The Lawman's Surrender: The Calhoun Sisters, Book 2

by Debra Mullins

She pressed her lips together in determination. Falling in love with Jedidiah would only make things more complicated, and she knew he had no intention of staying around after the job was done. Susannah Calhoun didn’t need to fall off a horse twice to know when she couldn’t ride it.

  Annoyed by the entire situation, she grabbed another of the small, rose-scented hearts and headed toward the front. Jedidiah knew she wanted soap, and for some reason, it made her feel better to know she was buying the most expensive kind in the store, and that he was paying for it.

  The bell jingled just as she reached the counter, announcing another customer in the store. Mr. Kracke had already boxed up her items, but he rudely left her standing there as he attended to the man who had just entered.

  She didn’t pay much attention to the exchange at first as she waited impatiently for Mr. Kracke to get back to her. But gradually, something about one of the male voices registered as vaguely familiar. She glanced over, and her heart stopped beating for one long, agonizing second.

  Wayne Caldwell stood two feet down the counter, bargaining with the merchant.

  Her first instinct was to run. A furtive glance at the door revealed two of Caldwell’s men loitering near the exit, so that way was blocked. Maybe there was a back door...?

  “And I need some good strong rope,” Caldwell said.

  Susannah bit back the whimper that rose to her lips. She kept her gaze forward, grateful for the large hat brim that concealed her features. Caldwell hadn’t recognized her yet, and every second that passed was more time to think.

  Think, Susannah!

  Mr. Kracke passed by her and actually smiled, no doubt thrilled by the affluent customer who patronized his shop. “Be with you in a minute, ma’am,” he said.

  Caldwell spared her a glance, ran his eyes down her form, then looked away, as if she didn’t deserve his notice.

  He looked away! She could hardly believe it.

  Then she remembered about her disguise and blessed Jedidiah’s cleverness. All Caldwell saw when he looked at her was a pregnant woman buying perfectly ordinary staples at the mercantile. As long as he didn’t see her face, she might be able to get out of this alive.

  Mr. Kracke came back with a stout length of rope. Susannah’s throat clogged with terror as Caldwell took it from him with a pleased smile. She had an awful feeling she knew what he intended to do with it.

  “That’s just the thing, yes, indeed.” He examined the rope, then uncoiled a length and tugged hard on it. “I’ll take this and a box of cigars.” He slapped the hempen coil on the counter.

  “Very good, sir.” Mr. Kracke turned to rummage on the shelf and came back with the cigars, which he put down next to the rope. He named an amount, and Caldwell pulled a roll of bills from his pocket.

  Pay and go, Susannah begged silently, keeping her head bowed to better hide her features. Don’t look at me, just pay and go.

  “So tell me,” Caldwell said as Mr. Kracke handed him his change. “You seen a pretty blonde gal come through here recently?”

  “I don’t remember every woman that comes into town,” Mr. Kracke said with a snort.

  “You’d remember this one. Looks like an angel, blonde hair and blue eyes.”

  “There are hundreds of blondes around here,” Mr. Kracke retorted. “Heck, this nice lady is blonde! Maybe she’s the one you’re looking for.”

  Susannah stood so still she thought her spine would snap from the pressure. Any moment she expected Caldwell to discover her ruse and drag her to the nearest hanging tree...and Jedidiah was too far away to help.

  She glanced out the corner of her eye at Caldwell, who considered her bulging belly for a bare second before shaking his head and dismissing her with a wave of his hand. “Nah, the one I’m looking for is a real beauty. And she’s traveling with a U.S. Marshal.”

  “No marshals come through here since last week,” the merchant said.

  “Maybe I beat him here,” Caldwell murmured.

  “Sir?” The shopkeeper glanced quizzically at him.

  “Never mind,” Caldwell said. “How much for this again?”

  Mr. Kracke named the amount, and Caldwell paid him.

  Susannah squeezed the soap in her hand so hard she thought it would break into pieces. Caldwell’s heavy footsteps grew more distant as he reached the door. The bell jingled, and he and his men left the mercantile. Susannah let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

  Safe.

