Blood Blade Sisters Series (54 page)

Chapter Seventeen

Finn flipped through the telegrams in his hand, though reading them again wouldn’t change the messages they contained. He balled them up and threw them to the floor, not caring about the startled look the telegraph operator gave him.

Nothing. Richard and Leo and the team of men they’d hired to help search for Lilah had once again come up empty. They hadn’t found one single solitary sign of Lilah. She had just vanished into thin air. No one had seen her and none of her friends and family would admit to knowing anything.

The rotten part of it was that Finn believed them. They seemed just as worried about Lilah and just as distressed over Lucy as Finn and Lucy’s sisters. While they might not be too keen on Lilah turning herself in, they did very much want to help Lucy.

Finn raked his hand through his hair, trying to calm the growing panic in his gut. The case against Lucy was circumstantial, but it was a good one. Hell, if he was on the jury and heard the prosecution’s salacious tale, he’d be riveted to his seat…and then he’d probably convict Lucy of murder.

She’d pled not guilty, of course, and her lawyer was making no secret of the fact that they were claiming that a third party had killed Halford in self-defense. But without any proof…well, it wasn’t looking good.

Finn took a deep breath, shoved his emotions back into the dark pit they’d escaped from, and set off to deliver his bad news.

Brynne and Cilla took it about as he suspected. Brynne stared wide-eyed into the fire, seemingly in shock, though Finn knew her mind was thinking up and rejecting a hundred different options behind that blank stare.

Cilla was wearing a hole in the rug with her pacing. Finally, she stopped and threw up her hands.

“This is ridiculous! We can’t just let them convict Lucy of murder.”

Brynne blinked, completely unsurprised by her sister’s outburst. “And just what do you suggest we do about it? March into the jail and demand her immediate release? Or perhaps we should organize an escape plan and spirit her away in the middle of the night.”

“Yes! If that’s our only option, then hell yes. Let’s bust in there and get her.”

Brynne sighed and sank back into the couch. “And what happens after that? Assuming we could get her out of there in the first place, and manage to get her out of the city without being caught, what then? Where will she go?”

“The same place you were going to send me when I was locked up for murders I didn’t commit. She can go down to Mexico. Carmen and Miguel still have family there. They’d welcome her.”

“When you were arrested, it was in California. Mexico wasn’t that far away. Carmen’s family is on the west coast of Mexico and we are on the east coast of the United States. It would take weeks to reach them, months maybe. And in the meantime, everyone and their blind Aunt Molly will be looking for her.”

“So let them look! We’ll hide her. If Mexico is too far away, send her up to Canada. Or we could smuggle her onto a boat and ship her to the Continent. You, Finn, you’re from Ireland, you could take her there.”

“I haven’t been to Ireland since I was a child. Besides, getting her onto a boat and keeping her undetected throughout the voyage would be difficult,” Finn said, hating to speak against her idea. He was all for spiriting Lucy away. But he wasn’t sure where they could go where she’d be safe, if they could get her away at all.

“Difficult, but not impossible,” Cilla insisted.

“Cilla,” Brynne said, “this case is already the most notorious case the state has seen in a very long time. Her portrait has been splashed all over the papers with all those horrible articles. Lucy would have to look over her shoulder for the rest of her life, always worried that someone might recognize her and turn her in.”

“Well at least she’d be alive enough to worry!” Cilla stood glaring at her sister, her breath coming in short pants. “I can’t believe you’re just willing to sit there and give up. You blew up half a town to save me from the end of a rope but you’re not even willing to discuss doing the same for Lucy.”

“Oh, Cilla.” Brynne stood and pulled her sister’s rigid body into her arms. Cilla resisted for a moment and then let Brynne hold her. After a minute, Brynne pulled away and led Cilla to the sofa with her. She patted the seat beside her and waited until Cilla took a seat before continuing.

“First of all, I’d gladly blow up half this cursed town if it would save Lucy’s life. But it wouldn’t, and you know that. Bethany Ridge was different. It’s a tiny town in the middle of the Californian wilderness. We were basically on our own out there, so blowing up a few buildings and disrupting a hanging or two was a little more feasible out there. But this is Charlotte. It’s a big city with a lot of people living in it. Staging a prison break would be a little more difficult to achieve out here.”

