My Desperado (34 page)
Authors: Lois Greiman
Tags: #Romance, #Historical Romance, #Historical Western Romance, #Adult Romance, #Light Romance, #Western Romance, #Cowboys
"Where's Delias?"
"It's none of yer concern."
The key grated in the lock, and Travis stepped forward, bound hands clenched to fists. "Goddamn it! Where's Delias?"
Cory's gun came swiftly up to settle against Travis's throat. "I wouldn't mind pluggin' you right here and now!" he threatened. "You move out nice and quiet."
Uncertainty caused Travis's chest to ache. Fear was a stranger that came late to visit.
"Are you ready?" Grey stood in the doorway, looking flushed, as if his speech to the citizens had exhilarated him.
"Where's Delias?" Travis asked again, unmoving.
"He's with my personal physician," Grey said. "It seems his wound has become infected and he'll need a high dose of morphine to have it treated." His gaze caught Travis's.
"Delias won't be bothering us again. My word is good Ryland."
Travis held his gaze, searching for lies, but he could not tell. "So is mine, Grey. If she's hurt, I'll find a way to do the same to you. Hell won't be hot enough to hold me. I swear it."
"From what I heard, I didn't think you were the kind to fall in love. Not with a woman like her." He shrugged. "But she's safe."
Travis moved slowly through the doorway. The sun was bright, shining hot against his shoulders and the back of his head. Innumerable faces stared at him, their expressions taut and expectant.
They marched him straight to the scaffolding. It was made of graying wood that was crossed and recrossed in back but open in the front, leaving a clear view for the spectators that crowded the street between the buildings.
He was stopped not far from the structure, and silence settled over the crowd.
"All right." Grey's voice was quiet. "Tell the people what you wanted to say, Ryland."
Travis's gaze caught on Grey's. In the end the words were hard to force from his lips, but Katherine would live.
"It was me that stole the money." His eyes were still locked on Grey's, searching endlessly for a flicker of dishonesty.
"What?" a voice yelled from the crowd.
"Can't hear."
"Get him up on the gallows. He belongs there anyhow."
"Get him up there! So's we can hear 'im."
He was prodded from behind. Not by Cory's hands now, but by many others.
The steps sounded dully beneath Travis's boots. Below him the crowd became hushed again as he turned. The sun was to his right, seeming strangely bright and warm.
"What'd you do with the money?" someone yelled.
Within the midst of the crowd Travis found Grey's face. It looked suddenly more strained and wary.
"Where's the money?"
The crowd went silent.
"I spent it," Travis said, lifting his eyes to the masses before him.
"And Patterson, you kill him?"
Travis waited, wishing he could hold her, just once more.
"Yes."
"No!" Katherine tore the gag from her mouth to scream the word. "No!"
Delias spun about, the devilish light in his eyes bright, his hand uplifted. Kat screamed again, yanking hopelessly at her bonds and twisting about in her chair.
Pain shot across Travis's ribs, but not for himself. For her! He knew it! Katherine was nearby, and he felt her danger. Grey had lied!
"Katherine!" he yelled, his gaze darting to every door.
"Hold him!"
"Watch him!"
"Katherine!" he wailed again, and at that moment he saw the hound. He was pressed against a doorjamb, with one paw lifted to scratch the wood.
Faces lurched toward him, but he was already gone, launching himself from the scaffolding to soar to the ground. Three men went down with him. Travis rolled, braced his weight on his bound hands, and scrambled to his feet.
Bodies surrounded him, but from somewhere guns were fired, scattering the crowd. Women screamed, and men yelled, ducking for cover. Travis lunged forward, all concentration focused on the door ahead. It gave way beneath the pounding force of his shoulder, and he bolted inside as a gun exploded nearly in his face.
Katherine screamed again, but already he had collided with Delias. Their bodies were crushed together with a revolver in between.
"Damn you!" Delias cursed. Swinging his left hand, he tried to knock Ryland aside, but in that moment Travis twisted the gun backward and fired.
Dellas's mouth fell open. His hands went limp, and he staggered back a step, dropping his head to gape at the red circle spreading across his middle. "Damn you," he swore again, but weakly now.
Men swarmed into the building.
"Get Ryland!" someone said, but from outside a quiet voice objected.
"I don't think that would be wise, gentlemen. Grey here has something to tell you."
Into the doorway stepped Thomas Grey, and behind him came Cody Blackfeather.
"What's the meaning of this?" Grey asked, glancing over his shoulder, but perspiration had appeared on his forehead and his face was pale.
“Tell the people the whole story, Grey."
"I don't know what you're talking about. Delias stole my payroll. I hired Ryland to get rid of him, but he killed Mayor Patterson and stole the money."
"'E's lyin'," came a Cockney voice, and Daisy elbowed her way through the crowd.
Chapter 35
"It seems we owe you an apology, Mr. Ryland."
Katherine watched in silence as the man with the walrus moustache spoke to Travis. It was strange how life went on, even when it seemed certain it would not.
Her gaze shifted to Delias's body, and she shivered, turning back to watch Travis. He was silent and large, looking miraculously unscathed despite it all.
"The citizens of Silver Ridge would like to make amends." Walrus Moustache cleared his throat, seeming to find it difficult to meet Travis's gaze. "We're in need of a sheriff. And we've ahh...talked it over amongst ourselves and thought you'd be a good candidate for that position."
"No!" Travis said stiffly.
"But we're in great need, Mr. Ryland. Surely you can see that. What with no mayor, no law enforcement, and now Mr. Grey being incarcerated...." He shook his head.
"My brother and me would like the job." Jacob Jameson stepped into the room. "We ain't had a heap of experience, but we've learned t' be honest and we'll uphold the law. We can promise y' that."
