by Jodi Thomas
“Impossible,” he answered. “I’ve men on guard. We would have heard shots.”
Looking ill at ease in arguing with his boss, Link glanced at Jennie for help.
“There’s a man with a rifle up in the barn loft. We saw seven, maybe eight others, and none of them were your men.” Jennie looked straight at Colton. “They’re here to kill you and Delta.”
Colton nodded and gripped Delta’s hand resting on his shoulder. “Link, there’s a rifle in my study and a Colt in the middle drawer.”
“Yes, sir,” Link responded and vanished.
“Delta.” His words softened as he looked at his frightened wife. “My gunbelt’s in the wardrobe. Get it and load both guns.”
He looked at Jennie. “Can you shoot?”
Jennie shook her head. “No.” She silently promised the Almighty that if she got out of this alive, learning to shoot would be her first priority.
Delta returned. “I can use a gun.”
“So can I,” Link answered as he ran back into the room. “Whatever we do, we’d better do fast. I looked out the front and saw three more strangers ride in.”
Colton took a deep breath and pushed himself to the edge of the bed. “Did one of them have a scar streaked across his cheek?”
“I didn’t notice,” Link answered. “You want me to go back and check?”
“No. It doesn’t matter. I know he’s here.” With a grunt of pain, Colton reached beneath the bed and pulled out a tray loaded with rifles and boxes of bullets.
“There’s only two doors they can come through. Link, you and the women stay in the back watching the kitchen door. You’ll be safer there. There’s slits in the shutters, so shoot at anything that comes within ten feet of the back door. I’ll take the front.”
Delta started to object, but Colton added, “With the solid door, I can handle the front alone, but I have to know my back is safe. I’m banking my life on no one getting past you and Link.” He handed Jennie one of his Colts and a box of shells. “We’ll consider this your first lesson in how to shoot. Can you load this?”
Jennie nodded as she fumbled with the weapon, dropping several bullets on the bed as she tried to load.
Colton looked at his wife and whispered, “Lawton might come in both directions at once, so make sure you’ve got plenty of rounds. Turn the kitchen table over. It’ll protect you if they storm the back door.” He took a breath and fought back the hurting in his gut. “I don’t know how many there are, so stay in the kitchen no matter what you hear from the front.”
Delta looked as if she might argue, but she knew there was no time. Colton’s orders continued in his cold rapid-fire manner. “Take Link and go get ready. Jennie will help me get in position in the front hallway, then join you.”
Delta, her arms filled with rifles, stopped in the doorway to their bedroom and turned back to her husband. “No matter what happens,” she whispered, “I’ll never regret marrying you.”
Colton stood slowly. “And, madam, whether we live through this or not, I’ll never stop loving you.”
Delta almost ran from the room, but not before Jennie saw the tears tumbling from her eyes.
“You’ve made her very happy.” Jennie smiled at this hard man called Barkley. Without another word she handed him the Colt she’d loaded.
“I hope I haven’t just sentenced her to death by making her my wife.”
Jennie went to his side and allowed him to lean on her as they moved to the front hallway. “The other reason I wanted her in the back,” he whispered between clenched teeth, “is I didn’t want her to see me shot. If I’m lucky, they’ll kill me and leave her be.”
The first pounding sounded just as Jennie pulled a chair up for Colton to sit in so he could face the front door. She had no time to think of his words. They both froze until the pounding stopped.
“We’ve got a few more minutes until they figure how to break in. There’s no use my hiding behind something. I could never get up and down to fire. Bring the rest of the guns in, and I’ll show you how to load them.”
Jennie ran back to his bedroom for the rifles. She could hear Colton checking the weapons as she returned. His cold manner didn’t change as he showed her how to load each weapon. He was as hard as ever, looking as though he’d been steeling himself for this moment for years.
