And he remembered vividly his last meeting with Olivia—how her blue eyes had practically burned with hunger for vengeance. She wanted Annie dead.
“But I have to try. However long it takes.”
Understanding dawned in Holt’s face. “You’re planning to send Annie out of here alone?”
“She can’t stay in Eminence while I’m gone. The day I arrested her, I sent word to the constables back in St. Charles, telling them exactly where she is. Lawmen know she’s here. Bounty hunters know she’s here. As soon as those passes open, she has to leave—”
“But you’re not going with her?”
“I can’t.” Lucas stood up, pacing. “Try to imagine what would happen if I disappeared with her—if the famous U.S. Marshal Lucas T. McKenna of Indian Territory went on the run with an outlaw. It would stir up such a hornet’s nest of publicity in the papers, posses from five states would be after us. My damned reputation would only guarantee she’d be hunted down.” He shook his head. “The best thing for her is if I stay as far away from her as possible.”
He turned toward the doctor. “But I can’t just send her off alone. There are plenty more bounty hunters out there like the one who got to her before. She needs someone to protect her. You care about her—”
“McKenna, Annie and I have never been anything more than friends.”
“I know that. But she needs a friend.”
Holt still looked incredulous. “You haven’t trusted me from the day you arrived in Eminence—and you’re trusting me now, with this?”
“The irony hasn’t escaped me,” Lucas said dryly. “I considered all the possibilities. You’re the best choice. I want someone who can look after her. You said you were a sharpshooter in the war. You’re the best candidate to get her to safety.” He sat down again. “So tell me what the hell your plan was.”
The doctor didn’t hesitate any further. “Canada. I have some old friends up in Montana Territory. Figured I’d take her there, and they’ll escort her through the mountains on horseback, along some old Indian trails, get her safely over the border into the Canadian territories.”
Lucas thought about it, then nodded. “Good. If I can buy her enough time, she’ll make it.” He ignored the burning, clenched-up sensation in his chest. “Help her disappear, Doc. Somewhere she’ll be able to have what she’s always wanted—a home, and friends.” His throat tightened. “And a family.”
The doctor slumped back into the couch, picking up the bottle of scotch again. “She deserves all that.”
“Yeah.” Lucas stared at the floor. “She’s suffered enough. I’m not going to let anyone else hurt her. At least I can give her that.”
He had to give her her freedom, make sure she would be safe.
Protect her the best way he knew how.
“You want me to tell her our plan?” Holt asked.
“No.” Lucas stood, picking up his hat and gloves. “I’ll tell her. Tonight.”
~ ~ ~
“Rebecca?” Annie peered into the store’s back room, putting on her wool coat. She saw Rebecca sitting on a crate, a lantern propped beside her. “It’s almost five o’clock.”
“Just about finished,” Rebecca said, jotting figures in a ledger. “How many tins of Blanke’s India Tea we got left?”
“Six.” Annie moved toward her, stepping around barrels of molasses and syrup, sacks of flour, coils of rope, and cheeses encased in wood.
Rebecca smiled. “Right soon, you’ll know this place even better than me. Bet you can tell how many boxes of baking soda we got, too, right off the top of your head.”
“Twelve,” Annie said, pulling her gloves out of her coat pocket. “Rebecca—”
“Looks like we made even more in the first week of January than in the last two of December put together.” Rebecca held up the ledger, her face aglow with pride. “Never had a winter like this before. And it’s all thanks to you.”
Annie shook her head, blushing. “No, it’s not.”
“Sure it is. Folks like the way you’ve fixed up the store, they like how helpful you always are. By the horn spoons, they just like being around you.”
Annie felt tears burn her eyes. She reached up and touched the heart-shaped silver locket she wore, a gift Rebecca had given her for Christmas.
It was a family heirloom, Rebecca had said as she pressed the velvet box into Annie’s hand. But she didn’t have a daughter of her own to pass it on to... so she wanted Annie to have it.
Annie knew she would treasure it always, as a reminder of this remote silver mining town tucked away in the Colorado mountains.
And all the people here she had come to cherish.
“Come summer,” Rebecca continued enthusiastically, “maybe we can talk to Cyrus Hazelgreen over at the bank, and see about us buying that empty millinery shop next door. If we knocked out that there wall—”
“Rebecca, I won’t be here come summer.”
Her friend finally looked up from jotting in the ledger, her eyes large behind her spectacles. “But... well, I know we was thinkin’ you’d have to skedaddle on your way this spring, but I thought... I mean, you and the marshal... I was thinkin’ Lucas might not make you go back—”
“Lucas?” Annie looked at her curiously. “You called him Lucas. What happened to ‘that ornery varmint’? I thought you didn’t like him.”
Rebecca set her pen and ledger aside. “He’s sorta... grown on me,” she said grudgingly.
Me, too, Annie thought, her heart filling with emotions that were so strong, so new, she couldn’t put them into words.
Rebecca took Annie’s hand. “I been watching the two of you in the store for weeks now,” she continued gently. “I seen the way you look at him, Annie. And the way he looks at you, when you don’t even know he’s looking. His eyes go all soft. Like a bee longing after a blossom. He cares about you.”
