Cassie’s smile shone in the darkness. “We didn’t set out for a gunfight. We set out for Belle’s.”
“So how’d you end up here?”
“Mama scary.”
Startled at the little voice sounding from beneath Cassie’s slicker, Abby looked closer at Cassie’s little tent she’d created with her waterproof coat. “You brought a baby and a toddler to a gunfight?”
Cassie shrugged under the wind-battered oilcloth. “Here’s what happened ….” Cassie finished her explanation quickly.
“Now I reckon I’ve got to go in there and save Red and Wade.” Abby turned toward the house just as a ridiculous excuse for a birdcall sounded through the storm.
“I’d surely appreciate it if you would, Abby.” Cassie said it like she didn’t have a single doubt in her mind.
Abby didn’t have any doubts, either. “You stay here.”
Inching forward, Abby drew Harv’s gun.
Using every bit of cover, Wade rushed the house. He paused at the porch. The minute he took the first step, the people inside would be warned. There was no way to disguise the creaking of the wood.
He caught his breath then charged up the steps. He threw open the door and swung his gun to cover the dark corners. One lump lay in the room. A human-sized lump. Wade’s heart stopped beating.
“Here, Wade.” Red appeared in the doorway that led to the back of the house. The frequent lightning flashes helped Wade locate his friend. Red stood alert, pointing his gun toward the floor so no wild shot went in the wrong direction. With Red watching the corners of the room, Wade rushed to the prone figure. Never had he known such terror. It made all he’d felt in his growing-up years, with his brute of a father, fade into nothingness. If this was Abby, if she was dead, then Wade would have to find a new way to live, because nothing made sense without her.
He dropped to his knees, and a helpful blaze of lightning told him it was a man. An unconscious, bleeding man. Another lightning bolt revealed an ugly scar on the man’s chin.
“Where is she?” Wade shook the man. “Where’s Abby?” The unconscious man didn’t seem to be so much as breathing, though Wade had checked and he was alive. And considering that the man was knocked cold, Wade suspected Abby had been here. This looked like her work.
A scratching sound pulled Wade’s attention from all the black niches of the room. Red had come all the way into the room, and now light popped to life as he held a match close to the still figure. Red leaned close. “This is the rustler I brought in.”
Wade studied the man until he was sure. “He’s the man Abby cut at the massacre.”
“So it was the same gang.” Red lifted the match to look at Wade. “And you said there were four of them?”
“Yep, and we’ve accounted for three.”
Red blew out the match. He and Wade wheeled to face away from each other. The house was as silent as death. The only sound the raging storm.
The rain battered the house. Wade felt awful knowing Cassie waited in the miserable darkness. Where was Abby?
“This must be Abby’s doing. Who else would cut the man then knock him cold?” Red asked.
“Unless the two rustlers fought over her and one took her.”
“Maybe, but those two men we caught were fast with their guns. Figures their partners might be, too. A knife sounds more like Abby’s style. I think she got away.”
Wade, studying the corners of the room during the occasional lightning flash, saw something against a far wall. He hurried over and lifted up a rope, knotted but cut through. “She got loose.”
“And she knocked this guy cold and ran. He’s stopped bleeding, but the blood hasn’t dried yet. She didn’t leave long ago.”
“I’m going to look upstairs.” Wade headed up the sweeping staircase.
“I’ll check all the rooms down here.” Red’s voice changed. “Wade, there was only one horse in the corral out back. If there’s a fourth man—”
“There is.” Wade paused, wishing Red would hurry up so Wade could be doing something.
“Then he’s gone. We can hope she got away, but he might have taken Abby with him.”
“Maybe he saw his partner, figured out he’d lost Abby, and took off.”
“Maybe. I hope so.”
Sick with fear, Wade rushed toward the stairs and was halfway up them when he heard a gun cock. He stopped and turned toward the sound, hoping Red’s gun had made the noise.
