Rugged and Relentless (45 page)

Well, for one thing, Evie obviously already counted as senseless since she’d abandoned good sense at some point in the past few weeks. For a few others,
he’s not a stranger; he’s still Jake. He’s just a sorry, lying excuse for a Jake
. She harrumphed over that for a moment.
For another, it’s not that I was wrong about him wanting to kiss me, after all, and that goes a long way toward mending my tattered pride
. Though if her good sense hadn’t gone missing, that would most likely alarm her more than convince her she should stay.
Besides, it means I was right about Creed not really fitting him. And Braden knows about his name change, so it’s not a deep, dark deception
.

Just one he kept from her. Evie started scowling again.
Good thing I kept the right to slap the man, at least …

“We received news of my brother’s death a month after it happened back in January. He’d been out of town on business and never returned. They kept things hushed due to an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Edward’s death. He’d been accused of cheating in a poker game and drawing his gun on
another player who called him on it. The other player, a man named Twyler, was a quicker shot, or so the story goes.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your brother.” Evie patted one of the arms imprisoning her against the tree trunk before pulling back as if he’d scalded her. Impossible, really. Despite the protection of the thick trees above them, the rainy weather permeated everything with its chill. And Jake didn’t have his jacket any longer, because he’d given it to her. Her heart did an inappropriate little flip before she calmed it.

“Not as sorry as those who knew him would be.” His face hardened, grief and rage blending into a heartbreaking mask.

“Would be?” Evie echoed the tacked-on phrase in question.

“My parents—great believers in appearance on earth then forgiveness in heaven—decided not to announce Edward’s passing.” Jake’s hands fisted against the tree, fingers digging into bark until Evie winced. “I sent queries regarding the so-called facts surrounding his death, and assumed Father conducted his own investigations. All the while, they denied his death to me and never mentioned him to the outside world. By the time I did the unthinkable, looking through my father’s papers for any clue about Edward I’d missed, two more months had passed. Two months in which I could have been searching for Twyler.”

A chill having nothing to do with the weather crept down Evie’s spine. “Never say you seek revenge on a man whose only crime was to protect himself when your brother drew his gun.”

Lord, what do I know about this man? Where did I go wrong, believing his sweet words to be Your answer to my prayer for a loving husband? Have I misread everything and put myself in danger, only to dismiss the concern in favor of anger and curiosity? Give me wisdom, Father. I desperately need it now
.

“Anyone who knew Edward should know he wouldn’t cheat at a card game or try to swindle anyone. More importantly, he’d only draw his weapon to defend others first and himself last—never to threaten an innocent man. Never.” A muscle in Jake’s
jaw twitched. “Edward carried a large sum of cash on him the day of his death, along with a French coin weight. The twin of one I carry.” He pulled back to dig in his pocket, drawing out a square copper piece imprinted with a crown and fleurs-de-lis. “Neither the money nor the token—which has passed through our family for generations—were found on Edward after his death nor in his rooms. Twyler did it.”

Evie stared at the piece as Jake pressed it into her palm, its slight weight a much heavier burden than she expected as she passed it back to him. “Twyler. Twilight. Liar. It’s a name for a thief or a man who lives in darkness.” She traced the small crown with a fingertip. Understanding flooded her. “Creed means belief, but it also means watchword or token. You chose the name because you believe in your brother’s innocence, and you carry the token you hope will prove it when you find its match.”

“Somehow Twyler murdered my brother, robbed him, and not only escaped but ruined Edward’s name in the process.” Jake’s fist swallowed the weight. “The papers in my father’s study—he wasn’t tracking my brother’s killer. He paid off officials and witnesses to cover up the ugly incident and pretend it never happened.” Jake’s voice went gruff. “My father … Evie … he even paid Twyler to keep the secret. Our father betrayed Edward by believing the lie and disowning my brother in his death.”

“Oh, Jake …” Evie could find no words to comfort the man before her. “I see now why you left your family name.”
Your father needs a few lessons in what it means to be a family, and what it means to be decent, for that matter
. But it was Jake’s father, so she held her tongue.

“Not forever. Only until I find Twyler. I don’t know his face, only that he’s of average height, with brown hair and eyes.” Determination straightened his spine. “I don’t look like Edward, but the name would ruin my chances. So I became Creed. Twyler knows I’ve hunted him all the way to Colorado, Evie. I believe he came here.”

“To Hope Falls?” Evie’s hand went to her heart as though to keep it from leaping through her chest. “
That’s
why you came here?” She made as though to back away from him, to find the tree behind her a cold reminder she couldn’t hide her hot blush.

Was there ever such a fool?
Humiliation lanced through her in hot stabs. She closed her eyes and let the back of her head thump against wet bark.
Of course a man like Jake didn’t come here to woo a woman from an ad. The only man we didn’t ask which bride he’d choose was the only man who would’ve told us he didn’t want one at all, and here I went and
… Her eyes snapped open so wide she felt the strain clear to her hairline, but she couldn’t blink.

“I proposed to you.” Evie choked out the words, unsure if they were meant to be a confession or an accusation. “You let us think you came for a bride, and I convinced myself you chose me, but that wasn’t true at all.”
You never wanted me
. She couldn’t speak the worst hurt aloud, but the anger poured forth easily.

