Fired Up (26 page)

“It happened! Don't try and deny it.” Lana's teeth bared, and her bloodshot eyes flashed. The knife wobbled and Glynna flinched. A line of blood welled and a rivulet flowed down Glynna's neck. Dare knew he might have to do it. Take the long, ugly chance that he could shoot Lana before Glynna was killed. Another death on his conscience. And if he failed and Glynna died, Dare might well die too, from grief.

Only now, as he saw that gleaming butcher knife, did Dare realize he was in love with her.

God, please give me wisdom. Give me the right words.
How do I talk to someone who's crazed with grief for her child?

It came to him as if God had opened the pages of a book for Dare to read.

“Do you know what God did when His son, Jesus, died?”

Shaking her head, Lana seemed to truly be listening.

“God forgave the men who'd killed Him.” Dare risked a quick glance at Glynna. She was ready to move, to fight, to do whatever needed to be done. But Glynna was listening, too.

Maybe Glynna needed to be reminded about forgiveness. Then Dare wondered if he didn't need the reminder just as much.

Shaking her head, the knife came back up, close again to Glynna's neck. “No, He didn't,” Lana said. “No one could forgive that.”

“Jesus's last words as He died at the hands of evil men was, ‘God forgive them, for they know not what they do.'”

“And God did it? Just like that? He let them kill His son? He didn't even care enough to be killing mad?”

“The Bible said that there were earthquakes when Jesus died. The sun went dark. A temple, that's a church, was ripped up inside. Graves opened and dead people were seen walkin' around. I'd say God was mighty upset.”

Lana's eyes seemed to focus for the first time. She glanced at the knife, then at Glynna.

“Just like you're upset, Lana. But look at me. You know me. You'd come to see me many times. You know I'm not a man who would harm a child. But whatever you believe,
you need to forgive me like God forgave those who killed His son. You need to put down that knife and let Glynna go.”

Lana's eyes shifted to the knife. Slowly, a fraction of an inch at a time, her grip relaxed on Glynna's neck. Finally her restraining arm fell to her side.

Glynna stepped away as if afraid a sudden move might stir Lana up again. When Lana didn't grab for her, Glynna walked the few steps to Dare and turned to face Lana. Dare sank down to sit on the bed while Glynna stood at his side.

Dare should probably walk over and take that ugly knife from Lana, but he wasn't sure he could stand.

“I reckon I can forgive you, Doc. And Glynna's never been nuthin' but good to me, so you're right that I shouldn't hurt her.” Lana looked at the knife as if she were under a trance. It came up as Lana drew it toward herself. “But all I'm left with is the grief of my child dying and my husband running off. I'm left with nothing, just like I've always had nothing.”

Tears trickled down Lana's cheeks. The knife turned to point inward, straight at Lana's heart. “I am so tired of living with nothing.” Her tears fell faster. “I forgive you, Doc.”

Dare tried to stand, but his knees buckled and he fell back to where he sat. Glynna had started to move toward Lana when Dare grabbed her by the wrist and held her back.

Lana looked again at the knife and her expression was pure sadness, hopelessness. “Bury me beside my husband and son.”

A shift of shadow in the hallway behind Lana drew Dare's attention.

Vince.

She pulled back the knife to strike herself.

With a single motion Vince quickly reached around Lana and knocked the knife from her hand.

A scream of grief ripped from Lana's throat. The despair in her eyes shifted to pure madness. She whirled on Vince and attacked.

Vince went down under a clawing madwoman. He kicked aside the knife and caught both of her wrists at the same time she started walloping him with her feet.

“Am I gonna have to fight this woman every day for the rest of my life?” Vince shouted.

Just then she caught him with a cruelly placed knee, howled right in his face, and spit on him. Next she went for his throat with her teeth.

But a second later, Lana was yanked away from Vince. Paul had entered the fight and he had the woman wrapped tight in his arms, pinning her hands to her sides.

Glynna stepped forward and stuffed a kerchief in Lana's mouth, which dropped the noise level considerably.

Dare began stumbling toward the ruckus.

“You sit back down!” Vince told Dare. He staggered to his feet and caught Lana's legs, wrapping both arms around her ankles.

“Lana, please calm down,” Glynna said. She was going to handle this with kindness.

Lana bucked in their arms. Vince had wrangled longhorns that didn't kick like this woman.

Lana continued to scream, muffled by the gag.

“Lana, we're not going to hurt you. Don't be afraid.” Glynna's pretty brow was furrowed with worry. She looked up at Vince. The uncertainty had him confused at first.

“I don't suppose I can get her calm enough to cook breakfast at the diner, can I?”

Vince thought he saw foam coming from the corners of Lana's mouth. “Nope. Don't reckon she's gonna be able to fry eggs today.”

“We're really going to miss her.”

Nothing more than the plain truth.

