Her Vigilante Passion
Page 13
“Who is that?” Lara pushed to her elbows and then sat up straight, her eyes growing huge. “Adam, it sounds like a frightened boy out there.”
“I know.” Adam pulled on his pants, snatched his gun belt from where it hung on a nail by the door and shot Lara a hard look over one shoulder. “Stay here.”
She sucked in an audible breath, perhaps to argue or maybe in surprise because he couldn’t remember ever speaking so forcefully to her. He didn’t waste time figuring out which. He rushed out the door, nearly barreling into his pa on his way down the hallway.
“It sounds like Bo Dillinger.” Boyd Stonewell blocked the narrow space. The width of his wheelchair barely left enough room for him to steer himself out of the passage, let alone allow room for anyone to pass. “Isn’t his older brother still part of the gang?”
“Best as I know, Pa.” Adam gripped the back of the wheelchair and pushed Boyd the remaining distance to the main room. “Stay inside. I’ll see what’s going on.”
“Adam—”
At the sound of his mother's voice behind him, Adam cut her off with a brisk “Stay here,” in the same tone he used with Lara. By the time he reached the door and flung it open, the boy had already dismounted, tethered his horse, and stomped onto the porch.
Adam recognized the boy. “Bo, what’s all this ruckus about?”
“Sorry, Mr. Stonewell, but you’ve got to come quick.” Even as he spoke, the boy spun on his heel and headed back down the porch steps.
“Now, hang on. Come where? Talk to me, boy.” Adam followed the kid down the steps, catching him by the arm and halting him in his spot.
“To Miller’s Pond. That’s where the gang is headed. I went by the sheriff’s office to catch Dill. I wanted to ride with them. He always promised when I got old enough he’d let me join the gang. Well, I’m fifteen tomorrow. I think it’s high time he realized I’m old enough.”
“You might be right about that.” Adam quickly agreed if only to get the kid talking back on point. “Were they already gone when you got to the sheriff’s office?”
Bo nodded furiously. “They were. I must’ve just missed them because the lantern on the desk was still hot. I checked it myself, burned my finger, too. That’s when I saw it.”
“Saw what, boy?” Boyd Stonewell wheeled himself out and made it down the ramp Adam had built next to the steps.
“The newspaper article."
"What article?" Adam asked.
"The one on the sheriff’s desk about the Desert Riders.”
“Well, that’s who they mean to stop by heading them off at Miller’s Pond,” Boyd commented.
“Yes, sir. I know, sir. But this one was written just after Luke gunned down that man in the Franklin Saloon.”
“O’Keefe,” Adam supplied. “Ralf O’Keefe.”
Bo Dillinger nodded again. “That’s right. The paper talked about him having two brothers, one of them a Gerald O’Keefe and the other Climens Baird O’Keefe.”
Adam’s blood turned to ice in his veins. Without even realizing it, his hand shot out, and he grabbed Bo’s arm in a tight grip. “Are you sure about that, boy? You’re saying the sheriff is one of O’Keefe’s brothers?”
“Yes, sir. It got me to thinking, nobody knows the true identity of the Desert Riders, right? What if one of them is the other brother, the one named Gerald O’Keefe?”
“If you’re right, boy, then my son and the rest of the Stonewell gang might be headed into an ambush.” Boyd’s voice shook with worry and fear. “We’ve got to get word to them.”
Adam broke into a run for the horse barn, ignoring the sound of feet pounding the dirt behind him until he retrieved and mounted his horse.
“I’m going with you,” Bo Dillinger declared. The boy stood in a gunfighter’s stance with his feet shoulder-width apart, hand at the ready on the butt of his gun, his expression hard. “You said yourself I was old enough.”
Adam didn’t waste time arguing. As it stood, he might end up needing the help. He didn’t have an idea what he might come up against once he reached Miller’s Pond. He only knew Luke could be in a real heap of trouble if what they suspected about the sheriff and the Desert Riders turned out true. He tipped his head to the boy’s horse still tethered by the house. “Then get your horse and let’s ride.”
