by Howe, Cheryl
As she neared the barn, she could see the light seeping underneath the wide door. She doused the grin she’d been sporting ever since Christopher had told her he loved her, and swung the door open.
Corey sprang away from Jay’s horse, which occupied the first stall lining the barn’s long wall. When his gaze collided with hers, he sagged in relief. “It’s you.”
“What are you doing?”
The plow horse nickered and lifted its head, urging Corey to pat its long black nose. Green leaves crusted the horse’s upper lip.
She stepped over to the chest high gate to peek into the trough. “What did you give him?”
Corey strode to the far side of the barn, then turned to face her while he kicked something with his heel. She kept her gaze on him, only briefly pulling it away to pick out the small leaves dusting the hay. The plant had been rolled in sugar. She brought it to her nose and recognized the scent immediately. Even coated with sweetener, the minty smell of skullcap evoked powerful memories. The plant grew in abundance back home, but still she had to hunt for it daily. Her mother required large doses of the brewed leaves to take the pain away. It usually lulled her into a deep, dead sleep. “Where did you get this?”
“Had some. Found some along the way.”
She checked the stalls of the other animals and found more of the sugar crusted leaves spread over the hay. She marched over to Corey, the evidence piled in both her hands. “Why were you drugging the horses?”
“It wouldn’t have hurt them. I wouldn’t do that.”
“They just won’t be able to work tomorrow. Really, Corey, are you so lazy that you would undermine Jay’s livelihood just to get out of a day’s work?”
“You don’t know anything about me, Lorelei, or you wouldn’t ask me that.”
“Explain it to me.”
He stared at her a long moment, then retrieved the bedroll and knapsack that he’d been trying to hide under the hay.
“I’m leaving. I don’t want to hang around and wait for Mullcahy to find me.”
“He won’t. Christopher said…”
Corey shook his head. “Braddock’s not going to make it. Didn’t you hear anything I said to him? He’s not going to get past the first checkpoint.”
“What did you do?”
He dropped his bag. “You know what? It would have been a lot easier for me to give the horses locoweed. There’s plenty of it around here, and that way Jay couldn’t come after me ever. But I didn’t.”
She stuffed the evidence of Corey’s deceit into the deep pocket of her skirt. “If you think I’m going to pat you on the back for this kind of behavior, you’re mistaken. I don’t know what you’ve become, Corey, but I don’t like it. You’re not the brother I grew up with.”
“No, the brother you knew would have given them so much locoweed the animals would have had to be destroyed. That’s what happened back in Louisville, you know. Pa went to jail because Mr. Ellard’s horse had to be shot after our old man got through with it.”
“Pa didn’t do anything wrong. Mr. Ellard was angry with me.”
“You actually believe that? Pa did it. And it wasn’t the first horse race he fixed either. He did every last thing he was accused of. I know. I was with him. He was proud of himself for poisoning Mr. Ellard’s horse. Thought he’d show him and win a bunch of his money to boot. Well, guess who showed who?”
Lorelei turned her back to her brother. The truth in his words swirled around her ankles like a cold fog. She burst into motion, pacing to one side of the barn, then back. She opened her mouth to deny his words but no sound came out.
“Why then…” She finally pushed words past her dry lips. “Why did Pa rave that Mr. Ellard had him arrested to keep me and Berkley apart when he really did poison that horse?”
She took a deep, cleansing breath, but it didn’t dissipate the awful clarity her words evoked. Unfortunately, she would never be able to swallow the lie again. “Why did he let me believe it was all my fault our family was ruined?”
Corey shrugged. “He was drunk most of the time. Probably forgot.”
She strode to Corey. “But you knew. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Corey tilted his head. His wet brown eyes pulled down at the comers. “I thought you knew. I thought we all knew Pa was a no good cheat.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t know.” But what she should have said was, I didn’t want to know. And she didn’t want to know now.
Corey picked up his gear. “Not like it was the first time Pa pulled a fast one.”
She followed Corey, her hands balled into fists. “Nor you.”
Corey glanced at her over his shoulder. “I do what I have to. I don’t like to hurt anybody.”
She put her hand over her mouth to stop the scream that grew in her chest. She moved her hand to her throat, closing off the wall of pain. “Christopher. You lied to Christopher.” His shoulders squared under his worn, wool jacket. He secured his gear to his horse’s saddle with stiff movements.
Everything Lorelei had ever believed in slid off her and lay in a black puddle at her feet. Her whole life had been a lie. Maybe she had known in some dark recess of her mind, but what kept the lie alive, gave it power and strength, flavored the illusion so it could be swallowed whole, was family. They had all conspired to protect the family at all costs, even if it meant embracing a lie. And now even family loyalty was a lie. Corey had betrayed her.
“Tell me. Did you lie to Christopher?”
Corey closed the distance between them with a menacing step. “Why do you care about him so much, anyway? He used you, then left you high and dry. He doesn’t care about you any more than Berkley did.”
“He’s coming back for me.”
Corey took off his hat and brushed his fingers through his rumpled hair. “He’s not coming back, Lori.”
“I swear to God, if you did something to get him killed you won’t be my brother anymore.”
