Stuck Together (Trouble in Texas Book #3) (17 page)

Vince had been riding in a flat-out panic the whole way home. His long-legged thoroughbred was game. They’d made the trip from Luke’s in record time. Dare and Luke were right on his tail, but he’d gotten a jump on them while they gave orders to care for Red Wolf.

The sun had dipped below the horizon as he neared town. In the winter dusk he listened for bullets, imagining his mother being gunned down. His new sister dying in a hail of flying lead. Tina lying dead, all the fire and sass gone.

As they’d neared Broken Wheel, Vince heard no gunfire. Was it over? Was everyone dead?

He raced for the diner and pulled his well-trained gelding to a halt so hard it reared up. Vince’s feet hit the ground before his horse’s did.

With his gun drawn he sprinted for the diner door, wondering if he needed to go in low. Wondering if the women were being held hostage. Would he meet armed resistance? The diner door swung open just as he was reaching for it. Ruthy smiled, sitting in a chair, holding the doorknob in one hand and a gun in the other.

Vince skidded to a stop before he plowed over Luke’s
pregnant wife. “What’s going on? I thought Lana was on a rampage. Tug said she was loose.” Vince heard his friends thundering up behind him and moved farther into the clearly unthreatened diner.

“We’re fine.” Ruthy shrugged, then looked past Vince and her face lit up with a smile she only used with Luke.

“Lana Bullard broke jail.” Jonas rose from where he sat playing checkers with Paul. Melissa, Tina, then a step later, Glynna came in from the kitchen. It was about the most peaceful scene Vince had ever encountered.

“Porter helped her. The two of them hightailed it straight west. Paul and I tracked them for a while, but they’d probably been gone for hours. We think they made the break right after you rode out of town, and we didn’t miss them until after the noon rush was over. They had enough of a jump on me I never caught a glimpse of them. I broke off the chase because I didn’t want to leave the women alone.”

Vince had his hands full not collapsing into a heap on the floor as the tension seeped out of every muscle in his body. He’d never been this scared in his life, and he’d fought in the Civil War.

Dare pushed past Vince and headed straight for Glynna. “She didn’t try anything?”

Glynna’s eyes filled with tears as she shook her head. “No, we never even saw her. We found out she was gone when Paul and Janny went over with dinner. I just let them go right in there. She could have been waiting. She could have hurt them . . . and I s-sent them.” Her voice broke, and Dare quickly wrapped her in his arms and held her as she sobbed.

Dare looked at Vince from where he stood holding his
wife. “I’m taking Glynna home. We can’t start after Lana tonight. Tomorrow is soon enough.”

Jonas said, “We checked your house thoroughly and there’s no one there.”

“Thanks,” Dare replied. “Paul, get Janny and come with us now.”

Paul ran up the stairs and soon returned with Janny and Mrs. Yates. Dare steered his family toward the back door.

“Wait!” Tina rushed to the kitchen. “Let me send you with a meal. I made enough for everyone. There’s no sense letting it go to waste.”

Dare gave her a grateful smile as she ladled a smaller pan full of the stew. No one knew better than Dare this was the best chance he had of eating well tonight. Tina filled a plate with biscuits and covered them with a red-and-white-checkered cloth.

Paul had the pot of stew. Janny took the biscuits. Dare drew his gun. The family left, and Tina locked up after them. When she returned to the dining room, Jonas and Melissa were gone, and Ruthy had fallen asleep with her head resting on the table.

“Where’d Jonas go?”

Vince gave Tina a dry look that told her she didn’t want to know.

“I’m taking Ruthy upstairs for the night.” Luke eased Ruthy into his arms and together they left the room. They could hear his heavy boots clomping on the steps.

“Would anyone like to play a hand of whist?” Mrs. Yates looked around the room. “Now where did I leave those cards?”

Tina quickly set a plate of steaming stew in front of Mrs.
Yates, and she must have been hungry because she forgot about cards and dove into the meal. Tina fed Vince and then threw a meaty bone to Livvy before sitting down to her own meal.

She set out plates for Jonas and Melissa and Luke, assuming they’d be back to eat.

By the time Tina was done eating, Mrs. Yates was nearly asleep where she sat on the bench. “Can you walk us over to the boardinghouse, Vince? You stand guard while I get your mother to bed.”

A deep snore sounded from overhead; there was no chance it was Ruthy. So Luke wasn’t coming back. “I’ll set the stew back on the stove so it won’t burn, and if Luke and Ruthy get hungry in the night, they can come down and eat something. Maybe Jonas and Melissa are over at Asa’s.” Tina realized then she was talking quite fast and not giving Vince much chance to arrange the evening. But all she could think about was getting Mrs. Yates settled, which meant shutting the woman in a room with Tina on the inside of the door and Vince on the outside.

Vince came around the table to where Virginia Belle sat next to Tina, and with a strong hand he helped his ma to her feet. “Let’s get you to bed now, Mother,” he said.

They walked to the boardinghouse, and Vince saw Tina and his ma all the way to the bedroom door.

“Tina, I think we should talk about—”

“Not now, Vince,” Tina interrupted. “Your ma is exhausted.” She then shut the door before he could say anything more.

Tina took her time getting Vince’s ma ready for bed—not that hard to take time at it because the woman was wearing all the underpinnings of a fine lady. A corset and chemise, petticoats and hoops, drawers and stockings and other things that Tina barely recognized, let alone figured out how to remove. Half of this wasn’t going back on the woman tomorrow, not if Tina was the one who had to get her dressed.

