Fire and Ice

by Mary Connealy

  “You said you went over there needing a wife. Why is that?”

  “I needed a wife because—”

  The cabin door swung open. “Come in, come in.” Gage’s mother stood in the doorway and waved a lace hanky at Shannon. She was almost singing when she hollered, “I’ve got plenty of food for company.”

  Gage went on in a glum voice, “Because my mother was coming to visit. I thought having a wife might discourage her moving in permanent.” Gage didn’t mention his lies, as Tucker wasn’t fond of liars.

  Ma lifted her voice to reach Gage, her kerchief fluttering all the more. “Come on in, son. I’ve made pie for dessert. Something you’ve loved ever since you were a little tyke. And bring your friend.”

  Gage managed a weak wave back. Shannon and Ma vanished inside.

  Tucker turned to Gage, his mouth pinched shut, though he couldn’t quite keep the wild amusement out of his eyes. “That’s your ma?”

  “Yep.”

  “The one who wouldn’t let you fight in the war for fear you’d get scratched?”

  Gage didn’t even bother to argue with Tucker about that description of events. “Yep.”

  Tucker shook his head and caught the reins of the horses. “Can I put them up somewhere? I reckon we’re going to be staying awhile. If you want, I’ll . . .” A laugh broke loose, but Tucker rubbed his mouth and quickly silenced it. “I’ll help you plot how to get your ma to go back to Texas.”

  “Instead of that, why don’t you help me find my wife, and after that you can help me find the man who’s trying to kill me.”

  Tucker turned grim. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “I’ll tell you just as soon as I find my wife.”

  “Bailey ran away from you?” Shannon wasn’t even trying to keep her voice down.

  Gage dragged her farther from the house. He didn’t want Ma to hear this.

  “I think she might’ve gone home to check her cattle. She’s been after me to take her, and I . . .” I wanted to keep her safe at all costs. Wanted her to stay inside and be a lady so that my ma would go home. Wanted to pretend that she was a sweet, obedient, feminine little woman. “I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. It’s a busy time at the ranch.”

  “Too busy to let her ride over to her place?” Shannon really had a way of cutting a man up with her tone.

  Gage hoped Tucker was doing all right. “Too busy to go with her. And there’s someone who’s been pestering me.”

  “Deadly traps aren’t ‘pestering,’ Gage. Let’s ride.”

  Tucker came out of the barn. He still had his grulla, but he’d found a fresh horse for his extremely pregnant wife. Like the horse was the one who should stay home.

  “She can’t go.”

  “I’m going.” Shannon didn’t bother bickering, but instead swung up onto her horse, big belly and all.

  “She’s gonna have a baby any minute.”

  “She’s going. I never leave Shannon behind. She don’t like it.” Tucker mounted up.

  Gage looked at Shannon, trying to figure out how to get her down from there.

  “Come with us or not. We’re going to find your wife. We’ll ask her if she’s interested in coming home.”

  “Of course she wants to come home. She just rode over to check her cows.”

  “Without telling you?” Shannon asked, reining her horse and riding away.

  “I didn’t pay them much mind, but there were fresh tracks on the trail.” Tucker headed after his wife. “She must have heard us coming and ducked into the woods without seeing who we were. Too bad. If she knew Shannon was here, she might’ve put off leaving you.”

  “Hey, there’s Ma.” They were nearly to the trap when Sunrise met them. Here was a woman whom Gage would like to have on hand.

  Tucker dismounted and went over to her.

  She swung down off her horse with agile grace for anyone, let alone an elderly, stout woman. Sunrise had raised Tucker as her own from a young age, after Tucker’s ma died. Tucker thought of her as his ma, and she called him son.

  “I was hoping you’d hear I was back and come calling.”

  “I did hear you were back, though I admit I did not smell you. Shannon must have convinced you that a bath now and then would not kill you.”

  Tucker laughed, and Gage couldn’t help but grin.

  “No fur on your face this spring. Being married has civilized you.” Sunrise hugged him.

