The Tracker (15 page)

“You are afraid. This I understand. It is natural to think you’d never have to worry about money again.”

“I could give Rose so much.”

Annie shrugged. “You have already given her everything she needs.” She laid her hands on Ellie’s shoulders and looked directly into her eyes. “If you keep this gold, it will poison your heart. And then you will not be the kind of mother Rose deserves.”

Ellie already felt tainted by the gold.

“Even if you find the gold,” Annie continued, “you would spend your life worrying that someone else would steal it. You would treat this treasure like I treated the gold nugget. It will not bring you happiness.”

The baby started to fuss. “Let me get her,” Annie said. “I have missed my Rose.” Annie went to Ellie’s room and came out with the child on her shoulder. The baby quieted. “I think you must go find Nick and have a talk with him.”

Annie was right. The gold wasn’t hers to keep. It never had been and she’d been a fool to think it ever could be hers.

She stared at the worn map, wondering what Nick would say when she told him she’d kept this secret.

At that moment she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. Her heart jumped and she turned.

Nick stood behind her. Ghost Tracker. He’d moved into the cabin so silently she’d not heard him.

His gaze flickered from her flushed cheeks to the paper in her hands. He took the map from her hand and studied it. His lips flattened into a grim line. “And to think I actually believed you were an innocent in all this.”

The anger and disappointment in his face sliced at her heart. “I didn’t realize I had it until last night. Jade had hidden it in the back of the Bible she gave me.”

He shook his head and grabbed the map. “Save your story for someone who cares. Right now, I’ve had my fill of lying whores.”

E
LLIE HAD BEEN CALLED
a
whore
many times before, but the word had never cut her to the bone as it did now. She stood rigid, her limbs locked. She felt as if she could shatter into a million pieces.

From the threshold, she watched Nick hurry toward the barn. His broad shoulders were stiff. The map was clenched in his left fist.

“I should shoot him for speaking to you like that,” Annie said. Rose was on her shoulder, trying to lift her small head.

“He’s angry.”

“That gives him no right.”

Ellie shook her head. “I owe Nick an explanation.” The disappointment and pain in his eyes would be seared in her memory forever.

Hearing the sadness in Ellie’s voice, Annie sighed. “Then go after him,” Annie said. “You will have no peace until you talk to him.”

“I don’t know what to say to him.”

“If you care about him, you will find the right words.”

If she cared about him.
She did care about him. Her feelings for Nick were strong and powerful.

She closed her eyes. Nick Baron was dark and dangerous. And yes, honorable, with a code he would never break. God help her, but she didn’t want to lose him.

“Do you love him?” Annie said.

Ellie’s eyes snapped open. “No! He is the worst possible man for me to love. Nick flirts with danger so casually. I always dreamed of someone stable and kind, like Dr. Morgan.”

Annie sighed as she patted Rose on the back. “One way or another, you must resolve things with Nick.”

“I was so worried about him lying to me. And in the end I lied to him. He’s so angry.”

“If he is worthy of you, he will see past his anger and find forgiveness in his heart,” Annie said.

Tears cascaded down Ellie’s cheeks. “I don’t know if he can forgive me. No one has ever looked at me with such hate before.”

“He feels betrayed.”

An overwhelming sense of loneliness choked the breath from her. “What if he doesn’t forgive me?”

Annie, with Rose lying against her shoulder,
stood beside her. “Between men and women, there can only be great anger when there is great love. He would not have gotten so angry if his feelings for you didn’t run deep.” Annie set her jaw. “However, I would dearly love to give him a good thrashing for causing you such distress.”

A smile tipped the edges of Ellie’s lips. She pictured her petite friend thrashing Nick Baron. “For his own protection, I better go talk to him.”

N
ICK SWORE
as he stood by the corral. He stared off at the horizon. His blood boiled and he could feel a vein pulsing in his neck.

Ellie had lied to him!

Like Crystal and Gregory before him, she’d betrayed him!

He should have seen this coming a mile off, but he hadn’t. From the moment he’d met her, he’d been off balance. His guard had been lowered. God help him, but he’d felt a connection to her.

His feelings had blinded him to the possibility that she was lying. Since he’d come to Montana, he’d been so careful not to trust anyone. There’d been no sloppy mistakes with any woman.

Footsteps sounded behind him. He didn’t have to know who stood there. It was Ellie. Somewhere along the way her scent, her presence, had become
so familiar to him. It was as if they’d known each other a lifetime.

“Miss Adeline always said when a man’s angry it’s best to leave him be and let him cool off.”

His jaw tightened and released. “Maybe you best listen to that advice.”

