He ignored the pain, pushing himself back up onto his feet and rounding the corner of the hallway, pushing open the door to her bedroom. It was surprisingly empty, but he realized that was because everything that Melanie owned was gone. None of the items that he’d retrieved for her back when she’d first arrived were there. Not even the large suitcase that she’d thrown her big fit over. He probably came in and packed everything in a hurry. But why isn’t there much a sign of a struggle?
That wasn’t a good sign. If there was no struggle, it meant he either took her by surprise or threatened her into going with him. Either way, the seriousness of the situation had escalated now. Edward Brighton had not just proven to Peter that he was capable of the murders he was accused of committing, but he had kidnapped Peter’s woman as well.
In the distance, he heard the trumpet that they used for emergencies, its sound buzzing out across the town. The faint galloping of many hooves could also be heard ringing across the way, and it took only a couple of minutes for the group of horse-riding posse members to appear before him. Chris rode at the front, holding the reins of his horse in one hand leading another horse by its reins with the other.
“She’s not here!” Peter shouted, trotting over to the spare horse and leaping into the saddle. Chris tossed him the reins, and he turned it to face the outside of town, looking in the direction of the Santa Fe sign. He had a feeling that Edward had gone that way. Looking back at the men that Chris had brought, he counted sixteen all together when he included Chris and himself. Darwin was there too, the young boy looking determined as he looked at Peter.
“We have to save Miss Thompson,” Darwin said firmly. “There’s no way that this is how we say goodbye.”
“You are right about that, Darwin. She’s become a part of the town now, and I am going to be damned if some human piece of garbage is going to take her away from us. We are going to ride out. Half of the men will ride with me. The other half will ride with Chris in the opposite direction just in case Edward went that way. Make haste ten miles out, and if you don’t see the wagon by then, turn back. They shouldn’t have gotten further than a few miles out by now, so you should run into them by the time you reach ten miles,” Peter said hurriedly.
“I feel so bad,” John said, scratching the back of his head. “Iris and I only dropped her off at her house last night. I didn’t realize that she was in danger, else I would have insisted on her staying at my place.”
“This isn’t your fault, John. If anything, the blame rests on me. I should have listened to Melanie the first time she told me she was afraid of him. I’ll never make that mistake again,” Peter said, sliding the rifle that hung in a holster on the side of his horse and loading a couple of bullets into it. “Let’s ride, men!”
He kicked his feet into his horse's ribs, the large beast letting out a whinny of protest before it launched forward. Peter kept his best grip on the reins by wrapping them around his hand, feeling the mighty stallion beneath him jerking on his arm with every passing moment. He could feel his arm muscles straining from the effort of keeping the horse under control, the sound of hooves striking against the dirt echoing around him. He barely paid it any mind.
He promised himself that if he managed to get through the night, he was going to make an honest woman out of Melanie. He’d make it so that she’d never have to worry about someone coming along to try and take her from him ever again. He’d stop lying to himself and finally accept what he’d tried very hard to fight ever since she’d first stepped foot in his town. Peter Matherson, the gruff old sheriff of Santa Fe, was in love with the schoolteacher Melanie Thompson. And he was going to get his woman back.
Chapter 35
Melanie had taken a moment to rise from where she sat beside her door, pulling her white gloves off one by one and setting them on the kitchen counter. Now that she was home, perhaps she would brew a cup of tea to calm her nerves. Maybe that would help take her mind off Edward for a little while.
She froze. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she caught sight of her teakettle sitting in the center of her hearth, steam only just beginning to cause the pot to let out a high-pitched whistle. That meant that it had only been there for a couple of minutes. Roughly the same amount of time that she’d been home. “Is somebody here?” she called out, wishing that she had some kind of weapon handy. There was her hat stand, but she couldn’t exactly lift it and carry it through her doorway. Besides, if her assailant were armed with a knife or a gun, she wouldn’t stand a chance against them even if she had it with her.
“I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in. Figured it was one of the many privileges I could afford myself as your future husband,” came Edward’s voice from the other side of the wall, causing Melanie to let out a startled gasp as the blond-haired man of her nightmares rounded the corner, a number of her possessions having been stuffed in her large suitcase. “I even took the liberty of helping you start to pack your things.”
“Pack my things? What are you talking about?” Melanie shook her head, taking a step back from him. “You told me that I had a week before I had to give you a response about the marriage. You even said that you didn’t mind it here and that we could stay a while longer.”
“Unfortunately for you, I’ve decided to change our plans,” Edward snarled. “We are going to take a carriage out of town and make our way to the nearest train station. Then you and I are going back to Kansas City, and I’ll make sure that you never escape from me again.”
There it was, that rage of his that had caused her to grow fearful of him to begin with. He transformed into a completely different person when he was angry, his vein bulging out on his forehead and his eyes darkening into seething pits of fury. It was like being faced with the ocean right as it was about to swallow you up.
