To Love a Stranger (25 page)

“Very well, Chad, you’ve made your point. You’ll have to live with your mistake until we can do something about it. We’re brothers. Pa taught us to stick together through thick and thin. I may not like what you did, but I respect your right to make the decision you did. I blame myself for the mess we’re in.”

“Let’s just try to forget this episode in our lives,” Chad suggested. “Marriage isn’t all that final. We’ll work this out like we’ve done everything else. One day we’ll both be free of entanglements.”

Pierce suffered a pang of disquiet. To be honest, life without Zoey would be damn dull. He glanced at the door and had to forcibly prevent himself from going after her, taking her in his arms, and making sweet, passionate love to her. He could almost taste her sweet kisses, feel the heat of her body moving against his as he thrust into her, hear her breathless little cries of ecstasy. Stifling a groan, he wielded his fork with angry dexterity, chewing and swallowing food that tasted like sawdust.

He regretted the way he’d suggested to Zoey that she remain at the ranch and occupy his bed until they tired of one another. In retrospect it sounded cold and demeaning. Some part of him wanted Zoey to stay with him. Some soft place he neither recognized nor welcomed. A place that he feared.

Z
oey locked her bedroom door against Pierce that night. And each night for the next three nights.

On the morning of the fourth day Zoey confronted Pierce, inquiring about his plans to provide her with an escort. “There must be someone on this ranch who can escort me home,” she charged after Chad and Ryan left the breakfast table.

“I prefer to keep Chad close by right now. His mood isn’t the best and he’d make a surly companion. Both Ryan and I are needed for roundup. It shouldn’t be much longer,” he hedged.

“You’re stalling, Pierce. Why?”

He ignored her question and posed one of his own. “Why have you locked me out of your room?”

Because if I let you make love to me one more time, I’ll never be able to leave, and that isn’t what you want
.

“It’s for the best.”

“For who?”

“Both of us.”

“Zoey, I—”

Chad entered through the back door, halting Pierce in midsentence. “Pierce, I’m going over to the Doolittle place to talk to Ed. Would you ride over there with me?”

“You’re going now?”

“Right after the chores are finished.”

“Sure, I’ll tag along if that’s what you want.”

“I need your support. I don’t want to be alone with Cora Lee. I’m afraid I might wring her pretty little neck. If Hal runs true to form, he’ll be in town spending his newly acquired windfall at the poker table.”

“Can I come?” Zoey asked. She was bored with nothing to do. If this were her own ranch, she’d be out with the hands tending to the chores.

Chad shot Pierce a questioning look. Pierce answered with a shrug, indicating his indifference to Zoey’s request. “Sure, if you want to,” Chad said. “You can keep Cora Lee occupied while Pierce and I talk to her father.”

Shortly after lunch, Zoey, Pierce, and Chad saddled up and rode to the Doolittle ranch. The place gave every indication of being deserted as they rode through the front gate.

“I wonder what happened to the hands,” Chad said, seeing signs of gross neglect.

“There weren’t many left,” Pierce replied. “Those who remained after Ed took sick probably got tired of working without wages and took paying jobs. Hal never did care for the ranch, even though it provided him with his livelihood.”

They dismounted close to the house, tethered their horses to the porch rail, and climbed the three
front steps to the door. They found the door open to the breeze, and Chad rapped on the screen door. No one answered. He rapped again. Still no answer.

“Strange,” Pierce mused. “Someone should be home. Ed can’t be left alone for long.”

“Maybe Cora Lee is in the vegetable garden out back,” Zoey suggested. “I’ll go take a look.”

“I’m going in,” Chad said as he opened the screen door and stepped inside. Pierce followed.

They wandered through the downstairs, finding the rooms unoccupied. “Reckon I’ll check on Ed,” Chad said, looking as though climbing those stairs was the very last thing he wanted to do. He felt an odd prickling at the back of his neck. Usually more practical than fanciful, Chad couldn’t quell the premonition that something disastrous waited for him.

Shaking his head to clear it of the dark thoughts swirling inside him, Chad paused at the foot of the stairs. “I’m going up,” he said to Pierce. “Give me a few minutes alone with Ed, then come on up.”

Pierce watched Chad walk up the staircase. He could tell by the set of his shoulders that his brother’s nerves were stretched taut. Something was wrong; Pierce could feel it in his bones, smell it in the air. He began to pace, wondering how much time he should allow before following Chad.

