Devils on Horseback: Nate (13 page)

He mounted his horse and with one last triumphant glare, Nessman rode off toward town.

“I guess we can’t count on the army’s help, can we?” Nate smiled at Elisa. “I’m sorry, honey. He’s, ah, well, he doesn’t like us very much.”

“Really, I couldn’t tell. No matter. I think we can take O’Shea down without that fool’s help. Besides he probably has too much starch in his drawers to be any good with a gun anyway.”

Gideon and Zeke laughed along with Nate, and he even heard a snicker from Lee. That was good. They all needed to be together to defeat a common enemy. United they stand, divided they fall. It was time to get united.

Chapter Eleven

Elisa returned home with a tiny flame of hope burning in her heart. While she didn’t consider herself a damsel in distress, having five strong men behind her was a damn comfortable feeling. She never expected she’d actually convince Nate that O’Shea was a bastard. However, she should have known he’d find evidence of it.

Truth was, she’d doubted him, but now her heart and her mind had finally come to an agreement. Elisa trusted Nate. She spurred Midnight to a gallop and raced over the familiar ground while the wind whistled past. They were finally,
finally
going to beat O’Shea at his own game, legally. Elisa ignored the voice inside her that kept screaming that he was her father.

When Elisa crested the hill, the breeze brought something besides comfort. The sharp tang of fresh blood, an unmistakable smell.

Every inch of her body was instantly on alert. She leaned down and whispered in Midnight’s ear, “Easy, boy, we need to be quiet.”

Unfortunately, if whoever had spilled the blood was still in the field below her, they had likely already heard her. If she was smart and careful, she could get close without them knowing. When she left, Da had been watching the herd. It was still at least an hour or two before Daniel was due to relieve him.

Elisa wished she’d had the foresight to tell Da about the special call she and Daniel had been using. A hoot owl, one long, three short. It was a long shot, but she did it anyway.

“Hoooooooooo, hoohoohoo.”

The silence screamed in her ears. True silence. She didn’t hear any cicadas, no crickets, no night creatures at all. Something was very, very wrong. Elisa slid off Midnight and armed herself with knife and pistol.

“Stay,” she whispered to the horse. For being such a fancy horse, he obeyed like a well-trained cow pony. She’d trained Midnight herself since her eighth birthday. He wouldn’t move from the spot.

Elisa slithered through the dew-covered grass slowly, inching her way along, like a dog following a scent. She was glad the wetness masked her approach, not a whisper of a sound to give her away. Blood thundered past her ears as she crept forward. The smell grew stronger and she veered slightly to the left then reached out.

A sigh of relief threatened when she recognized it was a cow. Anger soon followed when upon examining the cow, she realized it had been left to die in the field after its neck had been slit open. She’d known the second that she’d scented the blood that something was wrong. With the discovery of the cow’s carcass, it meant the trouble was worse than she thought.

Elisa’s dry throat prevented her from swallowing. She grabbed a handful of grass from behind her and sucked on the wet leaves. She made her way around the cow, her trousers sticking to her legs. The dampness seeped through and soaked them, a combination of her own rancid sweat and the sweet dew.

She caught herself chanting, “Please be all right, Da. Please be all right, Da. Please be all right, Da,” and nearly slapped herself to stop. The last thing she needed was somebody hearing her, particularly if they were brutal enough to murder cattle. There was no purpose in that, other than to hurt whoever owned them.

One by one, she found the cattle carcasses, slaughtered mercilessly. Most of them were still warm so it couldn’t have been more than an hour since it had happened. Elisa wanted to weep in frustration when her count reached forty. Her back ached and her legs cramped. As near as she could tell, there wasn’t a living creature in the field besides herself. That meant all two hundred cows were either dead or the rest had been rustled. Every bit of the future of the Taggert ranch had been decimated.

In the middle of working up a fine fit, she heard a moan. Her head snapped up. It didn’t sound like a cow; it sounded human. Still keeping in a crouched position, she moved toward the sound, that small glimmer of hope that her father wasn’t dead.

Unable to stop herself, she again repeated under her breath, “Please be all right, Da. Please be all right, Da.”

Within two minutes, she found him lying on his back in a circle of dead carcasses. The moon shone on the dew covering his body. Beside him lay his horse, as still as the rest of the animals littering the field. Elisa touched his leg and it twitched.

“Da, can you hear me?”

She crawled forward until she could reach his face. The smell of blood clogged her nose as tears rolled down her cheeks unheeded.