“I'm not going to miss her that much.” Dare drew Vince's attention as he backed up a couple of steps and sat down on the bed. Honestly, it looked more like he collapsed, but at least Dare didn't end up facedown on the floor again. Vince was too busy to catch him or to pick him back up.

“Glynna, get over here.” Dare, sounding exhausted, still put a lot of command in his voice.

Vince looked at Paul. “Go ahead, Glynna. We've got her.”

The boy nodded. “Yep, I've got a solid grip.” Paul seemed less surly than usual. Maybe he was feeling useful.

“You've been cut,” Dare said. “Your neck's bleeding.” He looked almost frantically at Glynna's neck as she approached the bed where he sat.

Her hand went to her neck and she pulled away bloody fingers. The color seemed to fade from Glynna's face.

“Don't even think of fainting,” Vince snapped. He'd
ordered around men who were a lot bigger weaklings than Glynna. He'd found he had a voice that could clear most anyone's head.

Glynna gathered herself, looked away from her hand, and straightened her shoulder. Vince's voice was as good as smelling salts.

“Her neck's not hurt bad, Dare. Leave it for now. We need to get Jonas over here. Go find him, Glynna. Janny will be safe now. Tell Tina to start cooking for the town, so we won't have a bunch of men spittin' mad that Lana's been arrested.”

Glynna nodded. “I'll be right back.” She patted Dare on the shoulder and left.

“Now, you need to lie down and rest, Dare.”

Dare tipped sideways so easily, Vince figured his friend had been holding himself upright through pure iron will.

“Paul, you and I need to get her calmed down somehow so we can question her.”

“How're we gonna do that when neither of us can let go?”

A few minutes passed before Glynna came rushing back in. Vince was glad to see her. He thought having a woman present, considering this wrestling match with Lana, was the right thing to do.

The woman in their arms gave a particularly wild wrench of her body and almost got away.

“Maybe give her some laudanum.” Dare spoke barely above a whisper. “Just a spoonful from the bottle. That should help her regain control of herself.”

It was a good idea, but Vince considered upping the
dosage and dumping the whole bottle of the stuff down her throat.

“It's on that shelf there,” Dare said, pointing a listless finger. The man truly needed some rest.

“Bring her over to this chair,” Glynna said. She got some long strips of cloth out of Dare's stack of rags. “We'll restrain her.”

“We need to send a wire to Big John and tell him we've got two prisoners to transport.”

“Two?” Paul asked.

Vince ignored the kid. “And when that's all done, Dare, I'll slap a bandage on that scratch on Glynna's neck.”

He thought he heard Dare snoring.

Jonas came in seconds later. Heaving a sigh of relief, Vince said, “Good. I'm glad you're here finally.”

Jonas arched a brow at Lana, who was twisting in the arms of Vince and Paul. He didn't look all that eager to get involved in holding her prisoner.

“We've got a crazy woman in custody and we have to interrogate her.”

“Are you sure?” Jonas asked.

Vince had looked through the front window of Dare's house and seen Lana holding Glynna in time to change course and come instead through the back door. Paul had been halfway to crazy himself to see his ma with a knife to her throat.

“I'm sure,” Vince said with a nod.

Paul barely missed clunking heads with the lunatic as Vince toted Lana to the nearest chair. “I think the hard part is yet to come,” Vince said.

“That woman makes the best eggs over easy I've ever had,” Dare said from where he lay on his belly on the bed.

“Her fried potatoes put my ma's to shame,” Jonas added. “And my ma was a mighty good cook.”

Vince and Paul sat Lana on the chair. “This town is gonna miss her cookin' and that's a fact,” Paul said as she wrested one arm loose and clawed at his face.

“Some of us'll miss her more than others,” Dare mumbled.

Vince let go of Lana's feet, and he and Paul each grabbed an arm as she lunged from the chair. They sat her back down.

“I don't know if I can get close enough to tie her up.” Jonas, a long strip of white cloth in one hand, dodged a slashing foot.

Vince looked at Glynna. “Get in here and help us. If she keeps fighting us like this, she's gonna end up hurt, and we don't want that.”

Privately, Vince wanted to see this woman severely punished for stabbing Dare. But he'd leave that for the law. Although these days, unless their Regulator friend was in town, Vince was the only law in Broken Wheel. Big John Conroy made his home in town, but he spent most of the time traveling. He was overdue to come back home, though. They could get Lana locked up and figure out what to do with her until Big John got home.

Working together, Jonas and Glynna finally got Lana bound to the wooden chair.

She still had the gag in her mouth, so things were pretty quiet. Of course, they couldn't keep her tied up forever.

Vince grimaced. “It's gonna be noisy when I take that gag out of her mouth.”

“She's a raving lunatic.” Jonas shook his head at the completely out-of-control woman.

“No, she's not,” Paul replied. “She's been working for us for a while now, and she seemed real sensible.”

“She was good at chopping potatoes,” Glynna said. “It was impressive, but I admit it made me a little nervous to see her flashing that knife with so much skill.”