Moustache skimmed his gaze from Travis to Jacob to Luke. "Do you know these men, Mr. Ryland?"
"Yeah." Travis nodded once toward the two brothers who must have ridden like hell to reach Silver Ridge in time to cover his exit from the scaffolds. "They're your men," he said, and turned.
In the corner of the room Daisy spoke to Finch. "But we need us a mayor. And after you saved the day like you done, turning the hound loose to find Miss Katherine and all. Coo, it was right smart of you. And brave, 'oldin' off the crowd so's Ryland could get free."
"You think so?" Finch was smiling into Daisy's face, looking rather dazed with the possibilities ahead.
Shadow lifted a paw to scratch at Katherine's pant leg. She lowered a hand to stroke his ear, but Ryland was already outside, and she strode after him.
On the boardwalk, Kat was surprised to learn the sun was high. The birds had not ceased to sing, and apparently the earth still revolved on its age-old course.
Blackfeather sat his horse, his expression unreadable and his rifle resting across the pommel of his saddle. Beside him stood Soldier, who lifted his tawny head and nickered at her
"Thank you, Cody." Kat's voice was soft, and sounded strange to her own ears.
"I take it you've recovered from the deadly woman's disease."
Despite everything, Katherine blushed. "It was the best lie I could come up with."
"Ryland would have been suspicious of anything more conventional. As fabrications go, it wasn't bad."
Katherine bit her lip with a scowl, not quite strong enough to address Travis yet. "He's leaving, isn't he?"
"You might want to ask him that."
With a lurch of her heart Kat turned her gaze to Travis. He stood stiff and silent. Above his right brow was a blackish bruise.
"I'd only bring you trouble, lady," he said. "Trouble and death." His hands clenched to fists, and for a moment she thought he would say more, but he turned away, striding to Soldier and mounting smoothly.
"Don't go." She couldn't stop the murmured words that conjured up a hazy image of this very scene played out in the dark an eternity ago.
He didn't speak, but sat very still atop the buckskin stallion.
Present and past seemed to meld and swirl in her mind. "Take me with you," she said.
Someone had given him a hat. It hid his expression, reminding her very much of a shadowy stranger she had once met.
"I ride alone, lady."
How many lifetimes ago had she run down this very street after him? And had it truly been she who had caught his stirrup and refused to let go?
"I'm not going to run after you, Ryland." She raised her voice slightly. "Not this time."
His back was very straight as he pressed Soldier away from the hitching rail.
Tears filled Katherine's eyes and spilled down her cheeks. She swiped them aside. Something bumped her elbow, and she turned.
Finch stood not two feet away, extending his Colt to her. "Hold it firm, but gentle," he suggested.
She delayed just a moment, not daring to breathe, before she launched herself from the boardwalk and into the middle of the hard-packed street. "Come back, Ryland!" she yelled.
All eyes watched her, but no one spoke.
"Damn you, Ryland. Come back here." She raised the Colt. "Or I'll shoot. I swear I will."
But Soldier still trotted on.
Katherine bit her lip and aimed. Her first shot spattered dirt not six inches from the buckskin's hoof.
The stallion snorted, twisting sideways, and Travis spun him about to face Kat. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Didn't mean to scare Soldier," she said. "But I'm new at shooting men." She braced her legs wide and raised her brows. "Get down."
"The hell I will!"
She smiled. “The hell you won't, Ryland." Putting her tongue in the corner of her mouth, Kat closed one eye, and cocked. "Sit really still now. I wouldn't want to hit your horse."
“Take a hair off his belly, I'll tan your hide, woman."
Katherine raised her chin and laughed out loud. "You'd have to come here to do that, Ryland. And I don't think you have the nerve."
She fired again. The bullet slammed between Soldier's front hooves. Travis was out of the saddle and on his feet before they came to a complete halt.
"Woman!" he called out to her. "Me and Soldier been through a lot together."
"And you and I haven't?" she challenged, heading toward him.
"I won't stay with you and ruin your life, lady."
"The next one goes through your right arm." She said the words with flat finality. "I swear it. I don't mind patching you up."
"Don't you know better than to shoot a man when the sun's in your eyes?" Travis scolded. "Ain't you learned nothing? Ain't you learned to stay away from me? That death surrounds me?"
"I think life surrounds you," she yelled back. "Only you're afraid to admit it. It's time you faced the facts."
His eyes narrowed, watching her as she continued to approach.
She was directly in front of him now.
"You're about one bean short of a full pot," he murmured.
"Yes."
He clenched his fists. "And I don't deserve you."
"It seems like you make a habit of being wrong." She smiled slowly. "I'm afraid we deserve each other."
"I'm not what you need, Katherine. I'm no knight in shining armor. I'm no hero. No preacher."
"I know exactly what you are, Ryland. I know the man. I know the little boy. And I love them both."
Travis's fists clenched as if he were waging a terrible battle in his own mind. "I couldn't bear to disappoint you, Kat."
She moved a cautious step nearer, her breath held and her gaze fused to his. "You think I'm not scared? You think this is simple for me?" She shook her head. "Did you ever think maybe I'd disappoint you?”
"Never." His answer came from somewhere deep inside his chest, and his eyes were hard as steel.
“Then let's give happiness a try."
Travis drew a deep breath, watching her through narrowed eyes. "It won't be no simple 'try' for me, lady. If you was ever mine, really mine, I'd never have the strength to let you go."
"Never?"
He shook his head, saying nothing.
“Then God better save a place in heaven for us, Ryland," she whispered. "Because I'm already yours."
For one painful moment Travis hesitated, and then, taking the Colt from her hands, he drew her into his arms and kissed her.
THE END
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