Wolver's Gold (The Wolvers) (34 page)

“You don’t have to be,” said a voice from above.

Chapter 34

“I can save you, Rachel. I can be the hero who finds you and your father and brings you home. I’m not like them,” the disembodied voice of Jack Coogan floated down to them. “I’ve never hurt anyone. I’m only a bookkeeper. I figured out what they were doing and promised to keep my mouth shut. I’ve never hurt anyone,” he repeated.

No, he never hurt anyone but the families they s
tole from. Nevertheless...

“Can you help us, Jack?” Rachel asked meekly, using his first name with a purpose, “We could use a hero about now. I’d be very grateful.
If you could get us out, take us to the sheriff...”

“There is no sheriff. They took care of him and that schoolmaster last night, too.
”

Rachel bit her knuckle to keep from crying out. Holt had no reason to let them live.

“If they’d played their cards right,” Coogan went on, “they could have been like me. Now they’re going to end up like Jake Brannigan.”

“Going to? They aren’t dead?” She tried to sound curious and was sure her shaking voice would give her away.

“Not yet. Slocum stashed them in the bank vault until Court tomorrow night. Holt’s got it all figured out. The two outsiders, Washington and McCall, have been setting this up right along. That’s why they’ve been asking questions. It’s called casing the place. They broke into the bank and stole the money that was meant to pay the loan. I’m one of the sworn witnesses. Morris Fillmore and Pleasant Samuel are the others.”

Rachel felt her father straighten and puff out his chest.

“You see, my dear, I told you McCall was a shady character. I’ve known Pleasant Samuel for fifty years. He would not be a party to something like this.”

Pleasant Samuel owned the General Store. He didn’t drink, smoke, swear, or play cards
and let his feelings be known about anyone who did. At one time, he’d served as their preacher in the little white church. His word would go a long way in convicting Washington and McCall. Rachel never would have suspected him, but then again, she wouldn’t have suspected
Arnold Slocum or Morris Fillmore, either, if she hadn’t seen proof. They hid their evil beneath their cloaks of respectability.

“When did Mr. Samuel stop preaching?”
she asked.

“That’s hardly pertinent, Rachel.”

It was if he took part in the murders. She imagined it would be hard to preach the Word with that kind of sin on your soul. It wasn’t proof, but it would add to her suspicion. “Indulge me,” she said.

Her father huffed again. “About fifteen years ago, but it’s neither here nor there. The important thing is that the money will be found and Holt will have no reason to pursue his course of action.”

“His course of action. I like that,” Coogan said, “But there’s a slight problem. Like Brannigan, they won’t tell where it is. They’ll hang for it just like Brannigan, too.”

Unlike Brannigan, they couldn’t tell because they didn’t do it.

Dirt sifted down from above as Coogan changed his position.

“Don’t come too close,” Rachel warned. Jack Coogan was their only hope of escape. “I don’t want to lose you.”
Her words were sincere.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Jack Coogan’s head peered over the edge. It was only
the shift in shadows that made it discernable in the darkness.

“Can you get us out, Jack? Please?”

“I can, but you have to be willing to keep your end of the bargain, Rachel. You have to promise to be my mate. We’ll only keep enough of the money to fix the hotel up and pay the debt. I’ll give the rest to the pack. I’ll be the hero that saves them from ruin.”

“
Yes you will, Jack. You’ve always been the clever one,” she flattered, “This is all my fault. None of this would have happened if I had listened to you from the very beginning and never sent you away. I’ll do whatever I need to. I promise.”

“I’ll take good care of you, Rachel.”

“I know you will, Jack. Now please help us out. I’m frightened and I want to go home.”

“I wish I could, Rachel, but you’re going to have to wait until tonight. There’s only an hour or so until sunrise and I have to be back in town. I’ll come back for you tonight when Holt won’t notice I’m gone. We’ll make it back before Court is finished and I’ll make our announcement in front of everyone. I’ll tell them about the money. Holt won’t be able to stop us, then. No one will.”