“But I don’t want to leave, Edward. If you want to leave, I certainly won’t stop you from going. But you are going to be leaving without me. I’m tired of living in fear of you. I’m going to get Peter and tell him you broke into my house, and then you are going to go to jail for a very long time. If I can, I’ll request that he have you transferred somewhere far away from here, so I never have to see your face again.”
“Is that what you think?” Edward’s voice was so quiet now that Melanie had to strain to hear him. “You think that stupid sheriff is going to get here in time to save you from me? I hate to break it to you, but by the time that he arrives, you and I will be long gone. I already have the marriage license, even with how hard it was to make that idiot clerk give it to me. We’ll head a few towns over and get married by a minister I arranged while passing through, and once we are man and wife, it will be back to Kansas for us.”
Melanie shook her head violently, moving over to the teapot and moving it off the fire. “Absolutely not. There is no we anymore, Edward. You lost that right the day you decided you were going to go off and cavort with other women behind my back and plot to use me for my inheritance. You are a demon of the worst kind, Edward Brighton, and I thank the stars above that I managed to catch sight of what you truly were before I did something stupid like fall for your con.”
Edward began to chuckle darkly, the sound causing a fresh surge of fear to course through her body. “You think it’s that easy? That you’ll tell me to go away, and I’ll just drop out of your life so you can marry that sheriff and live happily ever after as a nobody? Fat chance of that. So long as I draw breath and retain my liberty, you can bet that I will always be around, Melanie. You belong to me, and you have no say in the matter. If you try to fight me on it, then I shall simply knock you unconscious and drag you out of this place.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Melanie snarled, gripping the teapot and holding it between the two of them. “Don’t think that I won’t throw this at you if you think about taking one more step toward me.”
“You had better hope that you have the strength to hit me hard enough to knock me out,” he said softly, stepping forward in
tently.
“You lay your hands on me, and you are a dead man. Peter isn’t going to let you get away with what you are trying to do. He’ll round up a posse to come after us, and you’ll be the one getting knocked around then,” Melanie said hesitantly. “At least my bruises will heal. I don’t think the same can apply for a dead man.”
He lunged forward, Melanie using all her strength to try and hurl the heavy kettle at him, but they were too far apart. The heavy kettle simply fell uselessly to the floor a couple of inches in front of her, Edward stepping over it before his hand grabbed Melanie by the collar of her dress. “I told you that you wouldn’t be able to manage that.”
“Get away from me. Keep your hands off me!” she cried out indignantly, her breath suddenly escaping as she felt Edward’s gloved hand smack across her face. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as if he had hit her with his bare hand, but it was a powerful enough strike to cause her to stumble against the kitchen sink. She shot an angry glare at Edward, her hand stroking gently across her stinging skin.
“You are going to pay for that,” Melanie snarled, reaching behind her to grab at one of the chef’s knives sitting in her wooden knife block. “I’ll be sure to give you a smack that hurts way more than that tap you gave me just now.”
“I’ll show you a tap,” Edward spat, his arm drawing back before his hand cracked across her face hard enough to send her crashing to the floor. The stinging in her jaw was causing her to see stars, and she could already feel her cheek beginning to swell. Tears streamed as she forced herself to return to her feet.
“You can strike me all you want, but it won’t do you any good,” she said defiantly. “You aren’t going to be able to intimidate me.”
“That’s a shame for you,” Edward said, smirking as his grip closed around her wrist hard enough to cause her to cry out in pain. “Because this opinionated Melanie is going to find herself without any teeth in her mouth.”
That made Melanie pause for a moment, the stinging serving as a fresh reminder of the price of disobedience. “You keep striking me, and I swear you’ll regret it.”
“That’s a good laugh. You think that you can threaten me? You can’t even hurt a fly, Melanie Thompson. I’ve eaten bits of uncooked meat that were tougher than you, and if you think you’ll stand between me and your father’s wealth, think again. It would not be hard for me to forge some documents with your signature and claim your inheritance after you experience a tragic accident, you know,” he whispered in her ear, sending a fresh shudder of revulsion up her spine.
“I hope they have a special place reserved for you in the fiery pits when all of this is over, and I hope it is the most unpleasant torture they could have ever come up with,” Melanie cursed.
“Oh, I have done plenty to earn it,” he said, his expression cruel. “Consider it my fee for having spent all those long afternoons listening to you whine about how much you missed your father and how much you hated having to be stuck under the thumb of your aunt. Now you will be able to live away from her, just like you always wanted. And with me as your husband and the one in charge of your finances, you won’t have to work. We can just live off your parents’ riches for the rest of our days if we spend it wisely.”
“Let you spend my parents’ money on lush houses and force me to waste away while you entertain yourself with your so-called pastimes? Not on your life, Edward Brighton. You can waste your own father’s money on that. I’d sooner be blue and in the ground than let you waste even a cent of my family’s money on them.” Melanie crossed her arms as she spoke, glaring at him.
