Say You Love Me (39 page)

"And how would she know where to find him?" he asked incredulously, dread creeping through him as all the pieces began to come together.

"I sent him to Beaufort, South Carolina, to work for a family friend." She looked at her mother again. "Did you also pay him the thousand dollars you were going to borrow from Cousin Olivia to entice him even more?"

"Oh my god!" Michael slammed his palm against his forehead. "I gave Mother a thousand dollars out of the safe that night I returned with Jacie. I had too much on my mind then to wonder why she wanted it, and I had forgotten about it since.

"Damn you to hell!" He whirled on Verena, fists clenched as he fought to keep from yanking her from the Indian's grasp and killing her himself. "You did it, didn't you? He's got her, and it's your fault. Now where is he? Where did he take her?"

Luke released Verena and stepped away. Let the two fight it out between them, he decided, and he would listen to every word, and as soon as he got some idea of where the man called Newton had taken Jacie, he'd be on his way.

But just then the door to the parlor burst open and Michael's overseers rushed in. There were four of them, all carrying guns leveled at Luke.

"It's about time," Michael roared, motioning to them to take Luke. "If he won't drop the knife, gun him down."

Luke knew he didn't stand a chance. He was also afraid that if there was a fight, the women would be hurt, and he didn't want that. He had never intended to kill the fat noisy one he'd been holding, had only wanted everyone to fear that he would. He had meant what he said—he only wanted Jacie, but now it appeared she was lost to both of them, unless...

"Hear me, Blake," Luke said as his arms were yanked behind him, his wrists quickly bound. "I'll help you. They can't have been gone very long. I can track them. I know how. You don't. We'll slip up on them, take him by surprise. If you go after him, he'll hear you and hide, and then you'll never find him. You've got to let me help." He knew he was taking a risk. They could use him and gun him down later, but he had to save Jacie—even if it cost him his life.

"What do you want us to do with him?" Bart Ballough, the head overseer, asked Michael.

Michael sneered. "Hang him."

Elyse screamed, "You can't do that! Listen to him, Michael. What he says makes sense. Jacie can't have been gone over a couple of hours at the most. But Zach won't take the main road. He probably knows the countryside better than you, and he'll know how to keep to the woods and streams so you can't follow him. And he won't take her back to Beaufort, anyway, because he can't be sure Mother wouldn't eventually admit what she'd done, and then you would go there looking for him. So there's, no telling which direction he'll head."

Bart drew Michael away from the others. "Look, boss," he said quickly, "I don't know what's goin' on here, but it sounds to me like you've got a mess on your hands. If what your cousin says is true and Newton does have Miss Jacie, you got a problem, because the lady's right, he knows the back trails better than any of us. But the Indian could track him. They got noses like bloodhounds, I hear."

"I don't trust him."

"What can he do with guns on him? Give him a chance. Hell, we can kill him after he finds her. It's worth a try. And we're wastin' time," he reminded Michael. "This place is goin' to be fillin' up with folks within the hour."

"All I want is to find Jacie."

"Then let's go," Bart urged. "Give the Indian a chance."

Michael studied Luke, bound and helpless. He knew now that his suspicions were correct. For him to have come so far, to have been so all-fired hell-bent to let Jacie know he was still alive, it could only mean the two had been lovers.

Michael felt like he'd been kicked by a horse.

His mind was spinning furiously as he tried to figure out what he should do.

Jacie believed Luke was dead, and Michael would prefer she continue to do so. He did not want her to be tempted to return west, fancying herself in love with the Comanche and remembering how the mother she had just found out she had was also there, Still, all things considered, what Bart had dourly said was true. They stood only a slim chance of locating Zach without Luke's tracking ability.

"What's it goin' to be, boss?" Bart prodded.

Elyse sobbed, not caring who was listening, for she was beyond shame now. "Please, Michael. Go after her. If I can't have your love, at least don't give me your hate. You will never forgive me if you lose her. Let the Indian help you, please."

Verena, who had retreated to a far corner, suddenly wailed, "You little fool. We could have had it all. Zach would have taken her where nobody would ever have seen either of them again." She glowered at Luke. "What the hell did you have to show up for? None of this would've happened if not for you."

"Oh, yes, it would," Elyse said with fervor. "I had my suspicions, and as soon as I made up my mind you were responsible, that you had sent that letter to Zach and that he really had come and gotten her, believe me, I would have told Michael everything.

"I watched his face while you were talking tonight," she rushed on. "I could see his misery growing with every word you spoke, how he was thinking to himself maybe she really had run off with a man, and it was killing him, and it was killing me to see him suffer. God knows, Mother, when you love someone, you don't want to cut his heart out. I couldn't have lived with myself knowing what I'd done to him."

"Fool," Verena repeated with a sneer. "Think about that when you're a spinster in the poorhouse."

Despite the turmoil going on all around them, Michael could not help feeling compassion for Elyse. Even though he could have wrung her neck for what she had already done, he would never have learned the truth if she hadn't confessed. And how could he condemn and despise her when she loved him so much? "I don't think Elyse has to worry about being a spinster," he said quietly. "A man will come along one day who sees her for the gem she is. As for you, dear cousin, I think it's time
you
took up residency at the poorhouse." He motioned to one of the servants. "See that she's packed and out of the house within the hour. Have a carriage take her to Atlanta tonight and leave her at a hotel. I never want to see her again."

Hearing her sentence, Verena screamed and ran from the room, but Elyse stayed where she was to plead with Michael, "Let her stay till morning, please. I'll have to go with her, and I don't want to leave till after you've found Jacie. I want to know she's all right, and I want to try to apologize to her for all the grief I've caused."