Annie shook her head, blinking hard. Even if that were true, it didn’t change the fact that he was a lawman, and she was a wanted criminal.
It didn’t change what had to happen come springtime.
“Annie,” Rebecca said insistently, “there once was a man looked at me thataway—and he proposed marriage and we spent near forty years together.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Annie whispered.
“But I was thinkin’ you two might... stay here. In Eminence. With all of us.”
“No, I can’t. I...” Annie dabbed at her eyes. How could she bear to tell Rebecca about the plan she had made?
Since Christmas, she’d been thinking about it. But she hadn’t even told Lucas yet, had been trying to work up her courage to say the words aloud all week.
“Rebecca, I really should go.” Annie pulled on her gloves. “It’s almost sundown.”
“Oh, lamb.” Rebecca stood and enfolded her in a hug, sniffling. “I wish spring wouldn’t never come.”
“Me, too.” Annie held on to her, already missing this woman who’d been more of a mother to her than her own mama had ever been. “Me, too.”
~ ~ ~
As the sun began to sink behind the mountains, Annie climbed the hill to the cemetery, entering through the gate as she had so often. Even though Lucas had given her the freedom to go where she wished, she hadn’t been up here in a long while.
But she wanted to spend a little time here today, before she went to talk to him about her plan.
Her heavy woolen coat wrapped close against the bitter wind, she trudged through the snow, toward the tree in the corner, its branches stark and bare against the winter sky.
But when she looked toward her baby’s grave, she didn’t see the little pine cross with the name Baby Smith on it. Her heart skipped a beat. Had somebody... why would anybody... ?
When she hurried over, she realized that it hadn’t been taken away.
It had been replaced. With a new headstone of white marble, that had a cherub carved into it, above different words.
Baby McKenna.
Anni
e gasped, sinking to her knees in the snow. She reached out to touch the letters of the name, and a Bible verse that had been added below it.
For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
She stared, astonished. Who could have...?
Even before she completed the thought, she knew. There was only one person who would do this, who would understand how much this gift would mean to her.
Who would care enough to claim the child she had lost. To give her baby a name.
Tears filled her eyes. He cared about her. Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to say the words, but he cared.
Annie remained there for a moment, very still, and felt as if her heart were healing and breaking at the same time.
Then she rose and went to find him.
Chapter 19
“Lucas?” Annie was out of breath by the time she closed the jail’s front door behind her. She had run most of the way. The setting sun cast long, slanting shadows across the furnishings and rugs in the main room.
He came out of her suite, still wearing his coat and hat. “There you are.” He looked relieved, and a bit puzzled. “I went to find you at Rebecca’s and she couldn’t tell me where you’d gone, she was crying so hard. What’s wrong?”
Annie shook her head, a tear running down her cheek.
“What is it?” He walked over to her, his expression concerned now. “What have you been running from?”
“Not from,” she said breathlessly. “To.”
That was all she could get out before she started to cry.
“Annie?” He reached out to cup her cheeks in his broad hands. “What’s happened?”
“I-I found... your gift.”
“Oh.” He only sounded more confused, his voice becoming gruff as he brushed her tears away with his fingertips. “I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known it would make you cry.”
His caring words and concern for her only made her ache even more. She leaned forward and rested her cheek against the hard muscles of his chest, her tears dampening his shirt.
“Annie.” He hesitated a moment before he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry.”
“No,” she said painfully, trying to make him understand. “I... I’m...” She struggled to put her feelings into words. “Nobody’s ever given me a gift that meant so much to me, Lucas.” She closed her eyes. “I’ve never mattered to anyone that much.”
His arms tightened around her, and even through the heavy fabric of his shirt, she could feel his heart beating hard.
And his voice had become unsteady. “Annie, there’s something I need to tell you.”
He tilted her head up with one hand, his gaze dark as he looked down at her. She didn’t prompt him when he hesitated, when she saw the emotions in his eyes. She knew he wasn’t used to expressing his feelings in words.
Gently, he set her away from him, clearing his throat.
Then, finally, he spoke. “I’m not taking you to Missouri when the passes clear in the spring. I’m setting you free.”
She stared up at him in astonishment. “Setting me... free?” she repeated blankly.
“It’s the only way I can keep you safe.”
He stated it calmly, as if it were a perfectly simple, clear, logical idea. Then he took off his hat and coat and turned to drop them over the back of the settee.
She was stunned.
He was letting her go.
He was letting her go?
“But Lucas, I’ve decided I’m going back to Missouri with you in the spring.”
“You... what?” He turned toward her, his brow furrowed. “What do you mean, you’re going back to Missouri?”
“I’m going back to St. Charles to stand trial.” She trembled as she said the words aloud for the first time. “I don’t want to run from the law again. I don’t want to live the rest of my life being afraid, always looking over my shoulder. I-I thought you would be happy.”
He looked anything but happy. “I am not taking you back to St. Charles. You’re going someplace safe.”
