Chase the Wind (57 page)

“I won’t let you do this.” His voice was low, their heads together.

“You can’t fight them. There are too many.”

“I won’t leave you here.”

“Go, get the others. It will only take a few days.” They were whispering, their heads turned away from the men who watched. They heard Mason impatiently clear his throat. “I can hold on that
long. He won’t kill me.” Jenny took his face between her hands.
“It’s the only way. If you don’t leave, he’ll kill you and then let all
of them have me. At least this way, it won’t be so bad.” Her eyes
begged him, the depths of her love for him spilling over into tears.

Jamie punched the porch post in rage. He knew Jenny was right.
There were too many—he couldn’t fight them all, and they would
both surely die, horribly, at the hands of this man.

“I’ll be back. I swear it on my life, I’ll be back.” He pulled her
to him and hugged her desperately, his eyes burning as he fought
back the sob that threatened to wrench forth from his gut.

“I’ll be here,” she whispered. “Tell Chase . . .” She didn’t dare
cry or he wouldn’t go.

Jamie nodded, picked up his gun, jerked it into his holster and
went to his horse. The gang of men fell back as he went by, so powerful was the rage radiating from his body. Jenny wrapped her
arms around the post as he took off. It was the only way she could
keep from collapsing into a sobbing heap in the dirt. She had to stay strong until he was out of sight, she had to keep her end of
the bargain until she knew he was safe.

“You know he’ll be back,” Logan said as Jamie disappeared
around the bend.

“Oh, yes, I know, and when he comes back, we’ll torch him, but in the meantime, I’ll be enjoying myself with the daughter. I never
dreamed my revenge would be so complete. This is much better
than anything I could have thought of. I hope that Scottish bastard
is spinning in his grave.”

They watched as Jenny slid down the post, hanging on to it for dear life as she landed on the step. Mason walked over to where she sat, still watching the bend in the road, scarcely believing that
they hadn’t gone after him with guns blazing. She looked up at
Mason in a daze, blinking at the afternoon sun shining directly
behind his head. He didn’t say a word, just reached down and wrapped his fingers into her hair, then pulled her behind him as he made his way across the porch. Jenny wrapped her hands
around his to keep her hair from being pulled from its roots and willed her body to relax as he dragged her through the front door,
kicking it shut behind him.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Jason scrutinized the group ranged on the ridge on either side of
him, overlooking the ranch where Jamie and Jenny had been raised.
Two days had passed since Jamie had caught up with them, his
rage still wild as he kicked them awake, ranting about Jenny and Randolph Mason. It had taken him two days of hard riding to find them, and another two days for them to return, and Chase had not
spoken a word since Jamie had told them the story, nearly choking
on the words. No one faulted him, they all knew that he and Jenny had done the only thing that would save them, but Jason knew it
was eating Jamie up that he had deserted his sister, even if it was
to go for her only hope of rescue.

The Chase that they knew had disappeared with the telling, re
placed by a savage whose only thoughts were of taking revenge on
the men who held his love prisoner. Jason shuddered as he imag
ined the lengths Chase would go to make them pay.

They had come up behind the ridge, leaving their horses hidden
in the brush below, all of them crawling up on their bellies. Ty,
Cat and Jake were on Jason’s right, Jamie, Zane and Chase on his left, all with jaws set and death in their eyes as they surveyed the
scene before them.

It was late afternoon, and obvious that the chores were done for
the day. There was smoke coming from the chimney of the main
house, and the sound of muted laughter could be heard from the
bunkhouse. In the loft of the barn, they caught the occasional glint
of sunlight on a gun barrel and assumed that a guard was posted
there to watch for Jamie’s return.

“Where do you think she is?” Jason asked Jamie, who was lying
beside him.

“Probably in my parents’ room, to the right of the door,” Jamie replied, never taking his eyes off the house. A sound caught their ears, and they all held their breath as the front door opened and
Randolph Mason stepped out onto the porch, yawning and stretch
ing, his shirt tail hanging out and his suspenders dangling around
his knees. There was a sharp intake of breath as Jamie’s hand curled
into a claw against the ground, grinding dirt into his palm. Chase’s eyes focused on the man, imprinting his face and the approaching
moment of his death into his brain.

“Ty, you and Cat circle around the back and see if you can find
Jenny,” Jason said. “The rest of us will split up and come at them from both sides. Jake, can you take out that rifle in the loft?”

“Yes.” There was no doubt there, just the look of death in Jake’s light blue
eyes. They snaked back down the hill and checked their
guns, making sure once again that they were loaded and ready.

“Okay, fifteen minutes and I’ll start shooting,” Jason reminded them as they mounted up. He grabbed Ty’s arm before they rode
off. “Take care of my daughter.”

“I will,” Ty assured him, his face set as he took off with Cat, swinging out and around behind the trees. Jake, Zanc and Jason went around by the road, while Chase and Jamie came up by the
stream, waiting for Ty and Cat to get into place, waiting for Jason’s
signal.