A bolt of lightning told Wade more than he wanted to know. Red stood in the door that led to the back of this rambling house. The black of a gun was pressed against his neck. Wade saw the gun was held in an awkward way, with two fingers of a glove extended rather than curved around the butt.
That’s when Wade knew.
Sid.
The M Bar S foreman—missing two fingers. Wade had seen that before. Sid had been at the massacre. And the unconscious man was one of the cattle rustlers, which meant Sid was one, too.
Suddenly, Wade was just as sure that Sid had caused Pa’s fall.
This man or one of his partners had shot at him and Abby with the bow and arrow. This one evil man was the mastermind behind all the trouble. He had to be stopped.
“Come out where I can see you.” Sid was shorter than Red, and he crouched low like a cowering dog, so Wade couldn’t get off a shot.
Wade had fired his gun twice in his life at a man. Both times it had been little more than an accident. It made him sick, still, thinking about his bullet hitting the outlaw, even knowing the man was vermin who deserved to die.
“Let him go, Sid. Abby’s gone. You can’t get her.” She’d probably run on toward her mountain valley. Choosing a life utterly alone over a life with him.
“You think I want that wildflower? Why do you think I left her for Harv?”
Wade might be too much of a coward to shoot a man, but he wasn’t a coward when it came to his own life and death. He knew he’d spend eternity in heaven, and that erased all his fear. What mattered was that Red came out of this alive. He had Cassie to care for.
Wade felt God writing a message across his heart with a fiery fingertip:
“In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
No, darkness couldn’t comprehend the light. But Wade could shine the light of Jesus in the darkness. He’d tried with his pa, and maybe seeds were planted that would someday grow. And maybe that meant Wade wasn’t such a coward. Maybe a willingness to shine a light in dark places took a special kind of courage. And if the darkness couldn’t comprehend it, as Sid couldn’t now, then Wade’s willingness to die to save Red took more courage than a willingness to kill.
Wade’s spine stiffened. He walked down the last two steps. Then he stepped out and squared off in front of Sid, his heart on fire for the Lord. The light of God was shining within him until Wade thought it might be lighting the room.
A bolt of lightning brightened the room enough that Wade could see Red’s eyes. Red had both hands raised slightly above his waist, and Sid’s gun was jammed against Red’s throat. But Red looked calm, at peace, another source of light.
Wade knew all he needed was for that gun to aim away from Red for a split second, give Red a chance to act.
It was Wade’s job to bring that gun around to bear on himself.
“Let him go, Sid.” Wade was amazed his voice sounded so confident. “You’re finished. We’ve captured your other two saddle partners, and you can’t get this man out of here”—Wade tipped his head toward the unconscious outlaw—“without carrying him. Time to cut your losses. Back out of here and run.”
“You’ve captured Boog and Paddy?”
Wade had heard of Paddy, another Sawyer cowpoke. In the darkness, he hadn’t recognized him. Red had taken care of the Irishman, but Boog? That had to be the name of the man Wade had shot. Twice.
Wade swallowed hard to keep his voice steady. “Yes, we’ve got them. Give it up and run. We won’t t
ry and stop you.”
“No, I’ve got too much to lose, and there’s still a chance I can win. As long as you’re dead.” With lightning quickness, Sid turned the gun from Red and aimed at Wade.
Wade went for his gun.
Red grabbed Sid’s hand and shoved up.
Sid’s gun blasted the ceiling.
A dull thud echoed in the room.
Lightning lit up the room, and Wade saw Sid’s eyes go wide into a vacant stare.
Red wrested the weapon free. Sid’s knees buckled.
As Sid sank, an inch at a time, to the floor, Abby’s golden head emerged behind him. In both hands, she held the gun she’d just used to club Sid over the head. She had her knife clenched between her teeth. She was soaking wet and killing mad.
Wade had never loved her more.
CHAPTER 34
We’ve got to help Red and Cassie take the outlaws back to town, honey.”
“What do you mean ‘we’? I don’t have to go.”
Wade did his best not to let his exasperation show.
