Promises Linger (Promise Series) (48 page)

He didn’t find much help there. “I can’t say I’m in a position to make a statement. Seems as both Elizabeth and Asa feel you ought to ‘fess up.”

“It was the only thing to do at the time.”

Cougar shrugged. “Maybe.”

Aaron turned back to Asa. “What would you have done faced with the same situation?”

Asa stared back. “I can’t rightly say, not being there, but now you’ve got to come clean.”

“Could someone please tell me what is so poorly dead and buried that Aaron’s still wrestling it?” Elizabeth asked with the last of her patience.

All three men stared at her. Of the three, she felt Asa’s gaze the keenest. There was resolution in his gaze that told her he was going to make sure she knew. There was also pain, which told her this was going to hurt. He got to his feet. Aaron followed suit. As she was standing one step below the landing, they were at eye level. Taking a deep breath, she mentally prepared herself. Before she could let it out, Asa said, “It was Aaron here who set Brent on you.”

She couldn’t have heard right. She glared first at Asa, then at Aaron before repeating the procedure. She couldn’t focus on either, but kept bouncing between reassurance and disbelief. She released her breath in an explosive, “What? But you said you wanted me to marry Jed!”

He glanced down and muttered, “That was after Brent turned out to be such a disappointment.”

The only word she could push past her anger was, “Why?”

Aaron reached out a hand to her. “You needed a husband, Elly, and you weren’t interested in the local boys. You wanted someone prettier with more flash.” He shrugged. “I wanted you to be happy, so when Brent passed through, I made him a deal.”

Her breath came in hard gasps. “You bought me a husband?”

“I made him a deal. Cash for passing on my orders and keeping you happy.”

She remembered Brent’s arrogance, heavy fists, and complete disregard for her feelings. No wonder he hadn’t cared. She’d truly been a means to an end. Spots of light danced before her eyes. She couldn’t get enough air into her lungs. Her words came out in jerky bursts of rage. “You spent six months traveling all over the place, picking out just the right stud for your precious breeding program, but, when it came to a husband for your best friend, you grabbed the first male wandering out of the saloon?”

“It wasn’t like that, Elly!”

She launched the vase at his head. He caught it and bent to set it on the floor.

“You couldn’t have ridden into Cheyenne to see if the pickings were better there?” she shouted.

She looked around for something else to throw. Asa obligingly handed her a couple of table legs. They bounced off Aaron’s shoulder and back.

He jerked upright. “Ow! Dammit, Elizabeth! Cut that out!”

“I don’t want to cut it out,” she retorted, looking around for something else to throw.

Cougar tossed Asa a book from the study. Asa passed it to Elizabeth. She heaved it at Aaron’s head. He deflected it with a forearm.

“Will you stop chucking things at me and listen?”

He took a step forward as if to grab her arm. She swatted him with a flower. She would have hit him again if Asa hadn’t gotten between them and slammed his hand into Aaron’s chest, sending him stumbling back a step. “Don’t you touch her.”

A sharp whistle was the only warning she had before Cougar lobbed a humidor her way. She caught it, but she couldn’t throw it. Not with Asa blocking her way with his big shoulders. Shoulders that were clearly squared for a fight.

She glanced at Aaron and saw the same itching need to exchange blows reflected in his face. “Get out of my way, Asa.”

With obliging quickness, he stepped to the left. “How could you do it, Aaron?” she asked, tightening her grip on the humidor. “How could you do that to me?”

“I thought I was giving you what you said you wanted.” He growled, running his hands through his hair. “I asked Patricia what women wanted and— Hell!” He threw up his hands. “Brent seemed heaven-sent. He spoke with fancy words, tossed compliments around like they were candy, and dressed Eastern.”

“You asked Patricia?” she asked in horror. Lord, did the whole territory know her best friend thought her so pathetic, he’d bought her a husband?