“When they come,” he ordered, “run for the back. Don’t look back at me. Keep a pistol in your hand just in case they kill me. You’ll have six shots to hit anyone chasing you.” He rammed his fingers into his vest pocket and handed her a small two-shot derringer matching the one he’d given his wife. “When they take us, keep this in your pocket. If they kill me first, I won’t be able to help Delta. If they follow you to the back, don’t let them take her alive.”
Jennie accepted the small weapon. “Are you saying I should shoot her?”
Colton nodded once, his dark eyes dead serious. “If you’re her friend, you won’t allow them to hurt her.”
“I can’t.” Jennie couldn’t believe he’d ask such a thing of her.
“I’ve heard of these men. Most of them escaped with Lawton from prison. If you care anything about Delta, you’ll not let her suffer.”
Before Jennie could answer, rounds popped in rapid succession from the back of the house. Within a minute, something heavy slammed into the front door, rattling the front wall with its force.
Jennie curled behind Colton’s chair and prayed every prayer she could ever remember hearing. “Austin,” she whispered. “Please help us!”
The heavy slam sounded again, echoed by the cry of wood being split. Colton raised his guns. “Run, Jennie!” he ordered as he cocked the weapons.
Chapter 30
True ran the length of the corral and darted under the gate. The man called Red swore as he had to stop to unlatch the opening.
By the time he’d finished, True was across the open space and hiding behind the bunkhouse. The child slid into a gap between the pier and beams forming the floor of the building and crawled to where the porch had been added. Safe! No grown man could crawl between the spaces only large enough for a cat to deliver a litter in.
But safety wasn’t True’s goal. Getting away and finding help had to come first.
The outlaws’ plans had dribbled out of Red’s mouth while he’d tied the men in the barn. He told all about how they’d snuck up the dried creek bed last night and captured the men one by one. Thanks to the low clouds, the guards on the cliff above were useless. He’d bragged that Buck Lawton might let all the ranch hands watch him kill first Delta, then Colton.
True wrapped a bandanna over the rope burns that had cut into the scabs left from a week ago. No sound punctuated the pain, for there was no time for tears.
Crawling to the end of the porch, True saw Red run around the bunkhouse, his gun ready like he was chasing something as worthless as a rat.
When he disappeared around the corner, True rolled free of the building and within a blink was crawling through tall grass toward the creek bed. If these bad men could get to the ranch this way, she could escape the same way.
Reaching the hard ground of the dried creek bed, True stood and ran. The wind pushed her along as though she weighed no more than a winter leaf. She’d been the only one awake when the marshal left long before dawn. He’d said he couldn’t sleep and wanted to circle the place. True had ridden with him before and knew he started and ended his circle along the creek bed. She just hoped she was running in the right direction. He could be anywhere for miles, and Lawton’s men might have already overpowered him. His body might be all that was left of him.
True shoved the prospect of Austin being hurt from her mind. Her marshal would never let them catch him unaware. He was alive. She’d just have to find him before everyone else died.
Sweat and tears were starting to blind her when True turned the bend in the ghost stream’s path and saw the marshal. He’d unsaddled his horse and built a fire for coffee, obviously planning a m
orning of solitude.
“Marshal!” she shouted and ran full-speed into his arms.
“Easy now, True.” Austin wiped the hair from the child’s face. “You’re running like the Devil himself has got you by the tail.”
“There’s trouble!” True fought for air. “Men at the ranch. They have everyone tied up in the barn except for Colton and Delta.”
“What about Jennie?” Austin stood and threw the saddle blanket over his horse.
True leaned forward to breathe. “I don’t think they even know about her, and I haven’t seen Link in a while.”
Austin swung up his saddle as if it were no heavier than the blanket. “You stay here and don’t come near the ranch even if you hear shooting. You’ll be safe and warm enough with the fire.”
“Don’t leave me here!” True fought back tears. “You promised if there was trouble I could stay with you.”
Kneeling down, Austin put his arm around the child. “You’ll be safer here, son.”
“No!” True cried. “I won’t stay. Not again.”
“Again?”
