Whispers (45 page)

“
Why do you hate me, Athena?”

I thought my forthrightness would catch her off guard, but she didn’t miss a beat of the eggs in her giant bowl.

“
You bring pain to my Chick.”

“
I do no such thing.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You will. I see it.”

“
You see it?”

“
All the time I see trouble come our way and I don’t see no face. But you, I see you. I see you bring death.”

I was shaking my head, but she glared at me with dark certainty.

“
You are wrong. It’s not me that brings death. It’s Aiken.”

“
It you.”

With that she turned her back and carried her bowl to the stove. There would be no more conversation. Still, I had to ask, “Do you know where Sawyer went?”

“
To the bank,” she said, not turning.

My surprise couldn’t have been greater. I left the kitchen and hurried to the storeroom where he kept the money. The lock was still on the door so I could not look inside, not that I would know where exactly he hid it, but I wanted confirmation that this was indeed where he’d gone. A dark feeling had gathered in my belly and I knew that until I’d seen him and held him and apologized it would not go away.

I poured myself a cup of coffee and sipped it quietly while the girls meandered down the stairs. I braced myself for the moment when Aiken would appear, but he did not follow this morning. The anxiety I felt tightened.

When Meaira plopped down with that distant look about her, I asked, “Where is Aiken?”

“
Don’t know. He said something about finding Jake Smith though. You made him mad.” She hummed for a minute, distancing herself from the world with the simple sound. “You made him mad,” she repeated in a sort of sing-song.

It took a long moment for her words to sink in, but once they did I came to a horrifying conclusion. Aiken must have known where Sawyer was going. He must have decided what better opportunity to do away with me than when Sawyer was gone. For he knew that I was the reason behind Sawyer’s change of heart about their “partnership.”

I stood so abruptly my chair fell over. “He’s bringing Jake here,” I said, though I’d heard her clearly enough the first time.

“
To hurt you.”

I looked at Chick’s stricken face and Honey’s widened eyes. “I must leave. Chick, we must leave. All of us.”

As soon as I spoke, I realized what I’d done. Meaira looked placidly back at me but I knew she’d betray us at the first opportunity. There was nothing I could do about it now. I wouldn’t tell her more though.

I hurried to the kitchen, gesturing for Chick and Honey to follow. Athena looked up coldly as we entered.

“
We must go,” I said. “Aiken is bringing Jake Smith here.”

“
That ain’t our business,” she said.

“
He’ll kill me.”

“
We leave, Aiken kill us,” Athena told me.

“
He’ll kill Chick either way,” I said.

Athena’s eyes widened. Honey asked, “Why do you say that?”

I looked into Chick’s sweet face, silently apologizing for revealing her secret. But it could not be kept any longer. Surely, she must see that?

“
I gots a baby in me,” Chick said.

The silence that covered the room was chilling. Athena put her hands over her mouth, her eyes widened with pain.

“
No,” she said.

Chick nodded. “You know what he do to me. Ella right, we gots to go.”

Athena shook her head again, refusing to hear the reason in Chick’s words.

“
I can’t,” Honey said. “He’ll find me or he’ll kill everyone I love.”

My heart broke for wanting to help her. But I saw the truth of what she said. I wasn’t sure any of us would survive this. I would be lucky to help myself and Chick.

“
Go get your things,” I told her. “I have enough money to buy horses for all of us. We’ll go as far as we can and then we’ll figure out what to do next. You too, Athena. She won’t go without you.”

Athena slowly sank to a chair, hands still over her face, head shaking in denial. “Not my Chick,” she moaned. “Not my baby Chick.”

I realized there’d be no reasoning with her until she recovered. All I could do was leave her to Chick while I went to procure horses.

On my way out, I saw Meaira still sitting where we’d left her, humming that tuneless melody and staring out at nothing at all. My common sense told me to keep walking, to say nothing more to her. But the way I lived now aside, I’d been raised a Christian and I could not turn my back on someone so obviously lost.

“
Meaira,” I said. “You heard us, earlier?”

“
You’ll be going.”

“
You can come with us.”

A soft light entered her eyes, a light that spoke of the woman she’d been before Aiken Tate. “No place left for me, lass.”

“
Will you tell him?” I asked, when I meant, will you betray us?

The light wavered and became murky, like the woman herself. “I canna promise you I won’t.”

That was as much as I would get, and I knew it.

The livery was filled with animals that had been bartered for money to buy mining equipment and I was fortunate enough to have a pick of three of the heartiest. The expense took a toll on my savings, but there was no choice. I had to get away. I would leave a note for Sawyer under the storeroom door where only he could find it. I would explain where I’d gone and why. I would beg for him to understand. I would make amends. But I could do nothing if Jake showed up to kill me and so I had to make haste.

When I returned, Athena and Chick were waiting. I took the horses to the back and we loaded them, knowing that we might not make it through another day. I shuddered when I imagined Aiken’s reaction to finding us gone. I wished that Honey would come too, but I knew for her, death was preferable to being responsible for what he’d do to her family.

“
I’ll take care of Meaira,” Honey told us as she hugged me good-bye.

“
And I’ll take care of Chick and Athena,” I said in an undertone, so Athena wouldn’t hear. She’d like as not have my head for such a presumption.

“
You’re the bravest woman I’ve ever met,” Honey said as she held me tight.

Before she could step away, Aiken rounded the corner and with him was Jake Smith.

It all happened fast, yet each moment imprinted in my mind. Aiken yanked Chick off her horse and pushed her back against the rail. Athena and I had yet to mount and Athena rushed to Chick’s side only to be dealt a leveling blow from Aiken. Jake had his gun pointed at my heart before I saw it clear the leather of his holster. I stared down the barrel of it, knowing my last breath was about to be drawn. “You killed my brother,” he said.