While she worked, she listened for Jonas’s voice, but it never came.

Tina finally admitted that her brother was so caught up in Melissa he’d forgotten he had a sister, a sister now left in a seriously improper situation.

If he did give it any mind, Jonas probably thought Ruthy and Luke were staying here.

Dare had herded his family home, wanting to get inside with the doors locked while Lana was on the run, not even thinking that within minutes Jonas and Melissa would abandon the diner to resume their courtship.

Then Ruthy had fallen asleep at the table, so tired she couldn’t keep her eyes open. The question was left open as to who would be chaperoning Tina and Vince. And Luke had probably never heard of the word
chaperone
.

Now here was Tina, wondering when Melissa would come back so she could take over the care of Mrs. Yates, and Tina could leave here and go to Jonas’s house. Until then, there was only one other person besides Mrs. Yates left to stay in this house with Tina, and that was Vince.

Which left Tina pretty much on her own with the most attractive man she’d ever known. A man whose intentions toward her were the exact opposite of honorable.

Tina’s excuses for staying closed in this room ran out
when Virginia Belle quietly began to snore. Livvy lay on the floor near Virginia Belle’s feet. For a moment Tina considered sleeping right there with Livvy. Why not bed down beside the dog? But she had no nightgown, the floor was hard and cold, and there were no blankets to make up even a simple pallet.

Melissa had to come back sometime.
She had to
.

Tina knew Jonas to be an honorable man, so she’d come. Yet Tina could picture the two of them, sitting in front of the fireplace at the parsonage, talking and getting to know each other. Courting.

Tina couldn’t interrupt them.

I’ll just duck out of this room and wait
downstairs. Vince may have already gone to bed. We won’
t even see each other.

That was a sound plan.

Quietly she stepped out of Virginia Belle’s room.

Vince stood at the top of the stairs, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. Standing guard.

“Uh . . . go on to bed, Vince. I’ll wait downstairs for my brother.”

Get away
before he speaks. Before you find yourself kissing him!

Tina turned toward the stairs.

“Stop.” His voice was deep and smooth. It touched a chord in her that rang like music.

Like a brainless ninny, Tina turned back to face him. To face the big dumb charming varmint.

“I’ll come with you, Tina. We need to talk.”

Oh, there was no doubt about it. She was a complete half-wit where Vince Yates was concerned, because she headed for the stairs without a word of protest.

She had to slip past him, and when she did, her skirts brushed against his legs. Her arm touched his. She felt those brief touches all the way to her bones.

Lifting her skirts to keep from tumbling, she took a firm grip on the banister and hurried down before her knees grew as weak as her will—both tended to happen in Vince’s presence.

She went into the front room. Cantankerous old Asa hadn’t been one to open his home for social gatherings, which explained why everything in this room was shabby and coated with dust. Vince must have lit the two lanterns that burned here, then gone upstairs to lie in wait for her like a hungry cougar . . . only better looking.

Tina had no idea how long Asa had owned the boardinghouse, but she got the feeling the furniture had been here before him. There was a threadbare sofa that might have been green once upon a time. An overstuffed brown chair with what looked like horsehair poking out in spots. Two small tables stood on either side of the sofa, each with a lantern. All of it was centered around a fireplace that looked as if it’d never been lit. It was stone cold, but it hardly mattered. Tina wasn’t planning to sit in here long enough to need a fire. She sank into the overstuffed chair that was at a right angle to the sofa and faced the door to the hallway.

Vince followed her into the room. She tried not to look at him, instead straightening the skirts of her blue dress as if her life depended on tidiness. He took a seat on the old sofa, as far away from her as he could. A second later, he stood back up and moved to the hearth and leaned against it. The man was as restless as Dare Riker. Next he went
to the door that led to the hallway. He opened the door wide and stood so he could see upstairs yet still keep an eye on Tina.

“Well? What is it, Vince?” Tina felt what little composure she possessed slipping away. “I’m tired. Unless it’s really important, let’s have this talk in the morning.”
Or never
.

Vince crossed his arms, then uncrossed them. He ran both hands through his hair and made a mess of it. Tina had to fight back the impulse to go smooth his hair back into place.

“How’s Mother?” he asked.

Tina knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Vince hadn’t brought her down here to discuss his mother. Still, it was a safer topic than any that were on Tina’s mind. “She seems fine. She asked for Missy a couple of times.”

Shaking his head, Vince said, “Looks like your brother will be marrying my sister. ’Course I just learned a little while ago I had a sister.”

“Love at first sight. Jonas believes he’s found his perfect mate, the one God chose for him.”

Vince shrugged. “So Mother wasn’t upset that Missy was gone?”

“Not really. She thinks I’m a housemaid. I told her my name, but she called me Clara a couple times today.”

“I don’t remember a Clara from our home in Chicago. Maybe it’s someone she knew when she was a child.” Vince sighed so heavily that Tina had to let go of some of her anger out of sympathy for him.

“Don’t worry, Vince, we’ll figure out a way to take care of your mother. Once Jonas and Melissa are married, Jonas can move in here with you and that will be one more
helping hand. But it’s not proper for me to be here with you. I think I should go stay in your mother’s room until Jonas brings Melissa—”

“About that kiss . . .” Vince began, cutting her off.

She’d really hoped she could avoid this conversation for tonight. Honestly she’d hoped to avoid it forever, but one night at a time. “It was a mistake, that’s all.” Tina talked fast. “You were tired. I was upset. Let’s forget it ever happened.”