  He spun her around until she slapped his shoulders. “You should come up to the high hills with us, Ma. Shannon’s got a little one on the way, and I’d like you there to help her.”

  “Hi, Ma. I’ll stay up here. Climbing on and off is a chore.” Shannon’s face glowed with pleasure.

  “When is the baby to come?”

  “Next month. We’ll be down here that long.”

  “I’d love the company of a woman during the long winter.”

  Gage was tiring of the chitchat. He had a wife to corral.

  “Are you leaving her alone?” Sunrise asked sharply.

  “No, Ma,” Tucker said with exaggerated patience. “I’ve only been gone overnight a handful of times and I took her when I went. She’s a tough little thing. But we love you and we both miss you. Think about coming, Ma. We could build you your own cabin or add a room onto mine.”

  “I’ll consider it.”

  Gage itched to get to Bailey, but Tucker insisted they stop to look at the trap.

  “I didn’t have much to go on in that avalanche. I had men hurt and I was in the middle of a big job. Then we were snowed away from it before we could try and find a trail. I doubt there’s a trail left here you two can follow. My men couldn’t find anything the next day, and I’ve been out here to look at things since then and found nothing. But the trap he set was unusual. Maybe if you look at it, you’ll see something you recognize.”

  Gage led the way into the woods and narrowed his eyes. “It’s gone. It was thrown off the trail right here. Some’s come back recently.”

  “Whoever did it must have worried we could trace him through his cruel trap.” Sunrise studied the ground. “He took the evidence away.”

  Tucker came up beside her and knelt. He ran his hand over the ground in silence, then looked sideways at Sunrise and smiled. “He took the evidence, but he left something behind.”

  “What?” Then Gage looked and even he could see it. “Hoofprints.”

  “Footprints too.” Tucker pointed to one that showed as clear as day. “I’ve never seen them before, but if I see it again, I’ll recognize it. It’s a few days old, though it’s clear which way he went.”

  “And his horse’s hooves are distinct,” Sunrise said, pointing to the trail. A print was visible right where the horse had left the woods for the path.

  “Shod, a mustang I would say, because the prints are small but a long-legged one. The man isn’t big, either. The prints are not much deeper when he is riding than when he is afoot. And look at this.” She plucked at the bark of a tree and held up her hand. “He left a tuft of black fur here.”

  “His tracks don’t show once he’s on the trail.” Tucker crossed his arms over the cutlass and his powder horn. He carried the same batch of knives and guns he always had. Marriage hadn’t civilized him that much. “There have been riders enough to erase them, but he’s headed for Aspen Ridge. We should be able to see if he leaves the path.”

  Gage tried to think of anyone who matched that description. His thoughts immediately went to Mo Simmons.

  Shannon had stayed back. She was good on a trail, but she admitted she wasn’t a patch on Tucker and Ma. Gage reached the horses and said, “So we’re looking for a small man on a tall black mustang.”

  Gage was reaching for his reins when Shannon’s hand shot out and caught his arm. “I know someone who fits that description.”

  Gage and Tucker both turned to her. Tucker said, “You do?”

  “Who is it?” Gage asked.

  Shannon gave Gage a bitter look. �
�It makes sense.”

  “What makes sense?” Gage sounded ready to explode.

  “That the person with tracks like that might try to kill you.”

  “Who is it, Shannon?” Gage didn’t like the sorrow he saw etched in her face, just beneath the anger.

  “That sounds like Pa.”

  25

  Cudgel looked at the two men he’d found. He’d put word out he was hiring, and these two were the only ones who’d turned up. That they’d found their way to his homestead impressed him enough to make him hire them on sight. Because getting here wasn’t easy.

  They were exactly what he needed. A couple of men who knew the woods, who’d do just about anything for money.

  “We need to strike hard and fast. I’ll pay you and you’ll take off, leave the country.”

  “And you’ll be the owner of a dynasty?” Ted Gacy slouched back against the wall. He’d turned out to be a hard worker. And Cudgel had worked these men hard already in the few weeks since they’d shown up.