"Very well," Michael dismissed her, despite feeling so sorry for her. It was time to go. He went to where Luke was being held and said tersely, "You're going to lead us. We'll follow your orders, but I promise, if you try anything, you'll be dead before you hit the ground."

"I didn't come here to kill anybody, Blake. I told you, I only want Jacie to know I'm alive."

"You aren't going to try and take her back?"

"Only if she wants to go. Will you agree to let her make up her own mind?"

"Yes," Michael lied, feeling no guilt to make a promise he had no intention of keeping. Jacie was his. It was the way it had always been, the way it would always be.

He told Bart to take Luke to wherever he'd left his horse, and he would meet them at the stables. Then, when he and Elyse were alone, Michael began, "Look, I have no right to ask you to do this..."

"Anything," she was quick to assure him. "I'm willing to do anything to try and make up for what I've done."

"Despite what's happened tonight, my guests are going to be arriving, and they can't know about any of this. I want you to be hostess for me. Explain that my mother has fallen ill, and Jacie and I are sitting with her. I'll try to get back as quickly as I can and put in an appearance. If I don't, you will have to make my apologies, and everyone can think Mother took a turn for the worse. You will have to confide in Dr. Foley, however, because he'll insist on looking in on her, but he won't tell anyone else."

"I will take care of everything. Don't worry."

"I'll have the servants carry Mother upstairs and have someone stay with her. As for
your
mother, I'm leaving orders she's to be locked in her quarters."

"And I don't blame you. Now hurry," she urged.

He started out of the room but turned at the door to tell her, "I appreciate your owning up to what you did. If you hadn't, there wouldn't be any chance at all of my finding Jacie. I will always be grateful."

And I will always love you,
she vowed silently, watching him hurry on his way.

Chapter 30

Zach was tired. He had ridden like the devil from Beaufort, with hardly any sleep. Now it was starting to rain, the wind blowing like crazy, and Jacie was making choking sounds as he held her in front of him on the horse like she was having trouble breathing. He decided it was time to stop for the night. It had to be after midnight, anyway, and he was so damn deep in the woods, Blake would never be able to find him.

He yanked the gag from her mouth, and she began to cough and gasp. He could have removed it hours ago but didn't want to listen to her screaming and was not about to now. "I'll leave it out as long as you keep your mouth shut," he warned. "I don't want to hear your bitchin', understand?" Her chest was heaving, and Zach liked the feel of the rise and fall of her breasts against his arms as he held the reins.

"Why are you doing this?" Her throat was sore and raw from trying to shriek against the gag. "We used to be friends—"

"Friends!" He guffawed. "You can't fool me, Jacie, girl. You wanted more than that, and you know it. And now you don't have to pretend no more, because you aren't ever goin' to see that wet-behind-the-ears ninny Blake again. You're goin' to be my woman."

"You're crazy," she hissed through clenched teeth.

"I think maybe we'll settle in Savannah," he mused. "I can always find work at the docks there. We can get us a little house in the country, and you can grow a garden. We'll have us a good life, you'll see. And we'll have lots and lots of young'uns."

She squirmed against him, wishing she could loosen her wrists and get her hands on a knife. "I'd rather die than have you touch me," she swore.

"Well, touch you I will," he cackled, squeezing her breasts. "And if you don't shut up, I'll gag you again. I've got to find us a place to hole up for the night, and then I'll make you feel so good you'll beg me to take you over and over. You'll see."

Lightening split the sky, and he cried, "We're in luck. I see something over there. Looks like an old shack."

He rode the horse right through the door of the dilapidated structure. Water was pouring through holes in the roof, but one corner of the room was dry. He lowered Jacie to the dirt floor and dismounted. "I got a blanket in a canvas bag that shouldn't even be damp. We'll bed down here. Now get your clothes off. That fancy gown you got on is soakin' wet. I got some trousers and a shirt in my saddlebag you can put on later. Right now..." and he drank in the sight of her as the storm once more lit up the night, "you don't need no clothes."

* * *

Luke had also seen the deserted shack in the flash of light, for he had been leading Michael and his men for some time without them knowing how close they actually were to Zach Newton. He had used all his Comanche cunning to feel for broken branches along the way, feeling for raw edges that let him know they had been recently torn by a horse passing by. He had also dismounted to get down on his hands and knees to check the depth of tracks in the mud to determine there was not one rider on the horse but two.

And as the storm had intensified, Luke had been confident Newton would seek refuge and figured he was inside the shack.

But he was not about to tell Blake, well aware Blake intended to kill him the second he no longer had any use for him.

"I think we should take shelter there." Luke pointed as the storm again lit up the night. "I can't find any more tracks in all this rain."

Grudgingly, water running off the rim of his hat, Michael agreed. "All right. But only till it slacks up."

Luke swung down off his horse and began walking stealthily toward the shack. He knew Blake and the others would be right behind him and he had to hurry. Reaching the porch, which was not a porch any longer but a pile of rotted logs, he stepped through the debris and positioned himself at the window to await the next bolt of lightning.

It came.

And he saw them, a man and woman struggling on the floor.

This time there was no glass to shatter, but the Comanche war cry he gave as he somersaulted through the window and landed feet first inside the room split the air.

Taking Newton by surprise, he was able to easily tear Jacie from him. "Run!" he commanded her. "Get out of here—now!"

But Jacie was paralyzed with shock to hear Luke's voice. As another flash of lightning lit up the room, she fought to believe that it could actually be him.

At last she came alive. "Dear God. Oh, dear God, Luke..." She backed away as Luke and Zack began to grapple on the floor, cursing and grunting.