Carol Finch (18 page)

He smiled rakishly. “I’m at your service, but your father won’t let me near you to experiment.”

“He’ll like you, given time,” she insisted. “You’re the kind of man who grows on a person.”

To the point of hopeless infatuation and unrequited love.

“Thanks…I think.” He made a stabbing gesture with his forefinger. “Now stay put. I don’t want to chase you down when I’m cranky and deprived of sleep. I can guarantee I’ll take it out on you, hellion.”

Lori watched him walk away. She memorized the catlike grace with which he moved, admired his horseman’s thighs, his muscled shoulders and the shiny raven hair that brushed against his shirt collar.

She hadn’t expected to experience the kind of love her parents had discovered. But now she knew how it felt to want someone with every beat of her heart, to need him to the very depths of her soul.

Heaving a dispirited sigh, Lori wheeled around to closet herself in her room. It tormented her to no end that her father was shorthanded today, since John Little Calf had asked for the day off to tend to pressing chores on his family’s farm. She should be working the counter in the trading post or running the ferry across Winding River. Instead, she was stuck in her room with nothing to do—and all damn day to do it.

Maggie Burgess parked the supply wagon directly in front of the trading post, then climbed down. She grabbed the peace-treaty peach pie she had made for Clive Russell and ascended the steps. She met Clive and one of his customers on their way outside to the ferry.

“Maggie?” Clive halted to stare warily at her then glanced at the fresh-baked pie.

“Marshal Fox convinced me that I should make amends,” she explained. “Even if we still don’t know what happened
to Tony, the marshal assures me that
assuming
what happened is not the same as actually
seeing
it. I came over to apologize and to gather a few supplies before the noon stage arrives.”

Clive smiled in relief. “We’ll talk after I transport my customer across the river. Pick up whatever you need and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Maggie set the pie on the table that was tucked around the corner from the store counter. Then she strode off to gather necessary supplies for the house and stage station. By the time Clive returned, she had three stacks of goods on the counter and two slices of pie and coffee waiting on the table.

“If you’ll tally my expenses for these goods, I’ll cart them out to the wagon,” she insisted.

“I’m sorry for the delay. I’m shorthanded today.” Clive rang up the items. “John Little Calf can only work a few days before he gets behind on farm chores.”

Maggie nodded in understanding. “We have the same problem when he fills in at the stage station.” She picked up several cans of peaches and beans then headed toward the door. “I’ve gotten used to tending chores. Especially now.”

A few minutes later, she had the supplies loaded in the wagon. She seated herself at the table across from Clive. “Now, about my formal apology for jumping to conclusions and thinking the worst.”

Clive took a bite of the warm pie, then chased it with a sip of coffee. “It was an unfortunate misunderstanding.”

“I assumed Lorelei and Tony had a squabble that ended badly,” she went on to say. “But Marshal Fox has pointed out several other possibilities that I was too distressed and grief-stricken to consider.”

Clive nodded slightly. “Yes, he’s checking a few leads this morning…and this pie is delicious, by the way.”

“Thank you.” Maggie smiled at him. “I know you must be upset, as I have been. I’ve lost two men suddenly and I’ve been overwhelmed with work. Especially since the two hired hands who chased after Lorelei never returned. I know it has been worrisome for you, not knowing where your daughter is.”

“It’s very upsetting and I’ve spent too many sleepless nights walking the floor,” Clive admitted then took another bite of pie. “As for your two missing hired hands, they won’t be back. They stole horses from the marshal’s family. Now Sonny and Teddy are headed to Fort Smith to stand trial.”

“The marshal didn’t mention that yesterday…Clive?”

When he wobbled slightly in his chair, she reached for his hand. “Are you feeling all right?”

The color seeped from his face and his fork clattered against the table.

“Clive? Can you hear me?”

His mouth opened and closed. His eyes rolled back in his head. He toppled from the chair then collapsed on the floor.

“Clive? Dear God! Someone help! Clive has collapsed. I’m not sure if he’s breathing.
Someone help!
”

Alarm shot through Lori while she hovered in the upstairs hall. She’d seen Maggie enter through the front door and watched her make several trips to load her supplies. Lori overheard bits and pieces of Maggie’s conversation with her father. She was greatly relieved to know Maggie had decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and had come to make peace with her father.

Knowing that, Lori disobeyed Gideon’s orders to remain
upstairs—no matter what. When Maggie yelled for help, Lori bounded down the steps two at a time. Her father had missed sleep and had fretted about her welfare and her whereabouts. Knowing he had collapsed sent her into a state of panic. She couldn’t lose her father, too! She knew she’d lose Gideon when he rode out of her life, never to return. But she’d expected her father to be here, as he always had.

