Once an Outlaw

by Raine Cantrell

  “Damn it! You two better start explaining to me. I’ve a right to know what’s been going on. You,” Ty said, rounding on Conner, “told me he just took off, that you didn’t know where he was, or what he was doing. You had to know we’d find out about the whispers going around that Logan’s turned outlaw. Yet you did nothing, said nothing to stop them.”

  “Ty.” Dixie brought him a glass of whiskey. “Give your brother a chance to explain.” Handing a nearly full glass of liquor to Logan, Dixie then shot Conner a furious look. “And you both will explain, won’t you?” she asked in a too-sweet voice.

  “Oh, do I detect a little vinegar with all that sugar?” Logan laughed when Ty nodded and Dixie was quick to elbow his side. “Gonna get your gun out again, little lady, and make me?”

  Sliding her arm around Ty’s waist and resting her head on his shoulder, Dixie gave Logan a smug look. “If that’s what it takes. Ty’s been very worried about you. When he worries, I worry. So make your toast, Logan, and then, please, end the suspense for all of us.”

  Conner, barefoot and shirtless, poured a small amount of whiskey for himself. Taking up a leaning position against the door, he lifted his glass as a gesture for Logan to get on with it.

  “Back off, Conner. The little I have to tell you will keep. Ain’t every day that a man comes home to find out his little brother’s getting hitched.” Logan’s voice roughened with emotion. “The first toast is to the bride—lovely, smart and skilled enough to rope and brand one of the best men I know.”

  The glasses were raised and emptied. Dixie did the honors of filling them again, spilling only a little into Conner’s glass.

  “And to you, Ty,” Logan continued. “The best brother a man could have, the most ornery, too. I offer my best wishes to the first of the Kincaids to wed, and may all your troubles be little ones.”

  “Corny, Logan. Real corny,” Conner said. “That the best you can come up with?”

  “Traveling three days to get here, and all I find is abuse. But that’s all I can think of now.”

  “Drink to the sentiment, if not the words,” Ty added, and tossed his drink down. He frowned when Logan held out his glass to Dixie for a refill. “Don’t you want to eat something, Logan?”

  “Nope. And I’m glad to see how much you’ve grown, Ty. There was a time when you would’ve been all over me demanding that I tell you what’s been going on. Yep, the lady is good for you.”

  Dixie joined in their hushed laughter, and took it upon herself to replace the glass stopper in the decanter. She wouldn’t say anything now, but she wondered if Ty or Conner had picked up the underlying note of sadness in Logan’s voice. She had a strange feeling that he was missing someone, missing them badly. For a moment her gaze locked with Logan’s and she sensed that he knew what she was thinking.

  “Would you mind if I make use of the bed?” Logan asked Dixie. “I must be gettin’ old. Feeling every ache there is. Wouldn’t mind another drink to loosen the last of the road dust. Best make it quick,” he told Dixie as she propped the cushion from the rocker behind his pillow. “I don’t start talkin’ fast, old Conner’s gonna have apoplexy. Just let me shuck these damned boots before my feet forget they belong to me.”

  “They’re not yours?” Dixie asked, bringing him the decanter. She refilled his glass and left the decanter on the table beside the bed. She realized how foolish she was to think that Logan couldn’t hold his liquor.

  Conner kept to his leaning stance against the door, but Ty took the rocking chair and pulled Dixie down to his lap.

  Logan began. “When Conner and I ran up against stone walls everywhere we turned trying to find out who’s behind the rustling and the mine robberies, we came up with a plan.”

  “I finally heard the truth from Hazer about the fight you two had.”

  “Don’t you believe it, Ty. ’Course, those punches Conner threw at the end of it sure added truth to his ordering me off the ranch. But it took me months before I hooked up with the right bunch.” Rubbing his jaw, Logan looked at Conner. “I was in on the last four mine robberies at the Silver Belt. Real sorry about those men getting killed.”

  “You couldn’t have stopped them, Logan. If you had, you would have blown your cover and we would have had to come up with another way to find the bastard behind this.”

  “Conner, your understanding doesn’t lessen my guilt. But that’s when I got shot, too.”

