Blood Blade Sisters Series (10 page)

Leo’s short laugh sounded anything but amused.

“‘Safely’? You call going up against three, make that four, armed men safe? Lucy’s only a child, for hell’s sake, and you aren’t much older.”

Cilla clenched her fists to keep from striking him, so angry now she relished the burning sensation the movement caused. “I’m no child. I’ve been doing this for quite a while now and have never gotten close to being caught.”

“You have been extraordinarily lucky so far and one of these days you
will
get caught. Like you almost were tonight. Or worse, killed while trying to steal some foolish family treasure. What good does it do anyway? If these items suddenly turn back up in the possession of the people they were taken from, both you and they could be exposed. And doesn’t Frank wonder where you are getting your money, your goods?”

“I’m not an idiot, Leo! We have a system in place to process the items we’ve managed to retrieve. We are careful with our property, and the money…we only spend a little at a time. Just enough to get by and not nearly enough that anyone would be suspicious.”

“Obviously someone is suspicious or Frank wouldn’t be harassing you night and day.”

Cilla opened her mouth to fire back an answer but couldn’t. She knew he was right. But still…

“And that’s why he wants your ranch so badly, isn’t it? He knows you’ve got everything stashed on the property somewhere and if the ranch is his, he’d be free to search it and keep anything he found. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Cilla glared at him, anger burning its way through every cell of her body. She actually didn’t know if he was right or not. It had never occurred to her that Frank might think there were stolen goods hidden on the property.

Lucy dropped down from the ledge and tiptoed to the tunnel. “I’ll just wait at the entrance for you,” she mumbled in their direction before fleeing from the explosion that was coming.

Cilla’s chest heaved with the effort to keep from screaming at him. She blinked against the tears building in her eyes. And finally it was too much. All of it. Their father, Jake, Frank, Brynne, the robberies, the danger, the fear. Leo.

The anger washed out of her with the first tear that fell. She released a long, shaky breath.

“What choice do we have, Leo?” Her shoulders slumped, curling around the empty hole that had held her anger for so long.

She looked at him through a sheen of tears.

“What else can we do? After my father died, Frank emptied the bank accounts. All the ranch hands quit or were run off. Either way, they are just as gone. Miguel and Carmen are the only ones who refused to be scared off and thank God for them because we’d be lost without them. Things were okay for a while when Jake was here. But then he left, too.

“And we aren’t the only ones suffering because of Frank. We do what we can, but it’s not enough.” Cilla swallowed the lump forming in her throat. She brushed the tears away, wiping them from her hands as if they were acid burning her skin.

She wanted nothing more than to lean into Leo and have him hold her and tell her everything would be okay. She clenched her hands into fists, trying to squeeze out the desire to reach for him.

“We don’t steal from anyone who hasn’t stolen first. And despite what you may think, we don’t enjoy it.
I
don’t enjoy it. I’m tired and afraid for my family, and sick to death of it all. I’m just…tired.” She wrapped her arms around her middle and stepped back from him. “So don’t you dare come here and judge me. What I do might not be lawful, but when Frank is the law in this town,” and at that her voice wavered and she forced out the final words, “what else can I do?”

Leo looked at her for a long time. Cilla shook her head and turned to go. He reached out. Took her hand. And pulled her into his arms.

Cilla stiffened, her back rigid.

“I’m sorry,” Leo whispered.

Cilla relaxed into him with a strangled sob. She let his strength wrap around her, seep into every pore. She knew she was weak for giving in. She knew she should push away. She would…but in just one more moment.

Leo brushed a few stray tears from her face, his hands lingering, cupping her cheeks. He leaned down slowly, giving her time to pull away. Cilla wasn’t sure what to do. She couldn’t think straight, couldn’t breathe. Her eyes riveted to Leo’s lips and her own parted as she dragged in a tremulous breath.

“Cilla!” Lucy’s panicked shout rang through the tunnels.

Leo and Cilla broke apart, Cilla’s heart pounding with dread. Leo grabbed her hand and they turned and ran through the shaft, the swinging lantern casting disturbing shadows on the tunnel’s walls. Lucy stood at the entrance, her eyes wide in her pale face. She pointed in the direction of the ranch house.

…

The wind shifted direction, blowing hot, acrid-scented air in their faces. In the distance, Leo could just make out a black plume of smoke spiraling into the early morning air.