Jenny tried to bring the walls into focus as she leaned against the
corner beside the bed in what had once been her parents’ bedroom.
Her left eye was swollen shut, the skin around it cut and bruised
from the fist Mason had used on her. He had an awesome right,
she had thought at the time, but couldn’t follow through with his
left and just settled for backhanding her, which stung like crazy
but didn’t leave much of a mark. Her right ankle was swollen where
it had been twisted in one of her attempts to escape, foolish at
tempts really, because she couldn’t go far. Her other ankle was chained to the bed post. What pained her most however, even more than the cuts that his knife had made on her breast, or the constant ache between her legs, was her shoulder, which she had dislocated when she had tried to escape the knife he held to her breast as he sat across her stomach. She had twisted away, but he had grabbed her arm and forced her back, until the shoulder had popped out of joint and she had screamed in agony as he carved his initials into the soft skin over her heart, branding her, he said, so everyone would know whom she belonged to. “Nobody takes what’s mine!” he had said over and over again, pounding it into her brain the same way he was pounding into her body. Her shoulder now hung at an odd angle, the whole left side of her body lower than the right. The pressure from the dislocation or some broken ribs, she wasn’t sure which, made it hard for her to breath.

She had lost track of time, the days and nights fading into a never-ending hell, but it was better than death, she tried to convince herself, better than watching them burn Jamie alive. She knew she would not have been able to bear the screams, would have sought death herself in the fire rather than watch it. The irony was that she hadn’t even had to act the whore. Mason had simply dragged her in the house and raped her, ripping her clothes off, throwing them in a comer where they still lay in a heap and taking her trembling body beneath his without a thought in the world beyond the pleasure it gave him to know that he had Ian Duncan’s daughter in his bed. In Ian’s bed, actually, and that thought gave him more satisfaction than the actual deed.

She laid her head against the wall, her nude and bruised body shivering, but still having enough fight in her to prefer the cold to the stinking blankets on the bed. A touch of color caught her eye in the dust under the bed, and she tilted her head, bringing her right eye around to see better. She moved a bit, biting back the pain, and reached under with her right hand. She pulled out her mother’s quilt, stained and filthy but still whole, having been carelessly kicked under the bed many years ago and forgotten. Jenny pulled it around her body, sobs overcoming her. Grief only added to her pain as sobs shook her injured shoulder, but she was unable to stop the tide. “Oh, Momma,” she cried into the quilt, wrapping her arm around it, holding it up to her face. The sound of a gunshot rent the air, but she ignored it. They were always hollering and shooting after a few drinks, but then she heard a barrage of bullets and she raised her head, watching the shadows that flitted across the window, hearing the sounds of hoof beats, the sounds of men dying.

She heard running feet, heard Cat calling her name, then heard the sharp intake of breath as Cat caught sight of her and skidded to a halt.

“Don’t let Chase see me, Cat,” Jenny whispered between her split lips. Cat held out her hand to stop Ty, who came flying in, his gun drawn. “Please, don’t let him see me like this.”

Cat holstered her gun and knelt in front of Jenny. “Ty, keep Chase out of here,” she said as she reached out to pull the quilt away.

Jenny looked down, her shame unbearable as she heard Cat’s choking sob as she saw the bent shoulder, the bruises, and the bloody R and M carved on her breast. Jenny pulled the quilt back up, and Cat helped her put it in place.

The shooting died down as Zane and Jake gave chase to the few who had managed to get away, Logan among them. Chase stood over Randolph Mason, who looked up at him with beady eyes, his brain still in shock from the attack, wondering at the identity of this half-breed who was looking down on him with such contempt. The breed had been ruthless, he thought to himself, cutting a swath through his men as if they were nothing, intent on destroying them and all for a girl who had turned out to be as cold as her mother. Chase turned on his heel and went up the steps, Jamie falling in behind him as he holstered his gun. Jamie didn’t even give Mason a look.

Ty was standing by the door, and the look on his face made Chase’s heart stop beating.

“Where is she?”

“She doesn’t want you to see her.”

Chase stepped toward the door, and Ty grabbed him. They swung around and slammed into the wall, Ty holding Chase against it with all his strength. “Jenny?” Chase called.
“Jenny?”
he screamed.

Jenny sobbed as she heard his voice, heard the struggle going on in the other room. Jamie dashed by the two and into the room as Cat ran out to stop Chase.

“Chase, listen to me ... she’s alive, and she doesn’t want you to
see her now. Please, leave her pride . . . please,” Cat implored.

Chase stopped his struggling and stood panting against the wall.
They heard the sound of a fist hitting the wall inside, three times
in quick succession, then Jamie’s hoarse croak as he cried out her
name. Chase shook off the hands that were holding him and walked out the front door, his eyes black and empty.

“Oh, Jenny, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” Jamie cried as he gathered
her into his arms. The chain around her ankle stopped him, so he pulled out his gun and shot the chain off. She didn’t flinch, but
the pain when he picked her up made her dizzy, and she almost
fainted as he carried her out of the room and into the kitchen at the back of the house, the quilt still wrapped around her.

Outside, Chase hauled a bleeding Mason to his feet. “You can’t
hurt me,” Mason spat out, “I’m dying.” The dark eyes, however,
said otherwise, and for the second time in his life, Randolph Mason
felt real fear. Chase dragged him to the corral and tied his arms,
stretched out on either side, to the rail. Jake watched as Chase
pulled out his knife, the knife that had once belonged to Ian Dun
can.

Jason was examining Jenny’s shoulder when a high-pitched
scream rent the air. Ty, Cat and Jason exchanged scared looks as Zane went to see what was causing the noise. Jamie seemed to
already know, and he didn’t take his eyes off Jenny’s face as her
eyes suddenly focused on his.

“Your shoulder is dislocated,” Jason said. “I’m going to try to put
it back into place.”

Jenny nodded weakly and Jason grabbed her arm, pulling it straight and bracing his hand against her other shoulder as he pulled and pushed, until the shoulder went back in with a pop. Jenny fainted, her head falling back against Jamie’s arm and the quilt sliding out of her grasp, baring her breast to Jason’s eyes.