  Stark was the lazy one and mean as a rattler. Cudgel wouldn’t have hired him, but he rode with Gacy, and to fire one was to fire both of them. Much as it choked him to admit it, they weren’t going be that easy to fire. Including after he didn’t need them anymore.

  “I’ve got everything set. We need to use every skill we’ve got, cuz Coulter has his men on alert.”

  “That’s because you did a poor job with that trap. You warned him, and now he’s on edge. That’s gonna make him harder to get.”

  “I’m paying you for hard work, ain’t I?” Cudgel didn’t like saying it plain like that. He didn’t consider himself a killer. A landslide wasn’t killing. And a fall from a horse wasn’t, either. But Cudgel had stayed by that trap he’d set, without thinking it out in plain language, and planned to make sure Coulter died in that fall. When that hadn’t worked out, Cudgel was surprised at the relief that he hadn’t had to resort to cold-blooded murder.

  After all, he wasn’t a bad man. He was just trying to protect his family’s name and build a legacy for his son. He’d expected help and loyalty from the children he had left.

  Instead, each had betrayed him, one by one. He’d half expected it of Kylie, a young’un who’d never known how to behave. He’d been real disappointed in Shannon. She had the makings of a decent rancher, although those sheep would’ve had to go. He’d let them stay, thinking once the homestead was proved up, it would be time to hold a lamb roast. He’d been mighty upset when Shannon as good as stabbed him in the back, but he still had his toughest and most loyal child—Bailey.

  But Coulter getting the canyon back, that had shown Bailey’s weakness. After the bungled job of getting rid of Coulter with a rockslide, Cudgel had been snowed away and couldn’t do much until spring. Then to ride to Bailey’s and find Coulter there. Cudgel had gone reeling at what he’d heard when he’d listened in this spring, with Bailey right in the middle of betraying everything the Wilde family had planned to build. Betraying Jimmy.

  Cudgel loved nothing more than remembering his son. Never an hour went by that he didn’t think of Jimmy, sometimes even talking to him. A handsome boy, bright and strong, Jimmy had a temper, but Cudgel respected that. He had one himself. Jimmy had grown up to be the man Cudgel wanted him to be. The grief of it, the loss, the pain still cut at him and kept him awake at night and haunted his waking hours. His only goal in life was to do something big enough that Jimmy would be remembered.

  And he’d needed his other children’s help. It was sickening that they hadn’t loved their brother enough to stick with their own pa.

  Cudgel setting that trap had been a reckless attempt to put a stop to Bailey’s betrayal, but he’d expected Coulter to be riding alone. There’d been three of them. When Coulter’s saddle partner aimed that gun into the woods, Cudgel looked right down the barrel. Though no one could’ve seen into the woods the man, and just going by sound and instinct that rifle had taken a perfect bead. It’d been enough to make Cudgel drop back fast, because if Cudgel had aimed that rifle, he’d have pulled the trigger. He only figured out later that the person riding with Coulter had been Bailey.

  He’d dropped back and planned his next move.

  It was then he realized that if Coulter died, Bailey would own his property free and clear, and what one Wilde owned, they all owned.

  He’d ridden back to town and spread the word to a couple of men he knew who understood just what Cudgel needed.

  Then he’d gone to Coulter’s place and given Bailey one last chance.

  “Your father? Why would he set an avalanche?” Gage knew the answer to that the second he asked the question. “To keep me out of that canyon. To help preserve his dynasty. I didn’t tell you that Cudgel showed up at my ranch the day after Bailey and I got married. He was spitting mad, then tried to talk me into changing my brand to his.”

  Tucker laughed.

  “We wondered at the time how he got out. I admit it never occurred to me that he had set the trap. One day after the accident. How could I not have even considered him? But somehow he figured out we were getting married and got ahead of us on the trail and set a trap.”

  “He might not have known a thing about the wedding,” Tucker said. “He had to be behind the avalanche last fall, too. It stands to reason whoever did one did the other. And you sure as certain weren’t sparking Bailey back then.”

  “If he did know, I reckon he hoped to keep Bailey from marrying me. But he must’ve found out because he was all set to yell at her. No surprise at all. He knew she’d be there.”