She shrieked when she saw him sprawled lifelessly on the floor beside the table. “Oh, God! Papa, can you hear me?”

He didn’t respond.

“Lorelei, you’re here,” Maggie said unnecessarily as she stood up to allow Lori to kneel beside her father.

“Yes, I heard what you said. I swear that I had nothing to do with Tony’s death,” Lori insisted as she eased her father onto his back to check his breathing. “Maggie, fetch a cold cloth from the kitchen, will you?”

“No, I don’t believe I will….”

Before Lori could twist around to stare quizzically at Maggie, her skull exploded with blinding pain. A dull groan tumbled from her lips as she sprawled atop her father.

That was the last thing she remembered before the world turned pitch-black and became deathly silent.

G
ideon was frustrated to no end. His attempt to gain information from Beatrice Ogden and Theresa Knott at the Boomer camp had caused a domestic quarrel between a husband and wife and disrupted a budding new courtship between Bea and her beau. No one admitted to anything except a fleeting fascination for Tony Rogers.

“I’m going to have to tote Lori all the way to Fort Smith, and Clive will want to come along to make sure nothing
untoward
happens,” Gideon grumbled.

“Cheer up, I’ll come along with you,” Reece volunteered. “I’ll run interference while you and that lovely wildcat wander off to do something untoward.”

Gideon smiled. “You’re a good friend, McCree. A little too much like me at times, but a good friend all the same.”

“I used to be,” Reece murmured. He stared into the distance, as if it were a window through time. Smiling ruefully, he glanced at Gideon. “Seeing you again has inspired me to offer my services to the judge. Although I
still contend the law doesn’t protect innocent victims like it should.”

“I can’t argue with that. Lori is a perfect example of being condemned without a fair trial. I contributed to that injustice. Even now, the lack of evidence and Maggie Burgess’s version of the incident points to Lori’s guilt. But she didn’t turn on Tony Rogers.”

“You’re saying that because you’re too involved to make an unbiased judgment,” Reece said before he lit his cheroot.

Gideon shot him a reproachful glance.

“I’m just saying what you already know.” Reece shrugged a broad shoulder then blew smoke into the air. “I believe she’s innocent, because there are too many unanswered questions about what was going on in Tony’s life. Not because I’m involved with her as you are. Which is a
lot.
” He shot Gideon a stern glance. “Knowing what I know about the two of you, I’d take a few shots at you, if
I
were Lori’s father.”

“Now I remember why I didn’t like you much,” Gideon teased. “I never could get you to shut up.”

While Reece snickered in amusement, Gideon focused his attention on the stage station in the distance. He frowned curiously when he noticed the familiar Appaloosa gelding tied to the hitching post. He nudged Pirate into a gallop to reach Burgess Ranch.

“Glenn? What the hell are you doing here?” Gideon demanded when his younger brother came around the corner of the two-story house.

“Checking on you.” Glenn said then focused his attention on Reece. “I heard you were dead, or turned outlaw. I don’t remember which.” He grinned broadly. “But obviously you’re not dead.”

“Nice of you to notice,” Reece remarked. “I felt dead
for a while, but I’m doing better, after watching your big brother fumble his way through this investigation.”

Gideon scowled at his mischievous friend then stared apprehensively at his brother. “Again, Glenn, what are you doing here? Is something wrong with Galen or Sarah?”

Glenn shook his ruffled head. “Nope, Galen is doing much better after being shot,” he added for Reece’s benefit. “Sarah is fine, too. She sends her love, though why she wants to waste it on you is beyond me.”

“Hell’s bells,” Gideon groaned. “I’ll die of old age before you get to the point!”

Glenn chuckled in amusement. “Galen sent me here to make sure you were treating Lori fairly.”

The guilt of knowing he’d betrayed his little brother who was infatuated with Lori, made Gideon inwardly grimace. “You’ll be glad to know I’m convinced she’s innocent.”

“It took you long enough,” Glenn said, and snorted. “Any fool could see that.” He pivoted toward the house. “I had planned to introduce myself as a bounty hunter, looking to collect a reward on Lori, so I can snoop around. But no one answered my knock at the door. I went around back, looking for Widow Burgess, but I didn’t see anyone. Just a canoe tied up at the end of the path beside the creek.”

“Canoe?”
Gideon’s heart dropped to his belly and a coil of fear knotted in his chest. “A canoe would easily explain how someone might slip away undetected after taking potshots at Lori and me, wouldn’t it?”

