The Golden Rules of Love: Western Romance (10 page)

“What’s your plan, Mack?” Tom called over his shoulder as he rowed.

Mack rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “I don’t like splitting up. If we start moving goods on the boat and then can’t finish, some of us will have to be on the boat and others on the shore. We’ll wait till tomorrow and move everything in one day.”

“What about our stuff?” Annie bit her lip. She had just agreed to start a job tomorrow.

“We’ll move your things. You use the restaurant to ask everyone you can if they have seen my brother or Jasper. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

Rake made a face. “Why we gotta move their―“

Mack cut him off. “Annie saved our lives this morning. You can move a few of her things.”

Rake didn’t say any more. But his face was sour. Annie shrugged. With the theft of most of their precious belongings, there was almost nothing to move.

“Mary Beth and I should be able to have the wagon cleared out in an hour. You can sell it today if you want. One less thing to worry about.”

“I’ll get you a fair price.” Mack nodded his approval.

Annie looked at Mary Beth. Mary Beth nodded back. “Keep the money and consider it our down payment on return passage.”

He gave a single nod but Mary Beth was looking at a boat deck as they passed it in skiff. “Albert William Francis!” her voice shrieked out. Her gaze was directed at a man who stood on the deck of the boat, drunk, with his arm slung around a woman who was barely dressed.

Annie gave a gasp.

Mary Beth turned to the men around her and hissed, “Get out your guns and don’t argue.” Then she looked back at the man on the deck who was blinking his eyes in utter confusion.

“Mary Beth?” His arm dropped from around the other woman, a dumbstruck look still marking his face.

“You good for nothing, low life piece of cow―“ she clamped her lips together suddenly as their skiff drew up next to the larger ship. In an instant, Mary Beth shot up from the skiff, sending it rocking as she grabbed the rope ladder and began scaling towards the deck. Annie had never seen her friend move so quickly and was scurrying over the rail as Tom struggled to catch up.

Annie forgot her fear of the water entirely as she grabbed the rope and headed up after Tom and Mary Beth. She turned to see Mack climbing behind her.

As she crested the rail, she could see Mary Beth with a pistol in the man’s face. Tom stood a few feet back with his gun drawn and a smile spreading across his face. Annie had never noticed how handsome Tom was when he smiled.

“You took every penny I had saved for a house, and you took off without a word,” she was yelling.

“It’s my right as your husband―“

“It ain’t your right to abandon me without a penny. I had slaved for that money while you were out drinkin’. You’re paying me back and you’re signing for a divorce.” The gun waved in his face again.

Annie noticed several barely dressed women and all at once, she realized they were at a brothel. She looked at Mack with wide eyes but he only gave her a devilish smile. Several of the women were staring at him with undisguised interest. A few looked more than interested. Annie took a step closer to him, feeling a little jealous at their attention.

Mary Beth could only look at the man in front of her. “Not a letter since the note saying you were going. What kind of man does that?” Her voice was only growing louder as she pulled papers out of her satchel. “Is there an inkwell somewhere on this ship?”

“Sure sugar, come right this way,” one of the other women volunteered.

“Thank you very ki―“ Mary Beth finally seemed to notice her surroundings. Tom stepped up next to her.

Albert took the momentary silence to say his piece. “I ain’t signin’ those papers and I ain’t―” Albert stopped dead.He took the barrel of his pistol and shoved it up Albert’s right nostril. “Shut up.” Tom’s face was only inches from Albert’s. “Mary Beth, how much money did he take?”

“One hundred and fifty dollars.”

Tom nodded. “Empty his pockets. If he’s here, he’s got some money.”

Mary Beth dove her hand into his pants pocket. In a second, she came out with handful of gold. She sucked in her breath. “You can’t steal from me,” Albert croaked as Tom pressed the gun further up his nose.

“New plan,” Tom announced. “Albert, you’re coming with us. Ladies, Albert will be back here before nightfall but he’s got some papers to sign and some debts to settle.”