“Quit scowling at me, white man.”
His best was apparently not very good. “Just ride with us, please, Ab?” Wade was begging. He was planning to spend the rest of his life begging, because he was planning to spend it with the stubbornest woman he’d ever known. He accepted it and looked forward to a lifetime of being overpowered. Never ever would he hear those sweet words, “Yes, Wade.”
“Are you okay, Cassie, honey?” Red had brought Cassie inside to drip dry.
“Yes, Red.”
That sounded so sweet, Wade felt a little like crying. But there was no use in it, like crying for the moon. He loved Abby and that was that.
They had Harv and Sid tied up, both still sleeping like babies, while they waited for the rain to stop. The other two outlaws were out in the weather, but Wade couldn’t get worked up about their being uncomfortable. If they thought rain was unpleasant, wait till they felt the business end of a noose.
“What I don’t understand is the massacre of your village.” Red interrupted the wrangling that Wade and Abby had been doing for the last hour. He spoke calmly because he had Michael cradled in his arms. They’d made a little bed for Susannah out of a blanket that wasn’t soaking wet. She’d slept through everything.
The night was wearing on and they were in no hurry to head back to Divide, especially Wade, because he couldn’t convince Abby to go along.
Glaring, Wade said, “You were the only witness to what these men did to your village. You’ve got to come in and tell the sheriff. The rustling, the kidnapping, the assault on you will send them to jail for a few years, but they need to hang or stay locked up for life. With you as an eyewitness, they’ll hang.”
“No white man hangs for killing Indians.” Abby practically spat the words.
Sorely afraid she might be right, Wade tried another argument. He backed her up against the wall and kissed the living daylights out of her.
She’d kept Harv’s gun, tucking it in the belt of her deerskin dress. She had her knife, too.
Wade was through thinking of himself as a coward. He was holding Abby close and she was armed to the eyeballs. That made him a brave man indeed.
She wasn’t shooting him, though. And she didn’t even go for her knife. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back like a house afire. With the tiny corner of Wade’s mind that wasn’t overwhelmed from the feel of her holding him, Wade realized he should have kissed her the minute Sid collapsed.
He’d wanted to, but she’d really had bloodlust in her eyes, and truth be told, he was a little scared she’d hurt him. Also, there was the knife in her teeth. That could have gotten ugly.
Red cleared his throat.
Wade came to his senses…or as close as he’d ever get with Abby in his life. He pulled back about two inches, no more. “How could you run off from Pa’s like that?”
“Your father is an insulting, cruel tyrant. I couldn’t bear another moment in his presence.”
“Okay. I know how that feels. That’s no excuse for leaving me.”
“No excuse? I wasn’t going to make you choose between your family and me. I know things are bad between you and your father, but…the day may come when you want to return to him, and I will never do that. And I won’t make you choose me over him. You’d come to hate me.”
Wade looked into her eyes and realized he could see her. The sun was rising; the darkness had turned to gray. The rain had ended. Daylight would come again. “I will never hate you. You didn’t ask because you knew I’d come. You’re making this excuse because—because you love me.”
He saw the fire in her eyes. He saw her desire to be her usual blunt self and hurt him. Then he saw deeper, under the hostility, to the hurt and the fear. She’d lost so much.
“You’re marrying me, Abby. We will go wherever we need to to find a home, but we’ll do it together. Don’t you dare make up an excuse about why it won’t work. I love you and we will travel through this life together, alone in the wilderness if that’s where we’re happy.”
As she shook her head, Wade saw Abby’s fear come closer to the surface, as if she was daring to show what was in her heart. “There’s nowhere we can both be happy.” Her arms were still around his neck.
“I’m happy now. Aren’t you?”
She flinched, tightening her arms as if her mind told her to let go of him but her body wouldn’t obey. Well, he wanted all of her, body, mind, and heart. Although right now, her body felt really nice. “Abby, I can be happy by your side. I need nothing else.”