Corey crammed the slouch hat back on his head. The brim covered his eyes, but the hurt was as clear as the anger flushing Lorelei’s cheeks.
“Did he say he was going to marry you?”
“He said he loved me.”
“That’s not the same, and you know it.”
Lorelei hugged herself, refusing to look at him. No, Christopher hadn’t said anything about marriage, but there was a chance for them. A chance for Lorelei to be happy.
Corey squeezed her shoulders. “Come with me. We’ll start over. I’ll build a nice house. Buy you pretty clothes like you used to have before Pa lost everything. Soon enough you’ll forget Braddock ever existed. You’ll have beaux beating down the door.”
She jerked away from Corey. “That’s what you said when you left Kentucky with my life savings. Did you know Ma and I had to go without sugar that whole next year? But we were glad to do it for our little Corey. If this is the dream, Corey, I want to wake up.”
“You don’t know anything. You don’t know what I’ve done for us.”
“Tell me. Make me believe you’re something more than a criminal, that all those things Christopher said about you weren’t true.”
“I can’t talk to you.” He strode to his horse.
Lorelei rushed past him to grab the paint’s bridle. “You’re not going anywhere.”
The horse whinnied and shied sideways. Archie’s mare stomped in her stall, growing nervous at the commotion. Corey yanked Lorelei away from his horse.
She tried to kick him in the shin, but he managed to avoid her blows as he wrestled her into a soft pile of hay. Anger blurred her senses. She thrashed, desperate for a way to hurt him as he had hurt her. He straddled her stomach and stretched out her arms.
He squeezed her wrists in a painful grip. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You can’t keep me here.”
She bucked her body in an effort to throw him off. Too soon she grew breathless. He was too strong. But that didn’t stop her from using her sternest older sister voice “You’
re not leaving until you tell me what you told Christopher.”
At last Corey’s face flushed an angry shade of red, and he panted from trying to hold her down. “All I told him was how to find Mulcahy. That’s what’s going to get him killed. But you told me to tell him. You can’t blame me for that.”
“What else? What did you leave out?”
Corey rolled off of her and sat in the straw.
She crawled from the hay and stood. “You lied to me. Used me since the day I arrived. Even before that.”
He hung his head and picked at the golden dried grass. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“Then please, please, tell me the truth. Were you honest with Christopher?”
He lifted his gaze. “There’s a lookout on the mesa approaching the canyon entrance. But that’s not the entrance everyone who knows the place uses. If you’re one of them, you use a back way. I didn’t tell Braddock about the back way.”
Though she suspected the truth, had begged to hear it, his words forced the air from her lungs. “How could you?”
“In case you’ve forgotten, ’cause I sure as hell haven’t, he’s a bounty hunter who came after my head.”
“Things have changed. He said he was going to let you go”
“And you said he was coming back.”
“For me.”
“What about me?”
“What about you, Corey? Everything doesn’t revolve around you. Christopher’s in love with me. He doesn’t care about you.”
“Let’s say he makes it back from his trek to find Mulcahy and comes away empty handed. Because if he survives at all, he won’t get Mulcahy or the gold. Then what? You think he’s going to settle down with you, empty handed? No. He’s going to turn to me, because something is better than nothing.”
“He’s not like that.”
“He’s a bounty hunter, Lorelei. Most of the time the reward is dead or alive. It’s not the kind of job that attracts the forgive and forget type.”
Lorelei stared at her brother, trying to find the lie in his words so she could tell him he was wrong. But she couldn’t. Her desire to have Christopher return put her brother in danger. Still, she wouldn’t let him leave without righting what he’d wronged.
“You have to tell me how to get to Specter Canyon so I can warn Christopher.”
Corey’s eyes widened. “Not on your life. He’d really have my ass if I told you where it was. It’s too dangerous, Lori.”
“Fine.” She turned on her heel. “I’m going to wake up Jay. You can tell him.”
“No.” He stopped her by grabbing the hem of her gown. “He’ll turn me in. Jay won’t give me a second chance after I lied to Braddock.”
She jerked her dress out of his grasp. “You don’t deserve a second chance.”
“They’ll hang me.”
She stopped before she reached the open door. They weren’t talking about sending Corey to his room without supper. He would go to jail at best, and at worst... She couldn’t even think about her brother hanging. Turning Corey over to the marshal wasn’t an option.
“Tell me where to find Christopher.”
He pushed himself to his feet and straightened his jacket.
“I did him a favor. A sharpshooter will take him out long before he ever gets to Mulcahy. Mulcahy wouldn’t have killed him quickly.”
“I’m begging. I’ve done so much for you and all I ask is this one little thing.”
Corey led his horse to the barn door. For a brief second she thought he’d mount and slip into the night. She knew there was nothing she could do, would do, to stop him. He paused in front of her. “Follow the Tewa River until it runs dry. It’s marked on most maps. The canyon’s not. In the distance you’ll spot two rocks standing side by side, one half as tall as the other. That’s where I told Braddock to go. Don’t go any farther than the tail end of the riverbed. They’ll see you, but they won’t come after you unless you get close to the entrance. You’d better find Braddock before that.”