“But not impossible,” Cilla insisted.

Brynne looked thoughtful and a sliver of unease wormed its way into the ball of misery that used to be Finn’s heart.

“No,” she finally said. “Not impossible. We’d just have to be more careful about it.”

“Wait,” Finn said. “You two aren’t seriously proposing we break Lucy out of jail.”

Two sets of chocolate-brown eyes gazed at him.

“It’ll never work, and then she’ll be in even more trouble than she is now. Running only makes her look guilty.”

Cilla snorted. “If you’re too much of a coward to help my sister, then you can leave.”

“My courage isn’t what’s in question here. It’s your judgment. Brynne is right, even if we could get Lucy out of there, hiding her away forever would be next to impossible.”

Cilla rolled her eyes. “You were raised by natives and have been working with smugglers for years. I’d be willing to bet the whole gold mine that you’d be very capable of taking Lucy and disappearing.”

“Yes. I could. But is that what you really want? Is it what she’ll want?”

“She wants to live.”

“What kind of living would that be? You’d never see her again. We’d have to disappear and never return. Preferably to a foreign country where the government here couldn’t touch her. Is that what you want for her? Because I guarantee you that’s not what she wants for herself.”

“At least she’d be free.”

“Free to do what? Be on the run for the rest of her life? She could never have children. What kind of life would that be for them? She’d never see her family again, her home, the people and things she loves. What kind of a life is that?”

Cilla fumed, but she before she could speak again, Brynne cut in. “He’s right.”

“What?” Cilla asked, her face flaming red.

“He’s right, Cilla. And you know it. Lucy wouldn’t want to live like that.”

“At least she’d live!”

Finn flinched at her words, but he didn’t say anything, waiting silently with Brynne until Cilla calmed down. The fight had gone out of her with those last words. She knew what she was proposing was futile. If Finn thought for a moment it would work, he’d already be breaking down the jailhouse doors.

“We still have time,” Brynne said quietly. “Richard and Leo are still out searching. And a jury might realize that Lucy is telling the truth and is innocent. She hasn’t been convicted of anything just yet.”

Finn nodded, fiery determination burning in his gut. “But if she is,” he said, meeting Cilla’s gaze, “then we’ll talk.”

Cilla nodded and gave him a slow smile.

Finally, they agreed on something.

…

The next time the cell door opened, Finn entered alone. Lucy took him in, her gaze hungrily raking over every inch of him. He stood at the door to the cell for a moment and just looked at her. Then he opened his arms and Lucy rushed to him, burying her face in his chest and breathing him in as he enveloped her in his embrace.

Every time she saw him she wondered if it would be the last. Would he decide that standing by her side was too much trouble? Too dangerous for him? And what if she was convicted? She didn’t want him wasting his life waiting for her. Or worse yet, watching while she was executed.

“Come here,” Finn said, drawing her to the narrow bunk against the wall.

He sat down, pulling her onto his lap. She curled against him, taking comfort from the steady beating of his heart. He ran his hand up and down her back.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

Lucy considered lying, telling him she was fine. He probably wouldn’t believe her though.

“And don’t tell me you’re fine,” he added.

Lucy laughed. “No, I’m not fine. I’m angry and uncomfortable and worried about the trial. But I am happy to see you.”

Finn kissed the top of her head. “I tried to bribe the sheriff into letting me move in but he didn’t bite.”

Lucy snuggled closer. “Maybe we just need to offer him more money.”

“It’s worth a try.” He kissed her forehead. “Though this bed is far too narrow.” His lips brushed her cheek. “We’d definitely need something larger.”

“Definitely,” Lucy murmured, lifting her face to meet his lips.

Finn crushed her to him and Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck, starving for his touch.

“Hey!” a guard shouted.

Lucy jumped, but Finn kept her firmly planted on his lap.

“None of that, you hear? Or you’ll be out of there right quick.”

Finn glared at the officer but Lucy nodded. The guards had treated her fairly well for the most part and the last thing Lucy wanted was to lose any privileges, like being allowed visitors well past regular hours.

She gently extricated herself from Finn’s arms, though doing so felt like she was amputating part of herself, and sat beside him on the cot.

