Ain't No Angel

by Henderson, Peggy L

  Laney adjusted the tank top she wore, and pulled her pajama pants up past her hips. Listlessly, she shuffled to the door. She reached up to remove the safety chain, and opened the door several inches. The bright light streaming in from outside blinded her, and she averted her eyes.

  Jason pushed the door fully open, and swept into the room. Laney quickly closed the door behind him. She preferred the darkness of the room.

  Jason’s arms wrapped around her waist, and he drew her up against him. Laney pushed her hands against his chest, and braced against the unwanted advance.

  “Where have you been hiding, baby?” he drawled, his lips nuzzling her neck. “I called but kept getting your voicemail.”

  Laney leaned away from him, and pushed harder against his chest.

  “Let go, Jason,” she said firmly.

  Jason raised his head. “Is that any way to greet your guy?” he asked.

  “What do you want?” Laney asked, the annoyance evident in her voice.

  Jason’s hold on her eased. “Why the foul mood, baby? I’ve got some exciting news for you.”

  “I don’t want any news,” Laney grumbled. She ducked out of his embrace, and sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around her middle. “I think what I really want is for you to leave.” She raised her head to look at him.

  “What the hell’s wrong with you?” Jason raised his voice. “I’m about to make you a rich girl.”

  Laney suppressed a gasp. He hadn’t asked her yet to be an escort. An overwhelming sense of déjà vu swept over her.

  “I’m not interested in becoming a hooker for you, Jason,” Laney said loudly. She stood, and faced him. “I said I want you to leave.”

  Jason stared at her, dumbfounded. Apparently he hadn’t expected her to know about his proposition. His eyes narrowed in sudden anger. “You owe me, Laney. I’ve kept this roof over your head, bought you clothes. How else are you going to pay me back?”

  “I’ll figure something out, but I am not going to sell myself to anyone.” She rushed to the door, and opened it. “Now leave. I’ll get you your money somehow.”

  Jason stepped up to her, and glared. “You’ll come crawling to me within a week, Laney,” he sneered.

  “I doubt it,” she retorted, and opened the door even wider. “Get out.”

  Jason’s mouth opened, but he didn’t speak. With a final angry stare, he walked out. Laney slammed the door shut and leaned up against it. She held her face between her hands, and sobbed loudly.

  ****

  Ian rode away from the ranch, leading a horse with Gabe astride. Tyler stared after them. His mind still churned from everything he’d learned in the last few minutes. He was too numb to contemplate it all. He didn’t relish watching Gabe ride off to be hanged. He’d been a good friend, his foreman, and was his brother, after all.

  Laney was from another time. The idea echoed in his mind. Tyler couldn’t focus on anything else. Everything Gabe told him seemed too incredible to comprehend.

  “What’s happening, Ty?” Eddie asked reluctantly, coming up beside him.

  “I don’t know,” Tyler answered solemnly. The sun had nearly disappeared into the horizon, and crickets chirped loudly all around him.

  Laney. He would never see her again, if Gabe had told him the truth. Dammit! He wasn’t going to give up. She was alive. If Gabe wouldn’t tell him where she was, he’d find the answers himself.

  “Saddle a horse, Eddie.” Tyler rushed to the house. He pulled his rifle from the wall inside the front door. Eddie waited with a saddled horse.

  “Where are you going, Ty?” the wrangler asked, a worried frown on his face. Beau, Sammy, and the other men stood by one of the corrals, talking in hushed tones. “What happened with Gabe?”

  “I’ll tell you all when I know the answers myself.” Tyler shoved the rifle in the saddle’s scabbard, and swung onto the horse’s back. “Right now, I aim to get my wife back. Eddie, you’re in charge while I’m gone.”

  Tyler reined his horse in the direction of town, and nudged the gelding into a lope. Gabe’s revelation played over and over in his mind, but try as he might, Tyler couldn’t focus on the idea that he had a brother. His sole motivation at the moment was to find Laney.