She touched Corey’s cheek. “Thank you.”
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard. “I mean it. Don’t go into the canyon.”
Lorelei wasn’t about to make such a promise. Instead she stepped back so Corey could mount his horse. She slid the barn door open wider, giving him a clear path to freedom. There was nothing else she could say to her brother. Anger and sorrow battled within her. She still loved her brother, but she doubted she’d ever forgive him.
“I’m sorry,” he said before he rode off into the night.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Maneuvering the narrow cliff Corey had warned him about proved even more treacherous with Braddock’s hands tied behind his back. He centered his sights on the scuffed toes of his black leather boots, not daring to glance at the chunks of rust colored rocks that tumbled over the edge with the brush of his steps. Funny, he had never been afraid of heights before. The guard at his back poked him with the tip of his rifle, and Braddock bent his knees to keep from plummeting with the shower of dust. Maybe his plan wasn’t going to work after all.
He had had too much time to think on his way to Specter Canyon. Thoughts of Lorelei plagued him, kept him awake at night, and then invaded his dreams. Once he got used to her constant presence, he’d liked it. And then he had needed it. He needed to get back to her, and that changed everything.
The guard prodded him again.
“Watch it,” Braddock called over his shoulder. “I’m gonna get untied once we get to camp, and then I’ll be looking for you.”
The guard tucked his rifle closer to his body. “I’m just doing my job. If you are who you say, you know we can’t be too careful. I don’t want to go to jail any more than you want to go back.”
“I just ain’t forgetting how you’re treating me, is all.” Braddock laid on the Southern accent. He wasn’t sure if Lincoln Knox was a Southerner, but with a name like Lincoln, he had better do something to unite himself with Mulcahy. Hopefully being a killer and a rapist would be enough.
“How’d you break out of Tombstone’s jail anyway?” asked the guard.
“Let’s just say I had some help from a lady friend.” Braddock kept his gaze on the next turn in the trail. A hunchbacked juniper clung to the side with grasping roots. It required all his concentration to maintain his balance while picking his way around the base of the tangled tree. Just as well. Better to keep his mouth shut. He didn’t know a whole hell of a lot about Lincoln Knox except that his wanted poster looked too much like Braddock. He’d had to go after him just to keep himself from being hunted down.
When he’d found the town where Knox had been killed, several people thought they’d seen a ghost. Knox had been buried in an unmarked grave, having died under an alias while hiding out. Braddock didn’t want to give the lowlife any more notoriety than he deserved. He figured dying anonymously did Knox more justice than the big trial in Santa Fe that had been waiting for him before he escaped jail.
For once, Braddock’s morose sense of justice worked in his favor. Being escorted into Mulcahy’s camp, even at gunpoint, should have suited him fine. Unfortunately, now that he had something to live for, the insanity of the situation rocked him. Like all the other forgotten emotions Lorelei had unlocked, a healthy dose of fear was making an appearance.
After the sharp turn, followed by a climb over a cascade of rocks, he and his captor started down a slope leading to a flat mesa tucked into the canyon’s side. The formation of the red rock walls protected the bandits from view until you were right on them.
Corey had actually done him a favor by keeping his mouth closed about the first set of guards. Better to be brought in as one of their own seeking refuge than to get caught sneaking up on the camp. That had been Braddock’s plan in the beginning, anyway. He’d already used Knox’s name once or twice in places like Coyote Pass, where being a bounty hunter would be instant death. Actually, it wasn’t too popular a profession anywhere, a fact that had never bothered Braddock be
fore.
Mulcahy’s refuge consisted of several tents and a few wooden structures, all in various stages of completion or dilapidation. Wooden walls had tarps strewn across their top, and adobe bricks lay scattered about, rotting under the sun and wind. No one seemed in a hurry to finish any of their half-assed efforts at shelter. A few men glanced his way; others didn’t even notice. Several congregated in the shade of a scrub pine. Another picked at the hoof of his horse’s foreleg. The canyon must have a second entrance. Before the steep climb, he’d been forced to leave Lucky in a natural corral created by a deep groove in the rock wall. You couldn’t force a horse the way he’d come, not even blindfolded.
Braddock made a casual sweep with his gaze, looking for Mulcahy. Once the excitement of the hunt kicked in, he forgot his fear. He mentally noted his surroundings and calculated what could be used to his advantage. As he grew closer, he noticed the men under the trees were playing cards, except for one who had slumped to the side in an awkward pile, a whiskey bottle still clutched in his hand. Though the men were fewer in number than he’d expected, none of them had their guard up. The mood was glum. They certainly didn’t act like a group that had just stolen a fortune in gold. The robbery must have taken its toll, as Corey had said. But Braddock knew not to place too much stock in anything Corey claimed.
The guard guided him to a wood framed shack that had recently been fixed to create a decent shelter. A blanket hung as a door. The sunken roof consisted of juniper branches with the needlelike leaves and berry sized blue cones still attached. A man with a rifle across his lap and a hat pulled over his eyes sat on the ground with his back against the weathered plank wall.
The guard stopped a few feet short of the resting man. “Ricochet?”
“Your time’s not up yet, Cole.”