“Da, please answer me.” Elisa grabbed his hand, which was limp and lifeless, and pressed it to her chest. “Please, Da, please.”

“Elisa…” he said in a cracked whisper. “I knew you’d be coming.”

She leaned down and put her ear close to his mouth. “We need to get you home. I’m going to go get Midnight and—”

“No, I’m dying, Elisa… They killed them. Rodrigo and O’Shea’s bastards killed almost every cow and held me back. Made me watch. They stabbed me, re-broke my leg and then broke t’other.”

Elisa sobbed at the horror and pain he’d endured. “Oh, Da.” She promised herself Rodrigo would feel the bite of her bullet soon.

“Be quiet now and listen to me. You have to take care of Daniel again. I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you.”

“It’s all right. We were there for you. That’s what family”—she swallowed hard—“is all about.”

“You are my sweet Elisa girl. I love you, daughter. You have your mother’s eyes. I wish I could see them. You promise me,
promise
me you’ll take Daniel and leave. The land isn’t worth your lives. I want to make sure that you’re safe.”

“Da, I can’t promise you that. Please don’t make me promise.” Elisa’s heart was being rent asunder.

“Will your man help you?” he said in a voice lower than a whisper.

“Yes, he will. He and his friends, all five of them, will help us. Don’t worry. We’ll be all right.” She clutched his hand, willing him to live, trying desperately to push her own life force through his arm and into his body.

“Goodbye, darlin’. I love you, Elisa girl.” With one last tiny breath, he was gone.

At first, Elisa couldn’t believe that he’d died. She shook his shoulders, shouting his name. Tiny droplets splashed on her face and she realized it was blood, mixing with her tears. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her sleeve then put her face in her hands and wept.

Elisa threw back her head and howled at the moon. She’d never felt the kind of agony that swept through her at the murder of her father. Even after her mother had died, Elisa had grieved, but it didn’t compare to losing her beloved da. She didn’t know how long she sat there, weeping like a little girl. The cool night air reminded her that she was wet, that she knelt in the blood of her father. Around her the blood of two hundred cows mingled with the dew.

Death surrounded her.

When the overwhelming wave of grief finally subsided, she took several deep breaths to try and gain control of herself. On the heels of the paralyzing sadness came the hot, wicked need for vengeance.

Elisa stood, knife and pistol in hand. “All right, you bastards. If you’re still out there, come and get me. I want to dance in
your
blood.”

Nothing. Not a sound. Whoever had murdered Da and the cattle was long gone. She knew if she simply headed out to O’Shea’s ranch, they’d likely shoot her before she could even get close to him. The old Elisa would’ve done just that, gone off half-cocked and angry as a bee’s nest.

The new Elisa, the woman born from the shell of a girl, knew that her best bet to quench her thirst for vengeance was to ride with the Devils.

Elisa headed toward home with the certainty that Daniel was all right. No way God would take away everyone she loved in one fell swoop. That would be beyond cruel and she couldn’t accept the possibility. Midnight ran fast and true, his long legs eating up the ground.

The cabin lay dark, the sounds of the night protecting it. A good sign. The panic scratching at her hissed at the reprieve. Elisa dismounted fifty yards away and left her horse ground tied. She crept toward the cabin a bit more hastily than in the field simply because nothing seemed amiss. Yet she was still cautious.

Ten feet from the back, she stopped and hooted the signal. A minute passed, then two. Daniel could be asleep—he’d been working harder than a grown man. She crawled forward until she sat below his window.

“Hoooooooooo, hoohoohoo.”

A bang, a thud, then the window slid open.

“Elisa?”

The sound of Daniel’s voice was like the angels singing on high.

“Daniel, thank God.” Her voice caught and the damn tears threatened again. She swallowed it all back with phenomenal effort.

“What’s wrong?” He must’ve heard something in her voice.

“I’ll be right there.”

She ran around the side of the house. By the time she got to the door, Daniel was there wearing only his drawers and a worried look.

“Now tell me what’s wrong.”

When her legs gave out, Elisa nearly fell into his arms. “Daniel, they… Da…” Her throat closed again.

“Is that blood? My God, Elisa, do you have blood all over you?” He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into the house. The room was illuminated only by the meager light thrown by the embers of the fire.

Daniel was more mature than any fourteen-year-old boy. He held her while her body shook with shock and grief, while she again wept buckets of tears. He stroked her back and waited.

“They murdered him. Those bastards murdered him and the cattle.”