Aaron shuffled his feet, blew out a breath, then pulled his arrogance around him like a shield. His gaze locked somewhere over her left shoulder as he admitted, “I wanted you to smile again.”

“So you bought me a husband you thought would make that happen?”

“Yes.”

The humidor was tugged from her grasp. She looked down as Asa’s finger’s squeezed hers gently. She looked over at Aaron, standing before her. She saw the fear of rejection in his eyes as he stood there, pretending he didn’t have a care in the world. She remembered back to her youth, the times he’d stood by her. The times he’d stood up for her.

I thought I was giving you what you said you wanted.

Most especially, she remembered her whispering to him once that she wanted a prince in wonderful clothes who wouldn’t stink like cows, and who’d take care of everything so she’d never have to worry about anything again. She’d been so young when she’d told him her dreams. So young and ignorant of her own personality, but he’d remembered and taken to heart his promise to give her all that. He’d had to dredge the bottom of society to find the epitome of a fourteen-year-old girl’s dream, but he’d found it and gifted her with Brent. She sighed. Someday, she was going to have to get through to him that she was all grown up now and her taste had definitely changed.

“I can forgive you Brent,” she admitted. “Especially as I didn’t see through him either.” She doubted she’d ever get over the humiliation of that. “But what I can’t forgive is driving the Rocking C into the ground.”

Aaron’s hands clenched into fists, and even the curls on his head seemed to bristle. “I haven’t done a goddamned thing to the Rocking C!”

There was no mistaking the sincerity in his voice or his eyes. God, she was so relieved to be able to believe him. “But Asa said…”

“I was wrong,” Asa admitted heavily.

“Did I hear you right?” she asked

“I never said I couldn’t be wrong.”

“Not in so many words…”

He silenced her with a hard kiss. “You want to get into this right now?”

“Not particularly.” But later, that was a whole other kettle of fish. “But, if Aaron isn’t the one sabotaging the ranch, who is?” she asked.

“That’s what we have to figure out,” Cougar said, pulling the unlit cigarette from between his lips as he stepped away from the doorjamb.

“And fast from the looks of things,” Aaron interjected.

“The look of what things?” Elizabeth asked.

No one paid her any mind.

“Elizabeth mentioned that Jimmy might bear looking at.” Asa mentioned, releasing her hand and putting the humidor away.

“He’s good with a gun,” Cougar offered.

“He doesn’t have a reason,” Aaron countered.

“Revenge is usually reason enough for most things.”

Aaron cocked an eyebrow at Asa. “And you think losing a job would drive him to killing?”

“That and my objections to his treatment of ladies.”

Never slow on the uptake, Aaron cut Elizabeth a sharp glance. “Jimmy was pestering you?”

She shrugged. “Maybe he got the impression that, being for sale, I was up for grabs.”

“Goddammit, Elizabeth!” Aaron shouted, reaching for his nonexistent hat before dropping his clenched fist to his side. “I did not sell you!”

“That’s a matter of opinion,” she said with infinite sweetness.

“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t come to me for help!” Aaron growled.

“Elizabeth has a real aggravating habit of thinking she can solve things herself,” Asa said, giving her hand a warning squeeze when she would have answered for herself.

“She always has,” Aaron agreed. He looked at Elizabeth and then at the tall man beside her. He gingerly dabbed at the cut on his cheekbone with his finger. Some of the frustration ebbed from his face as he said to Asa, “I assume that’s a trait you’ll be working on?”

“I’ve about got it under control,” Asa answered with irritating confidence.

Elizabeth jerked on her hand. “I’m not deaf and dumb, gentlemen.”

Asa didn’t let go, but his “Of course not, darlin’,” was immediate enough to set her teeth on edge. The approving look Aaron gave him finished the job. What was it about men that drove them into an instant fraternity when they had a chance to gang up on a woman? Three minutes ago, Asa and Aaron were looking to kill each other, and, now, they couldn’t be more united than if they were brothers.