  “No! The remaining guards didn’t say anything about hitting one of the outlaws,” Conner protested.

  “I don’t know if the bullet that hit me came from them or the men I was riding with. All I know is I lit out, and somewhere south of the mine I got knocked off my horse, had my outfit stolen and was left for dead.”

  “Obviously,” Dixie said, “you didn’t die. Is that when your pretty lady found you?”

  Sipping his drink, Logan stared at her. Sharp lady to have remembered what he’d said to her and Ty. “Not exactly. Two sagebrush orphans were about to bury me—”

  “Good Lord, Logan, what the hell were you doing?”

  “Hold on, Conner. I’m here, ain’t I? The boys thought they were doing a good deed. Anyway, when they saw their mistake, they wrapped me up in a quilt and delivered me to a widow’s door.”

  Dixie snuggled closer to Ty. To lighten the tension in the room pouring from all three brothers, she tried teasing Logan.

  “Bet she thought you were an early Christmas present?”

  “No way, Dixie. That widow, Jessie, couldn’t—”

  “Jessie?” Ty cut in. “I forgot about Jessie!”

  “Ty, you promised Greg you’d check on her.”

  “I know I did. But I forgot. Clean forgot to go up there and check like I promised.”

  “Would you two mind explaining what the hell you’re deviling about?” Logan demanded, attacked by a sudden queasy feeling that he tried to shrug off.

  “You don’t know her, Logan. A few years ago Greg Rutland bought stock from us. I ran them up to his place and stayed a while. His sister, Jessie, had just come to live with him. Their aunt died and she had no place else to go. Livia, that’s Greg’s wife, sort of tried to do a little matchmaking, but Jessie was such a quiet little thing that I backed off. ’Sides, I wasn’t looking to get tangled up with calico.”

  “Good thing, too,” Dixie reminded him. She folded her arms over Ty’s, which were wrapped around her waist. “Ty told you how we met up. What he didn’t tell you was that we were running from the men whose horses we stole the night he got knifed trying to rescue me. We went to Greg’s ranch, never realizing that we’d been followed. But while we were there, Greg told us that his sister had married a man he didn’t like, didn’t trust and didn’t know one end of a steer from another. He was worried that he hadn’t heard from her. Ty said he would try and stop by and find out what he could. I don’t remember where he said their place was.”

  “Near the Superstitions, around Apache Junction. Only I never did. Damn!”

  “Stop it, Ty. It’s not your fault,” Dixie assured him. “I got shot—”

  “You nearly died,” Ty interjected.

  “But you brought me here, and Sofia and your mother nursed me. But this is pointless. It couldn’t be the same woman. You said that she’s a widow, didn’t you, Logan?”

  “Yeah. My Jessie’s a widow.” Of a man who wouldn’t know one end of a steer from the other, since he was too busy hunting gold.

  Logan held up his glass and watched the lamp’s light play in the rich, amber-colored liquor. They were all watching him, waiting, he was sure, for him to confirm or deny that his Jessie and their Jessie were one and the same. His Jessie. He liked the way the words came together so naturally. What he didn’t like was the speculation in his brother’s eyes. A quick glance at Dixie showed him that she had already reached her own conclusions.

  “What I really want to know,” Ty said in a soft, very soft, voice, “is why you couldn’t tell me the truth, Conner?”

&
nbsp; “When? When you brought her home nearly dead with a raging fever that wouldn’t quit? Or those weeks you were consumed with finding where her father’s killer was hiding?” Low voiced and furious at being questioned, Conner, who rarely drank, tossed down the last of his liquor. The glass hit the top of the dresser with a thud. “I couldn’t tell you. No one but Ma knows about what Logan’s doing.”

  “Conner,” Logan said, sitting up and quietly putting his glass down on the bedside table. “Tell Ty. He’s got a right to know.”

  “It makes me sick to say it.”

  “Say what? What are the two of you hiding from me?”

  “Someone,” Logan explained when he saw that Conner didn’t want to, “real close to our brother here, is working with the outlaws. I saw it up close. Even the times and days being changed for payroll or ore shipments didn’t help. They knew.”