“But where would I ever be safe? Lucas, I would have to spend the rest of my life hiding, and lying to everyone I meet. I can’t do that. Not anymore.” She reached up to touch the silver locket that rested over her heart. “Not after the kind of life I’ve known here, the kind of... caring I’ve known here.”
“Annie.” He shut his eyes, a muscle flexing in his tanned cheek. “You can’t stay in Eminence. You know that’s impossible.” He looked down at her again, shaking his head. “I’ve talked to Holt. It’s all planned. You’re going to Canada.”
“You and Daniel have it all...” She couldn’t seem to catch her breath. “Lucas, if you try to help me, there might come a time when you would have to confront another lawman—maybe even shoot another lawman—to protect me. I can’t ask you to do that.” She clenched her fists. “I won’t.”
“So your solution is to go back and let them put you on trial?”
“It’s the only way to clear my name! I have to go back and face a judge and jury, and just tell the truth—”
“And hope for the best? You’ll end up spending the rest of your life in prison. Or worse—”
“It’s either risk that or spend the rest of my life as an outlaw.” She turned away, taking off her coat and throwing it over the settee next to his. “I have to prove that I’m innocent.”
“There isn’t any way to prove that you’re innocent, damn it.” He came up behind her, turned her to face him. “Annie, I’ve thought it through. I’m sending you somewhere safe. Then I’ll appeal to the court, try to get the charges dropped—”
“You’ll have a hard time doing that without me there. How are you going to explain where I went? Tell them I escaped?”
“No,” he said adamantly. “That would only make things more dangerous for you. I don’t want anyone sending out a posse to hunt you down. I’ll tell them you’re in protective custody—and it’ll be the truth. Holt will be with you. He’ll look after you—”
“Lucas, you can’t do this.” She pressed her fists against his chest, appalled at the sacrifice he was willing to make for her. “Have you thought about what it might cost you? If you let me go instead of taking me in... they could take your badge. You could lose your career, your reputation, everything that—”
He cut her off with a curt shake of his head, a fierce look in his eyes. “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
She stared up at him, stunned by the depth of his feelings.
His feelings for her.
“And what about your family?” Her voice wavered.
“I’ll try to explain, try to make them understand.”
She rested her forehead against his chest. “They’d never understand. Lucas, they’d never forgive you.” She couldn’t let him risk so much for her. “You could even be thrown in jail for letting a criminal walk away free—”
“You’re not a criminal. You’re not guilty of the charges against you.”
“And I have to go back to Missouri and prove that.”
He let her go with a frustrated curse, turning away. “I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. I want you to escape and you insist on going back to Missouri—”
“Yes. Because it’s the only way.” Tears blurred her vision. “Lucas, I don’t want to do it, but I have to. Because I want the kind of life I’ve had here, in Eminence. With the people I care about. Like Rebecca and Daniel and Katja and...” You.
He turned toward her, his gaze stormy.
“I’ll lose all of that if I run.” Her voice almost broke. “I’ll lose everything. And I’m so tired of running, Lucas. My whole life, I’ve been running away from people who might hurt me. I have to stop running and stand up for myself.”
“But you could lose everything if you go back,” he said hoarsely. “Those people you’ve been running from might condemn you to a prison cell forever. They might even sentence you to hang. Have you thought about that?”
She nodded solemnly.
“Annie...” He shut his eyes as if he couldn’t bear to look at her anymore. “I admire the hell out of you for being brave enough to want to go back, but you can’t.”
“I don’t feel very brave,” Annie admitted, her voice shaking. “I never wanted to set foot in St. Charles again. The idea of facing a courtroom full of people who will look at me with contempt, who’ve despised me since I was a little girl... it’s terrifying.”
He closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms.
“But I have to go back.” She pressed her cheek against his chest, shutting her eyes, feeling his heartbeat. “I have to face them. It’s the only way I’ll ever really be free.”
“I can’t let you do it.” His words were stark, raw.
“Lucas, please, I’m so afraid. I can’t do this unless you... unless you’ll be there.”
He drew her closer, surrounding her with the strength and warmth of his embrace. “I don’t want you to be there. I don’t want those people anywhere near you. I won’t let them hurt you.”
She slid her arms around his back, holding him as tightly as he held her. “So you’re sending me away,” she whispered. “For how long?”
He didn’t answer for a moment. “As long as it takes to get the charges dismissed and the bounty dropped.”
“Months... maybe years.”
“I don’t know,” he admitted gruffly.
Annie knew. He might never be able to get the charges and bounty dropped. She would be on the run—and he would be half a world away. His career as a lawman in ruins, his family lost to him forever. Maybe even under arrest himself.
“No.” She lifted her gaze to his. “No, I have to make this choice, Lucas.”
“You’re going to Canada,” he said flatly, “and that’s final.”
Tears brimmed in her eyes as she smiled up at him—standing there so tough and strong, so determined to wrestle the situation under his control. So much a hero.
But he couldn’t rescue her. Not this time.
“I understand why you want to protect me.” She brushed her fingertips over his cheek. “I know how important it is to you—”
After Sundown Page 31