  “Sorry about that, ma’am. Is that everything you need?”

  Susannah placed the two heart-shaped soaps in the box. “Yes, that’s everything.”

  “Let me just total the bill, and I’ll help you carry this out.”

  She waited while he counted the money, her racing heartbeat gradually settling down to normal. Caldwell hadn’t recognized her, thank God. He didn’t even know she was in town, and the faster she got out of town, the better! She just hoped Jedidiah was back with the wagon.

  Mr. Kracke hefted the box and led the way to the door. Susannah reached for the knob to pull it open for him, but it suddenly swung open before she could touch it. The tinkle of the bell rang like a death knell as Caldwell’s bulky body filled the doorway.

  “Forgot my cigars,” he said, brushing past Susannah.

  Her heart leaped into her throat as she watched Caldwell head back toward the counter. His two cohorts lingered outside the door. One of them smirked at her bulging belly while the other idly watched traffic roll by.

  “Here you go, ma’am,” Mr. Kracke said, setting the box down outside the door. Then he hurried back inside to tend his store. Susannah stepped outside just as Jedidiah pulled the wagon to a stop in front of the mercantile. Glancing behind her, she saw Caldwell heading right for her, a box of cigars clutched in one fist and the coiled rope in the other.

  Jedidiah hopped down from the wagon, his attention on the box of supplies, and Susannah started towards him. The door to the mercantile opened behind her. Caldwell stepped out and stopped right next to the box of supplies, barely sparing her a glance. He immediately started conversing with the two men who waited for him. Jedidiah continued to approach the box, his path taking him only inches away from Caldwell.

  Caldwell would recognize him. She was sure of it. Jedidiah was walking straight into danger, completely unarmed.

  She didn’t even pause to think. Stepping boldly past Caldwell, she laid a hand on Jedidiah’s arm before he reached the box. He glanced at her questioningly, but before he could speak, she stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his lips.

  She felt his start of surprise, and she coiled her arms around his neck before he could pull away. Her lips lingered on his, tasting and testing. After a moment, he angled his head to better fit his mouth to hers.

  One of the men behind her gave a snort of derision. “Guess we know how she got that way,” he remarked, sending his partner into gales of laughter.

  “Let’s head out,” Caldwell said, breaking up the jocularity. “I want to get a room at the hotel and wait that gal out. She and that marshal ought to be along any time now.”

  Jedidiah’s shoulders tensed beneath Susannah’s hands, and she realized that he had recognized Caldwell. But it wasn’t until the thud of the men’s footfalls against the wooden walkway faded into the distance that Jedidiah gently broke the kiss.

  “Caldwell,” he said in a low voice.

  She nodded.

  He frowned after the man’s retreating back, his expression grim. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They wasted no time in leaving Chalmers behind.

  Jedidiah urged the horses on, and the town grew smaller and smaller behind them until Susannah could no longer see it. There was no sign of pursuit, yet she still felt strangely edgy. She couldn’t seem to shake the tension that gripped her.

  The near confrontation with Caldwell had rattled her badly, as if she had danced a waltz with the angel of death. She owed her life to Jedidiah’s clever disguise of her. She just
wished he would extend some of that cleverness to himself. Her pounding heart had nearly stopped in her chest when she realized how close he had come to being recognized.

  She needed Jedidiah desperately, both for protection and in other ways that she dared not even admit to herself yet. She was depending on him to keep both of them alive, yet she feared the power he seemed to hold over her. It wasn’t that he would ever make her do anything against her will. No, he tempted her to give in to her passionate instincts—something she had never done before with any man. He made her long to surrender.

  But surrender what? Her body? At the advanced age of twenty-six, she had encountered many men who wanted her body. Some of them had even wanted her heart, though until now she had never given it. But Jedidiah? He would demand everything: her body, her heart and her soul. And she wasn’t at all sure she would get any of it back again in one piece.