Ellie moved beside him. She leaned against the fence, staring in the same direction he did. He could feel her warmth and, despite his anger, he grew hard just thinking about touching her. “I’ve never been good at taking advice. Miss Adeline always said I was hardheaded and single-minded.”

He wasn’t going to soften toward her. “Where is this going, Ellie?”

“I came here to apologize.”

“Why should you? You were doing exactly what I should have expected you to do. You were looking out for yourself.”

“You’re right, I was.”

A thick silence fell between them and for several minutes Nick did his best to nurture his anger. “I was honest with you from the first.”

“Except for the little white lie about you being a marshal.”

He set his jaw. “It’s not the same.”

“Isn’t it? You felt desperate. And I’ve felt a little
desperate these last months.” Her voice was quiet, as if the admission had cost her.

Nick kept his gaze nailed to the horizon for fear that if he looked at her, he would melt. “How long have you known about the map?”

“Not even a full twenty-four hours. I found it last night at bedtime.”

Damn his hide, but he wanted to believe her.

“I didn’t know the map was in the Bible when Jade gave it to me. She told me it belonged to her grandmother—that it was a family heirloom.”

Nick snorted. “Jade grew up in an orphanage in New York. She never knew her family.”

Ellie blinked, shocked by the information. “She sounded so genuine. I really thought she meant everything she said.” She frowned. “She told me Rose was the best thing that ever happened to her.”

Nick swallowed. “Likely, that part was true. Jade was a cold, calculating woman who never gave anything to anyone. She wouldn’t have given you the map if she hadn’t trusted you and wanted the best for Rose.”

“Then why not tell me about the map?”

“Jade always worked the angles. Maybe she figured Frank was on your heels. If you didn’t know where the gold was, then you couldn’t tell him. Jade hated Frank with a vengeance.”

Ellie nodded. “Jade used to make fun of him when he visited the brothel. She hated the way he would just sit and stare at the girls. It bothered her that he never bought time with any of them.”

This was new information to Nick. “He never spent time with the women?”

“No.”

“What would he do?”

“He always ordered a big meal, but he wouldn’t sit in the dining room with the other customers. He’d sit silent in the kitchen and eat while I worked.”

Ellie’s information fit with what he knew. “Frank and Monty’s parents lost their farm back in ’63. Frank always wanted to return to Missouri a rich man. The gold was his ticket back.”

“Honestly, I wish I’d never heard of the gold.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this information about Frank before?”

“I didn’t think it mattered much that he liked his steak rare and his potatoes with extra salt.”

Nick rubbed the back of his neck. He looked down at her. The sunlight caught her red curls, making them look so vibrant. The freckles over the bridge of her nose combined with her pale, smooth skin had a devastating effect on him.

This softness he had for her angered him. Never
before had he felt so vulnerable. Not even with Crystal. How could he ever believe her again?

“I’m not sure what you expect from me.” His voice held a bite he’d not expected.

She lifted her chin. Pride radiated from her. “I don’t expect anything from you. I came to give you my apologies, is all. I should have given you the map right off.” She turned to leave.

Before he thought, he reached out and took her arm in his. She stopped and looked up at him. The emotion in her eyes was as clear as the words on a page. Hope. Sorrow. Longing.

Unable to resist, he pulled her to him. She stood so close, the tips of her breasts brushed his chest. The top of her head barely reached his shoulders. He pushed her chin up so that he could see her lips. So smooth and round.

He leaned his face forward and gently kissed her. He wanted nothing more than to lose himself in her.

Nick savagely reined in his emotions. She was his Achilles’ heel. He broke the kiss and stepped back.

She looked confused and disappointed. “Why did you stop?”

He stabbed his fingers through his hair. “I can’t seem to control myself when I’m with you.”

Her lips glistened with the moisture from their kiss. “Is that so bad?”

“Yes.”

His raw honesty had her looking deeper into his eyes.

He swallowed, sure he could drown in those eyes. “God help me, but I’ve been through all this with my wife Crystal. Hell, it could have been July, she could have told me it was snowing, and I’d have believed her.”

She didn’t speak.

“Her lies and deceptions nearly killed me. I won’t go through that again.”

“All I can do is say I’m sorry. Lying is not my way.”

“Then why lie to me? Why didn’t you trust
me?
”

She met his gaze head-on. “Because you scare the living daylights out of me. I’ve been surrounded by men all my life. I’ve had more marriage proposals than I could count, but I’ve never had anyone throw me off balance like you have. For the first time, I understand how a woman can lose herself to a man. And I swore I’d never do that.”