  “Are you telling me that a Kincaid hand is giving out information that will ruin us?”

  Conner and Logan exchanged looks, looks that set Ty’s temper on fire. “Who?” he demanded. “And don’t put me off.”

  Dixie was glad she was sitting on Ty’s lap. It was all that prevented him from bolting out of the chair. “Honey, can’t you see that whoever it is, thinking about it, much less saying the name, is hurting your brothers?”

  “Wait a minute. You just told me that Ma is the only one who knows about Logan besides you, Conner. That means Santo and Sofia don’t know? You can’t think he’s involved? Damn it, not Santo!”

  “Keep your voice down. All we need is Ma in here.” Conner took a deep breath and released it. “No one said we thought it’s Santo. But the man Rosanna’s going to marry, Enrique, tops both my list and Logan’s. How could we tell them that we suspected the man they love like a son? A man Rafael already calls his brother? You know how prideful the old man is. It would kill him to find out. That’s why we kept it secret. The less anyone knew, the better chance Logan had.”

  Logan raked his hands through his hair and heaved a tired sigh. “By the look of you, Ty, you’re still mad. You’ve got no right to be. You weren’t around, little brother. We didn’t know where you were. Would you expect Conner to send out word that I’d taken to riding with outlaws? Would you want to risk my neck that the wrong people found out? That’s why we made it appear that Conner, in his greed to control all the Kincaid holdings, forced me out after he got rid of you. Boy, I hate saying this, but you never did want the responsibility to help manage the ranch or the mines.

  “I can see that marrying Dixie is making changes in you. Conner won’t shoulder the burden alone anymore. But direct your anger where it belongs—to the bastard who’s trying to destroy us.”

  “All right,” Ty said after a few minutes, and Dixie’s whispered urging. “You couldn’t tell me. And I do understand about Santo. The way he feels about this place and Ma, he’d kill Enrique without a qualm regardless of his daughter’s or his son’s feelings about him.”

  “You should know,” Conner said, drawing their attention, “that the rustlings escalated after Rafael asked that we give Enrique a job here. Not long after that, the mines started getting robbed. Damn thing is, I let no one know about the changed time, or the days of payroll. How could he find out? How does he get word to them?”

  “All I know is that we’d camp out. Next morning Monte’d have the information of where we’d hit next. A few times I heard him muttering about someone called Old Charlie getting paid back someday. But none of the others seemed to know who Monte was talking about. Only once did I manage to follow him. Sly fox that Monte is, he met his contact out in the open where I couldn’t get close enough to see or hear them.”

  Logan started drawing circles on the sheet. “The Silver Belt is here,” he said, almost to himself as he plucked up the top sheet to form peaks. “Northeast of Florence. That’s where I finally linked up with them. We hit that mine four times, and we know they hit the Reunion mine north of Phoenix twice, which forms a half circle. Come southwest to the Buckeye mine off of Robbins Butte, and close the circle by ending up at the Rocking K stealing cattle.

  “If we’re right about Enrique feeding information, then we need to look within this circle for the man behind the robberies. I know it isn’t Leo Vesta or Joe Rawson. They’re the only two ranchers with an ax to grind and the money to hire men like Monte and his gang.” Logan looked up to find them crowded around the bed where he had drawn his imaginary map. “Any ideas of who’s within this circle that wants us gone?”

  “I’d cast my vote for Riverton,” Dixie said without a second’s hesitation.

  Conner shot her a surprised look. “Yeah. Riverton’s worked his way to the top of my list.”

  “Who the devil is Riverton?” Logan asked, reaching back and pouring himself a drink.

  “Charles Riverton,” Conner answered. “But I never heard anyone call him old Charlie. He’s more trouble that arrived since you left, Logan. Our new neighbor on the Circle R beat me out of the beef contract at the reservation. Man’s building a spread that puts this place to shame. Claimed his land under the Desert Act, then got his men to file. But it’s all Circle R land no matter whose name is on the deeds.”

  Conner looked at Dixie. “How come you thought of him right off?”