From previous visits he’d made to Ed Doolittle’s sickroom, Chad knew where to find it. Ed’s door was ajar and he peered inside. The old man appeared to be sleeping soundly. Chad stood in the doorway, watching Ed’s thin chest rise and fall with each shallow breath he took. The steady cadence reassured Chad and he tiptoed from the
room, intending to join Pierce downstairs and wait until Ed awakened. As he passed a closed door at the top of the stairs, he heard noises coming from inside. Grunts, sobs, garbled phrases he couldn’t understand. He paused with his hand on the doorknob, recognizing the sounds but not wanting to believe them.

Pierce continued to pace the narrow space at the foot of the stairs until curiosity got the best of him. Muttering an oath, he started up the stairs. Suddenly the screen door behind him banged shut and Pierce spun around.

“Pierce Delaney, what in the hell are you doing here?”

Pierce’s eyes narrowed; he was surprised to see Riley Reed. “I might ask the same of you.”

“Hal didn’t come to town today. He owes me money. Thought I’d ride out here and collect it.”

“Hal isn’t home. No one appears to be home,” Pierce said. “Chad is upstairs talking to Ed. I’m on my way to join him.”

“If Hal isn’t home, where in the hell is he?” Reed wondered, clearly upset over Hal’s failure to pay his debt. “He promised to pay up today.”

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Pierce muttered, continuing up the stairs. Reed followed.

Chad turned the doorknob slowly and pushed the panel inward. It opened on silent hinges. A scene straight from the darkest hell stopped him in his tracks.

Hal Doolittle’s naked rump rose and fell as he vigorously pumped away into his sister’s swollen
body. Chad could see Cora Lee’s protruding belly quiver and hear her tiny sobs as she tried to push Hal off her.

“You’re going to hurt the baby, Hal,” Cora Lee said in a small voice that was barely discernible over her brother’s coarse grunting.

“It’s all your fault, Cora Lee,” Hal said between gasps. “You weren’t supposed to grow a baby. You went and ruined everything. We could have kept on doing this for a long time without anyone the wiser.”

Chad exploded with rage. He wasn’t easily shocked, but what Hal was doing was obscene. “My God! Your own sister! You rotten, rutting bastard!”

“What!” Hal lifted his head and glared at Chad over his shoulder. “What are you doing here? How dare you interrupt a private moment between brother and sister.”

“Get off her,” Chad ordered. He was deadly calm now, his voice hard, his eyes glittering dangerously.

“I can see you’re going to be trouble in the future,” Hal said ominously. “I don’t like trouble, Delany.”

He was fast, so fast Chad almost didn’t see him reach for his gun on the nightstand. But Chad was faster. Hal swung around and aimed at Chad. Chad drew his own weapon and fired before the bullet left Hal’s gun. Hal fell sideways, rolling off the bed and onto the floor, blood streaming from the hole in his forehead. As they stood on the landing behind Chad, witnessing the whole sordid affair,
the gunfire released Pierce and Reed from their frozen stance.

Wild-eyed with shock, Cora Lee sat up in bed and screamed as Pierce pushed past Chad to check Hal for a heartbeat. She screamed even louder when Pierce shook his head and said, “He’s dead.”

Zoey, having searched the garden and barn without finding Cora Lee, had returned to the house. She’d heard the gunshot and taken the stairs two at a time. She came to a skidding halt when she saw Pierce and Chad leaning over a dead man in Cora Lee’s bedroom, and a naked Cora Lee sitting up in bed screaming.

“What happened?” Zoey asked as she took a closer look at the body on the floor and recognized Hal Doolittle.

Riley Reed came up behind her. “Hal Doolittle was rutting with his own sister. Chad caught them in the act. I seen it all.”

“See if you can quiet Cora Lee, Zoey,” Pierce said as he led Chad aside to talk to him.

Zoey hurried to Cora Lee’s side, tossing a sheet over her and attempting to help her up from the bed, while Pierce spoke earnestly to Chad. Zoey thought Chad looked dreadful. His complexion had turned pasty and he looked as if he wanted to spew out his guts. Whatever Pierce was saying to him didn’t seem to register; Chad kept shaking his head.

Suddenly Cora Lee cried out and doubled over, clutching her stomach.

“Cora Lee, what is it?” Zoey asked anxiously.

“Something’s happening! It’s too early.” Moaning,
she rolled from side to side as if trying to ease the pain.

Zoey had no idea what to do. She’d seen animals give birth, but never a human. Then she spied a wide red stain pooling beneath Cora Lee, and panicked.