Rachel was about to beg, promise to hide, promise him anything, as long as she got back to town in time to help McCall. The shadow that was Jack Coogan’s head snapped up and he made a choking sound much like she had with the gag.

“
It’s a good thing I came to visit, then,” said a voice that could be no other than Barnabas Holt’s.

“You, you killed him.” Rachel shrank back and clutched her father’s arm.

“No,” Holt laughed nastily, “Your boyfriend did. One more charge to bring against him. Murder is a hanging offense, don’t you think?”

Her father started to shake in final understanding. He didn’t speak and Rachel had nothing more to say. They’d just witnessed a cold blooded murder.

“Good rope,” Holt said, dangling it over the edge. He snapped it back. “Maybe I’ll use it when we hang Challenger McCall. You didn’t really think I’d let that fucking asshole go through with it, do you? I’ve put fifteen fucking years into this gig and I don’t plan to screw it up now.”

Rachel blinked.
She felt her father flinch at the profanity. They knew Holt came from outside. He was rough and sometimes crass, but she’d never heard him speak this way. She clenched her father’s arm tightly to silently warn him not to speak.

There was no knowing what Holt planned and she was terrified he’d hurt her father to
emphasize his power over her. The silence drew out and she thought, like Orly Peters and Coogan before him, that he’d left them alone. She was afraid to move.

“
You’re a smart woman, Rachel Kincaid,” Holt’s voice rang out, and Rachel and her father jumped at the sound. Further back in the pit, she heard the earth slide. “You know what I want and it’s not you. I have my sights on greener pastures and like the dead man said, you play your cards right, you and your father could come out of this sitting pretty. Your money’s just a stop-gap. Getting that last bit of land took longer than anticipated. I didn’t think the family would fart around that long after the old bastard met with his accident. There are three mines on that land and the gold’s in one of them. Once I find it, I’ll set you aside and we can all live like kings. I’ll get the mate I deserve and you’ll get your money back and there’ll be enough of that to keep your hotel in the black for years. Your dear Papa can drink and gamble the rest of his life away. All you’d have to do is keep your mouth shut. I take care of those who take care of me, Rachel. I want you to think about that while I’m gone.”

“Why? Why are you doing this? That gold doesn’t even exist.”

“Oh, it exists all right, just not the way you idiots tell it. Brannigan stole a bar or two, but most of it was gone before he got there.” Holt started to laugh. “Old Barnabas Holter was his partner. They were going to dig it up later, but Barnabas set him up just like I’m going to set up Washington and McCall. He needed someone to take the fall and who better than a bank robber? It was Barnabas who ‘found’ the hideout. See? My family has legends, too. The only mistake the old bastard made was getting himself shot instead of shooting Brannigan.

“
Why do you think I came to this dump? Timing is everything and my timing was perfect. Your Alpha needed a Second who could carry the load. Poor man was so distraught over losing his Mate,” he said snidely. “Like there wasn’t another one waiting in the wings. I almost Challenged him when Lenora showed up, but the timing wasn’t right, see? A piece of ass, sweet as it was, wasn’t worth it. Good thing, too. She’s the one that found the last clue. Now I’ll have it all; the gold, the Mate, and my own little playground. All I need is a little time and you’re going to buy it for me.”

Rachel wanted to scream, “I won’t let that happen.
The pack
won’t let that happen.” But she knew they would, just as she would. They wouldn’t risk their families any more than she would risk Papa. Without McCall and Washington, everything would fall apart.

“No comments? No brave talk? That’s good, Rachel Kincaid. Shows you know which side your bread is buttered on. We’ll do fine, you and me, and we’ll both come out winners.”
He laughed one last time. “Sorry to leave you like this, but I gotta go take care of a few things in town. A hanging tonight and a mating tomorrow. Big doings in Gold Gulch this full moon.”

This time, they heard him drag Coogan’s body
away.

Rachel sank
to her knees. “We are lost, Papa, lost.”

The tears started flowing and wouldn’t stop. Of all the heartbreaking final scenes
she’d envisioned, this wasn’t one of them.