Their eyes held. Wade closed the distance between them, and this time the kiss was pure tenderness. It was a promise. She nearly crushed him with her warrior’s grip, and he knew he had her promise back.
When Wade raised his head this time, she smiled. The fear was still there, but she was brave enough to face that fear.
“Um…I have a bona fide preacher’s license. I can perform a wedding ceremony.”
Wade turned to Red and smiled. Wade slid his arm around Abby’s waist so they could face Red, side by side.
“I say yes.” Wade looked at Abby.
“And Cassie and I can get these men to town. We left the horses with the other outlaws, and we’ve got horses enough to carry these two. We can manage. You can say your vows and go start your lives together anywhere you want.” Red smiled. “But if you’d like to stop by our place once in a while, we’d love to see you.”
Cassie came and relieved Red of baby Michael. She slipped the little tyke onto the blanket beside Susannah. “I’ll be a witness to the marriage. I think you need a witness, Red. I don’t think those unconscious men really count.”
Red shrugged. “I’ve never done this before, so probably having someone witness it is a good idea. Although you’d think me bein’ a witness and them being witnesses oughta be enough. I mean, I’m a parson. I should be trustworthy.”
“Yeah.” Wade nodded. “And why would we lie? But we’d like you to witness our wedding, Cassie.” Wade looked at Abby. “If there is one. What do you say?”
Abby sighed and looked disgruntled, but that was pretty much how she looked all the time, so Wade didn’t let that discourage him. It just helped him to fully accept the life he was signing up for. And if she stayed by his side, that was all he would ever ask for.
The wait was nearly unbearable. The sun rose a bit more as Wade watched Abby’s heart battle her mind.
Finally, she smiled. “I say yes.” Her arm around his waist tightened. “And since I can’t get shut of you, I’ll ride along to deliver these men and tell the sheriff my story. I want the white world to know what happened to my people. I want someone to admit that the true savages are these outlaws.”
Wade jerked his chin, a happy, contented, slightly-frightened-of-his-wife man. “So how about we wait and get married in town so everyone in Divide knows I’m the luckiest man alive?”
Abby leaned against him a bit, and Wade sta
rted thinking he hadn’t plumbed the depths of the happiness he and Abby could find together.
“I wouldn’t even mind inviting your odious father. I’d like that horrible yellow dog to see that we are wed to each other. It will make him sick. I’d like to be watching when his stomach turns at the sight of his son’s choice of a wife.”
“Please, Abby.” Red raised his hands as if to surrender. “All this mushy sentiment is too much for me.”
“We can invite Pa, but we’re getting hitched whether he shows up in town or not.” Wade hooked his arm through Abby’s and said, “Let’s get to town and get on with starting the rest of our lives.”
Their future was unplanned.
Their destination unknown.
But wherever life led them, they’d go together. Wade knew that God had at last granted him an end to his loneliness.
“Whom shall I fear?”
And here he was marrying the scariest woman he’d ever known.
And that made it official. Wade was a brave man.
“Whom shall I fear?”
Those old, painful words Wade had battled to hold close and claim as his own now sang like a blessing raining down on his new life with his wildflower bride.
CHAPTER 35
After the outlaws were locked up, a few Linscott hands who happened to be in town rode out to pass on the news of the impending wedding to their boss.
Wade couldn’t decide whether it was best to rush the wedding before Tom could stop it or take plenty of time and make Tom sit through the nuptials.
Hands from the Sawyer place had ridden out, too.
Between locking up the bad guys and the sheriff questioning Wade and Abby, as well as Red and Cassie, the day was nearly wound down when Pa came tearing in, riding in his specially built buckboard, driving it himself.
Wade braced for his father to go on a rampage. Instead Pa was subdued. They were standing in the middle of Divide’s Main Street, Pa on the high buckboard seat, Wade and Abby on the ground.
“I’d like for you to come out to the ranch and have the wedding out there, Wade,” Pa said real polite-like, and Wade wondered what the old codger was up to.
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