“Damn sure would.” Reece stared speculatively toward the bunkhouse. “I wonder if Syl Jenkins, with his limp, prefers to use a canoe rather than a horse when he sneaks around, looking to make extra money by collecting a bounty on a certain murder suspect.”

“You go check on Syl while Glenn and I look around.”

Gideon bounded from his horse to jog around the side of the house. The uneasy sensation rippling through him while he jogged down the overgrown path to locate the canoe magnified tenfold. He glanced speculatively from the watercraft to the back door of the house then back again.

Suddenly something Maggie Burgess had said yesterday exploded in his mind and nearly knocked him off his feet.

“I want to be anywhere except this uncivilized territory or the Louisiana bayous where I grew up.”

“Gid? Are you okay,” Glenn asked, staring at him in concern.

“No, damn it,” Gideon snarled as he dashed toward the back door of the Burgess house. “Damn it,
what?
” Glenn demanded as he rushed after him.

“Go fetch Reece. Tell him to leave Jenkins until later. We have a bigger problem right now.”

Furious, Gideon bounded onto the back porch while Glenn dashed off to summon Reece. “Maggie Burgess! I’m coming in. Like it or not!” he bellowed as he stalked through the door.

He heard nothing in response, but he kept right on walking through the kitchen to reach the staircase. He bounded up the steps then wheeled around the corner to find a spacious bedroom decorated with frills, ruffles and lace. Swearing foully, he whipped open the closet door to survey the contents. Nothing incriminating, damn it to hell!

Reversing direction, Gideon stamped down the steps to see Reece and Glenn staring curiously at him. “Maggie told me yesterday that she grew up in bayou country. I suspect that canoe belongs to her, not Syl Jenkins.”

“Oh, hell, I knew there was something about her I didn’t like,” Reece muttered.

Gideon lurched toward the door beneath the staircase. “We’re looking for a pair of men’s boots and clothing that Maggie might have used to charade as a man while she bushwhacked Lori and me. There was no incriminating evidence in her upstairs bedroom, but my guess is she used her dead husband’s garments as her disguise to seek her revenge.”

“This is the same widow that arrived on the scene to point an accusing finger at Lori?” Glenn asked.

“The very same,” Reece confirmed. “That devious bitch! She used me to locate Lori. Like an idiot, I told her that I was keeping surveillance on the trading post, expecting Lori to come to roost.”

“So
she
decided to take matters into her own hands by shooting Lori herself,” Gideon snarled. “She shot at Lori then fired at me yesterday, trying to get me out of her way so I couldn’t protect Lori. Then she paddled off in the canoe to return here.”

Gideon descended into the cellar, then exploded in outraged fury. A pair of mud-caked boots—with socks stuffed in the toes so they’d stay on Maggie’s smaller-size feet—sat on the floor. She’d tucked the set of men’s clothes and hat in the back corner of a shelf lined with canned goods.

As Gideon swore the air blue, Glenn stared warily at him. “Now what, big brother?”

“That cunning shrew,” he muttered as he gathered the evidence and shook it in Glenn’s and Reece’s faces. Wheeling around, he headed up the steps. “Maggie told me yesterday that she decided to make amends with Clive, after
I
supposedly convinced her there might be another explanation for Tony’s death. I practically gave her my blessing to
pay Clive a visit. She knows Lori is there, and I suspect she plans to walk in and dispose of Lori once and for all.”

“Damnation,” Reece growled. “She’s already on her way there. Syl told me that Maggie took the wagon to purchase supplies from the trading post. She could be there right now. The next stage isn’t due to arrive until noon. I’ll bet she plans to return and act as if she knows nothing.”

Cursing inventively, Gideon led the way out the front door then raced to his horse. He rode hell-for-leather toward the trading post, knowing that conniving widow was setting some sort of trap. She’d taken advantage of Gideon and Reece’s absence and she was using the excuse of making an apology to lower Clive’s guard. The older man wouldn’t be suspicious of a woman coming to pick up supplies and apologize for jumping to conclusions about his daughter.

Sickening dread bombarded Gideon as he raced down the road, wishing Pirate could sprout wings and fly. What if he arrived too late? he thought in panic.

The grim prospect of losing Lori turned him wrong side out. He regretted every suspicious thought and every disparaging comment he’d made to her. She hadn’t deserved his criticism. Maggie Burgess was the manipulative, deceitful schemer who’d decided to become judge, jury and executioner.

