Deadly (19 page)

Zach strode away, but he didn’t walk far. Maybe ten feet, where he began to set up his own camp.

He hadn’t responded to her last comment, and in fact, he almost seemed to want to run away. Could it be that when he began to see her point of view, he tucked his tail and ran? This big strong cowboy maybe had a problem admitting he was wrong?

She watched him gather his firewood, and soon he had a bigger fire going than hers. He disappeared into the woods, and later, she heard a gunshot. When he walked back into camp, he was carrying a skinned rabbit.

As he roasted the rabbit on a spit over his fire, the smell made her mouth water, and her stomach let out a healthy growl. Any meat would taste better than the hardtack sticking to the roof of her mouth.

He took his dinner off the fire and held it up for her to see. “There’s more than enough for both of us. Come join me and you can have some.”

“I don’t eat with deceivers.”

He shook his head. “Suit yourself. But it’s really good.”

The smell was driving her crazy. Her stomach growled again, and she wanted to run over there and grab a piece, but she refused. She wouldn’t let him tempt his way back into her heart. She just couldn’t.

Zach sauntered over, his swagger matching his ego, as he brought her a piece of the rabbit. “Here. Swallow this with some of that pride.”

Argh, she wanted to hit him. She wanted to slap him for being so nice and thoughtful, and oh, she wanted that piece of rabbit so bad. Her mouth was watering at the sight of that grilled piece of meat. But he was right, her pride remembered the anguish of reading that note this morning, and her throat closed up tighter than a virgin in a whorehouse.

“No, thank you. I’m not hungry.” Her stomach growled once more, illuminating her lie.

He smiled at her and took a bite. “Okay, suit yourself, but this tasty little guy is a lot better than a rock hard biscuit.

She ignored his comment and watched as he took another bite. Then his face changed. His eyes drew together, as he frowned. “Meg, don’t move.” His voice was serious, calm and deep.

“Go away, and leave me alone. You can’t tell me what to do.”

A moment ago, he’d stomped out of her camp, unable to face her when the talk became too serious, but now he was back offering her food and trying to tell her what to do. The man was more than a nuisance.

“I’m serious. There’s a rattlesnake about a foot behind you.”

She shook her head at him. “We’ve already played that game. You’re just trying to get even with me for pulling a snake trick on you. I’m smart enough not to fall for your lies.”

Suddenly, he dropped the rabbit, whipping out his six-shooter and firing at a spot behind her, causing her heart to leap in her chest. She jumped almost clean out of her skin.

“Damn it, cowboy, that’s enough. Get your tail out of my camp before I pull out my gun and shoot you. There’s no snake behind me. Pretending to shoot the varmint is not going to convince me it’s real. Get out of my camp, now!”

He walked behind her and reached down. When she turned around, she saw the three-foot rattler hanging limply in his hand. Her heart leaped into her throat, her blood racing faster than a fox chasing a squirrel.

“Now there’s some good eating,” he said with a triumphant, manly smile. “Now I’ll get out of your camp and leave you be.”

Meg began to shake, nausea gripping her insides like bats on a cave wall. She jumped up and gazed around her camp. Where there was one snake, there could be two.

“Stop,” she said weakly to Zach. She walked to the edge of the clearing, leaned over and wretched. Shivers overtook her as she realized if Zach hadn’t come over to her camp to bring her some rabbit, that snake would have bitten her. There was no telling how long it had been lying there. One wrong move and it would have struck, probably killing her.

“Meg, it’s dead. This one wasn’t even in your blankets,” he said with a smile.

“I hate snakes.”

He stood there, holding that damn rattler, looking like a man who’d just won a fight with the devil. She wanted to hate him. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted him to wrap his arms around her until she felt safe again. And she had no idea when that might be.

All thoughts of arguing over who was right or wrong suddenly seemed insignificant. Nothing mattered, except the fact he’d probably just saved her life.

“Yeah, me too. Nasty critters. Mean as the devil.”

“But where there’s one…”

“Oh, there’s probably another one somewhere.” He stared at her. “The safest thing you could do is move to sit around my fire. It’s bigger and hotter and safer.”