“What?” He stiffened and helped her up so he could look her in the eye. Da’s green eyes looked back at her. A boy too soon a man, forced to grow up or die.

“In the field. They stabbed Da in the chest and slit the cow’s throats then left them all to die.”

Daniel punched his knee with the bottom of his fist. “Who?”

“Rodrigo and some pieces-of-shit mercenaries. O’Shea decided he was done waiting for us to leave.” She took comfort in Daniel’s embrace, grateful he was still there by her side.

“He’s gone too far this time. I’m gonna kill him.” Daniel stood with a look of absolute wrath.

“Not yet, Daniel.”

“Why not?”

“The men who were working for O’Shea, the ones I caught in the trap? They’re now on our side and they’re going to help us. One of them even found proof in papers and such.” Her stomach cramped at the thought of those damn papers and what they represented.

“Isn’t O’Shea paying them? Why would they give up money for us?” Daniel scoffed.

Elisa hadn’t thought about that. Why were Nate and his friends turning away money when they so obviously needed it? Nate’s clothes were neat and clean, but even she could see the wear on them. The Devils had some supplies, but they were living in a camp, not at a hotel or at O’Shea’s house.

“I don’t know for sure. I think it’s for honor and justice.”

“That’s stupid. Nobody does anything for honor and justice.” Daniel faced the window with his arms folded.

“I do.”

When he turned back, his face crumpled and Elisa found herself comforting him. Just like that he’d changed from angry man to lost boy. She held him tightly, hanging on to the last bit of family she had left.

Nate couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He glanced at his friends sleeping in the glowing embers of the campfire. Near the tree line, he saw Jake keeping guard. Nate had no idea what time it was but he did know there was no way he was going back to sleep.

He slipped on his boots and headed toward Jake. The dew-covered grass masked his footsteps. It seemed so peaceful, so normal, however Nate knew that was a sham. Life was anything but normal or peaceful. It was chaotic and frustrating.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Jake said in a low voice.

“No.” Nate sat on the rock beside his friend. “Something’s wrong.”

Jake stiffened. “What?”

Nate shook his head. “I don’t know. I just feel something in here.” He put a fist to his chest.

“Is it the woman?”

“What do you mean?” Nate wondered just how much Jake knew.

“I’ve seen the way you look at her, Nate, like she’s your mate. Don’t tell me you two haven’t been together a lot. I can almost smell it on you.” Jake chuckled softly. “Not that I blame you. We’ve been living like monks.”

Nate grabbed Jake’s arm and squeezed. “Step carefully, Jake.” He couldn’t keep the anger from his voice. No way would he allow even his friends to disparage what he and Elisa shared.

“Oh, so that’s the way things are? I’m sorry, Nate. I didn’t know.” Jake sounded contrite.

Nate’s anger dissipated. “It’s all right. I know you didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just…I don’t know. She spins me in circles one minute then brings me to the most intense pleasure I’ve ever had the next. A complete contradiction in everything she does.” He ran his hands down his face. “At the same time, I can’t imagine what I’m going to do without her after this is all over.”

“You’ve got it bad.”

“I know, believe me, I know.” Nate sighed heavily. “I need to go see her, to satisfy this gnawing feeling that she needs me. More than likely, she’ll laugh and shoot my hat off.”

Jake laughed. “She does have that shiny quality, doesn’t she?”

“It’s one of the things I love about her.”

The entire world paused as Nate heard the words that had tumbled from his mouth. Entirely unexpected, they hit him like a slap. He
loved
her? Nathaniel Marchand, the gentleman, loved a rough and tumble cowhand from Texas who wore men’s britches?

Holy God. He did love her.

The urgency of his need to see her grew to enormous proportions and he couldn’t wait any longer. Even if it was three in the morning, he absolutely had to go.

“I’ll be back by sunrise so we can talk about the plan Zeke is dreaming up.” He took off running before Jake even responded.

“Good luck.”

Nate saddled Bonne Chance and was on his way within minutes. The horse seemed a bit put off to be riding in the pitch dark, but Nate took it as slow as he could to save his horse from a broken leg. A trip that normally took forty-five minutes, took about twice as long in the dark. At least that’s what it felt like to Nate.

When he crested the hill and saw the familiar Taggert cabin in the moonlight, he couldn’t stop the sigh of relief that escaped. Everything looked normal. A whinny from his right made him freeze. Bonne Chance responded and Nate realized that the horses knew each other.