Chapter Nine
Luke sensed eyes on him a heartbeat before they stepped out from the trees. He quickly counted eight of them, all with shotguns trained on him and the Stonewell gang. He tightened his grip on his horse’s reins and guided the stallion to a stop mere feet from the barrel of the closest outlaw.
“Gutsy bastard.” The outlaw spat on the ground at the horse’s feet, his shotgun lifting the distance needed to aim directly at Luke’s chest. “Heard that about you.”
Luke slowly put his hands in the air, not wanting to give the outlaw a reason to shoot just yet, and peered down the barrel of the shotgun. The thought flittered though his mind that he couldn’t recollect a time when he saw such a fine piece of metal from this angle except when he cleaned his own shotgun. “Oh? I can’t say as I heard the same about you.”
A couple of the other men stirred, shifting their weight and their guns, preparing to fire. Luke ignored them. He knew instinctively when the lead started to fly the man at his front would be the one he would have to deal with. His men would take care of the rest.
“Fucking prick.” The outlaw swore and spat again. A cocky grin split his weathered face, revealing teeth speckled with chewing tobacco. “You won’t be so full of yourself by the time I get through with you and this bunch of cowards you ride with.” He cocked his shotgun, the sound like a bomb in the morning silence. More sounds followed, clicks of more guns being readied to fire by both his men and the outlaws.
Luke turned a palm toward the men behind him. “Keep calm, boys.”
“Keep calm.” The outlaw laughed. “Now that’s a hell of an order. A might good one, too. Get off that horse so I can look at you gunslinger to dead man.”
“Wearing a hat and a pair of boots doesn’t make a man a cowboy,” Luke informed the outlaw as he dismounted slowly, his mind reeling with what to do next. Perhaps he shouldn’t have left the protection of his horse, but he figured he stood a better chance of facing off with this bastard on his feet.
He eyed the man, catching the resemblance between his assailant and the sheriff just a little too late. Damn, he must be out of practice. How the hell did he miss it? The fact that he never actually saw any of the Desert Riders up close notwithstanding, he’d felt something sour about the whole deal in his gut almost from the start. Moreover, his instincts had told him something just didn’t add up about the sheriff. Well, it all added up now, and the deck sure did appear to be stacked against him and the gang.
“What’s the relation?” He stared at the outlaw, thinking him older, nastier than the sheriff. Luke gathered him to be the leader of the Desert Riders, too, given his current position as apparent spokesman and commander.
Sheriff Baird’s voice boomed behind Luke. “Gerald, here, is my brother. The youngest. I’m in the middle. That made Ralf the oldest.”
Gerald O’Keefe sneered. “You see, that man you killed two years back was our brother. Good man, too, and you shot him down like a dog.”
“I only gave him what he deserved.” Luke caught the glint of a barrel hidden in the bushes out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t dare venture a guess if it belonged to one of O’Keefe’s men or his own. He only hoped for the latter. “Your brother and the rest of your men will get the same for all the crimes you've committed.”
Gerald gave another laugh, and the rest of his outlaws followed suit. He closed the distance between himself and Luke, or rather between the barrel of his shotgun and Luke’s chest. “You're talking about those things you killed my brother for? You gunned down the wrong man for what was done to that woman and her husband. She screamed mighty nice as I enjoyed that sweet pussy and fucked her brains out.”
“Whore tried to kick me in the balls after the pleasure I showed her,” Gerald went on. “I might not have killed her if she hadn’t tried that.”
“Ralf would’ve done it for you though, wouldn’t he?”
Gerald angled his head, his eyes narrowing. “You looking for justification for killing the wrong man now, Stonewell?”
Nope, just keeping you talking, you dumb sonuvabitch.
“I didn’t need my brother to do nothing for me. I handle things the way I see fit. I might be younger than him and Climens, but I’m the smarter one.”
“You also talk too much, Gerald,” the sheriff bellowed. “Let’s do what you planned to do and get this over with. I’ve got a town back there to run.”