“It’s not why I came, Evie, but—” He reached to touch her face.

She slapped his hand away, talking over him. “You told me not to doubt myself, and you were right about that much. All along I should have been doubting you.” The realization freed her from one weight even as her humiliation kept dragging at her. “People may not like what they see when they look my way, but I’ve never hidden my identity or my purpose.”

His breath hissed in as though her words slapped him. Perhaps they did. “Try to understand, Evie. I have an obligation to my brother, and to protect others.”

“Protect …” Now was her turn to fight for breath as his meaning dawned. She turned and hit his arm as she headed for the diner. “Let me go. I have to find Cora and Lacey and Naomi. And Mrs. Nash, now.” Fresh rage flooded her. “You knew Twyler was here, and you allowed Lawson to bring Arla in her condition? How could you!”

“How could I not, when he told me after they were en route?”

She shoved at his arm and shoulder, which wouldn’t budge, tried to duck beneath, and found herself hauled back up against the tree. “How could you not tell us of the danger?” She fought to get past him. To Cora. And she didn’t get so much as half an inch until she made good on her threat.
Crack!
The sound of her palm striking his cheek split through the sound of rain falling and wind weaving between trees.

But still he didn’t let her get past him. “I deserved that. I deserve more than that.” The gruff edge to his voice grew more ragged. “But you four wouldn’t leave on your own terms, and if I’d told you, Twyler would have known I’d gotten this close. Then I’d never catch him.”

“But later, you should have warned us!” Even as she screamed it, Evie knew that if he’d told them, Lacey would have let it slip to Mrs. Nash, who would have told Mrs. McCreedy, and so on and so forth until Twyler slipped into the night like the criminal he was. “You disparage your parents for caring about appearances, denouncing hypocrisy when everything about you is a lie,” she yelled at Jake anyway. “The Word promises there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, Jake. Twyler’s time will come, and you can’t put others in jeopardy to hasten it! Now let me go, or you will regret it.”

“I already regret more than you can imagine, Evie.” He ignored her command, continuing to block her. “But you can’t tell anyone about Twyler. He’ll notice if you all act suspiciously, and he’ll run away only to come back and remove anyone he sees as a threat. You have to keep it secret.”

“I’ll protect my own, Jacob Granger,” Evie promised. Then she pulled out the only weapon left in her arsenal. She’d elbowed, kicked, stomped, scratched, pushed, shoved, pulled, pummeled, and slapped. Since she didn’t carry her reticule with the tiny pistol Lacey had given her, Evie took him down the only other way she knew how.

     THIRTY-THREE     

S
he cried.

Jake froze as his strong-willed, take-charge Evie dissolved into a series of sobs and sniffles to strike fear into the heart of Paul Bunyan himself.
And it’s all my fault
.

Before him stood a woman who sold her family home and began her own business to provide for her sister after their father’s death. A woman who packed up and headed West for the sake of her family, agreeing to marry so her friends could be secure. Evie could rise at dawn, feed an entire lumber camp, charm a contingent of loggers, and still have enough energy and determination left to console her sister and chastise a bullheaded Braden.

But I made her cry
.

It was enough to paralyze a far better man than Jake knew himself to be. So when she made a watery request for a handkerchief—and Jake couldn’t give her his trusty bandana, which covered the back of his neck and already held enough rain to fill half a glass—he did what he could. Which was thrust his hands into all his pockets in frantic hope he’d turn one up.

He didn’t even realize he’d been tricked until his back end skidded into the mud, the memory of Evie’s hands pressing
against his chest fading in the cold air. Jake didn’t recover in time to stop her as she stepped over one of his sprawled-out boots and beat a hasty retreat back to the diner.

Pulling himself from the mud with a sickly slurp, Jake started after her, ready to call her out on that piece of trickery.
Of all the underhanded things a woman can do
, he fumed, stalking down the mountainside after her,
crying has to be the absolute lowest. I never thought Evie would be so treacherous, adopting a pretense to get her way when I—

The air rushed from his lungs when Jake realized exactly what he’d done.
I did all that and more. At least she showed the decency to warn me I’d regret not letting her through. Instead of giving her some sign to be on guard, I insisted she trust me
.

Her charge of hypocrisy hung heavier than the rain beating down on him. The memory of Evie insisting they had different definitions of honor wedged into the tree of his ideals until it was stripped of its branches and ready to crash to the ground.

Jake had, indeed, told Evie not to doubt herself, but she’d never pretended to be anyone other than exactly who she was. She didn’t keep secrets or hold grudges against people who made wrong decisions on her behalf or the behalf of those she loved. If Evie didn’t bear the gift of forgiveness—or at least tolerance—Braden Lyman wouldn’t still be drawing breath.

But she’d never doubted him—because he’d shown the arrogance not to doubt himself. He’d fallen into the same trap as his parents—living out one life before the entire town but privately hiding an entirely different person.
No more. No cause overpowers walking upright. It’s not seasonal work
. Aside from keeping the name Creed until he caught Twyler, Jake wouldn’t allow any more shadowed truths.

Clear Edward’s name, be proud to claim my own, then offer to share it with Evie. That’s the new plan
. Jake straightened his shoulders as he neared the doors to the diner … and heard the unmistakable sounds of a brawl in progress.