“You won’t have a say in the matter. As your husband, I gain all say when it comes to matters of your finances. You’ll be my pretty little songbird. That’s only if you behave. Otherwise, you can go missing just like those other stupid broads who thought they would mouth off to me and threaten to drag my name through the mud,” Edward cackled, pushing Melanie toward where her suitcase sat on the floor. “Now go grab the rest of your things and let’s get going. We are burning daylight, and I’m not going to give your goody-two-shoes sheriff the time to get here with a posse.”
Melanie tried to argue with him, to tell him that she wasn’t going anywhere. She looked around for something that she could throw at him to give herself a distraction she could use to escape, but it seemed hopeless from the start. She’d already thrown her only weapon, and she didn’t have the strength to wrench her wrist out of Edward’s grasp. She did her best to give it one last-ditch effort, kicking her leg out and feeling it connect with his shin.
Edward let out an angry snarl of pain, his hand cracking against Melanie’s cheek yet again. She felt a searing hot pain this time, her head smacking against the top of one of her wooden stools on the way down. She was unconscious before she hit the ground.
Chapter 36
“What are we just waiting around for?” Darwin asked, gazing up at Peter with obvious defiance. “I’m not going to just sit here while Miss Thompson runs the risk of getting carted off somewhere and we never see her again.”
“Darwin, this isn’t like the other times. Johnny Carrington was a scoundrel who liked to rely on his men to do his dirty work. Edward has no crew here, only himself, and that makes him far more dangerous. Because he has no one else to depend on, it will make him desperate should he find himself backed into a corner,” Peter snapped, his patience waning.
“I was a big help to you the last time you got into a situation like this, or have you already forgotten about me saving your life? You promised me back then that this was going to be my time to shine, and that you were finally going to take me seriously. Well, now is the time. I want the respect that you told me I’d have to earn, so I’m coming with you all. You may as well unofficially deputize me just like you did Melanie, because you aren’t going to get rid of me,” Darwin shot back, his eyes glittering with determination.
Peter and Darwin stared one another down, neither one blinking. Tapping his foot with impatience against one of the stirrups on his saddle, the sheriff finally threw his hands up in frustration. “Fine! You can come along with us. Just know that we are doing this my way this time. No rushing in like a hero; no brash moves that could get someone killed. We play it by ear, but I don’t want anyone to shoot at anyone unless I give the order. And make sure Melanie is nowhere near him when you take that shot!”
The rest of the men nodded, pressing their feet into their horses’ flanks and spurring them forward. Peter turned his face toward the direction of the setting sun, taking a moment to appreciate the vivid orange and pink that dyed half the sky in its light colors. Would tonight be the last night that he would see the sun go down?
“Onward, men! Every moment that we dilly-dally is another moment that bastard Edward has to put more distance between them and us!” Peter bellowed, casting a glance behind him as he rode. Chris, John, and Darwin were all riding right on his heels, their faces set in the same grim mask that Peter was certain adorned his own features.
Peter was annoyed, but how could anyone blame him in this situation? He had been happy to see the group of men that Chris had assembled, but his smile had instantly faded when he caught sight of Darwin.
He’d been ready to argue with Darwin more, to tell the young man that this was too dangerous of a situation for him to be in. Deep down, however, he knew that nothing he said would work on Darwin. The boy would still have the idea in his head that he wanted to race off to go save Melanie, and that would just cause him bigger trouble. At least this way he could keep an eye on the boy.
“I can’t believe that you didn’t argue with Darwin about coming along this time,” Chris said half-jokingly, his smile fading when he realized no one else was laughing with him.
“It was a matter of not wasting any more time, Chris. If I spent a bunch of time arguing with Darwin, it would only help Edward escape. Besides, knowing Darwin, he would have found some way to follow after us. Then I’d have to worry about him going off half-cocked and
finding himself in real trouble. Brighton is nothing like Johnny Carrington was. The man is a cold-hearted killer through and through, and I’m certain that he won’t hesitate to kill us, or even Melanie, if it means getting his way. Desperation will drive men to do unspeakable things,” Peter replied hurriedly, shouting to be heard over the rattling of their spurs and the galloping of the horses.
“I guess that makes sense,” John replied, clapping Darwin gently on the shoulder. The two of them were sharing a horse, with Darwin riding in front of John. “You see, Darwin? You wanted to be treated like one of the men, and now you have the chance.”
Darwin did his best to smile. It certainly didn’t match his eyes, worry shining in them. “I just wish that the moments where I could prove myself to be a man didn’t all involve Melanie finding herself in some kind of trouble.”
Peter was not expecting such a response, letting out a loud guffaw of laughter that caught the others off guard. “Yeah, it would be nice to not have to keep racing off to her rescue, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately for us, that’s just how it goes sometimes when you are dealing with beautiful women. They tend to attract trouble to them like flies.”
A Bride to Melt the Sheriff’s Iron Heart Page 19