  “When he sent the invitation to the fiesta to meet his neighbors and you and Ty refused to go, I couldn’t let your mother go alone. The man’s a braggart. He went on and on about his leading the fight to keep the territory capital in Tucson. And he insulted your mother when she pointed out that he had lost his fight, too. They have moved the capital to Prescott. He also claims that he’s going to support John Fremont in his bid for the governor’s chair. But I think he’s after that himself.”

  Ty hugged Dixie. “I picked the smartest woman. Dixie and me have done a little looking around on our own. When I went after her father’s killer, I had a passing visitor at my campfire. He mentioned you, Logan.”

  “You knew?” Conner asked. “All this time and you knew?”

  “He told me that word was out that Logan was seen with a bad bunch of hombres. I didn’t want to believe him. I couldn’t tell you or Ma, Conner. Hell, I had to protect her. I feel like a fool now.”

  “Don’t, Ty. I’m sure your brothers don’t think that about you. You did what was right.”

  “Spoken like a woman in love,” Logan said. He grinned at Dixie, and her soft laughter, with her cheeks flushed pink, lightened their mood. Unfortunately, he knew it couldn’t last.

  “Look, I can’t risk either Sofia or Santo discovering me here. You really suspect this Riverton, Dixie?”

  She felt a warm rush of gratitude for Logan’s total acceptance of her into their family circle. And she reached down to squeeze his hand, silently thanking him with a look.

  “My answer is yes. But I’m not as sold as you are about Enrique. I’ve been here two months. I’ve had a chance to know him. He’s very much in love with Rosanna, and she’s as devoted as her mother to this family. I don’t understand why it couldn’t be any one of a number of hands that work here.”

  “No!” the three brothers chorused at once. They shared sheepish grins.

  Conner explained. “Most of these men have been working on this ranch since before I was born. You know that most of them are older than me. I’d trust my life to any one of them. Enrique is the only newcomer I’ve hired to work on the ranch. And we are agreed that it is someone right here who’s passing information along.”

  “I see that I have lost my place as the head of this family,” Macaria announced from the doorway.

  Four pairs of guilty eyes focused on her as she entered the room and closed the door behind her. But her gaze was for Logan alone. “My son returns and does not see fit to tell me?”

  The others backed away from the bed to allow Logan to rise. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, but she’d smell the whiskey on his breath when he kissed her.

  Macaria opened her arms to this middle son who
most resembled his father. She forced a smile despite seeing the new lines that had formed on his beloved face.

  “Madre.” Logan held her tight. They’d never needed words. She smelled faintly of sweet mountain lilacs, and he caught sight of a bit more gray in the two long braids that fell to her hips. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen her with her braids down. Usually she wore them pinned in a crown that gave her a regal air.

  “Is it done? Have you come home to stay?” she asked him.

  Logan pulled back, kissing her cheeks, then framing her slender face within his hands. “No.” His gaze held hers, silently begging that she not question him. He had no worry that Ty or Conner would tell her that he’d been wounded. He could only hope that Dixie didn’t.

  “If it is not over, then you have come to tell us who is behind the stealing?”

  “No, madre. I lost my outfit and horse and my boots and came home to replace them.”

  Macaria gracefully slipped from his hold and looked at the others. “Why did you not come and wake me to tell me that Logan was home?”

  He caught hold of her slender hands, bringing her attention once more to him. “Madre, I asked them not to wake you. I’m not staying. Before the first light I will leave.”

  “No!”

  “Sí, madre. Now,” he said, standing back and holding her hands out, “let me see if you are still as supple as the willow and as strong as the hickory.”

  “Strong, yes, a mother must be strong when she has sons such as you and your brothers. Tell me, my son, have you eaten?”

  Logan threw back his head and glanced at the thick cedar beams overhead. “I have come home to tell my brother that I have failed, and you want to feed me.”

  Freeing her hands, Macaria smiled because it was what Logan wanted. She tightened the tie of her bright red wool robe and beckoned Dixie to her side. “Go and speak with your brothers. Your soon-to-be sister will help me in the kitchen.”

  Dixie cast a helpless look at Ty. He shrugged in response, and she followed Macaria out of the room.