Albert looked ready to protest but Tom gave the pistol another shove against his nose.

Mack and Annie headed down the ladder first. Mack kept his pistol trained on Albert as he came down the ladder.

“This is kidnapping,” Annie whispered.

Mack gave a small nod. “If there was any law I’d be worried but we’ll return him right here and no one will say a word.”

Annie bit her lip. Albert reached the boat and Tom jumped in right behind him. Mary Beth finished the group. Mack moved to the middle to row while Tom kept his pistol trained on their prisoner.

“We were attacked by Injuns this mornin’, Albert. Killed three myself and I ain’t in a pleasant mood, so you are going to do some good listening to Miss Mary Beth and you’re not gonna say too much. And then you’re gonna hand over some gold and sign some papers. Do all that, and we will deliver you right back here in a few hours. Don’t do it and, well…theft is a serious crime around here. Vigilante law says I can dole out your punishment.”

Albert paled several shades. He reached into his pocket to hand over the gold but Mary Beth waved her hand. “I’m not a thief. We will weigh it and I will take only what you owe me. Then I never want to see you again for the rest of my life.”

They reached the shore and Mack tied Albert’s hands behind his back. “Rake and Annie, keep him in your sights. Tom and Mary Beth, I want to talk to you.”

The three stepped over to the side and two minutes later, Mack was gone. Tom rejoined the group with Mary Beth. Rake holstered his pistol, growling, “I don’t like this one bit.”

Annie looked up at him in surprise. Rake hadn’t said a word of protest while Mack was there. “Then you can leave,” Tom glared at Rake as he spoke. “But my guess is you won’t have a job when Mack gets back.”

“You both have gone woman crazy. It’s worse than gold crazy if you ask me.” Rake gave Annie a sour look that shocked her. Mary Beth shifted uncomfortably.

“Make your choice, Rake…with us or not. You can find your own way back East,” Tom spoke with a quiet calm that let on he wouldn’t take any further discussion.

Rake crossed his arms but didn’t move. Annie sat down on the water’s edge where she could keep her eyes on both Albert and Rake.

Nearly an hour passed and the tension rose with every minute that went by. Annie had expected to hear Mary Beth rail at Albert but she had barely said a word. Annie remained focused on the prisoner and possible mutineer, but it was difficult.  She wanted to imagine what she would say to Jasper, if he were in front of her.

Would she rail at him? She had never liked Jasper. He was always whispering plans into Garrett’s ear and it had meant trouble for her. Jasper had first convinced Garrett to head to Saint Louis to take jobs setting up wagon trains.

Then, as word of gold started filtering through the wagon train, Jasper continued to spend long hours whispering to Garrett, this time about searching for gold. She had been so tired and sick that she had been unable to do anything about it. Later she realized she wasn’t sick…she was pregnant.

Mack’s wagon suddenly crested the hill and began the descent down to the water. Annie breathed a sigh of relief.

He hopped off the seat and walked toward the group. No one said a word, but his brow furrowed and his gaze pierced each of theirs. She would tell him what had happened later.

Grabbing some ink and a quill, Mack set them in the back of the wagon. Next he pulled out a scale. “Stand up, Albert.”

The man stood shaking. “P-p-lease.”

Mack ignored the man’s plea. “Get out your papers, Mary Beth.”

She whipped them out and all but ran to the back of the wagon. Mary Beth’s hand trembled as she set the papers down, whether from fear or excitement, Annie didn’t know but she stood too, and went over to embrace her friend.

“What are you going to do to me,” Albert’s voice also shook. Mack took a knife and sliced the ropes, binding the man’s hands. Albert yelped as he did it. There was no blood but Albert must have been afraid there would be.

“Take a nugget and put it on the scale.” Mack used the knife to point. The gold was large and it weighed in at half a pound. “It depends on the impurities. We won’t know until we melt it but that should settle the debt.”