“
You killed mine first,” I said back, nearly laughing at the childish exchange. But there was nothing funny about dying. Nothing funny about having your body riddled with bullets. From the corner of my eye, I saw Athena, sprawled at Aiken’s feet. He had one boot pressed against her face, and was grinding her cheek into the gravel. He held Chick by the throat, as he had me last night, but there was more restraint than intent in his grip. She was sobbing, begging that he forgive her.

The weight of my failure nearly overwhelmed me. Whatever I’d intended, I’d most certainly sealed our fates with my brash plan. Had I really thought I could outsmart Aiken Tate?

“
It your baby, Aiken,” Chick sobbed. “It yours ‘cuz ain’t no one else wit me then. We was away on the trail. You ‘member?”

Aiken looked dumbfounded and I had a moment to wonder if Chick told the truth. Why hadn’t she said so before? Would it make a difference?

Aiken frowned at her. “Baby?” he sneered. “Ain’t no baby of mine.” He faced Jake again and said, “Are you going to kill her or fuck her?”

Glaring at me, Jake snorted. “Both.”

He lowered the gun and then whipped my face with it. It felt as if my cheek exploded and I reeled back, crying out with the pain. I realized as I lay crumpled on the ground, that I was calling Sawyer’s name.

Jake leaned over me. “He ain’t going to save you, girlie.”

Then he yanked my skirts up and tore my undergarments away. My rage became something wild and living.

I had survived too much to give in to this monster. Aiken stood watching with cold enjoyment as Jake fumbled his britches open. I felt the hardness of his belt, the stiff leather of his holster and something ... my hands were pinned at my side, but Jake’s knife sheath was just at the tips of my fingers.

He loosened his pants and pulled himself free. I forced myself to relax against the rocky ground and spread my legs so that he slipped between them, bringing my hands within gripping range. My fingers curled around the smooth hilt of his knife and I slid it free just as he shoved into me. My shout was of humiliation, of violation, but most of all, of rage. I came up hard with the knife, slamming it into his side just beneath his ribs and then yanking it out as he sat straight up, reaching for the wound. Before he could react, I’d buried it to the hilt in his heart. His face contorted with pain and shock. He wavered, still between my legs, his erection not yet aware that the rest of him was dead. I pushed him back and wiggled away as he fell over.

Aiken stared at me like he couldn’t believe what he’d seen. I couldn’t believe it either, but I would cower under no man, not Jake Smith and not Aiken Tate. I faced him brave and bold and utterly defenseless. I realized too late I’d left Jake’s knife embedded in his chest.

Time simply stopped.

His foot still ground Athena’s face into the dirt. He still held Chick’s throat clenched in his left hand. And I stood before him.

“
Let her go,” I ordered.

A bemused smile tipped his mouth. “No,” he said, but then he pushed Chick away and pulled his gun in one swift movement. All sense of time and place left me as I saw Chick stumble over Athena’s inert body at the same moment Aiken cocked his pistol. I heard the sound of the shot crack the air, smelled the smoke, tasted the gunpowder at the back of my throat, and then something slammed into me with a force that knocked me backward. I felt as if I was being smothered. My skirts had somehow tangled around my face as I fell and I fought to get free, waiting all the while for the paralyzing pain and the blood that would spill with my life.

I heard a sound I didn’t understand as at last I tore free of the fabrics that caught me like a web. I struggled up and out and only then did I realize what had happened. Chick lay sprawled beside me, the back of her blue dress stained with blood. The sound I heard was Athena, keening like an animal as she clawed her way out from under Aiken’s foot. Her face was bloody where she’d sacrificed the skin of her cheek to get free.

I heard myself screaming, “No, no,” over and over.

I spun to face Aiken, thinking I would rip him apart with my bare hands for what he had done. He didn’t hesitate or mourn the sweet girl that lay at our feet. He raised his gun again and pointed at my chest.

“
Don’t do it, Aiken.”

I heard Honey’s voice in the same instant the gunshot boomed loud around me. My hands went instinctively to my heart, trying to protect against the hard flash of death. But there was no blood to hold back. No pain to endure. Stunned, I locked eyes with Aiken. Only then did I understand.

As if rehearsed the two of us turned our heads to face Honey. She stood on the porch, my daddy’s rifle in her hands. A small wisp of smoke drifted from the barrel.

“
That’s for my baby brother,” she said. Her hands shook as she struggled to open the chamber and load it again. I saw in Aiken’s face the thought to move, to get the rifle away from her, but already the feeling had drained from his fingers and his gun clattered to the ground. Blood spread in a seeping circle from the first bullet she’d put through his shoulder and I knew it was shock more than aggression that kept him standing. She slammed the chamber shut and pointed it again.

“
This is for me,” she said softly, and pulled the trigger.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

REILLY had seen violence. He’d been raised on it. But he’d never seen cold-blooded murder. Bill lay crumpled on the floor and Zach, the kid Reilly had thought harmless, but not very bright, held the gun pointed at Analise.

“
Wait,” Gracie said, moving to protect her daughter and finding that Brendan had already shielded Analise with his body. Gracie stopped in front of them both. “There
was
money. A long time ago. My grandmother gave it to me when she threw me out. She gave me a suitcase with close to fifty thousand dollars in it. I never knew where she got it, but she gave it to me to start over. I lived on it. I spent it. It’s gone.”

The look on Zach’s face made Reilly’s stomach plunge and a tightness gather in his belly. It was a look of desperation. The look of a man who’d banked everything on door number one, only to find nothing behind it.

“
It’s not gone,” he said through gritted teeth. “Tell me where it is, Grandma. Tell me where it is.”

The faces around them mirrored the exact same expression of shock. Chloe turned her eyes to Zach and shook her head. “I don’t know. He looked for it. He thought they had it.”