  How was he going to find her, if what Gabe said was true? She was from the future. If Laney hadn’t filled his head with such crazy notions a week ago, he wouldn’t have given it another thought, and shoved it off as the ramblings of a madman. If Gabe somehow forced her to return to where . . . when she came from, he had to know how such a thing was possible. If he couldn’t find the answers in town, he would force them out of his brother.

  Ian planned to hang Gabe in the morning. There was nothing Tyler could do to help him. It was Ian’s right after the loss he’d suffered at Gabe’s hand. His mind reeled from one emotion to the next. Foremost was the deep void Laney’s disappearance created. He wouldn’t even consider the idea that he couldn’t get her back. If she was alive, and Gabe had given no indication that she wasn’t, he would find her.

  It was almost dark, and the lanterns along the main street of Landry had already been lit, when Tyler rode through town. Loud music played from inside the saloon. Tyler guided his horse to the hitching post in front of the establishment. He had every intention of talking to the prostitute Ian had mentioned. He raised his head to look up the street toward the end of town.

  Tyler squinted to see into the distance. The reverend stood outside the white-washed church, and looked to be waving to him. Tyler frowned. A sudden memory jolted him. The day Laney arrived in town, she’d been almost too eager to see the reverend. How could she have known the old man? His heart sped up, and he nudged his horse in the sides, trotting up the street toward the church. The reverend held the answers to his wife’s whereabouts. He was sure of it.

  “Reverend.” Tyler pulled his horse to a stop in front of the steps leading to the church. He removed his hat and dismounted his horse.

  The reverend’s eyes followed his every move. The man nodded.

  “I was expecting to see you, Tyler.”

  “Why is that?” Tyler asked.

  The reverend smiled. “You’re here because of Laney. I was counting on you to not repeat your father’s mistakes.”

  Tyler stared at the man, lost for words. “What does my father have to do with my wife?” he asked slowly.

  “If your father hadn’t let his stubbornness rule his heart, your mother would be alive today, and your brother might not be the bitter man he has become.”

  “How do you know all this?” Tyler demanded heatedly. How was it that he knew so little about his own parents? He shook his head. It wasn’t important. He wanted answers about Laney.

  The reverend waved his hand in front of him. “Come inside, Tyler. It is irrelevant how I come by this knowledge.”

  Tyler followed the reverend into the church. “Who are you?” he asked the moment the door closed behind him. “Do you know where Laney is?”

  Tyler’s pulse throbbed at his temples. He ran a shaky hand across the stubble on his jaw. He desperately needed to shave. Without looking in a mirror, he was well aware that he looked like hell.

  “Your wife requested that she be returned to the time from which she came,” the reverend said slowly. “Has she told you that she’s not really from Philadelphia?”

  “She never directly told me that. She’s made remarks about living in the future, but it’s not something I took seriously.”

  The reverend smiled indulgently. “Do you love her?” He stared directly at Tyler.

  “Do I love . . . Reverend, that woman is my entire life. Of course I love her. I’ve been beside myself with worry when she disappeared. Where is she?”

  “As I have said, she has returned to her time at her own request. I can’t force someone to stay in a time I have sent them to. I had to abide by her wishes and send her home.”

  “She came to you, and asked you to send her home?” Tyler repeated. He didn’t believe f
or a second that Laney would leave him of her own will. A thousand questions raced through his mind.

  “Was Gabe McFarlain with her?” Tyler clenched his jaw as anger consumed him.

  “Yes, he was,” the reverend confirmed.

  “Then she didn’t want to leave of her own will. He forced her somehow. How do I get her back, Reverend?”

  Who was this preacher, and how was it possible to send someone to another time? Why had he brought Laney here in the first place? The answers were unimportant, and he shook off the questions. He only needed to know how to get her back.

  “This is out of my hands, Tyler. I can’t bring her back.”

  Tyler stared into the reverend’s blue eyes. There was nothing written there to indicate the old man wasn’t being truthful.

  “Dammit, there has to be a way to get my wife back, Reverend.” Tyler ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

  “I can’t bring her back, but perhaps you can.” The reverend held his gaze.