  She might start out only giving her body, but in the end he would walk away with everything—and he would walk away.

  And she’d be left behind with a hole where her heart had been.

  Getting involved with Jedidiah Brown could only lead to heartbreak. She had enough trouble trying to stay alive, never mind attempting to manage a romance on top of it.

  No, she would follow her head this time and not her heart. And just maybe she would come out of this heart-healthy, if not heart-whole.

  Just as long as she didn’t fall in love with him.

  Jedidiah didn’t stop until Chalmers was little more than a memory.

  He managed the speeding horses automatically, his mind locked on the fact that Susannah had barely escaped with her life. His blood ran cold when he thought about how close she had come to being captured by Caldwell.

  It was his fault. He wasn’t usually so careless, but his emotions had gotten the better of him this time. He had been so busy trying to ignore his own desire for Susannah that he had relaxed his usual vigilance and almost gotten them both killed. His sharp instincts, which in almost twenty years of law enforcement had never failed him, had been completely submerged beneath his fear of getting too close to her.

  And fear it was. He’d never encountered a female who had managed to wriggle past his sturdy defenses and wrap herself around his heart like Susannah Calhoun.

  Over the years he had faced cannon fire, bullets, raging storms, and a near hanging or two without blinking an eye, but this woman wielded weapons that he feared could destroy him. She was sensual even in her innocence. Fierce even in fear. Invincible even in her vulnerability. The contrasts and conflicts that made up Susannah fascinated him and drew him towards her, despite his best efforts to remain apart. He wanted to study all her facets, become familiar with her hopes and fears, grow attuned to her slightest emotional shift until he knew what she was thinking even before she did.

  He wanted to know her inside and out. He wanted to discover her over the years until they were both old and gray. He wanted to stay with Susannah Calhoun until the day he died—and that scared him more than any murdering desperado ever could.

  Chapter Ten

  Jedidiah seemed to grow more and more distant with every mile that passed. Any question Susannah asked was met with a brief, though courteous, reply. By the time they stopped and made camp for the night at the edge of a stream, Susannah was spoiling for a fight, if only to jolt Jedidiah out of his exceedingly polite emotional distance.

  The setting sun cast a pink glow over the sky as he steered the wagon off the main road and along a barely discernable dirt path through the woods. The horses, scenting water, eagerly trampled fallen leaves and broken branches, jarring the wagon so that Susannah had to hold on to the seat with both hands.

  Jedidiah finally pulled the wagon to a stop in a clearing at the bank of the stream, and Susannah gingerly climbed down, wondering if they had cracked any of the wheels in the horses’ mad dash to quench their thirst. Jedidiah merely unhitched the team and led the animals to the water’s edge.

  Susannah tried to work the kinks from her back, but her ponderous belly would not allow such freedom of movement. As Jedidiah worked with the horses, she tried to think of what she could do to begin to set up camp. Jedidiah had always done all the work, which didn’t seem fair. She had never had to live off the land before, but she could certainly learn how. She decided to begin by collecting some of the dry tinder to build a fire, but found her efforts hampered once more by her faux belly. Nevertheless, she attempted to handle the task.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Jedidiah’s quiet voice echoed across the clearing.

  “Collecting firewood.”

  “I’ll do that. You sit here.” He came and led her to a large boulder by the water’s edge. “I can handle things.”

  “But I can help.”

  “Never you mind about that,” he said with a politeness that set her teeth on edge. “Just sit back and let me take care of everything.”

  “You act like I’m really expecting,” she complained with a snort of disgust. “I’m not useless, you know!”

  The stubborn man ignored her and set about collecting the tinder himself. She made a rude face at his back, then folded her arms across her chest. She had two good hands. Why couldn’t she help?

  When the fire was burning merrily, he pulled out the coffee pot. Susannah leaped to her feet and came to stand beside his crouched form.

  “I can make the coffee,” she offered.

  “Thank you, but no.”

  She waited, but he said nothing more. “Why not?”