She stared at him for a moment, and the thought of that snake's partner or family or just another rattlesnake being close by was enough for her to swallow her pride and take him up on his offer. With conditions.

“All right, but you sleep on your side of the fire, and I sleep on my side. No sharing blankets or bedrolls. Your clothes stay on at all times.”

He smiled. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”

“Make what easy? We’re sharing a fire and that’s all. There will be no reconciliation. It’s over.” She was saying the words her head was telling her to say, but her heart was still pounding loudly in her chest and glancing over at that snake had her wanting to be as close as possible to Zach.

She kicked some dirt over her fire, dousing the coals, then picked up her blankets and saddle while Zach carried the snake and pulled her horse over to his camp.

Maybe she was silly for letting a snake send her back to Zach, but it was only for one night. And tomorrow, she’d ride alone.

*

Zach’s eyes had almost popped clean out of his head at the sight of that rattler lying there all coiled up, its head down, its beady eyes gleaming in the firelight. The poisonous serpent had watched Zach up until the moment he’d fired his gun.

Why it hadn’t rattled was beyond Zach, but the fear that had flashed through him like a springtime flood was enough to have aged him right out of his youth and into middle age. Meg had been sitting on her blanket less than a foot away from the snake. Close enough it would have gotten her in one single strike. Close enough it could have killed her so very easy.

For a moment, Zach’s heart had leaped in his throat as terror sped through his veins like a runaway horse. Meg injured or hurt left him with the strangest empty feeling.

The idea of her not being in his life confused him, left him wondering what being with this woman had done to him. He watched her settling in across the fire and enough warmth filled him his dick hardened and his thoughts churned. He wanted her back in his bedroll. He wanted her close, so he could protect and love her. He needed her like warm sunshine and rain.

Why was he always slow to react with Meg? Did she have reason to be angry with him or had he just been doing what he had to do? Yes, he should have told her Simon was his brother, but there had just never seemed like the right time, and he’d kept hoping she’d give up on pursuing the man.

But no, Meg was as stubborn as they came, and like a dog digging for a bone, knowing sooner or later he’d recover what he’d lost, she was determined to find Simon.

He skinned the snake then put the meat on a spit and laid it across the flames to cook.

Meg sat on her blanket across from him, her hat pulled low, her arms wrapped around her knees. “Your mother is really nice.”

“Thanks,” he said, thinking how weird it was that Meg had met his mother.

“I feel bad for her that I’m going to catch Simon.”

Zach shrugged. “I may catch him before you.”

She looked up and gazed at him. “Are you going to turn him in this time?”

That was a question Zach had struggled with every day. His head was telling him he had to turn his brother in, but his heart kept repeating
this is your brother
.

“I know you find it hard to believe, but I only let him stay at my mother’s while I tried to learn the truth.”

Meg shrugged and gazed into the fire. “Funny thing, cowboy, I’d have a real hard time turning one of my siblings in, too. If you’d been honest with me, things would have been different.”

“How? You’d still be mad.” How could he admit to her he’d been wrong? He should have told her from the beginning Simon was his brother, but he’d hoped it would never come to this. He’d believed he would discover his brother was innocent, and they would laugh about how Zach had almost had to turn Simon in. Maybe even go to the saloon and drink a draught once it was all over.

Meg smiled. “I still would have gone after Simon because that’s what I do. You should have told me he was your brother when you tied me and Ruby up and left us in that alley.”

He shook his head. “Maybe so, but when you’re the sheriff, it’s hard to say it’s your brother who’s got a bounty on his head. When you put on the badge, you never think about choosing between your profession and your family.” He lowered his head and stared into the fire. “I may have to help end his life. How do you think that makes me feel? No matter what he’s done, he’s still my brother.”

Meg sighed and hugged her legs tighter. Zach wanted to go over to that side of the fire and wrap his arms around her, but somehow knew he better stay on his side of the fire or send her running back to her camp. He didn’t want her away from him. He actually wanted her closer than across the fire.