  “You mean, you’ll send me to the future?” He almost laughed out loud. Hadn’t he told Laney a little over a week ago that if she chose to live in a different time, he would have to go with her, but he’d rather have her stay here?

  The reverend paced in front of him, his hands clasped behind his back. His facial features indicated that he was deep in thought.

  “The rules of time travel are complicated,” he said. “I am only able to offer someone the chance to travel to another time, and return to their own time, once.” He stopped his pacing and faced Tyler. “You, however, were not chosen for a different path in another time. Your true path is right here. You only needed a woman like Laney to set you straight.”

  Tyler couldn’t help but smile. “You got that right, Reverend.”

  “I chose her as your perfect match. I’d like to think I wasn’t mistaken in that choice. I’ve already bent the rules by trying my hand at giving chances to two people who should be together, but are separated through time. The time traveling ability was not originally intended for this purpose. I never expected her to ask to return to her time.”

  “She didn’t ask. She was forced,” Tyler repeated. “She was happy here with me. If she can’t come back, I’ll gladly go to the future.”

  The reverend shook his head. “The future is no place for you, Tyler. It wouldn’t suit you.”

  “Then I’ll go and get her, and bring her back, like you said.” Tyler failed to comprehend the problem.

  “Since you were not chosen to come to a different time in the first place, I can only send you one way, unless . . .”

  “Unless what, Reverend?” Tyler clenched his fists at his side. His patience was about to run out. He wanted his wife back. If he had to go to the future to get her, he would do it. Why the hell did it need to be complicated by rules?

  “The future is no place for you, as I have said, but you may not have a choice. If you wish to be reunited with Laney, would you risk a lifetime in the twenty-first century, learning an entirely new way of life?”

  “I love Laney, Reverend. I’ll do anything to have her back. I don’t care if that’s here or a few hundred years from now.”

  “There is one way that you might be able to return with Laney. It’s never been tried before, to my knowledge, and I can’t guarantee that it will work.”

  “What’s your plan, Reverend?”

  “Here’s what you need to do, Tyler.” The reverend reached up and placed his arm around Tyler’s shoulder, and pulled him into a corner of the room.

  Chapter 28

  Tyler raced his mount as fast as he dared in the darkness of night. He didn’t have much time. According to the reverend, there was only a slim chance for him to go to the future and bring Laney back. If he failed, he’d be stuck in a different time forever, and the reverend had warned him that it was not a time he’d want to be in. Tyler didn’t care to find out what would be so terrible about living two centuries from now. How much different could it be than in this time?

  He recalled his conversation with Laney about the future. At the time, he had thought she was merely exercising her wild imagination, but everything she’d said must be true. People could fly? It was still too much to comprehend, but if Laney could sacrifice everything she knew to live in her past, then he could do the same if needed, and live in her time in order to be with her.

  Tyler slowed his horse when he veered off the dirt road, and headed down the trail that led to Ian’s ranch. The terrain was flat but uneven here, and the partial moon offered little light.

  What if he was too late? What if Ian and his men had decided to hang Gabe as soon as Ian returned with him to his ranch, rather than wait until morning? According to the reverend, Gabe was his key to bringing Laney back to his time. Whether Gabe would be a willing participant remained to be seen. It didn’t matter. His brother could help him willingly, or Tyler would use force if needed. Gabe owed him that much.

  Time was running out for both of them. At dawn, the concoction the reverend had given him to drink would take effect, and send him into the future. Tyler still couldn’t quite wrap his head around the idea that someone could be transported to another time. He didn’t want to think on it too much. Right now he needed to focus on getting Laney back.

  A faint light glowed in the distance, guiding him to his destination. Men’s loud voices came from the direction of the bunkhouse when Tyler reined his horse to a stop in front of Ian’s house. He swung his leg over the animal’s back, and stepped lightly to the ground. Looping the reins around the porch post, Tyler stepped up to the front door. The house was dark. The light he’d seen came from the bunkhouse. He turned away from the house, pulled his canteen from his saddle, and hurried toward the angry-sounding mob. It could only mean one thing. Gabe was still alive. Relief washed over him.