  “It’s not necessary.” He stood and took her arm, leading her back to her rock again. “Just sit here and stay out of the way. Don’t worry about a thing.”

  Susannah fumed as he turned his back on her and knelt by the fire to measure out the coffee. Of course she shouldn’t worry—not as long as big, strong, capable Jedidiah Brown was around to take care of everything. He may as well have added a pat on her pretty little head to go with his politely patronizing tone!

  Other women might enjoy the role of damsel in distress, but not Susannah. She would not sit idly by, wringing her hands while Caldwell and his lynch mob pursued them. And she certainly had no intention of facing the judge in Denver with tearful eyes and a sob in her voice. She meant to take part in the outcome of her own future, and she would be darned if she would let Jedidiah Brown sit her on a shelf somewhere while he fought the enemy on her behalf.

  She got to her feet just as Jedidiah turned toward the stream with the coffee pot in his hand.

  “I want to help you, Jedidiah,” she challenged. “I am far from helpless, and I refuse to just sit here while you do everything.”

  “I don’t see why you feel you need to.” He didn’t even look at her, merely walked toward the stream.

  “Well, it doesn’t seem fair that you do everything all the time when I’m perfectly capable of helping you,” she replied, attempting a reasonable tone.

  “And here I thought you enjoyed being waited on, princess,” he drawled.

  His unexpected sarcasm made her abandon sweetness with all alacrity. “There’s no reason to be nasty,” she retorted with a glare. “And haven’t I asked you not to call me that ridiculous name?”

  He didn’t even look at her as he knelt by the stream and filled the coffee pot with water, which just made her angrier. No man had ever ignored Susannah Calhoun!

  “I’m talking to you, Jedidiah.”

  “I think the name suits you…princess.” He rose, water dripping from the stainless steel pot, and gave her a tight smile. “You do like to give orders.”

  “I am not giving orders,” she replied, stung. “I’ve tried to help, but you won’t let me.”

  “I don’t need your help, princess. Don’t think just because you managed to get us out of trouble today that you’re suddenly in charge of this little expedition.”

  “Is that what’s bothering you?” She frowned up into his face. “You’re upset because I managed to keep Caldwell from recogniz
ing you?”

  His mouth thinned. “He wouldn’t have recognized me.”

  She made a sound of disbelief. “Yes, he would have. Taking off your badge does not constitute a disguise, Jedidiah.”

  “Now you’re the authority on disguises too?”

  “What has gotten into you?” she demanded, exasperated. “You’re treating me like a child. I’m an adult, capable woman, and I saved our necks back there. Accept it and get over your little snit.”

  “Snit?” He drew himself up, every inch the indignant male. “I am not in a snit. I thought about it, and I’ve decided not to let you be so reckless in the future. You shouldn’t have put yourself in danger like that.”

  “You would have done the same thing for me.”

  “That’s different.”

  “Oh, is it?” She arched her brows. “Because you’re the man, so it’s all right for you to take chances?”

  “I’m the one with experience,” he replied stiffly.

  “Was it your experience that led you to send me to the mercantile alone?” she demanded.

  “That was a mistake,” he admitted.

  She sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head. “No, it wasn’t, Jedidiah, because if you’d come to the mercantile with me, we would have been discovered for certain.”

  “Then what are you so mad about?”

  She threw her hands up in the air. “You’re the one who started this,” she snapped. “I was just trying to help. You’re the one who feels guilty, not me.”

  “I do not feel guilty!”

  “Then why are you acting so contrary?” she demanded. “If you feel bad because you had to leave me alone for a short time, then don’t. No one knew Caldwell would be around.”

  “I should have known!” he snarled, bringing his face close to hers, his eyes fierce. “We were almost killed, and it’s my fault.”

  “Oh, Jedidiah.” She laid a hand against his cheek. “It’s not your fault. It was just plain bad luck.”

  He stepped away, leaving her hand to drop to her side. “I have a job to do,” he said, stalking back to the fire. “And that job involves getting you to Denver alive.”