“I feel sorry for you and your mother, but my job is to take him in, and that’s what I’ll be doing,” Meg said, her voice somehow soft. “It’s not just the fact that you didn’t tell me about Simon it’s the whole principal of the thing. I thought we had something, but how can we if you can’t be honest and forthright with me? How can I follow you if you’re not truthful with me from the beginning?”

Zach shook his head. “I was going to tell you this morning.”

“Oh, that would have made the morning pleasant. The sex was great, and oh, by the way, Simon is my brother.”

His insides clenched and sizzled like water hitting hot coals of anger. How could he blame her for being so upset with him? He’d done this not once, but twice now to her. She was right, but his damn pride refused to tell her the truth. “That’s why I didn’t tell you the night before.”

“Don’t you think it would have been better if you’d told me before we had sex?”

Zach frowned, shook his head, and stared off at the sky. “I messed up, Meg. Nothing about this has been easy.”

“Don’t do it again,” she said before she laid down, rolled over, and gave him her back.

“Does that mean we’re going to have a relationship?” he asked, feeling somewhat hopeful that maybe she was getting over his lie. “Does this mean we have a future?”

She didn’t roll over. “No, it means if you want to live, don’t lie to me again.”

God, the woman could hold a grudge better than any woman he knew. But maybe she was right. He should have told her weeks ago that Simon was his brother, but he feared the knowledge would change how she felt about him. He feared he would appear less a man and a bad sheriff.

Her voice called out from the other side of the fire. “Just so you understand. This changes nothing. I’m still going after him.”

Zach sighed. “I didn’t expect anything less.”

*

The next morning they rode into the town of Vera Cruz, with Meg in the lead and Zach following behind her. He’d not slept well last night, his mind going over and over again the way Meg had made him feel about lying to her.

He didn’t want to withhold information from her, but at the time it’d seemed the right thing to do. Now, he knew it was the worst thing he could have done, and it had ruined his attempts to win Meg’s heart. And he
wanted
to win Meg’s heart. In the last few days, it had become the most important thing on this journey. Watch over Meg, keep her safe, and find Simon.

They pulled up in front of a small house. Meg threw her leg over her saddle and slid to the ground. She tied her horse to the hitching post. Without glancing back at him, she walked to the door and knocked.

After tying his horse next to hers, Zach hurried to catch up.

He curled his hands into fists. What they were about to learn would lead him to a decision regarding his brother. Part of him feared what he would soon hear, and the other part of him felt confident Simon would be cleared.

A middle aged woman in a long skirt covered by an apron answered the door.

“Is Mrs. Lowell living here?” Meg asked.

She frowned at the two of them, gazing at Zach’s tin star pinned on his chest. “Who are you?”

“I’m Meg McKenzie, and this is the Sheriff Zach Gillespie.”

She opened the door wider and motioned them in. “Come on in. I’m Mrs. Lowell. Have a seat.”

They walked in to the rudimentary two-room cabin. A stove graced one corner of the front room, and the back room was a bedroom.

“We’re hunting Simon Trudeau for the murder of your husband,” Meg said. “I’d like to ask you some questions about what happened that day.”

“He’s been in town, you know,” she said, her voice trembling. “My kid saw him.”

Zach saw the fear in the woman’s gray eyes, and he wanted to reassure her that Simon would never harm her, but he couldn’t. He wasn’t as certain as he once was about his brother's innocence.

Mrs. Lowell hung her head and sighed. “My kids are now working to try to support us since my husband’s gone. We’re reduced to living in this shack, instead of our homestead, and I’ve not left the house for fear he’ll see me and realize where we live.”

“Do you think he would come after you?” Meg asked.

“I don’t know. I mean it’s my word against his. If I weren't talking anymore, it could just be swept under the rug, and everyone’s life would go on. My husband is still six feet under, but that man would still have a life.”

Zach swallowed the tight lump that had formed in his throat. He couldn’t ask any questions, as he felt strangled with the fear that had grabbed him. He loved Simon, and if he’d killed this woman’s husband, Zach would be forced to turn him in.

“So tell me what happened that day,” Meg said.

The woman took a deep breath, glanced over at Zach then began her tale.