“My momma told me there was trouble and I should stay behind. But she never came back for me. I waited all winter and she never came back!”
Austin kicked out the fire. “How long ago was this?”
“Two winters ago. I tell folks she died, but she left with a man who had been telling her over and over how much he hated kids. They used to make me wait outside when he visited, and sometimes I waited all night.”
Austin climbed into the saddle. “Are you telling me the truth?”
“I reckon,” True answered, lifting a bleeding hand to him. “If I was or not, you’d still keep your promise.”
Austin pulled True onto the horse. The child had more grit than any ten men he knew. “I’ll take you, but you have to swear to me you’ll do what I tell you.”
“I swear on my mother’s grave.” True hugged Austin tightly, pressing tearstained cheeks against his coat. “That is if she’s dead.”
Gunfire rang in the distance, and Austin kicked his horse into action.
Chapter 31
Pounding hammered against the door again and again while shots rang out continuously from the back of the house. Delta and Link must have been firing at anyone trying to come near the back door.
Colton remained still, saving his energy for when needed. “Run!” he ordered Jennie again. “Get back to Delta before they break in.”
Jennie gripped the Colt in her hand and ran toward the kitchen. Delta and Link might need her help. There were only two ways into the house, and she had to do her share in protecting one.
Two ways in! Jennie suddenly felt her blood freeze like a shallow pond. There was another way into the house! Her bedroom window. Link had said he hadn’t locked it.
Without hesitation, Jennie bolted toward the hallway to her bedroom. She had to close the last window. From her room an outlaw could sneak in and shoot them all in the back.
As she opened her bedroom door, a man was already halfway inside. He’d shattered the glass without her even hearing it above all the other noise.
When the outlaw looked up, Jennie raised her gun, closed her eyes and fired. The revolver jerked in her hand as the bullet blasted out. She heard a crash shattering into the broken glass on her bedroom floor.
When she opened her eyes, the man was lying in a pool of his own blood, but another man was only a step behind him. One long leg already reached over the sill and into her room.
Jennie raised her gun again and closed her eyes. As she pulled the trigger, she heard Austin shout, “No!”
This time the jerk of the gun vaulted right into her heart. She opened her eyes in time to see Austin fall through the window onto the dead man. Her heart shattered into a million splinters as she realized whom she’d killed with her second bullet.
Jennie opened her mouth to scream, but a hand from behind gripped her mouth and pulled violently backward. With more force than necessary, the attacker jerked the gun from her fingers and dragged her toward the now open front doorway.
The outlaw didn’t have to hold her so tightly; she’d lost all fight within her. She’d killed Austin. The one man she’d ever love was dead because of her. Nothing these men could do could hurt her any more than she was hurting now. The memory of Austin’s strong arms blended with the sight of him lying facedown in blood.
The man holding Jennie shoved her to the floor in front of Colton’s chair. When she looked up, Colton’s black eyes were still filled with fight even though he no longer had a gun in his hand. His dark gaze erupted with hate as he watched the outlaws before him.
“So.” A man with a thin red scar cut along his cheek paced in front of Colton. “We finally meet again.”
“Get it over with, Buck. Kill me.” Colton’s voice was as hard as ever, daring the outlaw to finish what he’d started. “I’m not afraid to die.”
“Oh, no.” Lawton laughed. “I’m not going to kill you just yet. Remember the last time we met? You pulled your wife from me. I can still hear her screaming. She must have known you’d kill her. Now I plan to return the act.”
“Buck!” someone yelled from the kitchen. “What you want me to do with this woman and boy we found guarding the back door? They’re both wounded.”
“Throw them in the barn with the others. We’ll set fire to every building before we leave. I want nothing on this land remaining but Rachel’s gravestone.”
Lawton grabbed a handful of Jennie’s hair. “She’s real pretty. Not as pretty as Rachel, but I guessed you might have trouble finding another woman willing to marry you after what you did to the first one.”
