Black Conley (20 page)

With each foot again securely bound, he ran the feather over the arch of each foot and then alternated legs as he trailed it up to her pussy. Each movement of the feather was mimicked with his fingers on the opposite leg, until tears of delight ran down her cheeks.

He spread her pussy lips apart and ran the feather over her clit as well as her cunt until her pussy wept in anticipation of the act to come.

"You are evil, Black Conley,” she gasped. “Take me and end this agony."

"Not just yet, my dear,” he declared as he trailed the feather up her belly and used it on her sensitive nipples. At the same time, his fingers manipulated her clit before he plunged them deep inside her.

When he thought he could wait no longer to get the release he needed, he sat aside the feather and slipped his cock into her velvety folds. As he pumped against her, her muscles contracted around him, making him as much her prisoner as she was his.

They came together with more force than ever before. Reluctantly, he rolled off of her and untied her hands and feet. With that done, he pulled her into his arms. It wouldn't be long before they were both asleep, but he wanted this time to bask in the afterglow of what had just transpired between them.

"Did you mean what you said earlier?” he whispered, just before he was about to drift off to sleep.

"Yes, I did. I want your child. I know that with your profession I can't have you, but I can have a part of you, and that's all I ask."

He pulled her closer and fell asleep, dreaming of a child that would someday think of him as his pa, even though his name would be Barton.

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"We got hit again last night,” Kate declared. She had just returned from her morning ride.

"Again?” Black questioned.

"That's right. I just rode out to the canyon and the fence we put across the opening was cut last night. Guess the cold weather isn't stopping anyone."

Black pushed aside his uneaten breakfast and reached for his guns and coat. “I'm riding out there for a look-see for myself."

"I'm going with you,” Belle declared.

"Not on your life. This is something I'm going to be doing alone. If I catch up with them, I don't want any of you in the way in case there's gunplay."

"I'll go with you,” Roy declared, getting up from the breakfast table. “I ain't got my guns, but I do have a rifle in the boot of my saddle that should take care of just about anything we find."

Black nodded. He'd seen the older man shoot and was pleased to have Roy watching his back.

"Take my guns,” Cara said, pressing her gunbelt into Roy's hands. “It's hard telling what you two will run into. It's better to be safe than sorry."

Roy took the guns from Cara and followed Black out to the barn to get their horses.

"I certainly didn't think Clayte would try anything while it was still so cold out,” Roy commented.

"I've tracked my share of rustlers in my life and I don't put anything past any of them,” Black replied.

They followed Kate's tracks in the newly fallen snow to the canyon where then fence had, indeed, been cut. From beyond the downed fence, the cattle could be heard, calling to one another and pawing at the ground for the grass hidden beneath the snow.

The stupidity of cows never ceased to amaze Black. Why would they paw at the ground when there was plenty of feed in the shelters built around the edge of the canyon?

The tracks of horses and cattle leaving the enclosure were fresh. Considering the snow had fallen in the early evening, it was evident that the raid had occurred in the early hours of the morning. Rather than follow the trail, Black rode into the canyon to assess their losses.

Once deep into the canyon, he saw a riderless horse that seemed out of place among the milling cattle. As he rode closer, he saw a body lying on the ground. It looked as though the man had been caught in a stampede of the cattle and had been trampled to death.

"Oh, my God!” Roy exclaimed as he knelt in the snow next to the body. “This is Zeek Willows."

Black dismounted and went to look at the body they'd found. He was used to seeing dead bodies, but not ones of men he'd ridden with just months earlier.

As soon as he, too, knelt beside Zeek, he could see the shallow rise and fall of his chest. “He's still alive,” Black declared, “and he ain't been trampled, he's been beat up pretty badly and shot. Looks like someone wanted people to think that it was our cattle that did him in or worse yet that he was one of the rustlers and we shot him trying to get away with our herd. Help me get him up onto his horse and then you take him back to the house while I see how many steers we lost last night."