  He didn’t bother to knock, but opened the door to the bunkhouse. The hinges squeaked over the boisterous sounds of men.

  “We’ll string you up right now, McFarlain,” someone shouted. “Why wait for sunlight?”

  Tyler walked in just as the man’s fist slammed into Gabe’s stomach. They had him tied to a chair in the middle of the room. Gabe leaned forward after the impact, and coughed. His shoulders slumped forward as far as the ropes that tied his hands to his back allowed, and his head hung low.

  “Enough,” Tyler shouted above the men. The room fell silent instantly. Half a dozen eyes stared at him.

  Tyler surveyed the dimly lit room. His eyes rested on Ian, who stood off to the side of his men. Surprise, and perhaps a hint of annoyance, flashed in his eyes. He held a cigarette to his lips, the tip illuminating orange.

  Tyler ground his teeth, and hardened his heart. Gabe deserved what he got. Why didn’t he believe it, then? Dammit! The man was his brother. He couldn’t simply let these men beat him half to death before they hung him.

  “I want to talk to Gabe, Ian.” Tyler moved fully into the room. Cigarette smoke mixed with the odor of several unwashed bodies assailed his nose.

  “He hasn’t told us anything about her, Tyler. I’m sorry.” Ian calmly stepped forward. He blew long wisps of smoke from his nose. “The only thing we were able to drag out of him was where that sick colt came from.” He paused. Tyler didn’t ask. “Bought it off a peddler when he was in Butte some months back. He knew that animal was sick with something. The animal and several others had recently been shipped from back east.”

  Tyler turned his gaze to Gabe, who kept his head hung low. The epidemic with the horses was over. Right now he had more important things to think about.

  “Let me talk to him.” Tyler kept his voice even. He had to talk to Gabe alone. He held Ian’s gaze. Finally, the older man nodded.

  “All right. I’ll give you a few minutes with him. He hangs at dawn.” He pulled a watch from his waistcoat pocket. “Which is in exactly three hours.”

  Tyler cursed under his breath. He needed to be gone from here long before then.

  Tyler waited. None of
the men made a move to leave the bunkhouse.

  “Alone,” Tyler said, shooting Ian a meaningful look.

  Ian’s eyes narrowed.

  “What the hell do you think I’m gonna do, Ian?” Tyler asked loudly. “He deserves what’s coming to him. I just want a few minutes with him so I can tell him to his face what I think of him.”

  Ian made a motion with his hand, and his men filed out the door, grumbling and cursing loudly.

  “I hope you have better luck getting him to tell you what happened to your wife,” Ian said, and placed a hand on Tyler’s shoulder before he left the room.

  “Go to hell,” Gabe rasped weakly as soon as the door shut behind Ian.

  “I’m not planning on it anytime soon,” Tyler retorted.

  “What do you want from me, Tyler?’ Gabe raised his head. One eye was swollen nearly shut, and blood dripped from his nose and lip.

  “I counted you as my friend,” Tyler said. He pulled up a chair and sat directly in front of Gabe. “I would have liked to have a brother.”

  “Well, it’s too late for that, thanks to dear old Pop.” He leaned to the side, and spat blood on the ground.

  “I’m gonna see to it that you don’t hang, Gabe, whether you want me too, or not.”

  Gabe lifted his head higher. He laughed weakly. “And why the hell would you want to do that?”

  Tyler pulled his bandana from around his neck, and swiped at the blood dripping from Gabe’s chin. Then he uncorked his canteen and held it up to Gabe’s mouth. His former friend gulped the liquid eagerly.

  “Because I’ve known you for a year, and I refuse to believe that you’re rotten to the core. And,” he paused, and glared at his brother. “Without you, I can’t bring my wife back.”

  Tyler corked the empty canteen, and smiled in satisfaction. If the reverend’s plan succeeded, Gabe would be spared the hangman’s noose at dawn.

  ****