“You know,” Cougar broke in, his tone thoughtful, the cigarette between his lips bobbing like an exclamation point on every syllable. “If I’m remembering correctly, the trouble on the Rocking C started about the time Jimmy hired on.”

Aaron looked to Asa for confirmation. He nodded.

“From the books, that looks about right.”

“Jimmy might be our man, then.”

“Or not,” Elizabeth interjected before the idea could gain more momentum. “As much as I hate Jimmy, I just can’t see him masterminding a plan as complex as this one.”

“The man knows cows and the way a ranch works.” Asa shrugged. “Wouldn’t need much more than that.”

“But why?” she asked. “What did he hope to gain?”

Asa squeezed her hand. “The Rocking C.”

“And you,” Aaron added grimly.

“Pretty sweet reward for a year of easy pickings,” Cougar agreed.

Elizabeth remembered Jimmy’s constant pawing. Outright disrespect. Not a moment of his attention had been spent trying to get her to see him as her savior. Just the opposite, as a matter of fact. She said as much. She might as well have saved her breath.

“Never said the man was good at courting,” Asa countered.

“Jimmy was probably as ham-handed at that as he was at breaking horses,” Cougar agreed.

Aaron pinned her with a glare. “One of these days, you’re going to have to explain to me just how ham-handed a beau he was.”

Not while she was breathing, Elizabeth thought. All she needed was for Aaron to go looking for Jimmy and have Jimmy find out about it and shoot him in the back. Meanwhile, Cougar’s comment played on her memory. The plan to drive the Rocking C under was well-orchestrated, requiring finesse. The same sort of finesse required in courting.

“Brent was excellent at courting,” she observed aloud.

Her observation landed in the silence with the startling impact of glass shattering.

All three men stared at her like she’d lost her mind. Asa was the first to speak. “You can’t be seriously thinking that little pissant had anything to do with this.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “I think the chance bears investigating.”

“No offense, ma’am,” Cougar offered, “but your first husband didn’t have enough meat on his bones to toss a day-old calf.”

“It doesn’t take muscle to drive a ranch into bankruptcy,” she pointed out. Her observation fell on deaf ears.

“You may want to get back at the gambler,” Aaron reasoned, “but I met the man, Elizabeth. He was a spineless wimp.”

“My point exactly,” she agreed. “Just the type to lurk behind the scenes and take advantage of innocent women.”

“If that were the case,” Asa asked, “how come he didn’t kick up more of a fuss when you threw him over?”

“Yeah,” Aaron challenged. “He could have tied things up for years in court, rendering anything Asa tried to do useless.”

She didn’t have an answer for either of them. “I don’t know,” she admitted.

“Trust us on this one, Elizabeth,” Aaron said, reaching for his hat from the floor. “Jimmy had the knowledge and motive for driving the Rocking C under.”

“Brent just doesn’t have a motive that we can identify right now,” Elizabeth cut in.

“None that can be identified at all,” Asa countered.

Elizabeth yanked her hand free of Asa’s. She knew she was right, but without facts, she didn’t stand a prayer of busting through all that male self-importance.

“Anybody up for checking in town to see if anyone’s noticed Jimmy hanging about?” Cougar asked, rolling to his feet with an easy movement that drew the eye. He was, Elizabeth realized as he took the cigarette out of his mouth, a very masculine, very good-looking man in his prime.

“Good plan,” Asa agreed with a growl. Elizabeth glanced up and saw his gaze had followed hers. She bit back a smile.

“And soon,” Aaron cut in as he settled the brim of his Stetson to the proper angle on his head.

Asa waved Cougar ahead of him as he headed for the back door where his own hat was kept. “Yeah. There isn’t much time and, with bullets flying, I’m not sure how safe it is for the ranch hands.”

“You got any plans for what to do when we find him?” Aaron asked, trailing in his wake.

Asa looked pointedly at Elizabeth. “Why don’t we save this discussion for after we wash up?”