Colton didn’t defend himself. He knew it would be useless, for Lawton’s hatred had been simmering for six years. “My wife isn’t here,” he said simply. “If you kill this woman, you’ll be killing her needlessly.”
“Of course, I’d expect you to say any lie.” With a fistful of hair, Buck Lawton pulled Jennie to her knees. “I didn’t get a good look at her the other night by the road. One of my men fired too soon. I was real worried you’d die before I had the pleasure of killing you.”
Lawton twisted Jennie’s face upward. “How about I cut her open like you did Rachel? That’s how you killed her, isn’t it? You told her she couldn’t leave with your son, so you cut him out of her and let her bleed to death.”
Colton shook his head.
“Don’t try to deny it. I figured it all out for myself. Too bad for me the baby died, too, or I would have had the fun of letting you watch him be butchered today also. Or was it a girl, Barkley, that you wanted so badly you dragged your wife from my arms?”
Colton didn’t answer. Lawton’s patience was at an end. He shoved Jennie to another man behind him. “Take them outside. I want enough light for him to see me kill her slowly. You’ll go to hell with her screams in your ears.”
Lawton gripped her chin between his fingers and twisted her face to him. “You are Mrs. Barkley, aren’t you?”
Jennie knew she could deny she was Colton’s wife, but she doubted the outlaw would believe her. And if he did, he’d only go to the barn, get Delta, and kill her instead.
Jerking free of his hold, Jennie stood tall. “I’ll not deny it.” She almost spit the words at Lawton. If she were to die, then so be it. She’d not put Delta through any more, and she’d not beg and cry for her own life before these scum. What did it matter anyway if she lived? She deserved to die for killing Austin. He’d come to save her just like a hero in her books, and she’d shot him.
Two men held Colton up between them and dragged him from the house to the center of the yard. The wound along his abdomen had reopened and was bleeding once more. His blood left a trail, but he didn’t make a sound. They pulled his head back so that he was forced to watch what was happening.
“Do you hate me so much,” Colton asked, “that you’d kill an innocent woman?”
Lawton brushed his gun barrel across Jennie’s stomach.
“Is that what you think this is all about? You’re a fool, Barkley. I wanted Rachel, but there are other women in this world. I’m going to kill the second Mrs. Barkley to pay you back, but whether I do it fast or slow depends on you.”
Colton’s eyes darkened from stormy anger to black hate. “What’s your price?”
“You act as though you don’t know.” Lawton moved closer to Colton’s face. “We’ve played this game long enough. You know what I came for. You took it from me when you took your wife. What I’ve waited to collect for six years.” A touch of insanity blended in his laughter. “The money from the train robbery is my price. Rachel left with the bag in her hand. Maybe she valued it more than me. Maybe she knew I’d come after it, if not her. Since I can’t have her back, I’ll take the money we collected off the train.”
“I know nothing of the money.”
“The hell you don’t!” Lawton screamed. “You’ll remember where the money is or we’re going to kill this lady of yours real slow and painful. We’ll make her scream so loud, Rachel will hear it from her grave, and I’m willing to bet your memory’ll return.”
The man holding Jennie had released all but her arm. He was pacing in one spot, and she remembered him as the one called J. D., who’d objected to the killing of a woman. She’d shown no sign of resisting, so he’d thought his job easy. His eyes glassed over with greed when he heard about the bag of money Colton had.
Barely moving her arm, Jennie slid her hand into her pocket and felt the cool steel of the derringer.
As she pulled the gun free from the calico, one decision flickered through her mind. Did she turn the gun on herself or Lawton?
“I’ll explain someday,” she whispered in prayer. A heartbeat later she swung the gun toward Lawton and fired both rounds straight into his chest.
He looked at her with total shock, then crumpled in the dirt like a straw doll. The men holding Colton dropped him and ran to Lawton.
Jennie hurried to Colton’s side and put his arm around her shoulder. Using all her energy, she pulled him into a sitting position before glancing back at Lawton’s gang.