“Damn! Can you ride?” he asked Cilla.

She sprinted for her horse, not bothering to take time to answer him.

“I guess that’s a ‘yes,’ ” he muttered.

He felt a sharp pang of loss for their interrupted moment. For just a second, he’d gotten to see a side of Cilla that he’d bet his eyeteeth she never let out. It had felt better than he could have imagined to hold her, comfort her, even if it had only lasted a minute. She was so strong. Too strong, maybe. He wished she’d let him in more, let him help her. He’d have given anything if they’d been able to have just a few minutes more. He wanted to kiss her with a need that was growing more urgent by the day.

And now was the most inappropriate time in the world to be dwelling on how badly he wanted to stake his claim on those soft lips.

Leo jumped on his own horse and followed Cilla.

They raced for the house. And Brynne.

Chapter Nine

The scene when they arrived at the house was straight out of Cilla’s nightmares. The animals ran rampant through the courtyard. Flames shot out of the windows. One whole side of the house was engulfed, red tongues of flame licking at the door frames and windowsills. And Brynne was nowhere to be seen.

Cilla yanked her bandana over her face and jumped off her horse. Her arm throbbed in protest, but she ignored it.

“Lucy! Check on the animals!” she shouted over the crackling noise of the inferno. The barn was a safe distance from the house, but with all the smoke and the smell of fire, the animals were in danger of injuring themselves in their panic.

She turned for the house and screamed when she was yanked back. She swung at the arms that held her, frantic to get to her sister.

Leo tightened his grip. “Cilla! You can’t go in there.”

She squirmed, the combination of the smoke and the lump in her throat making it almost impossible to breathe. “We have to get Brynne! She’ll die!”

Leo hesitated a fraction of a second. “If I tell you to run, you run!”

Cilla nodded her head, though she had no intention of following his orders. She was going to get her sister out or die trying.

But Leo seemed to read her mind. “I mean it, Cilla! No heroics. You might not give a damn about yourself, but I do!”

Cilla froze, panic for her sister warring with shock at his words. He seemed surprised at his outburst himself, but they didn’t have time to address it at the moment.

“We’ll do our best to get her out,” he continued, “but throwing your life away isn’t going to help anyone. Think about Lucy. What would she do with both her sisters gone?”

Ice formed in Cilla’s gut despite the heat of the flames beating at her back. He was right. Her chest heaved, her lungs screaming for air. The thought of losing Brynne was more than she could process. But so was the thought of leaving Lucy at the mercy of Frank.

“Promise me you’ll get her out!” she shouted.

Leo grabbed her face between his hands. “I promise.”

Cilla didn’t wait any longer. She turned and ran into the house, crouching low against the wall of smoke that hovered in the air. Once inside, she looked around. The smoke seared her eyes. Each breath brought a new layer of ash to coat her lungs. She coughed. Cleared her throat.

“Brynne!”

Her voice sounded hoarse, cracked. “Brynne!”

Nothing.

Cilla darted into the parlor, keeping her body as low as possible. Brynne wasn’t there, nor was she in the hallway leading to the staircase and the kitchen. Every second that passed weighed Cilla down. Dread danced through every cell. Flames shot from the kitchen door. There was no going in there. Cilla dashed for the stairs. A cracking sound shot through the air. Leo grabbed her, pulling her out of the way as a beam fell from the hallway ceiling.

Cilla huddled against him, a scream frozen in her throat. He leaned his forehead against hers. Their hearts pounded together.

He pulled his bandana from his face and pressed his lips to her ear. “I’ll look upstairs. You get out of here!”

“No!” she screamed. She tried to jerk away from him but he kept his arms tight about her.

“Cilla! Get out of here, now! Go look around back. She might be in the yard. I’ll check upstairs. Go!”

Cilla glared at him through the tears clouding her vision. She gritted her teeth. Then she turned and ran out the front door. She circled around the back of the house. Lucy was running in her direction from the barn. A few of their nearer neighbors rode in, having been alerted by the smoke that was steadily billowing from what was left of their home.

Cilla nodded at them, grateful they had come.

“The animals are okay!” Lucy called as she neared Cilla, her hands full of buckets of water. Miguel and Carmen were close behind her. “Miguel let Brynne’s horse and the goats loose in the pen. But the cattle are gone.”