“Pierce! Come quick!”

Pierce was beside her in two strides. “What is it?”

“It’s Cora Lee. I think she’s in trouble.” She pointed to Cora Lee’s bloodstained sheets.

Pierce dragged her aside, where Cora Lee couldn’t hear them speaking. “Do you know what to do?”

Zoey shook her head. “If it was a simple birth, maybe, but this is serious. I’ve never seen so much blood. Cora Lee’s as white as a sheet. Someone better ride into town for the doctor.”

“Is she going to die?” Chad asked dully. He appeared to be in shock. “Am I going to be responsible for her death, too?”

“You’re not responsible for a damn thing, Chad,” Pierce snarled.

A commotion near the bedroom door turned their gazes in that direction.

“Holy shit!” Reed said on a sudden intake of breath. “It’s old man Doolittle.”

Ed Doolittle, having heard the shot and screaming that followed, had crawled from his bed and hobbled down the hall to Cora Lee’s bedroom. Though his eyes were dimmed from age and illness, he saw the body of his son lying on the floor in a pool of blood, and his daughter writhing on her bed, her face contorted with pain.

“Hal!” he gasped, clutching his chest as he tottered into the room. “Is he dead?”

Pierce stepped forward to steady the old man. “I’m sorry, Ed.” He would have given anything not to have to tell the old man what had taken place in this room.

“Dead,” Ed repeated, hearing his worst fears confirmed. Then his eyes rolled back in his head, the breath rattled in his throat, and he collapsed in Pierce’s arms. Pierce lowered him to the floor beside his son as the old man breathed his last.

“He’s gone,” Pierce said tonelessly.

“Papa!” Cora Lee screamed. Then she doubled over, seized by another pain. “I’m going to die, just like Papa and Hal.”

“You’re not going to die, Cora Lee,” Pierce soothed, exchanging a look with Zoey that belied his words.

“Someone should go to town for a doctor,” Zoey said shakily.

“No time,” Pierce replied. Suddenly he remembered that Reed was still here. “The Zigler ranch is not far. Mrs. Zigler has borne several children, she’ll know what to do. Get her, Reed. And hurry.”

Reed looked as if he wanted to refuse, but Pierce’s fierce scowl convinced him otherwise. He left immediately.

“Try to keep her calm,” Pierce told Zoey as he returned to his brother’s side. Truth to tell, he was damn worried about Chad. His brother appeared to be in a state of shock as he stared at the corpses of the Doolittle father and son. He gave Chad a rough shake. “Snap out of it, Chad! Ed was on his deathbed. He couldn’t have lasted much longer.”

Chad looked at Pierce through hollow eyes. “Nothing will ever be the same for me, Pierce. The Chad Delaney you knew no longer exists. My life has been torn apart.”

Pierce cursed beneath his breath. The situation had gotten completely out of control. Chad wasn’t thinking clearly, and Cora Lee’s moans were growing weaker, adding to Chad’s distress. If she died, Chad would hold himself responsible for the tragic deaths of so many people, even though he was blameless. What a tangle.

“Reed will return with Mrs. Zigler soon. Help me get these bodies out of here,” Pierce said, forcing Chad to move despite his apathy. “Take Hal’s feet. We’ll put him and then Ed in another room.”

Chad and Pierce moved the Doolittle father and son into the older man’s bedroom and closed the door. When they returned to Cora Lee’s room, they could tell by Zoey’s expression that the situation was growing desperate.

“She’s unconscious. I don’t think she’ll make it.”

The sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs brought a collective sigh of relief. Seconds later Mrs. Zigler burst into the room, took one look at Cora Lee, and began issuing orders. “Bring hot water and plenty of towels! The rest of you get out of here, except for the woman. I’ll need her.”

She was obeyed instantly. Stem of countenance, tall and thin, her hair skinned back on her small head, Naomi Zigler looked capable of handling any situation.

After putting a kettle on to boil, the three men sat down at the kitchen table to wait. The uneasy silence was broken when Reed said, “I never
would have thought it of Hal. I’m not a prudish man, or even a squeamish one, but there is something sickening about using your own sister as your whore.”

Chad’s expression didn’t change. He was totally immersed in the dark abyss of misery.

“You saw what happened, Reed,” Pierce said, challenging Reed to deny it. “Chad’s not to blame for what happened. Hal drew his gun on Chad; Chad was faster. What followed was tragic but accidental.”