There was no way other than to sling Zeek over the back of his horse and secure him by tying his wrists and ankles together to get him safely back to where Belle and the girls could care for him. Black regretted doing such a thing to a living man, but he had no other choice in the matter. Zeek needed to be cared for and since he was unconscious, he wouldn't feel the pain until he awoke. Hopefully he would awaken and be able to tell them who was responsible for this.

After Roy left him in the canyon, Black took a mental count of the cattle. There seemed to be few lost, maybe ten head at the most. It wasn't the cattle these men were after.

With the fence repaired, Black followed the trail left by the cattle and riders. To his surprise, it led west rather than east and ended in a rocky area where following tracks was impossible. Even so he continued on until he came to another of the many canyons that dotted Belle's property. There he found not only Belle's cattle, but ones from Zeek's herd as well as Jeb's and Pete's. It was apparent that the rustlers were trying to not only put the blame on Belle, but also on Zeek.

After scouting the area, he realized that the men who had brought the cattle here had left through the rocks and their trail was impossible to follow.

Rather than riding back to the house, he made his way to Jeb's ranch. The older man was at the corral when Black rode in.

"What are you doing here, Conley?” Jeb asked.

"Just came to tell you that your herd got hit again last night."

"And just how would you know that, if you and Belle weren't the ones behind this?"

"Kate rode out to check on the Double Bar B herd this morning and saw that the fence was cut. When Roy and I went to investigate, we saw that there was a body among the cattle. It was Zeek Willows. He's still alive, or at least he was when we tied him to his horse so that Roy could take him back to the house to be cared for. Someone shot him but before they did, they beat him up. I followed the tracks and found cattle from your place, Zeek's place and Pete's along with Double Bar B cattle in a canyon at the far end of Belle's place. I could use some of your hands to help me drive them back to where they belong."

"Do you think Zeek is behind this?"

"I doubt it. Someone wanted it to look like he was and that we'd caught him in the act, but that's not the case. With luck, he'll pull through and be able to identify the real rustlers. Once we get some of your men together, we can ride over to Pete's and then stop at Zeek's place and let his wife know where he's at."

"There's no need for that. Zeek has been worried about everything that's been going on. He sent his wife and kids to visit her folks in Laramie for a while. He's been at his place alone for the past two weeks. Guess that would make him an ideal target, since no one would miss him until this morning. We'll get some of his men to help us, though."

Belle paced the kitchen nervously. She certainly didn't like the fact that Black and Roy could be riding into an ambush.

"Just what did you see out there, Kate?” she asked, once she turned from the window.

"Like I said, the fence was cut and there were tracks leading to the east as well as to the west. It was hard to tell which way they came from and which way they went."

Belle breathed a momentary sigh of relief. “If there were tracks leading away from the canyon, that means the rustlers are long gone. Did you check to see how many head they got away with?"

Kate shook her head. “I didn't want to ride in there alone. I thought I'd come back here and get help. I never considered the fact that Black wouldn't want us coming along with him."

"I know, we've become used to depending on him. Of course the fact that we haven't been hit since last fall makes a difference as well. I certainly didn't expect to have to deal with any of this until at least April or May. I can't believe they're so brazen as to come this far onto our land in the hopes of raiding our herd. I mean when it first happened in October, it was because someone was trying to frame us, but now, in the middle of a blizzard, it's just too hard to comprehend."

"Someone?” Annie questioned. “Don't you mean that lowdown snake Clayte Adamson and his cohort, Joe Calhoun? You know as well as I do that the two of them are thick as thieves and are in this together. I don't understand why Black hasn't arrested them long before this."

"Well, I do, or at least I think I do,” Lacy replied. “Until Clayte makes a wrong move, it's our word against his. I asked Black about it one day when we were riding the fence line and he told me that he has to have solid proof before he can make his move. I can understand that."

"Guess I can too,” Belle agreed. “It's best if we eat our breakfast and prepare ourselves for whatever Black finds up in that canyon."

Belle played with her food, all the while concentrating on the half-eaten breakfast that sat on the plate at Black's place at the table. She wondered if she wanted the rustlers caught at all. If they were, Black would leave the Double Bar B and her bed for good. She didn't know if she could take the loss of the man she'd come to love and wanted to father her children.