“What do you mean they’re gone? They should be in the pasture below the barn, away from the fire. They couldn’t have gotten out even if they had wanted to and they wouldn’t have run unless their tails were on fire. They weren’t anywhere near close enough to the fire for that.”

“I don’t know. Part of the fence is down. Maybe they trampled it. Either way, they are out. A few are straggling around, but the rest are just…gone.”

At once, Cilla knew who had done this. Cows didn’t just wander off by themselves, especially not when it was feeding time, even if there was a fire nearby. But she had no time for fury now.

“Where’s Brynne?” Lucy asked.

Cilla ignored the question, pushing Lucy toward the well. “Start hauling water! Maybe we can still save part of the house.”

Cilla knew it was hopeless at this point, but it would give her sister a task. She scanned the yard, looking for any sign of Brynne.

“Cilla!” Lucy’s shriek had Cilla running before the last syllable of her name faded from the air.

On the other side of the well, Brynne lay on the ground, her face blackened with smoke. Cilla dropped to the ground, pressing her ear to her sister’s chest.

“She’s alive.”

Lucy swiped at the tears running down her face.

“Here,
mija
,” Carmen said, kneeling beside Cilla with a brimming drinking dipper from the well. She tried to pour some in Brynne’s mouth, but it trickled uselessly down her chin.

“Lucy, get some more water,” Cilla said, pulling a handkerchief from Brynne’s apron pocket. The second Lucy set the sloshing bucket next to her Cilla plunged the fabric into the bucket and with it wiped the soot from Brynne’s face. The shock of the cold water brought Brynne’s eyes open with a gasp. She coughed.

Carmen offered the dipper again. Brynne drank, swallowing dipperful after dipperful.

A loud crack thundered through the air. The roof over the kitchen caved in. Cilla jumped to her feet. “Leo!”

The sound of shattering glass echoed through the dense smoke.

“Wait!” Lucy cried, grabbing Cilla’s arm before she could run back into the house. Lucy pointed to the bedroom window at the far end of the house. Leo was hanging out, looking toward them. Cilla ran to stand beneath the window.

“We found her!” she shouted up.

Leo waved and ducked back inside. Cilla squeaked in surprise and jumped out of the way as a flurry of clothing rained down on her. Leo was chucking everything he could get his hands on out the window. Dresses, trousers, coats, boots, a framed picture, her mama’s jewelry box. Cilla and Lucy scampered beneath the window, a few of the neighbors helping, scooping up whatever he threw out and hauling it off to safety.

Another loud crack rippled through the air. Cilla cupped her hands around her mouth. “Leo!” she yelled as loud as she could but couldn’t pull enough air into her lungs. “Leo, get out of there!”

He didn’t reappear at the window. Instead, the end of the feathered bed from her parents’ room appeared. Cilla ran to get out of the way. Leo shoved it through the window, ducked back inside, and then heaved out an armload of blankets and pillows.

“What on earth is he doing?” Lucy asked.

Leo swung his leg over the edge of the windowsill.

“Jumping,” Cilla replied. She hurried to lay out the mattress and blankets as best she could beneath the window. Leo landed on the pile with a grunt. He lay motionless for a second and Cilla leaned over him.

“Break anything?”

He cracked an eye open and looked at her. “Not yet.”

Cilla almost smiled, until she looked back up at the house. One half of the house was entirely engulfed and flames were quickly spreading to the rest of the structure.

Leo hauled himself to his feet and picked up one end of the mattress. “Let’s get as much as we can into the barn, away from the house.”

Cilla looked at him, unable to speak past the lump lodged in her throat. There was no saving her home.

A drop fell on her face. And another. Cilla reached up and brushed at her cheeks, surprised when her fingers met cold wetness instead of the heat of her tears. She looked into the sky.

With the air filled with smoke, she hadn’t noticed the rain clouds settling overhead. They opened their swollen depths, pouring fat drops of rain on the burning house. Lucy jumped up and down, laughing and cheering. She crouched by Brynne, hugging her. A small portion of Cilla’s despair eased. But she knew that even if the rain doused the fire now, a lot of the house had already been destroyed. And the cattle were gone.

Still
, she thought, looking at Leo.
One must be grateful for one’s blessings.
They’d get the cattle back. And one way or another, they’d make Frank pay.