She shushed his growl of protest. “Hush. There’ll be plenty of time for all that when I’m out of here.”

Finn’s lips tightened and Lucy’s stomach dropped. She’d known he hadn’t had good news when he’d walked through her cell door. Still, she’d hoped she was wrong. “What is it?” she asked. “You can’t find her, can you?”

Finn shook his head and got up. He paced the cell, his long stride eating up the small space in two steps. “We’ve looked everywhere. Asked at the train stations, at every establishment within twenty miles of here. Richard and Leo are still searching with a team of men we’ve hired, combing every roadside shelter in every direction she might have gone. No one has seen her.”

“Well,” Lucy said, looking down at her hands. She tried to force as much cheerful optimism into her voice as she could, though she was far from feeling any. “I told her to disappear. Can hardly blame her for obeying me.” She gave him a weak smile.

“Yes, I can. You are very likely going to be convicted of a murder you didn’t commit and while I’m grateful to her for saving your life that day, it’s doing you little good now if you are going to hang for it!”

Lucy stood and went to him, placing her palms on his chest to stop his pacing. She looked up into the face she adored, into the eyes that she saw every time she closed her own. “I can’t fault her for trying to save her own life. I still have a chance. A good one, I think. I’m innocent and there is no evidence to suggest that I’m not.”

Finn cupped her face in his hands. “They don’t need evidence, Lucy. A pillar of their community was killed and they want blood for it. Anyone’s blood. They don’t care whose it is. They don’t care if you are innocent or not. There is no one else to blame, and so they’ll blame you. And I’ll lose you.”

His voice cracked and he swallowed hard and drew her nearer.

“We don’t know what will happen,” she insisted, reaching up to cover his hands with her own. “And for now we still have each other. We haven’t lost each other yet.”

“It’s not enough.” He leaned down and kissed her. “An eternity wouldn’t be enough.”

Lucy kissed him, molding herself as tightly to him as she could. He was right. She could have a lifetime of days and nights with him and would still ache for more.

“Come on,” she said, drawing him back to the cot. “Talk to me.”

Finn’s eyebrows rose. “About what?” He settled down beside her, keeping her hands in his.

“Anything. What are we going to do once I’m out of here? Where will we go?”

“Lucy…”

“You asked me to run away with you not too long ago. Where were you going to take me?”

Finn’s thumb rubbed over her knuckles, back and forth. “I thought we could go back to California, so you could be near your family.”

“To the ranch?”

Finn nodded and gave her a faint smile. “I’ve never seen it. But Jake told me about it, in his letters. He loved it there.” Finn laughed. “I thought perhaps your sister was a witch who’d bespelled him because never in all my born days would I have believed that Jacob Forrester would want to settle down with a girl and raise babies.”

Lucy smiled. “Well, we Richardsons can be a formidable bunch. Once Brynne had decided she wanted him, he hardly stood a chance.”

“That’s true enough. A stubborn lot, all three of you.”

Lucy looked at their entwined hands, her heart skipping with each soft brush of his fingers over hers. “It’s strange to think that you were so close to me, but we didn’t meet. Of course, had you met me then you would have run for the hills as fast as your feet could carry you.”

“Love, I’ve been trying to make a run for it since the moment I clapped eyes on you.”

Lucy gasped in mock outrage and slapped at him, but he smiled and pulled her back into his arms. “But no matter how hard I tried to stay away, something in those big brown eyes of yours keeps pulling me back.”

“Well, I’m grateful for that at least. But when I get out of here I’m going to invest in a strong pair of chains to keep you from ever running again.”

“I’ll wear them gladly if they will keep you shackled to me. You get into entirely too much trouble when you are left to run amuck on your own.”

“That sounds heavenly to me.”

The guard came bustling back in and opened the cell door. “Time is up.”

Finn stood, drawing Lucy up with him. Lucy clung to him, panic clawing at her. She was suddenly terrified that if he walked out that door, she’d never see him again.

He pulled her into a bone-crushing embrace, kissing her until her head spun. He pulled away just far enough so he could whisper in her ear. “The fight isn’t over yet. Lilah or no Lilah, I will
not
let you hang.”