Gerald’s cracked lips spread into a grin not fit for the devil. “A town I intend to have a great deal of fun in. Didn’t you say this one here left a pretty lady behind pining after him?”
“You stay the hell away from Lara.” Luke couldn’t stop the seething words. With that one statement, he let them know exactly how to get under his skin.
Mistake. Huge fucking mistake.
But he couldn’t take it back now.
“I mean to have a go at her myself.” Climens Baird’s breath came hot at Luke’s neck as the man leaned in at his back, the barrel of his pistol stabbing Luke in the spine. “Just as soon as I put a bullet through your brother same as you did mine. I could’ve taken him out a long time ago, you know. An eye for an eye as the good book says.”
“Why didn’t you? Why wait two years to get your revenge.”
“The town took me in real nice and smooth. Stupid folks never suspected a thing. Getting you back here took a bit more work. Setting up this little meeting at just the right time, well, it took some planning with my brother and his boys here. The great Luke Stonewell, best gunfighter in these parts. I’ve gotta say you’re pretty easy to fool though. An eye for an eye,” the sheriff repeated and scoffed. “Adam Stonewell’s eyes don’t replace Ralf’s. Adam is a pussy, a yella-belly coward. He isn’t man enough to be a fair revenge for you killing Ralf.”
Two shots rang out almost simultaneously. Luke felt the blood splatter on his face as Gerald O’Keefe’s head exploded like a melon. He felt the gun at his back falter, too. He spun a heartbeat before it trained on him again as Climens quickly recovered from the shot that caught him in the side of the thigh. Luke didn’t think. He drew his gun and fired a clean shot to the chest, but not before the sheriff got off a shot of his own. Luke felt the instant sting as the bullet buried itself in his left arm. Reflexively, he fired again, sinking another bullet into the sheriff, this time right between the eyes.
Around him, more gunfire blazed as the Stonewell gang faced off with the Desert Riders in a fight too quick for the eye. Luke saw Hiram take a bullet, the force of the blow sending him stumbling back and folding to the ground. Walt leveled Hiram’s assailant in a flash, taking the outlaw out with a single shot that sent the outlaw crumpling in the dirt. When the dust cleared and quiet settled around Miller’s Pond, six men stood victorious and one sat up cursing a blue streak, while nine bodies lay sprawled on the ground dead.
“Who’s a pussy now?”
Luke slowly turned his head and caught sight of Adam moving toward him, his gun now lowered at his side. It surprised Luke how confident and steady his brother appeared. He met Adam’s gaze and lifted a brow as realization of what happened set in.
“I take it you don’t care for being called a yella-belly coward,” Luke said, biting back a grin.
Adam’s gaze raked over him, obviously taking in the fact that Luke had taken a bullet to the arm but still stood on his own two feet. “I never did care for name calling. It always seemed so childish.”
Luke couldn’t help it. He threw back his head and laughed.
* * * *
Two weeks later
Lara felt a trickle of wetness drip from her pussy, and she shivered with anticipation.
“You know what you have to do, wife.” Luke’s tone held the commanding lilt that drove her mad, his hand a warm but threatening presence on her bare ass cheek.
Wife. She couldn’t get enough of hearing it. The endearment reverberated through her mind as she closed her eyes, letting the images of the past few hours flash though her memory. In her mind’s eye, she watched her men walk toward her from where she stood with the preacher before nearly the whole town. Both looked better than any man should in their new britches and coats Grace had sewed for them. It amused her to see Adam with a rosebud pinned to his breast in the same place Luke wore his tin star. The town had appointed Luke sheriff, keeping the rest of the Stonewell gang on as his deputies. Adam had spent the time since the showdown at Miller’s Pond working on building a home for the three of them at the back of the Stonewell spread. The important part, the bedroom, had been completed just hours before their wedding.