  “He attacked you and then went back to town and heard the news,” Shannon said.

  “Yep, and all that makes sense if he was close by, because he’s the one who bushwhacked us.”

  “He could have killed Bailey along with you.” Tucker scowled. “Is Cudgel that low-down?”

  “Maybe.” It made Gage sad to hear Shannon say that about her father. “But whether he knew about the proposal or knew only that he wanted you out of the canyon, he wouldn’t have known you got married the same day you asked Bailey to marry you. He thought he still had time to stop you and hopefully get the canyon back under Bailey’s control.”

  “If your pa did know we married,” Gage said quietly, “he’d have seen it as a chance to make his daughter a rich widow. Either way, it helps him.”

  Gage remembered the loud thump at Bailey’s house. That had been Cudgel, furious, striking out. “He came to my house and said something about there being more than one way to build a dynasty? I reckon inheriting one would work as well as building one. In fact, it’s a sight less work.”

  Shannon whirled to look around at all the places a man could hide. “If that’s right, if Pa is now thinking of inheriting, he might be gunning for you right now, Gage.”

  “Not gunning,” Tucker said. “He’s been trying to make it look like an accident.”

  Gage knew Bailey had a low opinion of men. When she’d spoken of her fears, she blamed it on the war. But with a pa like Cudgel, she’d expected the worst of men before she signed up to fight. He wondered if she’d ever really trust him.

  His mother didn’t trust him. She’d come all this way claiming to miss him and want to see him, but by the way she fussed and fed him and tried to run everything, what it really came down to was that she didn’t trust him to take care of himself. Her smothering love was why he’d ended up half a nation away from his home. Ma had followed him anyway. Now he had a wife that felt the same way, and she’d run away from him.

  One untrusting woman wouldn’t leave him alone. Another wouldn’t stand by his side.

  It was something he couldn’t stand to think about.

  His voice was so harsh it could have ground glass when he said, “We can hunt Cudgel up later, but right now I need to find my wife. She’s not safe out there alone.”

  26

  She’s here.” Gage spied his wife, unsaddling her horse in the corral, and breathed a sigh of relief. She looked over
her shoulder and glared at him, and his irritation returned.

  “Looks like she’s planning on staying awhile,” Tucker said, sounding amused again.

  Gage ignored him and rode for his wife. They were going to get a few things straight between them.

  Bailey looked ready to fight as she closed the corral gate. She stormed straight toward him as he swung down. Then she looked past him and saw Shannon, and a smile broke out on her face.

  He was struck hard with jealousy.

  Nothing he’d ever felt before, but he couldn’t deny for one heartbeat that was exactly what he felt.

  He wanted that smile. He wanted her to be happy to see him.

  He wanted his wife to love him, because . . . because . . .

  Even standing still, Gage almost stumbled. He hadn’t ever planned on it, but he wanted her smile, her happiness, her love for him. And could that mean anything but that he loved her?

  It was like a squirrel banging around inside his head, trying to claw its way out. Love? Bailey Wilde?

  God protect me from that woman having that kind of power over me.

  As the panic settled, one thing became clear. He could never tell her. She’d just moved three hours away. She’d throw his words right back in his face. And while she was throwing things, she might add in a fist.

  Wheeling away from him, she cried, “Shannon!”

  Shannon’s shocked eyes swept over Bailey’s hair and dress. She seemed too surprised to speak, because she didn’t so much as squeak, let alone yell and run for her sister. But Bailey was running enough for the both of them. Shannon dismounted, and a second later Bailey threw her arms around her sister’s neck. Shannon clung to Bailey, and the two of them set up a squeal that made Gage check to see if Bailey had any hogs around the place.

  He couldn’t help but smile at their pleasure. Tucker hit the ground as gracefully as a cougar leaping from a tree. His gaze met Gage’s. They shared a moment of mutual pleasure in their wives’ happiness.

  The two women started chattering. Gage only heard a word clearly once in a while. He thought he heard Bailey say “coffee,” before the sisters locked arms and headed for the house.