"I don't want any tea this morning,” she declared, when Annie brought a cup of the steaming liquid to the table for her.

"Land sakes, child, have you lost your mind? I know you and Black are heating up the sheets on a nightly basis. Do you have any idea what could happen if you quit drinking this tea?"

Belle nodded. “I'll get in a family way. I think there's something you all should know about me, and then you'll understand why I'm so desperate to have a child."

"Are you talking about that business in Ohio?” Annie asked.

Belle was shocked. “I-I didn't think anyone would know."

"That aunt of yours could hardly wait to write to Matt about how his daughter had turned into the town whore. She told him that you'd been sent to a convent in order to hide her shame of the bastard you were carrying. Those were her words, not mine, mind you. It was no surprise when you showed up here without the child. We all knew that the sisters at that convent wouldn't allow you to keep it. There's just one question that I have."

"What's that?” Belle asked, still in shock that her well-guarded secret was public knowledge, even out here in Montana.

"Was it a boy or was it a girl? I would have loved either dearly, but those old black crows wouldn't give me the chance."

Belle couldn't help but smile at the description of the nuns who had cared for her. “They certainly weren't black crows. They thought they were doing the right thing for both my daughter and me. I was so young, I couldn't have taken care of a child. I didn't know how folks would take it if I showed up here with a baby and no husband."

"Did you name her?” Lacy asked.

Belle again nodded. “The nuns said it would be best if I gave her a name, even though she would be adopted by a family who would rename her. In that way I could pray for her safety and mention her by name. I called her Laura Leigh. I'm afraid the nuns weren't overly happy with my choice since it didn't come from the Bible, but I didn't care. I just insisted that she be baptized Laura Leigh, no matter what name her new folks gave her."

"What will happen when Black leaves here for his next assignment?” Cara asked.

"I'll raise our child. You said you want to turn this place into an orphanage once the railroad comes through. If we do that, my child will have plenty of playmates. I've already told Black that his presence isn't necessary and that he can visit whenever he wants. I also assured him that our child would know who its father is."

"You told her about the orphanage?” Lacy questioned.

Cara nodded. “It seemed like the proper thing to do, since the stage line won't be coming through here anymore. There's a lot of extra room in that addition and I just know that we could make the children happier here than in some convent. We wouldn't be pushing religion down their throats. We'd be teaching them useful things."

"Useful?” Annie asked. “Like being whores?'

The question brought laughter from everyone around the table. “You know it wouldn't be like that, Annie,” Belle said. “I've been giving this a lot of thought and between you and me we could teach the girls to cook and sew and keep house. As for the boys, we could teach them about ranching and by the time they came of age, they would be prepared to face the world. I remember the kids at the convent. They spent most of their days on their knees praying for the redemption of their souls because of the actions of their mothers. As I recall, there was never enough to eat and I heard the kids crying themselves to sleep at night. The only reason I allowed them to keep Laura was because they promised me that they had a family who would take her. At least here the kids would get to play outside and learn some skills that will take them through life."

Before anyone could answer, they heard horses in the dooryard and hurried to the door to see who was coming. The sight of Roy leading a horse with its owner slung across its back made Belle's heart sink. Had they run into the rustlers? Had Black been injured, or worse yet, killed?

She pulled herself together and took a better look at the horse. It wasn't Black's appaloosa, it was a chestnut gelding, and the man slung across its back was Zeek Willows.

"What happened?” Annie asked as she ran out onto the porch.

"We found the fence cut and Zeek lying facedown among the cattle. Someone went to great lengths to make it look like he was one of the rustlers and we killed him when he was making off with our cattle. We didn't lose many, just enough to send a message. Whoever shot Zeek wasn't very good, because he's still alive. He's hurt bad and it's not just from the gunshot. Someone beat him up pretty good. We've got to get into the house so that we can make him comfortable. As soon as we do, I'll go into town and bring out the doc as well as the sheriff."