Maggie had been on a crusade to see Lori captured and punished. She’d put up reward money and circulated Wanted posters at stage stations along the route. Wanted Dead or Alive. Preferably
dead,
Gideon mused bleakly.

Most women wouldn’t have managed to elude the two-man posse Maggie sent to apprehend Lori. Maggie expected Lori to be locked in jail in Fort Smith, awaiting trial, so Maggie could feel vindicated before she sold the stage station and ranch and left the territory she disliked so much.

“When I get my hands on that sneaky woman for taking the law into her own hands and using me to do it, I’m going to show her no mercy,” Reece snarled viciously.

“You’ll have to get in line,” Gideon scowled. “You can have what’s left of her after I’m through with her.”

He just hoped and prayed Lori would be alive to watch Maggie Burgess pay for her vigilante justice.

Lori regained consciousness and groaned when the splitting headache made her nauseous. She dragged in a shaky breath and opened her eyes. She realized she was covered by a moldy canvas tarp. She was bound and gagged, and she presumed Maggie had managed to drag her into her supply wagon that moved along at a fast clip.

Where Maggie was taking her was a mystery. She assumed the widow planned to turn her over to Gideon. She could only hope it was Gideon and not some greedy bounty hunter Maggie paid to tote her to Fort Smith for hanging.

When the wagon skidded to a halt, Lori frowned, wondering how long she’d been unconscious. She fretted over her father’s condition. No one was there to check on him. Lori hadn’t had time to figure out why he’d collapsed before Maggie clubbed her on the head and dragged her away.

The instant Maggie jerked off the canvas tarp, Lori glowered at her, then cursed beneath her gag. Maggie reached over to remove the gag with one hand and kept a pistol trained on her with the other.

“Any last words, Lorelei?” she asked sarcastically.

“Yes, I want you to go check on my father.”

“He’ll be fine in a few hours. The doses of laudanum I put in the pie and coffee will wear off eventually.”

Lori stared suspiciously at the smug-looking brunette. “You drugged him so you could take me captive?”

“You won’t be a captive for long,” she muttered hatefully.

Another thought struck like a sharp blow. “You
knew
I was at the trading post, didn’t you? The only way you could have known is because you were the one who tried to shoot me.”

“Precisely,” Maggie said without the slightest hint of shame. “I used my canoe to travel downriver then hid in the bushes. Reece was kind enough to offer his trade secret of outwaiting a criminal that eventually returned to familiar surroundings. A pity I’m not a better shot. We could have concluded this business almost two weeks ago.”

The comment drew Lori’s suspicious frown. She watched Maggie hold her at gunpoint while grabbing the rope tied around Lori’s ankles. When Maggie tried to tug her forward, Lori squirmed the other way.

“You were there the night Tony was shot,” Lori muttered as she resisted Maggie’s attempt to drag her off the wagon bed. “You came around the opposite side of the barn by the station….”

The pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. Lori stared at Maggie in disbelief. “You circled around the barn to make it
look
like you were coming from another direction. But
you
were the one hiding in the bushes. That’s why you arrived before Sonny Hathaway and Teddy Collins. You knew I didn’t shoot Tony, but you were quick to point an accusing finger at me to protect yourself.”

Maggie gave another fierce jerk to pull Lori to the edge of the wagon bed. “Congratulations,” she said caustically. “You finally figured it out. It’s too late to do you any good, of course. But you’ll die knowing the truth, if that helps.”

Lori tried to wriggle loose, but Maggie refused to release her grasp on the rope tied around her ankles. “Why would
you want to shoot Tony? You ranted and raved about losing your husband and then your foreman.”

“I wasn’t trying to shoot Tony, you little idiot,” Maggie snapped as she gave a mighty heave-ho, forcing Lori to topple off the wagon bed and land on the ground with a thud and a groan. “I was trying to shoot
you!
”

Gideon reached the trading post and bounded from Pirate’s back before the laboring horse skidded to a halt. He tried to barge through the door, but it was locked. Scowling, he stepped back, raised his foot and slammed his boot heel against the latch. On the third try, the door splintered and gave way.

With Glenn and Reece a step behind him, Gideon raced through the store and headed upstairs, afraid of what he was going to find. Afraid he’d arrived too late to prevent Maggie from shooting Lori and leaving her for dead.

He hurried into her room, holding his breath. He couldn’t decide if he was relieved or more alarmed when he found no sign of Lori.

After a quick check of the other upstairs rooms, he hurried down the hall then heard Reece shouting at him to come to the kitchen immediately. Icy dread flowed through his veins as worst-case scenarios exploded in his mind.