Tall, Dark, and Determined (6 page)

Clump … brightened. A grin split his face in a smile wide enough to look painful. “So you held my suspenders to find out who stole your brother's coin and hunted him down for justice. With Earl and the others gone, now all is good in Hope Falls, and I can return to Miss Thompson and ask her to be mine.”

Not good
. Jake fisted a hand around those familiar suspenders before he even decided to do it. “Listen, Clump. You're a good man, but I'm only going to say this once. Evie's my fiancée now, so you aren't going to try to court her anymore.”

An outraged growl sort of strangled from Clump as he jerked his suspenders free and backed up. “I called dibs on her!”

“And I refused.” Jake grinned.
Evie was mine from the start
. “So admit you lost with good grace, and tell me you'll look after her and the others while I'm gone. Otherwise I'll have to ask you along when I haul Twyler back to Maine. Doc says he'll be able to travel day after tomorrow, and I'm not letting him postpone his meeting with justice a second later.”

“Who?” Bear practically choked the question. “Who is this murderer in our town, who fooled us all? How did you catch him?”

Seeing the look on the other man's face, Jake thought it best to give the short version of Lacey's kidnapping. No sense working so hard to capture Twyler and override his own need for vengeance just to have Bear kill him before the law tried him.

“Ye best be takin' him soon, Granger.” Riordan's voice darkened. “Afore I decide to teach the man a lesson about how to treat a dainty thing like Miss Lyman.” He cast a sorrowing glance toward the women's house. “The poor, sweet lady.”

“Vile, wretched beasts!” Lacey trudged along, swatting high-rising shrubs and low-lying branches out of her way. “Should all be strung up by their thumbs until they learn common decency.”

Surprising how good it felt to go for a brisk walk, exertion and exasperation driving the breath from her lungs and venting the trouble from her thoughts. Each step felt lighter, each word rang louder, and the forest seemed to welcome her.

She hugged her shawl—a light kerseymere chosen more for its soothing softness and beguiling strawberries-and-cream stripes than for warmth—around her shoulders as she muttered, “Or at least manners, which everyone knows are the pretense of common decency. Men should at least learn
that
much before being allowed in any sort of town. No matter how isolated.”

At first she'd rushed to get out of sight before anyone realized she'd slipped away from the house but hadn't joined Cora at the doctor's. Lacey didn't want to face Braden just now. She knew full well what her brother would say about yesterday's events—they'd all heard it well in advance. Memories tumbled through her thoughts like buttons shaken from a glass jar.

He'd been incensed when they first arrived in Hope Falls:
“You don't belong here. This is no place for women, and you need to pack up what I'm sure is too much stuff and head home!”
Of course, Lacey knew her brother was wrong.

Until that terrible night when Robert Kane led a few men to the house where they slept, intent on ruining more than their reputations. If it hadn't been for Granger—well, Lacey couldn't stand to think about that. Neither, she knew, could her brother. The almost-attack was Braden's worst fear sprung to life. How many times had he said it, trying to run them out of Hope Falls?
“Leave for your own good. It's not safe for you women here.”

But instead of leaving Hope Falls, she and the others simply had Mr. Lawson move in downstairs, where he could be close to his sister. Granger hired him to be their engineer, not knowing he'd tow a newly widowed, heavily pregnant sister along. But it worked out well for the purposes of protection.

Inside the house at least.

Outside, it didn't guard against Braden's judgment.
“No matter your intentions, no matter your plans, the outcome put you at risk.”
Which meant Lacey couldn't walk far enough or fast enough to outrun the most earth-shattering realization yet:
my
brother
was right
.

It was enough to make any woman question her surroundings, her plans, and even her own good taste.
Well, perhaps not that last
. Lacey ran a loving hand along the cheery rose of her surprisingly soft woolen skirts. After such a dismal yesterday, she'd chosen a bright new dress to lift her spirits, her resolve, and her ability to face the consequences of her mistakes.

The bonnet, with its matching ribbons trailing in a jaunty wave as she marched along, seemed a sort of battle standard for a formidable and fashionable woman. Yes, she'd planned for a difficult day full of brotherly recriminations by dressing to impress. Then promptly turned an about-face and avoided it all.

“Because, truly, after a woman's been kidnapped at gunpoint, lost any hope of her beauty sleep, and awoken to a morning without one of Evie's delicious breakfasts the first time she really needs one, she deserves some peace and quiet.” She announced this to the trees and sky at large, testing her argument. “Not that I'm typically the sort to enjoy quiet, but I've not had a moment alone in weeks. It's not safe.”