The poet and the sheriff, and they officially belonged to her. Lara shivered again and opened her eyes, her gaze locking with Adam’s slightly amused and very aroused one. “I told you I would never ask for such a thing, husband. What makes you think I would change my mind now?”
Behind her, Luke pushed a finger into her anus, causing her to draw in a quick breath of pleasured surprised. “Because if you want more of this, and what I have planned after it, you’ll do as I bid.”
The finger retreated as fast as it plundered, leaving her hole feeling empty and wanting. She wriggled in search of that touch, the movement grazing her sensitized pussy lips over the head of Adam’s cock. Adam lay beneath her, his hands gripping securely on her hips, holding her poised above his cock. If she moved just right, she could feel the beads of pre-cum seeping from the slit of his dick as it rubbed at her labia and soaked her flesh.
She stared down at Adam imploringly, but he merely held her still, the corner of his lips quivering in a smile he obviously struggled to hold back. What had happened to her softly spoken poet who preferred the tender over the rough, the slow over the rushed, passion over demand? Apparently, he harbored no qualms at waiting patiently to have things his way while his brother controlled with a firm hand. Oh, yes, belonging to both these amazing men certainly meant she got the best of both worlds.
“Please.” The plea escaped her lips before she even knew she meant to say it. Damned if Adam’s lips didn’t curve ever so slightly in the first signs of a true grin. Mother Mary help her, but he might be becoming just as devious as Luke.
“I think if you give him what he wants he’ll return the pleasure,” Adam told her, his tone one of a heated arousal she couldn’t mistake.
“You deserve it, Lara. You know that.” Luke’s palm caressed her ass in slow, abrasive circles that sent slivers of wicked tantalization shooting through her. “Did you think we wouldn’t find out that you disobeyed Adam?”
“I only wanted to see who came to the house,” she said, defending her actions. That morning seemed so very long ago now. “Your ma stood with me. We were both so frightened.”
Adam’s expression softened at that and, though he didn’t release his hold on her hips, his thumbs caressed her flesh there in a tenderness she knew came from his heart. “I knew you would be, my love. That’s exactly why I told you not to leave my bedroom.”
“It could’ve been anyone outside the house that morning,” Luke chimed in, his tone scolding. “You must learn to do as we tell you, Lara. And you must know that when you deliberately disobey one of us, you will be punished.”
Her skin flamed clean to her toen
ails. She knew he wanted her to ask to be spanked. She couldn’t do it. A part of her recognized everything he said to be half truth and half a play of erotic dominance. A wicked part of her wanted the punishment he spoke of. She craved it from the very first mention of such an act. But to ask for it? Perhaps she could do so in another way, a far less embarrassing manner.
“Did my defiance of a direct order not constitute a request for punishment?”
Adam’s brows rose at her question. “I do believe the lady has a point, brother.”
“Hmm, she just might.” Luke traced the outline of her forbidden hole with the tip of his finger, causing her breaths to become shallow and rapid. “Am I to take it then, wife, that any time you directly disobey an order from us that you are asking to be punished as we see fit?”
What exactly would she be agreeing to if she answered yes to his question? Lara didn’t have time to contemplate her answer because at that moment he slipped his finger deeper and faster into her anus than ever before. Her breath caught as the sting came instantaneously but ebbed to a riotous pleasure just as quickly. She released her breath on a ragged cry, the word, “Yes,” sounding with it.
“Then I do believe I have the request I sought.” The first smack of his hardened palm to her tender ass drew more of those ragged cries from her throat. Her bottom sizzled in a spasm of erotic pain that got her rocking back. The movement drew Luke’s finger deeper still into her tender passage. The second smack sent her mind reeling in a rapturous rush of pleasure as her body quaked for more.
“Wait.”
Dimly she heard Adam’s halting word. His grip on her hips tightened once more, and then he pulled her body down, sheathing his cock in her throbbing channel.
“Adam, yes, thank you!” Lara gasped as her inner muscles tightened around his thick cock. Having his full length inside her at this moment when her body shuddered with so many sensations she couldn’t name brought tears to her eyes.