide arc, giving Nate and his other brother nowhere to go. Ten minutes later, all escape routes were cut off.
Where was Callie? Terror ran up Rand’s spine. Fleming was ruthless enough to put a bullet in her head when he saw he had no hope of making it.
Please, God, don’t let that happen.
Desperate to keep that from becoming reality, Rand began running from tree to tree, getting closer to the spot where he’d last glimpsed Nate Fleming. His lungs hurt with the need to take in air. But he doubted he’d draw in a deep breath until he had Callie safe in his arms.
A hunger to kiss her and tell her how beautiful she was swept over him. She was everything he wanted an
d needed.
Callie Quinn Sinclair had become his sole reason for living. And he would fight for her until he had no more blood left to spill.
A few more feet got him close enough to reach Fleming. When the outlaw raised his gun, Rand made a flying tackle.
* * *
Gagged and bound, Callie listened to the snapping twigs, the crash of colliding bodies, and men’s grunts. She had to get her and Mariah free. Rand needed her.
A strong sense that this was a time of reckoning filled her.
She strained against her ropes, willing them to loosen. The rough hemp cut into her wrists, bringing stinging pain. Three feet away, Mariah began to sob. Nate had also gagged her and tied her to a small tree. Callie yearned to comfort her daughter.
Rustling movement caught her attention and she saw Emmett Fleming crawling toward her with a knife in his hand.
Her eyes widened as new fear rose
Dear God, please don’t let him kill Mariah or do anything to hurt Rand.
Shaking her head, she shrank as far away as she could and readied to use her feet—the only weapon she had.
How could she have been so wrong about him? Mariah had told her how he’d sneaked food to her and tried to keep Nate away. Callie had witnessed Emmett’s attempts to direct his brothers’ cruelty onto himself when they sought to inflict more punishment on her and Mariah. Nate and Virgil had beat him senseless when he’d confessed to things he hadn’t done.
Despite his small bits of kindness, though, she knew that in the end blood was thicker than water and his loyalty would always lie with his brothers.
She was about to kick Emmett as hard as she could when he spoke low, “For God’s sake, be still so I can cut your ropes. I don’t know how much time I have. Help your girl to one of the horses and ride.”
“Why are you doing this? They’ll kill you.”
A far look came into Emmett’s eyes. “I once had a wife and daughter. Nate stole them from me. He has this warped thinking that everything and everyone belongs to him. They died while in his hands, and I can honestly say that I hate my brother with a vengeance.”