“You do the same to me and I don’t like it one bit.”

She took a step back. “Maybe we’re too damaged to love or trust anyone.”

The truth wasn’t pretty. “Maybe.”

“Maybe it’s best things didn’t work out between us.”

He frowned. “Maybe.”

Her breath hitched in her throat and for a moment she didn’t speak. Finally she said, “I’ll keep my distance from you until this mess with Frank is resolved. After that, I wish you the best.”

He watched her walk back to the cabin with her back straight. So proud and tall.

Nick swallowed a lump in his throat and stared at the horizon again. Jagged mountains scraped the vivid blue sky. The sight of Ellie walking away was more painful than he could have ever imagined.

He crushed the gold map in his hand. He could put out enough information in the right places and soon Frank would know he had the gold, not Ellie. Frank’s greed would flush him out. And then Nick would capture him.

His business would be done.

He could get on with his life.

And he’d never see Ellie again.

The plan was perfect. And he knew in his heart it would work.

So why did he feel like hell?

E
LLIE COULDN’T SLEEP
that night. Everyone was asleep—Nick in his spare room, Mike in another and Annie in her room.

Tomorrow the minister would arrive. Annie and Mike would be married. Nick would leave.

She rolled onto her side and punched her pillow. Why should she care if Nick Baron walked out of her life or not? Sure she cared about him, but it wasn’t as if she loved the man.

Love.

The word flashed in her head like a streak of lightning.

Love.

Annie had asked her if she loved Nick. No, she did not love Nick Baron. Women who fell in love with men like him were foolish and, if anything, she was smart in the ways of men. Yes, she might have a weak spot for him, but love?

Unable to sleep, she sat up and lit a lantern. She glanced in the cradle at Rose. Satisfied the baby slept, she pulled on her robe. She’d expected to rise early in the morning to make Annie and Mike’s cake. She should grab what sleep she could now.

But she knew herself well enough to know that she’d not sleep tonight. Her mind and body were far too restless.

She moved quietly into the kitchen, careful not to wake anyone. She pulled out the mixing bowls. She collected the butter she’d churned just days ago, flour, the precious little sugar she had, along with the baking soda and salt. Luckily the chickens had pro
duced well this week and there were enough eggs. Normally, she’d have had to hoard them for days.

She measured the butter and sugar into a large wooden bowl and started to cream them with a spoon.

Ellie heard footsteps. She paused, torn between worry that it was Nick and guilt that she’d woken Mike or Annie.

Annie padded into the kitchen, pulling on a robe as she moved. “Can’t sleep?”

Ellie set the bowl on the table. “I’d hoped I wouldn’t wake you.”

Annie shook her head. “No, I wasn’t asleep anyway. These last two weeks, I’ve gotten used to having Mike by my side. I miss him.”

“Why isn’t he with you tonight?”

“He wanted to wait until the preacher said his sacred words over our union.”

“Have you and Mike thought about what you’ll do after the wedding tomorrow? I know he has a place in town.”

“The town has too many people for me. And since he can keep his coach and horses here, there’s no reason why he can’t live at the coach stop.”

“That makes sense.”

Soon Mike would want Annie alone in their new home, without Ellie and Rose underfoot. He would
never ask them to leave, but he would long for privacy with his wife.

Ellie and Rose would have to leave. She had suspected for weeks now that this time would come, but now that it was here, she felt great sadness. The coach stop had been her first real home.

In a second bowl, she measured out two cups of flour. Her movements were slow and deliberate. Concentrating on the cake was easier than thinking about her and Rose’s future.

“I can see your mind working,” Annie said. “You have nothing to worry about. There will always be a place for you here at the coach stop.”

Annie’s kindness touched her. She knew Annie meant everything she said. “A newly married couple deserves their own home.”

Annie shook her head. “Mike and I have already talked about this. He wants you and Rose to stay. We’ve talked about building another room onto the house.”

Ellie cracked two eggs into the batter. “Annie, that is so kind of you. But it’s not right.”

“Nonsense. I won’t hear another word from you. You and Rose are staying.”

Ellie smiled, but she was already thinking ahead. “Your life is moving on and I am so glad. But Rose and I don’t belong here.”

Annie looked stricken. “You are like my daughter, my family. It would break my heart to see you leave.”

A tear fell down Ellie’s cheek. “Daughters leave home. You left your mother’s home.”

Tears glistened in Annie’s eyes. “But I only just found you.”

“I am not going far away,” she said, swallowing the new tears burning her throat.

“I don’t want you to go.”

“We will go into town. I’ll open a café with my reward money. We will be fine. I promise.”