Mary Beth gave a single nod, looking pale.

“You’re not going to take the rest?” Albert whispered.

“Mary Beth wants what you took. If you were an honest man, you’d give her more for her trouble but I will leave you two to decide that.” He turned to Mary Beth. “Ready?”

She nodded and set down the papers in front of Albert. He dipped the quill and signed. Annie held her friend as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. “I meant what I said. I never want to see you again,” Mary Beth snapped.

Albert looked at Mary Beth with what looked like real sadness in his eyes, “I was gonna come back. I woulda been rich. I knew you could take care of yourself.”

Mary Beth stopped shaking. She straightened up. “You don’t have the slightest idea what it means to really love someone. To be married and to give as well as take.”

It was Annie’s turn to tremble. Is that what she would have said to Garrett? Would Mary Beth love again after what had happened to her? Could Annie? She suddenly understood that Albert was just a terrible husband. But that shouldn’t ruin Mary Beth’s life forever.

Was she going to let Garrett ruin hers? She had never seen it like that before but if she didn’t love again, Garrett would not only have ruined her past but her future. She looked at Mack’s handsome face. She knew that he would never hurt her, never leave her.

That was startling. She trusted Mack in a way that she thought she might never trust again. More than that, she trusted herself. She could make a good decision. She could choose to love someone she knew would love her back. Annie felt tears pricking her eyes.

Albert was loaded back in the boat with Tom and Rake. Mary Beth climbed in, keeping a pistol trained at the man’s back. They began rowing him, as promised, back to the ship.

Mack and Annie stood on the shore watching them go. What a strange day it had been.

“Let’s take a walk,” Mack whispered softly as he took her hand. She held his and they started walking down the shoreline to where no ships or buildings could be seen.

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” she started.

“Don’t you worry none. I knew you were stubborn as a mule. It’s one of the things I admire about you when you’re not driving me mad as hell. Thank you for this morning. Very few people would have put themselves in harm’s way to do what you did.”

She laughed a little. “My stubbornness has a few uses.”

“How are you hanging in after today?” He stopped to look at her and she turned towards him.

“Fine. Not great. I had to face some truths today about myself. I am…” She stopped talking when he gave her an angelic smile then, ever so slowly, his lips came down on hers. They were soft and sensual and heat burst through Annie at the touch.

He deepened the kiss. It was long and slow as he slanted her mouth open. His tongue lightly touched hers and Annie felt her knees weaken at the pleasure of it. She might have slid to the ground but his arms had wrapped around her and supported her weight.

She pulled back a little, as she had something she wanted to say. “A lot happened today, and I want you to know something.”

His eyes danced with amusement, “What is it?” He feathered her with a few small kisses.

“I…I…trust you, Collin.” She didn’t need to say any more.

A warm smile spread across his face. “Thank you for saying that, sweetheart. I know how hard it was.” His lips found hers again. He picked her up and carried her as he continued to kiss her.

Annie had no idea where they were going and she didn’t care. She wanted to get lost in this moment. They stopped moving and Mack slowly set her down on her feet again. Annie opened her eyes to see that they were nestled into the alcove of a cliff. It was almost like a room, it was so private. She sucked in her breath.

“What―“

His lips came down on hers, gently but demanding as his hands slowly roamed up and down her back. Annie completely forgot what she was going to say as sensation shot through her body.

She groaned into his mouth and his hands came around the front of her to slowly unbutton her dress. His hands raked up her rib cage and then held her pillowy breasts in each palm. She arched up into them, wanting to feel more.

The pads of his thumbs began to stroke her nipples as he kissed down her neck. He pushed her dress open and then untied her chemise. He was able to just access her breasts with her corset still on. His lips came down on one nipple. Annie cried out and she held his head closer to her chest.

Lifting up slightly, he moved to the other side and gently sucked on that nipple until Annie cried out in glorious agony. He chuckled as he lifted his head and then shrugged off his own shirt.