“Lana!” Vince crouched in front of her. Since her feet were bound, he was able to get pretty close. He tried to penetrate her frothing struggle.

Glynna came up beside Vince. “She's scared to death.”

“This isn't panic.” Vince rose. “She stabbed Dare. She held that knife to your throat. She attacked me when I knocked it away from her. This is rage, not fear.”

Vince reached down and removed the gag from Lana's mouth. Instantly her muffled screams became full-throated screams.

“Let's try the laudanum,” Glynna said.

Suddenly Lana stopped screaming and sat up straight, looking at the bottle Glynna held.

“Looks like
laudanum
is the magic word,” Vince said. He studied the now calmer woman. “Can you answer some questions for us, Lana?”

She turned on Vince. Her face was slick with sweat, and her hair was a tangle. Her eyes were so bloodshot, all the white had turned to red. She panted and tugged against her bonds, but she didn't go back to the shrieking.

“If you answer my questions, I'll give you a dose of the medicine.” And if that wasn't a temptation worthy of the devil himself, Vince didn't know what was.

He glanced over to Dare, who looked to be fast asleep at last. A man didn't often fall asleep, no matter how weary, with a woman screaming a few feet away, so Dare was probably more unconscious than asleep. Vince needed to finish with Lana so his wounded friend could get some much-needed attention.

“Whaddya want to know?” Lana asked. Her voice was hoarse from all her screaming, but despite her rational question, Vince wouldn't have untied her for a million bucks.

As she waited, breathing as if she'd run all the way from Fort Worth, Jonas moved forward and crouched down in front of Lana.

“What did you do to Dare?” Jonas began.

Vince was pretty sure any confession Lana blurted out in her current state wasn't exactly fair. He thought he'd read that somewhere.

“He killed my son.” Lana's head lifted and Vince saw hatred in her eyes. Her voice rose, though not to a scream. Just hard, cold words.

“No, he didn't,” Vince interjected. He was wasting his breath, but he felt honor-bound to waste it. “There was no baby, Lana. You're mixed up about that.”

“He killed my husband.”

Technically, Big John Conroy had killed him, but considering Lana's addled state, it was probably more wasted time to point that out. Still, it needed to be said. “No, he didn't. That's not true, either. Dare was inside the livery stable, and Simon died outside—in a shootout with a lawman.”

Vince decided not to mention Big John by name, just in case he convinced Lana he spoke the truth. No sense
luring a murderous lunatic away from one friend only to point her to another.

“I lost my home because of him.”

“Lana—” Vince started, again.

Jonas's hand came up. “Let her talk, Vince.”

“Everything I cared about was taken from me by the man I trusted to save me!” Lana's voice rose to the cry of a wounded creature.

There was a long silence. Jonas looked for all the world like a man who was absolutely stumped. He opened his mouth several times, then closed it again. What did a person say to a woman who was so furiously mad?

Then Lana looked straight at Jonas—Vince's friend, a truly decent man of God. Her eyes glittered with hate. Her cheeks flushed red with rage. With a growl that was more animal than human she turned to the bed where Dare lay unmoving. “And now he's dead.”

She looked from Jonas to Vince to a dumbfounded Glynna.

“So you killed him.” Jonas, speaking quietly, didn't correct Lana's assumption that her attack on Dare had been fatal.

How Jonas kept calm, Vince couldn't imagine. Just hearing the sentence declaring Dare dead made Vince mad enough to swing a fist. And under the veneer of calm, Vince heard the anger Jonas was masking. Lana was real lucky to be in the hands of civilized men.

“I'm not sayin' another word until you give me that medicine,” Lana said. “I hurt all over.”

They asked and prodded, but she stubbornly refused to comply. Finally, Glynna said, “Surely a sip won't hurt.”

Jonas and Vince looked at each other. Glynna made the decision for them by lifting the bottle to Lana's lips. Lana made a sudden dipping motion with her head and managed to suck down a few good gulps before Glynna jumped back.

“She got half the bottle.” Glynna held it up with alarm.

Lana smacked her lips and gave a satisfied sigh.

“Better get your answers quick, Jonas. Something tells me our prisoner is going to take a long nap here pretty soon.”

Jonas spoke the same words he had before. “So, you admit you stabbed Dr. Riker?”

“He's dead. He had it coming.” She began lifting her head as if she was gathering her senses a bit, the medicine making her calm maybe. “Untie me.”

“I'm not turning you loose.” Vince only had to feel the bruises on his own body and see the scratches on Jonas's and Paul's faces to know they were better off with Lana restrained.

“Go on, Lana,” Jonas cajoled, “you were telling us about attacking Dare.”

Lana glared at Jonas for a few seconds, then her eyes lost focus and her head slumped forward.

Jonas lifted her chin and she snorted, then settled into snoring. “I think the laudanum got to her already. She's fast asleep, and before we got a full confession.”