She would do as he
said. She had no choice. If it weren’t for Papa, she would gladly fight and if it came to losing her life, so be it. Without McCall, her life wasn’t worth much anyway. But she couldn’t sacrifice Papa, or Bertie, or Liddy, or Eustace, because she was pretty sure Holt would go after them, too, if he thought it necessary. In her heart, she knew Holt lied. She and Papa would not come out of this as winners and would most probably die in the end, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t be the one to deliberately bring about that end.

“Shhh, daughter, shhh.
Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.” Josephus Kincaid took her in his arms and held her as he hadn’t since she was a little girl. “Papa will find a way to fix this.”

It was what he always said when she was little
. Back then, she’d believed her Papa could work miracles if he chose to. But this wasn’t a broken doll or a lost hair ribbon. This was like her mother’s last illness, when she’d begged him to work a miracle and save her Mama. He’d admitted then, what she told him now.

“Some things can’t be fixed, Papa. We both know that,” she sobbed against his chest.

She wasn’t a little girl anymore and she knew for certain her father was no miracle worker. Challenger McCall would be hanged and John Washington with him.

“I love him, Papa,” she whispered. “I love Challenger McCall like you loved Mama.
With him I’m the person I want to be. With him, I can see a future even if I’m not standing beside him. Just knowing he’s in the world makes me stronger. Without him...” Rachel’s body shuddered with a cry of anguish.

Her father patted her back consolingly.
“Now, now, dearest, none of that. He’s not dead yet. There’s still time.”

Rachel sank down further until her head was resting on his lap where Papa stroked her hair and comforted her as he had when she was a pup. Time passed, but like her wolf, Rachel had no sense of minutes or hours, only time passing. Slow. Slow.

“Rachel? How high do you think these walls are?”

Rachel sat up, wiped her nose on her sleeve and sniffed back the remnants of her tears. She was all cried out. “Too high to climb out.”

“How do we know if we haven’t tried?”

“Because John Washington tried and failed and he’s taller and stronger than either of us.” She told him about coming with McCall to rescue John.

“But he isn’t taller or stronger than the two of us together.” He stood, groaning a little with the effort. “I’m trying to envision how far I fell. The
y rolled me over the edge, you see. It was quite jarring, but it couldn’t have been too far or I would have broken something, don’t you think?”

Rachel was already thinking. Papa hadn’t known what to expect when he was rolled off the edge, but she had, and thinking about it now, she realized that she hadn’t fallen nearly as far as she expected. Her landing had also been jarring, not only because she was sightless and frightened, but because she hadn’t expected to meet the floor
quite so fast.

“John was injured,” she said aloud. “Without the full use of both legs, he couldn’t jump high enough and the walls collapsed when he tried to climb.”

“Alone, a person might be trapped,” her father continued the thought, “but with two... Rachel, I will be your ladder to freedom.”

It just might work. “I can bring back help.”

“No. You will not return to Gold Gulch. There is nothing you can do there to help. One woman alone cannot fight a beast like Holt. You must save yourself. If Sheriff McCall has any feelings for you, he would not want you to place yourself back in danger. He would want you to flee.”

“I can’t leave you here, Papa. Holt will kill you or leave you here to die.”

Her father grasped her shoulders, leaned in and kissed her cheek. “We both know what kind of father I’ve been. We both know how little I’ve done for you since your mother passed. It would give me great pleasure to make up for that, now, when you need me most. If I must die, let it be with the knowledge that the one I love most has her chance to live. It won’t be so bad, you know. Your mother will be waiting for me on the other side. She’ll be proud of us both.”

Rachel wanted to argue, but she knew her father
would never agree. McCall had already said he didn’t want her involved. He wanted to keep her safe. Her father wanted that, too. But in addition to learning that some things can’t be fixed, Rachel had learned something else. You don’t always get what you want. You take what’s given and make the best of it. You do what needs to be done. Mama chose to make the best of what she’d been given because she loved Papa. She’d done what needed doing right up until the end. She would expect no less from her daughter.