She mimicked her brother's censorious tones then sighed. This little excursion would only earn her more scolding from everyone—but with the worst of the loggers booted out of town and half the others still abed nursing wounds from yesterday's fray, it seemed the best possible time for a little private thinking.

“Not to mention that the odds of being manhandled by another crazed criminal the very next day must be incredibly low,” she informed a squirrel, which had frozen midscamper. The small creature seemed transfixed by this logic, as it didn't so much as blink, so Lacey continued. “Besides, I remembered my purse and am keeping one hand on my pistol. But you wildlife seem quite hospitable thus far. I doubt any bears lurk near—”

A massive, shaggy beast lumbered out of the shrubbery before she finished the sentence, sending her tiny friend shimmying up its tree and leaving Lacey speechless. For one wild moment, she imagined her comment conjured a bear—if for no other reason than to continue her recent streak of mistakes—but the animal now picking its way across a few boulders wasn't a bear.

Its size could give anyone a fright, but once Lacey's heart stopped fluttering along with her bonnet ribbons, she recognized the creature. She'd seen that shaggy silver-gray coat standing beside the new man in town.
A tamed wolf, perhaps?

Lacey remained still as it came to a halt a mere foot from her skirts, nose thrust forward in a curiously impertinent sniff.
Wolves aren't described as shaggy, nor this large
. She thought back over everything she'd read, looked over the creature now wagging its long, curved tail at her. She saw a dog's wide brown eyes, perked ears that nevertheless flopped back, and rounded cast to the muzzle.
Some sort of mix then
.

“Good wolf-doggy,” she crooned, ever so slowly extending one hand for a more thorough, moist sniffing. “Where's your owner? Lets you roam free? Lucky puppy.” A rough slurp of approval rasped her palm before Lacey gingerly scratched between his ears. Definitely a he. No female would be so unkempt.

Besides, males always like me
. She grinned as his tail wagged harder, mouth falling open in an unmistakable grin at the attention she lavished upon him, falling into step alongside her when she continued. In fact, she sped up a bit, enjoying the warm breeze and easy acceptance of the animal at her side.

Until her new friend tensed, fur rising along his spine in a long, thin patch. His nose thrust forward as he breathed deep, swiftly turning his massive head eastward to locate the source of a new scent. Growls rumbled low in his throat, a warning Lacey wasn't foolish enough to ignore.

    FIVE    

S
he pulled the pearl-handled pistol from her purse, spinning around to scan the trees for whatever upset her new friend. The dog crouched back on its haunches as though ready to spring. A blur of tawny brown flashed from Lacey's right, descending straight toward her with an unearthly howling. She barely had time to shoot before a cacophony of sounds and sensations overwhelmed her.

Everything seemed distorted. The shot had an unexpected, too-loud echo. Lacey heard a woman's scream, but would have sworn she hadn't the breath to make a sound. The animal from the trees knocked her down, but another force barreled into it before the thing did more than swipe her bonnet loose.

The dog
, she realized, pushing herself up on her elbows. “Here, puppy,” Lacey gasped.
It must have sprung on the other one
. Suddenly her friend filled her vision, concern clearly written on his furry face as he tried to nose her shoulder.

“I'm all right, boy. What was it?” She peered around him.
There
. A few lengths away, a large tawny animal lay unmoving.

“Cougar.” Without warning, a man spoke from behind her, hunkering down after appearing as though from nowhere.

Lacey shrieked and would have jumped if the dog weren't anchoring her skirts to the ground. Its wagging tail gave her an inkling of the man's identity before she really saw him.

“Decoy's made grown men run in fear.” The deep voice held an intriguing rasp, almost as though it went largely unused. “A cougar jumps you; you get back up. But I merit a scream?” An amused black brow arched at her over bottomless brown eyes.

Now that she'd gotten her breath back, Lacey realized a blush traveled along with it.
And he's laughing at me
. Rising to her feet without taking the hand he offered, she snapped, “Absolutely. Between a wolf-dog, a cougar, and a man, every sane woman knows which animal is the most frustrating!”

When he first spotted her, Chase closed his eyes, hoping when he opened them the vision would disappear. He cracked one lid open. Nope. Everything looked the same. Blue sky, green trees, gray boulders … pink fluff. And this time there could be no doubt.